Hong Kong: Ying Kwai House locked down

(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced a five-day lockdown operation at Ying Kwai House in Kwai Chung Estate along with other restriction and testing arrangements in nearby places.

The decision was made following an earlier restriction and testing declaration at Ying Kwai House, where preliminary positive COVID-19 cases have been identified. The residents must stay at home and get tested daily until January 27 morning.

Additionally, four other buildings in Kwai Chung Estate, ie Hiu Kwai House, Yuk Kwai House and Nga Kwai House, as well as Chin Kwai House, are put under restriction and testing declarations this evening.

Mrs Lam noted that under the dynamic zero infection strategy, Hong Kong copes with COVID-19 whenever a case arises.

She said: The important thing is under our strategy, we strengthen our capacity to tackle these episodic outbreaks in order to suppress the spread of the variant as soon as possible. So that there will not be a massive community outbreak in Hong Kong.

She added that while Hong Kong is not trying to attain absolute zero for local infections, it will not opt for the living with the virus strategy.

In my view, Hong Kong does not possess the prerequisites for going for that approach. One of the reasons is because we still want to open our borders, not only with the Mainland, but also with the rest of the world. And secondly is our vaccination rate is not yet ideal.

She stressed that the city has to stay vigilant against the Omicron variant.

All the Omicron cases are stable, but Omicron does cause fatalities in other parts of the world. So we have to be extremely careful, especially amongst those unvaccinated people.

We will continue to adopt the strategy that has taken Hong Kong through the last two years. But in the course of implementing the strategy and individual measures, I and my team will continuously review and improve and try to make life slightly less difficult for the people of Hong Kong.

Owing to these latest arrangements, the Government announced that all of its employees living in Kwai Chung Estate do not need to return to their offices. They should stay home and avoid going out for the time being until receiving further notice from their respective bureaus and departments. Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip also appealed to employers to make similar arrangements for their staff where practicable.

Meanwhile, the Education Bureau said in a press statement that starting from next Monday, all schools should temporarily arrange for their staff residing in Kwai Chung Estate not to return to schools to work. In addition, schools located at the specified restricted area under restriction testing declarations in the estate and its vicinity should consider letting their staff work from home, and suspend all scheduled on-campus activities until the schools Lunar New Year holidays.

This story has been published on: 2022-01-22. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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Acknowledging an increased understanding in the science of brain development, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has commuted the sentences of 11 men who committed crimes when they were 25 or younger.

Every man was serving a sentence for murder, felony murder or attempted murder. Each has been incarcerated for their entire adult lives. Many have spent more time in prison than the age they were at the time of their crimes.

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I understand that it may come across as egotistical or hypocritical that I am asking for mercy after committing such a crime, said Moises Polanco, who was convicted of felony murder and is now 40 years old. But to that I can only respond that I am not the same 18-year-old who committed those acts. Polanco received a commutation of nine years, 11 months and six days, making him eligible for review by the DOC for community supervision.

A law that took effect in 2015 retroactively ended life without parole sentences for people who committed capital murder and arson when they were younger than age 18, but the boards commutations speak to an emerging consensus among the scientific and social justice communities that brain development continues until age 25.

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Lawmakers tried to extend parole eligibility during the last legislative session through a bill that would have allowed parole review for those who committed a crime before they were 25. The measure failed, but the Board of Pardons and Paroles appears to be following the spirit of that bill in the latest round of commutations.

Im very proud to live in the state of Connecticut, where the Board of Pardons and Paroles recognizes the change in science and is bringing the forefront of science to our criminal justice system, Alex Taubes, an attorney who represented five of the men over the past three weeks, said to board members at one of the hearings.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles is weighing the case of Ray "Jeff" Cromartie. (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)

The Board of Pardons and Paroles held hearings for the 11 prisoners over the past three weeks. None of the men will walk out of prison immediately; many of the sentences were shortened just enough so that the Department of Correction could screen the men for supervised released and offer them resources in the community rather than just letting them go home with no support.

Someone whos been incarcerated this long, I think, needs a set of eyes on his life and a safety net underneath them, Chairperson Carleton Giles said during one of the hearings, words he would repeat in just about every persons case. We are not able to provide that, except by if we do something with this sentence this morning, and in partnership with DOC, they will have the authority to provide the supervision that I am wanting that I cant provide.

Carleton Giles, chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, left, and Attorney General William Tong., who were pushing back against the federal government's refusal to recognize criminal pardons given by the state to legal immigrants (Josh Kovner, Hartford Courant) (Josh Kovner / Hartford Courant)

Board members have commuted a dozen sentences since revamping its program and accepting new applications in June 2021. They commuted Michael Coxs sentence in November, shaving 30 years off the 75-year sentence of a profoundly sick man who participated in extensive rehabilitative programming in the three decades he spent behind bars. Cox was the first commutation the board had granted in two years.

Some who received a commutation for a crime committed when they were under age 18 had their sentences reduced so they could have a parole hearing in the near future. If they are granted that form of release in a separate, future hearing, they would be under parole supervision for the remainder of their sentence.

All the men whose sentences were shortened participated in rehabilitative programming over their decades in prison. They took college courses, earned GEDs and mentored incarcerated youth.

Many talked about their lives before prison. They described traumatic childhoods in impoverished communities where the lure of gangs and drugs was stronger than positive influences.

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I done lost myself in the street web, and became trapped, said Oscar Melendez, who is now 23 years into a 31-year sentence for a murder he committed at 19. I turned into this young adolescent who was alive but never truly lived.

The board reduced Melendezs sentence by six years so he will be eligible for review for community supervision in 2024.

Moises Polanco, seconds after learning his sentence would be commuted by nine years, 11 months and six days Im just so overwhelmed, he said, rocking back and forth in excitement. I really do appreciate you guys for letting me go home.

During their hearings, board members asked the men how they would serve youth from similar backgrounds once they were out of prison.

Theres a lot of gun violence out here right now and the experience that you have is important to put an end to that, Mike Pohl, a board member, told Ernest Francis after he said he planned on working with the New Britain Racial Justice Coalition once he is released. Francis, who is serving a 50-year sentence for felony murder, was 18 at the time he committed his crime. He has been incarcerated for 31 years. His sentence was shortened by three years, one month and a day.

Others offered their thoughts on why young people join gangs, recounting the path they took that led to tragedy that irrevocably changed their and others lives.

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They looking for love in the wrong places  cant find it at home, so you run in the streets, said Pedro Carrasquillo, explaining how, once hes released, he plans on speaking with young people who grew up like he did so he can help them choose a different path. Carrasquillo, serving a 35-year sentence for felony murder, was 15 at the time of his crime. The board commuted his sentence by five years.

Several men talked about how they were in recovery from drug and alcohol addictions, taking their rehabilitation one day at a time and trying to live a life in service to others. They discussed how their recovery allowed them to see their shared humanity with corrections officers, whom they could not have imagined having a relationship with when they went to prison.

Juan Maldonado, whose sentence was shortened by 13 years and 10 months, said his program of recovery has helped him understand that it is OK to disagree with someone, that he doesnt have to live a life of rage and resentment because another person holds a different opinion than him. He said that his recovery has given him priceless gifts that he wants to pass on to others dealing with the same issues.

What Ive been doing is try to better myself, and to help those that are in the same or similar circumstance, said Maldonado, who was 25 when he was sentenced to 55 years for felony murder.

Family members of the deceased victims were given an opportunity to speak during each applicants hearing. Many expressed disappointment that their loved ones killer might be released because it represented a sort of broken promise that theyd been given at their sentencing hearing decades prior. Others talked about the sleepless nights, griefs unending, borderless pain, and how hard it is to look at their grandchildren because it reminds them of the person they lost.

I forgave him on that day he took my sons life, but I still want him to pay for what he did to my son, a woman identified as Ms. Johnson, the mother of Chauncey Robinson, whom Carrasquillo killed in 2003, told the board. Eighteen-and-a-half years is not enough time for me.

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Many asked why the incarcerated person should be allowed to spend time with their family after robbing their victim of time with their loved ones.

My son is left without a father, said an unnamed woman who had a child with Edgar Sanchez, who was murdered by Victor Smalls in 2007. I agree everyone deserves a second chance. But my son doesnt get a second chance to see his father.

The board shaved 20 years off Smalls 45-year sentence, making him eligible for a parole hearing in a year.

Not all of the victims relatives opposed commutation. The wife of Gregory Boykins said she forgave her husbands killer, Benito Lugo, a long time ago, though it pains her Boykins will never hug his children or grandchildren. She said she respects that Lugo has mentored young people in prison for the past two and a half decades because she believes people commit crimes when they dont have guidance and support.

Lugo, who was 19 when he was first incarcerated in 1995, is serving a 40-year sentence for felony murder. He received a 12-year commutation.

As much as I want to say I want you to stay in for the 40 years, if you truly feel that you can help, and this board feels that what is offered would better these young adults who are on the wrong path, she said, pausing to catch her breath, I would have to say a second chance is deserving.

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The other men whose sentences were commuted are:
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Weekly Wrap Up; Blinken Meets Lavrov; Justice for Assange March in DC; Raisi to Moscow

Weekly Wrap Up; Blinken Meets Lavrov; Justice for Assange March in DC; Raisi to Moscow

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Weekly Wrap Up; Blinken Meets Lavrov; Justice for Assange March in DC; Raisi to Moscow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss security concerns.

Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss security concerns. Also, we discuss President Biden's first year of foreign policy.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor in economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss the economy. We discuss this week's jobless numbers and economic indicators. Also, Dr. Jack argues that the failure of President Biden's voting rights bill is one of the last nails in the coffin of American democracy.Steve Poikonen, national organizer for Action4Assange, joins us to discuss this week's important stories. There is a rally for the freedom of Julian Assange today in Washington, DC. Also, we discuss the latest Middle East developments.Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War," and Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," join us to discuss international politics. French President Macron calls for a Russia/EU security pact as he breaks from the concept of a US-led Europe. Also, we discuss Nicaragua's moves towards China, Paul Begala attacks the Democratic base, and the US seems to be moving to destabilize Ethiopia.Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, and Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, join us to discuss international security concerns. The security crisis on Russia's border with Eastern Europe is at a critical point. Also, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visits Moscow and the CIA claims to be running asymmetric training in Ukraine.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/yellow-vests-gather-in-paris-to-protest-against-vaccine-pass-and-other-pandemic-restrictions-1092448343.html

Yellow Vests Gather in Paris to Protest Against 'Vaccine Pass' and Other Pandemic Restrictions

Yellow Vests Gather in Paris to Protest Against 'Vaccine Pass' and Other Pandemic Restrictions

Under a controversial draft law approved by the National Assembly in its first reading on 6 January, a "vaccine pass" will be needed to attend public places or... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

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Sputnik is live from Paris, where the Yellow Vests are holding their traditional Saturday demonstration, protesting against the "vaccination pass" and other anti-pandemic measures. According to the organisers, the event is also against pension reform, as well as the unemployment, social, and fiscal policies of the French Cabinet.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More!

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Standardbred Canada has a full-time position available in the IT department for a Senior Drupal 8 Developer/Architect.

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Its about the H.O.R.S.E. of course ... Honesty / Integrity, Own It, Respect, Service to Others, Excellence

We are Standardbred Canada (SC), a non-profit association with over 6,000 members and the National Breed Registry for harness racing in Canada. We maintain and manage pedigree and racing data for standardbred horses in Canada and promote and support the industry by offering equine news and services for our members and race fans through a national magazine, website and excellent customer service.

We have a full-time position available in the IT department of Standardbred Canada for a Senior Drupal 8 Developer/Architect. We do have a work from home policy but physical presence in the office in Mississauga, Ont. will be required at some time.

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Work with a team of developers, designers, and project managers

Develop custom Drupal modules and themes, and help configure Drupal websites

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What kind of person usually gets along easily with us:

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We thank all those who apply but only those applicants who are selected for an interview will be contacted.
Terry Shraders 66-year-old mother, who already has trouble breathing, went to a Richmond-area hospital last week when her condition worsened.

She had gotten her COVID-19 booster a few days earlier and thought she might be having a reaction. Instead, the Louisa County woman tested positive for COVID on top of having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The lung disease blocks airflow and her oxygen level had dipped to 87 percent when normal rates are usually in the high 90s.

Hospital workers told her they didnt have a bed available and sent her home with steroids and antibiotics, Shrader said. If her condition worsened, she was told to call an ambulance again and the hospital staff would treat her, although she might have to sleep in the hallway because no rooms were available, her son said.

He was a bit alarmed. His mother has had COPD flareups about once a year and typically is hospitalized immediately.

I was like, dang, if shes got all that, these people in the hospital who got admitted, they must really be bad off, said Shrader, a former Fredericksburg-area resident. He noted that his mother started to see some improvement the following day.

While COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations have dropped somewhat from previous sky-high rates, the experience of Shraders mother illustrates that medical facilities across Virginia continue to be overwhelmed.

In the three hospitals in the Rappahannock Area Health District, which covers Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford, about 200 people were being treated for COVID symptoms each day last week. Thats down from the pandemic high of 215 patients on Jan. 13.

But for Mary Washington Hospital, which has treated the majority of local virus patients since March 2020, the volumes are still huge, said Dr. M. Stephen Mandell Jr., senior medical director of Mary Washington Healthcare.

Our intensive care unit has not received relief and we are still seeing a percentage of these patients critically ill, he stated in an email. This is our greatest stress point currently.

To put the impact of the omicron surge in perspective, consider the number of patients on Thanksgiving Day, when the fast-spreading variant first made the news. There were 39 people in local hospitals then.

The number doubled by Christmas Eve and that number doubled again by the first week of January. Patient counts continued to rise through Jan. 13, then started to decline slightly.

But because Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital have had more sick people than they could accommodate, MWHC launched a Safe at Home program. COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms who are well enough to go home are set up with digital thermometers, oxygen tanks and tubes and a pulse oximeter that fits over the finger and measures the level of oxygen in the blood.

For seven days, registered nurses who operate the systems triage line call the patients, check their status and offer any support, Mandell said. Two virtual appointments with physicians are made during the week, then an in-person visit is scheduled at the two-week mark.

In the first week of the program, 13 patients with COVID-19 were being monitored at home, Mandell said. They were not included in daily counts of those hospitalized. None of the patients got worse and had to be admitted, the doctor said, adding that MWHC will continue with the program even after the surge abates.

Not only does it allow people to recover in the comfort of their homes, but it also lets a hospital use its most intensive resources on the sickest patients. Mandell stressed that no one with severe illness would be sent home.

The program doesnt limit patient care; it expands support for outpatient care, offering aggressive, early intervention that results in early recovery, Mandell said.

While health care workers at MWHC continue to face unusually high numbers of COVID patients, Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center has seen virus counts decline, said Dr. Jennea Correia, vice chair of the emergency medicine department.

Im hoping that weve peaked and that were continuing to come down, she said.

The Spotsylvania hospital doesnt disclose patient counts, but Correia said it reached its all-time pandemic peak in the first days of January, then numbers dropped the following week. Fewer people were coming to the ER for COVID tests, said Correia, an emergency room doctor.

She doubted the decline is due to the hospital posting on Facebook in no uncertain terms that its not a testing facility. Spotsylvania Regional, along with a statewide hospital organization, asked people with virus symptoms to please visit an urgent care or their primary care provider to be tested.

I think it may just be a decline in cases because the peak may be over or almost over, she said.

Local, state and national case counts for COVID-19 seem to be following a similar trend as hospitalizations. Numbers are falling, but theyre still at incredibly high levels.

In the local health district, an average of 532 people tested positive each day for the last week, according to Fridays state data. Thats compared with an average of 807 people a day the week before.

But once again, the numbers from Thanksgiving Daywhen there was an average of 83 new cases a day over a week-long periodindicate how high the numbers have soared.

April Achter put it another way. Shes the population health coordinator for the RappahannockRapidan Health District, which includes Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange and two other counties.

The United States is averaging more than 800,000 cases of COVID-19 and 1,900 deaths per day, she wrote in an update. These are staggering numbers and it can be easy to look at them in the abstract. But these numbers are people, our friends, our family, our loved ones.

She pointed out that a Boeing 747 holds about 400 passengers. Daily COVID-19 deaths are the equivalent of four 747s crashing each day with no survivors.

This is one of the most deadly diseases in history, Achter said. And that metric doesnt include other impacts to our society.

Even if local numbers are starting to drop somewhat, we are by no means out of the woods yet and we cannot become complacent, said Mary Chamberlin, public information officer for the Rappahannock Area Health District.

She stressed the ongoing importance of safety measures: vaccinations, booster shots and higher-grade masks such as N95 or KN95, along with social distancing, hand washing and staying home when sick.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies that offered evidence that people who had been vaccinatedand boostedhad the best protection against both delta and omicron variants. The studies were the first large ones in the United States to look at vaccine protection against omicron, according to the CDC, and the results mirrored similar studies in Germany, South Africa and the U.K.

While the CDC reported that the three shots offer the most protection, booster rates are low in Virginia. Across the state, about one-third of those fully vaccinated, ages 12 and older, have gotten a booster shot, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The rate is lower in the Rappahannock Area Health District. Of the 204,038 fully vaccinated people eligible for boosters, only 26 percent, or 81,016 local residents, have gotten them, according to state data.
The Western Nebraska Regional Airport (WNRA) is among six Nebraska airports receiving federal funding from the national infrastructure bill. It will receive $1,011,482 in funding.

The biggest benefit for us is the airport runs on about a $1.1 million budget every year, paid for by the taxpayers. ... (The funding) allows us to do things we otherwise wouldnt be able to do, airport director Raul Aguallo told the Star-Herald on Friday.

Some $800,000 of the new funds will go toward rehabilitating the primary runway  removing and replacing the existing asphalt. Aguallo said this will be an $8 million project that will start in earnest in 2023.

The remaining $200,000 from the infrastructure bill will go toward renovating and maintaining other structures such as the airports fire station. Reskinning the exterior of such buildings by replacing their siding and roofing will hopefully allow them to last another 40 or 50 years, Aguallo said.

Over the last two years, money from the federal government had completely paid for the airports infrastructure projects, including the fire station. In previous years, the funding was provided to aid the airport during the coronavirus pandemic. That money had arrived through general receipts, whereas this years infrastructure funding will be provided to the airport in one lump sum. Aguallo said the newest bout of funding should take around four or five years to get through.

Its an opportunity to use some of that federal money to spend on the airport without going into further debt, he said.

Nebraskan politicians supported the decision to allocate funds to bolster the airports.

Our states airports ensure Nebraskans can stay connected and deliver our world-class products to market. Im pleased to see the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill make a significant investment in the Western Nebraska Regional Airport. These funds will address a host of critical improvements, Nebraska Senator Debra Fischer said in a press release about the funding.

Congressman Adrian Smith, the representative for Nebraskas 3rd District, said he was glad that local airports, four of which are in his district, had the chance to see improvements.

Infrastructure in general is, I think, a very important issue that helps support Nebraska as well, Smith told the Star-Herald.

The federal funding was distributed to airports based on their sizes. Airports in Grand Island, Kearney and North Platte received a similar amount of money as the WNRA, between $1.01 million and $1.05 million. The Lincoln Airport received more than $1.75 million. Omahas Eppley Airfield received the most funds by far: nearly $7.3 million.

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In June 2021 Russia passed a law that banned any media coverage of their space program without government permission. A month later the new Russian made Nauka (Science) module arrived at the ISS (International Space Station) and, three hours after it was attached to the rest of the ISS, maneuvering rockets on Nauka malfunctioned and activated, slowly spinning the ISS. Ground control noticed it first and activated maneuvering rockets on other modules to halt the movement while the ISS crew was alerted and the malfunctioning rocket was shut down. The ISS was never in any danger and the unwanted spin lasted about 45 minutes. Until the source of the problem is found and fixed some, other planned missions to the station have been postponed. The problem appeared to be in the software. Because of the international nature of the ISS, Russia could not control the media coverage. That may have been why, at the end of 2021 a long (2,800 word) article appeared in MK, a state-sponsored publication, that detailed the many problems the Russian space program was undergoing, including some that had not previously been reported by anyone. That article seems to conclude that reviving the Russian space program is a lot more difficult than most people realize.

Russia needs a win for its space program to survive because since 1991, and especially in the last decade, the space program has been a disaster. The Nauka was the latest embarrassment. In late 2019 it became a very public disaster when a senior government official openly complained about the corruption and incompetence that was crippling the Russian Space program. This was in reference to the 2018 investigation by auditors and prosecutors which found a billion dollars worth of corruption. Nearly as bad as the corruption has been the losses due to launch failures. Even with insurance Russia suffered nearly $200 million in losses from uninsured launch failures since 2010. Insurance took care of commercial launch failures but these also required Russia refund over $300 million to customers who had lost satellites. Russia has a harder time finding customers and is paying more for launch insurance. Meanwhile the American SpaceX technology, with first stage rockets and that return and land for reuse, is going to cost the Russians even more business.

The long delayed Nauka module was supposed to be a clear win. Not yet and now everyone involved with the ISS is carefully monitoring Nauka, just in case. Skeptics will not be disappointed because the MK article revealed details that had not become known outside the space program, including new projects that were having a very difficult time reaching the starting line to try and become a success.

Most of the problems can be tracked back to Roscosmos, the state-owned corporation that manages the Russian space program. For example, at the end of 2019 it was announced Russia would conduct fifty launches in 2020. At the time this seemed ambitious. That was an understatement because Russia only had sixteen launches in 2020. Thats the worst launch performance since 2008. In one area Roscosmos did excel; the prosecution of officials for corruption.

Roscosmos was created in 1992 and immediately ran into problems with attracting competent workers and managers. Personnel quality kept declining and the average age keeps rising. The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant the end of a state-run economy. Russia as a whole prospered once people could work for whoever offered the best pay and professional opportunities. Roscosmos was seen as an employer of last resort for scientific and engineering personnel and those who manage that kind of work. The Russian space program turned into an extensive (about $3 billion a year) make-work program for those who could not get jobs in profitable firms. Roscosmos currently provides work for about 250,000 people, including many contractors. It has been noted that the American space program does more with 30 percent fewer people. More importantly Roscosmos is still unable to offer competitive pay to attract and retain qualified personnel. This is especially true when it comes to senior officials, who have excelled in only one area; corruption and mismanagement.

The most plundered Roscosmos effort was not launching rockets but building or improving Cosmodromes (launch facilities). The most prominent example was the decade long effort to build the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East (Amur Province, just north of Manchuria). So far about 80 Roscosmos officials have been convicted for Vostochny-related corruption. President Putin, who ordered several rounds of corruption investigations, is frustrated by the fact that many of the replacements for jailed officials are subsequently found to be engaged in the same corrupt acts as their predecessors. Putin has also fired many senior Roscosmos officials for inability to handle one or more aspects of their jobs.

Construction of Vostochny has been underway since 2011 and is still not finished. Costs have risen as a result and are now over five billion dollars. New regulations have been enacted to make it more difficult for officials to set up offshore bank accounts or invest personal funds outside Russia. These Vostochny-related investigations and prosecutions began in 2014 and since then nearly 20,000 violations have been uncovered. Many of these were due to incompetence or sloppy management. Too many of these violations were criminal in nature, involving theft or misuse of government funds.

Most of the damage at major projects like Vostochny was the result of incompetence but a lot of the poor work was deliberate. That was often the case when the use of substandard materials was involved. This occurred with a new launch pad and the defective concrete had to be laboriously removed and replaced with concrete capable of handling large rocket launches. Another major source of corruption involved payroll, as in reporting more employees working more hours than was actually the case. Procurement was another profitable area for the corrupt as items that did not exist or were substandard were paid for rather than what was needed.

The government auditors admitted that a lot of the problem was the result of Russia keeping details of such projects secret. Many of the scams would have been obvious if, as in the West, financial details of construction were public, and available for anyone to examine, records. Classified (secret) projects are always more prone to corruption or incompetence that goes undetected longer because few people are monitoring how the money is spent.

Vostochny is for commercial, not military, launches and keeping construction details secret does not encourage potential foreign customers. Vostochny will only be profitable if there are a lot of foreign customers for inexpensive and reliable satellite launch services. The government wanted to make Vostochny a project demonstrating how the Russian space program is making a comeback. Instead, Vostochny is turning out to be a reminder that not much has changed in Russia except that the traditional problems of corruption and poor management have gotten worse.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, center, signs executive orders in the Governors conference room as Attorney General Jason Miyares, right, looks on at the Capitol Saturday Jan. 15, 2022, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber/AP)

Attorney General Jason Miyares filed a motion Thursday night to dismiss a lawsuit that 13 Chesapeake parents recently brought against Gov. Glenn Youngkin for his executive order overturning mask mandates in schools.

Tonight, we asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to protect the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children, Miyares wrote in a press release. Governor Youngkin had every power to issue the executive order and with our filing, we again affirm that parents matter.

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The motion argues the case should be dismissed because the petitioners failed to identify any clear injuries.

Petitioners do not allege how they will be injured; the nature and scope of those injuries; or how the injuries would arise in the absence of the requested relief. The absence of any factual allegations demonstrating their injuries is fatal to their petition, the motion states.

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Even assuming that the harm and damage claimed by petitioners is an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission caused by some parents choosing to have their children wear masks for less than the entire school day, petitioners have failed to allege how any of their putative injuries are particularized to them.

The motion further concluded Thursdays decision by the Chesapeake School Board to lift its mask mandate meant the injuries petitioners believed they could suffer will no longer be tied only to the governors executive order.

The parents lawyer, Virginia Beach attorney Kevin E. Martingayle, filed a brief Friday objecting to Miyares motion.

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The state respondents have emphasized the fundamental rights and interests that parents have in the upbringing, education, and care of their children, the brief states. Yet the state respondents now assert that notwithstanding these fundamental rights and interests, the petitioners, all of whom are parents of children attending Chesapeake City Public Schools, have no standing to challenge (the executive order) and the dangers it presents.

Youngkin, who stressed on the campaign trail that parents deserved more authority within schools, stated in a Jan. 15 executive order that no teacher, school, school district, the Department of Education, or any other state authority could force a student to wear a mask if their parents objected.

Under Virginia law, parents, not the government, have the fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care of their children, the order says.

But the parents lawsuit argues the order conflicts with an existing state law passed last year requiring school districts to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the maximum extent practicable to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As the CDC currently advises universal masking in public schools, the lawsuit asserts that overturning school mask mandates is a violation of state law, and that masking in schools is crucial.

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It is ... beyond debate that COVID-19 has proved to be a deadly and highly destructive virus with high transmissibility and constantly evolving variants that have made it difficult to control and protect against, the suit states.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com
A Chehalis woman arrested in connection with a multi-state string of Home Depot thefts in the fall pleaded guilty to third-degree theft Friday in Cowlitz County Superior Court.

Longview officers arrested Kourtney Lawler, 31, and three other people Sept. 16, 2021, at the Longview Home Depot after a manager reported identifying the suspects, who were accused of recent Home Depot thefts in Oregon, report police.

At Fridays hearing, Lawlers court-appointed attorney Daniel Morgan said she was asked to drive the other defendants because she had a valid drivers license, but didnt realize they were stealing Home Depot items until they reached Longview.

Lawler was sentenced to 32 hours of community service to be completed by April for third-degree theft, which indicates having items worth $750 or less.

Alleged crimes

Immediately after their arrest, Longview Officer Brian Durbin said the suspects allegedly stole an estimated $10,000 worth of items from Home Depot locations in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington over five days. He said the three men arrested ran from officers. Morgan said Lawler remained on site and cooperated with police.

Durbin said the group had equipment to block antitheft devices on expensive items.

Jacque Banks, 40, of Tacoma; Marcus Patton, 42, of Tacoma; and Seung Shon, 35 of Fife, Washington, also were arrested. Banks trial is set for March 22 and Pattons is scheduled for Feb. 15 in Cowlitz County Superior Court.

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The first of an annual Kelso Rotary Lights in the Park drive through event held in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kelso and the Cowlitz PUD was a success.

More than 4,400 cars drove through the half-mile route in Kelsos Tam OShanter Park in December where 60,000 LED lights were exhibited on 25 light displays including a Santa, penguins, elves, reindeer, a gingerbread boy and girl, snowmen, nativity scene, 30 trees and more, according to a press release from the club.

In addition, a Christmas radio station was dedicated to the event so visitors could listen to Christmas music and sing along while driving through the park.

More than 35 sponsors contributed to the event. Volunteers included 29 Kelso Rotarians along with volunteers from the Longview Rotary Club, the Longview Early Edition Rotary Club, the Longview Lions Club, the Cowlitz PUD, the Lower Columbia Professionals, Kelso High School, R.A. Long High School and Mark Morris High School

From the $5 per car suggested donation, the Rotary Club of Kelso gave $8,900 to the PUDs Warm Neighbor Fund which helps families needing short-term financial help with their electricity bills. The club also will use some of the money raised to purchase more lights for 2022. The lights for 2021 were bought from a Marion, Indiana, company that has been in business for more then 70 years.

The Rotary Club of Kelso has been benefiting the local community since 1923. Their enthusiastic members pursue creative ways to serve the needs of the community, according to the press release.

For details on the club, visit kelsorotary.org.

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January has been a rocky start to the term of Kelsos new mayor.

Mike Karnofski was elected the citys mayor during the Jan. 4 City Council meeting. The continued debate over the forced end of Nancy Malones previous stint as mayor has largely overshadowed Karnofskis election and his first two weeks in the office.

Amid the public comments and allegations lobbied by other members of the council, Karnofksi has stayed relatively quiet during his first two council meetings in charge. He said he is hopeful the council soon will be able to focus on the citys other issues and upcoming projects.

We can be our own worst enemy if we just talk about the negative things. We have to build on the strengths we have in Kelso and continue to improve, Karnofski said.

Karnofski was first elected to the Kelso City Council in 2017. He easily won re-election to a second term in November. Before joining the city government, Karnofski served as a Cowlitz County Commissioner from 2010 to 2016.

Kelsos strong city manager form of government means much of Karnofskis work as mayor is ceremonial. The mayor leads council meetings but votes along with every other council member. Outside of meetings, the mayor works closely with City Manager Andy Hamilton about upcoming issues and serves as a public face for the council.

There are additional expectations to represent the city. Ive been a guest on radio programs I wouldnt have normally been on, sat in on meetings that I wouldnt have been on, said Karnofski, who has been representing Kelso on a larger scale.

He joined a group of Washington mayors in signing a letter to the state legislature asking for an increase in transportation funds. Karnofski said he and Hamilton also have been reaching out to determine what benefits Kelso might see from the federal infrastructure funding bill approved last year.

The biggest priority, Karnofski said, is to stabilize the citys water issues. The City Council voted Tuesday to award a $2.25 million bid to Advanced Excavating Specialists to replace sewers, water lines and storm drains along Allen Street and North Pacific Avenue. Other major water projects could be tackled with the citys remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Process for removing and replacing Malone

Malone vacated the mayoral seat in December after she was absent from her sixth meeting of 2021. Four of those absences were due to taking care of sick family members in Vancouver, while a fifth was a walkout from a September council meeting in protest of how the city enforced the COVID-19 mask requirement.

Karnofski said they were hemmed in by the requirements of the city charter for both her removal and the steps to fill her seat. The city charter says the removal is an automatic measure, not an action taken by the City Council. No absences from council meetings can be excused for reasons other than official city business.

Theres strong feelings on both sides but Im a process guy, Karnofski said. If you have a process, you need to follow the process and thats what we are going to do to fill that position.

There have been at least three previous instances where Kelso council members automatically lost their seat after missing too many meetings in one year. On two of those occasions, the council voted to reinstate those people to their previous seats.

The city accepted applications for the vacant council seat through 5 p.m. Friday. Malone told The Daily News on Wednesday that after not being immediately reappointed to her seat in January, she was not planning to file another application.

At this point, I believe I could do more good by not being on the council than by being on the council, because I can ask more of the questions, Malone said.

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Washington residents can order free at-home COVID-19 tests from the state website that launched Friday.

Residents can order up to five free tests per household at www.sayyescovidhometest.org to ship to their homes. Supply will be limited at first and will restock as the state receives more tests, according to the state Department of Health.

We anticipate peoples initial need in the test kits will exceed our current supply pretty quickly, but our focus is sharing what we have right now, said Lacy Fehrenbach, state deputy secretary for COVID-19 response, in a statement. We want to make sure the tests we have are in homes when our state needs testing the most  during this current surge.

People can also order four free tests per household through the federal program at www.covidtests.gov. At-home tests are available at several retailers and pharmacies, and most insurers will directly cover or pay back the cost of up to eight tests per month for each person on the plan.

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state and in Cowlitz County.

The county recorded 170 new confirmed and probable cases Friday, bringing the total to 18,225. The county has recorded 301 COVID-19 deaths.

PeaceHealth St. John had 27 COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Friday morning.

Following the trend in the county, some school districts reported a large number of new COVID-19 cases this week. Longview, Castle Rock and Kelso schools all use COVID-19 dashboards to report cases in schools. Other local districts do not publicly report cases in schools.

Since last updating the dashboard a week ago, Longview School District has reported about 267 cases among students and 18 among staff from Jan. 11 to Jan. 20. Of those, 21 of the student cases and two staff cases were passed on at school.

Kelso reported six cases this week. The district only reports student-to-student cases confirmed to be transmitted in schools.

Castle Rock reported one new staff case Jan. 14. A third-grade class in the district closed earlier this week due to a high number of COVID-19 cases. Castle Rock Superintendent Ryan Greene said he expects the class to resume Monday.

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Latest leak suggests the iPhone 15 Pro is expected to feature a telephoto camera with 5X optical magnification.

The iPhone has so far restricted itself to a modest zoom camera and it is only this year when we saw Apple offering a 3X optical telephoto camera. That said, when compared to cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which has a 10X telephoto camera, it falls behind in clarity. It seems that Apple is not willing to anything about it in this years iPhone 14 Pro but next years iPhone 15 Pro could get the attention in this regard.

In a report from 9To5Mac, analyst Jeff Pu says that Apple is currently testing 5X optical zoom camera on prototype devices. The feature is expected to get ready by May 2022 and could end up in the high-end models of 2023. This means that Apple could offer the 5X periscope zoom cameras on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The leak says that Lante Optics will manufacture 100 million units of the zoom camera component for Apple.

iPhone 15 Pro to get 5X zoom camera

Periscope zoom cameras arent new  they have been around for a couple of years now on Android phones. Periscope camera systems offer better optical magnification, which allows for superior quality zoomed images over ones obtained from digital cropping. Lately, phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra feature two zoom cameras  one for long-range magnification and one for shooting portraits.

Note that the current generation iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max can also zoom up to 10X digitally but the quality deteriorates beyond 5X considerably. This is where the Galaxy S21 Ultra excels with its optical 10X zoom camera.

While the iPhone 15 Pro is still a few years away, leaks related to the iPhone 14 Pro have emerged. This years iPhone 14 Pro is expected ditch the display notch in favour of a hole camera cutout.

The main camera on the iPhone 14 Pro this is expected to get a new 48MP image sensor instead of the 12MP sensor we have seen on far on existing iPhones. Additionally, the iPhone 14 Pro is also expected to get a new design reminiscent of the iPhone 4S sharper glass design.
NASAs Hubble Space Telescope shows black hole aiding star formation instead of swallowing it.

A Black hole is portrayed as destructive monsters swallowing everything that comes near them, even light cannot escape from them. However, surprisingly, black holes can lead to creation of suns too! A shocking recent research from NASA controlled Hubble Space Telescope shows that a black hole at the heart of the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 is apparently contributing to the formation of a new star. This black hole is believed to have gone against its usual nature of tearing stars apart and consuming anything that comes too close. The dwarf galaxy is around some 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation Pyxis.

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NASA has shared the detailed info on this black hole in one of its blogposts where they mentioned that this new discovery will also play a big part in solving the mystery of where supermassive black holes came from. Amy Reines, the lead investigator of the new Hubble Space Telescope observations, published in Nature, has said that she knew from the beginning that something unusual is happening in Henize 2-10, and now Hubble Telescope has confirmed the connection between the black hole and a neighboring star forming region that is 230 light-years away from the black hole.

Reines said, Hubble's amazing resolution clearly shows a corkscrew-like pattern in the velocities of the gas, which we can fit to the model of a precessing, or wobbling, outflow from a black hole. A supernova remnant would not have that pattern, and so it is effectively our smoking-gun proof that this is a black hole."

However, other researchers think that the radiation appears to be emitted by a supernova remnant, that is rapidly pumping out massive stars making them explode.

Well! The creation of stars is opposite to what happens around black holes. Material falling toward the black hole in large galaxies is taken away by surrounding magnetic fields and forms blazing jets of plasma moving closely to the speed of light. Gas clouds caught in the jets' path get heated so much that it cant cool back down and form stars. However, Henize 2-10 has the less-massive black hole and gentle outflow, due to which gas is compressed enough to precipitate new star formation.
Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. are to blame for the suicide of an 11-year-old who was addicted to Instagram and Snapchat.

Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. are to blame for the suicide of an 11-year-old who was addicted to Instagram and Snapchat, the girls mother alleged in a lawsuit. The woman claims her daughter Selena Rodriguez struggled for two years with an extreme addiction to Metas photo-sharing platform and Snaps messaging app before taking her life last year. The complaint in San Francisco federal court isnt the first lawsuit to blame a youths suicide on social media, but it comes at a sensitive time for platforms that engage millions of young people worldwide.

In November, a group of U.S. state attorneys general announced an investigation of Instagram over its efforts to draw children and young adults, taking aim at the risks the social network may pose to their mental health and well-being. The states probe was launched after a former Facebook employee turned whistle-blower testified in Congress that the company knew about, but didnt disclose, harmful impacts of its services like Instagram.

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The backlash against social media isnt limited to the U.S. The father of a 14-year-old in the U.K. touched off a firestorm when he blamed her 2017 suicide partly on Instagram. The company told the BBC that it doesnt allow content that promotes self-harm.

We are devastated to hear of Selenas passing and our hearts go out to her family, a Snap spokesperson said Friday in an emailed statement. While we cant comment on the specifics of active litigation, nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community.

Meta and Snap knew or should have known that their social media products were harmful to a significant percentage of their minor users, according to Thursdays lawsuit. In other words, defendants intentionally created an attractive nuisance to young children, but failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring on their wholly owned and controlled digital premises.

Meta representatives didnt respond to an email seeking comment.

A Meta spokesperson said in November that allegations the company puts profit over safety are false and that we continue to build new features to help people who might be dealing with negative social comparisons or body image issues.

Snap said in May it was suspending projects with two app makers out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community in light of a wrongful-death and class-action suit filed in California that accused the companies of failing to enforce their own policies against cyber-bullying.

Tammy Rodriguez, who lives in Connecticut, said when she tried to limit her daughters access to the platforms, the girl ran away from home. She took her daughter to a therapist who said she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media as Selena, according to the suit.

The lawsuit levels its harshest criticism at Snapchat, saying the platform rewards users in excessive and dangerous ways for engagement. The mother alleges claims of product defect, negligence and violations of Californias consumer protection law. One of the lawyers on the case is from Social Media Victims Law Center, a Seattle-based legal advocacy group.

Snapchat helps people communicate with their real friends, without some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms, and intentionally makes it hard for strangers to contact young people, the Snap spokesperson said. We work closely with many mental health organizations to provide in-app tools and resources for Snapchatters as part of our ongoing work to keep our community safe.

Social media companies have been largely successful fending off lawsuits blaming them for personal injuries thanks to a 1996 federal law that shields internet platforms from liability for what users post online.

The case is Rodriguez v. Meta Platforms Inc. f/k/a Facebook Inc. 3:22-cv-00401, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
A powerful solar storm is headed towards Earth as per NASA and it can potentially affect phone signals, GPS and satellites

After a solar flare incident on the Sun, a massive solar storm is headed towards Earth, as per NASA. The US space agency reported on January 20 that a solar flare was observed near a sunspot named AR2929. Now a resultant solar storm is fast approaching Earth. The solar storm can affect satellites hit communication, even mobile phone connectivity and GPS. If strong enough, it can cause power grid failure resulting in blackouts. However, having said that, the storm has to be powerful enough to do that and this one is not of that high a level.

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Geomagnetic unrest is possible on Jan. 22-23-24 as a series of CMEs delivers glancing blows to Earth's magnetic field, read a post on Spaceweather.com. The website has issued a warning that today and for the next couple of days, Earth may feel the impact from the solar storm.

Can a solar storm affect mobile phone connections?

The internet uses deep sea fiber optic cables. However, these are mostly immune to solar storms since they carry light and not electric current. But, these long haul cables use an accompanying conductor that connects repeaters in series along the length of these cables. However, a solar storm can impact these conductors and possibly knock them out. If they are damaged enough, they can take months to replace, says a research paper published by Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California, Irvine and VMware Research. This also means that the Internet will be knocked out for a long period in many regions on the Earth. Sangeetha Abdu says that the world is totally unprepared for any such solar storm-caused Internet apocalypse. However, the proviso is that the solar storm has to be powerful enough to penetrate the protective magnetic shield that the Earth is enveloped in. Abdu has warned that the chances of that happening is remote, but very much there. Abdu said the chances of a catastrophic solar superstorm happening in the next decade are 1.6-12%

Abdu called it a 'Black swan event'. Such a solar superstorm has happened previously and it is called the Carrington event.

What is a solar storm and how it can affect us

Unlike its name, a solar storm is not really a storm. The term is used to describe the atmospheric effects Earth experiences due to strong electromagnetic events taking place on the Sun. Before a solar storm, always comes a solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME). The sun releases a huge burst of energy (including UV rays, radio waves and gamma ray radiation and other particles) from its surface. This leads to a strong stream of electrical charge and magnetic fields that rush out in all directions in space at an extremely high speed of even 3 million miles per hour and sometimes, they hit Earth. Over the years NASA has recorded numerous solar storm events hitting Earth.

After a solar storm hits Earth, the resultant effect is usually in the form of auroras, Northern Lights, displayed in the areas nearer to the polar regions. They are seen in locations close to the Arctic region.

The solar storms can also cause varying degrees of damage to satellites which disrupt communications on Earth, causing failures for many systems and operations. Mobile phone networks and GPS are also impacted due to the magnetic fields and radiation. Even power grids become vulnerable to the magnetic fields and in extreme cases they can experience failure.

For instance, in February 2011, a solar storm and CME produced by a strong solar flare disturbed radio communications all over China. The most recent solar storm event on Earth recorded by NASA occurred in 2017 when an X12.9 class solar flare hit Earth and caused a brief radio blackout and damaged satellites.


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The rabbi at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk said security measures are in place to keep worshippers safe. (Courtesy of Steve Budman)

One Norfolk synagogue is working to strike a balance between hospitality and safety in the wake of a hostage situation last weekend at a Texas synagogue.

Security has long been a part of services at Ohef Shalom Temple, one of Norfolks largest synagogues. Guards stand on duty during every worship service. Surveillance cameras monitor every door, which roughly 700 families filtered through before the pandemic limited in-person services.

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The Jewish community does not think twice about having security, said Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg. This is a reality we live with day in and day out. It is a way of life.

But the 11-hour standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in suburban Dallas has renewed attention on security by Jewish congregations amid a nationwide increase in antisemitic incidents.

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The gunman, a 44-year-old British citizen, was killed as federal agents stormed the temple. The rabbi credited his congregations active shooter training for the escape of the four people held hostage, including himself.

In the wake of the incident, Mandelberg said her clergy felt the need to immediately send a letter to their congregation acknowledging the trauma the Jewish community felt as a whole.

The biggest way we tried to make our congregation feel safe is by reaching out, Mandelberg said. Strength comes from being together. We told them, Dont allow the haters to win. Live your Jewish lives most fully and proudly.

In the letter, Mandelberg and her clergy reassured members that Ohef Sholom Temple was secure.

I cannot disclose specifically security measures, but I can say that every measure possible to control access to the building is in place, Mandelberg said.

The Hampton Roads Jewish community has about 10,000 members, according to Robin Mancoll, who oversees the Jewish Community Relations Council for the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.

Antisemitism is a problem, but we are fortunate in that the local Jewish community has great relationships with other communities, Mancoll said. Hampton Roads has a strong faith-based community  whether that be the Black community, the Catholic community  and each subcommunity is very inclusive.

The Anti-Defamation League tracked 325 antisemitic or white supremacist incidents across Virginia in 2020 and 2021  20 occurred in Hampton Roads.

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To better protect the Jewish community as it worships and attends area synagogues, UJFT joined with the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and the United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula to partner with the national Secure Community Network to enhance local security programs in 2020. The network is a nonprofit organization that provides real-time threat assessments, security vulnerability assessments and security training.

Synagogues have to be prepared because of where we are today. All our synagogues have relationships with local law enforcement departments and state agencies, Mancoll said.

Mandelberg said armed security is a reality in every synagogue of the world, but added that it is hard to balance hospitality and keeping us safe.

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Mandelberg encourages Ohef Sholom members, and all members of the Jewish community, to be aware of their surroundings, speak with security if they notice a suspicious person and to avoid gathering in the parking lots after services.

We know this is where the most important business of Temple is conducted, but all kidding aside, please keep your post-meeting meetings inside our protected building, and once you leave, go directly to your cars, Mandelberg wrote in the letter to her congregation.

One member of Ohef Sholom Temple said the disruption of peace upset him most about the Texas attack.

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We go to synagogues to gain peace, to gain community. It is a calming experience for me, Robert Levinson said. It feels like no matter where it happens, it is a personal attack.

Levinson said he has chosen to be part of the solution in the fight against antisemitism by taking part in Ohef Sholom Temples security drills and reminding others to speak up if they see a suspicious person.

Antisemitism is out there. I am 62 years old, and I have been Jewish my whole life. You just have to deal with it, Levinson said. And if we stop going to worship, the terrorists have won. I am just not going to do that.

Caitlyn Burchett, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
Catholic Charities of Central Texas will host a drive-thru giving day on Jan. 29 at the Catholic Charities Brazos Valley office in Bryan from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Diapers, baby wipes and hygiene kits will be given away at the event to those in need. Catholic Charities also will be accepting donations, and there will be free food and prizes.

SATURDAY

EVENTS

Bryan Young Farmers kettle corn sale, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Proceeds from the sale will be used for community service activities and scholarships for Bryan and Rudder high school FFA students. Producers Cooperative is at 1800 N. Texas Ave. in Bryan.

Birding 101 with BCS Stewards of the Wild, 8 to 11 a.m. at Lick Creek Park, 13600 Rock Prairie Road in College Station. An introduction to birdwatching and an opportunity to learn about the birds of the area with Texas A&M professor David Scott. Bring binoculars, water and walking shoes and dress for the weather.

Brazos Valley Farmers Market, 8 a.m. to noon at 500 N. Main St. in Downtown Bryan. brazosvalleyfarmersmarket.com.

Blood drive, 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at Hilltop Lakes Welcome Center, 3 Hilltop Drive in Hilltop Lakes. Email rtreat62@aol.com for more information.

Gulf Coast Appaloosa Horse Show, through Sunday at the Brazos County Expo, 5827 Leonard Road in Bryan.

LIVE MUSIC

Reagan Quinn, 7:30 p.m. at Canteen Bar and Grill in Cavalry Court, 200 Century Court in College Station.

Garrett, 9 to 11 p.m. at Hershels at The Stella Hotel, 4100 Lake Atlas Drive in Bryan.

Soul Wagon, 9:30 p.m. at 3rd Floor Cantina, 201B W. 26th St. in Downtown Bryan.

Joey Kipfer, 7 p.m. at Ronin, 800 N. Main St. in Downtown Bryan.

Justin Michael Bell, 6 p.m. at Brazos Valley Brewing Co., 206 S. Jackson St. in Brenham. Free.

Channing Sall, 1:30 p.m. at Bernhardt Winery, 9043 County Road 204 in Plantersville. Free admission. No reservation required. Food truck on site. Picnics and coolers are welcome; no outside alcohol.

Heartland Texas Band, 8:30 p.m. at Whiskey Tango Bar & Grill, 15875 County Road 304 in Navasota.

Todd Roth, John Egan and The Mighty Orq, beginning at noon at Home Sweet Farm Biergarten, 307 Park St. in Brenham.

The Pendulum Hearts, 6 to 9 p.m. at Floyds Wine Lounge, 315 S. Baylor St. in Brenham.

Jordan Nix with Randy Hoyet, 8 p.m. at 4 Star Concert Hall, 209 S. Market St. in Brenham.

Riders in the Sky, 7 p.m. at Barnhill Center at Historic Simon Theatre, 111 W. Main St. in Brenham. Tickets are $45 to $65 and available at thebarnhillcenter.com/events.

HEALTH AND FITNESS

Community yoga, 8 a.m. at Lake Walk Pavilion, 4107 Lake Atlas Drive in Bryan. Free and open to the public.

Punk rock yoga, 2:30 p.m. at The 101, 101 Texas Ave. in Bryan. Free; all skill levels welcome.

COVID-19 TESTING

St. Teresa Catholic Church, 201 Hall St. in Bryan, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Due to high demand, walk-ins may not be accepted. curative.com.

New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1505 Dansby St. in Bryan, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Due to high demand, walk-ins may not be accepted. curative.com.

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.

Lovin That Lone Star Flag, through April 2 at the Arts Council of Brazos Valley, 4180 Texas 6 in College Station. A collection of work by E. Joe Deering. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

Art is for Everyone, through Jan. 28 at the Arts Council of Brazos Valley, 4180 Texas 6 in College Station. A collection of work from the Purple Turtle Art Studio. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1 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.

Taking Shape: Geometry in Art, through March 9 at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries in the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station. The exhibit features works by artists who expressed themselves and the world around them through geometric forms, optical illusions and abstraction. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. tx.ag/geometry.

In Actuality: Social Realism and Its Legacy, through April 10 at the Forsyth Galleries in the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station. The exhibit features more than 40 images by nine photographers, highlighting their contribution to the social realism movement. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. tx.ag/inactuality.
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At a home show, you can do more than check out flooring, countertops and worry-free gutter protection.

You also can pick up lots of free candy, pens, magnets and calendars.

In other words, there are things to interest both adults and kids.

At the home show this weekend at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Building, you can pound five nails into a piece of lumber for $5. Taking part in that activity will qualify you for a gift card drawing.

You can take part in virtual reality. Local developer Amos Anson will give visitors an electronic tour through a variety of home layouts.

The home and builders show, presented by the Central Nebraska Home Builders Association, got underway Friday. It continues 10 a.m.-6 p.m. today and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission for those 13 and older is $5 per person. Veterans, members of the military, first responders and kids 12 and younger get in free.

Why should people show up this weekend?

Its a great place to come and see everything to do with remodeling or building a home, said Greg Geis, president of the Central Nebraska Home Builders Association.

Weve got everything here from new doors (to) new cabinets, appliances, roofing, landscaping. You name it  weve got it here, and its all in one location, Geis said.

Unlike investigating a product online, you actually can touch it and feel it at the home and builders show, Geis said.

Another reason to visit is to support local housebuilders. Almost everybody here is local. So its a good way to support our local community and home builders, said Geis, who is the owner of Island Indoor Climate.

The shows opening ceremony involved Cindy Johnson of the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce. Johnson pounded a few nails at the invitation of Geis and Tim Uhrich of Truss Craft Structural Components. As anyone would expect from Johnson, she hit the nail on the head.

Another one of the 61 exhibitors is Obermiller Seamless. At that booth, Kevin Kreifels was telling people about seamless siding, roofing, gutters, windows, doors, soffit and facias.

Seamless steel siding is our forte, Kreifels said.

Those products will not fade and are extremely hail-resistant, he said. The only thing better to use for siding is brick.

Obermiller, he noted, offers metal siding from TruCedar and Klauer Manufacturing. Kreifels also will tell you how LeafX is better than other gutter systems.

One man who wasnt exerting himself too much Friday afternoon was Lynn Larson, who was stretched out on a king bed, looking unbelievably relaxed.

Larson is the president of his company  iSleep of Lincoln. When youre president, nobodys going to tell you to get to work.

Many people walking past Larson tell him hes sleeping on the job. One wag joked that he was product-testing.

Larson invited a reporter to lie down next to him on the cushy airbed. Ill give you a wake-up call if you fall alseep, he said.

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Taquan Harper, 27, shot and killed himself on Jan. 21, 2022 as a Lyft driver drove him on Greenbriar Avenue in Hampton. Harper was wanted on charges of killing his brother in Norfolk two days earler. (Submitted photo)

A man wanted in the killing of his brother in Norfolk earlier this week week died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound early Thursday while taking a Lyft rideshare in Hampton.

Taquan Harper, 27, of Portsmouth, was being sought on second-degree murder and gun charges in the death of his brother, 24-year-old Frankie Bland.

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Bland was found with life-threatening gunshot wounds at about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday in a house on Remsen Street in Norfolk, and died at the hospital later that night.

Norfolk police issued warrants for his brothers arrest.

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But at 9:05 a.m. Thursday, the Hampton Police Division got a 911 call from a Lyft driver who was driving Harper down Greenbriar Avenue, west of Victoria Boulevard in the Wythe section of that city.

The driver reported that his passenger had shot himself while the car was en route, said Hampton Police Sgt. Reggie Williams. That triggered a large response to the area by investigators, according to neighbors who live in the area.

The man responsible for the homicide on Remsen Street has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Norfolk Police Department said in a news release issued Friday.

Williams said he couldnt disclose where the Lyft driver had been taking Harper.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
Fresh off a round of school closures driven by the omicron variant, Illinois school districts could soon be facing more upheaval as litigation challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzkers mask mandate and other COVID-19 protocol lands before a downstate judge.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow is expected to rule soon on a request to temporarily halt the governors executive orders on masking and quarantining for schools while she considers a lawsuit from about 700 parents who allege the measures were enacted without due process for students and their families.

The judge heard arguments in Springfield this week on the request from attorney Tom DeVore on behalf of parents suing the governor and more than 140 Illinois school districts. DeVore is also representing a group of Illinois teachers suing the state and 21 school districts in a separate lawsuit targeting the states requirement that school employees either receive the COVID-19 vaccine or test weekly.

What were asking is, if children are going to be required to wear masks  before it goes on, they are given the right to due process, said DeVore, who also argued against the states policy requiring close contacts of children who have tested positive to stay home from school.

If theres an exclusion from school, before a child is told, get out of here, they have the right to due process, he said.

Opposing the request for a temporary restraining order were attorneys for districts including Chicago Public Schools, which recently resumed classroom instruction after a showdown with its powerful teachers union, and Illinois Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Thomas Verticchio.

While officials with Chicago Public Schools declined to comment on the lawsuit, the leader of one suburban school district expressed concerns about the impact of a ruling that could threaten local districts ability to require their own virus mitigation measures.

In a Thursday letter to parents, Barrington School District 220 Superintendent Robert Hunt said the district would keep its current COVID-19 mitigation strategies in place until there is a ruling from the judge, which is not expected until Jan. 28 at the earliest.

But if the ruling were to overturn both the state and local school boards authority to require mitigations and also recognizes the complaint as a class-action lawsuit, Barrington 220 will be in a position in which it cannot enforce masks in school for students or staff members, Hunt said.

If this were to occur, due to the current high transmission rates, Barrington 220 will continue to strongly encourage our students, staff and community to wear masks in schools and will evaluate other measures to increase social distancing in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID, Hunt said.

If the ruling were to overturn the authority of the state and that of local school boards to require mitigations, there would likely be an immediate appeal in which the judge or the appellate court could order a stay and keep current mitigations in place, Hunt said.

If this were to happen, or if the judges ruling upholds the governors mask mandate, Barrington 220 will continue to adhere to universal masking inside our school buildings, he said.

Pritzker shared his frustration with DeVores latest COVID-19 lawsuits during a stop in the citys Bronzeville neighborhood Thursday, saying he is always disappointed to hear about people who are working against and taking away ... frankly peoples freedom from this virus.

Thats what were looking to give people, their freedom from the virus. These people are holding us back. Theyre going to close schools as a result if they were to win. Small businesses will close if they win. We have to fight for them, Pritzker said.

But parents who are part of DeVores lawsuit, including Gracia Livie, a Naperville mother of four, say the states rules have been a disaster for countless children, including Livies 6-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy.

An initial request for a medical exemption that would allow her daughter to attend school without a mask was initially denied by Naperville Community Unit School District 203 before later being granted with support from the familys doctor, Livie said.

It took way too much effort. ... This lawsuit was the next step, so I wanted to put our names on it, said Livie, who is among those suing District 203, in an interview following Thursdays court proceedings.

Its time for the needle to move. ... Our point is, does a school have a right to be indefinitely authorized to cover a childs face? she said.

Attorney Kathleen Gibbons, who represents Valley View Community Unit School District 365 in the lawsuit, challenged DeVores contention that the mask mandate is causing irreparable harm to students, along with the notion that children infected with the virus are unlikely to become gravely ill.

Valley View School District stands here pretty much alone, because we lost a 15-year-old athlete with no underlying health conditions within 72 hours of her being positive and showing the first symptoms of COVID, Gibbons said. That, your honor, is irreparable harm.

Officials with Illinois two largest teachers unions also expressed concerns about the potential impact of the lawsuits, including Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin, who said schools could be forced to shut down if the mask mandate is overturned.

Without masks, the virus, especially the highly contagious omicron variant, will run wild, forcing thousands and thousands of our school employees and students into quarantine and will, in effect, close our school buildings down and perhaps be potent enough to stop learning altogether, Griffin said.

The science is there: Masking, along with vaccines, testing, social distancing and quarantining, are the best ways to protect against the virus, she said.

In a pair of amicus briefs filed with the court, officials with the Illinois Federation of Teachers urged the judge to deny DeVores request, claiming if granted, it would scuttle public health measures that, in the judgment of policymakers and the medical professionals advising them, are necessary to keep schools open safely.

But Shannon Adcock, a Naperville mother of three who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Indian Prairie School District 204, said she believes all parents should have the right to choose whether their children are masked at school, especially as families have been dealing with pandemic-era hardships facing their children for nearly two years.

When the first pandemic hit, I think we were all in this together, but by that summer, when the school district surveyed parents, the majority wanted to be back in person, and (District 204) ended up going remote. ... It was like a bait and switch, said Adcock.

Adcock is president of Awake Illinois, a nonprofit parent advocacy group she launched two days after losing her bid for a seat on the District 204 school board.

I think our children have paid the biggest price during the pandemic, and weve all seen the harm and impact, Adcock said. They need to be able to socialize again without fear, to be with their friends again without masks, so they can give and receive smiles.

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CHICAGO - After taking two unpaid weeks off when her family was home with COVID-19, Emma Branson was ready to get her toddler back to day care.

Finally, her 2-year-old could play with his friends, and she could focus on work.

But after just one day back, the day care closed for 10 days. Again.

It really threw a wrench in things, said Branson, a Logan Square mom and an environmental technician.

Since the pandemic began, day care centers have been caught in a cycle of managing frustrated parents and changing guidance while trying to operate. And amid recent national headlines focused on Chicago Public Schools issues, parents, teachers and directors said they feel left behind in guidance and left out of larger conversations that seem to forget their families.

I dont feel like a lot of things are considered, said Marisol Nieves, who runs Little Einsteins Daycare, which has two locations on the North Side. We do share a lot of the same challenges as CPS in that our families need care, they need somewhere for their children to go during the day thats safe. Like many, the day cares locations had been closed multiple times in recent months following positive COVID-19 tests.

Unlike older kids, children under age 5 have no access to vaccines; the latest vaccine trial pushed back that possibility to an uncertain date, crippling some parents hopes for a return to normalcy. Former University of Chicago professor Emily Oster, who frequently writes on parenting and data, recently shared responses she received from parents, with some saying they feel abandoned after asking parents of children under 5 a simple question: How are you doing?

It feels like some folks have just moved on from the pandemic, making it feel like my family is being left behind, said Bryan Roush, a father in Arlington Heights who called parenting three kids ages 5 and under bleak. I honestly dont know how we keep doing this.

Chicago-area parents spoke about feeling theyre in a constant cycle of fear and frustration. Many spoke with dread about the notification  finding out their child was a close contact of someone with COVID-19, followed by a now-too-familiar search to find a reliable and quick test for their kids and themselves.

Parents have no real options for back-up care  such as a drop-in day care or a babysitter  when their child might be carrying COVID-19, especially as infants and toddlers cannot easily or safely entertain themselves. Nannies also are in high demand.

Each time they get a call from their day care, said North Center dad Justin Leinenweber, whether its in their 4-year-olds class or their 9-month-olds class, both children are out for two weeks. He knows the day care is trying to protect as many children as possible. But the constant disruption is exhausting; he and his wife choose who stops working. He is an attorney and she is a public school teacher. Last time, his wife used up the last of her sick time. He knows they are luckier than most to even have this ability to juggle.

I was just getting the sense of a routine again, when boom: an email on Wednesday morning saying to pick up both kids by 11:15 a.m., because of a case in the younger kids room, he said.

Many parents, exhausted by impossible calculations, have accepted they must send their children to school as a contagious virus spreads and hope they receive no more notifications.

Ive said a lot; Im holding my breath, Branson said. Its really just been kind of balancing the fear and the caution, because (my son is) not vaccinated, and wanting to keep him safe, but also having to get back to normal and back to work and having him in day care.

Some parents said employers had become less sympathetic as the pandemic stretched on. And, of course, not all parents can work remotely, leaving essential workers especially in a bind.

Day care centers follow guidance given by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Public Health on handling positive cases and masking. State guidance suggests children and staff quarantine for at least 14 days, but this can be reduced in consultation with the local health department. Melaney Arnold, a state health department spokesperson, said they are awaiting guidance from the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specific to day cares.

Day care directors and parents who monitor the guidelines say they can be hard to keep up with or even understand. For example, day cares are directed to follow state guidance but to report any COVID-19 cases to city health officials. Meanwhile, day cares have varying policies on what happens after a positive test.

The CDC recently suggested schools consider a test-to-stay program for unvaccinated students, which Chicago Public Schools is piloting, where students can stay in school as long as they continue to test negative. Jade Fulce, a CDC spokesperson, said although previous studies have not evaluated test-to-stay in child care settings, it can be an option for child care programs. Test-to-stay protocols are included in an IDPH document offering guidance on returning students who are asymptomatic close contacts.

Having to close for 10 days for a positive case is not sustainable for teachers, parents or kids, Nieves said, especially with the contagious omicron variant. Ive had parents tell me theyve exhausted their COVID pay, PTO and vacation, she said. At the same time, no day care director or parent is eager to welcome more exposure.

Those who run day care centers are tasked with trying to keep them afloat and support employees while balancing keeping children safe and enrolled. Relaxing guidelines could lead to more cases; keeping children out for half a month at a time could mean families find a different option. Used to telling families when they can return to day care after fevers, now theyre tasked with constantly reassessing pandemic protocols.

Some parents might want to keep kids home at any exposure; others might welcome the ability to return them to school as soon as a negative test can be confirmed.

This is not sustainable, these rolling closures, said Lauren Sauer, a Chicago mom who has had one of her two children home for COVID-19 closures for a total of five weeks. She was relieved, she said  while interrupting herself to ask her toddler, What, honey?  that the day cares closure time had moved from 14 days to 10 days.

When the CDC recently reduced the quarantine and isolation time to five days, some assumed day cares would similarly adjust. Chicago Public Schools plans to change its policy to five days. The state health department noted its guidelines take into consideration that masking for young children can be difficult and those under 2 are unable to mask.

Although Branson wants kids to return to school sooner, every decision feels fraught.

I wish that I could just do that without the thought in the back of my head, Well, what if its really bad for him to catch COVID? she said.

Chicago area hospitals have seen spikes in kids admitted with COVID-19 with the omicron variant.

Meanwhile, teachers worry about their own exposure. And although some child care workers are represented in the SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana union, because child care includes a variety of workers like in-home providers and day care centers, there is no umbrella organization, like the Chicago Teachers Union, that advocates for all of them.

And basic cold symptoms that most would chalk up to a typical Chicago winter can now mean a parent needs to collect their child, quickly.

It is really hard to tell the parents, OK, this child cannot come because the childs nose is runny, said Erma Jackson, who runs Majestic, an in-home day care in Humboldt Park. COVID-19 has changed her job. The pandemic created a whole new layer of vigilance, in that one familys actions or efforts toward taking precautions  or lack thereof  affect an entire day care.

We have to add in a level of trust that the parent will respect the other families and our household, she said. Theres that level of trust, as well as fear.

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The South Carolina Department of Revenue will begin accepting individual income tax returns for tax year 2021 on Jan. 24, consistent with the date announced by the IRS.

The filing deadline for both state and federal 2021 income tax returns is Monday, April 18.

We encourage all South Carolina taxpayers to file electronically and to choose direct deposit, SCDOR Director Hartley Powell said. This is the most convenient, secure and accurate way to file your return and receive your refund without any delays.

I urge all South Carolinians to choose direct deposit for their income tax refunds, Treasurer Curtis Loftis said. Your refund is sent quickly and directly to your bank account as soon as your return is processed. No more waiting on the mail. Its simply the fastest way to receive your refund.

File online

Filing online with a reputable provider is convenient, secure and accurate. Many South Carolinians are eligible to file online for free with easy-to-use tax preparation software. Visit dor.sc.gov/iit-filing to view all of your filing options.

Make sure you have all W-2s, 1099s, and other necessary documents before you file. Using year-end pay stub information instead of official documents could slow down processing.

Choose direct deposit

Direct deposit is the fastest and safest refund option. Your refund is deposited directly into your bank account, so theres no need to worry about lost or stolen checks and no waiting on delayed or returned mail. Learn more about why direct deposit is the preferred refund option at dor.sc.gov/refund.

Allow time for processing and fraud prevention.

SCDOR will begin processing returns Feb. 7 to allow employers to meet the Jan. 31 W-2 submission deadline. Fighting fraud to protect taxpayer dollars is a priority.

Tax return and refund processing is expected to take 6-8 weeks from Feb. 7 or the date you file, whichever is later, to allow the SCDOR to use all available tools to check for fraud and protect your refund.

Track your refund

Check your refund status anytime using the Wheres My Refund tool at dor.sc.gov/refund. You can track which of the four stages your refund is in  fraud check, accuracy review, final verification, refund approval and preparation  and the estimated time frame for each stage. Keep in mind that if you choose a paper check refund, your processing time may be longer.

Find more resources for the tax season at dor.sc.gov/iit.

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Dancing since age 2, Madison Brown is inching closer to fulfilling her dream of becoming a principal ballet dancer with one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the nation with the help of a full scholarship to its training school  and a balanced approach for success.

The 16-year-old is the daughter of Redick Brown and Jennifer Mazyck-Brown of Wellington, Florida.

Her mother is a native of Orangeburg and the daughter of John and Gloria Mazyck, who have lived in the city for more than 40 years. Jennifer is a South Carolina State University alumna and former Miss South Carolina State University (1998-1999), while her husband is also a S.C. State graduate.

The American Ballet Theatre in New York City is one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the nation. Madison, a junior in Florida Virtual School, started classes at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, its training school, in October after snagging a full scholarship.

She was recently promoted to the ABT Studio Company, where she will, for example, work on more rigorous repertoire in hopes of getting into a main company as a principal dancer.

Brown recently performed in a production of "The Nutcracker with the ABT in California in December, but is no stranger to big stages. She performed in 2018 on NBCs dance competition series World of Dance, which was led by a team of dance superstar judges  Jennifer Lopez, Derek Hough and NE-YO- and host/mentor Jenna Dewan.

Her father said his daughters scholarship to the JKO School is just part of longtime dream for success, with her performance in the The Nutcracker being an equally impressive feat for her.

This has been her dream for as long as we can remember. Now all of her hard work is paying off, and she gets the opportunity to perform on the stage with the main company of American Ballet Theatre. So were just elated that she gets to do this, Redick said.

We tell her often that not everyone knows what they want to do with their life, and even those that do dont always get the opportunity to experience it. At 16 years old, she gets to live out that dream and hopefully start what will be a budding career as a professional ballet dancer, he said.

He and his wife flew out to see their daughter in California.

The performance was beautiful. It was our first time seeing the American Ballet Theatre perform "The Nutcracker." Our first time watching it with Madisons first time on stage with them was a blessing, Redick added.

He continued, We try to take care of whats between the ears and let the professionals deal with creating and crafting the best dancer that they care, and God takes care of all of it.

Madison said her performance with the ABT in "The Nutcracker" was just very surreal and was not anything I expected by any means.

She said she never stopped working on her craft after leaving World of Dance and was grateful to have accomplished all she has since.

I just went back to training, kept working hard and slowly but surely everything has just kind of paid off. Ive always kept my head on straight and kept myself busy, but also always listened to my body. I think that comes with maturity and always knowing when is too much and when I can push harder, Madison said.

She said balancing her virtual school duties with her JKO School requirements has been a bit of a juggling act, but staying focused makes it easier for her.

I think it does. I hope that Im a bit more sharp minded and always extremely aware of what needs to be done, what can hold off and what I need to prioritize and things like that, she said.

Through it all, dance has always been a mode of expression for her.

Its been something Ive done for longer that I can remember. Its something Ive always had in my life, and I think it also played a really big part in making friends and not ever feeling lonely with moving a lot when I was younger, Madison said.

She continued, Dance is more consistent than my friendships, and with that always being there, every time I get to perform and every time I dance, it just feels just like home in a sense. Its very welcoming, and it just fills up my soul and just makes me happier than ever.

What are the types of dances she likes to perform?

Ballet is definitely like my number one right now just because thats what I want to do for the majority of my future, but I also really enjoy doing contemporary, or more of like jazz and the kind of more relaxed stuff I think its always a nice way to kind of like relax and not have to strain quite as much when youre doing ballet, Madison said.

She danced for a few months at Tamalyns Dance Studio in Orangeburg.

I dont remember much from dancing in Orangeburg, but I just remember it being like very wholesome and always fun in my heart. Seeing how some young dancers are trained and the pressure that was put on by teachers, if I remembered dancing like that when I was 5 years old, I wouldnt have wanted to dance, Madison said.

So I think definitely beginning dancing at that studio really helped me kind of always want to me to keep dancing because it was always such a joyous experience. With Orangeburg as a whole, everywhere you go its a smile, or You need help with that? Can I open the door? Its people saying, No, maam, Yes, sir, Thank you, or Youre welcome, and I always try and make sure I do that because I just always want to be as beautiful a dancer as I am a person. I think Orangeburg and the lifestyle there has always helped me with that, she said.

Jennifer said she is proud of her daughter and her accomplishments.

Its just been a joy to watch her kind of mature through this. This has kind of always been her dream. Of course, shes following kind of Misty Copelands path, the same type of journey. To get selected to do The Nutcracker in California was just kind of the icing on the cake, she said, referring to Copeland, who became the first African-American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history in 2015.

Its just been a journey. Redick and I both went to South Carolina State, but majored in biology. The arts werent kind of like in our background. So we never knew anything, and we kind of learned as we went along. This has kind of been our life since Madison was 2, Jennifer said.

The couple, who also have a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, have lived in Florida for approximately a decade, but Jennifer said Orangeburg is always home.

Madison said she will continue to work hard to fulfill goals, but that wont be the end of her story.

I definitely think there is an extreme amount of value in hard work, but you can work hard without determination. You could just work yourself to do it. So I think part of it is having the love and the drive to be determined enough to work that hard and to want something out of what youre doing, she said.

The teen continued, So I think if you have your head on straight, and you have the right support system and you know what youre doing, hard work is only half the battle. You have to want it just as bad as youre going to work hard.

You can see when dancers work hard, but then their face is blank and then you dont feel it from them. But you have to want it, too. I think when you want it, its much easier to work hard.

Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD

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(TBTCO) - Thi truong chung khoan Viet Nam co ban van giu nhip on inh trong quy au nam nay, tuy nhien, thi truong chiu ap luc ieu chinh kha manh ke tu cuoi thang 3 en nay do tac ong tu cac yeu to ngoai bien va cac vu viec sai pham mang tinh on le cua mot so ca nhan, to chuc. Theo cac chuyen gia, nhung tac ong en tam ly ngan han cua nha au tu la kho tranh khoi, nhung ay la co hoi e huong dong tien i ung huong, giup thi truong gan uc, khoi trong e phat trien ben vung.
BEIRUT  Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah met on Saturday with Prime Minister Najib Mikati as he kicked-off a two-day visit to Lebanon, the first trip by a senior Gulf official to Lebanon since a diplomatic spat last October.



Heres what we know:

 In a statement Saturday evening, Mikatis press office said that the Lebanese premier held a half-hour one-on-one meeting with the foreign dignitary, after which an expanded sit-down was held with Lebanons foreign minister and other officials.

 Mikati welcomed the Kuwaiti foreign ministers visit, saying it expresses close brotherly feelings and a long history of understanding and trust between Lebanon and Kuwait, the premiers press office said.

 We look forward to closer cooperation between Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and God willing, Kuwait will be on Lebanon's side, and the relations between Lebanon and the Arab brothers will restore their strength, Mikati added.

 For his part, the Kuwaiti official said that he was bearing three messages for Lebanon: solidarity with the Lebanese people, Kuwait's desire for Lebanon not to serve as a platform for attacking Gulf countries, and for Lebanon to implement reforms.

 Al-Sabah added that his trip to Beirut was "part of international efforts to restore [Gulf] relations with Lebanon, adding that there is a desire "to see Lebanon regain its glory through non-interference in Gulf affairs." He is set to meet President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday, the NNA reported.

 The visit comes after Saudi Arabia on Oct. 29, 2021 announced it was recalling its ambassador to Beirut and banning all imports from Lebanon in anger over then-Information Minister George Kurdahis critical comments on Riyadhs military campaign in Yemen.

 Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE all followed suit with the withdrawal of their ambassadors.

 On Dec. 4, 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman during which the two held a phone call with Mikati. Macrons visit came after Kurdahis resignation the day before.

 While Saudi Arabia vowed to provide aid for Lebanon following bin Salmans meeting with Macron, diplomatic ties have not been restored.
Fossil fuels are a cornerstone of Wyomings economy. A new analysis turns a spotlight on the significance of industry revenues in the highest-producing states.

The paper, published this month by nonprofit research institution Resources for the Future, outlines how lost fossil fuel revenue will inevitably hit some states much harder than others.

Wyoming is probably at the top of that list, said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future and one of the papers authors.

Though Wyoming has the fourth-highest share of total government revenue from fossil fuels, the authors estimate that 59% of Wyomings own-source revenue  funds generated internally  comes from fossil fuels. Thats the biggest share of any state. In North Dakota, which ranks second, fossil fuels contribute an estimated 31% of own-source revenue. Alaska is third with 21%.

According to the paper, Wyomings $7,339 in per-capita government fossil fuel revenue also far exceeds all other states. North Dakota and Alaska, again the next-highest, generate an estimated $3,854 and $2,713, respectively.

Outside of states whose budgets rely heavily on extraction, the link between the transition away from fossil fuels and those states revenues isnt necessarily as obvious as the link between the energy transition and jobs, Raimi said.

As society seeks to achieve a Just Transition, the papers introduction reads, addressing the revenue shortfalls that arise from the reduction in fossil energy will be critical, particularly for the rural communities where such activities are highly concentrated.

Even if no new climate policies were enacted, the analysis found, fossil fuel revenue will decline significantly by 2050, even in the oil and gas sectors. But while coal is projected to drop swiftly regardless of climate policy, more ambitious emissions targets accelerated the expected decline of oil and gas production.

The authors hope the paper will help national policymakers recognize the regional implications that transition could have for government finances and public services, ultimately boosting federal support for those most affected.

This projected timeline suggests that oil and gas communities will have more time to use natural resource revenues to diversify their economies, Raimi wrote in a blog post published alongside the paper. Still, the long-term challenge of economic diversification, particularly in rural, resource-dependent regions, suggests that these planning efforts should start now.

Because fossil fuels are projected to decline even in the absence of new climate policy, delaying the energy transition will only prolong the fiscal challenges faced by fossil fuel states, Raimi argued. He and the other authors offer a range of policy changes, such as implementing carbon or mileage taxes, raising the costs of fossil fuel production or increasing individuals property and income taxes.

Raimi acknowledged, however, that none of those recommendations would be easy to implement.

The current political climate of the United States, he wrote in the blog post, means that prospects for economy-wide carbon pricing, taxes for vehicle miles traveled, fossil fuel subsidy reform, value-added taxes, or higher marginal income tax rates are, on a good day, precarious.

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Eight new applications for the role of state schools superintendent have been submitted to the Republican State Central Committee, raising the total number of applicants to 12.

The position of state superintendent, an official whos typically elected by Wyoming residents, is vacant because Jillian Balow, the former superintendent, resigned earlier this month to take on the same role in Virginia.

Now, the Republican State Central Committee and Gov. Mark Gordon are tasked with filling the position by next week.

The central committee will hear from and then nominate three candidates at a meeting today in Douglas. Those nominees will then go to Gordon, who said he plans to interview each of them in person before making a selection.

The latest eight applicants include people with varying degrees of experience in education: Marti Halverson, Keith Goodenough, Angela Raber, Joseph Heywood, Joshua Valk, Thomas Kelly, Brian Schroeder and Jayme Lien.

Halverson is far-right former state representative who serves as chairwoman of the Lincoln County GOP. As a lawmaker, she did not serve on the Joint Education Committee, but she was a co-sponsor on multiple education-related bills.

I am not an educator. I have no degrees in Education, Halverson wrote in her cover letter. Im an English major with thirty years in business. I was publicly educated in an era where two years of high school Latin and four years of math, English and science were required.

While in office, Halverson was part of a group of lawmakers who attempted to give former Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill back her power after the Legislature in 2013 stripped Hill of most of her responsibilities and transferred the duties to a director of education.

At the time the bill was introduced, the matter was being hashed out in the courts. The state Supreme Court in 2014 ruled 3-2 that state lawmakers went beyond their purview.

The Legislature and the state party broke over that issue, and we never mended it, said Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, who voted against the legislation.

Another former state lawmaker, Goodenough has had some recent involvement in Natrona County GOP politics, but he has not always been a registered Republican. He served in the state House and Senate as a Democrat from roughly the late 1980s to the mid-aughts. He also ran for Natrona County Commission as an independent in 2012 and 2014.

During his time in the statehouse, he did not sponsor any significant education-related legislation, but did serve on the Education Committee for two years.

In more recent years, Goodenough served as a Republican precinct committeeman in Natrona County. He did not provide application materials to the state central committee, but said he plans to bring them Saturday.

The rest of the recent applicants do not have lengthy political histories. But they do have notable educational backgrounds.

Raber, an instructor at Sheridan Community College, and Heywood, the executive director of the Wyoming Virtual Academy, have doctorates of education, while Valk, the director of the University of Wyoming program, has a Ph.D. in higher education administration, according to their resumes.

Kelly is currently serving as the chair of the Political and Military Science Department at the American Military University, according to his resume.

Kelly and his family left Colorado for Wyoming in part because the schools were teaching climate change, multiple genders, and white privilege to grammar school children, he wrote in his cover letter.

They eventually moved to Sheridan in 2019.

Schroeder has experience in school administration, as a K-12 teacher and as a youth counselor.

Lien, like Goodenough, did not provide application materials. Further details on the earlier applicants can be found here.

According to state statute, the Republican State Central Committee is responsible for choosing interim superintendent nominees because Balow was a member of the GOP.

The central committee consists of the chairman and the state committeewoman and committeeman from each of Wyomings county-level Republican parties. That equates to 69 voters if everyone is present.

Those three nominees will then be sent to Gordon, a Republican, who will have five days to choose one to fill Balows spot until January 2023, when her term was supposed to end.

Exactly how the central committees selection process will work will be determined at the start of Saturdays meeting. The committee will have a chance to vote and amend the proposed rules that govern the meeting and spell out how superintendent selection process will work.

The selection of a new superintendent comes at a pivotal time in Wyomings education history. The Equality States K-12 education system has long been one of the best funded in the nation because of money from fossil fuels, but that revenue stream alone can no longer provide that support.

This past general session, after a month of debate, the Wyoming Legislature could come to an agreement and no changes were made to how the state pays for education.

Additionally, critical race theory and removing certain books from school libraries have become hot button issues.

In September, Balow appeared with two top state senators to introduce the Civics and Transparency Act. The superintendent was clear the bill was intended to challenge critical race theory. Critical race theory is not currently being taught in Wyoming schools.

Balow started her teaching career in Hulett. In the 25 years since then, she has served as a national literacy consultant, an executive in state government, a policy advisor in the governors office, and the state superintendent of public instruction.

The deadline for applications has technically passed, but interested parties have until the start of todays meeting to throw their name in the ring.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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DOUGLAS  Wyoming Republican Party leaders on Saturday cut the number of Natrona County delegates from 33 to the minimum six for failing to pay dues to the statewide organization.

The move, made by the Republican State Central Committee at a meeting in Douglas, comes one day after the Natrona County GOP filed a motion asking a judge to rule in its favor in a lawsuit the group filed against the state party over a related issue.

The number of delegates a county party has is usually proportional to its population. Laramie, the most populous county, has 37 delegates. Niobrara, the least populous, has seven. Natrona, the second most populous county in Wyoming, now has six delegates.

At the state convention, which occurs every even numbered year, delegates vote on bylaws and platforms of the party as well as resolutions and the election of national committeeman and committeewoman.

It absolutely hurts our representation at the state convention, said Kevin Taheri, chairman of the Natrona County Republican Party.

County parties were not required to pay their dues until the state party changed its bylaws in 2020, starting Natrona and the Wyoming GOP down this path.

Attorneys for the Natrona County Republicans have alleged the state party improperly adopted a number of bylaw changes at its summer 2020 state convention. Natrona County GOP leaders speculated at the time the move was part of an effort to give more power to hard-line conservatives.

The Cheyenne law firm representing Natrona County, Hirst and Applegate, has alleged the Wyoming Republican Party violated its bylaws based on how it tabulated the votes, nullifying the changes in the process.

This lawsuit is ongoing, and lawyers for the Natrona County Republican Party filed a motion Friday for a judge to rule on the matter in their favor.

It remains unclear how the results of that motion will affect the number of delegates Natrona County gets.

The total amount that the Natrona County GOP owes to the state party is between $24,000 and $30,000, according to multiple members of the Natrona County Central Committee.

Part of the reason Natrona has not paid its dues is because of an inability and unwillingness to raise money during the COVID-19 pandemic, and because the county party does not agree with how the state GOP is being run, said Kim Walker, the Natrona County GOP state committeewoman.

Observers say the state GOP has moved farther to the right in recent years, causing a fissure between the Natrona County and statewide party.

If the county party decided to pay its dues in full, the state central committee would hold a vote to decide whether it would get back its full number of delegates, Dave Holland, vice chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party, said Saturday.

If they paid their dues, we would love them dearly,

But Walker said paying dues in full at this point, would wipe us out.

The Laramie County GOP was another hold out in paying dues, but that group eventually forked over the money. Why the resistance for a time? The central committee had some hesitation over how the state party was being run, said Dani Olson, the Laramie County GOP chairman.

As a whole, the state GOP has 323 delegates now that Natrona Countys number was reduced by 27.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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Under the watchful eyes of mother Nala, Bandi Murdock holds three husky puppies inside her Hampton grooming business Saturday morning. Six newborn husky puppies were stolen from her shop early Friday. (Jonathon Gruenke/Daily Press)

Hampton  Three of six newborn husky puppies stolen from a Hampton pet grooming business were reunited with their mother early Saturday, less than day after theyd been snatched, according to the dogs owner.

The man accused of taking them  50-year-old Ronald Jackson  was arrested Saturday and charged with breaking and entering, grand larceny, grand larceny with intent to sell, and six counts of animal larceny, according to Hampton police. Jackson is homeless, police said.

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Rodney Jackson (Hampton Police Department)

Officers found two of the blue-eyed puppies in a home where an acquaintance of Jacksons lives, said Bandi Murdock, who owns the dogs and the business from where they were taken. The other was returned by a woman who told Murdock she paid $100 for it. Murdock said she reimbursed the woman.

Were just so thrilled to have them back, Murdock said. But were also very worried about the ones that are still missing.

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The puppies were just 13 days old when a man broke into Murdocks Critter Cleaners pet salon on West Mercury Boulevard at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Surveillance video showed the man fixing a meal for himself, watching TV, taking a shower in the dog bathing area and ransacking the shop before ripping the security cameras out about 3 a.m., Murdock said. He also took money from a tip jar and cash register, she said.

Murdock said she kept the puppies and mother Nala at the salon because people are there 12-14 hours a day, and Nala sometimes gets aggressive with Murdocks other pets when she has puppies. Murdock and her husband, Kevin Kramer, live close by and go to check on them at night.

The puppies get very socialized over there because theres always so many people around, she said.

Murdock said police called about 12:30 a.m. Saturday to let her know theyd recovered two of the puppies, and she rushed to get them. She got a call about the other puppy several hours later.

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 first two puppies were gone for about 21 hours, and the third about 29 hours, Murdock said.

Nala was so ecstatic to see them, she said. The puppies immediately latched on to her.

Murdock said this is Nalas third litter. Her puppies are registered with the American Kennel Club and Continental Kennel Club and typically sell for $1,200 each.

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Murdock said she usually waits until theyre 8-10 weeks old before selling them. They dont start weaning from their mother until theyre between 4-6 weeks old.

Were still very hopeful that well get the other puppies back, she said. But time is running out for them. They need to be with their mother.

Anyone with information about the puppies is asked to contact Hampton Police at 7577276111 or the Crime Line at 1888-LOCK-U-UP. Tipsters can also send an anonymous information by going to P3Tips.com. Anyone who provides a tip that results in an arrest could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would lead to a massive humanitarian crisis. As White House spokesperson Jen Psaki says Our view is this is an extremely dangerous situation. Were now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine.

Its vital we remember that Eastern Ukraine is already reeling from years of conflict between the government and Russian backed rebels.

Nearly 3 million people in Eastern Ukraine need humanitarian assistance right now. This dire situation will get much worse should Russian troops invade. The U.S. must convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from the border with Ukraine.

Many hungry and cold civilians live near the line of contact in Eastern Ukraine, separating rebel held areas from those controlled by the government. Its a silent humanitarian crisis, largely ignored by the world. The charity CARE called Ukraine one of The Most Under-Reported Humanitarian Crises of 2021

Ukraines crisis with Russia might seem new to many of us, but it has been ongoing for years with the rebels offensive.

Dominik Stillhart, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, explains Ukraine may again be a top headline, but it never stopped being one for the people suffering through the fighting. We support hundreds of thousands of people living close to the line of contact who regularly suffer from disrupted access to medical care, food, water, heating and electricity, but also to education, social services and livelihood opportunities.

The people of Eastern Ukraine are pleading for a lasting peace settlement to end the fighting between the rebels and the government. Existing ceasefires are shaky.

Ms. Osnat Lubrani, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, says On my visits to eastern Ukraine, I hear people repeat the same plea over and over. They want hostilities to stop. They want not to fear for their lives any longer. On behalf of those whose voices often remain unheard, I call on parties to respect the ceasefire.

A true peace is needed. The last thing they need is Russia to send its army into Ukraine again. That will surely spiral Ukraine into a much deeper humanitarian tragedy of hunger and displacement. Where there is war famine will follow. That is where Russia is leading its neighbor tragically toward.

The Russian people should also be very critical of President Putin being such an aggressor, for it is the common man that has to finance the Russian military and its wars.

For impoverished Russia, they can ill afford to put resources into military offensives that are completely unnecessary. Russia is not threatened with invasion by Ukraine or the NATO alliance, which only has small defensive forces in the region.

Russia should begin to withdraw its troops from Ukraines border, recognizing that there can be no victory in war with its neighbor, only prolonged suffering for both nations.

U.S. and Russian negotiations should chart a road to peace, and it starts with this crucial step away from war.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger. His writing have been published by the NY Times, Baltimore Sun, History News Network and many other news outlets.

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SMALL business owners in three Caribbean countries will get the opportunity to showcase how their enterprises are transforming their communities, and themselves, due to support from the social enterprise, Nudge Caribbean.

The opportunity comes tomorrow, at an event called Nudge Now, which is being organised by Nudge Caribbean, which was founded by Anya Ayoung-Chee, design strategist and social entrepreneur, and Julie Avey, Massy Groups senior vice president of People and Culture.
Many people are struggling during this Covid-19 pandemic as prices increase, while many are 
And so it has come to pass. One week after the island-wide blackout of February 16, we told you in this space that, from among the best authority available, there would be, there could be no one to blame for what happened.

We told you that the determination had already been made as to what happened, how and why, and that nobody could have been held responsible for that. It was a warning against the natural national tendency to go for blood. Loud had been the shouts of sabotage, the result of worker discontentment, and a clamour for heads to roll.
Jennifer Humble, principal at Machen Elementary School in Hampton, waves to students on buses in September. Hampton schools issued a statement Friday saying they will require all students, school employees and visitors to wear masks while inside school buildings. (Kaitlin McKeown/Virginia Media)

The two biggest school divisions on the Peninsula vowed to continue mask mandates, while face coverings will be optional in Gloucester County starting Monday.

Hampton, Newport News and Gloucester, Isle of Wight and York counties raced to finalize their decisions ahead of Monday, when an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin attempting to make masks optional takes effect. All south Hampton Roads public school divisions finalized their masking policies earlier this week.

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[ Related: Masks will be optional for students in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake; Portsmouth makes them mandatory ]

Guidance came from the Virginia Department of Health and Department of Education on the last day districts had to make their decisions.

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Implementing prevention strategies to reduce risk associated with COVID-19 is a shared responsibility, the guidance said.

The 14-page document outlined the responsibilities for three groups  parents, school divisions and public health agencies. Masks fell under the parents portion in the latest guidelines, backing Youngkins order.

Gloucesters 6-1 vote applies to students. But the district will still require a 10-day isolation for students who test positive for COIVD-19 and require masks for those riding buses in accordance with federal law.

On a 4-1 vote, Isle of Wight upheld its policy of mandatory masks for all students and employees, unless they have a medical exemption.

We had a vote tonight. A lot of people are not going to be happy about it, but folks please respect the process, even if you dont agree with it, member John Collick, the sole dissenting vote, said during the special meeting. He asked parents to not make circumstances more difficult for teachers, bus drivers and administrators.

Board Chair Denise Tynes said the decision aligned with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other state and local health agencies.

It is Isle of Wight schools duty to provide and maintain an instructional environment and workplace that is free from known hazards, Tynes said. We are adopting this policy to safeguard the health of our students, staff, (families) and the community itself at large from (COVID-19).

Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news >

Hampton, Newport News and York County issued statements Friday, all citing state law to follow CDC guidelines to keep schools open, in-person, five days a week. Both divisions will require all students, school employees and visitors to wear masks while inside school building.

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During its meeting Wednesday, Hamptons board members agreed to ratify its current health mitigation plan. The plan, updated Thursday, says unless students, faculty and staff provide administrators a medical waiver or religious accommodation, the mask rules still apply.

Earlier this week, Poquoson schools made masks optional for students, employees and visitors. Board Chair Michelle Sheeler opposed, members Timothy Goodale and Jeremy Jordan abstained.

Sierra Jenkins, 229-462-8896, sierra.jenkins@virginiamedia.com
With Presidents Day approaching early next month, what better time to relax, sit back and think back to a time we could talk about Washington without screaming at each other.

Ahh, those were the days.

Its also a good time to read some American history, knowing we wont be graded at the end of class. Here, courtesy of the Tucson Festival of Books, are some noteworthy looks at former U.S. presidents.

You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe. Most of George Washingtons biographers have been men. Most of their accounts have been dry as toast. Not this one. Coe looks at Washingtons life from a womans point of view, and presents him as a living, breathing person, not a mythical hero from the past. The result is one of the most refreshing, easy-to-read bios youre likely to find about anyone.  Bill Finley

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Saunders breakout novel centered on the death of Willie Lincoln, the presidents 11-year-old son, in 1862. The Civil War was less than 12 months along when Willie was laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. Historians seldom dwell on it, but Saunders  relying on what he learned about Lincoln  imagines how Lincoln was changed by the night Willie died.  Jody Hardy

George Washingtons Final Battle by Robert P. Watson. This is a look at Gen. Washingtons last big battle: the fight to establish the American capitol on neutral ground on the shores of the Potomac. Not only was it an important compromise for the U.S., the emergence of Washington, D.C., became an important symbol to the rest of the world.  Bruce Dinges

The Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer. Every grade school student knows about the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. Less well-known was a similar incident that targeted Lincoln on the train trip from Illinois to Washington for his inauguration. Had the plot been successful, American history might have evolved much differently than it has.  John Humenik

I Am George Washington also by Brad Meltzer. This was the ninth in Meltzers I Am series of picture books for children ages 5 to 8. It introduces Americas first president in a casual, kid-friendly way.  Kathy Short

Travels With George by Nathaniel Philbrick. Four years ago, Philbrick invited his wife and dog to join him on a road trip that would re-trace Washingtons journey from Mount Vernon to the then-U.S. Capitol, New York City. His book looks at the ways America has changed  and stayed largely the same  since 1789.  Bill Finley

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman. This is the first poetry collection from the young Los Angeles poet who exploded on the scene when she performed The Hill We Climb at President Bidens inauguration last year. It offers a unique look at America and Americans.  Savannah Hicks

Traitor to his Class by H.W. Brands. Americans pay special homage to Presidents Washington and Lincoln, and rightfully so, but Franklin D. Roosevelt is right beside them in the Presidents Hall of Fame. An aristocrat by birth, Roosevelt was shunned by his own family for entering politics. Once president, all he did was guide the nation out of the Great Depression and lead it to victory in World War II.  Bruce Dinges

Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. James Garfield was one of the more brilliant men ever to become president, but things didnt go well for him right from the start. He was shot in the back by a political zealot four months after taking office. Garfield survived, but his ordeal did not unite the country. To the contrary.  Tricia Clapp

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. On Presidents Day we remember all American presidents, so consider this recent release from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed. Here she introduces us to the Hemings family. The story begins at Monticello, where they were slaves at the estate of Thomas Jefferson. And there they stayed, for generations. Gordon-Reed will take part in Tucsons book festival in March.  Bruce Dinges

The First Kennedys by Neal Thompson. Those who remember the presidency of John F. Kennedy may want to look for this one when it releases next month. Thompson examines Kennedys roots, the Kennedy clan that fled the potato famine in Ireland and  100 years later  ascended to the pinnacle of public life in America.  Tyler Meier

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Legals 0005230866-01 "El Rio is currently soliciting proposals for Medical Equipment from Medical Supply Vendors and/or Manufactures to furnish and deliver to the University Clinic. Submittal Deadline: June 10, 2022, at 5:00pm AZ Time for details, see website at https://www.elrio.org/ about-elrio/rfps/." Published May 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2022 Arizona Daily Star 0005243181-01 ARTICLES OF ORGANIZATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY ENTITY INFORMATION ENTITY NAME: LONE SAGUARO FINE CARPENTRY LLC ENTITY ID: 23362296 ENTITY TYPE: Domestic LLC EFFECTIVE DATE: 04/18/2022 CHARACTER OF BUSINESS: Any legal purpose MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE: Member-Managed PERIOD OF DURATION: Perpetual PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: N/A STATUTORY AGENT INFORMATION STATUTORY AGENT NAME: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 17470 N. Pacesetter Way, SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85255 MAILING ADDRESS: 17470 N. Pacesetter Way, SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85255 PRINCIPAL ADDRESS 10780 S Piety Hill Dr., VAIL, AZ 85641 PRINCIPALS Member: Andrew Emmanuel Muliett - 10780 S Piety Hill Dr., VAIL, AZ, USA --Date of Taking Office: ORGANIZERS Legalzoom.com, Inc.: 101 N Brand Blvd, 11th Floor, GLENDALE, CA, 91203, USA, SIGNATURES Organizer: By: Cheyenne Moseley, Asst. Secretary of Legalzoom.com, Inc., A Delaware Corporation - 04/18/2022 Published May 4, 5 and 6, 2022 Arizona Daily Star 0005223486-01 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA, PIMA COUNTY In the Matter of the Estate of JOSEPH ALLAN SCHINDLER, Deceased. No. PB2022-0609. NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION Notice is given to all creditors of the Estate: 1. Janet Rae Brockway has been appointed as Personal Representative of the Estate. 2. Claims against the Estate must be presented within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or be forever barred. 3. Claims must be presented by delivering or mailing a written statement of the claim to the Personal Representative, Janet Brockway at 3329 23rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407. Published April 20, 27, & May 4, 2022 Arizona Daily Star 0005243447-01 THE NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU INVITES PUBLIC COMMENT The National Guard Bureau (NGB) invites public comment on the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) For Off-base Drinking Water Response Action to support a non-time critical removal action of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate and Perfluorooctanoic Acid, Morris Air National Guard Base, Tucson International Airport, Arizona. The EE/CA documents the evaluation of alternatives and selection of the proposed remedy by the NGB to conduct a Non-Time Critical Removal Action (NTCRA) in response to the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (two (2) subsets of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)), above the Environmental Protection Agency's lifetime Health Advisory levels of 70 parts per trillion, both individually or combined, in two (2) off-base private residential drinking water wells. The drinking water wells are downgradient of Morris Air National Guard Base (ANGB), Tucson, Arizona. PFOS/PFOA present in groundwater in the vicinity of the base is attributable to human action, including past firefighting and training activities by the Arizona Air National Guard. In response, the ANG is temporarily providing bottled water to the impacted well owners, and proposes a final remedy of connecting both properties to municipal drinking water. The municipal connections will ensure safe drinking water is provided to the properties. A Public Comment Period on the EE/CA non-time critical removal action will begin on May 4, 2022 and will end on June 2, 2022. Written comments related to the ANG actions presented in the EE/CA should be sent to the ANG Environmental Restoration Senior Program Manager, Mr. Keith Freihofer (address provided below) by June 2, 2022. The ANG will respond to Public Comments, and they will be included with the EE/CA and/or Action Memorandum. The Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) For Off-base Drinking Water Response Action is available on the Base webpage provided below. Document is available at: https://www.162wing.ang.af.mil/ News/Article/3013218/\ For more information, contact: Keith Freihofer at 3501 Fetchet Avenue, Joint Base Andrews, MD, 20762-5157, keith.freihofer.1@us.af.mil or by telephone at 240-612-8762. Published May 4 & 5, 2022 Arizona Daily Star 0005233595-01 Your Name: Gena Arostequi Your Address: 475 W Duane Street Your City, State, ZIP: Benson, AZ 85602 Your Telephone No: 520-255-0973 Representing Self, Without an Attorney IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA COCHISE COUNTY Case No. GC202200047 NOTICE OF HEARING (Appointment of Guardian) DAVID THORN Judge/Commissioner In the Matter of the Guardianship of: Chloe Madison Camargo Minor(s) NOTICE IS GIVEN that the court will consider the Petition for Appointment of Gena Arostequi Guardian(s) of Minor(s) on Monday, May 23, 2022, at the hour of: 1:30 pm at the court designated above, the address of which is: COCHISE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT DIVISON 3 4 LEDGE AVENUE, BISBEE, AZ /s/Gena Arostequi Petitioner's Signature Date 4/15/22 THIS IS A LEGAL NOTICE. YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE AFFECTED. ESTE ES UN AVISO LEGAL. SUS DERECHAS PODRIAN SER AFECTADAS. 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Arizona urgently needs doctors who provide basic and routine care  and thats likely to increase dramatically over the next decade as the states population continues to grow and an increasing number of physicians reach retirement age.

For low-income residents and those living in rural areas, the outlook is especially dire.

Nearly 3 million Arizona residents live where theres limited access to primary care doctors, said Dr. G. Richard Olds, a national expert on the physician workforce and president of St. Georges University medical school.

This, coupled with about one-third of the states doctors being over age 60, means there needs to be at least 1,000 more primary care doctors in Arizona by 2030 to keep up with residents needs.

These findings are reflected in the Association of American Medical Colleges recent report. It shows that, nationally, the highest number of physicians per capita is concentrated in the northeast while states in the south and west tend to have lower ratios. This includes both medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy.

The data shows an average of 287 physicians with active licenses per 100,000 residents nationally in 2020, ranging from a high of 466 doctors per 100,000 residents in Massachusetts to 196 per 100,000 in Idaho. Arizona is ranked 31st with 252.

But just because a physician has an active license doesnt mean direct patient care is part of that physicians job.

When it comes to doctors providing direct care  instead of conducting research, for example, or doing administrative work  Arizona averages even lower, with about 230 doctors per 100,000 residents.

And for primary care physicians actually seeing patients, Arizona ranks 40th, with only 74 doctors per 100,000 residents.

Arizona has a significant shortage of physicians, really, from top to bottom, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, a professor of public health in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona.

Arizona meets just 37% of its primary care provider need, as more than 650 additional full-time primary-care doctors are needed, Derksen and Bryna Koch, a UA doctoral student in public health policy and management, found in their research.

The problem is compounded by the fact that Arizona is the fourth-fastest growing state in the nation, Derksen said, and Phoenix is the fastest-growing large city nationwide.

Using 2019 state licensure data, Derksen and Koch found there to be 16,947 active physicians statewide compared to the Association of American Medical Colleges finding of 18,343.

The UA researchers found the ratio of doctors providing care to patients in Arizona to be similar, however: 236 doctors per 100,000 residents compared to the AAMC finding of 231 per 100,000.

An additional challenge for Arizona is that federal funding for postgraduate medical training, commonly called residency spots, was capped in 1997 and there are not enough subsidized residency positions here now, Derksen said. As a result, many Arizona medical school graduates leave the state for their residency and then dont come back.

Arizonas situation is similar to whats happening in California, Olds said, explaining that theres a surplus of doctors in the cities and a serious deficit in rural areas.

Some areas of Los Angeles have twice as many doctors as they need, he said. One of the key answers, he said, is to recruit prospective doctors from underserved areas.

You have to find a way to find more people who are born and raised in the physician shortage areas, he said. The work needs to be done in those high schools and colleges, to get them excited to go into medicine, he said.

Derksen agrees, and wants to see more diversity in the states medical programs.

When we focus on the physician workforce, certainly the percentage of (minority doctors and students) does not reflect the diversity of the population in the state of Arizona, he said. Weve made some progress on that front, but much more needs to be done.

Other findings in the AAMC report:

Female physicians make up 36.7% of the nations active physicians;

About 33.7% of the nations physicians are aged 60 and older while only about 16.3% are under 40;

About one-quarter, or 24.7%, of active physicians in 2020 were international medical graduates, meaning they graduated from a medical school outside the United States, Puerto Rico, or Canada;

There were 92,670 students enrolled to become medical doctors in 2020-21 and 31,663 enrolled to become doctors of osteopathy in 2019-20 for a combined increase of 30.2% since 2010-11.

Contact reporter Patty Machelor at 806-7754 or

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Self-styled wealth guru Kevin Easterly of San Diego would be breaking the law in his home state if he bought an apartment building and imposed a huge rent hike on tenants.

But its perfectly legal in Tucson, where he and his partners have been playing a sort of real-life Monopoly game: buying and repainting aging apartment buildings, and raising rents 50% or more to boost the propertys value and refinance for more than they paid, public records and Easterlys social media posts show.

Once featured in an Instagram video called How to Flip Apartment Buildings, Easterly recently partnered to buy a senior citizens complex at 1511 N. Craycroft Road that catered to older people on fixed incomes  until he raised rents by 52%.

Its a very sad place around here, said former tenant Nan Abrams, 74, who spent the recent holidays packing up the one-bedroom unit she used to rent for $579 a month. She moved out a few weeks ago, a month after receiving a lease renewal notice that said her new rent would be $880, a $301 increase. Other tenants said they were forced out when management declined to renew their leases.

Abrams, who is staying with friends for now, said shes worried about her former neighbors, some of whom have health issues that could make moving difficult.

One of my neighbors uses a wheelchair and needs oxygen. I see some of these people and wonder Where are they going to go?

Big rent hikes can be disastrous for elderly tenants no longer in the workforce, said Jim Murphy, president of the Tucson Housing Foundation and chair of the Affordable Housing Alliance for Older Adults, a group studying the regions senior housing shortage and what might be done to address it.

An older person may have less of a chance to recover from something like this. A younger person might have the ability to go out and earn some more money, he said.

Flipping senior citizen apartments may be legal, but its certainly not moral, he said.

Easterly, 41, is not widely known in the real estate investment field with 205 followers on Facebook, 827 on Instagram and 13 on Twitter  this in a world where big names have millions of followers.

Even so, he now co-owns four Tucson apartment complexes with nearly 160 units between them, all purchased in less than five years through four limited liability companies he registered in Arizona. In each case, he used a system he described in the apartment-flipping video as rehab, kick the tenants out and raise the rents.

Easterly could not be reached for comment for this story despite more than 20 attempts over a two-week period. (See box)

Failed requests for comment The Arizona Daily Star made more than 20 unsuccessful attempts to reach self-described apartment-flipper Kevin Easterly between Jan. 5 and 20. He did not respond to voicemails left on his cellphone and at his Tucson rental office or to repeated emails sent to his business and personal accounts as listed in public records. He also did not respond to detailed questions sent by certified mail to his home and business addresses in San Diego, or to written requests left at the rental offices of each of his four Tucson properties, one of which was hand-delivered to a worker wearing a shirt with Easterly's corporate logo on it. Nor did he respond to email requests sent to two of his business partners and a call and email to a local real estate firm that handled his most recent purchase. And he didn't reply to a detailed Facebook message, which was opened according to the status alert on the messaging program.

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, whose Ward 6 is home to the Craycroft Road seniors complex, called the 52% rent hike nauseating.

This is predatory capitalism and it is totally without a conscience, he said. Its a telling example of whats happening in our real estate market. Tucson is vulnerable because our real estate prices are relatively low compared to the rest of the nation.

Murphy said the tenants Easterly is displacing will have a tough time finding affordable quarters in a city where more than 3,000 people already are on waiting lists for publicly-funded apartments geared toward seniors and those with disabilities.

In California, its illegal for a landlord to raise rents by more 10% a year. But Arizona has no such limits, nor are there limits in neighboring Nevada, where Easterly co-owns apartment buildings in Las Vegas and Henderson similar to his Tucson properties, according to his San Diego website.

Raising rents is key tactic

Easterly aims to eventually become a billionaire, with a B and raising rents is one of his key tactics, his social media posts show. He calls it forced appreciation, a way to drive up a propertys value faster than would happen by market forces alone.

It typically involves cosmetic improvements such as new exterior paint and landscape gravel and rent hikes in the 50% range, his posts show. The rent increases are critical, he explained on the apartment-flipping video, because a rental propertys value is closely tied to how much income it generates  a number banks use in lending decisions.

Easterlys first Tucson purchase was in 2017 when he teamed with three other California investors, public records show. They put $350,000 down on a $1 million, 30-unit apartment complex at 3653 E. Second St., and raised rents there by 53%, from $425 to $650 a month.

Eighteen months later, Easterly announced plans to refinance the complex for up to $1.7 million  70% more than he paid  and use the proceeds as a down payment on another apartment complex. He described the process this way in a January 2019 Facebook post:

EFF THE STOCK MARKET. Forced appreciation, 30 units we purchased for $1m  2 yrs ago, Just got done turning all the tenants and raising rents from 425-650. Put 110k into it. Now were refinancing at 1.6-1.7 . Pulling our original money out and putting it into the the next property.

This is how you force appreciation based on cash flow people. Dont count on appreciation in the market.

Later that year, Easterly and partners put $600,000 down on a $1.8 million, 36-unit complex at 3949 Monte Vista Drive, property transfer records show.

Last year they bought two more back-to-back in August and September: a 52-unit at 3493 E. Lind Road for $3.6 million with $1 million down and the Craycroft Road seniors complex for $3.2 million with $960,000 down.

Each of the Tucson complexes are 30 to 60 years old, built between 1963 and 1992. In the apartment-flipping video, Easterly refers to them as B- and C-class properties. It isnt clear from public records if any others besides the Craycroft Road complex were exclusively for older adults ages 55 and up.

Solutions under study

So far theres no end in sight for the apartment-buying spree. But efforts are underway to try to mitigate some of its worst effects on Tucson seniors.

The Affordable Housing Alliance for Older Adults is in the process of creating a Pima County-wide housing plan for seniors, said Murphy, the groups chair. A long list of ideas is being looked at including tiny homes, container homes, a home-sharing database that pairs willing renters with would-be roommates and converting motels and vacant schools and business space into lower-cost senior living space.

Its hard to say with any accuracy how many local seniors dont have access to affordable housing  defined by the federal government as housing and utilities costs that, when added up, are less than 30% of monthly income. Murphy said its hard to track need by age group because many local households  around 25%  are mixed, with older and younger people under the same roof.

Murphy pointed to one improvement thats already inching forward: Tucson City Councils recent decision to allow accessory dwelling units  more commonly called casitas or granny flats  on many more residential properties. But such changes dont happen quickly, he said, noting the council decision took more than a year of study and discussion.

Nonprofit real estate developers are stepping up too. Later this year, La Frontera, a Tucson agency that provides social services for those with low incomes, plans to open a 120-unit seniors housing complex on North Oracle Road near West Drachman Street.

Murphy said hes hopeful more changes are on the horizon now that local lawmakers seem more attuned to affordable housing issues  and elder housing in particular.

I dont know if we can solve the problem, Murphy said of the shortage. But I do believe we can make a dent in it.

Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@tucson.com . On Twitter: @AZStarConsumer

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Pima County is teaming up with the YWCA of Southern Arizona to address racial and ethnic inequities in the criminal-justice system, thanks to a new $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

This is the foundation's fourth round of funding as part of the Safety and Justice Challenge, bringing its total investment in Pima County up to $4.3 million since the county was selected to participate in 2015 toward the goal of significantly reducing the number of people in its jail.

Since 2016, Pima County's jail population has dropped by 9.2%.

In 2019, Black people represented 12% of the Pima County jail's average daily population, according to data provided by the SJC, but made up just 4.2% of the county's overall population, according to U.S. census data.

The same sources showed that Hispanic or Latino people made up 45% of the jail's average daily population, compared to 37.8% of the county's population; and that Native and Indigenous people represented 6% of the jail's population but 4.4% of the county's population.

While the pandemic saw a push to get people out of jails, which were a vector for the spread of COVID-19, the people left behind were often people of color, which exposes racial disparities that have long existed in the criminal justice system, according to the MacArthur Foundation.

The Safety and Justice Challenge is a $300 million national initiative to reduce over-incarceration and rethink the way America uses jails. Pima County joins Philadelphia, New Orleans and Cook County, Illinois, in this racial equity group for the next two years.

The new round of funding will provide Pima County's Justice Services Department and the YWCA with training and technical help to gather lived experiences of people of color who have been arrested, prosecuted or incarcerated.

One advocate has

a personal stake

Selso Villegas, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, has been involved in the county's Safety and Justice Challenge community collaborative for years.

He's been working to address the overrepresentation of Native and Indigenous people in the jail through his position as tribal liaison. He's also part of a national SJC leadership committee that will look at effective ways to reduce the number of Native and Indigenous people who are arrested or incarcerated.

Villegas says he got involved because of how his family has been affected by the criminal-justice system.

"My daughter has addiction issues and has been on the streets for a long time," Villegas said. "When she was younger, I took custody of her three sons. One had fetal alcohol syndrome disorder. "

Two of Villegas' three grandsons have spent time in jail and prison, with one of them starting out in the juvenile justice system.

"I try to relate to people off the reservation and on the reservation and advocate for them," Villegas said.

He said his recent project has been urging tribal members to resolve their warrants for failing to appear in court.

"I walk up to people and ask if they have failure-to-appear warrants and want to quash them," Villegas said, adding that the pandemic restricted his ability to reach people on a larger scale through outreach events. "Some people get offended and some don't. But at least two people that I've talked to have gone to the court system to quash their warrants."

Villegas, who works as a water resource director for the tribe, said that on tribal lands, communication and transportation are longtime barriers to members being able to appear in court.

A lack of behavioral health services that address tribal culture is also part of the problem, with many members not being able to find the right kind of help, he said.

"Our tribe has a lot of facilities to deal with the issues we're having, but what we don't have is the one-to-one relationship with a social worker. We don't have that capacity, because 60 miles out and back every day is not an incentive for employment," Villegas said. "We haven't been able to hold people, so we have a lot of positions that are open. It's hard to get people motivated to work in a society that's very different than mainstream."

Villegas said tribal members have suffered from decades of stereotyping that they're lazy drug- and alcohol-addicted people, but that the historical trauma Native and Indigenous people were subjected to is often left unsaid. He looks forward to trying to find ways to help other American Indians.

"I just want to help, and help my grandchildren. As an elder, they're all my grandchildren," Villegas said. "It may not work right away and it may take a long time to make a change. I'm a realist, too."

Numbers can

tell a narrative

SJC participants are embarking on the racial equity work with their eyes wide open, said Pima County's director of justice services, Kate Vesely.

"It's going to be challenging. There's no magic wand. We're going to have to do the dirty work," she said. "The biggest challenge will be breaking out of our comfort areas. It's uncomfortable to look at systems through these lenses. It's uncomfortable to view disparities that have long existed."

A big part of the work will be listening to people about the impact incarceration has on families and the community, particularly when it comes to historically disadvantaged groups, Vesely said. Another will be understanding the associated data on a higher level.

"The snapshot of the jail doesn't really tell a story. We don't know the ratios of how demographics are being arrested or held at initial appearance, or the length of time in custody for certain demographics versus others," Vesely said. "We need to do a better job of telling the story of the data in our community."

The county's Justice Services Department will analyze data from arrest all the way through the case's disposition, whether that be diverting people to treatment instead of arresting them or sending them to jail, or sentencing them to time in jail or prison. It will connect county and local systems that haven't been synced up, including probation, courts, the County Attorney's and Public Defender's offices, and the jail.

Creation of a racial equity data hub will provide evidence of where disparities exist, so a long-term strategy can be developed, Vesely said.

She's excited to work with the YWCA, calling it "the model of community engagement" that's ready to build on its trust with residents and have honest conversations about what's being done wrong on a racial equity level.

"Race work inherently is uncomfortable. Being able to connect emotionally with a community that feels unseen and not represented means we'll be able to hopefully build trust and a system that works," Vesely said.

'It's not just

about intentions'

Justice Services will partner with the YWCA's Pima County Teen Court to examine the school-to-prison pipeline.

The pipeline refers to school discipline policies and practices that remove students from the classroom and push them out of school, often resulting in them ending up in the juvenile and criminal-justice systems for minor offenses.

"With the addition of Teen Court as part of our intervention and work with the community, there's an opportunity to deepen the engagement with directly impacted people and their families," said Liane Hernandez, YWCA of Southern Arizona's director of women's leadership, empowerment and wellness center.

Teen Court is a peer-led juvenile court diversion program that uses the principles of restorative justice, which emphasize accountability and making amends rather than punishment, and positive development and community-service-based learning to lower risks of repeat crimes. Teen Court was created in 1995 to respond to overrepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justice system. To date, 8,000 adolescents have gone through the program here, and 60% of its participants identify as people of color.

The plan is to hire teens who have completed Teen Court to co-facilitate community engagement workshops along with adults.

"We have amazing adult facilitators, but they're not youth who have been arrested and come through that hearing and come out the other side to success," said Teen Court's director, Kate Spaulding. "Their voices need to be heard at all aspects."

Spaulding said she envisions teens coming up with ideas for the project that she and her colleagues wouldn't have imagined. Including them in the challenge will create opportunities for mentorship, and also will provide the teens with job and leadership skills while paying them for their time.

"So much of this work is healing and what we bring to it emotionally," said Lara Ruggles, YWCA's director of development and marketing.

To help make sure representative voices are at the table, the YWCA will distribute five micro-grants of $10,000 each to local groups and nonprofits already involved in racial equity work. It will also lay the groundwork to eventually create a racial justice center.

Hernandez said they aim to "get to the root of issues" and to design interventions.

"We need to learn ... so that were not building systems that are causing greater harm," Hernandez said. "It's not just about intentions, it's about the impact of the work."

Pandemic a time

for reflection

Collaboration by the county's various stakeholders has impressed the MacArthur Foundation, said the foundation's senior program officer, Bria Gillum.

The effort has been mindful not just of the people arrested or jailed, but also of victims of crimes, as well as criminal-justice workers and service providers, she said. "We've really seen it blossom over the last six years. This will lead to the sustainability of Pima County's criminal-justice reform efforts."

It's challenging to try to figure out how to address racial inequities in criminal justice when those inequities have existed for centuries, Gillum said. "These are difficult questions to solve in a short period of time," she said.

The pandemic gave communities an opportunity to think about why so many people in jail are being held on low-level offenses and to consider ways to release them back into society when they don't prove a risk, Gillum said. That led to dramatic decreases of overall jail populations but exposed problems that still exist.

"The people left behind in jail continue to be people of color, lots of time for felony charges," Gillum said. "We need to be asking, 'Why do we tend to charge people of color with felony offenses? Do we need to reevaluate how we're charging people of color?'"

It's also time to reflect on whether people who lack affordable and stable housing or who don't have access to the services they need are being arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate, Gillum said. She said Pima County has shown it's ready to do that.

"Pima County is comfortable being uncomfortable," Gillum said. "The time is right to be thinking more critically about the disproportionalities we're seeing in the criminal-justice system and coming up with real, concrete solutions."

Caitlin Schmidt is the Star's solutions reporter. Contact her at (520) 573-4191 or cschmidt@tucson.com. On Twitter: @caitlincschmidt

Solutions journalism Solutions journalism is rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. It intends to rebalance the news and focus not just on problems, but on potential solutions to those problems.

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PHOENIX  The Arizona Court of Appeals slapped down the state Senates efforts to withhold about 1,100 records related to the audit of the 2020 election.

In a 14-page ruling Friday, the three-judge panel turned away arguments that the documents are protected by legislative privilege. They said there is no evidence the audit, ordered by Senate President Karen Fann, was in any way related to the official business of state lawmakers.

The judges also rejected the Senates concern that releasing the documents would open up lawmakers discussions about the audit to public scrutiny. An attorney for the Senate, Kory Langhofer, had argued disclosure would undermine what he said is a constitutional recognition that legislators are entitled to have private conversations and communications because that is part of their job.

In Fridays order, the court ordered the Senate to immediately disclose all the records it sought to shield.

But appellate Judge Michael Brown, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, did offer an option.

He said to the extent senators believe release of certain documents would directly threaten the legislative process, they can instead give them to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp. It would be up to Kemp, after reviewing the records, to decided whether they must be disclosed.

There was no immediate response from Fann, a Prescott Republican.

Hanging in the balance are emails, texts and other documents possessed by the Senate and others held by Cyber Ninjas, the private firm Fann hired to conduct the review of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County.

That review came after official results  certified by state officials, including Republican Gov. Doug Ducey  showed that Democrat Joe Biden outpolled incumbent Republican Donald Trump by 10,457 votes statewide. Bidens win was fueled in large part by beating Trump in Maricopa County by 45,109 votes.

There were charges of irregularities, all unproven. Fann said at the time she ordered the audit to respond to those concerns.

As it turned out, Cyber Ninjas reported that its own hand count of Maricopa Countys ballots confirmed Bidens win  and by a slightly larger margin than the official count.

American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, sued for public release of documents related to the audit.

The Senate surrendered some. But it claimed a right to withhold various documents, including all communications involving Fann, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Warren Petersen, the liaisons Fann chose to interact with Cyber Ninjas, and communications with that company and its subcontractors.

When a trial judge rebuffed the claim of privilege, the Senate appealed.

Brown said Arizona law requires public officers to maintain all records to reflect their official activities and those supported with public funds. The items sought clearly fit within the definition of public records, he said.

The judge acknowledged there is a right of legislative privilege. But Brown said it is more limited than the Senate contends.

We reject the Senates apparent contention that the privilege blocks the disclosure under the public records law of any record that bears any connection to a legislative function, he wrote. Brown said there is a strong presumption of disclosure in the public records law.

Langhofer argued that legislative privilege is automatic in every investigation the Senate conducts.

He said legislators issued subpoenas related to the audit with an eye to introducing possible reform proposals in election laws.

Brown said that argument held no water.

Nothing in the record shows that the prime purpose of the audit was to identify changes required to Arizonas voting laws, he said. The Legislature wasnt in session during the process, he noted.

The audits primary objective was to verify that election procedures were sufficiently observed, the judge said. He noted that the statement of work outlining Cyber Ninjas role was to validate every area of the voting process to ensure the integrity of the vote.

The judge suggested the audit looks more like an administrative action than anything related to crafting state laws.

The audits stated purpose reflects no promise to propose legislation in the future, Brown said. And while the audit might have revealed areas in Arizonas election process that could be the subject of new legislation, the connection between the audit and any future legislation is too tenuous to conclude that the audit could reasonably qualify as a legitimate legislative act.

Brown said that is backed up by the September public hearing in which the results of the audit report were released.

No sworn or questioned witnesses were at the hearing, nor did any debate or deliberating occur, he said. In fact, the only legislators that were present were Sens. Fann and Petersen.

Nor were the appellate judges swayed by arguments that the audit was a fact-finding investigation in furtherance of potential future lawmakers projects.

Brown said lawmakers do have the power to conduct investigations aimed at determining if changes are needed in state law. But the mere fact that the legislature conducted an investigation does not mean it is necessarily protected by the legislative privilege, he wrote.

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Pima County is getting a federally run drive-thru COVID-19 testing site that will provide up to 2,000 PCR tests a day as the county plans to sponsor another 1,000 daily PCR tests at a new testing center.

The FEMA testing site will open Monday, Jan. 24, at Pima Community Colleges West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road., and will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The Pima County Health Department submitted the request for the federal site two weeks ago as the omicron variant and the resulting surge in COVID-19 cases caused the availability of COVID-19 testing to decline.

More people in Pima County tested positive for COVID-19 in the second week of January than any other week on record, with cases rising nearly 190% countywide since the last week of December, according to data from the state health department. Labs will likely report more results from tests taken last week in the coming days.

Nearly 73,000 tests were performed in the county the week of Jan. 9 with 26% of them coming back positive, state data shows.

The county has made the availability of free testing a key pillar to its COVID-19 response and said its provided more than 2.5 million diagnostic tests since March 2020. The county-sponsored testing options have supplemented testing available through pharmacies and medical providers, but long lines and few appointment openings have recently made options scarce.

Now, the county hopes the federally sponsored testing site will lessen the strain on current testing options. According to Louie Valenzuela, the county health departments division manager of emergency preparedness, appointments for the FEMA testing site will be made available through an online link in the coming days.

Adding up to 2,000 tests a day should really increase our capacity twofold, hopefully, to see more people that need the ability to get tested, Valenzuela said. So it should help with some of the static locations.

To further increase testing options, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to provide 1,000 PCR tests a day using the countys American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, federal allocation.

The county will set up a new testing site to provide the PCR tests, according to Pima County Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia. He said the specifics have yet to be figured out but the sites proposed location is the Kino Event Center on East Ajo Way.

In December, the board approved spending $3 million of the countys ARPA COVID-19 relief dollars to double the countys testing capacity. Those funds were expected to last for 15 weeks, but now, the county estimates that funding will run out by mid-February.

Its unknown how much the new 1,000 daily PCR tests are expected to cost or how long the program will last, but the final contract will be brought before the board for final ratification at its next meeting on Feb. 1.

Funding for this initiative is still be finalized and may involve the boards reallocation of existing budgeted dollars, Garcia said.

PCR tests, which require laboratory services that look for COVID-19 nucleic acid, can take up to 72 hours for results, although Garcia said the countys contractor, Paradigm Laboratories, averages a 36-hour turnaround. Antigen, or rapid tests, can produce results within hours and look for small pieces of protein, or COVID-19 antigens, in your respiratory tract.

PCR tests are much more expensive to obtain than rapid tests, as they require laboratory service to produce a result. The county says it would pay $100 per PCR test through its contract with Paradigm.

(PCR testing) is still the gold standard in the testing world, Valenzuela said. Its a little bit more expensive to both perform and process, whereas the rapid antigen tests essentially just need 15 minutes of a health-care practitioner to proctor and monitor.

Increasing the availability of PCR tests also increases the ability for labs to genetically sequence test samples to detect COVID-19 variants.

Whether we still have delta circulating or if its going to be an increase in omicron, the PCR will give us the ability to understand that and then to kind of promote and prepare interventions accordingly, Valenzuela said.

Throughout the next four weeks, the county also plans to distribute rapid antigen self-testing kits to vulnerable and rural communities, such as Arivaca, Sahuarita, Three Points and Lukeville, Garcia told the board in a memo.

The testing shortage isnt unique to Pima County and has been felt at the national level. In response, the Biden administration announced last week Americans can begin ordering at-home COVID-19 rapid tests on Jan. 19, online at COVIDTests.gov, and tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering.

The White House also announced private health insurance companies will be required to cover at-home COVID-19 tests for free starting Jan. 15.

To make a testing appointment To learn more about testing sites offered by the Pima County Health Department, visit webcms.pima.gov/covid19testing. Appointments are required and no walk-ups are accepted at the centers.

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Contact reporter Nicole Ludden at nludden@tucson.com

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Even though Rep. Raul Grijalva tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, the Tucson Democrat was still able to cast votes in Congress by proxy Thursday while he was quarantined at home.

Thats an option state Rep. Kelli Butler, D-Scottsdale, wishes she had.

The Arizona House largely reverted to pre-pandemic rules this session, which means representatives have to be present at the Capitol to vote or debate. And that means Butler, who remained in isolation Thursday after a positive test earlier this week, cannot perform her legislative duties.

I think its a threat to democracy, Butler said. Its necessary for democracy and its necessary that people can weigh in on bills that are going to affect their lives.

But state Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, thinks the Arizona Constitution is clear  legislators need to do their lawmaking in person.

The main rule is that you have to be in the Capitol building, Kavanagh said. And this is because its a requirement of the Arizona Constitution.

Butler is not the only one upset by the change.

Rep. Judy Schwiebert, D-Phoenix, unsuccessfully tried to get the House Appropriations Committee to allow remote participation by members and the public Wednesday. And Rep. Athena Salman, D-Phoenix, asked House Speaker Russell Bowers before the start of this years legislative session for permission to participate from home, citing the impending birth of her first child.

But Bowers, who was quoted in news reports saying he is trying to give some air of normalcy to the Legislature, sharply limited virtual participation this year.

While people can still watch streamed House proceedings, they cannot participate unless they are in the Capitol in person  lawmakers included. Members can vote from their offices in the Capitol, if they have advance permission from Bowers, but they must be in the building. No working from home.

Democratic leaders complained to Bowers and Senate President Karen Fann, saying that allowing people to participate in the process from the safety of their home is the only responsible option.

But Kavanagh noted that it was Democrats two years ago  including Salman  who opposed GOP efforts to allow more remote work by the Legislature.

He defended the end of remote testimony this session, saying that it will end the problem of witnesses who flood the system with the testimony from people who might not even be Arizona residents.

That has not proven to be an issue in Congress, where there is greater control over who testifies at committee hearings. Both the House and Senate continue to hold hearings with some members and witnesses in the room and some participating virtually, which they have done for much of the past two years.

Senators still need to show up to vote in Congress, but the House has allowed proxy voting since May 2020, the first time in history that chambers members have been allowed to cast floor votes without actually being on the floor. In order to vote by proxy, lawmakers must designate another member to vote on their behalf and notify them, in writing, on how to vote for each individual bill.

Congressional Republicans, including several from Arizona, sued House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to stop the practice, citing some of the same constitutional arguments as Kavanagh. But that suit was unsuccessful, and the policy has been extended repeatedly because of the ongoing threat of COVID-19  and has since been used by scores of House Republicans.

This is the second positive COVID-19 test since 2020 for Grijalva, who is fully vaccinated. He and Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Tucson, were among the biggest users of the proxy vote in the House, according to a Cronkite News analysis last summer. And Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, had cast dozens of proxy votes by that time.

Grijalva, who has voted by proxy on all 14 roll calls so far this year, including three on Thursday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

That makes more sense to Butler, who called the state Capitol procedures this stupid policy.

Its devastating not to be able to be there to represent my constituents, said Butler. She said her positive test meant she had to miss a hearing on transgender rights that she had prepared for for days, read all this material, you know, have questions that I wanted to ask, and I was unable to participate.

In another world, if I didnt care so much about the health of my colleagues, I could have easily gone down there and been in the meeting and exposed people, Butler said. It incentivizes people to go down there and participate, this stupid policy, even though theyre sick.

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.

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King and Queen County Schools has voted to keep its mask mandate just days after Gov. Glenn Youngkins executive order that allows parents to choose whether or not their children should mask up. Many surrounding rural counties are allowing parents to choose.

The King and Queen County School Board cited high levels of community COVID transmission when it voted to continue its mask mandate on Wednesday night. However, nearby King William, West Point and New Kent school divisions are allowing the executive order to come into force Monday.

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King and Queen County Public Schools vowed to continue with a COVID mitigation policy that includes consistent and correct use of masks in each building after a unanimous school board vote.

The division issued a statement that stressed its dedication to making decisions that focus on the health and safety of our students and staff members.

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As we make updates and revisions to our COVID-19 Health Mitigation Plan, we look at the current level of community transmission which is currently 44.2%. This puts King and Queen in the highest level of community transmission, the division stated.

During the January School Board meeting, the school board members voted unanimously to continue implementing the previously approved COVID-19 Health Mitigation Plan. King and Queen County Public Schools will continue to follow Senate Bill 1303 which states that each School Board shall provide in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The plan includes mask-wearing, promoting vaccination for school personnel and students, physical distancing of 3 feet, hand washing, contact tracing, quarantine, and other measures intended to limit the spread of COVID.

Nearby school districts pledging to keep their mask mandates at present notwithstanding Youngkins executive order include Henrico and the city of Richmond.

King William County Public Schools Superintendent David White confirmed masks will be optional for students starting Monday. Parents were informed of the change in a letter sent out last week.

Additional quarantine requirements are likely for students who are not masked or vaccinated, Assistant Superintendent Stacy Johnson, told the School Board on Jan. 18.

We would anticipate an increase in the number of students and staff that would have to quarantine in unmasked and unvaccinated situations, she said.

The biggest concern right now is the management piece and the staffing in making those phone calls to parents regarding quarantine. Im particularly concerned right now about our staff thats making the phone calls and having to do the contact tracing.

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White said Hamilton-Holmes Middle School confirmed 18 positive COVID cases in the week before the school board meeting.

West Point Public School Board voted to give parents choice over whether their children would wear masks from Jan. 24 onwards at their meeting Jan. 18.

This was not an easy decision for the board. However, it was the desire of the board to continue following SB 1303 while honoring Executive Order Number Two signed by Gov. Youngkin, Schools Superintendent Larry Frazier stated in a message to parents.

The current mask policy for students will remain in effect until 12 a.m. Monday, Jan. 24th. While masking for students and staff will be optional, the school board and administration highly recommend the continued wearing of masks as a mitigation strategy. We encourage students and staff members to continue to take precautions to keep themselves healthy and safe. "

Frazier said the federal law mandates students and staff to wear masks on school buses and in division vehicles.

Additionally, students who have had to quarantine for five days and have had no symptoms may return to school on Day 6 and are required to wear a mask for five days (Days 6 through 10). If a student is quarantined but has been fully vaccinated, the student may return to school immediately and wear a well-fitting mask for 10 days, Frazier said.

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If they have not been vaccinated, they should quarantine for five days and if they are symptom-free, they may return to school on Day 6 and will be required to wear a mask for the five remaining days. I understand that this may cause uneasiness for some. We will continue working through this pandemic together and will remain West Point strong.

New Kent Public Schools Superintendent Brian Nichols said the division will allow parents to decide on whether students should wear masks from Jan. 24 after seeking further guidance from the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Department of Health. The division is facing staff shortages due to COVID-19.

Just as the school division complied with the August 12, 2021 order mandating the wearing of masks in schools, New Kent will comply with this most recent executive order, Nichols said in an update on the divisions website Friday. Therefore, effective Monday, January 24, 2022, students and staff will not be mandated to wear masks in any school building or office of New Kent County Public Schools. However, at this time, masks are still required on NKCPS buses as the mask mandate related to transportation is governed by a separate federal order.

While we respect the rights of our families and parents, NKCPS continues to strongly encourage students and staff to wear masks. Due to the Omicron variant, we continue to have high positivity rates in our community and in our schools. Due to this spike in current cases, we face significant staffing shortages due to illness and associated restrictions related to isolation and quarantine guidelines.

David Macaulay, davidmacaulayva@gmail.com
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Fifty years ago, I was standing before my school board as a high school senior, advocating for a change in the dress code policy.

I argued that students should be able to have facial hair while attending school and school events. Not sure I remember my talking points other than it was a bit awkward because my dad was in the room representing the board as their legal counsel. I do remember the board agreed to change the rule with one condition. The change would take effect the following school year.

It was January and the board did not want us walking up to get our diplomas with scraggly 4-month-old sideburns, mustaches and beards. For me, it was a bitter defeat after months of planning. I received dagger eyes when I delivered the news to the student council the next day. At this summers 50th reunion, I am sure no one will bring it up.

Fast-forward, and after 30 years collaborating with a school board as an administrator and superintendent and eight years as a school board consultant, I understand why the board delayed the dress-code change.

School board members are true servant leaders. They are unpaid volunteers devoting countless hours to their role, including training, meetings and studying agenda packets. They understand the uniqueness of their position in that they are nonpartisan and represent all stakeholders living in the district. Rarely do they view their position as a springboard to higher political office.

What is the role of a school board? Arizona law defines their role as setting goals and monitoring progress towards goals; hiring and evaluating the superintendent; approving and monitoring the budget; establishing and approving policies; approving curricular materials; and a variety of other huge responsibilities. Yet I imagine you are surprised as to the limited power and authority of a school board.

School board members understand their role and responsibilities and it is important to get on the same page with the community regarding these clearly defined duties. They cannot make any promises to help or act on stakeholders complaints until they reach the board level as an agenda item. They listen to concerns and communicate those concerns to the superintendent for resolution. Members have no authority to become involved in the day-to-day running of schools.

School board members are also subject to statutes governing open meeting protocols and procedures and can be held personally liable for violations. For example, there are strict limits on agenda items that may be discussed in a closed executive session and the law prohibits school board members from discussing any executive session information outside of the executive session.

During my first school board meeting as an assistant principal, I met our board president, Mr. Walter Douglas Jr. He was a legendary aviator who developed and operated a number of small airlines. In 1943, Mr. Douglas was appointed to the Flowing Wells Board and in 1950, he was elected board president and served as president until his death in 1987. He spent 44 years on the board and 37 as president!

During our conversation, Mr. Douglas told me his secret to his longevity was simple. Every meeting, every board member must consider the following question before voting on every agenda item: Is it good for students?

School board members have stepped up during these challenging times and have taken Mr. Douglas advice. Now it is our turn as a community to step up to the podium during the call to the public and thank school board members for doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason, what is good for students.

Nicholas Clement is a former superintendent at the Flowing Wells Unified School District. He is the Ernest W. McFarland Citizens chair in education at Northern Arizona University.

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The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

President Joe Biden has taken the Democrat Party to new lows. The Dems have lost fourteen points in 12 months in a recent Gallup poll on who the American people want to run the country. Bidens and Vice President Kamala Harris polling numbers are at historic lows for this time in their term.

How did we get here?

In 2020 the Democrats were riding a wave. Their disdain for former President Donald Trump was their trump card. Nearly the entire media and social media platforms allied with them. It was going to be easy.

They just had to put someone on the stage that people were comfortable with. And everybody knew the former vice president under former President Barack Obama.

Despite all the hoopla, the Democrats needed an extraordinarily strong Black turnout, as Trump had actually done something his predecessors failed to do: make headway with the Black community to the chagrin of the Democrats.

Enter Bidens announcement to pick a Black woman for the vice president early. With many choices, Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., would have been a better one. She had extensive legislative experience, including being speaker of the house of the nations largest state legislature and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. She was also elected to Congress in 2010. But no. Biden went with a person, who, upon arriving in Congress, seemed to have a singular mission of getting to the White House. Yet Harris could not gain a single delegate for president and bowed out before the race began in earnest.

It is highly likely that Harris has less political/governing/legislative experience than any of our past vice presidents. Attorney general and prosecutor are atypical qualifications for the position. As a result, she is suffering the pains of on-the-job training.

The normal scrutiny, or the scrutiny that would usually accompany GOP selections for vice president  some of us remember the criticism of Dan Quayle, former President George H.W. Bushs choice in 1988  was dismissed. Quayle was constantly hounded by the mainstream media as being a lightweight, yet he had 12 years of legislative experience as a congressman and senator.

With the selection of Harris and Biden, the Democrats and the mainstream media were giddy. All was good. Yet, we got a near-80-year-old in the White House, top House Democrat leadership in their 80s, an 80-year-old (Majority Whip Jim Clyburn) anointing Biden in the primaries and an unseasoned vice presidential candidate. For me these were ominous signs for concern.

But they had ousted Trump. So, all was going to be good. After all, COVID-19 was killing people.

Well, at this point Biden has had far more COVID-related deaths than his predecessor, and that is with three vaccines. Now, he is fumbling the delivery of test kits and just recently advocated for more protective masks.

The media allows Biden to remain unaccountable for his campaign comments  There are 220,000 Americans dead. Anyone responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America. Today deaths are over 800,000.

In that vein, is there anyone in America other than the aforementioned leaders and their supporters who would not agree that Obama and Trump would have been impeached and possibly removed from office had they bungled Afghanistan like Biden managed to do?

Unfortunately, we may not have seen the full ramifications of that debacle. No one has been held accountable for it. So the buck stops with Mr. Biden. Heres what went wrong:

13 dead Americans

The appearance of being chased out of Afghanistan, weakening American leadership. In other words: reputation erosion

An errant drone attack that killed American supporters

More than $50 billion worth of American military equipment left behind, which could now be used against us

Add two big statements that did not match the facts:

We would not leave any Americans behind  yet we did

All the generals did not express a different view from the president on the departure strategy  yet they did. Their ideas were not heeded

Trump and Obama would have been impeached. However, Biden got a mulligan.

The question is trust. Can we trust Bidens judgment, competence and willingness to make his statements match the facts? Biden must give us reasons to do so.

He should take on the tough challenges Americans face  inflation, national debt, the border crisis, crime in our cities, the rising cost of energy, supply chain difficulties, Russia, North Korea, China, solvency of Social Security and Medicare, instead of trying to give Americans free stuff all the time. Yes, Americans getting free stuff will poll well (duh!), but havent Americans done just fine without more proposed free stuff? Yes, they have.

Theres plenty to do. Mr. Biden. As you hit the reset button, remember that your greatest success (the infrastructure bill) came when you worked with Republicans.

More of that kind of effort and you will have the opportunity to bring America together.

Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticuts 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years. He is the host of the podcast We Speak Frankly.

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Twenty quilts stitched together with clothes abandoned on Arizonas migrant trails will soon be displayed together for the first time at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson.

The 13-month exhibition, called Los Desconocidos: The Migrant Quilt Project, opened Jan. 20 at the museum at Second Street and Park Avenue, just west of the University of Arizona campus.

The intricate quilts are the work of more than 50 artists recruited by border relief volunteer Jody Ipsen and project curator Peggy Hazard to honor those who have died while crossing the desert in search of a better life.

Each quilt memorializes the migrants whose bodies were found during a single federal fiscal year in the Border Patrols Tucson Sector, which extends from the New Mexico state line to the eastern edge of Yuma County.

Those whose remains have been identified by the Pima County Medical Examiners Office are listed by name. The rest are remembered simply as a desconocido or unknown.

The quilts are beautiful yet poignant representations of a very difficult subject, said Vanessa Fajardo, Museum Curator with the Arizona Historical Society.

Since 2000-01, the fiscal year of the first quilt, the bodies of more than 3,600 migrants have been found in Southern Arizona, according to records compiled by the medical examiner and the Tucson-based humanitarian group Humane Borders.

About 1,400 sets of remains have gone unidentified.

Ipsen launched the migrant quilt project in 2007 after meeting with people in Mexico and Central America whose loved ones died or disappeared while trying to reach the U.S.

The subversive quilt-making collection, as she calls it, tells their stories of loss and suffering using scraps of fabric and personal items collected from the same desert where so many people have died.

The 2002-03 quilt features a map of Arizona made from multicolored squares of denim and covered in 205 tiny Xs marking the spots where bodies were found.

The 2018-19 quilt incorporates postage stamps from the migrants home countries arranged in the shape of crosses.

The 2015-16 quilt includes pesos the quilter found hidden in the hems of several pairs of jeans left behind in the desert.

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The new exhibit will mark the Tucson debut of the latest work in the series, the 2019-20 quilt by renowned textile artist Susan Hoffman.

The exhibit also includes statements from the various quiltmakers about their experience with the project.

Ipsen and company donated their creations to the Arizona Historical Society last year so they could be preserved, displayed and loaned out to other museums, churches and public buildings around the country for years to come.

They were the first contemporary works to be added to historical societys expansive textile collection, which includes roughly 200 quilts dating to the early 1800s.

Each new migrant quilt that is made in the future will also go to the historical society for safekeeping.

Ipsen has said the project will continue as long as people continue to die in Arizonas borderlands.

Based on the latest figures from Humane Borders, 226 sets of remains were found in the Tucson Sector in 2021 alone.

Thats the highest total for a single calendar year since the medical examiner began tracking a dramatic increase in migrant deaths two decades ago. It does not account for the unknown number of people who died in the desert but whose bodies were never found.

If you go

Los Desconocidos: The Migrant Quilt Project" opened Jan. 20 at the Arizona History Museum, 949 E. Second St.

The museum is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tickets for admission can be purchased here.

Free validated parking is available at the Main Gate Garage on Second Street, one block west of the museum.
A woman who was present when law enforcement officials arrested a teenager in connection with the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old now faces charges herself.

Mariah Lopez, 23, lied to FBI agents when questioned about her whereabouts when Brayden Walley, 13, was fatally shot Dec. 22 at a westside apartment complex, officials allege in a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Tulsa federal court.

The complaint alleges that a witness reported seeing Lopez, whose hometown was not listed, with Christian James Harrison, 19, when prosecutors allege the latter shot Walley multiple times at Parkview Terrace apartments, 1615 W. 59th St.

Harrison faces one count of first-degree murder in Indian Country, assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm in Indian Country, and carrying, using, brandishing and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

One witness, Walleys brother, told authorities that Lopez fled with Harrison after Walley was shot, according to the criminal complaint.

Members of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service arrested Harrison on Dec. 28 outside a trailer in Locust Grove, according to the criminal complaint.

Lopez was present when deputy marshals arrested Harrison but denied to FBI agents that she was with him when Walley was shot, the document says.

She asked why I was asking her questions because she did not know anything about a shooting, an FBI agent wrote.

Rather, Lopez claimed she was with someone named Joseph when she ran into Harrison on either Dec. 23 or Dec. 24 near 21st Street and Garnett Road, according to the complaint.

Lopez reportedly told investigators that Harrison joined her and Joseph in the vehicle, with the latter taking them to the Locust Grove trailer.

She declined to change her statement despite being warned it was a crime to lie to law enforcement when they were investigating a crime, the complaint says.

Harrison faces a Feb. 22 jury trial.

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One year ago today, on May 1, 2021, a memorial service was held in honor of the 41 Tulsa Police Officers who have died in the line of duty at 
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by the state of Oklahoma to overrule its landmark 2020 McGirt ruling but said it would consider whether to allow the state to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against tribal members in Indian Country.

The decision not to overturn its own ruling is a blow to Oklahoma Attorney General John OConnor, Gov. Kevin Stitt and state prosecutors who objected to the ruling and others who had determined the state lacked criminal jurisdiction over crimes involving American Indians in most of eastern Oklahoma.

But Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. lauded the ruling.

The Cherokee Nation celebrates the Supreme Courts rejection of a blatantly political request to overturn its McGirt decision, he said in a statement. With this rejection of the states request in this case, the court affirms its decision in McGirt.

I am proud of the Cherokee Nations success over the past year and a half expanding our justice system in record speed and fighting for public safety, but it would have been more effective had the governor chosen to come to the table from the start.

Now that Governor Stitts fight against tribal sovereignty has once again come up short, we hope he will consider joining tribes, rather than undermining our efforts, so we can focus on what is best for our tribal nations and all Oklahomans.

The McGirt ruling has caused scores of cases and convictions to be dismissed in state court as a result of the loss of jurisdiction, while federal and tribal prosecutors have filed thousands of charges.

Stitt issued a statement applauding Fridays announcement that, even though the court will not overturn McGirt, it will consider the states request at least to allow some state jurisdiction.

I am encouraged that the Supreme Court has decided to address whether a state has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian Country, Stitt said.

The fallout of the McGirt decision has been destructive. Criminals have used this decision to commit crimes without punishment. Victims of crime, especially Native victims, have suffered by being forced to relive their worst nightmare in a second trial or having justice elude them completely.

The reality is that the McGirt decision has hamstrung law enforcement in half of the state. Oklahoma is a law-and-order state, and I was elected to protect all four million Oklahomans, regardless of their race or heritage. I will not stop fighting to ensure we have one set of rules to guarantee justice and equal protection under the law for all citizens.

The court said it would hear oral arguments in April in the case of Oklahoma v. Victor Castro-Huerta on the issue of the state prosecuting non-Indians. It was unclear whether an opinion would be issued before the court adjourns in late June or early July or if it would come later, although the independent website scotusblog.com suggests that a ruling will come by summer.

After the ruling released Friday, OConnor issued a statement:

I appreciate the Supreme Courts decision to review our petition to confirm that the State has the authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country, OConnor said.

This is a step forward for the state of Oklahoma and is of paramount importance, given that the overwhelming majority of people who live in eastern Oklahoma are not of Indian heritage.

Narrowing the scope of this case will not alleviate all of McGirts harmful consequences in our State, but it would ensure that non-Indians who victimize Indians can be prosecuted under the same rules as perpetrators who victimize non-Indians.

More importantly, it will guarantee Indian victims the same protection and justice that all other Oklahomans enjoy.

Muscogee Nation officials joined with the Cherokee Nation in applauding the ruling, which acknowledged the continued existence of their reservations.

It is great news for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation that the U.S. Supreme Court in its order today declined to consider overturning the McGirt ruling that affirms our reservation and sovereignty, officials with the tribe said. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation will continue its vigorous engagement in the judicial process in support of our sovereignty and public safety.

OConnor has appealed dozens of McGirt-related cases to the Supreme Court since Stitt appointed him attorney general in September.

The state said in its review request that no other decision by the Supreme Court has had a more immediate and destabilizing effect on life in an American state than McGirt.

In each case, OConnor asked the Supreme Court to either toss out McGirt completely or modify it to grant the state jurisdiction in cases involving non-Indians committing crimes against tribal members within Indian Country.

The Supreme Court issued its McGirt ruling in July 2020. The landmark decision recognized that the Muscogee Nation reservation, which includes much of Tulsa, had never been disestablished by Congress.

The ruling meant that since statehood, the state of Oklahoma has not had jurisdiction to try a case within the Muscogee Nation reservation that involved a member of a federally recognized tribe. Jurisdiction in those cases rests with the federal government or tribal government, depending on the facts of the case.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has since both expanded and imposed restrictions on the original McGirt ruling.

The state appellate court, in a series of decisions, has ruled that five other eastern Oklahoma tribes reservations with similar treaties with the U.S. government also were never disestablished.

As a result, much of the eastern half of Oklahoma has been acknowledged to be Indian Country when it comes to tribal criminal jurisdiction, leaving the state out of the jurisdictional loop when a case involves an American Indian.

The acknowledged tribal reservations are those of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Quapaw and Seminole nations.

However, the state appellate court has since narrowed the ruling to prohibit McGirt-based appeals of inmates who had previously exhausted their initial appeals and used the post-conviction appeal process to challenge their convictions.

For Castro-Huerta, it means he could be returned to state prison if the Supreme Court rules against him.

In April, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his 2017 child neglect conviction and 35-year prison sentence after he filed a challenge based on the McGirt ruling.

Castro-Huerta is not a member of an American Indian tribe, but due to the McGirt ruling, the state of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute him because the victim is a member of a federally recognized tribe and the offense occurred within the Muscogee Nation, the state appellate court ruled.

Castro-Huerta pleaded guilty Oct. 15 in Tulsa federal court to one count of child neglect after federal prosecutors picked up his dismissed state case.

He will serve a no-parole seven-year federal prison term under the terms of the agreement, which must still be approved by a judge.

The case has drawn the attention of a wide range of interests.

Friend of the court briefs backing the states position have been filed in the case by the cities of Tulsa and Owasso, the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association, the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and others, with some expressing concerns that the ruling will spill over to civil matters.

Four tribes affected by the McGirt decision  the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Muscogee  filed court briefs indicating their objection to overturning McGirt.

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Tourism, technology and mental health are among the legislative priorities formally announced Friday for the the Tulsa Regional Chambers OneVoice Agenda for the year.

OneVoice is a collaboration of more than 75 northeastern Oklahoma chambers of commerce, municipalities, counties and other organizations with input from hundreds of individuals, businesses and nonprofit concerns.

The 2022 agenda includes 15 state and 15 federal priorities spread across several general areas.

State priorities

Technology transfer: This includes fostering the vibrant exchange of ideas between our universities, our researchers, our entrepreneurs, and our existing employers.

Marijuana: The Chamber calls for additional resources to bring the medical marijuana sector into compliance with business standards. A separate item encourages changing federal banking laws to accommodate medical marijuana businesses.

Tourism: Advocates using American Rescue Plan Act money for tourism, including marketing and support of growing film and music sectors.

Innovation-led economic development: This item calls for a comprehensive strategy to develop innovation and economic diversification in areas such as life sciences, advanced mobility and energy technology.

Open Meeting Act modernization: Whenever practical, public bodies should be required to provide a live stream of meeting proceedings, including state agencies, boards and commissions.

Data privacy legislation: The Chamber opposes aggressive data privacy legislation pursued by some lawmakers, particularly in the House. Many businesses, particularly those in the telecommunications sector, say such regulation is unnecessary and overly burdensome.

Hydrogen: The Chamber supports a push at the Capitol to develop hydrogen energy.

Roads and bridges: A perennial entry on the list, this years agenda includes new interchanges and widening for metro freeways.

Direct flights: Another frequent entry.

McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System Infrastructure Revolving Fund: Requesting at least $4 million to address maintenance issues that the Army Corps of Engineers says it cant afford to fix.

Mental health workforce: More money to train and incentivize additional mental health providers.

Teacher shortage: Calls for innovative approaches to update the teacher certification process.

Mental health in schools: More mental health counselors in schools, more staff training and stronger connections between schools and providers.

K-12 funding: The chamber says school funding is not just about teacher pay.

Higher education: Calls for reversing the decadeslong trend of reduced state support for public colleges and universities.

Federal priorities

Economic development programs: The chamber supports a variety of federal programs it says have proven to be effective and beneficial to the Tulsa region. These include grants for infrastructure and planning and a partnership with the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance to help small- and medium-size manufacturers.

Natural gas: The chamber says natural gas should be viewed as an affordable fuel that can significantly reduce greenhouse gases as our national energy system evolves toward  renewable forms of energy.

Safe Banking Act: This would allow banks to do business with marijuana businesses that are legal under state law without running afoul of federal regulators.

The Revitalizing Downtown Act: In response to the sudden drop in demand for commercial office space, Congress is considering incentives to repurpose obsolete office buildings for housing and other uses.

Biomedical/life sciences: The construction of new Veterans Affairs and psychiatric hospitals adjacent to the Oklahoma State University Medical Center on the southwest edge of downtown Tulsa prompted the chamber to urge the states congressional delegation to go after federal research and training money for the region.

Historic tax credits: Another perennial, now being promoted as a way to rehabilitate old school buildings.

Tulsa International Airport control tower: The airport authority and the Federal Aviation Authority are at loggerheads over who should pay to replace the current, long-outdated tower.

Cybersecurity: Businesses are worried that new federal regulations will be too complicated and expensive.

McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System: This partners with the similar state priority. Some of the issues in the chambers federal request were addressed this week by a Biden administration announcement that it was putting $14 billion into rivers and ports, including MKARNS.

Psychiatric inpatient treatment: This request focuses on Medicare rules and mental health parity.

Financial aid: Simplify student loans by eliminating interest and replacing it with a one-time, non-compounding origination fee that borrowers will pay over the life of the loan, and place borrowers in an income-based repayment plan.  Allow short-term, industry-driven training programs to qualify for financial aid and expand student loan forgiveness  for graduates in high-demand occupations.

COVID-19 mandates: This would seem to have been largely addressed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, but the chamber says businesses shouldnt have the job of enforcing such mandates.

Telehealth: Continue access to telehealth and virtual care services beyond the current public health emergency.

Immigration reform: The chamber says it supports comprehensive immigration reform that enables the U.S. to attract the best and brightest talent from around the world. It also calls for support of the DREAM Act, which provides legal status for residents born in other countries but brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Pell Grants: Calls for expansion of the federal post-secondary education student aid program.

Video: Tulsa levee system getting $137 million in federal funds for repairs

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Conservative leaders have a duty to govern with a bold commitment to the principles that best serve our citizens and communities. In 2018, the voters of Oklahoma put their confidence in Kevin Stitt, who received more votes than any gubernatorial candidate in Oklahoma history.

In just three short years, Stitt has proven that evidence-based policy and conservative reforms to the legal system will improve public safety and help make Oklahoma communities stronger.

Under his leadership, crime and recidivism rates have gone down because of the strong conservative policies. These policies also successfully lower the states prison population and reduce the states incarceration rates, ultimately saving Oklahomans millions of tax dollars.

With public safety and the rule of law paramount to Stitts initiatives, he signed conservative legislation that made retroactive State Question 780, which was previously passed with overwhelming support from voters. This voter-approved legislation reclassified simple drug possession and low-level property crimes as misdemeanors, creating more resources for investigating and locking up the most violent offenders.

Locking up those with whom were mad along with those of whom we should be afraid compromises public safety. And while no system is fool-proof, Stitt is committed to improvements that ensure Oklahomas tax dollars serve the best interest of Oklahomans. Stitt oversaw the largest single day commutation in our nations history, turning incarcerated individuals into taxpaying citizens and supplying more people for Oklahomas workforce.

First lady Sarah Stitt has exhibited tremendous leadership toward improving Oklahomas justice system, memorialized in the Sarah Stitt Act. It ensures that those involved with the legal system receive state identification, successful reentry and opportunity for gainful employment.

Under Stitts leadership and in partnership with Oklahoma Baptist University, inmates are able to receive a bachelor of arts degree in Christian studies and serve as field ministers to other inmates. Training and sending inmates to minister within the Department of Corrections is a unique educational and service opportunity: the first of its kind in Oklahoma.

As conservatives, we must never lose sight of the overarching goal for our nations criminal justice system: the promotion of justice, the rule of law and preservation of public safety. Just as we cannot compromise these goals to indulge our need to feel tough, we must resist vilifying these ideals.

During my 14-plus years as the Texas governor, I understood that the feeling of being tough on crime didnt pay the bills.

Emotional and knee-jerk solutions failed to translate into actual public safety benefits. The lock em up Texas system was filling prison beds and requiring Texans to pay for more prisons, which was economically unsustainable for a fiscally conscious government.

Moreover, it wasnt making Texans safe.

In 2007, Texas was faced with a crisis of overcrowded prisons and a projected $2 billion demand to remedy this problem. Rather than trying to build and spend our way out of the problem, I and my conservative colleagues in the Texas Legislature enacted comprehensive, fiscally responsible reforms.

We invested $241 million into alternative sentencing, expanded access to parole and evidence-based programs aimed at improving the success rate for those reentering society or on supervision. As a result, 11 prisons closed while simultaneously reducing crime to the lowest since the 1960s. Instead of spending $2 billion, Texas has saved $4 billion.

I see the Texas reforms have proven tough on crime but soft on the taxpayer, as any conservative policy should be. Stitt, like my fellow Texas conservatives, gets this.

Texas is proof that conservative criminal justice reform is data-driven and creates taxpayers, not tax burdens. Conservatives in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Indiana, Utah and even the federal government have since followed Texas lead.

Conservatives must never compromise safety and fiscal responsibility for short-sighted policies gratifying the need to feel tough while failing as a means to this end.

I applaud Gov. Stitt for his principled, conservative leadership. Oklahoma is a safer and more just place to raise a family and pursue the American dream because of him.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the longest-serving governor of Texas.

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Former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the longest-serving governor of Texas.

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Fever is the most common symptom of Covid-19. Anti-fever drugs and vitamin tablets saw a trebling of sales in the last two years. (Representatinal image: www.1mg.com)

IQVIA, a human data science and advanced analytics firm, says Dolo is leading the charts in the paracetamol segment along with Calpol. A market analyst and expert who did not wish to be identified, said, the sale of Vitamin supplements is also on the rise. Fever is the most common symptom of Covid-19. Anti-fever drugs and vitamin tablets saw a trebling of sales in the last two years. Pharma companies are making a good profit. But this is part and parcel of any pandemic situation, the expert says, adding, the industry will see this surge till 2030.

The sale of vaccines and complementary drugs have led to pharma companies profiting immensely off the pandemic.

Pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility towards society, but we cannot blame anyone (for the possibly unwarranted rise in sale of drugs) according to Dr Sanjay Cherian, a cardiac surgeon. Nobodys forcing you to buy these drugs.

Drugs like Dolo are commonly classified as OTC (over-the-counter) medication and are easily available. People tend to go out and buy them even if they have a mild headache and cold, after coming to the false conclusion that they have Covid, he points out.

Dr Sanjay also notes that a large number of people take vitamin tablets without consulting a doctor. This is a reason for the enormous growth in the sales figures of these drugs. People should consider supplementary measures to boost their immunity rather than relying completely on these drugs," he suggests.

More seriously, says Dr. Sanjay, many people are taking a lot of antibiotics without a doctors proscription. To an extent, everything goes fine for them, but most of them dont know when to stop, and thats when the real problem starts. Over-usage may cause severe, life-threatening liver injury, he warns.

Doctors and pharmaceutical experts say a lot of doctors prescribe Dolo rather than other paracetamol brands, as it is a time-tested treatment for fever and can be given to people of all ages and has minimal side effects, making it a favourite during this pandemic. Yes the pandemic situation is helping pharma companies as drugs like these are easily available, but they do cure the symptoms of the pandemic, says Dr Deepa Shree, Head of the Department of Interventional Radiology, Rela Institute.
Suddenly, Russias President Vladimir Putin has extended his power and influence over an entire country before anyone quite realized what was happening.

No, were not talking about Ukraine, where Russian troops look across the line against inferior Ukrainian forces that may or may not be confident of support from the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the U.S. Putin may not want to risk conflict with NATO, but hes quickly sent his forces into Kazakhstan without the slightest opposition.

Thats because, in the case of Kazakhstan, the president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked the Russians to defend his regime against protesters angered over a sudden increase in the prices of oil and gas. All he had to do was ask Putin to come to his rescue, and Putin was glad to comply.

The arrival of a few thousand Russian troops into Kazakhstan was probably the most dramatic sign weve seen so far of Putins dream of Russias resurgence as a great power. In effect, Kazakhstan is a Russian protectorate, not yet ruled or governed by Russia but under Russias protection.

It was only three decades ago that Kazakhstan, a country of only 19 million to 20 million people, 20% of them Russian and spread over land about two-thirds as large as western Europe, broke off from the former Soviet Union. The break was reluctant. All the other countries of the former Soviet-dominated eastern Europe and central Asia had already been torn away with the collapse of Soviet power. Kazakhstan, oil-rich and strategically situated at the heart of central Asia, did not feel the same resentment of Kremlin rule as did other Soviet satellites.

Listening to the news in Doha, the capital of Qatar, one realizes the enormity of the Russian entry into Kazakhstan. The speed with which Putin complied with the request for Russian troops shows his eagerness to expand Russian rule over what was once the Soviet empire. Hes far from taking over other former Soviet satellites, but, clearly, he would like to be the leader of the new Russia, taking its place again as one of the worlds greatest powers.

Its hard to believe that Russian troops, now that theyre welcomed back in Kazakhstan, at least by the regime thats now in power, wont stay as a permanent force. Eventually, the Russians will want to take over a role in advising and then ruling Kazakhstan, rich in oil and other natural resources that the Russians need for their hard-pressed economy. The Russians, with a grip on security, should be in a position to edge out foreign companies also exploiting the countrys resources.

The success of the Russians in returning to Kazakhstan has implications for every country with a stake and interest in the area. The United States, China, South Korea and Japan all have their own stakes in the country. South Korea and Japan have each invested several billion dollars into the country while importing oil and other resources. Korea has another special interest in Kazakhstan. About 100,000 ethnic Koreans, most of them living in the Russian far east, had to move there in the 1930s on orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The Koreans suffered terribly in the move to Kazakhstan. Although they posed no immediate threat to Stalin or Soviet rule, they had to exist under harsh conditions, surviving in a cold and forbidding land. They have to look on a revived Russian presence with foreboding.

The revived Russian presence in Kazakhstan does not pose an immediate threat to other countries. Still, by asserting Russian force in a country that had broken away from the Soviet Union, Putin leaves no doubt of his desire to extend Russian influence and control beyond its own borders. He also would hope to extend Russian influence over the Korean peninsula by supporting North Korea against the United States.

The Russian troops in Kazakhstan arrived in convoys of trucks and armored vehicles and also by plane. They are seen on Al Jazeera, the television network based in Doha, hefting weapons as they quickly set up defenses around the airport and capital, Nursultan, and the largest city, Almaty, where many of the ethnic Koreans live.

The response of Kazakhstan to Russian troops is just the opposite of that of Afghanistan when Russians battled Afghans in the final phase of the Soviet empire. It is hard to imagine the people of Kazakhstan welcoming the Russians. The president of Kazakhstan, before asking for Russian military support, ordered his own troops to fire on protesters without warning.

Putin has exploited a weakness, and an opportunity, with grave overtones for others within reach of the renaissance of Russian power, including the Korean peninsula.

Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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Vietnamese flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VNA) has planned to resume regular commercial routes between the Southeast Asian country and Russia, the UK, France and Germany next week, after a closure of almost two years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From next Monday, VNA will resume regular flights from Hanoi to London (the UK), which will transit through Paris (France) and then return to Hanoi, the carrier said on Friday.

Three days later, the carrier will re-operate the first regular flight between Hanoi and Germanys Frankfurt.

Next Saturday, the route from Hanoi to Russias Moscow with a frequency of one flight per week will be resumed.

As from February 8, the flight schedules to the UK, France and Germany will be performed on two routes, VNA said.

Accordingly, flights on the first route will depart every Tuesday from Hanoi to London, via Frankfurt and back to Hanoi, while those on the second will fly every Thursday from Hanoi to Paris, via Frankfurt and return.

The carrier said it will deploy wide-body aircraft such as Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 for these mentioned routes to give passengers the most comfortable long-haul flight experience.

However, the final operation plan will be subject to approval of concerned authorities and will be updated by Vietnam Airlines to passengers in case of adjustment, the carrier stated.

The CAAV said Vietnamese communities in European countries are expecting the early resumption of regular commercial flights between Vietnam and Europe so that they can return home for the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

About 140,000 overseas Vietnamese may return home to celebrate Tet, which will fall on February 1, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The national flag carrier advised passengers to prepare themselves to meet immigration regulations at their destinations, including those on health declarations, coronavirus testing, and vaccine passports or proofs of COVID-19 recovery.

As from January 1, the countrys aviation sector has reopened regular commercial flights from and to Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Taipei (Taiwan, China), Bangkok (Thailand), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), San Francisco (the U.S.) and Singapore.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has recently decided to increase the frequency of international routes from the country to Japan, Korea, Singapore and Chinas Taipei.

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Dinh Ngoc Hieu, a resident in Ho Chi Minh City, has grown coconut bonsai trees for five years. His miniature horticulture artworks have struck a chord for their unique shape and rich meaning to usher in the Lunar New Year.

As the upcoming lunar years Chinese zodiac sign is the Tiger, Hieu has a full plate crafting bonsai into exquisite tiger-shaped decorative items.

Bonsai is a long-standing art of cultivating trees into aesthetically pleasing shapes in containers rather than allowing nature to take its course.

The living art of bonsai also reflects the essence of the Vietnamese peoples spirit, as they make sure they decorate their households in the grandest of style for Tet holiday.

Tet festival is due around late January and early February, with flowers and ornamental plants to be displayed on the streets and in households as festive decorations and lucky charms.

With dexterity, judgment and passion, Hieu, from Thu Duc City, in recent years has injected new life into the art of bonsai by emulating the work of nature and growing the trees into Chinese zodiac animal shapes that are sometimes beyond imagination.

In addition to single tigers, tigers in pairs, indicative of romantic relationships, are also available for sale.

Starting out five years ago with simple designs, the artisan has recently elevated his skills to new heights and found success with the animal-shaped items that appear both extraordinarily natural and man-made at the same time.

Hieu shared his tiger-shaped coconut bonsai are the latest addition to the long-standing Vietnamese tradition of displaying images of the upcoming lunar years zodiac sign on walls or on the five-fruit tray, a token of the homeowners filial piety and gratitude towards their ancestors and the Genie of the Land.

A fivefruit tray in the southern region is typically made up of the custard apple, coconut, papaya, mango and fig fruits, representing the homeowners wishes for a financially rewarding or at least an adequate year, the artisan explained about his choice of coconut.

Crafting bonsai trees this way usually takes Hieu around eight months, including tending to the trees, positioning the tiger head, perfecting the details, and coating the items with paint in vibrant color.

His products sell for anywhere from VND600,000 (US$26) to VND3 million ($131) apiece.

A highlight to Dinh Ngoc Hieus pieces is old-style ingots of gold which convey wishes for a financially thriving year.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hieus output this year falls to only 400-500 trees compared to last year.

He said orders for this years entire oeuvre come in from his regular clients and on social media.

According to Hieu, the biggest challenge is that the animal depicted is instantly recognizable and the items need to come out very much alive.

In addition to lone tigers, his artworks feature the majestic felines in pairs and groups.

A pair of tigers symbolizes romantic relationship, nuptial bliss and friendship, while a trio of big cats represents family reunions.

Each of Hieus pieces, which are brilliant taming of nature in the most meticulous forms, is with its own meaningful message.

According to Dinh Ngoc Hieu, the challenge is how to make the animal portrayed immediately recognizable and make the pieces alive and shining.

As people in Vietnam and the rest of the world are entering the third year of the pandemic, Hieu added he wants to spread messages of physical health and financial prowess in the post-pandemic period through his exquisite tiger-shaped bonsai.

An indication of physical strength and resilience, the tiger represents my wish that people will stay strong and get back on their feet soon, he noted.

Single tiger models feature various emotional expressions.

Rich in intricacy of details and meaning, a model featuring parent tigers and their cub(s) stands for human family reunions.

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BRUSSELS -- The United States, the World Health Organization's top donor, is resisting proposals to make the agency more independent, four officials involved in the talks said, raising doubts about the Biden administration's long-term support for the U.N. agency.

The proposal, made by the WHO's working group on sustainable financing, would increase each member state's standing annual contribution, according to a WHO document published online and dated Jan. 4.

The plan is part of a wider reform process galvanised by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the limitations of the WHO's power to intervene early in a crisis.

But the U.S. government is opposing the reform because it has concerns about the WHO's ability to confront future threats, including from China, U.S. officials told Reuters.

It is pushing instead for the creation of a separate fund, directly controlled by donors, that would finance prevention and control of health emergencies.

Four European officials involved in the talks, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed the U.S. opposition. The U.S. government had no immediate comment.

The published proposal calls for member states' mandatory contributions to rise gradually from 2024 so they would account for half the agency's $2 billion core budget by 2028, compared to less than 20% now, the document said.

The WHO's core budget is aimed at fighting pandemics and strengthening healthcare systems across the world. It also raises an additional $1 billion or so a year to tackle specific global challenges such as tropical diseases and influenza.

Supporters say that the current reliance on voluntary funding from member states and from charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation forces the WHO to focus on priorities set by the funders, and makes it less able to criticise members when things go wrong.

An independent panel on pandemics that was appointed to advise on the WHO reform had called for a much bigger increase in mandatory fees, to 75% of the core budget, deeming the current system "a major risk to the integrity and independence" of the WHO.

Long-standing scepticism

The WHO itself responded to a query by saying that "only flexible and predictable funds can enable WHO to fully implement the priorities of the Member States".

Top European Union donors, including Germany, back the plan, along with most African, South Asian, South American and Arab countries, three of the European officials said.

The proposal is to be discussed at the WHO's executive board meeting next week but the divisions mean no agreement is expected, three of the officials said.

The WHO confirmed there was currently no consensus among member states, and said talks were likely to continue until the annual meeting in May of the World Health Assembly, the agency's top decision-making body.

European donors in particular favour empowering, rather than weakening, multilateral organisations including the WHO.

One European official said the U.S. plan "causes scepticism among many countries", and said the creation of a new structure controlled by donors, rather than by the WHO, would weaken the agency's ability to combat future pandemics.

Washington has been critical of the WHO for some time.

Former president Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the WHO after accusing it of defending China's initial delays in sharing information when COVID-19 emerged there in 2019.

The Biden administration rejoined soon after taking office, but officials told Reuters they think the WHO needs significant reform, and raised concerns about its governance, structure and ability to confront rising threats, not least from China.

One of the European officials said other big countries, including Japan and Brazil, were also hesitant about the published WHO proposal.

Two of the European officials said China had not yet made its position clear, while a third official listed Beijing among the critics of the proposal.

The governments of Japan, China and Brazil had no immediate comment.
Scientists have discovered a vast reef of "pristine" rose-shaped corals apparently unharmed by climate change in deep water off the coast of Tahiti, UNESCO announced Thursday.

Mapping approximately three kilometres (two miles) long and up to 65 metres (213 feet) wide, UNESCO said it was "one of the most extensive healthy coral reefs on record".

The UN heritage agency said it was "highly unusual" to find healthy coral in cooler waters between 30 and 65 metres deep and that it could suggest that there are more reefs in the ocean depth that are safer from the impacts of warming waters.

The discovery was made in November by divers with special equipment that allowed them to go deeper and spend 200 hours at the reef.

"It was magical to witness giant, beautiful rose corals which stretch for as far as the eye can see. It was like a work of art," said Alexis Rosenfeld, a French photographer and founder of the UNESCO partner 1 Ocean campaign.

The giant rose-shaped corals are each up to two metres in diameter.

"To date, we know the surface of the moon better than the deep ocean," said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, adding that only 20 percent of the world's seabed has been mapped.

'Inspire'

"The discovery of this reef in such a pristine condition is good news and can inspire future conservation," said Laetitia Hedouin, a marine biologist at French research agency (CNRS).

"We think that deeper reefs may be better protected from global warming."

Most of the world's known reefs have been found at depths of up to 25 metres and the UN heritage body said the Tahiti reef could suggest there are more areas of healthy coral in the ocean's unmapped "twilight zone".

"This remarkable discovery in Tahiti demonstrates the incredible work of scientists who, with the support of UNESCO, further the extent of our knowledge about what lies beneath," said Azoulay.

French Polynesia suffered a significant bleaching event back in 2019, but this newly discovered reef does not appear to have been significantly affected.

"These corals do not show signs of stress or disease," Hedouin told AFP.

Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues, leaving graveyards of bleached skeletons where vibrant ecosystems once thrived.

Warming threat

Starfish can also ravage corals by eating them.

Temperature sensors have been placed in the area as part of a programme to analyse why the corals appear to be unaffected by climate change and to monitor its population dynamics.

Coral reefs cover only a tiny fraction of the ocean floor, but they are home to at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants.

In October, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network said dynamite fishing, pollution, but mostly global warming had wiped out 14 percent of the world's coral reefs between 2009 to 2018.

Hardest hit were corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia.

Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, shielding land surfaces but generating huge, long-lasting marine heatwaves that are pushing many species of corals past their limits of tolerance.

A single bleaching event in 1998 caused by warming waters wiped out eight percent of all corals.
Check out the news you should not miss today:

Society

-- Hanoi police confirmed on Friday that they had apprehended two men for prostitution brokerage in form of sugar dating service, which refers to a mutually beneficial dating pratice between an older weathier person, or a sugar daddy, and a younger individual in need of financial support, also called a sugar baby.

-- Police in south-central province of Phu Yen on Friday have arrested three local women for fraud and appropriation of more than VND20 billion (US$883) by luring multiple victims into investing in a bogus company.

-- Police in Thu Duc City under Ho Chi Minh City are hunting for two robbers after they broke into a beverage stall and snatched a phone from a 6-year-old child.

-- One tourist drowned and another went missing after swimming at a beach full of strong waves in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa on Wednesday afternoon.

-- The Hanoi People's Committee declared on Friday that the capital city will not arrange any festive activities with huge crowds and will suspend all unnecessary large gatherings during the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival over fears of COVID-19 spread.

-- All visitors to Ho Chi Minh City's Nguyen Hue Flower Street are required to wear face masks all the time, including when taking photographs, according the organizing board.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have detected the shady practice of using industrial chemicals to whiten eight metric tons of lotus stems before distributing them to local markets.

Lifestyle

-- The Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh passed away at Tu Hieu Pagoda in his motherland of Thua Thien-Hue Province on Saturday night, aged 95.

World News

-- Life-saving water supplies from a New Zealand navy ship were distributed across Tonga's main island on Friday, as other countries battled the logistics of delivering aid to one of the world's remotest communities, Reuters reported.

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One tourist drowned and another remained missing as they went swimming at a beach full of strong waves in the Vietnamese south-central province of Khanh Hoa on Thursday morning.

The management board of Northern Cam Ranh Peninsula Tourist Area in Khanh Hoa said on Friday that rescuers have been looking for Dinh Minh Hoai An, 20, hailing from Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

Ans six-member family arrived at a resort in the peninsula on Wednesday afternoon before going for a swim at Bai Dai beach the next morning, when strong waves swept An out to sea, prompting Dinh Minh Thanh Tung, 36, to follow to rescue.

However, Tung was also dragged away.

Resort staff were able to bring Tung to shore, but he died later, while An remained missing.

The family has brought Tungs body back to his hometown for funeral.

Bai Dai beach is full of big waves in this season, making finding the missing An difficult, according to the management board of Northern Cam Ranh Peninsula Tourist Area.

All resorts along this area have warned visitors against swimming in the sea.

On Friday, a vessel belonging to the Naval Region 4 arrived at Cam Ranh Port in Khanh Hoa Province as its crew successfully brought two fishermen in distress ashore.

Strong waves sunk the fishing boat owned by Huynh Van Chung after it had been broken down on its way from Cam Ranh Port to Cam Ranh Bay on Thursday night.

The two fishermen on the boat just had time to contact rescuers, get some necessaries and use a basket boat to escape.

Rescuers from the Naval Region 4 managed to find them at 8:20 pm on the same day.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has lifted the requirement of certificates of full vaccination against COVID-19, recovery from the disease or negative test results on air passengers from Saturday.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan made a number of adjustments to the standards and conditions for passengers and crews of regular commercial flights in a dispatch sent to airlines and airport authorities on Friday.

Accordingly, certificates of full vaccination against COVID-19, recovery from the disease or negative test results are no longer compulsory for air passengers.

Only a coronavirus test certificate with a negative result using the real-time RT-PCR method or a rapid test within 72 hours before departure remains mandatory for passengers residing in areas at very high risk of COVID-19 transmission or in neighborhoods placed under medical isolation before the flight.

Cabin crews are also no longer subject to coronavirus testing before each flight.

Currently, the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam is basically under control nationwide and the vaccination rate is high, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry has directed the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam to closely monitor domestic air transport operations and proactively adjust the flight frequency to meet the travel needs of people while ensuring safe adaptation, flexibility, and effective control over the pandemic.

Vietnam has recorded 2,110,737 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the country in early 2020.

Health workers have administered above 173.7 million vaccine doses since vaccination was rolled out nationwide on March 8, 2021.

More than 78.7 million of the countrys 98 million people have received at least one dose while over 73.5 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 surpassed 21.3 million.

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Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, a global spiritual leader who spread messages of mindfulness, compassion and nonviolence, died on Saturday at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue City in central Vietnam. He was 95.

As announced by Plum Village, the monastic organization the Zen master founded in France, he peacefully passed away at 0:00 on January 22 at the temple, located in his birthplace.

After many decades giving lectures on mindfulness and peace to people around the world, the Zen master returned to Vietnam from Thailand in October 2018 to live out his last days at Tu Hieu Temple, where he studied and practiced Zen Buddhism from 1942.

Four years before his repatriation, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and was treated for four and a half months in France.

Thich Nhat Hanh, born Nguyen Xuan Bao in Hue in 1926, joined a Zen monastery at 16 and studied Buddhism there as a novice before becoming a monk at the age of 23, according to the orbits.

He assumed the Dharma name Thich Nhat Hanh upon his ordination in 1949.

After leaving Vietnam in May 1966, the Zen master lived in Plum Village Monastery in southern France for decades, during which he traveled throughout Europe and North America giving lectures on mindfulness and peace.

During many decades living away from home, Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the pioneers to bring Buddhism, especially mindfulness, to western society, and became a leading voice in a movement he called Engaged Buddhism, a movement linking mindfulness practice with social action.

He has contributed to building an Engaged Buddhist community for the 21st century with nearly 1,250 monastic disciples, millions of lay disciples and hundreds of millions of readers all around the world, the orbituary said.

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is seen when he returned from Thailand to Tu Hieu Temple in Vietnams central Hue City in 2018. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

Thich Nhat Hanh has been honored as the second most influential Buddhist leader in the West, after Dalai Lama, the Vietnam New Agency cited some foreign news agencies as saying.

During his visits Vietnam in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2017, the Zen monk met with a lot of devout Buddhists and offered prayers for war victims.

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an American Baptist minister and a civil-rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

When announcing his nomination, King honored Thich Nhat Hanh as an Apostle of peace and nonviolence.

His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity," King said about the monk.

With his non-stop activities, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was highly appreciated as a culturist, a writer, a poet, a scholar, a historian and a peace activist.

The monk was the author of over 120 books, including 40 in English, with the bestselling The Miracle of Mindfulness originally published in 1975.

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything, he wrote in in his English-written book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.

The Zen master also dismissed the idea of death, as he wrote, Birth and death are only notions. They are not real, in his book No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life.

The Buddha taught that there is no birth; there is no death; there is no coming; there is no going; there is no same; there is no different; there is no permanent self; there is no annihilation. We only think there is, he wrote.

As announced by Tu Hieu Temple and Plum Village, the funeral of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh will last for seven days in silence.

A memorial service for the monk will be conducted on January 23 morning and his body will be cremated on January 29.

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Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Cloudy in the morning with isolated thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 88F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
As of Saturday, about 360 doctors, faculty, PG doctors and other staff of Osmania general hospital (OGH) were infected with Covid. A total of 134 healthcare workers in Gandhi hospital and about 33 in Chest hospital have also tested positive. (DC file photo)

Hyderabad: The state governments healthcare workers are facing a Covid onslaught with infections rising rapidly in many hospitals.

As of Saturday, about 360 doctors, faculty, PG doctors and other staff of Osmania general hospital (OGH) were infected with Covid. A total of 134 healthcare workers in Gandhi hospital and about 33 in Chest hospital have also tested positive. However, none of the infected workers have needed hospitalization.

Director of medical education (DME), Telangana, Dr K Ramesh Reddy said the department did not have a count of the overall number of healthcare workers infected in the state. He said it was expected that a lot of them in Covid hospitals are vulnerable.

The situation is not alarming, the infected workers will come back after a week post-infection, as per Centres protocol, he said.

The DME said that in order to protect workers, an adequate number of N-95 masks and over 10 lakh PPE kits were made available to workers and doctors. During recent vaccination drives for booster doses, extra centres were set up just for healthcare workers and a majority of them had been inoculated with the booster shot, he said.

A member of a state doctors association said that almost 80 per cent of all government doctors in the state had contracted Covid during the current wave. The numbers dont reflect this because many doctors who have symptoms are not getting tested to avoid Covid anxiety, he said. Some of those overburdened with work are getting tested so that they could avail a weeks leave, the member said.

Superintendent of OGH Dr B Nagendra said that approximately 200 healthcare workers at the hospital had been infected but none required hospitalisation. However, sources among the hospitals doctors said that up to 360 people had contracted the virus.

Gandhi hospitals medical superintendent Dr M Raja Rao said the situation was not as bad as it was during the earlier waves, when the hospital was functioning with only 50 per cent of its staff. The number of cases was actually lower than what he had expected. Currently, less than 20 per cent of staff is infected, he said.

Most workers were infected outside the hospital, as here they take utmost care, he said.

Dr N Kartik, general secretary, Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA), said due to the high number of infections, the remaining doctors were bearing work overload.

As we work in a Covid hospital, all doctors are certain to get infected. We are prepared for that, Dr Kartik said.
Germany's statements regarding the impossibility of transferring defense weapons to Ukraine, in particular due to the provision of permission for this to third parties, the futility of the return of Crimea, hesitation on disconnecting Russia from SWIFT - do not correspond to the level of relations with Ukraine and the current security situation, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"At present, the unity of the West in relation to Russia is more important than ever. To achieve it and contain Russia, we are all making great efforts together. German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encourage Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack on Ukraine," Kuleba said on his Twitter page.

At the same time, the head of the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is grateful to Germany for the support already provided since 2014, as well as for diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. "But Germany's current statements are disappointing and run counter to that support and efforts," he said.


In this week's Torah portion, Yitro, we receive Torah at Sinai. Tradition teaches that every Jewish soul that ever was and ever will be was present at Sinai. At Sinai we stood together as one.

This week some of you have told me that you feel more connected than usual to Jews in other places... especially the Jews of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. That their shul shares our name heightens our sense of closeness.

Last Shabbat while members and the rabbi of that CBI community were held hostage, our hearts were in our throats and our prayers flowed without ceasing. Often a crisis makes us aware of the interconnectedness we usually don't see. In a crisis, it's easy to feel how what happens to one heart tugs at another heart, bound up as we are in what Dr. King called that "inescapable network of mutuality."

What happens to you impacts me. What happens there impacts us here. That's one of the continuing lessons of the pandemic. And this week, our connectedness means that many of us share a feeling of renewed vulnerability.

But we're connected not only because of our shared vulnerability, our shared fears of antisemitism and attack. We're connected because our souls stood together at Sinai. We're connected through mitzvot. In Aramaic, Hebrew's closest sister tongue, the word for connection is tzavta, which shares a root with mitzvah. The mitzvot connect us with God and with each other.

Some of those mitzvot are listed in this week's Torah portion. Be in relationship with the Force of Liberation bringing us forth from life's narrow places. Resist the urge to worship things that are not God, like statues or status. Remember the day of Shabbat and keep it holy, because when we pause our constant making and doing we are re-ensouled.

And some of the mitzvot our tradition holds dear aren't in today's list, because our tradition is comprised of 613 commandments, not just 10. For instance, the mitzvah repeated thirty-six times in Torah, instructing us in no uncertain terms to "Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." The rabbi at CBI Colleyville lived out that mitzvah when he invited an unknown man in on a twenty-degree morning and made him a cup of tea to help him get warm. We all know now how that turned out. And: I still think he was right to do it. Welcoming that stranger was the Jewish thing to do.

How do we do that in a way that keeps us safe as a community? That's a big conversation, and it's one we'll be having for a while. There's no simple answer to balancing the Jewish value of pikuach nefesh (protecting or preserving life) with the Jewish value of hachnasat orchim (welcoming others in hospitality). It's another version of the core spiritual balancing act to which our tradition calls us, between gevurah and chesed -- boundaries and lovingkindness.

It's okay to feel afraid. It would be spiritually dishonest to pretend otherwise. When someone chooses to join the Jewish people, at the end of their beit din and just before immersion there's a ritualized series of questions rooted in Talmud that I ask. They're questions like: don't you know that it's sometimes hard to be Jewish? Don't you know that being Jewish comes with obligations, and yeah, it also comes with antisemitism that will now be aimed at you?

But today I want to add: don't you know that being Jewish is also joyous? Lighting Shabbat candles and letting the week's worries slough away -- telling our core story of liberation at the seder with songs and laughter -- the heart-opening and mind-expanding journey of Jewish learning -- feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and caring for the powerless -- there's so much beauty and meaning here.

All of these connect us with our cousins in Colleyville, and Squirrel Hill, and Poway, and all over the world. Antisemitism is real and it's frightening and it probably isn't ever going away. But the mitzvot, and our Jewish joy -- they can't take that away from us.

The commentator Rashi notes that when Torah describes our encampment at Sinai, it uses a singular verb to teach us that when we gathered at the base of that mountain we were like one being with one heart. We get another hint toward this a few verses later, where we read that the whole community answers  / yachdav, as one.

It's easy to focus on all the things that divide us: different Jewish denominations, different ways of doing Jewish, different dress codes, different relationships with mitzvot or God or spiritual practice. But at Sinai we had a shared heart. And during last weekend's crisis we felt our shared heart. May the shared heart that we felt while our cousins in Colleyville were in danger stay real for us, long after that danger is gone. And may that shared heart connect and sustain us through whatever comes.

This is the d'varling that R. Rachel offered at Kabbalat Shabbat services this week (cross-posted to CBI's From the Rabbi blog.)
Elk Grove, CA (95624)

Today

Mainly sunny. High near 90F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 52F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Good art captures the eye and for Art Center Waco, the Kermit Oliver exhibit that opened its downtown location captured plenty of eyes across the state, putting both the center and Waco on the map for some Texas art fans.

The retrospective exhibit, Kermit Oliver: New Narratives, New Beginnings, ends a three-month run Saturday. Its success led officials to add an extra three weeks to accommodate viewers.

For new CEO Doug McDurham, the Oliver show surpassed what Art Center Waco trustees and supporters had hoped when they scheduled it as the first exhibit for the centers downtown location at 701 S. Eighth St., a former one-story brick child care center that got a $3.1 million facelift into a contemporary visual arts space.

Judging from sign-in logs, headcounts at organized events and more, McDurham estimated more than 3,000 people have visited the Oliver exhibit since its opening Oct. 21, with turnout the highest in its early weeks, the week between Christmas and New Years and after major articles in statewide media.

In comparison, Art Center Waco exhibits in 2016, the last full year in the organizations former facility, drew 7,557 visitors. Art Center Waco was housed in the former summer home of the William Cameron family for much of its four-decade history, until structural problems in the century-old structure forced the center to find a new home.

For years, Art Center Waco leaders and supporters had contemplated moving to downtown Waco to increase the centers visibility and access. A task force led by board member Lisa Monroe and board Chair Jill Michaels found the current facility at 701 S. Eighth and set in motion a $3.1 million building renovation that, due in part to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, took much of last year to complete.

Houston arts writer and scholar Susie Kalil, who is writing a book on the 78-year-old Refugio native, curated New Narratives, New Beginnings, and with the help of Oliver and local collectors assembled 54 paintings touching the breadth of Olivers professional career.

Olivers striking combination of detail, assemblage and symbolism has earned him a reputation in Texas art circles  and beyond, thanks to his highly collectible scarves designed for Paris fashion house Hermes. The Waco painter also is represented at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

At the same time, his avoidance of the limelight made the soft-spoken artist relatively unknown in Waco, where he and his wife Katie raised their family of three children after moving here from Houston in 1984. For more than three decades, Oliver worked at night as a mail sorter for the U.S. Postal Service and painted by day.

The Art Center Wacos show not only introduced many Waco art lovers to the talented but publicity-averse artist in their community, but drew the attention of Oliver fans and collectors from across the state. Statewide media attention did not hurt. A Nov. 3 Texas Monthly feature by Michael Agresta is published under the headline, The Must-see Art Show of the Fall Is in ... Waco?

McDurham said readers reaction to the Texas Monthly feature was shockingly immediate, spurring out-of-town visitors within days, if not the day after the article appeared online.

Folks must have been fully dressed and their cars fully gassed, he joked.

The statewide public radio show Texas Standard also featured an interview with Oliver, and Dallas Morning News writer Gavin Morrison spotlighted the Waco exhibit in a Jan. 13 article.

Staff members at the Waco Convention Center and Visitors Bureau did their part, recommending the exhibit and new art center to callers.

Certainly, we sent a lot of our visitors there, city tourism director Susan Morton said. Everyone here fell in love with it.

The Christmas holidays brought another wave of out-of-towners, and McDurham often found himself chatting with art gallery owners, collectors and museum administrators impressed not only with the quality of the Oliver exhibit, but the new center that hosted it.

Attendance was strong in the shows final week, which ends Saturday with exhibit hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

For Wacos new Art Center Waco facility and its equally new CEO McDurham, the Oliver exhibit set the table for the months ahead. The centers next show will open Feb. 10 with works by neon artist Ben Livingston, followed by photographs from former National Geographic photographer Greg Davis on May 10.

Thanks to the Oliver exhibit, the Art Center Waco and Waco itself now are on visitors maps, with a good chance of return visits.

I think well be able to open the doors for more, McDurham said.

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Suddenly, Russias President Vladimir Putin has extended his power and influence over an entire country before anyone quite realized what was happening.

No, were not talking about Ukraine, where Russian troops look across the line against inferior Ukrainian forces that may or may not be confident of support from the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the U.S. Putin may not want to risk conflict with NATO, but hes quickly sent his forces into Kazakhstan without the slightest opposition.

Thats because, in the case of Kazakhstan, the president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked the Russians to defend his regime against protesters angered over a sudden increase in the prices of oil and gas. All he had to do was ask Putin to come to his rescue, and Putin was glad to comply.

The arrival of a few thousand Russian troops in Kazakhstan was probably the most dramatic sign weve seen so far of Putins dream of Russias resurgence as a great power. In effect, Kazakhstan is a Russian protectorate, not yet ruled or governed by Russia but under Russias protection.

It was only three decades ago that Kazakhstan, a country of only 19-20 million people, 20 percent of them Russian and spread over land about two-thirds as large as western Europe, broke off from the former Soviet Union. The break was reluctant. All the other countries of the former Soviet-dominated eastern Europe and central Asia had already been torn away with the collapse of Soviet power. Kazakhstan, oil-rich and strategically situated at the heart of central Asia, did not feel the same resentment of Kremlin rule as did other Soviet satellites.

Listening to the news in Doha, the capital of Qatar, one realizes the enormity of the Russian entry into Kazakhstan. The speed with which Putin complied with the request for Russian troops shows his eagerness to expand Russian rule over what was once the Soviet empire. Hes far from taking over other former Soviet satellites, but clearly he would like to be the leader of the new Russia, taking its place again as one of the worlds greatest powers.

Its hard to believe that Russian troops, now that theyre welcomed back in Kazakhstan, at least by the regime thats now in power, wont stay as a permanent force. Eventually, the Russians will want to take over a role in advising and then ruling Kazakhstan, rich in oil and other natural resources that the Russians need for their hard-pressed economy. The Russians, with a grip on security, should be in a position to edge out foreign companies also exploiting the countrys resources.

The success of the Russians in returning to Kazakhstan has implications for every country with a stake and interest in the area. The United States, China, South Korea and Japan all have their own stakes in the country. South Korea and Japan have each invested several billion dollars into the country while importing oil and other resources. Korea has another special interest in Kazakhstan. About 100,000 ethnic Koreans, most of them living in the Russian far east, had to move there in the 1930s on orders of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The Koreans suffered terribly in the move to Kazakhstan. Although they posed no immediate threat to Stalin or Soviet rule, they had to exist under harsh conditions, surviving in a cold and forbidding land. They have to look on a revived Russian presence with foreboding.

The revived Russian presence in Kazakhstan does not pose an immediate threat to that of other countries. Still, by asserting Russian force in a country that had broken away from the Soviet Union, Putin leaves no doubt of his desire to extend Russian influence and control beyond its own borders. He also would hope to extend Russian influence over the Korean peninsula by supporting North Korea against the United States.

The Russian troops in Kazakhstan arrived in convoys of trucks and armored vehicles and also by plane. They are seen on Al Jazeera, the television network based in Doha, hefting weapons as they quickly set up defenses around the airport and capital, Nur-Sultan, and the largest city of Almaty, where many of the ethnic Koreans live.

The response of Kazakhstan to Russian troops is just the opposite of that of Afghanistan when Russians battled Afghans in the final phase of the Soviet empire. It is hard to imagine the people of Kazakhstan welcoming the Russians. The president of Kazakhstan, before asking for Russian military support, ordered his own troops to fire on protesters without warning.

Putin has exploited a weakness, and an opportunity, with grave overtones for others within reach of the renaissance of Russian power, including the Korean peninsula.

Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
ASHLAND  At the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce meeting last Thursday, there were plenty of great things to talk about.

Like the 2022 Stir-Up theme, which will piggy back on the extremely successful 2021 celebration theme of alien abduction to salute the movie franchise Ghostbusters.

Or the report on the phenomenal turnout for the December Cruisin Into Christmas event, where 500 free hot dogs were handed out in less than an hour as residents and visitors cruised through the citys streets to give and receive the holiday spirit.

But the topic that got the most time on the Jan. 13 meeting agenda was the recent report from a committee formed by the Nebraska Legislature that mentions the possibility of a lake near  but not on top of  Ashland.

On Jan. 10 state officials unveiled plans proposed by the Statewide Tourism and Recreational Water Access and Resource Sustainability (STAR WARS) committee that include the possibility of a 4,000-acre lake somewhere in the lower Platte River corridor.

The lake could be located near Ashland, according to state and local officials.

Its going to be a huge positive for Ashland, said Chamber President Bradley Pfeiffer.

The STAR WARS committee, which was created after passage of LB 406 in 2021, was tasked with identifying opportunities to enhance and sustain the states two greatest assets  people and resources, according to information provided during the Jan. 10 press conference to those in attendance, which included several Ashland leaders.

Pfeiffer, Ashland Mayor Rick Grauerholz, Ashland City Council Member Chuck Niemeyer and Chamber Member Shirley Neimeyer were involved in discussion and meetings regarding the STARWARS initiative.

Ashland leaders were a part of the dialogue because the area has been the target of numerous attempts over the last century to dam the Platte River and create a large lake. Every one of the previous plans would have covered the majority of the community with water.

Ashlanders have fought these efforts from the beginning. Every time it returned, a gray cloud was cast over Ashland and potential economic development, Pfeiffer said.

This time, however, Ashland officials insisted from the beginning that the city must be spared. And this time, they were heard.

They said that there wouldnt be any talk about a dam on the Platte River, Pfeiffer told the Chamber.

The exact location of the proposed lake has not yet been revealed. Pfeiffer said they were told there were three sites being considered, but the most likely would be located on the Sarpy County side of the Platte River near Linoma Beach and across from Camp Ashland.

Grauerholz said the proposed location is about three miles from the edge of Ashland.

Given Ashlands proximity to the proposed lake, and the century of suffering the community has endured from the numerous attempts to flood the town to create a body of water, perhaps the lake could be named after the community, Pfeiffer said, only partly in jest.

They ought to call it Lake Ashland, Pfeiffer said.

Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln, who championed the STAR WARS committee and serves as a member, said they have identified possible locations, but no action has been taken to acquire the land needed for the project. The plan is to obtain the land without using eminent domain, the senator also noted.

Hilgers introduced and co-signed LB 1023 earlier this month to give the state Department of Natural Resources authority to acquire land for the project. Without specifying a location, it also identified potential opportunities within the floodway near the Platte River in Sarpy County.

The bill also notes that the project could not have a negative impact on Ashland and other communities.

The protection offered Ashland is a positive factor in the proposed lake. The project could also be a boon to economic development, said Caleb Fjone, executive director of the Ashland Area Economic Development Corporation.

This makes us stand apart from all other small town USAs, he said.

The lake proposal includes amenities like a resort, recreation complex, town center, marinas, residential areas and public parks that could generate $150 million each year in the region, according to the STARWARS Initiative Fact Sheet.

The STAR WARS committee used Lake Okoboji in Iowa as an example of what type of project is being proposed. Lake Okoboji is about 3,600 acres, slightly smaller than the proposed lake.

Ashlands mayor said having a recreational lake near Ashland could be beneficial to the community.

Theres a lot of money at Lake Okoboji, Grauerholz said.

While there is plenty of excitement for the proposed lake project, there is also caution. Shirley Niemeyer said it is a wonderful project for economic development and recreation, but has concerns with environmental impact and flood control.

Flood control is also an issue for Ashland City Council Member Bruce Wischmann, who spoke up at the end of the Chamber meeting.

I am in favor of it but, what I will say is we need remediation and mitigation on flood waters that come down here from Wahoo Creek and Salt Creek, he said. This has to come to an end.

The Wahoo Creek Watershed was also mentioned in the STAR WARS initiative, which proposes 10 flood control dams in Saunders County to reduce flood risk.

Grauerholz also cautioned the Chamber members to remember that there is a long process ahead, including research, planning and development, before a lake is created.

This is just very, very, very preliminary stuff, he said.

Chris Dunker of the Lincoln Journal Star contributed to this report.

Suzi Nelson is the managing editor of The Ashland Gazette. Reach her via email at suzi.nelson@ashland-gazette.com.
Beginning Saturday, the United States will require all foreign travelers  including essential workers such as truck drivers  who enter the country by land from Canada or Mexico to be fully vaccinated, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.

The change is in line with current regulations that the Canadian government has placed on Americans crossing the border.

With a handful of exceptions, foreigners entering the United States via air travel are already required to show proof of vaccination at customs, along with proof of a negative Covid-19 test.

Land travelers will not be required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test.

Starting Saturday, DHS "will require that non-U.S. individuals entering the United States via land ports of entry or ferry terminals along our Northern and Southern borders be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and prepared to show related proof of vaccination," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

According to a DHS statement, the rule excludes U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are returning from Canada or Mexico.

Travelers will be asked to verbally attest to their vaccination status and may be asked to show supporting documentation such as a vaccination card or digital vaccine passport issued by their home country, the department said.

The decision comes after the Biden Administration in November reopened the nation's land borders to nonessential travel following a 20-month-long closure dating to the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

Last week, Canada announced a similar requirement of truckers and other "essential" travelers.

Transportation industry leaders have expressed concerns over the new regulations on multiple fronts. The trucking industry is, like many economic sectors, already struggling to find enough workers, and a vaccine requirement for international commercial truckers could further complicate hiring efforts. Also, the additional layer of paperwork at customs could cause border backups and further disrupt the nation's supply chain, which is already experiencing long delays in shipping many products.

American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello told the industry publication Transport Topics that both governments need to be prepared to endure more problems as a result of their respective vaccination requirements.

Governments, you know, both the U.S. and Canadian governments have to be prepared ... to see real impacts on their sides of the border, Costello said. Im talking about, you know, potentially more food shortages because of this, potentially energy shortages because of this and potentially, you know, manufacturing shortages and so forth.

He predicted that with the backlog of domestic freight, some haulers will elect to focus on shipping routes within the United States and turn down cross-border freight if they're short on vaccinated drivers.

Roughly two-thirds of the goods traded between the United States and Canada, accounting for more than $500 billion in annual commerce, travels over land.

The Canadian government's vaccine requirement went into effect on Jan. 15. Like the United States, the Canadian vaccination requirement also exempts its own citizens and only applies to non-Canadian travelers.
With the lone Democratic candidate called away by a family emergency, Thursday nights Lincoln County Cattlemen governors forum turned into a Republican rally.

Seven of Nebraskas eight announced candidates to succeed GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts competed to be most forceful in denouncing President Joe Biden, critical race theory, now-shelved state school health standards, most state taxes, government spending and illegal immigration.

They made little effort to separate themselves on major issues during the nearly two-hour forum, moderated by KNOP-TV anchor Kent Winder and North Platte Bulletin Editor-Publisher George Lauby.

But all offered variations of a theme voiced by former state Sen. Theresa Thibodeau of Omaha: The nation and Nebraska are doomed if national or state voters choose Democrats.

Our freedoms are under attack every day, she said. We need to stand strong.  Because if we dont step up now, we may lose our chance.

Also taking two-minute turns in front of more than 100 people were Donna Nicole Carpenter of Lincoln, Michael Connely of York, Charles Herbster of Falls City, state Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha and Lela McNinch of Lincoln. McNinch is Connelys sister.

Herbster has been considered one of the GOP front-runners in the May 10 primary. The other, University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen of Columbus, visited North Platte Tuesday on a one-day statewide airplane tour after Ricketts endorsed Pillen as his successor.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, the only announced Democratic candidate, had planned to attend. She canceled after her son was hospitalized in the Omaha area, Lauby told the North Platte audience.

Herbster wasted little time touting his endorsement by former President Donald Trump as the forum participants introduced themselves.

Every day, he (Trump) looks more right all of the time, the Richardson County cattleman said.

The evenings questions touched on virtually all the national and statewide controversies that have dominated political talk since Biden replaced Trump exactly a year ago Thursday.

All seven candidates pointedly declared their opposition to COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates. Ridenour, a computer professional, said he has been thrown out of some Omaha businesses for defying mask mandates.

Nebraskans are losing their jobs because they are not wanting to get this vaccine, he said, quickly adding quote, vaccine to emphasize his skepticism about the shots.

Carpenter, citing experience in biological and chemical warfare while serving in the military, cast doubts on the use of mRNA pharmaceutical technology in crafting the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

We will not even know the true effects (of those vaccines) for the next two years, Carpenter said.

Participants descriptions of critical race theory, an academic theory mainly discussed in graduate classes, broadened the concept to include shaming present-day whites for previous generations acts of racism against African Americans and other races.

You cannot punish people for what began and ended  slavery  over 150 years ago, said McNinch, a former staffer at the Nebraska Center for Women in York. It would be like singling out every Asian, every Japanese person and belittling them and shunning them after Pearl Harbor.

Last years Nebraska State Board of Education consideration of optional K-12 health and sex education standards mostly united the gubernatorial candidates in favor of abolishing the board and putting curriculum in local hands.

I dont see the necessity for the State Board of Education, Lindstrom said. Parents were very angry at what was being taught to the students as they protested the health standards, which the board finally tabled.

Nary a state-level tax escaped attack from one or more candidates, though most focused their wrath on the property tax system that farmers, ranchers and small towns have detested for decades.

McNinch, Ridenour and Connely declared themselves in favor of Bayard Sen. Steve Erdmans bills and petition drive to abolish income, sales and property taxes and replace them with state and local consumption taxes. Excise taxes would remain under Erdmans proposal.

Government spending controls or abolition of entire state departments also were popular. Connely, who is running several petition drives, said hed slash state spending by 30% in his first 30 months in office.

The first to fall by the wayside will be the (state) Department of Education, he said, with Nebraskas Department of Health and Human Services and Labor Department next in line to be slashed.

Herbster brought up one of Trumps regular topics in decrying Bidens handling of would-be migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

If they cant close the southern border, Charles W. Herbster, as governor, will close the Nebraska border, he said.

All seven candidates declared themselves in favor of Gordon Sen. Tom Brewers constitutional carry bill, which would abolish state permits to carry concealed weapons. Brewers LB773 had its public hearing Thursday.

The group also unanimously supported mandating that railroads maintain at least two-person crews on trains in Nebraska. LB539, which would do just that, remains stalled in committee from the 2021 session.
Russia is seeing first hand with these meetings and this is exactly what Russia expected and exactly why they instigated such meetings at this time. This is a simple test cycle by China and Russia. I call it probing the waters to see what is hanging around under the surface

These papers, which the [US] Department of State specifically prepared for todays meeting, are impossible to read, Lavrov said following his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  Source: Impossible to read: Lavrov laces into State Departments Kremlin disinformation report  Russian Politics & Diplomacy  TASS

The truth is most Americans just do not care if our US Gov is involved doing all the things that it does all over the world, but our flimflam and con jobs are collapsing all over the world.sadly Capitalism dictates more people be sacrificed constantly somewhere in the world to keep business moving

The Western Empire attacks, steals and undermines countries because if they dont, they might not get as much money to kill people next year. Its shameful and it is evil, that weve (all of us) allowed the worship of money to make us into the most reprobate mass of humans in history. Never has there been this many humans on earth

Russia needs to remember: The USA and NATO under Clinton set the standard with Serbia. What the US did in Serbia years ago is a done deal. Now, Russia can, and should, follow that standard as it concerns the Donbass. There need not be a shot fired in anger, if the US, NATO and Ukraine accept that the US in Serbia has established the precedence, and therefore the people of the Donbass, like the people of Kosovo, are entitled to become either independent nations or member states in the Russian Federation. A referendum should be called immediately, and Ukraine, the US, NATO, and Russia, should accept the outcome of the referendum

Of course, this will not settle the issue of NATO weapons on the Russian borders and they (NATO/USA) will never accept the outcome.for it is a do as I say, not as I do Western Empire

WtR

PS: You gotta find this interesting
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An increase in COVID cases in our community has been an extra burden on school districts that are already understaffed.
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En espanol

Everything from phone calls and client meetings to office chitchat can be a challenge for workers with hearing loss, which affects an estimated 34.6 million Americans 50 and older  including 8.5 percent of adults 55 to 64 living with hearing loss thats disabling. Whether youve noticed small, age-related declines in your hearing or are living with a long-term hearing impairment, these expert-backed strategies can help set you up for workplace success.



1. Claim the best seat in the house at meetings

One of the problems with hearing loss is not when you dont hear  its when you think youve heard correctly but you havent, says Lise Hamlin, director of public policy for the Rockville, Maryland-based Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). Even with hearing aids, catching every word at a work meeting can be challenging if you have hearing loss, she says.

Choose a seat next to the person whos running the meeting to get the best view of attendees faces, so you can see their expressions and pick up extra clues by lip-reading. In a big meeting, people talk to the person whos chairing it, Hamlin explains. You could also look for a seat at the center of the table near people you have a hard time hearing, suggests hearing advocate Shari Eberts, who shares tips and blogs at Living With Hearing Loss. Avoid seats that face a window, and adjust the blinds so that glare doesnt obstruct your view of others.

2. Request written backup

Ask for a written agenda before meetings and for copies of meeting notes afterward, Hamlin says. Or write your own summaries of meetings and one-on-ones with your boss or coworkers and ask them for sign-off, Eberts suggests. Dont be afraid to confirm what you think youve heard, Hamlin says.

3. Use on-screen captioning at virtual meetings

Its easier to follow along during a virtual meeting when subtitles are scrolling at the same time. You can often get a useful transcript at the end of the call, too, Hamlin says. Check the captioning protocol in advance; on some platforms you may have to ask someone else to turn on captions before a meeting starts. For example, any meeting attendee can turn on captions in Google Meet, but the account owner or meeting organizer must enable captions on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

4. Put your smartphone to work

If you use a smartphone, an app that converts speech into text in real time could be helpful for phone calls, says Christine Morgan, president of the HLAAs Twin Cities chapter. Most people with hearing loss find phones extra difficult, she notes. Thats because phone calls lack visual cues and can also vary in sound quality, explains audiologist Sarah Sydlowski, president of the American Academy of Audiology and audiology director of the Cleveland Clinics Hearing Implant Program.

There are several apps that use speech recognition software or, in one case, live stenographers to turn your conversation into captions you can read in real time on your phone. These include TextHear, as well as free apps certified by the Federal Communications Commission for people who are hard of hearing or deaf, including CaptionCall, ClearCaptions, InnoCaption, CaptionMate and Hamilton CapTel. Relay apps, such as T-Mobiles IP Relay Mobile App or IWRelay VRS, use a live operator to communicate with the person youre calling and then type their responses so you can read them.

Similar apps use your smartphone like a microphone and translate speech into on-screen text. These can help ensure you dont miss a thing in one-on-ones and small meetings. Speech-to-text captioning apps include Live Caption and eyeHear for iOS devices, Speechnotes for Android devices and Ava for iOS and Android. Apps like these have been life-changing for me, says Eberts.
Emporia, KS (66801)

Today

Showers early, becoming a steady rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

A steady rain early. Showers with perhaps a rumble of thunder developing late. Low 53F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
On behalf of AARP, the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll (FDU) conducted a survey of 1,100 randomly selected registered voters in New Jersey age 50 and older. Conducted before the 2021 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the study sought to measure voters' attitudes across six key issues:

Prescription drug costs

Long-term care

Age-friendly communities

Retirement preparedness and security

Current stressors

The general state of New Jersey, and its gubernatorial race

Results show widespread support for the government working to reduce prescription drug prices; quickly enacting a program to allow workers to save for retirement; redistributing the state's long-term care budget to allow more people to receive care in their homes; and pressuring local governments to make communities more livable for residents.



Methodology

The survey was conducted by cellphone and landline between September 26 and October 6, 2021 and included oversamples of Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters age 50 older. For more information, contact Kate Bridges at kbridges@aarp.org. For media inquiries, please contact External Relations at media@aarp.org.

Suggested citation:

Bridges, Kate. 2021 AARP New Jersey Voter Engagement Survey. Washington, DC: AARP Research, January 2022. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00490.001
State lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have said recently that improving child care accessibility, funding and increasing enrollment are all major priorities -- especially as we emerge from the pandemic. But state lawmakers left last week to go on summer recess without allocating nearly $1.4 billion in coronavirus relief money for childcare providers.
DENVER  Colorado, the U.S. government and a gold mining company have agreed to resolve a longstanding dispute over whos responsible for continuing cleanup at a Superfund site that was established after a massive 2015 spill of hazardous mine waste that fouled rivers with a sickly yellow sheen in three states and the Navajo Nation.

The proposed settlement announced Friday would direct $90 million to cleanup at the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site in southwest Colorado, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Denver-based Sunnyside Gold Corp.

The agreement must be approved by a federal judge after a 30-day public comment period.

Sunnyside, which owns property in the district, and the EPA have been in a long-running battle over the cleanup. The EPA has targeted Sunnyside to help pay for the cleanup, and the company has resisted, launching multiple challenges to the size and management of the project.

An EPA-led contractor crew was doing excavation work at the entrance to the Gold King Mine, another site in the district not owned by Sunnyside, in August 2015 when it inadvertently breached a debris pile that was holding back wastewater inside the mine.

An estimated 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of wastewater poured out, carrying nearly 540 U.S. tons (490 metric tons) of metals, mostly iron and aluminum. Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, the Navajo Nation and Utah were polluted. Downstream water utilities shut down intake valves and farmers stopped drawing from the rivers.

The spill resulted in lawsuits against the EPA and prompted the agency to create the Bonita Peak Superfund district.

Sunnyside operated a mine next to Gold King that closed in 1991. A federal investigation found that bulkheads to plug that closed mine led to a buildup of water inside Gold King containing heavy metals. The EPA contractor triggered the spill while attempting to mitigate the buildup.

Under the agreement, Sunnyside and its parent, Canada-based Kinross Gold Corp., will pay $45 million to the U.S. government and Colorado for future cleanup. The U.S. will contribute another $45 million to cleanup in the district, which includes the Gold King Mine and abandoned mines near Silverton.

Monies will be used for water and soil sampling and to build more waste repositories. The EPA said in a statement Friday it has spent more than $75 million on cleanup work and expects to continue significant work at the site in the coming years.

Sunnyside admitted no fault in the new agreement. The company said it has spent more than $40 million over 30 years cleaning up its property in the Superfund district.

The proposed consent decree follows Sunnyside settlements with New Mexico and the Navajo Nation last year. In December, Sunnyside said it had agreed to pay Colorado $1.6 million to resolve its liability for natural resource damage related to the Gold King Mine spill.

The Gold King spill is a vivid reminder of the dangers associated with the thousands of abandoned and unclaimed hard rock mines across the United States, particularly in the West, Tommy Beaudreau, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said in a prepared statement.

The statement added: Mining companies should be held accountable for these sites that put communities and tribal lands at risk of disastrous pollution.

Sunnyside said Fridays agreement recognizes the federal governments responsibility for its role in causing environmental contamination within the Superfund site, according to a statement from Gina Myers, the companys director of reclamation operations.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government is calling on the state Senate to make it easier for the public to follow the work of a committee that helps determine which bills can be taken up during the 30-day session.

The Senate Committees Committee is the rare legislative panel that doesnt broadcast its work online or publish daily agendas  a barrier, the foundation said, that keeps the public from scrutinizing its work.

It is essential for transparency to webcast any and all legislative discussions and actions, FOG Executive Director Shannon Kunkel said in a letter to legislative leaders. Not to do so is unacceptable and duplicitous.

In an interview, Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said she has taken steps to make the committees work more transparent but sees no reason to broadcast the meetings.

The Committees Committee used to meet in the Senate lounge, where public access is restricted, but Stewart moved the meetings this year to a regular committee room, allowing the public to attend in person.

The committee, she said, is a procedural panel that doesnt act on or amend bills the way other committees do, and Senate rules dont call for its work to be streamed online.

In 30-day sessions, the panel determines whether a bill falls into one of the legal categories allowing lawmakers to take it up during the session. Lawmakers can only take up budget and tax legislation, bills authorized by the governor, constitutional amendments and certain other proposals in the 30-day sessions held in even years.

The public isnt going to want to listen to this, Stewart said. Its boring legal standards were talking about, and were not talking about them very much.

The committee handles about 40 bills a day, she said, determining whether theyre germane, or fall within the legal purview of the session.

The Committees Committee also helps determine the membership of the Senates standing committees, including who serves as chair of each committee. As president pro tem of the Senate, Stewart is the chairwoman of the Committees Committee.

Kunkel said theres no reason to avoid broadcasting the Committees Committee meetings.

She noted that a similar panel in the House, the Rules and Order of Business Committee, is streamed online.

It is of grave concern to FOG that any public body would conduct the publics business surreptitiously, but it is particularly egregious for the Committees Committee do so given that it is charged with the extremely important task of determining germaneness for the thirty-day session, Kunkel said.

The panel, she said, should act with the utmost transparency and allow for the greatest possible public participation.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With control of the U.S. House at stake in November, the New Mexico Republican Party filed a lawsuit in state court Friday over a new congressional map signed into law last month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The lawsuit, also filed by seven other plaintiffs, argues the Democratic-backed map redrawing the boundaries of New Mexicos three congressional districts for the next decade intentionally chops up Republican voting strongholds.

Specifically, the suit claims the boundaries violate redistricting principles established by the Legislature and previous court rulings to accomplish a political gerrymander that dilutes the votes of southeast New Mexico residents to obtain a partisan advantage.

It was filed in the states 5th District Court in Lea County by a legal team that has also been involved with redistricting litigation in Colorado.

The Democrats cynical attempt to consolidate their power by abusing the redistricting process in New Mexico is illegal and wrong, state GOP Chairman Steve Pearce, a former congressman, said in a statement Friday.

The new congressional map, which is set to take effect in March, was passed by lawmakers on largely party-line votes during a special session last month at the Roundhouse, with majority Democrats voting in favor.

The map splits Albuquerque into two districts and moves some of southeast New Mexico, which traditionally skews conservative, into congressional districts now represented by U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernandez, both Democrats.

As a result, the 2nd Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, the lone Republican member of New Mexicos congressional delegation, would become more Democratic.

Herrell, who is seeking reelection this year, has also described the map as an example of gerrymandering and said it shows Democrats desperation to try to save Nancy Pelosis majority, a reference to the current U.S. House speaker.

However, Democratic backers of the redrawn map have described it as a legally sound approach to setting congressional district boundaries that ensures each of the states three districts includes both rural and urban areas.

Several immigrant advocacy groups have also expressed support for the map, saying it will provide fairer representation for Latino and immigrant communities, especially those who work in oil fields and other jobs in southeast New Mexico.

After signing the map into law, Lujan Grisham said it represents a reasonable baseline for competitive federal elections, in which no one party or candidate may claim any undue advantage.

The GOP-backed lawsuit disputes that claim.

It asks a judge to strike down the new boundaries and replace them with a map proposed by the Citizen Redistricting Committee, a group created last year to come up with recommendations for lawmakers.

Now, New Mexicos congressional map is a hopelessly partisan map that casts aside traditional redistricting principles to ensure a Democratic sweep through the dilution of votes, the 28-page lawsuit says.

In addition to the state Republican Party, the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include state Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice; former state House candidate Dinah Vargas of Albuquerque; and ex-Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, a Roswell Democrat who was ousted from the Senate in 2012 after serving for 34 years.

The listed defendants in the case include Lujan Grisham, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Lt. Gov. Howie Morales and top-ranking Democratic lawmakers in the state House and Senate.

Meanwhile, last years special session marked the first time in 30 years that Democrats controlled both chambers of the Legislature and the Governors Office during a redistricting year.

Lawmakers are authorized under the state Constitution to redraw political boundary lines once every decade based on population changes.

New Mexico had a population of slightly more than 2.1 million people, according 2020 census data. Thus, the target population for each of the states three congressional districts is roughly 705,000 residents.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico set a record for new reported COVID-19 cases for the third straight day Friday as the omicron variant continued to surge.

State health officials announced 6,198 additional confirmed cases, exceeding Thursdays total of 6,010.

The New Mexico Department of Health also reported 30 additional COVID-19 deaths, pushing the states death toll to 6,259.

Also Friday, the U.S. military announced it will deploy two 20-person medical teams to hospitals in Albuquerque and Shiprock, joining a third team working in Farmington.

As of Friday, 633 people were hospitalized in New Mexico for COVID-19, down from 712 on Thursday.

State health officials also identified COVID-19 as the third leading cause of death for New Mexicans in 2020, trailing only cancer and heart disease. The state reported 2,847 deaths that year.

COVID-19 killed Native Americans at nine times the rate of Anglos in 2020, the Department of Health reported. Hispanics died at 2.4 times the rate of Anglos.

Despite the omicron variant surge, health officials credit a statewide vaccination effort for tempering COVID-19 death rates in New Mexico.

As of Friday, 91% of New Mexicans 18 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, 77% had completed the vaccine series and 40% had received a booster shot.

The 30 additional COVID-19 deaths reported Friday include 17 within the past 30 days.

Four New Mexicans in their 40s are among the recent deaths, including a Bernalillo County woman, a Lincoln County woman, a San Juan County man and a Valencia County man.

A U.S. Army spokesman said most of the military medical personnel in New Mexico are likely to work with COVID-19 patients.

The teams will be fully integrated into the existing medical staff at those hospitals, said Col. Martin ODonnell, public affairs director for U.S. Army North in San Antonio, Texas.

Each 20-person team includes physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists, all of whom have the ability within their various specialties to treat COVID patients, ODonnell said.

One U.S. Navy team is slated to begin work Sunday at University of New Mexico Hospital.

A U.S. Army team is traveling to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock and is scheduled to begin work Tuesday.

A U.S. Navy medical team began work Dec. 9 at the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington.

The teams are among 220 military medical personnel currently, or soon to be, deployed in eight states and the Navajo Nation to support civilian hospital staff.

What they are doing is assisting the hospital and alleviating the stress  from COVID, he said.
The New Mexico Economic Development Department announced Friday that five local companies will receive New Mexico Small Business Innovation Research matching grants to help their businesses grow.

The NM SBIR grants are designed to support local science and technology companies in achieving their commercialization goals, according to a news release from the state agency. The state matches federal SBIR funding up to $25,000 for phase I awards, and up to $100,000 for phase II awards, according to EDD.

EDDs release states that the grant matches phase I SBIR awards up to $25,000 and phase II awardees are eligible for a match up to $100,000.

The following companies were awarded grant funding, according to the release.

 Actoprobe in Albuquerque received $100,000 to develop a needle laser for nano-spectroscopy for fast and accurate virus and DNA identification.

 Backyard Farms in Las Cruces received $25,000 to support its efforts to use freeze-drying technology to create a nutritious and delicious healthy food product that can reach vulnerable food insecure populations without the need for refrigeration.

 Emerging Technology Ventures in Alamogordo received $25,000 to develop autonomous air and ground systems with integrated predictive analytics for complex environments, such as agriculture, aerospace, renewable energy, critical infrastructure, defense, and public safety.

 Just Health Care in Albuquerque received $25,000 to support a program aimed at making pain visible in order to provide clarity and actionable steps for patients and doctors.

 NeuroGeneces in Santa Fe received $25,000 to develop a wearable device that acts as an audio pacemaker for the brain, using sounds to stimulate memory and other restorative functions while you sleep.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A man has been charged in the shooting death of another man last year at an apartment complex in Southeast Albuquerque.

Brandon Holloman, 28, is charged with an open count of murder, armed robbery, tampering with evidence and conspiracy in the March 30 death of 41-year-old Michael McCoy.

A warrant has been issued for Hollomans arrest.

Officers responded around 4:45 p.m. to a shooting at a complex at 1000 Louisiana SE, a few blocks north of Gibson. Police found McCoys wife standing over his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A neighbor told police two men came out of the wifes apartment and began arguing with McCoy when he showed up, according to court records. He said one of the men shot McCoy in the head before the pair rifled through his pockets and left in separate directions.

Police said another witness told them the wife showed no emotion when McCoy was shot and began crying only when officers arrived. The wife retained an attorney, who told police she wanted to speak with them.

The wife told police they were in the middle of a divorce and McCoy wanted to reconcile, according to court records. She said she rejected him and he became upset before she hung up on him.

Police said the wife told them McCoy called back and overheard a friend of hers talking in the background. She told police McCoy became upset and said he was going to confront them both.

The wife told police McCoy showed up and began yelling at her two friends, Drip and Kingpin, according to court records. She said one of the men shot McCoy and they both fled the scene as she vomited.

Police said the wife identified the shooter as Deshaun and police found a fingerprint belonging to Holloman, whose middle name is Deshaun. The wife and witness picked Holloman out of a photo lineup as the shooter.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

The mayor of Albuquerque on Friday called on the New Mexico Legislature to tackle a series of tough-on-crime bills during its ongoing session, arguing there is a dire need for legislative action and brushing aside criticism that one of the highest-profile proposed changes may do little to reduce crime.

Mayor Tim Keller  himself a former state senator  reiterated his administrations support for legislation that would make it easier to keep people charged with certain crimes behind bars before trial, expand the citys Violence Intervention Program across New Mexico, increase penalties for those who use firearms while committing crimes, study gun violence through a public health lens and more. The second-term mayor, his chief administrative officer and police chief made their case by describing a frustrated community beset by violence.

Were at a troubling time.  Crime  especially violent crime  has gotten to a level that our citizens are fed up, and I think theyve made their voice heard very well that they demand change, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said during a teleconferenced media briefing.

Albuquerque in 2021 broke its annual homicide record for the third time since 2017. The citys most recent crime data show increases in other violent crime too, but an overall dip in total crime due to lower property crime levels.

Keller said many essential changes require state action and if lawmakers do not vote on the proposals during the regular 30-day session, they should convene for a special session.

Heres the message from Albuquerque: This has to be fixed, he said.

Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair warned against viewing any of the bills in a vacuum, saying the city-backed slate includes several important proposals and they all work together.

But critics have galvanized around one in particular. The rebuttable presumption bill would change pretrial detention; instead of requiring prosecutors to show why a defendant should stay behind bars before trial, certain defendants are presumed to be too dangerous to release, although defendants are provided the opportunity to show otherwise. Critics cite University of New Mexico Institute for Social Research data showing that the overwhelming majority of defendants currently being released are not rearrested for violent felony offenses and argue that the change would keep many people who havent been convicted locked up while their cases work through the system.

But Nair said the 5% that UNM found were arrested on violent offenses while awaiting trial is significant. This is a matter of life and death, she said. Would you jump out of a plane if you knew that your parachute was going to fail 5% of the time?

Keller, meanwhile, said the Legislature cannot find excuses to stand back. Its always easier to say no for some small, ticky tack reason than it is to actually move forward, and thats what we need this session, he said.
The University of New Mexico mens and womens track and field programs begin their four-weekend stretch of home meets Saturday with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational. Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. with field events for the one-day meet at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Following Saturdays meet, UNM also hosts the New Mexico Team Open on Jan. 29, the New Mexico Classic (Feb. 4-5), and Don Kirby Elite Invitational (Feb. 11-12).

The indoor season action resumes after two groups of Lobos opened well over a month ago, when UNM sent 11 athletes apiece to the Air Force meet in Colorado Springs on Dec. 3 and the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University on Dec. 4.

In Boston, Abdirizak Ibrahim, a sophomore from Amarillo, set a school record in the indoor 5,000 at 13 minutes, 32.78 seconds. This record had been untouched for nearly eight years. The previous record of 13:34.54 was set by Luke Caldwell on March 14, 2014. Also in Boston, Olympian Adva Cohen reset her record for 5,000 meters by Israeli runners, her time of 15:33 well under the previous mark of 15:42.85.

New Mexico State and Eastern New Mexico are also among the programs sending athletes to Saturdays meet. Both competed last weekend at the Corky Classic in Lubbock, Texas. In NMSUs case, it was the first time the Aggies had competed in nearly two years since the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

STREAMING: UNM has agreed to a partnership with FloSports as the Lobos streaming partner through the 2025 season. FloSports will produce and stream all of New Mexicos home track & field meets through its subscription FloTrack platform and FloSports app.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Homes were left without power and hundreds of downed trees still pose a serious wildfire threat in the upper Red River Valley in the aftermath of a powerful December wind storm, government officials in Taos County were told Thursday.

As of Saturday, only 10 to 15 homes will be without power, and thats because power meter bases were damaged in the storm, said Luis Reyes, chief executive officer for Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in a phone interview late Friday. Some of those customers own second homes in the area and are being contacted, Reyes said.

A cellphone tower should also have power restored Saturday after technicians reach a mountaintop location by snowmobile, he said.

The Thursday report was issued via a Zoom meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the Enchanted Circle. Council representatives include Taos County, and municipalities within Taos and Colfax counties.

The council was meeting for an After Action Review of the Dec. 15 snow squall that damaged homes in Taos County, caused power outages around northern New Mexico and damage at Santa Fe Regional Airport.

Deep snow and downed trees in the area have made road access difficult for crews restoring power on private roads, but supply chain issues are also a factor, Reyes said during the meeting.

Crews were dealing with big downed trees and we still have poles that are buried, Reyes said.

Something has to be done about the supply chain, he said. Transformers are hard to find, poles are hard to find.

If ordered now, it would take 116 weeks to receive a transformer, something that took six to eight weeks pre-pandemic, Reyes said.

I was surprised, too, Reyes said Friday about the lengthy delivery time. Eastern storms are also draining equipment inventory, he said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed an executive order approving Taos Countys request for a disaster declaration following the storm. The order authorizes up to $750,000 in emergency funds to be made available to the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for storm relief.

There was no preplan for a snow squall with 90 mph winds, said Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe. The storm was handled the best it could be, he said.

Hogrefe said there was a lack of mobile repeaters for radio communication for first responders to talk to each other.

Reyes warned of the need to harden the electric grid with steel poles or steel sheets on conductors to prevent sparks.

My concern is the forest fires, Reyes said. We need an emergency plan for this summer. Theres just a lot of fuel up there.

There was also discussion of accessing private roads for cleanup and how to dispose of numerous tree stumps left from the storm.
Were already nearly a week into the 2022 legislative session, and the bills are flying fast and furious.

Keeping up with every new bill and each hearing can be a challenge, especially for New Mexicans who are working full time or running businesses. To help those who cant stay up to date on every twist and turn, the Journal caught up with a few groups representing New Mexico employers and employees about their priorities for the 30-day session.

What has the governor said?

A short session means picking and choosing priorities, and to this point Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has focused on tax cuts, increases to teacher pay and harsher penalties for repeat criminal offenders. During her State of the State speech last week, Lujan Grisham said her administration would earmark an additional $230 million in rent and utility assistance for low-income New Mexicans, and called for 0.25 percentage point decrease in the states gross receipts tax base rate.

Previously, the governor had promoted legislation that would elevate the production and use of clean hydrogen in an effort to boost the local economy and facilitate the states effort to decarbonize its transportation industry and other economic sectors. That proposal has drawn criticism from skeptics of the industry who are concerned about its environmental impacts.

While these focus areas can help set the agenda, individual groups each have their own priorities as the session gets underway.

New Mexico Chamber of Commerce

New Mexico Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rob Black said the organization is focused on four key areas  overall business climate, workforce and education, innovation capacity and infrastructure  that can help New Mexico offer the same level of opportunity as its neighbors.

How do we ensure that the kids in New Mexico have the same educational and career opportunities in their community that the kids in Utah, Colorado, Arizona have? Black said.

To that end, Black identified a few priorities that can help the state achieve those goals. Black supported Senate Bill 25, sponsored by Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, which would establish a research grants closing fund that would provide matching funds to public colleges to support research grants. Black described it as a way to jump-start New Mexicos innovation ecosystem.

By creating that fund, it gives us the ability  to get additional resources into New Mexico for innovation, Black said.

Additionally, Black supported efforts to reduce the states gross receipt tax but said hed like to see the reform go farther. Black said addressing tax pyramiding issues on business-to-business services, which he said hurts small businesses, could go a long way toward giving the state a more attractive business climate.

I think that would be a very important piece for our overall competitiveness as a state, he said.

The chamber is also supportive of a funding request from the state Economic Development Department, and the states effort, championed by Lujan Grisham, to make itself a hub for hydrogen generation.

The latter proposal has drawn ire from environmental groups who are concerned that the effort could slow New Mexicos transition toward clean energy and ultimately increase carbon emissions in the state. However, Black said he doesnt want to write off an industry without first figuring out if it can be viable, noting that New Mexicos geography, proximity to California and investments into alternative energy sources by its national laboratories make it an appealing opportunity.

New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty

The states nonprofit poverty law center works on a wide variety of issues, but from an economic standpoint, the focus is on helping renters and making sure the state has the capacity to enforce its new sick leave rules.

Maria Griego, director of economic equity for the center, said her teams top priority is House Bill 65. The bill, introduced by House Democrats Andrea Romero, Kristina Ortez and Angelica Rubio, would increase the amount of time renters have to pay back rent owed before their case goes before a judge, among other statutory changes.

Griego said New Mexico, which has seen significant rent growth during and leading up to the pandemic, also has one of the tightest eviction timelines in the nation. She said this can mean that tenants often dont have time to fix the situation and get the money to landlords, forcing them out into a very competitive rental market.

We really want to ensure that folks who are housed can stay housed, so that they are not forced out into an unaffordable market, and potentially end up homeless, Griego said.

HB 65 would lengthen those time frames to make sure theres more time at each step before a case goes before a judge. Griego added that the bill has support from a couple of landlord associations, and is hopeful that Lujan Grishams attention to housing issues will push the bill across the finish line during a short session after a similar bill died in committee during the 2021 session.

Were hoping that that will be the extra push that this bill needs, Griego said.

Stephanie Welch, director of workers rights for the center, said her main focus is on a budget request from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions that would give the beleaguered agency the resources it needs to enforce New Mexicos paid sick leave mandate, which is slated to go into effect in July.

We also know that guarantees like that are meaningless for many workers unless theyre enforced, Welch said.

Welch added that the money DWS is seeking  around $900,000  will go toward hiring five investigators tasked with investigating workplace violations, along with staff who can provide legal assistance and technical support.

Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce

For the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the path to prosperity is through shoring up the states crime and education issues.

Were hoping lawmakers and the Governor work together to attack crime, improve education, and make it easier and less costly to do business, live and work in New Mexico, said chamber President and CEO Terri Cole in an email.

Cole said that the organization is supportive of efforts to address pre-trial detention and aggressively recruit officers and prosecutors.

Cole echoed Blacks support for tax reform, adding that shed like to see the state eliminate its tax on Social Security income. Likewise, she said she believes New Mexico should be a leader in all forms of energy production, including hydrogen energy.

Above all, Cole said, in an uncertain economic environment, the priority should be on ensuring that businesses dont face additional, state-imposed hurdles. As such, its detrimental to even consider policies that would make it harder or costlier to do businesses here, Cole said.
Albuquerque Police Department investigating a death at an apartment at 7900 Bell SE on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal) Police investigate after a man was found dead inside a home Saturday in Southwest Albuquerque. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 2 Next

A man and woman were found dead in separate incidents in Albuquerque on Saturday.

Rebecca Atkins, an Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman, said both are being investigated as homicides.

She said police were first called around 8:30 a.m. to an apartment in the 7900 block of Bell SE, near Zuni and Pennsylvania. Arriving officers found a dead woman inside and homicide detectives were called to investigate.

Then, police responded sometime before 12:30 p.m. to a shooting at a home in the 6000 block of Sunset Gardens SW, near Bridge and Old Coors. Officers found a man dead inside.

Atkins released no other details on either incident.
BIG SUR, Calif.  A wildfire that started near the coast in Big Sur jumped to 1,500 acres by Saturday morning, largely due to gusty winds that blew the flames in unpredictable directions and prompted a large number of evacuations, Cal Fire officials said.

The Colorado fire was reported at about 7:15 p.m. in the Palo Colorado Canyon and Rocky Creek Road area in Monterey County, according to Cal Fire.

Responders had reached 5% containment and were in an active firefight on Saturday morning, with residents told to avoid Big Sur and Carmel and Highway 1 closed in both directions.

But conditions to battle the fire improved Saturday morning as the winds died down and the humidity went up, according to the National Weather Service. In the Bay Area, the same winds that spread the Colorado Fire toppled trees in the Oakland Hills.

The highway closure spanned from near the Andrew Molera State Park entrance area in Big Sur to Rio Road in Carmel, according to Caltrans District 5.

Although it started near the coast, the fire became aligned with fast-moving winds blowing in both directions and made a run through the canyons, Cal Fire Assistant Chief George Nunez said in an interview.

It moved surprisingly fast for a fire around this time of year, said Nunez, who works in Cal Fires San Benito-Monterey unit. We had a little bit of moisture and it was cold last night, but because of the winds, it burned along the slope, catch another wind and then blew in another direction.

More than 120 firefighters were on scene Friday night, but the canyons were so steep and dark that responding crews were not able to begin actively containing the flames until the morning hours, Nunez said. The cause of the fire was also still under investigation.

Humidity was in the teens and gusts were clocked around 35 mph on Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Drew Peterson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the winds near the Colorado Fire are predicted to be pretty light today, but he said firefighters will have to look out for subtle wind shifts.

Meanwhile high winds in the North Bay overnight stoked another fire. Crews put out an overnight vegetation fire at Geyser Peak in Sonoma County amidst high winds, containing the burn at 1.41 acres. No communities were threatened and the fire was no longer burning on Saturday morning, a spokesman for Cal Fires Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit said.

A National Weather Service wind advisory for higher elevations in the East Bay Hills and the Santa Cruz Mountains is expiring Saturday morning as winds die down, but gusts over 90 miles per hour were recorded in the North Bay in at least two locations just east of the fire location Friday night through Saturday morning.

Peterson says the forecast for the North Bay predicts winds will continue to die down throughout the day on Saturday.



#YR@ MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at mercurynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Quantico' star and her husband decided to pursue surrogacy as they reportedly had been wanting to have a baby together for 'quite some time' but their busy work schedules had gotten in the way.

Jan 22, 2022

AceShowbiz - Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are officially parents now. The "Quantico" actress and the one-third of the Jonas Brothers are "overjoyed" after welcoming their first child twelve weeks early via surrogate.

The couple, who tied the knot with three lavish wedding receptions in 2018, surprised their fans with exciting news of their growing family in a statement shared on their Instagram pages on Friday, January 21. "We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate," the pair wrote.

"We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family," Priyanka and Nick continued, before concluding their statement, "Thank you so much [red heart emoji]." However, they didn't reveal further details about the sex or name of the child.

In the meantime, a source close to the couple told Daily Mail that Priyanka and Nick became parents on Sunday, January 16. The insider further added that the baby is a girl. She was born at 27 weeks at a Southern California hospital, where she will remain until she is healthy enough to return home with her parents.

According to the so-called inside source, Priyanka and Nick had been wanting to have a baby together for "quite some time," but their schedules had gotten in the way of their family planning. They eventually contacted an agency to explore their options. The agency then connected them with a woman, who they believed was a good match.

"Priyanka doesn't have any fertility issues preventing her from having a baby, but she is 39 now so it's not getting any easier," the informant explained, adding that "their busy work schedules also mean that it's difficult for them to physically be together to conceive when she is ovulating."

The insider added, "So some time ago they went down the surrogacy route," before saying that this is the woman's "fifth surrogacy." The source continued, "They met her and really liked her."

"The baby had been due in April but the surrogate ended up giving birth on Sunday, so she was very premature," the source added more details. "Priyanka had been trying to get her filming all done before the baby was due in April but obviously this has completely thrown her plans."

The insider also addressed rumors that there might be trouble in paradise in the "Baywatch" actress and her husband's marriage. "There were rumors and speculation that the marriage was in trouble and that they might divorce, but that's total nonsense. Nick and Priyanka are very happy together," so said the source.

As for now, the baby girl and the surrogate are currently in hospital, as explained by the informant. Both Priyanka and Nick are waiting for the baby to be healthy enough to be moved to a hospital in Los Angeles.

The news of their baby arrived just days after it's reported that Priyanka and Nick were "very interested" in starting a family after they were hit with divorce rumors, which left Priyanka feeling "very vulnerable." A source spilled to HollywoodLife.com on January 18 that "they are on their own pace and aren't going to be rushed or be pushed into a place where their fans want their relationship to go."

The source further insisted that "all is well with Nick and Pri, and it is really nice to see." The insider also said that the two "know the drill about being in a Hollywood relationship," adding that they knew that everything they do "will be speculated on and looked at in each and every way."
Music

Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel inform fans that they have canceled their reunion tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1996 album, 'The Score'.

Jan 22, 2022

AceShowbiz - The Fugees are the latest musical act to cancel their tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, December 21, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel announced on social media that they have axed their reunion tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1996 album, "The Score".

The hip-hop group shared the announcement on Instagram. "We anticipate and understand disappointment, but our anniversary tour will not be able to happen. The continued COVID pandemic has made touring conditions difficult, and we want to make sure we keep our fans and ourselves healthy and safe," the message first read.

"An idea sparked to honor and celebrate this 25th anniversary of 'The Score' but we see now it may not currently be our time for revisiting this past work," it added. "We're grateful for the special night we did get to share with some of you in New York, with that rare live moment."

"If opportunity, public safety, and scheduling allow, we hope to be able to revisit this again sometime soon," the statement continued. "Thank you for all of your love and support throughout the years."

Many fans have since expressed their disappointment in the comment section. "Killing me softly with this post. Killing me softlyyyyyy with this post," one person lamented. Another added, "We all saw this coming thanks for getting everyone's hopes up for nothing."

Some others, meanwhile, asked for refunds. "When will this be updated on ticket master with refund details?" one user asked, with another echoing, "Are we getting refunded???" A different person stressed, "Ok so give us our money back!"

The Fugees, which previously disbanded in 1997, launched "The Score" anniversary reunion tour in September 2021 with a show on The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City. In the following month, however, they announced its posponement.

"Dates for our upcoming Fugees 25th Anniversary Tour are moving to early 2022 to ensure the best chance that all cities on the tour will be fully open so we can perform for as many fans as possible," they said at the time. "With so much excitement around the reunion tour, we are also happy to announce that we will be adding more cities and dates! Full details coming soon along with some SPECIAL announcements!"

The Fugees were supposed to kick off the 12-city tour last November at the United Center in Chicago. The final shows were set to take place in Nigeria and Ghana, Africa in December.
Instagram Celebrity

In photos taken at the crash site, the former California Governor's Yukon SUV is seen landing on top of a red Prius after he allegedly made an illegal left turn.

Jan 22, 2022

AceShowbiz - Arnold Schwarzenegger may be to blame for a scary car accident that left at least one person injured. The "Terminator" actor was involved in a multiple car crash in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, January 21.

According to TMZ, law enforcement sources believe the 74-year-old former bodybuilder was at fault in the accident. He reportedly was turning left when the left turn arrow was still red, hence the collision. Despite his supposed mistake, he was reportedly not ticketed.

The accident happened after 4 P.M. at Sunset Boulevard and Allenford Avenue, which is about a mile from Arnold's home. The former Governator was driving his Yukon SUV when it collided with a red Prius. His SUV started to roll and ended up on top of the Prius, and then continued rolling to the left into a Porsche Cayenne.

"There a four-car accident today at 4:35 P.M. on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Allenford in Los Angles," Officer Drake Madison at the LAPD told HollywoodLife.com. "In the accident, one car rolled on top of another. That is the only accident today on Sunset Blvd."

The officer refused to name the persons involved in the accident, but Arnold was seen in pictures taken at the crash site. While the officer initially said "no one is suspected to have been transported to the hospital" and did not know "extent of their injuries," Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department has confirmed that the LAFD transported one person to a nearby hospital.

According to an eyewitness, the woman who was driving the Prius was the one taken to the hospital by ambulance. She was reportedly bleeding heavily from her head.

Arnold himself appears to be unharmed in the accident. He is reportedly deeply concerned about the injured woman and wants to personally check up on her.

In photos taken after the collision, his Yukon is seen on top of the Prius as he exchanged info with other individuals who were apparently involved in the crash. He also talked to an officer, while his friend Jake Steinfeld of "Body By Jake" fame was seen at the scene.
REDDING, Calif. - Officials say the tanker truck that crashed in Redding was carrying up to 7,700 gallons of petroleum before rolling over Friday morning.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Prevention and Response said an undetermined amount went into storm drains that leads to the Sacramento Watershed.

The Redding Police Department said the road closures are expected to be in effect until 9 p.m. Friday.

The crash happened around 4:30 a.m.

Crews are working to contain as much petroleum as possible.

The Redding Fire Department said it made an Overflow Dam by Park Marina Drive which could contain and capture contaminants before they hit the Sacramento River.

The Red Bluff City Public Works shut down the river area of the City Park and Dog Island Park but plans to reopen it Friday.

Public Works told Action News Now it closed the area out of precaution but has not seen containments in the river.

CAL FIRE Butte County sent personnel and equipment to the incident.

The following roads remained closed:
NeoGrowth, Indias leading SME digital lender, recently appointed its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Arun Nayyar, to the companys Board of Directors, with effect from January 6, 2022. He has been designated as Whole-time Director & CEO, and with this appointment, the Board now comprises nine members.

Mr. Arun Nayyar, 45, has more than two decades of rich experience in the BFSI industry, and has spent the last 12 years in leading early and growth stage MSME lending businesses. Prior to NeoGrowth, Arun Nayyar was with Edelweiss Financial Services where he had been the Chief Executive Officer  SME Lending. He has also worked with Citibank and CRISIL. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification.

Mr. Arun Nayyar has served as CEO of NeoGrowth since August 2018. Under his leadership, the company has been focusing on innovation with proprietary technology. He has played an instrumental role in advancing the digital loan journey for NeoGrowth customers, increasing its branch network, adding to its product range, and growing the portfolio. The company has also navigated through multiple challenges including the outbreak and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been a clear focus on building technology, use of analytics and staying at the forefront of latest industry developments.

Mr. Dhruv Khaitan, Founder & Chairman, NeoGrowth, said, Aruns stewardship has resulted in delivering tremendous business value to all stakeholders, in spite of the pandemic distress. Under his leadership, NeoGrowths business volumes are back to pre-COVID levels. I look forward to have him on the Board as we continue to work together in this journey for NeoGrowth to reach newer heights.

Mr. Arun Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer, NeoGrowth, said, I thank the Board for reposing their faith in me. At NeoGrowth, we continue to introduce tailored products and services that make digital lending easy and effective for all small businesses and meet their holistic business needs. With the support of the Board, I look forward to driving NeoGrowth to its highest potential.

During the pandemic, NeoGrowth was one of the first non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to create a customer outreach program, Sanjivni, as a measure to combat COVID-19 efficiently. Over the last three years, NeoGrowth has introduced several digitally enabled products like NeoCash Insta Loan, Plus secured loans, and several digital assets including a customer app to support the customer throughout the loan journey. The company has also put in place a very responsive and proactive risk management approach to overcome business challenges.

Mr. Nayyar will continue to lead NeoGrowth and strengthen its unique digital payments-based lending model with a customer centric approach.
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Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabuls airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here? They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom. Arne Duncan, 8/29.21 Twitter

The cruelty, ignorance and moral superiority drip off the screen from former Secretary of Education under President Obama Arne Duncan. We can shrug it off, call him a jerk, move on. Or we can take a hard look at the thought process of people with current or former power within our government and their platform/capacity to incite deep fears that have one goal - compliance. Secretary Duncan might want to pay some of us a visit, to find out how akin we are to suicide bombers as we care for our children 24/7/365. It is WE who got bombed, and 25 years into the autism epidemic, we are less respected and more hated than ever - how's that for an ugly truth. Hard to believe where we are today as a nation. Hard to believe.



Here is the Tweet text below: www.twitter.com/arneduncan

Managing Partner, The Emerson Collective. #ChicagoCRED. Author of How Schools Work. Here are the Emerson Collective's stated priorities:



Immigration Helping aspiring Americans and new immigrants succeed

Education Clearing pathways to a meaningful education

Climate Building solutions at the intersection of climate innovation and environmental justice.

XQ: The Super School Project Rethinking America's high schools

Chicago CRED Creating real economic destiny in Chicago

Equity & Justice Shaping new systems of opportunity for all

Media & Journalism Provoking thought and strengthening democracy

Health Accelerating cancer research and empowering patients
The race among Republicans who want to be the states school chief could come down to whethe
On Friday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, demanding that the state cease paying millions in federal COVID-19 relief funds to schools that don't have mask regulations or that have closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

The case, which was filed in federal court in Phoenix a week ago, follows the US Treasury Department's request that Ducey either alters the $163 million program to remove restrictions that it claims are detrimental to public health or face a refund demand.

Arizona Gov. Ducey suing feds to keep school anti-mask rules

Per ABC News, the Treasury Department also wants to modify a $10 million program that Ducey established to reimburse parents for private school tuition if their children's schools have mask mandates.

According to Ducey's complaint, the Treasury Department unilaterally imposed spending limits on the money Arizona gets under President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan Act. It seeks a judge to declare the Treasury Department's guidelines unconstitutional and to permanently halt enforcement as well as any demands that it repay the $173 million it spent on the two initiatives.

In October, the Treasury Department demanded that Ducey alter the programs. It was part of a coordinated attempt to get Arizona and a few other Republican-led states to stop opposing mask regulations or using pandemic cash to further their own objectives.

The following month, Ducey turned down Treasury's request, and this week, the Biden administration issued a formal demand that it stop utilizing the funds for the disputed initiatives or face payback demands or withholding of other funds expected to be received under Biden's COVID-19 relief measure.

The Biden administration has threatened to reclaim COVID-19 relief money granted to Arizona, claiming that state regulations prevent families and school districts from implementing federal instructions suggesting face coverings in classrooms.

Two state initiatives are at issue, both of which are intended to aid schools and kids but both divert funds away from jurisdictions that have mask requirements. Schools in Arizona are eligible for $163 million in financing under the Education Plus-Up Grant Program; however, districts that enforce face coverings are not eligible.

In addition, if their child's school mandates facial coverings, the COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit Program gives up to $7,000 to parents, PBS reported.

Read Also: Republicans Urge Info on Hunter Biden's Travels as President's Son Is Accused of Investing in Chinese Company Tied to Communist Party

Mask rules spark an unpleasant environment in the House

Republicans often disregard Democratic-enacted rules forcing legislators to wear masks at the Capitol, highlighting the House's scorched-earth attitude toward the coronavirus.

For much of the outbreak, Republicans and Democrats have been at odds with what restrictions should be implemented to keep the Capitol and the public safe.

Over two years after the initial incidents in the United States, things are worsening, not improving, in terms of individuals abiding by the regulations. Pushing back against Democratic mask regulations has been considered as excellent political by a number of Republicans, as per The Hill.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, both far-right Republicans, have been penalized at least $148,500 for frequently disobeying the House chamber's mask rule. Greene and Clyde have used their reluctance to wear masks as a badge of honor, and the penalties have gotten them even more attention.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee declined this week to comply with Chairman Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) request that all members be tested for COVID-19 before attending an Iran briefing.

Rep. Michael Turner (Ohio), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, made a point of announcing at the weekly GOP leadership press conference on Wednesday that he and other members of the panel would not agree to be tested before the closed-door briefing scheduled for the next day.

For politicians and employees, the Capitol complex has its own COVID-19 testing station, where PCR test results are usually available the same day. Turner didn't deny the need for testing but claimed that politicians shouldn't be able to take advantage of easy access to COVID-19 testing when many Americans have been having trouble finding tests in recent weeks.

Related Article: Joe Biden's Allies Foresee Probes, Impeachment Attempts as Midterm Election Looms

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Theres this: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.... The Constitution, Article 1, Section 4. Hooray!

Then theres this: ...but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. The Constitution, Article 1, Section 4 continued. Oh.

Today Americans can feel relief and gladness. The Senate put to rest the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. Much has been written regarding all the bad ideas contained in this bill; a recent example of one such essay is here. Some Democrats are already gearing up to continue the fight for its passage.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams may have just thrown those plans into disarray. In fact, though not the first location to allow noncitizens to participate in voting, his notoriety as the mayor of Americas largest city has brought the issue to the fore. Maryland, Vermont, and California all have jurisdictions in which some form of noncitizen voting is permitted. Its being seriously considered in others. Mayor Adams recently approved it for NYC.

Now is the time for conservatives to take a good hard look at federalizing elections, from an America First perspective, and not with just a knee-jerk no reaction.

We are front and center stage of the biggest technological revolution this world has seen. Cyber-security has never been stronger, though our adversaries are constantly on the attack. Cloud computing provides nearly unlimited processing and storage of data. Only children, and not all of them, are without some form of plasticized, chipped, secured, or enhanced card or US passport.

Buying groceries during the pandemic, when nearly every place in town stopped taking cash, required a plastic credit, debit, or EBT card. How were those cards acquired? By showing a government-issued identification card. Almost everyone over 65 has a Medicare card. How did they get them? By showing a government-issued identification card. What other information is commonly required for the issuance of such pieces of plastic? A valid full name, date, place of birth, and social security number.

So, if we federalize elections, our single goal is to ensure the validity of votes for federal elective office. When We The People speak it is we the eligible people: American citizens who are residents of our voting jurisdiction and who have taken the time to register to vote.

Image: Voting by freepik.

Steps to take in federalizing elections should include:

Federally funded PSAs reminding folks to register to vote at least 15 days before a federal election. Then. closing registrations 14 days before the election so state electoral offices have adequate time to process voting rolls for polling places and to send out absentee ballots. Along with this, not conducting any naturalization ceremonies within 20 days of a federal election to ensure that new citizens have time to register to vote and are not disenfranchised.

All voter registrations must be in person and the process must securely capture commonly required data in the registration. New voter registrations also should capture clear images of the original, certified, government-issued documents used to prove citizenship and legal residence. All current voters could be given ten years to update their registrations with their documents. Congress can help fund the needed equipment if it is not already on hand.

Build in automatic search features based on common data and addresses, so that duplicates, frauds, and inadvertent registrant or registrar errors are caught immediately rather than being subject to hit-or-miss auditing after the fact.

Given the Democrat citys trend to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, require states to fund separate polling places for those who are not citizens so that there is no chance that noncitizen votes will be cast in federal elections.

Abolish automatic voter registration, including motor-voter registration, when acquiring a drivers license. Voting is a deliberative act and registering to vote must be just as serious.

Enforce annual purging of voter rolls using locally available data, as well as Social Security death records and USPS changes of address notification. Require notification to and purging of voter rolls for those who have not voted in ten years.

Limit absentee voting in federal elections to those legitimately abroad, working temporarily out of state like the military, or away at school where they pay out-of-state tuition. No ballot harvesting allowed. Encourage volunteer groups to assist those in need to access polling places. Encourage states to allow the disabled a separate line to vote.

Limit early voting at polling places to a maximum of two weeks before the election and have this early voting end two days before Election Day. Allow Election Day to be a holiday only in states with no early voting. Electronically capture the original ID used when voting in person and compare it to the voting registration record. Strengthen regulations regarding handling, securing, and transporting ballot boxes, voting machines, and ballots.

Require voting machines and their components to have been manufactured and assembled in the United States. Prohibit any voting machine data from being accessed from or transmitted to or through a point outside of the United States.

Require sufficient polling places, each staffed and closely observed by bi-partisan staff, so that voters are not discouraged from voting by extensively long wait times. Require all staff to remain on site until all votes are counted and certified. Counting in federal elections may not be interrupted before completion, with sufficient staff to accommodate meal and bathroom breaks.

Prohibit the use of drop boxes. Prohibit states from mailing absentee ballots to addresses within the United States fewer than 15 days before an election to ensure they can be completed and returned or, at minimum, postmarked before the end of polling place voting. Require overseas ballot returns to be postmarked or received and stamped at a US Embassy or Consulate no later than voting day. Require a copy of a photo ID to accompany an absentee ballot. Absentee ballots, IDs, and envelopes should be electronically captured when opened.

Such a bill does not need to be cluttered with election funding and other extraneous issues.

Calling on all Senators and Representatives who love their country and want to see her continue to be proud, strong, and free. It may well be the moment to further federalize federal elections to ensure their integrity. These are new times and require new ways though, perhaps, not what has been most recently contemplated by the left.

Anony Mee is the nom de blog of a retired public servant who was elected precinct committeeman at the age of 18 the year that 18-year-olds got the vote, and served as a judge of elections that same year.
Our culture has a very confused sense of heroism, often applauding the biggest, strongest, loudest, or wealthiest, writes Catholic commentator Bear Woznick in his new book, Deep Adventure: The Way of Heroic Virtue (Sophia Institute Press). In response to this distortion, he has drawn upon his own daring life of surfing Hawaiis waves, skydiving, and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, to examine insightfully the seven cardinal virtues.

Woznick counters the modern exaltation of braggadocio with courages mundane basis. Thus true heroism -- the kind that saves lives, preserves dignity, and protects the most vulnerable -- is a determined, steadfast power, under control and directed toward the good with the clarity of purpose that comes with humility. Heroism is developed over time, one decision after another, moment by moment, formed by a deliberate, chosen, and habitual response to life, he adds.

Heroes are not made by a spiders bite or on an alien planet, Woznick clarifies. A hero is just a common person, like you and me, choosing to do an uncommon thing. Virtue forms such a hero, as Woznick notes its root in the Latin word vir, which means manly. True manliness is the pursuit of virtue.

Justice stands at the beginning of Woznicks analysis of the virtues:

The virtue of justice in its classic sense has two focuses: justice toward God and justice toward others. Think of the vertical beam of the cross as being justice toward God and the horizontal beam as justice toward others. Where the beams intersect is where we are called to live.

Prudence, meanwhile, vitally concerns the surfer Woznick. Many people think big wave riders have a death wish, but the opposite is true. Their go-for-it attitude is really a life wish. They want to live to the fullest, he notes. Without prudence, we cannot fully experience Gods plan for us. Without prudence, we are lost beneath the crushing waves or, worse, left sunning ourselves on the shores of mediocrity, Woznick analyzes. Abandoning yourself to Gods will requires a prudent boldness If you are going to stay inside your comfort zone, you dont need prudence at all -- you just need a footrest.

Woznick wisely distinguishes between earthly and heavenly desires in his discussion of temperance. The virtue of temperance is the self-mastery to enjoy pleasure without craving it. It is moderating our appetites so that we control them instead of them controlling us, he observes. By contrast, the only thing we can infinitely desire is an infinite being, namely God; If we desire God first and foremost, we will never fall into the trap of wanting more.

Fortitude is the determined pursuit of the good, Woznick writes as he reaches the last of the natural virtues, and is the courage to do violence to our own weak will and say no to the easy way that leads to defeat. Faith in God creates fortitudes foundation, for can there be any fear when we are with God? God is love, and perfect love casts out fear, Woznick observes. I know that whether I live or die or push forward in prolonged suffering, God is with me.

From fortitude, Woznick transitions to the supernatural or theological virtues, beginning with faith. Faith is dynamic, like a pent-up energy wanting to explode. Faith without action is dead, he intriguingly states, for God is calling you to continually move out in faith. He is calling you to do the impossible, every day. Every time I jump out of a plane, I feel the same rush that I feel when I take a leap of faith in response to God. Jesus challenged Peter to exercise his faith and to step out of the boat.

True faith banishes worry and demands a confident sabbath rest amidst Gods security, Woznick explains. When we worry, we are actually trying to exert our will over His. Making anything other than God and His will our goal is ultimately idolatry, Woznick observes. Trust. Rest. And try easy, is his motto.

Hope arises out of the deep desire for God. The yearning to connect with beauty, to intimately share our lives with someone, and to seek perfection comes from the very core of our being because it is actually the deep longing for intimacy with our Creator, Woznick notes. Accordingly, [t]o pursue that longing -- to seek the knowledge of God -- is to have the virtue of hope.

Hope entails giving control to God. Once weve turned our back on the land and abandoned our will to Gods, weve given up all control, Woznick writes. Even so, we wait in hope and in prayer for the presence of the Lord.

Woznick concludes with a similarly energetic understanding of love. Love isnt about feelings. Who has warm and fuzzy feelings for an enemy? No, love is about action. Its the committed desire for the good of another and enacting it, he writes. Jesus commands us to make the choice of love, even for those who dont deserve it in our opinions.

As with Woznicks pious mother in her long deathbed struggles, love often involves suffering. He points to Gods wrestling with Jacob in the Old Testament as an example. If we desire true intimacy with God, we can expect that there will be times when God will drive us into the dark night and will wrestle with us as we try to cling to the world, the flesh, and the devil, Woznick notes.

The ocean blue provides the perfect setting for Woznicks journey ever deeper into the wild and untamable adventure of Gods love. Woznicks penetrating study of the seven cardinal virtues shows that they are not the stuff of mere academic discussions, but principles for a life both well-examined and well-lived. Woznick will not leave readers in their armchairs the same.

Image: Alexander von Bensa
Hearing the Department of Justice describe them, one would think that the Oath Keepers are the scariest bunch of anti-American knuckleheads to come down the pike since the Ku Klux Klan. Given that a bunch of them were just arrested for plotting an insurrection -- that the FBI assured us wasnt an insurrection -- this is a good time to get to know who they actually are.

Media coverage of the group is sprinkled with terms like right-wing extremists, anti-government extremists, and far right militia. Like any story, the reporting about the Oath Keepers can be spun to support a narrative or to give an unbiased assessment. The MSM has chosen to go with the narrative. One has to look beyond the scare quotes, and assess what the organization has actually done to get a true sense of its nature.

The Oath Keepers was founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes. It is a national, but loosely knit organization, created to resist violations of civil liberties by the government. In 2009, that sounded like conspiracy nut thinking. But since the organizations founding, weve been treated to Crossfire Hurricane, two impeachment show trials, COVID shutdowns, election 2020, and our own government targeting parents as domestic terrorists. What sounded crazy in 2009 sounds prescient in 2022.

Stewart Rhodes is an army veteran (a paratrooper) and a Yale Law School graduate. He understands what our Founders intended for America, and has served to defend it. He believes that the Democrats see illegal immigration as a way to get more votes -- pay no attention to those canceled border wall contracts. He also believes the Democrats would like to confiscate everyones guns -- because thats exactly what theyve said. He considers BLM to be a communist front organization -- which isnt a big leap given that its leaders are trained Marxists. Such crazy thinking cant be tolerated -- if youre a Democrat or a deep state operative. In short, Rhodes is only an extremist if the ideas of freedom, limited government, and self-determination are now extreme.

The organizations name is a reference to the oath that all soldiers and law enforcement officers swear -- to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Although anyone can join, a large percentage of the membership is comprised of people who have taken that oath in either law enforcement or the military. Is that what the propaganda ministry calls extremist? Consider this: If all of our government officials complied with the oath they have sworn (looking at you Merrick Garland), would America be better or worse?

The Oath Keepers has local chapters across the country which operate with great autonomy. The national organization will sometimes support local chapter initiatives. However, sometimes the national organization also steps in to tell a local chapter to knock it off if they stray off course. In other words, the organization grants its chapters great latitude to serve their communities but polices them to ensure they dont become radicalized.

What has the Oath Keepers done to earn the far right militia label? In 2014, members of the Oath Keepers participated in a standoff with federal authorities at the Bundy ranch in Nevada. Cliven Bundy was in a conflict with the government over grazing rights for his cattle. He was eventually arrested and held in jail for nearly two years. In 2018, a federal judge declared a mistrial with prejudice -- meaning Bundy could never be retried. The judge reached that decision because of what she called flagrant prosecutorial misconduct. The case was never decided on its merits, but in Bundys prosecution, the government displayed the very tyranny which members of the Oath Keepers have sworn to resist -- and which their critics claim doesnt exist.

In 2015, the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson MO triggered widespread rioting. The Oath Keepers provided protection to store owners from vandals and looters after the police refused to do so. They were doing exactly what Asian shopowners did in 1992 after the Rodney King incident. Extensive news reporting claims that their presence alarmed the rioters. Theres no word on how the property owners felt about their presence. Apparently, in 21st century America, the notion that people have a right to protect private property has become extreme.

In 2016, the Oath Keepers proved just how subversive they were -- they endorsed Donald Trump for President. In his campaign, Trump pledged to fight against the corrupt elite, so it was a birds of a feather thing. But siding with the hated Trump against the corrupt elite, made Rhodes an enemy -- at least of the corrupt elite.

After the election in 2020, Rhodes questioned the legitimacy of the election. His embrace of the big lie moved him and his organization firmly into the threat to America category, as judged by the Democrat party. Hes in good company. Over half of all Americans believe the election was affected by fraud.

Rhodes has also accused Joe Biden of being in the pocket of the Chinese government. Where could he have gotten that idea? Could it be because Joe shared an office with a Chinese businessman? Could it be that his son, Hunter, has had lucrative business dealings with the Chinese -- and Hunters laptop has evidence that the big guy was getting 10 percent of the take? Could the fact that Hunter launched a new "money for influence" business after President Asterisk was inaugurated have given Rhodes that idea?

When one looks beyond the scare quotes, there has been nothing out of the mainstream about the opinions or actions of the Oath Keepers. Unfortunately, to our leftist dictator wannabes, mainstream has come to mean extreme.

As for the indictment of Stewart Rhodes and his fellow travelers: the DoJ claims that they intended to conduct an armed paramilitary operation on January 6, 2021, to interfere with official congressional business. There are a couple of hurdles the government will need to overcome in prosecuting that case:

None of the Oath Keepers were armed on January 6

No paramilitary operation was conducted on January 6

The Feds are going to need to answer a couple of tricky questions for the jury. How do they know what the Oath Keepers intended to do? If they intended to conduct an armed insurrection, why didnt they? Given the FBIs lost credibility, and the DoJ evolution to being a political enforcer, whatever evidence they have will not be presumed accurate, but will be subjected to extensive vetting.

As the financial guys say: Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. So, what have the Oath Keepers done in the past? Theyve defended the property rights of private citizens, protested an election that half of America thinks was stolen and accused Biden of being a Chinese puppet. Stewart Rhodes must have learned a thing or two about the Constitution at Yale Law. All of his organizations past activities have been entirely consistent with the Constitution -- freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, property rights, and government by the people. Unfortunately, we live in an America in which one of the two political parties believes those positions are extreme. The issue isnt the Oath Keepers. The issue is our current political environment.

I dont find the past performance of the Oath Keepers to be particularly alarming. However, I find the past performance of our government to be extremely alarming. There have clearly been subversive activities going on in America, but the Oath Keepers arent the only suspects. We dont know what the Oath Keepers actually did, or didnt do, on January 6. Given the recent behavior of the FBI, the DoJ, and the propaganda ministry, Ill withhold judgment until the evidence has been thoroughly vetted. Im not taking the governments word for anything.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network (afnn.us). He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Oath Keepers
What's been even more disheartening than the Democrats' destructive combination of viciousness and ineptitude has been that Republican congresspeople are supine. Most of them crumble when anyone says "racist" or "January 6." Worse still are those Republicans who have chosen to ally with the Democrats regarding everything from January 6 to the radical LGBTQ+ agenda. The only way to change this is through the primaries. South Carolina is illustrative.

Too many Republicans began paying attention to South Carolina's House of Representatives race for the 1st District in October 2020, when it was Joe Cunningham, the Democrat incumbent, versus Nancy Mace, the Republican. Mace won, but what a disappointment she has been.

Mace is barely even a RINO, so left are her positions. "I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality," she stated, and she means it. She supports Roe v. Wade and wants to make marijuana legal, which Colorado's experiment argues against. Mace is a Liz Cheneysupporter. Only reluctantly did she vote to remove Cheney as chair of the House Republican conference, but then only because Cheney was "divisive." And of course, Mace is on board with the Democrats' January 6 narrative.

Had more voters paid attention during the primaries, they might have averted Mace's candidacy and put a real conservative in Congress. Mace's record was always dodgy. For example, Mace made a big deal about being the first female cadet to graduate from the Citadel. She did that by getting credits from a community college so she could graduate before the three female cadets who started with her. Maybe Mace just wanted to get out of college fast, but it smells like an operator trying for a resume-enhancer.

When she left the Citadel, Mace didn't take that rigorous training to the military. Instead, she went into business. There's no obligation to enter the military after graduation from the Citadel, but there's also something a little tacky about her racing to get that "first female graduate" label and then...nothing.

A minute's digging would also have revealed Erick Erickson's 2013 post about Nancy Mace, entitled "No Way in Hell Will I Support Nancy Mace." Or Newblog45's "Profiles in Discourage: Nancy Mace." Those two articles alone would have ensured that conservatives would not have supported her in the 2020 primary.

The problem is that Nancy Mace now has a foot in the door. Incumbents have a huge advantage, especially in the kind of tight political circles you find in long-established communities like the Charleston area. That's why it's especially important for conservatives to focus on their primaries and learn who's challenging weak incumbents.



Image: Nancy Mace (public domain); U.S. Capitol by Martin Falbisoner (CC BY-SA 3.0).

This was brought to my attention when I ran into Ingrid Centurion, who is challenging Mace to be the Republican candidate for South Carolina's 1st District. I'm not endorsing Centurion, because that's not what we do here at American Thinker.* I just want to tell you about one of the people who is doing the hard work of challenging a RINO. I'm betting you'll find similar challengers in your communities  but you must pay attention to the primaries.

Centurion is a dynamo. She's the youngest of four children born to immigrant parents. (Her father came from Argentina and her mother from Puerto Rico.) When Centurion was two, her parents were in a serious car accident that killed her father, leaving her mother to raise four children on her own. Inspired by her mother's strength, she was a commercial pilot by the time she was 20. Rather than staying in the commercial arena, Ingrid chose to serve her country, joining the U.S. Army as a pilot:

She is a combat tested and proven leader who flew combat missions searching for terrorist groups from Balad Airport, Iraq. Ingrid served our country for over two decades in the U.S. Army as a helicopter instructor and maintenance test pilot and RC-12P fixed wing pilot. She flew interdiction missions along the South Western Border and served as the Science and Technology Officer for Joint Task Force North.

Centurion retired as a lieutenant colonel after 24 22 years and went into private industry, where she again took on high-level responsibilities.

When it comes to her values, Centurion is a true conservative. She stands for free speech and the Second Amendment. She opposes Critical Race Theory, COVID mandates, the extreme LGBTQ agenda, open borders, abortion, and the Democrats' continued push to enshrine voter fraud. I liked her and will keep an eye on her as we go into the primaries.

My point, though, isn't to endorse Centurion. It's bigger than that: you must understand that, by November, it's too late to get politically involved. If we're to have a Congress that will stand up to Biden, investigate corruption, and reverse creeping socialism, we must have conservatives on the ballot, rather than whatever RINOs the GOP selects. The battle ends in November, but it begins with the primaries.

___________________________

* Currently, the other Republicans who will be on the June 14 South Carolina primary ballot for the 1st District, and whom I haven't yet met but would be happy to speak with, are Thomas Allen, Keith Blandford, and Lynz Piper-Loomis.
Kamala Harris is going abroad again.

This time, she's upping her game a little from her last one, the Paris shopping trip, and now heading to Honduras, where plenty is at stake.

Arriving on Jan. 27 or so, she will meet the new Honduran president, who's a historic "first," a female president, which will provide plenty of grist for the Kamala identity politics mill, which interests her more than the border surge. She'll talk about "firsts" and then at some point get to "root causes" of illegal immigration as if that information were not already available in some place like Yuma, Arizona, where the latest surge is surging. Instead of going to that un-romantic place with no red carpets and saluting military men, or some other U.S. border point of entry, she'll do her happy hunting for those "root causes" from a cosseted former first lady of a leftist stripe who's since been elected president. She's likely to get into some kind of trouble, given whom she's getting involved with.

Who is Xiomara Castro, the about-to-be sworn-in new president of Honduras? None other than the wife and second cousin of "Cowboy Hat," former Honduran president Mel Zelaya, with that "Mel" short for "Little Melon"  remember him? He was the former wannabe Hugo Chavez who got booted from the presidency in 2009 on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court. Zelaya broke the law regarding an illegal "poll" he was conducting with the Venezuelan military's "help" and, when ordered by the Court to stop, didn't. The Court recognized what he was doing as a disguised bid to scrap the country's constitution through a phony coerced poll in order to replace it with a Hugo Chavez-style alternative. Zelaya wanted to join the club and have the same things Hugo had. After he ignored the Court, the Court ordered him out, and he got rousted from his sleep by the Honduran military acting on orders from the High Court and Legislature, which forced him onto an airplane to Costa Rica "in his pajamas." (A State Department official told me that actually, he was buck naked, so somebody put some kind of clothes on him.) The global left yelled "coup," but the word on the street in Honduras was that it was not a coup, based on the number of law-abiding Hondurans who came out to support and celebrate the ouster. Zelaya tried to rouse a revolt from his asylum in the Brazilian embassy, but no one took him up on it. After that, he claimed that the Israelis were doing radar experiments on him or something. He eventually fled to the Dominican Republic, where he ran out on his hotel tab before returning to Honduras, leaving the D.R. to pay the bill. Chavez adored the mustachioed, cowboy-booted dictator wannabe, calling him "Comandante Vaquero."

Zelaya's never regained power since, given what a horrible president he was, but now the wifey has managed to the top spot, in the same way as the leftist clown show in Argentina and to a certain extent Nicaragua. Hillary Clinton, of course, looked at the whole thing as a how-to guide but wasn't as successful as Senora Zelaya.

So now it's Kamala and Zelaya's wife, the latter of whom got herself elected to the office only because the alternative was so gamy. The previous Honduran president had a drug-dealer brother on one of the Treasury Department's bad lists doing a stretch in jail. The Honduran president himself was implicated in the dealing, too, so to Hondurans, it was a choice of the lefty wife or the dopers, and yes, they chose poorly, because now they've gotten something worse: a communist who is sure to leave the country poorer and more miserable, with its nationals even more inclined to join the ranks of illegal aliens flooding our border.

That's kind of the idea, from Kamala's point of view. The more illegals hitting the U.S., the better. They might even get along famously, assuming Castro can deal with the giggling. Harris is likely to bring in her public-private corporate interests, nearly all of which are there not to create jobs, but to make the prospect of becoming an illegal alien in the States easier. Bank transfer services, an English language learning app, advisers on starting bi-country businesses, a slew of them that foster illegality in the states are to be among her offerings. Very little of what she is bringing with her is commonly called "jobs" at newly built factory-type establishments where investors lay down money and hire locals. With a socialist in there now, these business investments may not happen at all, given the socialist tendency to demonize, tax, blame, and expropriate private enterprises.

Another issue that could come up is recognition of China. Right now, Honduras recognizes Taiwan, but Castro has talked up moving the recognition to China. After all, if China is going to take over Taiwan, it might make sense to take the Chinese penny or whatever the ChiComs are incentivizing before there's no choice in the matter. Taiwan could use a friend right now, and Taiwan has been a faithful friend of Honduras over the years. Harris should be pressuring Honduras to stick with Taiwan. But that might be over her head geo-strategically, and in any case, she's not very persuasive.

As for "solve the border crisis"? Very unlikely that will happen. Harris, after all, has been cut out of key meetings with Mexico that included White House officials and Cabinet heavyweights. She was likely disinvited from them because she was the one who announced them. I wrote about that here.

Will she accomplish anything good for America with this meeting with the far-left former Honduran first lady? Very dubious. More likely, the move is a bid to shore up Harris's stature and falling poll numbers. Don't look to any root causes to be identified in this meeting  most likely, the fawning media and the Harris public relations teams will hail the first female vice president of the U.S. meeting with the first female president of Honduras. It will be the politics of symbolism at best, and more border surges and geostrategic manglings at worst.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
The perils of false equivalences and overstatements are the shameful trivialization the of darkest chapters in human history.

A few days ago, former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan was dropped by her talent agency for comments she made about Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser, last Nov. 29.

Logan said the following during an appearance on Fox News Primetime:

This is what people say to me, is that he (Fauci) 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[.] 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[.]

Acting a little late on the uptake, United Talent Agency said Logan's comments were "highly offensive" and "unacceptable."

Logan also hosts Lara Logan Has No Agenda on Fox Nation.

Fauci is demanding that Fox News sack Logan for her comments.

Logan has not appeared on Fox News since the above comments were made. Also, new episodes of her Fox Nation show have not been aired. Warm Springs Production, which produces her series, has distanced itself from Logan.

But is Logan the only one?

Since 2015, many in the media and showbiz have compared President Trump and his MAGA movement to Hitler and Nazism, respectively.

The Washington Post carried an article with the headline "It's not wrong to compare Trump's America to the Holocaust."

An Oxford study claimed that President Trump had more psychopathic traits than Hitler.

Former Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger compared pro-Trump protesters who broke into the Capitol Hill building on Jan. 6, 2020, to Nazis who attacked Jews during the Night of Broken Glass.

Billionaire Charles Koch said then-candidate Trump's proposal to register all Muslims in the U.S., which was never implemented, was "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

Filmmaker Spike Lee said President Trump "will go down in history with the likes of Hitler" in a New York Film Critics speech.

Plastic "Trump Cards" that are memorabilia to demonstrate support for the president were alleged to resemble the Nazi insignia, merely because the cards display a right-facing gold eagle.

The BBC carried news of a random German citizen comparing President Trump to Hitler.

Instances such as these are myriad, yet none of the people making comparisons suffered many reactions.

The reason Logan faces severe backlash from liberal news organizations is that she is a fierce critic of the Biden administration.

She recently criticized Biden for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and for leaving military weapons with terrorists. She was deeply critical of U.S. foreign policy of unending wars and nation-building projects of faraway countries. She had also slammed the Biden administration's mismanagement of COVID-19.

The liberal mob was probably looking for an excuse to "cancel" Logan. That opportunity came in the form of her comments. Liberal Fauci-worshipers probably combusted upon hearing them.

But beyond the whataboutery and the disparity in reaction to the comments, let's examine the validity and accuracy of these comparisons.

From 1933 to 1945, in Nazi Germany, an entire group of people was systematically discriminated against, persecuted, and murdered merely for being Jewish. The Nazis constituted legal measures to expel the Jews from society and strip them of their rights and property while engaging in incitement, abuse, terror, and violence.

Over 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Over 11 million, including Jews, Gypsies, Poles, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, and other political adversaries were murdered and displaced because of Nazi genocidal policy.

This was one of the darkest chapters in human history.

To compare the Trump administration to the Nazi regime, besides being historically incorrect, is preposterous. It is also insensitive to the 11 million-plus victims of the Nazis.

Historians have said the worst crime scene of the Holocaust was Auschwitz. The worst among the killing centers in Auschwitz was at Birkenau. The most terrifying murderer in Birkenau was Dr. Josef Mengele, making him one of the worst and most sinister mass murderers in the history of mankind.

When prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, Mengele and his "doctor" colleagues "selected" for slave labor those who appeared "fit." The others, the vast majority, were immediately murdered by gassing in specially designed asphyxiation chambers.

Mengele was notorious for performing grotesque pseudo-medical experiments on children and adults alike, especially twins.

Mengele often injected one twin with mysterious substances and monitored the illness that ensued. He applied painful clamps to children's limbs to induce gangrene, injected dye into their eyes, and gave them painful spinal taps.

Mengele was a psychopath, and his experiments were meant to subject Jews to torture and humiliation.

Dr. Fauci may be ignorant, incompetent, corrupt, and narcissistic, but he is not even remotely close to the incomparably evil Mengele. There are very few humans who have the dubious distinction of being compared to Mengele.

The comparison that Logan made, much like the comparison between Nazi Germany and the U.S. under the Trump administration, was ludicrous, historically inaccurate, and above all insensitive to the victims of Mengele.

Slavery, the Holocaust, and 9-11 were unique not just in their occurrences, but in the indelible impacts they left on society and culture.

These darkest chapters in history must be mentioned only after thoughtful and empathetic consideration.

When the killing of a sole African-American is compared to slavery, it trivialized slavery. When 9-11 is compared with a break-in of a government building, it belittles the impact of those coordinated terror attacks. If a government is compared with the Nazi regime for wanting to protect its borders or deporting illegal aliens, Nazism is trivialized.

It also helps bigotry, because if everything is bigotry, nothing actually is.

The consequence of these false equivalences is that people are desensitized. It could lead some, especially the younger, to think that if a commentator can overstate by comparing Fauci to Mengele, perhaps the individual was overstating Mengele's crimes.

These false equivalencies are a product of lazy commentators and pundits, whose vocabulary, intelligence, and imagination have gone bankrupt after years in the business.

It is time for personnel in the media, from the liberal commentators at the Washington Post to Lara Logan on Fox News, to act responsibly and stop these frivolous false equivalences.

The least the victims deserve is respect.

As for Lara Logan, Fox News should ask her to apologize and then reinstate her. She was careless but not malicious.

Image: Screen shot from Fox News video via YouTube.
A poll conducted jointly by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports surveyed 1,016 "likely voters" in the United States on January 5. The poll revealed...that a large percentage of Democrat voters would have made excellent Germans circa the 1930s and 1940s. Specifically, it revealed that 59% of likely Democratic voters want the government to enact a policy mandating that unvaccinated Americans be confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies. (Conversely, 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters oppose such draconian punitive measures.)

Moreover, 45% of Democrats called for the government to round up citizens who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 and force them into "designated facilities." (These same people, I'm certain, are  or would be  appalled at FDR rounding up Japanese-Americans and placing them in "designated facilities" during World War II.) An even higher percentage of voters who have a "very favorable" opinion of President Biden was in favor of putting unvaccinated Americans into COVID camps. Interestingly, the same measure was opposed by 71% of all voters surveyed and 95% of those who have a "very unfavorable" impression of Biden.

The poll found that a shocking 29% of Democrats surveyed want to have children temporarily removed from their unvaccinated parents. (That's odd, given that Democrats purport to be overwhelmed with grief when illegal alien parents are temporarily separated from their children when crossing our southern border. And, in that case, they don't care if either the parents or the children are vaccinated.)

Democrats' desire to imprison their unvaccinated fellow citizens in their homes is obvious everywhere, as actions taken  and edicts issued  by federal, state, and local leaders alike have proven these last two years. (Remember "Two weeks to flatten the curve?" That morphed into "Two years to flatten your spirit and crush your soul.") And in opinion pieces such as the one published in the Salt Lake Tribune recently, which openly called for the military to enforce the absolute confinement of unvaccinated citizens. Does anyone see a problem with turning the American military loose on the home front to confront and oppress those it is constitutionally sworn to defend?

In an article titled "Utah leaders have surrendered to COVID pandemic," the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board said: "Were Utah a truly civilized place, the governor's next move would be to find a way to mandate the kind of mass vaccination campaign we should have launched a year ago, going as far as to deploy the National Guard to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere." Anywhere.

How can this be? This is what happens when people do not acknowledge the primacy of natural law. If our rights don't come from our Creator (we didn't create ourselves), then there are only three other possibilities, all horrendous: 1) we create our rights ourselves, screw everyone else; 2) we have no rights whatsoever; or 3) our rights come from other people. If everyone can make up his own rights, then there are no parameters. If I believe I have the right to your house, your wife, and your life, then we have chaos, anarchy, and devastation. The rule of law would be impossible. If we have no inherent rights whatsoever, well, say goodbye to your house, your wife, and your life again. And if our rights come from others...it's the same result. Under this logic, the Holocaust wasn't necessarily wrong. Neither is theft, rape, incest, or premeditated murder.

The government of the largest country in the world once deemed it necessary and proper to construct a vast network of Gulags to deal with those who didn't toe the party line. The government of that same nation today is authoritarian and getting more so. Today, in modern China, the ruling Communist Party believes that it has the right, even the duty, to imprison hundreds of thousands of Uighurs. And harvest their internal organs. Sometimes while they are still alive, according to reports. If our rights don't come from our Creator, how can slavery be wrong? If large groups of people, extremist organizations, terrorists, or governments (and it is often impossible to distinguish among them) say it is necessary and proper to enslave Black people, White people, Jews, kids, women, Canadians, Capricorns  or those with red hair and freckles who happened to be born on a Thursday  and our rights are determined by them...who can argue against this? How?

The truth is that the United States became the freest, wealthiest, most creative, and most respected nation in world history largely because of its founding belief in natural law as recognized by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence. Amazingly, this recognition was, and is, unique. And if you think about it, without this acknowledgment, nothing else really matters. Because, without this acknowledgment, the government can toss you in jail for jaywalking. Or for being fond of soup. It can prevent you from protecting yourself while allowing others to take away your happiness, liberty, and very life.

Our rights don't come from President Biden. Nor did they come from President Trump. They don't come from Don Lemon, Joy Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Sean Hannity, or Tucker Carlson, either. They don't come from Bob, Sally, or Pat. Your rights don't come from me, and my rights don't come from you.

Thank God.

If enough of us don't recognize this  and rededicate ourselves to reclaiming our natural rights from governments always zealous to usurp them  mankind will have a bleak future indeed.
A couple of days ago, the New York Times ran a rather startling article. The subject matter was typical light fare for a lefty magazine because it discussed how today's young women no longer want environmentally unfriendly tampons and pads that get flushed or thrown away when they get a period. No, wait. The article wasn't about "young women" at all  although, biologically, they're the only ones who must deal with periods. Instead, it was about "young people" and "menstruators." That's right: menstruation, which is the signifier of a female becoming sexually mature and, therefore, able to procreate, is no longer connected to women.

The article's title and subtitle were an early hint that wokedom was ahead: "Menstruation Gets a Gen Z Makeover: Young people want alternatives to disposable tampons and pads  and they're not embarrassed to talk about it." Note the language: not girls, teens, young women, or women, but "people," as if there are any humans on the planet capable of having periods other than women.

The first two paragraphs, as is true for every Times article ever written, are a little human-interest story and include "gendered" language. Sapna Palep, a "43-year-old mother of two," says that she never talked about menstruation when she was young. However, her "9-year-old daughter, Aviana Campello-Paleb," lacks such self-consciousness. Inspired by her daughter's lack of period inhibitions, Paleb, along with Aviana and 8-year-old Anaya, created "Girls With Big Dreams," reusable period underwear.

And then the article gets to the point, which is that "Members of Gen Z and beyond" are less shy about talking about periods and don't like old-fashioned tampons and pads because they're not environmentally friendly. Instead, of products that end up in landfills, they want products that take enormous amounts of water to keep clean. But whatever...that's not the point. The point is paragraphs such as this one (all emphasis mine):

"This whole movement is youth-driven," said Michela Bedard, executive director of Period Inc., a global nonprofit focused on providing access to period supplies and ending period stigma. "Young menstruators are having a completely different experience in terms of managing their periods with reusables throughout their life."

Or this sentence: "Still, the average menstruator can use thousands of tampons in their lifetime."

Or this one: "The first robust discussions of sustainability in menstrual care started in the 1970s as people experimented with cloth pads and sponges." No, not people  women. W. O. M. E. N.

Or this one: "New menstruators often turn to a parent for products and advice  now parents can hand over more than a disposable pad or tampon, potentially rerouting some of the more than 15 billion disposable products that end up in landfills every year in America."



Image: An "it" person who denies biological womanhood (edited in befunky). YouTube screen grab.

Pooja Makhijani, who wrote this scientifically and biologically illiterate bilge, is usually obsessed with race, not sex, given that she's written a whole book entitled Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America. She's currently a "communications manager at Princeton University," having first attended Johns Hopkins, where she got a B.S. (one hopes it wasn't in biology) and Sarah Lawrence. She's also a single mother. She's the living embodiment of the entire leftist package.

Here, again, is a reality check: whether you call them women, or biological females, or gals, or ladies, or whatever else, only those human beings with XX chromosomes have menstrual cycles that are the signal that these XX beings can get pregnant, incubate babies, and then nurse them with milk created in their own bodies.

No man, no matter how confused he is, can perform these functions. When a man says he is a woman, all he is saying is that, rather than wanting women sexually, as is normal for men, he wants to take on the identity of what women look like to him. That's mimicry, not femininity.

It's worth listening as Matt Walsh forces one of those weak, confused, and yet invariably aggressive "it" creatures to struggle with Walsh's simple question: "What is a woman?"

Here's one answer to the question: a woman is one who has the chromosomal ability to menstruate. And no, it doesn't matter if she has a physical condition, including being post-menopausal, that means she doesn't actually menstruate. She's still hardwired for it.

By the way, the delusional representatives of transgenderism you see in the above video were completely traumatized by the whole experience of having someone challenge their make-believe world.

These "it" people will one day have to confront the fact that reality is inexorable. A major newspaper's denial of one of the central aspects of biological womanhood does not change reality. It does, however, pose a profound threat to those societies that attempt to build themselves around this kind of garbage thinking.
(Image source from: vaartha.com)

AP government officials heading for strike from February 7th:- The announcement of PRC created tremors in Andhra Pradesh. The cabinet approved the new PRC today during the cabinet meeting. The government employees have been protesting against the PRC and several unexpected incidents took place after the announcement was made. The Employees Association of the Andhra Pradesh chaired a meeting with the 40 departments and formed a PRC Saadhana Committee to fight against the government. The government officials decided to head for a strike from February 7th after a new meeting of PRC Saadhana Committee was held today in Vijayawada. The cabinet of Andhra Pradesh too met today and approved the new GO of the PRC orders.

This made it clear that the government of Andhra Pradesh is not in a mood to make any amendments for the PRC order issued. PRC Saadhana Committee will serve the notices to the government on January 24th. Several round table meetings will be held on January 23rd across all the districts of Andhra Pradesh. The government officials are also keen to conduct rallies on January 25th and they will serve request forms to BR Ambedkar's statues across the state on January 26th. Special protests are planned from 27th till 30th of this month across all the districts. Chalo Vijayawada program is planned on February 3rd. Special meetings are again planned before February 7th and the government officials will head for a protest from February 7th

(Video Source: TV9 Telugu Live)
The PS5 finally has support for the expandable storage via SSDs, and weve put together a list of the best options you can currently pick up. Some things of note, though, are that not all SSDs will be compatible. On top of this some or all of the SSDs that are compatible may still have issues functioning as intended. And according to Sony, a compatible SSD may not run games as fast as the internal storage. However, this isnt necessarily expected to stick around for a stable feature release. it could, though.

Last week, Sony confirmed that expandable SSD support was here. The main caveat being that you only have access to it if your PS5 is running on the beta software. Thats because the expandable storage support was rolled out as part of the first software beta program wave.

Which Sony sent out to consoles in the middle of last week. To be considered, you have to have registered to participate in the PS5 software beta program. You can find out more about adding expandable storage to your PS5 by clicking here. Youll also find the recommended specs list in that post.

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The best M.2 NVMe SSDs for PS5

Below you can find a summary table of all the compatible options we selected. Complete with model name, the cost, and links with where to buy them. You can find more detailed information below the summary table.

Western Digital WD_Black SN850

Price: From $89.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, Walmart Tiger Direct, Newegg

Were starting with the option that would be our first pick for a compatible SSD. And thats the WD_Black SN850 from Western Digital. Not just because it meets Sonys recommended specs, but also because Western Digital makes some of best SSDs on the market, and now that includes for the PS5.

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Some things to keep in mind though about this SSD and all the options on this list. This isnt a PS5-specific NVMe SSD. However it does check all the boxes for specifications. Which means it should work as expandable storage for your PS5. In fact it was even the one recommended by Mark Cerny.

You can pick up the WD_Black SN850 in as little as 500GB, and up to 2TB. 4TB is the maximum amount of capacity allowed for the expandable storage. Also worth noting is that the 2TB model costs more than the PS5 console itself. So consider how much having 2TB of additional space is really worth to you.

In addition to varying storage capacities, Western Digital also sells the SSD with and without a heatsink. Though you wont necessarily NEED to have a heatsink attached, Sony did recommend you have it. So its probably better to go with a model that has a heatsink already on it.

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WD_Black SN850

PNY XLR8 CS3040

Next on the list is the XLR8 from PNY. PNY makes a ton of different storage devices, and this includes NVMe SSDs for PC. Specifically the XLR8 meets all the requirements that Sony put on its list of recommended specs, and this one isnt too pricey so its one of the best SSDs for PS5.

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This SSD has a read speed of up to 5,600MB/s, which puts it just 100MB/s above Sonys recommended 5,500MB/s. Its also PCIe Gen4, which all the drives will need to be if you want to use them in the console.

PNY sells this SSD in multiple storage sizes, starting with 500GB. Its also available with a heatsink attached, or you can get one without. The model with the heatsink included does not meet the size requirements though. So if you go with this SSD, youll have to get a heatsink separately that does meet the size requirements, and attach it yourself, if you want the heatsink.

PNY XLR8 CS3040

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Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB W/Heatsink

Price: From $124.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg

Seagate has been a go-to option for console expandable storage since the Xbox One and PS4. Both of which it offers officially licensed options for. With the PS5, Seagate doesnt have an officially licensed PlayStation storage option like it does with the Xbox Series X drives. But this FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe SSD does meet Sonys recommended specs.

So it should work just fine for additional storage on the PS5. Allowing you to store games, and run them, from this internal SSD. This option also comes with a heatsink. Although, neither the non-heatsink or the heatsink model seem to be in stock at Amazon.

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You can also get it with as little as 500GB of storage and up to 4TB, which is the maximum amount Sony will let you use. This drive has a read speed of 7,000 MB/s, and the mode with the heatsink meets the size requirements without any issues.

Seagate FireCuda 530

GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 7000s

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Price: From $279.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, Newegg

GIGABYTE makes one of the best NVMe SSDs available for the PS5, but there is at least one drawback with this particular NVMe SSD. This one doesnt come with a heatsink option. Which means if you want a heatsink, youll have to get one separately that meets the recommended specs, and attach it yourself.

Aside from that, youll get multiple storage options here. GIGABYTE makes this model in 1TB and 2TB options. If you really dont want to have to worry about space for a while, the 2TB option should do the trick. But expect to pay more than a few hundred for it. As the 1TB model sits at around $260.

This driver also provides read speeds of up to 7000MB/s. So it more than meets the recommendation from Sony.

GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 7000S

Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

This wouldnt be a proper list if it didnt have at least one option from Samsung included. The Samsung 980 Pro 1TB is that option and it hits most marks. While it doesnt come with a heatsink, you can get a hold of one so that shouldnt be an issue if you do want to use one. Though it will certainly cost you a little extra.

When it comes to read speeds, youre looking at up to 7,000MB/s like a few others, with storage options starting at 250GB and going all the way up to 2TB. Having said that, 500GB is the minimum that Sony will let you use inside of the PS5. And you actually may want to bump that to 1TB, given the size of some games these days.

Like all the other SSDs on here its an M.2 NVMe drive, and its using PCIe Gen4 technology. Samsung also boasts things like smart thermal control, and a PC suite you can download to help easily manage things like driver updates, drive health and more.

Update:

Samsung now offers a model that comes with a heatsink, so you can pick this SSD up without having to attach a heatsink yourself.

Samsung 980 Pro

Sabrent 1TB Rocket 4 Plus

Price: From $149.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, Newegg

Coming up towards the end of the list is this option from Sabrent, which is not only one of the best SSDs for the PS5, but also one that is consistently in stock. This requires a heatsink as well, so keep that in mind, as the $199 starting price is for the 1TB model without a heatsink already attached.

You can also get the drive in 2TB and 4TB options. Although, the 4TB drive is currently listed for $999. So it isnt cheap and you have to consider whether or not youll actually use that much storage.

For read speeds, youre getting up to 7,000MB/s, and without the heatsink you should have no issues with size requirements. Since you need to buy the heatsink separately on this one, make sure to find one that fits in the slot based on the length, width, and height measurements that Sony listed. If you decide to get a heatsink that is.

Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus

Corsair MP600 Pro 1TB

Price: From $159.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg

Corsair has an option for you that fits in the slot, so long as you dont use the provided heatsink that comes with the drive. Its taller than the size requirements that Sony listed, because with this heatsink on you wont have enough room to re-attach the cover for the expansion slot. Which you probably want to keep on when the expandable SSD is installed.

You can however buy a separate heatsink though that will fit this and some of the other drives that dont come with one. At a fairly inexpensive price no less.

Outside of the heatsink, everything seems to be up to par here. PCIe Gen4 technology, read speeds up to 7,000MB/s, and it comes from a brand that is well-known. At $200, the price is also right around the same amount as most other options.

Corsair MP600 Pro

Patriot Viper VP4300

Price: From $164.99

Where To Buy: Amazon, B&H, Newegg

Finishing off the list is the Viper VP4300 from Patriot. patriot makes some pretty good RAM, so you can expect a similar experience with the brands storage options. It also comes with a 5-year warranty, so if things go wrong with it then you should be covered.

The Viper VP4300 comes with a heatsink installed and it meets the size requirements. Which means you dont have to buy one separately and attach it yourself. Saving you some time in getting this thing installed should you choose it over the others.

Read speeds on this drive are a tad above the other. Sitting at up to 7,400MB/s. Although this one costs a little more on Amazon, its still one of the best SSDs for the PS5.

Patriot Viper VP4300

Samsung 980 Pro 2TB W/Heatsink

When it comes to drives, this is my personal choice and the one I now have in my PS5. I was using the 1TB model without the heatsink, which meant I had to slap on a third-party heatsink from a company I found on Amazon. It has worked just fine, but I wanted more space.

Comparing this to the 1TB model, this is exactly the same except for the heatsink. Which comes factory from Samsung and its pre-installed on the drive out the box. This means itll have the same read and write speeds making this one of the best SSDs for your PS5, but because its using a Samsung factory heatsink your temperatures may be higher or lower than a 980 Pro with a third-party heatsink.

Not by a lot mind you, and you probably wont notice any difference anyway. All that said, if youre going to go with the Samsung 980 Pro, which is one of the best drives out there, the 2TB may be a better option for you if you plan to install a ton of games. Its normally almost $300 more than the 1TB model without a heatsink. So take that into account. But its currently on sale right now for $100 off. Bringing the price down from $449 to $349.

Samsung 980 Pro W/Heatsink
Former United States President Donald Trump reportedly drafted an executive order while he was in office that was going to direct the country's defense secretary to seize voting machines, a new investigation into Trump White House records has shown.

Additionally, the House Select Committee also found among the records that the former president's lawyers tried to shield from them a document titled "Remarks on National Healing." The text of the draft executive was reviewed and published by Politico for the first time.

Trump's Unreleased Executive Order

Trump's unreleased executive order would have also appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 elections, which the Republican businessman has repeatedly claimed was a fraud. The remarks on the separate document were found to be a draft of a speech that the former president gave the next day.

When put together, the two documents suggested the wildly divergent perspectives of White House advisers and allies during the last leg of Trump's presidency. While it remained unclear who wrote the executive order, the document was dated Dec. 16, 2020.

The draft order's content was consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the former president. Powell, on Dec. 18, 2020, Michael Flynn, former Trump national security adviser, Emily Newman, former Trump administration lawyer, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, met with the former president in the Oval Office, Politico reported.

Read Also: Joe Biden Denies a Terrible First Year as Polls Dip to 33% Approval During Failed Solo News Conference

The House Select Committee was able to acquire the documents after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week in rejection of Trump's request to shield White House records under executive privilege. The draft executive order detailed plans for the Pentagon to take voting machines and ordered the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to assess the machines within 60 days of their seizure, Business Insider reported.

Seize Voting Machines

The draft order wrote that the Secretary of Defense, effective immediately, was required to "seize, collect, retain, and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention." It was first reported in December 2020 that there existed a draft of Trump's plan to appoint a special counsel.

Furthermore, the document repeats conspiracy theories related to the hacking of voting machines that Flynn and Powell pushed onto the public. Powell has been known to be a conspiracy theory-promoting conservative lawyer. She has lobbied to have herself appointed as the special counsel to investigate the allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 elections.

The draft order would have appointed the special counsel to be in charge of overseeing the operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected. It would also have provided all resources necessary to carry out Powell's duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution.

The unreleased executive order also bases the need for unprecedented action on Powell's debunked allegations of voter fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election. The document cites a "forensic report" that was championed by Powell that falsely claimed Dominion Voting System machines were "intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results," CNBC reported.



Related Article: Kamala Harris Weighs in on Russia-Ukraine Tensions, Says the United States Won't Back Down Against Vladimir Putin

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Police have released CCTV footage of the unidentified doorbell ringer. (SWNS)

Police are searching for a man who's been repeatedly ringing a doorbell on Thursdays.

Officers have released CCTV footage of the unidentified person on one of his visits to a home in London Road, Stroud.

The unknown male has been ringing the bell between 2am and 4 am, at least three times a month, and some nights he comes back more than once.

In a Neighbourhood Alert, PCSO Wood said: "This is causing a lot of alarm and distress to the victim.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesperson added: A member of the public approached their local Neighbourhood Engagement Vehicle and reported that an unknown man had been ringing their doorbell in the night then walking away.

They reported that these incidents have gone on at their home address at London Road, Stroud, for a number of months and sometimes multiple times in one night.

Police are appealing for the publics help to identify the man whos been photographed by the electronic doorbell.

If you recognise the person in the CCTV image contact police on 101 or by completing the online form and quoting incident number 484 of 13 January.
Sidney Poitiers memorial service will be a private affair due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, his family has announced.

The Poitier family thanked fans for the wonderful outpouring of love following the trailblazing actors death and said a more public event would be held if virus case numbers subsided.

The Poitier family so appreciates the wonderful outpouring of love, support and affection for Sidney, they said in a statement shared by the Hollywood Reporter.

There have been many inquiries about an event to honor his life.

The Bahamian-American actor, the first black man to win the Oscar for best actor, died at the age of 94 on January 6 (Myung Jung Kim/PA)

At this time, due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private memorial service has been arranged for the family with the possibility of a more public memorial service should the virus numbers subside in the near future.

The Bahamian-American actor, the first black man to win the Oscar for best actor and a diplomat in his later life, died at the age of 94 on January 6.

Tributes to his life and career flooded in from famous faces including US president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris, former president Barack Obama and TV chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

Artists of colour including Quincy Jones, Halle Berry and Lenny Kravitz also thanked him for his pioneering work for diversity within the industry.
A man accused of faking his own death before hiding in Scotland to escape sex charges, only to be arrested twice after almost dying of Covid and then missing his extradition hearing, has been remanded in custody.

The man, who goes by at least ten other aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian and Arthur Knight, appeared at a hearing in Edinburgh on Friday in a wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask, pyjamas, a dressing gown and socks.

Prosecutors said the man who appeared in court is Nicholas Rossi  the Rhode Island man wanted after fleeing the US in 2017 to evade charges involving identity theft and fraud, and a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah.

But when asked if he could confirm that his name was Nicholas Rossi, he denied it.

The 34-year-old was first arrested on December 13 after being admitted to Glasgows Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) with coronavirus under the name Arthur Knight.

The man was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with coronavirus (Jane Barlow/PA)

He was then released on bail after appearing via video link at a court hearing on December 23 on the understanding that he required more treatment.

However prosecutors told a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that he discharged himself the next day and went home to his address in West End Park Street in Glasgow.

The court heard the alleged sexual offender was then arrested a second time, on January 20 at his house, for failing to attend an extradition hearing that day.

Speaking at the hearing on Friday, Procurator Fiscal Jennifer Johnston said Rossis bail should be revoked as he posed a significant flight risk.

She said he made several attempts to leave QEUH with oxygen canisters in December, including hiring a private ambulance and offering to pay 100 to a taxi to take him home.

Ms Johnston also told the court Rossi attempted to use multiple aliases, saying that a document provided by Rossis lawyers was in the name of Nicholas Brown Knight, but when he was arrested in QEUH he was said to be using the name Arthur Knight.

She added that when police spoke to Rossis wife, she said his name was Arthur Brown, but a marriage certificate exists which calls him Nicholas Brown.

Prosecutors also said in 2020, an anonymous email was sent to Rhode Island Media indicating that Nicholas Alahverdian, another alias of Rossi, had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that he had been cremated and buried at sea.

The court heard that since the alleged sexual offenders arrest received media attention, Police Scotland had received a complaint of a domestic nature to police in Essex in 2017 in relation to Rossi.

Ms Johnston told the court there is concern over Rossi reoffending, as well as risk of flight, and that he cannot be trusted for bail.

Appearing for the man, Fred Mackintosh QC said his clients health had deteriorated significantly since catching Covid, and he is at risk of death by no oxygen if he is sent to prison.

If he goes to prison he will run a serious risk of asphyxiation in his sleep, Mr Mackintosh said.

His conditions are also not limited to post-Covid. He suffers from epilepsy, anxiety, depression and lower back pain.

Mr Mackintosh also argued that his clients bail should not be revoked, adding he had previously been granted bail on the standard conditions and these have been complied with.

There is no suggestion he breached them at all.

Sheriff Alistair Noble said: Obviously the Crown suggestion is that the person in front of me is Mr Rossi.

He said bail had been initially granted on the understanding that he would need to remain in hospital for at least a few weeks for treatment.

He added that after seeing a medical note from a doctor at QEUH, he understood the man could receive the medical assistance he requires in prison and remanded him in custody.

It appears to me appropriate to revoke the persons bail, Mr Noble added, saying the man cannot be trusted.

Several media outlets reported in 2020 that Nicholas Alahverdian, said to be one of Mr Rossis many fake names, had died on February 29 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

They cited the website EverLoved.com, which said his body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.

An online obituary dedicated to Nicholas Alahverdian read: Nicholas Alahverdians battle for life ended on February 29 2020.

The children and families in the care of the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF) for whom he inspired and led through turbulent government transgressions have lost a warrior that fought on the front lines for two decades.

It is understood the case will next call for a procedural hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on February 10 and a full hearing on whether the man should be extradited will be held at the court on February 17.

US prosecutors who are trying to extradite Rossi, who they believe was the man in court on Friday, welcomed Mr Nobles decision.

David O Leavitt, Utah County Attorney, told BBC Reporting Scotland he was grateful that hes in custody not only for the opportunity to be able to know that we can demonstrate that he is who he is, but also because we believe that he is a danger to Scottish women given his history.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday that Brian Laundrie accepted responsibility for the death of his fiancee, Gabrielle Petito, as it prepared to settle a case that had sparked extensive investigation by amateur investigators and galvanized social media.

The FBI said that a notebook recovered beside Laundrie's body in October had a written confession as part of a "final investigative update" on a case that drew thousands of tips from the public and enlisted the help of law enforcement agencies around the country.

FBI: Brian Laundrie admitted to killing Gabby Petito

The FBI said the notebook had "written remarks by Laundrie admitting responsibility for Petito's killing," but it did not go into depth about the implicating allegations. Petito, 22, went missing on September 11, 2021, when she failed to return on a months-long cross-country trip with Laundrie, 23. As members of the public combed through the couple's images and videos on Instagram and YouTube seeking clues, the case acquired national attention.

The case's tight media coverage spurred accusations that it was an example of "missing white woman syndrome," in which situations of missing white women receive disproportionate attention compared to cases of missing persons of color. On September 1, Laundrie went home to North Port, Florida, in the white Ford van that the couple had used for the vacation and that was registered to Petito. Laundrie's parents alerted the police on September 17 that they hadn't seen him since September 14, as per NY Times.

Petito's body was discovered on September 19 in Wyoming's Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area, where she and Laundrie were last seen together. According to the FBI, she died of "blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation" as determined by the Teton County Coroner's Office. Laundrie's remains were discovered on October 20 in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Sarasota County, Florida, according to the FBI.

A medical examiner determined that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators discovered a journal, a backpack, and a handgun beside Laundrie's body.

A lawyer for the Petito family, Richard B. Stafford, issued a statement thanking the FBI and its victim services department for assisting the family in "navigating through the worst moments of their lives." A lawyer for the Laundrie family, Steven Bertolino, also issued a statement on the case's conclusion. Schneider praised the public for the hundreds of tips he received.

Chris and Roberta, Laundrie's parents, got up early on October 20 and drove to the swamp, where the floodwaters had retreated after blanketing the area for weeks. They returned to the location where their lawyer said they had been ordering police to search since mid-September, accompanied by two law enforcement officers and a Fox News Digital reporter.

Read Also: 11-Month-Old Baby Girl Shot in Face While with Mother on a Car Parked at a Neighborhood in Bronx, New York

Laundrie, Petito family reach an agreement

Per Fox News, Chris Laundrie zigzagged his way through the brush till he came to a drybag in a clearing. The parents were only a few yards away from where law authorities would uncover their son's body later that morning.

A revolver was also discovered by the authorities. A group of demonstrators demanding answers from the Laundrie parents noticed Petito's water bottle in the same clearing a few days later.

Gabby Petito's family stated on Friday that information acquired by the FBI proves "without a shadow of a doubt" that the young woman's fiance Brian Laundrie "murdered" her. Laundrie was the only person of interest in connection with Petito's disappearance.

Meanwhile, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino told Insider on Thursday that the Laundries and the Petito family had reached an agreement over the couple's leftover property, which included their belongings in the FBI's possession as well as their belongings at their home in North Port, Florida.

Related Article: Gabby Petito Case: Brian Laundrie's Autopsy Reveals He Died of Suicide With Gunshot Wound to The Head

@YouTube

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This interview includes a frank and graphic conversation about suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Rap legend Darryl DMC McDaniels, of Run-DMC, just released a new childrens book, Darryl's Dream, which tells the tale of a bullied kid who ultimately embraces his true quirky self, harnesses his inner superpowers, and wins a school talent show with his freestyle-rhyming skills. While there are certain elements to the story that are pure fiction (like, say, when the titular Darryl journeys to outer space), the real-life Darryl tells Yahoo Entertainment, The whole bullying and getting teased thing is a hundred percent [true].

McDaniels, who grew up in Hollis, Queens, recalls being taunted for wearing eyeglasses; one school bully even once grabbed his glasses and stepped on them. But when I got into hip-hop and rock n roll, it gave me a superpower. I was able to let 'em know these glasses are part of me and I'm not ashamed of them anymore, he says. The book's purpose is this: You kids are perfect the way you are  your freckles, your red hair, your height, all the things kids think is wrong with them  because that's who they are. They're perfect. And DMC was just like you, and you could be whatever it is that you wanna be. The book is actually not nothing new. It's just a different form. It's actually what I've been doing for the past 40 years with my music: inspire, motivate, educate.

The cover of Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels's new children's book, 'Darryl's Dream.' (Photo: Random House)

Darryls Dream is McDanielss first childrens book, but he has already penned two memoirs, King of Rock: Respect, Responsibility, and My Life with Run-DMC and Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide, in which he was very open about his life struggles  at a time when showing vulnerability and discussing mental health was still largely taboo in the hip-hop world. The 57-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee recalls being suicidal around the time of writing the first book, when he felt external pressure to repeat or top Run-DMCs early success and started thinking I'm not enough, so I turned to Jack Daniels and Jim Beam to give me the confidence to accomplish what I already accomplished.  I didn't need the alcohol to do anything that I did, but I thought I did. It was then that he phoned his mother to get some facts about his childhood for his first autobiography  and he found out something that exploded his life.

I woke up one day and I wanted to kill myself. I just had these suicidal thoughts. Just felt something was wrong. Things wasn't right, McDaniels begins. So, what happened was I said, I wanna leave a book.  I knew my birthday was May 31, 1964, but I didn't know no details. I called my moms up and I had three questions: Hey, Mom, I'm writing this book. How much did I weigh? What high school? What hospital I was born at, what time?  She calls back with my father. I'm 35 years old. I'm an alcoholic suicide, a metaphysical wreck who's about to jump off a building. And they tell me, We have something else to tell you. You was a month old when we brought you home, and you're adopted. But we love you. Bye! Click.

As McDaniels later explained in the fittingly titled Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide, this revelation plunged him even deeper into despair. Shortly after the murder of his bandmate Jam Master Jay in 2002 and while in his self-described crazy zone, he even considered leaping off a hotel roof after a photo shoot in Yugoslavia. I went back up to the roof and I was getting ready to jump, he says. I looked down and I said, Do I really wanna jump? And I said to myself, Man, what if I jump and I don't die? It's gonna hurt! McDaniels fought off his suicidal urges that day, but later while on tour in Japan he attempted to buy rat poison with the intention of drinking it. He also considered shooting himself (but my manager wouldn't give me my gun) and jumping on the third rail and electrocuting myself.  I thought about every way to try to kill myself.

Thankfully, McDaniels says he not at all in that dark place anymore, and he credits Angel by fellow adoptee Sarah McLachlan, which was written about the overdose death of Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, for helping save his life. (I listened to the record for one whole year, he gushes.) McDaniels and McLachlan later met and recorded a duet remake of Harry Chapins Cats in the Cradle, an experience that was a key part of his healing process. Another major part of that process was co-founding the nonprofit Felix Organization, which has served more than 10,000 children in the foster care system, with fellow adoptee and Emmy award-winning casting director Sheila Jaffe. He also attended group sessions with other adoptees, during which he was encouraged to seek out his birth parents and attend rehab.

You never start a book from chapter two. I was living my life from chapter two, he says, explaining that he felt like hed skipped the first chapter of his life by not knowing about his adoption earlier. Everything that the world knew about me, that I knew about me up to that date, that I heard, that was all chapter two. The void in me that I started feeling, that started all of the suicidal thoughts, the void in me was that I didn't know what chapter one was.  So, I said, If I'm gonna go down that road, I gotta be of sound body and mind. So, I'll go to rehab. People was trying to get me to go to rehab for five years!  So, I went to rehab, and it was in rehab where I discovered therapy.

Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels today. (Photo: Jonathan Mannion)

McDaniels has been sober since 2004 and has reconnected with his birth mother, even spending Thanksgiving with her alongside his adoptive family; he made the documentary My Adoption Journey about that experience. As for whether he ever resented the parents who raised him for withholding information about his adoption until he was 35, he admits he was very angry at first, but now realizes, The anger was not particularly at them. I have a saying now about anything for anybody going through anything, mental, all these mental health issues, since I'm the greatest rapper that ever lived, whether you believe it or not. The saying is: If you remove guilt and shame, you remove the pain. So, my anger was mad at [myself] for being ashamed.

McDanielss new partnership with Nickelodeon includes a publishing deal with Random House Childrens Books as well as a collaboration with Noggin, Nickelodeons interactive learning service for preschoolers, for the animated music series Whats the Word?. After experiencing the lowest of lows and highest of highs over the past four decades, he is the most positive mindset of his life and still finding new ways to inspire, motivate, and educate.

Everything that I did as DMC was just to set up for what I was put here to do, McDaniels declares. That's why the gods had to reveal [my adoption] to me: He has to find his purpose. And in that, I found my purpose and destiny  which led me right back to what I was already doing.

Watch DMCs full, extended Yahoo Entertainment interview below, in which he discusses Darryls Dream, Whats the Word?, the Felix Organization, mental health advocacy, his bond with Sarah McLachlan, and his thoughts on hip-hop today:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

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Yorba Linda resident Dee Dee Friedrich with Wyatt at their backyard stable. She moved there nearly 40 years ago, mainly because the lots were large enough for horses, which she had always dreamed of owning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As Peggy Huang drove through the hills of Yorba Linda, she passed ranch-style homes with backyard stables.

White picket fences lined equestrian trails snaking through the Orange County city, whose motto is the "Land of Gracious Living."

Farther uphill, newer houses were closer together but still featured the open space most suburban residents desire, with trails, parks and churches nearby.

Huang, a city councilwoman, wants Yorba Linda to stay this way.

Along with officials in many other O.C. cities, she is fighting a state mandate to build new homes  more than 183,000 countywide over the next seven years.

The requirement, called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, dates back more than five decades, with new goals set for each city every eight years.

"I'm not a NIMBY," Huang said, using an acronym for "not in my backyard." "I just think it's important for people to understand that one size fits all doesn't work, and that's the very policy Sacramento is pushing on us."

Yorba Linda City Councilwoman Peggy Huang stands in front of three- and four-bedroom townhomes in the city. Along with officials in many other O.C. cities, she is fighting a state mandate to build new homes  more than 183,000 countywide over the next seven years. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

As home prices climb, fueled in part by a long-standing housing shortage, the stakes have never been higher for well-heeled suburbs like Yorba Linda.

Many young couples can't afford to buy homes. Low-income workers are struggling to pay the rent. Homeless people are pitching tents in places where poverty had never been visible.

The argument is about how many units of new housing each city should be required to accommodate. It is also about the essence of Orange County, which is becoming more racially diverse, more politically liberal  and more crowded.

Some say that change is inevitable and the burden to create affordable housing must be shared by all communities, not just those that are already densely packed.

But residents fear that what they love about Yorba Linda  the pastoral landscapes, the wide-open boulevards, the privacy  could be lost if too many others join them.

"There's this idea that Orange County is a cluster of suburban communities far away from the ills of the big city," said Elizabeth Hansburg, co-founder and executive director of People for Housing Orange County. "It has a nostalgia for low-density suburban development, where everyone has their single-family home, but we don't have that kind of space anymore. We have to build higher-density housing and in a way that really violates Orange County's sense of self."

In every eight-year cycle, cities are assigned a certain number of new units under a complex formula that anticipates future housing needs.

A state agency specifies an overall number to regional planning agencies, which then divvy up the units among cities and counties in their jurisdiction.

In 2020, the Southern California Assn. of Governments was responsible for distributing 1,341,827 units of new housing among cities in Los Angeles, Orange, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The association calculated that O.C. should zone for about 183,000 new units. Yorba Linda's share was 2,400 of those units, with about half for low- or very low-income residents.

To fulfill the requirement, cities identify areas where zoning can be changed to allow new development.

Yorba Linda officials recently identified 27 sites including church parking lots, an event venue and a hotel  for possible zoning changes. They were hoping to decrease their requirement to between 70 and 211 new homes.

Nearly half of O.C. cities, including Yorba Linda, filed appeals with the association asking for their numbers to be reduced. Nearly two dozen cities in L.A. County also appealed.

Some cities argued that the bulk of new homes should be placed near jobs and public transit or in places that have more open space to build.

After the appeals failed, the Orange County Council of Governments sued the state and the Southern California Assn. of Governments, arguing that the number of new units in the six-county region should be 651,000.

Redondo Beach, Lakewood, Torrance, Cerritos, Downey and Whittier were also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was dismissed in November by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.

The O.C. Council has said it plans to appeal.

In O.C., some city officials see the building requirements as overreach by state officials who haven't spent time in the area and aren't familiar with the geographic limitations.

Newport Beach Councilwoman Diane Dixon says she wants to maintain Orange County's character.

"Who wants to live in a congested urban environment?" she said. "That's why people move to Orange County in the first place."

Dixon, who is a member of the Orange County Council of Governments, is concerned that the state housing mandates will result in rapid growth, ultimately stripping away cities' control over development.

Newport Beach, which like many O.C. cities has little undeveloped land, must find room for more than 4,800 new homes.

That means construction would have to spread upward, not outward, resulting in a more urban landscape.

But others say more growth in suburban communities is necessary to combat the shortage of available homes and the upward trajectory of housing costs.

"Supply and demand tells you that more houses will help ease upward pressure on prices," said Jan Brueckner, an economics professor at UC Irvine. "California doesn't have enough houses at the moment compared to its population and the purchasing power of the population."

Hansburg, the housing advocate, points to the divide between homeowners trying to preserve their lifestyles and renters dealing with rising prices in an already unaffordable market.

"They're saying this isn't an Orange County problem, and what I'm saying is it is as much an Orange County problem as it is a problem for any other place in California," she said.

The last Regional Housing Needs Assessment plan required Yorba Linda, which has a population of about 68,000, to create 669 new housing units. The city exceeded that, issuing building permits for 932 units between 2014 and 2019.

In a commercial and office hub called Savi Ranch adjacent to the 91 Freeway, two new apartment complexes were welcomed by many locals, partly because there are no single-family neighborhoods nearby.

All of the roughly 120 units are priced to be affordable for people making 30% to 60% of the area's median income.

"They kind of fit there," said longtime Yorba Linda resident Dee Dee Friedrich. "If you have to have it, that seems to be a better place."

But Friedrich and others don't want their own quintessentially Yorba Linda neighborhoods to change.

Friedrich moved there nearly 40 years ago, mainly because the lots were large enough for horses, which she had always dreamed of owning.

Recently, she has been concerned that someone might buy on her street, where each home sits on a half acre, and build multiple units.

"That's just not why we live here and moved here and worked our whole lives to be able to afford to live here," she said. "We like that we can have a little space between us."

Residents and city officials are also concerned about wildfires.

When the Freeway Complex fire tore through the hills in 2008, thousands piled belongings into their cars and fled. Yorba Linda Boulevard was gridlocked. Then came the Blue Ridge fire in 2020, which renewed residents' concerns.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan and is a state deputy attorney general, fears that the more people there are, the harder it will be to evacuate when the next fire ignites.

"With more housing and more density, how are we supposed to make sure people can get out safely?" she said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Two Ukrainian soldiers enter a network of trenches. (Nils Adler / For The Times)

In his raspy smokers voice, the middle-aged Ukrainian soldier urged a visitor to hurry through a stretch of muddy trench that traversed an open clearing.

Gesturing eastward, he warned of snipers lurking only a few hundred yards away.

We must run until we reach cover, he said.

On the front lines of Ukraines long-running conflict with Russian-backed separatists, the smells, sights and sounds are in many ways reminiscent of trench warfare waged more than a century ago in Western Europe during World War I. The slog of fighting could also serve as an ominous precursor of what could flare into the continents first major land war in decades.

While the worlds attention is faced on high-stakes diplomacy aimed at staving off a new Russian incursion, this grinding standoff in eastern Ukraine has for years remained largely out of sight  except to weary combatants and a handful of unfortunate civilians who have nowhere else to go.

"It's an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, said Sofia Anatoljevna, one of only eight residents who remain in the red zone, a heavily militarized area that includes the ruined village of Pisky. At 83, she is partially blind, with no relatives to help her and no means of resettling elsewhere. Her son died in earlier fighting.

The village of Pisky was destroyed during fighting in 2014-15. It is located in the "red zone," an area where no civilians are allowed except the eight villagers who decided to stay. (Nils Adler / For The Times)

Sofia Anatoljevna is one of eight villagers still living in Pisky. She lost her son in the fighting. (Nils Adler / For The Times)

The fierce combat that broke out eight years ago between Russian proxies and Ukrainian forces in two separatist statelets was at least partly overshadowed at the time by Russian President Vladimir Putins seizure and subsequent annexation of the Crimean peninsula, some 320 miles to the southwest.

That brazen grab drew Western opprobrium and tough sanctions, but the strategic Black Sea peninsula remains firmly in Russian hands, and Putin  who considers the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union to be one of history's great catastrophes  has redoubled his insistence that Ukraine, an independent country of more than 40 million people, is inextricably linked to Russia.

For weeks now, the Russian leader has signaled he might be poised to tear away another chunk of Ukraine. More than 100,000 Russian troops, with tanks and artillery, are massed near Ukraines borders, and the Kremlin has batted aside both threats and appeals from Western interlocutors.

The latest of those came Friday in Geneva, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met for 90 minutes with no outward sign of progress.

Moscow renewed its demand that NATO pledge that Ukraine will never become a member of the alliance; Blinken told Lavrov to expect written U.S. responses to Russias proposals next week.

But public assessments by both U.S. and European officials have been bleak.

My guess is, I think he will move, President Biden said this week, when asked whether Putin was likely to send in troops despite U.S. and European vows of severe but unspecified consequences in the event of an invasion.

Along the line of contact between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, the diplomatic maneuvering can seem like an abstraction compared with the harsh realities of daily existence.

In Pisky, rows of crumbling concrete apartment blocks and bullet-ridden houses are testament to chaotic combat during 2014 and 2015, before a tenuous cease-fire took hold.

But the fighting never really stopped, an unreconciled history on a frozen landscape.

"There are no big changes here  there is always a danger for us," said the 46-year-old Ukrainian serviceman navigating the muddy trench, whose name was not allowed to be publicized under army rules. Soldiers who have been identified in news accounts have found themselves and their families attacked and threatened by online trolls.

On a crisp, sunny morning this week, snow coated the ground and slicked the interiors of the meandering network of narrow trenches. The Ukrainian defensive line runs the length of the de facto border of the Donbas, the colloquial name for the Donets Basin, a mining and industrial region.

Ukrainian forces hand-dug the trenches with shovels, often working under cover of darkness. Corrugated steel sheets line the trenchs earthen walls, but roots and branches poke through large gaps. Wooden planks form a makeshift footpath, but it shifts perilously underfoot with changing weather conditions: rain and snow, freeze and frost.

The Ukrainian troops are well aware the harsh conditions hark back to battles from a bygone era. Canadian trainers who visited, they said, were taken aback by what they saw, never having experienced trench warfare themselves.

Every few hundred yards there are observation points where Ukrainian soldiers can view enemy movements through binoculars or periscopes. The unpredictability is nerve-racking; sometimes there is incoming fire for days in a row, followed by a week of silence.

Such lulls are considered the most dangerous times, soldiers say, because its so easy to let ones guard down. In the summertime, under cover of long grass, separatist fighters can come within 50 yards of the trenches.

Frontline fatalities, from snipers and occasional shelling, are a regular occurrence. The noncommissioned junior officer showing a journalist around tallied up 29 comrades in arms he knew personally who had died in fighting since 2014. He himself suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2015, when a shell landed near him, and spent two months in a hospital.

Data from monitors for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, recorded 80,000 explosions in the separatist regions since 2018, when the monitoring began. In all, the conflict has claimed more than 14,000 lives.

The privations of the front lines sometimes yield a bizarre yet tender domesticity. An army couple named Nika and Alexander, who met five years ago, live together in a makeshift bunker. Their room is warm and well lit, with a comfortable bed.

He is 47 and she is 50; Nika says their field existence has come to feel like a normal life.

Above their bunker home is a mess hall and billets for other troops. Soldiers cook homestyle meals and play with adopted dogs, some of them the offspring of abandoned domestic pets whose owners fled.

Ukrainian soldiers walk through the destroyed village of Pisky. (Nils Adler / For The Times)

In the trenches, there are few illusions about the strength of this defending force against a full-scale invasion by the far more powerful Russian military, should it occur. But Ukrainian officers say the battlefield picture is different than it was in 2014.

Cmdr. Dzhemil Izmailov, who leads a Ukrainian mechanized infantry battalion, said the Russian army would face stiff resistance along the Donbas front line, citing multiple lines of defense.

"We are prepared, he said.

Longtime Putin watchers say the stakes in Ukraine have repercussions far beyond the region. Fiona Hill, an author and former senior official for Russia affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, said Moscows moves amounted to a threat to the entire postwar order.

If Russia can do this to Ukraine, whats to stop countries doing this to neighbors? she said on Newsnight, a BBC current affairs program. This is exactly what we fought two world wars against  weve had a whole system in place thats supposed to be pushing back against.... This is really one of those game-changers internationally."

Special correspondent Adler reported from Avdiivka and Times staff writer King from Washington.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
New York City police Officer Peter Liang is escorted out of court after he was charged with manslaughter, official misconduct and other offenses in February 2015 in Brooklyn. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Its been nearly six years since thousands of Chinese immigrants marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in the largest Asian American protest Ive ever seen in the United States, sparked by the conviction of former NYPD Officer Peter Liang for the shooting death of Akai Gurley.

I traveled to New York City to cover the aftermath for the Los Angeles Times, and it still stands as one of the most challenging reporting experiences Ive ever had. Both the Black and Chinese communities were angry at the New York City Police Department for different, but valid, reasons. But both groups ended up directing that justified anger at each other, showing up at each other's protests and staging shouting matches.

Liang, a rookie officer at the time, and his partner were patrolling a darkened stairwell at a public housing project known as the Pink Houses when Liang heard a noise and fired his gun. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and killed a 29-year-old Black man named Akai Gurley.

In the end Liang was indicted and convicted, but did not serve jail time, an outcome which left neither group particularly satisfied. I knew that incidents like these could leave an indelible imprint on community relations, much as the murder of Latasha Harlins polarized Black and Korean communities in L.A. But it was too early at the time to tell what the lasting impact would be.

Years later, two new films have taken on that task. One, a feature documentary by filmmaker Ursula Liang called Down a Dark Stairwell, offers an intimate and uniquely multilingual portrait of Black, Asian American and Chinese immigrant protest actions after the shooting.

The other is a feature film called A Shot Through The Wall, by Aimee Long, who was inspired by the incident but changed key details of the story.

I met Ursula, who is unrelated to Peter Liang, as she was capturing footage at one of the many panel discussions held in the wake of the Gurley shooting. The late Chinese American photographer, Corky Lee, gave us a ride to Chinatown, where we were both inundated with strong opinions.

The thing about this incident is that it was so loud and so polarized. Its a natural thing when things are loud for people to not listen, Ursula said. Part of the work of the documentary was to dial down the volume so that people could hear themselves.

In private, when pressed, Black activists could admit that if Peter Liang had been white, he would have probably never been indicted. Most Chinese Americans I spoke to agreed that no man who kills another man, even if the shot was accidental and the bullet ricocheted, is totally innocent.

But in press releases, on camera interviews and on social media, there seemed to be only these two perspectives: Either Liang was a racist cop who shot Akai Gurley on purpose, or he was an innocent rookie cop scapegoated for the sins of the NYPD because he was Chinese.

Ursula and her assistants track three different groups of activists as they mobilize the Black, Chinese immigrant and Asian American communities, patiently unearthing parallels, commonalities and nuance.

Liang and her collaborators also capture the moments of ugly, racist confrontation that I remember. But the documentarys quieter moments shine the most. In one scene, a group of Black Lives Matter activists passionately debate whether it is acceptable for a protest chant to use the term model minority in a pejorative way.

In another scene that takes place outside the courthouse moments after a judge decided Liang would serve no jail time, a group of cheering Chinese American protesters are confronted by a Chinese man who castigates them in Mandarin, telling them that there is nothing to cheer about when a man is dead.

What frustrated me about the Peter Liang case is that it seemed to be a zero-sum game. It seemed that justice for one community could only be obtained by denying it to the other. But Ursula zooms out from the cases result and focuses on the movements that sprang up around it.

Every once in a while something happens that captures peoples attention. Its not always for the right reasons, she said, but it fuels change anyway.

Specifically, the Peter Liang case sparked the formation of multiple immigrant-centric civil rights organizations. These groups have lent their muscle to other causes important to Chinese immigrants, such as academic testing requirements at specialized high schools and confronting pandemic-related violence toward Asian Americans. They may take a different side on issues than progressive Asian American groups do, but the fact that they are now increasingly engaged in NYC politics is a net positive, Ursula said.

The networking that had begun with these local and smaller groups  you just need to insert a new issue and theres a lot of folks ready to go, Ursula said.

While the documentary zooms out, the feature film A Shot Through the Wall zooms in and imagines the cases impact on a Chinese American family.

The filmmaker, Aimee Long, was inspired to write the film after visiting home for the holidays one year and finding her entire family arguing about the Liang case.

Long didn't know where she stood at the time, so she began to think about race more directly than she ever had. She learned about police brutalitys disproportionate impact on Black people, and thought about what being Asian American meant to her, and what it meant in the United States.

What emerges is an aspirational reimagining of the incident that removes the frustrating ambiguity of the Peter Liang case to tell a more personal story.

In her film, key details are fictionalized. Officer Mike Tan has a mixed-race, Black fiancee. Instead of firing a gun into a dark stairwell on patrol as Liang did, the film has Tan and his partner chasing a suspected drug dealer down a lighted hallway when the accidental shot occurs. Instead of ricocheting off a wall, Tan's bullet tears through a wall and kills a man named Jordan Wiggins.

Long said she wanted to distinguish her film from the Liang case. She focuses on the Asian officers family because she wanted to portray genuine Asian American family dynamics, and on those points the film succeeds. I couldnt help but laugh at how immediately Tans mother began to yell at him for his choice in careers after he finally tells her about the shooting. And the scenes around food and long silences at family dinners felt real.

The film includes a protest scene and acknowledges the way the shooting divides the community, but its main focus is on Tan and how he learns to let go of his belief in his own innocence and good intentions. By the end of the film, he accepts that his desire to be exonerated is misguided and apologizes to the mother of the man he shot. Then, in a chance encounter, Tan himself is shot by two other police officers.

Even though he believed in his own good intentions, he still caused harm, Long said. Thats a discomfort that I wanted to include in the film.

The last scene of the film shows both mothers  in a chance meeting across a produce display. They lock eyes, and there is a moment of recognition and acknowledgement.

Both of them look like they want to say something to each other, but ultimately they remain silent.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Workers at a Starbucks in Santa Cruz who are trying to unionize say they feel unsafe and unsupported by management. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Workers at a Starbucks in Santa Cruz filed a union petition with the National Labor Relations Board, the first California store to join a growing national push to organize baristas and shift supervisors at the coffee giant.

Twenty-two of the store's 31 workers signed union cards, said Joseph Thompson, a shift supervisor at the Starbucks who is leading organizing efforts.

Thompson said the Santa Cruz store experiences a high rate of incidents of harassment, indecent exposure and threats of violence, and employees don't feel supported by management or corporate executives. Union discussions began in November, and the petition was filed Friday afternoon.

In early December, a Starbucks store in Buffalo, N.Y., voted in favor of forming the chain's first union in the U.S. Since then, workers at a cascade of stores across the country announced their own organizing campaigns to join the union, Starbucks Workers United. The organization is part of Workers United, an affiliate of the giant Service Employees International Union.

"We know at the end of the day they don't care about us," said Thompson, who has worked at the company for two years and watched as Starbucks awarded hazard pay bumps and additional food benefits and then rolled them back, even as the pandemic has dragged on.

A group of 13 former and current workers at the Santa Cruz store said they had a "moral obligation to organize" in a letter addressed to the company's chief executive.

Wages do not meet the cost of living in Santa Cruz, baristas are scheduled for shifts without being consulted during days they are not free to work, and workers of color are disrespected by management, former worker Katheline Vanegas wrote in a statement attached to the letter. She alleged baristas sometimes aren't compensated for the full time they worked, with time sheets edited down if they punch out any later than the time for which they are scheduled.

She criticized the company for mishandling a large number of security incidents that began to happen during late hours: "Rather than hiring a security guard to keep baristas safe, police were called to drive around the area and treat homeless people like criminals."

"The day I quit, other partners decided enough was enough as well and partners will either keep quitting or unionize until Starbucks does something to fix these company-wide issues," Vanegas wrote.

Starbucks spokeswoman Sarah Albanesi said she did not have enough information to respond to specific issues at the store and said the company is "listening and learning from the partners in this store as we always do across the country."

Albanesi said the company is opposed to a union. She referenced a statement by Rossann Williams, president of Starbucks North America, published last month after the Buffalo union vote.

Everything we love most about Starbucks is thanks to partners who work directly together with care, partnership and respect. From the beginning, weve been clear in our belief that we do not want a union between us as partners, and that conviction has not changed. However, we have also said that we respect the legal process, Williams said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a vaccine mandate for large employers last week, Starbucks announced it would no longer require its U.S. workers to be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly coronavirus testing  one of the most high-profile companies to do so.

The Santa Cruz store temporarily shut down operations earlier this week because of the number of staff members isolating due to COVID-19, and probably won't reopen for another week or so, workers said.

The NLRB has received 28 petitions from workers at Starbucks stores across the country. Two stores in Buffalo already won their union certification. A handful of other stores in Buffalo have their election dates set, but the majority are in earlier stages in the process, according to the labor board.

"I don't think anyone quite expected the explosive response we got," said Ian Hayes, a lawyer working with the union who filed the Santa Cruz store's petition, as well as the earlier Buffalo store petitions.

The experience of going through the pandemic as food service workers highlighted already existing inequities and "made people feel more of a sense of urgency in taking control over their lives," Hayes said.

He alleges Starbucks has raised baseless challenges on every petition so far, forcing parties into a formal administrative hearing process before the NLRB can order an election. "Thats slowed down the process significantly in every case," he said, adding that the labor board "has completely, comprehensively dismissed the argument as nonsense."

If the company takes the same course with the Santa Cruz store, it would take about two months for the labor board to set an election date, Hayes said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Saudi-led airstrikes on Friday rocked Yemen amid a seven-year-old war and resulted in the death of at least 70 people and injury of more than 100 others while knocking out the region's internet.

International aid groups and the rebels who controlled the area were the ones that reported on the horrific attack led by a military coalition. The recent incident capped a week where rebel drones struck areas as far as Abu Dhabi. Saudi bombs also rained down across rebel-held northern Yemen.

Saudi-Led Airstrikes

The hostilities were fresh proof of the long-running conflict even after a year of U.S. President Joe Biden taking office. The Democratic leader sought to bring the long-running war, which is considered one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, to an end.

The Houthis, Iran-backed rebels who have control of northern Yemen, have gained territory over recent months. The opposition forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have managed to regain some areas and shift the momentum of the war, the New York Times reported.

A separate airstrike on Friday hit a telecommunications building that was located in the strategic port city of Hodeidah. The incident caused a nationwide internet blackout, according to NetBlocks, an organization that was tracking network disruptions. Save the Children, a leading global children's organization, said that at least three children were killed in the attack.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said that the massive internet blackout, which was still a problem as of Friday evening, would also negatively impact aid delivery. The Iran-back Houthi rebels have accused the Saudi-led coalition of the horrific attacks.

Read Also: US Requires Essential Workers Crossing Borders To Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 As Hospitalizations Hit Record High

In 2015, the military coalition launched an offensive to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government after it was ousted by the Houthis. After the missile and drone attack in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi earlier this week, the coalition has intensified its attacks against the rebels, CNN reported.

Long-Running War

An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson in Yemen, Basheer Omar, released the number of casualties. He also said that rescuers continued to go through the prison that was hit by the strikes that were located in the northern city of Saada.

Omar noted that the number of fatalities was more likely to increase as the Red Cross had already moved some of the wounded individuals to facilities located elsewhere. Officials did not immediately provide breakdowns of how many people were killed and how many were injured.

In a separate statement, Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian medical non-governmental organization, estimated the number of wounded alone at around 200 people. The head of the organization's mission in Yemen, Ahmed Mahat, said that his colleagues from Saada said there were still many bodies at the scene of the airstrike and many people left missing.

Mahat said that it was impossible to know how many people may have been killed by the horrific attack that he called an "act of violence." The Yemen country director for Save the Children, Gillian Moyes, said that the initial casualties from Saada were "horrifying." He added that migrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families were among the victims of the incident, NPR reported.



Related Article: Joe Biden Denies a Terrible First Year as Polls Dip to 33% Approval During Failed Solo News Conference

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YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Greece, on January 21, the famous buildings of various Greek cities were illuminated in the colors of the Armenian flag: the Greek and Armenian peoples are two brothers of related civilizations that can survive if they always work together, ARMENPRESS reports Ambassador of Armenia to Greece Tigran Mkrtchyan said in a message on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Today marks 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Greece. Greece is one of the few countries, and the Greeks are one of the unique nations, with which our relations and friendship have a history of millennia, the Ambassador said.

He stressed that the Greek and Armenian peoples are united by common values, principles, common threats and expectations, blood ties. And this is more than just some commercial interests.

"Our brotherhood has gone through all the trials of time and history, becoming stronger. The Greek and Armenian peoples - the two brothers of the related civilization, which can stand firm when they work together ", said Mkrtchyan.

The Ambassador stressed that the 30th anniversary of the relations between the two countries is marked with close ties at the highest political level. On the other hand, according to him, the two countries will deepen economic and trade ties by all means, for which there is fertile ground.

"Cultural diplomacy is a powerful tool for both Greeks and Armenians, although we think we know each other well enough, but there is always room to learn more, to interact more. The opportunities to get to know and love each other through culture are endless. High-level military relations are deepening, which is a good and important fact," he said.

On this occasion, on January 21, the famous buildings of various cities of Greece were illuminated in the colors of the Armenian flag. Ambassador Mkrtchyan thanked the councils of all the cities that responded to the request of the embassy.

He also thanked the politicians of Armenia, Greece, the representatives of the Greek-Armenian community, who during the 30 years made their undeniable contribution to the construction and establishment of the Armenian-Greek privileged relations.
India has sought consular access to the 7 detained Indians even as Indian consular teams are coordinating with US & Canadian authorities

New Delhi: Seven people, apparently all Indian nationals without proper documentation have been detained in Minnesota State on the US side of the United States-Canada border in the case of alleged human smuggling along with a US citizen after four other persons, including an infant, also apparently Indian nationals, were found dead in the freezing cold on the Canadian side of the border earlier.

India has sought consular access to the seven detained Indians even as Indian consular teams are coordinating with both US and Canadian authorities in the case.

Sources on Saturday said, On January 19, US authorities in Minnesota State, near the US  Canada border, came across a group of people who were apparently without proper documentation.

Based on information obtained from them, Canadian authorities launched a search and found four bodies in Manitoba province on the Canadian side of the border. These four people (a man, a woman, a teenage boy, an infant) appeared to have died due to the cold.

The people without proper documentation on the US side, as well as the deceased persons on the Canadian side, appear to be Indian nationals. However, further efforts are underway to identify them and confirm their nationalities. Post-mortem of the victims is likely to be carried out on January 24.

Sources further said, US authorities have detained seven people without proper documentation, as well as one US citizen, for allegedly being involved in human smuggling activity from Canada to the US. One of them is still hospitalised due to cold-related injuries while earlier one more person had been hospitalised.

On efforts by Indian diplomats on the matter in both Canada and the US, sources said, The Consulate General of India in Toronto immediately sent a consular team to Manitoba, which is now liaising with local authorities to render any consular help regarding the matter of the four deceased persons.

The Consulate General as well as the High Commission in Ottawa are also in touch with Canadian provincial and federal authorities for ascertaining details of this tragedy.

Sources added, On the US side, the Consulate General of India in Chicago has urgently sent a consular team to Minneapolis, which is now coordinating and rendering consular assistance. They have sought consular access to the detained persons. The Consulate and the Embassy in Washington D.C. are also in touch with US Department of Justice, and the US Customs and Border Police. Indian Missions and Posts will continue to extend all assistance.

Reflecting the urgency of the matter, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had earlier on Friday tweeted, Shocked by the report that four Indian nationals, including an infant, have lost their lives at the Canada-US border. Have asked our Ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation.
Farmers agitation, price rise and communally-charged rhetoric could hit the BJP hard in this agrarian sector dominated by Jats and Muslims

New Delhi: Western Uttar Pradesh with 113 Assembly seats has emerged as the main stumbling block for BJPs daunting ambition to bag 300 plus Assembly berths in the state, with elections in this region slated to be held in the first two phases  February 10 and February 14. Farmers agitation, price rise and communally-charged rhetoric could hit the BJP hard in this agrarian sector dominated by the Jats and Muslims. To make things worse, the Samyu-kta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella organisation of farmer unions, launched Mission UP against the BJP a couple of days back.

Speaking to this newspaper, a senior BJP functionary maintained that efforts to regain support in western UP would be an uphill task for the party. Pocketing nearly 50 per cent of the Jat votes, the BJP had swept the region, winning 91 of the 113 seats during the 2017 Assembly polls. The Samajwadi Party had lagged far behind with only 17 seats. The farmers agitation, however, has changed the scenario. The coming together of the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal as a formidable combination could deliver a body blow to BJPs quest for UP. The Jats, who comprise only two per cent in the entire state, however, account for 18 per cent in western UP. The Muslim population in this region is a little over 25 per cent.

The traditional harmony between the Jats and Muslims was shattered by the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. The Jats had turned against the Muslims and it was an advantage to the BJP. The scars remained and the BJP, riding on the Modi wave, wiped away the secularists in western UP in 2017.

As the wounds healed and the farmers agitation peaked, the traditional bhaichara, between the Jats and Muslims returned. The Jat leadership has now been reaching out to their Muslim brothers. The situation got tougher when the Rakesh Tikait-led Bharatiya Kisan Union(BKU) urged farmers to support the SP-RLD alliance.

Reeling under the farmers backlash, the BJP swung into action and dispatched Union minister of state Sanjeev Balyan, who hails from the same khap as of Mr Tikait, to hold parleys. Following the meeting, Mr Tikait took a U-turn and said that the BKU stood neutral. He maintained that following the SKM diktat, the BKU would remain apolitical and not support any party. While the BJP functionaries regarded this as a positive development, sources revealed that Mr Balyan had met Mr Tikat to urge him to allow BJP leaders to campaign in the region. Even though Mr Tikait retracted his open support to the SP-RLD alliance, he dropped hints on what the farmers should do. We will not support anybody, but everyone knows what needs to be done, he said.

Sources further disclosed that even though the SKM has not extended support to any political outfit, it would be campaigning against the BJP in the entire state. Theres a lot of anger amongst farmers against the UP government, an SKM leader was quoted as saying.

However, the BJP, which appeared to be on the backfoot in this region was pinning its hopes on Dalit votes and the entry of AIMIM leader Assaduddin Owaisi. The AIMIM fielding candidates in western UP could splinter the Muslim votes and benefit the BJP, a BJP leader said. BJP heavyweights, including Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda, would be touring western UP and meeting Jat leaders next week. In a bit to counter the Jat anger, the BJP has also been wooing the sizeable Gurjar community in the region and had recently celebrated its icon Mihira Bhoj.
These two cities, as Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata, define my life

I have two framed pictures on my bedroom wall, always placed together. An old print of the iconic Rajabai Tower of Bombay and a Calcutta tram moving across a colonial era building, taken by the well-known photographer, Jagdish Agarwal. These two cities, as Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata, define my life.

I did not study at Bombay or Mumbai University, but the Rajabai Clock Tower and its story of being partly funded by Premchand Roychand, founder of the Bombay Stock Exchange, who insisted it be named after his mother, appeals. The clock was modelled on Londons Big Ben, and designed by Gilbert Scott. A quintessential Bombay story, of collaboration, grand design, looking west for inspiration and then, someones Mummy brings us back home. And is it true as the story goes that George Bernard Shaw once said that the height of the tower was matched only by the depth of Bombay Universitys ignorance? How rude, if he did!

But why trams for Calcutta? I could not exactly tell you why. When I was about 10, my maternal grandmother left her comfortable home and life in Waltair for a few years, to move to Calcutta to fight a family court case. This grandmother was a bit of a personality. Dynamic, charming, a bit mad and hellbent on getting her way. So, living in the ancestral home she was fighting for in North Calcutta, she had to learn to use public transport. And thus, in the early 1970s, on our annual summer holiday to Calcutta, I was bitten by a tram bug.

Those slow, sinuous machines gliding silently on shiny tracks were a magical novelty. There was a magical quality to a tram, as if you were somehow removed from the mad frenzy of normal Calcutta traffic. You hopped on and off and you had time to watch the world. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, you could even do a tour of Calcuttas historical spots by tram, a whimsical winding tour to the quirky and fabulous.

Calcuttas trams, the last in India, are on their last rails, if you will. And just as the world is recognising them as an eco-friendly form of transportation, Calcutta wants to get rid of them. The tyranny of the motor vehicle. The Calcutta Tram Users Association is trying to build up public support to keep the trams alive, and if possible, back to their former glory.

In most of India, tramways ended in 1964. And yet, the T in Mumbais BEST used to be for trams. The TT of Dadar TT was for tram terminus. Wellington Mews, on the edge of Colaba and Cuffe Parade, was once a depot for horse-drawn trams and a stable for the horses. It is now a fancy Taj property.

American city images and its literature and cinema are full of streetcars. I have travelled by trams in Oslo many years ago and most recently, in Manchester. The tram system there is a marvel, and most impressive in these environmentally-conscious times, are the sedum plants laid between the tramlines. You feel like youre gliding over a carpet of flowers.

Cities are in some ways defined by their transportation methods. London, New York, Paris, all with their tubes, subways and metros. All exciting, useful. And giving truth to the cliche of bustling commuter crowds moving as one entity with no thought but to get from this point to that and then repeat in the opposite direction a few hours later. What can one say about Mumbais local train system that no one will have heard before? Maybe that weird walk to work practically through the homes of those who lived by the tracks, a shortcut from the station to ones place of work in Tardeo? They had got used to the commuters and carried on with washing clothes, shouting at children, making dinner, as we ducked and weaved through their lives. A very Mumbai experience of intersecting lives and lack of privacy!

But maybe it was travelling on the 3D to college in Calcutta? You climbed on to into a stationary bus because you were female: Aastey ledies said the conductor to the driver, another cliche but also true. After that, who knows what happened. You did not need more than one leg on the ground and the crowd kept everyone upstanding. By crystal-ball gazing, you moved towards the door when you thought you had to get out. Between people talking about some esoteric art or politics in foreign lands and occasional cries of Inquilab zindabad and Cholbe na wafting in from between those crammed in front of various openings.

Dont forget this is intellectual Calcutta, where you might be able to spot the opening verse of Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard painted on the back of a rickety bus. Then Aastey ledies and you jumped off: Go slow, a woman has to get off if you must get a translation.

Sometimes, you had to take a minibus, that Calcutta creature that followed no rules. Bedbugs, chharpoka, is how the bigger buses referred to them. Their depot was BBD Bagh. Which used to be known as Dalhousie Square. And this is a true story from The Statesman of the 1970s. Two young English women visited Calcutta. After a few days, they gingerly asked their host: Why is only one place known as The Lousy Square when the whole city is not that lovely? Truly, Calcutta was not all that lovely then but not all lousy either and so much for colonial history!

How many cliches can I fit in here? I have made one classic Mumbai commuter train mistake: got into a Borivili fast at Churchgate and tried to get off at Andheri. It did not happen. I was heckled and blocked as everyone knows I would be. I had to get off at Borivili and backtrack. The rule is simple: avoid a fast train to a destination beyond your own stop. Luckily, I never made the mistake of getting onto a Virar train. I have heard the punishments are much worse.

But its trams Im thinking of the most. They can be integrated so easily into city life and they are successfully used in many cities. There were rumours that Mumbai would make one more attempt, but only as a tourist attraction. Mass transportation will save our cities. And why not include a bit of elegance and grace amidst all the honks and high speeds?

Meanwhile, I realise that Ive abandoned by grandmother on a Calcutta tram. More on her next time!
The Democratic Party is criticizing Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for her opposition to the voting rights legislation, prompting the left to urge Rep. Ruben Gallego to challenge the senator for a seat at the Senate.

Sinema's perspective on the filibuster reform is shared only by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin among Democrats. The slim Democratic majority in the Senate means that filibuster reform was seen as a needed move to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. The proposal was a top priority for Democrats and United States President Joe Biden.

Sinema's Primary Challenger

Arizona Democrats previously organized heavily to get Sinema elected to the Senate, which she previously served in the U.S. House, which gave her a narrow victory. For months, these officials lobbied her to change her stance on the filibuster but many of them were unable to even get a meeting with the Democrat.

Due to Sinema's refusal to budge on her opposition, which is seen as her siding with Republicans, the voting rights legislation has been dropped in the Senate for now. Arizona Democrats are now fundraising to support Sinema's primary challenger in 2024. The idea was supported by Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders this week, ABC News reported.

Rep. Gallego said that his phone has been ringing a lot recently with calls that are urging him to be Sinema's primary challenger in 2024. The lawmaker claimed that among the individuals making the case include the Arizona Democrat's own Senate Democratic colleagues.

Read Also: Kamala Harris Weighs in on Russia-Ukraine Tensions, Says the United States Won't Back Down Against Vladimir Putin

In an interview, Gallego said that it was not Sanders who was urging him to challenge Sinema for the Senate seat in 2024. The official said that there was more than one senator who had called him. Gallego declined to say which of Sinema's colleagues were privately hoping that she would face an intra-party fight.

Narrow Victory

The official also said that in the last several days, the calls for him to challenge the Arizona senator have only intensified. Gallego said that he has received a lot of encouragement from elected officials, including senators, unions, traditional Democratic groups, and big donors. The seven-year House veteran said that he has been urged by "everything you can imagine under the sun," AZ Family reported.

Some have said that Sinema has become public enemy no. 1 within her own party this week after her blocking of the voting rights legislation. The Arizona Democrat has long held onto the middle of the road since she was once a Green Party activist that was considered to be "too extreme" even for the Democratic Party when she first ran for the state Legislature.

Sinema was the first Democrat from Arizona that the state has sent to the Senate in the last three decades. However, her narrow win in 2018 over then-Rep. Martha McSally was primarily due to the support of moderate Republicans and independent voters.

The people who supported Sinema were known to have buyer's remorse over their 2016 vote for former President Donald Trump. This is the reason that some believe led Sinema to announce her support for the filibuster last week, AZCentral reported.



Related Article: Trump's Draft Executive Order Details How Former President Wanted Defense Secretary To Seize Voting Machines

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by Sumon Corraya

A vocation born looking at the words and works of the priests of the institute. The ordination presided by the Archbishop of Milan and the destination of the Land of the Rising Sun. 800 people present t the thanksgiving Mass in his home diocese, including 150 Muslims: 'In my village,' he says, 'we live in friendship and fraternal relations.

Meherpur (AsiaNews) - A vocation to the priesthood that began at a young age when he looked at the witness of the PIME missionaries, observing their lifestyle and the world in which they proclaimed the Gospel not only with words, but above all with gestures and works of charity.

From here the decision to enter the seminary despite being an only son, to complete a period of study in Italy, and to receive ordination on 22 July 2021 at the hands of the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini. And, after celebrating the Mass of Thanksgiving on 14 January and receiving the cross (the symbol of the mandate for the mission), he is preparing to leave for Japan at the end of February.

This is the story of Fr Dominic Richard Dafader, originally from the Bhabarpara community in Meherpur, a district in south-west Bangladesh, who is preparing to leave for Japan. Here in recent days, with his bishop Mgr James Romen Boiragi, of the diocese of Khulna, he celebrated a service together with friends (including Muslims) and family members and now - after a short period of rest - he is waiting to reach the Land of the Rising Sun.

The 31-year-old Fr Dominic told AsiaNews about the path that inspired his vocation and that will take him to a country so different from his native one, following in the footsteps of the missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). From 2007 to 2012," he recalls, "I studied in a college run by PIME in Dhaka. During those years I was able to discover the good and holy lifestyle of the missionaries. I visited the centres where they worked. Their spirit exerted a strong attraction on me".

In 2013, he entered the seminary in Dhaka, took a course in philosophy at the Major Seminary of the Holy Spirit in the capital and, in 2016, left for Italy for further studies and the deepening of PIME's spirituality. I understood better," he says, "their way of being missionaries. [From this experience] I got more inspiration".

Fr. Dominic is the only son in a family made up of an older sister, a married teacher, and a younger sister, still unmarried, who works as a nurse in a government hospital. His childhood memories include that of his father who, in order to earn money to support the family, "used to push three-wheeled rickshaws" used to transport people. "Then,' he continues, 'my parents decided to buy a piece of land and become farmers. Culturally speaking, it is difficult and rare in my country to give the only male child the opportunity to devote himself to religious activity. But my parents gave me complete freedom", giving me the chance to be a priest and a missionary, and "they were a source of great inspiration for me".

At the mass for the passing on of the crucifix, 800 people were present, including 150 Muslims. In our village," he explained, "Christians and Muslims live in friendship and fraternal relations. The bishop, my family, the parishioners and even the Muslims are excited and wished me well" for the future mission in Japan where, for the first six months, he will dedicate himself to studying the language. "In every gesture," he concludes, "I want to be a witness to Christ in my life".
UN Secretary General: escalation "must be stopped". For Medecins Sans Frontieres it was "a terrible act of violence", "other attacks" reported. Saudi fighter jets strike in Hudaydah, killing three children. According to initial information, at least 70 people were killed and 200 wounded, but the toll is likely to rise.

Sana'a (AsiaNews) - Saudi Arabia denies all involvement in the air raid that yesterday hit a prison in Yemen's Saada province, in an area controlled by the Houthi rebels, and that caused the death of dozens of inmates. Eyewitnesses claim that at least 70 people died in the attack, including some African migrants. This massacre has aroused deep international indignation, and has been condemned by the United Nations and by the Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who says that "this escalation must be stopped".

The official Saudi agency specifies that the [Arab coalition led by Riyadh, which also sees the presence of the Emirates and fighting against the Houthis] "will inform the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the facts and details". Riyadh says the target hit in Saada was not on the list of sensitive targets to be avoided agreed with the OCHA and had not been reported by the ICRC. Moreover, it would not have met the standards set by the Third Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.

ICRC spokesman Bachir Omar reports of 'more than 100 dead and wounded' and the number 'will increase'. For hours rescuers have been pulling corpses and bodies from the rubble. Volunteers and operators are still working in the area, but hopes of finding more survivors fade as the hours go by.

Only in the next few days will it be possible to draw up an exact death toll, but it is clear that the 70 victims announced so far represent a provisional figure that will increase. Ahmed Mahat, head of Medecins Sans Frontieres Yemen points out that 'the Al-Gumhourriyeh hospital has so far received around 200 wounded and has said it is unable to accept new patients'.

"From the accounts of colleagues in Sa'ada, we know that there are many bodies still at the scene of the attack and many people are still missing. It is impossible to know the number of people who lost their lives," the Msf chief continues. It seems to have been a terrible act of violence. Last night there were also air attacks in Sana'a, where the airport was hit. We have also received reports of air strikes in many other governorates in the north of Yemen. As of this morning, there is no internet connection.

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia has confirmed the air raids in Hudaydah, another territory disputed with the Houthis. Three children, who were playing not far from the telecommunications centre, were killed in the attack. The Riyadh-led coalition stepped up military action in response to the drone attack by the rebels on the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The war in Yemen broke out in 2014 pitting the Saudi-backed government and Iranian-supported Shia Houthi rebels.

In March 2015 the conflict escalated when Saudi Arabia decided to get directly involved, resulting in more than 10,000 dead 55,000 wounded. However, independent observers put the death toll for the period between January 2016 and July 2018 at about 57,000.

For the United Nations, the war is worst humanitarian crisis in the world, aggravated by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is such that millions people are close to famine with children expected to suffer consequences for the next 20 years.
by Nirmala Carvalho

62-year-old Sister Sahaya Mary, in charge of a student hostel linked to the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti, was arrested. Behind the arrest was the death by poisoning of a 17-year-old student. Social media have amplified and distorted the story. The young girl had lost her mother eight years ago and was the victim of harassment by her stepmother, a BJP supporter.

Delhi (AsiaNews) - Indian authorities have arrested a nun in charge of a hostel on charges of forced conversion, which culminated in the suicide of a minor student at the Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti, a village in the Thanjavur district (Kumbakonam diocese, Tamil Nadu).

The 17-year-old girl was a guest at the centre, whose management falls under the school administration. She poisoned herself in her room on 9 January last, dying after 10 days, despite attempts at treatment.

Because of the death, investigators detained 62-year-old Sister Sahaya Mary and charged her under sections 305 of the criminal code (aiding and abetting suicide of a minor), 511, 75 and 82 paragraph 1.

However, in the First Information Report drawn up by police officers who managed to speak with the victim before her death, there is no mention of her attempt to convert, a story that was allegedly circulated by local Hindu radical elements in order to stir up anger.

The nun belongs to the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose headquarters are in Pondicherry. The young woman took the poison on 9 January, but concealed the act and was hospitalised for continuous vomiting. The police registered the complaint on January 16, three days before her death on January 19. The officers arrested the nun, who lived in the compound and suffers from pronounced deafness among other things.

The police also committed a blatant irregularity by revealing the victim's name [which we prefer to keep secret because she is a minor], which began to circulate in the media and on social networks. The girl did not want to return home because of the harassment suffered by her stepmother, a strong supporter of the BJP (the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, in power since 2014). In a moment of deep distress, she decided to poison herself in her room.

From a private affair, the story has become viral on social media and on the Internet, taking on a political drift with exploitation on several fronts, including the (unfounded) accusation of forced conversion.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Francis Anthonysamy, Bishop of Kumbakonam, expressed "great sorrow for the tragic death" of the girl, hoping that "justice will be done" for the nun who is currently in custody. Fr John Zacharias, legal representative of the diocese of Thanjavur, speaks of "false and prefabricated accusations" based on conversion attempts that never took place, because "she had only given hospitality" to a girl in difficulty. But the truth is emerging because "there is no proof whatsoever" of the minor's attempt at forced conversion.

Santhanam SJ, a Jesuit lawyer with the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, recalls that "the victim lost her mother eight years ago" and her father "married another woman" who "harassed" the girl. For this reason, he concludes, "the young girl chose to stay with the nuns, even during the lockdown for Covid she did not want to go home for fear of being abused by her stepmother".
Today's headlines: the Taliban arrest a woman in Kabul who had protested against the compulsory veil; Beijing cuts the Olympic torch relay, over "serious" Omicron alert; the Burmese junta hands death penalty to long-time democrat; the first anti-Covid restrictions in Tokyo and in various areas of the Land of the Rising Sun; Novosibirsk inaugurates a statue dedicated to one of the protagonists of Stalinist terror.

VIETNAM

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and one of the most influential Zen masters, died this morning at his home in Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, in the centre of the country. He was 95 years old and spent most of his life spreading messages of peace, non-violence and compassion. He fought against war, lived in exile for a long time and was a victim of repression by the communist authorities.

AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban raided a flat in Kabul, arresting a woman known for her civil rights activism, together with her three sisters. The taget of the raid was Tamana Zaryabi Paryani who participated in a women's rights demonstration perceived as disparaging and intolerable for Koranic students. One of the reasons for the protest was the fight against the compulsory wearing of headscarves (hijab).

CHINA

The organisers of the Beijing Winter Games report that the relay race with the Olympic flame will take place inside a closed bubble, with no outside contact. Authorities are warning of a "serious" battle against Covid outbreaks linked to Delta and Omicron variants. Yesterday, the capital recorded seven symptomatic and five asymptomatic local transmission cases.

IRAN

Tehran is in talks with Russia over the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Iran to meet its energy needs. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed the matter with his counterpart Lavrov, proposing the development of "global cooperation" between the two countries. Diplomats speak of "excellent future cooperation" in many areas.

MYANMAR

A military court sentenced to death Kyaw Min Yu, a long-time politician, former member of parliament and one of the most prominent figures in the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. He was one of the most prominent members of the civil government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and one of the leading exponents of Generation 88.

JAPAN

To stem the escalation of Covid-19, bars and restaurants in Tokyo and a dozen other areas of the country will close earlier than usual. The measure is a kind of anticipation of the state of emergency, imposes the first restrictions from September and will be in force until 13 February. Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi had imposed restrictions early in the new year.

RUSSIA

In Novosibirsk (Siberia), the authorities erected a monument at the request of the public prosecutor's office to one of the protagonists of Stalin's "great terror", Roman Rudenko, a member of the "special troika" that decided on deportations to the camps. The city's Fine Arts Council tried to oppose it, but those responsible wanted to put "ethical issues aside to honour a great fellow citizen".

KYRGYZSTAN

Kyrgyzstan's president, Sadyr Zaparov, signed the final version of the country's new tax code, which was approved by Zogorku Kenes (the parliament in Biskek) at the end of December. The protests of entrepreneurs were to no avail, claiming that the new rules, which on paper aim to combat the "hidden" economy and tax evasion, are not very sustainable.
What Is a Vasectomy: The Most Common Misconceptions About the Procedure

Everything You Need to Know About Vasectomies

A lot of my patients think theyre actually going to be castrated, exclaims Jasmine Patel, assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California Irvine. I really dont know where such an idea comes from  I guess its hearsay, from talking to misinformed friends. Fear breeds fear. Perhaps thats why men who talk to other men who have actually had a vasectomy are more likely to have one themselves. They have a truer idea of what vasectomies are about.

RELATED: Best Male Fertility Test Kits

What Is a Vasectomy?

For those still puzzled, a vasectomy - sometimes referred to as the snip  is a minor surgical procedure that cuts out, ties or seals the tubes that carry a mans sperm. Its a super reliable form of contraception for any man who doesnt want children or, more typically, has had enough. It doesnt have the side-effects associated with chemical intervention  as with oral contraceptives taken by women, or the general anesthesia and invasive surgery required of the sterilization procedure for a woman. It doesnt require the regular maintenance of an intrauterine device, again inevitably left to the woman. It also doesnt require donning a condom and hoping it survives the trip. Nobody has to remember to do anything. Its done. Youre ready to roll.

Why Are Men Reluctant to Have a Vasectomy?

Why is there such a reluctance among men  in stable, long-term relationships, who have children  to have a vasectomy? More than 500,000 men in the US have had a vasectomy, yet this represents only 5 percent of all married men of reproductive age. And thats unusual. Go to Bhutan and the rate is around 40 percent. In New Zealand its 25 percent. Another report, from the UN, suggests that only 1 in 10 men in the US get a vasectomy, half the rate in Canada or the UK. In the US, female sterilization is twice that of vasectomy, despite the fact that the latter is just as effective and a whole lot simpler. So why the imbalance?

Patel argues that there is a wider societal issue in the burden of contraception still typically falling on women (and especially in long-term relationships). Men are often avoidant of doctors and medicine at the best of times, knocking actively pursuing surgery well down their list of priorities. And this avoidance in turn seems to reflect the fact that many men  unlike women, who have to come to terms with menstruation and pregnancy  just arent au fait with the workings of their own bodies, and their reproductive system in particular.

Petar Bajic, assistant professor of urology at the Case Western Reserve University and a urologist at the Center for Mens Health at the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, argues that theres likely some evolutionary drive to protect our genitals. Its not just that some men have this notion of not wanting anything in their body altered  which is a double standard of course, if they make the same expectation of their partner, he says. Its that the genitals are an area we really dont like to be messed with.

Men dont like the idea of having a sharp instrument there, adds Patel. But men in particular seem to have all these misconceptions about what a vasectomy entails.

What Are Some Common Misconceptions Around Vasectomies?

What are the most common misconceptions? That, for instance, it affects your ability to get an erection or have an orgasm. Wrong. That it affects your libido and/or your testosterone levels. Wrong. Its effectiveness as a form of contraception isnt that good anyway. With just a 1 in 2000 chance of failure, that too is wrong. That possible complications are many and serious  when theyre actually minor and very rare. That its an invasive, painful procedure requiring general anesthesia - wrong, with less than 5 percent of operations requiring any more than local anesthesia  for which youll need weeks off work. Your volleyball team may be missing your skills for a couple of weeks, but you could be back at work the next day. I remind patients to imagine just how much more painful giving birth is, says Bajic, and that usually sets them right.

In the US, where health insurance is a consideration, insurers tend to be positively enthusiastic about covering vasectomy because, big picture, thats cheaper than the potential cost of more children.

And, it seems, American men in particular are hampered by these misunderstandings, if by no means exclusively: the same reluctance to take on vasectomy as a means of contraception is found too in, for example, India. There only 7 percent of sterilization procedures in 2018 were vasectomies  a product perhaps of family planning still being widely perceived as womans work. Oh, and the fact that 6.2 million men were sterilized by force in India throughout the 1970s. In India, where health education is not as advanced as it is in the US, the misconceptions go further too  that vasectomies can alter a mans gait, or his strength or his voice, or anything else he holds on to as characteristically male. All wrong.

The suggestion is that there is something cultural at play, broadly in the sense that the vasectomy is just not as much part of the contraception conversation as it needs to be  Patel suggests theres a great need in the US for education, advocacy and an acceptance that men too have to play their part in contraception measures. But, its also cultural in the sense that, as Bajic has it, theres more of a need to feel macho that, thanks to the misconceptions, the idea of vasectomy works against. Its as though vasectomy is akin to some form of neutering.

I think theres a fearfulness that after a vasectomy they will no longer be a man, in some sense, and that they will be giving up their manhood, agrees Patel, when actually getting a vasectomy and making that kind of commitment is an expression of love.

Of course, thats what my wife told me as she ushered me into the operating theater. But, in all seriousness, what is having a vasectomy really like? Remarkably prosaic actually. Indeed, the most awkward aspect was having not just the surgeon do their thing, but the two theater assistants still milling around chatting about last nights TV. I only had to be undressed from the waist down, received a local anesthetic and, aside from having ones manhood somewhat man-handled, felt nothing untoward. The whole process, from undressing to re-dressing, took no more than 30 minutes. Driving yourself home after this surgery isnt recommended, so my wife  and, precisely why I was there in the first place, my two toddler boys  were there to collect me. Frankly, the whole thing was disappointingly pedestrian. Any man inclined to taking to bed at the first sign of a sniffle will have little excuse to work with here.

How Long Is the Recovery Period After a Vasectomy?

Inevitably the next couple of days are tender ones, akin to the after-glow of having recently been kicked in the balls. But that fades soon enough and  while pain is a subjective experience  all thats left then is the bruising, a little swelling and that tingle associated with the healing of a minor wound, enough to keep me from the gym for a few days but thats about all, though some men report a spell of more chronic scrotal pain. The stitches dissolved and no discernible scarring was evident. The desire to jump back into bed took a little time to power up  and not without a little anxiety  but there was, as, so to speak, no loss of function.

Not that you can do without other forms of contraception just yet  once healing is complete, the process has you submit a semen sample some three months later just to check that sperm content has been successfully curtailed. Its worth the wait. The benefit to any couples sex life, Id wager, is immeasurable. Neither of you has to think about protection ever again. Thats liberating. Its sexy. Indeed, a vasectomy is the kindest cut.

Is a Vasectomy Permanent?

A vasectomy is designed to be permanent. Thats why the vast majority of men who have a vasectomy already have children, and are pretty sure about their and their partners desire not to have any more. However, Bajic explains that a vasectomy is technically reversible  around 6 percent of American men seek one  though the procedure is much more complicated and typically not covered by insurance and not guaranteed: you may go through a reversal and still not be able to have children. According to a 2020 study, only 33% of partners of younger men and 25% of older men later impregnated their partner.

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Sony's PlayStation 5 console has experienced an immense rise in demand in the past year. Unfortunately, it came along a decrease in supply, not only in the U.S. but also around the world.

However, more than a year after it has been launched in November 2020, Sony has has slowly addressed its shortage in demand with PS5 restocks.

Although for a product that is almost a year old, the PS5 is still hard to come by.

There have been numerous restocks of Sony's PlayStation 5 console as it becomes more accessible, but gamers are still not finished with the waiting and scarcity when it comes to buying one.

PS5 on Best Buy

The Verge reported that Best Buy is already taking orders for the PlayStation 5 console with a normal disc drive, which costs $499.99, and the disc-less Digital Edition, which costs $399.99.

Best Buy orders are typically predicated on store pickup, so gamers looking to buy almost certainly require some luck finding a nearby shop with the inventory. However, the most important thing in wanting to own a PlayStation is to keep trying, whatever the case may be.

PS5 on GameStop

A new batch of PS5 restocks has arrived at GameStop. This will be the retailer's first online restock of 2022, and it will provide customers the chance to get their hands on a next-generation PlayStation before the weekend.

According to Tom's Guide, as of 11 a.m. ET, GameStop had this PS5 package in stock for $743. "Call of Duty Vanguard," an extra DualSense Controller, a one-year PlayStation Plus membership, and a $50 GameStop gift card are all included in the combo.

Read Also: Apple iOS and iPadOS 15.2.1 Update, Bug Fixes: Should You Upgrade Now? Check What iOS 15.3 Can Offer

PS5 on Target

Gamers who are looking to purchase a PlayStation 5 console might be able to secure one depending on their target.

According to Newsweek, on Friday (Jan. 21) morning, various locations across the country replenished both the disc and digital editions of the console. To be clear, not every store's inventory has been updated, so buyers are not assured to acquire a PS5.

Go to the Target website and click on the "You're Shopping" icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen to see if any units are available near you. After that, they will be given a search area where they can input their ZIP code.

How to Buy a PlayStation 5

Here are some of the greatest tips, tricks, and recommendations on how to buy a PlayStation 5, as recommended by Cnet.

Do not give up if a resupply begins and you see "Out of Stock" on the screen right away. Continue to attempt after refreshing the screen a few times. To prevent bots from obtaining all of the consoles, some shops release them in waves.

It's almost probably a fraud if someone on Twitter offers to sell a user a console. These people should be avoided.

Make sure the user is logged in to any retailers where they will be shopping. A user would know how frustrating it is to put a console in a cart only to lose out because they had to waste valuable seconds entering their payment and shipping information.

Instead of using a browser, use an app to complete a purchase when possible. Not only are apps often faster than mobile browsers, but if users are attempting to buy on various computers, they may easily use an app and a browser at the same time.

In the afternoon and evening is the usual time slot for the PS5 restocks. PS5 restocks are far more common than in the morning. After 1 p.m., the chances of an unplanned replenishment increase considerably. If you're wondering when to check, the optimum time is usually 10 a.m. ET (10 a.m. PT).

Restocks for the PlayStation 5 practically never happen on weekends.

Related Article: Xbox Guide: 2 Ways to Clear Xbox Series X Cache to Improve Speed, Get Extra Storage
These problems would have started by the middle of 2021. The first sign that something is wrong with the EQC is a warning about a lack of coolant. Taken to dealers, these EVs would just be topped up, as if coolant leaks did not need adequate investigation. What eventually happened was that the motors soaked with coolant would stop working. They always had to be replaced; some battery packs were also affected.Being in China made things more difficult for these owners. Just like the EQC itself, its electric motors and battery packs also had to be imported from Germany. Considering they are not worn parts, the German carmaker did not have them in stock. That import process made repairs exceed 35 days, which is more than any car could wait to be fixed according to the Chinese consumer law.Among the 68 cars listed in the joint statement, the oldest ones date back to 2020, putting all of them still under the warranty period. Although they are apparently covered, the question is that some owners would have reported that replacing the motor did not stop the issue.In a conversation with Caijing, a customer who preferred to identify as Wang Lin  thats not his real name  reported precisely this situation. He said he only bought the EQC because it was a Mercedes-Benz. It was more expensive than a NIO or a Tesla Model Y and offered less range than both. The customer only accepted the premium price due to the reliability reputation this German automaker enjoys.Wang Lin was quite disappointed to get the warning to top up coolant in July 2021. His car was still pretty new, with only 9,800 kilometers (6,089 miles) on the clock. One week after getting more coolant in a dealer, the screen showed a fault alert and would not move anymore.The Chinese customer only managed to have his car repaired by mid-October. A month later, while charging, the warning about a low coolant level appeared again. Wang Lin went directly to the dealer and received bat news the following day: the motor would have to be replaced again. In other words, his new car had two motor replacements in a matter of four months.According to the Mercedes-Benz client, it was not the worst story he heard: some affected customers had to replace the motor three times. Wang Lin now says he does not trust the car anymore and that he is afraid the motor will fail while the vehicle is in motion.Caijing spoke to two more EQC owners that took part in the joint statement and also preferred not to identify with their real names. Huang Xin said that the consumer group that he integrates has more than 300 members, with 150 among them having had issues with the electric motors.Zheng Jianyu took delivery of his EQC on November 12, 2020. The coolant warning appeared on June 19, but he had already had issues with the vehicle, such as the trunk lid opening without warning while driving. His car took more than 50 days to be repaired. He now calls it a hot potato that only achieves 280 km (174 mi) of range with a full charge and no air conditioning after the motor was replaced.In their joint statement, these 68 Mercedes-Benz customers did not hold back on words. They said the German carmaker deliberately concealed the truth and denied the existence of design defects.They also urged the company to disclose relevant information and solutions on the design defects of Mercedes-Benz EQC motors and start the recall procedure for quality defects of automotive products to eliminate potential safety hazards in a timely manner.These Mercedes-Benz customers also separated those that already experienced the defect and those who may do so soon in different groups. For the first, they want their vehicles to either be replaced or bought back, as the Chinese consumer law establishes. In their opinion, the customers that are experiencing or will have issues with the coolant seal would be eligible for a warranty extension. Caijing contacted Mercedes-Benz and heard back from the company that the cars had been repaired and given back to their owners. It just did not mention how long it took or how many times the same repair was performed.The German carmaker did not address any of these 68 owners' requests. It just said that it is contacting them one by one to to actively understand their concerns and respond to their concerns in a targeted manner. It is not what these customers were willing to hear.There are currently two major hypotheses for the EQC motor issues: either a design flaw or a massive quality control issue for Chinese units. If it was a design flaw, it would probably occur in cars from customers in Europe or other markets. So far, we have not heard about them elsewhere, but it is not unlikely that they are just under the radar.If you have had similar issues with your EQC, we would like to hear their story. If you know someone affected by the problem, tell them we would like to chat. Well also contact Mercedes-Benz to understand the extent of the problem and if the German company will fix it with a recall or not. Well have news about that soon.
The Boeing Company was awarded the production maintenance contract for the absorbed McDonnel-Douglas FA-18 Super Hornet in the early 2000s, but before that, you have to go all the way back to the early 1930s.In those days, most fighters were still bi-planes and had construction makeups that used as little metal as possible to save weight. With this in mind, and as diminutive as it may be to modern sensibilities, the Boeing P-26 Peashooter was as advanced and as innovative as Boeing engineers could have possibly designed in the golden age of aviation.It was a single-engine, all-metal monoplane with fixed landing gear, an open cockpit, and two M1919 .30 caliber machine guns in the nose for air to air combat. Under the proverbial hood of this fighter was an R-1430 nine-cylinder radial engine from Pratt & Whitney. The upgraded P-26B variant even received an engine variant with a very early fuel injection system and one of its M1919 guns replaced with an M2 Browing .50 caliber unit.While no doubt still a monoplane, the P-26s wings had to be braced with wire to ensure structural integrity. The Peashooter derives its name not from its comparatively puny stature or armament. Instead, from the long and slender gun-sight tube that extended past the outside of the cockpit and into the open air outside, similar in size and shape to the child's toy.In a vacuum, and in the context of the period in which the Peashooter was first flown, there was every reason to think the platform would have a long and successful career as a fighter. But in the first four decades of manned flight, progress came swiftly and at an unrelenting pace.To give you a rough idea of what we mean, consider that within five years of the Peashooter's first flight, icons of World War Two like the Messerschmitt Bf-109, Hawker Hurricane, and Grumman F4F Wildcat were already taking to the skies. Meanwhile, the Peashooter didn't even have a canopy.Against competition like that, the Peashooter looked out powered, outgunned, and frankly, several leagues out of its depths. Even so, Peashooters did indeed see combat in the skies over the Second World War. Special export variants were delivered to the Air Forces of China and the Philippines to aid in their battle against the encroaching Imperial Japanese menace.It may surprise you that the Peashooter managed to claim a handful of air to air kills during this time. Some were even against the deadly Mitsubishi A6M Zero in the early days of the Pacific Theater. But a few fluke kills at the hands of supremely skilled pilots wasn't enough to keep the aircraft in service. The remaining Peashooters were retired or delivered to foreign Air Forces like Guatemala, who used them as trainers and emergency fighters well into the 1950s.Apart from a handful of failed prototypes, including the X-32 Joint Strike Fighter program competitor, Boeing wouldn't again build or service fighter aircraft. Choosing to focus on strategic bombers in its military initiatives. Like the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Superfortress, B-47 Stratojet, and B-52 Stratofortress.That was, of course, until they were awarded the contract to maintain and produce new versions of the Mcdonnel-Douglas FA-18 Super Hornet in 2002. An astonishing 70 years separate the Peashooter from the Super Hornet. Today, only two period-correct Peashooters survive.One is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The other is displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The official annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.We took separate trips to see both examples in Virginia and Ohio, respectively, it was two experiences that blew our minds as much as it did humble us. Be sure to check out our in-depth review of each museum and so much more right here on autoevolution.
SUV

They were simply caught up in a global conflict that even today can be challenging to understand. Even so, the sheer savagery of what Imperial Japan designated "Okha," Japanese for cherry blossom, reached a speed not yet seen in warfare.Any justification for a military force to be so desperate that it deems suicide missions appropriate probably sounds strange, perhaps even alien to people with modern sensibilities. But from late 1944 to 1945, Imperial Japan was in very dire straights indeed. Japanese forces had failed to contain the Allied Pacific Island hopping campaign.Whether at Guadalcanal, Midway, the Doolittle Raids, Saipan, or Leyte Gulf, the combined forces of American, British, Australian , Phillipino, and Chinese manpower ran rough shot over the Japanese Navy for a year after bloody year between early 1942 and early 1945.At the heart of this assault was the might of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. An armada of more than ten aircraft carriers, dozens of battleships, cruisers, submarines, destroyers, and their escorts. All backed by air support from fast and deadly fighters like the Vought F4U Corsair and Grumman F6F Hellcat.In the days before the first atomic bomb test, both sides of the Pacific conflict anticipated a mainland invasion of Japan was inevitable. With a naval fleet that intimidating, Imperial forces decided something novel and terrifying was needed to neutralize the incoming allied naval threat.The term "Kamikaze attack" is an icon of post-war global culture. But during the war, the notion that an enemy pilot could strap himself into his airplane and set their sights directly at your home ship with no return ticket must have seemed preposterous. The Allied powers of the Pacific had to learn quickly and with great pain and suffering that Imperial Japan was not beneath this drastic measure.It started with simple piston-engined fighter and dive bomber attacks in the late summer of 1944. It was when these alone proved too vulnerable to fighter attacks that a radial new weapon was constructed. The Cherry Blossom manned missile has a shape that generally mimics a long cigar with the cockpit sitting between the wings and the twin rudders.The only Okha variant to see combat was the early Type 11 variant. This type used an airframe consisting of a long tubular fuselage made of the thinnest aluminum possible. The wings were made of Japanese Red Pinewood to save weight. The only purpose the pilot served was to ignite the triple Type 4 Mark 1 Model 20 solid-propellant rocket motor arrangement in the rear of the aircraft and steer the most very basic of control surfaces into alliedships.With a combined power output of 1764 pounds of thrust (7846.6 nM, 10,462 hp), this featherweight aircraft no heavier than a crossovercould dive to speeds exceeding 500 miles per hour ( 804 kph) when dropped from any number of different Japanese twin-engined bombers.The Okha manned missile saw the most use attacking Allied shipping off the coast of Okinawa. Notably, the Japanese carrier transporting the first batch of Okhas was sunk by American Submarines. Okha attacks damaged a handful of American and British ships, but none ever sunk their targets.They were responsible for dozens of casualties, including damaging the destroyer USS Hugh W. Hadley beyond repair. Even so, post-war analysis of the Okha program was deemed negligible at best and a complete and total failure at worst.Upgraded models with metal wings and better engines never saw combat before a Soviet invasion, and two nuclear bombs brought the war to a close. The Okha earned a nickname among the Allies before the end of the war, christening them as "Baka Bombs," Baka being an offensive Japanese word roughly translating to "idiot."Today, surviving examples of the Okha are on display in museums both in Japan and elsewhere across the globe. One bright orange Okha trainer is displayed alongside other oddities from the war at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Check out more from our trip to that museum right here on autoevolution.
Albeit this one is only done in virtual form. Oh well, these are the decidedly CGI ways of Musa Rio Tjahjono, the automotive virtual artist behind the musartwork account on social media. He decided to give us some Liberty Walk and Gunmetal food for our digital Huracan thoughts. Complete with a Cerakote Savini twist and more aero than anyone could imagine.If Lamborghini keeps up the Aventador schedule, around 2023 we should already have a cool Huracan Ultimae swan song to celebrate in OEM style. And, naturally, automotive virtual artists are already thinking about its successor. On the other hand, some of them might think there is much aftermarket life still left in any current Huracan.Naturally, the choice is ample, though we are not given any hints if we are dealing here with the original Coupe, a Performante, EVO, or the latest STO, among others. Instead, we are only getting JDM tuning indications from Musa. With this being a Liberty Walk creation, one would imagine that ostentatious credentials are a given. As it turns out, it might still not feel outrageous enough.No worries, though, as the Head Designer at the legendary controversial West Coast Customs is always keen to show his cross-cultural preferences. He may be the styling head honcho at an American outlet, but his off-duty CGI exploits are traditionally infused with at least a little bit of JDM passion. And this time around its a bridge across three continents.Europe gives the OEM Lambo Huracan, Japan lends a Liberty Walk widebody kit helping hand, and everything sits on a color-matched set of three-piece Savini Wheels. As for the artists personal touches, there is an abundance of them. First and foremost, we have additional aero bits and pieces.But thats not all, as the Lambo devil is always in the details. This time around, those who involve the Gunmetal exterior paintjob and the matching Cerakote (forged ceramic coated) aftermarket wheels.
Toyota recently released a teaser image of an SUV, which some are saying is the new 2023 Toyota Sequoia. (Photo : David McNew/Getty Images)

The long wait is almost over for the arrival of the new Toyota Sequoia, with the Japanese automaker sharing the first image of the full-size SUV on Tuesday, January 18. In a press release, Toyota revealed a teaser image of a red vehicle with an accompanying text, "Something big is coming to the Toyota SUV lineup. A clear picture will come into view soon. Stay tuned."

Toyota finally updates Sequoia with new model after long wait

The much-awaited update for the Sequoia is long overdue, considering the second-generation vehicle debuted way back in 2007. That makes the current Sequoia the oldest vehicle in Toyota's car lineup, with the SUV last redesigned for the 2008 model. Toyota did give the Sequoia a few notable changes since then, like the Nightshade Edition and TRD-Pro trims, but none of these updates were able to mask the SUV's aging platform.

2023 Toyota Sequoia coming into view with new teaser: https://t.co/OWUG9zpuVY pic.twitter.com/OZYzW8Fc6a  Autoblog (@therealautoblog) January 18, 2022

That is about to change with the upcoming release of the 2023 Sequoia. The new version of the big SUV is expected to be closely related to Toyota's Tundra pickup, just like the previous two generations of the Sequoia. The new Sequioa will make its debut soon, with the third-generation SUV expected to arrive by the end of the year. The Sequoia's release is perfectly timed for Toyota, with the Land Cruiser now phased out in the United States.

Related Article: The Future Is Now: Honda, Isuzu To Test Hydrogen-powered Trucks on Japan's Public Roads

Sequoia to use Toyota's Global F platform

The Sequoia will likely utilize Toyota's body-on-frame Global F platform, a technology that the carmaker introduced with the 2022 Lexus LX and the 2022 Tundra. That same platform, which features a fully boxed steel frame for added rigidity, is also expected to underpin the next Hilux and Tacoma pickups.

The new Sequoia will continue to use an independent rear suspension, unlike the global Land Cruiser and the Tundra, which use a solid rear axle. Toyota is expected to offer customers seven or eight-seat configurations for the Sequoia with various trim levels, including an option for a TRD Pro variant which is tailored for off-road drives.

The Sequoia is expected to carry various improvements from the Tundra, like a digital gauge cluster and a massive 14.0-inch touchscreen. Toyota is expected to drop Sequoia's ancient 5.7-liter V8 and six-speed automatic and replace that with a newer 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 and 10-speed transmission in the next model.

In the latest model of the Tundra, a twin-turbo V-6 produces either 348 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque or 389 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. The V-8 of the current Sequoia produces 381 horsepower. Toyota is expected to provide customers with an option for a Sequoia hybrid for the first time. An iForce MAX twin-turbo V-6 hybrid will be available for that SUV with that engine producing 437 horsepower.

READ MORE ON AWN:

BMW Beats Mercedes in Premium Segment as Sales Grow 9.1% In 2021 With 2.213 Million Units Sold

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A man gets out of an Audi TT RS Coupe quattro car at the Thailand International Motor Expo 2021 in Bangkok on December 2, 2021. (Photo : JACK TAYLOR/AFP via Getty Images)

Nowadays, many customers want to customize their own cars, choosing different colors to personalize their prized vehicles. Audi has decided to make life easier for its beloved customers, with the automaker expanding its color palette to give more options to possible buyers.

Audi adds Dew Silver and Python Yellow to its color palette

Audi has added two matte shades to its color palette, with the Dew Silver and Python Yellow now available as options for customers. Both shades are now available on some variants of the Q3 and TT.

Arriving at the silver and yellow colors might sound like a simple decision, but making these shades as new options takes a long time. First off, Audi's design department team has to track various trends in key markets across the globe. The members of the design team then conduct a feasibility study before creating and naming a specific color.

Audi released a statement regarding the expansion of shade options, saying, "The entire process of design, selection, technical implementation, and approval of the colors can take anywhere between three to five years." The automaker also noted that engineers need to ensure that the color they bring into the market will stand the test of time.

Related Article: Dustin Hoffman Puts Iconic 1949 Buick Roadmaster up for Auction: Car Played Huge Role in 'Rain Man'

Audi's sales drop in 2021

Providing more color options to customers may be one of the keys for Audi to get its sales back up. Audi sold just 1,680,512 cars in 2021, a 0.7 percent drop compared to its 2020 numbers. The German manufacturer looked to be on its way to a strong year, achieving record-breaking deliveries in the first two quarters of 2021. However, Audi failed to sustain the momentum, with the company suffering a massive 34.2 percent decrease in sales during the second half of the year.

Like other companies in the auto industry, the chip crisis was the one to blame for Audi's poor sales performance. The shortage in semiconductors hampered Audi's local production in China. Also contributing to the lower sales was the VAT reduction in the European continent.

Hildegard Wortmann, Audi's board member for sales, said that the year 2021 was a challenging one for the company, but they managed to successfully overcome them with the help of their worldwide team's engaged effort. Wortmann added that they are looking to the future with confidence, especially with Audi having the "highest order backlog ever" and possessing a "high volume of incoming orders."

Giving Audi hope for the future is the continued success of its electric vehicle range. Audi sold 81,894 EVs in 2021, accounting for 4.8 percent of the company's total sales. Audi's EV sales grew 57.5 percent compared to the previous year, with the Q4 E-tron Sportback and Q4 E-tron proving to be its best-selling cars.

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While the majority of speculations are focused on iPhone 14, several iPhone 15 leaks surprised Apple fans. The latest one claimed that the device will have a 5x periscope camera!

iPhone 15 Leak Hints Powerful 5X Periscope Camera

In a report received by 9to5Mac, analyst Jeff Pu claimed that the iPhone 15 Pro models will have a periscope lens with a 5x optical zoom. He also emphasized that Apple is in talks with Lante Optics, which is projected to be the principal provider of the periscope lenses that will be used for the 2023 iPhones.

In addition to the iPhone 15 camera leak, 9to5Mac furthered that the Cupertino-based corporation has already received component samples and will make a final selection by May.

Once the components needed for the camera has been authorized, the periscope lens is expected to be equipped in the high-end variants of the Apple 2023 iPhone lineup. Some of the said devices that are anticipated to have the 5x periscope camera are iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The analyst added that Lante Optics is predicted to deliver more than 100 million components to Apple if the two businesses reach an agreement.

For those who do not know about what a periscope camera is, How-To-Geek explained that it functions similarly to a submarine's periscope. An angled mirror reflects light that enters the front component at a 90-degree angle.

This is a significant benefit to phone manufacturers. Finding the necessary horizontal space for a longer telephoto lens is far more practicable than shrinking the sensor or making the phone bulkier.

Read Also: NASA Mars Rover Solves Problematic Pebble Issue; Hubble Camera Snaps 'Sails of Stars'

Other iPhone 15 Leaks to Watch Out For

For what it's worth, Apple Insider shared numerous iPhone 15 leaks that iOS fans should watch out for.

Since the USB-C port has become more common, several users have encouraged Apple to include it in the iPhone.

With that being stated, the European Union is introducing a bill requiring smartphone manufacturers to use the USB-C connection as a standard connector. However, the two-year deadline requirement provides Apple enough time to perfect a completely different option, which is going portless.

Several rumors speculates that Apple will soon delete all ports from its iPhone lineup, and USB-C will never make its way onto an iPhone.

In addition to this iPhone 15 leak, an "iPhone Fold" could be released as an ultra-premium option in the "iPhone 15" lineup. This would be Apple's most costly iPhone to date, with the base model expected to cost around $1,500.

Apple has worked hard to build technologies particular to folding devices, as seen on recent patents. New hinge technologies, folding batteries and bending displays are among them.

iPhone 15 Price

For those curious to know the price of the iPhone 15, it is worth noting that the tech giant has not yet released an official statement addressing this matter. With that being stated, the previous price range offered from the previous device could help determine the cost of the iPhone 15.

Apple Insider noted that the "iPhone 14" and "iPhone 15" are expected to have the same pricing model as the iPhone 13..

Related Article: iPhone Safari Bug Can Leak Your Google Account Info, Let Hackers Spy on Your Browsing History: Is There a Fix?
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Email Dan Walters of CalMatters at dan@calmatters.org. CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/dan-walters.
Bluefield, WV (24701)

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By Dong Sun-hwa





Actress Song Ji-hyo tested negative for COVID-19, but still went into a 10-day quarantine as she has not been vaccinated.







According to Song's management company Creative Group ing Friday, the actress did not receive COVID-19 vaccination shots because she is "allergic to Western medicine."







"In 2011, Song felt short of breath and had blotches on her body after getting an intravenous injection (IV) to regain her strength," the agency said in a statement. "She was taken to the emergency room, but even after that, she continued to show abnormal reactions to antibiotics So this time, she had no choice but to follow her doctor's advice and take a cautious approach to vaccination."







Song underwent COVID-19 testing Thursday, three days after filming SBS's variety show "Running Man" with Eunhyuk of K-pop boy group Super Junior, who tested positive on Thursday. Song, a regular cast member of the program, will not film "Running Man" on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25 due to her self-quarantine. All the other regular cast members of "Running Man," including comedian Yoo Jae-suk and actress Jeon So-min tested negative for COVID-19.







Song made her acting debut in the feature film, "Wishing Stairs" (2003) and has starred in a number of movies and dramas such as, "Jumong" (2006) and "Emergency Couple" (2014). She joined "Running Man" in 2010.


COVID Shuts Down Oregon Coast's Largest Seafood and Wine Fest Again

Published 01/18/22 at 4:53 PM PST

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  Every last weekend of February, the central Oregon coast town of Newport would swell in size, practically doubling in population, as some 17,000 or more visitors descended upon the town for the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival. Each year until 2021, that is.

Now, for the second year in a row, the pandemic has put a dent in one of the major festivals along the entire Oregon coast. Newport's visitor center and Chamber of Commerce just announced Monday it would cancel the event.

After much communication with city, county, and state officials, it is with heavy hearts that the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce decided to announce the cancellation of the 2022 Newport Seafood & Wine Festival, the agency said on social media yesterday. While we were eager to welcome folks back to a much anticipated in-person festival, coupled with putting all the necessary precautions in place to ensure the health and safety of all the attendees, vendors, volunteers, and staff, it doesn't outweigh the level of safety and protection from COVID that is foremost for participants and the community.

The chamber said even a scaled-back version of the event would not work, as they recently saw a significant drop in vendors and volunteers due to COVID concerns. Too many had dropped out for even a smaller incarnation of the Oregon coast favorite. 2021's event was a partial, "to-go" affair.

We do hope to hold the festival in future years, the chamber said. Meanwhile, we will explore ideas for another community event and put our efforts into something that can be executed in a safe manner.

With most medical experts agreeing that the Omicron variant has not quite hit its peak yet in Oregon, that would leave the end of February as still a worrying time for many.

Meanwhile, the chamber is expressing empathy for those who are greatly disappointed by the festival's cancellation. It promised more developments in the future regarding next year's event and other relevant announcements at www.seafoodwine.com and the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival's Facebook page.

Tickets will be refunded for this one, the chamber said.

We will work with each ticket purchaser to ensure successful refunds are made, the chamber said. If you prefer, you can apply your refund as a donation to the forward movement of the Seafood & Wine event. It is much appreciated. Please contact Afton Tickets to request your refund. www.aftontickets.com.

The festival started back in 1977 and quickly grew in size and importance, even spawning a spinoff brewfest in the fall for a time in the 90s. Call the Newport Chamber at (541) 265-8801.

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Four city officials have stepped forward to be considered for the position of interim city manager while Beaumont searches for a replacement for Kyle Hayes, who announced his intention to retire in November.

The candidates are Earl White, chief of the fire department; Chris Catalina, personnel director; Bart Bartkowiak, director of public works and technology services; and Chris Boone, director of planning and community development. Each spoke to the Enterprise about their reasons for applying for the position and their background:

Related: Beaumont city manager to retire

Earl White

Whites resume includes almost 42 years of civil service to Beaumont and Jefferson County. He joined the Beaumont Fire Department in October 1980. He was a firefighter for 35 years, then served as constable for the county for two years. After that, White returned to Beaumont as the fire chief.

My entire adult life has been dedicated to public service, he said. I want what's best for the city, the community (and) employees.

In his current role as fire chief, he is leader of the second largest department in the city  behind the police department. White spends much of his time presiding as top administrator over nearly 300 employees; managing the budget, which he called significant as it entails allocating resources to provide emergency; and non-emergency services to the citizens of Beaumont.

I am committed to moving this city forward, White said. Im all about Beaumont and the citizens, employees and what's best for this community. We have a great community.

Chris Catalina

Catalina has been working for the city of Beaumont for the past 14 years. He worked in the water utilities department as utilities administrator before transitioning to the human resources department.

As the director of the personnel department, a day in the life consists of planning and directing all the functions of the department, including workers compensation and civil service.

He assists the city manager in development and administration of policy relevant to employees, including promotions, grievances, disciplinary action, recruitment, compliance, awards and training. He also is the director liaison for the libraries, animal care and the citys new communications division. As liaison, he is responsible for setting up workspaces, getting employees equipment, handling their budget, providing support and problem solving and working with the city manager to handle customer service issues.

As he interviews for the position of interim city manager, he is hoping to work with the council to continue to see the city grow.

I would like to continue my service for the citizens of Beaumont and continue to be an advocate for the city employees and to be a positive part of the transition while we select the new city manager, Catalina said.

Related: Beaumont seeks firm to find new city manager

Bart Bartkowiak

I've been at the city for 16 years, and I felt it was important to the city of Beaumonts employees and citizens to have a solid transition from Kyle leaving to the next city manager, Bartkowiak said. So I felt it was important that those of us with relevant experience stepped up for consideration as interim.

Bartkowiaks relevant experience includes running the IT division and being promoted to director a short time after being hired. With that role came leadership over several city divisions including libraries and animal care, until he took over public works, at which point libraries and animal care were shifted over to the human resources department.

The 3-1-1 hotline is something Bartkowiak was tasked with building from scratch, and he still runs that program today. In 2020, he was asked to take over public works and technology services. In that role, he is also principal administrator for water production, traffic management, communication systems, IT, and engineering.

We've got a lot of great employees in the city of Beaumont and I feel confident that council and the city employees will keep things moving along even in Kyles absence, although we will miss him, Bartkowiak said.

Chris Boone

Boone, the director of planning and community development., has seen city significant progress over the past two decades under Kyle Hayes leadership.

I've been fortunate to be a part of 15 years of that, and so I'm anxious to make sure that that continues over the next (several) months - however long it takes the council to make a decision on how to move forward after the interim period, Boone said. My interest is to try to continue that progress so that we don't lose any ground.

Though Boone has been working for Beaumont for over 15 years, he has a total of 25 years of experience in city administration, first in Mobile, Alabama and then in West Orange as public works director. In his current role, he works with construction permits, planning and zoning, code enforcement, managing the budget, grants, overseeing the transit system, partnering with nonprofits to bring shelter to unhoused people, downtown redevelopment and economic development.

He also considers himself fortunate to be able to work on quality-of-life projects in the city, such as renovating Calder, developing the skate park and Ida Reed Dog Park, the downtown cultural arts district and bringing a farmers market to the city. Now, he is curious about what the future holds next for him.

It's the opportunity for me to see if that's a good fit for me in terms of a role in the city - specifically Beaumont or a city the size of Beaumont, he said.

Interviews for the position will be held on Monday at 8:30 a.m. It will be a closed executive session.

I'd like to say that here in the city of Beaumont, we have a great group of department directors that work well together, Catalina said. We would be in support of any of the candidates.

Boone agreed.

One of Kyle's many talents is hiring talented people, he said. So any of the four that they'll interview Monday would definitely be capable of the interim position.

rachel.kersey@beaumontenterprise.com

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Bedford, PA (15522)

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Becoming partly cloudy after some morning rain. High near 70F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

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Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
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By Kang Seung-woo







In his New Year speech on Jan. 3, President Moon Jae-in said he will pursue an "irreversible path to peace" on the Korean Peninsula until his term ends in May, with many believing that he referred to his drive to formally end the Korean War.







However, his ambitious pledge appears to have been dampened as North Korea has threatened to lift its moratorium on nuclear and inter-continental ballistic missile tests  a pause that has served as both a feat in the South Korean leader's inter-Korean peace initiative and a motive for his end-of-war declaration push.







Last September, Moon proposed declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War at the United Nations. And since then, Seoul has promoted it as a catalyst for peace talks with Pyongyang. But the totalitarian state announced, Thursday, that it had decided to restart all temporally-suspended activities in light of what it called a U.S.' hostile policy.







The North Korean leader declared a halt to all nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in April 2018, while engaging in talks with former U.S. President Donald Trump.







"President Moon will continue to reach out to North Korea, but any chance of concluding an end-of-war declaration or any progress in North-South relations is gone for his administration," U.S. Naval War College Professor Terence Roehrig said.







"North Korea has shown almost no interest in engaging Seoul and Washington and that will not change during Moon's remaining months in office."







Joseph DeTrani, a former special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, echoed Roehrig's view.







"With the recent missile launches of hypersonic and short range ballistic missiles from North Korea, I doubt that there's much public support in the U.S. for moving forward with an end-of-war declaration or other initiatives to get North Korea to return to negotiations," DeTrani said.







Since Moon's proposal, South Korean and U.S. diplomats have been meeting frequently to discuss the issue.







"There's considerable disappointment that Pyongyang continues to build nuclear weapons and enhance its ballistic missile capabilities, while the ROK and the U.S.  and others  try to convince North Korea to return to negotiations," DeTrani added.







The ROK refers to the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.







Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King's College London, also said that it would be difficult for President Moon's peace initiative to be successful at this point.







"This would probably need meetings with North Korea for discussion. But Pyongyang continues to be unwilling to let people in or to fly its own diplomats out due to the pandemic. This makes negotiations very difficult for the time being," he added.







In fact, North Korea has remained unresponsive to South Korea's overture.







When North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency announced that the country decided to consider resuming nuclear or ICBM tests, it was mainly focused on criticizing the United States for its hostile actions against Pyongyang.







However, it failed to refer to South Korea, raising speculation that the Kim Jong-un regime thinks that there is nothing to achieve with the Moon administration and is waiting for the next South Korean government.







"There is little likelihood North Korea will do much with an administration that will be out of office soon," Roehrig said.







President Moon Jae-in attends a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Jan. 4. Korea Times photo





Daniel Sneider, a lecturer on international policy at Stanford University, also said, "I also guess that the North Korean leadership has its eyes on the South Korean elections and would not want to do something that undermines the chances of a progressive victory."







He added: "That said, I don't see any prospect for an end of war declaration  which in any case has no meaning  or any other last minute North-South initiative. Everyone is waiting for the election results."







Even though North Korea has threatened to resume nuclear or ICBM tests, experts believe that it would not be easy to put the plan into practice due to China which does not want an escalation of tensions in the region.







"China is privately cautioning Kim Jong-un to refrain from having another nuclear test or ICBM launch, knowing this will incite the U.S. and the U.N. Security Council to impose even harsher sanctions," DeTrani said.







"If the North complies, I think China will continue to provide humanitarian and other assistance to North Korea, regardless of United Nations sanctions. I think, at least for the foreseeable future, North Korea will heed this advice and continue to perfect their arsenal of missiles, to include hypersonic and cruise missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, in line with Kim Jong-un's pronouncement at the Eighth Congress of the Workers Party in January 2021."







Sneider also said, "One big question is what the Chinese want to happen at this point. The resumption of trade between North Korea and China is a major development and will give Beijing even more leverage over Pyongyang. I assume that for now the Chinese, with the Winter Olympics coming, are not interested in a major escalation of tensions and will restrain the North Koreans to some extent."







Roehrig also said China will not be happy with a nuclear or ICBM test.







"Particularly if any test comes soon and overshadows the upcoming Olympics. But also in the long-term, Beijing wants regional stability and a return to the tensions of 2016 and 2017 is not what it wants," he added.







When it comes to a possible nuclear test, Pacheco Pardo said North Korea was less likely to detonate a nuclear bomb.







"As for nuclear tests, I think that North Korea is less likely to conduct one because it has declared itself a nuclear power and wants to project the image of being a responsible one," he said.







"'Responsible nuclear powers' don't need to conduct nuclear tests."


Bennington, VT (05201)

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Rain likely. High 57F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

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Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 46F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
This Jan. 17, 2001 file photo shows pedestrians entering CNN Center, the headquarters for CNN, in downtown Atlanta. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on false posts recirculating an old, altered photo of a fake CNN banner.
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  Mechanical issues were the cause of the fatal car fire on Wednesday morning near downtown Pittsfield according to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.

Fire investigators with the state office found that the fire was "not suspicious in nature" and was "caused by overheating or mechanical failure" in a 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the parking lot of the Livingston Apartments on East and Second streets, according to Jake Wark, the Public Information Officer with the Department of Fire Services said.

The "fire spread from the exterior undercarriage of the car" Wark said.

What to do if your car catches on fire Public Information Officer for the Department of Fire Services Jake Wark said if drivers find their car smoking or on fire, the best thing to do is pull of the road and stop as soon as possible. Wark said that drivers with cars with an automatic transmission should stop and put the car in park. For drivers in cars with a manual transmission, set the parking brake and put it in gear. "Turn off the ignition, move everyone out of the car, and call 9-1-1," Wark said via email. "Dont open the hood  you risk injury and give the fire more oxygen."

Police and fire crews who responded to calls of smoke coming from the Monte Carlo around 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday found Barry Dunnells, 69, of Pittsfield, incapacitated in the vehicle.

Pittsfield fire officials said that as they worked to free Dunnells from the car, the Monte Carlo's fuel line broke and allowed fuel to flow under a Honda Insight and a Hyundai Tucson parked nearby which eventually caught on fire as well.

Dunnells was transported to Berkshire Medical Center, where he later died. The cause of death is being investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Wark said that in Massachusetts car fires are largely on the decline. In 1990 the state had a reported 8,000 car fires. By 2020 that number was down by almost 75 percent to 2,200 car fires.

"About 20 percent of car fires in Massachusetts each year are caused by some form of mechanical failure," Wark said. "Regular maintenance is the best way to prevent them. Most vehicle fires actually take place in the warmer months rather than colder ones."

Nationally, fires are a well documented issue with 2002 Monto Carlos. The model has been part of three separate recalls from General Motors for a faulty valve cover gasket that over time allows oil to seep out and onto the exhaust manifold, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The oil can catch on fire and spread from the exhaust manifold to the rest of the engine.

General Motors first issued a recall in 2008 for about 200,000 vehicles with this design and then followed with another recall in 2009. The company did not fully remove the faulty parts during the first two recalls according to Associated Press reporting from 2015.

General Motors told the AP at the time that some 1,300 cars that were fixed during the recall caught fire anyway. The new batch of fires resulted in a follow-up investigation by the NHTSA and the recall of 1.4 million vehicles with the engine flaw in 2015.
You are the owner of this article.








President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook arrive at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Jan. 22. Yonhap





President Moon Jae-in returned home Saturday from a three-nation trip to the Middle East, where bolstering economic and defense cooperation was high on his agenda.







In the United Arab Emirates, South Korea signed a preliminary deal to sell midrange surface-to-air missiles to the Gulf nation, in the latest sign of deepening defense cooperation between the two countries.







The deal was signed after Moon held talks with UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai.







In Riyadh, Moon held talks with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the two agreed to work together in areas related to the hydrogen economy.







During the talks, Seoul and Riyadh signed preliminary deals to jointly develop green hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind power, and jointly build a hydrogen ecosystem.







Moon also held talks with Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf in Riyadh, and they agreed to resume their free trade negotiations in the first quarter of this year.







In Cairo, Moon had a summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and they agreed to conduct a joint feasibility study on a bilateral free trade agreement.







If realized, an FTA with Egypt would mark South Korea's first free trade pact with an African country. Bilateral trade between South Korea and Egypt has been on the rise in recent years and stood at $2.3 billion last year. (Yonhap)


With blessing boxes, take what you need, give what you can
Material from Stockbridge Updates and the Berkshire Edge was included in this commentary. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of The Berkshire Eagle.
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Spearfish, SD (57783)

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A few showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 52F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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This photo shows the image on the box of President Moon Jae-in's gift sent to foreign ambassadors in the country to mark the Lunar New Year. The Japanese embassy refused to receive the gift, as the image resembles Dokdo in the East Sea. Yonhap





The Japanese Embassy in Seoul has refused to accept South Korean President Moon Jae-in's Lunar New Year gift, claiming the gift's box bears an image of South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, Japanese news reports said Saturday.







Cheong Wa Dae had sent a gift box with traditional liquor and other items to Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi and other foreign ambassadors in Seoul to celebrate the Lunar New Year that falls Feb. 1.







But the Japanese Embassy returned the gift Friday, as the box has an illustration that resembles the islets of Dokdo in the East Sea, according to the reports.







Upon the refusal, the embassy lodged a protest and repeated Japan's territorial claim to the islets.







The image of a sunrise is believed to represent South Korea's commitment to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and starting anew in the New Year. Dokdo is where people can watch the first sunrise in the country.







The presidential office did not make any specific comments on the issue.







South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment stationed there, since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.







However, Japan repeatedly claims sovereignty to the rocky outcroppings, making it a thorn in relations between the two countries. (Yonhap)


BIG RAPIDS  Even though the new year is young at three weeks old, there have been fire deaths in Michigan, a drastic increased when compared to one year ago. To be precise, data from the Michigan Fire Inspectors Society (MFIS) shows a 117% increase of statewide year-to-date fire deaths from 2021 to 2022.

These figures, accurate as of Jan. 19, are of concern and significance for Sean Wethington, who serves as the captain of the training division for the Big Rapids Fire Department. In order to combat these climbing totals, Wethington said it all begins with proper fire safety training for all ages.

At the top of this safety list is for individuals to have a working smoke detector on every floor of their home, as well as outside of any room where an individual sleeps.

When we go into schools right now, we coin a phrase: 'Hear the beep where you sleep,' for the school kids, Wethington said. It works great with the kids.

Wethington said its important to instill fire safety guidelines upon a younger generation, adding that the knowledge is oftentimes passed on to the childs parents.

If we can educate the public on how to better help themselves, its going to help us, Wethington said.

As easy as it is to convey the message of awareness and safety to kids in school, reaching out to an entire community in their homes often only happens after a tragedy, like the one that claimed the lives of two Newaygo County residents earlier in the week.

This is what Wethington said makes fire departments want to reach out to the communities they serve.

So often, smoke detectors are thought of as kitchen timers, or somebodys taking a shower again and its setting the smoke detector off, Wethington said. With the older models, thats more true but, with the newer models, they last long.

As Wethington explained, most modern day smoke detectors are equipped with a 10-year sealed battery, which eliminates the need for a semi annual trip to the store for batteries.

In addition to this, many newly constructed homes come with hardwired detectors, meaning, if one goes off, they all go off.

There are also a few other pertinent tips one should follow to be ready should a fire break out in their home.

CLOSE BEFORE YOU DOZE

According MFIS data, 67% of house fires typically occur in the evening or early morning hours of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., compared to 33% between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Keeping the doors and windows shut before going to sleep for the night could be the difference between survival and becoming a statistic. Leaving a door open will only give the fire more fuel in the form of oxygen to rapidly burn.

'EVERY SECOND COUNTS'

It can be a panic-stricken moment when someone sees their furniture and other belongings go up in flames, and should that happen, time becomes increasingly precious.

From the time it starts, to the time where conditions have escalated to the point where youre jumping out a window or screaming for help, you have three minutes from the start of the fire. Every second counts, Wethington said.

This is a stark contrast when looking back to the last few decades of the 20th century, when it took upwards of 20 minutes before the proverbial point of no return, primarily because of furniture.

Years ago, items like tables and chairs were naturally made, and not coated with the highly flammable material that is customary on modern furniture and decor.

It grows quickly and, before you know it, the fire is so big that you cant get across the house, or you cant make it down the stairwell, Wethington said.

For further information on fire safety, feel free to reach out to the Fire Division of the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety at 231-527-0005.
As he documents the role of Hillary Clintons campaign in generating false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, Special Counsel John Durham has also previewed a challenge to the FBIs claims about how and why its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign began.

At stake is the completeness of the official reckoning within the U.S. government over the Russiagate scandal  and whether there will be an accounting commensurate with the offense: the abuse of the nation's highest law enforcement and intelligence powers to damage an opposition presidential candidate turned president, at the behest of his opponent from the governing party he defeated.

The drama is playing out against the clashing approaches of the two Justice Department officials tasked with scrutinizing the Russia probe's origins and unearthing any misconduct: Durham, the Sphinx-like prosecutor with a reputation for toughness whose work continues; and Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general, whose December 2019 report faulted the FBI's handling of the Russia probe but nonetheless concluded that it was launched in good faith.

The bureau's defenders point to Horowitz's report to argue that the FBIs Trump-Russia conspiracy investigation, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, is untainted despite its extensive use of the discredited Clinton-funded Steele dossier. Though highly critical of the bureau's use of Christopher Steele's reports, Horowitz concluded that they played no role in the Crossfire Hurricane opening," which he said had met the department's low threshold for opening an investigation.

But Durham has made plain his dissent. In response to Horowitz's report, the special counsel announced that his office had "advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the reports conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened." Durham stressed that, unlike Horowitz, his "investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department" and has instead obtained "information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S."

Durhams office has not described the specific basis for its disagreement. But the Crossfire Hurricane advocates defense has a big problem: copious countervailing evidence in the public record  including in Horowitz's own report. A considerable paper trail points to Steeles political opposition research playing a greater role in the probe than the FBI has acknowledged:

Numerous officials received Steele's allegations  some meeting with the ex-British intelligence officer himself  and discussed sending them up the FBI chain weeks before July 31, 2016, the Horowitz-endorsed date when the bureau claims it opened the Russia-Trump collusion investigation. These encounters call into question the FBIs claim that Steele played no role in triggering Crossfire Hurricane and that its team only received the dossier weeks after their colleagues, on Sept. 19.

The FBIs own records belie its claims that it decided to launch the Russia probe not because of the dossier, but instead on a vague tip recounting a London barroom conversation with a low-level Trump campaign volunteer, George Papadopoulos. Australian diplomat Alexander Downers tip, recorded in bureau records, was that Papadopoulos had merely "suggested" that Russia had made an unspecified "suggestion" of Russian help  a thin basis upon which to investigate an entire presidential campaign.

Upon officially opening Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, FBI officials immediately took investigative steps that mirrored the claims in the Steele dossier even though they were supposedly unaware of it. In August, the FBI team opened probes of Trump campaign figures Carter Page, Michael Flynn, and Paul Manafort  all of whom are mentioned in the dossier  based on predicates that are just as flimsy as the Downer-Papadopoulos pretext.

The FBIs claim that Steele played no role in sparking the Trump-Russia probe is further called into question by top bureau officials previous false claims about the investigation, including Steele's role. They not only lied to the public and Congress, but to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Horowitz report concluded that Christopher Steele "played no role" in sparking the Trump-Russia probe. Its own findings call that into question.

'Definitely of interest to the Counterintelligence folks'

Durham's November indictment of Igor Danchenko, Steele's main source, was the final nail in the coffin for the Clinton-funded dossier. But to sympathetic media amplifiers of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, its origins were unscathed.



Horowitz's report, wrote Mother Jones reporter (and early Steele media contact) David Corn, "concluded that the FBI investigation of Trump-Russia contacts had been legitimately launched" thereby proving that "there was no hoax."



In an article attempting to demonstrate "Why the Discredited Dossier Does Not Undercut the Russia Investigation," Charlie Savage of the New York Times said Horowitz's report "established" that Steele's allegations did not reach the Crossfire Hurricane team until Sept. 19, 2016, meaning that "they did not yet know about the dossier" when they launched the probe on July 31.

But if the Crossfire Hurricane team really did not learn of Steele until Sept. 19, then those leading the Russiagate probe were among the few high-ranking officials in Washington intelligence circles unaware of the dossier.

The first known Steele-FBI contact about the dossier came on July 5, more than three weeks before the Trump-Russia probe officially launched. Days before, Steele  working for the Clinton campaign via the Washington-based opposition research firm Fusion GPS  contacted Michael Gaeta, the senior FBI agent he had worked with on other matters. Gaeta was then serving in Rome as a legal attache.

Steele, Gaeta recalled in congressional testimony, informed him that I have some really interesting information you need to see  immediately. Gaeta jumped at the chance: I said, all right, I will be up there tomorrow, and immediately caught a flight to London. At Steeles office on that early-summer day, the former British spy briefed his eager FBI handler on the Trump-Russia conspiracy theories he had generated and handed over a copy of his first intelligence report.

Steeles allegations did not stay in London, as Gaeta quickly shared them with FBI colleagues. I couldnt just sweep it under the rug, couldnt discount it just on its face, he told Congress, adding that Steele was an established source. On July 12, Gaeta told a colleague in the FBIs New York field office, the then-assistant special agent in charge, about Steeles allegations. According to Horowitz -- the IG who concluded that Steele played no role in the Crossfire Hurricane opening  this agent then informed his superior about the Steele allegations the same day. The Steele material, Horowitzs team was told, was seen by these FBI officials as "something that needs to be handled immediately" and "definitely of interest to the Counterintelligence folks."

On July 28, at his FBI colleagues request, Michael Gaeta passed along copies of the two reports he had received from Steele. As Horowitz later found, the first one (dated June 20, 2016) provided by Steele to Gaeta, would later become one of four of Steeles reports that the FBI relied upon to support its surveillance applications for Carter Page.

Steeles conspiracy theories quickly made their way up the FBI chain. According to the inspector generals report, Gaeta heard from a colleague that high-level officials were already aware of the reports existence, including at the Executive Assistant Director (EAD) level at FBI headquarters in Washington. This occurred, Gaeta told Congress, on maybe the 1st of August, right around then, or either the 31st of July.

I was told by the [assistant special agent in charge] at a very high level, he goes at the EAD level at headquarters they have the reports, Gaeta said. According to the IG report, Gaeta emailed an FBI supervisor on July 28 to report that Steele had told him that contents of two of his reports may already be circulating at a high level in Washington, D.C.

Gaeta also discussed the Steele dossier claims with the legal attache overseeing his work at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The unidentified government lawyer told the inspector general that he signed off on Gaetas discussions with the New York field office, and also recalled having the expectation that "Steeles reporting" would be provided "to the Counterintelligence Division (CD) at FBI Headquarters within a matter of days.

Before making the trip to see Steele in London, Gaeta also received the approval of Victoria Nuland, a senior Obama administration State Department official who now serves under President Biden. By her own telling, Nulands office then received information directly from Steele in the middle of July. Steele, Nuland recalled in a 2018 interview, passed two to four pages of short points of what he was finding, and our immediate reaction to that was, this is not in our purview. This needs to go to the FBI.

Yet another senior U.S. government official also shared Steeles information with the FBI. It helped that he had a personal connection: Then-senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie worked alongside Steele at Fusion GPS, first made contact with Steele right before the former British spys meeting with Gaeta on July 5, and then shortly after. This led to a July 30 breakfast between the Ohrs and Steele at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.  one day before Crossfire Hurricane began. At this sit-down, Ohr recalled to Congress, Steele claimed that he had evidence that Russian intelligence had Donald Trump over a barrel.

According to Ohr, I wanted to provide the information he [Steele] had given me to the FBI. He immediately reached out to Andrew McCabe, the then-deputy director of the FBI. I went to his office to provide the information, and Lisa Page was there, Ohr recalled, referring to the FBI attorney who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with Strzok while both worked on the Trump-Russia probe. So I provided the information to them.

When exactly this pivotal meeting occurred has never been resolved, and all involved have a fuzzy recollection. The transcript of Ohrs August 2018 House testimony shows him responding Yes to a question placing his meeting with McCabe and Page on July 30  the same day he met Steele, and one day before the Trump-Russia probe officially began. Yet earlier in the deposition, Ohr guessed that he in fact met with McCabe and Page in August. When he spoke to the DOJ inspector general, Ohr did not recall exactly when he contacted McCabe.

Despite that testimony, Horowitz instead relied on an entry in Ohrs calendar to determine the meeting did not take place until Oct. 18. McCabe, who was forced to resign from the department for lying about his contacts with the media, said he believes the meeting occurred in fall 2016 and did not remember Ohr calling him to set up the meeting or how it came to be scheduled.

Suggested  some kind of suggestion

According to the official narrative, while top-ranking FBI officials shared and discussed the Steele dossier with everyone but Crossfire Hurricane team members, the counterintelligence division decided to investigate the Trumps campaigns potential ties to Russia on July 31 based on an unrelated tip from Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat. At a London bar in May, campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos reportedly told Downer that Russia had offered to help the Trump campaign by anonymously releasing information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Although there was no evidence that the Trump campaign had pursued, received, or used this undefined material, FBI officials deemed this rumor sufficient grounds to investigate the campaign for potential involvement in Russias alleged theft of DNC emails published by Wikileaks.

In other words, Peter Strzok, the senior FBI counterintelligence agent who opened the Trump-Russia probe, wrote in his memoir, Papadopoulos had somehow learned about the hacking operation before the public did and had advance knowledge of the Russian plan to use that information to hurt Clintons campaign. Even the FBI hadnt known about it at that time.

But when the Australian tip that reached the FBI in July 2016 was finally disclosed to the public in December 2019, Papadopoulos supposed advance knowledge about Russias alleged hacking operation turned out to be non-existent. The FBIs tip from Downer contained no mention of the DNC hacking, a Russian interference campaign, or even the stolen emails handed to WikiLeaks. Nor did they even have any trace to suggest that a Russian intermediary had made an overture.

Instead, according to the FBI Electronic Communication (EC) that opened the Trump-Russia probe, the FBI only heard that Papadopoulos, in his conversation with Downer, "suggested" that the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia (emphasis added) that it could assist the Trump campaign with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs. Clinton (and President Obama).

FBI document opening the Trump-Russia probe cites a Trump campaign volunteer having suggested some kind of suggestion from Russia.

The FBI document acknowledged that the nature of the suggestion was unclear and that the possible Russian help could entail material acquired publicly  in other words, not emails hacked from the DNC, which, as Horowitz noted, were not mentioned in the EC. The FBI also acknowledged that it had no evidence concerning the Trump camps receptivity to the suggested suggestion: It was unclear how Mr. Trumps team reacted to the offer, the EC stated, and that Russia could act with or without Mr. Trumps cooperation. Although Papadopoulos October 2017 guilty plea with the Mueller team suggested that he had told Downer about thousands of emails obtained by Russia, Downer later stated that the Trump campaign volunteer had made no mention of any stolen emails, and fact didnt say what it was that Russia had on offer.

In other words, what Strzok wrote in his own book was untrue  and what the FBI officially based its entire Trump-Russia counterintelligence probe on was a suggestion.

To accept that the FBIs decision to open the Trump-Russia investigation was well-founded, one has to stipulate that the nations premier law enforcement agency decided to investigate a presidential campaign, and then a president, based on a low-level volunteer having suggested, during a barroom chat, some kind of suggestion from Russia that contained no mention of the alleged Russian hacking or stolen emails that the Trump campaign was supposedly conspiring over. One would also have to accept that the bureau was not influenced by the far more detailed claims of direct Trump-Russia connections  an alleged conspiracy that would form the heart of the investigation  advanced in the widely-circulating Steele dossier.

Insufficient basis' for FBI probes official predicate

Adding to the questions surrounding the FBIs basis for opening a Trump-Russia counterintelligence probe is that, upon doing so, the Crossfire Hurricane team didnt bother to contact the campaign volunteer whose vague suggestion supposedly triggered it. Instead, the FBI expanded the probe to multiple other figures in the Trump orbit. Although no intelligence connected them to Downer's vague tip, all three shared the distinction of being named as Russia conspirators or assets in the Steele dossier.

Rather than just focusing on Papadopoulos  who was never wiretapped and not even interviewed until January of 2017  the FBI quickly opened parallel probes of campaign volunteer Carter Page, campaign adviser Gen. Michael Flynn, and then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. According to Horowitz, Strzok described the initial investigative objective of Crossfire Hurricane as an effort to determine which individuals associated with the Trump campaign may have been in a position to have received the alleged offer of assistance from Russia (emphasis added) that Papadopoulos had suggested.

The FBI identified Page, Flynn, and Manafort as additional investigative targets, the IG found, not based on any new intelligence but because they had ties to Russia or a history of travel to Russia. They relied on a rarely used law  the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires Americans representing foreign governments to disclose these relationships  as the basis for their inquiries.

Lacking any evidence  and admitting such in their own opening document  the team, nevertheless, proceeded to simply speculate who may have accepted the Russian offer and subsequently opened up full investigations on four Americans, Kevin Brock, the former FBI assistant director for intelligence and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), opined in Congressional testimony in 2020. This is unconscionable and a direct abuse of FBI authorities.

When it comes to Papadopoulos, the FBI "initially considered seeking FISA surveillance of Papadopoulos" but quickly determined that it had "an insufficient basis" to do so, Horowitz found. But if the FBI felt that it had "an insufficient basis" to spy on Papadopoulos, how could the FBI deem him to be a sufficient basis for investigating and spying on members of the campaign that he worked for?

On Steele, a pattern of FBI 'factual misstatements and omissions'

Although Horowitz took the FBI at its word that Steele played no role in triggering Crossfire Hurricane, he did so after documenting multiple instances of FBI lies  including about Steele's role in the probe.

When the FBI used the Steele dossier to seek surveillance warrants on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, the bureau made 17 "factual misstatements and omissions" to the FISA court, Inspector General Horowitz found in his December 2019 report.

These abuses included embellishing Steele's established reliability as an FBI source; omitting information that undermined the credibility of Steele's main source, Igor Danchenko, and the fanciful claims he told Steele about prostitutes and billion dollar bribes; concealing that Steele was a source for a Yahoo News article that the FBI also cited as source material; omitting that both Page and Papadopoulos had made exonerating statements to FBI informants; and, most notably, omitting that the Clinton campaign was paying for Steele's services. The FISA court concurred with Horowitz, invalidating two of the four Page surveillance warrants on the basis of the FBI's "material misstatements."

When the FBI briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee on its use of the Steele dossier in 2018, it told similar falsehoods while presenting the Clinton contractor as credible. According to the FBI's prepared talking points, the Senate was erroneously told that Steele's main source Danchenko "did not cite any significant concerns with the way his reporting was characterized in the dossier." Danchenko, the FBI additionally claimed, also "maintains trusted relationships with individuals who are capable of reporting on the material he collected for Steele." The FBI also said that its discussions with Danchenko "confirm that the dossier was not fabricated by Steele."

But the FBI concealed  just as it did with the FISA court  that Danchenko had in fact told its agents that corroboration for the dossier's claim was "zero"; that he "has no idea" where claims sourced to him came from; and that the Russia-Trump rumors he passed along to Steele came from "word of mouth and hearsay" and "conversation that [he] had with friends over beers" that should be taken with "a grain of salt."

When the FBI's deceptive reliance on Steele was brought to light in a memo from then-House intelligence chairman Rep. Devin Nunes in early 2018, the FBI fought to prevent its release. Moreover, the FBI resorted to more deception: In an explosive Jan. 31 statement aimed at thwarting the Nunes memo's release, the FBI claimed that it had "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy."

The FBI's tactic failed, and the memo was released two days later. When the first of the FBI's Carter Page warrants was declassified in July 2018, it showed that the only material omissions of fact were made by the FBI. The FBI told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it "believes that [Russias] efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with" the Trump campaign. Its source for this belief was Steele, whom it described as "Source #1" and "credible"  all while omitting that the Clinton campaign was footing the bill.

In its first FISA application to spy on Carter Page in 2016, the FBI claimed that it "believes that the Russian governments efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with" Trump campaign. It bases this on Christopher Steele  "Source #1" and "credible  without disclosing that the Clinton campaign was paying him.

In addition, unidentified intelligence and law enforcement officials went out of their way to bolster Steele's image via anonymous leaks to credulous news outlets. "U.S. investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier," a CNN headline proclaimed in February 2017, weeks after the dossiers publication. The FBI is "continuing to chase down stuff from the dossier, and, at its core, a lot of it is bearing out," an unidentified "intelligence official" told The New Yorker later that month.

The FBI's faith in Steele extended to sharing classified information with him. According to Horowitz, at an October 2016 meeting in Rome, FBI agents gave Steele a general overview of Crossfire Hurricane, including its then-secret probes of Manafort, Page, Flynn, and Papadopoulos. The FBI was so eager to enlist Steele that it offered to pay him $15,000 just for attending the Rome meeting and a significantly greater amount if he could collect more information.

This early FBI enthusiasm for Steele  and lengthy record of lying about it -- is hard to square with the bureaus subsequent claims that he only played a minor role.

Durham's dissent could become political flashpoint

Despite uncovering FBI deceptions, Horowitz acknowledged that he was relying largely on the word of the officials he was investigating. "We did not find information in FBI or Department ECs [Electronic Communications], emails, or other documents, or through witness testimony, indicating that any information other than the [Friendly Foreign Government] information"  Australia's tip from Downer -- "was relied upon to predicate the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," his report states.

As his dissenting statement made clear, Durham is not limited to one department nor to its employees' voluntary testimony.

Durham's grand juries have already yielded indictments of two Clinton campaign-tied operatives for deceptive attempts to influence the FBI's Trump-Russia probe. That Horowitz has already uncovered so many inconsistencies in the FBI's account  and that Durham has gone out of his way to question the FBI predication that Horowitz accepted  suggests that the Steele dossier and the Alfa Bank "secret hotline" story are far from the only fraudulent Trump-Russia activity in Durham's sights.

If Durham does unearth additional evidence that the FBI did not launch the Trump-Russia probe in the way that it claims, then that would be yet another devastating revelation for a bureau that has already been caught relying on Clinton-funded disinformation and lying about it. Given how hard the FBI and Democratic Party allies have fought to shield this conduct from scrutiny, Durham's probe could become a major political flashpoint as his probe reaches its final months and hones in on its final targets.

Published by Real Clear Investigations.

I will be hosting a Callin episode about this article and other news of the week, including the Ukraine crisis; the collapse of the Havana Syndrome story; and developments in Syria on Friday, January 21 at 6pm ET / 3 PM PT. Tune in and join the conversation here. (Callin is iPhone-only for now, but Android users can listen on their web browser right after the live show completes.)
EcoHealth Alliance Associate Vice President Dr. Andrew Huff recently claimed that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, who conducted gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, told him he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Dr. Andrew Huff, PhD, MS, publicly stated on January 12 that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak confessed to him that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency, and further stated his belief that EcoHealth Alliance was a CIA front organization.

Huff received his Ph.D. in Environmental Health specializing in emerging diseases before becoming an Associate Vice President at EcoHealth Alliance, according to report by independent journalist Kanekoa, who detailed the ordeal on his Substack newsletter.

EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Daszak, and financed by several US government agencies, partnered with Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina and Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct gain-of-function research on bat-borne coronaviruses in Communist China prior to the initial outbreak of COVID-19.

Daszak reportedly oversaw the screening of thousands of bat samples for novel coronaviruses. The controversial research also involved screening people who work with live animals.

The revelations added fuel to concerns that coronavirus pandemic originated from that very lab, which Daszak aggressively maintains is not true.

For the Record: In 2015, Dr. Peter Daszak stopped me as we were leaving work late at night, and asked me if he should work with the CIA. I was shocked given my experience in security. Over the next 2 months he gave me updates on 3 separate occasions about his work with the CIA. Was Dazsak working for the CIA? Yes No

Completing this poll entitles you to our news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Yes: 0% (0 Votes) No: 0% (0 Votes) When he asked me the question I stated Peter, it never hurts to talk with them and there could potentially be money in it. Meanwhile, I was cringing that he told me this, in a non classified setting (a SCIF), to a person that was not read-in, and to a uncleared person (me). Then, over the next two months at the break area while getting coffee, or between meetings, he stated that they were interested in the places that we were working, the people involved, the data that we were collecting, and that the work with them was proceeding.

Then, Huff detailed his belief that Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance was a CIA front organization. The statement continued:

Looking back, I now believe that EcoHealth Alliance was a CIA front organization to collect viral samples and to collect intelligence on foreign laboratory capacity. There was no way that the data collected or the models being developed, could predict transmission or pandemics. Contextually, EcoHealth was barely solvent and it was common place to lay off employees with the ebb and flow of federal and private funding. Peter would do anything or say anything to obtain funding. Intelligence organizations often target people in financial distress. From the CIAs perspective, it was a great plan in my opinion, if what Dr. Peter Daszak said was true. Since it was common place for Peter to lie, I didnt necessarily believe him when he told me. However Based on the past two months of the US government spending millions of dollars surveilling me and MTRX INC employees, including military aircraft, attempting to destroy my house, bugging everything in it, stealing my property, and hacking all my devices, I believe that the worst is likely true.

For the Record: In 2015, Dr. Peter Daszak stopped me as we were leaving work late at night, and asked me if he should work with the CIA. I was shocked given my experience in security. Over the next 2 months he gave me updates on 3 separate occasions about his work with the CIA.  Andrew Huff, PhD, MS (@AGHuff) January 12, 2022

Prior to the public statement earlier that morning, Huff took to Twitter and claimed members of the US Government IC community have been harassing me, broke into my house, stole hard drives, and installed electronic surveillance devices throughout my house.

I'm back We determined that members of the US Government IC community have been harassing me, broke into my house, stole hard drives, and installed electronic surveillance devices throughout my house. Filing against them in US Federal Court. Unreal. @RaviBatra @joerogan  Andrew Huff, PhD, MS (@AGHuff) January 12, 2022

This, Huff said, suggests to him that Daszak was not lying to him when he apparently explained that he had been working for the CIA.

EcoHealth Alliance is likely a CIA front organization. COVID-19 is the biggest intelligence failure since 9/11, wrote Huff. The coverup is the greatest in US History, far worse than the Iran-Contra scandal. The truth is coming out and I will testify this under oath.

In a separate series of posts, Huff said that he wouldnt be surprised if the CIA/IC community orchestrated the COVID coverup acting as an intermediary between Fauci, Collins, Daszak, Baric, and many others. At best, it was the biggest criminal conspiracy in US history by bureaucrats or political appointees.




A Korean regulator checks the fish catch of a Chinese boat in waters off Korea's southwestern county of Shinan in this photo provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Jan. 11. Yonhap





The Coast Guard seized a Chinese boat for fishing without a permit in the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the southern resort island of Jeju, officials said Saturday.







The 290-ton vessel carrying 11 crew members is suspected of fishing in waters 122 kilometers west of Seogwipo at 6:25 p.m. Friday without authorization.







The Coast Guard plans to question the crew members of the vessel after the results of their COVID-19 tests, officials said.







Chinese fishing boats are allowed to enter South Korea's western EEZ for fishing on the condition that they keep records of their activities and operate within certain limits.







Last year, the South Korean Coast Guard seized 108 Chinese fishing boats violating regulations. Of these, 23 were caught for entering EEZ without permits for fishing, while most of the remaining cases were for underreporting fish catches.







Some Chinese fishermen have used violence in their interactions with the Coast Guard.







In 2011, a South Korean Coast Guard officer was killed by a Chinese captain during a search of the latter's vessel. (Yonhap)


(Support Free Thought) -

Last month, Twitter permanently banned Dr. Robert Malone  who has widely been credited with inventing the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 immunizations. Following the Twitter ban, Dr. Malone appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, in one of the most viral episodes ever. That podcast and all subsequent clips were then banned from YouTube.

Malone wasnt inciting hatred toward groups of people or calling for an overthrow of the US government. He was merely presenting facts that were inconvenient to the established narrative, and for this, he was memory holed by the arbiters of information in big tech.

Peaceful discourse over the last two years has become an enemy to the status quo. No longer can the plebes question their rulers on official channels. Instead, they are pushed to the outskirts of the internet and logical well-formed arguments are then mixed in with dark and ridiculous conspiracy theories in what appears to be a deliberate act to stifle free thought.

Dr. Malone was just one of many esteemed minds who have been unceremoniously silenced into oblivion by big tech as these information controllers delete content that runs counter to their narrative. They claim this mass censorship and narrative control is carried out to keep you safe. But as a recent report from The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) illustrates, as big tech clamps down on free speech, they allow child sexual abuse to not only spread  but flourish.

According to the new data from IWF, online sexual exploitation of 7-10 year olds exploded in 2021 with a 300% increase. This increase was part of a record-breaking number of child sexual abuse images being transferred and exchanged on platforms who rampantly censor doctors and scientists for challenging the status quo.

Thanks to government imposed lockdowns and virtual learning more children were online last year, which increased their odds of encountering sexual predators.

According to IWF, the foundation received more complaints about child sexual abuse images, also known as child pornography, in 2021, than they have in the last 15 years combined.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly being used by child predators for grooming and sexual exploitation, according to the data  even children who parents may consider too young to be in danger.

As advocacy group, Parents Together Action points out, while parents are a critical part of keeping kids safe online, tech platforms also need to address the massive and growing problem of online child sexual abuse. The IWF data is Europe-centric data about an international problem, which US-based tech companies have a unique opportunity to protect children from.

Unfortunately, however, these tech companies are seemingly more concerned with banning folks for questioning the safety of vaccinations and covid protocols than they are with protecting children  and the data proves it.

Not only are these companies not interested in stopping child sex abuse on their platforms, but as TFTP reported, they are profiting from it. While banning those who question the status quo, Twitter is alleged in a lawsuit to have victimized children by knowingly allowing a video of them to go viral.

The victims sued the platform alleging that it benefitted financially by failing to remove the video featuring the children  which was retweeted thousands of times and garnered nearly 200,000 views.

To be clear, this was not a mistake that simply didnt pick up on the nature of the content. The boy and his mother, according to the lawsuit, repeatedly contacted Twitter about the content, but the social media giant allegedly didnt suspend accounts distributing it until a federal agent from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intervened.

In fact, according to the lawsuit, Twitter even responded to the boy and his mother via email and said the child porn did not violate its policies. According to the suit, an email shows Twitter telling John Doe on Jan. 28, 2020, that it reviewed the content, and didnt find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time.

What do you mean you dont see a problem? the minor asks in a response that same day. We both are minors right now and were minors at the time these videos were taken. We both were 13 years of age.

A subsequent screen shot shows that the video accumulated 167,000 views within a day and received more than 2,200 retweets and 6,640 likes.

Facebook is just as guilty.

As Facebook moves the needle on censorship of free speech to an all time high, last year, they were sued in the Texas Supreme Court for allowing child predators to groom and recruit children for sex-trafficking.

The group sued Facebook for negligence and product liability, saying that Facebook failed to warn about or attempt to prevent sex trafficking from taking place on its internet platforms. The suits also alleged that Facebook benefited from the sexual exploitation of trafficking victims, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

The three victims accused Facebook of running an unrestricted platform to stalk, exploit, recruit, groom, and extort children into the sex trade. One was 15 when an older man contacted her on Facebook, offered her a modeling job, photographed her, posted the pictures on the now-defunct BackPage website, and prostituted her to other men, leading her to be raped, beaten, and forced into further sex trafficking. The other two girls were 14, and reported almost identical experiences, with one openly pimped out for dates on Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary, Graham Dockery explained.

Facebook lawyers argued the company was shielded from liability under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which states that what users say or write online is not akin to a publisher conveying the same message.

This should totally be the case, but if Facebook can claim Section 230 on child trafficking, then why do they target and eliminate political speech so viciously? If Facebook does not act as a neutral party and removes peaceful anti-establishment content, they have no legal basis to claim entitlement under Section 230. Neither does Twitter.

As the great purge of anti-establishment views continues, remember that these companies who claim they have your best interests in mind, are deleting potentially life-saving discourse while child predators thrive on their platforms.
Heres our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

Hong Kong Will Execute Thousands of Hamsters to Prevent COVID

Because China is subjecting Hong Kong to its zero COVID policy, health authorities in the city went crazy over one untraceable case of the Delta variant.

They couldnt figure out how an employee of a pet store caught the virus. So they tested 178 hamsters, chinchillas, and rabbits associated with the store.

11 hamsters showed traces of COVID.

Naturally, the government decided to round up 2,000 hamsters sold since December 22 and execute them all.

Seriously.

Hong Kongs health secretary acknowledged that there is no evidence hamsters have transmitted COVID.

But she decided to ignore the science, and murder the pets children may have received on Christmas morning.

Pet owners now have a choice to comply with the government and turn in their hamsters for disposal, or form an underground hamster-hiding resistance.

Click here to read the full story.

Judge Wants to Jail 72 Year Old With Cancer for an Unkempt Yard

In a video of Zoom court proceedings, Michigan Judge Alexis G. Krot berated a 72 year-old man with cancer: You should be ashamed of yourself. If I could give you jail time on this, I would.

You would think this man had beaten a puppy to death. Or deliberately executed thousands of pet hamsters.

But no.

Instead, this evil criminal mastermind is guilty of letting his yard be overgrown with weeds.The horror!

The perpetrator appears to have trouble breathing as he tries to explain to the judge that he has cancer and is too weak to weed his yard.

The mans son was also on the Zoom call, and tries to seek mercy from the pitiless judge, saying that while he usually weeds his fathers walkway, he was out of the country at the time the violation occurred.

But the righteous hand of justice could not be stayed.

Judge Krot practically yells, Do you see that photo? That is shameful. Shameful. The neighbors should not have to look at that!

The $100 fine was upheld.

Apparently this psycho judge has never seen a kidnapping, murder, or home invasion, or she wouldnt be so shocked and appalled over some weeds.

Click here to read the watch the video.

Almost Half of Democrats Favor Concentration Camps for Vaccine Refusers

We hate to wade into party politics. But a recent Rasmussen poll is too ridiculous to ignore.

Findings from over 1,000 likely voters showed that 45% of Democrats polled would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

In other words, almost half the voters of one of Americas two major political parties favor concentration camps for thought criminals who demand basic bodily autonomy and freedom of medical choice.

Also, 48% of Democrats polled think the government should fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.

And 59% say vaccine refusers should be confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies.

Click here to read the full results.

Town Stops Church From Providing Beds for the Homeless in Sub-Zero Temps

The Free Methodist Church in Gloversville, New York has 40 beds inside its downtown homeless shelter and soup kitchen, ready to take in the needy as bitterly cold temperatures dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

But city officials wont allow it. That area of the city is not zoned for homeless shelters. Despite a years-long fight with the city council and city zoning board, the town refuses to grant a variance.

Instead, the town spent $200,000 of federal taxpayer money from the American Recovery and Restructuring Act to open its own shelter with half the capacity.

Fulton County Social Services also claims that if homeless people contact them on especially cold nights, the local taxpayers will put them up in a hotel as the churchs beds lay empty.

Click here to read the full story.

Australian Border Control Searching Phones Without Cause

An Australian couple coming back into the country after a vacation say they were targeted for an intrusive search by Australian border authorities.

The airport border agents forced the couple to hand over their phones and provide their passwords. Then the agents disappeared with the phones for a half hour.

The couple was given no explanation, and there was no reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or accusation that they had committed any crime.

Now they are left feeling violated. They dont know what information was accessed or saved financial accounts, passwords, close contacts, locations, and anything else accessible from their phones.

And based on Australias insane COVID authoritarianism, the government obviously cannot be trusted to treat its citizens fairly or humanely.

Sadly, these intrusive searches which violate basic human rights to due process of law have been occurring in the US and New Zealand for years .

Click here to read the full story.

FDA Stops Regulating French Dressing After 70 years

Earlier this month, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) revoked a 70 year old rule regulating French salad dressing.

The FDA decided it is no longer necessary to dictate to the salad dressing industry the types of spices, sauces, and coloring required to call a salad dressing French dressing.

The FDA said this move could provide benefits in terms of additional flexibility and the opportunity for innovation evidenced by the growing variety of dressings for salads on the market that are formulated to meet consumers preferences and needs.

Human beings, of course, are still subject to government controls over our bodies. But at least salad dressing will have a taste of freedom.
Technocracys coup detat expands as Big Tech financial companies like Paypal drop organizations who oppose the Technocrat narrative. Banks have also joined the purge as well: all of Mike Lindells business banking accounts were summarily terminated last week by the Heartland Financial Minnesota Bank & Trust.  TN Editor

> Instead of ignoring, fearing or abandoning information that is being targeted with censorship, use censorship as a cue or guide that you should delve more deeply into the topic at hand to reveal the underlying truth

> PayPal is actively researching transactions that fund hate groups, antigovernment organizations and extremists; its unclear, however, how they define these terms or the groups that fall under them

> December 21, 2021, after business hours, PayPal notified the National Vaccine Information Center that it would no longer process donations from their supporters  effective immediately

PayPal is the latest tech giant to join the censorship game, shutting down its services for a variety of nonprofit organizations that are working to stop injection mandates.

This increasingly orchestrated attack has targeted the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and many others  and should send a chill down the spine of anyone who values the freedom upon which the U.S. was founded.

Powerful forces are at play, and Big Tech is among them, working to suppress, discredit and silence certain science, speech and viewpoints. No longer is there any doubt, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson reported, that vaccine industry interests and other corporate and political interests are pulling the strings so that Big Tech moves to squash scientific views, studies, scientists, and opinions that are contrary to the narrative.1

NVIC Triumphs Despite PayPals Attack

December 21, 2021, after business hours, PayPal notified NVIC that it would no longer process donations from their supporters  effective immediately. In essence, NVIC wrote in a news release, PayPal wants to control your choices and tell you which nonprofit charities you may and may not support. Pay Pals sudden and unexplained action against our donors comes in the middle of our annual end-of-year fundraising campaign.2

PayPals attack against them is the culmination of Big Techs attempts to silence the nonprofit. After NVIC held its Fifth International Public Conference on Vaccination  Protecting Health & Autonomy in the 21st Century  in October 2020, they were increasingly targeted by mainstream media and a political operative in the U.K. During 2021, they were eliminated from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube  yet their resolve to share the truth hasnt wavered.

The same is true following PayPals announcement that they had cancelled NVICs account. It didnt stop NVIC  the nonprofit simply secured a new secure platform for donations. They announced December 24, 2021:3

Just as we pivoted in early 2021 to establish our presence on new social media platforms, NVIC has quickly established a secure alternative to PayPal for processing your credit card donations  NVIC is being heavily censored because we have spoken the truth about vaccination, health and autonomy for 40 years.

While big tech and the forced vaccination lobby put out a steady supply of authoritarian propaganda promoting fear and hatred of those who engage in rational thinking, NVIC will continue to defend the legal right to make voluntary choices about vaccination without being punished for the choice made as we move forward with our mission to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defend the informed consent ethic.

The press following PayPals cancellation worked against the tech giant, as it prompted NVIC supporters to help in response. As Attkisson explained:4

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is one of the many fact-based advocacy groups that has suffered under the heavy hand of censorship from Big Tech acting on behalf of pharmaceutical/government/corporate interests. But victory can be found in a strategy that turns the censorship on its head.

If Americans can use censorship as a cue or guide to seek more information about that topic, person, or study, they defeat the intent of the censors.

After NVIC was dumped from PayPal so that donations from supporters could not be processed during a crucial fundraising campaign, the nonprofit announced it had established a presence on an alternative fundraising platform. And the American people responded. NVIC has announced receiving substantial donations and support on the new platform, in part due to the attention the PayPal censorship gave to the issue.

PayPal Claims Violations of Acceptable Use Policies

In October 2021, self-proclaimed media watchdog group Media Matters accused PayPal and GoFundMe of hosting crowdfunding campaigns for organizations that spread harmful COVID-19 misinformation.5

Some of the organizations mentioned in the article include the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), Americas Frontline Doctors and Childrens Health Defense, which have been speaking out about early COVID-19 treatments and red flags about censorship since the beginning of the pandemic.

Defining them as groups known for spreading medical misinformation, the article, which itself is spreading misinformation, then calls out PayPals policies that do not allow users to provide false, inaccurate or misleading information, among others.6

In short, people and organizations are being censored, deplatformed and banned from social media and payment processing platforms for the crime of spreading misinformation, the meaning of which can change from day to day and from platform to platform.

In July 2021, Reuters also reported that PayPal planned to research transactions that fund hate groups, anti-government organizations and extremists. Its unclear, however, how they define these terms or the groups that fall under them.7

Its a modern-day witch hunt, whereby the U.S. Department of Homeland Security even lists promulgating false narratives around COVID-19 as a top national security threat, which basically puts a domestic terrorist target on the backs of those of us who have been identified as the most prolific superspreaders of COVID-19 misinformation, whatever that misinformation happens to be.

In the case of OCA, which was also suddenly dropped by PayPal, it was said that they violated the companys acceptable use policies. In a message to their subscribers and donors, OCA put it bluntly: We are under attack. They continued:8

Last week PayPal, our credit card processor for hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, (and recurring donations) cut off all of our accounts (OCA, Regeneration International, and Citizens Regeneration Lobby) with no notice, claiming that we were violators of PayPals acceptable use policies.

This outrageous attack on OCAs fundraising is similar to the intimidation and censorship carried out by other Silicon Valley giants such as Facebook, who have threatened to cut off OCA and Millions Against Monsanto from our two million social media followers, unless we stop talking about the origins, nature, virulence, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19.

Subsequently we have been forced to put out two different versions of our weekly newsletter, Organic Bytes, one uncensored for our subscribers, one censored for distribution on social media. Needless to say OCA will not back down from our investigative reporting, our denunciations of corporate and government corruption and crime, and our truth-telling regarding genetic engineering and COVID-19.

We are exploring litigation against PayPal with lawyers and allied organizations who support free speech and truth-telling.

Like NVIC, OCA wasnt deterred by PayPals act of censorship; they simply switched to another credit card processor to continue on with their mission, despite the ongoing attempts at government intimidation and Big Tech censorship.

The PayPal Mafia

Many may not be aware of the close ties between PayPals early employees, who came to be known as the PayPal Mafia, and big names in the tech industry today. As reported by Insider, The payments company  launched as Confinity in 1998 by Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Luke Nosek  grew to become a Silicon Valley giant.

It was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion in a deal that altered Silicon Valley history and helped spawn the careers of some of techs most famous names.9 This includes:10

Palantir  This data analytics software company was founded by Thiel in 2003; the idea came from his experiences with credit card fraud at PayPal.

Affirm  This company allows people shopping online to pay for products over time using an instant line of credit. It was founded in 2013 by Max Levchin, one of PayPals cofounders.

YouTube  YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley worked at PayPal during its early days.

SpaceX  Elon Musks banking company X.com merged with Thiels company Confinity to become PayPal in 2001. Not only is Musk a former PayPal CEO, but he made $165 million when PayPal sold, which was used to start SpaceX.

LinkedIn  LinkedIns founder, Reid Hoffman, was a former executive vice president at PayPal.

Big Tech Censorship Is Rampant

PayPal terminating nonprofits is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Big Tech and its censorship of the information you see daily on the internet. Efforts to shut down public discussions and information are in full force, while Big Tech is also actively manipulating what you can and cant see online, to the extent that they can alter perceptions of reality.

Zachary Vorhies, a former senior software engineer at Google and Googles YouTube, uncovered more than 950 pages of confidential Google documents showing a plan to re-rank the entire internet based on Googles corporate values, using machine learning to intervene for fairness.

He resigned in June 2019 and turned over the documents to the Department of Justice, then released them to the public via Project Veritas to expose Googles censorship activities.11 Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, made pushing down fake news and increasing authoritative news sound like a good thing, Attkisson reported,12 but when Vorhies looked at Googles design documents, the fake news they were censoring wasnt really fake.

I was apolitical, he said, but I started to think, is this really fake news? Why are they defining it as fake news in order to justify censorship? Part of this involved Googles efforts at social reconstruction to correct algorithmic unfairness, which could be any algorithm that reinforces existing stereotypes.

Could objective reality be algorithmically unfair? Google says yes. Vorhies used the example of doing a Google search for CEOs, and the images returned included mostly men. Although its reality, this could be considered algorithmically unfair and, according to Google, justifies intervention in order to fix it. He also uses the example of the autofill search recommendations that pop up if you do a Google search.

Autofill is what happens when you start typing a search query into a search engine and algorithms kick in to offer suggestions to complete your search. If you type men can, you may get autofill recommendations such as men can lactate and men can get pregnant, or women can produce sperm  things that represent an inversion of stereotypes and a reversal of gender roles.

Weve been led to believe that whatever the autofill recommendations are is what most people are searching for  Google has stated that the suggestions given are generated by a collection of user data  but thats not true, at least not anymore.

FLCCC Was Also Canceled by PayPal

In another example of Big Tech and PayPals overreach, they also shut down FLCCCs donation platform October 15, 2021, in violation of PayPals Acceptable Use Policy.13 Big tech must think were having a big impact, FLCCC tweeted. We are.14 But again, its not only PayPal  this is an orchestrated effort by Big Tech, in concert with government, media, intelligence agencies and other forces. As FLCCC reported:15

These attacks join LinkedIn and Vimeo, which removed our accounts, and YouTube, which began taking down our testimonial videos months ago. The powerful forces of Big Tech, Big Pharma, government, health authorities, and mainstream media continue to suppress us. There is nothing false in anything that we post.

This is an attack on our ability to fundraise, our free speech, and our efforts to share effective, safe COVID-19 prevention and treatment protocols to help people around the world stay out of the hospital  and to save precious lives impacted by this dangerous virus.

What can you do? Fight back against the heavy hand of censorship by beating them at their own game. Instead of ignoring, fearing or abandoning the information that is being targeted with censorship, do as Attkisson suggested  use censorship as a cue or guide that you should delve more deeply into the topic at hand to reveal the underlying truth.

Sources and References
The latest updates on the new normal  chronicling the lies, distortions, and abuses by the ruling class.

(Contd. From COVID Propaganda Roundup: Big Pharma Is Getting Its Biotech Into Your Body by Any Means Necessary)

In the last volume, we explored the biotech Big Pharma has deployed under the guise of fighting COVID-19, but we didnt fully explore why (the underlying agenda).

COVID-19 was the opening salvo of a global coup to establish a global corporate biomedical technocracy.

Whether the ruling technocrats continue their present modus operandi of steadily rolling new scariants (such as so-called Deltacron) or take another route like

introduce weaponized smallpox;

or, transition away from pathogenic disease to: climate lockdowns or; facilitate mass-scale cyber-attacks to justify expanded digital surveillance



the agenda will, under one pretext or another, steam ahead. The technocrats will insert their biotech into your body by any means necessary.

Those elements above appear disparate on the surface, but the common thread is centralized technical control. Among the many avenues of technical control those crises open up is biomedical engineering.

If they can keep up the COVID hysteria to induce compliance that way, which has proven a very convenient vehicle, they will. But, if it has to be for the Earth, to monitor (and correct and control) your behavior, then thats how theyll do it. The ends justify the means.

Meet CarbonKit, exhibit A, a proposed biotech platform to monitor the populations individual carbon footprints at scale:

a platform combining technology, markets, and incentives to empower and reward people for reducing their carbon footprint. We argue that a goal-and-reward behavioural feedback loop can be combined with the Big Data available from tracked activities, apps, and social media to make CarbonKit an integral part of individuals daily lives .

Therefore, the correct way to conceptually frame COVID-19 (and the associated biotech) is as part of a broader, integrated agenda of industrial-scale social control. Conversely, the erroneous way to frame it is merely an isolated attempt on the part of the public health authorities to increase their bureaucratic power or as solely pharmaceutical profiteering.

The ultimate desired outcome of this experimentation is two-fold (at least):

To achieve not just social control but technical, physical control over the literal minds and bodies of the slaves  the despots holy grail

With the benefit of a population-level medical experiment of unprecedented scale, they will continually refine their technology, with the hopes of perfecting it for themselves while offloading the experimental costs (the damages to health and loss of life) onto the peasant class (public subsidization, private profit)

We are all reduced to guinea pigs in the Brave New World.

IBM Supercomputer Now Identifying New Potential COVID Drugs

Via IBM:

The US Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has deployed the worlds most powerful and smartest supercomputer built by IBM It fights against COVID-19. In just 2 days Summit identified and studied 77 small molecule drug potential compounds to fight against the COVID-19 . A task that  using a traditional wet-lab approach  would have taken years.

How long before any of those 77 molecules become government-mandated (provided they can be patented by Pfizer, Merck, et al.)?

Smart and Wearable Biosensors

Researchers are experimenting with novel methods to rapidly detect COVID-19 proteins (and any biomolecule) at progressively smaller concentrations using nanoparticles. Theyve already shown proof of concept by detecting dopamine levels in vitro using nanomaterials.

With nanoparticles, they hope to gain the capacity to detect ever-smaller concentrations of virus (at the femtomolar level), so that virtually anyone with any trace of SARS-CoV-2 (even if theyre not symptomatic and non-infectious) would test positive. Thus, any targeted individual instantaneously becomes subject at any given time to whatever social control measures (lockdowns, forced quarantine, etc.):

The use of these enhanced sensing techniques could prove to be useful in events such as the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, where detecting the coronavirus at ultralow concentrations would be beneficial in stopping the transmissibility of this infectious virus.

Scientists have repeatedly warned about the issue of dialing up the sensitivity of PCR tests (by increasing the cycle count) in terms of generating false positives. A combination of faster testing with more sensitive methods results in the capacity to produce a positive test on the spot whenever it becomes necessary, providing the pretext to take state action against one of their targets.

The effect is that virtually anyone at any time can be declared a public health threat.

An additional benefit of this screening technology is that it could potentially be deployed using smartphones (which nearly everyone has attached to their hip 24/7). This means the scale of routine, real-time biochemical testing could be dramatically increased:

In future, our aim is to detect SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins at POC after optimizing all the device components i.e., sensing chip (presented in this manuscript), full integration of metachip with microfluidic channel (in progress), and ultimately interfacing of analytical unit with smart display system (in progress). Ultimately sensing COVID-19 using smartphone-based operation.

Research groups have called smart-phone based screening systems smart and wearable biosensors.

COVID-19, as a global pandemic, provides the convenient and easily justifiable urgency to roll out progressively more invasive, more real-time, more ubiquitous technology to connect the slaves to the social control grid.

Digital Vaxx Passport Microchip (Mark of the Beast Is Here)

Its so small you can embed it in your armits very convenient to have a COVID passport always accessible on your implant.

Beep boop beep: Your vaccination record has been verified  pic.twitter.com/dpAkSCudxf  South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) December 17, 2021

And he causes all to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark  -Revelation 13:16-17

Experimental Anti-COVID Chewing Gum

Via Yahoo! News:

An experimental chewing gum containing a protein that traps coronavirus particles could limit the amount of virus in saliva and help curb transmission when infected people are talking, breathing or coughing.

MSNBC Host: Dont Worry About Vaccine Safety Because You Already Have a Cell Phone (Another Critical Conditioning Tactic)

Via MSNBC [3:15 mark]:

If you are among those who believe that you are at risk of being micro-chipped, I hate to inform you but youre carrying a microchip in your pocket. [cue creepy, supportive sneer from guest].

To paraphrase the logic: inject experimental mRNA gene therapies into yourself and your children because you already have a cell phone, which is basically the same thing.

Thusly they shift the paradigm (often referred to as shifting the Overton Window) to normalize the eventual full integration of the biological and technological.

In the same vein moving forward, the media will weaponize the normalcy of mRNA genetic therapy via the COVID shots in order to legitimize even more transformative technical modifications of the human mind and body. Its a game of rhetorical leap-frog.

If you cant say no now, why would you in the future?

The Good News: Big Pharma Least Trusted Industry (Even Less Than Lawyers)

Normal Americans, even if they dont dive into the nitty-gritty policy detail, instinctually understand the Big Pharma biomedical profiteering racket, as reflected in poll after poll:

Source: 2019 Gallup Poll

The question that emerges: if we, in fact, live in a democracy, how is the industry least trusted by the people (who are the demo part of democracy) allowed to run roughshod over our rights and recklessly experiment upon us with impunity?

Why do we not resist?

Ben Bartee is a Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff via his blog, Armageddon Prose, Substack, Patreon, Gab, and Twitter.
Fox News' Pentagon correspondent is reporting early Saturday that all family members of US embassy personnel in Kiev, Ukraine have been ordered to evacuate. "State Department orders families of U.S. embassy personnel in Ukraine to begin evacuating the country as soon as Monday: U.S. officials," Fox's Lucas Tomlinson reports.

It first emerged Friday that the Biden administration was mulling a plan to evacuate diplomats' family members from Ukraine as a "precautionary measure" amid the continued crisis wherein Washington has predicted some level of a Russian offensive on the Ukraine border.

Russian fighter jets arriving in Belarus, north of Ukraine. U.S. officials concerned Ukraine's capital now in the crosshairs.

pic.twitter.com/5RhuUkFmfN  Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) January 22, 2022

It's unclear whether this means US intelligence has picked up on a particular new "threat" from Russia near Ukraine's borders.

As Tomlinson reports further, Russian fighter jets on Friday into Saturday began arriving in nearby Belarus, with US officials expressing alarm that Ukraine's capital is "now in the crosshairs". CNN and The Guardian are also reporting early Saturday:

The US embassy in Ukraine has requested the evacuation of all non-essential staff amid increasing fears of an imminent Russian invasion and the arrival overnight of arms deliveries promised by President Joe Biden, according to a CNN report. US evacuations are likely to start "as early as next week", the US cable news network said, citing a source close to the Ukrainian government. It marks the embassys shift in focus towards helping Ukraine bolster its defences in the face of growing Russian aggression.

At the same time, Russia's embassy in Washington D.C. has been calling on the West to "end the hysteria" - assuring that there are no plans to invade Ukraine. Earlier in the week it issued a message on Twitter, saying, "We stress once again: Russia is not going to attack anyone. The practice of moving troops on our own soil is a sovereign right."

Meanwhile...

The shipment - and $2.7 billion USD since 2014 - demonstrates U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression.  #partnershipstrong [2/2] pic.twitter.com/scPFWM3we7  U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) January 22, 2022

During talks in Geneva on Friday between Antony Blinken and Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, there appeared to be positive signs that dialogue was opening up toward de-escalation. Just after, the US Embassy in Kiev posted photographs of newly arrived shipments of American-supplied lethal aid for Ukrainian forces.
FDA and CDC experts said the plan was ill-advised, so the agencies cut them out of the decision process.

The U.S. government is pushing Covid-19 vaccine boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds without supporting clinical data. A large Israeli population study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month, found that the risk of Covid death in people under 30 with two vaccine shots was zero.

Booster mandates for healthy young people, which some colleges are imposing, will cause medical harm for the sake of transient reductions in mild and asymptomatic infections. In a study of 438,511 males 16 to 24, 56 developed myocarditis after their second Pfizer dose (or 1 in 7,830, at least seven times the usual rate). True, most cases were mild, but in the broader group of 136 people (including older and female patients) who developed myocarditis after the vaccine, seven had a complicated course, and one 22-year-old died. Modernas vaccine carries an even higher rate of heart complications, which is why some European countries have restricted it for people under 30. But in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indiscriminately push for boosters for all young people.








French-Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh waves to a crowd of people at the Bo De Pagoda in Hanoi, in this file photo taken Jan. 12, 2005. Reuters-Yonhap





President Moon Jae-in expressed his deep condolences Saturday over the death of the revered Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, saying his practice of mindfulness helped people around the world live in peace.






Political commentator Chin Jung-kwon / Korea Times file



Minor opposition candidate Sim Sang-jung seeks breakthrough in presidential bid



By Jung Da-min



An outspoken political commentator has joined the minor opposition Justice Party again, two years after he left the progressive political group to protest its approval of the Moon Jae-in government's appointment of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, when the corruption scandals surrounding the former minister and his wife had reached a fever pitch.





Political commentator Chin Jung-kwon, who has long represented narratives of the country's progressive bloc, wrote on his Facebook, Friday: "I'll side with Sim Sang-jung. I'm rejoining the Justice Party. I'll look for what I can do to help young politicians from behind the scenes, for the reconstruction of the country's progressive bloc."



The leadership of the Justice Party welcomed Chin's return.



Justice Party leader Yeo Young-kug, also posted to his Facebook on the same day: "The Justice Party is urged to make its identity as a progressive party more clear, while also expanding the scope of its support base. We would welcome those rejoining or newly joining the party with gratitude, while dealing with related procedures based on the party's regulations."



Chin rejoined the Justice Party as the party and its presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung struggle to win more support from the public.



Sim, a four-term lawmaker and a veteran politician, is running for her fourth presidential campaign ahead of the election to be held March 9, but her support rate has remained at less than five percent in recent opinion polls.





Sim Sang-jung, presidential candidate of the minor opposition progressive Justice Party, speaks during a policy debate event of presidential candidates held at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps
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The federal government is monitoring COVID-19 levels in Manitobans' waste, but Brandon isnt included in the study.

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The federal government is monitoring COVID-19 levels in Manitobans' waste, but Brandon isnt included in the study.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is observing virus levels in wastewater at three sites in Winnipeg, according to a federal spokesperson, but nowhere outside the provincial capital.

Brandons Wastewater Treatment Facility is likely capable of monitoring COVID-19 levels in Brandonites waste but hasnt been asked to, said City of Brandon director of utilities Alexia Stangherlin.

"If public health was in touch with us directly and wanted to partner with us on it, we certainly would join forces, but to add it to our existing program with our current resources, it just wasnt possible at this point," she said. The city has not investigated in detail what would be required to do the testing.

The facilitys operating licence under the provinces Environment Act already requires city staff to test the quality of wastewater released into the environment. Staff monitor nitrogen, phosphorus and a number of other factors, she said.

Monitoring virus levels in wastewater, which comes from what is flushed down the toilet, can give health officials a five- to 10-day early warning on the spread of COVID-19 in a community, according to PHAC. It allows health officials to take action before outbreaks occur and hopefully stem the spread of the virus.

The agency can also sequence samples to identify variants of concern.

A provincial spokesperson said Manitoba Health was not involved in the federal governments monitoring of COVID-19 in Winnipegs wastewater.

"Provincial staff have been informed that the National Virology Lab has taken some wastewater samples prior to treatment from Winnipegs wastewater treatment plants for testing for COVID. Provincial staff [have] not participated in the investigation."

On Nov. 25, 2020, during the second wave of the pandemic, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the province was working on wastewater analysis of COVID-19 levels but it hadnt started yet. At the time, he said the process is more beneficial as an early warning alarm when the province isnt seeing as high levels of transmission.

"As we get the numbers down, if we have, say, remote communities or other communities that really have no activity, this might give us an early warning indicator that something is starting to happen there. So there are uses for it," he said at the time.

The Sun asked why Winnipeg was the only municipality in the province to have its wastewater tested but did not receive a direct answer.

The Public Health Agency of Canada, in conjunction with Statistics Canada, is also doing wastewater surveillance in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, according to a spokesperson. Approximately 60 per cent of the countrys population is covered by wastewater COVID-19 testing.

"Wastewater surveillance is conducted in collaboration with communities and local health authorities to inform public health action and decision-making," a statement on the agencys website reads.

"[The Public Health Agency of Canada] is working with other provincial/territorial partners to onboard other municipalities and locations, or provide support for local testing as needed, for expanding wastewater surveillance as an early warning sign for public health action and decisions."

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
Baffled immigration experts are at a loss to explain why a group of 11 people made a disastrous attempt to cross into the United States on foot in brutal weather overnight Wednesday, an ultimately tragic decision that killed a family of four.

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Baffled immigration experts are at a loss to explain why a group of 11 people made a disastrous attempt to cross into the United States on foot in brutal weather overnight Wednesday, an ultimately tragic decision that killed a family of four.

RCMP officers found the frozen bodies of a man, woman, teenage boy and an infant just steps from the border, about 10 kilometres east of Emerson on Wednesday afternoon.

FACEBOOK Steven Shand has been charged with human smuggling.

Seven others in the group  all of whom were undocumented and from India  crossed into the U.S. but were apprehended by law-enforcement officers less than a kilometre from the international line. Five were on foot and two were stopped in a rented van; the driver, 47-year-old Deltona, Fla., resident Steven Shand, has been charged with human smuggling and is in custody in Grand Forks, N.D.

The temperature plunged to -35 C in wind-whipped whiteout conditions in the deep snow drift-blanketed farmers fields along the provinces southern edge overnight Wednesday. One of the survivors reported having been on foot in the perilous conditions for more than 11 hours. Two adults were rushed to hospital with significant cold-related injuries; one was later airlifted to a St. Paul hospital.

Court documents filed Wednesday in support of Shands arrest allege one of the people spent a significant amount of money to come to Canada with a fraudulent student visa, with plans to go to an uncles home in Chicago.

Winnipeg lawyer and immigration consultant Ken Zaifman said he has never heard of Indian migrants attempting to cross illegally from Manitoba into the United States, although illegal border crossings  the vast majority of which are destined for Canada  generally, are not unusual.

No one from India was either expelled or apprehended in the Grand Forks, N.D., sector in 2020, where the group crossed, the latest available U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows.

Zaifman, who has practised immigration law in Manitoba for more than 30 years, speculated there were likely other people involved in the smuggling operation.

"This is an organized scheme," he said Friday. "If theyre getting status for people as a student, then theyre saying: Look, this is the way to get you into the U.S. Then its organized in a pretty sophisticated level and theres probably a Canadian connection here in the mix."

The identities of the four victims had not been confirmed as of Friday, RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said. The RCMP declined to comment on the scale of the smuggling operation, where it is based or whether it involves foreign nationals obtaining fraudulent documents to enter and live in Canada.

Zaifman said would-be immigrants are sometimes misinformed  and rely on people who are just in it for the money.

"What would possess a family to take a young child in a field in 30 below, unless someone told them there will be someone right across the border in a truck, so its really like a 20-minute walk, or half-hour walk? Someone had to tell them where to go. Its shocking, (but) not totally surprising that people are susceptible."

This is an organized scheme. If theyre getting status for people as a student, then theyre saying: Look, this is the way to get you into the U.S. Then its organized in a pretty sophisticated level and theres probably a Canadian connection here in the mix.  Ken Zaifman

He called it human smuggling at its worst.

"Theyre in the middle of a field  where do they go? Do they go back? Do they go to the town? They dont even know where the town is, the middle of the night," he said.

U.S. agents affidavit provides details of winter horror near border MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Snowy fields near the Canada/U.S. border about 10km east of Emerson near where two adults, one teenager, and one infant were found deceased in the area. Posted: 7:43 PM Jan. 21, 2022 A 15-passenger van stranded in a snow-filled ditch would have stuck out as odd to winter-hardy Minnesotans living along the Canada-U.S. border. All too familiar with stories of illegal crossings, alarm bells were likely ringing when a snow-removal operator who came to the drivers aid spotted the vehicles three occupants and Missouri licence plates. Read Full Story

"Its no different than what people have done putting people on boats (to get to Europe). They put them on boats and off they go and if the boat sinks, the boat sinks, and if the boat makes it, it makes it  the same attitude."

Sameer Gupta, a Winnipeg immigration consultant, agreed the situation was, indeed, strange.

"Never this is the first time Im hearing this kind of news, people going to the U.S. from Canada," he said.

And immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke was shocked to learn the group was travelling from Canada into the U.S., something he has never encountered during his career.

"This case is extremely unusual," Clarke said. "The facts of this case are quite different from the normal types of circumstances that weve seen, and I hope that they do a proper investigation to see if this isnt just one case among many.

"If there is something systemic or if there is a larger organized group behind this, I would really worry."

Although the identities of the family members and other members of the group have not been reported, there have been suggestions all 11 were from Gujarat, a western state in India.

There are few people from that region in Manitoba.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES "This case is extremely unusual," said immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke.

"I spoke with a colleague in my firm  her family is from Punjab and we dont have a large Gujarat population in Manitoba, its a pretty small community," Clarke said.

"What she told me was that if they had sought members of the Indian community in Manitoba, anyone wouldve told them not to (attempt a border-crossing). And so it seems like there was something else going on here, which is quite curious."

The community has been "devastated" by the incident, India Association of Manitoba president Ramandeep Grewal told the Free Press.

"This is a damn tragedy," Grewal said. "Personally, Im having a hard time sleeping since I heard this news, I have little kids at home. We are always told that you cant expose yourself for these many minutes or more than these many minutes in these Prairie winters, and no matter what you have, when youre outside in harsh winters, the winter is not going to forgive you."

This is a damn tragedy. Personally, Im having a hard time sleeping since I heard this news, I have little kids at home.  Ramandeep Grewal

The organization is currently in contact with other community groups in Manitoba and the Consulate General of India in hopes of identifying the deceased so they can notify their next of kin. Thus far, theyve had no luck.

"Who knows if they had any relationships in Winnipeg, or in Manitoba at all? If its a part of a bigger, co-ordinated criminal syndicate working across the borders, maybe people are scared at this point to come forward."

The situation is bizarre to Grewal, too, who said he hasnt seen a single case of a person claiming refugee status making it to Manitoba in recent years.

The India Association of Manitoba will eventually hold some sort of vigil or remembrance ceremony, he said.

 with files from Chris Kitching

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Part of the Hwanhae Great Wall at Handong on Jeju Island in 2015 Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



Up until the latter part of the 19th century, many Western sailors regarded Jeju as a mysterious island surrounded with myths and legends, exaggerations and fabrications and steeped with danger  a place to avoid at all costs.



It does not challenge the imagination to assume that many of these seafarers were aware of the epic tale of Hamel and the wreck of the Sperwer (Sparrow Hawk) on the island in 1653. Undoubtedly, the tale morphed with each retelling and many sailors came to believe that to be cast upon Jeju was a death sentence  either from the hostile islanders or the many poisonous snakes. Despite the historical anecdotes of shipwrecked survivors in the mid-1850s through 1880, this unreasonable fear persisted  perpetuated by the occasional articles appearing in Japanese newspapers reporting alleged outrages upon shipwrecked Japanese sailors and attacks upon fishermen by the islanders. Some of these accounts claimed the helpless shipwrecked survivors were decapitated by the islanders. There was some degree of conflict between the islanders and Japanese fishermen and the outrages were committed by both parties.



In his 1888 State Department report, Charles Chaille-Long, the secretary of the American legation in Seoul, described his recent journey to Jeju Island which "has been until now terra incognito and has maintained an isolation from the world more absolute that that of [Korea] of which government it is nominally a part." He went on to add:



"Hostility to the strangers and an absolute isolation from the world without is the distinguishing characteristics of [the] islanders whose names even now is mentioned with bated breath by the ever superstitious [Koreans] to whom Quelpaert [Jeju] is almost as unknown as to the world without."





The West Gate of Jeju City photographed by Malcom F. Anderson in 1905 Overland Monthly 1914



Chaille-Long claimed his journey to the island was not for geographical research but more along the lines of ethnographical research in an effort "to determine [the islanders'] origin and their relationship to the strangely mixed people of the [Korean] mainland." But it wasn't research that inspired him  it was adventure and fame.



He boasted to the State Department that prior to his trip, "[neither] before nor since the days of Hamel had any one set foot upon the sacred soil of Quelpaert." He was the first! Which is obviously not true, but setting aside his self-aggrandizing claim, his narrative is quite interesting.



While on Jeju, he asked the islanders frequently for more information "about Hamel but all remembrances of [the Dutchman's] visit had faded with the generation which saw him."



It is a shame that Chaille-Long failed to obtain any further information about Hamel, but it is even a greater shame that he did not elaborate on the claims that the Portuguese had once established a small colony on the island. According to Chaille-Long, he had heard the stories of the former settlement but dismissed it as there was "not the slightest basis for the assertion judging from the complexion and type of the [Jeju islanders who were] absolutely Tartar and Mongol in appearance."



When Chaille-Long arrived at Jeju City he was impressed with the fortification. The entire city was surrounded by a wall six and half meters tall and a meter thick  made from black volcanic stone  and ingress into the city was through three gates which he described as "imposing structures." Unlike in Seoul, the gates of the city were never closed at night, and men and women were free to mingle in the streets as they pleased.



This was not his only comparison of Jeju with Seoul. "The homes are constructed of the same rock peculiar to [Jeju] and are thatched [] and present an air of solidity." He acknowledged that the streets were "certainly dirty but there are none of the disgusting trenches filled with the unutterable filth which characterizes the city of Seoul."





Fred Dustin's photograph of wild ponies on Jeju Island in May 1968 Robert Neff Collection



Later foreign visitors echoed his observations.



When Sten Bergman, a Swedish explorer and travel writer, visited the island in the 1930s, he wrote: "The houses of the Korean inhabitants were for the most part built of volcanic stone and were surrounded by walls of the same material. The roofs were thatched with straw generally, and to prevent the straw from blowing about it was held down by a network of straw ropes."




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A Headingley Correctional Centre guard faces criminal charges in the 2021 death of inmate William Ahmo.

On Friday, Manitoba RCMP arrested Robert Jeffrey Morden, 43, of the Rural Municipality of Rockwood, following an 11-month investigation. He was charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life.

William Walter Ahmo (Facebook)

The allegations have not been proven in court.

It is believed to be the first time a guard has been criminally charged for the death of an inmate at a provincial correctional institution.

"This has been an incredibly hard time for our family. Knowing that we may see the people who took Will from us held accountable gives us hope," mother Darlene Ahmo said in a written statement Friday.

Ahmo, 45, was a member of Sagkeeng First Nation. His family has requested privacy at this time, saying they are "cautiously optimistic" and "ready to assist prosecutors however they may be able."

Will Ahmo, pictured holding son Emory, died while an inmate at Headingley Correctional Institution. (Supplied)

The RCMP was called to the Headingley jail around 7 p.m. on Feb. 7, 2021, after receiving a report of an unresponsive man.

The incident that led to Ahmos death began with a standoff between the inmate and corrections officers in a common area of the jail, police say.

Eventually, the centres critical emergency response team was called in and a physical altercation ensued. Ahmo was airlifted to hospital in critical condition. He died Feb. 14.

The Manitoba Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death a homicide.

The RCMP major crimes took on the investigation, interviewing guards and inmates and reviewing video footage. The Mounties investigative file was later sent to Manitoba Prosecution Services for review.

MSP then sent the file to Ontarios Ministry of the Attorney General for an outside opinion. Based on those consultations, RCMP moved forward with criminal charges Friday morning.

The Free Press has obtained an email Greg Skelly, executive director of custody corrections for Manitoba Justice, sent to provincial jail staff Friday, after news of Mordens arrest broke.

Police were called to the Headingley jail on Feb. 7, 2021, after receiving a report of an unresponsive man. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

In the email, Skelly appeared to back Morden and other members of the jails critical emergency response team involved, claiming the inmate "was armed and posed a significant threat to staff."

"Although there was a tragic outcome, we believe staff were acting in good faith to control the critical incident," Skelly wrote. "We recognize the impact of this tragic incident on involved staff, as well as our team more broadly, and we continue to support our staff in dealing with it."

Corey Shefman, a human rights attorney representing the Ahmo family, told the Free Press in May 2021 the "level of violence and aggression" used against Ahmo was "utterly disproportionate" to any threat he could have posed.

Both Manitoba Justice and the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union  which represents provincial corrections officers  declined comment Friday in written statements, citing the fact the case is before the courts.

Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson thanked the RCMP for its work on the case, saying he was relieved investigators determined "someone had to be accountable for this."

"Its about providing justice for our people. How many times have we had to have dealings with our Indigenous population regarding issues of this nature? People that are dying. Deaths where nothing comes of it," Henderson told the Free Press. "Now, its for the justice system."

Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs also praised the RCMP for an "innovative investigation," and for the way in which they kept the Ahmo family and First Nations leadership in the loop.

Dumas told the Free Press the "gross negligence" demonstrated by the accused "tells a greater story" about the systemic racism present in the corrections system.

"If you take a look at the number of individuals who have died in custody, everyone should be shocked  everybody. Keep in mind what a prison is supposed to be: its supposed to keep you incarcerated and safe," Dumas said.

"But for whatever reason, there seems to be a revolving door of death that is happening in these institutions."

Manitoba RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said the investigative team took this case seriously from the moment the criminal probe was launched, which is evidenced by the fact charges were laid less than a year after Ahmos death.

"A homicide investigation is not just several folders in thickness. These papers are collected in boxes  boxes and boxes and boxes. The amount of work that goes into this stuff is incredible," Manaigre said.

"This isnt going to bring him back but, hopefully, its a little bit of closure. Were at the beginning of the next step now, and perhaps this is the start of the healing process for the family."

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Westman ice fishing enthusiasts have been coming in droves to Pelican Lake this winter to try their luck at bringing home the big fish while keeping their vehicles above water.

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SUBMITTED/ERIC EVANS Eric Evans of E & J Bait Shop in Ninette said there has been plenty of activity from the ice fishing community on Pelican Lake this winter, including this past weekend shown here.

Westman ice fishing enthusiasts have been coming in droves to Pelican Lake this winter to try their luck at bringing home the big fish while keeping their vehicles above water.

"Id say in the last five years, this year has probably been the most amount of people," said Eric Evans, proprietor of E & J Bait Shop.

"This has been our best winter so far and this is our third year [running the business]. This year has been unreal and its hard to keep up. I sold over a hundred dozen minnows or more over the last week. The fish have been biting lately anyway, it could change any time."

Evans operates out of his home in Ninette offering 24-hour access to bait from a cooler outside on his property. The fisherman has called Pelican Lake his place to fish over the last seven to eight years. He said he got into the sales business at the right time to beat the demand before and during the pandemic.

"I do believe that a lot of people started fishing as you couldnt do much of anything else and they realized fishing is fun," Evans said.

"Even fishing supplies are hard to come by, production is down on everything, and everyone is buying it. Its hard to find stuff right now."

Despite the eagerness to get out on the lake, Evans is warning the public to take greater precaution this winter when driving on the ice after hearing of and seeing several trucks fall through the surface this season.

"Theres been quite a few. I pulled one out with my truck; he was nose down, the engine was underwater and we hooked two trucks together and we managed to pull him out just to get his vehicle safely out so it didnt fall completely in," Evans said.

Evans is advising the public to call someone right away, should you witness a person or vehicle fall through the ice, to avoid hypothermia and to ensure your heaters and equipment are working properly.

"If you dont think its safe or crossing a ridge is doable, veer on the side of safety. If something looks sketchy, it probably is."

Trevor Maguire, chair of the Healthy Lake Committee which oversees the quality of Pelican Lake, said they have been seeing heavier traffic of people unfamiliar with the area.

Maguire and Evans explained the lake features a series of pressure ridges at various points throughout the 7,000 acres of water.

"Manhattan Point, its the first point on the east side that sticks into the lake from the Ninette side, and theres a ridge that runs straight across the lake," Evans said.

"Its dangerous all the way across and people have crossed it further towards the centre. Right at the point, it never, ever freezes. Usually in January, it is still open water because the water is shallow and the water swirls. I think there might even be a spring there, because there are quite a few natural springs in Pelican Lake."

Maguire said every year somebody thinks it is a good idea to drive near the pressure ridges without knowing, and even saw a side-by-side sink to the bottom of the water in the lake.

The RCMP detachment in Killarney told the Sun it has not received any calls for fallen vehicles in the lake this winter.

On the flipside, both Maguire and Evans are encouraged by the vitality of the lake in part to Maguires committee to ensure enough oxygen is given to the fish during the winter months.

"When we formed in 2012, our goal was to aerate the lake, and now were running two very large aeration systems on the lake, and from what weve seen, weve been able to keep the oxygen levels just fine for the fish," Maguire said.

He figures the lake would lose nearly every fish if proper aeration treatments were not applied, based on the thick ice and heavy layer of snow preventing algae from creating oxygen underneath the surface.

"Its been incredible compared to what it used to be," Evans said.

"In the fall, youd go out in a boat and youd catch 30 or 40 fish in three to four hours. The bite was unreal. Theres fish from four inches long to 29 inches long for walleye, and theres jumbo perch. Many master angler perch have come out of Pelican Lake over the last four or five years."

The lake level is roughly two feet lower than average, Maguire estimated. He is anticipating a large turnout for the committees ice fishing derby currently scheduled for March 5, barring changes to COVID-19 restrictions from Manitoba public health. Evans found he was able to place his camera down in 10 feet of water this winter and while lifting the hook off the bottom, was able to see 10 feet down for the first time as an angler.

"The water is incredibly clear and I dont know why, I didnt think Pelican Lake could be like that."

In an email, a spokesperson from the provincial government advised that ice fisherman should do their research into location prior to hitting the ice to ensure their safety.

 jbernacki@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @JosephBernacki
Though a stimulus package and infrastructure measure, Build Back Better is also the largest climate bill in US history: US$555 billion ($770 billion) is slated for renewable energy and clean transportation incentives over a decade. Those commitments are key to the US achieving its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. Hare, who has spent a career on the climate frontlines as advisor and lead author for the IPCC and chief executive of the advisory group Climate Analytics, points out that the US target is not only significant for the amount of warming pollution it would keep out of the sky, but for its diplomatic weight. Loading The international mechanism for dealing with climate change is based on consensus. Its only real fuel is peer pressure. When heads of state and government meet at gatherings such as the recent Conference of Parties to the Paris Climate Accord in Glasgow they might be informed by scientists but their shared language is of political pain. The system works  to the extent that it does  when countries make mutually reinforcing commitments to reduce emissions. It seizes up when some refuse to. (This point, more than the sheer tonnage of Australian greenhouse gas emissions, is the true cause of our condemnation on the world climate stage.)

Bluntly put, if Manchin blocks Build Back Better it gives license to China and India to slow their emission reduction efforts, Hare explains. Loading Before Christmas, Manchin appeared on Fox News to say he could not support BBB as it was drafted, prompting a writer for the Atlantic magazine to argue: If that decision holds, then Manchin has virtually sealed the planets fate: the world is all but guaranteed to warm by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above its pre-industrial temperature by 2040. Whether or not that is the case Hare sees a precedent for West Virginian coal interests hobbling global climate efforts. In 1997 Congress passed what is known as the Byrd-Hagel Resolution, blocking the US from backing the Kyoto Protocol. The late Robert Byrd was a former Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan who served as a Democratic senator for West Virginia for 51 years.

Hare believes the resolution, which was passed unanimously, gave cover to nations including India and Australia to refuse to back Kyoto and eventually contributed to the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009. It cost the world a decade of climate action, he argues. Manchin has long trodden a more conservative path than his Democratic peers, a tendency accepted by the party as it reflects the political culture of West Virginia, which he served as governor from 2005 before winning a senate seat in 2010. But patience has worn thin with Manchins obstruction since President Biden beat Donald Trump in 2020 without a clear majority in the Senate, only to see his agenda stalled. Today even the coal unions which once backed Manchins dedicated support of their industry have lost faith.

We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working, and have a meaningful impact on our members, their families and their communities, said United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts, a long-time ally of Manchins, in a statement four days before Christmas. The union supports BBB for the various measures it includes to support new training and new industries in coal country. So far Manchin remains unmoved, and his stance has prompted savage criticism from some Democrats and observers. Stifling progress: US President Joe Biden (centre) with Joe Manchin (right). Manchin has long trodden a more conservative path than his Democratic peers, however patience is wearing thin even within the coal union. Credit:AP Where once Manchins backing of the coal industry was read as political expediency, some are now seeing it as personal.

Many, including those quoted in the excoriating Rolling Stone profile, have noted that Manchins vast family fortune comes not from toiling in mines but from trading in energy produced by burning the dirtiest form of fuel used in the region, a coal waste product known as gob. West Virginians have been paying millions of dollars each year in higher electricity costs in order to keep running a dirty, inefficient power plant that is sickening and killing people with dirty air, but paying the Manchin family handsomely, Rolling Stone reported. Loading Whether or not you accept their line, Mann and Hare agree that Manchin is slowing US and global climate action when scientists agree there is no time left to spare. Chief executive of Australias Climate Council Amanda McKenzie takes a broader view.

There is no denying that Bidens Build Back Better policy would make a considerable difference for climate action, just as reaching the Paris Agreement did and the most recent US election before it, she says. But is it the single and only answer to the challenge before us? No. Global momentum is moving in the right direction, it just needs to be moving a lot faster. Either way the climate world is watching Manchin this month as Biden struggles to break the impasses. Many in the Democratic Party would like to see the West Virginian strong-armed into passing the whole bill, including social spending initiatives to which Manchin remains implacably opposed. Loading Others hope Biden will break the bill up separating out the climate initiatives from the broader package in the hope Manchin might back them. If he does, it will not please his allies in the industry, which is determined to survive in a world turning against it.
Barnes found each percentage point increase in the proportion of blue-collar workers in an LGA led to one additional coronavirus case for every 183 people living in the area. In Sydney, this translated to an additional 848 cases for every percentage-point increase in blue-collar workers, based on the average population of an LGA. In Melbourne, it led to an additional 895 cases per percentage point. This trend has continued - NSW Health figures show areas designated as LGAs of concern in the Delta wave are still bearing the brunt in January 2022. Like many in the community, Debe Thomas, in her home in Busby, has struggled to find rapid tests and believes they should be provided free or at cost. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone Its a reality that Debe Thomas knows only too well living in the Liverpool LGA, in the blue-collar suburb of Busby. Liverpool was one of the official hotspots in the Delta outbreak and in January 2022, the LGA is still experiencing the third-highest number of COVID-19 infections per capita in Sydney.

Thomas, 61, spent the first two years of the pandemic providing full-time palliative care for her husband as well as caring for another friend with post-polio syndrome. This meant taking extreme precautions including showering and washing her hair every time she returned to the house from an outing, stretching the household budget to have groceries delivered, and managing the risk of healthcare and support workers coming to the home. Without access to convenient and affordable testing, people are more likely to mingle with others while infectious, or stay home and miss out on work or social opportunities. When her husband died in December, Thomas finally caught COVID-19, though she didnt realise it until she was on holiday in Newcastle with friends. I guess I dropped my guard when my husband died and the ambulance and police needed to come, Thomas says. Im doing a lot better but still have a nagging cough. Im just glad that I didnt give it to my husband - that would have been horrible.

Like many in the community, Thomas struggled to find rapid tests and believes they should be provided free or at cost. The Australian Catholic University study found areas with a high proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) residents were also hard hit by the pandemic - but the correlation is weaker than for blue-collar workers. The model found a one percentage-point increase in the percentage of culturally and linguistically diverse workers led to one additional coronavirus case for every 255 people in an LGA. In Sydney, this translated to an additional 609 cases for every one-point increase in diversity, and in Melbourne an additional 642 cases. Melbourne LGAs with the highest proportions of CALD residents overlap extensively with LGAs with high numbers of blue-collar workers, such as Brimbank in the west or Hume and Whittlesea in the north.

Sydney LGAs with the highest proportions of CALD residents are located in the western suburbs or in other multicultural localities such as Strathfield in the inner west or Ryde in the northern suburbs. Associate Professor Maria OSullivan, the deputy director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, says there is a right to health, but this can be undermined by structural inequality. RATs are a prime example because of availability as well as cost, despite making it free for people with health care cards. Liverpool was one of the official hotspots in the Delta outbreak and, in January 2022, the LGA has the third highest number of COVID-19 infections in Sydney, per capita. Credit:Dean Sewell I drove around for hours last week trying to find a RAT, so its not just the cost of it, she says. The ability of people who work two shifts a day to be able to do that [is limited] and an assumption that your work is going to give it to you is just not a reality for a lot of people. Price gouging has been rampant but even the regular price of $10 to $15 per test is too much for many households to test all members on a regular basis. Logic dictates if someone doesnt have access to convenient and affordable testing, they are more likely to either mingle with other people while infectious, or stay home unnecessarily and miss out on work or social opportunities.

Barnes says social inequality could also hamper the rollout of vaccine booster shots for adults and first doses for children aged five to 12, since in 2021 wealthy areas consistently showed higher levels of vaccination. In Melbourne, less-advantaged LGAs lagged in the vaccine rollout, Barnes says. Hume, the LGA with the highest case numbers in Melbourne, had the third lowest full vaccination rate in the city by late October (48.4 per cent). Whittlesea, with the second highest case numbers, had the fourth lowest full vaccination rate (49.9 per cent). Loading Meanwhile, NSW had a strong push on vaccination in western Sydney that helped bridge the gap with wealthier areas but some of that was driven by economic and social coercion, with people getting vaccinated to get out of lockdown. Given those restrictions are no longer in place, that could spell a lower appetite for booster shots and childrens vaccines.

Besides unequal health impacts, disadvantaged areas also took the hardest economic knocks. Barnes found the miraculously low unemployment numbers during the Delta outbreak masked dramatic declines in workforce participation, especially in the most disadvantaged areas. In Sydney, the labour force fell from 3 million in May 2021 to 2.75 million in September, a decline of 8.3 per cent. This was even worse for women, with a decline of 9.2 per cent. Thats a huge decline in the number of people who have simply given up looking for work because theres no point because the whole city is locked down, Barnes says. Again, the impact was uneven. Barnes says the size of the labour force in south-west Sydney declined by a remarkable 14 per cent in August 2021. This decline overlaps with this regions high proportion of blue-collar workers and CALD groups. In Melbourne, labour force decline also overlapped with more exposed or vulnerable populations, for example in south-eastern areas like Casey and Frankston and northern areas like Hume.

Loading Two of the hardest hit employment sectors were retail and construction, with those jobs disproportionately concentrated in LGAs of concern. Medical historian Peter Hobbins, the head of knowledge at the Australian Maritime Museum, says the link between inequality and the spread of a pandemic has been a feature of Australian society since the early days of colonisation. Then, as now, people of low-socioeconomic status, living in crowded conditions, and unable to afford medical care or time off work, were more susceptible to catching disease and spreading it within their community. With the influenza pandemic in 1919, there were people who had to go out to make a living, get bread on the table, and couldnt afford, or they didnt feel they could afford, to take time off work, Hobbins says.

That had two consequences. One was they were more likely to spread the disease  but also that they tended to work for longer than they ought to and they had a much higher than expected death rate because they carried on in the face of the sickness. Nor is the blame game new. A century or two ago the prevailing rhetoric was about slums being full of the undeserving poor, Hobbins says, and when disease struck people said they brought it on themselves or they brought it into our midst or theyre the ones perpetuating it. Hobbins says until the 1920s, health was largely considered a private responsibility but throughout the 20th century, the state took on more responsibility for public health, with hospital care, large-scale vaccination and other preventative programs. After heavy reliance on state and federal governments to manage the public health and economic response to COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic, politicians are now placing higher emphasis on personal responsibility. While emergency fiscal measures in 2020, such as JobKeeper and the Coronavirus Supplement, were effective in saving jobs and mitigating the worst effects of the crisis in 2020, Barnes says the policy response in 2021 and 2022 is much less comprehensive.
A convicted child-killer is understood to be fighting for her life in hospital after sustaining a serious head injury.

The ABC reports Heidi Strbak sustained injuries at her Gold Coast home after an apparent fall early on Saturday morning.

Heidi Strbak outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane during the initial trial in 2017. Credit:Glen Hunt/AAP

She was rushed to Gold Coast University hospital for treatment in a critical condition.

Queensland Police have confirmed to Brisbane Times that despite a crime scene being set up at the Upper Coomera property, they are treating the incident as non-suspicious.
Queensland has recorded 10 deaths and 15,050 new cases of COVID-19 as the state eases international travel restrictions for the first time in nearly two years.

Of those who died in the last 24 hours, one person was in their 40s, one in their 50s, six in their 80s, and two in their 90s.

One was unvaccinated six were fully vaccinated with two doses and three had had booster shots.

There were 884 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Saturday, up from 855 on Friday, with 52 of those in intensive care, 18 on ventilators.
Victorias funeral industry is warning that staff shortages caused by COVID-19 could lead to mortuaries being unable to receive more bodies.

A lack of access to rapid antigen tests has also made it difficult to screen staff who are regularly going into risky situations at nursing homes and hospitals to collect bodies.

Funeral director Nigel Davies. Credit:Jutin McManus

Lonergan and Raven funeral director Nigel Davies said that Victoria was not approaching the critical situation seen in Europes first COVID-19 wave, when undertakers werent answering the phone and bodies were piling up.

However, he said that staff shortages were being experienced at many of the smaller, family-run funeral homes who were struggling to maintain their usual services.
There was no breakthrough in the stand-off over Ukraine after the top US and Russian diplomats emerged separately from their meeting in Geneva only to retread old ground and agree to keep talking.

It was a bruising week for the US after President Joe Biden slipped up in a news conference and laid bare divisions among his allies over what they would do in case of a minor incursion by Russia into Ukraine. That left Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the uncomfortable position of clarifying the US position as he went into his one-to-one with counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

A convoy of Russian armoured vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea on January 18. Credit:AP

Both men essentially talked past each other, reinstating demands that the other side considers non-starters. Russia wants assurances that Ukraine will never join NATO and essentially wants an entire rethink of the post-war military alliance. The US is trying to get on the same page with the European Union on how to de-escalate tensions and convince Russia to take its threat of sanctions seriously.

If Russia wants to begin to convince the world that it has no aggressive intent toward Ukraine, a very good place to start would be de-escalating, Blinken said on Saturday at the end of his three-day European trip.
Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun gives a speech during the company's 25th anniversary, at one of his company buildings in Seoul, on Sept. 1, 2020. Courtesy of Genesis BBQ



By Kim Jae-heun



Genesis BBQ (BBQ), the country's third largest fried chicken restaurant franchise, aims to expand its business overseas this year, particularly in the United States. But the company has shown a disappointing performance in environmental, social and governance (ESG) management, hurting its brand image among socially-conscious consumers and driving away some potential business partners.



On Jan. 13, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) released a list of "100 Good Franchises," which does not include BBQ, headed by Chairman Yoon Hong-geun. To be eligible for the designation, a franchise operator should have offered their franchisees a discount of more than 50 percent in royalty fees for at least two months during the pandemic or exempt the franchisees from paying all royalties for one month, in 2021. Or, they must have reduced the prices of essential supply items to franchisees by 30 percent for at least two months in 2021.



However, BBQ met none of these requirements.



"It would have been good if we had made it onto the list. But we have been practicing our own social contribution activities, such as donating 300 million won to Africa, in 2021," a BBQ official said.



The antitrust watchdog said that BBQ was not even eligible to apply for the evaluation because it was given a correction order for violating the Fair Transactions in Franchise Business Act last April.



In addition, BBQ was caught refusing to extend its contracts with some of its franchisees, who then organized a collective action against the headquarters. The FTC fined BBQ a 1.53-billion-won ($1.28 million) penalty for the malfeasance.





Customers wait for their orders at a BBQ restaurant on Honolulu, Hawaii, on Nov. 16, 2021. Courtesy of Genesis BBQ
Energy giant Shell has dropped from its name the 'Royal Dutch' part, which it had carried for 130 years, following plans of a major overhaul announced recently.

It is anticipated that Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange will reflect the change in name on January 25. New York Stock Exchange will show the changed name on January 31.

According to a statement on Friday, the board's decision to change its name to Shell plc on December 20, 2021, has now taken effect.

The energy major's overhaul involves integrating its dual-share structure into a single line of shares and relocating its headquarters to London.

The changes will only involve about a dozen executives, including Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden and Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl, moving to the UK capital.

Despite retaining a significant presence in the Netherlands, the company said it expected that it would "no longer meet the conditions for using the honorary Royal designation", which it has carried for more than 130 years.

According to the statement, shareholders should note that their shareholdings will be unaffected by the change of name and existing share certificates should be retained as they will remain valid for all purposes and no new share certificates will be issued.

(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 arrested an 18-year-old man from Lucknow in connection with a chat on the app in which objectionable and abusive comments were passed against women, officials said on Saturday.

Police said that a team was sent to Lucknow and Rahul Kapoor, who registered himself with the user-ID 'Bismillah' on the app, was apprehended.

Kapoor claims that he created an audio chat room on on the instructions of a person, he identified as 'Sallos', Deputy Commissioner of Police KPS Malhotra said.

The officer said Kapoor also told the team that he handed over the chat room's moderator key to 'Sallos'.

The 18-year-old's mobile phone has been seized and he will be joining investigations at Delhi by evening, police said.

Further details are awaited.

(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.)
Assembly elections in will be held after completion of the ongoing delimitation process and statehood will be restored once situation in the union territory becomes normal, Home Minister said on Saturday.

Virtually releasing India's first "District Good Governance Index", he said is a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and multipronged efforts are being made for the all round development of the union territory.

"As far as the democratic process is concerned, the delimitation process has started. After its completion, we will hold the (assembly) elections.

"Some people have said many things, but I want to tell you that I had given assurance in Parliament that the statehood of will be restored. Once situation in Jammu and Kashmir becomes normal, the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored," he said.

Shah said some people want to create confusion in the minds of the people of the valley and he wants to request everyone not to fall into their trap.

He said democracy has reached the lowest level of the society after implementation of the panchayati raj system and that is why some people are worried.

He said Jammu and Kashmir can be developed only through democracy, and people can be happy and youths can get jobs also through democracy.

"But to sustain the democracy, peace is necessary in Jammu and Kashmir. I want to appeal to the youths of Jammu and Kashmir not to get instigated by the statements of vested interests. I want to tell the youths to have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have faith in Jammu and Kashmir administration," he said.

Shah said some people were spreading lies for their narrow political interests.

"I want to appeal to everyone, especially the youths to ask these people some questions. Those who are saying that the valley's land will be usurped, they should be asked whose land has been taken away so far. By spreading such lies, they are trying to put barrier in the development of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Those who were saying that violence will enhance. They should be asked whether violence has gone up or reduced. They had said no investment will come, but the fact is that already Rs 12,000 crore investment has come. Tourists arrivals have also gone up and Jammu and Kashmir is matching towards development," he said.

Shah said many changes have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir under the initiative of the local administration and the guidance of the prime minister.

"I want to tell everyone, especially youths, youths of the valley, to give attention towards development, be part of the development process," he said.

The home minister said till August 2019, when the Article 370 was abrogated, Jammu and Kashmir was electing 87 MLAs and 6 MPs and only three families were ruling the erstwhile state.

"Now, 30,000 people's representatives (panchayat members) are serving the people. The benefits of the implementation of Panchayati Raj Act is before the people of Jammu and Kashmir. There has been speedy development after the implementation of the act," he said.

The home minister said some political parties were hurt that the panchayati raj system has been implemented and these people have said that law and order situation has deteriorated after the abrogation of Article 370.

Some people have gone to even to the extreme and said that until the Article 370 is restored, law and order in Jammu and Kashmir can never be good, he said.

"I want to tell all of them that there has been 40 per cent reduction in terror related incidents and 57 per cent reduction in deaths since Article 370 was abrogated. It shows that peace has no connection with the change. Peace has connection with the administration. When people get good administration, people get involved with the administration," he said.

Lauding the Jammu and Kashmir administration's efforts, Shah said that the union territory stood within the fifth rank among all states and union territories in implementing central government development schemes like providing electricity, LPG gas connections, toilets, 100 per cent vaccination, oxygen supply, setting up oxygen plants.

"People are getting direct benefits. Therefore, naturally, middle men are upset. Modi is clear that people of Jammu and Kashmir should get clean administration without any intervention of the middle men," he said.

Shah said Jammu and Kashmir has tremendous potential for tourism.

But the way some leaders are making statements, it shows that they don't want the growth of the tourism.

"I want to tell them there is no impact from your statements. In this winter, there has been record tourists arrivals in Jammu and Kashmir. This number will keep growing in the coming days," he said.

The home minister said everyone knows that tourism has direct connection with the employment, but by making such statements, a conspiracy has been hatched so that there is less tourists arrivals and the youths get less employment opportunities.

"I want to tell those people who had to go to Pakistan or other foreign countries for study medicine that since independence till 2014, Jammu and Kashmir had just four medical colleges with 500 seats. Now, nine medical colleges were built, 15 nursing colleges were set up, 1,100 MBBS seats and 600 paramedical seats are available," he said.

Shah said there was just Rs 12,000 crore investment in Jammu and Kashmir in 70 years. But in just one year, Rs12,000 crore investment has come and Rs 2,000 crore ground breaking has been done so far. All together Rs 50,000 crore investment will come.

He said that budget of Jammu and Kashmir has been increased from Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 21,000 crore. "No other state has got such two and half time more budget. It shows that Jammu and Kashmir is a priority for Modi," he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
recorded 23,150 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, its second highest single-day surge since the outbreak of the pandemic, increasing the tally of confirmed cases to 10,45,938, a state health department official said.

The addition to the tally was higher than the 21,225 recorded a day earlier but lower than the record 24,485 witnessed on Thursday, he pointed out.

For the fourth consecutive day, reported over a dozen COVID-19 fatalities, he said.

Fifteen deaths, comprising six in Ahmedabad, four in Surat, three in Bhavnagar and one each in Rajkot and Navsari, took the toll to 10,230, he added.

So far, 9.05,833 people have been discharged post recovery, including 10,103 during the day, leaving the state with 1,29,875 active cases.

Ahmedabad led with 8,332 cases, followed by Vadodara with 3,709 cases, Surat 2,488, and Rajkot 2,021, among other districts, he said.

The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in reached 9.62 crore after 1.88 lakh people got jabs on Saturday, a government release said.

Adjoining Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu reported 36 new cases and 37 more recoveries, taking the Union Territory's tally to 11,096, including four deaths, recovery count to 10,942 and active caseload to 150, a local official said.

Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 10,45,938, new cases 23,150, death toll 10,230, discharged 9,05,833, active cases 1,29,875, people tested so far - figures not released.

(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.)
Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Saturday congratulated healthcare workers and district authorities as the state crossed six crore (60 million) COVID-19 tests.

"Testing has been one of the cornerstones of Karnataka's success in fighting Covid. We have completed crore tests since the beginning of the pandemic, third highest in the country. Congratulations to all the health workers and district administration who made this possible," the minister tweeted.

Later speaking to reporters, the minister said when the pandemic started in early 2020, National Institute of Virology units were used to conduct tests and used to send samples to NIV centres in Pune.

gradually established labs across the state and now we have about 268 testing facilities including 99 government and 169 private labs, he added.

According to him, Karnataka has tested 6,01,14,815 samples so far including 1,14,12,162 Rapid Antigen Test and 4,87,02,653 RT-PCR tests.

While 1,41,96,065 samples were tested in 2020, 4,23,91,357 samples were tested in 2021 and so far 35,27,393 tests have been conducted in 2022, he explained.

Sudhakar said, "Testing plays a vital role in this battle against pandemic. Karnataka has always been aggressive in testing and tracking and it has been one of our cornerstones in this direction against COVID. Karnataka has now achieved another milestone by crossing 6 crore tests."



Further, the minister said that both Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education departments have always religiously followed 5T strategy of Test, Track, Trace, Triaging and Technology.

"We have set up 3,678 comprising of 3,102 government and 666 private swab collection centres, which is one each for every 20,000 population. We have labs in government hospitals, medical colleges and also private hospitals," Sudhakar explained.

He also said that initially only 10 to 12 government labs had COVID testing facility which has now increased to 57.

"With 108 NA extractors and 139 RT-PCR machines we have capacity to test 1,20,800 samples per day in govt facilities," the minister said.

After Omicron variant was found, the state mandated that at least 2 per cent of the tests should be conducted at airports, the minister said adding, the government then increased the target to about 80,000 to one lakh samples per day.

Speaking about infection among children he said since it was opined that third wave could predominantly affect children, the state government mandated to conduct at least two per cent of the tests on children.

"Out of total tests conducted between December 1 and January 20, 29 per cent of the tests were conducted on children. We are also conducting random RAT tests in schools, colleges, restaurants once in every 15 days," the minister told reporters.

He also said that the testing target has been increased to two lakh per day from January 18.

Further, targeted testing of symptomatic persons and primary contacts has been started, the minister said adding the RTPCR tests has been made mandatory for symptomatic persons even if RAT report is negative.

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The COVID-19 tally in reached 8,82,906 on Saturday after the detection of 11,274 new cases, while the death toll increased by five to touch 10,562, an official said.

The positivity rate stood at 13.4 per cent as against 12 per cent on Friday, when the state had recorded 9,603 infections, he said.

The recovery count was 8,10,956 as 4,966 people were discharged from hospitals during the day, leaving the state with an active tally of 61,388, the official said.

Indore and Bhopal, the two worst coronavirus-hit cities of Madhya Pradesh, registered 3,169 and 2,107 cases, respectively, during the past 24 hours, he said.

With 83,694 samples examined during the day, the number of tests in MP went up to 2,52,30,640, the official added.

A government release said 10,85,86,958 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 1,11,440 on Saturday.

figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 8,82,906, new cases 11,274, death toll 10562, recoveries 8,10,956, active cases 61,388, number of tests so far 2,52,30,640.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister on Saturday asked district magistrates to work on time-bound targets to increase ease of living for people and asserted that the country's goal today is to achieve 100 percent saturation of services and facilities.

Modi also called for a direct and emotional connection between administration and the public to ensure 'top to bottom' as well as 'bottom to top' governance flow.

In his remarks at the virtual interaction with DMs and some chief ministers, Modi said the teamwork of Centre, states and local administration was yielding good results in aspirational districts.

"Today, aspirational districts are eliminating the barriers to the progress of the country. With the efforts of all of you, aspirational districts are becoming accelerators of growth instead of impediments," he told the DMs.

The prime minister said that these districts have proved that due to the elimination of silos in implementation, optimum utilisation of resources takes place.

He emphasised the exponential benefits of this reform and said when silos end, one plus one doesn't become two but eleven.

"We see this collective power in the aspirational districts today," Modi said.

Launched by the prime minister in January 2018, the aspirational districts programme aims to quickly and effectively transform 112 most under-developed districts across the country.

The prime minister said various ministries and departments of the government have prepared a list of 142 districts that are not so much lagging in development but are weak on one or two parameters.

He stressed the need to work with the same collective approach as is being done in the aspirational districts.

This is a new challenge for all the governments - the government of India, the state government, the district administration, and the government machinery. Now we have to complete this challenge together," Modi said.

The prime minister told the DMs that seeing the successes achieved in the aspirational districts, the country has now expanded its targets further.

The prime minister drew the attention of the officers towards the changed mindset and reiterated that today, the country's goal is to achieve 100 percent saturation of services and facilities.

"We have a long way to go compared to the milestones we have achieved so far and have to work on a much bigger scale," he said and called for time-bound targets for taking roads to all the villages of the districts, Ayushman Bharat cards, bank accounts to every person, Ujjwala gas connection, insurance, pension housing for everyone.

Modi also pitched for a two-year vision for every district.

He suggested that every district can identify 10 tasks to be completed in the next three months to improve ease of living for common people.

Similarly, five tasks may be associated with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, he added.

The prime minister said the country is witnessing a silent revolution in the form of Digital India and no district should be left behind in this.

He pointed out the importance of digital infrastructure reaching every village and becoming a means of door-step delivery of services and facilities.

Modi also asked NITI Aayog to devise a mode of regular interaction between the district DMs.

During the interaction, the district magistrates shared their experience which has led to the improvement of the performance of their districts on a host of indicators.

The prime minister sought direct feedback from them about the key steps taken by them which have resulted in success in the districts, and about the challenges faced by them in this endeavour.

He also asked them about how working under the aspirational districts programme has been different from their work done earlier.

The officers discussed how JanBhagidari has been a key factor behind this success, and also spoke about increased inter-departmental coordination and the benefits of data-driven governance.

The CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, gave an overview of the progress and implementation of the Aspirational District programme and mentioned how it leveraged competitive and cooperative federalism, driven by a Team India spirit.

The Rural Development Secretary gave a presentation on a mission to uplift 142 selected districts, on the lines of the focussed work done in the aspirational districts.

The Centre and states will work together to uplift these identified districts by addressing the pockets of under-development, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Addressing the officials, Prime Minister Modi noted that when the aspirations of others become your aspirations, when fulfilling the dreams of others becomes the measure of your success, then that path of duty creates history.

"Today we are seeing this history being made in the aspirational districts of the country, '' he added.

The prime minister noted that convergence is a major reason for the country's success in the aspirational districts.

All resources are the same, government machinery is the same, officials are the same but the results are different, he pointed out.

He noted that during the last four years, Jan-Dhan accounts have increased by 4-5 times in almost every aspirational district. Almost every family has got a toilet and electricity has reached every village, he said.

A new energy has been infused in people's lives, he added.

The chief ministers of states such as Gujarat, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh also participated in the interaction.

The interaction was aimed at taking direct feedback about the progress and status of implementation of various government schemes and programmes.

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One of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite Christian hymns "Abide With Me" has been dropped from this year's Beating Retreat ceremony on January 29, according to a brochure released by the Indian Army on Saturday.

"Abide With Me", written by Scottish Anglican poet and hymnologist Henry Francis Lyte in 1847, has been part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950.

This year's ceremony will conclude with 'Sare Jahan Se Acha', the brochure stated.

The Beating Retreat used to end with the "Abide With Me" hymn.

The brochure also listed 26 tunes that will be played at this year's ceremony at Vijay Chowk.

The 26 tunes that will be played at this year's ceremony include 'Hey Kanchha', 'Channa Bilauri', 'Jai Janam Bhumi', 'Nritya Sarita', 'Vijay Josh', 'Kesaria Banna', 'Veer Siachen', 'Hathroi', 'Vijay Ghosh', 'Ladaakoo', 'Swadeshi', 'Amar Chattan', 'Golden Arrows' and 'Swarn Jayanti', according to the brochure.

'Veer Sainik', 'Fanfare by Buglers, 'INS India', 'Yashasvee', 'Jai Bharati', 'Kerala', 'Siki A Mole', 'Hind Ki Sena', 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja', 'Drummers Call', 'Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon' are also part of the 26 tunes that will be played on the evening of January 29, the brochure noted.

Beating Retreat is a centuries-old military tradition dating from the days when troops disengaged from battle at sunset, it mentioned.

As soon as the buglers sounded the Retreat, the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield, it added.

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An ambulance remains outside the Playamed Hospital, where a wounded person was transferred after a shooting in a hotel in Xcaret, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, Jan. 21. AFP-Yonhap





Two Canadians died and a third was wounded Friday in a gun battle in the Mexican vacation resort of Cancun, the authorities said Friday.







The fight broke out at the Xcaret Hotel Complex when a Canadian man opened fire at three compatriots.







Mexican officials quoted Canadian authorities as saying the people involved in the gun fight  apparently guests at the hotel  held criminal records for theft, drugs and weapons possession.







Lucio Hernandez, a public safety official in Quintana Roo state, which includes Cancun, said the shoot-out began after an argument among the Canadians.







Violence linked to drug trafficking has been a scourge for Mexico's Caribbean coast for years.







Two suspected drug dealers died in a gun battle at a hotel beach near Cancun in November last year.







And in October two tourists from Germany and India were killed by stray bullets during a shoot-out between drug dealers in Tulum, another town in the same area.







Mexico recorded 33,308 murders last year, marking a 3.6 percent decrease compared with 2020, in a country long plagued by cartel violence.







Since 2006  when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial anti-drug military operation  Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders, according to official figures. (AFP)


National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has thanked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for lifting the weekend curfew in Karnataka and hearing the concerns of the restaurant industry.

Mukesh Tolani, Head of NRAI Bengaluru Chapter said: "On behalf of the Industry, I profusely thank Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai for lifting the weekend curfew in Bengaluru. A huge thank you for hearing out our concerns so patiently, understanding them and reassuring us that they will be resolved soon. The announcement of the lifting of weekend curfew is the ray of hope for us and the industry can certainly be hopeful of a balanced approach with regards to curfews in future."

He further added that during a meeting with the CM, they had conveyed that they were fighting a grim battle for existence and only an urgent policy and fiscal support from the Government could help them survive the pandemic.

"I was so delighted to see that the Chief Minister is pro-business and advised us to make more detailed and specific representations and promised to take up the concerns of the industry on priority. The meeting gave the industry much optimism after a gloomy 2 years as Basavaraj Bommai also expressed empathy towards the situation faced by our industry over the last 2 years and promised to keep the industry in mind when taking decisions on curfews and expressed that he would be happiest when businesses like ours can get back to complete normal operations," he explained.

The representatives of NRAI and Craft Brewers Association of India met with the Chief Minister on Friday where they expressed the concerns of the Hospitality Industry with regards to the weekend curfew, taxations, licensing and ease-of-doing business.

The government ended the weekend curfew on Friday despite the growing number of Covid in the state especially in Bengaluru after the high-level meeting.

--IANS

mka/shb/

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Canadian Prime Minister has said that his government was doing all it can and working very closely with the US to stop human smuggling, a day after a family of four Indians, including a baby, died from exposure to extreme cold weather on the Canadian side of the border with America.

Terming the incident as a "mind blowing" tragedy, Trudeau on Friday said that the Canadian government is doing all it can to stop people-smuggling across the US border.

It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. It's so tragic to see a family die like that, victims of human traffickers and of people who took advantage of their desire to build a better life, Trudeau told a news conference.

"This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner. We know there are great risks in doing so," he said.

The prime minister said that was working very closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people taking unacceptable risks.

According to Canadian officials, the incident was unusual as illegal migrants generally try to cross into from America, rather than the other way round. Border crossings into on foot increased in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States.

On Thursday, the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that the bodies of four people two adults, a teen and an infant were found on the Canadian side of the US/Canada border near the Emerson locality in south central Manitoba on Wednesday.

The family, believed to be Gujaratis, died from the exposure to extreme cold weather.

Confirming the nationality of the deceased, India's High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria described the incident as a grave tragedy.

"This is a grave tragedy. An Indian consular team is travelling today from @IndiainToronto to Manitoba to coordinate and help. We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events," Bisaria tweeted.

According to the criminal complaint filed in a court in the US state of Minnesota, all the foreign nationals found on the US side, part of the larger group, spoke in Gujarati.

Manitoba RCMP was notified by US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday morning that a group of people had crossed into the US near Emerson, and that one of the adults was carrying items intended for a baby, but there was no infant with the group.

An immediate search began on both sides of the border, and by that afternoon, the bodies of an adult man, an adult woman, and an infant were found. The body of a boy believed to be in his mid-teens was found shortly afterwards.

The US Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota said in a press release that 47-year-old Steve Shand of Florida has been arrested.

A criminal complaint has been filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota against Shand, who has been charged with human smuggling.

Shand, a "suspected smuggler of undocumented foreign nationals, was arrested near the US/Canadian border on January 19 for transporting two Indian nationals, who were illegally present in the US. The two Indian nationals have been identified as SP' and YP' in the complaint.

The complaint said that five Indian nationals illegally present in the United States were also identified and arrested around the time of Shand's arrest.

Inside the vehicle, US officers found cases of plastic cups, bottled water, bottled juice and snacks in the van. As the officers were taking the trio back to the border patrol station in North Dakota, they came across another group of five Indian nationals walking.

They said they had walked across the border and had expected to be picked up by someone. The group said they estimated they had been walking for more than 11 hours.

One person in the group had a backpack he told officials he was carrying for a family of four they had become separated from that contained children's items such as clothes, a diaper and a toy.

The bodies found on the Canadian side of the border have been tentatively identified as that family of four, the release from the US Attorney's Office said.

Soon after the discovery of the four bodies on the Canadian side of the border, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy called it "an absolute and heartbreaking tragedy".

"At this very early stage of the investigation, it appears that they all died due to exposure to the cold weather," MacLatchy said, adding that the RCMP believe the four people are connected to the group that was apprehended on the US side of the border.

She said all four were located within 9-12 metres of the border.

MacLatchy said that the group was "on their own in the middle of a blizzard" and "faced not only the cold weather but endless fields, large snowdrifts and complete darkness".

Canadian police said the conditions where the four bodies were extreme and the temperature was 35 below zero degrees with a wind chill.

MacLatchy said work is underway to identify the victims, but at this stage, it appears they all died from exposure to the cold.

The RCMP said it is working with US Customs and Border Protection and the US Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement, the Canada Border Services Agency said it is also working with law enforcement partners, as well as its American counterparts, on the investigation.

The office of the Minister of Public Safety said in a statement: We are shocked and saddened by the tragic deaths of four people attempting to cross the Canada-US border, near Emerson, Manitoba. We extend our most heartfelt condolences to their loved ones, and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

(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 government will start reaching out to potential investors and begin road shows for the delayed strategic sale of . Read all the headlines of the day here: RIL Q3 results: Net profit jumps 42% to Rs 18,549 cr, beats estimates

Mukesh Ambani-led Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 18,549 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 (Q3), up 42 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous year on increased revenues and one-time gains due to divesting shale gas assets in North America. Read more

Centre to get cracking on sale once LIC IPO is launched

The government will start reaching out to potential investors and begin road shows for the delayed strategic sale of after it launches the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), officials in the know said. Read more

Willing to accept Amazon's proposal, but under certain conditions: FRL

The independent directors of Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Limited (FRL) have given their willingness to accept US e-commerce giant Amazons proposal in addressing any financial concerns of FRL, including the solution proposed in the term sheet between Samara Capital, and FRL, which contemplated an infusion of Rs 7,000 crore in FRL. Read more

Budget wishlist: Here are the key challenges in manufacturing sector

Current sector snapshot The India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for December indicated an improvement in the manufacturing sector for the sixth consecutive month.

International demand for Indian goods also improved. Read more

Singapore-based Shopee takes India's e-commerce market by storm

Its a worrying time for e-commerce players like Meesho, Amazon, and Ajio because Singapore-based Shopee, launched only in November, has become the new love of Indian consumers. It has shot into the coveted position of being the second most downloaded app in India (just behind Meesho) according to Sensor Tower figures for January. Read more
Vice President M and Prime Minister on Saturday expressed grief at the loss of lives in a building fire at Tardeo in Mumbai.

Modi also announced Rs 2 lakh each to the next of the kin of those who lost lives and Rs 50000 each to the injured.

At least six persons were killed and 23 others injured in the fire that broke out on the 19th floor of a residential building in Tardeo area this morning.

The blaze erupted around 7 am in Sachinam Heights building located opposite Bhatia Hospital at Gowalia Tank, when many of its residents were still asleep, an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

In a tweet quoting Modi, the PMO said, "Saddened by the building fire at Tardeo in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and prayers with the injured for the speedy recovery."



Expressing anguish at the tragedy, Naidu said, "Distressed to learn about the loss of lives in a fire accident in Tardeo, Mumbai. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. My thoughts and prayers are with the injured.

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An overwhelming majority of traders in the national capital are in favour of lifting the Covid restrictions and opening the markets on all weekdays, found a survey conducted by the Confederation of All India Traders.

The traders' body stated that it has also sent a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal, demanding relaxation in the Covid restrictions in the national capital.

"The continuing Covid restrictions in the nation's capital Delhi at a time when the positivity rate is declining each day has antagonised Delhi traders to a great extent," said.

The impromptu online survey was conducted by on Friday and Saturday, asking traders whether Covid restrictions should continue in Delhi.

Most of the traders in the survey have demanded to free the markets from Covid restrictions, the survey revealed.

The traders body has suggested in a letter to Baijal that the odd-even system has not only proved to be a failure in Delhi, but it has also caused more trouble to the consumers.

In this context, the odd-even and weekly lock-down should be removed and more emphasis should be put into the strict implementation of Covid protocols, added.

It has suggested that the working hours of markets should be changed from 10 am to 5 pm, while hotels and restaurants should be allowed to open with 50 per cent capacity as given to private offices.

CAIT in the survey said about 96 per cent of traders have opined to open the market on weekdays while 97 per cent of traders have insisted on strict adherence to Covid safety rules, it said.

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Setting up of 1 crore public hotspots across the country by this year as envisaged under the present telecom policy has the potential to create 2-3 crore job opportunities, a senior government official said on Saturday.

Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman while speaking at Broadband India Forum (BIF) event called upon equipment makers to lower the cost of their products for the expansion of Prime Minister's Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) scheme which aims to set up hotspots across the country.

"Given by conservative estimate of each hotspot enabling 2-3 direct and indirect employment opportunities, the creation of 10 million hotspots as per the NDCP (National Digital Communications Policy) target by 2022 would potentially generate 20-30 million job opportunity in the small and medium scale sectors," Rajaraman said.

Public wifi hotspots have immense potential to act as catalysts for rural economy and as a means of rural livelihood besides propelling socio-economic growth by providing employment opportunities for millions of small local and village entrepreneurs.

"Sprawling manufacturing units will be needed to produce millions of access points for PM WANI which is the core of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission and would lead to therefore more job creation," Rajaraman said.

According to the PM-WANI portal, over 56,000 wifi hotspots have been deployed across the country till date. Rajaraman said that he wants more entrepreneurs to join PM-WANI programme facilitated by C-DoT.

"We also want local communities to join PM-WANI scheme wholeheartedly. We will be happy to facilitate existing entrepreneurs in local neighborhoods especially local cable operators, internet service providers, tourism operators etc to come forward and help proliferate WANI access points across the country," he said.

BIF announced the launch of BIF Connectivity Accelerator Programme in partnership with Meta (formerly Facebook) to enable entrepreneurs and startups build innovative connectivity solutions and support the public wifi ecosystem.

"This (BIF Connectivity Accelerator) virtual programme will give startups the opportunity to partner with BIF to help develop relevant use cases and help scale their businesses. We appeal to all stakeholders to come together and join hands with us to expeditiously and effectively implement this national mission," BIF president TV Ramachandran 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.)
Making a conscious effort to shun the old baggage and present her party in a new avatar' in Uttar Pradesh, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has hand-picked over 70 per cent new faces among the total 166 candidates for the high-stakes state assembly election.

Besides sticking to her promise of 40 per cent women candidates, Gandhi has overwhelmingly given a chance to debutants with an aim to build a new leadership in the Hindi heartland, which had slipped from the party hands in recent years.

is scheduled to have seven-phase polls for the 403 assembly constituencies beginning from February 10. The results will be out on March 10.

Of the total 166 names declared so far by the Congress, 119 candidates will be making their electoral debut, party spokesman Anshu Awasthi told PTI.

With the candidature of Sangeeta Tyagi, wife of party leader late Rajiv Tyagi, from Sahibabad seat, Gandhi has made an earnest effort to break the mould and create new leadership in the century-old party which has faded into political oblivion.

"Priyanka Gandhi has made an attempt to bring all those fighting on people's issues, be it regarding women, youth, farmers, backwards or dalits, to the forefront, Awasthi said.

He said the list of candidates gives a clear vision of the party's effort to give a new direction to the state politics which has been suffering from caste and religion-based politics for years.

Party tickets have been given to youth and those who are working strongly in their respective fields, the spokesman said, adding that in the first list of 125 names, 26 candidates are those who are up to 35 years of age.

He said 55-year-old Asha Singh, mother of the Unnao rape victim; anti-CAA activist and party spokesperson Sadaf Jafar; ASHA worker and activist Poonam Pandey who fought for the rights of ASHA workers and was attacked at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's programme at Shahjahanpur; Ram Raj Gond who fought for the rights of Adivasis in Sonbhadra; are all making their debut this election.

Similarly, Bhawana Valmiki, social activist from Hapur; Yasmin Rana from Charthawal; Salma Agha Ansari from Thakurdwara; Kalpana Singh from Bilari; Nafees Saifi from Meerut South; Sukhvinder Kaur from Saharanpur are among those who will be contesting for the first time.

Other women candidates in the list are Ritu Singh from Mohammadi in Lakhimpur Kheri who was manhandled during the recent panchayat elections; Poonam Pandit from Syana who was an international shooter before working as a bouncer to Haryanvi dancer Sapna Chaudhari and later got associated with the farmers agitation.

Archana Gautam, who won Miss bikini 2018 and worked in south Indian films, from Hastinapur; and Avanish Kajala from Meerut Cant are also in this list. Kajala is also the district unit president of the party.

The Congress had released the first list of 125 names on January 13 and the second list of 41 names on January 20.

Another party leader said fielding new faces will not only infuse fresh energy into the party, but also help tide over internal bickering which had been plaguing the organisation since long.

Releasing the first list, Priyanka Gandhi had stated that the party has chosen such candidates who have struggled for seeking justice in and the party wants them to come to the forefront and be a part of power in the state.

Priyanka Gandhi, who has made it clear that she would be the party face in Uttar Pradesh, is faced with a daunting task to regain the party's lost glory.

The Congress had bagged only seven seats in the 2017 assembly polls, with two of the winning candidates having ditched the party for the BJP.

(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 Congress on Saturday released its first list of 40 candidates for the assembly elections, with former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh contesting from Thoubal assembly seat.

Singh was the chief minister of from 2002 to 2017.

Former deputy chief minister and former president of Pradesh Congress Gaikhangam will be contesting from Nungba (ST) assembly seat.

Former Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly Thokchom Lokeshwar Singh has been fielded by the party from his Khundrakpam assembly constituency.

Ratankumar Singh, who was recently appointed working president of Manipur Congress, will contest from Mayang Imphal seat.

The Manipur assembly elections will be held in two phases on February 27 and March 3 to elect the 60-member state assembly. The results will be out on March 10.

(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.)
Samajwadi Party president on Saturday said his party will provide jobs to 22 lakh (2.2 million) youths in the IT sector if it is voted to power in the Assembly polls.

Yadav was speaking at a press conference here.

At the press conference, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav also made a formal announcement that Yadav will contest the upcoming assembly election from Karhal seat in Mainpuri.

Mainpuri is the Lok Sabha constituency of SP patriarch and Yadav's father Mulayam Singh.

The SP will work to provide 22 lakh jobs to trained youths in the IT sector after coming to power, Yadav said.

On the work done by the erstwhile SP dispensation, Yadav said, "The SP government had made efforts to take the state forward in the IT sector. HCL was the first to invest in Chak Gajaria Farm here. Had the work done during the SP government been taken forward, Lucknow could have been recognised as an IT hub."



"But nothing was done later. In the HCL campus, 5,000 people are working and several others could have got indirect jobs," he said.

The SP government from 2012-17 was headed by Yadav.

Former Congress MP Pravin Singh Aron and his wife Supriya joined the SP in the presence of Yadav here.

Supriya was named by the Congress as its nominee from the Bareilly Cant assembly seat. She will now contest the polls from the same seat as the SP candidate.

Earlier, the SP had declared Rajesh Agarwal as its candidate from the seat. He has been replaced by Supriya.

The Assembly polls will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

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on Saturday reported its first Omicron-related death, a 92-year-old unvaccinated woman who caught the virus from a family member, according to a media report.

The woman, who had no known medical history, died on Jan 20, about 10 days after catching the virus from a family member, the Channel News Asia reported.

"Upon investigation, doctors have concluded that the death was due to COVID-19 infection, by the Omicron variant," the report said, quoting a health ministry statement.

The woman was unvaccinated and had no known medical history, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, on Friday reported 3,155 new COVID-19 infections, comprising 2,794 local infections and 361 imported ones, taking the nationwide tally to 307,813 since the start of the pandemic. One more person succumbed to the infection, pushing the death toll to 846.

On Friday, the government had said that is likely to see a significant wave of Covid-19 cases as the more infectious Omicron variant spreads through the community, which could strain its healthcare capacity.

Addressing a press conference, trade and industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force handling the pandemic, said about 70 per cent of daily cases are now of the Omicron variant, which has become the dominant strain in place of Delta.

This proportion could be even higher -- close to 90 per cent or more, he was quoted as saying by The Straits Times newspaper.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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France and Germany would support four projects on 5G applications for private networks with a total of 17.7 million euros ($20.1 million), the countries' Ministries of Economic Affairs has said.

The aim is to "deliver innovative solutions that will strengthen Europe's ecosystem for private networks in the field of 5G telecommunications," their statement noted.

"I am looking forward to an intensive collaboration between France and Germany," said Robert Habeck, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

"This is an important step in order to drive the economy forward with the help of state-of-the-art technologies."

Back in 2020, France and Germany already agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of 5G applications and subsequently launched a call for funding of innovation projects in early 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

The four projects involving 16 German and 14 French partners would show the benefits of 5G in various application scenarios such as Industry 4.0 (the "fourth industrial revolution"), business parks and smart operating theatres, the statement said.

"The constitution of a Franco-German sovereign ecosystem on 5G and future telecommunications network technologies will play a key role to position Europe at the forefront of innovation in 5G and its evolutions," said Bruno Le Maire, France's Minister for the Economy, Finance and Recovery. (1 euro $1.13)

--IANS

int/khz/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Friday shared concern about China's action in several regions like Xinjiang, and Hong Kong, during a virtual meeting that lasted nearly 80 minutes.

The two leaders vowed to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries such as Australia, India, ASEAN, and Europe, toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

They also agreed to cooperate to work closely on China and the North Korean missile issue and on Ukraine.

"The two leaders resolved to push back against the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea; underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues; they shared concern about PRC practices in Xinjiang and Hong Kong," the White House said in a statement.

The two leaders remain committed to working closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

"The two leaders highlighted the importance of the Quad - Australia, Japan, India, and the United States - as a critical forum for promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and resolved to ensure the Quad delivers practical results in areas such as COVID-19 response, climate and clean energy, and infrastructure."

Biden welcomed the Japanese PM's invitation to visit Japan for the next Quad Leaders Meeting in the first half of 2022.

The two leaders also condemned the recent ballistic missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

"Toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, both leaders committed to maintain close coordination on DPRK issues moving forward, in lockstep with the Republic of Korea (ROK). The President also expressed support for the immediate resolution of the abductions issue," the White House said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Ocean island nation president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih tested positive for the coronavirus after a PCR test on saturday. The president was to go on an election campaign, but now has been advised by doctors to stay at home and have proper medication.

Prime Minister wished Solih a speedy recovery and assured him that India is always with in this Covid pandemic situation. During the pandemic, India supplied 3.12 lakh vaccine doses to .

"Hoping for your speedy recovery and good health. Our best wishes are with you and the people of Maldives in successfully overcoming the challenges of COVID. India will continue to extend full support to your efforts," tweeted PM Modi.

On New year, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar discussed bilateral cooperation with his Maldivian counterpart, Abdulla Shahid. The call was made by the External minister to greet foreign minister of Maldives and both talked on bilateral issues. Abdulla Shahid was recently elected the President of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where India holds few key positions.

Maldives' proximity to the west coast of India, it is barely 70 nautical miles away from Minicoy island in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles rom India's West coast, and its situation at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through Indian Ocean, and its potential to allow a third nation's naval presence in the area imbues it with significant strategic importance to India.

--IANS

nk/skp/

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Chief Executive Officer James Gorman will get a 6% raise in annual pay, bringing his total compensation for 2021 to $35 million, the bank said on Friday.

Gorman's total compensation will include an annual base salary of $1.5 million, a cash bonus of $8.38 million, a deferred equity award of $5.03 million and a performance-based equity award of $20.1 million, according to a regulatory filing.

On Thursday, the board of JPMorgan Chase & Co gave a 9.5% raise to CEO Jamie Dimon, bringing his total compensation for 2021 to $34.5 million.

Since taking over a decade ago, the 63-year-old CEO has transformed from a Wall Street firm focused on a money-losing trading businesses into a more balanced bank. He was the driving force behind Morgan Stanley's decision to acquire brokerage firm and investment adviser Smith Barney that helped make wealth management the cornerstone of his plan to stabilize revenue.

directors based the pay decision on Gorman's individual performance and the bank's record earnings in 2021, it said.

Under Gorman, Morgan Stanley reported a net income of $15 billion in 2021, compared with $11 billion a year earlier and a return on tangible common equity of 19.8% compared with 15.2% last year

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Terrorism is again rearing its head in Pakistan due to 'flawed' policies of the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan, said former Pakistan premier on Friday.

This rebuke comes in the wake of a blast in Lahore's Anarkali area which caused the death of three people and injury to several others.

"I condemn the Lahore blast and pray for the recovery of the injured. Owing to wrong policies of (prime minister) terrorism has again reared its head in the country," the PML-N leader said in a tweet from London where he has been living since November 2019.

Pakistan's opposition senators on Friday sought an explanation from Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed over the recent terrorist incidents in the country, including the blast in Lahore on Thursday.

During Friday's session, the opposition urged Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to suspend routine proceedings and debate the country's law and order situation in the wake of the Lahore blast and the killing of a policeman in Islamabad during a shootout, Dawn newspaper reported.

Earlier on Thursday, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz condemned the blast while taking aim at the government.

"Three died and dozens injured in a bomb blast in Lhr today and guess what @ImranKhanPTI is talking about in his propaganda cell meeting? Sharifs! What is next? Blaming the victims for the tragedy," Maryam tweeted.

The continuous surge in attacks by the TTP speaks of a monumental failure of the government's policy which experts believe have encouraged extremisim in the country.

Analysts say that the Pakistani state wilfully refused to gauge the extent of affinity between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP and what could transpire in the event of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

(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.)
Turkish President has said that his country is ready to act as a mediator between and Russia to sustain peace in the region.

"We want peace to prevail in the region, and for this, we are ready to do our part," he told reporters in Istanbul after Friday prayers.

The Turkish leader revealed his plan to discuss the latest developments in with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin either on the phone or during a possible visit to Moscow in the upcoming days, Xinhua news agency reported.

Erdogan will pay a visit to in early February.

"Any development between Russia and Ukraine toward a border violation or an outbreak of a war would constitute a serious violation of the peace of the region," he remarked, noting any unrest there would upset Turkey as it has good and improving relations with both countries.

Erdogan on Thursday invited the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine for talks in Istanbul to calm the tension.

Some western countries have been accusing Russia of amassing military troops along the Ukrainian border, saying Moscow could be planning a military offensive. Russia, however, has been denying the accusation.

--IANS

int/khz/

(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.)
UN Secretary-General condemned airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against a detention centre in Yemen's Saada city, said his spokesman.

Initial reports indicate at least 60 deaths and over 100 injured among the inmates. Further airstrikes have been reported elsewhere in Yemen, also with reports of deaths and injuries among civilians, including children, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN Spokesman, in a statement.

The Spokesman added that an airstrike on telecommunications facilities in Hodeidah has also significantly disrupted vital internet services across much of Yemen, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Secretary-General reminds all parties that attacks directed against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by humanitarian law. He further reminds all parties of their obligations under humanitarian law to ensure that civilians are protected against the dangers arising from military operations, adhering to the principles of proportionality, distinction and

precaution," said the statement.

Guterres calls for prompt, effective and transparent investigations into these incidents to ensure accountability, and for urgent de-escalation of the situation, it added.

The Secretary-General urges the parties to engage with his Special Envoy for to advance the political process and reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen, it said.

Recalling the severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen, Guterres urges donors and all other stakeholders to enable humanitarian relief efforts with adequate funding, access and other support, the statement added.

--IANS

int/khz/

(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.)
Top US and Russian diplomats have agreed to keep talking in the standoff over Ukraine, even though their meeting produced no movement in the crisis that has seen Moscow mass tens of thousands of troops at the border and the West ramp up supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

With fears of an invasion of running high and seemingly intractable demands, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about 90 minutes in Geneva on Friday at what the American said was a "critical moment".

Expectations were low going in, and there was no breakthrough.

Blinken told Lavrov the US would give Russia written responses to Moscow's proposals next week and suggested the two would likely meet again shortly after that offering some hope that any invasion would be delayed for at least a few more days.

Blinken said the US and its allies remain resolute in rejecting Russia's most important demands, which were reiterated Friday. Moscow wants NATO to promise that will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

Despite that, there was no indication the US responses would be any different from the flat-out rejections already expressed by Washington and its allies, clouding future diplomatic efforts.

"We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path to understanding each other's positions," Blinken said after the meeting.

Blinken said he also wanted to use the opportunity to share directly with Lavrov some "concrete ideas to address some of the concerns that you have raised, as well as the deep concerns that many of us have about Russia's actions."



Blinken said Lavrov repeated Russia's insistence that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, but the US and its allies were not convinced.

"We're looking at what is visible to all, and it is deeds and actions and not words that make all the difference," he said, adding that Russia should remove its troops from the Ukrainian border if it wanted to prove its point.

Lavrov, meanwhile, called the talks "constructive and useful" but declined to characterize the US pledge.

"I can't say whether we are on the right track or not," he told reporters. "We will understand that when we receive the U.S. written response to all of our proposals."



Blinken suggested there was no leeway on Russia's demands, saying firmly: "There is no trade space there: None." The US and its allies say Russian President knows the demands are nonstarters, adding that they're open to less-dramatic moves.

Blinken said the US would be open to a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden, if it would be "useful and productive." The two have met once in person in Geneva and have had several virtual conversations on that have proven largely inconclusive.

An estimated 1,00,000 Russian troops have been sent to areas near Ukraine, and more were moving into the neighbourhood for training exercises with neighbouring Belarus.

Western allies were supplying weaponry and equipment to Ukraine. Britain sent anti-tank missiles earlier this week, while the defense ministers of the Baltic nations issued a statement saying they received US approval to send Stinger air defense missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to strengthen Kyiv's defenses.

"Today Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia," said Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet.

"Let's face it -- the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor."



The Pentagon said the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will participate in a NATO maritime exercise in the Mediterranean, which will continue through February 4 something that has been planned since 2020, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

He said officials considered whether to go ahead with the exercise, because of the ongoing tensions, and decided to move ahead.

Kirby said the exercise wasn't planned anticipating a Russian move on Ukraine and is "not designed against any of the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine."



On Thursday, Russia announced sweeping naval maneuvers through February, some apparently in the Black Sea.

The US and its allies scrambled to present a united front. Washington and its allies have repeatedly promised consequences such as biting economic sanctions against Russia though not military action if it invades.

Blinken repeated that on Friday, saying the US and its allies were committed to diplomacy but also committed "if that proves impossible, and Russia decides to pursue aggression against Ukraine, to a united, swift and severe response."



Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to brief him on his talks this week and reaffirm US support for Kyiv's sovereignty and stress that no decisions would be made without his country's input, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

He also will brief the foreign ministers of Washington's European allies.

Ukraine is already beset by conflict. Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, part of a simmering but largely stalemated conflict that has killed 14,000. Putin faced limited consequences for those moves, but the West says a new invasion would be different.

(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 (WEF) announced that it will hold its 2022 annual meeting from May 22 to 26 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

"Under the theme, 'working Together, restoring Trust', the Annual Meeting 2022 will be the first global in-person leadership event since the start of the pandemic," the WEF said in a statement published on its website.

The meeting will offer world leaders an opportunity to take stock of the state of the world and shape partnerships and policies for the crucial period ahead, the WEF said.

Topics on the agenda will include the pandemic recovery, tackling climate change, building a better future for work, accelerating stakeholder capitalism, and harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it said.

The WEF will continue to communicate closely with the Swiss government on the public health situation in Switzerland.

"The meeting will take place as long as all necessary conditions are in place to guarantee the health and safety of its participants and the host community," it added.

"We need to establish the atmosphere of trust that is truly needed to accelerate collaborative action and to address the multiple challenges we face," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.

Due to the Omicron Covid variantoutbreak, the WEF deferred its 2022 annual meeting, which was originally scheduled for January 17-21.

--IANS

ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UN Secretary-General has said the current world is "much more chaotic, much less predictable" than during the between the former Soviet Union and the United States, and it's dangerous because there are no "instruments" to deal with crises.

He said in a wide-ranging press conference on Friday that the was between two opposing blocs where there were clear rules and mechanisms to prevent conflict. It "never became hot because there was a certain level of predictability", he said.

He said he wouldn't call the dangerous situation today a or a Hot War but probably "a new form of tepid confrontation".

As he starts his second term as UN secretary-general, Guterres said in an Associated Press interview on Thursday that the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere but unlike US President Joe Biden he thinks Russia will not invade Ukraine.

At the press conference, Guterres said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin "is that there should not be any military intervention" in Ukraine.

"I am convinced it will not happen, and I strongly hope to be right," he said.

The UN chief spoke after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva on the crisis over Ukraine which has seen Moscow deploy tens of thousands of troops on its border and Western nations sending military hardware to Kyiv.

Expectations were low for a breakthrough and there was none, but the top US and Russian diplomats agreed to meet again.

"What for me is essential is that this dialogue leads to a good solution and that that good solution is that there is de-escalation and this crisis ends," Guterres said. "That is our objective. I've been saying that I strongly hope that diplomacy will prevail."



Guterres reiterated in the AP interview that the U.N. Security Council, which does have the power to uphold peace and security including by imposing sanctions and ordering military action, is divided, especially its five veto-wielding permanent members.

Russia and China are often at odds with the United States, Britain and France on key issues, including Thursday on new sanctions against North Korea.

The secretary-general reiterated at the news conference that splitting the world in two -- with the United States and China creating rival economic systems and rules, each with dominant currency, its own Internet, technological strategy and artificial intelligence -- must be avoided "at all costs".

"I always advocated for the need for a unified global market, a unified global economy," Guterres said. "At the present moment there are a number of differences and I've been advocating both with the US and China on the importance of a serious dialogue and a serious negotiation on the aspect of trade and technology in which the two countries have... different positions."



He said his aim is to see the two leading economic powers "overcome those difficulties and to be able to establish that global market in which all can cooperate and all can benefit."Guterres spoke to reporters after presenting his priorities for 2022 to diplomats from the UN's 193 member nations in the General Assembly and assessing the global landscape which he called "not a pretty picture.""I see a five alarm global fire," the secretary-general said.

"Each of the alarms is feeding off the others," he said. "They are accelerants to an inferno."



He cited inequity and injustice in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, "a global economic system rigged against the poor," insufficient action on "the existential climate threat" and "a wild west digital frontier that profits from division".

Guterres said all these "social and economic fires" are creating conflicts and unrest around the world, and all of them are fuelling mistrust and people's lost faith in institutions and their underlying values.

"In every corner of the world, we see this erosion of core values. Equality. Justice. Cooperation. Dialogue. Mutual respect," the secretary-general said.

He warned that injustice, inequality, mistrust, racism and discrimination "are casting dark shadows across every society" and said all nations must restore "human dignity and human decency" and "prevent the death of truth".

"We must make lying wrong again," Guterres 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.)
Special prosecutor says no charges against Jacksonville police officer who shot and killed son
Photo: Contributed

Two Canadians were killed Friday and one more wounded in a shooting at a hotel along Mexico's Caribbean coast, state authorities said.

Quintana Roo state security chief Lucio Hernandez said via Twitter that authorities were searching for a Hotel Xcaret guest in the shooting. He shared a photo of a man walking with a handgun.

The Xcaret resort is south of Playa del Carmen.

Authorities said all three victims were taken to a hospital, but two died.

The Quintana Roo state prosecutor's office said via Twitter that the suspect in the shooting was also apparently a guest and Canadian police informed them he was a known felon with a long record related to robbery, drug and weapons offenses. The office said both of the dead also had criminal records.

It is just the latest brazen act of violence along Mexico's famed Mayan Riviera, the crown jewel of its tourism industry.

In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead. Authorities said there were some 15 gunmen from a gang that apparently disputed control of drug sales there.

In late October, farther south in the laidback destination of Tulum, two tourists  one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German  were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.

Following those events, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent nearly 1,500 members of the National Guard to reinforce security in the area.
Photo: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Evive Nutrition Inc. is recalling its Immunity Super Functional Smoothie because it contains raw elderberries that may cause cyanide poisoning.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the recall of the product sold online was triggered by consumer complaints, noting there have been reported illnesses associated with the product.

The agency says raw elderberries naturally contain cyanogenic glycosides, which can release cyanide after being eaten.

It says that while the body can process small amounts of cyanide, larger amounts can result in poisoning and could lead to death.

Symptoms of cyanide poisoning include weakness and confusion, anxiety, restlessness, headache, nausea, difficulty breathing and shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, seizures and cardiac arrest.

The agency says it is conducting a food safety investigation that may lead to the recall of other products.
Welcome to CDE Today, a weekly publication from CDE Communications designed to provide you with clear, consistent updates on what is important to California schools.

Updates

Pivotal Program Practice Award

Applications for the California Pivotal Practice Award Program for 2022 are now open. As part of the CDE's California School Recognition Program, this is one of many ways we can celebrate excellence in education and honor exemplary schools, districts, teachers, students, and classified employees.

The award is being utilized by California in 2022 in place of the California Distinguished Schools Program to celebrate districts and schools that have completed an online application highlighting an innovative practice that was implemented during the 202021 school year, when California required schools to offer distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications are due on February 11, 2022.

Program Highlights

Early Education Teacher Development Grant ProgramLetter of Intent Extension to February 2

More information about the Award is available on the CDE CAPP Program web page . If you have any questions about the program, please contact the Awards Unit at awards@cde.ca.gov

In light of the challenges being posed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, and the impact this is having on local educational agencies that may wish to submit a letter of intent (LOI) for the Early Education Teacher Development Grant Program, the CDE will extend the deadline for the LOI. This LOI is a required submission for any LEA that wishes to apply for funds through the Early Education Teacher Development Grant Program. The LOI is due to the CDE by 5 p.m. on February 2, 2022. The LOI can be found as a PDF through the CDE website (PDF). For those who have already submitted an LOI, you do not need to resubmit. However, if the information in your submitted LOI has changed, please contact the grant's program team via the grants program email address. For any questions regarding the Early Education Teacher Development Grant program, please send an email with your question to UPKWorkforceRFA@cde.ca.gov.

Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup (SMHPW)

It is with great enthusiasm that we announce the reconvening of the California Department of Educations Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup (SMHPW). The work group will restart with all new members. If you are interested in becoming a member of the SMHPW, please complete the 2022 SMHPW application due on January 28, 2022. Applicants will be notified of our decision by February 4, 2022. The primary mission of the work group is to make policy recommendations to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. For more information, contact Monica Nepomuceno, Interim Education Administrator at mnepomuceno@cde.ca.gov.

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) Trainings

Events and Opportunities

WEBINARS

Nutrition Service Division Tuesday @ 2 Virtual Town HallJanuary 25

The CDE is offering virtual YMHFA Trainings, at no cost to LEAs, schools, and community organizations. The training teaches youth-serving adults how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and substance use disorders in youth, ages six to eighteen. The trainings are made available with funding from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Blue Shield of Californias Blue-Sky Initiative. For additional information, visit the Project Cal-Well Youth Mental Health FIrst Aid Trainings page . To schedule a YMHFA training, please send an email to YMHFA@cde.ca.gov . For more information, contact Monica Nepomuceno, Interim Education Administrator at mnepomuceno@cde.ca.gov

The Nutrition Services Division continues the discussion for operating School Nutrition Programs (SNP) as local educational agencies navigate multiple nationwide waivers and persevere with planning quality services in the School Year 202122. The CDE will share program policy updates and highlight best practices. The January Town Hall will feature Jannette Garcia, Director Child Nutrition Sanger Unified School District. Jannette will discuss how her program serves TK, preschool, and kindergarten students as well as the success they are having with breakfast in the classroom and providing meals despite the challenges with COVID.

Join us January 25, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Register at the Tuesday @ 2 School Nutrition Town Hall webinar registration page . For more information, please visit the Tuesdays at 2 web page. For questions, contact Julie BoarerPitchford at jboarerpitchford@cde.ca.gov.

Supporting Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Private SchoolsJanuary 25

On Tuesday, January 25, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., this webinar will explore specific resources for private school teachers and leaders to support mental health and well-being, including ready-to-teach curriculum on mental health literacy designed for religious schools; Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) for faith leaders; and LivingWorks Faith Gatekeeper training. In addition, tips and information about how private school leaders can access publicly funded secular resources such as Youth Mental Health First Aid will be shared. Participants will walk away with tangible tools to support mental health in private schools. Visit the Suicide Prevention webinar series registration page to sign up for the Zoom webinar. For more information, contact Monica Nepomuceno, Interim Education Administrator at mnepomuceno@cde.ca.gov.

Building a Robust, Diverse, Effective, and Well-Supported P-3 Workforce

New Date: February 17

Due to the current priorities in the field, the Opportunities for All Branch has changed the date of its P-3 webinar from next week (formerly on January 27) to Thursday, February 17, 2022, from 3 to 5 p.m. This next installment of the P-3 webinar series will focus on Teacher Pipeline and Professional Learning. To attend the Zoom webinar, please register through the registration page . For information on Department news related to our P-3 initiative, email subscribe to subscribe-cdep3updates@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

VIRTUAL EVENTS

Launching the California Arts Education FrameworkMarch 1

The Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division is pleased to announce the virtual launch of the 2020 California Arts Education Framework for California Public Schools (Arts Framework) on March 1, 2022 from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. This effort is sponsored by the California County Superintendents Educational Services (CCSESA) Statewide Arts Initiative, The California Arts Project, and the California Department of Education. Arts education leaders from across California have been collaborating on the design and implementation of this virtual preview of the Arts Framework and will be developing additional resources to support implementation for administrators and teachers. Participants in the virtual launch will have the opportunity to celebrate and gain a greater understanding of the Arts Framework, including how it supports:

Developing students artistic literacy

Implementing the 2019 California Arts Standards for Public Schools

Providing equitable arts education to all California students

Register for the virtual launch on the California Arts Education Framework web page .

Steps to College EventFebruary 5 and 12

Important Dates and Deadlines

Human Trafficking Prevention Month

The CDE and the Consulate General of Mexico in Sacramento invite students and families to the 11th annual Steps to College event. Since its implementation, Steps to College has served more than 15,000 students from Northern California through specialized workshops on how to apply to college and access financial aid. A hybrid program this year, the university fair will be held virtually on February 5 and in-person on February 12. Read more in this letter to educators or visit the Steps to College web page.

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and you can help end trafficking by bringing awareness to these crimes. If you have a tip about a potential trafficking situation, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888. Learn more on the FBIs human trafficking web page . CDE has more info and resources on prevention and education on its The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children web page.

Great Kindness Challenge (January 2428)

The CDE, in partnership with the Great Kindness Challenge (GKC), encourages all teachers, staff, and students of child care centers, preschools, and schools to participate in the GKC the week of January 2428. The GKC, presented by Kids for Peace, is a global, proactive, bullying-prevention initiative that educators and students can use to create a culture of kindness. Using a customizable kindness checklist, every student has an opportunity to practice kindness and make a positive impact. Read more and participate via the Great Kindness Challenge website .

Presidents Day (February 21)

Stay Connected

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CDE is closed Monday, February 21, in honor of Presidents Day, both a California public school holiday and state holiday.

CDE is on Instagram , LinkedIn , and Twitter as well as Facebook . Follow our accounts for more news and updates.

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Send Your Feedback

The CDE is committed to improving communications with more than a thousand school districts and county offices and 10,000-plus schools. If you have any feedback about this publication or would like to see information on particular topics, please email communications@cde.ca.gov.

Last Reviewed: Friday, January 21, 2022
Chattanooga State Community College, in collaboration with the Tennessee Board of Regents, encourages all students currently receiving Tennessee Promise for the 2021-2022 academic year to Finish the FAFSA by submitting their Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form for the 2022-2023 academic year.



The FAFSA form must be submitted each year for students to qualify for TN Promise and TN Reconnect. Students who Finish the FAFSA, and submit their 2022-2023 FAFSA, can avoid last-minute panic as they approach the final submission deadline of March 1.



By filing the FAFSA before the deadline, currently enrolled Tennessee Promise students can continue eligibility in Fall 2022, provided all other criteria are met. In addition, submitting the FAFSA form is required for other financial aid resources provided by Chattanooga State, such as scholarships or grants.



For more information or assistance, contact Chattanooga States Financial Aid Office at 423-697-4402.
A man on Lynnbrook Avenue said his brother saw via a security camera an older white male stealing tools from the back of the mans vehicle. The man confronted the suspect and he took off in a green Ford F150 with his tools. The man was able to locate the suspect a short while later. He said when he confronted the suspect again, the suspect returned his tools. The man does not wish to press charges at this time.

* * *

An employee at Burlington at 2521 Lifestyle Way called police and said a man entered the store and took approximately $560 worth of men's and women's clothing items. The employee said he left the store out of the side door. She described the man as being tall and white, with scratches on his face. The employee will call back with any further information.

* * *

A woman in New Hampshire called Chattanooga Police and said she had made an initial report to her local police department and they told her to make a report with CPD since the crime had occurred in Chattanooga. The woman said an unknown female had stolen her identity about two years ago in Manchester, N.H. The unknown female had since used the womans identity in North Carolina to purchase a 2005 Honda Civic and gain employment in Chattanooga. The woman said the woman is going by her maiden name and is possibly working somewhere in the area of 201-300 Georgia Ave. The woman said she would gather more information about the female impersonating her and send it when needed. The woman wishes to press charges against the individual for identity theft. The woman is solely Spanish speaking.

* * *

Dispatch received multiple calls regarding a suspicious white male walking around and was last seen entering the coin laundry at 5912 Brainerd Road. The owner of the coin laundry also called in wanting police to remove the suspicious man. An officer spoke with the man inside the laundry and he first gave the officer incorrect identification. Once his identity was corrected, the officer found the man had no active warrants.

* * *

A woman on Ido Way told police her Subaru Crosstrek was damaged from a tree limb that fell from across the parking lot from where her vehicle was parked. The officer saw scratches, dents and a broken rear window, along with debris from the limb scattered across the Subaru.

* * *

A woman told police she was involved in a traffic crash at 5900 Shallowford Road in which she was at fault. She said the other car, a black Chevy Malibu, was driven by a black female that left the scene prior to police arrival. She said the other driver said that she does not have time to wait for police and she will "catch up with them (police) later." The woman said she does not require a crash report, however, she does want it documented that she notified police.

* * *

Police were dispatched to the Brainerd Army Store at 5102 Brainerd Road due to an unconscious person. Police arrived and spoke with the man, who appeared sleepy and groggy but not unconscious. The man said he was sleepy from traveling the area on foot. He did say he is a frequent user of "Roxys" and last used earlier that morning. At the time of police contact, the man was able to stand without falling or swaying and was able to answer basic questions the officer asked.

* * *

A man on Dagney Lane told police he found dirty handprints on the siding in the backyard of his house. The man said it appeared someone was traveling through or hiding in his backyard. There is no information on who the person might be.

* * *

An officer saw a red Mercedes and a white Honda sedan parked next to each other at the Americas Best Value at 103 Patten Chapel Road with no tags. While verifying the VIN numbers (both not stolen), the officer saw a man approach the Mercedes and open it with a key and retrieve a file folder from the car and the return to the second floor of the south side of the building.

* * *

A man working at FedEx at 5076 Summit Spring Way said someone entered his unlocked vehicle. He said they stole a Talon Tactical TAR15 AR pistol with a red dot sight, SPA3, and angled forward grip chambered in 5.56 with a 7.5in barrel. The firearm may also have a 30 or 60 round magazine. Police entered the firearm as stolen in NCIC.

* * *

Police were called to check the interstate off-ramp to Shallowford Road for panhandlers. The officer found two men who were identified. Both were panhandling. The officer warned them both of the laws regarding pedestrians on the interstate and they left the area without further issue.

* * *

The manager of 7/11 at 3725 Jenkins Road said there were two lottery tickets stolen from the office valuing $600. The manager said there are only a small number of employees that enter the office but does not have any further suspect at this time.
Mark Daniel Allen, 64, of Venice, Fla., was sentenced on Friday to 168 months in prison and $700 in special assessments, followed by three years of supervised released, by Judge Travis R. McDonough..

Allen was found guilty of six counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises after a three-day trial in Chattanooga, which began on Sept.

1, 2021.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Allen unlawfully prescribed approximately 15,000 opioid pills to three women with whom he had sexual relationships, and to a male patient who later passed away.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Departments Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee; Special Agent in Charge Joseph Carrico of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Knoxville Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Tamala Miles of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) were involved in the case.

The FBI, HHS-OIG, TBI, Manchester Police Department, and Coffee County Sheriff's Office investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Brooks of the Eastern District of Tennessee and Trial Attorney Emily Petro of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and prosecuted the case.
Bradley County Sheriff Steve Lawson on Saturday announced his intentions to seek re-election to the office subject to the May 3, Republican Primary.

In making his announcement Sherriff Lawson said, It has been the greatest honor of my professional career to have been allowed to serve as the sheriff of Bradley County. I believe that we have accomplished many of the goals laid out during my initial campaign, but there is still work to do. I believe we have unfinished business within our agency to address in the future to preserve public safety in Bradley County and to better serve the people of this community.

Sheriff Lawson was elected to the office in 2018. Prior to serving as Bradley County sheriff, he served in six different administrations within the department. He served as a patrol officer, investigator, and supervisor in both the Patrol and Criminal Investigations Divisions. He also served as director of the 10th Judicial Drug and Violent Crime Task Force from 2010 until 2014. Altogether, he has served over 27 years in our community in law enforcement.

Officers safety has been addressed in his first term as sheriff, including body cameras, new tasers, and up-to-date body armor. Additionally, a new body scanner has been installed in the Corrections Division to help officers prevent contraband from entering the facility.

Operating during the last two years in a pandemic has been challenging but the department has worked diligently to ensure officer safety, inmates safety, and the safety of the visitors to our facilities, said officials.

During my first term, we have worked with the mayor and the county commission to make many positive strides toward upgrading the officers safety equipment and to our facility," said Sheriff Lawson. "We are blessed with some of the finest officers in this area, who serve us well, and I look forward to the opportunity to strengthen a retention plan for them."

According to the TBI 2020 crime statistics, the Bradley County Sheriffs Office cleared nearly 70 percent of overall reported crime in the county and cleared 54 percent of all reported burglaries in the county. These results ranked near the top of all agencies in the state of Tennessee. In addition, each of the county high schools are now protected by two SRO Officers inside the school, as well as a gate guard who is a retired or reserve officer. The remainder of elementary and middle schools are also assigned an SRO.



Im honored to lead this agency each and every day and if elected I look forward to the opportunity to serve my community another four years," said Sheriff Lawson.

Sheriff Lawson is married to Connie Lawson and he has three sons, Stephen, Dustin, and Chase. The family is members of Mt. Olive Ministries.
Jessica More from Below Deck Mediterranean said shes left yachting and likely wouldnt return to the series if asked.

More said yachting fulfilled its purpose for her and even though the show gave her a platform, shes not interested in doing more Below Deck. And while most cast members have said theyd love to do another season of the show, More isnt the only crew member who isnt interested in returning.

Jessica More says yachting was toxic for her so she wont return to Below Deck

A fan asked if shed return to the show. I dont know if I would, More said in a video in her Instagram stories. I am working to try to transition out of yachting. Below Deck, probably not. Could I see myself doing some other kind of show or movie? Yes.

Jessica More from Below Deck Mediterranean | Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo

So yachting served its purpose, she continued. I got out of debt, I met amazing people. [And] I got on an amazing reality show. It gave me a platform. But at this point and phase in my life, its pretty toxic for me. So yeah, I found myself getting stuck and partying. And drinking a lot and just dating the wrong men in the industry. And its just not in a good place where I wanna be now.

She plans to embark upon a career as a yoga teacher

So whats next for More? Headed back to Florida this weekend and then to Nicaragua next week for a yoga teacher training for a month, she wrote. Super excited, Ive heard its life-changing. Im ready to make some big changes in my life and feel this will be a beautiful foundation.

I dont have a home technically, she admitted. More added that most of her belongings and vehicles are in a storage unit in Fort Lauderdale, FL. And I havent really found my place yet. Home is where the heart is, I guess.

More has spent the past few weeks in Tulum, Mexico, and met up with chief stew Katie Flood. She also shared how they connected. I slid into her DMs a month or two ago and asked if she wanted to meet up for a drink, More wrote. The rest is history. Love her. She has an epic personality and a beautiful heart.

Courtney Skippon is another cast member not interested in Below Deck

More isnt alone in not wanting to return to Below Deck. Stew Courtney Skippon recently said its too late for her to go back and in fact, it would be embarrassing. No, I think its embarrassing, Skippon said on the Dear Reality, Youre Effed podcast. I would have gone back right away. If Kate went back and they wanted me back as like a second stew again, I definitely would have done that right away. Because I feel like thats a more natural progression.

I am nothing if not loyal to a theme and my own personal brand #BelowDeck pic.twitter.com/ulkiD8kFOC  Courtney Skippon (@courtneyskippon) February 4, 2020

But if youre just like waiting around  you do sort of to an extent have to be, she added. Just like readily available for that. And thats not cute for me. Thats like a guy that ghosted you. And then six months hes like You up? And you are like, Im absolutely up. She added, Yeah, no.

RELATED: Below Deck Med: Hannah Ferrier Reveals She Never Had a Good Relationship With Captain Sandy  We Werent Friendly at All
Kate Middleton has worn some phenomenal jewelry since becoming the Duchess of Cambridge. It all began with her famous sapphire engagement ring  which belonged to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana. Since then, Kate has worn a collection of pieces from both Diana and Queen Elizabeth that have a total worth over $100 million. But which piece is the most expensive?

Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton | Victoria Jones  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Kate Middleton wore the Cartier Halo tiara on her wedding day

When Kate married Prince William in April 2011, she wore the Cartier Halo tiara worth an estimated $1.7 million. Borrowed from Queen Elizabeth, the tiara featured 739 brilliant-cut diamonds and 149 baguette-cut diamonds. It was originally a gift from King George VI to his wife, Queen Mary, in 1936.

The Queen Mother was only photographed one time wearing the tiara, and Queen Elizabeth never wore it in public. After that, it was worn by Princess Margaret and Princess Anne. However, the piece has become an iconic royal wedding tiara thanks to Kate.

Since Kate joined the royal family, Queen Elizabeth has loaned her 10 pieces of jewelry worth over $100 million. They include Queen Marys diamond choker, the Maple Leaf brooch, the New Zealand Fern brooch, the Bahrain Pearl earrings, Dubai sapphire earrings, and a ruby and diamond floral bandeau necklace.

Princess Diana wore the Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara

When Kate married William, she also inherited six pieces of jewelry from Princess Diana worth nearly $20 million. These included her sapphire engagement ring, the Saudi sapphire suite (worth nearly $15 million by itself), a three-strand pearl bracelet, Collingwood earrings, and South Sea pearl earrings.

Kate also inherited the stunning Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara. Originally owned by the Queen Mother, she gave the tiara to Princess Diana as a wedding present.

With its Gothic Revival style and a beautiful array of diamonds and pearls, this piece is worth between $1 and 2 million. The last time Kate wore it was in 2018 at the State Banquet for King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Kate Middletons most expensive piece of jewelry is worth millions

The most expensive piece of jewelry that the Duchess of Cambridge has worn publicly is the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace. With an estimated value between $80 and $120 million. This magnificent piece belongs to Queen Elizabeth and is said to be one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry in the entire Royal family collection.

This is by far one of the most precious pieces of jewelry from the British royal family, a diamond expert from Steven Stone Jewelers told Express.

The necklace, which was made by Cartier in 1935, is extremely intricate featuring over 50 diamonds nestled in an abstract floral design.

The Nizam of Hyderabad necklace is one of a kind

The royal expert continued, saying that the necklace features an array of enormous pave set stones and a detachable double-drop pendant. Theres also 13 emerald and pear-shaped diamonds linked to a chain of a further 38 brilliant-cut stones.

A piece like this is truly one of a kind, the jewelry expert explained. The necklace was a wedding gift to Princess Elizabeth from the Nizam of Hyderabad, who was known at the time as one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Queen Elizabeth chose the Cartier necklace that Kate Middleton loves to wear

The then-Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip in 1947. And legend has it that the Nizam of Hyderabad asked Cartier to allow the future queen to choose anything she wanted from their collection of jewels.

The Queen opted for a tiara with three detachable flower brooches and what we now know as the Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace, the diamond expert explained.

As for the jewelry that Prince William has gifted Kate during their 11 years of marriage, he has reportedly given her nine different pieces worth nearly $200k. They include an Olympic Cartier set, a Ballon Bleu Cartier watch, amethyst earrings, and an eternity band.
Keanu Reeves is known for being one of the most likable stars in Hollywood. Hes never been involved in any public scandals, and he always seems to be respectful to his colleagues and fans.

Growing up, Reeves wasnt much of a troublemaker either. He was admittedly rambunctious and curious as a child. But Reeves revealed the worst thing he did in his youth was chuck chestnuts at his teachers.

Reeves grew up in Canada

Keanu Reeves | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Reeves moved around a lot as a young child. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon. But after his parents divorce, the actor and his mom moved to Sydney, Australia, then to New York City before landing in Toronto when he was 8-years-old.

Reeves lived in Ontario, where he attended four different high schools, until his late teens. He eventually obtained a green card through his father and moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career in acting.

The worst Keanu Reeves remembers doing as a kid was throwing chestnuts at teachers

In a 2021 feature for Esquire, the actor revealed that he was a latchkey kid who hung out with other home-alone kids in his Yorkville neighborhood. His street was lined with chestnut trees. So when the hard-shelled fruits would fall, the kids would crack them open and have chestnut fights.

Keanu Reeves, cast, extras appearing in the ABC tv series The Magical World of Disney, episode Young Again | Gail Harvey /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images

After living a somewhat sheltered life in Toronto, Reeves found the fast life of LA to be a lot wilder than what he was used to. And in a 90s chat with Interview Magazine, the John Wick star suggested those chestnut fights were probably the worst of his childhood shenanigans.

When I see stuff in L.A. now I realize how safe and sheltered my upbringing was, Reeved told the outlet. We didnt even do graffiti, you know? Wed build go-carts called Fireball 500. I mean we did sling chestnuts at teachers heads, and in grade eight hash started to come around, and LSD kinda.

He was expelled from high school for being too curious

Reeves was a good student growing up. But his curious nature and unique perspectives got him expelled from school.

I went to four different high schools in five years, Reeves told the Daily Mail in 2008. I was OK academically, good at English, and creative writing, I was on the chess team.

The Matrix star ended up going to a performing arts high school. But even there, Reeves penchant for questioning authority didnt bode well.

It was a very small school and I guess I didnt fit in, Reeves recalled. I had conflicts and run-ins with the staff. The principal and I didnt see eye to eye. I was one of those Why? kids  I asked too many questions about everything. I couldnt stop even if it got me into trouble.

Keanu Reeves appearing in the ABC tv series The Magical World of Disney, episode Young Again | Gail Harvey /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images

RELATED: Keanu Reeves Admits The Matrix Opened the Door for BRZRKR

I wanted my autonomy,  he continued. And if you wanted to impose something on me, then you and I would have a problem.

But despite his conflicts, Reeves wanted to stay in school. So when he learned of the expulsion, he was pretty upset.

Its a terrible letter to receive, saying you cant come back to school next year, Reeves suggested. Getting asked to leave was very upsetting.
The Paramount+ crime drama, Mayor of Kingstown, tackles a real issue in America  the prison system  but is it based on a true story? The series, featuring Jeremy Renner as Mayor Mike McLusky, also takes on systemic racism, corruption, and inequality. Yellowstone producer and creator Taylor Sheridan, and co-creator Hugh Dillon, could easily have pulled a true story from a prison town in America, but did they?

Mayor of Kingstown Jeremy Renner | Marni Grossman/ViacomCBS 2021 MTV Entertainment Group, Inc.

Are Mayor of Kingstown and Yellowstone related?

Unlike the Yellowstone prequel series, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown is not related to the Dutton family drama series. However, the two shows have some things in common behind the scenes. Screenwriter, director, and actor Taylor Sheridan created Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown. Yellowstone cast member Hugh Dillon (who portrays Sheriff Donnie Haskell) co-created the new Paramount+ crime drama.

Is Mayor of Kingstown based on a true story?

Although Mayor of Kingstown is not based on a true story, the inspiration came from co-creator Dillons hometown and experiences living in Kingston, Ontario. The city is in the middle of Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec. It is home to Canadas first federal penitentiary  Kingston Penitentiary. However, unlike the drama, the prison closed in 2013, making it the perfect place to film the Mayor of Kingstown. Kingston is also home to the largest group of prisons in Canada. With nine institutions in the Kingston area, the prisons contribute significantly to the local economy, similar to the Paramount+ crime drama.

Hugh Dillon reflects on how his hometown inspired Mayor of Kingstown

In an interview with Newsweek, co-creator Dillon described growing up in Kingston, with so many penitentiaries surrounding the area.

I can tell you this, I grew up in a town with nine penitentiaries, a maximum, a medium and a womens [penitentiary], minimum security, Dillon explained to the outlet. You know, as a kid, my mom was a teacher, my friends parents were prison guards, one was a warden, other friends were convicts, and it was, you know, in this perfectly cultivated civilized world theres this brutality and these institutions.

Dillon described seeing the guard towers as a kid, thinking they looked like Disneyland; however, it was very different.

And as I got older, you see these things that happen in our society, child killers to serial killers to murderers to whatever horrific thing were seeing in the news, and theyre coming to your town, he continued. Wherever in the country, theyve been captured, theyre coming to your town. So, I dont know how that bleeds into my psychology or how that works, but thats what I brought.

Although Dillon and Sheridans stories for Mayor of Kingstown are fictional, there are roots of the truth sprinkled throughout it.

Sorry Netflix and Hulu subscribers, Mayor of Kingstown is only available for streaming on Paramount+.

RELATED: Mayor of Kingstown Star Jeremy Renner Calls Taylor Sheridans Work Violent But Equally Beautiful
Since its debut, Disney+s first Korean drama, Snowdrop, has mixed reactions. The K-drama received controversy before its official airing. A leaked synopsis angered netizens for its distortion of Korean history. Netizens later petitioned for its cancellation. Its storyline entails precursor events to the Democratic Movement of 1987 and a North Korean spy. Snowdrops creators explain how the K-dramas writer was inpsired by a real-life character.

Character Soo-ho and Young-ro from Snowdrop K-drama | via JTBC

Snowdrop raised attention over its complex love story

Netizens were angered by the leaked synopsis of Snowdrop. They believed it distorted historical facts involving North Korean spies. Many citizens call the K-drama insensitive to the people who paved the way to freedom from dictatorship. There was also distaste toward Snowdrops love story that goes through different levels of turmoil throughout the K-drama.

BLACKPINKs Jisoo plays the leading role as Eun Young-ro with D.P. actor Jung Hae-in as Im Soo-ho. Young-ro is a freshman college student at an all-female dorm, while Soo-ho is an Economics major from Germany. They fall in love at first sight after a blind date.

Fans were expecting a run-of-the-mill love story, but it became something more. In Snowdrop, Im-soo is a North Korean spy being hunted by the government. When he seeks refuge at the womens dorm, Young-ro hides him, believing he is a protestor. Young-ros act of kindness put her friends and the other students in jeopardy. Im-soo and his comrades are later forced to take them hostage.

Snowdrop creators explain what inspired the K-dramas writer

RELATED: The Red Sleeve: Fans Noticed Episode 1 of the K-Drama Foreshadowed the Emotional Finale

Without giving too much away about Snowdrop, its storyline includes many historical figures and government organizations. Despite netizens accusing JTBC of distorting historical facts concerning government offices and officials, Snowdrops creators explain how the storyline came to be.

According to Soompi, the creators credit its lead writer for Snowdrop. After the initial controversy regarding the K-drama, PD Jo Hyun-tak gave more details at the press conference. The drama was a plan that writer Yoo Hyun Mi has prepared for a long time. She says she was inspired by the writing of a North Korean defector who escaped from a concentration camp in 2008.

Jo further explains the story written by the defector, included her own experience of womens dorms from attending university in the 1980s. As those connections were combined, the details of Snowdrop emerged.

Fans on Reddit discussed the problematic details regarding the character Young-ro, as Snowdrops storyline is based on real-life events. Young-ro is also a student at a womens dorm in the 80s. A fan on Reddit explains the characters name is that of a real-life person. Her husband was tortured after being falsely accused as a Northern spy.

What do the K-dramas creators think of the controversy surrounding the storyline?

RELATED: Snowdrop: Kim Mi-soos Most Profound K-Drama Roles Amid Her Death at Age 29

After the initial petition and leak of the K-dramas synopsis, Snowdrops creators assured fans the script would go through revisions and the storyline changes as the episodes air.

PD Jo explained, As it began from the writing of a North Korean defector, there are mentions of North Korea in the material but rather than it being political or ideological, [its about] the person from North Korea. Instead of focusing on North Korea, I thought that we tried to look deeply and get a closer look at the person.

Snowdrop takes fans on a whirlwind story that started as a young romance that soon became political upheaval. A North and South romance story mixed with the real-life events of what would later become the June 1987 Democracy Movement.
Speak No Evil is a fresh, clever social horror film drenched in dread. Writer/director Christian Tafdrup and co-writer Mads Tafdrup conjure up a story that seeks to make audiences cringe from satirical encounters but also fear what looms beneath the surface. Speak No Evil delivers on thrills, chills, and an intriguing satire on human interaction.

Speak No Evil brings vacation friends together

L-R: Sidsel Siem Koch as Louise and Morten Burian as Bjrn | Erik Molberg/Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Bjrn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), and their daughter, Agnes (Liva Forsberg) enjoy a beautiful vacation together in Italy. They meet a friendly family in Patrick (Fedja van Huet), Karin (Karina Smulders), and their son, Abel (Marius Damslev). As a result of their initial interactions, the two families quickly become vacation friends and enjoy each others company over cuisine and good conversations.

Speak No Evil follows Bjrn after he discovers a letter inviting him and his family to travel from Denmark to visit the Dutch family in southern Holland. The weekend initially appears to be a wonderful continuation of their previous vacation. However, Bjrn and Louise quickly find themselves caught in an increasingly uncomfortable situation as they try to remain polite.

Christian Tafdrup utilizes kindness and politeness as a manipulation tool

Speak No Evil draws firm lines between the two families. They stay in a small residence, but their language and customs divide them. The two couples often express pride in their heritage. Friendly conversation topics soon become sore subjects in how they are doing things differently. Tafdrup maintains a sense of duality through the languages the characters speak and the behaviors they exhibit.

Pleasantries and fake social engagement are the enemies in this social horror movie. Theyre the elements that keep Bjrn and Louise in an increasingly precarious situation. Additionally, niceness and politeness are social tools that are often manipulated. Speak No Evil often plays with the power dynamics that are constantly in flux from one odd conversation to the next.

Tafdrups screenplay taps into social anxiety and the claustrophobic nature of extroverted human behavior. Nearly every conversation is filled with agonizing politeness. Potentially offending someone becomes a priority above all other potential issues, including personal safety. Speak No Evil feels like a horror movie for introverts who despise confrontation.

Speak No Evil is deeply unnerving

L-R: Sidsel Siem Koch as Louise and Fedja van Huet as Patrick | Erik Molberg/Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Tafdrups Speak No Evil immediately commands the audiences attention with Erik Molberg Hansens gorgeous cinematography. The landscapes natural beauty is constantly set up against Sune Klsters dramatic and dark score. Tafdrup pieces all of the pieces together into a picture that fills every element with dread.

The most impressive aspect of Speak No Evil is the consistent level of tension that lingers throughout the feature. It pushes Bjrn and Louise out of their comfort zone and makes the audience want to scream for them to just leave. However, this horror trope is the movies point. It has a dark sense of humor in its commentary on what humans are willing to give up in exchange for social composure and politeness.

Speak No Evil progressively builds awkward social tension while racking up the horror elements. The ending has no shortage of brutality, but it doesnt entirely capitalize on theme progressions established earlier in the film. Tafdrup successfully incorporates these themes into a sense of closure, but it doesnt really translate into the bigger picture of what the movie is getting at.

Speak No Evil vocalizes a refreshing new voice in horror with volumes to say about human behavior.

RELATED: Lamb Movie Review: Earnest and Intimate Folk Horror [Beyond Fest]
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.

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5 important things to know about Roe v. Wade

Saturday marks the anniversary of what might be considered the most polarizing U.S. Supreme Court decision in American history.

Since the 7-2 decision of Roe v. Wade was released on Jan. 22, 1973, there have been decades of state and national debate, along with marches, protests, legislative debates, court battles and even violence.

Although Roe technically allows for restrictions on abortion later in the pregnancy, many legislators and activists have interpreted the ruling as a rejection of all restrictions to abortion access.

This year, many believe a conservative-leaning Supreme Court may overturn or weaken the landmark decision and allow states to place increased restrictions on abortion before viability.

The following pages highlight five interesting facts about the Roe v. Wade case.

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Kirk Cameron says abortion is a 'personal issue' for him and his family at March for Life Actor says wife was 'one doctor appointment away from not existing'

Pro-life Christian actor Kirk Cameron said that it was "thrilling" to speak at the March for Life this year, and he hopes the annual march that takes place around the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision would continue even if the contentious Supreme Court ruling is overturned.

Tens of thousands of pro-life activists and politicians gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Friday for the annual March for Life.

The "Growing Pains" star gave remarks on the main stage to those gathered not long before they marched from the National Mall to the U.S. Supreme Court building.

In an interview with The Christian Post on Friday after the march, Cameron said he was excited to be there, saying he believed the attendees had "cold hands, but very warm hearts."

"People were singing, and smiling and there with their kids. My family was there with me, and it was inspiring to hear the speakers," he said, noting that Katie Shaw, a pro-life advocate with Down syndrome, spoke before him.

"She gave a speech that just brought the house down. They were chanting her name after her speech.  I had big shoes to fill, and I just expressed how personal this issue is for me. This issue of life."

During his speech, the actor spoke about how his wife was adopted after being "one doctor appointment away from not existing." Had she been aborted, his two biological children would have never existed, and his four adopted children would not have a home.

"My six children and my wife are here as a result of loving, compassionate and courageous people like you who are marching today," he said.

Cameron promoted his new movie project titled "Lifemark," based on a true story of an adoption that positively influenced many lives.

Cameron will serve as executive producer for the film and play the role of the adoptive father, working along with the Kendrick brothers, who were behind films like "Courageous" and "Facing the Giants."

"Someone sent me a brief documentary of a true story that was so inspiring and meant so much to me personally that I decided to turn it into a feature film," Cameron told CP.

"I wanted to illustrate the value of every life and all of its potential and also to show the beauty of adoption and demonstrate how even one person's life can powerfully impact so many others."

In a video posted to his Facebook page during the march, Cameron said, "the reason why we are here is that the Bible says those who hate love death."

"But we're the family of faith and we love God. Therefore, we love life," he said. "We love children and we love moms and dads and families. And our hope is not in Washington, D.C. In fact, it's not in the people who govern us or the laws that we make as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working in the hearts of His people. That's why we are here."

This year's March for Life comes at a time when many believe that the U.S. Supreme Court is close to overturning Roe v. Wade, as it is expected to rule on Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban by June after hearing arguments in December.

Cameron speculated that he would not be surprised if the March for Life remained as a community gathering even if Roe is overturned or weakened this year.

"People so enjoy being with each other, even out in the cold. You have 100,000 people standing for hours and hours and hours outside and they have smiles on their faces. They're just loving being there together," he said.

"This is really just a symbol for the marching orders that we hear in our hearts, which is to value life at all stages, all people. And so, I hope that it does continue. It doesn't always need to be a protest against a law, but if it morphs into a giant celebration, I think that would be a great annual get together."
March for Life participants optimistic for a post-Roe America: 'This is just the beginning'

WASHINGTON  Participants at the 49th annual March for Life expressed optimism about the state of the pro-life movement as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on a case that many believe could alter abortion legal precedent in the United States.

Despite single-digit wind chills, tens of thousands of protesters gathered on the National Mall Friday to declare their opposition to abortion at the first major pro-life rally to take place since the coronavirus pandemic broke out nearly two years ago.

Last year, the COVID-19 outbreak forced organizers to scale back the in-person event considerably as just a small group of pro-life leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., as many pro-life Americans tuned into virtual programming.

Following a rally and speeches from pro-life leaders and celebrities, participants marched roughly 1.5 miles to the U.S. Supreme Court. The march takes place every year in January around the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which found all state laws banning abortion unconstitutional, making the procedure a national right.

Last month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, where the state of Mississippi is asking justices to uphold a state law banning abortions after 15 weeks gestation.

A ruling in favor of Mississippi would chip away at the central holding of Roe and the courts subsequent ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that limited the ability of states to enact abortion restrictions.

Attendees of this years march from across the country spoke with The Christian Post about what they believe will happen in the next few months as a decision is expected by June.

Vincent Dicaro lives in the Washington, D.C. area and works for CareNet, a national nonprofit organization that runs pregnancy centers and churches throughout the U.S.

In addition to being here for my job, Im also here because ... I just want to support the march and support the idea of abundant life, he said.

Dicaro is optimistic about what the outcome of the Dobbs case will be.

From a legal advocacy perspective, it looks like a big victory is coming, he predicted. Thats not the end of the pro-life movement. Thats the end of the beginning of the pro-life movement, and then the next phase really starts, which is providing help to people who are going to need it when abortion is no longer available to them.

Dicaro held a sign that read pro-abundant life.

Christ, in John 10:10, says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So, because Jesus was pro-abundant life, we are too. So, we dont want to just save babies from abortion, we actually want to also make sure that  theyre raising good strong families and have an opportunity to become disciples of Jesus Christ, and thats what abundant life looks like, not just life.

While the crowd included several veterans of pro-life activism who have attended the annual protest multiple times, many were participating in the rally for the first time this year.

Donald and Debbie Graham from Vancouver, Washington, were first-time attendees.

Ive wanted to come my whole life. I just retired, and here we are, Debbie Graham joyfully proclaimed.

She characterized the prospect of the Supreme Court reversing or weakening Roe as wonderful and predicted that the justices are going to agree to do that.

After acknowledging that such a ruling would give states more authority to make abortion laws, Graham described the effort to advance the pro-life movement in her home state of Washington as tough but concluded that the pro-life movement in her state is growing. She thinks people are waking up.

When it gets really, really dark and you start taking life, even outside of the womb, and we have administrations and governments promoting that, then  we know the light is soon going to come behind that because people are smart and they know in their heart the truth.

Tom Tharp, the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Batavia, New York, said he attended the march for the first time this year to stand up for the lives of the preborn.

He declared that the world seems to be turning more and more violently against them.

Tharp said he is very hopeful about the possibility of a reversal of Roe.

I know that if they do reverse it, it will send [the abortion question] back to the states, he said.

He lamented the prevalence of abortion in his home state of New York, expressing concern that it will probably just get worse there [rather] than better.

But I hope a lot of other places will get better, he said.

Tharp rejoiced that the pro-life movement is becoming more and more popular.

More and more people are waking up that babies in the womb are still babies, and theyre human beings distinct in every way from their mother and deserve life just like we deserve liberty and the pursuit of happiness in America, he said.

This years March for Life also marked the first time that L.K. Shinneman from Carmel, Indiana, a member of the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus, participated in the event. He said Americans are guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Without life, the other two arent possible, he said.

Shinneman sees the March for Life as an opportunity to tell our country and the people that lead it that murder is wrong, that Americans, even though theyre not born yet, have as much rights as every other American.

Jake Gant, a student at the University of North Florida marching with his colleges Catholic Ospreys, had attended pro-life marches in other states. But the 2022 March for Life was his first time participating in the national rally.

I actually hosted my own rally in my town in Cumming, Georgia, on one occasion, he told CP.

I think that this movement is on fire, he added. I think that were at the tipping point where we can finally, at the 50-year mark, undo Roe v. Wade.

Crystal from Richmond, Virginia, had a daughter who was born with a condition that she believed would cause many people to abort her.

While her daughter has passed on, Crystal remains a passionate supporter of the pro-life cause and held a picture of her daughter at the rally as she stood alongside her husband and surviving children to stand for life.

Karis and Shannon, two middle school students and friends from Annapolis, Maryland, also attended. Shannon, holding a sign reading My birth mother gave me up for adoption, told CP that she was taught since she was little that an unborn baby still has human dignity.

They all have the right to life, and  people shouldnt abort them just for  their comfort or because they think theyre inconvenient, she said.

The girls said they were attending the rally to march for the babies that cant.

Reacting to the possibility of Roes reversal, Karis believes that pro-lifers are finally  making a difference with the Supreme Court and in the country.

She suggested that it would be really cool if people [finally] realized the evils of abortion.

Angie from Birmingham, Alabama, urged Supreme Court justices to take into consideration that abortion is not womens healthcare.

She said she had two friends who have had abortions.

And one of them is barren; she cant have children, she detailed. And the other one lost two children.

Its not womens healthcare, she continued. It is not putting the women first.

A handful of counterprotesters demonstrated their support for abortion rights during the rally.

One pro-abortion protester shouted through a megaphone, womens rights are human rights, thank God for abortion, and God loves abortion as the crowd began to assemble on the National Mall. He also denounced the event as a coronavirus superspreader.

A handful of pro-life leaders who work to support the cause full-time shared their views about the pro-life movement. Brad Hahn works for Solidarity HealthShare, a network of about 25,000 individuals who participate in alternative to health insurance that does not require people to to pay for contraception, sterilization or abortion.

Hahn pointed to the progress made by Republican presidents in appointing justices more sympathetic to the pro-life movement to the Supreme Court and the lower courts as a cause for optimism.

So I think that work that started with Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes and that whole movement to get qualified justices that have [a] like mind is really coming to fruition now and I think thats whats leading up to  this Supreme Court case, he said.

Penny Young Nance of the conservative advocacy group Concerned Women for America told CP that the pro-life movement is very optimistic.

And as the head of the nations largest public policy womens organization, we are jubilant, she said.

Of course, we dont have a crystal ball to see what the Supreme Court is going to do, but we strongly believe that the time has come to take down Roe v. Wade and to throw the issue back to the states, she stressed.

Nance, whose organization advocated strongly for the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, reflected on the role that the conservative makeup of the court may play in the outcome of the Dobbs case.

The fact that we have three Trump appointees is  the only reason we even had a chance with the court, she said. Because of those three justices, we have a very good chance of changing the course of history and protecting the unborn.

Nance maintained that a favorable ruling in Dobbs would not mark the end of the pro-life movement.

Its just the beginning, she proclaimed. We have to take this battle to a state-by-state issue.

Mallory Quigley of the pro-life grassroots lobbying organization Susan B. Anthony List said, the pro-life movement has grown leaps and bounds in these last 49 years. She specifically cheered the growth of the pregnancy center movement, where crisis pregnancy centers are providing millions of dollars worth of services to women [and] their families who are facing unexpected pregnancies.

Their work will become even more important post-Dobbs, post-Roe, Quigley insisted.

Dr. Michael New of the Catholic University of America and the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of Susan B. Anthony List said, weve done very well building a culture of life, even with Roe v. Wade in place.

Weve gotten the abortion rate down by 53% since 1980, and I think that if we get a favorable ruling in Dobbs, we will be able to build on those gains, he asserted.

A ruling in favor of Mississippi in the Dobbs case would constitute a great victory, he said, but we still have our work cut out for us.

He cited the increase in chemical abortions and advocacy on behalf of crisis pregnancy centers as causes the pro-life movement can get behind in a post-Roe America.

Terrisa Bukovinac, the president and founder of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising and a progressive pro-life atheist, reflected on the fact that no sitting Democratic members of Congress spoke at the rally.

Its devastating, Bukovinac said. I think that  weve been seeing this trend over the last 20 years where almost every single pro-life Democrat has been pushed out of Congress.

That activist suggested that even though no pro-life Democrats currently sit in the U.S. House of Representatives, that would soon change.

We have a Democratic, progressive, pro-life candidate running as the frontrunner in Bobby Rushs district, she said. The candidate she mentioned, Pastor Chris Butler, is seeking to represent Illinois 1st Congressional District, a district that the pro-choice Democrat Rush has represented for decades.
I lost my job as United pilot for refusing vaccine for faith-based reasons

For many Americans who, like myself, have decided not to take the COVID-19 vaccine for religious or medical reasons, staying true to our decision can mean being singled out and rejected by family, friends, and even employers. For me, it meant being placed on indefinite, unpaid leave from my job as a pilot for United Airlines, without any benefits  including medical coverage, and no emergency ability to access my retirement savings.

A pilot since 18, I spent the last 30 years flying commercially. The last 24 years were spent with Continental, then United through a 2021 merger. Ive given a decade of service to United. I became a pilot because transportation is in my blood: my father, brother, and grandfather are all truck drivers and heavy equipment operators. My father taught me there is nothing a lady cannot do, so I decided to carry on the transportation tradition by becoming a pilot.

Because of my Christian faith, I chose not to take the vaccine. I refuse to be complicit in the use of fetal tissue, which was used in the research and development for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and in the deployment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. However, I adamantly defend the right for each to choose what is best for their health and faith.

My husband, also a captain, shares my faith and my misery on indefinite, unpaid leave. We have learned that no matter what happens, faith and family come first. Together, with 2,000 of our co-workers, we refuse to be harassed, coerced, and retaliated against in the workplace.

I am also fighting not just for myself, but for my 16-year-old son. I worry that someday, a decade from now, he will face a similar situation where his boss tries to force some sort of medical condition for employment. What do you say to a son or daughter when they ask, Mom, you had a chance to stop this back in 2021. Why didnt you? Our Founding Fathers broke away from England for liberty. They knew that our rights stem from God, not man and surely not a king. Im fighting to ensure that remains true for my son, my coworkers, and all Americans.

However, there is a path forward. In Sambrano v. United Airlines, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether United Airlines can effectively terminate employees with deeply held religious and medical concerns regarding the airlines vaccination mandate. This will set an important precedent for many other people who, like me, may be forced to choose between following an employers vaccination policy or providing for their families  in essence, a jab or a job.

United CEO Scott Kirby announced his COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August as part of the airlines effort to promote itself as the safest airline operating during the pandemic. But in his zeal for a competitive advantage, Kirby denied reasonable accommodations to those with faith-based concerns afforded under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, along with those with legitimate medical concerns.

Ultimately, Kirby put hundreds of pilots and flight attendants on unpaid, indefinite leave. Even non-customer-facing employees suffer draconian, retaliatory policies, such as being forced to wear N-95 masks as a scarlet letter to identify their vaccination status.

This is truly a crisis of conscience that no one should ever face. Simply put, such a crisis describes the devastating and incapacitating worry a person feels when confronted with a choice that could lead them to do something that violates their moral convictions. Once a person does so, the effects are irreversible.

Nonetheless, Kirby callously dismissed his employees of faith and those with legitimate medical conditions, warning in a company townhall meeting, There will be very few people who get through the medical and religious exemptions. He threateningly added that any pilot who all of the sudden [decided that they are] really religious  youre putting your job on the line. Youd better be very careful about that.

Kirbys mandate was likely never about safety. In fact, United quietly rescinded many of its COVID-19 mitigation procedures that resulted in cost savings, including discontinuing electrostatic spraying between flights and providing aircraft filtered air while parked at the gates. Passengers are not required to be vaccinated, nor are pilots from other airlines who ride in the cockpit jump seat. These factors led U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman to write, Uniteds actions may not have been motivated by safety concerns. Instead, Uniteds actions may be viewed as merely pretextual.

United is the lone carrier imposing unreasonable vaccine mandates without accommodations. For example, Delta instituted testing, while American and Southwest affirmed that they will not terminate any employee seeking an accommodation. Meanwhile, Kirby spurned the United litigants offer of regular testing at their personal expense.

Flight cancellations and delays caused by staff shortages plague the friendly skies, yet most cancellations could have been avoided if grounded pilots and crew had been allowed to work.

United further contradicted its safety claims by rescinding its pilot contact-tracing policy. Even if exposed to family members and friends who test positive for COVID-19, an employee may go to work so long as they do not outwardly display symptoms. Testing is not required.

Additionally, United implemented the newly shortened Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantine policy even though it does not and cannot qualify. The policy states that un-boosted, exposed individuals must wear well-fitting masks at all times. United does not have a booster mandate, and the CDCs recommendations contradict the Federal Aviation Administrations cockpit mask-use rule. Without a mandatory testing program, United is hardly putting safety first.

As the Kirbys marketing plan disguised as a safety campaign crumbles, the faithful and those trying to preserve their medical autonomy look to the courts to protect them from a crisis of conscience.

Perhaps Mr. Kirby should heed the words of Justice Neil Gorsuch, who recently observed that societys interest in slowing the spread of COVID-19 cannot qualify as compelling forever, and that human nature and history teach  that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.

The Fifth Circuit in BST Holdings v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration agreed, concluding that the OSHA mandate forces workers to choose between their jobs and their jabs. The judges warned that losing constitutional freedoms for even minimal periods of time  unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.

As the United employees case sets new religious liberty precedent, it is time for that airline to stop suppressing religious freedoms while needlessly inconveniencing American passengers.

Originally published at The Daily Signal.
Federal judge blocks Biden's enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees

Just over a week after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large businesses, a federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administrations vaccine mandate for federal employees Friday.

Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction halting the executive order issued in September requiring that most federal employees and contractors get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Brown, a Trump appointee, argued that President Joe Biden doesnt have the authority to require federal workers to get vaccinated. Although the judge agreed that Biden does have the authority over federal employment policies, those authorities do not permit him to require the federal workforce to get vaccinated.

The question before the court was whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment, Brown wrote in the 20-page ruling.

That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far, Brown, who assumed office in 2019 after serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, wrote.

The President certainly possesses broad statutory authority to regulate executive branch employment policies. But the Supreme Court has expressly held that a COVID-19 vaccine mandate is not an employment regulation. And that means the President was without statutory authority to issue the federal worker mandate.

Bidens order allowed for certain exemptions and excluded members of Congress and employees of the U.S. Postal Service. In principle, individuals who had a valid religious or medical reason were also exempt though some in the U.S. military complained that religious exemptions were nearly impossible to obtain.

The order also required businesses with over 100 employees require their workers to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing, which was estimated to impact as many as 80 million Americans. But enforcement of the requirement for large businesses was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court last week in a temporary stay.

Applicants are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate, the Supreme Court ruling stated. Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided.

The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense, the ruling added. This is no everyday exercise of federal power.

However, the nations high court allowed the administration to continue enforcing the requirement for healthcare facilities that wish to participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

Critics contend that the mandates are examples of federal overreach and failed to adequately respect religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Justice Department said it would appeal Browns ruling.

We are confident in our legal authority, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during a press briefing Friday.

The White House has said that over nine out of 10 federal workers had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Lecrae loses tour date after tweeting that hes done with 'institutional, corporatized' Christianity

Reach Records founder Lecrae revealed that he and his team lost one of their tour dates this spring after sharing an honest tweet about deconstructing from politicized and corporatized modern church culture.

Once upon a time I thought I was done with Christianity. But the reality was I was just done with the institutional, corporatized, gentrified, politicized, culturally exclusive version of it, the popular emcee tweeted on Tuesday.

The following day, Lecrae re-shared his tweet and wrote: Just lost a show because of this tweet. Point proven.

The Grammy award-winning artist added: Vulnerability gets people kicked out of exclusive tribes. Jesus welcomes the outcast and seeks to bring healing.

Just lost a show because of this tweet. Point proven. ??????????? pic.twitter.com/5c2nkqCw8a  Lecrae (@lecrae) January 19, 2022

In recent years, some notable Christian figures have claimed they are deconstructing from Christianity altogether after experiencing doubts about their faith. Lecrae admits that he also had to do some soul searching after feeling so abused by fellow Christians in 2017.

That season almost made him walk away from his Christian faith. However, the rapper sought out on a journey to reconstruct his faith. Now his relationship with Christ is stronger than ever.

What inspired the tweet was that a few people that I know this year, whove been professing Christians for years, have decided they no longer claim Christianity, Lecrae told The Christian Post, speaking of his recent once upon a time tweet.

I just thought to myself, Man, I know that feeling. But sometimes we throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I wanted to just encourage people that, Hey, I know where youre [at], what youre feeling. But sometimes the problem is not with the faith; its with the distortions of the faith, he continued.

The Texas native is gearing up for the We Are Unashamed Tour coming nationwide this spring.

It was actually a tour date that was canceled following his comments on Christianity, Lecrae revealed.

Not only did it affect me, it affected all the artists on the tour, he told CP.

Despite losing some support, the entertainer said many others have been reaching out wishing to rebook the date.



When responding to why he thought a Christian venue would back out on him following his tweet, Lecrae said he believes it was because they have the wrong idea about him. He did not disclose the venue that canceled his tour date.

I think people have a lot of assumptions about me, some of the things that theyve seen, really its been rumors, he described. Theres been so many rumors about me that people look at everything that I post like a confirmation of a rumor.

Lecrae received much criticism when he was a featured performer at a December 2020 event in Atlanta called Get Out the Early Vote Rally & Concert, co-hosted by pro-choice Democrat Raphael Warnock during a contentious U.S. Senate election runoff. Warnock was elected Georgias first black U.S. senator the following month. Lecrae said the performance at the event is still having an effect to this day, he maintained.

Whether that is that Im supporting candidates that they dont like, which Ive never publicly supported any candidate, but whatever it may be, they look at anything I post as a confirmation of a rumor theyve heard versus getting clarification from me, he noted.

To those that have specifically booked him for an event, Lecrae insisted, you can definitely reach out to me for clarification.

Despite the lost booking, Lecrae has amassed 30,000 likes between the two tweets. The message has received support from athletes and celebrities alike.

Lecrae recently teamed up with his labelmate 1K Phew to release a new album titled, No Church in a While. Although he is done with the institution of cultural Christianity, Lecrae assured that he still believes in the Church.

It definitely doesnt mean we dont believe in church, we just acknowledging the conversations that have been happening, that people arent going [to church], he declared. Whether thats because of the pandemic, whether they no longer want to go to that building or gathering, we wanted to talk about it and talk about some of the reasons why people feel that way, some of the reasons why we felt that way, and just have an honest dialogue in music.

1K Phew and the label head want to definitely reach people who dont go to church, who dont understand or cant relate.

This is reaching into the community, Lecrae said. Theres lots of people who dont go for multiple reasons, and we just want to be a voice for those individuals.

Along with the We Are Unashamed Tour announcement, Lecrae and his crew released a three-song EP of the same name.

The performer said it is three songs that represent what we are about at Reach Records: 116 [rap group] is Romans 1:16, Were unashamed of the Gospel, the power of God for salvation.
Black church fund project gets $20M on MLK Day

As many churches struggle to stay open amid the COVID-19 pandemic with dwindling membership and finances, The National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund received a $20 million gift on Monday to help preserve the legacy of the black church in America.

"The centerpiece of Black communities starts with the Black church," Brent Leggs, senior vice president and executive director of the fund told ABC News in an interview. "Black churches are exceptionally important in American democracy, not only for their legacy in civil and human rights, but also for their role in uplifting civic identity and community empowerment."

The $20 million gift to the fund came thanks to Lilly Endowment Inc., a philanthropic foundation that supports community development, education and religion.

Leggs argued that without black churches, which are often seen as pillars of the community, America would lose part of its history.

"[Preserving] our shared cultural heritage and pride is an act of racial justice," he said.

And that preservation effort appears more important now than ever as black church engagement and membership had been losing its appeal even before the pandemic began.

In an earlier interview with The Christian Post, Anthony B. Pinn, The Agnes Cullen Arnold professor of humanities and religion at Rice University in Houston, Texas, explained the role of the church in the black American community historically.

The black church has never simply been about spiritual development. The black church has always tried to position itself as an organization that has met a full range of needs. And so folks go for this greater range of needs, Pinn said.

He explained that over time, the involvement of black Americans in churches decreased because they found different avenues to meet their needs, particularly among millennials.

You experience now a decrease in participation from millennials, for example, because these religious organizations are not meeting their needs. Theyre not answering the questions that matter to these folks, Pinn said.

Some studies, such as a 2014 Pew report that shows marked disparities in faith in God by racial group, does not reflect a clear picture of who really believes, Pinn also argued in explaining the complex role of the black church.

According to Pew, a vast majority of African Americans claim belief in God, but I dont know that that is synonymous with religion. One could also say these folks are spiritual, whatever that means. What Pew tells us is rather limited and we tend to build out from that, he said. We know that a significant percentage of the black population believes there is a God, but the number decreases if you ask, How many of you go to church regularly.

A 2019 Pew Research study showed that the share of black Americans who say they attend religious services at least a few times a year or less had risen in the last decade.

According to the researchers, younger black Americans  much like younger Americans in general  are less religious than their elders. Black millennials and members of Generation Z are twice as likely as black members of the Silent Generation to say they seldom or never attend religious services.



"Black millennials and members of Generation Z are less likely to rely on prayer, less likely to have grown up in Black churches and less likely to say religion is an important part of their lives," the researchers wrote.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is expected to give direct and targeted funding and assistance to black churches for staffing and operations, help them create an emergency fund and help churches develop digital storytelling and documentation strategies, ABC News reported.

The St. James AME Church in Mayfield, Kentucky, which was destroyed last month by a tornado that killed more than 20 people, is expected to receive $100,000. The church was founded in 1868 and will be one of the first recipients of the projects emergency fund.
Ex-priest charged with stealing $100K from Nebraska church

A former chancellor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha who's already facing other criminal charges has been charged with stealing over $100,000 from a Nebraska church.

Michael Gutgsell, a former priest who had previously been charged with two other felony counts, was charged last week with stealing $106,000 from his former parish, St. Josephs Catholic Church in Springfield.

Gutgsell, who claims that he took the money to help a homeless man, will face a preliminary hearing on the latest charge on Feb. 8, according to The Associated Press.

According to police, Gutgsell has already admitted to taking $180,000 from a retired Omaha priest, Theodore Richling, who died in 2019. Gutgsell took care of Richling and oversaw his estate during his final years.

During his lifetime, Richling faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct among minors, which an archdiocesan investigation in 2020 concluded held merit.

Before resigning last year due to the allegations, Gutgsell held a host of church positions, including chancellor of the Archdiocese from 1994-2003, curia moderator 1998-2005, pastor of St. Celia Parish from 2005-2017, and pastor of St. Joseph from 2017-2021.

Last October, the Archdioceses publication Catholic Voice reported that an audit by the Catholic Church also found financial improprieties in the St. Joseph parish finances, although no evidence of wrongdoing was found when Gutgsell was pastor of St. Celia.

In 2007, Gutgsell's brother, Stephen, plead guilty to felony theft by deception for embezzling over $125,000 from St. Patrick Catholic Church in South Omaha, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Stephen Gutgsell was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution. He paid around $27,000 in restitution during his probation and was released after Archbishop George Lucas said the archdiocese had made arrangements for Stephen to pay what was still owed.
Did you know that the short-term rental market has now soared past a $1.2 trillion valuation? This stat comes directly from Airbnbs recent IPO filing, which we should remind you took place against all oddsin the middle of a pandemic. What is even more staggering is that there is more potential for the valuation of this market to soar even more when you look at the combination of existing demand, the post-pandemic travel boom, and the shift towards remote working.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently went on record stating that they are short millions of hosts. If you remember your first year economics class, this means that demand is outpacing supply. So, one might conclude that now may be a great time to start buying some short-term rentals of your own. However, real estate values are on a historic climb and a look at national and even international Airbnb listings is enough to give anyone sticker shock.

There was a 25 percent surge in demand for short-term rentals in destination and resort locations between 2019 and 2021. This year, the average cost on an Airbnb rental was about $160 a day during the first quarter, a rise of about 35 percent over the same period in 2020. By the third quarter, hosts generated a staggering $12.8 billion through the platform.

Its all just the latest proof that the age-old path of property ownership is key to investing riches. Of course, that morsel of knowledge is nothing new. Many billionaires hold anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of their net worth in real estate. However, real estate investing (especially with short-term rentals) can be expensive and time-consuming, effectively screening out the everyday investor from this lucrative sector. Simply put, its much more tricky than just investing in $ABNB stock on Robinhood.

However, Real estate startup reAlpha is changing that. They use artificial intelligence and the power of their world-class team to revolutionize investment in this growing market for everyone, enabling them to purchase partial property ownership and make passive profits without any of the headaches of most real estate deals.

Right now, investors arent limited only buying into short term rental properties with reAlpha. They can literally buy into reAlpha itself during its current Reg A+ stock offer, becoming a shareholder in the companys entire portfolio and industry-disrupting business model.

With reAlpha, everyday investors can join this new era of real estate.

The reAlpha approach to finding and buying high earning potential rental properties is as simple as it is groundbreaking. Using their proprietary algorithm fueled by machine learning, reAlpha scores each property on a variety of factors, predicting the short-term rental viability and long term value of each property.

Under the guidance of a broker-dealer, reAlpha investors search those top-rated prospective properties, then buy into the ones they like, just like theyd buy a stock on Robinhood. The reAlpha process pairs those like-minded investors together to buy the property, often with just 10 percent as a down payment as opposed to the usual 25 percent required.

Unlike when you buy a property yourself, reAlpha is a 51 percent stakeholder as well and handles all the particulars, including renovations, rentals, and all the ongoing maintenance. While reAlpha does all the heavy lifting, members can sit back and benefit from the fractional ownership model, earning their share of rental profits, all while the property appreciates in value. And, syndicate members can even stay at the properties theyve invested in during select black-out datesmaking their investment all the more real.

Get in on the ground floor and invest in reAlphas ongoing growth.

Of course, property values arent the only things growing. During their current Reg A+ public offering, reAlpha is offering company stock to those who see the potential in disrupting the $1.2 Trillion short-term rental market.

To purchase shares in reAlpha, interested investors can visit their page, access offering information, and find out more about buying into the company. reAlpha is poised to turn the short-term rental market on its ear, so savvy investors can help build the company and invest in their future now.

Prices are subject to change



AN OFFERING STATEMENT REGARDING THIS OFFERING HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE SEC. THE SEC HAS QUALIFIED THAT OFFERING STATEMENT, WHICH ONLY MEANS THAT THE COMPANY MAY MAKE SALES OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED BY THE OFFERING STATEMENT. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SEC HAS APPROVED, PASSED UPON THE MERITS OR PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION IN THE OFFERING STATEMENT. THE OFFERING CIRCULAR THAT IS PART OF THAT OFFERING STATEMENT IS AT: HTTPS://SEC.REPORT/DOCUMENT/0001213900-21-047649/ YOU SHOULD READ THE OFFERING CIRCULAR BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT.

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Investigators out of the Montgomery County Precinct 4 Constables Office traced a recent series of Houston-area auto part thefts to a man and woman now being charged in the crimes.

Dawn Rae Hays, 23, of Cleveland, is being charged with two Class B misdemeanor theft offenses, and Jordan Ryan McCrary, 28, of Splendora, is being charged with two state jail felony theft offenses, according to jail records. As of Friday morning, Hays and McCrary were being held with no bond at the Montgomery County Jail in Conroe, records show.

Theft of catalytic converters is a major inconvenience to the victims, as well as a financial burden, Pct. 4 Constable Kenneth Rowdy Hayden said in a statement.

Reports earlier this week came in from two people who suffered thefts of their vehicles catalytic converters along Northpark Drive in the Kingwood area under Precinct 4s jurisdiction. Detectives on Tuesday learned two individuals in possession of stolen catalytic converters inside their vehicle were stopped by Humble Police officers, according to Precinct 4.

Following interrogations of the pair, identified as Hays and McCrary by Precinct 4, and investigating local catalytic converter thefts, the agency reported its detectives confirmed the pair were responsible for the incidents on Northpark Drive.

Multiple other catalytic converters found in the possession of Hays and McCrary were stolen from vehicles in Harris County. Law enforcement agencies in those jurisdictions were notified, according to the constables office.

McCrary has multiple felony convictions in Montgomery County, according to district clerk records. These include engaging in organized criminal activity and theft. McCrary is also currently facing charges on ID fraud and evading arrest with a vehicle for incidents from last year, records show.

Hays has a felony theft conviction and two Class A misdemeanor theft convictions in Montgomery County, according to district clerk records.

Catalytic converters are designed to reduce pollutants in an automobiles exhaust system.

Metal prices during the pandemic surged, leading to the theft of these specific vehicle parts tripling in 2020, according to a Houston Chronicle report. Just as recently as Dec. 30, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office arrested two juveniles on felony charges in relation to the theft of catalytic converters valued at more than $25,000.

Our CID (criminal investigation division) team will continue to hunt down these thieves and put them in jail, Haydens statement read.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
Sometimes, Malik Faisal Akram stood out, in unsettling ways. Back home in Blackburn, in England's industrial north, he was the guy who was banned from the local courthouse after he threatened officials there. In his short stay in Texas, Akram stuck in the minds of people - at a mosque where he became aggressive when he was told he couldn't stay overnight and at a Starbucks when workers noticed him as the disheveled customer who sat for half an hour, constantly looking around as he nursed his cappuccinos.

But along his 4,600-mile journey from Britain to the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue where Akram would hold four hostages for 11 hours before being killed by law enforcement officers last Sunday, the 44-year-old terrorist also managed impressive stealth, entering the United States without a hitch, eluding notice in New York for several days, and wandering around Dallas and its suburbs for two weeks without attracting much attention.

Nearly a week after Akram terrorized the rabbi and three members of Congregation Beth Israel, investigators are still examining where he slept, how he moved around and with whom he associated during his 18 days in the United States.

He evidently knew some people: After he arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 29, Akram bought a cellphone and made calls to someone at a New York number, according to investigators. After Akram landed in Dallas around New Year's Day, he met up with a man who took him to a center for homeless people, walked him inside and embraced him before saying farewell.

The FBI said Friday that it has learned many details about Akram's movements and contacts, although key questions remain outstanding, such as how he obtained the gun he brandished at Beth Israel. As recently as late this week, FBI agents were still knocking on doors at motels and checking footage from surveillance cameras in an effort to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

"This was both a hate crime and an act of terrorism . . . rooted in antisemitism," the FBI's special agent in charge of its Dallas office, Matthew DeSarno, said Friday, adding that the investigation will continue.

What is known is that Akram began the trip he knew would end in his death at home in Blackburn, a heavily Muslim town filled with Pakistani and Indian immigrants - including Akram's parents.

Akram grew up in a religiously conservative neighborhood. His father, Malik, founded a small mosque, one of more than 40 Muslim houses of worship in the town of 120,000 people.

Akram had struggled with mental illness, according to his younger brother, Gulbar, who declined to elaborate.

In 2001, days after the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans, took down the World Trade Center and opened a flaming gash in the Pentagon, Akram was banned from court buildings in Blackburn after he told a court usher that he wished he had been on one of the planes used as weapons of war on Sept. 11. The ban was the first issued by the Blackburn court in 25 years.

It wasn't Akram's first brush with the law. He had been sent a warning letter several months earlier after he was accused of abusing and threatening staffers at the Northgate courthouse, according to local news reports.

A letter from Deputy Justice Clerk Peter Wells informed Akram of the ban, saying that "Once again you were threatening and abusive towards court staff . . . This caused a great deal of distress to an individual who was simply doing his job and should not be subjected to your foul abuse."

"I'm innocent," Akram told the Lancashire Telegraph at the time. "People at the court have just got it in for me because they don't like me."

Akram was convicted of theft and harassment in 2012, according to a letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to FBI and Homeland Security officials seeking details on the investigation.

MI5, Britain's counterintelligence and security agency, investigated Akram and put him on a watch list in 2020 as a "subject of interest." But the authorities concluded that he did not pose any imminent threat of terrorism.

Akram's family had no idea that Faisal, as he was known, planned to leave the country, Gulbar said, leaving him to wonder: "He's known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?"

- - -

Akram arrived at JFK Airport in New York on Dec. 29, drawing no special attention as he cleared the immigration and customs area. He wasn't known to U.S. intelligence or law enforcement, DeSarno said Friday, and a federal government official confirmed that Akram had not previously visited the United States.

As a British citizen, Akram entered the country under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows people from 40 countries to visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, according to Homeland Security officials.

A Homeland Security official who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation said Akram was vetted as any other traveler would be under that program, with his name run "through several federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies' databases . . . No derogatory information associated with this individual was found prior to his travel to the United States or upon his arrival."

If U.S. authorities knew of Akram's arrest record, his case would have been evaluated to determine "whether an individual should be permitted to enter the United States based on the nature of the arrest," the official said.

The New York address Akram gave immigration authorities was that of the Queens Hotel, a tidy little place on Queens Boulevard about 10 miles from the airport. The hotel is often the first property to pop up on a Google search for "Hotel in Queens," or "Queens Hotel." A room goes for about $80, though it would have been more during Christmas week.

But the hotel has no record of a guest with Akram's name staying there on Dec. 29 or 30, said Ann Lin, who works at the hotel's front desk. Lin didn't recognize Akram's photograph beyond a vague sense that he looked like "many guests with a beard like that who stay here," she said.

Staffers at two nearby mosques and another hotel said they did not recognize a photo of Akram.

Soon after he got to New York, Akram bought a cellphone with a New York area code and made several calls to another local number, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The authorities have identified that person, who does not appear to have participated in Akram's plan, the official said.

By tracing data from Akram's phone and computer, American and British investigators have cobbled together an outline of his movements and online searches as he searched for a target, officials said.

Akram believed that Jews hold enormous political power and could achieve the release of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani who is a convicted terrorist in a federal facility in Fort Worth. She is serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. With that apparently in mind, Akram used his new phone to search for names of U.S. rabbis, officials said.

He focused on Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at Manhattan's Central Synagogue, one of the country's largest Reform Jewish congregations. Investigators believe Akram saw Buchdahl mentioned on online lists of influential rabbis and decided she had the political prowess to get Siddiqui released.

During the hostage standoff in Texas, Akram would demand that Beth Israel's rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, get Buchdahl on the phone.

"He mentioned her by name, because he knew that she played guitar. . . . He thought that she was the most influential rabbi," Cytron-Walker said Thursday in an online forum hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.

It's not clear where Akram stayed in New York or what else he did there, but during the hostage situation, he claimed he had planted explosives in Manhattan and Brooklyn "potentially in and around synagogues, and that he had associates in New York," according to Mitch Silber, director of a community security initiative at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Investigators have concluded that those claims were baseless, officials said.

- - -

By New Year's Day, Akram had flown to Dallas. He showed up that evening at the Islamic Center of Irving, just south of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and 13 miles from Congregation Beth Israel.

During evening prayer, sometime between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Akram arrived at the mosque and soon became aggressive, said Khalid Hamideh, a lawyer and spokesman for the Islamic Center.

After joining in the final prayer, Akram asked a security guard whether he could stay overnight in the mosque. The guard summoned a staff member, who told Akram that no one could sleep there because of city and mosque regulations, Hamideh said.

Akram shattered the solemn quiet of the room, angrily addressing the staffer, Hamideh said.

"You will be judged by God for not helping a fellow Muslim," Akram said loudly. "I'm from a good family."

The lawyer said Akram accused the staff member of "not helping out a fellow brother in the faith."

Hamideh said Akram was carrying a backpack large enough to hold a weapon.

"God knows if he already had acquired the gun," Hamideh said.

Akram was not searched, Hamideh said: "We don't search anybody. Maybe we'll start."

Video from the mosque's surveillance cameras revealed that Akram left that evening but returned the next morning, Jan. 2, at about 6 a.m. for morning prayers.

"His whole attitude changed," Hamideh said. "He was humble. You can see him praying. He's low-keyed, peaceful. When he was praying, he was praying alone," to the side of the small prayer group.

After sunrise, sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., the mosque's 80 surveillance cameras followed Akram as he walked out of the prayer room and into a hallway, where he put on his shoes and left, walking alone toward a busy four-lane road.

Over the next few days, Akram returned to the mosque at least once, possibly twice, wearing the same clothes he had on during his first visit, Hamideh said.

Akram - now "calm, cool, collected," according to the lawyer - sought out the staff member he had confronted earlier and "apologized for his behavior on the previous night," Hamideh said, "and asked for permission just to use the sanctuary to conduct his prayer."

Akram sat in on a halaqa, a session devoted to study of Koranic texts.

"His visits after the first visit were all very nice, formal, professional, low key," Hamideh said.

By the evening of Jan. 2, Akram had made his way 17 miles to the east, to a homeless shelter in a scruffy industrial zone just across Interstate 30 from downtown Dallas.

At 10:01 p.m., Akram was escorted into the intake unit of the OurCalling shelter by an unidentified man who had driven him there, according to Wayne Walker, the facility's chief executive.

The man - heavyset, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black beanie - embraced Akram, patting him on the back several times before walking away, according to surveillance video shown to The Washington Post. The video has been turned over to the FBI.

"We have no idea who that person is," said Patrick Palmer, chief advancement officer at the shelter, part of a Christian ministry for the homeless.

Akram and the man who accompanied him appeared to be familiar with each other, talking in the parking lot on their way in, Walker said.

Other than that, though, among the 191 people who went into the shelter on a frigid night when the Dallas temperature fell to 18 degrees, "there was nothing that stood out about" Akram, said Ed Johnson, the shelter's programs director, who checked Akram in.

Inside, Akram took a rapid test for the coronavirus and answered routine intake questions: Was he a veteran? Did he have insurance? Any income?

Akram allowed staff to take his photo and provided his real name, Walker said.

Akram did not answer a question about where he had come from, Walker said. People who stay at the shelter are not searched.

Akram "identified himself as living on the streets," Palmer said, and was given a spot on the floor where he could sleep.

He left OurCalling at about 8 a.m., after getting a to-go breakfast. Akram did not return for lunch, Palmer said, and executives at OurCalling didn't see Akram again until his name emerged in media reports about the Beth Israel incident.

It's not clear where Akram spent his days or nights through most of the first week of the new year. At a Super 8 motel half a mile from the Irving mosque, FBI agents paid a visit Thursday, asking whether Akram had stayed there, according to a desk clerk. The clerk told The Post that Akram's name does not appear in the $57-a-night motel's computer system.

Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 13, Akram turned up on three nights at Union Gospel Mission Dallas, a homeless shelter, according to its chief executive, Bruce Butler.

"We were a way station for him," he said. "He was very quiet. He was in and out."

Akram left the mission for the last time on the morning of Jan. 13, two days before he showed up at Beth Israel, according to Gospel Mission records.

During his time in and around Dallas, Akram searched on his phone for gun shops and pawnshops in the area, law enforcement officials said.

But authorities traced the handgun he brandished at Beth Israel, concluding that he bought it on the street, not at a business. The gun's last legal sale was recorded in early 2020. Later that year, it was reported stolen from a hotel room, officials said.

While Akram was in Texas, his web searches fixated on Siddiqui, who is imprisoned at a medical unit of a federal prison in Fort Worth following a July incident in which another inmate attacked her, burning her face with "scalding hot liquid," according to a lawsuit filed on Siddiqui's behalf.

Akram also searched for the names of rabbis he believed to be politically influential - and for a synagogue close to where Siddiqui is being held, leading him to focus on Beth Israel, DeSarno said.

- - -

On Friday, Jan. 14, Akram wandered around Colleyville, a suburb of 26,000 people just west of DFW airport. He spent 16 hours somewhere in the synagogue's area, "walking around with what I have in my bag, and with my ammo," he told police negotiators during the early hours of the standoff, according to a live stream of the Sabbath service that aired on Facebook Live.

On Saturday morning, before going to Beth Israel, Akram visited a Starbucks less than a mile away. Two baristas noticed the tall, disheveled man wearing a puffy black jacket and carrying a blue backpack.

After ordering, Akram asked a barista for the time. It was 8:43 a.m., she recalled.

Akram stood out in part because of his strong accent, which one barista said she had trouble understanding as he ordered a tall cappuccino, and because he proceeded to sit at a corner table for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, staring at his phone and frequently looking around him.

He ordered a second cappuccino; when he finished it, he hurried out.

He arrived by bicycle at Congregation Beth Israel, a sand-colored building set well back from the road, officials said Friday. It's a four-minute ride from the Starbucks to the temple, which sits on a street of large houses, near the local middle school and Baptist and Catholic churches.

The 10 a.m. Sabbath service was about to begin, with only four congregants attending in person; most worshipers would watch online as a precaution against the coronavirus. That evening, Beth Israel members were scheduled to gather for Trivia Night.

Akram knocked on the synagogue's locked glass door.

"He was looking for a place to warm up," Jeffrey Cohen, the congregation's vice president and one of the hostages, told MSNBC. "And we invited him in, the rabbi gave him a cup of tea, he let him sit in the back."

Cohen greeted the man.

"He was quite jovial, he was friendly," he said. "He was on the phone, so I let him go onto the phone."

The service began. More than half an hour in, the rabbi began the Amidah, the core of the prayer service, recited while facing Jerusalem.

"And then we heard - or I heard, excuse me - that unmistakable click of a semiautomatic being loaded," Cohen said.

Akram started yelling.

Eleven terrifying hours would follow.

Along the way, Akram spoke on the phone to his brother Gulbar, who urged him to release the hostages, serve time in prison and return to his family. Akram shouted that he intended to die.

"I'm going to go toe-to-toe with [police], and they can shoot me dead," he said. "I'm coming home in a body bag."

Down the block, a Colleyville police officer banged on the door of a neighbor's house.

"You guys got a car?" the officer asked. "OK, go ahead and get in it and head out of here. We got a situation next door."

Through long hours of negotiation, Akram was at times calm and conversational, at times angry and erratic, according to two hostages. Finally, the FBI's DeSarno said Friday, "the situation had gone from bad to significantly worse" as Akram realized that his demand for Siddiqui's release would not be met. When Akram had a glass of juice in his hand, the rabbi saw his moment, threw a chair at his captor and urged the other hostages out the door.

Seconds after the hostages ran to safety, police moved in. After a big bang and two spurts of gunfire, Akram was dead.

An autopsy report released Friday said he died at 9:22 p.m. of "multiple gunshot wounds."

- - -

Douglas reported from Colleyville; Zapotosky and Fisher from Washington. The Washington Post's William Booth in Blackburn, England; Jack Wright in New York and Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Souad Mekhennet, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report.


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WASHINGTON (AP)  Rep. Henry Cuellar is an increasingly rare politician in the Democratic Party, a conservative-leaning lawmaker whose unapologetic defense of gun rights and the energy industry during his 17 years in Congress long delighted his Texas constituents.

That was once a winning strategy for Democrats running in moderate swaths of the country. But for Cuellar, whose district stretches from the San Antonio suburbs to the Mexican border, those stances could leave him vulnerable to a challenge from the left by 28-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros. She nearly beat Cuellar in the 2020 primary and is seeking a rematch with hopes of tapping into growing frustration among progressives about the pace of change in Washington.

An FBI search near Cuellar's home this week could add a new dimension to the contest. Cuellar hasn't been charged with a crime and the bureau has said nothing about the scope of its investigation, including whether he is the subject of a probe.

But the development added to the stakes of the March 1 primary in Texas, which will usher in several months of contests across the nation to determine which candidates advance to the fall general election. Progressives are closely watching the race as a test of whether they can topple other moderate, establishment-oriented candidates as the primary season unfolds.

I think Jessica had a strong shot before the investigation, said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, which has backed Democratic primary challengers against more moderate members of Congress around the country. I think she can win.

Representatives for Cuellar did not comment for this story. His office issued a brief statement after the search, saying the congressman will fully cooperate in any investigation.

He is committed to ensuring that justice and the law are upheld, the statement read.

Shahid compared Cisneros to progressive stars like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts who have really become rising figures in the party and part of this new generation of leadership.

When Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley in a 2018 primary, she ushered in a new era in which progressives take on veteran, establishment-oriented incumbents in an effort to move the party to the left on issues including the environment and health care.

Progressives hoping to add Cuellar to the list of defeated incumbents are gauging whether the FBI search is the type of late-stage development that could shift the campaign in their favor.

Cisneros has so far not rushed to promote the raid as a potential political liability, saying in a statement only that, We are closely watching as this develops. In the meantime, we are focused on our campaign.

Justice Democrats has not showed such restraint, with its executive director, Alexandra Rojas, releasing a statement on Cuellar asking What is he hiding? Shahid said Democratic elders have closed ranks around Cuellar, noting that the Texan tweeted that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer had endorsed him just before word of the FBI search broke.

In all of our races the Democratic Party establishment tends to consolidate around the incumbent, Shahid said.

Justice Democrats first recruited Cisneros to run against Cuellar in 2020, after supporting Ocasio Cortezs upset primary win two years earlier.

Cisneros, who was an intern in Cuellars Washington office in 2014, racked up endorsements from many of the lefts leading national voices, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as Ocasio Cortez. She branded Cuellar as Trump's favorite Democrat and ultimately came within 4 percentage points of beating him.

First elected to Congress in 2004, Cuellar serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and was outspoken in blaming national Democrats move to the left during the 2020 campaign on issues like health care and the environment as contributing to some disappointing losses in the House .

He argued that GOP suggestions that Democrats opposed police, embraced socialized medicine and would sacrifice jobs in key industries like oil and gas created a narrative that helped ensure Democrats retained their majority in the chamber by only the slimmest of margins  even as the more moderate Joe Biden won the presidency.

Cuellar has drawn progressive criticism for years, in part because of the praise he's attracted from groups like the National Rifle Association. He also was the lone House Democrat to oppose major abortion rights legislation in September. And Cuellar joined a group of moderates who helped force passage of a major public works bill that had broader bipartisan support before Congress could tackle a larger, spending and social welfare package championed by Biden and top progressives. It still hasn't passed.

The primary's outcome could prove even more critical this cycle, as Democrats look to defend their narrow control of the House in November.

After topping Cisneros the first time, Cuellar cruised to a nearly 20-point win over a little-known Republican opponent. New congressional maps based on the 2020 census make the district slightly more Democratic, picking up blue territory along its northern extremes near San Antonio.

Still, Republicans are hoping to stay competitive in a district that's nearly 80% Hispanic, betting they can capitalize on former President Donald Trumps unexpectedly strong 2020 showing among Latino voters, especially in south Texas. Biden won Latinos by a 59% to 38% margin over Trump two years ago, but that was 7 percentage points lower than Hillary Clintons 66% to 28% margin in 2016, according to Pew Research Center data.

Tania Unzueta, political director of the progressive Latino organization Mijente, which has endorsed Cisneros, said the group sees political investment in south Texas as especially important to counter the rise of right-wing candidates and ideology in the area.

Whats great about it happening close to elections is that people are actually able to take action pretty immediately, Unzueta said of the FBI search near Cuellars home. "And we have a good alternative.

But Democratic strategist Matt Angle noted that so much remains unclear about the circumstances of the FBI's investigation and, with more than a month until the primary, the political implications for Cuellar are uncertain.

That was a contested and competitive primary no matter what, he said.
The former Irving Pool in east Allentown will be replaced by an activity pool fit with a beach front entrance, wading area, lap lanes, whirlpool features and a bath house, city officials announced Friday.

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Construction will begin later this year, according to a news release from the city. The city has not yet begun accepting bids from companies interested in constructing the pool.

City council approved a $355,000 contract with Penmar Services to demolish the previous Irving Pool facility in December. The city has also allotted $400,000 in American Rescue Plan money to transform the pool.

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BKP architects, the firm tasked with designing the pool, plans to release a final design concept for the pool in March.

The pool, which was closed all of last summer, was first built in 1939 and had not been upgraded since  city officials said in 2018 that the pool was reaching the end of its useful life.

Allentown has four public pools including Irving. Cedar Beach pool in the West End opened in 2018 after closing for three years for renovations. Theres also Mack pool in south Allentown and Jordan Pool on the East side  the city is putting $1 million in American Rescue Plan money toward rebuilding Jordan Pool, too.

Irving Pool concept. (Courtesy of Genesis Ortega)

Aerial view of Irving Pool design. (Courtesy of Genesis Ortega)

Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at 610-820-6681 and liweber@mcall.com.
Theres an often restated and repurposed quote, If not me, then who? If not now, then when?

In the nonprofit world, I think we often feel a calling to something, and when people ask why, this is the answer. If I dont take up this mantle, who will? If we dont face this issue head on now, when will we? And how many more lives will be shattered in the process of putting it off longer? As we look at the growing human trafficking crisis, we see the lives broken, we see the damage done, and we realize that NOW is the time to face this head on.

While we are two different organizations, we do share a common goal  providing healing for victims of trauma. For Reflection Ministries of Texas this is specifically the trauma of human trafficking, and for the Midland Rape Crisis and Childrens Advocacy Center (MRCCAC) it is the trauma brought on by sexual assault and child abuse, which occur in many trafficking situations. According to a study from The University of Texas at Austins School of Social Work, Texas has more than 300,000 victims of human trafficking, and of those its estimated that 79,000 are minors. We see them in our community. Reflection Ministries provides 24/7 direct care for trafficking victims, allowing them resources they need to rebuild their lives, their trust and their hope. The MRCCAC uses a metric to determine the risk of trafficking for many of our clients, in some cases catching instances of trafficking and helping these survivors with not only the trauma of their abuse but also to rebuild their lives and escape trafficking.

Over and over, we see that human trafficking doesnt always look like we think it should look. Its not dark alleys, drug addicts and bad choices. It can be the teenage girl whose older boyfriend says he loves her and convinces her to sneak out of her house at night with him, only to then sell her to his friends. He returns her home before morning, and shes in class by 8 a.m. Shes not missing, there is no national hunt for her, no speculation as to who took her or why. She feels like its her fault for sneaking out, and she worries how her parents will react if they know what she did, so she doesnt tell anyone. The boyfriend keeps this going by holding that first night over her  your parents will hate you if they found out, nobody else will want you if they know what you did.

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and we once again find ourselves thinking, If not now, then when? so we humbly come to the community that has long sustained both of our nonprofits and ask you now to do something that costs nothing but could save a life  educate yourself. Learn the signs of trafficking in both adults and children. Stand up when something feels wrong. Call the Department of Family and Protective Services, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, or law enforcement.

Do you remember the news story from 2017 when an Alaska Airlines flight attendant rescued a teenage girl from human trafficking? The flight attendants training told her something was off when the girl, who was disheveled and looked as though shed been through quite a bit, boarded with a well-dressed older man. She was even more concerned when the man was defensive whenever she tried to engage the pair. She left a note for the girl in a bathroom, to which the girl replied that she needed help. The airplanes pilot alerted the authorities in San Francisco, where the plane was heading, and police were waiting for the man when they arrived.

We all need to be as aware as this flight attendant was. We all need to know the signs of trafficking and how to report it. You never know when the 15 minutes it would take to learn the signs could change the course of someones life. And when you make that call, when that person has been rescued from trafficking, we will both be here to support the survivors in our different ways.

--

Lisa Bownds is the CEO and founder of Reflection Ministries of Texas, and Lori Perales is the executive director of the Midland Rape Crisis and Childrens Advocacy Center
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has rejected a prosecutors demand for records of his appearance at a pro-Donald Trump rally that preceded the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Last week, the Travis County district attorneys office had set a four-day deadline for Paxton to turn over the records involving the Jan. 6, 2021, rally or face a lawsuit accusing him of violating the state open records law. But in a letter to the district attorney's office Friday, the attorney generals office denied any violations and rejected the offices demands.

The Texas Tribune was the first to report about Paxton's refusal. A message to the district attorney's office seeking comment wasnt immediately returned.

Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, appeared at the event in Washington, D.C., where the attorney general gave a speech touting his failed legal push to overturn Joe Bidens victory in the presidential election.

Several news organizations have requested Paxtons communications from around that time under the Texas Public Information Act. Last March, six news outlets jointly published a story raising questions about whether Paxton was breaking open records laws.

Earlier this month, top editors at five Texas newspapers  the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News  filed a complaint asking the district attorney to investigate the alleged violations.

Paxton faces several GOP challengers in his reelection bid this year.

Last fall, eight of Paxtons top deputies accused him of bribery, abuse of office and other crimes in the service of another supporter, an Austin real estate developer who employs a woman with whom the attorney general allegedly had an extra-marital affair. The FBI is investigating those allegations.

The attorney general has also spent most of his time in office under a separate felony indictment. He pleaded not guilty in 2015 to three state securities fraud charges but is yet to face trial.
In the lead-up to the 20th season of Real Time With Bill Maher, Maher spoke with Deadline about what this season had in store  and shared his frustrations about pandemic life. Im over Covid, he said in the interview. I was never scared of it. I was always scared of the reaction to it, and as this has played out that only proved to be more true for me.

It was a sentiment he echoed in the opening monologue, which found him pondering the things that had changed since he was last on the air. This included his birthday, which had been the day before. I dont see myself becoming older, Maher said. I see myself becoming a milder variant. Maher went on to note that the episode was taping on the two-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case documented in the United States  an unsettling milestone.

Hopefully were getting out of this sh*t soon, Maher said. I cant take it much more. And then he shifted gears, pointing out that 2022 was also the year in which the film Soylent Green was set. This, he argued, was grounds for optimism. At least were not eating people, said Maher.

Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, was Mahers first guest for the night. Maher brought up an alarming statistic: dozens of people who took part in last years Capitol breach are now running for office. For Snyder, that wasnt as alarming as the number of candidates who are running in favor of whats now known as the Big Lie.

Snyder and Maher went on to discuss the looming 2024 Presidential election, and possible scenarios under which things could play out. To call their conversation sobering would be an understatement; Snyder raised concerns over widespread partisan violence and the government effectively ceasing to function.

I hope were all being too pessimistic, Maher said as the interview ended. But both men seemed especially concerned about the future  and the idea that what they described as a cult of personality around Donald Trump would eventually transfer to Trumps children.

Joining Maher for the evenings discussion were Representative Ritchie Torres and Honestly host Bari Weiss. The Millennials are here with me! Maher said. And his first question for them focused on what he called a reset on COVID-19 and included mention of the U.K. easing many of its pandemic regulations. Should the United States do the same?

Torres argued that the governments response here was already becoming more moderate, albeit in a more gradual manner. Weiss, on the other hand, said simply, Im done.; She went on to say that younger Americans would remember this period as a catastrophic moral crime.

Torres pushed back on this; as a New Yorker, he cited the impact the pandemic had on New York City in early 2020. I reject the notion that the response to COVID has been worse than the disease itself, he said. Its worth mentioning here that both Weiss and Torres got positive reactions from the audience  which might help explain why policies on where we, as a nation, go from here can be so difficult to figure out.

The conversation shifted from there to talk of crime, and whether progressive district attorneys were to blame. Torres argued that this wasnt the case, noting that [w]e tend to gravitate towards the theories that confirm our own ideological biases. His explanation, then, had to do with gun ownership  both legal and illicit  increasing, and thus gun violence increasing as a result.

(Its worth mentioning here that, at the halfway point in the panel discussion, InsideHooks article about cocaine-addicted dogs at the Playboy mansion came up. And now its being covered in this recap, because everything comes full circle.)

Unsurprisingly, Maher brought the discussion around to cancel culture  which began with an awkward exchange in which he asked Torres for his opinion on a mild controversy surrounding the recent film adaptation of West Side Story, which Torres seemed entirely unaware of. (Which seems fine, honestly; after all, he is a member of Congress, and has more important things to focus his attention on.)

Torres did pivot from there to a point about cancel culture having a much more alarming right-wing component, which is to say that Republicans pushing back against Donald Trumps narrative of the 2020 election can be canceled far more thoroughly than, say, a celebrity drawing criticism from some on the left.

No one ever got canceled faster or harder than Colin Kapernick, Maher said. That was a right-wing cancellation. Youre right; there are snowflakes on both sides.

New Rules found Maher invoking Antonio Browns exit from Tampa Bay and the Louisiana Senate candidate smoking weed in his campaign ad. The bulk of the segment, though, focused on President Bidens first year in office, and the publics lukewarm reaction to it despite  as Maher persuasively argued  a host of genuine achievements. At the heart of this, Maher noted, is the fact that Biden lacks die-hard supporters. He dubbed Biden as the leader of a coalition of the unenthused.

How best to rectify this situation? Mahers argument, based on Republicans willingness to do nearly anything that isnt explicitly prohibited by law, was simple: Joe Biden should marry Barack Obama, paving the way for Obamas return to the White House. Maher has been invoking the movie Gus, about a field goal-kicking mule, frequently over the last few years. This, then, could signify that Democrats can play by Gus rules, too.

This season also marks the return of Overtime, in which Snyder joined the panel for further discussion. We havent done this in a while, Maher said. Its coming back to me. President Bidens popularity and media coverage were the subject of discussion, with Torres making the case for Bidens accomplishments.

Weiss pointed to Glenn Youngkins win in Virginia as a sign of where swing voters currently were, and Snyder argued that the pandemic had affected Bidens popularity, along with the laws he had passed and hadnt passed. If the Democrats had two more Senators, Snyder said, wed be living in a transformed country, and I think Biden would be a much more popular president.

It was a brief but nuanced discussion, and the presence of Snyder in the group shifted the dynamic in interesting ways. And it made for a promising start to this latest season of Real Time.

Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.

The post Season 20 of Real Time With Bill Maher Begins With Talk of Coups and COVID appeared first on InsideHook.
***** James Paul Kocsis has self-published the book, "Kocsis Scourged: Surviving the Art world" ($95, 245 pp.) written by free-lance writer Dr. Albert Nekimken, whom Kocsis hired, and printed locally by Paragon Press. ***** James Paul Kocsis first visit to museum of civilization, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. August, 1998. (HANDOUT / TMC)

Three days after Christmas, artist James Paul Kocsis died at a nursing home in Allentown, where he had lived for nearly a year.

He was a widower and had no other living family. Friends are planning a memorial, and when pleasant spring weather arrives, his ashes will be buried at historic Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem beside those of his beloved wife, Carol, under a stone the couple designed.

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It was a quiet end, and thus uncharacteristic for the 85-year-old Allentown painter  an eccentric spitfire who rejected the commercial world of art dealers and galleries but long sought the level of recognition that might have been his had he remained part of it.

He boasted of his genius in interviews and would introduce himself as world-famous artist James Paul Kocsis, running those descriptors together as if they were part of his given name. His pronouncements  I paint the human soul!  tended toward the grandiose, though admirers say thats exactly what he did.

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He would never tire of telling people what a genius he was, said John Ward Anderson, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent and Politico editor who befriended Kocsis in the 1970s and owns six of his works. Frankly, I believed him. I hope that someday he is more widely appreciated and more widely discovered.

Kocsis (pronounced ko-sis) was world-famous, even if it wasnt to the extent he desired. Working for Random House in the 1960s, at the outset of his career, he earned acclaim for his illustrations of childrens books. He had shows on six continents, prominent public installations  including at Lehigh Valley International Airport and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest  and some big, expensive coffee table books of his work. In 1991, he was the first American to hold a one-person show at the United Nations in New York.

Kocsis also laid claim to creating a style of painting called psychic expressionism, and, after the fashion of artists since at least Van Gogh, sounded suitably tormented when describing it to The Morning Call in 1988.

The creative process is the same as childbirth, he said. I dont know what Im doing. I am simply living those moments. I do it as Im going and thats creativity. ... Some [works] come easily and quickly, and some are agony are in hell.

Allentown artist James Paul Kocsis, seen here at a Paris exhibition of his work, died Dec. 28. He was 85. (John Ward Anderson /The Morning Call/Contributed photo)

Kocsis boasting was probably a mixture of sincerity and strategy. By working outside the system, he cut himself off from the major newspapers and glossy magazines that made artistic reputations. Critics wouldnt call attention to his work, so he did it himself.

There are many people who are connoisseurs, people who have substance and knowledge of art, who feel that my work is superior to Picassos, he told a reporter for a small New York publication, My City Paper, in 1999.

In the same story, he took musician Billy Joel to task for the song Allentown, a lament about industrial decline that is still a touchstone for what many outsiders believe about the Lehigh Valley.

Its inane for Billy Joel to say [Allentown is a depressed town] when the greatest artist of all time is in Allentown! In spite of Billy Joel! It would be intelligent to say  its not egotistical  it would be intelligent to say that my paintings and their contribution to humanity will survive Billy Joel  RIGHT OUT OF ALLENTOWN.

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Hotheaded sometimes

Anderson, who lives in Maryland and now works in public relations, met Kocsis in the spring of 1976 at an exhibition in a library at Harvard University. Anderson was an undergraduate, dreaming of a creative writing career and broadly interested in the arts, and was enchanted by what he saw: dynamic, impressionistic oil portraits in vivid colors that seemed to capture the subject in ways a traditional portrait could not.

I was immediately captivated, Anderson said. Jimmy was very open and followed me around and talked about the paintings. We stayed in touch.

Kocsis eventually invited Anderson to come to his studio, which was in Bethlehem at the time, and pose for a portrait. The future journalist ended up sitting for about 10 paintings  including one that stood 6 feet tall, in keeping with Kocsis love of big canvases.

Anderson remembers the regimented way Kocsis worked. Subjects were asked to wait in a room off the studio until they were summoned. They were told to choose a pose as the artist stood with his head down. At Kocsis signal, he and the subject would lock eyes and the painting would commence.

During this intense, peculiar faceoff, Kocsis  blasting classical music through headphones  would paint at breakneck speed, finishing canvasses in a couple of hours. He used spatula-like knives, not brushes, laying paint nearly an inch thick in places.

Eccentric is a great word to describe him, said Anderson, who traveled the world for his Washington Post job and set up many of Kocsis overseas exhibitions. Eccentric, flamboyant. Hotheaded sometimes, and slightly crazy, too. He had very much an artistic temperament.

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James Paul Kocsis painted this portrait of the late Emma Tropiano, a controversial Allentown councilperson, in 1991. Kocsis, a well-known artist who exhibited around the world, died Dec. 28. (Contributed /The Morning Call)

Kocsis wasnt particular about who posed for his portraits, because he had little interest in external characteristics.

He tried to convey not what the person looked like  you wouldnt know it was me in any of those paintings  but he was trying to capture what he thought was the spirit in people, Anderson said. He would go out in Bethlehem and just grab people and ask them to pose. Dancers, poets  he loved people in the arts community. But he was less interested in your physical appearance than your soul.

Anderson owns one painting, I, Magus, a portrait of a poet rendered in shades of red, orange, yellow and green. He said it is typical of Kocsis work, managing to simultaneously reflect darkness and light.

Whoever he is, Jimmy obviously thought he spoke from the heart, Anderson said. Yet there is also a conflict with an almost demonic figure in his stomach, a witchlike face on his right shoulder, and an ominous black figure that seems to be walking over [or] behind him.

This portrait of a poet, "I, Magus," belongs to John Anderson, one of artist James Paul Kocsis' oldest friends. (Contributed p/The Morning Call)

Dr. Robert Doll, an endocrinologist from Lower Macungie Township, met Kocsis almost 50 years ago through a mutual friend, artist and writer, Joseph Skrapits of Allentown. Skrapits wrote a book on the artist  Kocsis: The Art of James Paul Kocsis  in 1981.

Doll spent several hours viewing the artists work after that first meeting and reacted much the way Anderson did.

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I frankly was staggered by it but didnt have funds at the time to purchase anything, said Doll, who became close friends with Kocsis and acquired a number of his paintings over the years.

He donated one, called Healing, to Lehigh Valley Hospital in 1989. The others, handsomely framed, hang in his home.

I never tire of looking at them, he said. And I cant say that about a lot of work.

Ahead of his time

The interview in which Kocsis claimed the crown as the greatest artist of all time came out when he was promoting the book, Kocsis Scourged: Surviving the Art World. It recounts the turmoil he endured navigating the network of commercial galleries as an independent artist after graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art.

Albert Nekimken, who penned the book after responding to a solicitation for writers Kocsis placed in the Wall Street Journal, said Kocsis resented and mistrusted the people who tried to steer him into the factory mode, where agents and gallery owners decide what you should paint and where you should exhibit.

In criticizing the system, Kocsis said some troubling things. He excoriated the Jewish Art Mafia he believed controlled galleries. But he was not, he insisted, antisemitic. My feelings for humanity extend to all, he said. I am not antisemitic or against any ethnic group or religious organization.

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The grave of Allentown artist James Paul Kocsis and his wife, Carol, at Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem. Kocsis, a well-known independent artist, died Dec. 28. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)

Pablo Picasso  not so much the man, but the phenomenon  seemed to haunt Kocsis, who invoked the Spanish artist in a Morning Call interview about why he fled the commercial art world. The title Kocsis Scourged, he said, means that the syndicate and illegal collusion that was formed to make me the next Picasso, to make me famous overnight, was such a ruthless procedure that it literally evolved into my being driven from the city in which it occurred.

Nekimken, who lives in Maryland, said Kocsis left Philadelphia for the Lehigh Valley and became somewhat paranoid, believing people were out to torpedo his career.

He didnt want anyone to have his number or address, Nekimken said. To what extent it was in his imagination and to what extent it was real, well never know.

Whatever the case, Kocsis pursued his own artistic path and vision from then on.

He decided he was going to arrange his own exhibits, Nekimken said. It was very difficult. Youre trying to be an artist and paint with one hand and be an entrepreneur with the other hand.

That didnt stop Kocsis. He would load his paintings into his car or have them shipped to exhibit sites and engage with the public, whose opinions he valued over any critic.

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He was ahead of his time, Nekimken said, likening the artists approach to the independent musicians and filmmakers who eschew major labels and studios and build their audiences through word-of-mouth.

First Call Daily Leading local stories delivered on weekday mornings >

One insight Nekimken gleaned about Kocsis is that the artists boasting was at least partly a way to size people up.

I once asked him, Why do you introduce yourself on the telephone as Worlds greatest artist?  Nekimken said. He replied, I want to see how people respond. I always thought that this was a terrific tactic to elicit reactions that were what we might call today outside the box.

Kocsis turned out as many as 500 works before he abruptly stopped painting about 20 years ago. This surprised his friends, but he had a simple explanation.

He said I have hundreds of paintings, I dont need more,  Nekimken recalled.

What becomes of the works that arent in private ownership remains to be seen. They are now held in trust. No one is sure whether Kocsis would approve of trying to move them into the public eye through the commercial system he despised.

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Its a bit of a conundrum, said Doll, who oversees the trust with two other friends of the artist. What do we do here to continue to promulgate his genius? Its going to be a work in progress.

Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com.
Florida, US (34429)

Today

Mostly sunny early. Increasing clouds with showers this afternoon. Thunder possible. High near 90F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Gov. Tom Wolf touted the states strong financial footing Thursday in a rare bragging session about his tenure.

Im going to be the first governor since Dick Thornburgh, back in the 80s, to pass on a budget surplus to my successor, he said to applause at an event in Pittsburgh.

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Pennsylvania is in a much better place than it was before, and we are on the verge of doing some even greater things because we now have the resources to do what we could not do just seven years ago, Wolf said. The Democrat leaves office in December after eight years because he is limited to serving two terms.

It is nice to open the checkbook and not worry if the state can pay its bills.

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A surplus of $5 to $6 billion is projected when the fiscal year ends in June. Thats on top of roughly $7 billion the state tucked away last year.

I get a lot of bad press because Im not a showboat, Wolf said. In politics, thats not necessarily a good thing because you sort of maybe dont get people to understand, see what great things have happened.

A lot of good things have happened over the last seven years, and today Im going to start taking some credit for it.

OK, take your bow. But dont let your head get too big on your way out the door.

Gov. Tom Wolf (TYGER WILLIAMS / Philadelphia Inquirer)

The financial forecast isnt so bright in coming years. And a lot of Pennsylvanias stockpile of cash is Monopoly money from the federal government. Neither Wolf nor the state Legislature can take credit for raking that in.

About $5 billion of what was stashed away last year was a gift from the federal government to address needs brought on by COVID-19.

And officials cant hang onto it forever.

If its not allocated by the end of 2024 and doled out by the end of 2026, it must be returned to Uncle Sam.

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When that money is spent, the states wallet will be significantly lighter  at a time when tax revenues are expected to be lighter, too.

Deficits are projected starting in 2023-24. The shortfall is forecast to be about $1.9 billion that year; nearly $2 billion in 2024-25; $1.8 billion in 2025-26; and $1.7 billion in 2026-27, according to the state Independent Fiscal Office.

It anticipates a slight reduction in the working-age population  which generates the majority of taxes  and a bigger increase in people of retirement age  many of whom will need health care and other public services.

State Sen. Pat Browne, a Republican from Allentown who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, explored that forecast and its implications in greater detail in a recent op-ed to The Morning Call.

During his news conference Thursday, Wolf said his administrations commitments to increase education funding, invest in economic development, expand Medicaid and reduce the prison population are bearing fruit.

Our financial stability right now is the result of smart investments, Wolf said.

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The decisions about where to invest, or not invest, in the next few years will be critical to getting Pennsylvania through the lean years projected on the horizon.

Money should be put into job training, particularly the trades and health care. And to develop more child care options, so more parents can work.

Colleges have been shorted for too long in state budgets, too. That includes community colleges, which are the only affordable option for many students seeking degrees.

Investments in education have bigger impacts than one-time economic development handouts to wealthy corporations that may not deliver on all of the long-term jobs they promise.

If deficits pile up and services have to be cut, Pennsylvanians should remember that lawmakers blew a big opportunity to further pad state coffers by not levying a severance tax on fracking of natural gas. Recent projections were that it could bring in $1.7 billion over five years.

Wolf has proposed a severance tax since he took office, but the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused. Their greatest fear is being labeled tax raisers, even if the money does good.

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There are smaller, easier steps that can be taken to put Pennsylvania on stronger financial footing, too.

The state can stop wasting money by feeding, lodging and caring for aging and sick people in prisons. Medical parole, for nonviolent offenders who have been model prisoners, can save the state $22 million annually.

Its good that the state has some savings to fall back on. But officials, present and future, should never get too comfortable. Or cocky.

Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com
How to spot a fake Canadian job offer Tips to avoid scams and find real jobs in Canada. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

Sans Font Size A

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Scammers know job-seekers are in a vulnerable position, and willing to provide their personal information or even money to secure a job in Canada. If you have fallen for a scam, you are not alone.

Online scams have been on the rise since the pandemic started. Stats from Canadas Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) indicate there were more than 68,000 reported cases of fraud in 2021, and that is not including December. The losses totalled up to $231 million, more than double the losses in 2020.

Knowledge is your best defence against scams. Beyond the CAFC website, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has a scam tracker that keeps tabs on reported cases of fraud. In this article, we have compiled a list of tips for avoiding fake job offers, and a few more to help you find the real deal.

Need Help with Work Permits? Contact Cohen Immigration Law for a Free Consultation

How to avoid job offer scams

A general rule of thumb is if you think the job offer is too good to be true, youre probably right.

Here are some of the clues that may indicate you have a fake job offer on your hands:

If you didnt apply for it, its probably not real. Fake job offers are usually unsolicited. They come from companies you didnt apply to, for jobs that you didnt apply for.

They may offer a high salary, and have vague requirements that make them seem like anyone could be a good candidate (over age 18, no experience required, etc.) They are designed to pander to your emotions, to make you think the job search is over, and you have found a source of financial security.

The senders email address may be suspicious or it may not. Legitimate business owners do use free email services like Gmail, but it is more likely that companies will have their own domain names in their email address. Keep in mind though, scammers are able to hijack emails of existing companies and pose as recruiters. If you do suspect you received a fake job offer from a real companydo not reply to the emailbut contact someone else at that company to see if they really tried to get ahold of you. If there is no contact information in the senders email, that could be a red flag.

The fake recruiter may ask you to pay money in order to get the job offer. They may give you a cheque to buy supplies with, which turns out to be fake and you are left on the hook for whatever you purchased. You should not have to pay for a legitimate job offer, or do any transaction activities.

They ask for personal information, such as your home address and your Social Insurance Number (SIN). You should never give out your SIN unless it is legally required. Employers only need your SIN after you are hired.

Lastly, do a simple search before you agree to anything. Do not click on any links, reply to any messages, or download anything until you are satisfied that you are talking to a legitimate recruiter. You should have been expecting their message if you are. Do a quick background check on the sender and the company they are representing. See if typing the company name along with scam turns up any results.

If you do suspect you have received a fake job offer, you can report it to the CAFC and the BBB.

Finding genuine job offers: network and apply

When you receive a real job offer, it is from a company that you know. Either you applied to it, or you were introduced to them through networking.

LinkedIn estimates about 85% of jobs are found through networking. So if you know people in Canada, ask them for leads.

If you are in Canada, you can also search for employment services offered by your municipality, or province. If you are an international student, your university will have resources to help you find jobs.

When you are applying online, try sending your application to the company website directly.

You can also find resources that are specifically for helping newcomers find jobs. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) offers free settlement and employment services on their website, which can be used whether you are in Canada or abroad. Canada also has a job bank website where Canadian employers can search for local and international talent.

You can also check the provincial websites that are participating in the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) to find designated employers who are seeking foreign workers. Also, communities participating in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) may have opportunities on their municipal webpages.

Make sure when you apply that you have a cover letter and a Canadian-style resume, which usually includes less personal information than what is required in other countries. Tailor your application to the job you are applying for. Read the job description thoroughly. Explain to the hiring manager why you are a good fit and how you can benefit the company. Do a quick background check on the company too, see if it is a good place to work.

Finally, just apply. Employers hire for a number of reasons beyond what is written on the page. Even if you do not think you are qualified, apply anyway.

Need Help with Work Permits? Contact Cohen Immigration Law for a Free Consultation

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
Wilkes Barre, PA (18701)

Today

Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Oklahoma City, OK (73106)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 66F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
Claremore, OK (74018)

Today

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low around 60F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Beachwood, OH (44122)

Today

A few showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High 53F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 43F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
The people of our country are sick and tired of the behaviors of Sens. Manchin and Sinema. If they dont sign the bills to keep our country from turmoil, I would proceed to tell them that for the next four years no money will be given to the states of West Virginia and Arizona.

President Biden must get the oil and groceries prices under control. The cartel that runs the oil business should be told by President Biden that it is a crisis in our country and the prices must come down. He should fine them $1 million a day.

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We the people who believe in democracy must stay united. Its a disgrace to see elected people and others in our country destroying our nation.

Andrew Donello

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Upper Nazareth Township
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  Following a World Bank report highlighting the Philippines' sluggish immunization rate, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez admitted on Saturday that "external factors" have dampened the government's COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Galvez said while the Philippine government remains committed to inoculating all Filipinos against the coronavirus, the onslaught of Typhoon Odette and the upcoming polls have "limited our ability to maximize" partnerships with different sectors.

More than a month after the deadly typhoon left Philippine territory, Galvez said several regions continue to suffer from its devastating impact.

"The typhoon struck six regions in the country, all of which were starting to ramp up their vaccination throughput. However, LGUs were forced to temporarily suspend their vaccination rollout in order to respond to the immediate needs of their constituents such as food, medicine, and shelters," he said in a statement.

Government officials seeking a win in this year's elections are also affecting the nationwide vaccination drive, Galvez added.

He claimed the general elections have been "diverting the attention" of some local leaders.

"It is our hope that our local leaders will have the will to temporarily set aside their personal interests and first ensure the health and protection of their constituents, especially now that the country is experiencing another major surge," he said.

"Likewise, our LGUs whose localities are situated in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) must also contend with the constant threat of the Communist Terrorist Group. The CTG has been a major cause of concern among our LGUs whose inoculation efforts have been largely affected whenever there is an attack on communities," Galvez added.

Galvez defended the Philippine government's efforts, stressing that it has been facing logistical challenges given the country's unique geographical landscape.

The World Bank report released earlier this week also stated that the sudden spike in cases may also be attributed to the increased mobility during the holiday season.

The vaccine czar reiterated the government's frequent response that there should be a balance between public health and the economy.

"The country's business sector could no longer be held hostage by the health crisis, and therefore the need to further open up the economy, while putting in place all the necessary health and safety precautions," he said.

Galvez said the government has further boosted its COVID-19 vaccination drive  teaming up with major drug store chains to launch the "Resbakuna sa Botika."

He expressed optimism the government can fully vaccinate 77 million Filipinos "within this quarter" and provide booster shorts to over 72 million.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  Despite rising COVID-19 cases, the Department of Health (DOH) said it is considering the proposal to further relax restrictions for international visitors.

"Isa po ito sa naipag-utos sa amin ng IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) na pag-aralan," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing on Saturday. "So, we are now studying this, together with our experts, kung ano po 'yung tamang rekomendasyon na maibibigay natin."

[Translation: The IATF has asked us to review this proposal. So, we are now studying this, together with our experts, to know what recommendation we could give.]

Vergeire was referring to Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion's proposal to shift to a home-based approach for the testing and quarantine and isolation protocols for international travelers.

Concepcion suggested that antigen tests and home quarantine and isolation be allowed, instead of the current RT-PCR tests and facility-based setup.

"Kung sakali mang mairekomenda 'yan, tayo naman ay magiging handa, kasi kung matatandaan niyo, four-door policy po ang ating ipinatutupad," Vergeire said.

[Translation: Should we move forward with the recommendation, we will be ready, because if you recall, we are implementing a four-door policy.]

"Ang first door po natin would be our border control. So, meron pa ho tayong tatlong safeguards or layers of protection na atin pong aasahan kung saka-sakali pong mawawala o tatanggalin na ang control natin sa borders," she added.

[Translation: Our first door is border control. So, that means we will still have three more safeguards or layers of protection if ever we remove it.]

The DOH's four-door policy includes the implementation of travel restrictions and bans; screening, testing, and quarantine protocols; and prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate (PDITR) strategies; as well as the strengthening of the health care capacity.

On Friday, the government announced it is allowing the entry of returning overseas Filipinos who recovered from COVID-19 but still tested positive in their RT-PCR test results prior to their departure to the Philippines. They only need to present a medical certificate showing they completed the mandatory isolation period, are no longer infectious, and have been allowed free movement or travel, among others.

READ: PH allows entry of recently recovered ROFs with COVID-positive pre-departure tests

The development comes amid the continuous spike in COVID-19 infections. On Saturday, the DOH reported 30,552 new cases, raising the nationwide tally to about 3.39 million.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  The Department of Health (DOH) reported 30,552 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

The DOH said 95% or 41,471 of the new infections were detected within the last 14 days. Calabarzon is now the top contributing region with 5,991, followed closely by Metro Manila with 5,989, and Central Luzon with 2,563.

Active cases or the number of currently sick people due to COVID-19 went down to 280,619 from Friday's all-time high of 291,618.

Among the active cases, 267,236 are considered mild; 8,591 have no symptoms; 2,996 are moderate; 1,491 are severe; and 305 are critical, according to the DOH.

The 280,619 active cases constitute 8.3% of the COVID-19 total, which jumped to 3,387,524.

The DOH also announced 41,471 recoveries, raising the survivor count to 3,053,499 - or 90.1% of the nationwide tally.

The death toll also climbed to 53,406 - or 1.58% of the case count - after 97 more people lost their lives to the disease.

Of the new deaths, 54 occurred in January; five in December 2021; two in November 2021; 15 in October 2021; nine in September 2021; three in August 2021; eight in July 2021; and one in November 2020.

The country also recorded a positivity rate - or percentage of tested people who yielded positive results - of 45.1% based on 68,049 tests reported on Jan. 20.

A rate of above 20% is "critical" while below 3% indicates there is adequate testing, according to US nonprofit Covid Act Now. The World Health Organization suggests a positivity rate of below 5% for an area that has controlled the infection.

The DOH said 111 duplicates - including 71 recoveries - were deleted from the total case count. It also reclassified 57 recoveries into deaths.

All laboratories were able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is recommending the use of virgin coconut oil (VCO) to treat symptoms of mild and moderate COVID-19 cases.

In a briefing on Friday, DOST Secretary Fortunato De la Pena revealed that both the trials conducted in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and Valenzuela City showed encouraging results.

They confirmed that VCO can significantly lower the C-Reactive Protein or CRP, which is a biomarker for inflammation and infection, he pointed out.

The CRP value must be lower than 5 milligrams per liter since anything above that would indicate presence of infection.

In the administration of VCO, it was mixed in the meals of participants in the Sta. Rosa study, while the oil was given separately in cups per patient in Valenzuela City.

After the trials, Imelda Angeles-Agdeppa, director of DOSTs Food and Nutrition Research Institute, noted that resolution of signs and symptoms of participants from Valenzuela City was even faster compared to those in Sta. Rosa.

However, ang importante dito sa dalawang studies na ito, nakita po natin na itong VCO ay nakatutulong sa pagbaba ng sintomas as early as two days in both groups. Kahit anong modality, nakakatulong ang VCO, she explained, adding that fever was first to be eased in COVID-19 patients.

[Translation: However, what is important is that these two studies showed that VCO helped ease symptoms as early as two days in both groups. VCO was able to help in any modality.]

Dr. Fabian Antonio Dayrit, one of the members of the study team, also noted that no patient experienced overdose and the worst side effect they observed was bad stomach.

The advice is to take VCO while it is still mild or even better if you take VCO every day, he said.

Dayrit, however, reminded the public that VCO will not replace COVID-19 vaccines since they serve different purposes. He said it will be better to do both to get double protection.

DOST Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said VCO producers are now working on applying to the Food and Drug Administration for additional indication to the product.

Ang VCO ngayon functional food approved by FDA, pero kung gusto natin maisama 'yung indication na 'may be used to relieve symptoms of mild and moderate COVID-19,' kailangan pong mag-apply sila sa FDA, she said.

[Translation: VCO is currently functional food approved by the FDA, but if we want to include the indication "may be used to relieve symptoms of mild and moderate COVID-19," they need to apply to the FDA.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22) Northern Samar will ask the national government to reconsider its decision to raise the province to Alert Level 4  the second-highest in the country's COVID-19 alert level system.

In the Laging Handa briefing, provincial health officer Dr. Ninfa Caparroso-Kam said local authorities will ask the Inter-Agency Task Force for a lower alert level classification. She added they have the data to back up the request.

"Iyon ang napagkasunduan na ia-attach namin iyong aming statistics, and then we are going to appeal to the IATF para ma-reclassify ang aming probinsiya to Level 3 just like before," Caparroso-Kam said.

"Dahil kung ikukumpara iyong aming statistics with the other provinces [in] the region, we are better off," she added. "If you look at our statistics, hindi kami dapat nandoon sa Alert Level 4."

[Translation: That's what was discussed, that we'll attach our statistics, and then we are going to appeal to the IATF to reclassify our province to Alert Level 3 just like before. Because if you compare our statistics with the other provinces in the region, we are better off. If you look at our statistics, we shouldn't be under Alert Level 4.]

Northern Samar was one of the four provinces that shifted to Alert Level 4 on Friday  together with Kalinga, Ifugao, and Mountain Province. Caparroso-Kam admitted the LGU was "surprised" with the IATF's move, adding the development "adds insult to the injury."

She explained that the province's COVID-19 case doubling time and average daily attack rate are far from critical levels.

On Friday, Northern Samar logged 455 new coronavirus infections  slightly higher than the 359 fresh cases recorded the day before.

DOH explains

In the same briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that one of the basis for the new classification was the province's healthcare utilization rate.

She said Northern Samar has already filled up 80% of its bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.

"Sa ngayon po nasa high risk na po ang kanilang healthcare utilization," Vergeire said. "So para po maibsan at saka ma-control muna ang pagdami ng kaso at ma-manage natin ang kanilang healthcare systems capacity kaya po napagdesisyunan na i-escalate sila because they've reached the metrics already."

[Translation: As of the moment, their healthcare utilization rate is under high risk. So in order to alleviate the situation and control the cases, and to manage their healthcare systems capacity, we decided to escalate them because they've reached the metrics already.]
As the Cubs were beating the Braves 6-3 Wednesday night Steve left to see the game with his mom and dad, Reva and Harold, brother Ron and baby niece Elizabeth Henney. He left behind to run the store his wife Kathleen (Knight), Amelia (27), Nathan (24) and his beloved cat Lewis Black. His sis
What are 2022s most pressing issues? Thats the question in an e-newsletter I received from state Sen. Bob Mensch.

Im sure there are many opinions but I will offer one: school property taxes. Article III Section 14 of Pennsylvanias Constitution states The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.

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Instead, the state continues to use the most regressive, abusive system of property taxes, which is not a reliable funding source for public education, as some would have you believe.

It is a bully thugocracy, at best, that has many other negative impacts such as causing large disparities between wealthy and poor school districts, economic decline, blight, making housing and rent unaffordable, and year after year forces people out of their homes.

Advertisement

The complete elimination of school property tax is the only viable solution, and it can be done in an equitable manner. Unfortunately, there are only a few legislators who think this is a pressing issue.

Call, write or visit your state senator and representative and let them know your thoughts on this.

Edward C. Kihm

Quakertown
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Corsicana, TX (75110)

Today

Morning fog, then mostly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly late. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
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: WangLimin (), : NewYork

 : Li Li's Psychiatric Behavior on January 22, 2022

: Li Li,Psychiatric,Wife,American Evil System

: BBS  (Sat Jan 22 13:32:46 2022, )



Li Li's Psychiatric Behavior on January 22, 2022



Jan. 22, 2022



by Limin Wang



Today, 01/22/2022, Sat., ~11am, I was nicely asking Li Li, who was once

again sitting on bed like a stoned person with her outfits on, to make lunch

now so I could have lunch before my selling of used goods on Flushing

downtown street. Instead, Li Li went onto bed and leaned down and asserted

ONCE AGAIN that she has NO relationship with me and I should cook whatever

by myself. Li Li had twice desertions in year 2014 since that August, with

the seduction, coerce, aiding and abetting of the humanscums such as church

people and NYC police and psychiatrists and tellers at Citibank from the

American Evil System, as well as the humanscum ChunLing Li, a biologically

elder sister of Li Li, and a human-trafficking smuggled prostitute woman

from Special-colored China to this prostitution America on a fraud based

visa and immigration and naturalization. My 911 calls about Li Li's

desertions and forced or voluntary visits to Police Precinct 109 since year

2014 all the way to the end of 2021 had only resulted 1) the police

viciously twisted their police report as a disturbance to ChunLing Li's

rental residence, 2) police viciously interrogated me in precinct 109's

upstair interrogation room with their RIDICULOUS ASSUMPTION of LI LI being

murdered and dead; 3) police viciously locked me up in precinct 109's

upstair HEATING OVEN room alone for a LONG TIME; 4) police took my drive

license away and only returned to me DAYS LATER in the mail ONLY AFTER I

recalled about it; 5) police claimed all the months that they could not find

Li LI; 6) On Aug. 05, 2015, two policemen in uniform knocked my door for a

so-called WELFARE CHECKING on Li Li, days after Li Li had finally been

physically contacted by me and persuaded to return; 7) police either came

here to irritate me and plot to murder me the already-murder-attempted-

victim, or came uninvited hours LATER with their apparent hostility toward

me and without the clearly-requested-at-911 medical-only, or LIED about

where Li Li had been sent to without the companion of any family member, or

claimed NO whatever police report was available on its system according to a

black young woman's voice on the phone when I asked about the police report

of the landlord Maurice Shiau's vicious meticulous burning of my left foot'

s inside with the heating burner's rusty hot water, etc, etc. Li Li had

been "EDUCATED" to become so PSYCHIATRIC while she was kept by the AMERICAN

EVIL SYSTEM in a basement or attic room along with some space shared with

others, and then the AES created conditions for me to find her and get her

back, only using this PSYCHIATRIC Li Li product of the AES to destroy my

family from the inside!!!!!!!!!!!



Today, Li Li immediately shifted to rant about her "facts" about who live in

this 3-storey rental townhouse. Li Li ASSERTED there is only a mid-aged

woman living on the third floor, NO ANOTHER mid-aged woman living on the

second floor. In REALITY, there has been ANOTHER mid-aged woman related to

the old-couple Chu long living on the actual second floor, and THAT 2nd-

floor woman had said and done things on the hallway light, mails, and

building entrance doors, and landlord Maurice Shiau once claimed HIS OWN

DAUGHTER lives on the 2nd floor, and refused to come over on the night of

Sept. 13, 2020 after he had collected that month's rent from me and

conspired AGAIN with the second floor humanscums to GUSH water down through

my bathtub ceiling area, with Maurice's LYING excuse that a 2nd-floor YOUNG

woman was showering. Li Li was looking VICTORIOUSLY SMILING when she

asserted that only the old Chu couple humanscums live on the 2nd floor. Last

night, when Li Li psychiatrically refused my touching on her on the bed,

under the quilt, with the "marriage", I mentioned about the APPARENTLY

SINGLE-PARENT mid-aged woman on the 2nd floor, and urged Li Li to have some

basic human integrity to leave me again and forever and then to live either

SINGLE as that woman or together with whatever humanscums she may have

fucked with, like with the white trash human anatomy and physiology

professor at Hudson Valley Community College, instead of to live physically

together since 2015 WITHOUT any income from her but WITH all psychiatric

destruction only to THIS FAMILY and to CLAIM her marital "fidelity" by

REFUSING TO HAVE SEX OR OTHER INTIMACY with the "husband" me who has been

seriously injured on the central nervous system by humanscums at workplace

and then at "diagnosing and treating" medical clinics so MY DICK HAS ALMOST

NO LONGER FUCKTIONAL AT MY VOLITION.



So, later in today's argument, I urged Li Li to go outside. She resisted

moving, and I touched her to move. Then she once again grabbed things to hit

me. When I demanded the things away from her hands, and bent to pick up the

scattered items, Li Li hit me on my right shoulder with a long umbrella and

bent it, before she ran to the front yard and stayed there claiming "

domestic violence" or "murder on her". The video clip is attached in this

post, or you can see it on my Facebook account.



https://youtu.be/3QTOiZHe4Ls



FUCK AMERICAN EVIL SYSTEM!

--

WangLimin People's Voice

http://blog.mitbbs.com/WangLimin

http://www.mitbbs.com/pc/index/WangLimin

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 2603:7000:101:8]





 []


In September 1993, Waterbury resident Donna Palomba was attacked after a masked intruder broke into her home. Eleven years later, police tracked down the suspected culprit. Now, Palomba is sharing her story on Dateline NBC this Friday.

In the Jan. 21 episode, Palomba will share her story with Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning and detail how investigators accused her of lying and threatened her with arrest following her attack. According to Palombas website, Jane Doe No More, the intruder broke into her home on Sept. 11, 1993 while her husband was in Colorado for a friends wedding. Her then 5 and 7-year-old children were asleep when the intruder broke in and jumped on her in her bedroom, covered her head in a pillowcase and bound her hands. The intruder proceeded to sexually assault her and threatened to kill her if she called the police, she said.
Gov. Ned Lamonts administration says it plans to continue purchasing and distributing at-home COVID tests throughout the state even as the federal government has begun accepting orders to ship up to 1 billion kits directly to Americans in their homes.

The ambitious home-delivery effort  launched one day ahead of schedule on Tuesday  comes amid a nationwide shortage of available rapid at-home test kits, which have been largely cleared from store shelves in Connecticut since the omicron variant began its pre-holiday surge.

To address that shortage, Lamonts administration set out in late December to purchase large-scale shipments of tests to distribute through government agencies, churches, nonprofits and municipal test drives.

Despite early stumbles in that effort, the state had distributed 3.1 million tests through Thursday, the governors office said, with another 500,000 likely to be distributed this weekend.

A spokesperson for the governor said that effort will continue, even as the larger federal distribution announced by President Joe Biden is expected to ease the worst of the testing shortage.

We anticipate that in the future, self-tests will also become easier to find at your local pharmacy, and we are also pleased that the federal government has received a supply of self-tests that families can easily order for free online, said Lora Rae Anderson, a spokesperson for the governors office.

The state Department of Public Health on Friday reported an another 4,444 cases of COVID-19, with a daily positivity rate of 13.69 percent, a slight uptick from the previous days report.

While the number of patients hospitalized with COVID in Connecticut declined again on Friday, nearly half of them have been vaccinated, the state data shows. The total number dropped by 38 to 1,695  the lowest since Jan. 5, but about 43 percent of them were vaccinated.

Even as the federal government began rolling out plans to ship millions of tests in the coming weeks, the Biden administration is putting pressure on test manufacturers to increase production to avoid future shortages, Bloomberg reported. The initial order of tests made available for delivery this week numbers 500 million, according to the Biden administration, enough for four free tests to be delivered to every household. Another half-billion tests will be available at a later date, the administration said.

Lamont on Thursday expressed optimism that the efforts of both the federal and state government to distribute tests would lead to wider availability in the future.

Id like to think that the supply chain issue is not as big an issue right now, and I think it will only get better,  Lamont said.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration who serves on the board of Pfizer, also weighed in during the governors press conference Thursday to predict that at-home testing and drug prescriptions will be more readily available later this year.

Come this fall, I think that we should have a situation where there is a large supply of diagnostic tests, these are widely accessible, yes you will be able to self-diagnose at home, Gottlieb said.

Meanwhile, users flocked to the White Houses newly-launched website for ordering tests, where some have reported having issues getting them delivered to buildings with multiple units. Other signs of a limited supply of tests continued to linger.

Major retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens continued to place caps on the number of testing kits available for purchase at one time, as national demand continues to cause shortages at some stores, representatives for those companies told Hearst Connecticut Media

We continue to work around the clock to secure additional OTC COVID-19 tests from our vendors and to get those tests on the shelves of our CVS Pharmacy stores Tara Burke, a CVS spokesperson, said in an email.

Mark Kidd, the laboratory and scientific director for Wren Labs in Branford, said demand for PCR tests at their four public testing locations has started to wane since reaching its peak around the holidays.

During that peak, Kidd said the lab was processing nearly 5,000 tests a week, a number that has since dropped to 2,000 tests a week. However, Kidd said some of the drop-off is due to two of the labs test sites closing for several days last week during cold weather.

Prior to the winter surge in the virus, Kidd said the lab was testing about 1,500 tests a week. Even with the federal government shipping rapid testing kits directly to peoples homes, Kidd said he did not foresee demand for laboratory testing falling back to those earlier levels, noting their greater level of accuracy when compared to at-home test kits.

People want peace of mind, the PCR tests provide that peace of mind, Kidd said.

Lamonts administration did not say Thursday how long it planned to continue making its own deliveries of at-home tests. Anderson said the state will continue to follow every lead that comes across our desk in order to support the health and safety of our residents.

That includes Jack Rubenstein LLC, the Glastonbury wholesaler that was originally supposed to ship 500,000 test kits to the state before New Years Eve, only for the shipment to fall through. Anderson confirmed on Thursday that the state has since acquired tests from the company, though she did not specify how many.
In a letter to the state legislature, Gov. Ned Lamont is asking lawmakers to extend Connecticuts public health emergency and about a dozen COVID orders, including school mask mandates, when his executive authority expires next month.

The 11 executive orders include allowing the commissioners of education and early childhood to issue rules like mandatory masks and social distancing in schools. He also asked the legislature to continue the state's civil preparedness emergency and establish a process to respond quickly in the future to the ongoing public health threat from COVID-19.

The letter comes less than a month before Lamonts authority to declare a continued state of emergency and issue executive orders expires on Feb. 15.

We are not out of the woods, Lamont wrote in the letter Friday to the General Assembly.

The latest COVID surge, driven by the omicron variant, has resulted in record-high case rates in Connecticut and hospitalizations increasing to levels not seen since spring 2020.

While the COVID case rate and hospitalizations have dropped in the past week, Lamont noted in the letter that there has been a sharp rise in infections among nursing homes and school employees.

We are still in a state of emergency, Lamont wrote in the letter. The nature of this virus is such that conditions change rapidly, with the resulting need to have the tools in place to respond quickly to an ongoing public health threat.

Lamont hinted to legislators last week that he was not going to formally request an extension of his emergency authority, but left open the possibility of a narrow continuance. He also announced he was going to compile this list of executive orders for the legislature to consider.

Id like the legislatures imprimatur on that, he said last week in an online news conference. The legislature may say, I dont think we ought to be wearing masks in schools or I dont think a store should be able to ask people their vaccination status.

Lamont issued nearly 300 executive orders during the first year of the pandemic. He is now asking the legislature to continue 11 of his orders, including some that require long-term care facility and state hospital workers to receive booster vaccines, require unvaccinated people to wear masks indoors and allow municipalities to issue their own mask orders. Some of these executive orders also require nursing home visitors to either have a booster vaccine or a negative COVID test.

Some of the orders also provide non-congregate housing to people experiencing homelessness or survivors of domestic violence. Federal funding, which reimburses this housing as well as extra money for families for food, is contingent on the continuation of the emergency declarations, Lamont wrote in the letter.

These executive orders also modify state contracting statutes to get essential goods and services, as well as address teacher and health care shortages.

House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said he was confused by Lamonts letter in regards to his request to extend the states civil and public health emergencies.

He seems to suggest he wants us to make a determination, but the way the statute works, the governor needs to make a declaration, Candelora said. So whether he wants a new declaration or an extension, that request needs to come from his office.

Republican lawmakers are still reviewing the executive orders Lamont suggested. Candelora believes the most contention will come from the orders requiring masks in schools and requiring either a negative COVID test or a vaccination from nursing home visitors.

I think well see the most discussion revolve around those two orders, he added.

This years legislative session starts Feb. 9, giving lawmakers only six days to formally discuss the orders.

The legislature is 187 people, it operates differently, Candelora said. It needs to be able to have some time in order to effectuate anything.

liz.hardaway@hearst.com
The COVID Era simultaneously puts us through experiences weve never had before and makes daily life often feel like reruns.

So the news Bob Stefanowski is seeking to become governor felt about as surprising as a November headline that leaves are dropping from Connecticuts trees.

Even Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont acknowledged Stefanowski has been running for the past five years. Thats not a shot at the 2018 Republican candidate, who was wise to maintain a steady drumbeat reminding voters of his presence. When Republican Tom Foley returned for a rematch in 2014 after losing the governors race to Democrat Dannel Malloy in 2010, he seemed to be coming out of hibernation from the intervening four years.

Thats not the case with Stefanowski. He has been making stump speeches via e-mail blasts, op-eds and volunteer appearances since Lamont won the last campaign with 49.4 percent of the vote to Stefanowskis 46.2. The x-factor that year was the late Oz Griebel, who claimed nearly 4 percent as an independent. But its doubtful those votes would have tilted toward Stefanowski had the moderate Griebel stayed off the ballot.

Stefanowski emerged four years ago from a crowded field. Even by the time it was winnowed down to the primary, GOP hopefuls also included former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, businessmen Stephen Obsitnik and David Stemerman, and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who had the GOPs endorsement and is now part of the Lamont administration as the states commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services.

Stefanowski is again portraying himself as a political outsider, if thats really possible after seeking the highest office in the state.

Despite holding local offices in his hometown of Greenwich, Lamont arrived in Hartford as something of an outsider as well. He didnt speak Capitolese and got crushed in his early efforts to revive tolls.

Then he became a different governor, seizing executive privileges to act decisively to navigate constituents through this once-a-century crisis. He will always deserve credit for not hesitating in the face of a pandemic that claimed thousands of lives.

For those who prefer insiders, Stefanowskis most formidable current rival for the nomination is former state House of Representatives minority leader Themis Klarides. Like Stefanowski, Klarides hails from Madison.

Other names have emerged as well, including Republicans Timothy Elgin of Westport and former marketing executive Susan Patricelli Regan of Granby, as well as Independent Ernestine Holloway.

Too much of the race to come will be about money. It shouldnt. All of the candidates should clearly define their platforms. Four years ago, Stefanowski resisting citing specifics (aside from a pie-in-sky pledge to eliminate the state income tax). In recent months, he has accused Lamont of overreach concerning the states pandemic response.

People in Connecticut are not asking for a lot, Stefanowski said in declaring his 2022 intentions.

We do ask for a few things from our gubernatorial candidates: Run a clean race. Stick to the issues. Make those issues clear, and forward-looking. And remember you share a common love of Connecticut.
New London Police / Contributed

WATERFORD  State police say a couple attempted to evade authorities this week after detectives tried to arrest one of them.

On Tuesday around 10:45 a.m., state police and detectives with the New London Police Department were trying to take Kellon McPherson, 26, into custody. Officers had felony arrest warrants charging McPherson, who is also a convicted felon, with first-degree and second-degree failure to appear, state police said in a statement Friday.
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SHORELINE  Betty Whites 100th birthday celebration continues at local animal shelters as donations keep pouring in for the #bettywhitechallenge.

At the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter in Branford, donations so far have reached some $12,000 and are continuing to grow, said Director Laura Burban.

I kind of anticipated we would get tons of $5 [donations], just because that was the challenge, she said. But people really tended to give a lot more than that. They tended to give $25 or $50. We had people give $100.

White died New Years Eve, just weeks shy of her 100th birthday on Jan. 17. Off screen she was a passionate animal advocate, receiving the National Humanitarian Award and the Legacy Award from American Humane in 2012.

Rising to a social media invitation, the #bettywhitechallenge, animal lovers showed their love for White and their furry friends by donating thousands of dollars to area animal organizations on her birthday.

I was in shock and excited because I didnt know what to expect, Burban said.

I didnt know what to anticipate and I really thought it was going to be a struggle at the $5,000 [mark], she said, referring to the shelters #bettywhitechallenge goal.

I just thought people have been struggling, themselves, and not that they didnt adore Betty White, but I just felt like people have a lot of things going on and I didnt know if they were going to be able to focus on this, she added.

Currently, Burban said her shelter is housing cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice and a leopard gecko.

This money will be used for anything that they need that will help them to recuperate, rehabilitate, said Burban. This may include medical care, specialty enclosures, food, surgeries and special bedding.

Burban attributed the success of this social media campaign to the admiration many had for White.

I think that Betty White was an iconic figure who people related to because of her authentic nature, she said.

A lot of times people have opinions about actresses and famous people or actors and I just feel everybody was in agreement that she was an amazing human inside and out, she added. I think people just sort of gravitated towards her because of that.

The Branford Compassion Club posted the #bettywhitechallenge on its Facebook page and collected $1,540.

In addition, an anonymous donor wrote a check for $3,000, bringing the grand total to $4,540.

Its great, said Peg Johnson, president of the Compassion Club. We were all happy to see that on Facebook and then we were even blown over when we got the check for $3,000.

At the Compassion Clubs North Branford facility, more than 200 cats are rescued annually and adopted out into the community. The organization will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

Our biggest expenses are veterinary care, Johnson said. We spend between $100,000 and $120,000 a year just on veterinary care.

Johnson explained that it costs about $550 for a healthy cat to get spayed, neutered and up to date on shots and vaccinations.

However, if they come in with serious health problems, it costs a lot more, she said.

She said their mission is twofold.

We are not only saving cats, she added. But were providing a service to the community, to the people who find these cats outside and they dont know what to do with them, theyre abandoned or lost and they call us. We help them.

For Killingworths Hope Alliance, donations totaled $1,500 to help care for special needs cats.

For us, this is a lot of money because were a pretty small organization, said owner Lisa Ruoppolo.

While Ruoppolo said many people donated $5, the biggest donation they received was $500.

I was kind of shocked, she said. We dont see that very often.

Ruoppolo said she feels very loved by the community that supports her mission of caring for felines at end of life with kidney failure, cancer and heart disease.

In addition, she explained, everybody here is middle aged and older. They required really specialized care.

She added some are missing limbs and may have come from circumstances in which they were tortured or abused.

Currently there are six cats in her care.

The Valley Shore Animal Welfare League in Westbrook reported receiving $1,000 from the challenge.

Burban said she believes White would be pleased that the animals she left behind are being well taken care of, in her memory.

I really believe that she would be smiling about that and it would just make her happy, she said.

Compassion Club of Branford, website: branfordcompassionclub.org

Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter website: branford-ct.gov/departments/animal-shelter

Hope Alliance, website: hope-alliance.org

Valley Shore Animal Welfare League website: https://www.valleyshoreanimalwelfareleague.org/
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BRIDGEPORT  Former city police chief Armando Perez has been released from federal prison early.

The website of the U.S. Bureau of Prison states that the 66-year-old Perez, who was scheduled to complete his prison sentence for rigging the police chief exam process in late winter or early spring, was released Thursday.

No other information was available and U.S. prison officials did not return calls for comment.

Last April Perez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley to a year-and-a-day in prison after he and the citys former personnel director, David Dunn, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making a false statement to the FBI.

Dunn was released after serving four months in prison.

Perez served his prison term in the Gilmer Federal Correctional Institution in Glenville, W.Va.

His lawyer did not return calls for comment.

Perez and Dunn were accused of participating in a nine-month conspiracy to deceive the city by secretly rigging the purportedly open and competitive selection process for a permanent Bridgeport police chief.

Prosecutors stated that Perez enlisted two officers under his command, who are only designated in the memorandum as Officer 1 and Officer 2, to prepare his resume and cover letter for the search process and later to complete his written examination and to get the oral exam test questions in advance.

The citys Police Department has been led since his arrest by Rebeca Garcia, who was assistant chief until her promotion to acting chief in September 2020.

In November, the Police Officer Standards and Training Council, or POST, revoked Perezs certification to be a police officer.

Karen Boisvert, police academy administrator for POST, said without a POST certification Perez cannot serve as a police officer in Connecticut. She said he can reapply for certification in the future but it is not likely he will be granted it as a result of his federal conviction.
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STRATFORD - Democratic state Senate candidate Justin Gendron, 22 got his first taste of politics when he was still a student at Stratford High School. A member of the drama society, Gendron found out both Stratford and Bunnell High were supposed to get $10,000 each for both schools drama programs, but werent getting it.

So he did something about it. He lobbied for funding and it was approved at a Stratford Board of Education meeting in Dec. 2016.

So we got the funding. And it started the year after I graduated high school, Gendron said.

The experience made a lasting impact on him. When he graduated the following year, he said his principal told him he should be in politics. And now, Gendron is taking that advice seriously.

Gendron filed for his candidacy on Jan. 5 for the 21st District, currently held by six-term incumbent Republican Kevin Kelly, who ran unopposed in 2020.

Gendron said his lived experiences as a young man in Stratford and in college have influenced his beliefs, and focused his priorities on transit, the environment and affordability in the district and in many ways, has prepared him for his first political campaign.

Hi strength as a campaigner boils down to his belief in himself and his message, he said.

I think I can. Thats what it boiled down to, he said. Not a lot of people are pushing for the policies that matter to me and for people I talk to.

So far, Gendron has said hes received a lot of support from local Democrats. He said he was confident of the road ahead of him, criticizing Kelly as a state senator isnt a presence in peoples lives to the point some residents who arent politically active dont know who Kelly is.

They go, I dont know who Kevin Kelly is. That is really telling that your constituents dont know who you are. And they dont know your office exists, he said.

Kelly in response said Gendrons charges that hes not involved in his district dont line up with reality.

I grew up in Stratford, since 1969, Ive been heavily involved in our community, he said. And I think anybody who has been involved in Stratford and community events, certainly knows who I am and what Im all about, Kelly said.

While Kelly ran unopposed in 2020, the Democratic Party is still the majority party in the state, he said. The failure to pass the kind of legislation Gendron wants isnt the fault of the Republicans, he said. And he touted his advocacy for Sikorsky Aircraft and other major employers as efforts to support the state economy, a major concern for constituents, he said.

Right now, what were focused on is the upcoming legislative session in a couple of weeks, and how we, not only as a caucus, but also me as a state senator, can make sure that our constituents and the middle class of Connecticut can maintain a voice and, and that we make sure that Connecticut works for our people, he said.

Gendrons legislative goals include lowering energy bills, protecting students from air pollution, increasing taxes on the wealthy, expanded access to voting and health care, increasing civil rights for the LGBTQ community and retrofitting the Stratford train station platform with a roof. Gendron is also openly gay, and he is advocating for more LGBTQ education in schools.

Affordability is a priority for him because he himself is impacted by increasing housing costs in town, unable to afford to live on his own.

I currently live with my mother because I cant find an apartment in my district, because its just so expensive. So focusing on affordability are real issues to me, he said. Ive lived in Stratford all my life. So I know all of the issues that come with living in this town.

Gendron considered running against Kelly in 2020, but he was still in college and didnt feel it was his time to run yet, he said. But he and the College Democrats CTs legislative team researched voter priorities and found health care, marijuana legalization and paid family leave were high on voters minds. While many bills addressing those issues didnt pass, they lined up with his own beliefs and convinced him to run.

He said hes a young person, but hes not running for young people.

I realized that a lot of these issues that college students are focused on, also impact every other generation, he said.

If elected, Gendron said he would be willing to work with Republicans to pursue those goals. For example, he cited his working relationship with the former chair of the New Haven Republican Party, Jonathan Wharton.

Wharton, an associate professor of political science at Southern CT State, taught Gendron when he was a student there. He said Gendron is unique due to his pragmatism and willingness to work within a party and outside of it.

This makes him the opposite of the political outsider running for office, he said.

Justin is nothing like that. He would rather see institutions or systems or committees operate and see how they play out, Wharton said.

Despite the the Stratford Democratic Partys poor showing during the last election and the subsequent infighting in its aftermath, Gendron said hes confident he can run competitive against Kelly.

At the end of the day, people are going to come together. Because were seeing it for the big picture. Were not focusing on, I went to this team, not that team, were focusing on winning, Gendron said.

He pointed out he got Bunnell and Stratford High School to team up and lobby for drama society funds, despite the long-standing rivalry between the two schools.

I brought together both high schools, which theres a deep, bitter rivalry between the two of them, even for people in their 50s. Theyre like, Oh, which high school did you go to? And if its not theirs, they go, Oh, gross, he said. So bringing those two high schools together to fight for drama funding was my first political experience.
For the past five years I have had the honor of serving as a commissioner of the Connecticut Siting Council. Very few people know what the council does. My experience has been sources of both optimism and pessimism about our states future. I would like to share some of these experience and impressions.

The councils two major challenges today are how to move forward as quickly as possible towards a zero or low carbon future, and how to provide adequate capacity for the constantly increasing wireless data needs. There is pressure to move forward quickly in both areas.

The Siting Council, or CSC, was created to make sure that Connecticut could move forward in development of energy and telecommunication infrastructure essential for a modern economy while at the same time making sure this is balanced against long-term environmental impacts and the quality of life of affected residents. With Connecticuts 169 municipalities and no county level government, it was realized that each town would want the benefits of energy and telecommunications technology  just not located in their town. The legislation provides the council with the ability to determine the balance on a statewide basis and can override a particular municipalitys concerns.

It is this balancing of interests that is at the heart of the CSCs work. Of course, the first criteria is to meet existing state standards for air emissions, erosion and noise. This is often straightforward, although it is sometimes abused by purveyors of misinformation. What is often more complicated is aesthetic impacts from disrupted views. Here, there are no standards, but just opinions of what is unsightly and how important that is to the affected individuals and the surrounding community.

One image that sticks in my mind was of a virtual public hearing regarding a new telecommunications tower on an abandoned commercial property that was adjacent to a residential neighborhood. The resident nearest the proposed tower was calling into the public meeting from his backyard on his smartphone over streaming conferencing software. As he spoke, he turned his smartphones camera towards the site where the tower would be. At the same time he was imploring us to not approve the tower, he was using the technology that the tower would support and improve for him and his neighbors. Without the tower, and as demand for more data capacity grows, his neighbors would soon find more dropped calls or lower transmission speeds. However, I knew that if I were him, I would probably feel the same way about not wanting the tower in my backyard.

In the energy arena, the trade-off is a bit different. Solar arrays typically require an average of 5 acres per megawatt of electric generation capacity. As a comparison, the state has approved natural gas-fired power plants in the last 10 years that were about 750 megawatts. Instead of the approximately 20 acres required for a natural gas power plant, the equivalent capacity for solar would be 3,750 acres, or about six square miles. (Given the fact that solar operates for approximately five hours per day on average, you can argue that the equivalent megawatts would need to be three to four times higher, which would mean 18 to 24 square miles.) In Connecticut, finding unused or underused adjacent land of this magnitude is very difficult.

Many of the solar projects require either trees to be removed or repurposing farmlands. Often we would hear nearby residents say they support solar energy, just not at that particular location. The land is privately owned property and the Siting Council is asked by those opposing the installation to apply stricter standards than would otherwise apply to a commercial or industrial facility. For example, if a private landowner wanted to cut down trees on his property to create a residential development, there is no role for the Department of Agriculture or Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. However, if its a solar project over 2 megawatts, then both of those agencies must sign off on the project.

Siting is by its nature a local phenomenon. The phrase All politics is local applies. When I was a first selectman, a former legislative representative told me that I should keep away from Siting Council decisions; the council, she said, was there to take the politics out of these decisions. After my time on the council, though, I do not agree. I feel that it is important for local officials to be involved and speak for their community. However, they should be informed about the facts and not be misled by opponents who might provide incomplete information. Unfortunately, some politicians who dont get their way want to undermine the process applied so well by the council. I believe this would be a mistake. As I have observed, democracy means you always get to have your say, it does not mean you will always get your way.

When this is done and done well, it is a great assistance to the councils decision making. However, I have also seen it done not as well. When a chief elected officer deliberately lies to the council about the applicant not providing information to the town as a basis for saying the project should not go forward, that does not help the process, or when a CEO parrots technical information about alternatives that are not relevant.

It is my opinion that Connecticut needs more solar energy and better telecommunications to compete in the 21st century. The CSC is a key building block in that process.

Ed Edelson is former first selectman of Southbury and former member of the Connecticut Siting Council.
Funeral Service for Garry Dwight Knopp, age 66, of Cullman, will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Cullman Heritage Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 1-3 p.m. prior to the service. Cullman Heritage Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Knopp passed away on Sunday, May 1,
ISTANBUL, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country is ready to act as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia to sustain peace in the region.

"We want peace to prevail in the region, and for this, we are ready to do our part," he told reporters in Istanbul after Friday prayers.

The Turkish leader revealed his plan to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin either on the phone or during a possible visit to Moscow in the upcoming days.

Erdogan will pay a visit to Ukraine in early February.

"Any development between Russia and Ukraine toward a border violation or an outbreak of a war would constitute a serious violation of the peace of the region," he remarked, noting any unrest there would upset Turkey as it has good and improving relations with both countries.

Erdogan on Thursday invited the presidents of Russia and Ukraine for talks in Istanbul to calm the tension.

Some western countries have been accusing Russia of amassing military troops along the Ukrainian border, saying Moscow could be planning a military offensive. Russia, however, has been denying the accusation. 
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ANKARA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday issued an arrest warrant for 78 suspects, including active soldiers, over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The warrant was part of an investigation into the Gulen Movement's "structuring" in gendarmerie command, with 51 of the suspects already detained during the day.

The Turkish government has been carrying out a massive crackdown on suspects with links to the network since the coup attempt in 2016.

Ankara says U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen was behind the coup attempt, in which at least 250 people were killed.

A total of 24,256 personnel of the Turkish Armed Forces, including 150 generals and 10,528 officers, had been dismissed since the probes, with 1,185 suspected personnel of the army being subjected to the administrative process, Anadolu reported in December citing information provided by the Turkish defense ministry.

Meanwhile, the Turkish defense ministry has increased the number of the armed forces personnel to 479,833, of whom 440,293 are military staff, according to Anadolu. 
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Sunbury, PA (17801)

Today

Cloudy with showers. High 69F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 49F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Photo provided

Residents from the region take part in Friday's March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, including Duane Hilkert, far right, of Danville, Father Timothy Marcoe, of St. Joseph Church in Danville, center in white mask, and Mia Wendt, holding sign.
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- As of Friday, over 200 million senior citizens in China have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a health official said on Saturday.

He Qinghua, a senior official with the National Health Commission, said at a press conference that as of Friday, over 2.96 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered on the Chinese mainland.

More than 1.22 billion people have been fully vaccinated, with 209 million of that number being elderly people aged 60 or above, the official said. 
Ten years ago in this newspaper I came out as the first MP to back Boris for Prime Minister. I wrote that he had a proven track record as a winner.

At a time when the party, under David Cameron's leadership, was consistently trailing behind in the polls, Boris won the London mayoral election  twice.

In December 2019, he had the force of personality to secure a majority of more than 80 and win those important 'Red Wall' seats, some of which we had never taken before.

Last week, sadly, a small minority of my colleagues spent their time chasing airtime and column inches because they are determined to remove from office our most successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher.

The same old names keep cropping up.

As for allegations about threatening behaviour from the whips, I can only imagine what vapours some of them would have had during the long days and nights of the Maastricht vote in 1993, when the party machine went into overdrive to secure a pro-EU majority.

After two extremely difficult years, the United Kingdom is on the verge of returning to normal life again  thanks to the Prime Minister, who has led from the front, furiously championing the booster rollout campaign, says Nadine Dorries

The truth is, the recent portrayal of our whips office is largely out of date and mostly fiction. There is no truth, for example, in lurid claims that dissenting MPs have had funding for their constituencies threatened. Whips simply have no say in what is spent or where.

After 17 years as an MP  and one who is no stranger to the odd rebellion  I can honestly say the worst reaction I ever had from a whip was disappointment.

Sadly, the attention-seeking behaviour of these few MPs risks overshadowing a major achievement for Britain and for our PM.

There really is 'light at the end of the tunnel', as the World Health Organisation declared last week.

After two extremely difficult years, the United Kingdom is on the verge of returning to normal life again  thanks to the Prime Minister, who has led from the front, furiously championing the booster rollout campaign.

He has consistently said both in private and in public, there is only one way out of Covid and that is to throw everything we have behind the vaccines.

How right he has been proved.

Countless other countries are still living in the shadow of the virus. Germany, for example, has just introduced strict rules for restaurants and bars. We, meanwhile, are stepping back out into the light, with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. (Above, commuters on London Bridge on January 20)

This laser focus, his absolute commitment to do what had to be done, has meant that January 26 will mark the end of all remaining Covid restrictions, including the legal requirement to wear masks in shops and other indoor spaces.

Countless other countries are still living in the shadow of the virus. Germany, for example, has just introduced strict rules for restaurants and bars.

We, meanwhile, are stepping back out into the light, with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.

We were the first country in the world to vaccinate someone against Covid with a fully tested jab. Why?

Because this Prime Minister threw everything he could at the problem, taking an educated gamble to pursue as many different vaccine candidates as possible and signing contracts at speed.

While other governments dithered and delayed and Keir Starmer repeatedly objected to our approach, Boris Johnson had the prescience and courage to bite the bullet, to push through and commit to taking decisions at exactly the right moment and with speed.

That solid conviction is the true test of leadership during a crisis.

By the end of last February, the UK had delivered 20 million vaccines. In France, it was less than five million.

When historians look back, the UK's vaccine rollout will be seen as one of the most successful peacetime operations in history  thanks to Boris.

This promises to be a year of liberation. The last time we came close to this was in 2012, the year when Boris as Mayor delivered the Olympics, when the country buzzed and fizzed with excitement and we were filled with a sense of pride and achievement

He also took the decision to hold out against another lockdown this winter in the face of intense pressure and doom-laden predictions from Labour.

Instead of listening to the armchair epidemiologists, he went hell for leather, rolling out the booster mission.

As a result, there was a day when an incredible one million people came forward to be jabbed. Together, with his leadership, we fought back against Omicron.

How many businesses were saved as a consequence? How many millions of people were enabled to have Christmas with their families? Of course there have been mistakes.

The past two years have been hell for everyone, and for those working 18 hours every single day for weeks on end in the Downing Street war rooms, lines clearly became blurred.

Sue Gray's report will deal with this and hopefully set recommendations for the future.

Beyond the distracting noises off, however, the fast-paced work of Government remains focused on levelling up parts of the country ignored for too long.

To the small number of my colleagues who continue to agitate against their leader, I ask them to name one other politician who would have the determination and personality to drive through Brexit and lead this country out of the pandemic into a strong recovery; who would stand up to Russia as it threatens Ukraine and understands the pressures on the wallets of hard-working families

In my own department, we have plans to speed up the broadband revolution, with a 5 billion rollout of 'gigabit' networks now gathering pace across the country.

We're on the side of hard-working households, freezing the BBC licence fee for two years, and have already begun work to discover a new and fairer way of funding the Corporation.

We have truly uplifting and historic moments to look forward to in 2022, including the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

No other British monarch has reached the milestone of a 70-year reign, and we're making great progress on plans for a four-day blockbuster weekend of street parties, with the very best of British pomp and pageantry.

A couple of months later, we will be hosting the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which are already the most popular in history, with more than one million tickets sold.

To the small number of my colleagues who continue to agitate against their leader, I ask them to name one other politician who would have the determination and personality to drive through Brexit and lead this country out of the pandemic into a strong recovery; who would stand up to Russia as it threatens Ukraine and understands the pressures on the wallets of hard-working families.

This promises to be a year of liberation.

The last time we came close to this was in 2012, the year when Boris as Mayor delivered the Olympics, when the country buzzed and fizzed with excitement and we were filled with a sense of pride and achievement.

He was a winner then and, as he has proven throughout the pandemic, he's still our winner now.
Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite photos. This week it's pop legend Gary Numan, 63.

Pop legend Gary Numan, 63, shared the stories behind a selection of his favourite photographs

1960: I'm two years old here with my favourite toy truck. Most of my childhood was spent in the Heathrow Airport area in Middlesex. I was an only child and a loner. My dad Tony built me little control panels with switches and I'd pretend to fly planes and rockets. But then when I saw Hank Marvin from the Shadows on TV, I wanted his electric guitar so I tied string to an acoustic one to make it look like a lead

1976: This is me with my first car, a Morris Marina estate. I had no qualifications as I'd been expelled from one school and asked to leave another. I struggled to concentrate in class, answered teachers back and had to repeat my third year. I saw a child psychologist who thought I had Asperger's syndrome and gave me Valium to calm my temper

1978: I'm perfecting my moody look here  this was just after my band Tubeway Army's first single, That's Too Bad, was released. My parents were hugely supportive  they sank their life savings into buying me a van, a PA system and an expensive guitar. I started out as a punk, but the moment I saw a synthesizer in a recording studio I changed the course of our debut album, and when we had a No 1 hit in 1979 I was dubbed the first synthesizer pop star

1979: After the success of our first album I went solo, but to combat my crippling stage fright I created this android persona to hide behind. That's why I'm wearing white make-up here while shooting the video for my hit single Cars. It also hid my bad skin. Cars was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, but I coped badly with fame. Losing your anonymity isn't great if you have Asperger's and you're quite unworldly

1983: Aeroplanes have been a love of mine since I was tiny and I learnt to fly in 1978  this is me with a Flying Fortress bomber at Biggin Hill. When my music career wound down in the mid-1980s, I became an aerobatic air display pilot, primarily in World War II combat aircraft. It kept me balanced when I was receiving public ridicule for my music and suffering a massive drop in self-esteem. It was incredibly dangerous though  I was losing four or five friends a year in air crashes. When a particularly close friend was killed in the late 90s it shook my wife Gemma up, so I sold my plane

1997: Gemma looks like a Disney princess here at our wedding in Essex. She was a fan  she'd often go to six gigs on my tours. But during one tour she didn't show up for months, and when she did, she walked out in tears during a sad song. I got chatting to her afterwards for the first time, and she told me her mum was dying of cancer. Her personality shone through despite the sadness and we started dating. We've been inseparable since

2018: Performing at the Royal Albert Hall was the highlight of my career  my biggest show since Wembley in 1981. This is just before the concert, with Gemma and our three kids, Echo (left), Raven (second right), and Persia (far right)  she sang with me that night. My album, Savage, had gone to No 2 in the UK charts and the concert sold out in two hours. This was the highest level I'd reached since stupidly retiring from live performance at my peak in 1981, so being there with the family was very emotional

2019: This was the last show I did before the pandemic hit, at the Roundhouse in London. Performing live is the most meaningful part of what I do, and this picture captures the energy and excitement. These days I'm a much more confident stage performer and I love interacting with the audience. When I'm on stage I feel like I'm living life to the full and, as you can see, I'm still quite flexible!

As told to Angela Wintle. (R)evolution: The Autobiography by Gary Numan is out now in paperback (Constable, 9.99). Gary is touring again from April.
A mother-of-five has shared the 'f*****g cruel' comments she has received from online trolls after posting a photo of her stomach.

Bethanie Garcia, a blogger and influencer from Arizona, recently shared a snapshot of herself wearing a black bra and matching underwear with her 208,000 Instagram followers.

The happy picture, which shows her holding her smiling toddler, was meant to promote self-love and body positivity, but critics took to the comments to slam her appearance.

Hurtful: Bethanie Garcia, a 27-year-old influencer from Arizona, shared the 'f*****g cruel' comments she received from online trolls after posting a snapshot of her stomach

Message: The happy picture, which shows her holding her smiling toddler, was meant to promote self-love and body positivity

Garcia, 27, added some of the comments to her photo and reposted it this month, writing: 'When you stumble across 800+ comments of strangers tearing apart your looks, your morals, your ability to parentall from a picture of your BELLY.'

The callous messages came from both men and women who claimed her body was unattractive and shouldn't be celebrated.

'Be proud of bearing kids. But stop expecting others to find your excess weight attractive. It's not,' one person wrote, while another added: 'All I see in that pic is laziness, nothing sexy about that, zero effort.'

'I'm a woman and it's a no for me... you can get a tummy tuck... no shame to do it,' someone else advised.

Online trolls: However, critics took to the comments to slam her appearance, advising her to get a 'tummy tuck' because there was 'nothing sexy' about her

Opening up: The mother-of-five explained in her post that she shares photos of her body because she used to hate it

Garcia and her husband Anthony have five children: Brooklynn, Harlym, Deuce, Bronx, and Ellis. This is the first year since 2011 that she hasn't been either pregnant or nursing.

'I dont share what I share on this platform for people to "like" it or to try and shove body positivity down peoples throats,' she explained. 'I share because once upon a time, I hated my body so much that I chose to starve it, I shrunk down as small as I could get, lived to workout and eat as little as possible, and STILL hated my body.

The mom said she wants to use her platform to help others learn to love their bodies and ignore what society says they should look like.

'I share what I share with the hope that someone else who is out there struggling with their body image can see that its possible to love yourself and appreciate your body, no matter the shape or size,' she said.

Motherhood: This is the first year since 2011 that Garcia (pictured pregnant in 2020) hasn't been either pregnant or nursing

Family of seven: Garcia and her husband Anthony have five children: Brooklynn, Harlym, Deuce, Bronx, and Ellis

'I share with the hope that more human beings start unlearning all the things weve been taught by society (skinny=healthy, weight loss must be achieved at all costs, your body isnt worthy unless youre a certain size, etc).'

At the end of her post, Garcia pointed out that even though the comments are not a reflection of her, they still hurt.

'I know that these comments say more about the person who wrote them than they do about me. But damn. People are so f******g cruel,' she said. 'I still wake up every day and intentionally choose to be kind to my body.

'It doesnt come naturally to me. Im doing my best to be kind + love my body because hating it was so much more exhausting and mentally draining tbh.'

Fan base: The blogger has more than 208,000 followers on Instagram thanks to her candid snapshots

Thoughts: 'I share with the hope that more human beings start unlearning all the things weve been taught by society,' she wrote

Garcia told Scary Mommy that she sometimes has to put her phone away when she is getting comments like these, but she noted that she is lucky to have the support of her husband Anthony.

'One gift I hope I can give to my kids is that they will have always seen body types of all shapes and sizes represented,' she said.

'Growing up, I mostly saw thin women represented in the movies, magazines, billboards, etc. as the "sexy" character or the character who finds love or the one who becomes successful or the one who loves working out.

'I honestly only saw fat bodies represented as villains or in ads for stories that were specific plus size brands. My kids have grown up and will grow up seeing successful, worthy, loved and cherished, hard working women of ALL sizes.'
Screen baddies have often been illustrated with some kind of disfigurement.

Yet a charity is calling for the film industry to embrace 'equal representation of visible difference' and has launched a new campaign showcasing its supporters as popular leading characters to show that those who appear different can be more than just the villains.

Changing Faces made its campaigners feel like movies stars - dressing them as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz and the Black Panther.

Launching its campaign, I Am Not Your Villain, the British charity, which supports and represents people with conditions, marks or scars, hopes to change perceptions of people with a disfigurement.

Adam Pearson, 36, who suffers from a facial disfigurement due to neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system, as Indiana Jones, left, and Tulsi Vagliani, 42, who was injured in a plane crash during her childhood, as Audrey Hepburn, right

Michael Boateng, 33, as the Black Panther (pictured). Changing Faces made its campaigners feel like movies stars - dressing them as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz and the Black Panther

Robert Rhodes, 26, from London, who has a birthmark on the side of his face, told Lucy Laing for the Daily Express: 'I never thought I'd play a character like James Bond. You only ever see baddies with scars on the screen. It felt good to be cast as a hero instead.'

Meanwhile, Tulsi Vagliani, 42, who was injured in a plane crash during her childhood, played the part of Audrey Hepburn for the campaign.

She said: 'I just wish I'd seen someone who looked like me playing a heroine on screen when I was growing up.

'It would have helped me to feel not so alone. I want to tell young people like me we are unique.'

The campaign calls for the film industry to stop using scars, burns or marks as a shorthand for villainy.

Launching its campaign, I Am Not Your Villain, the British charity, which supports and represents people with conditions, marks or scars, hopes to change perceptions of people with a disfigurement. Pictured, Eleanor Hardie, 21, as Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz

Robert Rhodes (pictured), 26, from London, said: 'I never thought I'd play a character like James Bond'

Research by the charity found that only 1 in 5 people with a visible difference have seen a character who looks like them cast as the hero in a film or on TV.

Even fewer (15 per cent) have seen someone with a visible difference playing the love interest on screen.

Yet nearly double, at 39 per cent, have watched a person with a visible difference be cast as the villain.

The British Film Institute (BFI) was the first organisation to sign up to the campaign. BFI has committed to stop funding films in which negative characteristics are depicted through scars or facial difference.

Ben Roberts, Film Fund Director at the BFI, told the charity: Film has such a powerful influence on society, it enables us to see the world in new ways, enriches lives and can make a vital contribution to our wellbeing.

Research by the charity found that only 1 in 5 people with a visible difference have seen a character who looks like them cast as the hero in a film or on TV. Pictured, Michael as the Black Panther

Even fewer (15 per cent) have seen someone with a visible difference playing the love interest on screen. Pictured, Robert as James Bond

It also is a catalyst for change and that is why we are committing to not having negative representations depicted through scars or facial difference in the films we fund.

Its astonishing to think that films have used visible difference as a shorthand for villainy so often and for so long. The time has come for this to stop.

The BFI believes that film should be truly representative of the UK, and this campaign speaks directly to the criteria in the BFI Diversity Standards which call for meaningful representations on screen.

We fully support Changing Faces I Am Not Your Villain campaign and urge the rest of the film industry to do the same.
All NHS patients with a painful type of arthritis triggered by the skin condition psoriasis will now be able to benefit from a drug that dramatically reduces symptoms in more than half of cases.

The drug is upadacitinib, which tackles the debilitating condition by halting the immune systems mistaken attack on healthy tissue in the joints.

It is already approved by the NHS to treat the 400,000 Britons with rheumatoid arthritis.

And psoriatic arthritis sufferers in Scotland have had access to upadacitinib since a review by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in April last year.

Now the UKs prescribing watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, has decided the daily pill can be extended to all NHS patients.

Professor Laura Coates, a rheumatologist at the University of Oxford, praised the move, saying: This will have a big impact for this patient group.

Living with two chronic conditions at once is massively difficult, so having another drug which can help reduce their symptoms is really welcome.

In September 2019, reality TV star Kim Kardashian (above) revealed she had been diagnosed with the condition, which she described as painful and scary. In her case it began with a rash on her stomach and legs, and led to severe pain in her hands that meant she was unable even to pick up a toothbrush

Sufferers first develop psoriasis, which causes red, flaky and itchy patches of skin all over the body, and then  usually several years later  joint problems affect the knees, hands, feet and lower back which get progressively worse. Pictured: Kim Kardashian sharing news of her condition in 2019

Psoriatic arthritis affects about 150,000 Britons, causing joints to become painful, swollen and stiff. The condition cannot be cured, and at its most severe a persons joints can become permanently damaged, meaning joint replacement surgery may be needed alongside the ongoing and uncomfortable skin problems. Pictured: Kim Kardashian in 2019

Psoriatic arthritis affects about 150,000 Britons, causing joints to become painful, swollen and stiff.

Sufferers first develop psoriasis, which causes red, flaky and itchy patches of skin all over the body, and then  usually several years later  joint problems affect the knees, hands, feet and lower back which get progressively worse.

The condition cannot be cured, and at its most severe a persons joints can become permanently damaged, meaning joint replacement surgery may be needed alongside the ongoing and uncomfortable skin problems.

In September 2019, reality TV star Kim Kardashian revealed she had been diagnosed with the condition, which she described as painful and scary.

In her case it began with a rash on her stomach and legs, and led to severe pain in her hands that meant she was unable even to pick up a toothbrush.

One in three people who suffer from psoriasis will go on to develop psoriatic arthritis. Joint issues tend to occur five to ten years after the psoriasis is diagnosed, which can begin at any age.

There are a number of anti-inflammatory drugs that combat the condition, including steroids.

However, for many sufferers these become ineffective and stronger medications are needed.

Upadacitinib is one of a new class of drugs known as JAK inhibitors. These work by blocking the effects of enzymes known as janus kinase, which normally help activate the immune response when the body is under attack from diseases.

By blocking these enzymes in sufferers with so-called autoimmune diseases such as psoriatic arthritis, the drugs stop the immune system from mistakenly destroying healthy tissue.

JAK inhibitors have been highly successful in treating a number of autoimmune disorders, including Crohns disease in which inflammation affects the digestive tract.

One in three people who suffer from psoriasis will go on to develop psoriatic arthritis. Joint issues tend to occur five to ten years after the psoriasis is diagnosed, which can begin at any age. [File image]

In 2020, a large US trial found that more than 70 per cent of psoriatic arthritis patients responded to upadacitinib. More than half saw their arthritis symptoms disappear, while two-thirds found their psoriasis cleared up.

Upadacitinib pills will now be available to NHS patients who have failed to respond to other treatments and have arthritic symptoms in three or more joints.

Julie Morrish, 51, was one of the first psoriatic arthritis patients in Britain to access upadacitinib after she was granted compassionate use due to the severity of her symptoms last April.

The marketing manager from Wantage, Oxfordshire, developed psoriasis and arthritis at the same time seven years ago.

She says: The joints in my knees and ankles swelled up and I struggled to walk. It became difficult to get out of bed in the morning, and at its worst I was literally crawling to the bathroom.

To add to that, Julie developed severe psoriasis on her hands and feet.

The patches got infected and it was incredibly painful. I had to be signed off work it was so bad.

Julie, who until her diagnosis was a competitive weightlifter, tried a number of medications but these either became ineffective or left her with debilitating side effects.

Last April she was started on upadacitinib and noticed a difference within a couple days.

She says: Immediately my joints were better and I had more energy. I had really stubborn psoriasis patches but these went away, and now it doesnt feel like I even have it.

Sometimes Im a bit sore here and there, but my arthritis is basically gone too. Its quite amazing.
A breast cancer drug that can melt away tumours in weeks has been given the green light for NHS patients in Scotland  raising hopes that health chiefs across the rest of the UK will soon follow suit.

There was deep disappointment among experts and patient groups last October when Englands prescribing watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), failed to recommend the medication, tucatinib, even though it has shown huge promise for women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer  a form of the disease that is difficult to treat.

The body raised technical concerns about the way the drug had been studied.

But last week the Scottish Medicines Consortium announced it would fund the twice-daily tablets for women who had failed to respond to other medications and had seen their cancer return.

The decision came just days after new trial results were unveiled showing that tucatinib, in combination with chemotherapy and another drug, trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, held the disease at bay for longer and boosted survival time.

Importantly, the drug, also known by the brand name Tukysa, has been shown to be highly effective in targeting tumours that appear in the brain  and experts are now studying whether giving the tablets to women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer might prevent the disease from ever spreading there, as it does in half of cases.

Dr David Cameron, professor of oncology at Edinburgh University who was involved in the drugs clinical trial, said: This is potentially a game-changing treatment for the many patients who desperately need it.

One woman who benefited from tucatinib said she agreed to take the drug as part of a trial because I had nothing to lose after other treatments failed to work.

When mother-of-four Lesley Stephen was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in 2014 at the age of 48, it had already spread to her bones, liver and lungs.

A year later, tumours appeared in her brain. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy cleared them, but the cancer came back in her lungs.

Mother-of-four Lesley Stephen benefited from tucatinib and said she agreed to take the drug as part of a trial because I had nothing to lose after other treatments failed to work

Following a family holiday to New York that Lesley thought would be her last, as she said doctors had told her to get my affairs in order, her oncologist offered her the last available place on a Glasgow clinical trial for tucatinib.

I took the trial option because I had nothing to lose, and had an immediate and very strong response to it, she said.

Cancer Fact One woman in seven in the UK will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, according to the charity Breast Cancer Now. Advertisement

At the start, scans of my lungs showed white splodges  tumours  everywhere. It looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.

After three weeks, they had disappeared. There was some scarring left, but it was like the tumours had melted away.

Communications consultant Lesley, who lives in Edinburgh with husband Doug, 50, a human resources director, added: I am still on that drug now, over six years on, and the tumours in my brain have never come back.

I have been able to live a fairly normal life with my family for over six years, and been able to experience some of those milestones that I thought cancer had taken away from me  seeing my two eldest go to university and my youngest go to secondary school. Its been a miracle lifesaver for me.

About 55,000 Britons are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, mostly women aged over 50.

Treatments mean the outlook for most is positive, with more than three-quarters of women surviving at least ten years after diagnosis.

But one patient in five has a type of breast cancer that produces excess amounts of a protein involved in cell growth, HER2.

These tumours, known as HER2-positive, are three times as likely to spread to other parts of the body, compared with other forms of breast cancer.

Half of women with HER2-positive breast cancer go on to develop tumours in the brain.

To add to this, even if the cancer is initially eradicated, tumours can recur  either in the breast or elsewhere, where they are known as metastases.

About 55,000 Britons are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, mostly women aged over 50. [File image]

There are drugs and other treatments for these patients, but the effects are short- lived and many run out of options within a few months.

A major step forward in treatment for HER2-positive patients came in May last year, with the approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan, or Enhertu, a drug that boosted the time the cancer was held at bay from seven months to over two years  results that were called mind-blowing by experts.

Tucatinib is another step forward, said Peter Schmid, professor of cancer medicine at the Barts Cancer Centre.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan was a major move forward for patients with incurable HER2-positive breast cancer, but eventually it does stop working, he said.

Tucatinib gives us an additional treatment to help us control the disease for a bit longer, and keep patients well so they can live their lives.

He added: The big hope now is that giving tucatinib to patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer could prevent brain metastases from ever forming, and trials are under way to find out.

Tucatinib is one of a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or TKIs, which work by blocking chemicals that help cancer cells grow and divide.

Lesley said at the start of her treatment she saw coloured 'splodges' all over her lungs 'like a Jackson Pollock painting' until she started using tucatinib

The Scottish approval followed a study known as HER2CLIMB, which found that tucatinib, taken in combination with trastuzumab and chemotherapy drug capecitabine, reduced the risk of death by just over a third and of disease progression by 46 per cent, compared with taking trastuzumab and capecitabine alone.

This improvement was seen whether or not patients had tumours in the brain.

Lesley, who is mother to Finn, 21, Alex, 20, Archie, 17, and Evie, 13, describes the drugs effect as absolutely extraordinary, adding: Before taking it, I was so breathless because of the tumours in my lungs I could barely walk up stairs.

Now Im living a pretty normal life. Its vital that all women in the UK who need it can get it.

NICE is due to make a final decision on tucatinib in March, and it is now hoped that it will reverse previous guidance.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, Breast Cancer Nows chief executive, said the Scottish ruling was a significant leap forward for women living with incurable HER2-positive secondary breast cancer that brought hope to patients who urgently need new, effective options.

She added: The drug company that makes it, Seagen, and NICE must continue to urgently work together to ensure it can also be recommended for routine use on the NHS in England, so that more patients can benefit.
My husband has had a dark red, itchy rash since last August.

It started on the back of his knees and has spread to his inner thighs, armpits, ankles, arms and between his fingers.

Ointments and tablets  such as fluconazole  have yet to work. Is there anything that can be done?

Itchy, sore rashes can destroy patients confidence  especially when they affect several parts of the body.

If the rash is itchy and features bits of the skin splitting, doctors would think about diagnosing a skin condition called dermatitis.

In dermatitis, the skin becomes inflamed and dry.

There are different types  eczema is one type, and another is called contact dermatitis, which means the rashes appear in reaction to an irritant coming into contact with the skin. Washing power is a common example.

If the rash is itchy and features bits of the skin splitting, doctors would think about diagnosing a skin condition called dermatitis. In dermatitis, the skin becomes inflamed and dry.

Sometimes dermatitis can be made worse by a bacterial or fungal infection, which needs to be treated alongside it.

Dermatitis is usually treated with two creams.

Firstly, an emollient or moisturising cream, such as Cetraben or Doublebase, to soften and hydrate the skin. This needs to be applied generously at least three times a day.

A steroid is also used, such as Betnovate or Hydrocortisone, for a set period to dampen the inflammation.

Dermatitis is usually treated with two creams. Firstly, an emollient or moisturising cream, such as Cetraben or Doublebase, to soften and hydrate the skin. [File image]

Other treatments might be added to this, such as a cream to use in the shower or an antihistamine tablet to reduce the itching.

Applying the creams regularly can be laborious and patients often find it difficult to keep up the routine.

Anti-fungal treatments or antibiotics might also be suggested if there is an underlying infection. Otherwise a GP can refer to a specialist skin clinic, or dermatologist.

I have taken antidepressants for two years, but I cant seem to work out which type is best for me. Flupentixol was the first  but I got the shakes.

Then I changed to citalopram, which seemed to work, but doctors told me venlafaxine would be more effective. But that gave me panic attacks.

Ive also tried sertraline and duloxetine but had bad side effects with both. Should I go back to citalopram?

It is very common for doctors to suggest patients try another type of antidepressant if a particular one is causing side effects.

But it is very unusual for doctors to change medications four to five times over a few years, especially when a drug appears to be working well.

Chopping and changing medications is not sensible, and often results in unwelcome side effects and withdrawal symptoms. This is particularly true for medications that treat mental illness.

It is very unusual for doctors to change medications four to five times over a few years, especially when a drug appears to be working well. Chopping and changing medications is not sensible, and often results in unwelcome side effects and withdrawal symptoms. [File picture]

Sometimes it is necessary to change a medication even if a patient is comfortable.

This has become more common as the NHS has moved towards some cheaper and safer alternatives. But a patients symptoms and tolerance for the drug should always be the priority.

Flupentixol is an antipsychotic medication: this means that it is used for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, which involve extreme intrusive thoughts. It is not usually used to treat depression.

However, if someone is stable on flupentixol and doing well, doctors would not normally suggest a change.

The guidance for using the medication advises a very slow withdrawal. It can take two to three months to get the dosage of antidepressant correct.

It can take months to see the effects. Changing pills regularly in a short space of time shows each pill not been given a chance to be trialled properly.

In such cases, its likely that its the stopping and starting that is causing unpleasant side effects  rather than the pills themselves.

I have a long-term osteoarthritis problem in my left knee which is progressively getting worse.

My GP refuses to see me, and says I do not need a scan or further treatment.

But Im in agony. What can I do?

Patients with osteoarthritis should not just have to suffer with it.

While there may be no cure for the condition  where the joints become painful and stiff  there are things we can do to control the pain.

A scan would only be worth doing if there were doubts about the diagnosis. Treatment-wise, there are a few options.

Knee osteoarthritis can respond well to weight loss, which eases pressure on the joint.

Muscle-strengthening and exercises to protect the joints are effective too.

Patients with osteoarthritis should not just have to suffer with it. While there may be no cure for the condition  where the joints become painful and stiff  there are things we can do to control the pain. [Stock image]

Write to Dr Ellie Do you have a question for Dr Ellie Cannon? Email DrEllie@mailonsunday.co.uk Advertisement

Simple pain relief such as paracetamol and anti-inflammatory medication, particularly topical ibuprofen gel, can be helpful. GPs can also refer patients to specialists.

The NHS has local physiotherapy or musculoskeletal teams who regularly look after people with knee osteoarthritis.

These healthcare professionals offer individualised exercise and physiotherapy plans, as well as steroid injections, which may also sometimes be available at the GP surgery.

Surgery is also on offer for knee arthritis. This includes both a knee replacement and the option of washing out the joint, particularly if locking is an issue.

If a GP is not offering any of this, it is advisable to seek a second opinion, perhaps at another GP clinic.

No jab, no job is a no brainer for NHS staff

Im becoming disturbed by reports about doctors who say theyre willing to lose their job to avoid having a Covid jab.

Despite pushback from MPs, the Prime Minister is sticking to his guns on a vaccine mandate for NHS workers  and from April it will be no jab, no job.

Despite pushback from MPs, the Prime Minister is sticking to his guns on a vaccine mandate for NHS workers  and from April it will be no jab, no job. Pictured: Health Secretary Sajid Javid meets staff in a Covid ICU at Kings College Hospital, London on January 7, 2022

I have yet to meet a doctor, or any NHS worker for that matter, who is so averse to the vaccine that theyre willing to lose their job over the issue.

I get the impression that most of those who take this stance are outliers  perhaps they work largely in private practice, just like Dr Steve James, the consultant anaesthetist who challenged Health Secretary Sajid Javid about the matter at Kings College Hospital.

I have little sympathy for this view.

We know the vaccines work and are safe, and, most importantly for doctors, they will protect vulnerable patients. So why not just get it done?

But Id like to know what you think.

Do you want the nurses and doctors who treat you to be jabbed, or do you think they deserve a choice?
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Friday called on the United Nations to promote multilateralism, focus on development and fight climate change.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), made the appeal in his remarks after hearing a briefing by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his priorities for 2022.

Stressing the need to practice true multilateralism, Geng said that protectionism and unilateralism will ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one's own.

He said that spreading hate speech and prejudice, inciting ideological antagonism, and holding back economic and technological advances of other countries will only result in confrontation and division in the world.

Noting that the UN chief's priorities put forward approaches and initiatives on strengthening cooperation and improving global governance to tackle current and future challenges, Geng said that China will actively participate in the thematic discussion in the General Assembly scheduled for February.

Calling on the world to fight the pandemic together, Geng said that countries need to expand cooperation in vaccine production, research and development in medicines to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines, speed up vaccination in developing countries and bridge the immunization gap.

"We should address the urgent needs of developing countries in advancing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, focusing on promoting cooperation in such fields as poverty reduction, connectivity, food security, green development, and digital economy," Geng said.

It is imperative to protect and improve people's well-being, protect and promote human rights in the process of development, and let the fruits of development benefit all people, he said.

As to green development, Geng said the world, while upholding the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, should promote international cooperation on climate change and implement the outcomes of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Developed economies need to take the lead in fulfilling emission reduction responsibilities and deliver on commitments to providing financial and technical support so as to create necessary conditions for developing countries to address climate change and achieve sustainable development, he added. 
At the start of this year, health chiefs in Wales announced a big change to their cervical cancer screening programme  women would get a smear test every five years, instead of every three.

Public Health Wales called it a really positive development, while experts insisted the adjustment was a good thing, since new screening methods are so accurate in determining who will and who wont go on to develop cancer that women simply dont need to be seen as often.

It might also spare some from unnecessary and potentially risky treatment, they added.

There were quite a few people who didnt see it that way, however.

The blood of thousands of women will be on the hands of whoever decided to make this ridiculous and cruel decision, railed one commentator on Facebook.

Again women and girls healthcare is downgraded, another wrote.

This will result in increased preventable deaths.

An online petition demanding the reversal of the decision was quickly launched, and so far has amassed 1.2 million signatures.

I dont think it sounds safe, says Rachel Paul, 29, from Llanelli, who started the petition.

I understand tests have changed, but I know of so many women who developed cervical cancer between smear tests.

'The thought of not being able to get a test for five years is really scary.

Journalist Katie Nicholl, pictured with son George and daughter Matilda, writes about her experience having children after cervical surgery

On January 5, Public Health Wales issued an apology on Twitter: We are sorry. We havent done enough to explain the changes to cervical screening and have caused concern.

'We are working to make this clearer and more information will be available as soon as we can today and in the coming days.

But the organisation will not back down on the decision.

Medical insiders, speaking to The Mail on Sunday, said that the same change had been scheduled by NHS England later this year.

However, the strength of the backlash to the Welsh move means policymakers are now reconsidering.

They would have to think carefully about how to present the decision in a more positive light, the insiders added.

Professor Peter Sasieni, a cancer prevention expert and head of medical trials at Kings College London, confirmed the delay: Its been on the cards in England for a while, but Covid delayed the change because it involves a lot of red tape which NHS systems will struggle to cope with.

'The plan is for smear tests to move to every five years in all four nations within the next year or so.

Yet the most pertinent question, raised by women themselves, remains: how can it be sensible to have less frequent checks for a cancer that kills 40 per cent of those who are diagnosed late?

Destiny Wade, 28, from Kent, believes she is an example of why three-year screenings should stay.

She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2020, following unusual vaginal bleeding. Her smear test, performed three years earlier, showed no evidence of cancer.

If I waited another two years, Id be dead, says Destiny, who has had to undergo multiple operations that have left her cancer-free but infertile. Her story is concerning.

The most pertinent question, raised by women themselves, remains: how can it be sensible to have less frequent checks for a cancer that kills 40 per cent of those who are diagnosed late?

An online petition demanding the reversal of the decision was quickly launched, and so far has amassed 1.2 million signatures

So whats the truth?

Will moving screening to every five years protect women, or lead to a spike in deaths from cancer?

Firstly, its important to point out that the NHS cervical screening programme has been a remarkable success.

Since its inception in 1988, cervical cancer rates have plunged by more than two thirds.

In 1992 alone, research suggests there would have been 57 per cent more cases of cervical cancer had women not been screened.

Nevertheless, about 3,200 women in the UK are still diagnosed with it every year, and 800 die.

And just three-quarters of eligible women aged between 25 and 64 turn up for their smear test  a figure experts are intent on improving.

What lies behind extending the interval between screenings is the fact that todays tests are vastly better than those they replaced.

Historically, a smear test involved taking a sample of cells from the cervix which were then examined in a lab for pre-cancerous changes.

These were graded as borderline, mild, moderate or severe.

The treatment protocol for moderate and severe cases was always clear  the risk of cancer was significant, and so women were referred for a second investigation, called a colposcopy, during which the cervix is examined and more tissue removed for analysis.

This gives doctors more detail about the level of risk  and whether the woman needs treatment to remove the abnormal cells.

But what to do in the case of women flagged after a smear test with borderline or mild cell changes, which present a lower risk, has long been the subject of debate.

Some are simply monitored to see if the cells change further. In one in three cases, these minor abnormalities disappear without treatment as the bodys immune system kicks in. However, some end up being treated  possibly unnecessarily  and this can cause problems.

A colposcopy, like a smear, involves a speculum  a duckbill-shaped device  being inserted into the vagina to allow access to the uterus. These procedures can be uncomfortable, but are risk-free.

The same cannot be said for treatments to remove abnormal cervical cells.

There are a number of ways this can be done, for example, using a heated wire loop or a minor operation to cut out the tissue.

But these procedures can have significant downsides.

The cervix is the muscular ring at the entrance to the womb, and any treatment on it can weaken it. And this can affect how a pregnancy progresses.

KATIE NICHOLL: Im glad they zapped abnormal cells on my cervix, but wish Id been told of the risks I remember very little about my first smear test  other than being incredibly alarmed when, afterwards, I was called by the doctor and told theyd found abnormal cells on my cervix. A further test  a colposcopy  was required, and then there was worse news. The cell changes were graded CIN3, one of the worst kinds. It wasnt cancer, but there is a high chance these cells can become cancerous if left untreated. My doctor recommended I have surgery to scrape them away, and I agreed without a second thought. There was a bit of bleeding afterwards, and I took a couple of days off work. At a follow-up appointment they told me theyd got everything. Smear tests after that were clear. And that, I thought, was that. I got pregnant just under a decade later, in 2012, aged 34. Everything was going fine until, at four months during a routine scan, the obstetrician asked: Have you had surgery on your cervix? I explained I had, and she told me she believed the operation had caused my cervix to shorten quite significantly, and this would affect its ability to stay closed. This meant, basically, there was a quite significant risk that my cervix wouldnt hold out for the remainder of my pregnancy, and I could miscarry or give birth very prematurely. It was terrifying. We had spent years struggling to conceive before opting for IVF, which had been successful first time. Now I was facing the very real prospect of losing my baby. If a shortened cervix is picked up early during pregnancy, theres a procedure to insert a stitch that holds it closed. But this wasnt an option at my stage, as that operation could also trigger a miscarriage. I was told sex was out of the question, as was exercise that involved any kind of impact, such as running. I was advised not to get stressed, or run myself ragged at work. But that was it. I was constantly worried. I remember feeling like an emperor penguin holding this precious egg inside me, not wanting to uncross my legs. In the end, my cervix did hold out. Matilda was born a week early, healthy and weighing 5 lb 8oz. It was lucky, I was told, that she wasnt too heavy and didnt put too much pressure on my cervix. Also, my labour was quick and easy. I didnt need pain relief. Im told this is one silver lining to having a weak cervix: you dont have to push so much. My second pregnancy, with George, now four, wasnt affected in the same way, although no one has been able to tell me why. I dont regret for a second having the CIN3 cells removed. But I do wish someone had told me about the potential complications. As it was, nothing was mentioned, and youre nervous enough during a first pregnancy. If Id known, perhaps Id have been more prepared for the possibility that I was at higher risk. Im 44 now, and because of my history I choose to have a smear test every year. It gives me peace of mind. Five years feels a long time to wait, especially if something fast-growing appears. But the idea that women might have the treatment I had unnecessarily does bother me  you dont want to go through that unless you absolutely have to. Advertisement

In some women who have had cervical treatments, there is an increased risk of a miscarriage or premature birth.

Treatment can also, rarely, cause stenosis, where the cervix narrows or closes.

Of course, if treatment is to remove abnormal cells that are more likely to become cancer, the benefit outweighs this small risk.

However, as consultant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Clive Spence-Jones says: If early cell changes are discovered, and they dont resolve, it can cause anxiety in patients.

And so it might seem like the cautious approach to offer further investigations and treatment in order to prevent cancer, but this also means treatment sometimes ends up being given unnecessarily to patients who might never have progressed or developed cancer. And then you could have created a risk to future pregnancy.

A big step forward came in 2020 when the initial screening test was changed. Instead of taking cell samples, it looks for the presence of the human papillomavirus (HPV), known to be the cause of most cervical cancers.

Around 80 per cent of adults are thought to carry HPV on the body, and in most cases it is harmless.

However, for reasons not fully understood, in some cases it can invade the bodys tissues, triggering cell changes that lead to cervical and other cancers.

If HPV is present in a sample taken at cervical screening, women are likely to undergo a colposcopy and other tests to determine if they need treatment or more regular screening.

But, importantly, studies have shown that if a woman tests negative for HPV, she has a less than one per cent chance of developing cervical cancer within five years  hence the change in the cervical screening interval.

Doctors and cervical cancer charities seem agreed: the move is safe. Indeed, research by Kings College London in 2018 estimated that HPV screening every five years is such an accurate method it would lead to nearly 500 fewer cases of cervical cancer every year in the UK, compared with the test every three years.

Crucially, as the new method is more precise, fewer borderline cases are flagged up, meaning fewer women being overtreated.

Theresa Freeman-Wang, consultant gynaecologist at the Whittington NHS Trust in London and an expert in cervical screening and colposcopy, says: Women are worried because they are used to the idea of being screened every three years. Some would like to be screened more frequently, but evidence shows that if a woman tests negative for HPV then her risk of developing an abnormality, or indeed cervical cancer, is negligible.

Added to this, girls have been vaccinated against HPV at the age of 13 since 2008, and boys of the same age since 2019. Ms Freeman-Wang continues: We have a vaccinated population coming through now, and so screening every three years for them in particular isnt necessary.

Kate Sanger, head of policy at Jos Cervical Cancer Trust, says: Surgery for cell changes can involve part of the cervix being taken away. It can weaken the cervix and affect a womans ability to carry children. It can also lead to infections and bleeding, impacting mental and physical health. Its not something you want unnecessarily.

Prof Sasieni adds: If we test less then we free up more resources  and I dont necessarily mean financial resources, though thats obviously a factor. We could spend those resources finding the millions of women who arent currently being screened at all. Theres a massive benefit in focusing more effort on that.

Family doctors agree. A lot of women shy away from the test because they find it embarrassing, and as a result we are constantly chasing people up, says Dr Nisa Aslam, a London GP. If we spaced out the time between tests, we might see more people coming forward. Dr Aslam stresses that screening is not the only means of spotting cervical cancer. Just because youve had a smear test recently, doesnt mean you shouldnt look out for symptoms such as regular bleeding or, after sex, vaginal discharge, or bleeding between periods. If you experience any of these, you should see your GP.

However Rachel Paul, who created the Welsh petition, is unconvinced. Anyone like myself who is anxious should be given the option to get a smear test every three years.

I shouldnt be forced into having my test every five years  it should be my choice.

Ms Sanger says Jos Cervical Cancer Trust fully supports NHS England adopting the five-year policy, but believes better communication is needed.

She adds: The cervical screening programme is getting better and better at catching cancers, and we need to make that clear.

Over-50s needed to trial exciting Covid pill

By Eve Simmons for The Mail on Sunday

Over-50s with Covid-19 symptoms can now access anti-viral drugs as part of a landmark UK study.

No input from the GP is necessary  patients simply register their interest in taking part in the University of Oxford trial on a website.

It comes a fortnight after The Mail on Sunday revealed that many of the most high-risk patients, such as those with blood cancer, have struggled to access the drug, despite it being approved for this group of patients since November.

Molnupiravir has been shown to cut the risk of hospitalisation due to Covid by up to a half when treatment begins within the first five days of symptoms developing.

Taken as four oral capsules every 12 hours for five days, it prevents viral cells from replicating, reducing the severity of Covid illness.

Molnupiravir is one of several anti-viral Covid treatments, including Sotrovimab and Ronapreve, to receive the green light in the past three months.

Molnupiravir has been shown to cut the risk of hospitalisation due to Covid by up to a half when treatment begins within the first five days of symptoms developing. Taken as four oral capsules every 12 hours for five days, it prevents viral cells from replicating, reducing the severity of Covid illness

Until now they have been available only to high-risk patients, such as those with immune system problems due to cancer treatments or transplants.

The new Oxford trial is looking to recruit healthy, vaccinated middle-aged and older volunteers, who are experiencing symptoms and have a positive PCR or lateral flow test, to discover if the drug is as effective in this group.

Over-18s who suffer with specific underlying conditions, listed on the study website, are also eligible. So far, only 4,200 participants have signed up, out of a target of 10,600.

The trials chief investigator Chris Butler, Professor of Primary Care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, said: It is early on in the illness, when people are still being cared for in the community, that treatments for Covid-19 could have their greatest benefit.

So far, a lot of the research has focused on finding out if well-known drugs can be repurposed to treat Covid-19.

'This new trial will test whether exciting, new anti-viral treatments that are more specific to Covid-19 help people in the community recover faster and reduce the need for treatment in hospital.

The trial will also assess the effectiveness of treatments on preventing the spread of Covid by offering treatment to household contacts of participants.

Once volunteers have provided health details online and been accepted on the trial, they will be randomly allocated into one of two groups  usual NHS care, or the drug.

Those in the drug group will receive the recommended supply of tablets through the post.

Participants are also required to take part in a daily online questionnaire for 28 days, or take a call from the trial team on days 7, 14 and 28.

Follow-up calls are made after three and six months, to ask about potential long Covid symptoms.

For more information and to sign up, visit panoramictrial.org.
Over the past 11 months, Tilly Ward, who is just two, has been tested for Covid-19 no fewer than nine times.

Every time she gets a tickly throat, shes required to have a test, as per the rules of the nursery she attends five mornings a week.

And it cant be a lateral flow test performed at home. The nursery insists on a highly sensitive PCR test from a local pop-up testing centre.

The first few werent a problem, but at around test number five, something changed.

She wasnt happy at all, says her father Mark, 34, a businessman from Oxfordshire. She seemed uncomfortable, and was very teary afterwards.

On test number six, Tilly wriggled so much that her head flopped forwards, causing Mark to accidentally poke the swab too far into her nostril, triggering a nosebleed.

After that, he asked other parents how to avoid injuries when administering the swab.

He says: They told me the only way theyd managed to get their toddler to stay still was by restraining them. It sounded terrible, but I could see how it might be necessary, given how much she wriggles.

Now he prevents injuries by wrapping my legs around her body, and putting her into a sort of headlock.

He adds: Even saying it makes me go cold. I feel terrible, but its better than poking her in the eye with the swab, or giving her a nosebleed.

Unsurprisingly, he says the experience for both parent and child is traumatic. Tillys most recent test, earlier this month, caused a total meltdown.

Mark says: In the car, on the way to the test centre, she knew what was coming. She started shouting No, no, no, no, no, and shaking her head manically. By the time we got there, she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

This continued while we did the test, and she got herself so worked up that as soon as I let go, she vomited twice and cried hysterically the whole way home.

I just thought, theres got to be a better way to do this.

Despite Tillys slight cough, the result was negative  as it had been for the eight previous tests.

And as Mark says: Most toddlers are lucky if they go for a month without developing a cough or cold. Given the amount of distress it causes, you have to wonder, is it really necessary, especially now?

The Mail on Sunday has learned that despite the end of Plan B restrictions and a return towards normality, some primary schools are still requiring children to take up to five Covid tests a week

Its a fair question. Last week the Government announced the end of the Plan B restrictions introduced in December to combat the Omicron variant  including mask-wearing in shops and on public transport, and guidance to work from home where possible.

But The Mail on Sunday has learned that despite this move towards normality, some primary schools are still requiring children to take up to five Covid tests a week.

Parents report that nurseries are requesting one-year-olds take PCR tests if they develop a runny nose, even though Government guidance has never required this.

Our investigation has also found some primary schools are requiring entire year groups of pupils as young as five to take a PCR test every time a staff member tests positive.

Campaign group Us For Them say it is supporting parents across the UK who are desperate and confused about constant tests on their healthy children.

The findings come as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warns of huge disruption caused by testing protocols in schools, and Covid-related absences reach the highest level since the Omicron wave began.

According to the latest figures, more than 323,000 children in state-funded schools are currently off for Covid-related reasons, representing 3.9 per cent of the pupil population.

Darryl Baker, a 35-year-old journalist from North London, (pictured) has had no choice but to subject her two-year-old daughter Blake to five traumatic PCR tests over the past year when the nursery she attends three times a week insisted it was necessary

One Hertfordshire-based mother told The Mail on Sunday: Last week my childs junior school asked for all pupils to be tested by PCR test if they have cold symptoms, and have stopped children mixing in dining rooms and outside the classroom.

It's a fact Ninety-five per cent of UK schools currently have pupils absent for Covid-related reasons, says the National Association of Head Teachers. Advertisement

Now theres only half of them in class  theyre either positive or sitting around waiting for tests.

Other parents have described the act of testing their children as agonising. Its a two-man job to hold my two-year-old down and stop her head bobbing forwards, said one mother from North London.

Theres a serious risk I might injure her with the amount she wriggles and squirms while I try to get the swab in. She hates every minute of it.

Now, with a post-pandemic Britain on the horizon, a growing number of scientists  some of whom usually take a cautious approach to Covid rules  say it is time to scrap school testing altogether.

In October, Sir Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford and co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said: The large amount of testing in schools is disruptive to the system. We need to move, over the winter and towards the end of the winter, to clinically driven testing. In other words, testing people who are unwell rather than having regular testing of people who are well.

Dr Allyson Pollock, clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University, agrees, describing regular testing for primary school children as absolutely appalling.

She says: Omicron is mild for children, and many of them will be asymptomatic.

'Testing can be a traumatic experience and should only be done if absolutely necessary, such as if children are ill enough to need medical attention.

In England, Government guidance states that mass testing of healthy children in primary schools is not necessary. But if pupils develop one of the three Covid-19 symptoms  a continuous cough, a fever or a loss of taste and smell  they must seek a highly sensitive PCR test, either ordered from the Government website or at a local pop-up centre

To tackle rising Omicron cases, the Government issued guidance to schools last month advising that close contacts of infected pupils should take rapid lateral flow tests at home every day for a week

In England, Government guidance states that mass testing of healthy children in primary schools is not necessary.

But if pupils develop one of the three Covid-19 symptoms  a continuous cough, a fever or a loss of taste and smell  they must seek a highly sensitive PCR test, either ordered from the Government website or at a local pop-up centre.

To tackle rising Omicron cases, the Government issued guidance to schools last month advising that close contacts of infected pupils should take rapid lateral flow tests at home every day for a week.

But parents have told The Mail on Sunday that schools are enforcing this rule for pupils in entire year groups or classes, regardless of contact with the infected pupil.

It's a fact The 37billion Test and Trace programme had no clear impact up to March 2021, a Westminster spending watchdog report found. Advertisement

Its up to the school to decide who they class as a close contact, one mother of an eight-year-old boy told The Mail on Sunday.

So they send letters telling us my son has to test for a week, even though the person who tested positive was in another class.

The rule did not apply to children under five. Younger children should get a PCR test only if they develop one of the three symptoms of Covid-19, or if someone in their household tests positive, according to the Government.

But again, parents say that nurseries are making up their own rules.

Darryl Baker, a 35-year-old journalist from North London, has had no choice but to subject her two-year-old daughter Blake to five traumatic PCR tests over the past year when the nursery she attends three times a week insisted it was necessary.

And earlier this month, she received an email warning that a PCR test would be required if Blake developed a runny nose.

I understand they are worried about an outbreak, but there needs to be a bit of give and take, says Darryl, who has another daughter, Cole, aged ten months.

Two-year-olds get snotty noses all the time. The last time Blake had a temperature it was because she was teething  its never been Covid.

Advocates for mass testing of children say it doesnt only protect children themselves from catching Covid from classmates, but also those in the wider community.

But experts say that even when infants have official Covid-19 symptoms, testing is unnecessary as the virus isnt likely to cause them, or anyone else they come into contact with, any serious harm.

Yes, Omicron is hitting babies like Boriss Romy  but it is rarely as worrying as it appear Rumours that the Omicron variant of Covid may be more severe in children have been circulating on social media in recent weeks, following data showing a spike in under-17s being hospitalised. The concern was exacerbated last week when it was revealed that Prime Minister Boris Johnsons six-week-old daughter Romy had suffered quite badly with Covid, although she is now reported to be on the mend. Earlier this month, data showed that most of the rise in child hospitalisations has been in those under the age of one. But experts have urged parents not to panic, as the majority of these children are not seriously ill and are being brought in as a precaution. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons six-week-old daughter Romy had suffered quite badly with Covid, although she is now reported to be on the mend Professor Calum Semple, a child health and infectious disease expert at the University of Liverpool, says: These are not particularly sick infants. In fact, theyre coming in for short periods of time. One reason why more young children may be hospitalised with Omicron, compared with Delta, is that the new variant has a more significant effect on the upper airways. This can cause children to cough repeatedly and make a rasping sound when breathing  symptoms that can be mistaken for croup, a normally mild and common childhood condition that affects the airways. Parents may bring children to hospital just in case, because theyre worried, says Dr David Strain, Covid lead at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. But the babies end up being admitted for a very short period as a precaution. Dr Alasdair Munro, a paediatric infectious disease expert at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, says a rise in young children being hospitalised has been expected, given that they are the only group yet to be vaccinated. He adds: The shifting proportions of admissions are likely due to differences in population immunity between age groups. Advertisement

Professor Azeem Majeed, a public health expert who heads the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, says: Children get infections, coughs and colds all the time. So they end up stuck in a constant loop of test after test, which can be very traumatic.

According to the latest data, Covid-19 infections do remain high in young children: five-to-11-year-olds is the age group with the third highest number of infections.

But about half of all children infected with Covid dont get symptoms. Since the emergence of the milder Omicron variant, scientists say it is likely the disease will now be even more harmless to children.

Crucially for the wider population, today, almost all adults have antibodies against Covid-19. Vaccines have held up against the new variant, protecting even the vulnerable from severe illness and death.

At the beginning of the autumn term, Britain saw record highs of infections in children and we were prepared for a surge in hospitalisations, says Dr Alasdair Munro, clinical researcher in paediatric infectious diseases at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

We saw a large increase in infections in adults, but only a very small and short-lived increase in hospitalisations.

Unlike teens, younger children, who naturally come into contact with only a small circle of people, are less likely to give the virus to anyone but their own immediate family. And their mother or father, for instance, would subsequently self-isolate.

Ultimately, the general consensus among experts is that, in a highly vaccinated population, regular testing of children is relatively pointless.

And if this is the case it begs the question: could we soon see most routine Covid testing scrapped? Many experts say yes.

I think that is where we are going to end up soon, says Dr Munro. Thanks to the success of our vaccination programme and lots of prior infections, the risk of infection is very similar to other respiratory viruses, like flu.

'And we have learned to live with them without having to identify and isolate every positive case  so we are trying to aim for that. The efforts we have to undertake to prevent transmission may cause more problems than they solve.

The consensus among many doctors is that tests should be reserved for those in clinical care  in other words, when they are unwell enough to need medical help. And there are signs that the Government may already be moving in this direction.

Reports surfaced last week suggesting that pop-up testing centres are soon to be dismantled, and free lateral flow tests will no longer be available on the Governments website by the summer.

As the virus become endemic, it doesnt make sense to keep testing everyone and isolate contacts, says Prof Pollock.

For the vast majority of people, this virus will be a very mild sniffle. In many cases, knowing you have Covid-19 serves very little benefit, and even if you do pass it on, the likelihood is the next person wont get particularly ill either.

It is not yet clear whether tests will be scrapped for those with Covid symptoms, but a simpler, common-sense approach should replace them.

If you are coughing a lot, or have bad symptoms that could spread infections to others, stay at home, says Prof Pollock.

It is not yet clear whether tests will be scrapped for those with Covid symptoms, but a simpler, common-sense approach should replace them [Stock photo]

In the meantime, some experts believe we ought to pursue an alternative, less invasive method  especially when it comes to testing children.

In Austrias capital, Vienna, health chiefs have distributed a mouthwash test to families across the city, and recommend young children use it in place of swabs.

Users gargle a clear liquid and spit it out into a sample pot, then send it off for analysis.

Studies show that the test is at least as accurate as PCR tests  picking up roughly 96 per cent of positive cases.

It is probably even more effective than the swab tests because it picks up virus deep within the throat that the swab cant get to, says Dr Peter English, a public health expert who has chaired the British Medical Associations Public Health Medicine Committee.

And most importantly, it is far less unpleasant for everybody  especially for young children.
Belfast Cert: 12A, 1hr 38mins

Rating:

Nightmare Alley Cert: 15, 2hrs 30mins

Rating:

A Journal For Jordan Cert: 12A, 2hrs 11mins

Rating:

Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road Cert: 12A, 1hr 33mins

Rating:

I have known that Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast for almost as long as Ive known there was a Kenneth Branagh at all but, somehow, Ive never quite believed it.

It just didnt seem possible that one of the greatest Shakespearian actors of his generation and modest owner of such a mellifluous, beautifully modulated speaking voice could ever have been a wee Belfast boy with an Ulster brogue.

Belfast  clearly a labour of very personal love for Branagh  is the film that puts me right and it does so quite brilliantly.

As Loyalist thugs arrive to force out Catholic neighbours, Ma and Pa must decide whats best for their sons, especially the curious and precociously articulate Buddy (Jude Hill, above)

Immensely moving at times, properly chilling at others (not surprising, given its late 1960s setting just as The Troubles get under way) its also sweet, charming and funny too. If you can get through it without shedding a quiet tear well, Ill be surprised and disappointed.

Directing from his own screenplay, what Branagh depicts is a fictionalised version of the difficult, frightening months in 1969 that eventually led to his own working-class Protestant family making the decision to move to England.

As Loyalist thugs arrive to force out Catholic neighbours theyve lived happily next door to for years, Ma (Caitriona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan) must decide whats best for their two sons, especially the youngest, the curious and precociously articulate Buddy (Jude Hill).

Ah, thatll be Ken, I think we can safely assume.

Directing from his own screenplay, what Branagh depicts is a fictionalised version of the difficult, frightening months in 1969. Above: Caitriona Balfe as Ma

With echoes of Alfonso Cuarons similarly personal Roma, Branagh shoots the past in beautiful black and white.

But, exquisitely, he picks out the things that will offer him his own means of escape  visits to the cinema and theatre  in glorious, life-shaping colour.

Look out for the moment when young Buddy is sitting on the kerbside, reading the Marvel comic, Thor. Some 40 years later, Branagh would, of course, direct the film version.

For anyone who grew up around that time, the production design is as evocative as the violent setting is alarming. This is a film full of Oh, I remember that moments. But, like everything Branagh is involved with, its made by its performances.

Yes, Judi Dench is in it  shes in virtually everything he does  but for once, as Granny, she plays second fiddle.

Jamie Dornan (above) is spot on as Buddy's father, already forced to travel to England for work and now having to face down Loyalist gangs when he returns for the weekends

Young Jude is a fresh-faced joy as Buddy (weve surely all known little boys like that) while Jamie Dornan is spot on as his father, already forced to travel to England for work and now having to face down Loyalist gangs when he returns for the weekends.

But the stand-out performances belong to Ciaran Hinds, who steals every scene he is in as Buddys Pop, and to the beautiful Balfe as Ma. Award nominations are surely heading her way.

Cate Blanchett has already picked up a Screen Actors Guild nomination for her performance as a scheming psychologist in Guillermo del Toros Nightmare Alley but its difficult to see exactly why.

She will surely give better performances than this, just as del Toro will surely make better films than this. Like everything he does it looks fabulous and fantastical but it doesnt really grip.

Thats partly because the story has a decidedly unsympathetic central character, played here by Bradley Cooper, and partly because this is a disjointed picture of two separate halves.

The first is set in the darkly threatening atmosphere of a travelling carnival, where we see Stanton Carlisle (Cooper), a man we already know is running away from something nasty, learning the tricks of the trade in a mind-reading act.

The second, which involves del Toro turning on the classic film noir style so strongly even Citizen Kane comes to mind, sees Carlisle going after much bigger prizes. And taking a very, very long time to do it.

Despite being directed by Denzel Washington, A Journal For Jordan  the story of an ambitious American journalist (Chante Adams) falling in love with a career soldier (Michael B. Jordan) in the late 1990s is ponderous, poorly written and springs no surprises at all.

Infinitely more uplifting is Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, a documentary that may give the troubled former Beach Boy an easy ride (he co-produces it) but still manages to be properly revealing, confirms his musical genius and provides the perfect factual companion to the fabulous 2014 dramatisation of his life, Love And Mercy.

Good vibrations all round.
Mala's Cat

Mala Kacenberg Michael Joseph 14.99

Rating:

Hiding in a Polish forest during the Second World War, Mala Kacenberg, 14 years old and small for her age, met some partisans. If you survive, you will have a very interesting story to tell, they said after hearing of her experiences.

Against extraordinary odds, she did survive, and this is her story.

Its an account of astounding courage and resourcefulness, of unimaginable loss and an unshakeable will to live so that she might bear witness.

Against extraordinary odds, Mala Kacenberg (above, in white, fifth from the top) survived the Second World War, and this is her story

It begins in the town of Tarnogrod, where Malas happy childhood was cut short by the outbreak of war when she was just 12. Though Jewish, her blonde hair, blue eyes and fair complexion enabled her to pass as a Christian.

One day in 1942 shed been begging for food in nearby villages, and when she returned to the ghetto, found that everyone had been rounded up. A note left by her sister, Balla, warned her not to join them in the marketplace.

Mala would never again see any of her immediate family, and later learned theyd been put in wooden shacks and burned alive. From that moment on she was alone, her only company a cat that had followed her since she was small.

She named the cat Malach, meaning angel in Hebrew, and twice Malach saved her life, first clawing a German soldiers face and, later, alerting her to the need to hide by refusing to leave a ditch as soldiers approached.

But Mala was also protected, she writes, by being too young to take in much of the horror she witnessed. For what normal person could absorb what was happening then?

Eventually she adopted a Christian alias and managed to join a convoy of Polish workers being sent to Germany. There, hiding in plain sight as a hotel maid, she witnessed the fall of the Third Reich from within.

She later made a new life in London, and around the time of her marriage, Malach vanished.

Anyone who survived the Holocaust survived with miracles, she writes.

Magical though the cat of this unsentimental, profoundly moving books title appears  and at points I did wonder if it was more symbolic talisman than actual feline  it plays only a minor role, and the real miracle here is the vitality of Kacenbergs faith and determination.

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy

Mark Hodkinson Canongate 16.99

Rating:

Mark Hodkinson was born in Rochdale in the early 1960s into a working-class family.

His future was mapped out, an assumed path through a pointless education, leaving secondary-modern school to take up his dads trade and become an electrician.

Nearly 50 years on from being written off by the system when he failed the 11-plus, these days he runs a publishing house and is an accomplished author.

Reading Mark Hodkinson's memoir is to realise there is no better tool for social mobility than books. They were the drug that propelled his advancement

And there is one thing he says altered his trajectory. Not parental ambition or an encouraging teacher: the drug that propelled his advancement was books.

It was between the covers of a novel that he found another world. Stories, tales, words provided him with a new way to think of himself.

Reading this memoir is to realise there is no better tool for social mobility than a book.

Which is why J. K. Rowling deserves societys eternal gratitude: no one has encouraged more children to read than her. She is thus responsible for far more growth and development than any government initiative

And the reward for writers like her is that if you get a kid reading, one day they might write a book as charming as this one.

For Hodkinsons story of a life in thrall to books is a delight.

Growing up in the 1970s, in a place where the very idea of reading was so far from the norm he was reckoned a little odd, he paints a wonderful picture of an era of phone boxes, mills and only three TV channels.

Hodkinson was part of a punk band at school. He couldnt play the guitar, he just made what he calls manicured noises.

But despite having no obvious talent, the band recorded an album within two weeks of forming. And by album, he means a cassette recorded in one of their bedrooms.

There is a lovely sequence about Hodkinson spending the long, hot summer of 1976 not eyeing up the local girls at the Rochdale swimming baths but scouring second-hand bookshops.

Born long before Harry Potter, his hero was Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher In The Rye. And like so many of us, he thought J. D. Salinger had written it just for him; the observations were so personal and individual, he must have done.

As Hodkinson so astutely notes, that is what books can do: not just alter a readers world view, but change their life. They certainly changed his.

Jim White
Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story Of The Photographer Nanny

Ann Marks Simon & Schuster 28 (available from Feb 3)

Rating:

In 2007, an auction house in Chicago sold off a number of items reclaimed from unpaid debts.

Among them were boxes of photographic prints, negatives and rolls of film that had been kept in storage lockers  more than 140,000 different pictures, all taken by one person, most of them undeveloped.

Most of the boxes were bought by a nerdy 26-year-old man called John Maloof, who was working on a book about old Chicago and looking for illustrations.

The photographs spanned a lifetime yet had never been seen by a soul. Who was this mystery photographer, Vivian Maier (above)?

Searching through his unpromising hoard, Maloof realised that he had chanced upon something special. These were no ordinary snapshots but the work of a keen eye  sharp, witty, quirky, curious and with a perfect sense of composition.

The photographs spanned a lifetime yet had never been seen by a soul. Since the majority were negatives, or still in undeveloped rolls of film, even the photographer would never have set eyes on them.

Who was this mystery photographer? What sort of person would spend a lifetime taking photographs  seven or eight a day for 50 years  but leave all but a handful unseen?

Some of the pictures seemed to be self- portraits, taken in mirrors or the reflections of shop windows. Others were silhouettes made by shadows.

This was far from the usual image of the photographer as fashionable bohemian: here was a tall, plain, forbidding-looking woman, stern and unsmiling, who liked to dress in starchy, old-fashioned clothes.

It's strange that so many of the photographs taken by this standoffish woman celebrate other peoples moments of affection and joy

The name Vivian Maier was on some of the processing envelopes, but searches for her on the internet drew a blank. Then, in 2009, a death notice for Vivian Maier appeared in a Chicago newspaper.

It turned out that the deceased had been a nanny. Three of her former charges had paid for this modest little announcement of her death at the age of 83.

Maloof was intrigued and dug deeper. Maier had, it turned out, been a nanny all her life, moving from job to job, often without saying goodbye.

Most of her employers knew nothing about her. She never mentioned family or friends or where she had previously worked. Some of them had no idea she even owned a camera.

All they knew was that she was obsessively private, locked her bedroom whenever she left it, and had even once rigged up a system to catch intruders.

Some complained that she could be snappy with children. Others observed that she hated to be touched, particularly by men.

One recalled that she had once hit a man who was trying to prevent her from slipping; in fact, she had hit him so hard that he got concussion.

Her later employers remembered her as a compulsive hoarder, the floorboards of her bedroom buckling under the combined weight of all her newspapers, junk mail, books and photos.

A few had viewed her hoarding as a fire risk and asked her to leave.

It emerged that, by the end of the 1980s, she had accumulated eight tons of assorted stuff, most of which she transferred to storage.

America, the land of celebrity, is endlessly intrigued by the idea of the recluse.

Inevitably, the media grew intrigued by the curious case of the photographer nanny, private to the point of neurosis, so in the years after her death she grew steadily more famous.

In 2015 a fine documentary, Finding Vivian Maier, was nominated for an Oscar.

With this thorough, diligently researched biography, Maier is set to join the paradoxical pantheon of celebrity recluses, among them J.D. Salinger, Howard Hughes, Greta Garbo and the Unabomber.

Of course, all this would mean nothing if Maier had been just another weirdo, moving from family to family with her creepy hoardings and her box camera.

But it so happens that she was the real thing  a wonderful street photographer, capable of turning everyday goings-on into the stuff of magic.

Ann Marks compares her to renowned American photographers such as Diane Arbus, but her lighter touch reminds me more of the classic French photographers Jacques Henri Lartigue and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

She had an instinct for the moment and was able to react with extraordinary speed. She would see a subject, open her camera, focus it, and shed snap. It was just, Bam! recalls a woman she once nannied.

It was fast. She went from walking to focus to shoot in under a second. The subject wouldnt even have time to react.

Employing dogged detective work and going to what she calls convoluted, sometimes preposterous lengths, Ann Marks managed to track down hundreds of people who came into contact with Maier, including 30 who knew her as a child or young woman.

Yet after 300 pages of information regarding her movements from house to house, from family to family, she remains a shadowy figure: her enigma stays intact, which is probably just as it should be.

So who was she? Marks is a keen genealogist and devotes rather too much space to sorting out Maiers notably dysfunctional family history, which involves parents and grandparents and great-grandparents in various states of mutual hatred, and the full gamut of illegitimacy, bigamy, parental rejection, violence, alcohol, drugs and mental illness.

Her mother, variously described by Marks as lazy, argumentative, irresponsible, disturbed, self-absorbed and unfit, was French and illegitimate.

As a child, Vivian spent six years with relatives in France before returning to Manhattan, where she lived until she was 30. She then moved to Chicago. As a nanny, she always preferred to be called Mademoiselle.

Its fascinating how so many of her employers and their children have such radically different memories of their old nanny.

We have as many personalities as there are people who know us, said the philosopher William James, and no one exemplifies this more than Maier.

The boys in one Chicago family, whom she looked after for 11 years  by far the longest time she spent in any single household  all adored her. She taught them French, organised plays and took thousands of photos of them having fun.

It was they who paid for her death notice.

But she still kept her cards close to her chest: until they were approached by her biographer, they had no idea she had spent most of her early life in New York.

Most families remember her without affection. Some describe her as prickly and quick-tempered. Its not that we disliked Mademoiselle. We just didnt like her.

They remember the smell of her greasy hair, which she shampooed with vinegar, her stony face, her military gait, her size 12 mens shoes and her dislike of being touched.

Brothers she looked after in the early 1950s describe her as cold, unapproachable and disengaged: when she slapped one of them across the face, their father fired her.

Few of her photographs include fathers. One girl she nannied for seven years remembers her issuing a warning that men are just after sex and are out to ruin you. It seems unlikely that she ever had a partner of any sort.

Was she abused as a child? Her biographer thinks it likely.

Strange, then, that so many of the photographs taken by this standoffish woman celebrate other peoples moments of affection and joy. Marks astutely suggests that photography allowed her to establish human connections, but at a safe distance.

It let her be part of the world yet apart from it.

The photographer Joel Meyerowitz says that street photographers are often solitary creatures. You observe and you embrace, and you take in, but you stay back, and you try to stay invisible.

Stranger still is her indifference to seeing her lifetimes work. Through the 1990s she took 500 rolls of film but never developed a single one: off they went into storage.

In this way she reminds me of an ancient cave-dweller who draws a picture on the cave wall and then leaves the cave for ever, without so much as a backward glance.
In this series, we bust the jargon and explain a popular investing term or theme. Here it's Spacs.

What does Spac stand for?

A Spac is a special purpose acquisition vehicle, an 'empty shell' company floated on a stock exchange.

The money raised is used to purchase another firm, usually a private one that is not listed. The idea is to bring that business to the stock market faster and less expensively than by taking the normal route.

If an acquisition cannot be found within two years, the cash has to be returned to the original shareholders.

That can cause a stampede to find something to buy, whether it is suitable or not. It turned into a Wall Street craze. Such was the popularity of Spacs in 2021 that 334 deals were done with a value of $597billion  10 per cent of mergers and acquisitions worldwide.

Change of mood: A Spac is a special purpose acquisition vehicle, an 'empty shell' company floated on a stock exchange

Why the excitement?

At the height of the Wall Street Spac feeding frenzy in late 2020 and early 2021, the profits were often handsome.

The cult of personality played a role. Sir Richard Branson, Jay-Z and Donald Trump are among the figures associated with Spacs. When Trump announced he was launching a media company to merge with a Spac, Digital World Acquisition, its share price soared. This get-together is yet to happen, however.

What's the mood now?

Excitement has abated as a result of disappointing performance. The price of the De-Spac ETF (exchange traded fund) is down around 41 per cent over the past 12 months. There are anxieties over the quality of some of the companies acquired.

Usha Rodrigues, a professor of corporate finance at Georgia university, likens some of the mergers to hasty Las Vegas weddings.

Who makes money?

Hedge fund investors, who may borrow to invest in Spacs before they are listed, will make a killing if there is a price 'pop' (a sharp rise) at the start of trading. The banks that advise Spacs can also earn lucrative fees at various stages.

Private investors, by contrast, are only permitted to buy the shares after they start trading  sometimes at an inflated price.

But many will still be tempted to take the risk if a celebrity is involved, which is 'never a good idea', according to the SEC, the US watchdog.

Are Spacs coming to the UK?

Amsterdam has become Europe's Spac capital, with listings including one sponsored by Bernard Arnault, boss of luxury goods giant LVMh. Branson is expected to list another Spac in Amsterdam this year.

The UK would like to grab a slice of the action to affirm the City's status as a financial centre. Rishi Sunak is said to be pro-Spac.

Some listing rules have been relaxed, such as those on reverse takeovers (where a smaller company snaps up a larger business). To date, London can boast only one Spac, although more could arrive in spring.
Serbia has dealt Rio Tinto a hammer blow after pulling the plug on a 1.8billion lithium mine.

Ministers bowed to pressure after protests from green groups and ordinary citizens, who claimed the mine would wreak environmental destruction.

Serbia has withdrawn all licences for the Jadar project and vowed to 'fight against' any potential lawsuit from the Anglo-Australian miner about the cancellation.

Shock: Rio's shares slid 2.2 per cent, or 123p, to 5457p as traders digested the news

Jadar was set to be one of the world's largest lithium mines and bolster Rio boss Jakob Stausholm's efforts to focus more on green metals.

Rio told investors earlier this week that the opening of the Jadar mine would be delayed by at least a year to 2027 after struggling to get the licences needed to complete an environmental assessment.

But the shock decision to scrap the project entirely was laid out by prime minister Ana Brnabic on Thursday, who said the company gave 'insufficient information' to the government and local community about the impact of the project.

Rio's shares slid 2.2 per cent, or 123p, to 5457p last night as traders digested the news.

Rio first discovered lithium in Jadar in 2004. The site was expected to contain enough of the metal to produce one million electric car batteries.

The company said it was 'extremely concerned' by the prime minister's statement.

Rio said it is 'reviewing the legal basis of this decision and the implications for our activities and our people in Serbia'.
Arm's co-founder believes it would be better off as an independent company listed on the London stock market instead of being taken over by a US rival in a 31billion deal,

Hermann Hauser, who spun off the Cambridge-based chip designer from Acorn Computers in 1990, told the Mail that Arm could list as a standalone company with some of its largest customers taking stakes.

His intervention came amid mounting opposition to the takeover by Nvidia.

Belief: Arm had been a member of the FTSE 100 for 18 years before being bought by Softbank

Arm is owned by Softbank of Japan, which bought the business in 2016 for 24billion. The proposed sale to Nvidia is being scrutinised by regulators around the world.

Arm and Nvidia bosses were this month forced to defend the blockbuster chip deal. They argued a share float was not a viable option. In a document submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority, they accused opponents of 'romanticising Arm's past'. They added that Arm was not in a fit state to be refloated on the stock market via an initial public offering (IPO).

Arm chief executive Simon Segars said: 'We contemplated an IPO but determined that the pressure to deliver short-term revenue growth and profitability would suffocate our ability to invest, expand, move fast and innovate.'

Hauser, 73, dismissed the comments. He said no one is romanticising Arm's past, pointing out that the company had been a member of the FTSE 100 for 18 years before being bought by Softbank.

The entrepreneur and tech venture capitalist said: 'The idea that Arm is underperforming is just not true. Look at its inroads into the data centre market in recent years.'

Austrian-born Hauser believes there is now a 50 per cent chance that the deal with Nvidia will collapse after the Government ordered a full blown investigation on competition and national security grounds.

The Government is set to make a decision in May, while regulators in China, the US and EU are also scrutinising the deal.

Hauser, one of the best known figures in the Cambridge technology community, said Softbank 'must be looking at other options'  and one option is for Arm to come back to London.

Customer Qualcomm said in June last year it would be willing to buy a stake in Arm alongside other industry investors if Softbank listed the company on the stock market instead of selling it to Nvidia. Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano Amon said at the time: 'If Arm has an independent future, I think you will find there is a lot of interest from a lot of the companies within the ecosystem to invest in Arm.'

Brokers believe customers including Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company  better known as TSMC  would also join Qualcomm.

One broker said: 'Finding customers to take a stake in Arm would not be difficult. Softbank could sell the majority and keep a minority stake itself. This solution protects Arm's neutrality and gives Softbank an exit.'

Nvidia agreed to buy Cambridge-based Arm from Softbank in September 2020 and wanted to close the deal by March this year. That deadline will not be met.
Rolls-Royce has fired the starting gun on finding a replacement for chief executive Warren East as the engineering giant rebuilds after the Covid crisis.

Chairman Anita Frew has begun drawing up a list of successors for East, who has led the most prestigious name in British engineering since 2015.

East has not announced plans to step down but it is thought he could leave as soon as this year. 'Analysts believe he may leave the FTSE 100 group once it completes a three-pronged recovery strategy he has promised investors.'

Winding down: Boss Warren East has led the most prestigious name in British engineering since 2015

Industry insiders said Rolls was taking a close look at the bosses of FTSE-listed defence companies as possible successors. The company is thought to be using recruitment group MWM Consulting to draw up the lists.

Before the pandemic, the Derby-based engineer earned around half its turnover from servicing large plane engines.

This meant a large chunk of its revenue depended on how many hours the planes flew and that when the pandemic grounded planes for months on end it lost a key source of revenue.

It plunged to dizzying losses, major credit agencies slashed its credit rating to junk status and it rapidly burned through cash.

Defence now makes up around a third of the business and it is becoming less reliant on its work on big plane engines, or its 'civil aerospace' division.

One source said that it was a 'different business now' and that a chief executive would need to reflect that.

The company's rules dictate that at least one of the chairman and chief executive must be a British national.

Search: Anita Frew is looking for Warren East's successor

As Frew is a UK national, this means the new boss could be an international hire.

Before East took over, he spent more than a decade leading Arm Holdings, the Cambridge-based technology group that is in the process of being sold to US chip group Nvidia.

When he joined, he kicked off a restructuring to cut out layers of bloated middle management to trim down costs.

But when Covid hit, he was forced launch the third shakeup Rolls had seen in six years. To combat the crisis, Rolls kicked off a wide-ranging overhaul that included cutting 9,000 jobs from its 52,000-strong workforce, raising money and selling off parts of the business.

It has raised 7.5billion since the pandemic began, including a 2billion share sale.

East promised investors his strategy would stop the company burning through cash, which it achieved last year, to sell divisions of the group worth 2billion and slash its costs by 1.3billion. Rolls is on track to reach the disposals target this summer with the sale of Spanish aerospace unit ITP Aero to Bain Capital.

In a recent trading update Rolls said it was likely to hit the 1.3billion cost savings goal by the end of this year. The company has also made huge progress with a long-running project to build mini nuclear power plants that it calls small modular reactors.

The SMR project has been separated into a standalone company called Rolls-Royce SMR last year, in which Rolls has an 80 per cent holding. A Rolls spokesman said: 'All large organisations regularly review the market to identify future talent and it is one of the board's duties to ensure we have robust succession plans for senior roles. If there were any actual changes, we would of course make an announcement to the stock exchange.
The boss of the London Metal Exchange is leaving less than a year after his drive to shut its famous trading floor failed.

Matthew Chamberlain will step down from the City institution at the end of April to run an obscure crypto-currency startup.

Komainu, which is headquartered in Jersey, stores crypto-currencies such as bitcoin for investors to keep them safe. It was founded in 2018 and raised 18.5m last year.

Vocal: The exchange runs one of the last 'open-outcry' marketplaces in Europe

It will mark a drastic change for Chamberlain, who has headed the 145-year-old LME since 2017.

The exchange runs one of the last 'open-outcry' marketplaces in Europe, where traders bark 'buy' and 'sell' orders to one another around a circular red leather sofa and setting global prices for industrial metals such as copper and aluminium.

Chamberlain, who has worked in mergers and acquisitions at Citibank and UBS, said he believes digital currency technologies 'will only deliver their true potential when robust infrastructure exists to make them easily and reliably available to all those who wish to participate in this unprecedented period of financial democratisation'.
Workers build an expressway which bypasses Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Jan. 4, 2022.

Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.(Xinhua)

DHAKA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.

The country's first road public-private partnership (PPP) initiative is 60 percent controlled by China's Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, with local actors Unique Dream Consultants and Shamim Enterprises holding the remainder. The Dhaka Bypass Expressway Development Company has financing agreements with the China Development Bank (CDB) and Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Ltd (BIFFL).

Yang Jian, a project manager working in Bangladesh, told Xinhua that 70 percent of the initial work had been completed. The bridge pile foundation is 50 percent completed. "In 2024, we will complete the whole expressway," he said.

Nearly 1,000 local people are working -- a number set to double -- alongside the Chinese staff. After the completion of the highway, traffic from north to south in Dhaka will be greatly eased, improving local economies in the road's immediate hinterland and boosting development across the country.

"Our Chinese partners are using the latest technology. I'm learning a lot. All the equipment is of very high quality. We ensure safety first and then work. Here safety always comes first," said Nahid Hasan, a local engineer working on bridges.

"I'm getting a good salary. I'm not having any problems," he added.

Deputy general manager Yang Xu said the construction work started in 2021 following a completion of 412 million U.S. dollars of financing in April.

"We have brought the best technology and have trained local technicians, which will be good for future projects," he said. 

A Chinese engineer (2nd R) gives instructions as workers build an expressway which bypasses Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Jan. 4, 2022.

Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.(Xinhua)

Workers build an expressway which bypasses Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Jan. 4, 2022.

Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.(Xinhua)

A Chinese engineer (2nd R) gives instructions as workers build an expressway which bypasses Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Jan. 4, 2022.

Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.(Xinhua)

Workers build an expressway which bypasses Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Jan. 4, 2022.

Work on a joint Chinese-Bangladeshi venture to build a transformational highway bypassing Bangladesh capital Dhaka is well underway.

The mega expressway will link the industrial belts around Dhaka with the seaport at Chattogram and the northeastern Sylhet region, bypassing the congested capital. Around 400 million U.S. dollars will be spent on the four-lane artery.(Xinhua)
The doctor boyfriend of socialite Emma Steel has been referred to the health care regulator after he was filmed performing liposuction on a patient while swaying to the Dolly Parton song Jolene.

The Medical Council of NSW had already indicated it would place restrictions on how Dr Alireza Fallahi was able to practise but he was still allowed to undertake cosmetic surgery procedures.

It has now referred Dr Fallahi to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission which has the power to take disciplinary action through the state's Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Dr Fallahi has been dating former model Emma Steel since shortly after a magistrate found she had wrongly accused her neurosurgeon ex-husband Dr Tim Steel of assault 18 months ago.

The cosmetic surgeon boyfriend of socialite Emma Steel has been referred to the health care regulator after being filmed performing liposuction on a patient while swaying to the Dolly Parton song Jolene. Dr Alireza Fallahi is pictured with Ms Steel at Coogee earlier this month

Dr Fallahi was one of three medical practitioners filmed performing liposuction on an unconscious patient while Dolly Parton's 1973 hit Jolene played at the Surry Hills Day Hospital

The Steels were embroiled in a headline-grabbing court case in which she also claimed the father of her two daughters was stingy with money despite him paying her a $24,000 monthly allowance.

Dr Fallahi was one of three medical practitioners filmed dancing to Dolly Parton's 1973 hit Jolene while performing liposuction on an unconscious patient at Sydney's Surry Hills Day Hospital.

While the Lamborghini-driving medico swayed to the music, another doctor and an anaesthetist danced in a video which was first aired by Four Corners late last year.

The two doctors were shown thrusting cannulas - hollow surgical rods - in and out of the patient as the instruments sucked fat out of his body.

At the time the video was taken Dr Fallahi was employed by disgraced dermatologist Daniel Lanzer, who operated under the unregulated title of 'cosmetic surgeon'.

Dr Lanzer recently retired amid an investigation into his conduct and performance by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

During a four-day court hearing in July 2020 Ms Steel accused the father of her two daughters of financial abuse despite him giving her an allowance of up to $24,000 a month

Dr Fallahi and Ms Steel were first linked weeks after she accused Dr Steel of having assaulted her in November 2019. Dr Steel was cleared of all charges. The former couple is pictured

Dr Fallahi obtained his medical degree from the Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2006 and does not have any other qualifications listed by the AHPRA.

The Farsi speaker is not a plastic surgeon and does not claim to be.

According to an online profile, Dr Fallahi has a passion for 'aesthetic medicine and surgery'.

'He has been working alongside world-renowned industry leaders for over 10 years and has trained in a variety of medical and surgical fields,' the profile states.

'His passion for enhancing each patient's anatomy means that every treatment is individualised to provide the best possible tailored results.'

A complaint that Dr Fallahi's conduct in the Jolene video was unsafe and would be poorly perceived by the public was heard by a Medical Council urgent interim action panel on January 14.

The council declined to suspend Dr Fallahi's ability to practise but imposed conditions on his registration on Tuesday this week.

A complaint that Dr Fallahi's conduct in the video was unsafe and would be poorly perceived by the public was heard by the Medical Council of New South Wales on January 14

'The Medical Council has taken this action to protect the health and safety of the public and to maintain public confidence in the medical profession,' a council spokesperson said.

'The Council does not have the legal power to cancel a NSW medical practitioner's registration.'

The conditions include that Dr Fallahi conduct cosmetic surgery only while under direct supervision. He must also provide the council with a monthly record of such procedures.

'The Council will also be referring the practitioner to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission for investigation as is required by law,' the spokesperson said.

'The Commission has the power to make an application for disciplinary action against medical practitioners in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.'

While the Medical Council of NSW declined to suspend Dr Fallahi from practising it has placed some restrictions on him regarding supervision while performing cosmetic surgery

'By law, the Council cannot release any further details about this decision, including the reasons or any details about the complaints that were the genesis for this regulatory action.'

Dr Fallahi - who intends appealing against the restrictions - is being represented by solicitor Paul McGirr, who acted for Dr Steel in the case against his ex-wife.

Mr McGirr, who appeared before the Medical Council, told Daily Mail Australia there was no evidence of his client engaging in wrongdoing in the Jolene video.

'There was nothing to suggest it was unsafe in any way whatsoever,' Mr McGirr said. 'There was nothing to suggest the patient wasn't happy with the procedure.

'There was nothing in the fact that my client moved his body in apparent rhythm to the music that suggested he wasn't completing his job professionally.'

The operation in the video had been successful and involved the removal of seven litres of fluid over three and a half hours.

Mr McGirr submitted that liposuction was an aggressive procedure which required the vigorous application of force seen in the video.

Dr Falllahi was represented at the Medical Council of NSW by solicitor Paul McGirr, who acted for Dr Tim Steel when his ex-wife Emma Steel accused him of assault. Mr McGirr is pictured

It did not require a doctor performing the procedure to watch the cannula's entry point at all times. In essence, the surgeon's hands were his or her eyes.

'My client gave evidence that his right hand moves the rod while his left hand moves around the stomach region,' Mr McGirr said. 'He does a lot of it by feel.

'Therefore he doesn't have to have his eyes on the area for the entirety of the operation. It's not practical and it's not required.'

According to an online profile, Dr Fallahi has a passion for 'aesthetic medicine and surgery'

Mr McGirr had made a concession on his client's behalf that the public might perceive 'moving to the rhythm of the music' during surgery 'wasn't a good look'.

He said the patient had made no complaint and it was not unusual for medical practitioners to perform such procedures with music in the background.

'He wasn't listening to Motley Crew's Kickstart My Heart, it was Dolly Parton's Jolene,' Mr McGirr said.

Dr Fallahi was photographed enjoying a romantic date with Ms Steel at Coogee in Sydney's eastern suburbs on January 9.

Ms Steel wore an ankle-length red cut-out dress as she and Dr Fallahi took her pet Pomeranian for a stroll.

Days later her former husband was pictured holidaying with their two daughters and the children's nanny on Queensland's Hayman Island.

Also with Dr Steel - who Daily Mail Australia understands is single - was Ms Steel's adult son Jack from her first marriage to champion jockey Shane Dye.

Jack Dye had given evidence for his stepfather when Ms Steel wrongly claimed Dr Steel had punched, slapped and kicked her in their home at Bellevue Hills in Sydney's eastern suburbs in December 2019.

Neurosurgeon Dr Tim Steel (right), whose ex-wife Emma Steel wrongly accused him of assault two years ago, was pictured holidaying on Hayman Island with the former couple's two daughters in January. With them was the girls' nanny (centre) and Ms Steel's son Jack Dye (left)

Dr Fallahi and Ms Steel were first linked weeks after she accused Dr Steel of assault during a four-day hearing held in Downing Centre Local Court in July 2020. The Steels had separated months earlier.

Charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and damaging property were thrown out after magistrate Vivien Swain found inconsistencies in Ms Steel's evidence.

Ms Steel told the court her husband gave her $10,000 a month for personal expenses and $10,000 to run their household but sometimes the total sum was up to $24,000.

The onetime television presenter nonetheless claimed she was the victim of ongoing financial abuse, which Ms Swain dismissed.

Dr Steel, a senior neurosurgeon at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, had been unable to practise due to the charges against him but has since returned to work.
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The family of the Jewish businessman accused of betraying 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank to the Gestapo believes that he may be innocent.

Arnold van den Bergh's granddaughter is said to be 'upset' that his reputation has been wrecked by the bombshell allegations.

A crack team of cold case researchers believe that they solved the 77-year mystery and named Mr van den Bergh as the man who tipped off the Nazis about the Frank family's secret hiding place in Amsterdam during World War Two.

They said he handed over addresses of Jewish safehouses to find favour with the Germans to stop his family being sent to concentration camps.

But his granddaughter believes that, although she is 'ashamed' of the claims, she says there are inconsistencies in the evidence which mean it is far from certain that he betrayed the Frank family.

She says that Mr van den Bergh, his wife and their three daughters were all already in hiding at separate locations at safe houses with the resistance by 1944 when Anne Frank's family were caught by the Nazis and her grandfather had no motive to reveal their location.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, family friend Paul Theelen, whose grandfather hid Mr van den Bergh's youngest daughter Anne-Marie between 1943 and 1945, said: 'She is worried that this is affecting her family's good name.

'That is already the case this week. She is upset about the revelations and doesn't know if they are true or not. She did not know anything about these claims until the researchers told her about them.

'They are claiming that her grandfather betrayed Anne Frank to save his own family. But that just doesn't add up as a motive. He had three daughters and all of them were in hiding at the time.

'He was also in hiding with his wife in Laren so there was no motivation. He was an intelligent man and it is possible that he may have delayed his own deportation in 1943  but he ended up having to hide.'

The family of the Jewish businessman accused of betraying 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank to the Gestapo believes that he may be innocent. Arnold van den Bergh's granddaughter is said to be 'upset' that his reputation has been wrecked by the bombshell allegations

A crack team of cold case researchers believe that they solved the 77-year mystery and named Mr van den Bergh as the man who tipped off the Nazis about the Frank family's secret hiding place (pictured) in Amsterdam during World War Two

The astonishing claims about Mr van den Bergh were made this week in a CBS 60 Minutes documentary and in the book The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Canadian biographer Rosemary Sullivan.

He came under under suspicion from the outset because he was named as the person who betrayed Anne Frank's family in an anonymous letter sent to her father Otto soon after the end of the war.

Researchers concluded that Otto chose not to make the letter public at the time because he feared potentially encouraging antisemitism by naming a Jewish man as being responsible for the death of his iconic daughter

They also relied heavily on Mr van den Bergh having been a member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council, set up by the Nazis to oversee the Jewish population being targeted for persecution and eventual extermination.

Each council had access to supposedly full lists of local Jewish people, and there were bitter recriminations against the bodies after the war when many accused them of collaboration with their Nazi overlords.

But retired electrical engineer Mr Theelen said: 'Only a very few people on the Jewish Council survived the war, and it is quite possible that someone held a grudge against him because of the position he held and wrote the letter to Otto Frank. It could also have been a rival.

'How could he have gone to Amsterdam to inform the German authorities about the Franks when he was in hiding in Laren? He would have been captured himself.

Van den Bergh came under under suspicion from the outset because he was named as the person who betrayed Anne Frank's family in an anonymous letter sent to her father Otto (pictured with Anne on his lap and his other daughter Margot) soon after the end of the war

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, family friend Paul Theelen (left), whose grandfather hid Mr van den Bergh's youngest daughter Anne-Marie (right) between 1943 and 1944, said: 'She is worried that this is affecting her family's good name'

'Also, at the time when the Franks were arrested, it was a couple months after D-Day and it was clear to everyone that the Germans were losing the war. Why would he have chosen to betray other Jewish people when he knew the war would end soon?

'He would have been planning to go back into business and resume his life, and would not have wanted anything like this hanging over him.

'When I talked to his granddaughter on the phone, she wanted to counter what was being said about him. It is a difficult thing to do because the book and the film are out there, and it is a story which is all around the world. That means it is impossible to remove all the information.'

Mr Theelen said his grandfather's family maintained close links with Anne-Marie after the war. She was a bridesmaid at his mother's wedding, and he consequently stayed in contact with her daughter who lives in the Netherlands near the North Sea .

He believed that Mr van den Bergh might also have stirred up animosity, leading to possible retribution against him, due to his business links with German art dealer Alois Miedl who sold Jewish art treasures to the Germans including Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring.

Anne-Marie was held by the Nazis for nine days on suspicion of being a Jew after being seized at a railway station in Rotterdam on her way into hiding at the home of Mr Theelen's grandfather Leo Bastiaensen - who was a headteacher - and his family in Sprundel near the Dutch city of Breda.

She followed her father's advice by quoting Miedel's name to her captors and was eventually released, according to her daughter.

Mr van den Bergh, a prominent Jewish notary, insisted in an interview with Dutch officials after the war that Anne-Marie had been freed, simply because she did not have the letter 'J' on her papers.

MailOnline can also reveal that Mr van den Bergh lost a number of relatives in the Holocaust, potentially demolishing the theory that his family were given preferential treatment over other Jews as the war progressed.

They included his sister Zadok who died aged 61 at Auschwitz in July 1944 and a niece Millie who died aged 23 in June 1943 at an extermination camp in Sobibor, Poland.

Anne Frank famously went into hiding with her Jewish family in 1942 in the cramped annex of her father's spice warehouse at Prinsengracht 263 where they were kept alive by employees bringing them food after German troops occupied the Netherlands.

Anne-Marie was held by the Nazis for nine days on suspicion of being a Jew after being seized at a railway station in Rotterdam on her way into hiding at the home (pictured) of Mr Theelen's grandfather Leo Bastiaensen - who was a headteacher - and his family in Sprundel near the Dutch city of Breda

Anne-Marie was then hastily given a new hiding place by sympathetic locals at the home (pictured) of the Sadee family around 10 miles away in Breda

The hiding place of the house in Breda soon after it was discovered by the current owner. The owner of the three storey house who asked not to be named told MailOnline how he found the hiding place after buying the house five-years-ago

Anne-Marie hid in a gap between the original roof of the building and a new section of roof built when the house was extended in 1939. Above: An original sketch of the hiding place

She and her sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 shortly before it was liberated by Allied forces while their mother Edith starved to death in Auschwitz.

Four members of the Van Pels family and Jewish dentist Fritz Pfeffer who had been sharing the family's hideout also died in concentration camps. The only person from the annex to survive was Anne's father Otto who was liberated from Auschwitz.

He published her emotion-charged diary after the war and it became a worldwide best seller with sales of 30 million copies in 70 languages.

The identity of the person who revealed the family's hiding place has long been considered one of the most enduring mysteries of World War Two as a result of the diary's global success.

A team of investigators including retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke launched a new effort five-years-ago to try and crack the case, using modern crime-solving techniques including artificial intelligence to sort through data and original documents.

The circumstantial evidence that the researchers relied on included the fact that Mr Van den Bergh and his family had survived the war and escaped death in concentration camps.

Many Jewish families were able to temporarily buy their freedom by buying so-called Sperre-stamps on their identification papers classifying them as indispensable.

The Jewish Council was disbanded in Amsterdam by October 1943 when the Nazis began a round-up of the city's last remaining Jews including those with the stamp, and former council members.

Mr van den Bergh escaped the round-up by being granted Calmeyer status in September 1943 on the basis that one of his grandparents was a Gentile, meaning that he and his family should instead be identified as Aryan, or non-Jewish.

The move which happened 11 months before the Franks were arrested meant they had the letter 'J' for Judisch, or Jewish, removed from their identity cards which should have guaranteed their safety.

But around the same time, Mr van den Bergh's business was taken off him and given to an Aryan notary.

He is said to have been possibly humiliated by the takeover and took steps to internally sabotage the business so that it was effectively inoperable.

The new owner was allegedly so furious when he found out that he successfully lobbied the SS to reverse the decision on Mr van den Bergh's Calmeyer status.

As a result, it is believed that he and his family were forced to flee Amsterdam.

Anne Marie van den Bergh, the daughter of Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh pictured (right) as a bridesmaid at the wedding of Riet Bastiaensen, the daughter of Leo Bastiaensen, who gave her a hiding place in World War Two

Anne and her sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 shortly before it was liberated by Allied forces while their mother Edith starved to death in Auschwitz

Anne-Marie hid her Jewish background after resistance sympathisers persuaded headteacher Mr Bastiaensen and his family to hide her at their home in Sprundel.

She told outsiders a cover story that she was being sheltered because she had lost her parents in a bombing raid.

But she was she was forced to find a new hiding place shortly after D Day when Sprundel became swamped with retreating German troops.

Her host family, along with Anne-Marie, were forced to move in with another family so German soldiers could be billeted in their home. But at one point a soldier noticed her dark hair, and announced: 'Das ist eine Judin' ('This is a Jewess').

Otto Frank, pictured, strongly suggested he knew the identity of the person who had betrayed his family yet kept it quiet - possibly because whoever had done it acted out of self-preservation, according to ex-FBI investigator Pankoke

Anne-Marie was then hastily given a new hiding place by sympathetic locals at the home of the Sadee family around 10 miles away in Breda.

She was hidden in a secret cavity in the attic of the family's house, in a striking similarity to how the Franks hid in a secret annex behind a hinged bookcase in their home in Amsterdam.

MailOnline has identified the house where Anne-Marie hid for several weeks.

The current owner of the house knew that a Jewish girl was said to have been hidden in their home during the war, but had no idea that she was believed to be the daughter of Mr van den Bergh until he was informed yesterday by MailOnline.

Anne-Marie hid in a gap between the original roof of the building and a new section of roof built when the house was extended in 1939.

The owner of the three storey house who asked not to be named told MailOnline how he found the hiding place after buying the house five-years-ago.

He said: 'The people selling the house had lived there for 52 years and told me that there had been a hiding place there for a Jewish girl during the war, but they had never investigated it

'We found a tiny entrance to it covered with a heavy paving slab and wire in a section of the old roof. It was well hidden and you had to approach it over the heating pipes.

'I ended up extending a bedroom so the space is no longer there. It is incredible to find that we now possibly know the identity of the girl who was there.'

Anne-Marie is said to have returned to the Bastiaensen family when it was safe to do so after Allied forces liberated Sprundel, according to Mr Theelen.

But before she left, she was said to have argued with Mr and Mrs Sonee after they tried to ban her and their daughters from socialising with Polish and Canadian troops who had liberated the town, in case they fell pregnant.

Researchers who spent five years investigating the identity of Anne Frank's informer included retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke, an investigative psychologist, a war crimes investigator, historians and criminologists.

They used modern crime-solving techniques including artificial intelligence to sort through data and original documents, before pinpointing the most likely suspect as Mr van den Bergh who died aged 64 in London in 1950.

The researchers suggested that there was no evidence that the information given to the Germans was a list of names of Jews.

They said it was possibly only a list of addresses where Jews were known to be hiding in Amsterdam, rather than specific information about the Frank family.

The Jewish Council of Amsterdam was a body set up by the Nazis to have Jews oversee preparations for the extermination of their own minority throughout the Netherlands during World War II. Arnold van den Bergh is seated fifth from left

The book revealed how Mr van den Bergh's granddaughter met with the research team and was later shown Otto's copy of the letter which accused him.

She said she could not imagine him betraying Otto, saying: 'What would motivate someone to send such a note?... Why would someone betray others like this?'

The book went on: 'Reading the note carefully, she realized that it referred to lists, not specific people. Yes, she could imagine this.

'If indeed her grandfather gave up the Prinsengracht 263 address, it was probably just an address on an impersonal list; he didn't know who was living there.

'If in fact he had done it, she said finally, she knew it could have been for only one reason: because he was forced, because he had to save his family's lives.'

The granddaughter refused to comment directly to MailOnline, and told a reporter: 'I am sorry to say, I do not react on any press contact.'
A US man alleged to be a fugitive on the run from the FBI was found after years spent hiding in Scotland by police matching his tattoos, prosecutors have said.

The man, who goes by at least ten other aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian and Arthur Knight, appeared at a hearing in Edinburgh on Friday in a wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask, pyjamas, a dressing gown and socks.

Prosecutors said the man who appeared in court is Nicholas Rossi - the Rhode Island man wanted after fleeing the US in 2017 to evade charges involving identity theft and fraud, and a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah.

But when asked if he could confirm that his name was Nicholas Rossi, he denied it.

Rossi is accused of faking his own death before hiding in Scotland to escape sex charges, only to be arrested twice after almost dying of Covid and then missing his extradition hearing. He has now been remanded in custody.

At Friday's hearing, prosecutor Fiscal Jennifer Johnston said police and hospital staff identified the man as being Mr Rossi from tattoos on his body.

A US man alleged to be a fugitive on the run from the FBI was found after years spent hiding in Scotland by police matching his tattoos, prosecutors have said. The man, who goes by at least ten other aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian (pictured), appeared at a hearing in Edinburgh on Friday in a wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask, pyjamas and a dressing gown

Photographs obtained by officers showed that he had tattoos on his arms.

Ms Johnston said: 'They have noted tattoos - and scarring on his other arm which is believed to have come from the attempted removal of tattoos.'

She added that fingerprints had yet to be taken from the man.

The 34-year-old was first arrested on an Interpol notice on December 13 after being admitted to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) with coronavirus under the name Arthur Knight.

He was then released on bail after appearing via video link at a court hearing on December 23 on the understanding that he required more treatment.

However prosecutors told a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that he discharged himself the next day and went home to his address in West End Park Street in Glasgow.

The court heard the alleged sexual offender was then arrested a second time, on January 20 at his house, for failing to attend an extradition hearing that day.

Speaking at the hearing on Friday, Ms Johnston said Rossi's bail should be revoked as he posed 'a significant flight risk'.

She said he made several attempts to leave QEUH with oxygen canisters in December, including hiring a private ambulance and offering to pay 100 to a taxi to take him home.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday where Nicholas Rossi, who is believed to have faked his own death to escape sex assault charges in Utah, America, attended a further hearing following his arrest after he missed an extradition hearing on Thursday at the same court

A police motorcyclist escorts an ambulance thought to be carrying Nicholas Rossi

File photo dated January, 2019 of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where Nicholas Rossi, who is believed to have faked his own death to escape sex assault charges in Utah, America, was arrested by police last year while receiving treatment for coronavirus

Ms Johnston also told the court Rossi attempted to use multiple aliases, saying that a document provided by Rossi's lawyers was in the name of Nicholas Brown Knight, but when he was arrested in QEUH he was said to be using the name Arthur Knight.

She added that when police spoke to Rossi's wife, she said his name was Arthur Brown, but a marriage certificate exists which calls him Nicholas Brown.

Prosecutors also said in 2020, an anonymous email was sent to Rhode Island Media indicating that Nicholas Alahverdian, another alias of Rossi, had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that he had been cremated and buried at sea.

The court heard that since the alleged sexual offender's arrest received media attention, Police Scotland had received 'a complaint of a domestic nature to police in Essex in 2017' in relation to Rossi.

Ms Johnston told the court there is 'concern' over Rossi reoffending, 'as well as risk of flight', and that 'he cannot be trusted for bail'.

Appearing for the man, Fred Mackintosh QC said his client's health had deteriorated significantly since catching Covid, and he is at risk of death by no oxygen if he is sent to prison.

'If he goes to prison he will run a serious risk of asphyxiation in his sleep,' Mr Mackintosh said.

'His conditions are also not limited to post-Covid. He suffers from epilepsy, anxiety, depression and lower back pain.'

Mr Mackintosh also argued that his client's bail should not be revoked, adding he had previously been 'granted bail on the standard conditions and these have been complied with.

'There is no suggestion he breached them at all.'

This map shows the trail of havoc and alleged criminal behavior carried out by Nicholas Rossi across the US. The man who appeared in court in Edinburgh on Friday is allegedly Rossi, on the run from US officials for these crimes

Sheriff Alistair Noble said: 'Obviously the Crown suggestion is that the person in front of me is Mr Rossi.'

He said bail had been initially granted on the understanding that he would need to remain in hospital for 'at least a few weeks' for treatment.

He added that after seeing a medical note from a doctor at QEUH, he understood the man could receive the medical assistance he requires in prison and remanded him in custody.

'It appears to me appropriate to revoke the person's bail,' Mr Noble added, saying the man 'cannot be trusted.'

Several media outlets reported in 2020 that Nicholas Alahverdian, said to be one of Mr Rossi's many fake names, had died on February 29 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

They cited the website EverLoved.com, which said his body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.

An online obituary dedicated to Nicholas Alahverdian read: 'Nicholas Alahverdian's battle for life ended on February 29 2020.

'The children and families in the care of the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF) for whom he inspired and led through turbulent government transgressions have lost a warrior that fought on the front lines for two decades.'

It is understood the case will next call for a procedural hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on February 10 and a full hearing on whether the man should be extradited will be held at the court on February 17.

US prosecutors who are trying to extradite Rossi, who they believe was the man in court on Friday, welcomed Mr Noble's decision.

David O Leavitt, Utah County Attorney, told BBC Reporting Scotland he was 'grateful that he's in custody not only for the opportunity to be able to know that we can demonstrate that he is who he is, but also because we believe that he is a danger to Scottish women given his history'.

Prosecutors today said the man who appeared in court is Nicholas Rossi - the Rhode Island man wanted after fleeing the US in 2017 to evade charges involving identity theft and fraud, and a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah

Criminal past of Nicholas Alahverdian Date unknown: Failure to register as a sex offender in Rhode Island. Accused of separate attack which allegedly saw him kidnap and sexually assault a woman Date unknown: Accused of similar abduction and sexual assault attempt in Massachusetts 2008: Convicted of sexual assault in Ohio after an 'encounter' with a fellow student at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. In September 2008, he allegedly raped an ex-girlfriend in Orem, Utah - the allegation that led to his arrest in December 2021. July 2010: Pressures date for sex and threatens to kill himself if she doesn't comply November 2010: Quarrels with partner over dinner guests' crying baby and allegedly later assaults her 2017 : Fraud in Ohio. Former foster mom in same state accused Alahverdian of $200,000 scam which saw him allegedly take out fake credit cards and loans in her husband's name February 2020: Fakes his own death of lymphoma, with unnamed 'widow' claiming Alahverdian had been buried at sea. In July, DNA links him to 2008 sex attack in Orem, Utah - the charge which ultimately led to his discovery in Scotland December 2021: Arrested at hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, while intubated with COVID on suspicion of Utah sex attack January 2022: Set to be extradited back to the US, where Alahverdian is almost certain to face further fraud charges for faking his own death in February 2020 Advertisement

Rossi - who claimed to have died of cancer in February 2020, aged 32, before being buried at sea - is being sought over a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah.

He is accused of raping an ex-girlfriend in September 2008, with police investigating Rossi discovering he'd been reported to the police over similar alleged attacks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Utah and Ohio.

Rossi was convicted of sexual assault following an 'encounter' with another student at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.

He is suspected of carrying out multiple other sex attacks, and was also accused of a $200,000 fraud after taking out credit cards and loans in his foster mother's husband's name in Ohio, it is alleged.

Rossi divorced his second wife in 2017 after less than two years of marriage, and is also said to owe her $52,000. Both of his former spouses took out restraining orders against him after their marriage ended.

More details of his bizarre behaviour was detailed by the Providence Journal, which obtained a series of Pawtucket police reports from more than a decade ago.

One accuser told police in July 2010 that Rossi lured her to his apartment under the guise that she'd be visiting his art studio. Instead, she told cops, he took away her phone and pressed her for sex.

When she refused his advances, he told her 'if she left, he would kill himself by stabbing himself in the chest with a knife,' the outlet reported.

Rossi was taken to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Police returned to his apartment that November on a tip, and said they encountered an 'extremely upset' woman with injuries to both eyes.

The woman told cops that Rossi snapped after their dinner guests' baby began crying earlier that night, and claimed they later got into an argument which turned violent.

Rossi 'grabbed her and knocked her to the ground and held her down' and 'slapped her on the facial area,' the outlet reported.

He resisted arrest, prompting police to physically carry him out of the apartment and into the cruiser, where he repeatedly smashed his head against the metal bars while screaming 'very loudly'.

He was pepper sprayed by the arresting officers in an effort to get him to stop self-harming.

The next month, an even stranger story crossed the desk of police in Pawtucket.

A woman told police she went on a dinner date with Rossi, who picked up the tab. When they returned to his apartment and she refused his advances, he became 'enraged,' took away her cell phone, and ordered her to repay him for the meal, according to the report.

He drove her to a nearby ATM, where she withdrew $200 because 'She felt she had no choice but to give him the money, in fear of further violence.'

Before letting her go, he made her sign on camera an agreement that she 'could not pursue legal action and that the money she gave him was for therapy for him due to her violent actions and her sexual addiction.'

Alahverdian, who also goes by Nicholas Rossi, is a registered sex offender. He was convicted of two sex-related crimes in 2008. His mugshot from the sex offenders' registry is pictured

An arrest warrant was issued for Rossi in 2011 for for violating a restraining order obtained by his then-wife.

Years before the made-for-Hollywood story unfolded, Rossi was a Rhode Island political activist who claimed to be victimised by the foster system as child, and who called for changes to state law.

His tale of a man with a haunted past - who overcame adversity to become a Harvard-educated political scientist - amazed the circles he frequented, with multiple lawmakers taking pity on him.

He began working at Rhode Island's state house as a teen, when he served as an errand boy, photocopying documents and delivering papers within the building.

The charming house page was so charismatic that he nearly convinced a state representative to adopt him.

Brian Coogan, 51, said he met Rossi in 2000 while representing Rhode Island's 64th District.

Rossi has been described as both vindictive and charming, and can be seen posing in an undated photo with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Coogan told DailyMail.com that he was initially enamoured by the troubled teen - who claimed to be sexually and physically victimised in foster care - and moved to give him a permanent family after Rossi 'begged me to adopt him' shortly after meeting him in 2000.

On the day he was in court to begin adoption proceedings, Coogan said he overheard Rossi threatening a social worker, saying: 'I'll tell them you abused me, that you hit me.'

A judge later talked Coogan and his wife out of it, warning that he was 'manipulative' and prone to stealing peoples' identities.

The charge Rossi is awaiting extradition for relates to the rape of a woman in Orem, Utah who he befriended on MySpace in 2008 and later attacked, Utah County District Attorney David Leavitt told DailyMail.com.

Utah County Sheriff's Office in Provo began the hunt for Rossi in 2020 after testing old sexual assault kits.

Those had been uploaded to a national criminal database.

'At the time of his passing, the room was filled with the sounds of the end credits for the 1997 film Contact by composer Alan Silvestri, a film and score which held special meaning for Mr. Alahverdian,' the 'obituary' for Mr Rossi said

The samples which saw Rossi convicted of the Ohio sex attacks in 2008 flashed up as a match for a sexual assault said to have taken place the same year in Orem, Utah.

That case was originally closed by the lead detective without being referred to prosecutors.

They said DNA led to his capture in Scotland, although it is unclear how staff at the hospital grew suspicious of him.

'That's where we began this investigation,' Leavitt said Thursday.

'And what we found was a trail of victims from Utah to Ohio to Rhode Island, Massachusetts.

'All have very similar patterns, very similar stories.'

The Utah DA said Rossi had also fled charges in Ohio, although further details of the allegations against Rossi - who claims to be a married dad of two children - have not been shared.

He also faced fraud and extortion complaints in Utah and Ohio, the Providence-Journal reported.

It is unclear if the Ohio fraud charge is linked to the fraudulently obtained loans and credit cards.

He was convicted in Dayton, Ohio in 2008 of public indecency and sexual imposition; Rossi claimed in a 2013 civil lawsuit that the charges stemmed from accusations he masturbated in a hallway of Sinclair Community College.

Rossi/Alahverdian was described as both charming and vindictive by a former acquaintance. He is pictured in this undated photo with former vice president Mike Pence

Rossi claimed to have died in Rhode Island, where his reported passing was mourned by state representatives, with his current medical issues meaning cops were finally able to track him down and arrest him.

The Providence Journal refused to publish an obituary for Rossi after a woman claiming to be his third wife failed to provide a death certificate, having claimed that her 'spouse' was buried at sea.

The con saw a gushing obituary to Rossi posted online, which his former foster mother suspected the alleged fraudster had written himself, after recognising his writing style.

There was also a supposedly posthumous YouTube plea, uploaded three weeks after Rossi's death, asking supporters to help the former foster child push for reform of Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth, and Families.

Speaking in a croaky voice towards the end of a self-aggrandising video touting his achievements, Rossi/Alahverdian said: 'I'm Nicholas Alahverdian and I kindly ask with you to join with me in my final fight to reform DCYF.'

A local radio station's news report announcing Alahverdian's death was also uploaded to the same YouTube channel, in an attempt to underline that Alahverdian really was dead.

An memorial tribute was posted in February 2020 which claimed 'Alahverdian' had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that his last words were 'fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun'

The many aliases of an American fugitive Investigators say the suspected sex predator went by at least ten names, including: Nicholas Rossi

Nicholas Alahverdian

Nicholas Alahverdian Rossi

Nicholas Edward Rossi

Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi

Nick Alan

Nicholas Brown

Arthur Brown

Arthur Knight Advertisement

In March 2020, Rhode Island Representative Frank McCabe eulogized him as an accomplished author and child welfare reform advocate.

During his years in the custody of DCYF, he endured significant abuse, deprivation of education, neglect, and unhealthy living conditions,' McCabe said in the House Chamber. The challenges he faced throughout those years could have irrevocably changed his life.

'Instead, those hardships gave him understanding, passion and drive. More than a survivor, Nicholas endured and ultimately overcame those years in the system,'

A 'memorial' Twitter accounted purported to be run by 'Nick's widow Louise Alahverdian' appeared to exist to shut down any claims he was alive.

'More fake news about Nick is released the more the Rhode Island gov & now the FBI prove they tried to silence him,' said one tweet. 'Too late. Difference now is he is deceased & I as his wife and 20+ staff can tell his story. He left 7 manuscripts to publish. RI politics will never be the same.'

There is no evidence online that Louise Alahverdian exists, though Rossi/Alahverdian has been married twice before.
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Thousands of anti-abortion activists braved below freezing weather to parade through Washington DC on Friday for the 49th annual March for Life, with hopes higher than ever that abortion could soon be outlawed in parts of the country.

With support from Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff - who pointed out that Trump in 2020 became the first president to attend the rally - the protesters took to the streets, hopeful that the conservative-majority Supreme Court may be poised to overturn the ruling that legalized abortion in the United States 50 years ago.

'We are hoping and praying that this year 2022 will bring a historic change for life,' said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, which has been held every year since the court handed down its landmark decision.

The march is held every year on January 21 - the eve of anniversary of the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

'Years of hard work and you coming here have brought us to this place,' Mancini told the anti-abortion activists shivering on a bitterly cold day on the National Mall in Washington.

Despite the 20-degree temperatures, the crowd was in a celebratory mood as they listened to speeches by anti-abortion movement leaders, religious figures and Republican lawmakers.

Even the presence of around 40 members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front did not dampen spirits.

The group were guarded by police, as several protesters yelled: 'Go home, Nazis!'

Another, The Washington Post reported, shouted: 'Patriot Front go home!'

Photos appeared to show one woman being detained, but Metropolitan Police have not confirmed any arrests.

Anti-abortion activists march during the 49th annual March for Life in Washington

'The Future is Anti-Abortion,' read signs carried by members of the crowd, who descended on the nation's capital from across the country

Members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front are seen on Friday at the March for Life, where they were jeered by many of the other protesters and given police protection

Patriot Front came out in support of the March for Life on Friday

A woman is seen being led away after being arrested at the March for Life

Mancini said in a statement earlier this week that their group condemns their neo-Nazi supporters.

'March for Life promotes the beauty, dignity, and worth of every human life by working to end the violence of abortion,' she said.

'We condemn any organization that seeks to exclude a person or group of people based on the color of their skin or any other characteristic.'

Trump, from Mar-a-Lago, sent a message of support for the pro-life crowd: 'As you gather together today for the March for Life, I am with you in spirit!'

His fervently pro-life vice president tweeted: 'Life is Winning in America!'

Pence then reeled off the pro-life policies that the Trump administration had enacted.

'The Trump-Pence Administration was the most #ProLife Administration in history and we fought every day to protect the sanctity of human life!' he said, noting they had cut funding for reproductive centers around the world, installed conservative judges and allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood.

'Remembering this moment two years ago, when President Trump became the first ever President to attend the March for Life,' tweeted Meadows.

'Powerful.

'God bless all of you braving the cold again this year! Because of you, we will win.'

Patriot Front was condemned by the organizers of the march, who said they were not welcome

A police cordon was provided for the Patriot Front marchers on Friday

A policeman looks on as members of the white supremacist group hold aloft their flags in DC

The masked members of Patriot Front, with walkie talkies, shields and Go Pro cameras, are seen during the rally

A member of the Metropolitan Police stands guard before Patriot Front marchers

The rally came as pro-life activists are optimistic that Roe v Wade my finally be overturned.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 1 about a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks.

The court's conservative wing - which includes three justices nominated by former president Donald Trump - appears ready to uphold the Mississippi law and perhaps go further and overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion.

'In the coming months we anticipate a monumental decision from the Supreme Court,' said Julia Letlow, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana.

Joseph Scordato, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin, attended the march dressed as a medieval knight and carrying a giant cross.

'This year is more of a celebration because we know that this year is the beginning of the end of abortion in America,' he told AFP.

'The Future is Anti-Abortion,' read signs carried by members of the crowd, who descended on the nation's capital from across the country.

Laws severely restricting abortion have been passed already in multiple Republican-led states, but have been struck down for violating Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion

The nine justices of the US Supreme Court

If Roe is overturned, each of the 50 US states could potentially set its own abortion laws.

Laws severely restricting abortion have been passed already in multiple Republican-led states, but have been struck down for violating Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, typically around 22 to 24 weeks.

March for Life participants said that if Roe is toppled, it will not end their anti-abortion efforts.

'We're still going to have work to do in each individual state and make sure that life is respected and protected everywhere,' said Karlie Lodjic, 24, a member of 'Students for Life' from Washington state.

Marsha Chamberlain, 72, from Pennsylvania, said she has been attending the march since 1985 and has only missed four.

'There is light at the end of the tunnel,' Chamberlain said. 'It could be the last march and I pray that it is, that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of Mississippi and that states can decide for themselves to protect unborn people.'

Missy Martinez-Stone, 32, from Louisville, Kentucky, said she has been doing 'pro-life work' for 17 years.

'I always imagined that I would see the end of Roe versus Wade but I didn't think it'd be so soon,' Martinez-Stone said.

'But I know that that's not the end of it,' she said. 'If it's overturned on a federal level, it's just going to go back to the states. And so we still have a lot of work to do.'

Joshua Schulz, 42, from Pennsylvania, attended the march with three of his five children.

'I came here to stand in solidarity with other Americans who believe that all life is sacred,' Schulz said, 'and to pray for an end to the sin of abortion.'

Anti-abortion activists march during the 49th annual March for Life in Washington

Following the speeches on the Mall, the protestors marched to the ornate Supreme Court building.

At one point, about two dozen members of a white nationalist group known as the Patriotic Front joined the march chanting 'Strong families make strong nations.'

Before hearing the Mississippi case, the Supreme Court declined on several recent occasions to block a Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before most women even know they are pregnant.

The court, which has six conservative justices and three liberals, is to render a decision in the Mississippi case by June.

Public opinion polls have found most Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

But a segment of the population, particularly on the religious right, has never accepted Roe v Wade and has campaigned to have it overturned.
leasha Pique gave birth to son Remy three weeks ago in a Queensland hospital

A mother who recently gave birth has claimed Queensland health bosses banned her from seeing her newborn son until she returned a negative Covid test.

Caboolture Hospital, in Brisbane's north, has formally launched an investigation after Aleasha Pique, 36, was left 'broken and alone' in the maternity ward.

Just hours after Mrs Pique had given birth to her son Remy he was ripped from her arms as she informed staff her teeange daughter had been a casual contact.

She was told she needed to test negative to Covid before she could be rentuined with him.

Queensland mother Aleasha Pique has claimed Queensland health bosses banned her from seeing her newborn son until she returned a negative Covid test (pictured, with her partner)

The drama reportedly started when Mrs Pique (pictured right) informed staff at Caboolture Hospital her teenage daughter (pictured above) had been a recent casual contact of a confirmed Covid case

The new mother also claims she was informed by hospital staff her test result wouldn't be available for a few days due to a system backlog.

She claims she begged for an rapid antigen test but was refused, leaving her sobbing and unsure of when she will see her newborn again.

Pique spent the entire day in agony waiting for her results.

Hours after her son was taken from her she fianlly returned a negative Covid result.

Pique's horrible experience contrasts Queensland Health's policy, which always looks to keep mother and baby together - even if the mother has Covid.

'Everything about Remy's arrival was destroyed by a decision made by the Covid team at the hospital. They declared that he needed to be separated from me,' Pique told the Courier Mail.

The mother was then separated from her son Remy - and was also told no rapid antigen tests were available (pictured, the hospital in Brisbane's north)

'Even the nurses were horrified. One said to me 'I'm so sorry, I'm ashamed to work here. This kind of thing should only happen in movies'.

When she then confirmed she was breastfeeding, she said on-duty staff stated they would instead feed Remy, who was born three weeks ago.

She has since been referred to a psychologist by her GP as she refuses to leave Remy's side.

Kellie Wilton, from the Australian College of Midwives, was stunned by Pique's claims.

She labelled the situation as 'traumatic', before acknowledging hospitals are under daily pressure to remain Covid safe.

A spokesperson from Queensland Health confirmed no RAT tests were available at the hospital when the baby was born.
The University of Rhode Island is revoking honorary degrees bestowed upon two once-prominent advisers to former President Donald Trump: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The university's board of trustees voted Friday to revoke the degrees following internal deliberations that included a recommendation by URI President Marc Parlange.

The president of the Kingston school, which was founded in 1888, said in a statement that Flynn and Giuliani 'no longer represent' the values and standards they demonstrated when they first received the honors.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (left) and former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (right) were stripped of honorary degrees given by the University of Rhode Island to the avid Donald Trump supporters, who were pictured together in 2016

Marc Parlange, the university's president saod: 'As a civic institution, URI has the privilege and responsibility to sustain and preserve American democracy by inspiring and modeling good citizenship. Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity'

'As a civic institution, URI has the privilege and responsibility to sustain and preserve American democracy by inspiring and modeling good citizenship,' Parlange said. 'Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity.'

'After reviewing the recommendation from the President, who endorsed the committee's recommendation, the Board voted to approve the revocation of these honorary degrees,' Margo Cook, chair of the board of trustees, said in a statement

'The Board of Trustees supports the University and its mission to uphold its values, especially its commitment to intellectual and ethical leadership and fostering an environment of diversity and respect.'

Giuliani, who served as one of Trumps top legal advisers, was awarded the Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa in 2003 based on his leadership in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to URI.

Flynn, a three-star Army general, who briefly served as Trump's national security adviser before resigning following reports he misled Trump officials about his contacts with Russia, was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2014.

A spokesperson for Giuliani didn't respond to an email seeking comment, but Flynn's family released a lengthy and strongly worded statement ahead of Friday's vote in which it dismissed it as 'cowardly and corrupt.'

Giuliani was awarded the doctor of laws honoris causa in 2003 based on his demonstrated leadership in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

The University's committee noted how Giuliani participated in the January 6, 2021 rally that incited the insurrection on the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

'With this flawed and crooked action, URI endorses the destructive and tyrannical cancel culture, bowing down to the woke mob and repressive forces, while revealing itself to lack the intellectual capacity, fortitude or integrity that is required of an American public university in the 21st century,' the family statement read in part.

The university board cited a number of findings by URI's honorary degree committee, which is made up of faculty, staff and students, that led to its decision.

For Flynn, it noted, among other things, that he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

The Rhode Island native and 1981 URI graduate was pardoned by Trump in 2020.

Flynn, who has a home in nearby Newport, had been a decorated general who became director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under former president Barack Obama in 2012, retiring two years later.

He became a loyal supporter of Trump, who appointed him to be his national security adviser. He resigned after just 22 days after it was revealed that he misled the administration about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the US.

Trump pardoned Flynn after he pled guilty to lying to the FBI.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and last year called for a coup similar to what occurred in Myanmar to take place in the United States

Flynn, who was a 1981 graduate of the university and a three-star Army general, was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2014

The URI decision also cited two speeches Flynn gave  one in Dallas in which he said 'a military coup was needed in the U.S.' and another in San Antonio in which he 'called for the establishment of 'one religion' in the U.S.'

For Giuliani, the university concluded that his words 'encouraged domestic terrorist behavior' that led to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

'His words encouraged domestic terrorist behavior aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election,' it said.

It also noted he has been suspended from practicing law in the District of Columbia and New York for making 'unfounded claims of rampant fraud during the 2020 presidential election.'
A cargo ship will make history when it transports Australia's first shipment of liquid hydrogen, in a landmark move in the fight against climate change.

The Suiso Frontier, will depart the Port of Hastings in Victoria next week en-route to Japan with the world's first ever cargo of liquified hydrogen from the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project in the La Trobe Valley.

Under the HESC project Victorian brown coal will be converted to hydrogen using a gasification process before it is loaded onto the Suiso Frontier for exporting.

The Suiso Frontier, will depart the Port of Hastings in Victoria next week en-route to Japan with the world's first ever cargo of liquified hydrogen (pictured, the Susio Frontier arrives at the Port of Hastings in Victoria on Thursday)

The $500million project is being led by a mix of Japanese and Australian companies including Japans energy giant J-Power, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Shell and AGL.

The ship will undergo a two-week journey to Kobe, loaded with Australian-made hydrogen, in a world-first shipment of liquid hydrogen to hit an international market.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the initiative as a 'world-first that would make Australia a global leader' in the hydrogen industry.

'A successful Australian hydrogen industry means lower emissions, greater energy production and more local jobs,' Mr Morrison said in a statement on Friday.

'The HESC project puts Australia at the forefront of the global energy transition to lower emissions through clean hydrogen, which is a fuel of the future.'

The project has received $100 million from both the Victorian and federal governments.

The ship will undergo a two-week journey to Kobe marking the first time the world has seen a shipment of liquid hydrogen transported to an international market.

An additional $7.5m in funding was also announced to support the $184m next stage of the project which aims to make 225,000t of carbon-neutral hydrogen each year.

Another $20m has also been pledged for the next phase of the CarbonNet project.

This would reduce global emissions by 1.8m tonnes a year, according to the Morrison government.

Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the Suiso Frontier's arrival was a huge milestone in Australia's commitment to reducing emissions.

'The HESC project has the potential to become a major source of clean energy which will help Australia and Japan both reach our goals of net zero emissions by 2050,' he said.

However, the initiative has been criticised for using a coal-based process when cleaner and renewable methods can be used to produce hydrogen.

Under the current process only three tonnes of hydrogen can be produced per year from 160tonnes of brown coal.
The Government is seeking an injunction against the BBC over a potentially explosive story about a spy working overseas, it was revealed late last night.

Attorney General Suella Braverman is set to ask the High Court to gag the upcoming news broadcast, claiming it presents a 'risk to people's lives', while one source warned: 'This is not James Bond - these are real people.'

But the BBC wants to go ahead with the segment, claiming the story is 'overwhelmingly in the public interest' and 'fully in line' with its editorial standards.

The saga is reminiscent of the Spycatcher book affair from the Margaret Thatcher years - which saw the Government attempt to prevent newspapers from publishing allegations made in a tell-all novel by former MI5 agent Peter Wright. They eventually lost their bid for an injunction in 1988.

Ahead of a secret court hearing in the coming days, a source told the Telegraph there will be 'huge disquiet' should the BBC news piece go ahead.

They told the newspaper: 'It is really serious  there are serious risks. The programme would be a massive compromise for our security.'

Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured) is set to ask the High Court to gag the upcoming news broadcast, claiming it presents a 'risk to people's lives', while one source warned: 'This is not James Bond - these are real people.'

The BBC wants to go ahead with the segment, claiming the story is 'overwhelmingly in the public interest' and 'fully in line' with its editorial standards (file photo)

The saga is reminiscent of the Spycatcher book affair from the Margaret Thatcher years - which saw the Government attempt to prevent newspapers from publishing allegations made in a tell-all novel by former MI5 agent Peter Wright (pictured). They eventually lost their bid for an injunction in 1988.

How the British Government failed to gag Spycatcher, the explosive memoirs of a MI5 agent which claimed a former boss of the secret service was actually a Soviet mole The Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher attempted to stop newspapers from publishing allegations from a tell-all novel by former MI5 agent Peter Wright. They first launched a legal battle in 1985, when they attempted to stop the book - entitled Spycatcher - from being published in Australia. But it lost the action and by late 1987 the book had gone global and was the number one bestseller in the US after 400,000 copies flew off the shelves. And while the Government had succeeded in placing a temporary injunction on the book's details being published in Britain, its publication around the world made the gagging order in the UK practically worthless. It was therefore ruled that the media could publish extracts from the memoirs, given that any damage to national security had already been done by its publication abroad. Mr Wright was branded a 'traitor' by some for disclosing secrets about how MI5 operated. The controversial book accused the secret service of operating beyond the law - while intelligence bosses accused the former agent of making up stories. The MI5 website still reads today: 'An internal MI5 assessment found convincing evidence of dishonesty on the part of Wright, who did not scruple to invent evidence where none existed to support the conspiracy theories in his memoirs.' The book sensationally claimed Prime Minister Harold Wilson was the target of an MI5 conspiracy and that the former boss of MI5, Roger Hollis, was a mole for Soviet Russia in the 1960s. Mr Wright died a millionaire, aged 78, in April 1995. Advertisement

Identifying the spy concerned would have 'very serious consequences for the BBC' and would be 'a risk to people's lives', the source continued, adding: 'These people are doing very, very difficult jobs in incredible circumstances.

'They are risking their lives. This is not James Bond  these are real people.'

The BBC declined to comment on the details of the story, but told the Telegraph that its reporting was in the public interest.

A BBC spokesman said: 'The Attorney General has issued proceedings against the BBC with a view to obtaining an injunction to prevent publication of a proposed BBC news story.

'We are unable to comment further at this stage, beyond confirming that we would not pursue any story unless it was felt it was overwhelmingly in the public interest to do so and fully in line with the BBC's editorial standards and values.'

MailOnline has contacted the broadcaster for further comment.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said: 'The Attorney General has made an application against the BBC.

'It would be inappropriate to comment further while proceedings are ongoing.'

But one legal expert warned the Government that it must show the planned story will prove a 'credible threat to national security' if it is published - or it will risk accusations of abusing the courts.

Geoffrey Robertson QC told the Telegraph: 'The British judiciary remains fairly amenable to government claims of national security  which is the most frequent bogus claim that is brought.

'Because it is dealt with in secrecy, claims that would otherwise be laughable are taken seriously by a judiciary which is not disposed to challenge the Government on this issue.'

It has been 15 years since the Government attempted to gag the BBC, after Labour's Lord Goldsmith was granted an injunction over cash-for-honours allegations back in 2007.

That particular claim was successful because it proved that a broadcast of confidential information would have harmed a Metropolitan Police inquiry.

The latest injunction bid comes just days after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced she was was freezing the licence fee for the next two years in the latest souring of relations between the Government and the BBC.

The Liverpudlian MP also threatened to stop the vital fee altogether in a social media post - leaving the broadcaster with a potential funding black hole running into the billions.

The latest injunction bid comes just days after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries (pictured) announced she was was freezing the licence fee for the next two years in the latest souring of relations between the Government and the BBC

If the High Court approves the latest gag order, it will have to decide whether to make it a full or temporary injunction - although the BBC will be able to appeal the ruling.

The judge will produce a redacted judgement for those who do not have security clearance to read the sensitive details i.e. the wider public and news organisations.

The court battle will see the BBC's right to freedom of expression weighed up against the potential threat to national security.
Questions have been raised about why Mark McGowan chose to delay opening Western Australia's borders.

The WA Premier on Thursday sensationally axed his vow to reopen his state to the rest of the country on February 5, with no date now set for free travel to resume.

Mr McGowan credited the Covid situations happening on the east coast of Australia for his reasoning, while claiming the decision was backed by the Australian Medical Association.

However, there appear to be inconsistencies with his reasons behind the move which has been widely criticised by many around the country.

WA Premier Mark McGowan on Thursday sensationally axed his vow to reopen his state to the rest of the country on February 5, with no date now set for free travel to resume

The AMA were forced to reveal they did not support the decision after Mr McGowan said it was 'endorsed' by the organisation.

AMA WA president Mark Duncan-Smith has since called on the premier to urgently set a date for when the borders would finally open up.

'AMA WA does not believe that an open-ended delay is good for any individuals or the psychological wellbeing of our society,' he told The West Australian.

'We call on the Government to set a date so that there can be a degree of certainty within this uncertainty and so that people at least have a hope and a direction.'

He said the 'surprise' decision would leave the community divided and said the government should instead impose harsher restrictions.

Mr McGowan credited the Covid situations happening on the east coast of Australia for his reasoning, while claiming the decision was backed by the Australian Medical Association (pictured in Perth)

'Many of our front-line members are relieved, including our GPs, that more time will be available to prepare. Many other of our members are bitterly disappointed and angry about the decision, with their focus on being able to rejoin and be with their loved ones,' Mr Duncan-Smith said.

Poll DO YOU AGREE WITH MCGOWAN'S DECISION? Yes No DO YOU AGREE WITH MCGOWAN'S DECISION? Yes 1279 votes

No 3561 votes Now share your opinion





The decision to hold off reopening was also slammed by the Australian president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Omar Khorshid.

'Gutted ... seems Mark McGowan is a one-trick pony when it comes to Covid-19,' he said on Twitter.

'This decision should be acknowledged as a failure by the WA government to prepare and a broken promise.'

Dr Khorshid said WA could not stick its head in the sand, with an outbreak in the state inevitable.

Another reason Mr McGowan credited for the border opening delay was the amount of deaths being recorded in neighbouring South Australia.

'South Australia had 11 people die today, back when they opened they were COVID-free like us, so that's the sort of thing we're doing our best to avoid,' he said.

But SA Premier Steven Marshall said the 11 deaths announced on Thursday were possibly a backlog.

The state's Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said it was possible the 'unusually high number' of deaths had been accumulated over several days.

'There is no urgent reporting requirement from residential aged-care facilities into SA Health related to COVID, and so sometimes there's a bit of a catch up,' Mr Marshall said.

WA Premier claimed hospitals were struggling to cope with Covid patients but Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday saying hospitals were in fact 'coping' amid the outbreak (pictured resident in Perth)

The WA premier also claimed hospitals around the country were struggling to cope with the demands of patients infected with Covid.

This is despite Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday saying hospitals were in fact 'coping' amid the outbreak.

'These are levels of coping that have been agreed with the States and Territories in our common operating picture through the National Cabinet, and so in terms of hospitalisations right across the country, that's still green, in a green-orange-red traffic light system,' Professor Kelly said.

'In terms of intensive care, there is pressure, so several States are showing amber and are taking action appropriately for that, and Victoria has been in that higher level of red for the last couple of weeks.'

Mr Kelly added Victoria was still only at 33 per cent capacity in ICU.

Western Australia has recorded seven new local Covid-19 cases despite slamming its border shut to the rest of Australia (pictured, Cottesloe Beach, WA)

Mr McGowan also wrongly said the first case of the Omicron strain was detected in Australia on December 8.

'Unfortunately, the world changed in December; Omicron arrived,' he said.

'We can't just shut our eyes and hope that it is different.'

NSW Health announced the new strain had been detected in two returning travellers on November 27.

The Premier's office told The West he had been given the wrong information.

Following his border announcement, Mr McGowan said a strict mask mandate will also now go into effect for Australia Day requiring residents to wear face coverings both indoors and outside unless eating and drinking.

The state will instead open in stages with a expanded list of exemption criteria (pictured)

The premier initially said the state would reopen its border when the vaccination rate hits 90 per cent. WA is now at 89 per cent.

But the state Labor government now say they they won't be relying on double-dose vaccination targets any more.

Instead, the take-up of booster shots will determine when the state finally throws its doors open, with 70 per cent triple-vaxxed now the new target.

But this could take several months with only 27 per cent of the state's residents having received a booster vaccination.

'When we made the decision in December to open February 5, we said we would open if there was not an emergency and a catastrophe,' Mr McGowan said.

'In eastern states, we have now both an emergency and a catastrophe.'
A young British astrophysicist was shot dead in bed with his girlfriend when a stray bullet smashed through the wall of her apartment.

Matthew Willson, 31, was hit in the head by a shot fired from around 780ft away  moments after being woken by the sound of 'rapid gunfire' as he slept alongside his American partner Katherine Shepard, 26.

Dr Willson, described by his family as a 'beautiful soul', had only arrived in the US two days earlier to be reunited with his girlfriend of three years, who he had met while studying for his post-doctorate at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Devastated Miss Shepard told the Daily Mail of the moment she realised he had been hit after hearing up to 50 shots outside the building.

'I was kneeling on my bed looking out of the window to see if I could see anything,' she said.

Devoted: This is the last picture taken of Matthew Willson with his girlfriend Katherine Shepard after he flew to America to see her. The 31-year-old was hit in the head by a shot fired from around 780ft away  moments after being woken by the sound of 'rapid gunfire' as he slept alongside Miss Shepard

Devastated Miss Shepard told the Daily Mail of the moment she realised he had been hit after hearing up to 50 shots outside the building. 'I was kneeling on my bed looking out of the window to see if I could see anything. I felt the bed move  Matt was possibly getting up  and there was a tiny explosion in our room,' she said. (Above, the apartment block where the couple were sleeping)

'I felt the bed move  Matt was possibly getting up  and there was a tiny explosion in our room.

'Then I heard Matt's breathing change and I asked if he was OK.'

She said it was when he started to slump over that she turned on the light: 'I saw he'd been shot in the head and screamed.'

As her flatmate called the emergency services, Miss Shepard tried to administer first aid.

When an ambulance arrived 20 minutes later, shots were still ringing out from an area near a car park about 780ft away.

'I knelt on the bed holding a towel to his head and talking to him and shaking him whenever he started closing his eyes,' Miss Shepard said.

'He looked like he was looking at me but he wasn't talking at all and he was struggling to breathe and would occasionally start shaking. I just felt panic.'

Dr Willson was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning but he was pronounced dead on Tuesday.

He lived in Chertsey, Surrey, with his parents and worked remotely for the University of Liege as a post-doctoral researcher.

The death is being investigated as a homicide, but investigators said Dr Willson was not a target.

Police said: 'The incident appears to be a random act involving individuals participating in the reckless discharge of firearms.'

Miss Shepard last night demanded justice, saying: 'I think they should go to prison for the rest of their lives.

'I can't stand the thought they might not even know what they've done and they're still out there.'

Dr Willson's family have offered an undisclosed cash reward for any information.

'I knelt on the bed holding a towel to his head and talking to him and shaking him whenever he started closing his eyes,' Miss Shepard said. Dr Willson was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning but he was pronounced dead on Tuesday

His devastated sister Kate, 28, who flew to Atlanta from her home in Sweden to be by his hospital bedside, last night said: 'We want justice for Matthew. We have been robbed of him because someone was playing around with a gun, there is no logic to it.

'It is such a senseless act and that has taken Matthew away from us.

'He had so much to give and he wanted a family and to settle down and all of that with Katherine who is part of our family.'

Paying tribute to her brother, she added: 'He was such a wise and joyful person, such a beautiful soul. He was a real light in the world. I got here on the Monday and got to say goodbye.

'He was already gone but I got to say goodbye to his physical presence in this world.'

The couple had been excited about reuniting after being separated since last summer  and had planned to spend three months together in the US.

Miss Willson said her parents were 'broken', adding: 'They can't even comprehend that this happened to their beautiful son.'

Miss Shepard's flatmate Aman Kar said he heard around 30 shots being fired intermittently in the space of 20 minutes.

He added: 'I heard Katherine screaming and I went into her room.

'She'd been looking out of the window and kept saying, "Matt's been shot! Matt's been shot!"'

Mr Kar said a single bullet had come through an outside wall under the bedroom window, passing through the headboard of Miss Shepard's bed and hitting Dr Willson in the head, leaving a 'giant wound'.
TAIPEI, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan reported 130 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 82 of which were locally transmitted confirmed cases, a daily record high for the year, while the other 48 were imported, the island's disease-monitoring agency told a press briefing.

Of the new local cases, 14 have been linked to recent infections reported in Kaohsiung City, 63 are employees of Askey Computer Corp.'s factory near Taoyuan International Airport, and one is a former worker of the company, the agency said.

In response to a rise in local infections, tightened disease prevention rules were announced during the press briefing, including a ban on eating and drinking on public transport that will take effect on Sunday, as well as rules regarding religious events and places of worship.

To date, Taiwan has reported 18,238 COVID-19 cases, of which 14,853 were local infections. 
The row, at Sandringham in 1999, was resolved when Queen stepped in, she said

She claimed that Andrew refused to move his toiletries from Charles' bathroom

A former Buckingham Palace maid said the Queen had to step in to resolve a row

The Queen had to step in to resolve a row after Prince Andrew took a bathroom that was reserved for Prince Charles, a former maid has claimed.

Janette McGowan, a former Buckingham Palace maid, claimed the Duke of York refused to remove his toiletries from a bathroom at Sandringham intended for his older brother.

She said the row, which took place at Christmas in 1999, was only resolved when the Queen intervened and spoke to Andrew, who was 39 at the time.

Ms McGowan, who was a housemaid from 1999 to 2000, claimed household staff were alerted to an 'ongoing situation' after the Queen's second son took a bathroom reserved for Charles, then 51.

She told The Sun: 'We were told not to move anything and not to touch anything in that bathroom because there was an 'ongoing situation'.'

Janette McGowan, a former Buckingham Palace maid, said Prince Andrew refused to remove his toiletries from a bathroom at Sandringham intended for Prince Charles (both pictured)

Ms McGowan, who had travelled to Sandringham with the family, said members of the Royal Family are allocated rooms and a bathroom at the Norfolk estate, but Andrew had taken a bathroom meant for Charles.

She said the 'bizarre stand-off' was only 'defused' when the Queen 'had words' with Andrew and tell him to use another bathroom.

Ms McGowan insisted there was 'nothing special' about the bathroom, saying it was a 'good old sibling row'.

She added: 'Charles was very grown-up about it, which is more than you can say for Andrew.'

When Ms McGowan worked at Buckingham Palace, Andrew was living permanently at the London residence, with the former maid describing him as 'spoilt'.

Ms McGowan, who went on to work for Princess Michael of Kent and the Earl and Countess of Wessex, said of the squabble: 'I think it was very petulant. He's [Andrew] very spoiled with regards to his own rights.'

MailOnline has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.

Ms McGowan said the row, which took place at Christmas in 1999, was only resolved when the Queen intervened and spoke to Andrew (both pictured with Charles), who was 39 at the time

Ms McGowan said members of the Royal Family are allocated rooms and a bathroom at Sandringham (pictured), but that Andrew had taken a bathroom meant for Charles

Meanwhile, another former maid at Buckingham Palace has spoken out about working for Andrew, calling the Duke of York 'demanding and entitled'.

Charlotte Briggs claimed on Thursday that she was 'left in tears' by Andrew's foul-mouth rants, and on one occasion faced his wrath over a tiny gap in his curtains.

Speaking to The Sun, Ms Briggs said the prince yelled at her: 'Can't you f***ing do anything right?' as she ran up and down the stairs to fix the curtains, some of which he was sitting a matter of yards away from.

'This man fought for his country in the Falklands but couldn't stand up to close his own curtains,' the 47-year-old mother of two told the newspaper.

'It was utterly ridiculous but spoke volumes about him,' she added.

By comparison, Ms Briggs said that the Duke's brothers Charles and Edward, as well as other royals she encountered during her time at the palace, were 'wonderful'.

She began working at Buckingham Palace in 1996 when she was 21, but within six months was tasked with being Andrew's maid; a job that 'nobody wanted,' she said.

She was paid 600 a month and in 1996, she was even pictured on the royal balcony ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony, according to The Sun.

At the time, Andrew was 36 and had recently divorced from Sarah Ferguson. He would frequently fly off the handle and expected everything to be done for him.

Ms Briggs, from Halifax, broke her silence to The Sun after Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles amid a sex assault lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre in the United States.

Meanwhile, another former maid at Buckingham Palace has spoken out about working for Andrew, calling the Duke of York (pictured) 'demanding and entitled'

Ms Giuffre claims she was trafficked by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to have sex with the prince three times when she was a teenager. The Duke of York vehemently denies the allegations.

The Queen stripped Andrew of his royal titles, and as he is facing calls to be evicted from the Royal Lodge in Windsor where he currently lives with his ex-wife Ferguson.

He must now fight claims of rape and sexual assault in the US courts as a private citizen.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Andrew could lose his round-the-clock police protection as early as next month after he was exiled as a frontline royal.

Sources said a full review of his security is being carried out by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.

Andrew, who remains ninth in line to the throne, has so far been allowed to keep his taxpayer-funded police bodyguards at a cost to the public purse of an estimated 2-3million a year.

This has sparked intense public debate, particularly because his nephew, Prince Harry, was stripped of his police protection when he quit as a working royal in 2020 and moved to the United States.

'Although no-one will comment on it publicly, this is an issue that is now actively being discussed by the Met's Royal and VIP Executive Committee,' a source told the Daily Mail.

'The situation [as regards Harry] is awkward and may prompt a decision sooner rather than later. If Harry, who is no longer a working royal, does not get security in the UK, then why should Andrew?'

Andrew, who lives in 30-room Royal Lodge on the Queen's Windsor estate, will always benefit from the round-the-clock protection that comes with living in proximity to a royal residence.

It comes after Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles amid a sex assault lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre (pictured) in the United States

But it is the security that accompanies him away from the estate that will be under discussion.

His children, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, had their official royal security taken away several years ago following public outrage at their globe-trotting antics, which saw officers regularly follow them on trips abroad.

His ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, who still lives with him, has not officially had any taxpayer-funded security since they divorced in 1996.

Other royals including Princess Anne and Prince Edward have had their security scaled back, while royal grandchildren including Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips have never had it as adults.

Neither the Metropolitan Police nor the Home Office would comment last night, nor would a representative for Andrew.

Dai Davies, a former head of royal security at Scotland Yard, said of Andrew possibly losing his bodyguards: 'It is a big step, although the likely risk is small, and there would be strong arguments to be made that he does not require "PPO" [personal protection officer] status if he is no longer a working royal.'
In one week, Karen and Mike Malherbe will essentially be homeless.

When the pair sold their NSW Illawarra home and bought a new one near Busselton, in Western Australia, they were elated.

The move west would reunite them with family for the first time in three years.

They would also be able to meet their first grandchild and be there to welcome their second.

'We were so excited,' Ms Malherbe told AAP.

But their excitement soon turned to despair, after the West Australian premier in a late-night press conference on Thursday announced the state's borders would not open as planned on February 5.

Instead they will remain shut to domestic travellers indefinitely.

Karen and Mike Malherbe face homelessness after selling up in NSW and buying a new home in Western Australia to be closer to family - but with borders not re-opening from February 5, they are now in limbo

The backflip from WA Premier Mark McGowan to backflip on borders re-opening has enraged many Australia residents

Mark McGowan had promised to reopen the borders once the state's double-dose vaccination rate reached 90 per cent. It is now 89 per cent.

The backflip shattered the Malherbes, who now have to wait even longer to hug their grandson for the first time.

'We're not seeing any of the milestones, the talking and the walking, and we've never even held him,' she says.

'I'm so upset that I didn't sleep all night long. I'm on the brink of tears still.'

But adding to their distress is the fact they have to be out of their house by Friday, and now have no idea when they will be able to move into their new one in WA.

Travel is currently limited to returning West Australians, a small class of approved travellers like parliamentarians, and those travelling on compassionate grounds - for funerals or to see dying relatives.

The state emergency co-ordinator or chief health officer may also hand out special consideration exemptions in what they deem extraordinary circumstances.

Travellers must be fully vaccinated and undergo two weeks of quarantine.

But the Malherbes - who are triple-vaccinated - say they have no clue if they fit into any of those categories.

'It's all very unclear. The way forward is a mystery,' Ms Malherbe said.

'We have based our planning on the premier's previous promises, and now face a very uncertain immediate future.'

A state government spokesperson did not clarify whether the couple would be eligible for an exemption when directly asked by AAP.

'Directions for the new border settings need to be drawn up as they are tailored to the new border arrangements, and will be finalised soon,' they said in a statement.

The Malherbes have rented a motorhome, and were planning to drive through South Australia and cross the WA border on February 5.

'We have no option but to take the van, head south and west, and hope for the best,' Ms Malherbe said.

'Despite having family and owning real estate in WA, we're homeless and aimless.'

Karen and Mike Malherbe have no choice but to head towards Western Australia and 'hope for the best' - they will also be forced to live in a motorhome until the border re-opens

They face the prospect of 'hanging around' in South Australia indefinitely, as their bills mount.

'Motorhomes are quite expensive (and) that is definitely a bit daunting,' Ms Malherbe said.

'Obviously, like most people, we have finite funds.'

She appealed to Mr McGowan to change his mind, arguing the cost of keeping borders shut despite great vaccination coverage is too high.

'I just really don't understand why we're being basically banned from entering a state of our own country,' she said.

'Please reconsider.'
Civil servants working from home have been ordered to get back to their desks and make 'maximum use' of Government offices by next week.

Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay confirmed last night that departments must prepare for all staff to return in an attempt to boost the economic recovery after the pandemic.

It comes after Boris Johnson updated the Commons on the removal of Covid-19 Plan B measures and announced on Wednesday that working-from-home guidance would end with immediate effect.

In some departments, as few as 3 per cent of staff were at their desks despite the Prime Minister, pictured, urging officials to 'show a lead,' a Daily Mail audit found

He later said that 'across Whitehall we need to show a lead and make sure that we get back to work, everybody gets back to work'.

A Daily Mail audit found that only a tiny minority of civil servants were at their desks yesterday, despite the Government's pleas.

But last night Mr Barclay, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, underscored the Prime Minister's call for civil servants to lead the way amid fears that city centres have become 'ghost towns' as people continue to work from home.

'Now we are learning to live with Covid and have lifted Plan B measures, we need to move away from a reliance on video meetings and get back to the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working,' said Mr Barclay.

'I'm grateful to the Civil Service for managing the challenges of the past two years.

At the seven-floor headquarters of the Department for Education, in Westminster, a total of 63 employees were recorded  3 per cent of the 2,000 members of staff the building accommodated prior to the pandemic

'It is important that we now see the maximum use of our office space being made from next week as we build a strong recovery after the disruption of the pandemic.'

But demands that Whitehall staff resume 'normal working patterns' were immediately branded 'reckless' by union leaders.

The FDA, which represents senior civil servants, said the world of work had 'changed for good'.

In comments that sparked uproar, the union's general secretary Dave Penman added that it was 'insulting' to 'force' officials back into the office.

Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay (pictured) confirmed last night that departments must prepare for all staff to return in an attempt to boost the economic recovery after the pandemic

The offices of the Treasury, in Westminster, also house around 880 employees from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Yesterday a total of 132 people were observed entering the main entrance between 7.30 and 11am

The Government hopes the return to office working will bring economic benefits for town centre businesses, such as sandwich shops, pubs, bars and restaurants, which saw their takings destroyed during lockdowns.

It has emerged that by 2030, Whitehall may only have space for half of its civil servants under plans to slim the Government estate.

The 'State of the Estate' report, published by the Government Property Agency last month, also revealed buildings in the Whitehall 'campus' currently cost 621million a year to run.

And Mail's audit shows why he had to act

Thousands of civil servants remained away from their offices yesterday despite Government pleas for the country to 'return to normality.'

In some departments, as few as 3 per cent of staff were at their desks despite the Prime Minister urging officials to 'show a lead,' a Daily Mail audit found.

The Government has now signalled a crackdown, with civil servants ordered to return to their offices from next week.

As Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng took to the airwaves yesterday to urge people to 'get back to work', just 142 of a possible 1,800 workers were recorded turning up at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy between 7.30am and 11am yesterday.

At the seven-floor headquarters of the Department for Education, in Westminster, a total of 63 employees were recorded  3 per cent of the 2,000 members of staff the building accommodated prior to the pandemic.

One local tour guide said the nearby streets had been empty for 'weeks on end.'

Just 142 of a possible 1,800 workers were recorded turning up at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy between 7.30am and 11am yesterday

At the Department for Work and Pensions' Caxton House site, the Mail recorded just 94 employees arriving for work through the main entrance. The seven-storey building can host 1,700 staff.

The number was only a slight improvement on when reporters monitored the same building for two days in July 2020  prior to the vaccine rollout and when the virus was much more of an unknown quantity.

The offices of the Treasury, in Westminster, also house around 880 employees from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Yesterday a total of 132 people were observed entering the main entrance between 7.30 and 11am. The building holds up to 2,200 members of staff.

At the Department for Work and Pensions' Caxton House site, the Mail recorded just 94 employees arriving for work through the main entrance

One Government official defended the turnout, adding: 'We're not at full capacity yet but it is only the first day, isn't it?'

The Ministry of Justice welcomed more people back yesterday than many other departments.

But 278 people were unlikely to fill the 14 floors it shares with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Government Legal Department.

Outside London, around 3 per cent of staff were recorded arriving at the 6,500-capacity HM Revenue and Customs building in North Tyneside.

And at the large Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency HQ in Swansea, just a few hundred people were seen arriving.

Tom Hunt, the Conservative MP for Ipswich, said: 'It goes without saying that of course civil servants should get back to the office. Their justification for not doing so is at best questionable.'
The sudden death last week of a Jewish academic who was 'remorselessly bullied' on social media, who was accused of anti-Semitism by former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, is to be investigated by a coroner.

Peter Newbon, 38, a humanities lecturer at Northumbria University, was found dead last Saturday following a Twitter 'pile-on' - where a large group attacks a smaller group, or one person - which had left him feeling under pressure, according to friends, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A row had erupted last year when Dr Newbon, a father-of-three, re-posted on Twitter a doctored image of Jeremy Corbyn reading one of Mr Rosen's best-selling books to schoolchildren.

The original photograph showed the ex-Labour leader reading from We're Going On A Bear Hunt.

However, the photoshopped version saw Mr Corbyn holding Protocols Of The Meetings Of The Learned Elders Of Zion - a notorious hoax text first published in Russia in 1903 which claimed to outline a plan for world Jewish domination.

The sudden death last week of a Jewish academic who was 'remorselessly bullied' on social media, who was accused of anti-Semitism by former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, is to be investigated by a coroner. Peter Newbon (pictured with his wife, Dr Rachel Hewitt), a humanities lecturer at Northumbria University, was found dead last Saturday following a Twitter 'pile-on'

Dr Newbon, a director of the Labour Against Antisemitism activists group, wrote above the tweeted image: 'Oh no! A nasty, horrible Zionist! We can't go over him, we can't go under him, we'll have to make an effigy.'

The 'can't go over/ can't go under' phrasing mimics the style of writing used in We're Going On A Bear Hunt.

Dr Newbon had intended it as a satirical swipe at Mr Corbyn, who, in October 2020, was the first ex-Labour leader to ever be suspended by the party - after he downplayed a damning report into anti-Semitism that ruled it illegally harassed and discriminated against Jews under his leadership. The position of Mr Rosen is that he was shocked at the doctoring of his book, which he had not seen before, and considered it to be a direct attack on him and his work.

Pictured, children's author Michael Rosen. A row had erupted last year when Dr Newbon, a father-of-three, re-posted on Twitter a doctored image of Jeremy Corbyn reading one of Mr Rosen's best-selling books to schoolchildren

The original photograph showed the ex-Labour leader reading from We're Going On A Bear Hunt (above, during the reading, in 2017). However, the photoshopped version saw Mr Corbyn holding Protocols Of The Meetings Of The Learned Elders Of Zion - a hoax text first published in Russia in 1903 which claimed to outline a plan for world Jewish domination

But Mr Rosen, who is himself Jewish, and a supporter of Mr Corbyn, was upset by the doctored image of his book.

He wrote on his Twitter account on May 19 last year: 'If someone called Peter Newbon is on your pay roll, this is to inform you that he's superimposed the phrase 'The Protocols of Zion' over a page from 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' by me and Helen Oxenbury. This is a loathsome and anti-semitic thing to do.'

The message was tweeted out to Mr Rosen's 260,000 followers and to Dr Newbon's employer Northumbria University, where he was a lecturer in Romantic and Victorian literature.

The tweet which Mr Rosen posted to his 260,000 followers. Dr Newbon subsequently received hate mail during this time and, shortly before Christmas last year, he issued a defamation claim against Michael Rosen, filing papers at the High Court

As a result, the university received around 4,000 complaints. Subsequent disciplinary proceedings saw Dr Newbon get a final written warning for bringing the university into disrepute.

However, according to legal documents, the allegation that his post was anti-Semitic 'was not proven', the Telegraph reported.

Dr Newbon also received hate mail during this time and, shortly before Christmas last year, he issued a defamation claim against Michael Rosen, filing papers at the High Court.

Tributes were this week paid to Dr Newbon who leaves behind his wife, Dr Rachel Hewitt, and three girls - twins aged seven, and their elder sister, aged nine.

His wife tweeted on Tuesday: 'Pete Newbon was my best friend, my partner-in-crime, my beautiful kind husband, a brilliant reader & scholar, the best daddy in the world to our three beautiful daughters, and I just don't know how we're going to bear his loss. I'm broken into a million unbearably painful pieces.'

And Fiona Sharpe, spokesman for Labour Against Antisemitism, said: 'Words cannot express the sadness we are all feeling at his death.'

The North Yorkshire and York coroner court is due to open an inquest at a later date.
The Covid traveller testing system could be ditched for fully vaccinated holidaymakers as soon as Monday.

It is understood the rapid lateral flow test that double-jabbed arrivals must take by day two is likely to be ditched when ministers meet to discuss the rules.

The passenger locator form that holidaymakers must complete online before travelling to the UK could also be simplified.

The form has to be filled out within 48 hours of arriving in Britain but passengers have complained that it is cumbersome and asks pointless questions, such as how long returning citizens plan to stay in the country.

It is understood the rapid lateral flow test that double-jabbed arrivals must take by day two is likely to be ditched when ministers meet to discuss the rules

A meeting of the Cabinets Covid O committee will also discuss whether fully vaccinated status for travellers should mean having two or three jabs.

Ministers are understood to be considering keeping it as two until spring.

At this point, double-jabbed travellers could again become subject to needing tests and only those with a booster would be able to travel test-free.

However, destination countries may still require testing.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is understood to be pushing for the removal of all testing for the fully vaccinated.

Scrapping the day two test would give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month.

As it stands, returning double-jabbed Britons must take one rapid lateral flow test by day two. If positive, they must take a confirmatory PCR test.

Unvaccinated travellers will remain subject to multiple tests and self-isolation. It came as new scientific analysis found that travel tests have no effect in stemming the spread of imported Covid variants unless the measures are brought in within a day of the strain first being brought into the country.

Scrapping the day two test would give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month. A beach in Bodrum, Turkey is pictured above

The study by the analytics firm Edge Health and Oxera, a specialist research consultancy, found curbs can only delay the peak of a new strain by between two and eight days.

For the Omicron variant, it took the UK 16 days to detect and react to it.

The research, funded by Airlines UK and Manchester Airports Group, has been handed to ministers to support the case for scrapping remaining testing.

Airlines UK boss Tim Alderslade said: Testing restrictions for the fully vaccinated make no sense at all given the delay in governments being able to detect and act on the arrival of a new variant, as we saw with Omicron.

He added: This is something the World Health Organisation themselves have admitted. Not only do they fail to suppress the international spread of variants, they place a disproportionate burden on the travel sector and those that rely on the connectivity that aviation provides.

He added: We need to be smarter in how we deal with future variants rather than resorting to blanket but wholly ineffective measures. Otherwise, we will never be able to truly say that we are living with Covid.

Ben Bradshaw, a member of the Commons transport committee, said: Its high time the Government scrapped all testing requirements for vaccinated travellers.

These have had minimal or zero effect in controlling the virus but have done untold damage to our travel industry and caused huge problems for the public.

There is also little point in retaining the passenger locator form  a quick check of vaccine status at departure should suffice.
The multi-millionaire Tory grandee at the centre of the second jobs scandal has disclosed nearly 50,000 in extra earnings for just 34 hours work.

Sir Geoffrey Cox QC sparked fury last year after the Daily Mail revealed the former attorney general had voted in Parliament remotely while doing legal work in the Caribbean.

It earned him 5.5million as a barrister over the past decade, prompting calls for a crackdown on MPs' outside earnings.

It has now emerged that the MP for Torridge and West Devon was paid 47,387 for 34 hours of legal services provided to international law firm Withers LLP in September.

Sir Geoffrey Cox (pictured) has disclosed nearly 50,000 in extra earnings for just 34 hours work

The figures from the updated register of MPs' financial interests show he pocketed 1,393 per hour, compared to the 1,209 per hour he received in August.

Sir Geoffrey - the highest-earning MP - was reportedly working on the corruption inquiry for Withers during September last year.

The firm also pays him 400,000 a year as a 'consultant global counsel'.

Sir Geoffrey gets 81,932 per year for being an MP - a sum he'd earn in just 58 hours at his second job rate.

He was accused of breaking parliamentary rules by carrying out paid work for the British Virgin Islands inquiry in a Commons office on September 14.

Rules state MPs must not use parliamentary offices for 'personal or financial benefit'.

The revelations prompted ministers to warn MPs they could face an 'earning limit' on second jobs.

Published footage from September showed him participating in a virtual hearing from his Commons office, at one point popping out for about half an hour.

His absence correlated with a vote on the Government's health and social care funding reforms.

He later left the meeting early, saying: 'Would you forgive me for not being present this afternoon?

'I'm afraid I have compelling other commitments.

'Forgive my absence during some of the morning. I'm afraid the bell went off.'

A seeming reference to the division bell which rings in the Commons when MPs are called to vote.

At the time, a statement on his website said: 'He does not believe that he breached the rules but will of course accept the judgement of the Parliamentary Commissioner or of the Committee [on Public Standards] on the matter.

'Sir Geoffrey regularly works 70-hour weeks and always ensures that his casework on behalf of his constituents is given primary importance and fully carried out.'

Labour called for a standards investigation into his use of the office, but Commissioner Kathryn Stone declined to open one.

Sir Geoffrey and Withers were contacted for comment last night.
Radio host Charlamagne tha God has said President Joe Biden together with Democratic centrist Senators Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona are 'responsible for the death of the Democratic Party.'

Speaking on his radio show, The Breakfast Club, he proclaimed the trio to be the 'Donkey of The Day' after a push to change the Senate filibuster to pass election reform legislation was defeated in the week.

'These three are collectively responsible for the death of the Democratic Party as we know it,' Charlamagne said.

'People are asking if we are witnessing the death of of democracy in America? Well guess what, if it is, which I believe it is, for some of us, these three are to blame.'

Charlamagne tha God said on his radio show that President Joe Bide and Democratic centrist Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are to blame for the 'death of democracy'

Democrats needed 60 votes in order to end debate and initiate a vote on the legislation that would overhaul U.S. voting laws.

The package combined two separate legislative items that were already passed by the House  the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The bills would make Election Day a holiday, adjust the redistricting process and crack down on money in politics.

Despite a day of piercing debate and speeches that often carried echoes of an earlier era when the Senate filibuster was deployed by opponents of civil rights legislation, Democrats could not persuade holdout senators Sinema and Manchin to change the Senate procedures on this one bill and allow a simple majority to advance it.

Charlamagne compared the defeat of filibuster reform to the boneheaded loss suffered by the Dallas Cowboys in last Sunday's NFL playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Cowboys trailed 23-17 and were driving for the lead in the final seconds when they ran out of time before the final snap.

Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema walks outside Senate chamber before casting her No vote to end filibuster

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia fields phone call before casting his vote against eliminating the filibuster

'I thought that would be the dumbest finish I would see this week, but President Biden said, 'Hold my prune juice!'' he said making the comparison.

On the issue of voting rights and the black vote, Charlamagne then blasted Biden for not making it priority when he took office exactly one year ago.

'After the attempted coup of this country on January 6th, that should have been his first order of business. Protecting voter rights,' Charlamagne stated before accusing the president of not caring about the voting rights of black people.

'Why can't President Biden call out Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for blocking his agenda when them blocking his agenda is actually hurting the American people? If you ask me it's because he don't care. Black people voting is simply not a priority for Biden, Manchin, or Sinema,' he said.

'It's a matter of white privilege for Biden. He failed to give this issue the attention it deserves because he simply can't relate.'

On the issue of voting rights and the black vote, Charlamagne then blasted Biden for not making it priority when he took office (file photo from March 2021)

Biden said he would not be deterred from continuing to push for getting voting rights legislation passed.

'My Administration will never stop fighting to ensure that the heart and soul of our democracy  the right to vote  is protected at all costs,' he wrote in his Wednesday statement following the vote. 'We will continue to work with allies to advance necessary legislation to protect the right to vote. And to push for Senate procedural changes that will protect the fundamental right to vote.'

Manchin and Sinema effectively tanked the Democrats' marquee bill Wednesday, joining Republicans in voting against a rule change that would have allowed the party's voting legislation to pass with a simple majority.

'I am profoundly disappointed that the United States Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed  but I am not deterred,' the president wrote in a statement late Wednesday.

President Joe Biden, who blasted Republicans as obstructionists during press conference on Wednesday, posted tweet (below) shortly after Democrats failed to push through his agenda

Biden was handed another blow as Democratic centrist Senators Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona joined all 50 Republicans to thwart their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate.

The defeat comes as midterm campaigns commence and Democrats try to hold onto their razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.

It saw Democrats left licking their wounds following the collapse of their top-priority voting rights legislation, with some now shifting their focus to a narrower bipartisan effort to repair laws Donald Trump exploited in his bid to overturn the 2020 election.

Though their bid to dramatically rewrite U.S. election law failed during a high-stakes Senate floor showdown late on Wednesday night, Democrats insist their brinkmanship will make a new effort possible, forcing Republicans to relent, even if just a little, and engage in bipartisan negotiations.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., alongside other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, stands in front of the Senate chambers to voice his support of voting rights legislation at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

Meanwhile, Trump loyalists are girding for the next election, working to install sympathetic leaders in local election posts and, in some cases, backing political candidates who participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Biden conceded this week that updating the electoral bill may be Democrats' best opportunity to pass voting legislation through a 50-50 Senate, where much of his agenda has stalled.

'I predict to you theyll get something done,' Biden told reporters Wednesday.

Any legislation would have to balance Democrats desire to halt what they view as a GOP plan to make it more difficult for black Americans and other minorities to vote with Republican's entrenched opposition to increased federal oversight of local elections.

Democrats' hopes to pass voting rights bill by ending filibuster rules went down in flames

'What other things could be put in there?' said South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat and a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus. 'I want to deal with more than just counting the votes for the president. I want to be sure that we count the votes for everybody else. So voter nullification like theyre doing in Georgia, I think it can be addressed.'

Republicans involved in the effort to update the Electoral Count Act acknowledge that the bill would need a wider focus.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is holding bipartisan talks with Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mitt Romney of Utah, as well as Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

'Its such a needed thing,' said Manchin, who added that the narrower scope was 'the first place' Democrats 'should have started.'
A married woman with a secret boyfriend living behind her home neglected to tell emergency workers he was inside when a tragic fire engulfed his unit because she feared her mother finding out about her affair.

Stephen John Rayner died in a 2016 blaze, possibly started by a gas cooker or the candles he used to light the unit at the back of the Christchurch property owned by his girlfriend Tanya Brazukas's mother.

Ms Brazukas did not want her elderly mother-in-law Gail to find out about Mr Rayner because she was married to the woman's son - who was in prison while she had the affair.

Married Tanya Brazukas neglected to tell emergency workers her secret lover was inside when a tragic fire engulfed his unit because she feared her mother finding out about her affair

Stephen John Rayner died in a 2016 blaze, possibly started by a gas cooker or the candles he used to light the unit at the back of his girlfriend, Tanya Brazukas's mother's Christchurch property

His death was referred to the New Zealand coroner, whose findings were reported by by Stuff on Saturday.

'I regret all of my actions of that time. I've been struggling with it ever since then,' said Ms Brazukas, who became homeless after the fire and suffered mental health issues.

Five years earlier, at 6.10am on July 27, 2016, two passersby alerted emergency services the back of the converted ice cream cone factory on Rutherford Street, Woolston was on fire.

The building had been turned into a two-storey home at the front, with a workshop in the centre and a self-contained flat at the back.

Only the flat, which had no smoke alarms fitted, burned down.

Ms Brazukas assured friends no-one was hurt after fire engulfed the flat at the back of her mother's building in 2016. She later confessed she knew her secret lover was inside

Stephen Rayner died aged 66 in a tragic house fire inside a home attached her his lover, Tanya Brazukas

At 6.10am on July 27, 2016, two passersby alerted emergency services the back of the converted ice cream cone factory on Rutherford Street, Christchurch. They broke into the home at the front but the occupants told them nobody else was inside

The two passersby broke into the home at the front of the building and woke up the two women inside. They were told nobody else was in the building.

Ms Brazukas did not inform attending emergency services that anyone was in the burning building, even though she was with him the night before the fire.

The same day of the fire she took to Facebook to tell friends 'while our house did burn down this morning, no one, animal and human, was hurt. We are all safe.'

When a friend responded with shock, she joked in reply: 'Yeah, a bit of a rude awakening but at least I couldn't feel the frost.'

But Mr Rayner was inside, where he was sleeping on a bed made from cushions, and died in the fire. His remains were found a day later.

When Ms Brazukas's friends informed her a body had been found and speculated it was 'a squatter', she expressed surprise but repeated her claim she knew nothing.

'The latest news about the body has left us reeling ... We don't care now about what we lost but what whoever that was lost.

'The police will let us know the identity before they release it to the news this time. We didn't even know it had been found until the police called us in after telling the press.'

NZ police found Mr Rayner's death was not suspicious and that he had died from the effects of the fire after taking sedatives.

Ms Brazukas later confessed to having been with him the night before at the Woolston tavern, and that he had taken sedatives to help with his difficulty sleeping.

The coroner's report said he had admitted to Tanya Brazukas that he'd set himself on fire by mistake with a gas cooker.

A fire investigator said the fatal fire was most likely caused by a candle, but could also have been lit.

It was not ruled out that it had been deliberately lit.

In Ms Brazukas' first interview with police, she said: 'As far as I am aware there was no-one staying in the flat or the factory.'

She described Mr Rayner as 'good friend' - then soon after admitted that statement was 'not entirely correct'.

Ms Brazukas confessed to police she was married but had planned to break up with her incarcerated husband when she next visited him.

She also told police she did mention someone being in the back of the building but thought no-one heard her, so she did not repeat it.

'I knew there was no way anyone could survive that fire and was still hoping Stephen had made it out, there was no way anyone was going to be able to check if Stephen was still in there or not,' the coroner's report recalled Ms Brazukas telling police.

She admitted 'quietly hoping' he'd escaped, but also that she didn't know why she had failed to report he was living there, other than wanting to 'keep it secret' and 'protect' all the people involved.

Mr Rayner, who had also spent time in prison for petty crimes, was also married, and had seven living children, plus a son who had died young.

Passersby reported hearing harrowing screams from the back of the property, which they said eventually went quiet.

'As I got closer the screams dissipated back to nothing and my reaction was someone has just died in there ... it was someone finally giving in,' Anton Heyrick said.

He admitted 'feeling like s***' when he later learned a body had been found.
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A rookie New York City police officer has been shot and killed and his partner is fighting for his life after responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem.

Jason Rivera, 22, who grew up only five miles from the shooting and signed up a little over a year ago, in November 2020, died in the attack. His partner Wilbert Mora, who joined the NYPD in 2018, is currently fighting for his life.

Multiple police sources initially said both had died.

The gunman, Lashawn J. McNeil, 47 - who was out on probation at the time - was shot and injured by a third officer, after he tried to flee the house. He was in surgery on Friday night.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York - an ex NYPD officer, who only took office three weeks ago - angrily declared at the Harlem hospital that the violence must stop.

'It is our city against the killers,' he said.

'This is not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York.'

The officers' deaths are the first under Adams, who was elected in part to combat the city's surging crime, and the first shooting deaths of an NYPD officer since July 2017.

Jason Rivera (left), 22, who joined the NYPD a little over a year ago, was shot and killed on Friday night and his partner Wilbert Mora, who signed up in 2018, was in critical condition

They are the fourth and fifth officers shot so far this year - by comparison, last year, a total of 10 police officers were shot in the entire state of New York.

Lashawn J. McNeil, 47, opened fire on the officers, and was shot in the arm and head. He was undergoing surgery on Friday night. He was out on probation at the time following a New York narcotics arrest, and had four previous arrests in two other states

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest municipal police union in the world representing 50,000 active and retired officers, excoriated the city's leaders for not doing enough.

Lynch has been highly critical of the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who announced on taking office at the beginning of the month that he would not prosecute certain crimes.

Lynch said on January 4 that he had 'serious concerns about the message these types of policies send to both police officers and criminals on the street.'

On Friday night, he was furious, and pointed the finger firmly at Bragg and his policies.

'Our hearts are broken, we're in shock, our knees are buckling,' he said.

'And we're angry, because we've been here before.

'We're angry, because we saw it coming.

'We're angry, because we said it would happen - and it happened again.'

Devastating footage showed the officers' colleagues rushing them to hospital after McNeil - who has been arrestd in three states - opened fire, using a stolen Glock 9mm gun, which was recovered at the scene.

Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, is seen on Friday night addressing the press and crowds of police officers at Harlem hospital

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, urged all New Yorkers to attend Rivera's funeral, in a show of support for the NYPD

A large crowd of NYPD officers gathered to hear Adams, Lynch and the NYPD Commissioner speak on Friday at Harlem hospital

NYPD officers gather at Harlem Hospital after the shooting on Friday night

Members of NYPD are seen inside Harlem Hospital on Friday night

Officers stand on the steps of the hospital awaiting news of their colleague

Police officers are pictured on the scene in Harlem, where two officers were shot and one killed

The officers were responding to a domestic violence call on Friday night

The shooting is the first death of a members of the NYPD since Eric Adams took over as mayor on January 1

A police officer stands guard on the corner of the street in Harlem

Rivera, Mora and a third officer were called to a domestic violence incident at around 5:10pm on Friday.

McNeil's mother called police claiming her 47-year-old son was threatening her.

He was well known to officers, who were last called to the house on a domestic violence call in August.

McNeil had previously been arrested in New York in 2003 on felony narcotic charges, and was out on probation.

He also had four other arrests in two different states.

In 1998, he was arrested in South Carolina for the unlawful possession of a weapon.

In Pennsylvania, where his registered address was, in Allentown, he was arrested in 2002 for assaulting a police officer.

He was also arrested twice in Pennsylvania in 2003 - once on a felony narcotics charge, and once on a misdemeanor narcotics charge.

Adams was flanked by Patrick Lynch, head of New York's largest police union, as he spoke

Keechant Sewell, the commissioner of New York police, said she was 'struggling to find the words for the tragedy we are enduring'

When the three officers arrived at the McNeil house, the mother was in a front room with another son. She said that her threatening son was in the back room, and so Rivera and Mora approached the room along a narrow 30-foot hallway.

The third officer remained with the mother and her other son.

When Rivera and Mora got close, McNeil opened fire, shooting both officers.

He made a dash for the door, but was shot by the third officer in the right arm and head.

McNeil is alive and hospitalized in critical condition, NYPD spokesperson Lt. John Grimpel said, correcting earlier reports that he had been killed.

Police recovered a Glock 9mm gun at the scene, which they said had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017.

Police audio reveals the moment the gunfight broke out, with multiple shots heard being fired.

'Shots fired,' one says, and sirens can be heard in the background. 'Cop shot. We need additional units.'

The dispatcher was then desperately asking nearby units to clear the street, and clear a route for the ambulances.

'Two officers shot,' another says. 'We are bringing NYs to the hospital. Have units to back up.'

The officers were taken to Harlem Hospital.

'Due to a police incident, avoid the area of West 135 Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd and Malcolm X Blvd. in Manhattan,' the NYPD said.

'Use an alternate route when traveling nearby and expect a police presence in the surrounding area.'

It was the third incident in less than 72 hours involving NYPD officers getting shot in the line of duty, following an incident in the Bronx late on Tuesday night and another officer shot early Thursday morning on Staten Island.

The officer in the Bronx, Officer Kaseem Pennant, who was shot in the leg while scuffling with a teenage suspect, has already been released from the hospital.

Detective Dominick M. Libretti, shot through the door and hit in the leg while serving a search warrant for drugs in Staten Island, underwent surgery at the hospital, where he was recovering. He was said to be in stable condition, but his injury was serious.

On January 1, Officer Keith Wagenhauser was shot in the head in his patrol car by a stray bullet, while sitting outside a Bronx precinct. He has been released from hospital.

Rivera, who grew up in the Inwood district of Manhattan - five miles from where he was shot and killed - said he wanted to join the New York Police Department to improve community relations, and help people.

'Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD - the greatest police force in the world,' he wrote on his application form.

'Growing up in New York City, I knew how impactful my role as a police officer would go in this chaotic city of about 10 million people.

'I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple resolve an issue, would put a smile on someone's face.'

He also said that, as a child, he saw that 'the community's relationship between the police and the community was not great'.

He said his brother was pulled over and searched, and he was confused and upset as to why they were targeted.

He then saw the NYPD trying to reform, and he wanted to be part of the change.

'This is when I realized that I wanted to be part of the men in blue; better the relationship between the community and the police.'

Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who has been accused of being soft on crime for saying he will not prosecute certain crimes, said it was a 'horrible tragedy'.

'This is a horrible tragedy and our thoughts and prayers go out to the officers, their families and the entire NYPD,' he said.

'The officers who serve and protect us risk their lives every day. Violence against police cannot be tolerated.'

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell denounced the spate of violence against the New York Police Department.

'Countless officers lined this hallway after carrying him in and grieve for their brother while praying with everything they have for the other' officer, Sewell said.

'I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. We're mourning, and we're angry.'

Adams said enough was enough.

Crime is up 35 percent since Eric Adams took over as mayor of New York City

Overall crime is up 35 percent in the Big Apple

'We must save this city together. That is what we must do,' he said, speaking at the Harlem hospital.

'The unification of fighting this battle goes beyond rhetoric.

'It is time for us to save our city.'

Adams said that more must be done to stop weapons flooding in to New York City, where legally obtaining a gun is complicated by design.

'Let me be clear. There are no gun manufacturers in New York City. We don't make guns here,' he said.

'How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they still find their way onto the streets, and into the hands of killers?

'We need Washington to join us and act now to stop the flow of guns into New York City, and cities like New York.'

Adams demanded that the federal government do more to end the bloodshed.

'We are all witnesses. We have witnessed these murders and the failure on the federal level to stop the flow of guns into the city,' he said.

'We are not going to live under the gun of these dangerous people.'

He urged the police not to 'give up on this city', telling the saddened and angry officers that they should ignore criticism on social media, and continue to protect the residents.

'Don't give up on these people in this city,' he said. 'Don't give up.

'Don't think they don't want you to do your job.

'Twitter and Instagram - they are not the people of this city.

'We are going to protect our city. That's our promise and commitment.'

Lynch, the union chief, urged New Yorkers to attend the funeral of Rivera, when it is announced, saying that the police need the support.

Lynch on January 4 said that he was worried about the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and his 'soft on crime' policies

'We carried our brother here,' he said.

'We shouldered him in. And we'll shoulder him out.

'But it can't be us alone.

'We will bow our heads in sadness. But we need you too.

'The streets can't just be full of New York City police officers at this funeral.

'The public has to come.

'The public has to send a message to anyone that dares to harm a New York City police officer: not here, not now, not today, not to us.

'We're humbly asking you to come out and help us.'

Adams, 61, retired from the police force as a captain after 22 years and entered politics in 2006.

His predecessor, Bill de Blasio - a Democrat, like Adams - had a torrid relationship with police, and towards the end of his second term suffered relentless attacks from police unions, who felt he had failed them.

Adams, by contrast, presented himself as being tough on crime while also respecting human rights. He strongly rebuffed calls from progressives to defund the police - de Blasio in July 2020 had cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget, further infuriating officers.

Adams campaigned on the claim that his experience, both as an officer and as someone who was 'assaulted by police officers,' has helped him better understand the situation.

However, Adams has also been criticized for saying that some controversial tactics, including 'stop-and-frisk,' can help police officers on the job.

'I became a police officer, I understand crime, and I also understand police abuse,' he declared after winning the city's hard-fought Democratic primary in July 2021.

'And I know how we can turn around not only New York, but America. We're in a terrible place, and we can turn this country, this city, around.'

Adams said he ran for mayor to 'turn pain into purpose' as many feel they have been 'betrayed' by leadership.

'My fellow New Yorkers, that betrayal stops on January 1,' he said. 'We are going to make a difference.'

Yet he has had a difficult first three weeks in office.

In the past week alone he has attended a vigil for a 40-year-old Deloitte executive murdered by a homeless man who shoved her into the path of an oncoming subway train, in Times Square, and traveled to the scene of a Bronx shooting, where a baby girl was shot in the face.

He has also been confronted with the killing of a 19-year-old woman who was shot by a robber while working at an East Harlem Burger King.

Adams tweeted at the time that he would not 'surrender the city'.

The last NYPD officer fatally shot in the line of duty, Brian Mulkeen, was hit by friendly fire while struggling with an armed man after chasing and shooting at him in the Bronx in September 2019.

Mulkeen's death came about seven months after Det. Brian Simonsen was killed by friendly fire while he and other officers were confronting a robbery suspect at a cell phone store in Queens.

In 2017, Officer Miosotis Familia was ambushed by a gunman as she wrote in a notebook in a mobile command post. In 2016, Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo was killed in a gunfight with a man who'd broken into his estranged wife's home.

In 2015, Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed by a man riding a stolen bicycle in Manhattan and Officer Brian Moore died after he was shot by a man in Queens.

The year before, Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were fatally shot by a man who ambushed them as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
Rules against homophobia have been removed from the bullying charters of British private schools in the Middle East, an investigation has found.

The likes of King's College, Sherborne and Royal Grammar School Guildford (RGS) all have branches in the region, which earn them tens of millions of pounds as part of franchising deals.

But their locations in extremely religious societies mean they must abide by strict Islamic government guidelines on ownership, curriculum content and patriotism if they want to be granted operating licences, the Times reported.

Now an investigation has revealed that several of the schools have clear differences between bullying guidelines published in the UK and Middle East - where homosexuality is often illegal.

In their UK versions, homophobic bullying is clearly referenced and forbidden, while in their Middle East franchises, most or all references to sexuality or LGBT+ students have been scrubbed.

The franchising deals typically see British schools work with a company in the host country, which pays to franchise their respected names. The franchised schools then follow the British curriculum and the original schools' customs - but only to a certain extent.

Strict rules in the past have meant banning any teaching of the Holocaust, evolution and even the existence of Israel.

An investigation has revealed that several of the schools have clear differences between bullying guidelines published in the UK and Middle East - where homosexuality is often illegal (Pictured: LGBT+ protest held in Kenya on January 13, 2022)

LGBT+ charities last night urged the schools to 'create environments in which all children can grow up accepting each other'.

Mo Wiltshire, director of education and youth at Stonewall, said: 'The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should be 'protected against all forms of discrimination'. These are universal rights.'

The Times investigation found King's College Doha, the sister school of King's College, in Taunton, removed homophobia from its website definition of bullying - which is set by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

While the NSPCC references 'racial, sexual or homophobic bullying', King's College Doha only lists 'racial or sexual bullying.'

The charity said it was 'concerned' over the edit - which King's claimed was due to be updated. It did not comment further but claimed its new anti-bullying guidelines included homophobia.

Meanwhile RGS forbids students from making 'homophobic' or 'transphobic' comments on its British website - before omitting any such references on the webpage for its Qatar counterpart.

A spokeswoman told the Times it 'must comply with the laws of the country in which we are operating'.

She added: 'Royal Grammar School Guildford will always challenge bullying, whatever the root.'

Elsewhere, Sherborne School in Dorset vows to ensure its 'school policies and practices are inclusive and supportive of LGBT people'.

However no such guarantee is made for its students in the Doha branch.

Mo Wiltshire, director of education and youth at Stonewall, said: 'The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should be 'protected against all forms of discrimination'. These are universal rights.' (file photo)

Dominic Luckett, the headmaster, said: 'Our experience of working with Sherborne Qatar over the past ten years makes it clear to us that the school does not tolerate bullying or discrimination.'

Brighton College, whose home is often seen as the queer capital of Britain, has three outposts in the Middle East. It was not immediately clear if its bullying charter had omitted homophobia or other LGBT+ references.

However a former teacher at the Dubai branch said that they were forced to cover up Israel on maps of the world. The school declined to comment.

It comes after its headmaster Richard Cairns wrote an open letter in 2020 which lamented 'persecution of members of the LGBT community across the world'.

A Department for Education spokesman told the Times that while some international affiliates of British schools are accredited by the government and follow its independent schools standards, others are not and therefore must follow rules and laws of their host countries.

Those that are accredited are liable to inspections and can be closed if serious failings are found.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The cooperation between China's shipping giant COSCO and the U.S. Port of Boston has been an example of the win-win economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said on Friday.

Qin made the remarks at a ceremony after accepting the plaque of recognition and a commemorative jacket from the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA).

Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of a direct vessel service to Boston by China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited (COSCO Shipping), Qin said COSCO Shipping's cooperation with the Port of Boston "has not only saved 9,000 jobs in the region's shipping industry, but also created another 400,000 jobs and energized many trading companies."

Calling their cooperation a good example, Qin said that "in China's 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, the U.S. has got deeply involved in China's development, and also benefited a lot from it."

China-U.S. trade has provided many quality but inexpensive products for American consumers, and supported 2.6 million American jobs, said the ambassador, adding "China and the U.S. have long been bound together by our shared interests."

"We have learned from the past five decades that China-U.S. cooperation can deliver many good things for both countries and the whole world," Qin said, citing the "tangible benefits and opportunities for places like the Port of Boston, for our longshoremen, and for all of us."

China and the United States "have no better choice than solidarity and cooperation" in the face of global challenges, including fighting the pandemic, restoring growth, stabilizing the industrial chain and supply chain, and addressing climate change, he said, calling on the two sides to follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation and bringing bilateral relations back to the right track.

This will give the world "some long-awaited stability and certainty," Qin said, warning that "if China and the U.S. enter into conflict and confrontation, if we fight a trade war or a new 'Cold War,' it will be a political tragedy that benefits no one."

Michael Meyran, maritime director of Massport, said at the ceremony that the 20-year partnership between COSCO Shipping and the Port of Boston has been the perfect model of how to do business between the two countries, adding that he hopes to continue this partnership in the long term.

ILA Vice President Bernie O'Donnell, representing more than 9,000 longshoremen at the Port of Boston and their families, expressed his appreciation to the Chinese companies for their long-term contributions to Boston. 
A Woolworths shopper has shocked scores of people on social media after revealing he spent almost $1100 on a particular brand of chocolate in one supermarket visit.

Taking to TikTok, the Sydney business owner revealed he doesn't have a sweet tooth like no other - instead he was left with no alternative but to stock up on 'business essentials' due to supply issues stemming from the pandemic.

'No stock because of Covid at the moment,' the food truck worker from Calvin's Crepes explained when quizzed about his staggering purchase.

When it was suggested he try wholesalers, the man responded it wasn't possible 'in this Covid age.'

He also revealed he purchased large amounts of Kinder Buenos from a nearby Coles supermarket in Sydney's south at Hurstville.

A business owner from Calvin's Crepes in Sydney has shocked fellow TikTok users after revealing he spent almost $1100 on one chocolate brand (pictured, a Calvin's Crepes employee)

The businessman cleaned out Woolworths (pictured) and a nearby Coles of their selection of Kinder Buenos chocolate as he couldn't access stock from suppliers due to the pandemic

The business owner explained he was left with no alternative but to stock up on 'business essentials' due to supply issues stemming from Covid-19 (pictured, his final haul at Woolworths for almost $1100)

Calvin's Crepes have become increasingly popular in the Harbour City due to their range of waffles, crepes and milkshakes.

Among the ingredients commonly used are Nutella, Mars Bars, Toblerone and Kinder Buenos.

Countless TikTok users were stunned by the enormous chocolate haul, with the clip viewed almost 340,000 times since Thursday.

'No way you spent a grand,' said one, with another joking 'that's where they (all) went.'

Others queried how the man was permitted to purchase the items in bulk amounts at the supermarket.

'Is that even allowed?' asked one TikTok user.

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia there are currently no buying limits in place for chocolate loving customers.

'We do monitor stock levels closely to determine if additional limits are required,' he said.

'Woolworths does have in place limits on certain items at the moment, notably toilet paper, rapid antigen tests and painkillers.'

Calvin's Crepes featuring Kinder Buenos chocolate is a popular item for many customers (pictured)
Boris Johnson yesterday attempted to quell a growing school rebellion as hundreds of headmasters continue to enforce classroom mask wearing.

The Prime Minister urged secondary staff to follow new rules that state face coverings are no longer required in lessons.

He believes it is vital that children receive 'face-to-face education and can enjoy a normal experience in the classroom'.

Mr Johnson's spokesman added: 'The Prime Minister also thinks that the schools should follow the latest guidance.

The Prime Minister urged secondary staff to follow new rules that state face coverings are no longer required in lessons. Pupils are pictured wearing them on January 4th after the Government announced pupils must wear masks

'We've been clear that we removed the requirement for face masks to be worn in classrooms and we will remove advice for face masks to be worn in communal areas from January 27.'

His intervention comes as families complain that schools across England are still insisting on masks during lessons as precautions against Covid.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has warned that Department for Education officials will be in touch with schools that refuse to ditch face coverings. He will also personally vet any plans to bring back masks in schools in areas hit by Covid outbreaks.

In a letter to MPs, Mr Zahawi said he had kept his promise not to retain masks 'for a day longer than was necessary'.

However, he has agreed with public health chiefs that in the event of 'extraordinary' local Covid spikes, they will consult with him before recommending the reintroduction of face coverings in schools.

In a statement, Mr Zahawi said banishing masks would ensure 'children can enjoy a normal experience in the classroom'.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has warned that Department for Education officials will be in touch with schools that refuse to ditch face coverings

The DfE does not have a legal mechanism to force secondaries to follow the new advice, as the introduction of masks was not legally binding either. But it expects schools to adhere to the new guidance unless there are 'truly exceptional reasons'.

A DfE source said officials would make clear to schools the 'expectation' that pupils do not wear masks.

The source said: 'It's a friendly chat if needed. We don't want children to wear masks, but we will work sensitively with any schools that are outliers to deliver that message.' Campaign group UsForThem yesterday said it had been contacted by hundreds of parents whose children's schools are choosing to keep masks in class.

'The Department for Education need to mandate that masks are purely voluntary at the choice of the child and cannot be enforced, required or 'strongly encouraged' in school,' said a spokesman.

But the National Education Union yesterday insisted that heads who kept coverings will have used 'professional judgment'. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary, said Whitehall 'micromanagement' was 'utterly unnecessary if not bizarre'.

The Association of School and College Leaders said the new guidance put schools in a 'potentially difficult position'.
Queensland has recorded 15,050 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths with infections expected to peak next week before schools reopen.

Of the new deaths announced on Saturday, one person was aged in their 40s, one in their 50s, six in their 80s and two in their 90s.

One was unvaccinated, six were double-jabbed and three were triple vaccinated.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard has warned cases will peak around the state within the next week - just days before the start of the school term on February 7.

Dr Gerrard called it 'perhaps the most positive news in the past 24 hours.'

International travel restrictions have also eased for the first time in two years with the first of the quarantine-free flights touching down in Brisbane.

Queensland has recorded 15,050 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths with infections expected to peak next week before schools reopen

Chief health officer John Gerrard has warned cases would peak around the state within the next week - just days before the start of the school term on February 7

'We're about two weeks behind NSW  it could be as early as sometime this week that the pandemic could peak at the Gold Coast; metropolitan Brisbane could be a few days or a week behind that,' Dr Gerrard said.

Queensland has pushed back the start of the school term from January 24.

Dr Gerrard explained the decision was made to allow more time for young children to be vaccinated and ensure students are returning to the classroom when case numbers have already passed their peak and begun to decline.

The Gold Coast is expected to experience its peak within the next seven days while metro Brisbane will reach its peak in a fortnight.

Dr Gerrard warned case numbers would likely increase again when students returned to school.

'I want to be clear that we are talking about a peak, the peak is not the end, it is the high point, particularly admissions to hospital,' he said.

There are currently 250,000 active cases in the state with Dr Gerrard warning the figure could be four times higher.

'It's almost certainly greater than a million  we don't know the true number because not everybody is getting tested, either because their symptoms are mild, they don't recognise the symptoms, they don't seek to get tested or they can't get access to a test,' he said.

Speaking from the Brisbane International Airport Terminal, tourism minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the latest deaths were 'terrible news' for family and friends.

The first quarantine-free international flights arrived in Brisbane on Saturday, with passengers initially being made up of returning citizens, students and workers.

Dr Gerrard warned case numbers would likely increase again when students returned to school

Dr Gerrard warned there was a significant age gap between the unvaccinated and vaccinated patients

Queensland mother Aleasha Pique has claimed Queensland health bosses banned her from seeing her newborn son until she returned a negative Covid test (pictured, with her partner)

It signals the start of a 'slow rebuild' for the state's international tourism industry, Mr Hinchliffe said.

Hospitalisation rates have climbed to 884 - up from 885 reported on Friday.

The number of patients being treated in ICU has dipped to 52 - down from 54.

Dr Gerrard warned there was a significant age gap between the unvaccinated and vaccinated patients.

He said the average age of an unvaccinated patient was roughly 20 years younger than a vaccinated person.

'An individual's probability of ending up in hospital, if they are vaccinated, is tiny,' Dr Gerrard said. 'It's much greater if you are unvaccinated.'

'What we're seeing in the hospitals among the unvaccinated is it looks like COVID-19 from a year ago.

'So the average age of someone who is unvaccinated being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is 20 years younger than someone who is triple vaccinated.

The drama reportedly started when Mrs Pique (pictured right) informed staff at Caboolture Hospital her teenage daughter (pictured above) had been a recent casual contact of a confirmed Covid case

'In the vaccination era it is mostly, mostly, it's the older and people with underlying health conditions who are more likely to be hospitalised. Not universally, we do still see some younger people in hospital, but for the most part, the vaccinated.'

Dr Gerrard also addressed reports of a mother being separated from her newborn in a hospital until she returned a negative Covid result.

Caboolture Hospital, in Brisbane's north, has formally launched an investigation after Aleasha Pique, 36, was left 'broken and alone' in the maternity ward.

Just hours after Mrs Pique had given birth to her son Remy he was ripped from her arms as she informed staff her teeange daughter had been a casual contact.

She was told she needed to test negative to Covid before she could be rentuined with him.

Dr Gerrard said it was not general principle to separate mothers from their newborns and extended his apologies to her.

'I'm very sorry if this lady had a bad experience in one of our hospitals,' he said. 'The general principle is that mothers and babies are not separated.'
Shawn Laval Smith, 31, was charged on Friday with one count of murder and a special allegation that he used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife

The suspect in the murder of UCLA grad student Brianna Kupfer has been formally charged with her killing in Los Angeles.

Shawn Laval Smith, 31, was charged on Friday with one count of murder and a special allegation that he used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife, in the January 13 killing.

Smith was arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court, where cameras were not allowed to capture the proceedings. California normally bars cameras from court without an exception from the judge.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon announced the charges, saying in a statement: 'Those who show no compassion for human life will face serious consequences.'

'The murder of Brianna Kupfer has left Los Angeles County devastated and my office is reaching out to her family to provide any services they may need,' added Gascon.

Gascon, a progressive prosecutor who faces a recall initiative after announcing sweeping changes to downgrade and drop charges in many criminal cases, is firmly opposed to the death penalty in all cases.

Smith was arraigned on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, where cameras were not allowed to capture the proceedings

Brianna was stabbed to death at around 1.50pm while working alone at the Croft House store, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was 'giving her a bad vibe'

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon vowed 'serious consequences' in the case. Prosecutors in his office are barred from seeking the death penalty

When he took office in December 2020, Gascon barred his prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, writing in a memo: 'The reality is the death penalty does not make us safer, it is racist, it's morally untenable, it's irreversible and expensive and beginning today it's off the table in LA County.'

Brianna was stabbed to death at around 1.50pm while working alone at the Croft House store on La Brea, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was 'giving her a bad vibe'.

Smith is a career criminal with a long rap sheet spanning both coasts, and at the time of the murder he was free on a $1,000 bond from a shoplifting arrest in Los Angeles County in October 2020.

Prosecutors in Gascon's office determined that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the shoplifting case and declined to pursue the charges, court records show.

Following the shocking murder, the LAPD quickly released surveillance video of the suspect leaving the furniture store, as well as buying a vape pen at a convenience store about 30 minutes later.

Smith was named as the suspect on Tuesday and a massive manhunt ensued. A tip from the public led police to Smith at a Pasadena bus stop on Wednesday, where he was arrested without incident.

The suspect dressed in all black walked into a store located about four miles from the crime scene where Kupfer was found dead

Smith was arrested by Pasadena cops one day after the Los Angeles Police Department put out a call for help finding the 'armed and dangerous' man

Smith was taken into custody about 15 miles from the high-end furniture store where Kupfer was killed.

The accused killer has a prolific criminal record, with dozens of prior charges in North Carolina and South Carolina, public records show.

He had also been free on a $50,000 bond in Charleston, South Carolina in relation to a November 2019 arrest on suspicion of firing a weapon into an occupied vehicle, court records show.

An indictment in that case was handed down on March 16, 2020, just before COVID-19 paralyzed the courts, and the docket shows no further action on the case.

He was convicted by San Diego prosecutors in 2017 for carrying a concealed dagger and brandishing a deadly weapon in a fight. He was given three years probation and ordered to pay a $400 fine, according to court records.

Smith has a prolific criminal record, with dozens of prior charges in North Carolina and South Carolina

Smith is seen in Charleston mugshots (left to right) in November 2018 on charge of contempt of court; March 2019 on charges of entering a premises after warning; June 2019 on charges of entering a premises after warning; and November 2019 for firing into an occupied vehicle, a charge for which was still free on a $50,000 bond more than two years later

Last year, he was arrested for biting a cop while being taken into custody near San Francisco.

It's unclear why he was not held in custody and extradited to South Carolina at that time, as he had open warrants in the Palmetto State.

Smith suffered from mental health issues and had a history of violence, Velma Washington - who claimed to be his aunt - told Fox Digital.

She said she was not familiar with his diagnoses but 'he was a good boy'.

The murder comes amid a huge crime surge in Los Angeles, with homicides in Los Angeles rising 52 percent last year, from 2019, and shooting incidents up 59 percent, according to LAPD data.

Jonathan Hatami, a veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor who has been an outspoken critic of Gascon and even sued him for retaliation last year, hit out at his boss in the wake of Kupfer's killing, arguing that his progressive policies are failing the community, and that he deserves to be voted out, along with other 'woke' DAs in cities with rising crime rates.

'No parent should ever have to bury their child,' Hatami tweeted on Tuesday. 'But, if you do lose a child to violence, we must have a DA who is willing to stand up and fight for the victims and prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law. Every victim deserves a voice and we all deserve justice.'
An 'extremely rare' portrait of Charles Dickens donning a 'glorious' moustache has gone on show for the first time ever, but the bold look has received mixed reviews.

The Oliver Twist author was known for his trademark beard, but the daguerreotype profile portrait shows his handlebar-style moustache, which he only sported for a few years.

The portrait was made in around 1852-55, when he was writing Bleak House and Hard Times, but has been in a private collection for 20 years. It was rediscovered in the collection of an Irish photography enthusiast Charles Cloney.

It has been since donated to the Charles Dickens Museum in London, where it has been put on display for the first time and will be on show until March 31, The Guardian reported.

An 'extremely rare' portrait of Charles Dickens donning a 'glorious' moustache has gone on show for the first time ever, but the bold look has received mixed reviews

But the author's unique facial hair has received mixed reviews, with British Library curator Andrea Lloyd claiming that Dickens's friend John Forster described the moustache as a 'hideous disfigurement' and delayed his portrait because of it.

Meanwhile, the Charles Dickens Museum's curator Emily Smith said a portrait of 'a moustachioed Dickens is hard to find', saying he is 'instantly recognisable' with his signature beard.

She added: 'Dickens's early experiments with face furniture are far less well recorded and evidence is scarce.

'Dickens was image-conscious, definitely a dandy; his public image was carefully crafted and presented and portrait sittings, though not always enjoyed, were not taken lightly.'

The portrait (pictured) has been donated to the Charles Dickens Museum in London, where it has been put on display for the first time and will be on show until March 31

By 1858, Dickens' moustache had grown into the full beard (pictured) that he is well-recognised for today, with the author saying it 'saved him the trouble of shaving'

Dickens is believed to have first experimented with a moustache in 1844 and told his friend, artist Daniel Maclise, that they were 'charming'.

He said: 'The moustaches are glorious, glorious. I have cut them shorter, and trimmed them a little at the ends to improve their shape.'

By 1858, the Victorian author's moustache had grown into the full beard that he is well-recognised for today, with Dickens saying it 'saved him the trouble of shaving'.

The rare daguerreotype portrait of the Great Expectations writer, which was the first commercially successful photographic process, was made by John Jabez Edwin Mayall.

Speaking of the portait, the Charles Dickens Museum said: 'In the Mayall portrait, Dickens's tousled hair, broad moustache and the individual lines around his eyes and mouth and on his forehead are vividly reproduced.'
Campaigners claim raw sewage is being pumped into the Thames at a beauty spot popular with bathers.

A group called Windrush Against Sewage Pollution monitored water quality at certain points of the river amid concerns water firms were not being overseen properly.

They produced a video shot on January 12 near Cassington treatment works in Oxfordshire  run by Thames Water  which is said to show small fish swimming through untreated sewage upstream of the Port Meadow wild swimming spot.

Campaigners claim raw sewage is being pumped into the Thames at a beauty spot popular with bathers (file photo used)

This week an analysis of industry data suggested water companies had illegally spilled sewage from treatment works into rivers at least 2,400 times in five years.

Thames Water says that the Cassington works has not discharged untreated sewage since March 2021, suggesting the muck seen in the video is unlikely to be sewage.

However, that explanation is dismissed by the Windrush group, which says the flow  whether deliberate or a leak  appears to be partially untreated sewage.

A swan looking for food on the River Thames in Windsor earlier this month. Thames Water said that 'an assessment of the watercourse on January 17 found the river area was in good health

Britain's largely Victorian sewerage system cannot cope when there is too much rainwater, and so water companies can release rainwater, and some sewage, into rivers and the sea, to stop treatment works becoming overwhelmed.

Environmentalists say it is happening far too much.

Thames Water said that 'an assessment of the watercourse on January 17 found the river area was in good health.

Any problem seems to be occurring in the long pipe that takes the treated effluent to the river. We are determined to understand what is coming out of the final effluent pipe.'

The Environment Agency said that it was speaking to the company about the video.
A 115-year-old Nebraska woman who recently became the oldest person in America - and who attributed her longevity to never having children - has died.

Thelma Sutcliffe, of Omaha, died at the age of 115 years and 108 days at an assisted living facility on Monday - eight months after becoming the oldest living person in the US.

The cause of death has yet to be revealed.

'She died very peacefully,' said Sutcliffe's friend, Luella Mason.

'It was time, she was ready.'

Sutcliffe credit her long life to never having children, never smoking, and 'never worrying about anything', she told AARP in May 2021.

She had survived two bouts of breast cancer over the course of her life.

Thelma Sutcliffe, center, is shown with a birthday cake in October 2019, in Omaha, Nebraska Sutcliffe for her 114th birthday

Sutcliffe, pictured, who was the oldest person in the US, died on Monday at age 115, according to a family member

Pictured: a photograph of Thelma as a young woman, possibly her engagement photo, according to her friend Luella Mason

Bessie Hendricks is now the oldest validated person living in the United States at 114 years and 75 days following Sutcliffe's death on Monday, however American-born Maria Branyas Morera, who lives in Spain, is technically the oldest at 114 years and 323 days old.

Prior to her passing, Sutcliffe's hearing and sight had significantly deteriorated, however, Mason said her mind was still 'very sharp' at the time of her death.

The super-centenarian had taken the place of the nation's oldest living person and seventh-oldest in the world on April 17, 2021, when Hester Ford, a 115-year-old woman, died in North Carolina, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Sutcliffe was born on October 1, 1906, when Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, and got married at the age of 17 in 1924.

She had received her COVID shots at the earliest opportunity, but repeatedly refused to get tested for the coronavirus.

Sutcliffe, pictured, became the oldest American on April 17, 2021, according to the Gerontology Research Group

Prior to Sutcliffe's death, her longtime friend, Mason, said she looked at the swab and said, 'You're not going to be sticking that thing up my nose. You can tell Lou to stick it up hers.'

She had told Mason that what she wants most is to eat with her friend following a year of pandemic restrictions.

Mason, who has Sutcliffe's power of attorney, said he had to call the senior living center 24 hours ahead of time to schedule visits with Sutcliffe.

'She (asked) me every time I visited, 'Are you going to eat with me today?"' Mason recalled of Sutcliffe.

'It breaks my heart that I (couldn't).'

Kane Tanaka, left, the oldest person in the world, just recently celebrated her 119th birthday, while the world's oldest man, Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia, right, died at 112 on Tuesday

Bessie Hendricks, left, is now the oldest person living in the US at 114 years, 75 days, but American-born Maria Branyas Morera, of Spain, is technically the oldest at 114 years, 323 days

Mason added: 'Thelma (was) as determined as ever to do what she wants to do.'

Her nephew, Robert Sorenson, who is 94 years old, is the last living relative.

'I am the last closest relative that she has. She was very important to me. She was good to me and my siblings all throughout the years,' Sorenson said.

When asked by AARP back in May about how she regarded being the oldest American, she quipped 'we don't have to talk about that.'

Meanwhile, a day after Sutcliffe died, the world's oldest living man, Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia of Spain, died at 112, according to a statement by the Guinness World Records.

Kane Tanaka, the oldest living person in the world, just celebrated her 119th birthday in Japan this month.
Two Canadians died of gunshot wounds and a third was wounded after an argument at a resort near Cancun on Mexico's Caribbean coast, authorities said on Friday.

Both guests who were killed at the upscale resort on the Riviera Maya of Quintana Roo state had criminal records, said Mexican officials, citing information from the Canadian police.

The Quintana Roo state prosecutor's office said via Twitter that the suspect in the shooting was also apparently a guest and Canadian police informed them he was a known felon with a long record related to robbery, drug and weapons offenses.

Five shots were reported at the restaurant in the resort at 2:36 p.m. local time. Others at the restaurant ran for cover and the unidentified gunman apparently fled into the nearby jungle, according to the Toronto Star.

Police did not release the identities of the shooting victims. No arrests were reported.

A man could be seen brandishing a shotgun as he walked around a Mexican resort on Friday

The suspect in the shooting, pictured, was also apparently a guest. Canadian police say that he was a known felon with a long record related to robbery, drug and weapons offenses

At one stage, the man could be seen sitting on a sunbed at the Xcaret Resort near Cancun

Members of the National Guard keep watch as forensic technicians and hotel employees stand near a scene where three Canadian citizens were injured by gunshots at Hotel Xcaret

Forensic technicians work at a scene where a shooting occurred on Friday

Tourists walk outside the Hotel Xcaret where three Canadian citizens were injured by gunshots

Quintana Roo's head of public security, Lucio Hernandez, said on Twitter a gun was fired during 'an argument among hotel guests' at the Hotel Xcaret, south of Playa del Carmen.

According to reports, two Canadian males and one female were involved.

Hernandez shared a photo of a man walking with a handgun around the resort, which sits on a stretch of white, sandy beach and lush jungle.

Three people were injured and taken to a hospital, where two of them died, Hernandez said. The photos show the alleged shooter, a man in a gray track suit and black face mask, wielding a gun in front of green landscaping.

Hotel Xcaret, where rates for a room begin at around $600 a night, said the incident appeared to be 'targeted and isolated.'

An ambulance remains outside the Playamed hospital, where a wounded person was transferred after a shooting in a Hotel in Xcaret, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo state

At least two people where killed and one wounded after a shooting at the Xcaret hotel complex near Cancun, Mexico's main Caribbean destination, authorities reported

Authorities guard the entrance of a hospital in the resort of Playa del Carmen, state of Quintana Roo, Mexico

Police guard the entrance of the Xcaret hotel in the resort of Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

An ambulance is seen at the entrance of a hospital in the resort of Playa del Carmen

'We deeply regret the events that occurred at Hotel Xcaret this afternoon,' it said in a statement.

The Canadian government said it was contacting Mexican authorities and could not provide more details due to privacy considerations.

It is just the latest brazen act of violence along Mexico's famed Mayan Riviera, the crown jewel of its tourism industry.

In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead. Authorities said there were about 15 gunmen from a gang that apparently disputed control of drug sales there.

In late October, farther south in the laidback destination of Tulum, two tourists - one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German - were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.

Following those events, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent nearly 1,500 members of the National Guard to reinforce security in the area.

A Mexican army truck and state police guard the entrance of the Xcaret hotel today, in the resort of Cancun, state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, 21 January 2022. One person is dead and two injured, all of Canadian origin, during a shooting that occurred inside a hotel located in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen, official sources reported. EPA/Alonso Cupul

Members of the Police guard the entrance of the Xcaret hotel today, near Cancun

Vehicles pass by the exterior of Hotel Xcaret where three Canadian citizens were injured by gunshots, near Playa del Carmen

Forensic technicians and hotel employees stand near a scene where three Canadian citizens were injured by gunshots at Hotel Xcaret, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Two leading child psychologists fear Cleo Smith could be 're-traumatised' if interviewed on television about her harrowing kidnapping ordeal last year.

Her parents this week signed a $2million deal with Channel 9 to tell the story that captivated the world.

Little Cleo, four, vanished from her family's tent at Quobba Blowholes campground on the north-west coast of Western Australia in the early hours of October 16 last year.

She was allegedly abducted by Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, and was missing for 18 days - but police stated she was not physically harmed.

Cleo was located alone by investigating officers inside a locked home at Carnarvon, about 50 minutes south from the camp site on November 3.



Two leading child psychologists fear Cleo Smith (pictured) could be 're-traumatised' if interviewed on television about her kidnapping last year

Veteran reporter Liz Hayes was due to fly to Perth on February 6 to interview Cleo and her family - but a change to border closures this week in Western Australia has thrown plans into disarray

Steve Zolezzi, a psychologist who specialises in a trauma-sensitive approaches to psychological distress, said it was a dangerous move to interview the youngster about her alleged abduction.

'If this kid gets placed in an unnecessary unsafe environment, that could further re-traumatise the child,' he said.

'The parents shouldn't place their child in that situation, she shouldn't even be a spectator.'

Mr Zolezzi added that most children Cleo's age are 'like sponges, they absorb things around them' and he felt re-telling the experience on camera had the potential to 'reinforce memories to become even more powerful.'

Clinical and forensic psychologist Chris Lennings agreed with Zolezzi, and is adamant Cleo should be shielded from publicity.

'She was held captive for 18 days, that's a terribly long time for a young child to be away from family in an uncertain, frightening environment,' he told The Australian.

'Ordinarily, you would be doing protective things and trying to assist the child recover from the trauma, not re-expose them.'

Earlier this week, Cleo's parents said they were considering changing the four-year-old's name to shield her from unwanted future media and public attention in the wake of her miraculous rescue.

Mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon have been seeking advice from other parents whose children have been unwittingly thrust into the spotlight after suffering comparable ordeals.

Forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said seeking relatable opinions was a wise move from Cleo's parents.

'I think it's a great thing as long as people are willing to speak with them,' he said. 'It's like any sort of therapy.

'Those who've been through trauma are often best-placed to speak to others about their experiences and they seem to identify more with it that way.

'They don't have people coming in just from a clinical, academic perspective. They're coming from real-life experiences and it seems to work for people.

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, who allegedly kept Cleo in a Carnarvon home for 18 days, was charged in November with forcibly taking a child under the age of 16 - he will appear in court later this month

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has been labelled a 'doll obsessed loner' - he was charged with the kidnapping of Cleo Smith last November

Cleo Smith's mother and stepfather are considering changing her name in a bid to shield her from unwanted future media and public attention

'I think it's a great thing that they're doing it, frankly, if it's assisting people.'

Meanwhile, the decision by the WA government on Thursday to extend the closure of the border beyond February 5 has thrown filming plans for the exclusive TV interview with Cleo's family into disarray.

Channel 9's Liz Hayes was expected to fly to Perth on February 6 to start filming - but that now appears highly unlikely.

Kelly, 36, who allegedly kept Cleo in his Carnarvon home where she was found playing with a series of child-like dolls, was charged in November with forcibly taking a child under the age of 16.

He is expected to again appear in court later this month.
Western Australia has recorded seven new Covid infections as backlash over Mark McGowan's delay of the border opening grows.

Five of the new infections recorded on Saturday are contacts of confirmed cases while two are mystery cases.

One is understood to have been infectious in the community.

Around Western Australia there are now 78 active cases of Covid but none are currently in hospital.

Health authorities have since urged anyone in Perth, Peel or WA's South West experiencing Covid symptoms to get tested and isolate immediately.

Western Australia has recorded seven new Covid infections as backlash over Mark McGowan's delay of the border opening grows (pictured in Perth)

The new cases come after the WA Premier was widely criticised for announcing the borders would not be opening on February 5 as planned.

He initially said the state would reopen its border when the vaccination rate hits 90 per cent. WA is now at 89 per cent.

But the state Labor government now say they they won't be relying on double-dose vaccination targets any more.

Instead, the take-up of booster shots will determine when the state finally throws its doors open, with the premier eyeing off an 80 per cent booster vaccination rate.

Poll DO YOU AGREE WITH MCGOWAN'S DECISION? Yes No DO YOU AGREE WITH MCGOWAN'S DECISION? Yes 1279 votes

No 3560 votes Now share your opinion





But this could take several months with only 27 per cent of the state's residents having received a booster vaccination.

The Australian Medical Association hit back at the decision with President Dr Omar Khorshid who said he was 'gutted'.

'Seems Mark McGowan is a one-trick pony when it comes to Covid-19,' he said on Twitter.

'This decision should be acknowledged as a failure by the WA government to prepare and a broken promise.'

Dr Khorshid said WA could not stick its head in the sand, with an outbreak in the state inevitable.

Western Australians have not yet been told when the borders will open up, ruining the plans for many around the country

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the 'border situation in WA is deeply concerning' and is set to have massive implications for the aviation and travel sector.

'February 5 was supposedly 'locked in' to give certainty. Tens of thousands of people booked travel on that basis and we brought a lot of our people back to work on that basis,' Mr Joyce told the West Australian.

'Removing that certainty with no new timeline for when the border will reopen is a real blow, not just for travel but for Australia as a whole.'

He said WA is still 'playing for time', despite large number of people doing the right thing and getting vaccinated.

'The question is what it will take for them to open. It's very hard, as a business, to deal with this level of uncertainty,' he added.

Mr McGowan has been supported by Labor leader Anthony Albanese on his tough border stance

While the backflip has been met with fury from many residents after months of promises the state would finally reopen, Mr McGowan has received support from political allies.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese threw his support behind the Premier's decision to indefinitely enforce hardline border measures.

'I told (Mark McGowan on Thursday night) I respected and supported the decision,' Mr Albanese said in Sydney.

'People were keen to visit loved ones, but the first priority of Mark McGowan has been to keep WA safe. People in WA enjoy life almost as normal, certainly compared with NSW.'
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's commitment to pursuing high-level opening-up will allow the world to enjoy its development dividends at a time when protectionism and unilateralism arise in the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Openness and cooperation are key to pandemic control and the world's post-pandemic economic recovery," said Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in a written article published by Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

China has vowed to expand high-quality and institutional opening-up and detailed a slew of measures in the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December last year, which are expected to bring more opportunities for other countries while accelerating its own development.

Why is China committed to advancing high-level opening-up? How will the country achieve its goals? Here are some explanations.

-- Why is high-level opening-up significant?

Promoting high-level opening-up can both expand the room for China's development and give a shot in the arm to the global economic recovery, Wang said.

China proposed the dual circulation development paradigm, in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, in May 2020.

Pushing high-level opening-up is an inevitable choice for building the development paradigm, which has been mentioned as a guiding thought to sustain growth.

Wider opening-up can introduce high-end production factors and scarce resources, propelling technological progress.

In the first 11 months of last year, China's imports of advanced technological products reached around 4.9 trillion yuan (about 771.75 billion U.S. dollars), up 15.1 percent year on year.

The country's efforts to open its door wider can help with fulfilling people's expectations of living a better life and upgrading domestic consumption.

Opening-up has accelerated China's new industrialization and urbanization, created new jobs and improved residents' incomes.

Wang said a closed domestic loop will make China's economy a "monocycle," while high-level opening-up, on the other hand, can lead to a higher-level equilibrium of the Chinese economy.

He also noted that economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend and "decoupling" goes against market rules, pledging that China will contribute to building an open world economy, making the pie of the international market bigger.

-- What are China's advantages to achieve high-level opening-up?

High-level opening-up requires a solid economic foundation, and the recent Central Economic Work Conference highlighted the country's strong economic resilience and unchanged fundamentals underpinning long-term growth.

With a population of over 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of more than 400 million people, China's super-large scale market is one of the scarcest resources in contemporary world.

The country has become the world's second-largest consumer market, with its retail sales of consumer goods increasing 12.5 percent year on year to 44.08 trillion yuan in 2021.

It plays a crucial role in the global industrial chain, as it has the world's most complete industrial system.

In 2021, the country's value-added industrial output went up 9.6 percent year on year, bringing the average growth rate in the past two years to 6.1 percent.

The perseverance of accelerating independent innovation and nurturing new growth drivers also contributes to foreign businesses' expanding footprint in China.

The country rose to 12th on the Global Innovation Index 2021 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, remaining the only middle-income economy to rank in the top 30.

-- How will China walk the talk?

Knowing too well that opening-up is the right path, China has quickened the pace and made plans in multiple fields.

Chinese authorities unveiled two shortened negative lists for foreign investment, both of which took effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

Off-limit items for foreign investors have been cut to 31 in the 2021 version of the negative list from 33 in the 2020 version, while the 2021 negative list for foreign investment in pilot free-trade zones cut the number of items to 27 from 30.

The Chinese government has pledged to continue to improve services for foreign-funded firms and projects and foster a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment in 2022.

The country will give full play to various expos such as the China International Import Expo, the China Import and Export Fair and the China International Fair for Trade in Services, to share the country's huge market with the rest of the world.

It will also advance infrastructure connectivity with other countries, like supporting the development of China-Europe freight train services and building new international trade channels.

In the global arena, China will closely engage in global economic governance and play an active role in international cooperation mechanisms, contributing more Chinese wisdom to protecting free trade. 
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to answer whether or not he has received a COVID-19 booster shot during a press conference on Friday, after former President Donald Trump called politicians who don't publicly disclose their booster shot status 'gutless.'

'That's something that I think people should just make their own decisions on,' DeSantis said.

'I'm not gonna let that be a weapon for people to be able to use. I think it's a private matter.'

DeSantis had dodged the same question last month, weeks before Trump's comments this month.

'I've done whatever I did,' DeSantis told Fox Business Network. 'The normal shot.'

The Republican governor received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine early last year.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Pictured: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a press conference on Friday, where he refused to reveal whether or not he received a COVID booster shot

Donald Trump looks on as Ron DeSantis speaks during the Florida Homecoming rally at the BB&T Center in 2019

Pictured: Florida COVID-19 numbers, showing a massive spike on January 7 earlier this month, with 78,449 new cases recorded that day alone

Meanwhile, the booster shot has become a point of contention for some Republicans, with Trump and DeSantis recently locking horns as the two current front-runners for the GOP presidential candidacy in 2024.

A few weeks prior to DeSantis' press conference, Trump took aim at 'gutless' politicians who refuse to reveal their booster shot status, while announcing he had received his own booster shot.

'Well, I've taken it. I've had the booster. Many politicians  I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, "Did you get the booster?"  because they had the vaccine  and they're answering like  in other words, the answer is "yes" but they dont want to say it,' Trump told One America News Network on January 11.

'Because they're gutless. You gotta say it  whether you had it or not. Say it.'

Florida, like most states, has been hit hard by the virus as cases spiked due to the Omicron variant. There were 80,951 new infections reported on Friday - nearly half as many as the high of 150,251 set just two weeks ago on Jan 4.

There were 660 reported COVID deaths on Friday.

Pictured: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference on Friday, where he declined to say whether or now he received a booster shot

Ron DeSantis,right, refused to answer if he had received a COVID booster shot on Friday, after Donald Trump, left, called politicians who don't publicly disclose their booster status 'gutless'

A free monoclonal treatment site located in a tent is open for patients at the Miami Dade College North Campus on January 20, 2022 in Miami

There have been 5.28 million total cases and 63,763 deaths in the Sunshine State as through Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Trump's comment kicked off speculation that he and DeSantis were at odds, which has since ramped up into weeks of media speculation about tensions between the two potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates.

While he did not disclose his booster shot status on Friday, DeSantis did offer some skepticism on the need for younger Americans to receive one.

'I have said publicly that, you know, the FDA recommended against boosters for people in my age group, but the CDC overrode that, and I think that was based on politics. I don't think that that was based on science,' said DeSantis, who is 43.

'So in Florida, they've been available for people. People can make their own decisions on it. But it's not been something that, you know, that we've been telling people in my age group, you know, to go out and do.'

Trump and DeSantis, pictured, are the two current front-runners for the GOP presidential candidacy in 2024

Meanwhile, Trump hit back at reports of a bitter rift with Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, insisting they had a good relationship.

DeSantis has emerged as a heavyweight contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

The result has been a number of unnamed advisers trashing DeSantis to journalists amid reports that Trump is furious that the governor will not say he will stand aside if the former president decides to run again.

'Well, I have a very good relationship with Governor DeSantis,' said Trump on a conference with a small number of reporters when asked about the issue.

The call was to promote his coffee table book, 'Our Journey Together,' but Trump fielded questions on everything from the January 6 investigation and impeachment to whether he had plans for another book during the 20-minute conversation.

He did not say whether DeSantis was featured in his book, but said that the 43-year-old owed his political rise to Trump's endorsement.
A mother who walked free from prison early after killing her four-year-old son has been rushed to hospital with severe head injuries which triggered a cardiac arrest.

Heidi Strbak, 38, was jailed for nine years for the manslaughter of little Tyrell Cobb but was let out on appeal after serving just over three years of the original sentence.

On Saturday, emergency crews were called to a property at Upper Coomera on the Gold Coast at about 7:30am after reports a woman had been 'seriously injured'.

Heidi Strbak, 38, was jailed for nine years for the manslaughter of little Tyrell Cobb (pictured together) but was let out on appeal after serving just over three years of the original sentence

Heidi Strbak was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries which triggered a cardiac arrest

Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia they discovered a woman at the Cassia Drive address at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

Investigators established a crime scene with detectives spending the afternoon scouring the home and removing bags of evidence for forensic testing as they try to piece together what happened.

'She was transported to hospital where she remains in a serious condition,' police said.

'Initial investigations suggest the woman's fall is not suspicious, however investigations are ongoing.'

The apparent fall caused severe head injuries that saw her go into cardiac arrest.

Ambulance crews were able to stabilise her condition and she is now fighting for life at Gold Coast University Hospital.

Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia they discovered a woman at the Cassia Drive address at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Pictured: Heidi Strbak

Strbak was freed after her jail term was reduced after successfully appealing the nine-year sentence in the High Court.

Brisbane Supreme Court Justice David Boddice, who oversaw a four-day contested sentence hearing in October 2020, immediately suspended the sentence after taking into account the 1,148 days she had already spent in custody.

Strbak wiped her eyes as the judge handed down his sentence and slammed her for failing to protect her own son.

'You failed dismally, with the consequence that he lost his life,' the judge told Strbak.

'Your conduct involved serious criminal behaviour to your own child, who relied and depended on you to protect him.'

Tyrell Cobb (pictured), four, suffered two separate blows to his abdomen that caused internal bleeding and the leaking of his stomach contents which led to his death on May 24, 2009

Tyrell died on the Gold Coast in May 2009 after Strbak and her then de facto husband Matthew Scown failed to seek timely medical treatment for the sick boy.

He had been vomiting following a blow to his abdomen, which tore open his small intestine.

Tyrell was unresponsive and never regained consciousness by the time paramedics were called,

An autopsy revealed 70 bruises and abrasions, as well as a cigarette lighter burn on his ankle.

Justice Boddice found the blunt force trauma that caused the boy's death could have been inflicted by his mother of her former de facto partner, Matthew Scown (pictured)

Strbak received a nine-year jail term in 2017 for the crime, but that sentence was set aside in March after a High Court appeal.

She pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge on the basis she did not seek medical treatment.

Justice Boddice found the blunt force trauma that caused the boy's death could have been inflicted by his mother or Scown.

The Supreme Court judge said Scown and Strbak were the only people who had the opportunity to inflict two deliberate blows that caused Tyrell's death.

He also said the Crown had failed to establish that either of them inflicted the traumatic injuries to the boy.

Tyrell (pictured) vomited bile for two days following a blow to his abdomen, which tore open his small intestine

Scown was sentenced to four years behind bars in 2017 for Tyrell's manslaughter but was immediately released as he had served more than two years in custody.

He was sentenced for being criminally negligent and failing to seek medical treatment for the boy.

Justice Boddice told the court there had been evidence Scown had been violent with Tyrell.

'There is a real and reasonable likelihood that Tyrell's traumatic injuries were occasioned by the deliberate infliction of violence by Scown to Tyrell,' the judge said.

The Supreme Court judge found Tyrell's death was caused by deliberate infliction of blunt trauma to his abdomen with force on two occasions.

The judge said Tyrell's father Jason Cobb (pictured), who was in the court during sentencing, have also been grieving the boy's death

Justice Boddice said Strbak had been a loving mother to Tyrell and had no evidence of past abuse or neglect of Tyrrell

He said the injuries were inflicted by either Strbak or Scown.

Justice Boddice said Strbak had been a loving mother to Tyrell and had no evidence of past abuse or neglect of Tyrrell.

He said she is at low risk of reoffending, with good prospects to rehabilitate, showing co-operation and remorse by giving a guilty plea.

The judge told the court Strbak's response to Tyrell's health may have been because she did not understand the severity of the situation.

'I do not doubt that you grieve every day for your lost son,' he said.

He said Tyrell's father Jason Cobb, who was in the court during sentencing, has also been grieving the boy's death.
South Australia has posted a major decline in COVID-19 cases, with 2193 new infections or almost a third fewer than on Friday.

However the state has recorded a further three virus-related deaths.

Health officials say the latest fatalities were a woman in her 30s, another in her 80s and one in her 90s.

South Australia's cases have fallen to 2193 new infections on Saturday (pictured, a healthcare worker administers a Covid PCR test)

South Australia is currently managing 33,892 active cases.

There are 276 people with COVID-19 in hospital, 37 of them in intensive care and seven requiring a ventilator.

Of those hospitalised, 161 people are fully vaccinated, 44 are either unvaccinated or partially so and 71 have an unknown status.

Some 90.2 per cent of South Australians aged 12 or over are double vaccinated while more than 452,440 booster shots have been issued, more than 18,000 of them in the past 24 hours.

Premier Steven Marshall says the state may have reached the peak of its Omicron-fuelled outbreak.

There were 3023 new infections reported on Friday and 3777 on Thursday.

90.2 per cent of residents aged 12 or over are double vaccinated while more than 452,440 booster shots have been issued across the state (pictured, people wait in line at drive-thru Covid test clinic)

'These numbers do bob around a bit but this is very significantly under our (3569) seven-day average,' he told journalists.

'I'm increasingly hopeful we have got on top of this very dangerous Omicron wave.'

SA also confirmed six deaths on Friday and 298 hospitalisations.

Genome sampling indicates 95 per cent of its recent cases are the Omicron variant.

Mr Marshall says the latest preliminary modelling indicates there will be no significant jump in cases once school returns early next month.

Surveillance rapid antigen testing will be introduced for teachers and other staff in pre-schools and childcare centres.

The state's blanket work from home advice will also be revised on Thursday with workplaces asked to restrict attendance to 25 per cent of the usual capacity or about one person to every four square metres.

They will also be asked to wear masks indoors and take their lunch breaks outside where possible.

There will be no immediate change to other local restrictions.
Journalist and author Bari Weiss blasted school closures and restrictions brought on during the pandemic as a 'catastrophic moral crime' and said that life must return to normal.

Speaking on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, the Substack journalist declared that she is 'done with covid!'

'We were told you get the vaccine, you get the vaccine and you get back to normal. And we haven't gotten back to normal. And it's ridiculous at this point,' Weiss began on the HBO show.

'I know that so many of my liberal and progressive friends are with me on this and they do not want to say it out loud because they are scared to be called anti-vaxxed or to be called science deniers or to be smeared as a Trumper,' Weiss explained.

Here's the clip of @bariweiss on @RealTimers with @billmaher saying what more and more people, many of whom have been compliant COVIDIANS, are now starting to feel. The tide is turning. pic.twitter.com/0wFJBdnian  Morning Answer (@MorningAnswer) January 22, 2022

Journalist Bari Weiss has said life need to return to normal and restrictions end calling the pandemic a 'catastrophic moral crime'

'I'm sorry, but if you believe the science, you will look at the data that we did not have two years ago and you will find out that cloth masks do not do anything. You will realize that you can show your vaccine passport at a restaurant and still be asymptomatic in carrying Omicron. And you realize, most importantly, that this will be remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime.'

Weiss noted how remote learning was undoubtedly having a detrimental effect on students who are still subjected to lessons over Zoom.

A school in Flint, Michigan recently announced there would be indefinite virtual learning. Weiss said that it was leading to growing incidents of self-harm among young girls.

'That is why we need to end the lockdowns and declare it a pandemic of bureaucracy,' she said.

Weiss then stated how she was concerned about the amount of misinformation floating around.

Speaking on HBO's Real Time with Bill Marr, pictured, Weiss suggested that remote learning is having a negative effect on children's mental health

Last week, liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor incorrectly claimed during a hearing on President Biden's vaccine mandate that 100,000 children in the U.S. with Covid-19 are in 'serious condition.'

The justice, appointed by former President Obama, also claimed that Omicron is 'just as deadly' as the Delta variant for the unvaccinated.

Studies have shown the Omicron variant to be more infectious but less virulent than past strains of Covid-19.

It also forced CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to correct Sotomayor's numbers claim during a segment of Fox News Sunday.

'The number is not 100,000. It's roughly 3500 in hospitals now?' asked host Bret Baier.

'Yes - while pediatric hospitalizations are rising, they're still about 15 fold less than hospitalizations of our older age or age demographic,' Walinsky stated.

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor incorrectly claimed during a hearing on President Biden's vaccine mandate that 100,000 children in the U.S. with Covid-19 are in 'serious condition'

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky corrected Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's incorrect claim that there are 100,000 pediatric COVID hospitalizations last Sunday

Sotomayor's egregious miscalculation - which can be easily debunked with data reported by the CDC.

'There is misinformation and not just on podcasts and the internet. It's also on cable news,' Weiss said

'The Democrats are supposed to be the party of the little guy You know what the Democrats are now comfortable with, or seemingly comfortable with? A two-tiered system in which the haves get to go into a restaurant, laugh with their friends for hours and the people serving them are masked and wearing gloves.

'Where they get to walk, as AOC did, at the Met Gala while in the background the staff looked like they were in The Handmaid's Tale. I mean, this is, this is a look that is unbelievably detrimental to them.'
A Virginia mother has been charged with making a terror threat after she vowed to bring guns to her children's school if they were made to wear face masks.

Amelia King, a 42-year-old dental hygienist from Luray, caused alarm at the Page County school board meeting on Thursday.

'My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on,' King told the Board.

'Alright? That's not happening.

'And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to... I will call every...'

King was then cut off for going over the three-minute time limit.

She ended by retorting: 'I'll see y'all on Monday.'

Virginia has been the epicenter in culture wars between parents, school boards and teachers.

Amelia King, 42, has been charged with making a terror threat after telling a school board she would bring 'every gun' to school if her children were made to wear face masks

Her remarks alarmed the board, and Page County school superintendent and school board chair said they were unacceptable.

In a letter on Friday morning, they said that they were requesting additional police protection for Monday's classes.

'Not only do comments such as these go against everything we wish to model for our students, they go against the very nature of how we as a community should interact with each other,' their statement read.

'This kind of behavior is not tolerated from our students, faculty, staff, nor will it be tolerated by parents or guests of our school division.'

They said they do not take threats like those made by King lightly.

King told the Thursday meeting of the school board that she was furious at a proposal to make children at school wear face masks

King issued a groveling apology for her rash threat.

'I in no way meant to imply 'all guns loaded' as in actual firearms, but rather all resources I can muster to make sure that my children get to attend school without masks,' she said.

'My sincere apologies for my poor choice in words.

'I'm absolutely mortified. I would never do such a thing. I was only speaking figuratively.

'Nonetheless, I'm beside myself. I never meant to imply I would show up with actual firearms. I'm not a dangerous person and I'm not a threat, and I'm so very sorry for the way it came across.'

On Friday evening, Luray Police confirmed that King had been charged.

They said she had been released by a magistrate on a $5,000 bond.

The Board ultimately decided in a 4-2 vote to 'make masking the choice of the parent.'

Masks would be required for all staff, and anyone on school buses.

However, parents will be required to sign an 'opt-out form' if they did not want their children wearing masks in school.

The Board will still require students returning from quarantine to be masked, regardless of parent choice.

Virginia's new Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, was elected in part due to his vow to keep the state out of school COVID rules.

On Friday, he officially unveiled updated mask guidelines for parents, educators, and schools, creating a parental opt-out from mask mandates at both public and private schools in the Commonwealth.

'I have said all along that we are going to stand up for parents.

'Executive Order 2 is not about pro-masks versus anti-mask, it's about empowering parents.'

The issue is currently before the state's Supreme Court, but Youngkin said: 'I am confident that the Virginia Supreme Court will rule in the favor of parents.

'In the meantime, I urge all parents to listen to their principal, and trust the legal process.'

The Governor's office said that the updated mask guidance is redesigned around what Governor Youngkin's office termed his 'key principles' of parental rights, keeping kids in the classroom five days a week, and keeping kids safe and healthy.
A London restaurant boss who was sacked from his previous job for exposing himself to a customer who had complained about his parking, has won an unfair dismissal case.

Recep Turhan, 52, who now owns the Jack the Chipper fish and chips shops in Whitechapel and Greenwich, previously worked at the Poppies takeaway in Camden Town.

A resident identified only as 'Mr Jones' grew increasing frustrated because he believed council parking officials had been 'lenient' towards Poppies staff, an employment tribunal in Holborn heard.

'Mr Jones' then pursued workers including Mr Turhan and took hundreds of photographs of their alleged rule-breaking.

After becoming irritated by Mr Jones pursuing him, Mr Turhan pulled down his trousers and exposed his penis to the resident in 2016.

A photograph was taken of the incident which was put on a leaflet at the front of Poppies. The image was captioned: 'Exposed: Poppies' Mini Flasher' and was sent to Mr Turhan's bosses.

Four years later, in September 2020, Poppies owner Ural Hassan called Mr Turhan in and sacked him without notice, the tribunal heard.

But a judge has now found that the employer had not acted 'reasonably' and there had been 'shortcomings' in the procedure which was followed.

He also said the 52-year-old was also not informed of a right to appeal and ruled that Mr Turhan had been wrongly and unfairly dismissed.

Recep Turhan, 52, who now owns Jack the Chipper branches in Whitechapel and Greenwich, previously worked at Poppies in Camden Town. He was sacked from his job at Poppies in September 2020. Pictured: Mr Turhan (left) and his son Cagri (right)

Mr Turhan, who recently faced backlash over the name of his new restaurant, was not able to bring someone to the meeting with Poppies (pictured) to support him when he was dismissed

He now runs Jack the Chipper in Whitechapel (pictured) and Greenwich, two fish and chip shops

Judge Bernard Hodgson found that Mr Hassan had not given Mr Turhan information on the issue and there was no proper investigation.

The judge had also found that the employer had not acted 'reasonably.' He added that there had been 'shortcomings' in the procedure which was followed.

Judge Hodgson said the action of Mr Turhan exposing himself was possibly a 'fundamental breach of contract' but that it was 'far from certain.'

Mr Turhan, who recently faced backlash over the name of his new restaurants, was not able to bring someone to the meeting with Poppies to support him when he was dismissed.

He is now trying to sell his stake in Poppies and so will be back at court next month.

Speaking to the Camden New Journal after the tribunal, Mr Turhan said: 'I made a mistake. I'm human, you make mistakes no matter what job you do, whether you're president or prime minister, or work where I do. Only God makes no mistakes.'

He said he was having a bad day and was stressed and had enough of the man taking photographs of him. But he said he regrets what happened.

However, Mr Turhan was left shocked by the events which led him to be called in to be sacked nearly five years later. He said he could not believe he was being asked to leave after he had spent so much time looking after the business away from his family and building it up.

In a statement on the tribunal decision, Poppies Camden said: 'We are disappointed with the employment tribunal decision and are reviewing appeal options. Recep Turhan was dismissed for gross misconduct after the photograph was discovered of him 'flashing' outside our family-run establishment.

'We believe it to be a criminal offence and took immediate steps to dismiss his inexcusable and took immediate steps to dismiss his inexcusable and unlawful behaviour.'

Mr Turhan has since opened two 'Jack the Chipper' restaurants with a business partner.

His Greenwich branch (pictured) opened after the success of the original shop in Whitechapel but he faced backlash from locals who thought the name glorified the serial killer

But he faced backlash from Greenwich locals who thought the name 'glorified' the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Mr Turhan appeared on This Morning in August 2021, with his son Cagri Turhan, who manages the shop.

They confirmed to Eamonn and Ruth that they would not be changing its name despite the negative feedback and reviews.

Mr Turhan said at the time: 'I'm being respectful to women complaining about the name and I say to him, "I'll give the person 50% discount and everybody will be happy.

'I don't think we will change the name because this is the history from 160 years ago. I'm only using a play on words for the name and nothing else.'
A mother-of-two who jumped through an ice hole in a frozen river to mark Orthodox Epiphany was swept away, presumed dead, by strong currents in front of her screaming children.

A deeply distressing video shows the woman, 40, plunge into the Oredezh River near Vyra, a village south of St Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday.

There was immediate panic after the woman, understood to be a lawyer from St Petersburg, was pulled beneath the ice by a powerful current of around 10ft a second.

Her distressed children scream and one is heard crying 'Mama, Mama', as a woman tries to comfort them.

A mother-of-two, 40, jumped into a frozen river to mark Christian Orthodox Epiphany on Wednesday

A rectangular hole had been cut into the thick ice on the Oredezh River near Vyra, a village south of St Petersburg, Russia. She jumped in put the strong current swept her away and she is presumed to have drowned

A man believed to be the woman's husband, 50, jumped in to try to save her but was unable to find her

After an attendant shouts for help a man believed to be the woman's husband, 50, is seen plunging into the ice hole but he cannot find her.

Rescue divers were also unable to find her body.

The lawyer, from St Petersburg, intended to dip in the waters to mark Christian Orthodox Epiphany in a tradition followed annually by hundreds of thousands of Russian believers.

People believe that water blessed for the annual ceremony possesses special healing properties.

Some people go into the icy waters on their own, while others often take part in the celebration in groups as they remembered the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

A hole had been cut into the thick ice and the air temperature was around -5C when the woman jumped in.

A rescue team that included divers was dispatched to the scene but they were unable to find the woman's body

The river's current was thought to be moving at a rate of 10ft a second when the woman jumped in

Her momentum carried her beneath the ice as her children screamed in horror. Pictured: A rescue diver searches for her body

Alexander Zuyev (pictured), head of VOSVOD emergency rescue service, criticised the placing of the ice hole at a point where the river had a strong current

On the same day a 'safe' ice hole in the Oredezh River by Vyra village was created with rescuers and an ambulance on standby as well as a wooden frame and steps to help people in and out of the water

The village of Vyra is just south of St Petersburg, in the Leningrad region of Russia

Pictured: The Oredezh River when it is not frozen. Mr Zuyev said even in summer people often drowned in the fast-flowing river

She was in a black one-piece swimming costume and was seen crossing herself before holding her nose and hopping feet-first into the river.

Another ice hole in the same village had rescuers and an ambulance on standby as well as a wooden frame and steps to help people in and out of the water.

Alexander Zuyev, head of VOSVOD emergency rescue service, criticised the placing of the ice hole at a point where the river had a strong current.

He said: 'The woman went for a plunge in a location where there are no rescuers or appropriate lighting in an unsuitable ice hole.

'It is one of the most dangerous rivers in the Leningrad region and people drown in it every year, even in summer.'

She was 'simply carried away with the flow', he added.
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The Russian defence minister has agreed to meet UK counterpart Ben Wallace in Moscow for emergency talks after Tory MP Tobias Ellwood warned an invasion of Ukraine was 'imminent' and that President Vladimir Putin was 'exploiting Western weakness'.

The talks come after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday predicted a 'large-scale war' after Moscow spent months massing more than 100,000 troops, tanks and artillery pieces along the border and last ditch US negotiations with the Kremlin yesterday failed to produce a breakthrough.

Mr Wallace extended an invitation for his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu to visit London earlier this week, but was instead invited to visit Moscow for talks given the last bilateral defence talks between the two countries took place in the UK capital.

A senior defence source said Mr Wallace 'has been clear that that he will explore all avenues to achieve stability and a resolution to the Ukraine crisis' during the talks and that his office was 'in communication with the Russian government.'

Chair of the Defence Select Committee Mr Ellwood said today that he expected an 'imminent' invasion as Putin has 'actually boxed himself into a corner because so much effort has been put into this', but added that the Russian strongman 'recognises that he'll never again be as strong as this, to take advantage of the West's weakness.'

He blasted NATO and the US for being 'timid' and 'risk averse' and warned 'the West needs to reset and recognise post-Afghanistan that NATO needs to develop a fresh sense of purpose' to answer Putin's Russia because 'what happens in eastern Europe security-wise has long term consequences.'

'This is about Putin wanting to establish absolutely a sphere of influence way beyond Ukraine itself,' Mr Ellwood told Radio Four. 'Putin wants a legacy, he wants to be seen as the most powerful state in Europe, he's angry at the demise of the Soviet Union and he certainly doesn't want EU or NATO rubbing up against the Russian Empire.'

Mr Zelensky yesterday predicted war with Russia if the superpower attempts to occupy the industrial city of Kharkiv, the former Soviet republic's second biggest city with a population of about 1.4 million, which he believes is a 'feasible' target due to its large Russian-speaking population.

He told the Washington Post: 'I will say realistically if Russia decides to enhance their escalation, of course they are going to do this on those territories where historically there are people who used to have family links to Russia.

'Kharkiv, which is under Ukraine government control, could be occupied. Russia needs a pretext: They will say that they are protecting the Russian-speaking population.'

The stark warning came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted there have been 'no breakthroughs' in crunch talks yesterday with his country's former Cold War rival in a bid to prevent an imminent war with Ukraine.

Meetings will continue between the US and Russia next week, with the former warning the latter that it must choose between the 'path of diplomacy' or the 'path of conflict and condemnation' as the threat of invasion grows with thousands off troops and military equipment stationed on the Russia-Ukraine and Belarus-Ukraine borders.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow for talks to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis as the country's servicemen (pictured, Russian troops take part in military drills in Rostov in southern Russia, less than 70 miles from the Ukrainian frontier) take part in drills along the border amid fears of an invasion

The last ditch talks were arranged after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday predicted a 'large-scale war' after Moscow spent months massing more than 100,000 troops, tanks and artillery pieces along the border (pictured taking part in drills in Rostov-on-Don, 70miles from Ukraine)

Meetings will continue between the US and Russia next week, with the former warning the latter that it must choose between the 'path of diplomacy' or the 'path of conflict and condemnation' as the threat of invasion grows with thousands off troops and military equipment stationed on the Russia-Ukraine and Belarus-Ukraine borders conducting exercises (pictured at the Kuzminsky range in southern Russia)

Ukrainian paratroopers are stations along the potential frontline of a conflict near Stanytsia Luhanska in Luhansk region, east Ukraine

Russia sappers from the Guards Red Banner Combined Army take part in drills to practice mine-clearing in Voronezh, close to Ukraine

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu (left) has agreed to meet UK counterpart Ben Wallace (right) in Moscow for emergency talks over the Ukraine crisis. A senior defence source said Mr Wallace 'has been clear that that he will explore all avenues to achieve stability and a resolution to the Ukraine crisis' during the talks and that his office was 'in communication with the Russian government'

Moscow has for months been massing tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces along its eastern flank, sparking fears of an invasion, though the Kremlin has insisted it is merely a defence force (pictured, Russian forces currently massed in border regions)

What is happening in Ukraine? What is happening? According to UK defence experts, Vladimir Putin is on the brink of invading Ukraine for a second time  having sent troops into the country's eastern regions and Crimea in 2014. His apparent intention is to prevent Ukraine joining Nato, the defensive alliance led by the US and the UK. As a precursor to conflict he issued a set of demands which he surely knew would be rejected, including the withdrawal of Nato troops from all former Soviet republics. Around 100,000 Russian troops are positioned in striking distance of Ukraine and in recent days military hospitals have been built  often an indicator conflict is imminent. How did we get here? Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has become increasingly pro-Western and its government is desperate to join Nato and the EU  moves Russia strongly opposes. Putin wants Ukraine back under Moscow's control as part of his 'sphere of influence' strategy to redraw the political map. He has already succeeded in Belarus, a close ally with an autocratic president who shares his ideals. How close is it to war? Days of talks between East and West last week failed to produce any peace settlement. Mr Putin has arguably come too close to conflict to turn back. Experts think he could launch a military offensive within a matter of days  although he may prefer to soften up Ukraine with further cyber-warfare strikes first. Washington has said it has intelligence that Moscow is planning an attack on its own forces so it can blame Ukraine and move in, known as a 'false flag' attack. What will the West do if Putin invades? Ukraine doesn't belong to Nato so there will be no military response, at least not officially. Any military assistance provided by the UK or US will be covert and deniable. President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have agreed a package of 'unprecedented' economic sanctions against Russia in the event of war. Putin wants to force a favourable diplomatic settlement. He may be able to do so if he restricts his offensive to the eastern regions already occupied by pro-Russian separatists. He could then call for that region to become independent from the rest of Ukraine, just as Crimea is. Advertisement

Tory MP Bob Seely, who is a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said some kind of military action is 'much more likely than not', adding that Russia's intentions over the next 10 years will be to absorb Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of interests and 'destroy Nato as best they can'.

Speaking about President Vladimir Putin, Mr Seely told Times Radio: 'It is his long-term goal to undermine and shatter the confidence in the ability of Nato.

'The real bad guys here, so to speak, sorry to say this, are the Germans, because their energy policy, their complete dependence on Russian oil and gas, their willingness to have the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is not even needed, built, purely so that the Russians can cut off supplies to Ukraine, is incredibly self-centred and selfish.

'If this was Trump's America the left in Britain would be bitterly attacking it, but they're not because it's Germany.'

Downing Street yesterday warned that Russia would be 'punished' if the country pushes ahead with any 'destabilising action' in Ukraine.

Number 10 said if Russian president Vladimir Putin launches an offensive, there will be a 'package of sweeping measures' launched by the UK and its allies against the Kremlin.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Mr Putin he must 'desist and step back' from war in Ukraine or risk being dragged into a prolonged conflict like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, she said: 'If there is an incursion by Russia into Ukraine, it would come at a massive cost.

'We are prepared to put very severe sanctions in place, we are also working to support Ukraine in terms of defensive capability.'

A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: 'I think the Prime Minister has been clear that any destabilising action by Russia in Ukraine would be a strategic mistake and would have significant consequences.

'I've talked about the fact that we're working closely with our partners, including the US, to draw up a package of sweeping measures to make sure that the Russian government is punished if it crosses the line.'

Meanwhile Blinken has promised a written response to Russian security demands and is not ruling out a presidential meeting, although he appeared to reject Moscow's request to ban Ukraine from joining NATO at today's 90-minute discussion with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva.

He insisted the US and Europe 'stand ready to meet Russia on either path' of war and said it is now up to Vladimir Putin to prove he does not intend to invade Ukraine.

Blinken described today's high-stakes talks as 'frank' and not 'polemical', with Lavrov also voicing hope for a lowering of the temperature between the former Cold War foes, despite saying NATO is 'working against' Russia and stirring up 'hysteria'.

The Secretary of State told reporters: 'We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clear path in terms of understanding each other's concerns and each other's positions.

'We anticipate that we will be able to share with Russia our concerns and ideas in more detail in writing next week and we agreed to further discussions after that,' he added.

Lavrov added: 'Antony Blinken agreed that we need to have a reasonable dialogue, and I hope emotions will decrease. I cannot say whether or not we are on the right track. We will know when we get an answer.'

He said another meeting could be held between the two, but that it was 'premature' to start talking about another summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Putin, who met in Geneva last June.

Blinken, however, did not rule out fresh talks between the presidents after Biden twice warned Putin by telephone of consequences for any Ukraine invasion.

'If we conclude (and) the Russians conclude that the best way to resolve things is through a further conversation between them, we're certainly prepared to do that,' Blinken said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks in Geneva as the men try to avert a war in Ukraine after Putin massed troops on the border

Blinken told Lavrov that the US remains committed to diplomacy but is ready with a 'severe' response should Moscow invade

Mr Blinken speaks at a press conference held after the talks, saying Russia must now choose between 'path of diplomacy' or 'path of conflict' - and that the US 'stands ready to meet them on either path'

Mr Lavrov speaks at a press conference after the talks, saying that America has agreed to respond to Moscow's security demands in writing and that more talks are planned after that

Lavrov (right) opened the talks by demanding 'concrete' responses to Moscow's security demands, including that Ukraine is banned from joining NATO (Blinken pictured left)

Ukrainian troops are pictured manning their posts in a trench close to frontlines where they have been fighting a years-long war with Russian separatists

Blinken said earlier today: 'If Russia wants to begin to convince the world that it has no aggressive intent toward Ukraine, a very good place to start would be by de-escalating, by removing those forces on Ukraine's border.'

He seemed to reject at least one of Moscow's demands today - that Ukraine should be banned from joining NATO - by insisting that there is 'no room' to negotiate over the country's right to decide its own future.

But he said Washington will respond to Russia in writing next week, and that more talks will take place once Moscow has reviewed the response.

Meanwhile Lavrov, speaking at a separate press conference, firmly denied that Russia is intending to attack Ukraine, instead accusing NATO of whipping up 'hysteria' aimed at 'sabotaging' the peace process.

He said the Kremlin is concerned about the eastward expansion of NATO, which he said is 'working against' Russia. Moscow also has 'concerns' about weapons and military experts sent into Ukraine in recent days and EU plans to build a new training base there, he added.

Despite the concerns, Lavrov described the talks as 'productive' but said it is too early to tell whether they are on the right path - that will only become clear after America's written response is delivered next week, he said.

Ukraine blames Russia for bomb hoax campaign Ukraine says it has been targeted by a campaign of fake bomb threats in recent days, which it blamed on Russia. Kiev said the Kremlin's security services had been phoning in fake bomb alerts 'targeting society' in an attempt to sow chaos and panic. 'The obvious goal of the special services of the aggressor country is to put additional pressure on Ukraine, to sow alarm and panic in society,' Kiev's own security services said. It comes after the US warned that Russia might launch sabotage operations against rebels forces it supports in the east of the country in order to justify an invasion. Putin currently has 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border, and has been seeking security guarantees from the US - including that Ukraine be banned from NATO. The US has called most of the demands 'non-starters', but has agreed to press ahead with negotiations in the hopes of avoiding a conflict. Advertisement

Ahead of the talks, the US had warned of a 'united, swift and severe' response if Putin attacks Ukraine amid fears that Putin is massing an invasion force on the border.

Blinken, arriving at the Geneva hotel where the crunch talks took, said Washington is 'committed to a path of diplomacy' for resolving border tensions between Russian and its ex-Soviet neighbour.

But he added that America stands ready with a 'united, swift and severe' response if Moscow invades. 'This is a critical moment,' he said.

Lavrov stressed ahead of the talks that Moscow is expecting a 'concrete' response to its security demands, including that Ukraine be banned from joining NATO.

Moscow also wants the 'withdrawal of foreign forces, hardware and arms' from countries that were not NATO members before 1997, including Bulgaria and Romania.

'(Our) proposals are extremely concrete and we await equally concrete answers,' Lavrov said.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Blinken said: 'We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clear path in terms of understanding each other's concerns and each other's positions.'

He called the 90-minute conversation 'frank and substantive', saying that 'by and large, the conversation was not polemical'. 'This was not a negotiation, but a candid exchange of concerns and ideas,' he added.

During the talks, Mr Blinken also raised the case of two US citizens - Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed - who are detained in Russia on charges of spying and endangering the lives of police, asking that they be freed.

Lavrov responded that the Kremlin does not interfere in criminal cases.

The Geneva talks came a day after Blinken was in Berlin to meet with NATO allies Germany, Britain and France to drum up support for pressuring Russia, particularly from Germany which has until now taken a softer line.

Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said after the talks that her country is willing to harm its economic interests to retaliate against Russian aggression - seemingly a reference to the not-yet-operational Nord Stream 2 gas pipe that Moscow wants to open.

But in Germany today, it was revealed that Chancellor Olaf Scholz - whose SPD party has historically been close to Russia - refused to take a last-minute meeting with Joe Biden to discuss the situation in eastern Europe.

Scholz did not accept the invitation due to a full schedule, including a trip to Madrid, Der Spiegel reported.

Elsewhere today, it was reported that the US is considering whether to pull the families of diplomats out of the country - underlining concerns that conflict is imminent.

Blinken's insistence on a 'severe' response came a day after Biden drew widespread criticism for saying retaliation would depend on the details - and that a 'minor incursion' could prompt discord among Western allies.

On Thursday, Mr Biden cautioned that any Russian troop movements across Ukraine's border would constitute an invasion and that Moscow would 'pay a heavy price' for such an action.

Russian sappers are pictured taking part in mine-clearing exercises in the Voronezh region, which is close to the border with Ukraine

A Russian rocket artillery vehicle takes part in live-fire drills in the Voronezh region

Rockets explode during live-fire drills in the Voronezh region, near the border with Ukraine

'I've been absolutely clear with President Putin,' Mr Biden said. 'He has no misunderstanding: Any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.'

Asked whether Russia was intimidated by Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on arriving for the talks on a cold and blustery day in Geneva: 'We're not afraid of anyone, even not of the U.S.'

In Moscow, the Kremlin reacted coolly to a parliament initiative to recognise two pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states, saying it was important to avoid steps that could increase tensions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was important not to try and score political points in such a fragile situation.

Iran, China and Russia hold joint naval drills in Indian Ocean Iran, China and Russia yesterday launched a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean, with the aim of boosting marine security, state media reported. Iran's state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran's Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters. Russia is also being joined by China and Iran - two nations which are at loggerheads with the West, with Beijing recently accused of sending a spy to the heart of the UK Parliament. The joint naval exercise will cover some 6,560 square miles (17,000 square kilometres), in the Indian Ocean's north, and include night fighting, rescue operations and firefighting drills. 'The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, maritime security and create a maritime community with a common future,' Iran's Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoldini, spokesman for the drills, told state TV. This is the third joint naval drill between the countries since 2019. It coincided with a recent visit by Iran's hardline President Ebrahim Raisi to Russia. 'Improving bilateral relations between Tehran and Moscow will enhance security for the region and the international arena,' Mr Raisi said upon returning from Russia on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported. Advertisement

Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shared a phone call on Thursday evening, putting out a statement today that warned Russia would pay a 'considerable and serious price' if it invades Ukraine.

The two leaders agreed that 'further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine must be averted' and there would be consequences if the situation were to escalate, the German chancellery said.

Even while rejecting the core Russian demands, the Biden administration has said it is willing to speak to Moscow about its security concerns.

One proposal by the United States is to revive restrictions on missiles in Europe that had been set by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War deal trashed by former president Donald Trump's administration as it accused Moscow of violations.

The Biden administration has also offered more transparency on military exercises. Russia has not rejected the proposals but says that its core concern is Ukraine.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, speaking in Australia amid talks on the new AUKUS submarine pact, today warned Putin to 'desist and step back' from Ukraine before making 'a massive strategic mistake'.

'Invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya,' she said.

'We need everyone to step up. Together with our allies, we will continue to stand with and urge Russia to de-escalate and engage in meaningful discussions. What happens in eastern Europe matters for the world.'

Moscow insists it has no plans to invade but has at the same time laid down a series of demands - including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO - in exchange for de-escalation.

Washington has rejected Moscow's demands as 'non-starters' and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg this week insisted that the alliance 'will not compromise on core principles such as the right for each nation to choose its own path'.

Upping the ante, Russia announced new naval drills that will see it deploy to the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Mediterranean 'more than 140 warships and support vessels, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 pieces of military equipment, and about 10,000 servicemen'.

The announcement followed an angry condemnation from the Kremlin of what it described as 'destabilising' remarks from US President Joe Biden, after the American leader vowed a 'severe' response to any invasion of Ukraine.

Russia already held joint military drills Wednesday with forces of ex-Soviet republic Belarus, which also neighbours Ukraine.

A US official said the exercises could presage a permanent Russian military presence involving both conventional and nuclear forces in Belarus.

The West has repeatedly warned Russia it would pay a 'high price' of economic and political sanctions should it invade Ukraine.

Hours before Blinken arrived in Berlin to coordinate the possible response to Russia, Biden sparked controversy as he appeared to indicate that a 'minor incursion' might prompt a smaller reaction from NATO allies.

A Ukrainian soldier sits inside a trench along the frontline where government forces have been fighting against Russian-backed rebels for years

Ukrainian troops move through a trench network close to the frontlines with Russian-backed rebel forces in the east of the country

Russian S-400 anti-aircraft batteries are moved to the frontlines with Ukraine as Putin continues to mass his troops

S-400 anti-aircraft batteries are loaded on to transports to be taken to the frontlines

'It's one thing if it's a minor incursion, and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera,' he said.

Blinken in Berlin clarified the comments, saying that 'if any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border and commit new acts of aggression against Ukraine, that will be met with a swift, severe response from the United States and our allies and partners.'

Speaking to the German television channel ZDF on Thursday, Blinken added that any crossing of the border into Ukraine by Russian soldiers would constitute a very clear aggression, irrespective of whether it was a single soldier of a thousand, according to a German translation of his remarks.

Biden also took pains to calm frazzled nerves, saying that any entry of Russian troops into Ukraine will be treated by the West as 'an invasion'.

But smarting from Biden's Wednesday remark, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit back that there was no such thing as 'minor incursions'.

'We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones,' Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

The West's diplomatic machine has been running on full power over recent weeks to defuse tensions, but with positions entrenched on both sides, a series of talks between Western and Russian officials in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna has failed to yield any breakthrough.

NATO allies have signalled their willingness to keep talking but Moscow has demanded a written response on its proposals for security guarantees.

On the Russian wish list are measures that would limit military activities in the former Warsaw Pact and ex-Soviet countries that joined NATO after the Cold War.

But in Kyiv on Wednesday, Blinken said he would not present such a formal response at Friday's talks with Lavrov in Geneva. Rather it was on Russia to dispel fears of any expansionist intentions.

Ukraine has been fighting Moscow-backed forces in two breakaway eastern regions since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

More than 13,000 people have been killed, and the latest Russian troop build-up has also greatly rattled neighbours in the Baltics.

Washington said Thursday it has approved requests from the Baltic nations to ship US-made weapons to Ukraine.

Britain has also said it would send defensive weapons to Ukraine as part of a package to help the country secure its borders.

In a speech in Sydney Friday, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will warn Russian President Vladimir Putin against making a strategic blunder and becoming embroiled in a 'terrible quagmire' if Russia invades Ukraine, according to prepared remarks.

'This is our land and I've no other option than to fight for it': The bar manager, the IT expert and the army of Ukrainian mums readying to go to war with Putin

By Ian Birrell for the Daily Mail

Maksym Bilyk is a young man who thinks carefully before speaking, works with computers and has never fired a gun in his life after avoiding national service in the military due to a stomach ulcer.

But the 26-year-old, who lives in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, responds instantly when I ask how he might act if there is an invasion of his country by the huge numbers of Russian tanks and troops massing over the border less than 30 miles away.

'I would take up arms and go to the battlefield without slightest hesitation,' he said. 'No one wants to fight but if there is aggression against us, we must fight back.'

Bilyk admitted being scared living so close to the border. 'The idea of taking up firearms and going into a battle is unsettling. I want to live in peace. But this is our land. We have nowhere else to go. So there is no other option but to fight for it.'

Serafim Sabaronsky, 28, bar manager pictured with his most essential belongings packed for survival

Such conversations feel incongruous in a cafe filled with people chatting over coffee, eating cakes or tapping away at computer screens in a bustling city centre.

As we talked, skaters slid by on an ice rink in the snow-covered city centre square where a huge statue of Lenin  the biggest in Ukraine  stood until it was toppled eight years ago.

That statue was at the centre of clashes after pro-democracy protests sprung up in Ukraine. Kremlin stooges stormed official buildings and burned flags  but they were defeated, unlike in two eastern cities now under Russian control.

But now, Ukraine's second city is living in fear of a fresh assault as diplomatic efforts try to prevent Vladimir Putin from invading  an illegal move that would unleash chilling new conflict with Kharkiv among possible targets.

Indeed, yesterday, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia may try to occupy Kharkiv and that it would be the start of a 'large-scale war'.

Once, the massive city square was named after the founder of the Soviet secret police. But when Ukraine shook off the shackles of Communism three decades ago, it was renamed Freedom Square.

Bilyk told me how this democratic ideal inspired him as a teenager to join the 2014 protests. 'The first ones were against the government but they became about freedom,' he said. 'When I saw people with foreign flags on our land, it was unacceptable.'

Born shortly after the Soviet Union's collapse, he regards freedom as 'the most important value in life'. Yet now it is being threatened by Putin, a former KGB operative, seeking to rebuild the Russian empire and stifle democracy.

Countless people are wondering what to do in the event of an attack. Some are stocking up on food or contemplating flight  but others are preparing to confront one of the world's most powerful combat machines.

They range from idealists such as Bilyk to battle-hardened veterans of the eight-year conflict that has dragged on in eastern Ukraine.

It was stirred up by Putin in response to the protests next door to Russia, leading to two breakaway republics, about 14,000 deaths and two million displaced people.

One Kharkiv city councillor told me he was planning to move his wife and two sons to Lithuania if Russia invades, then head to the frontlines with a rifle for which he has a hunting permit.

'If I buy a sniper rifle, it must be for hunting. But what you hunt, well, that's another question,' said Oleg Abramychev, 35, an events organiser.

It is impossible to predict events in war, especially in an area such as this with such deep commercial, cultural, family, historic and linguistic ties to Russia and which straddles the border.

Abramychev personifies the complexities of this region: born in Siberia on the other side of Russia, he moved to Ukraine with his parents as a boy and yet now feels passionately Ukrainian.

Though he admits feeling scared, he speaks of 'svoboda' (freedom) before talking about the right of nations to determine their own course.

For his part, Putin egregiously describes Ukraine as an artificial country wrested from Moscow's control by its enemies and feels it should be part of a 'New Russia'  a vision stretching from Kharkiv in the east to the Crimea in the south (which he illegally seized in 2014).

Yet despite the hostile build-up of troops, Putin denies any plans to invade and says he wants the West to stop supporting Ukraine's armed forces and withdraw a pledge to accept Ukraine as a Nato member.

Housewife: Marina Polyakova M has done military training

This is a Russian-speaking region  yet even one man who described himself as Russian and admires Putin told me that Kharkiv must remain Ukrainian.

Another Russian emigre said she hated the way citizens such as herself were being used by an aggressive Putin while he also claims to be protecting them.

Most analysts believe the Ukrainian armed forces are little match for Putin's formidable firepower, although Kiev's military has been strengthened in recent years by battlefield experience, better training and boosted supplies.

'Putin will not get it all his own way,' said Glen Grant, a defence expert and British Army veteran who advises the Ukrainian government. 'This is now a serious army filled with people willing to put their lives on the line.'

Meanwhile, the American government has said it will back armed resistance. 'If Russia invades, this will be all-out war since a lot of people will never give in,' said Grant.

'The retaliation will be personal and unpredictable  and Putin will not be expecting it.'

Among the 900,000 army reservists is one middle-aged IT worker in Kharkiv who keeps his gun and combat gear beside his office desk, ready for action within five minutes.

Ukraine's military is also hastily creating 150 battalions with 130,000 people in an upgraded Territorial Defence System.

For this is a society with a recent tradition of civilians coming to the aid of their nation when under attack from the bully next door.

In 2014, the Ukrainian armed forces, corroded by corruption, struggled against the pro-Russian insurgents until reinforced by volunteer groups.

Among them was graphic designer Jenni Shpak, 47, a mother of two. She grew up in the Soviet Union, remembers the deprivations of those dark days and supported pro-democracy protests to protect her children's future.

'I remember the poverty, the lack of food, the lies,' she said. 'For me, the protests were all about taking us as far away as possible from our Communist past, which did such terrible things to Ukraine that it brings tears to my eyes when I think of them.'

Her determination to support the fight against Putin and his Ukrainian cronies led to divorce from her pro-Russian husband. 'He said you must choose me or the war,' said Shpak.

She helped the fighters by taking food and clothing to the frontline, then assisting public relations efforts to combat the onslaught of Russian propaganda along the border areas  something seen again in recent weeks.

Now remarried, to a fellow volunteer, Shpak is preparing to return to the battlefield. 'I want to protect my land and fight for Ukraine,' she said.

Non-government bodies such as the Ukrainian Legion provide basic training for those wanting to fight  and claim to have seen a sharp rise in the number of civilians wanting to learn military and first aid skills on one-month courses.

'The training is adequate for someone who's never seen a weapon or held one,' said Alexander Gorbatenko, head of the Kharkiv office.

'People come knowing nothing but at the end they can move as a group, can shoot, provide first aid and defend themselves in case of military escalation.'

Among those to have done a military training course is Marina Polyakova, a housewife in her late-fifties.

'I have a backpack with all the necessities packed. My flak jacket is ready. I'll join the resistance and will do whatever is needed,' she said.

Polyakova, who runs a charity helping families of dead soldiers, is tired of living afraid in Russia's shadow after seeing the 'horror' of her city nearly taken over by Putin's troops in 2014 and her son badly beaten during the protests.

She says the deaths of so many Ukrainians at the hands of the Russians in their eight-year war 'must not be in vain,' adding: 'I want Ukraine to be a just, democratic country.'

After Britain last week sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, she looked up online how to use one.

'There is no sense in running,' she said. 'If we run, the war will follow, so we need to stop the enemy and stop this war.'

Polyakova says many others in Kharkiv feel the same way. Who knows if she is right, let alone precisely what Putin is planning?

Abramychev, the local politician, thinks that, at most, 10 per cent of people might join a revolt against Russian invasion.

Yet Artem Litovchenko, a sociologist at Karazin Kharkiv University, believes any resistance would be minor given the region's traditional sympathies and ties. 'If it happens, the majority will simply wait to see how it ends,' he said.

Another man  a fan of nationalistic Russian hip-hop music  insisted talk of war is over-hyped. He told me their problems lay with hopeless politicians in Kiev responsible for all their economic struggles as the cost of living rises and Ukraine's currency falls.

Graphic designer: Jenni Shpak is preparing to return to the battlefield

Yet it seems the mood against Russia has solidified to some extent over the past eight years, with a poll last month suggesting that a quarter of people in this region traditionally sympathetic to Russia might take up arms if invaded.

Among them is Serafim Sabaronsky, 28, a bar manager from a town near Kharkiv who, like so many I met, has mixed Russian-Ukrainian parentage but no doubts over his allegiance. 'I see myself as Ukrainian, so that is my motherland.'

He told me of two neighbours, a father and son, who were killed in the previous conflict and whose bodies are buried in the town's graveyard.

Like others, he said he wants to live what he calls a normal, 'boring' European life without 'people pointing a gun at us and telling us what to do.'

Before I left his house, Sabaronsky showed me the backpack he was preparing to use to live 'off grid' when he joins an insurgency.

It contains a cooking stove, first aid kit, sharp knife, sleeping bag, torch, wet weather matches and sleeping bag.

Others, too, accept they might soon need to flee their homes.

'I have poor eyesight, no physical qualifications, no fighting qualifications and I've never held a gun so I fear I'd be perfect cannon fodder,' one musician told me ruefully.

Amid intense discussions over the future, a refugee from the Donbas region shared on social media her tips for surviving sudden flight, such as storing key documents online, packing medicines and memorising important phone numbers.

'If you have a small child, put a note in their pocket with your phone number,' she wrote.

What sad advice for residents of this city famed for its culture and stunning architecture  living again under the disturbing shadow of war and wondering if they might soon be fighting, fleeing for their lives or forced into Putin's cruel dictatorship.

Additional reporting by Kate Baklitskaya

Glimmer of hope for Ukraine after crisis talks between the United States and Russia

By Mark Nicol, Diplomatic Editor for the Daily Mail

Hopes of a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis were raised last night after talks between the United States and Russia forged a 'clearer' path.

In the first encouraging signs for many weeks, US secretary of state Antony Blinken suggested Russia and the US could ensure each other's 'mutual security', thereby averting a major conflict in Ukraine.

However, Russia has insisted its 100,000 troops will remain on Ukraine's border until its security demands have been met.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday

After a week of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, Mr Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov sounded optimistic that war could be averted.

They met for 90 minutes in Geneva yesterday and have agreed to further talks in the weeks ahead. Experts said last night the likelihood of conflict in Ukraine was '50:50'.

In another positive step, Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is likely to meet his Kremlin equivalent Sergei Shoigu for crisis talks, possibly in Moscow.

Speaking last night, Mr Blinken said: 'We anticipate that we'll get together again across the table and see if we continue to advance this through diplomacy.

'But that's contingent on Russia stopping its aggression toward Ukraine. That's the choice Russia faces.

It can choose the path of diplomacy that can lead to peace and security or the path that will lead only to conflict, severe consequences, and international condemnation.

'Right now there's still a window, a brief one, to bring those talks to a successful conclusion and address the remaining concerns of all sides.

'We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path in terms of understanding each other's concerns, each other's positions.'

Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. Since then fighting has continued in the country's eastern regions, known as the Donbas, where 14,000 have been killed in clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists.

In recent months Russia has amassed more than enough troops to invade Ukraine again but this time could take control of the majority of the country, not just its eastern regions.

In recent weeks a conflict has seemed inevitable and Britain announced it was sending 2,000 tank-busting weapons to Ukraine in a bid to thwart an advance by Russian forces  a sign that ministers were convinced Russia intended to invade.

Mr Blinken said Mr Lavrov had repeated Russia's assertion that it had no intention of invading Ukraine.

He added: 'I suggested that if Russia wants to begin to convince the world it has no aggressive intent towards Ukraine, a good place to start would be removing its forces as well as engaging in diplomacy and dialogue, which is what we did today and what we plan to do in the days and weeks ahead.'

Mr Blinken said Mr Lavrov (pictured) had repeated Russia's assertion that it had no intention of invading Ukraine

For the first time, the US also promised to provide a written response to Russian security demands, such as the removal of Western troops from former Soviet republics and a veto on states joining Nato.

Until now, the US has simply dismissed these demands as 'non-starters'.

Neither side ruled out a possible meeting between US President Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin to resolve the situation.

Mr Lavrov described the talks as 'constructive' but insisted Ukraine could not be permitted to join Nato.

It is possible the US provided Russia with an assurance on this issue but not a written guarantee.

Former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb, who has been involved in similar negotiations, said: 'Russia will have to think twice whether to go in [to Ukraine] or not, not only in terms of economic sanctions but the reaction of the international community.

'I think we are in a 50:50 situation right now and the next few weeks will decide what happens.'
Big tech executives who allow the spread of extremist material online should be jailed, according to the Governments terror watchdog chief.

Jonathan Hall QC slammed UK authorities for failing to bring a single prosecution against Internet companies for alleged breaches of terrorism laws.

Accusing social media giants of having neither a human face or heart, he implied it was pointless appealing to Facebooks founder Mark Zuckerberg to act morally because he was only motivated by profit.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Hall called for greater use of tough control orders to monitor suspected terrorists, arguing that MI5 and GCHQ should be allowed to put their intrusive powers to creative use to tackle a growing number of lone wolf extremists.

Nothing should be off the books. Most regulations have a criminal penalty attached to them and often imprisonment lies at the end of the tunnel, the Governments independent reviewer of terrorism said.

Accusing social media giants of having neither a human face or heart, Jonathan Hall QC sensationally claimed it was pointless appealing to Facebooks founder Mark Zuckerberg to act morally because he was only motivated by profit

You would hope you wouldnt get there because the fines can be very high and the reputational consequences can be enormous, but I wouldnt take anything off the table.

Britains intelligence agencies are said to be concerned over the rise of lone wolf terorists radicalised during the pandemic.

Calling the Internet the main frontier, he said the Internet has made it easier for Islamist and Right-wing terrorist to set up groups.

Mr Hall also insisted that social media giants are not quick enough to remove online material, calling technology a money making endeavour.

I think tech companies have made a rod for their own back by pretending they have values like do no evil when in fact they only have values as long as it makes them money, he added.

Mr Hall slammed UK authorities for failing to bring a single prosecution against Internet companies for alleged breaches of terrorism laws

The independent reviewer, who took up his post in 2019, called for the use of more Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) to monitor suspects.

Though the use of the orders, from tagging and curfews to restricted access to phones and computers was weakened by David Camerons coalition government, Mr Hall argued they should be used more to deter keyboard warriors.

A Meta spokesperson said: We don't allow terrorists or terrorist content on Facebook. That includes terrorists that target the general public, police officers and politicians.

Weve made massive investments  including approximately $5billion globally last year alone  to help keep people who use our services safe.

As a result, Between July and September 2021 we removed over 9.8million pieces of terrorist content from Facebook, up from 3.1million over the same period in 2018. We proactively detected and removed over 99 per cent of this content before it was reported to us.
Police investigating a string of sexual assaults on schoolgirls in Greenwich have released CCTV of a man in an urgent appeal to track down the attacker

Police investigating a string of sexual assaults on schoolgirls in Greenwich have released CCTV in an urgent appeal to track down the attacker.

Three girls were sexually assaulted within just six days of each other in the south east London borough a week ago.

Last week a 16-year-old in school uniform had been sexually assaulted in Thamesmead at 5.30pm on Wednesday, January 12.

Officers say a man approached her to ask for directions before pushing her against a fence and sexually touching her. She screamed and was able to run away.

The next day, a 17-year-old was followed off a 422 bus around 7.45pm and sexually assaulted just three miles away in nearby Woolwich town centre.

On Tuesday, 18 January, another 16-year-old girl was walking down a road near HMP Belmarsh when she was approached by a man who asked for directions.

As she attempted to walk away, he sexually touched her before she was able to escape.

Another 13-year-old victim was attacked after she was followed off her bus in December 16.

Scotland Yard today released an image of a man wearing a black hood and face mask that they want to locate in connection with the incidents.

Three girls were sexually assaulted within just six days of each other in the south east London borough a week ago. Another 13-year-old victim was attacked after she was followed off her bus in December 16, just half a mile away from a later incident

DS James Robinson, who is leading the investigation, said: 'We know these incidents will cause concern within the community and we are doing all we can to identify the person responsible.

'We are also asking for your help  if you recognise the man in this image or have any information that could assist us, no matter how small, then contact us as soon as possible.'

Enquiries led the Met Police to link the two attacks and believe they were carried out by the same suspect.

Investigators also believe a December 16 assault on a 13-year-old girl who was followed off a 229 bus before being sexually touched is also connected to the string of incidents.

A day after one assault, a 17-year-old was followed off a 422 bus around 7.45pm and sexually assaulted just three miles away in nearby Woolwich town centre

Investigators also believe a December 16 assault on a 13-year-old girl who was followed off a 229 bus before being sexually touched on Hoveton Road is also connected to the string of incidents

Safer Schools Sergeant Geoff Warren, of the South East BCU, offered safety advice in a letter so parents and guardians can 'take reasonable measures to ensure our children are safe'.

He said: 'If you feel uncomfortable by someone's actions do not hesitate to call 999 on your mobile. You will not be wasting our time and we will take your call seriously.

'Where possible, keep to busy, well-lit areas.

'I would like to say again that I do not intend to cause any unnecessary worry and that incidents like this are rare.

'We are taking the matter extremely seriously and there will be an increased police presence in the area.'

Greenwich Council said it was 'truly appalled' by the incidents and is 'working closely with the police to do everything in our power to bring the perpetrator to justice'.

It added in a statement: 'Thanks to the bravery of the victims, who managed to get away and later contacted the authorities, we have an idea of what the perpetrator looks like.'

Anyone with information should call 101 with CAD reference 2916/21JAN22 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Actors perform a dragon dance during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

by Tan Jingjing, Gao Shan

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes.

Visitors from around the world joined the special celebrations which run from Jan. 21 through Feb. 13, immersed in a festival atmosphere and sharing wishes for good health, luck and prosperity throughout the year ahead.

The 2022 Chinese Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 1. It is based on a 12-year Zodiac cycle of characters, with 2022 being the Year of the Tiger.

The colorful Chinese Lunar New Year theme has turned the park into a sea of red and gold -- the Chinese New Year's traditional colors -- and a wonderland of festive Asian holiday cheer.

This year's Lunar New Year celebrations highlighted a new float for China's legendary warrior character Mulan, accompanied by traditional Chinese drummers performing powerful rhythms.

Decorated in red and gold to symbolize good fortune and happiness, the float features bright bunches of red firecrackers that hang together with golden tassels, and delicate red and gold lanterns come aglow for after-sunset performances.

During the procession, Mulan and her wisecracking dragon friend Mushu were surrounded by performers bringing cultural artistry and dance to life.

Disney characters, including Tigger, Mulan and Mushu, Mickey and Minnie, and the Three Little Pigs, all dressed in Chinese festive attire, and greeted visitors.

San Francisco-based musical group Melody of China performed a fusion of Chinese folk, classical and contemporary instrumentals.

During Disney's Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, park visitors could enjoy traditional Asian fare, like Shrimp Fried Rice, Char Siu Pork Bao, and many others.

They are also invited to try Chinese arts and crafts, such as Chinese calligraphy, and dragon's pearl coloring craft.

"It is amazing to see Mulan float," Jailyn Mitchell, a local visitor, told Xinhua.

"I love Chinese culture, and I like the different ways to celebrate it," said Mitchell, who has experienced Disney's Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations for several times.

Alexa Garcia, a Disneyland Resort spokesperson, told Xinhua the Lunar New Year celebrations have been a "fan favor" for a few years, showing diversified cultures and offering a lot of fun things for visitors to do, to see, and to taste.

People love to experience and engage in Chinese culture in different ways, she said. 

A person dressed as the cartoon character Tigger performs for visitors during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Chinese-style items are displayed during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

A calligrapher shows a Chinese character to visitors during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)

Visitors watch a float during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)

A performer dressed as the cartoon character Mulan takes part in the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Visitors pose for photos with the cartoon character Tigger during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
Universities Minister said undergraduates were 'at the end of the day consumers'

The Universities Minister has encouraged students to apply for refunds on courses if they are unsatisfied.

Michelle Donelan said students should 'absolutely' demand to claim back their tuition fees, adding that 'they are consumers, at the end of the day'.

The 37-year-old also criticised universities that have not returned to face-face-face learning, high vice-chancellor salaries and 'mickey mouse' courses.

Figures show three vice chancellors are on more than half a million pounds a year, with Exeter's Sir Steve Smith raking in 584,000 - more than triple the Prime Minister's salary.

Ms Donelan said she would not defend some vice-chancellor salaries, which she called 'eye-watering and staggering', and said drop-out rates for some courses were as high as 40 per cent.

Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said there had been 'tens of thousands' of refunds issued to students by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator during the pandemic

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Donelan said there had been 'tens of thousands' of refunds issued to students by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator during the pandemic.

She said: 'They're paying a substantial amount of money that's an investment in their own lives. They deserve that appeal right.

'I have had to really say to vice-chancellors, you need to ensure that you are delivering on what you promised to students because, as the Prime Minister outlined, we've got to learn to live with this virus now.

'We've got to get back to pre-pandemic life. Risk assessments can't be used as an excuse not to host face-to-face teaching. Students have been leading the way in the [vaccination] stats.'

Her boss, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, said recently that universities have no excuse for cancelling face-to-face teaching and students should complain to the watchdog if they feel short-changed

'Universities try to entice pupils to the front door and say that's social mobility. Actually, that doesn't help anybody,' she added.

Ms Donelan was promoted to Minister for Higher and Further Education in February's cabinet reshuffle, and describes it as her 'dream' job.

Her boss, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, said recently that universities have no excuse for cancelling face-to-face teaching and students should complain to the watchdog if they feel short-changed.

Mr Zahawi said he has an 'expectation' for universities to 'deliver face-to-face education' as it emerged more than 100 institutions have also moved their lectures online.

He told The Sunday Times last week: 'I want to repeat that my expectation of universities is that they deliver face-to-face education.

'They need to deliver it and if students feel they are not getting value for money they should take that up with the Office for Students.'

A spokesperson for Universities UK said: 'Universities are committed to delivering a high-quality in-person teaching and learning experience, and have worked hard to provide as much face-to-face learning for students as possible despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.

'Students returning to universities across the country this term can expect teaching and activities in person including small group classes, seminars, practicals and lab work, with some lectures in person and others online.

'Like schools, colleges, and other sectors, universities are still having to balance the provision of in-person activities with public health measures to protect students and staff.

'They are also working hard to minimise the risk of outbreaks and support those needing to self-isolate, particularly as Omicron cases remain high in many university towns and cities.

'Every university has established procedures for managing complaints, and these should be the first port of call for students. If students are not satisfied with the response from their university, they are able to escalate their complaint.'
A British tourist in Thailand who was hacked to death with a scythe by a furious neighbour has been named by his partner, who paid tribute to 'another person I loved dearly' in a heartbreaking online post.

Marcus Evans, 49, from Weston Super Mare started drinking on Friday afternoon with his girlfriend and friend Shaun Dagnan, from Nuneaton, local media said.

The victims were attacked in the early hours of Saturday in Kanchanaburi, central Thailand, allegedly over playing music too loud.

Mr Evans was killed in the attack while Mr Dagnan suffering critical injuries and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Police said they have arrested a 23-year-old local man with a history of mental health issues in connection with the attack.

Mr Evans was named as the victim of the attack by Melanie Derrick - his devastated former partner and mother of his children - in a Facebook post on Saturday.

Along with a picture of the couple together, she wrote: 'And just like that another person I loved dearly. Gone xxx.'

Police were called to the scene around 3.50am on Saturday and found the victim shirtless, wearing a pair of black shorts and lying face down in a pool of blood with knife wounds to his neck.

His friend found nearby was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, police said, adding that they found a pair of shoes and a sickle - which they suspected was the murder weapon - at the scene.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are in contact with the Royal Thai Police following the death of one British man and the hospitalisation of another in Thailand and are ready to provide consular support.'

Marcus Evans, 49, from Weston Super Mere started drinking on Friday afternoon with his girlfriend and friend Shaun Dagnan, from Nuneaton. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he was allegedly attacked and killed with a sickle, allegedly over playing music too loudly

According to Thai media, 55-year-old Shaun Kevin Dagnan (pictured left in a photo from Facebook) survived the attack in the early hours of Saturday morning in Kanchanaburi

The alleged murder weapon was a sickle found at the scene after two British men were attacked in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, early on Saturday

Police said they had arrested a 23-year-old local man (pictured) with a history of mental health issues in connection with attack and had sustained injuries consistent with a knife fight

Mueang Police found a pair of shoes and a sickle, (pictured) which they suspected was the murder weapon, at the scene

Police speak with the Thai girlfriend of a British tourist was allegedly hacked to death with a scythe in Kanchaburi, Thailand, in the early hours of Saturday morning, January 22

Local reports said the British men started drinking on Friday and carried on 'talking loudly and playing music' from a Bluetooth speaker until well past midnight.

However, a furious Thai neighbour allegedly confronted them before launching the frenzied attacked with a scythe shortly after 3am.

Residents heard shouting before finding the body of one British man - which was almost decapitated - while the other was severely injured. He was taken to hospital.

Officers arrived and the 23-year-old was arrested later that morning hiding in a nearby house. He is said to have been 'trembling and covered in blood'.

The alleged attack took place outside a rented room at the Soi Sri Lanka in Mueang, Kanchanaburi.

A neighbour, who was a relative of the dead victim's girlfriend, told police he was woken by a loud noise early on Saturday.

When he went to see what the commotion was, he found the two victims, the Bangkok Post reported.

Pictures showed the scene swarming with police officers with streams of thick red blood, spattered walls and a stash of empty beer bottles.

The alleged attack took place outside a rented room at the Soi Sri Lanka in Mueang, Kanchanaburi, central Thailand

Mueang Police said the suspect was a resident of Kanchanaburi (pictured) and was remanded in custody with injuries consistent with a knife fight

Mueang Police said the suspect was a local resident and was remanded in custody with injuries consistent with a knife fight.

But it was later reported the man taken into police custody was injured after he was attacked by neighbours who believed he was the perpetrator.

Police Colonel Somkiart Chomchai said a team of police, including forensic officers, were dispatched to the scene to collect evidence.

Adria Licci, 59, from Italy and a friend of the victim, who also lived in the resort, said that the deceased had arrived on December 17 to visit his Thai girlfriend.

He said: 'I was friends with the man who died and the one who was injured. They also knew the attacker and they had drinks with him before and had given him cigarettes. They used to joke with him a lot.

'I've never seen the three of them arguing before until last night when I heard them all shouting at about 3am.

'I came out of the room to see and found the wounded man and dead man lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

'We think that the issue was caused by the guys playing loud music, but this should have been discussed and solved. It shouldn't have to be this violent.'

Police Colonel Somkiart Chomchai from the Muang district police said the alleged murderer had been arrested at 8:50am and taken into custody. He is due to be interviewed on Sunday and also have psychiatric assessments.

The policeman said: 'At the scene there was a large number of blood marks on the ground. On the marble table were beer bottles and a Bluetooth speaker.

'We interrogated neighbours nearby the scene and everybody said that the foreigners had been playing music loudly, which made the attacker angry.

'We have to gather more information on the incident to find whether the attacker was suffering from a mental illness.'

Police said that the British Embassy in Bangkok had been informed of the death.
Covid cases have 'almost certainly' spiked beyond a million in Queensland, as the state's plain-speaking top doctor tells anti-vaxxers they're putting their lives at risk and warns: 'You can't hide from this virus'.

Official QLD Health data shows there are currently about 85,000 active Covid cases in the state, with around 250,000 infections since borders reopened last month.

But chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said the 'real number' is far higher, as Queenslanders struggle to get diagnosed with long lines at PCR testing clinics and a nationwide shortage of at-home RAT kits.

Covid cases have 'almost certainly' spiked beyond a million in Queensland, as the state's plain-speaking top doctor warns anti-vaxxers 'you can't hide from this virus' and you are 'putting your lives at risk' (pictured, protestors at a Queensland anti-vaxxer rally)

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard (pictured) says the 'real number' of Covid infections is far higher

Dr Gerrard said it's overwhelmingly the unvaccinated choking up the hospital system (pictured, anti-vaxxers protest in Queensland)

'It's a very large number, it's almost certainly greater than a million,' he said.

'We don't know the true number because not everybody's getting tested.'

The state recorded another 15,050 new infections and 10 deaths on Saturday, with 884 people being treated in hospital and 52 in intensive care.

But Dr Gerrard said it's overwhelmingly the unvaccinated choking up the hospital system.

'It is a very bad idea not to be vaccinated,' he warned. 'The virus is not going to go away.

'It's going to be with us forever so you won't be able to hide from this virus.'

Queensland recorded another 15,050 new infections and 10 deaths on Saturday, with 884 people being treated in hospital and 52 in intensive care (pictured, a health worker gives directions at a Brisbane Covid testing clinic)

Dr Gerrard (right) pictured with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (left) while he was still head of infectious diseases at Gold Coast University Hospital

He said the highly infectious Omicron variant will eventually infect just about everyone meaning those who refuse to get the jab are 'putting their lives at risk'.

Over 89 per cent of the state's residents are fully vaccinated, with strict rules banning those who haven't rolled up their sleeves from entering non-essential businesses like pubs, cafes and restaurants.

Dr Gerrard bluntly said he has no plans to reverse the controversial public health order or mandatory QR code check-in requirements any time soon.

The recently-appointed chief health officer - who was one of the first doctors in Australia to treat Covid patients and also worked in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic - says Queensland's infection peak is still about two weeks away.

Transmission rates on the Gold Coast are expected to fall in about seven days, before cases in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and other regional areas eventually start to drop.

Dr Gerrard said it's overwhelmingly the unvaccinated choking up the hospital system (pictured, a huge Covid testing queue is seen at the Gold Coast University Hospital)

Over 89 per cent of the state's residents are fully vaccinated, with strict rules banning those who haven't rolled up their sleeves from entering non-essential businesses like pubs, cafes and restaurants (pictured, cars line up at a Covid testing clinic in Brisbane to get a swab)

Face masks are a part of everyday life in Brisbane with QR code check-in requirements also in place across Queensland

But the return of school children to the classroom and a potential winter wave could see cases dramatically soar all over again.

'What will then happen over the ensuing weeks is that the number of cases (are) likely to fall at about the same rate as it has risen,' Dr Gerrard said.

'Although a slight caveat on that, is that with the opening of schools there's likely to be some more transmission associated with the return to schools.'

The warnings come as fully-vaccinated overseas arrivals are finally allowed to enter Queensland without having to quarantine from 1am on Saturday.
The heartbroken family of a 19-year-old soldier who died suddenly at a military base, within hours of another soldier on the Salisbury Plain, have paid tribute to her.

Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck was tragically found dead at the base in Larkhill, Wiltshire, on December 15.

She died on the same day as Lance Corporal Michael Joseph Miah, 28, from the Household Cavalry, who was found dead in his garage at Bulford.

The army has launched a probe into the deaths, which come after at least five confirmed suicides at Salisbury Plain since 2018.

Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck was tragically found dead at the base in Larkhill, Wiltshire, on December 15

Her family have paid tribute to her, saying she 'would go above and beyond to help anyone in a less fortunate position than herself'

Gunner Beck had completed her initial training at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate before continuing her military career at Larkhill in 2020.

Her family, who from Oxen Park in Yorkshire, said she could 'light up a room putting a smile on anybody's face'.

In a tribute sent, they said: 'Jaysley is a loving and caring person who would go above and beyond to help anyone in a less fortunate position than herself.

'If there is ever a person who needs help, you could always count on Jaze to be there.

She died within hours of Lance Corporal Michael Joseph Miah, 28, (pictured) from the Household Cavalry, who was found dead in his garage at Bulford

'Her compassion for others and her ability to light up the room putting a smile on anybody's face is immeasurable.'

The Army has confirmed an investigation into Gunner Beck's death is underway.

A spokesperson said: 'It was with sadness that we confirmed the death of Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck at Larkhill in December 2021.

'As there are ongoing investigations, it would be inappropriate to comment further, but any death is a tragedy and our sympathies remain with the families and friends of those affected.'

An inquest into Gunner Beck's death is due to take place at a later date.

The tragic deaths, just 10 days before Christmas, comes after at least five confirmed suicides at Salisbury Plain (pictured) since 2018

Lance Corporal Miah was found dead on the same day as her. They both died from hanging, according to their post-mortem examinations.

As part of her legacy, her family is asking for donations to The Principle Trust Children's Charity.

'We believe this charity radiates the kind of positivity that Jaysley always had helping give children their dreams back,' said the family.

'100 per cent of every 1 raised by the charity goes towards helping provide free holidays to underprivileged, disadvantaged and disabled children from across Yorkshire.'

They added: 'A life so beautifully lived deserves to be beautifully remembered.'

If you would like to donate to the family's fundraising appeal, you can do so here.
A woman is in critical condition in hospital after the car she was in fell from a bridge and landed upside down in the middle of a busy motorway.

The horrific crash happened at the Bowburn interchange on the A1(M) in Durham at 10.35am yesterday.

A car driving on the A177 flyover left the carriageway and landed on its roof in the central reservation below.

The driver of the car freed themselves from the wreckage but the passenger, a woman in her mid-40s, had to be cut free and was then flown to hospital for treatment for 'serious injuries'.

A woman is in critical condition in hospital after a car fell from a bridge and landed in the middle of Bowburn interchange on the A1(M)

A vehicle driving on the A177 flyover left the carriageway and landed on its roof in the central reservation below

Durham Police said a man in his early 30s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and remains in custody.

No other injuries have been reported, police said.

Detective constable Natalie Horner, of Durham Constabulary's Collision Investigation Unit, said: 'We would like to appeal for anyone who witnessed this incident, particularly anyone who has dashcam footage of the crash or the moments leading up to it, to get in touch with us as soon as possible.

'We would also urge anyone who saw this vehicle being driven between 9am and 10.30am today, especially in the Sherburn Village area, to contact us.'

The driver of the car freed themselves from the wreckage but the passenger, a woman in her mid-40s, had to be cut free and was then flown to hospital for treatment for 'serious injuries'

The North East Ambulance Service said it requested help from the Great North Air Ambulance.

A spokeswoman said: 'Two patients were taken to hospital for further treatment; the first patient was taken by road to the University Hospital North Durham (UHND), and the second patient was flown to the Royal Victoria Infirmary Major Trauma Centre (RVI MTC).'

The A1(M) and the A177 were closed in both directions and are likely to stay closed until Saturday while repairs are carried out to safety barriers, according to police.

The site was close to the scene of a horrific fireball crash which killed three people in July and saw lorry driver Ion Onut, 41, from Galashiels, Scotland, jailed earlier this month for three counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
New Zealand will make household contacts of Covid cases isolate for 24 days under harsh new rules brought in to combat an impending Omicron outbreak.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has brought in the strict measures as the country battles to stay Covid Zero despite the threat of the highly contagious mutant strain.

But critics say the lengthy quarantine period is 'unworkable' and will lead people to avoid getting tested.

Anyone infected with Covid is now required to isolate for 14 days, up from 10 days under the new interim rules.

Household contacts must then stay in quarantine for a further 10 days, stretching the time alone out to three and a half weeks.

New Zealand will make household contacts of Covid cases isolate for 24 days under harsh new rules brought in to combat an impending Omicron outbreak (pictured, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern)

The extension to isolation comes as New Zealand recorded 84 new Covid cases on Saturday, with 43 in the community and another 41 caught at the border.

It includes an Auckland airport worker who tested positive for the omicron strain, sparking fears case numbers could soar up to 1500 a day or more if the mutant strain spreads across the nation.

The NZ Ministry of Health said the changes were made after new scientific data published in Japan revealed the highly infectious strain has a longer incubation period than previous variants with sufferers also shedding the virus for longer.

Anyone infected with Covid is now required to isolate for 14 days and household contacts must then stay in quarantine for a further 10 days (pictured, drive in vaccination at Auckland airport)

But Ardern's critics warn the extreme policy is 'unworkable' and could lead to more Covid cases with greater number refusing to be tested in order to avoid the lengthy quarantine period.

'The effect is that if you test positive, members of your household may have to isolate for 24 days,' Act political party leader David Seymour told NZ's Stuff.

'People who cannot afford that will have a strong incentive not to get tested, defeating the purpose of the policy.

'If the advice is taken seriously, it will cripple the health workforce and supply chains more generally.'

Critics warn the extreme policy is 'unworkable' and could lead to more Covid cases with greater number refusing to be tested in order to avoid the lengthy quarantine period (pictured, anti-vaxxer protesters at a Covid vaccination clinic in Auckland)

However experts say the change is the government doing a U-turn on a a decision to shorten isolation time made last November.

'This is not new - we've just gone back to the time periods we had before that change a couple of months ago,' epidemiologist Michael Baker said.

'Our management of the virus is still to keep Omicron out and we've got to have tougher rules to do that.

'But everything is going to change when the almost inevitable outbreak occurs here.'
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Lashawn J. McNeil, 47, opened fire on the officers, and was shot in the arm and head. He was undergoing surgery on Friday night. He was out on probation at the time following a New York narcotics arrest, and had four previous arrests in two other states

The convicted felon who shot and killed a rookie New York Police officer and critically injured his partner in Harlem on Friday had shared anti-cop propaganda on his Facebook page and allegedly argued his with mother over his vegan diet.

Sources told the New York Daily News that Lashawn McNeil, 47 - who was out on probation when he used a Glock 45 equipped with a high capacity 40 round magazine to kill Jason Rivera, 22 and injure Wilbert Mora, 27, - argued with his mother, Shirley Sourzes, about his veganism and had shared a controversial music video in 2014 depicting officers getting gunned down.

The video shows footage of police brutality against black men as two rappers appear holding guns to the head of a stoic white officer as they sing, 'Time to start kill these coppers.'

The music video, 'Hands Up' by Uncle Murda & Maino, was posted as a tribute to Eric Garner, a black man who was choked to death by a white NYPD officer and whose cry, 'I can't breathe,' became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Along with the video, McNeil shared a slew of conspiracy theory posts and videos on his Facebook page, which warned of a coming race war, that McDonalds conducted blood sacrifices, that black people were aliens, and that the UN had established a global army to bring about a new world order. He stopped sharing the conspiracy posts by early 2015.

NYPD senior officials told NBC that McNeil had moved in with his Sourzes at her Harlem apartment in November 2021 and had tried to convert his family to share his beliefs.

New York Police posted a photo of the blood-covered illegal Glock 45 equipped with a high capacity 40 round magazine that was used to kill rookie officer Rivera and critically injure Mora.

Rivera, who grew up only five miles from the shooting and signed up a little over a year ago, in November 2020, died in the attack. His partner Wilbert Mora, who joined the NYPD in 2018, is currently fighting for his life.

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch has invited the public to attend Rivera's funeral to 'send a message' that the city stands behind the NYPD. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Multiple police sources initially said both officers had died.

McNeil was shot and injured by a third officer, after he tried to flee the house.

He was in surgery on Friday night, and his Sourzes, who called the police on him for threatening her, allegedly told police she knew he carried guns and that 'he has problems,' the New York Post reported.

Sources told the Post that she had told McNeil not to come home with firearms while helping out his disabled brother, and that she did not believe he was carrying a weapon when she called police on Friday night.

The sources added that McNeil blamed his mother for being blind in one eye. It's not clear how the condition happened.

The incident started out as 'a normal verbal family dispute with no injuries or anything out of the ordinary', police sources added.

The drum magazine McNeil had equipped to his Glock allows it to hold an additional 40 rounds to the gun's ten, giving the shooter a total of 50 rounds to fire.

New York prohibits the use of magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York - an ex NYPD officer, who only took office three weeks ago - angrily declared at the Harlem hospital that the violence must stop.

'It is our city against the killers,' he said.

'This is not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York.'

President Joe Biden responded to the tragedy on Twitter, writing: 'Jill and I are saddened to hear two NYPD officers were shot last night  one fatally. We're keeping them and their families in our prayers. Officers put on the badge and head into harm's way every day. We're grateful to them and their families for their extraordinary sacrifice.'

The officers' deaths are the first under Adams, who was elected in part to combat the city's surging crime, and the first shooting deaths of an NYPD officer since July 2017.

Police recovered an illegal Glock 45 at the scene, equipped with a 'high capacity magazine.' The drum magazine gives a gun 40 additional rounds, allowing the user to fire a total of 50 rounds

Jason Rivera (left), 22, who joined the NYPD a little over a year ago, was shot and killed on Friday night and his partner Wilbert Mora, who signed up in 2018, was in critical condition

In 2014, McNeil had shared the controversial music video, 'Hands Up' by Uncle Murda & Maino, which depicts violence against white police officers

From 2014 to 2015, McNeil's Facebook was filled with conspiracy theory posts that warned of a coming race war, that McDonalds conducted blood sacrifices, that black people were aliens, and that the UN had established a global army to bring about a new world order

First responders saluted Rivera's body as it was carried out on Friday night

A procession carried the body of officer River by W135th Street and Lenox Avenue

Rivera and his partner Wilbert Mora are the fourth and fifth officers shot so far this year - by comparison, last year, a total of 10 police officers were shot in the entire state of New York

The NYPD said, 'We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice'

McNeil was allegedly arguing with his mother on Friday night when she made a call to police

The officers' deaths are the first shooting deaths of an NYPD officer since July 2017

The NYPD is continuing to investigate the case and was interviewing local residents on Saturday morning

People held a vigil in Manhattan for the slain officer and called on the community to unite behind the NYPD

LASHAWN J. MCNEIL'S CRIMINAL RAP SHEET Lashawn McNeil, 47, was well known to NYPD officers, who were called to his family's New York City house on a domestic violence claim in August The felon has had five arrests in three different states between 1998 and 2003 1998: McNeil was arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon in South Carolina Records show that the matter was dismissed 2002: He was arrested for assaulting a police officer in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he had a registered address 2003: He was also arrested twice on a felony drug charge and a misdemeanor narcotics charge in Pennsylvania That same year, he was arrested and convicted of a felony narcotics charge in New York City, which he was still serving probation for Advertisement

Rivera and Mora are the fourth and fifth officers shot so far this year - by comparison, last year, a total of 10 police officers were shot in the entire state of New York.

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest municipal police union in the world representing 50,000 active and retired officers, excoriated the city's leaders for not doing enough.

Lynch has been highly critical of the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who announced on taking office at the beginning of the month that he would not prosecute certain crimes.

Lynch said on January 4 that he had 'serious concerns about the message these types of policies send to both police officers and criminals on the street.'

On Friday night, he was furious, and pointed the finger firmly at Bragg and his policies.

'Our hearts are broken, we're in shock, our knees are buckling,' he said.

'And we're angry, because we've been here before.

'We're angry, because we saw it coming.

'We're angry, because we said it would happen - and it happened again.'

Devastating footage showed the officers' colleagues rushing them to hospital after McNeil - who has been arrested in three states - opened fire, using a stolen Glock 9mm gun, which was recovered at the scene.

The gun was outfitted with a drum magazine, a fire arm accessory that has been the subject of controversy and are illegal in New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and the District of Columbia, which all have a limit on magazine capacity.

Drum magazines and semi-automatic firearms were prohibited between 1994 and 2004 when the government passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, a legislative effort kicked off by the 1989 Stockton, California elementary school shooting.

After the ban ended in 2004, each state was free to make its own regulations on assault weapons and ammo capacity, with New York choosing to the set the capacity at 10 rounds.

Rivera, Mora and a third officer were called to a domestic violence incident at around 5:10pm on Friday.

BAN ON DRUM MAGAZINES EXPIRED IN 2004 Drum magazines, such as the one used by Lashawn McNeil, are prohibited in the state of New York. The state banned them in 2013 after they became legal to use nationwide in 2004 when a federal ban expired. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was imposed by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1994 following a series of high profile mass shootings using semi-automatic weapons and extended magazines. The ban was first pitched in 1989 after Patrick Purdy entered the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, with a semi-automatic weapon, killing five schoolchildren, and injuring 32 others. It was the highest number of deaths and injuries for a school shooting at the time, triggering lawmakers to propose a ban on assault weapons and their extended magazines. In 1993, CNN, USA Today and Gallup published polls that 77 percent of Americans supported the ban. The main argument stemmed from the weapon and magazines' high-kill capacity. The following year, former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan wrote Congress and then president Bill Clinton to pass a ban on the guns and their magazine accessories. The ban applied only to weapons manufactured after the date of the enactment and expired ten years later in 2004. All constitutional challenges against the ban failed, as did all attempts to renew it. After the ban expired, it fell on states to pass regulations on the firearms and the extended magazines. In 2013, New York passed legislation setting the limit on magazine capacity to 10 rounds. Similar limits were enacted in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Advertisement

The McNeils' called police claiming her 47-year-old son was threatening her.

He was well known to officers, who were last called to the house on a domestic violence call in August.

McNeil had previously been arrested in New York in 2003 on felony narcotic charges, and was out on probation.

He also had four other arrests in two different states.

In 1998, he was arrested in South Carolina for the unlawful possession of a weapon.

In Pennsylvania, where his registered address was, in Allentown, he was arrested in 2002 for assaulting a police officer.

He was also arrested twice in Pennsylvania in 2003 - once on a felony narcotics charge, and once on a misdemeanor narcotics charge.

When the three officers arrived at the McNeil house, the mother was in a front room with another son. She said that her threatening son was in the back room, and so Rivera and Mora approached the room along a narrow 30-foot hallway.

The third officer remained with the mother, Sourzes and her other son.

When Rivera and Mora got close, McNeil opened fire, shooting both officers.

He made a dash for the door, but was shot by the third officer in the right arm and head.

McNeil is alive and hospitalized in critical condition, NYPD spokesperson Lt. John Grimpel said, correcting earlier reports that he had been killed.

Police recovered a Glock 9mm gun at the scene, which they said had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017.

Police audio reveals the moment the gunfight broke out, with multiple shots heard being fired.

'Shots fired,' one says, and sirens can be heard in the background. 'Cop shot. We need additional units.'

The dispatcher was then desperately asking nearby units to clear the street, and clear a route for the ambulances.

'Two officers shot,' another says. 'We are bringing NYs to the hospital. Have units to back up.'

The officers were taken to Harlem Hospital.

'Due to a police incident, avoid the area of West 135 Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd and Malcolm X Blvd. in Manhattan,' the NYPD said.

'Use an alternate route when traveling nearby and expect a police presence in the surrounding area.'

It was the third incident in less than 72 hours involving NYPD officers getting shot in the line of duty, following an incident in the Bronx late on Tuesday night and another officer shot early Thursday morning on Staten Island.

The officer in the Bronx, Officer Kaseem Pennant, who was shot in the leg while scuffling with a teenage suspect, has already been released from the hospital.

Detective Dominick M. Libretti, shot through the door and hit in the leg while serving a search warrant for drugs in Staten Island, underwent surgery at the hospital, where he was recovering. He was said to be in stable condition, but his injury was serious.

On January 1, Officer Keith Wagenhauser was shot in the head in his patrol car by a stray bullet, while sitting outside a Bronx precinct. He has been released from hospital.

Slain NYPD rookie sought to improve his community and bridge the gap between residents and cops NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22 Jason Rivera, 22, who grew up in the Inwood district of Manhattan - five miles from where he was shot and killed - said he wanted to join the New York Police Department to improve community relations, and help people. The young officer said he was inspired to join the NYPD after seeing how strained the relationship was between his local community and the police department during the city's troubled Stop and Frisk era. 'Growing up in Inwood, Manhattan, the community's relationship between the police and community was not great,' Rivera wrote in a letter to the police academy after he became a cop in November 2020. 'I remember my brother being stopped and frisked...I was too young to know that during that time, the NYPD was pulling over and frisking people at a high rate.' Rivera said he was bothered by how he viewed the police and how they viewed him and his community, and he wanted to be the catalyst to change that by joining the NYPD. 'Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD - the greatest police force in the world,' he wrote on his application form. 'Growing up in New York City, I knew how impactful my role as a police officer would go in this chaotic city of about 10 million people. 'I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple resolve an issue, would put a smile on someone's face.' He then saw the NYPD trying to reform, and he wanted to be part of the change. 'This is when I realized that I wanted to be part of the men in blue; better the relationship between the community and the police.' NYPD officials and his fellow officers at the 32nd Precinct vowed to never forget the rookie officer after he was shot and killed, and his partner critically injured, when a convicted felon out on parole shot them in Harlem on Friday. 'Tonight, we mourn the loss of a hero officer  a son, husband, and friend,' the NYPD said in a statement. 'Only 22 years old, Police Officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the line of duty. We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice.' A memorial lied outside the NYPD's 32nd Precinct to honor slain officer Jason Rivera, 22 A copy of Jason Rivera's letter to the New York Police Academy about why he became an officer Members of the community came out on Saturday to show their support for Rivera and the NYPD's 32nd Precinct Advertisement

Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, is seen on Friday night addressing the press and crowds of police officers at Harlem hospital

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, urged all New Yorkers to attend Rivera's funeral, in a show of support for the NYPD

A large crowd of NYPD officers gathered to hear Adams, Lynch and the NYPD Commissioner speak on Friday at Harlem hospital

NYPD officers gather at Harlem Hospital after the shooting on Friday night

Members of NYPD are seen inside Harlem Hospital on Friday night

Officers stand on the steps of the hospital awaiting news of their colleague

Police officers are pictured on the scene in Harlem, where two officers were shot and one killed

The officers were responding to a domestic violence call on Friday night

The shooting is the first death of a members of the NYPD since Eric Adams took over as mayor on January 1

A police officer stands guard on the corner of the street in Harlem

Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who has been accused of being soft on crime for saying he will not prosecute certain crimes, said it was a 'horrible tragedy'.

'This is a horrible tragedy and our thoughts and prayers go out to the officers, their families and the entire NYPD,' he said.

'The officers who serve and protect us risk their lives every day. Violence against police cannot be tolerated.'

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell denounced the spate of violence against the New York Police Department.

'Countless officers lined this hallway after carrying him in and grieve for their brother while praying with everything they have for the other' officer, Sewell said.

'I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. We're mourning, and we're angry.'

Adams was flanked by Patrick Lynch, head of New York's largest police union, as he spoke

Keechant Sewell, the commissioner of New York police, said she was 'struggling to find the words for the tragedy we are enduring'

Adams said enough was enough.

'We must save this city together. That is what we must do,' he said, speaking at the Harlem hospital.

'The unification of fighting this battle goes beyond rhetoric.

'It is time for us to save our city.'

Adams said that more must be done to stop weapons flooding in to New York City, where legally obtaining a gun is complicated by design.

'Let me be clear. There are no gun manufacturers in New York City. We don't make guns here,' he said.

'How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they still find their way onto the streets, and into the hands of killers?

'We need Washington to join us and act now to stop the flow of guns into New York City, and cities like New York.'

Crime is up 35 percent since Eric Adams took over as mayor of New York City

Overall crime is up 35 percent in the Big Apple

Adams demanded that the federal government do more to end the bloodshed.

'We are all witnesses. We have witnessed these murders and the failure on the federal level to stop the flow of guns into the city,' he said.

'We are not going to live under the gun of these dangerous people.'

He urged the police not to 'give up on this city', telling the saddened and angry officers that they should ignore criticism on social media, and continue to protect the residents.

'Don't give up on these people in this city,' he said. 'Don't give up.

'Don't think they don't want you to do your job.

'Twitter and Instagram - they are not the people of this city.

'We are going to protect our city. That's our promise and commitment.'

Lynch, the union chief, urged New Yorkers to attend the funeral of Rivera, when it is announced, saying that the police need the support.

Lynch on January 4 said that he was worried about the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and his 'soft on crime' policies

'We carried our brother here,' he said.

'We shouldered him in. And we'll shoulder him out.

'But it can't be us alone.

'We will bow our heads in sadness. But we need you too.

'The streets can't just be full of New York City police officers at this funeral.

'The public has to come.

'The public has to send a message to anyone that dares to harm a New York City police officer: not here, not now, not today, not to us.

'We're humbly asking you to come out and help us.'

Adams, 61, retired from the police force as a captain after 22 years and entered politics in 2006.

His predecessor, Bill de Blasio - a Democrat, like Adams - had a torrid relationship with police, and towards the end of his second term suffered relentless attacks from police unions, who felt he had failed them.

Adams, by contrast, presented himself as being tough on crime while also respecting human rights. He strongly rebuffed calls from progressives to defund the police - de Blasio in July 2020 had cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget, further infuriating officers.

Adams campaigned on the claim that his experience, both as an officer and as someone who was 'assaulted by police officers,' has helped him better understand the situation.

However, Adams has also been criticized for saying that some controversial tactics, including 'stop-and-frisk,' can help police officers on the job.

'I became a police officer, I understand crime, and I also understand police abuse,' he declared after winning the city's hard-fought Democratic primary in July 2021.

'And I know how we can turn around not only New York, but America. We're in a terrible place, and we can turn this country, this city, around.'

Adams said he ran for mayor to 'turn pain into purpose' as many feel they have been 'betrayed' by leadership.

'My fellow New Yorkers, that betrayal stops on January 1,' he said. 'We are going to make a difference.'

Yet he has had a difficult first three weeks in office.

In the past week alone he has attended a vigil for a 40-year-old Deloitte executive murdered by a homeless man who shoved her into the path of an oncoming subway train, in Times Square, and traveled to the scene of a Bronx shooting, where a baby girl was shot in the face.

He has also been confronted with the killing of a 19-year-old woman who was shot by a robber while working at an East Harlem Burger King.

Adams tweeted at the time that he would not 'surrender the city'.

The last NYPD officer fatally shot in the line of duty, Brian Mulkeen, was hit by friendly fire while struggling with an armed man after chasing and shooting at him in the Bronx in September 2019.

Mulkeen's death came about seven months after Det. Brian Simonsen was killed by friendly fire while he and other officers were confronting a robbery suspect at a cell phone store in Queens.

In 2017, Officer Miosotis Familia was ambushed by a gunman as she wrote in a notebook in a mobile command post. In 2016, Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo was killed in a gunfight with a man who'd broken into his estranged wife's home.

In 2015, Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed by a man riding a stolen bicycle in Manhattan and Officer Brian Moore died after he was shot by a man in Queens.

The year before, Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were fatally shot by a man who ambushed them as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a scathing dissent in the the Supreme Court case involving the Texas abortion ban, calling it a 'disaster' and a 'grave disservice to women.'

Sotomayor ripped into the Texas abortion law on Thursday after the court rejected a request by abortion providers to have the case sent to a district judge who had previously moved to block the Texas law in a 6-3 decision.

Instead, the case will remain with the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the AFP reported.

While the majority did not provide any comment on their decision, Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, voiced her thoughts in a blistering dissent that tore into state officials and fellow justices.

'Today, for the fourth time, this Court declines to protect pregnant Texans from egregious violations of their constitutional rights,' Sotomayor wrote.

Sotomayor described the ban - the most restrictive abortion law passed in the United States since the procedure was guaranteed as a constitutional right nearly five decades ago - as 'a convoluted law that instills terror in those who assist women exercising their rights between 6 and 24 weeks.'

'State officials knew that the fear and confusion caused by this legal-procedural labyrinth would restrict citizens from accessing constitutionally protected medical care,' she wrote.

'This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies. 'I will not stand by silently as a State continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee,' Sotomayor concluded.

The Texas law, which went into effect on September 1, bans abortions after six weeks, when a heartbeat in the womb can be detected but before many women even know they are pregnant. In December, the Supreme Court ruled to leave the ban in place as challenges were being litigated.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, (pictured) joined by Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Elena Kagan, voiced her thoughts in a scathing dissent that tore into state officials and fellow justices

The Texas ban is the he most restrictive abortion law passed in the United States since the procedure was guaranteed as a constitutional right nearly five decades ago

The Supreme Court (nine justices pictured) rejected a request by abortion providers to have the case sent to a district judge who had previously moved to block the Texas law

Laws severely restricting abortion have been passed in multiple Republican-led states, but have been struck down by the courts for violating Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, typically around 22 to 24 weeks.

But the Texas ban differs from other efforts by giving members of the public the ability to sue doctors who perform abortions as well as anyone who helps facilitate them once a heartbeat in the womb is detected.

They can be rewarded with $10,000 for initiating civil suits that land in court, prompting criticism that the state is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands.

As a result, many clinics in Texas fearing lawsuits have decided to close their doors.

The Texas law, which went into force on September 1, bans abortion after six weeks, when a heartbeat in the womb can be detected but before many women even know they are pregnant

Vice President Kamala Harris said in December that the Supreme Court ruling leaving the abortion law in place was 'an attempt to undo 50 years of precedent.'

In a statement, the vice president also called woman's rights to terminate a pregnancy 'non-negotiable.'

'Yesterday's Supreme Court decision allows SB8, which threatens women's health and rights, to remain in effect,' Harris said at the time. 'The ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy remains. The cash incentives for vigilantes remain. And the harm to women remains.'

'We must protect the constitutional right recognized under Roe v. Wade by codifying it into law. We must pass the Women's Health Protection Act. And we must continue to do everything in our power to defend women's reproductive rights.'

The court ruled that a lawsuit by abortion providers in Texas can move forward but left the ban on abortions after about six weeks in place as challenges are being litigated.

The high court punted the law's legality. Its action sent the case by abortion providers back to a district court.

'As far as I'm concerned, and as far as our administration is concerned, a woman's right to make decisions about her own body is non-negotiable,' Harris had told reporters.

'And so, we will continue to fight for the constitutional rights of all women to make decisions about their own body without interference by some legislative group of people that think that they can replace their judgment with hers.'

The Justice Department also released a statement at the time promising to fight against the law.

'The Department of Justice brought suit against Texas Senate Bill 8 because the law was specifically designed to deprive Americans of their constitutional rights while evading judicial review,' the DOJ said in a statement.

'The department will continue our efforts in the lower courts to protect the rights of women and uphold the Constitution.'
Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of breaching her restraining order after she allegedly texted her ex-husband Kieran Hayler's fiancee, MailOnline can reveal.

Sussex Police said that a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in Partridge Green, West Sussex at around 12.15am last night. She has been released under investigation.

A spokesman added a report had been made at 5.45pm on Friday in relation to an alleged breach of a restraining order.

Later on Saturday, Katie Price was seen being driven out of Worthing Police station by her fiance Carl Woods.

Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of breaching her restraining order. Pictured: Her hand is seen on the headrest of a Mercedes, driven by Carl Woods, as she left the station

On Saturday, Katie Price was seen leaving Worthing Police station, as she was driven out of the premises by Carl Woods after being released under investigation

Katie Price (pictured in December) was arrested after she allegedly texted her ex-husband Kieran Hayler's fiancee, MailOnline can exclusively reveal

She was seen on the back seat of a Mercedes, with her hand on the headrest, as her fiance drove the vehicle.

Price, who lives in 'Mucky Mansion', is banned from contacting Mr Hayler's girlfriend Michelle Penticost under the terms of a five-year restraining order imposed after she verbally abused her in a school playground.

The ex-glamour model, 43, has accused her estranged husband, 34, of grooming and raping an underage girl in 2016 before their divorce two years later.

Mr Hayler, a former stripper, has angrily denied the 'false' allegations' and vowed to co-operate with police.

Sussex Police said that a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in West Sussex at around 12.15am last night. Pictured: Katie Price is driven out of Worthing Police station

Pictured: Katie Price seen leaving Worthing police station today

Sussex Police (station pictured) said that a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in Partridge Green, West Sussex at around 12.15am last night

Price, who lives in 'Mucky Mansion' in Partridge Green, is banned from contacting Mr Hayler's girlfriend Michelle Penticost (pictured with Mr Hayler) under the terms of a five-year restraining order imposed after she was convicted of verbal abuse

'At 5.45pm on Friday (21 January) police responded to a report that a suspect had breached their restraining order,' a force spokesman said.

'Officers arrested a woman in her 40s who has been released under investigation while inquiries continue.'

MailOnline has approached representatives for Price and Mr Hayler for comment.

Mr Hayler's fiancee Miss Penticost, 39, shared a cryptic message on Instagram which read: 'Normal people don't go around destroying other human beings.' She also shared the hashtag 'restrainingorder'.

Price claims that she went to police before the divorce  but suggests that the alleged victim has now come forward herself.

Sussex Police says Mr Hayler has not been arrested and described the alleged victim as a 'girl', who was under the age of 16 in 2016.

A spokesman said: 'We are investigating a report that in 2016 a girl was raped by an adult male known to her at a location in West Sussex.

Price's ex husband Kieran Hayler pictured for the first time since allegations that he assaulted a woman on three occasions in 2016

Pictured: Katie Price seen leaving Worthing police station today

Police are to question Price's ex-husband Mr Hayler over historic rape allegations relating to another woman they both knew

'No arrest has been made at present. The girl is receiving support from specially trained officers'.

Mr Hayler's spokesman previously told the Mirror: 'Kieran is absolutely devastated by these untrue allegations and has requested to meet the investigating officer as soon as possible to clear his name.

'He is certain that these allegations are false and have been fabricated by a third party in an act of revenge.

'He will fight to clear his name and moreover for those responsible to be brought to justice.'

A source close to Mr Hayler added to The Sun: 'Police have been in touch with Kieran regarding an allegation from 2016, which is believed to have been made by Katie. It relates to someone they knew while they were married.

'Kieran is co-operating and insists he has done nothing wrong  but he's happy to speak to the cops about it.

'He just wants to move on from his marriage to Katie.'
CAIRO, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian and French naval forces have conducted joint military drills in the Mediterranean Sea with the involvement of two frigates, one from each country, the Egyptian army announced in a statement on Saturday.

The drills included an air defense exercise, tactical sailing formations, and electronic warfare exercises, according to the army statement.

The drills also included training on night transport operations and defensive operations against atypical threats, with the participation of Egypt's domestically built Sagem Port Said frigate and France's La Provence frigate.

In the last two years, the Egyptian and French naval forces have performed regular joint exercises. Naval troops from the two countries conducted maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea in November 2020 and in the Red Sea in May of last year. 
The corpse of a 66-year-old man was carried to a post office by two fraudsters in an alleged bid to claim his pension, in scenes reminiscent of the 1989 film Weekend At Bernie's.

In the dark comedy movie, a pair of insurance salesmen lug around the body of their murdered boss - pretending he's still alive - and lose and recover his corpse, which is clothed and wearing tinted glasses, several times.

Irish police are investigating whether the elderly man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, may have been dead for up to two days when yesterday morning's incident took place.

The fraudsters, one of whom knew the 66-year-old well, had put a jumper over Mr Doyle's face and a hat on his head.

Both men, who were in their 30s, went into the post office and tried to get the money but staff told them they needed his next of kin there or Mr Doyle himself.

Pictured: Gardai take the body of the man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, from Hosey's shop in County Carlow, Ireland after fraudsters allegedly tried to claim his pension yesterday morning, putting a jumper over his face and a hat on his head

The men had told staff that the pensioner was having a heart attack when questioned about his wellbeing and placed the body on the ground. Pictured: Gardai outside the shop in County Carlow yesterday

The fraudsters' actions had echoes of the 1989 film Weekend At Bernie's. In the dark comedy movie, a pair of insurance salesmen lug around the body of their murdered boss - pretending he's still alive - and lose and recover his corpse, which is clothed and wearing tinted glasses, several times. (Above, the film, starring Andrew McCarthy, right, and Jonathan Silverman

Sound familiar? Weekend At Bernie's Weekend At Bernie's is a dark US comedy released in 1989, starring Andrew McCarthy ('Larry') and Jonathan Silverman ('Richard') as low-level insurance salesmen. While going over some records at the New York firm where they work, the pair unearth fraudulent paperwork - but are unaware that their boss, Bernie, is the perpetrator. After they tell him, Bernie invites them to spend a weekend at his beach house in the Hamptons - unaware that he has ordered the Mob to kill them. Before the pair arrive at the beach house, Bernie himself ends up getting 'whacked' as he'd been sleeping with the mobster's girlfriend. When Larry and Richard turn up, they find the corpse... just as guests start arriving for a party. Fearing being implicated in Bernie's death, and wanting to have a good time at the luxury house, they pretend he is still alive - putting sunglasses on him to hide his lifeless body. Subsequent hi-jinks see them losing and recovering the corpse several times, including a scene where Bernie falls off a boat into water. Advertisement

Afterwards, it is alleged they went to Mr Doyle's home and carried him along a public footpath before they again tried to claim his pension.

His appearance led an employee at the Hosey's shop in County Carlow to become concerned about his wellbeing and she asked if he was unwell.

The men are said to have told her that Mr Doyle was having a heart attack and placed his body on the ground.

Gardai and an ambulance were called as events yesterday unfolded and the men stayed at the post office, making no attempt to escape, according to the Sunday World.

One woman said her daughter saw the two men carry a man into the post office.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, she said that the man looked unwell and that his feet were 'dragging the ground.'

There was a queue outside of the post office at the time and people had initially thought the man was having a heart attack.

She said: 'I feel awful for the staff. I've a 12-year-old daughter and I'm trying to explain to her what happened and sure where do you start? It's awful.'

It is understood that the men told Gardai Mr Doyle was alive when he was brought into the post office.

No arrests have been made so far but both men have been interviewed by Gardai and given statements.

The Gardai are investigating if Mr Doyle died at a nearby property of natural causes.

Residents and neighbours of Mr Doyle are sad and shocked after the incident.

He was described as a 'lovely man and neighbour' by one and another said it had been a 'sad night' and a 'shock.'

Mayor of Carlow, Ken Murnane, said: 'I was absolutely shocked to hear about what happened.

'I cannot believe anyone would do something like that. It beggars belief, I'm just shocked.'

A Garda spokesperson said Gardai are investigating all the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of an elderly male in the Carlow area on Friday morning.

They said: 'The services of the Garda Technical Bureau and the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested,'

'A post-mortem will be conducted by the Office of the State Pathologist, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.

'No further information is available at this time.'
All 14 black Mississippi state senators, all Democrats, walked out before a vote on a bill that forbids teaching students at public schools and colleges that 'that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.'

The bill later passed passed 32-2, with only two Democratic legislators - David Blount and Hob Bryan, both white - voting against it. It now heads to the Mississippi state House for approval.

The unprecedented walkout on Friday followed a two-hour debate when Democratic lawmakers asked whether or not Critical Race Theory (CRT), which centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nations institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society, is actually taught in Mississippi schools.

'Have you identified one teacher, one school district where this is happening?' asked Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, a Democrat.

Republican Senator Michael McLendon conceded on the Senate floor that he had not heard of any schools teaching students that they were inferior or superior based on their race, but said an overwhelming number of his constituents had raised concerns about the curricula being taught across the country based on what they heard 'on the national news.'

The bill's passage makes Mississippi the latest state to take a legislative stance on Critical Race Theory - although the controversial teaching is never mentioned by name or defined within the document. Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Florida, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Tennessee have already banned the academic theory, according to Newsweek.

All 14 black lawmakers on the Mississippi state Senate walked out on Friday before a vote on Senate Bill 2113, which would outlaw teaching public school children and college students that any sex, race or national origin is 'superior or inferior'

While the bill's author Senator Michael McLendon (pictured) conceded on the senate floor that he had not heard of any schools teaching Critical Race Theory, a number of his constituents had raised concerns about the curricula being taught across the country based on what they heard 'on the national news'

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons (pictured) requested a roll call, and led all 14 black lawmakers out of the chamber before a vote was held

WALKING OUT: Mississippi's Black Senators walked out of legislature to protest a bill that would ban critical race theory. https://t.co/BgRYSlTEPz pic.twitter.com/ulRck3UtRy  WLBT 3 On Your Side (@WLBT) January 21, 2022

'I had so many constituents in my district that were concerned over the teachings that they have heard from around the country, they want to make sure that this was not a problem with Mississippi, so that's why this bill was brought forward,' McLendon said when asked why he introduced the bill.

'So it's a problem across the country; is it a problem in Mississippi?' Simmons asked.

'Well, we try to make laws for the future as well as today,' McLendon replied.

Simmons requested a roll call, which led all 14 black lawmakers to walk out of the chamber before a vote was held.

Republicans have a supermajority on the legislative body, and do not need a single Democratic vote to pass legislation. Senators David Blount and Hob Bryan, who are both White, were the only two legislators to vote against the bill.

Simmons called the bill 'vague' in a statement issued after the walkout, and bemoaned that its wording didn't 'create boundaries.'

'We felt it was unfair to have such a bill introduced or passed as it really demeans a large segment of our population,' he wrote.

'We felt like it was a bill that was not deserving of our vote,' he told reporters. 'We have so many issues in the state that need to be addressed. We did not need to spend time on this.'

Democratic Senator John Horhn argued that portions of Mississippis history that would no longer be able to be taught should the bill become law.

'I think this bill is going to put a chilling effect on that journey. I think its going to slow us down on coming together, and I think its going to drive a wedge between us that doesnt need to be driven,' he said.

Simmons is pictured as he called on black senators to walk out in protest

Senator John Horhn (pictured) argued that portions of Mississippis history that would no longer be able to be taught should the bill become law

Senators David Blount (left) and Hob Bryan (right), who are both White, were the only two legislators to vote against the bill

But McLendon asserted that Senate Bill 2113 'is not changing anything about our past,' asserting that 'all this bill says is that no child shall be told they're superior or inferior to one another.'

After the walkout, outside the Senate chambers, Horhn said that 'what they're trying to do is scare people, and scare people with false information and misleading data.'

Democratic Senator David Jordan, who taught in Mississippi schools for 33 years - 13 of which he taught in segregated schools, according to CNN - said the bill was a 'waste of time.'

'If anybody is suffering from racism it is people of color and we feel we dont need this bill  We are satisfied without it. What do you need it for? We have been the victims of it,' he said during his remarks.

Senators were unable to agree on what, exactly, Critical Race Theory was in two hours of debate.

Republican Senator Chris McDaniel said that the teaching deals in subjective theory and not in facts, and that only facts should be taught in public schools.

'Our kids need objective facts and not subjective notions of theory,' he said.

But the 'systemic racism' taught in Critical Race Theory, Horhn said, is a matter of fact and exists across the criminal justice system, in health care and in the housing system, noting that Mississippi is the 'only state in the country that does not have a fair housing law.'

Senator David Jordan (pictured), who taught in Mississippi schools for 33 years - 13 of which he taught in segregated schools, according to CNN - said the bill was a 'waste of time'

Black caucus members walked out in protest of then-Governor Kirk Fordice's policies before he delivered his State of the State address in1993, but no Capitol observer could recall any instance of members leaving en masse before a vote on a bill

Senate Bill 2444, the state's teacher pay plan, was then passed without discussion.

'Though our votes were not counted because of the chain of events, Senate Democrats stand in support of raises for our educators,' Simmons said in his press release.

Now that the bill has passed through the state Senate, it would have to be approved by the House to pass into law.

Black caucus members walked out in protest of then-Governor Kirk Fordice's policies before he delivered his State of the State address in 1993, but no Capitol observer could recall any instance of members leaving en masse before a vote on a bill, according to Mississippi Today.

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is currently backing legislation that would bar schools and private businesses from making students or employees feel 'guilt' or 'any form of psychological stress' because of their national origin, sex or race.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured) is pushing a bill that would bar schools and private businesses from making their students or employees feel 'guilt' due to their race

'No individual is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by the virtue of his or her race or sex. No race is inherently superior to another race,' said Republican Sen. Manny Diaz (pictured), the bill's sponsor

'This was directed to make whites not feel bad about what happened years ago,' said state Senator Shevrin Jones, pictured, of the legislation

Like Mississippi's legislation, it would outlaw teachings that assert certain individuals are 'inherently racist [or] sexist] - or 'morally superior' - or that characterize individuals' status as 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their race, sex or national origin.

'No individual is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by the virtue of his or her race or sex. No race is inherently superior to another race,' said Republican Sen. Manny Diaz, the bill's sponsor.

It is not about ignoring the 'dark' parts of American history, but rather ensuring that people are not blamed for sins of the past, Diaz said.

But critics, like Democratic state Senator Shevrin Jones, said the bill was 'directed to make whites not feel bad about what happened years ago,' and that critical race theory is not taught in Florida schools to begin with.

'We know for a fact what this is. This is Governor DeSantis' move to try to stop the teaching of true American black history. Our history is a part of American history, and also my white counterparts are a part of that very history,' said Jones, who is the only Black member of the state's Senate Education Committee that approved the bill.
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Britain's Omicron wave continued to fall today with the country reporting a decrease of six per cent in cases, official data showed.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data shows another 76,807 positive tests were logged in the last 24 hours, down only slightly on the 81,713 recorded last Saturday.

It marks the 17th day in a row that cases have fallen week-on-week but the downward curve has slowed in the past three days, dropping by just four per cent yesterday.

Today's case numbers do not include positive tests in Scotland, so the true number for the UK is likely to be higher. Covid cases are still rising in primary school children despite falling in every other age group, which is contributing to the slowdown.

The number of people dying with the virus rose again slightly, increasing by 3.5 per cent to 297 compared to 287 last week.

And 67,640 more booster vaccines were given out yesterday, taking the total number of people fully protected against the virus to 36,821,284  64 per cent of the over-12 population.

The data comes as it was revealed the Covid traveller testing system could be ditched for fully vaccinated holidaymakers as soon as Monday.

It is understood the rapid lateral flow test that double-jabbed arrivals must take by day two is likely to be ditched when ministers meet to discuss the rules.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is understood to be pushing for the removal of all testing for the fully vaccinated.

Boris Johnson steps in to tackle growing school rebellion Boris Johnson yesterday attempted to quell a growing school rebellion as hundreds of headmasters continue to enforce classroom mask wearing. The Prime Minister urged secondary staff to follow new rules that state face coverings are no longer required in lessons. He believes it is vital that children receive 'face-to-face education and can enjoy a normal experience in the classroom'. Mr Johnson's spokesman added: 'The Prime Minister also thinks that the schools should follow the latest guidance. 'We've been clear that we removed the requirement for face masks to be worn in classrooms and we will remove advice for face masks to be worn in communal areas from January 27.' His intervention comes as families complain that schools across England are still insisting on masks during lessons as precautions against Covid. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has warned that Department for Education officials will be in touch with schools that refuse to ditch face coverings. He will also personally vet any plans to bring back masks in schools in areas hit by Covid outbreaks. Advertisement

In other coronavirus developments:

Meat Loaf told a fan three weeks ago that he'd recently had an endoscopy and complained about never-ending lockdowns and restrictions, telling the fan in a Cameo video: 'Covid's a drag, but you can blame China';

Civil servants working from home were ordered to get back to their desks and make 'maximum use' of Government offices by next week;

Plans to make jabs compulsory for frontline health staff were in doubt last night;

Boris Johnson attempted to quell a growing school rebellion as hundreds of headmasters continue to enforce classroom mask wearing;

Pharmacists can now refer obese people to free weight loss courses from today in a bid to boost their health and reduce their burden on the NHS.

The UKHSA data also showed another 17,277 first Covid vaccine doses were given out yesterday and 33,312 second doses were received.

In England, the number of people who have received a jab breached 31million yesterday, with more than 115million doses having been dished out in total since the start of the rollout

Dr Emily Lawson, head of the NHS Covid Vaccination Programme, said: 'The fastest and largest vaccination drive in NHS history continues to hit milestone after milestone and has now delivered an outstanding 115million doses of the Covid vaccine, including almost 31million people with the vital protection of a booster in England.

'We know that millions of people are overdue their booster by more than four weeks, and I would urge anyone who hasn't already done so to get boosted as soon as possible.

'The vaccine remains our best defence against Covid and long Covid, even if you have already had it, and you can grab a jab at one of the hundreds of walk-in sites open each day  from restaurants to stadiums and other community hubs, it has never been easier to get protected.'

The graph shows the proportion of people in England testing positive for Covid per age group. Infection rates were trending down in all age groups in the week to January 15, according to ONS estimates, apart from among two to 11-year-olds, with one in 13 (eight per cent) thought to be infected

It comes amid a push to make the travel system easier for holidaymakers, with the passenger locator form that holidaymakers must complete online before travelling to the UK also poised to be simplified from tomorrow.

The form has to be filled out within 48 hours of arriving in Britain but passengers have complained that it is cumbersome and asks pointless questions, such as how long returning citizens plan to stay in the country.

A meeting of the Cabinets Covid O committee will also discuss whether fully vaccinated status for travellers should mean having two or three jabs. Ministers are understood to be considering keeping it as two until spring.

At this point, double-jabbed travellers could again become subject to needing tests and only those with a booster would be able to travel test-free. However, destination countries may still require testing.

Scrapping the day two test would give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month.

As it stands, returning double-jabbed Britons must take one rapid lateral flow test by day two. If positive, they must take a confirmatory PCR test.

Unvaccinated travellers will remain subject to multiple tests and self-isolation.
Every single male migrant who crosses the Channel in small boats will allegedly be detained in a bid to contain the crisis under Boris Johnsons crowd-pleasing border clampdown, it has emerged.

The Prime Minister has reportedly given Home Secretary Priti Patel the go-ahead to develop new powers that would allow male asylum seekers crossing the Narrow Sea to be held in immigration removal centres.

Though the Home Office has not published a breakdown of Channel migrants by age or gender, Miss Patel claims that seven in ten of all people who cross the Narrow Sea are single men under 40.

Mr Johnsons new gung-ho attitude to border security is part of a series of populist policies which are intended to shore up his tottering premiership as the embattled Tory leader faces calls to quit over the Partygate lockdown scandal enveloping Westminster.

Miss Patel is working closely with Attorney-General Suella Braverman to establish what current laws would allow on detention and what new powers would be needed to be approved by MPs, according to The Times.

Currently only migrants who land on the UK coast are breaking the law and can be detained, rather than those intercepted in the Channel.

A government official who was in a ministerial meeting to discuss the plans told the paper: Theyre (ministers) convinced this is the way to create a deterrent.

Their thinking is you make it worse and worse, more draconian and itll stop people coming. Theyre absolutely convinced that tough deterrents are the way to fix it.

child is carried by his father as migrant men, women and children are assisted by immigration officers after arriving at Dungeness in an inflatable dinghy from France on January 18, 2022

Border Force officials bring migrants ashore at Dover Harbour after arriving in Speedwell

The Prime Minister has reportedly given Home Secretary Priti Patel the go-ahead to develop new powers that would allow male asylum seekers crossing the Narrow Sea to be held in immigration removal centres

Backlash over bid to 'cover up' daily migrant figures: MPs and campaigners blast Priti Patel over 'cowardly act' saying she is more concerned about 'burying bad news than being transparent' as Channel crisis worsens Ministers were accused of cowardice after plans emerged to conceal the number of migrants arriving each day. The Home Office currently issues the data after arrivals have been processed by the UK Border Force, typically on the following day, but this could stop when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) takes over operations to intercept migrants, it has emerged. Instead, a running total will be published just four times a year. It comes after the statistics watchdog raised concerns about the daily totals currently issued by the Government. The Home Office is now set to release the figures every three months, but the move has drawn criticism from Tory MPs - with one saying it 'seems more like burying bad news than being transparent about crossings. Another anonymous Conservative said: 'It just looks like covering up, and no doubt journalists will come up with their own figures based on people arriving at Tughaven [the migrant processing centre in Dover] and Freedom of Information requests.' Advertisement

An announcement is due next month as part of wider plans for the Royal Navy to takeover operational control of Channel crossings.

These plans would be accompanied with powers to remove Channel migrants from the UK, including proposals to outsource asylum claims to third countries.

A Home Office spokesperson said: The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery and our New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey.

UK authorities have intercepted more than 800 migrants so far this year  more than three times the 223 who sailed across the Narrow Sea in January 2021. Last year, 28,381 people were intercepted in the Channel, compared to just 8,410 in 2020.

Home Office officials have warned Miss Patel that 65,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year  more than double last year's 28,300 record number.

Conservative MPs last night questioned whether the plans to detain Channel migrants would be beneficial to UK taxpayers.

Tim Loughton, who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, told The Times: The fear is that its substituting the current accommodation bill of a Holiday Inn with the higher bill of a prison facility or a secure facility.

The Governments proposed Nationality and Borders Bill would make it a criminal offence to be found in a vessel in the Channel without pre-authorisation to enter the UK. Offenders will face a maximum prison sentence of four years under the new law.

Ministers are said to be drawing up proposals which would see asylum seekers flown to Ghana and Rwanda to stop migrant crossings.

The arrangements would see the UK pay another nation to take on the responsibility  but no country has yet agreed to do so.

Tony Smith, the former director general of Border Force, said the UK can expect more attempts of migrants trying to enter the country illegally as air and ferry traffic return to pre-Covid levels.

Speaking about internal estimates of migrant numbers, a Whitehall source told The Telegraph: 'It is not an estimate or a forecast, it is a planning assumption.

In part, it demonstrates exactly why we are taking the measures that we are and looking at things like offshoring (the processing of Channel migrants) and outsourcing (operations in the Channel to the military).

It was reported in November last year that Albania was being considered as one potential destination, but those talks are said to have collapsed.

Downing Street would not be drawn on the plans, with the PMs Official Spokesman saying it was not helpful to discuss negotiations with countries.

Ministers were accused of cowardice after plans emerged to conceal the number of migrants arriving each day.

The Home Office currently issues the data after arrivals have been processed by the UK Border Force, typically on the following day, but this could stop when the Ministry of Defence takes over operations to intercept migrants, it has emerged. Instead, a running total will be published just four times a year.

A boat carrying dozens of migrants including children sailed past a P&O ferry while crossing the Channel on January 18, 2022

A group of migrants including young children sitting on the beach at Dungeness in Kent on January 18, 2022

It comes after the statistics watchdog raised concerns about the daily totals currently issued by the Government.

The Home Office is now set to release the figures every three months, but the move has drawn criticism from Tory MPs  with one saying it seems more like burying bad news than being transparent about crossings.

Another anonymous Conservative said: It just looks like covering up, and no doubt journalists will come up with their own figures based on people arriving at Tughaven [the migrant processing centre in Dover] and Freedom of Information requests.

Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK which campaigns for tougher border controls, added: This is a cowardly act. It just shows the Government is running scared.

Im very surprised at Priti Patel, and the British people deserve better from her.

It would be a failure of responsibility if they stop issuing daily data. Its an appalling idea and the sooner the Government ditch it, the better.

Do they really think they can hide the figures from the electorate when all this takes place in the open on our beaches and at our ports? He added: This proposal reminds me of little children holding their hands in front of their faces and saying Im not here. Its totally crazy.

The Home Office cant simply pretend this problem is not happening, and hope it will go away.

Former UKIP leader and MEP Nigel Farage also described the proposal as disgraceful, saying it must not be allowed to happen as people are seething.

On Twitter, he added: This is a disgrace. The Home Office do not want us to know the truth.
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A British scientist killed in the US told his terrified girlfriend that a burst of gunfire was just people messing around  seconds before a stray bullet killed him.

Police say the shot was fired up to 300ft away and the bullet travelled through the exterior wall of a block of flats before striking Dr Matthew Willson in the head.

The 31-year-old astrophysicist died just two days into his trip to Atlanta, Georgia, to visit his girlfriend, Katherine Shepard.

The couple were in bed when they were awoken at 2am by shooting. Yesterday, Ms Shepard, 26, described how she cradled him in her arms as he died. She said she remains in disbelief over the tragedy.

Ms Shepard, who had dated Dr Willson, from Chertsey, Surrey, for three years, told WSB-TV in Atlanta: He was supposed to be here for three months because weve been long distance for a while. I picked him up from the airport, took him to his favourite eating location  and the next day hes gone.

Police are treating the death as a homicide, but have described it as a random act involving the reckless discharge of firearms.

Devoted: This is the last picture taken of Matthew Willson with his girlfriend Katherine Shepard after he flew to America to see her. The 31-year-old was hit in the head by a shot fired from around 780ft away  moments after being woken by the sound of 'rapid gunfire' as he slept alongside Miss Shepard

Devastated Miss Shepard told the Daily Mail of the moment she realised he had been hit after hearing up to 50 shots outside the building. 'I was kneeling on my bed looking out of the window to see if I could see anything. I felt the bed move  Matt was possibly getting up  and there was a tiny explosion in our room,' she said. (Above, the apartment block where the couple were sleeping)

The astrophysicist, from leafy Chertsey in Surrey, had arrived in the US to stay with Miss Shephard just two days before he died in an apartment in the 3100 block of Clairmont Road to the northeast of the city.

Ms Shepard said the couple were in bed in her apartment in the upmarket suburb of Brookhaven when they were awoken by more than 30 shots being fired last Sunday.

US detectives are investigating as a homicide, but detectives said Dr Willson was not a target. Sergeant Jake Kissel from the Brookhaven Police Department said the fatal shooting appeared to be the result of reckless discharge by random people. The officer confirmed there have been no arrests so far.

Speaking to media, Sgt Kissel said the stray bullet that hit Dr Willson travelled less than 100 yards and entered through an exterior wall of the apartment.

Ms Shephard added: I turned to Matthew and said, Im going to call the cops.

His last words were, Sure, Im sure they are just messing around. I was kneeling on my bed looking out of the window to see if I could see anything. I felt the bed move, Matt was possibly getting up, and there was a tiny explosion in our room.

Then I heard Matts breathing change and I asked if he was OK.

She said she turned on the light, adding: He had started to slump over. I saw hed been shot in the head and started screaming.

I knelt on the bed holding a towel to his head and talking to him and shaking him whenever he started closing his eyes. He looked like he was looking at me, but he wasnt talking at all and he was struggling to breathe.

I just felt panic. While we were waiting for the ambulance there were more gunshots fired.

Her flatmate, Aman Kar, called emergency services immediately, but by the time an ambulance arrived 20 minutes later Dr Willson was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead in a local hospital a short time later.

Mr Kar said: I heard Katherine screaming and ran into her room. She kept saying, Matts been shot. A bullet had come through the wall under the bedroom window, passed through the headboard and hit him in the head, leaving a giant wound.

Ms Shepard, who met her boyfriend when he was studying at nearby Georgia State University, said gunfire continued even as rescue workers fought to save her boyfriend.

Neighbours have reported multiple incidents of gunshots in the night.

A police spokesman said: We do not believe this is gang related. We believe this is a random act of individuals discharging firearms recklessly. No arrests have been made. The area is considered a generally safe area. We dont typically deal with a whole lot of gun violence.

Dr Willson lived in Chertsey with his parents Pauline and Robert and worked remotely for the University of Liege in Belgium as a post-doctoral researcher. He was a former PhD student at the University of Exeter.

His sister Kate Easingwood, 28, said: The world is so unfair. It is such a senseless act that has taken Matthew away from us. He had so much to give. He wanted a family and to settle down and all of that with Katherine, who is part of our family. He was such a wise and joyful person, such a beautiful soul.

Police had been called out to the area over reports of gunshots when they received another call that a person had been shot.

Sgt Kissel said when officers arrived on the scene with Dr Willson - who was in the US visiting loved ones - they assisted with aid until paramedics arrived.

He also insisted the area is generally safe, adding: 'Brookhaven in general is a safe area. We dont typically deal with a whole lot of gun violence as far as deaths go.

'So generally it's a safe area. The Buford Highway and Clairmont Road corridor where the incident took place is one of the more heavily populated areas, so I think thats what were up against and why were seeing this type of crime occur where it did.'

Dr Willson's alma mater, the University of Exeter, has now paid tribute to the English scientist. A spokesman for the university said in a statement: Matthew Willson was a former PhD student at the University of Exeter and much-loved member of our astrophysics team.

We have been informed about his tragic death in the US and our hearts go out to his family, friends and colleagues. We are offering support to colleagues at the University who will also want to commemorate his life.

Stefan Kraus, professor of astrophysics at Exeter, described Dr Willson as a passionate observational astronomer and said his research had contributed to the understanding of how planets formed.

'I knelt on the bed holding a towel to his head and talking to him and shaking him whenever he started closing his eyes,' Miss Shepard said. Dr Willson was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning but he was pronounced dead on Tuesday

Dr Willson, 31, had been staying with relatives in a flat in a suburb of Atlanta in Georgia

Devastated Miss Shepard told the Mail of the moment she realised he had been hit after hearing up to 50 shots outside the building.

I was kneeling on my bed looking out of the window to see if I could see anything, she said.

I felt the bed move  Matt was possibly getting up  and there was a tiny explosion in our room. Then I heard Matt's breathing change and I asked if he was OK.

She said it was when he started to slump over that she turned on the light: I saw he'd been shot in the head and screamed.

As her flatmate called the emergency services, Miss Shepard tried to administer first aid. When an ambulance arrived 20 minutes later, shots were still ringing out from an area near a car park.

I knelt on the bed holding a towel to his head and talking to him and shaking him whenever he started closing his eyes, Miss Shepard said.

He looked like he was looking at me but he wasn't talking at all and he was struggling to breathe and would occasionally start shaking. I just felt panic.

Dr Willson was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning but he was pronounced dead on Tuesday.

His devastated sister Kate, 28, who flew to Atlanta from her home in Sweden to be by his hospital bedside, last night said: 'We want justice for Matthew. We have been robbed of him because someone was playing around with a gun, there is no logic to it.

'It is such a senseless act and that has taken Matthew away from us.

'He had so much to give and he wanted a family and to settle down and all of that with Katherine who is part of our family.'

Paying tribute to her brother, she added: 'He was such a wise and joyful person, such a beautiful soul. He was a real light in the world. I got here on the Monday and got to say goodbye.

'He was already gone but I got to say goodbye to his physical presence in this world.'

The couple had been excited about reuniting after being separated since last summer  and had planned to spend three months together in the US.

Miss Willson said her parents were 'broken', adding: 'They can't even comprehend that this happened to their beautiful son.'

Miss Shepard's flatmate Aman Kar said he heard around 30 shots being fired intermittently in the space of 20 minutes.

He added: 'I heard Katherine screaming and I went into her room.

'She'd been looking out of the window and kept saying, "Matt's been shot! Matt's been shot!"'
The last of the four escaped monkeys from the crash of a truck towing a trailer load of 100 of the animals have been accounted for by late Saturday, a day after the pickup collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway, authorities said.

Four monkeys had escaped following Friday's collision, Pennsylvania State Police said.

But only one had remained unaccounted for as of Saturday morning, prompting the Pennsylvania Game Commission and other agencies to launch a search for it amid frigid weather.

Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email Saturday evening that all 100 of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys had since been accounted for.

However, three of the escaped lab monkeys were dead after being euthanized.

The email did not elaborate on why the three were put down or how the last one was snared. But Nordlund said those euthanized were done so humanely according to American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines.

One of the cynomolgus macaques, which are also known as crab-eating or long-tailed macaques, was found in a tree, and three shots were later heard, WNEP reported.

The four monkeys had escaped after a truck transporting the 100 crab-eating macaques to a lab crashed on Friday.

State police had urged people not to look for or capture the cynomolgus macaque monkey following the crash on a State Route 54 near an Interstate 80 exit in Danville, about 130 miles from Philadelphia.

Pictured: the last of the four monkeys to be captured after the trailer they were in crashed into a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway on Friday

One of the monkeys (pictured) was found in a tree, and three shots were later heard, WNEP reported

PETA noted that 'records show that monkeys in laboratories in the US have been found with tuberculosis, Chagas disease, cholera and MRSA.' The crab-eating macaque pictured is not one of the monkeys who went missing in Pennsylvania

Crates holding live monkeys are pictured scattered across the westbound lanes of state Route 54 on Friday at the junction with Interstate 80 near Danville, Pennsylvania

Crates holding live monkeys are collected next to the trailer they were being transported in along state Route 54 at the intersection with Interstate 80 near Danville, Pennsylvania on January 21 after a pickup pulling the trailer carrying the monkeys was hit by a dump truck

State police had urged people not to look for or capture the crab-eating macaque monkey following the crash on a a highway in Danville, about 130 miles from Philadelphia

'Anyone who sees or locates the monkey is asked not to approach, attempt to catch, or come in contact with the monkey. Please call 911 immediately,' troopers tweeted prior to locating the primates.

Trooper Lauren Lesher had said the concern was 'due to it not being a domesticated animal and them being in an unknown territory. It is hard to say how they would react to a human approaching them.'

The shipment of monkeys was en route to a CDC-approved quarantine facility after arriving Friday morning at New York's Kennedy Airport from Mauritius, the agency said.

Crates littered the road Friday as troopers searched for the monkeys, rifles in hand.

Meanwhile, Valley Township firefighters used thermal imaging to locate the animals, and a helicopter also assisted, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the agency provided 'technical assistance' to state police.

The truck had been on its way to a lab at the time of the crash, Trooper Andrea Pelachick told The Daily Item newspaper of Sunbury.

The location of the lab and the type of research for which the monkeys were destined weren't clear, but the cynomolgus monkeys are often used in medical studies.

A 2015 paper posted on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information referred to them as the most widely used primate in preclinical toxicology studies.

Lesher said state police secured the scene for the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although macaque monkeys are cute, PETA reminded residents after the crash that 'there is no way to ensure that monkeys are virus-free,' noting that 'records show that monkeys in laboratories in the US have been found with tuberculosis, Chagas disease, cholera and MRSA.'

PETA reminded residents after the crash that 'there is no way to ensure that monkeys are virus-free.' The monkey pictured is not the monkey missing in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and other agencies used a helicopter to search for it amid frigid weather

Crates littered the road Friday as troopers searched for monkeys, rifles in hand. Valley Township firefighters used thermal imaging to locate the animals, and a helicopter assisted

The monkey isn't just dangerous, it's expensive - crab-eating macaques can cost up to $10,000, according to The New York Times.

The monkeys, whose DNA is similar to that of humans, have been in high demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with some scientists calling for an emergency reserve of the test subjects similar to the country's stockpiles of oil and grain.

A crash witness, Michelle Fallon, told the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg that she spoke with the pickup driver and a passenger after the crash. The driver appeared to be disoriented, and the passenger thought he might have injured his legs, she said.

The pickup was heading west on I-80 when it got off at the Danville exit and then immediately tried to get back on, driving across the other lane, the newspaper reported.

Fallon told the Press Enterprise that she was behind the pickup when it was hit on the passenger side by the dump truck, tearing off the front panel of the trailer and sending more than a dozen crates tumbling out.

She and another motorist who stopped to help were standing near the scene when the other driver said he thought he saw a cat run across the road, Fallon said.

Fallon peeked into a crate and saw a small monkey looking back at her, she told the newspaper.

'They're monkeys,' she told the other motorist.

Jamie Labar, who was working the front desk of a nearby Super 8, said she initially thought it was a joke when someone told her of the accident.

Then, she began to worry about the animals weaving through traffic and braving the cold weather, which was expected to drop below zero on Friday night.

'I hope somebody gets them out of the cold, whoever it is,' she told the Times prior to their capture. 'I want one, they are adorable.'
Deloitte, the employer of a woman killed by a deranged vagrant who pushed her in front of an oncoming train in Times Square Station last week, helped fund a non-profit that sued the MTA last year for laws barring people from staying in a subway station for more than an hour, arguing that it 'excluded' the homeless.

Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, a senior manager at consulting conglomerate Deloitte from the Upper West Side, died after she was shoved off the platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway at around 9:40am last Saturday, January 15.

Simon Martial, 61, who was charged with second-degree murder, told reporters that he committed the senseless act 'because I'm God, I can do it.' Martial's sister Josette Simon told outlets that he had been battling with schizophrenia for two decades and that he belonged in a mental health facility.

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services donated between $25,000 and $50,000 to the Urban Justice Center in 2021, according to the non-profit's annual report.

The group, along with another group and a homeless man, sued the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in February of last year for a new transit code that was adopted due to the pandemic in 2020.

The new code barred people from staying in subway stations for over an hour, staying in subway terminals after a train is taken out of service and banned wheels carts larger than 30 inches long by 30 inches wide.

Prior to her death, Go (pictured) worked as a senior manager of strategy and operations for management and acquisitions at Deloitte Consulting, according to her LinkedIn

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services donated between $25,000 and $50,000 to the Urban Justice Center in 2021, according to the non-profit's annual report. The nonprofit sued the MTA for new policies that it said 'excluded the homeless from the transit system,' which barred commuters from lingering in subways for longer than an hour, in February of last year

Simon Martial, 61, (pictured center) was arrested on Saturday on a charge of second-degree murder for allegedly pushing Go

Joseph Giacalone (pictured), a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor, argued that the transit system should not be viewed as a homeless shelter because 'historically, the shelters aren't safe'

The MTA said that the new code would facilitate 'public safety and help essential workers maintain social distancing,' but the Urban Justice Center called this reasoning a 'pretext to exclude homeless New Yorkers from the subway system.'

The Urban Justice Center argued that 'by banning these three activities, the rules ban the way that homeless persons, because they lack access to safe and secure shelter, use the subway system.'

In their lawsuit, the nonprofit asserted that the code was 'arbitrary and capricious.'

Doug Lasdon, the executive director of the Urban Justice Center, told outlets that the homeless should have the same access to the subway 'that I have.'

But Joseph Giacalone, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor, argued that the transit system should not be viewed as a homeless shelter because 'historically, the shelters aren't safe.'

'If the shelters aren't safe, what makes you think that putting the people who are attacking other homeless, letting them sleep in the subway, is a good idea?' he said.

The Urban Justice Center, which provides legal services for sex workers and on housing issues, made $25 million in the last fiscal year, primarily from government grants. Left-wing groups like George Soros' Open Society Foundations also provide them with donations.

Deloitte did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Doug Lasdon (pictured), the executive director of the Urban Justice Center, told outlets that the homeless should have the same access to the subway 'that I have.' In a lawsuit against the MTA, the nonprofit argued that laws banning carts of a certain size and lingering in subways 'ban the way that homeless persons, because they lack access to safe and secure shelter, use the subway system'

Martial is an ex-con who has battled with schizophrenia for two decades, according to his sister

Martial has a lengthy criminal history, including serving two years in state prison for attempted robbery before being released in August 2021, the New York Post reported, citing state records.

Sources told DailyMail.com that he has been arrested at least twice in the past for robbery.

One incident was in August 2017 in Manhattan, when he was charged with first-degree robbery after allegedly entering a car, pretending to have a gun and stealing $43.

He was also arrested in July 1998 for allegedly simulating a gun in an attempt to rob a taxi driver, threatening to kill the driver. He was charged with two counts of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon at the time.

Sources told the Post that he has had three encounters with police as an emotionally disturbed person.

Prior to her death, Go worked as a senior manager of strategy and operations for management and acquisitions at Deloitte Consulting, according to her LinkedIn.

She graduated from University of California Los Angeles with a bachelor's in economics and public policy, and earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University.

On Monday, Go's family released a statement on Twitter expressing their 'shock' at their loss.

The family (pictured) of Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, described her as 'kind and intelligent' in a statement shared on social media today, three days after she was pushed to her death in New York

'She was a beautiful, brilliant, kind and intelligent woman, who loved her family and friends, loved to travel the world and to help others.

'Her life was taken too soon in a senseless act of violence, and we pray that she gets the justice she deserves. Thank you for your condolences.'

The horrifying attack comes as crime in the subway and around the city continues to soar at the beginning of Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's first terms.

The number of felony assaults has since increased by 4.7 percent over the course of the last week, as compared to the same time last year.

Overall, crime is up 30.5 percent from the same period in 2021, according to the city's crime stats.

Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said newly-elected Mayor Eric Adams has his hands tied in terms of crime while Bragg's office implements its woke policies.

Adams has come under fire after saying at a press conference on Sunday: 'New Yorkers are safe on the subway system... What we must do is remove the perception of fear.'

Curtis Sliwa, former Republican mayoral critic, lashed out at Adams on Twitter, writing: 'What happened to the law & order candidate?'
The U.S. State Department has ordered families of U.S. Embassy personnel living in Ukraine to start evacuating as soon as Monday, according to officials.

The department is also expected to tell Americans in the country next week to leave via commercial flights 'while those are still available,' an official told DailyMail.com on Saturday.

The order comes after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva on Friday for crunch talks over the Ukraine crisis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has predicted a 'large-scale' war with Russia if the superpower attempts to occupy the industrial city of Kharkiv - which he believes is a target due to its large Russian-speaking population.

Blinken said there were 'no breakthroughs' in the talks with the United States' former Cold War rival in a bid to prevent an imminent war with Ukraine.

Kharkiv, in Eastern Ukraine, is the former Soviet republic's second biggest city with a population of about 1.4 million, and Zelensky believes it is a 'feasible' target for Vladimir Putin.

After meeting with President Zelensky, Blinken warned that Russia could attack Ukraine on 'very short notice' during remarks at the American embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Blinken's insistence on a 'severe' response came a day after President Joe Biden drew widespread criticism for saying retaliation would depend on the details - and that a 'minor incursion' could prompt discord among Western allies.

Blinken said there were 'no breakthroughs' in the talks with the United States' former Cold War rival in a bid to prevent an imminent war with Ukraine

The US State Department has ordered families of US Embassy personnel living in Ukraine to start evacuating as soon as Monday, according to officials

Members of the Kyiv Territorial Defence unit trains on Saturday in a forest in Kyiv

Blinken met with President Zelensky earlier this week as the Biden administration said it would providing an additional $200 million in defensive military aid to the country amid growing fears of a Russian invasion.

Blinken told embassy staff in Kyiv: 'We know that there are plans in place to increase that (Russian) force even more on very short notice.'

'That gives President Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,' Blinken said.

He also maintained that a peaceful, diplomatic solution was still the priority, but stressed the situation was entirely reactive to Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions.

'I strongly, strongly hope that we can keep this on a diplomatic and peaceful path, but ultimately, that's going to be President Putin's decision,' Blinken said.

On top of the military forces sent to Ukraine by Britain, the Biden administration today said it is providing an additional $200 million in defensive military aid to the country, with the US having previously supplied small arms, ammunition, secure radios, medical equipment, spare parts and other equipment. Biden has also previously ruled out sending US forces into Ukraine, but special forces already operate under rotation there to train Ukrainian soldiers

Russian military vehicles arriving in Belarus are seen in this photograph distributed by the Belarus Ministry of Defense on Tuesday, ahead of joint exercises

Civilian participants in a Kyiv Territorial Defense unit warm up while training on a Saturday in a forest in Kyiv

On Thursday, Biden cautioned that any Russian troop movements across Ukraine's border would constitute an invasion and that Moscow would 'pay a heavy price' for such an action.

'I've been absolutely clear with President Putin,' Biden said. 'He has no misunderstanding: Any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.'

Asked whether Russia was intimidated by Ukraine, Lavrov said on arriving for the talks on a cold and blustery day in Geneva: 'We're not afraid of anyone, even not of the U.S.'

In Moscow, the Kremlin reacted coolly to a parliament initiative to recognise two pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states, saying it was important to avoid steps that could increase tensions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was important not to try and score political points in such a fragile situation.

Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shared a phone call on Thursday evening, putting out a statement today that warned Russia would pay a 'considerable and serious price' if it invades Ukraine.

Moscow has for weeks been massing tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces along its eastern flank, sparking fears of an invasion, though the Kremlin has insisted it is merely a defence force (pictured, Russian forces currently massed in border regions)

The two leaders agreed that 'further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine must be averted' and there would be consequences if the situation were to escalate, the German chancellery said.

Even while rejecting the core Russian demands, the Biden administration has said it is willing to speak to Moscow about its security concerns.

One proposal by the United States is to revive restrictions on missiles in Europe that had been set by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War deal trashed by former President Donald Trump's administration as it accused Moscow of violations.

The Biden administration has also offered more transparency on military exercises. Russia has not rejected the proposals but says that its core concern is Ukraine.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, speaking in Australia amid talks on the new AUKUS submarine pact, today warned Putin to 'desist and step back' from Ukraine before making 'a massive strategic mistake'.

'Invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya,' she said.

'We need everyone to step up. Together with our allies, we will continue to stand with and urge Russia to de-escalate and engage in meaningful discussions. What happens in eastern Europe matters for the world.'

Moscow insists it has no plans to invade but has at the same time laid down a series of demands - including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO - in exchange for de-escalation.

Washington has rejected Moscow's demands as 'non-starters' and NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg this week insisted that the alliance 'will not compromise on core principles such as the right for each nation to choose its own path.'

Upping the ante, Russia announced new naval drills that will see it deploy to the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Mediterranean 'more than 140 warships and support vessels, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 pieces of military equipment, and about 10,000 servicemen.'

The announcement followed an angry condemnation from the Kremlin of what it described as 'destabilizing' remarks from Biden, after the American leader vowed a 'severe' response to any invasion of Ukraine.

Russia already held joint military drills Wednesday with forces of ex-Soviet republic Belarus, which also neighbors Ukraine.

A U.S. official said the exercises could presage a permanent Russian military presence involving both conventional and nuclear forces in Belarus.

The West has repeatedly warned Russia it would pay a 'high price' of economic and political sanctions should it invade Ukraine.
Fears among property experts of homebuyers suddenly flocking to the country in the post-pandemic era have been proven unfounded, new data suggests.

According to a white paper, entitled Covid City Exodus: Reality or Urban Myth, sales increases in urban areas are now running seven per cent ahead of those in rural or country areas.

It comes after successive Covid lockdowns sparked a 'race for space' as working from home became the norm for millions of workers, causing property purchases in the countryside to outstrip urban sales growth by 10 per cent in the second half of 2020.

However this lead quickly dropped to just four per cent in the first half of 2021, before disappearing altogether during the last six months of the year.

The figures provide the latest evidence that an increasing number of workers are questioning whether remote working is as practical or appealing as it once looked.

Bob Pannell, author of the paper and an economist with Atelier, writes: 'The most recent data debunks the myth that Britain's cities are in decline.

According to a white paper, entitled Covid City Exodus: Reality or Urban Myth, sales in urban areas are now running seven per cent ahead of those in rural or country areas. (Pictured: Author of paper and economist Bob Pannell)

Successive Covid lockdowns sparked a 'race for space' as working from home became the norm for millions of workers, causing property purchases in the countryside to outstrip urban sales by 10 per cent in the second half of 2020. (file image)

'Already, the 'race for space' is waning and the London property market is rebounding.

'There is little evidence of the paradigm shift in housing preferences supposed by many.'

The report predicts sustained growth in the urban housing markets for 2022.

It comes after Google announced this month that it had purchased its office building for 730million in London's West End which will be renovated to feature 'campfire' meeting areas and covered outdoor working areas for staff.

The revamp is part of plans to lure employees back into the office after working from home guidance was scrapped in England this week - with other Plan B Covid measures to follow suit.

Graham Emmett, co-founder of Atelier, said: 'What is clear from this report is that the many obituaries written for our cities were grossly premature.

It comes after Google announced this month that it had purchased its office building (pictured) for 730million in London's West End which will be renovated to feature 'campfire' meeting areas and covered outdoor working areas for staff.

Graham Emmett (pictured), co-founder of Atelier, said: 'What is clear from this report is that the many obituaries written for our cities were grossly premature'

'On the whole, cities remain great places to live and invest in.

'Despite the uncertainty of the past two years, the long-term outlook for the property markets of the major UK cities appears favourable.

'This striking new data also underlines just how crucial traditional population centres are for the overall economic recovery.'

In London, prime real estate has continued to outperform, with the number of 5million luxury homes sold reaching record highs in 2021.

Between October and December, some 163 homes worth 5million or more were sold in the capital, out of a total of 522 such sales that year.

A further boost for the capital came when Secretary of State for Housing Michael Gove announced bold plans to end the deadlock in the flat market by making developers pay for repairs to buildings with unsafe cladding.

Meanwhile, business giants began calling staff back to offices this week after Boris Johnson scrapped work-from-home guidance.

Large banks, advertising firms and insurers announced plans to return to the office  although most said flexible working arrangements would remain in place, at least for the time being.

HSBC told the Daily Mail that its staff have begun returning to the office this week

Big Four accountancy firm KPMG said it 'welcomed' the end of the Government guidance and told staff in England to come into the office at least two days a week.

Investment bank Citi sent a note to staff highlighting the benefits of office working, including that they are 'better able to generate the energy and collaborative spirit' it thrives on.

It told workers to return to their desks for at least three days a week while taking regular tests.

HSBC said its staff started returning to the office on Thursday, while Standard Chartered asked employees to come in from Monday. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said they also plan to resume office working.

The announcements came as hospitality bosses highlighted the devastating impact working from home had on city centre pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops - with the return of the higher earning banking sector hoping to provide a much-needed boost.

Greater Manchester's night-time economy adviser Sacha Lord said high streets have 'severely lacked' much-needed footfall.

And UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the sector needs the support of communities 'more than ever'.

She added: 'The removal of working from home guidance in England is a huge boost for hospitality operators, as they started 2022 low on cash after a second cancelled Christmas, deep in debt after two years of restricted trading, and facing soaring costs on so many fronts.'
A thief who stole 145 worth of Ferrero Rocher chocolates was caught by police after returning to the scene of the crime.

Cory Thomson, 21, of Byker, Newcastle, made-off with the haul of the gold-wrapped chocolates from hardware store Wilkos in Newcastle City Centre on October 16.

He managed to flee the store without being detained but after returning to the shop later, he was immediately recognised and the police were called, a court heard.

The hazelnut, wafer, and milk chocolate treats became a household name in 1993 after the kitsch advert featuring the 'ambassador's party'.

But it is unlikely this sweet-toothed thief would be welcome at the Ambassador's Reception.

Cory Thomson (pictured), 21, of Byker, Newcastle, made-off with the haul of the gold-wrapped chocolates from hardware store Wilkos in Newcastle City Centre on October 16

He managed to flee Wilkos (pictured) without being detained but after returning to the shop later, he was immediately recognised and the police were called, a court heard

Thomson was due before magistrates in Newcastle on Wednesday but failed to show as he was at work in his new job with Gateshead Council.

Instead, Thomson got his solicitor to enter a guilty plea to shop theft on his behalf, the court heard.

Prosecutor, James Long, said: 'The defendant has been in and stolen the goods, the Ferrero Rocher, and left then come back again.

'It's when he comes back that he is recognised and detained.

'The goods were not recovered, so there would be a claim for 145 compensation.

'There was another person involved but that other person has never been detected.'

Paul Kennedy, defending, said Thomson had made significant improvements in his life and was already subject to a community order.

'He now has a job working for Gateshead Council,' Mr Kennedy continued. 'He's doing well on his community order.'

The hazelnut, wafer, and milk chocolate treats (pictured) became a household name in 1993 after the kitsch advert featuring the 'ambassador's party'

The iconic advert saw an ambassador with 'exquisite taste' summon a footman to serve a pyramid of gold-wrapped chocolates to adoring guests

Thomson was fined 166 and ordered to pay 72 compensation and 85 costs.

In 1982, the gleaming beauty of a pyramid of Rochers, meaning 'nuggets' in French, was unveiled.

And Ferrero Rocher chocolates became popular in the UK during the 1990s thanks to a series of TV adverts set at a party in a European ambassador's official residence.

The kitsch 'Ambassador's Party' advert first appeared on television screens in 1993.

The iconic advert saw an ambassador with 'exquisite taste' summon a footman to serve a pyramid of gold-wrapped chocolates to adoring guests.

A beautiful woman then declares in a foreign accent: 'Monsieur, with these Rocher you're really spoiling us.'

The woman's famous line and the phrase 'Eccellente' quickly passed into popular culture following the release of the advert.
KABUL, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of Afghanistan's caretaker government on Saturday left for Norway for talks on different issues, a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry said.

"A senior delegation led by (acting Foreign Minister) Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi left for Norway in a special flight of the said country where talks will be held with representatives of various countries & a number of Afghans about humanitarian aid, political, educational & economic issues," spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi wrote on Twitter.

Among members of the visiting team was Maulvi Matiul Haq Khalis, acting director-general of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, according to the society.

The Taliban took over Kabul in mid-August last year, and announced in early September the formation of Afghanistan's caretaker government and some important personnel arrangements. 
Long after most families have taken their decorations down, the Christmas tree lights still twinkle at Sandringham.

Inside the house, great fir trees are covered with traditional baubles of glittering red and gold.

In the dining room stands a rare modernising touch, a gloriously unstuffy artificial silver tree with strands of tinsel hanging down.

Thanks to the Queen's stipulations, the decorations are kept up until February 6.

Some will say that it's bad luck  and the Queen has certainly had more than her fair share of that.

Yet those closest to the monarch know the decorations are a quiet tribute to her beloved father, whose early death on February 6, 1952, catapulted her to the Throne at the age of 25.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that in preparation for the anniversary of her father's death, and her accession to the Throne, the Queen will make a special pilgrimage to Sandringham in the coming days. 'Everything is being put in order for the Queen's visit,' one said. 'We've been told that she will stay at Wood Farm, rather than the main house'

The Queen has stayed in the cottage before, but it will be the first time since Philip died and thus very fitting that she should return now. (Above, the royal couple at the Sandringham estate in 1982)

They are a poignant reminder of the Queen's sense of duty in carrying on his work.

The spirit of King George VI, who died at Sandringham aged 56, has been an ever-present guide throughout her reign.

Today, without Prince Philip by her side, and with the 70th anniversary of her father's death drawing near, she must miss him all the more.

Although she normally spends Christmas at Sandringham, the Queen has remained at Windsor Castle since the autumn  a Covid precaution  where she held muted celebrations with close family, including the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

But The Mail on Sunday has learned that in preparation for the anniversary of her father's death, and her accession to the Throne, the Queen will make a special pilgrimage to Sandringham in the coming days.

On visits to Sandringham, the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret would cycle around the estate and join their mother and father overseeing the harvest. (Above, Elizabeth with her father, George VI, at Sandringham in 1943)

Last night, sources confirmed that staff were preparing a modest cottage on the estate.

'Everything is being put in order for the Queen's visit,' one said. 'We've been told that she will stay at Wood Farm, rather than the main house, which is nice as that always had a special place in his heart.'

The Queen has stayed in the cottage before, but it will be the first time since Philip died and thus very fitting that she should return now.

When Philip retired from public duties in 2017 at the age of 95  the age of the Queen today  this was the place he called home.

With typical enthusiasm, he set about improving Wood Farm as a retirement bolt-hole. He oversaw a project to install a new kitchen and spent his days reading, writing and painting.

The Queen, when she wasn't on duty in London, would travel up to stay with Philip at the cottage and it was there that the two could live more like a 'normal' couple than at any other time of her reign.

Dispensing with liveried servants, Philip had insisted that Wood Farm staff  a page, housekeeper, chef and footman  wore ordinary clothes.

When Philip retired from public duties in 2017 at the age of 95  the age of the Queen today  Wood Farm cottage was the place he called home

Whether by helicopter or by car, the 140-mile journey from Windsor to Sandringham is one to be endured rather than enjoyed  particularly for a 95-year-old.

So the decision to travel will not have been made lightly and must be taken as a sign that, if she is not robust, she is in reasonable health.

The Queen last visited the estate in early November. She would normally have spent the weekend after Halloween at Sandringham with Philip and didn't want to miss the occasion  the first since his death last April.

But just a week later, Buckingham Palace aides were forced to announce that 'with great regret' the Queen would not be able to attend the Remembrance Sunday parade at the Cenotaph due to a 'back sprain'.

Palace sources said the Queen was 'disappointed' but the notion of sitting for such a long period would have been too much, even for a woman of her stamina.

Before too long, however, the Queen was back on duty, joking about being a 'mechanical' monarch on digital video calls.

Rather than over Zoom, it is thought that wile at Sandringham, the Queen will record a TV address to the nation to mark when she will have spent 70 years on the Throne.

The celebrations will come later, with four days of parties and events planned in June.

For the Queen, the commemoration of her accession to the Throne is a sombre time. A period of reflection in which she remembers her father.

At Sandringham, there will also be plenty of fond memories of 'we four', as the Queen's father used to refer to his happy nuclear family  himself, his wife (the Queen Mother), Elizabeth and her sister Margaret.

And they were undoubtedly happy days. On visits to Sandringham, the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret would cycle around the estate and join their mother and father overseeing the harvest.

At Sandringham, there will be plenty of fond memories of 'we four', as the Queen's father used to refer to his happy nuclear family  himself, his wife (the Queen Mother), Elizabeth and her sister Margaret - all pictured, along with Philip

For the King, Lilibet  as he called her  was his 'pride', while the younger Margaret was his 'joy'.

No doubt such memories will be at the forefront of her mind. Certainly, there is an increasing number of public references to her father.

A palace insider said: 'There is a sense throughout her reign of 'What did my father do? What would he do in this situation?' '

On her 2015 wedding anniversary, the Queen released a moving letter written by her 'Papa' shortly after her wedding to Philip in 1947, in which the King wrote that he had watched her 'grow up all these years with pride'.

Similarly, the Queen has spent time looking back to see how her father handled events as monarch.

In 2020, on the anniversary of VE Day, the Queen gave a national broadcast recalling her father's address to the nation 75 years earlier.

And last year, on Father's Day, a black and white photograph was released showing her standing by her father and Philip in Balmoral as they watched a young Prince Charles sitting on a statue in 1951.

When she ascended the Throne less than a year after the photograph was taken, it was earlier than she had expected.

Her father, a heavy smoker, was ill but it was thought that an operation to remove part of his lung had been reasonably successful.

Elizabeth and Philip, the dashing Greek prince she had married three years beforehand, certainly had no cause to cancel a planned trip to Kenya. What came next is well documented  and the Princess who flew to Africa returned to Britain as Queen.

It wasn't something that, as the child of the second son, she had been raised to expect.

But after her uncle's shock abdication it was left to the Duke of York, as the Queen's father then was, to change course and, with his wife and young girls, Elizabeth and Margaret, embrace a life of duty.

They had been perfectly happy as the Yorks. The young Elizabeth would never have imagined that, not only would she one day ascend the Throne, but that she would reign for more than 70 years.

How proud she must have been when, years later on Prince Andrew's wedding day, she was able to revive her childhood name by making her much-loved son the Duke of York  a title traditionally given to the second son of a monarch.

Quite how far the name York has fallen must surely compound the Queen's recent pain at being forced to strip her son of his military honours and forbid him from using his HRH title.

In 2020, on the anniversary of VE Day, the Queen gave a national broadcast recalling her father's address to the nation 75 years earlier

That a York could be demoted to the status not just of a private citizen but one facing lurid  and vehemently denied  claims of sexual abuse in a New York court just two generations after a York was elevated to Kingship, will be a source of not inconsiderable pain.

But as one former palace aide put it: 'There are two versions of the Queen: the monarch and the mother.' And if pushed to choose, duty to the country and the Commonwealth must come even before family.

'The institution will always come first,' says a palace source. 'It's a personal sacrifice which the Queen made when she swore the oath at her Coronation. It is an oath that she takes extremely seriously.'

As Andrew awaits his fate and Prince Harry puts the final touches to a tell-all autobiography which threatens more hurtful accusations about 'the Firm', the Queen has fewer and fewer advisers to hand.

Not so long ago, the Queen would have sought advice from Prince Philip, or at least one of her respected ladies-in-waiting.

After Philip's death in April, however, the Queen suffered a further double blow when two of her ladies-in-waiting died in short succession.

Diana Maxwell, Lady Farnham, a lady of the bedchamber who was by the Queen's side for 30 years, and the Dowager Duchess of Grafton, the 101-year-old long-running mistress of the robes, died within weeks of one another.

As Andrew awaits his fate and Prince Harry puts the final touches to a tell-all autobiography which threatens more hurtful accusations about 'the Firm', the Queen has fewer and fewer advisers to hand

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Queen memorably said that 'grief is the price we pay for love'. No one would surely know that better.

With that in mind, there is a deeper significance to the visit to Sandringham than simply marking an historic date. For it won't just be her father who remains in her thoughts but Philip.

Now the same age as Philip was when he retired, she must miss him dearly. After she cancelled engagements due to ill health, often at the last minute, some aides are quietly discussing what the future holds.

This winter, the Sandringham decorations have so far been just for the enjoyment of a stalwart team of staff who look after the house and the estate all year round. Perhaps they deserve a few comforts as, with the end of an era approaching, there is an understandable sense of concern.

'The contracts state that you work for a member of the Royal Family, not the institution itself,' said one.

'So when Charles comes to the Throne, these people will just get four weeks' notice and that's it. Maybe there will be jobs found for them in the new regime. No one wants to think about it. It is on people's minds, but it's not something you can really talk about.'

With the Jubilee approaching, there is already a concerted effort to place the Queen's heir, the Prince of Wales, and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall, centre stage.

No doubt the Cambridges, too, will be a bigger part of the picture. They were unable to see the Queen at Christmas and are expected to visit from their Norfolk home of Anmer Hall during the Queen's stay at Sandringham.

It will surely be a tonic to the Queen to see William and his young family.

She regularly discusses the workings of the monarchy with her grandson, and she recently summoned him to share her growing fears about the safety of helicopter travel.

It is understood she suggested that he take helicopters only when necessary.

For while Sandringham holds many memories of the past, the Queen's focus is also on the future, whether it is supporting Charles by promoting his wife, Camilla  elevating her to the Order of the Garter  or expressing concerns for the safety of the second-in-line.

In future-proofing the direct line, others who damage the reputation of the institution have been pushed to the margins.

Both Andrew and Harry, for example, have no right to represent the crown or call themselves 'His Royal Highness'.

There is no room for sentimentality, even as the Queen remembers the loss of father and husband amid the decorations at Sandringham.
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Ukraine today condemned Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kyiv, urging Berlin to stop 'undermining unity' and 'encouraging Vladimir Putin' amid fears of a Russian invasion.

In a separate development, Ukraine's foreign ministry said Saturday it had also summoned the German ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen.

This was to stress 'the categorical unacceptability' of comments by German naval chief Kay-Achim Schoenbach in which he called Russian plans to invade Ukraine 'inept', the foreign ministry said. Mr Schoenbach also said of Russia's president: 'It's easy to give him the respect he wants, and probably deserves as well.'

Later, Mr Schoenbach announced his resignation. 'I have asked Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht to relieve me from my duties with immediate effect,' vice-admiral Schoenbach said in a statement.

'The minister has accepted my request,' he added.

Some have accused Germany of failing to stand up to Putin as tension on Russia's border with Europe mounts.

Tory MP Bob Seely, who is a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said today of the growing crisis: 'The real bad guys here, so to speak, sorry to say this, are the Germans'.

Speaking to Times Radio, he put this down to Germany's 'energy policy, their complete dependence on Russian oil and gas, their willingness to have the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is not even needed, built, purely so that the Russians can cut off supplies to Ukraine, is incredibly self-centred and selfish.'

Speaking about President Vladimir Putin, Mr Seely said: 'It is his long-term goal to undermine and shatter the confidence in the ability of Nato.

He said some kind of military action is 'much more likely than not', adding that Russia's intentions over the next 10 years will be to absorb Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of interests and 'destroy Nato as best they can'.

Meanwhile, Russian Su-35S fighter jets began arriving in Belarus on Friday as Putin continues to mass forces around Ukraine. Video showed the Sukhoi warplanes en route to the landlocked country which shares a border with Ukraine. The planes had flown in from Siberia.

Earlier today, the Russian defence minister agreed to meet UK counterpart Ben Wallace in Moscow for emergency talks after Tory MP Tobias Ellwood warned an invasion of Ukraine was 'imminent' and that President Vladimir Putin was 'exploiting Western weakness'.

The talks come after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday predicted a 'large-scale war' after Moscow spent months massing more than 100,000 troops, tanks and artillery pieces along the border and last ditch US negotiations with the Kremlin yesterday failed to produce a breakthrough.

A convoy of Russian armoured vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Ukraine today condemned Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kyiv, urging Berlin to stop 'undermining unity' and 'encouraging Vladimir Putin' amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers stand on a check-point close to the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels, Mariupol, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, January 21, 2022

Pictured: Soldiers of assault engineer and recovery-and-salvage units of the Russian Army 1st Guards Engineer Brigade are seen during tactical and special training in the city of Murom, some 260 km east of Moscow earlier this week

In a separate development, Ukraine's foreign ministry said Saturday it had also summoned the German ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen. This was to stress 'the categorical unacceptability' of comments by German naval chief Kay-Achim Schoenbach (pictured left speaking in Delhi) in which he called Russian plans to invade Ukraine 'inept'

Ukraine's foreign ministry said Saturday it had also summoned the German ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen (left). This was to stress 'the categorical unacceptability' of comments by German naval chief Kay-Achim Schoenbach (right) in which he called Russian plans to invade Ukraine 'inept', the foreign ministry said

An instructor trains members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022

A member of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, trains in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022

Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. Dozens of civilians have been joining Ukraine's army reserves in recent weeks amid fears about Russian invasion

With tens of thousands of Russian troops gathered on the Ukrainian border, fears are mounting that a major conflict could break out in Europe.

Ukraine's calls to Western allies to bolster its defence capabilities have seen the United States, Britain and Baltic states agree to send to Kyiv weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Kuleba said on Twitter that Germany's statements 'about the impossibility of supplying defence weapons to Ukraine' did not match 'the current security situation'.

Ukraine's minister stressed that 'today the unity of the West in relation to Russia is more important than ever.

'The German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encouraging (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack on Ukraine,' Kuleba said.

Ukraine is 'grateful' to Germany for the support it has already provided, but its 'current statements are disappointing', he added.

Ukraine's foreign ministry added in a statement that it wanted to express its 'deep disappointment' at the German's government's 'failure to provide defence weapons to Ukraine'.

Earlier on Saturday German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said Berlin would send a field hospital to Ukraine, while once again rejecting Kyiv's calls for weapons.

Berlin has already delivered respirators to Ukraine and severely injured Ukrainian soldiers are currently being treated in Bundeswehr hospitals, she told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

'Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment - that is the consensus within the government,' Lambrecht said.

Moscow insists it has no plans to invade Ukraine but has at the same time laid down a series of security demands - including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO - in exchange for de-escalation.

Referring to naval chief Schoenbach's comments, Germany's defence ministry said he would be asked to explain himself.

In a video posted online that was recorded at a think-tank gathering in New Delhi on Friday, Schoenbach also said Putin 'is to be respected'. 'It's easy to give him the respect he wants, and probably deserves as well,' he said.

Schoenbach said Saturday that the comments were 'thoughtless'. 'There is no need to quibble: it was clearly a mistake,' he tweeted.

Schoenbach's statements 'do not correspond in any way to the position of the Germany defence ministry,' a ministry spokesperson told AFP news agency.

The vice-admiral will have to explain himself to the army chief of staff, the spokesperson added.

Russian troops are massed on Ukraine's border, along with an arsenal of tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery and missiles.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow for talks to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis as the country's servicemen (pictured, Russian troops take part in military drills in Rostov in southern Russia, less than 70 miles from the Ukrainian frontier) take part in drills along the border amid fears of an invasion

Moscow has denied it plans to invade but the Washington believes an attack could now come 'at any point'.

Pictured: Ukrainian paratroopers sationed along the potential frontline of a conflict near Stanytsia Luhanska in Luhansk region, east Ukraine

Pictured: Russia sappers from the Guards Red Banner Combined Army take part in drills to practice mine-clearing in Voronezh, close to Ukraine

Moscow has for months been massing tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces along its eastern flank, sparking fears of an invasion, though the Kremlin has insisted it is merely a defence force (pictured, Russian forces currently massed in border regions)

What is happening in Ukraine? What is happening? According to UK defence experts, Vladimir Putin is on the brink of invading Ukraine for a second time  having sent troops into the country's eastern regions and Crimea in 2014. His apparent intention is to prevent Ukraine joining Nato, the defensive alliance led by the US and the UK. As a precursor to conflict he issued a set of demands which he surely knew would be rejected, including the withdrawal of Nato troops from all former Soviet republics. Around 100,000 Russian troops are positioned in striking distance of Ukraine and in recent days military hospitals have been built  often an indicator conflict is imminent. How did we get here? Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has become increasingly pro-Western and its government is desperate to join Nato and the EU  moves Russia strongly opposes. Putin wants Ukraine back under Moscow's control as part of his 'sphere of influence' strategy to redraw the political map. He has already succeeded in Belarus, a close ally with an autocratic president who shares his ideals. How close is it to war? Days of talks between East and West last week failed to produce any peace settlement. Mr Putin has arguably come too close to conflict to turn back. Experts think he could launch a military offensive within a matter of days  although he may prefer to soften up Ukraine with further cyber-warfare strikes first. Washington has said it has intelligence that Moscow is planning an attack on its own forces so it can blame Ukraine and move in, known as a 'false flag' attack. What will the West do if Putin invades? Ukraine doesn't belong to Nato so there will be no military response, at least not officially. Any military assistance provided by the UK or US will be covert and deniable. President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have agreed a package of 'unprecedented' economic sanctions against Russia in the event of war. Putin wants to force a favourable diplomatic settlement. He may be able to do so if he restricts his offensive to the eastern regions already occupied by pro-Russian separatists. He could then call for that region to become independent from the rest of Ukraine, just as Crimea is. Advertisement

On the deployment of the 12 bomber jets, the Russian Defence Ministry said previously that it was deploying 12 Su-35S fighters to Belarus for a joint military exercise commencing on 10 February.

Observers fear that they could become part of a force used to invade Ukraine.

Meanwhile, separate footage shows Russia's massive buildup is continuing.

One video showed a military train purportedly heading west in Novosibirsk region, four times adrift from Belarus. Separate social media videos also show trains with military hardware moving across Russia.

Some hardware appeared to be from the Jewish autonomous region in eastern Russia, a distance of almost 6,000 miles.

A TikTok video filmed in Tver, Russia highlights a military convoy on the move by road. And a new train video shows Russian military supplies arriving in Belarus.

Observers say there is a massing in the southern Gomel region, which is seen as in striking distance of Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Meanwhile, the American embassy in Kyiv said that a US military cargo weighing over 90 tonnes arrived in Ukraine. This was 'first shipment of assistance recently directed by President Biden to Ukraine'.

The Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also plan to send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, a move that the United States fully endorsed Saturday amid Kyiv's escalating tensions with Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet that Washington saluted the three NATO nations and former Soviet republics 'for their longstanding support to Ukraine.'

'I expedited and authorized and we fully endorse transfers of defensive equipment (at)NATO Allies Estonia Latvia Lithuania are providing to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to defend itself against Russia's unprovoked and irresponsible aggression,' Blinken said in another tweet.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier this week described the West supplying arms to Ukraine as extremely dangerous and said the shipments 'do nothing to reduce tensions.'

The West has rejected Moscow's main demands - promises from NATO that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it will pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

A meeting Friday between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended with no breakthrough.

In a joint statement published late Friday, the defense ministers of the three Baltic states said they 'stand united in our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in face of continued Russian aggression.'

Meetings will continue between the US and Russia next week, with the former warning the latter that it must choose between the 'path of diplomacy' or the 'path of conflict and condemnation' as the threat of invasion grows with thousands off troops and military equipment stationed on the Russia-Ukraine and Belarus-Ukraine borders conducting exercises (pictured at the Kuzminsky range in southern Russia)

The last ditch talks were arranged after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday predicted a 'large-scale war' after Moscow spent months massing more than 100,000 troops, tanks and artillery pieces along the border (pictured taking part in drills in Rostov-on-Don, 70miles from Ukraine)

They said Estonia would provide Javelin anti-tank weapons while Latvia and Lithuania were sending Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other related equipment to bolster Kyiv's defensive military capabilities. It wasn't immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would be sent to Ukraine.

'Today, Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia. Lets face it, the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor,' Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet said.

Estonia also is seeking Germany's approval to send Soviet-made howitzers, which once belonged to East Germany, to Ukraine. Estonia acquired the howitzers from non-NATO member Finland, which in turn had bought them from Germany's military surplus supply in the 1990s.

The German government said Friday that it was considering Estonia's request to pass the howitzers on to Ukraine but gave no timeline for a decision. Berlin said it planned to coordinate the issue with Finland, which has received a similar approval request from Estonia.

Some recent media reports suggested German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet has blocked Estonia's transfer of weapons to Kyiv, pointing to strains in the West's response to the Ukraine crisis.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Saturday that Germany was not showing adequate support for Ukraine.

Kuleba said in a Twitter post that the weapons transfer issue and remarks by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressing skepticism about cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global payments system 'do not correspond to the level of our relations and the current security situation.'

Meanwhile, The U.S. State Department is currently warning U.S. citizens not to visit Ukraine due to the coronavirus pandemic but is also advising them to reconsider travel there due to potential Russian aggression.

Speculation that an announcement about the U.S. diplomatic presence in Ukraine may be imminent has increased since the Embassy in Kyiv announced it would hold a virtual town hall meeting about the security situation with U.S. citizens in Ukraine on Tuesday.

Discussions on the matter have been underway for some time, but Blinken went over the contingency plans with the embassy's security team when he visited Kyiv on Wednesday, officials said.

The officials stressed that no decisions had yet been made and that an outright evacuation is not being considered. One possible scenario would be to order the families of American personnel to leave the country while allowing non-essential staffers to depart voluntarily at government expense, they said.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu (left) has agreed to meet UK counterpart Ben Wallace (right) in Moscow for emergency talks over the Ukraine crisis. A senior defence source said Mr Wallace 'has been clear that that he will explore all avenues to achieve stability and a resolution to the Ukraine crisis' during the talks and that his office was 'in communication with the Russian government'

Iran, China and Russia hold joint naval drills in Indian Ocean Iran, China and Russia yesterday launched a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean, with the aim of boosting marine security, state media reported. Iran's state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran's Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters. Russia is also being joined by China and Iran - two nations which are at loggerheads with the West, with Beijing recently accused of sending a spy to the heart of the UK Parliament. The joint naval exercise will cover some 6,560 square miles (17,000 square kilometres), in the Indian Ocean's north, and include night fighting, rescue operations and firefighting drills. 'The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, maritime security and create a maritime community with a common future,' Iran's Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoldini, spokesman for the drills, told state TV. This is the third joint naval drill between the countries since 2019. It coincided with a recent visit by Iran's hardline President Ebrahim Raisi to Russia. 'Improving bilateral relations between Tehran and Moscow will enhance security for the region and the international arena,' Mr Raisi said upon returning from Russia on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported. Advertisement

Britain's Defence Secretary Wallace extended an invitation for his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu to visit London earlier this week, but was instead invited to visit Moscow for talks given the last bilateral defence talks between the two countries took place in the UK capital.

A senior defence source said Mr Wallace 'has been clear that that he will explore all avenues to achieve stability and a resolution to the Ukraine crisis' during the talks and that his office was 'in communication with the Russian government.'

Chair of the Defence Select Committee Mr Ellwood said today that he expected an 'imminent' invasion as Putin has 'actually boxed himself into a corner because so much effort has been put into this', but added that the Russian strongman 'recognises that he'll never again be as strong as this, to take advantage of the West's weakness.'

He blasted NATO and the US for being 'timid' and 'risk averse' and warned 'the West needs to reset and recognise post-Afghanistan that NATO needs to develop a fresh sense of purpose' to answer Putin's Russia because 'what happens in eastern Europe security-wise has long term consequences.'

'This is about Putin wanting to establish absolutely a sphere of influence way beyond Ukraine itself,' Mr Ellwood told Radio Four. 'Putin wants a legacy, he wants to be seen as the most powerful state in Europe, he's angry at the demise of the Soviet Union and he certainly doesn't want EU or NATO rubbing up against the Russian Empire.'

Mr Zelensky yesterday predicted war with Russia if the superpower attempts to occupy the industrial city of Kharkiv, the former Soviet republic's second biggest city with a population of about 1.4 million, which he believes is a 'feasible' target due to its large Russian-speaking population.

He told the Washington Post: 'I will say realistically if Russia decides to enhance their escalation, of course they are going to do this on those territories where historically there are people who used to have family links to Russia.

'Kharkiv, which is under Ukraine government control, could be occupied. Russia needs a pretext: They will say that they are protecting the Russian-speaking population.'

Meetings will continue between the US and Russia next week, with the former warning the latter that it must choose between the 'path of diplomacy' or the 'path of conflict and condemnation' as the threat of invasion grows with thousands off troops and military equipment stationed on the Russia-Ukraine and Belarus-Ukraine borders.
As one of the greatest works in Britains literary canon, Nineteen Eighty-Four sounds a chilling warning about the dangers of censorship.

Now staff at the University of Northampton have issued a trigger warning for George Orwells novel on the grounds that it contains explicit material which some students may find offensive and upsetting.

The advice, revealed following a Freedom of Information request by The Mail on Sunday, has infuriated critics, who say it runs contrary to the themes in the book.

Now staff at the University of Northampton have issued a trigger warning for George Orwells novel on the grounds that it contains explicit material which some students may find offensive and upsetting

Published in 1949, Orwells dystopian story  set in a totalitarian state which persecutes individual thinking  gave the world phrases such as Big Brother, Newspeak and thought police.

Its plot centres on Winston Smith, a government employee who is arrested and tortured over an illicit love affair, but it also makes powerful points about what can happen to a society that doesnt cherish academic freedoms or its own history.

Yet it is one of several literary works which have been flagged up to students at Northampton who are studying a module called Identity Under Construction. They are warned that the module addresses challenging issues related to violence, gender, sexuality, class, race, abuses, sexual abuse, political ideas and offensive language.

In addition to Orwells book, academics identify several works in the module that have the potential to be offensive and upsetting including the Samuel Beckett play Endgame, the graphic novel V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd and Jeanette Wintersons Sexing The Cherry.

The seminal novel has regularly been adapted for stage and screen, including an acclaimed film starring John Hurt

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: Theres a certain irony that students are now being issued trigger warnings before reading Nineteen Eighty-Four. Our university campuses are fast becoming dystopian Big Brother zones where Newspeak is practised to diminish the range of intellectual thought and cancel speakers who dont conform to it.

Too many of us  and nowhere is it more evident than our universities  have freely given up our rights to instead conform to a homogenised society governed by a liberal elite protecting us from ideas that they believe are too extreme for our sensibilities.

Orwell biographer David Taylor said: I think 13-year-olds might find some scenes in the novel disturbing, but I dont think anyone of undergraduate age is really shocked by a book any more.

The seminal novel has regularly been adapted for stage and screen, including an acclaimed film starring John Hurt.

Northampton has also issued warnings over other modules on its English degree course. Students are alerted, for example, that Mark Haddons 2003 novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time includes death of an animal, ableism and disability and offensive language.

Northampton has also issued warnings over other modules on its English degree course

References to gender, sexuality, abuse, violence, self-harm, suicide are also flagged up in Sally Rooneys Normal People, which was adapted for a successful BBC series in 2020 starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.

Northampton, which gained full university status only in 2005, is ranked 101st in a list of the UKs 121 universities.

A spokesman said: While it is not university policy, we may warn students of content in relation to violence, sexual violence, domestic abuse and suicide. In these circumstances we explain to applicants as part of the recruitment process that their course will include some challenging texts. This is reinforced by tutors as they progress through their programme of studies.

We are aware some texts might be challenging for some students and have accounted for this when developing our courses.

Earlier this month, The Mail on Sunday reported how Salford University students have been given a trigger warning over Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre and Charles Dickenss Great Expectations.

English literature undergraduates are warned of scenes and discussions of violence and sexual violence in several of the primary texts that they may find distressing.
One at a time, our warders led us into a makeshift infirmary where men in lab coats were waiting. There was no choice.

I was told by one of the superintendents: You must be vaccinated. Youre 50 years old. Your immune system isnt what it used to be. If you dont do this, you might get the flu.

Terrified of reprisals if I didnt agree, I signed a document giving my permission. One of the men jabbed the vein in my arm. I was so stupid.

I had been a prisoner in a Xinjiang re-education camp for a year. The only horizon I had was the line of barbed wire that cut us off from the rest of the world.

Other women in the internment camp had told me that their periods had stopped shortly after such vaccinations. The younger women wept and grieved. They had hoped to start families once they were released from the camp.

Past the menopause myself, I tried to comfort them, though a horrific thought was already growing inside me: were they sterilising us?

Now, I know my fears were correct. Every day, new prisoners arrived. I saw their fearful faces.

I wanted to shout: Watch out! Dont get vaccinated! But what was the point?

Their turn would come, no matter what, and Id just get punished. So I kept my mouth shut.

Like more than one million other Uighurs, Gulbahar Haitiwaji (pictured) was imprisoned in a Chinese re-education camp. She survived three years in a Beijing sterilisation camp

Like more than one million other Uighurs, I was imprisoned in a Chinese re-education camp.

Uighurs are Sunni Muslims whose culture is Turkic. The camps, which China describes as schools, claim to eradicate Islamist terrorism from Uighur minds.

In reality, they aim to eradicate an entire ethnicity.

I am neither a separatist nor an Islamic terrorist  just a mother  but on the basis of a nine-minute trial, I was sentenced to seven years of re-education. They dragged my body through hell and my mind to the brink of madness.

The process starts by stripping you of your individuality. It takes away your name, your clothes, your hair.

Then you are forced to repeatedly recite the glories of the Communist Party for 11 hours a day in a windowless classroom. Falter, and you are punished.

So you keep saying the same things over and over again until you cant feel, cant think any more. You lose all sense of time.

In the camp, I wasnt Gulbahar, but Number 9. I was forbidden from speaking Uighur, or from praying.

There was something extra about the taste of the vile slop that filled our bowls. Were they drugging our meals to make us lose our memories?

Physically and mentally, I became a ghost.

My weight plummeted. The blinding light worsened my vision and beneath my eyes, heavy rings made two pockets of shadow.

The Chinese authorities targeted Uighurs with armies of facial-recognition cameras, police on every street corner, and transformation-through-education camps. Pictured: A 'skills education centre' in Xinjiang

My heart beat so weakly that I could no longer feel it when I pressed my palm to my chest.

Whenever I was deemed to have broken the rules, I was slapped or, on one occasion, shackled to a bed for a fortnight.

I underwent hundreds of hours of nightmarish interrogations, until chaos gradually took over my soul.

Every week, women were taken away and we never saw them again. At night, wed wake to terrifying screams, as if someone was being tortured upstairs.

We listened in silence, absolutely still, to howls that pierced the night. They were the cries of women going mad, begging guards not to hurt them any more.

Death lurked in every corner.

When the footfalls of guards woke us in the night, I thought our time had come to be executed.

When a hand viciously pushed hair-clippers across my skull, I shut my eyes, thinking I was being readied for the scaffold, the electric chair, or drowning.

For two years, my husband, Kerim, and two daughters, Gulhumar and Gulnigar, had no idea where I was. They imagined the worst. They believed me dead.

I was born into a Uighur family that had lived in Xinjiang for generations.

This jewel, more than six times the size of the UK, is at the far western end of China. Its riches include gold, diamonds, natural gas, uranium, and  above all  oil.

Since being annexed by China, we Uighurs have been the stone in the Beijing regimes shoe.

Xinjiang is far too rich a strategic corridor for it to lose and President Xi Jinping wants it cleansed of separatist populations.

In short, China wants a Xinjiang without Uighurs.

Along with my husband, I had worked as an oil engineer but our community had become subjected to unprecedented violent repression: discrimination, police inspections, interrogations, intimidation and threats.

So, in 2006, our family fled to France.

Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities targeted Uighurs with armies of facial-recognition cameras, police on every street corner, and transformation-through-education camps.

In 2016, I received a phone call at my home in Boulogne, northern France. The man said he was calling from the oil company where Id worked.

He said I had to return to China to sign documents to receive my pension.

When I hung up, a shiver ran down my spine. Was it a ploy so the police could interrogate me?

My life was in France now. But the visit to China would only take a few weeks. So I silenced the voices whispering in my head and bought a round-trip ticket to Karamay, in Xinjiang.

Seeking to soothe things, but also just because the thought happened to cross my mind, I said: I hope nothing happens to me!

My daughter got upset and said she hoped I hadnt jinxed myself. She had no idea how right she would be.

When I arrived at the company office to sign the documents, I was put in handcuffs by police and asked why Id left China for France.

One of the officers shoved a photo under my nose. It was my daughter, Gulhumar, at a demonstration in Paris protesting against Chinese repression in Xinjiang.

The officer slammed his fist on the table. Your daughters a terrorist!

I replied: No. I dont know why she was at that demonstration. She wasnt doing anything wrong, I swear!

Since being annexed by China, we Uighurs have been the stone in the Beijing regimes shoe

The rest of the interrogation is a blur. All I remember is that photo, their aggressive questions and my futile replies.

To the authorities, Uighurs who had lived abroad, or knew people there, posed the biggest threat.

We were seen as spies. Judgment on the order of the Great Western Betrayal lay in store for us.

How naive I had been. After a string of questions  always the same  they led me to the county jail.

The relentless lighting in Cell 202 flattened all sense of night and day. Detention was a parade of zombies adrift in jumpsuits, rings around their eyes.

After five months, I was told I was being taken to school to undergo training. If I showed proof of discipline and rigour in my work, I might graduate in a few months.

For 11 hours a day, the world was reduced to one rectangular classroom. There were 40 of us, all women, wearing blue pyjamas. A big metal shutter hid the outside world from us.

Our physical education was tantamount to military training.

Our exhausted bodies moved through the space in unison, back and forth, side to side, corner to corner.

When the soldier bellowed At ease!, our regiment of prisoners froze.

He would then order us to remain still. This could last half an hour, or just as often a whole hour, or even several.

Our camp was on the outskirts of the city of Karamay, a no-mans-land from which three buildings rose, each the size of a small airport. Beyond the barbed-wire fence, there was nothing but desert as far as the eye could see

Sometimes, one of us would faint. If the prisoner failed to revive, a guard would yank her feet and slap her awake.

If she collapsed again, hed drag her out of the room and wed never see her again. Ever.

We were also taught patriotic songs. You must learn them by heart, or you will be punished. All day long, we croaked out these refrains.

Stand up! Stand up! Stand up! We are billions of one heart, braving the enemies fire. March on! Braving the enemies fire, march on! March on! March on! On!

Our camp was on the outskirts of the city of Karamay, a no-mans-land from which three buildings rose, each the size of a small airport.

Beyond the barbed-wire fence, there was nothing but desert as far as the eye could see.

In the dormitory, there was a toilet bucket; a window with its metal shutter always drawn tight; two cameras panning back and forth in high corners of the room.

The theory classes which replaced the physical training were even worse. We recited a kind of pledge of allegiance to China: Thank you to our great country. Thank you to our Party. Thank you to our dear President Xi Jinping'

That was it. No real mattress. No furniture. No toilet paper. No sheets. No sink.

The military rules were designed to break us. Our days were punctuated by the screech of whistles: on waking, at mealtime, at bedtime.

The guards always had an eye on us. If one of us whispered or wiped her mouth, she was accused of praying.

The theory classes which replaced the physical training were even worse. The teacher was always watching us. She slapped us every chance she got.

At her signal, we all stood up as one. Lao shi hao!

This greeting to the teacher kicked off 11 hours of daily education.

We recited a kind of pledge of allegiance to China: Thank you to our great country. Thank you to our Party. Thank you to our dear President Xi Jinping.

Glued to our chairs, we echoed these words like parrots. We were instructed in Chinas glorious history, washed clean of all its abuses.

At first, it made me laugh. Did they really think they could break us with a few pages of propaganda?

But the days went by, I was exhausted and my resolve to resist was put on permanent hold.

The Baijiantan camp is a massive labyrinth of endless fluorescent-lit hallways. At their far ends, automatic security doors sealed off the maze like airlocks.

Only the sheer number of prisoners and guards whose paths we crossed gave me an inkling of just how enormous the camp really was. Every day, I saw new faces, zombie-like, bags under the eyes.

Cut off from the rest of the world, my perseverance crumbled away. The exhausting routine repeated itself infinitely, becoming one all-encompassing, gruelling day.

On the outside, in Xinjiang, the repression was speeding up.

Regulations ordered no beards, no headscarves, no giving your children Uighur names, no using WhatsApp, no communicating with anyone abroad, no taking part in traditional religious ceremonies.

Under the guise of a massive public health programme, provincial authorities began collecting DNA, fingerprints, retinal scans and blood types for millions of citizens. The people of Xinjiang were all suspects. Pictured: A suspected re-education camp in Artux City, Xinjiang

Under the guise of a massive public health programme, provincial authorities began collecting DNA, fingerprints, retinal scans and blood types for millions of citizens. The people of Xinjiang were all suspects.

For two years, while Id been wasting away, my daughter, Gulhumar, had been working like a fiend for my survival and release.

She reached out to everyone wed known in Xinjiang: family, friends, acquaintances. She tirelessly scrutinised the Chinese internet for proof of the camps existence.

After dead-end upon dead-end, in winter 2017, my file had ended up at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris.

An acquaintance had put Gulhumar in touch with the Ambassador for Human Rights there. Gulhumar was promised that my case would be treated as if I were a citizen of France.

In Beijing, delicate negotiations began between the French Foreign Ministry and Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In early 2018, a stunned world found out about the schools in Xinjiang.

Chinas perfect surface was cracking as accounts from survivors started popping up and images from whistleblowers made their way around the world.

That November, the day of my trial finally arrived. I was reminded that I ought to feel lucky, that my crimes were worthy of prison and that, in its largesse, the court was sending me to a better place: a school where I could learn.

My ears were buzzing, everything was spinning, the whole world had been reduced to two words: seven years. Seven years.

I decided to let myself die. The idea had been stirring in me for a long time; my sentence only encouraged me.

That was when a series of events plunged me into a state of fear and hope, at the same time.

In March 2019, I was interrogated ten hours a day for six days until, eventually, I gave in. Over and over and over again, my interrogator made me say that my husband was part of a terrorist organisation.

I was then ushered into a room where a group of women dyed my short, limp locks and buzzed around my face with mascara, lipstick and eye shadow.

Apparently, you were very co-operative during your interrogation. Youre going to say everything you said all over again but this time, for the camera, I was told.

Other women prisoners had told me about police techniques for filming a confession. Once they had it on tape, they could dangle your own words over your head at any time, as blackmail.

As they filmed me, I begged my husband to leave the Uighur group and pledge loyalty to China. Afterwards I wept, alone in a cell.

China had stolen my very thoughts from me. As a reward for my confession, I was taken to a new building, where I was given cooked meals, new clothes and a soft bed, while police officers took turns keeping watch over me day and night.

I was also allowed to call my family in France. But I would have to lie.

Regurgitate the propaganda of the Communist Party, which resorted to the most twisted tactics to keep the fate of Uighurs in China hidden.

The police began making me rehearse my lines to tell my family. I only remember the general thrust:

Im doing well, dont worry, I rented an apartment. Im alone. Dont worry.

Were the police using the phone call to try to entrap my family? Would they realise I was being forced to spout a pack of lies?

Would the deafening silence all around me during the call tip them off that I wasnt alone, that I was on speakerphone surrounded by police officers busy scribbling down my husbands and my daughters words in notebooks?

On hearing my voice, my husband was shaking like a leaf. He choked out: Where are you? Weve been doing everything we can to free you.

He was well versed in police interrogation techniques from Xinjiang and knew that I was surrounded by half a dozen party henchmen. My silences answered all his questions.

Intelligence services in Xinjiang were interested in my familys very public search for me.

In France, my daughter, Gulhumar, had been talking to reporters about me; she was demanding that China release me.

On TV, she was openly condemning re-education camps. My husband was sharing articles on his Facebook page. A petition was circulating online.

My room became the field headquarters for a Chinese intelligence operation directed against my own family and I was part of it.

If I ever got out of here and went back to my quiet life in Boulogne, Id have to tell my family about what had happened to me here in Xinjiang.

It was all far too horrible to hear about, far too hard a story to tell. And yet I would have to.

During another call home, I was made to tell my daughter: Do not speak about the Uighurs and criticise the Chinese government in the media any more. This is very serious. If you ever want to see me, you must stop.

As a result, she and my husband had to let my case fall off the radar of the French media and authorities.

Then and only then would I be sent discreetly back to France. I caved in to police violence, knuckled under. I even signed a false confession.

You cant fight off brainwashing forever. Once youve fought it with dignity, all desire and willpower desert you. What options do you have left?

A slow, excruciating slide toward death or submission. First in jail, and then in the camp, my soul splintered and fragments drifted off, never to be seen again.

The Chinese authorities believed I was sincere in my repentance. Me, I never believed a single word of what I was made to say.

On August 2, 2019, having been forced to sign another confession, I was pronounced innocent by a judge in Karamay.

I was free to return to France. But for the three years of my life that had been stolen from me, I heard no apologies.

My entire being should have been filled with intense happiness. And yet, the complete opposite was the case.

Those unspeakable things I saw  prisoners hollowed-out shells of themselves, all those people reduced to less than human beings by the brutal shock of repression  how could I ever forget them?

I was worried my family wouldnt recognise me. I wasnt the same person any more.

When my plane landed at Paris airport, the runway was bathed in golden light. How would I pick it up again with my family?

Part of my soul was still wandering the cold hallways at Baijiantan.

China is far from halting its concentration camps in Xinjiang. To date, neither the UN nor any other international delegation has been able to see for themselves the scope of the genocide.

Those unspeakable things I saw  prisoners hollowed-out shells of themselves, all those people reduced to less than human beings by the brutal shock of repression  how could I ever forget them?

How I Survived A Chinese Re-Education Camp, by Gulbahar Haitiwaji and Rozenn Morgat, is published by Canbury Press on February 3 at 18.99.

To pre-order a copy for 17.09 go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937 before February 7. Free UK delivery on orders over 20.
The Muslim doctor behind the world's first-ever pig heart transplant said he faced pushback from his family because he used an organ from an animal that was 'forbidden in the home.'

'I got quite a backlash from my family,' Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, director of cardiac xenotransplantation at the University of Maryland Medical Center, told Vice.

'"Why are you using this animal?" My father used to always ask me, "Can you at least try using another animal?"'

Mohiuddin, Dr. Bartley P. Griffith - the director of the centers cardiac transplant program - and a team of surgeons implanted a genetically modified pig heart into the body of David Bennett on January 7. The patient is currently in recovery.

Bennett, 57, had suffered from terminal heart failure and an uncontrollable irregular heartbeat. Due to his condition, he was ineligible for a human heart or pump. He also did not follow his doctors' orders, missed appointments and stopped taking drugs he was prescribed.

While many are applauding the surgery, calling it a 'historic breakthrough' that some hope could eventually help alleviate shortages of donor organs, Mohiuddin's family has expressed concern over the use of pigs due to their Muslim faith.

Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin (pictured), the Muslim doctor behind the world's first-ever pig heart transplant, is facing criticisms from his family because he used an organ from an animal that was 'forbidden in the home'

Mohuiddin (left) is pictured with his transplant team

Consumption of pork is forbidden by Islamic law and in some Pakistani Muslim circles any associations with the animal are frowned upon.

The doctor, who grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, shared how in his household the word 'pig' was taboo and he would be punished for even just saying it.

'My mother used to make me gargle,' he said. 'It was a big no-no in my family. It was forbidden in our home.'

He explained how his family's anxieties and his own faith caused him to question using a pig organ for the surgery.

'I try to follow all the tenets of Islam, so that concern was in the back of my mind all the time. So, I used to try to find reasoning for me to continue using this animal,' Mohiuddin said.

'Since I live in a country where pork is consumed on a regular basis it was not an ethical issue here in the Western world. It was easier.'

Mohiuddin also consulted numerous religious scholars before deciding to move forward with the procedure.

'The final consensus was that there's nothing greater in the eyes of God than saving the life of a human,' he said.

Mohiuddin and his team implanted a genetically modified pig heart into the body of David Bennett on January 7 (pictured). Mohiuddin said he was met with criticisms over the use of the big heart: 'I got quite a backlash from my family. "Why are you using this animal?" My father used to always ask me, "Can you at least try using another animal?"'

Mohiuddin said his family's anxieties and his own faith caused him to question using a pig organ for the surgery. However, after consulting numerous religious scholars he came to the consensus that 'there's nothing greater in the eyes of God than saving the life of a human' (Pictured L to R: David Bennett Jr., David Bennett and Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin)

Although Mohiuddin's team did examine alternative animal organs during their research process, he claims the genetic components of pig hearts proved to be most ideal for the procedure.

'We have manipulated the genes of these pigs in a way that it becomes a little bit closer to humans in terms of immunology. We did not convert it into human, but we changed the genes in a way that the [organ] rejection was delayed,' he explained.

'It's like a transplant from human to human, where you still have to use drugs but you know you can control it. If we had not done that, the rejection happens within minutes and the organ is useless.'

Mohiuddin was also met with controversy over the procedure's use of a solution that contained a cocktail of hormones and a minute amount of cocaine. He said the solution was closely inspected by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

'The cocaine name pops out because everybody thinks, 'Oh my God, what is cocaine doing in here?' Mohiuddin said.

The solution, however, was found to prevent heart failure during transplants.

'When we were not using this solution, we were getting failures within 48 hours. But when we started using this and infusing the heart with this solution, the heart became well preserved and started beating very well,' he explained.

'It will be a great advance if this process is approved by the regulatory agencies here also, as we cannot get hearts usually within the span of two to three hours. This will allow us to get hearts from other states.'

Although Mohiuddin's team did examine alternative animal organs during their research process, he claims the genetic components of pig hearts proved to be most ideal for the procedure

A pig heart was gathered for a terminal heart disease patient who was ineligible for a human heart transplant. Scientists inserted six human genes into the genome of the donor pig  modifications designed to make the organ more tolerable to the human immune system. They inactivated four genes, including sugar in its cells that is responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection and a growth gene to prevent the pig's heart, which weighs around 267g compared to the average human heart which weighs 303g, from continuing to expand. Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center performed a nine-hour surgery to remove the patient's heart and insert the altered pig heart

The doctor claims it took decades of research and many failures before scientists were able to do the xenotransplantation. He said there were times he doubted whether or not he wanted to be in the field.

'Many times I thought "I don't want to do this." There are so many issues in xenotransplantation that, in the back of my mind, I always used to think whether we will ever be able to take it to the clinic,' Mohiuddin shared.

David Bennett (pictured right with surgeon Dr. Bartley Griffith on his left) this month became the first patient in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig. He is said to be recovering and doing well. It is still too soon to know if his body will fully accept the organ and the next few weeks will be critical

The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what is called a 'compassionate use' emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options.

Bennett, who underwent the nine-hour 15 days ago, is said to be recovering and doing well. It is still too soon to know if his body will fully accept the organ and the next few weeks will be critical.

His doctors also remain concerned about Bennett's risk for infection risk.

If successful, the transplant would mark a medical breakthrough and could save thousands of lives in the US alone each year.

'Almost 150,000 people lose their lives a year just in the U.S., you can calculate how many more throughout the world lose their lives just because organs are not available,' Mohiuddin said.

'If this technique is successful, we will be able to save almost all of them.'

Nearly 120,000 Americans are in need of healthy organs and, on average, 20 people die each day waiting for one to become available. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the US, a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees the nation's transplant system.

Prior attempts at animal organ transplants  or xenotransplantation  have failed, largely because patients' bodies rapidly rejected the organs. Notably, in 1984, 'Baby Fae'  who was born with a rare heart condition  lived 21 days with a baboon heart.
A Muslim MP has claimed she was told by a Conservative party whip that she was fired as a minister because of her faith, as chief whip Mark Spencer said he was at the centre of the claims and branded them 'false and defamatory'.

Nusrat Ghani, the Tory MP for Wealden in East Sussex, was sacked as transport minister in February 2020 as part of a mini-cabinet reshuffle.

Ms Ghani, 49, alleged she was told by a whip her 'Muslimness was raised as an issue' at a post-reshuffle meeting and that her status as a Muslim woman and a minister was 'making colleagues feel uncomfortable'.

She told The Times she felt 'humiliated and powerless' after the alleged conversation, saying: 'It was like being punched in the stomach.'

A government source close to the whips' office strenuously denied the allegation.

Following the allegations, chief whip Mark Spencer took to Twitter to identify himself as the person Ms Ghani's claims were about.

The MP for Sherwood, 52, branded the accusations as 'false' and 'defamatory' and claimed he had 'never used those words'.

Nusrat Ghani (pictured), the Tory MP for Wealden in East Sussex, was sacked as transport minister in February 2020 as part of a mini-cabinet reshuffle

He wrote: 'To ensure other Whips are not drawn into this matter, I am identifying myself as the person Nusrat Ghani MP has made claims about this evening.

'These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me.'

He also claimed Ms Ghani 'declined' to refer the matter to the Conservative Party for a formal investigation, claiming he gave evidence about it to an Islamophobia inquiry.

He added: 'It is disappointing that when this issue was raised before Ms Ghani declined to refer the matter to the Conservative Party for a formal investigation.

'I provided evidence to the Singh Investigation into Islamophobia which concluded that there was no credible basis for the claims to be included in the report.

'These claims relate to a meeting in March 2020.

'When Ms Ghani raised them she was invited to use the formal CCHQ complaints procedure. She declined to do so.'

Ms Ghani, who was the first Muslim woman to be elected as a Tory MP in 2015, claimed she was warned that if she continued to raise the issue then her 'career and reputation would be destroyed'.

Chief whip Mark Spencer (pictured) took to Twitter to identify himself as the person MS Ghani's claims were made about and claimed they were 'false' and 'defamatory'

Ms Ghani, vice-chairwoman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, is understood to have said that she considered whether she wanted to continue being an MP after the alleged incident.

Speaking about the reshuffle, she claimed that she had asked the whips in a post-reshuffle meeting why she was being fired, which is when she alleges she was told her 'Muslimness' was raised as an 'issue'.

Ms Ghani, who previously served as Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, claimed she was told there were concerns that she wasn't 'loyal' to the party because she didn't do enough to defend it against Islamophobia allegations.

She said: 'It was very clear to me that the whips and No 10 were holding me to a higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith.'

In March 2020, the politician claimed she had a second meeting with a whip where she alleged she was told there was 'no Islamophobia' within the party.

In the same meeting, she claimed she was told by the whip that she had been fired for saying to Boris Johnson that they had a 'women problem', in attracting female voters.

Ms Ghani claimed she raised the issue through official party channels but said she was warned that if she continued to do so, she would be 'ostracised' by her colleagues and her 'career and reputation would be destroyed'.

After the 'threats', she said she followed procedure but was eventually left with 'no choice' but to continue with her career from the back benches.

Ms Ghani (picutred), 49, alleged she was told by a whip her 'Muslimness was raised as an issue' at a post-reshuffle meeting and that her faith was 'making colleagues feel uncomfortable'

An inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, which was carried out two years ago, found no evidence that the Tory party is 'institutionally racist' but was critical of comments made by Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister was cleared by a majority on an independent panel over a complaint he broke the party's code of conduct following a Daily Telegraph column in 2018 which described Muslim women who wear the burkha as looking like 'letterboxes' and 'bank robbers'. He later apologised for his comments.

The inquiry carried out by Prof Singh, a former commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was established by the party following a series of allegations about Islamophobic behaviour in the party and was widened to consider all forms of discrimination.

From 2015-2020, the party's central database recorded 1,418 complaints relating to 727 incidents of alleged discrimination  an average of 237 complaints about 122 incidents a year in a party of 200,000 members.

More than two-thirds of the incidents  496 cases  related to Islam and 74 per cent of all the cases involved social media activity.

The report concluded that an allegation of 'institutional racism' against the party was 'not borne out by evidence available to the investigation as regards the way the party handled the complaints process'.

But it acknowledged that 'anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem' within the Conservative Party.

Ms Ghani's allegations come after rebel Tory William Wragg accused government whips of 'blackmailing' backbenchers seeking to oust the Prime Minister amid fears of a no-confidence vote.

It comes as rebel Tory William Wragg (pictured) accused government whips of 'blackmailing' backbenchers seeking to oust Boris Johnson amid fears of a no-confidence vote

Mr Wragg, 34, said he will be meeting a detective from the Metropolitan Police in the House of Commons early next week to discuss his allegations, raising the prospect police could open an investigation.

Mr Wragg said on Friday that next week, he plans to tell the detective 'several' examples of bullying and intimidation, claiming some cases involved public money.

He told The Telegraph: 'I stand by what I have said. No amount of gas-lighting will change that.'

Downing Street said it would not be mounting its own inquiry into the claims, despite calls to do so by both Conservative and opposition MPs.

A No 10 spokesman said it would only open an inquiry if it was presented with evidence to back up Mr Wragg's assertions.

But Mr Wragg, the Chair of Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said he believed an investigation should be left for the 'experts' in the police.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered.'

However, Adam Holloway, the Tory MP for Gravesham, dismissed the 'blackmail' allegations, saying he has 'never known' such behaviour to happen during his time in the Conservatives or Government, adding it 'doesn't ring true to me'.

Responding to the allegations while visiting the 'Jabs with Kebabs' project at V's Punjabi Grill in Gravesend, Mr Holloway, 56, said: 'I can only speak for myself and I've never known anything like that.

'I've never known any sort of link with my behaviour in Parliament and resources coming into my constituency, so I suspect it's complete bulls***.

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat (pictured) has insisted that he has never experienced or witnessed his party's whips use blackmail following the allegations from Mr Wragg

'That's what happens in American politics, I've got no sense of that here, ever in 16 years. It just doesn't seem to work that way.'

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat has also insisted that he has never experienced or witnessed his party's whips use blackmail following the allegations.

The MP for Tonbridge and Malling, 48, was asked on BBC Breakfast if he had ever been blackmailed by his party's whips.

He responded: 'No, I haven't, and as you may well know, I've not always been the Government's biggest supporter. I have voted against the Government on occasions when I thought it right.

'I have to say I've always had a very close relationship with the chief whip and indeed a very productive relationship with whips, so I'm waiting to hear more about this because it's not something I've seen or been told about.'

Mr Johnson insisted on Thursday he had 'seen no evidence' to support the claim made by Mr Wragg that his critics were facing 'intimidation'.

Meanwhile, Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP who defected to Labour, claimed the Tory whips had warned him over funding for a new school in his constituency if he rebelled in a vote over free school meals.

Ministers have sought to dismiss the allegations, insisting the whips had no role in the allocation of public funding.
One of Britain's leading mental health clinics could face legal action after telling a student therapist to watch lectures saying that white people are unconsciously racist, that Christianity is a racist religion, and that the Bible can be blamed for racism because it contrasts 'darkness' and 'light'.

Amy Gallagher, a mental health nurse from south London, has spent more than 20,000 training to become a psychotherapist on a course run by the prestigious Portman Clinic in North London, part of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.

But now the 33-year-old is preparing a legal case, saying she believes the Trust is guilty of religious and racial discrimination against her as a white Christian.

Ms Gallagher says that senior members of the Tavistock Trust eventually threatened her with suspension from her final year of the clinical qualification and, as the dispute escalated, suggested that her career as a psychotherapist could be at risk.

Amy Gallagher (above), a Christian from South London, is preparing legal action against the Portman Clinic in North London, part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, over what she feels was religious and racial discrimination in a course she undertook during clinical training in psychotherapy

She said: 'On the basis of my experience there, what they describe as anti-racism is racism. What they describe as tolerance is an intolerance of anyone who thinks differently to them.

'Left unchallenged, such institutional bullying will only be emboldened.

'I feel passionate about this. I hope my case will prove that teaching these discriminatory ideas  as though they are factual and true  within the NHS or within academia is wrong.'

She says that, if she is successful, she will also seek undisclosed damages for distress, which she says led to a deterioration in her mental health and made her consider quitting the course. Her attempts to question the course content, she says, were dismissed as 'angry' and 'vexatious'  which she denies.

Ms Gallagher says it is particularly concerning that radical identity politics are now 'leaking into the health service'.

This weekend she launched a crowdfunding campaign, called Stand Up To Woke, to help pay for her legal battle against the Tavistock Trust, which she plans to sue for racial and religious discrimination, harassment and bullying.

Ms Gallagher claims she was told to watch lectures and read essays that branded Christianity a racist religion and blamed the Bible for racism because of references to 'darkness' and 'light'

This weekend, Ms Gallagher launched a crowdfunding campaign she has called Stand Up To Woke to help pay for her legal battle against the Trust, which she plans to sue for racial and religious discrimination, harassment and bullying

Ms Gallagher, who has worked for seven years, enrolled on the Portman Clinic's D59F Forensic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course in September 2020 to finish her clinical training. She had already completed the Tavistock's foundation psychotherapy course.

She had initially enjoyed the two-year, part-time course, which will qualify her to set up her own private psychotherapy practice.

But Ms Gallagher became concerned when, in November, students were given a compulsory lecture on race and racism by forensic psychoanalyst Dr Anne Aiyegbusi.

She said: 'The lecturer spoke negatively about Christianity, while no other religions were mentioned. When I questioned this, I was told the Trust sees Christianity as responsible for racism because it is European.

'That's when I started to feel as though I wasn't welcome on the course and I wasn't comfortable with these ideas.'

Ms Gallagher, a church-goer, claims the lecture was 'politically biased', and had 'little or no reference to psychotherapy'.

Days later, she and other students were asked to attend a free public seminar online by Jungian psychoanalyst Helen Morgan, called Whiteness: A Problem for Our Time which concluded, among other things, that white people are unconsciously racist as a matter of course.

Ms Gallagher, 33, enrolled on the Portman Clinic's Forensic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course in September 2020 to finish clinical training that would qualify her to set up a psychotherapy practice. (Above, the Portman Clinic in north London)

The lecture, examining 'white privilege and white fragility', is still promoted on the Tavistock's website as a 'centenary policy seminar'.

The online description said: 'This presentation is rooted in the assumption that the problem of racism is a problem of whiteness and that an examination of this construct of whiteness needs to be central to seeking a solution to this destructive dynamic.'

It added: 'The colour-blind approach and the silencing process of disavowal that develops in the childhood of white liberal families are a means of maintaining white privilege and racism.'

At a meeting with her course leader Ms Gallagher explained she did not consider herself racist and that she took a 'colour-blind' approach, meaning she did not judge people by their skin colour.

Ms Gallagher claims she was told that such a colour-blind approach is now 'outdated'.

Ms Gallagher then filed a formal complaint to the Tavistock Trust in January last year [2021].

She said: 'I started to feel I was essentially being asked to subscribe to a racist ideology  that you have to believe these radical ideas to become a psychotherapist.'

The Trust eventually apologised in writing for the 'upset and unease' she had experienced and asked a senior member of the trust's education department, Esther Usiskin-Cohen, to investigate.

Ms Gallagher met Ms Usiskin-Cohen and set out her complaint again, explaining that the stress had caused her to lose weight and have trouble sleeping.

Following the meeting, the Tavistock offered Ms Gallagher support through the trust's Student Advice and Consultation Service and its Care First helpline.

Then in March last year Ms Gallagher was directed towards another text on the course reading list, called 'The Criminalisation of Blackness'.

Ms Gallagher said the text, by Maxine Dennis, contained what amounted in her view to 'further discriminatory anti-white and anti-Christian content'.

Ms Gallagher, who is still on the course, says she is concerned that radical identity politics are 'leaking into the health service'

Gallagher said of the reading: 'It talked about the Bible's use of the words light and dark and said this causes people to be racist in their unconscious. The use of light and dark is used in all major world religions and there is no evidence the Bible's use of those terms causes racism.

'Again, to me, it was Christianity being singled out as a religion.'

Then in May last year, Ms Gallagher received a letter from the Tavistock's deputy director of education, Elisa Reyes-Simpson, raising concerns over her 'vexatious' conduct.

The letter warned that she could be suspended from the course. It added: 'Any adverse student conduct finding may also give rise to questions regarding your suitability to practice and may have implications for your ability to obtain professional registration.'

Ms Gallagher said: 'To be told I might not be able to become a psychotherapist because I don't think Christianity is a racist religion and I don't think all white people are racist is quite extreme. They are essentially saying my views are inappropriate but they won't say why.'

A spokesperson for the Tavistock declined to comment on Ms Gallagher's claims in detail, saying: 'This matter has been addressed through our formal complaints process which has now concluded.'

Throughout the dispute it has insisted that students on the psychotherapy course must examine their own 'irrational unconscious beliefs and bias' to be able to help patients. This is a standard approach in the field.

Toby Young (above) from the Free Speech Union said: 'This is a prime example of the wokeness that's endemic across the higher education sector, depicting whiteness as the root of all evil

The Tavistock Trust is also clear about its aim to become an 'anti-racist organisation' through a Race Equality Strategy that was first announced in 2017 and relaunched last spring.

The Trust's March 2021 newsletter said: 'The differential impact of Covid-19 on different ethnic groups, as well as the killing of George Floyd in the US and the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement, have further exposed the depth of systemic racism within our society and the institutions within it.'

It added: 'We are seeking to hold a mirror up to our organisation. We want this review to go beyond our existing approaches and work with organisation to come up with a clear strategy to change the culture of the organisation and hold us to account.'

The Trust published its final investigation report into Ms Gallagher's complaints in October 2021.

The report said that Anne Aiyegbusi realised her lecture had been 'intense', but said it was 'undeniable' that 'Europe in the name of Christianity was instrumental in the racism, slavery and colonialism that has a linear connection to what we see today in forensic services'.

It also upheld the Trust's view that Ms Gallagher had been 'excessively and inappropriately confrontational' when raising her concerns with the course.

It denied that her progression on the course had been compromised by her views but said there had been 'concern' for her 'capacity for learning becoming restricted'.

The Mail on Sunday knows of no similar complaints against the course.

However the Trust found Ms Gallagher should receive an apology for the letter sent on May 07 by the Tavistock's deputy director of education, Elisa Reyes-Simpson, because there had been a delay in sending the letter that had caused 'confusion and alarm'.

It also said Ms Reyes-Simpson should initiate a review of the student conduct concerns procedure.

Toby Young from the Free Speech Union said: 'This is a prime example of the wokeness that's endemic across the higher education sector, depicting whiteness as the root of all evil.

'All publicly funded institutions have a legal duty not to create a hostile environment for people in virtue of their protected characteristics, including religion and belief, so I suspect Amy has a strong case. I applaud her courage.'

Ms Gallagher said: 'In the investigation report, I was told I was the problem and that I needed to interrogate whiteness.

'At no point have they apologised for telling me that Christianity is a racist religion. I'm seeking an apology for their discriminatory views and they haven't done that.'


Boris Johnson is clearly drinking in the Last Chance Saloon  an unfortunate metaphor in this case  but historically that has not been a bad place to be.

Nothing concentrates a Prime Ministers mind better than the thought that he or she nearly lost their job over a crisis. Nothing sharpens a premier better than a close brush with political death.

So, hopefully, it will be with Boris.

Attending a party at 10 Downing Street for 25 minutes during a lockdown  and then obfuscating  is not, historically speaking, an important enough issue upon which a Prime Minister should be forced to resign.

Yes, it showed a paucity of judgment that has understandably outraged many, but it ought not to be anything like enough to end the political career of a Prime Minister who won an 80-seat majority.

When one considers the crimes and misdemeanours of former premiers, for which they did not resign, it helps to put Boriss party error into perspective.

Neville Chamberlain sold out the Czech people to the Nazis at Munich, wrongly believing that he had averted war. Yet he stayed on as Prime Minister until 4,300 Britons had been killed or wounded in the disastrous Norway campaign.

Clement Attlee survived the Lynskey Tribunal in 1948 which interrogated 60 Ministers, senior civil servants and others about corruption at the heart of government.

Anthony Eden survived every vote to remove him over the Suez Crisis, in which he had misled parliament, and was only later forced to resign because of ill health. Similarly it was ill health rather than the Profumo scandal that forced Harold Macmillan to leave No 10.

These are great and serious issues. A Downing Street party is not.

Boris Johnson is clearly drinking in the Last Chance Saloon  an unfortunate metaphor in this case  but historically that has not been a bad place to be, writes ANDREW ROBERTS

David Lloyd George bought shares in the American Marconi radio company when he had inside information that the British Government was about to make a large investment into its UK offshoot, an egregious act of insider dealing.

Margaret Thatcher authorised the leaking of information damaging to one of her Cabinet Ministers during the Westland affair.

John Major had sex with his colleague Edwina Currie on the Cabinet table. Tony Blair took a 1 million donation from motor racing tycoon Bernie Ecclestone just prior to changing the rules on tobacco advertising in the sport.

Every Prime Minister, each of whom takes dozens of decisions a day, is bound occasionally to get one or two wrong, perhaps even catastrophically, but that does mean they should lose their jobs.

There is also something profoundly decadent about Britains obsession over a party that took place in May 2020, when more than 100,000 Russian troops are massing on the Ukrainian border, Chinese fighter jets are probing Taiwanese airspace, and Iran has reportedly returned to enriching uranium for a bomb that, with the right delivery systems, could reach the UK (whom they term the little Satan).

What must Presidents Putin and Xi, and the mullah leaders, think as they malevolently plot their New World Disorder, of Britains politics being entirely taken up with the Prime Ministers brief attendance at an outdoor gathering?

The historian AJP Taylor wrote a biography of Otto von Bismarck in which he speculated that the great Prussian statesman deliberately created problems for himself for the pleasure of overcoming them.

Sometimes one feels that way about Boris Johnsons unforced errors. Although the truth is that, had Boris not lost his consigliere Sir Simon Milton  my friend who was his Chief of Staff as London Mayor, and who died of leukaemia aged 49 in 2011  he would surely have been advised to avoid the party.

What is urgently needed is a new Chief of Staff whom the PM respects and listens to  such as Lady (Simone) Finn, the steely yet sassy deputy Chief of Staff  and who can get a grip on No 10.

There is easily enough time to turn around Conservative fortunes before the next Election. If a week is a long time in politics, the 34 months before the next one has to be called is an absolute eternity.

It is normal for governments to hit mid-term doldrums, but that does not mean that they cannot end up in victory, as the careers of Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and others show. The kind of memes being put out about Boriss party-going might stay funny for a week, but hardly any longer. Anyhow we must not have government-by-meme.

Once this Tory leadership election is over  assuming there even is one  the party needs to look again at the absurdly low figure of 15 per cent of MPs required to trigger a leadership vote. The rule was instituted in 1998 and is not fit for purpose in an organisation that considers itself to be the natural party of government.

After a party has been in power for almost 12 years, as the Tories have been, there will always be 15 per cent of its MPs who have been overlooked for office, or sacked from it, or disappointed or discontented for other reasons. There should be a threshold of at least 25 per cent, thus reflecting a genuine desire for a change.

Regardless, there is always something profoundly unattractive about the Tory party in Parliament during a leadership struggle.

We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water, wrote the late Tory grandee Alan Clark about an earlier contest. That is the side of the party that will be exposed at a time when party disunity damages electoral prospects more than almost anything else.

Attending a party at 10 Downing Street for 25 minutes during a lockdown  and then obfuscating  is not, historically speaking, an important enough issue upon which a Prime Minister should be forced to resign, writes ANDREW ROBERTS

Indeed, the best comment over the current row over claims about backbenchers being blackmailed by whips was made by Sir Nicholas Soames, who was an MP for 36 years, and who tweeted: Goodness me! What fragile plants we seem to have in Parliament today. Apparently they are being brutally whipped. #trulypathetic.

I have seen MPs replying in robust Anglo-Saxon language to whips who tried to threaten them, and that is how it should be. To whine to the media and secretly record colleagues shows a lack of moral fibre typical of modern politicians.

If Boris Johnson had sold all the gold in the Bank of England at a ludicrously knockdown price, like Gordon Brown did, or signed Britain up to an ever-closer union with the EU at Maastricht, as John Major did, or spent years frustrating the democratic will of the people as Theresa May did  then, yes, he should resign.

Instead, he went to a work party for 25 minutes during lockdown, which he should not have. If his presence had led to someone catching Covid-19 and dying, that might be another matter, but it did not.

The past allows us perspective on the present, which we seem to have entirely lost in this imbroglio. It also tells us that in General Elections, people vote with the future in mind, not something that, by the time of the next ballot, will be four years behind us.

To discard a proven Election winner and a leader who got Brexit done, saved Britain from a Marxist-Leninist Prime Minister, protected the economy during the worst peacetime emergency for a century, and called Christmas 2021 correctly against much of the official advice, would be folly. He deserves another chance to rehabilitate himself.

Plenty of premiers have drunk in the Last Chance Saloon, and afterwards, somewhat chastened, they have pushed the swing doors open, stepped out into the street, and won again. Boris should be given the opportunity to be one of them.
A 15-month-old baby was trapped with her mother's corpse for five days in a New York City homeless shelter and left covered in feces and dehydrated after her mom died from accidental overdose, court papers reveal.

Quraan Laboy, 31, is planning to sue the City of New York and the Department of Homeless Services for $5 million in damages after his daughter Lyric Laboy was discovered by workers at the East River Family Center under a bed near the body of her mom, the New York Post reported.

Last July 25, the infant was found huddled by the corpse of her mother Shelbi Westlake, 26, who officials said died of an accidental overdose days earlier, a Manhattan Supreme Court petition said.

Young Lyric, who lost seven pounds and suffered a 'horrific' diaper rash from the incident, is still dealing with separation anxiety, said her dad Quraan Laboy

Shelbi Westlake, 26, died of an accidental overdose and her daughter Lyric was found huddled by the corpse five days later, according to officials

The baby was found ''covered in human feces' and badly dehydrated, and was rushed to the hospital, court documents said.

The agency has denied Lyric was left alone for five days, but didn't clarify how long she was left unattended.

Westlake and her daughter were living in an apartment-like unit at the shelter at 325 East 104th St. in East Harlem for about three or four months while she was separated from Lamboy, his attorney Seth Harris told the Post.

No one checked in on the mother and daughter until a neighbor reported a 'foul odor' coming from the apartment, court documents said.

Westlake's last signed in at the shelter on July 19, six days before her body was found, Laboy's other attorney Allison Keenan told the Post.

Westlake and her daughter were living in an apartment-like unit at the shelter at 325 East 104th St. in East Harlem for about three or four months

Westlake signed in at the unit last July 19 and no one checked in on the mother and daughter until a neighbor reported a 'foul odor' coming from the apartment. She was found dead July 25

'It's amazing that she's alive,' Harris said.

'Allowing an infant to remain with her dead mother for five days unnoticed not only highlights the indifference and lack of humanity shown to those most in need but exhibits complete malfeasance by the City of New York and Department of Homeless Services,' Keenan said.

The incident is under investigation and the shelter is now required to conduct same-night wellness checks for any resident who hasn't signed the nightly roster, Department of Homeless Services said.

Young Lyric, who lost seven pounds and suffered a 'horrific' diaper rash from the incident, is still dealing with separation anxiety, Laboy said.

'She always wakes up in the middle of the night, she's kicking, she's fighting, saying, "Mommy." I look at her and I just start tearing up sometimes,' he said.

While Lyric has gained all her weight back, she has still been 'routinely slapping her dad while he's sleeping to make sure he's alive,' Laboy's attorney, Seth Harris, said.
Convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is learning Russian behind bars, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The 60-year-old disgraced British socialite, whose lawyers launched an appeal for a retrial last week, is fluent in three other languages  French, Italian and Spanish  but is studying Russian to maintain her sanity.

Maxwell, who was found guilty last month of five counts of child sex trafficking and faces up to 65 years in jail when she is sentenced in June, is in solitary confinement at New Yorks Metropolitan Detention Centre.

She is on suicide watch, allowed only paper clothing and is not allowed books.

She cant even have a pen and paper, an insider said.

The conditions are appalling. Shes checked every 15 minutes throughout the day and night.

Convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is learning Russian while in solitary confinement at New Yorks Metropolitan Detention Centre, The Mail on Sunday can reveal

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting girls for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein (pictured together in 1995, above), who killed himself in jail in 2019

'They shine a flashlight into her cell all night which makes it impossible to sleep.

The prison governor lets her use a laptop for a few hours a day to learn Russian using a CD language course.

The source added: Its helping her to keep her mind focused. Studying is helping maintain her sanity.

Maxwell was convicted of recruiting girls for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Her lawyers claim she was prosecuted by proxy for his crimes, and want a retrial after two jurors admitted using their own experience of being sexually abused to sway other jurors.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- A wildfire that broke out along the Big Sur coast, U.S. state of California, Friday night remained active overnight and prompted evacuations in Monterey County, officials said.

The Colorado Fire has burned 1,500 acres (about 6 square km) and was 5 percent contained as of Saturday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

The fire could be seen from Santa Cruz County. Cal Fire's San Mateo - Santa Cruz Unit responded to assist with the firefighting operations, officials said on Twitter.

The area where the fire is burning has "little or no fire history," the National Weather Service said, adding that a wildfire in January, especially after a couple of wet winter months, is "pretty surreal."

The blaze broke out during a wind event that brought strong winds to the Bay Area region, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle. 
The attempted putsch against Boris Johnson by Tory MPs angered by the Partygate row has renewed suspicions between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is the favourite to succeed him.

As Mr Johnson spends the weekend trying to shore up his support by calling wavering MPs from his Chequers country retreat, Mr Sunak has been cementing his standing among the so-called Pork Pie Plotters who want to remove the Prime Minister from Downing Street.

Shortly after Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday  when Mr Johnson endured the defection to Labour of one of his MPs, Christian Wakeford, and a call for his resignation from former Cabinet Minister David Davis  Mr Sunak met rebel ringleaders from the Red Wall constituencies won from Labour in the 2019 General Election.

As part of what was interpreted as a drive to reassure the plotters that he would be as generous as Mr Johnson with regional funding, a source said they were reassured that their constituencies would receive unlimited Treasury support, adding: He didnt mention the leadership, but he didnt have to  he made clear that they would be safe in his hands.

The attempted putsch against Boris Johnson by Tory MPs angered by the Partygate row has renewed suspicions between the Prime Minister (right) and Chancellor Rishi Sunak (left), who is the favourite to succeed him

Challengers falling short says rebel who U-turned By Anna Mikhailova, Deputy Political Editor for the Mail on Sunday A Conservative MP who last week withdrew a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister accused the would-be leadership contenders of falling short. The MP told the Mail on Sunday Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two frontrunners to succeed Boris Johnson, have not been convincing on their commitment to levelling up. The MP submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, the previous week after becoming angry with the Prime Minister over repeated revelations of parties at Downing Street and the Governments handling of the scandal. The Tory MP warned colleagues considering submitting letters of no confidence: They should be very careful we dont end up jumping out of Boriss frying pan and into Rishis free market fire. Rishi and Liz have been showing a lot of leg that they are more about free market, which means less investment. This threatened levelling up for constituents if you are an MP in an area of deprivation. It requires 54 letters to trigger a confidence vote. Last week a group of MPs elected in 2019 submitted letters in a co-ordinated bid dubbed the Pork Pie Plot. However, momentum stalled after Christian Wakeford, the former Tory MP for Bury South, defected to Labour. As many as seven no-confidence letters were reportedly withdrawn by Tory MPs as a result. The MP who withdrew the no-confidence letter said Mr Johnson was still seen as more likely to deliver on previous spending commitments to constituencies. Advertisement

The source said Mr Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, his main leadership rival, had texted the rebels within hours of Mr Johnsons hangdog interview with Sky News on Tuesday in which he sighed and mumbled about his Governments travails.

Mr Johnsons Cabinet allies, led by Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, are battling to save his Premiership as Downing Street braces for the publication of the official report into Partygate  and for the potential sparking of an explosive leadership contest.

Ms Dorries  a die-hard Johnson loyalist  uses an article in todays Mail on Sunday to condemn the attention-seeking behaviour of rebel Tory MPs who have been trying to muster the 54 letters of no-confidence needed to trigger a Commons vote on removing the Prime Minister from office.

Ms Dorries, describing them as a small minority devoted to chasing airtime and column inches because they are determined to remove our most successful PM since Margaret Thatcher from office, warns that the rebels risk jeopardising the countrys recovery from the pandemic.

She writes: When historians look back, the UKs vaccine rollout will be seen as one of the most successful peacetime operations in history  thanks to Boris.

He also took the decision to hold out against another lockdown this winter in the face of intense pressure and doom-laden predictions from Labour. How many businesses were saved as a consequence? How many millions of people were enabled to have Christmas with their families?

The Culture Secretary adds: Of course there have been mistakes. The last two years have been hell for everyone, and for those working 18 hours every single day after day for weeks on end in the Downing Street war rooms, lines clearly became blurred.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is also playing a key role in bolstering support, along with other members of Mr Johnsons 2019 leadership campaign team.

No 10 fears that the report into Partygate by senior civil servant Sue Gray, which is expected to land by Thursday, will prompt a further flurry of letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, and a dramatic Commons showdown.

ustralian Foreign Minister Marise Payne (L) and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (R) arrive for Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN) talks at Admiralty House, in Sydney, Australia, 21 January 2022

Bury South constituency MP Christian Wakeford speaks during a visit by Labour's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on January 20, 2022 in Bury, Englan

Conspiracy MP takes nanny on Commons trip to Ukraine The Tory MP said to be at the heart of the plotting against Boris Johnson last week took her baby and nanny on a Commons committee trip to Ukraine. Alicia Kearns was accompanied by her 11-month-old baby daughter and a nanny on the three-day foreign affairs committee visit to the country fearing an invasion by more than 100,000 Russian troops. ON FRONT LINE: Alicia Kearns The fact-finding trip included a visit to the eastern Ukraine front line that had apparently been shelled by Russian-backed forces two weeks earlier. However, it is understood that the baby and nanny stayed safely behind in a hotel about 90 minutes from the front. Ms Kearns, 34, has in the past has been an outspoken critic of MPs taking babies into the Commons Chamber. She said: Babies have no place in the chamber. Ive asked to leave debates to feed my child a few times  I have never been turned down. It is understood Ms Kearns, who is still breast-feeding her baby, offered to pay any extra costs but the Commons footed the bill in line with its rules. It is not the first time an MP has taken her baby on a Commons committee trip overseas. In 2019, then MP Luciana Berger took her six-month-old child and her mother on an overseas visit on health committee business. Advertisement

Mr Johnsons allies say he will fight any attempt to topple him, but if a majority of his MPs vote against him the Tory party will be plunged into its second leadership contest in under three years.

A number of MPs are known to have written their letters ready to send in if the report proves to be damning.

Tory strategists worry that if Mr Johnson narrowly wins a confidence vote and stays on, the party will be trapped in a slow death cycle. Under the rules, the Prime Minister would be protected from a further challenge for a year.

The attempted putsch has unleashed infighting between rival camps of Tory MPs, with whips also accused of heavy-handed attempts to intimidate the rebels with the threat of revealing allegations about their sex lives.

One MP claims it was hinted that he would be outed as homosexual, while another was reportedly warned that alleged sexual harassment would be revealed. A third was confronted with hotly denied claims of unusual sexual peccadillos with male prostitutes. One has threatened to release a recording of a whips threats.

William Wragg, a backbencher who accused Downing Street of trying to blackmail rebel MPs, said yesterday he would meet police to discuss his allegations. Downing Street said it had not seen any proof of the behaviour he alleges.

Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards, said about a dozen Tory MPs alleged whips threatened to withdraw funding for their constituencies. MPs loyal to Mr Johnson also confronted rebel ringleaders in the Commons tea room after PMQs. One, who was described as a traitor for joining a meeting of 18 Red Wallers in the office of Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns, bluntly told his accuser: Just f*** off.

Pro-Johnson MPs also received brutal treatment. Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis, one of a few Red Wallers to back the Prime Minister on MPs WhatsApp groups, was ridiculed for a TV interview in which he claimed letters were being withdrawn  but admitted he didnt know by whom or how many.

The rebels  dubbed the Pork Pie Plotters because Ms Kearnss constituency is home to Melton Mowbray pies  said dismissive references to them by Johnson allies as f****** nobodies and ungrateful rookies had made them more determined. After hearing that, I would crawl across broken glass to put in my letter, said one.

If the 54 letters are received, then Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, along with other likely contenders such as former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, are ready to run.

Early signs suggest that MPs are coalescing behind Mr Sunak, although one who has been courted said: My impression is that Liz wants to go for it now, while Rishi would prefer for all this fuss to die down and run in the summer.

NADINE DORRIES: Behaviour of attention-seeking MPs risks sabotaging magnificent achievements for Boris Johnson and Britain

By Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom writing for the Mail on Sunday

Ten years ago in this newspaper I came out as the first MP to back Boris for Prime Minister. I wrote that he had a proven track record as a winner.

At a time when the party, under David Camerons leadership, was consistently trailing behind in the polls, Boris won the London mayoral election  twice.

In December 2019, he had the force of personality to secure a majority of more than 80 and win those important Red Wall seats, some of which we had never taken before.

Last week, sadly, a small minority of my colleagues spent their time chasing airtime and column inches because they are determined to remove from office our most successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher.

The same old names keep cropping up.

Last week, sadly, a small minority of my colleagues spent their time chasing airtime and column inches because they are determined to remove from office our most successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher, writes NADINE DORRIES

As for allegations about threatening behaviour from the whips, I can only imagine what vapours some of them would have had during the long days and nights of the Maastricht vote in 1993, when the party machine went into overdrive to secure a pro-EU majority.

The truth is, the recent portrayal of our whips office is largely out of date and mostly fiction. There is no truth, for example, in lurid claims that dissenting MPs have had funding for their constituencies threatened. Whips simply have no say in what is spent or where.

After 17 years as an MP  and one who is no stranger to the odd rebellion  I can honestly say the worst reaction I ever had from a whip was disappointment.

Sadly, the attention-seeking behaviour of these few MPs risks overshadowing a major achievement for Britain and for our PM.

There really is light at the end of the tunnel, as the World Health Organisation declared last week. After two extremely difficult years, the United Kingdom is on the verge of returning to normal life again  thanks to the Prime Minister, who has led from the front, furiously championing the booster rollout campaign.

He has consistently said both in private and in public, there is only one way out of Covid and that is to throw everything we have behind the vaccines.

How right he has been proved.

This laser focus, his absolute commitment to do what had to be done, has meant that January 26 will mark the end of all remaining Covid restrictions, including the legal requirement to wear masks in shops and other indoor spaces.

Countless other countries are still living in the shadow of the virus. Germany, for example, has just introduced strict rules for restaurants and bars.

We, meanwhile, are stepping back out into the light, with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. There are 420,000 more people in work today than there were at the start of the pandemic.

We were the first country in the world to vaccinate someone against Covid with a fully tested jab. Why?

Because this Prime Minister threw everything he could at the problem, taking an educated gamble to pursue as many different vaccine candidates as possible and signing contracts at speed.

While other governments dithered and delayed and Keir Starmer repeatedly objected to our approach, Boris Johnson had the prescience and courage to bite the bullet, to push through and commit to taking decisions at exactly the right moment and with speed.

That solid conviction is the true test of leadership during a crisis.

By the end of last February, the UK had delivered 20 million vaccines. In France, it was less than five million.

When historians look back, the UKs vaccine rollout will be seen as one of the most successful peacetime operations in history  thanks to Boris.

He also took the decision to hold out against another lockdown this winter in the face of intense pressure and doom-laden predictions from Labour.

Instead of listening to the armchair epidemiologists, he went hell for leather, rolling out the booster mission.

As a result, there was a day when an incredible one million people came forward to be jabbed. Together, with his leadership, we fought back against Omicron.

How many businesses were saved as a consequence? How many millions of people were enabled to have Christmas with their families?

Of course there have been mistakes. The past two years have been hell for everyone, and for those working 18 hours every single day for weeks on end in the Downing Street war rooms, lines clearly became blurred.

Sue Grays report will deal with this and hopefully set recommendations for the future.

Beyond the distracting noises off, however, the fast-paced work of Government remains focused on levelling up parts of the country ignored for too long. In my own department, we have plans to speed up the broadband revolution, with a 5 billion rollout of gigabit networks now gathering pace across the country.

Were on the side of hard-working households, freezing the BBC licence fee for two years, and have already begun work to discover a new and fairer way of funding the Corporation. We have truly uplifting and historic moments to look forward to in 2022, including the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

No other British monarch has reached the milestone of a 70-year reign, and were making great progress on plans for a four-day blockbuster weekend of street parties, with the very best of British pomp and pageantry.

A couple of months later, we will be hosting the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which are already the most popular in history, with more than one million tickets sold.

To the small number of my colleagues who continue to agitate against their leader, I ask them to name one other politician who would have the determination and personality to drive through Brexit and lead this country out of the pandemic into a strong recovery; who would stand up to Russia as it threatens Ukraine and understands the pressures on the wallets of hard-working families.

This promises to be a year of liberation. The last time we came close to this was in 2012, the year when Boris as Mayor delivered the Olympics, when the country buzzed and fizzed with excitement and we were filled with a sense of pride and achievement.

He was a winner then and, as he has proven throughout the pandemic, hes still our winner now.
Ekaterina Pereverzeva is struggling to stop fears of war tormenting her as vast numbers of Russian forces mass across the border near her home in Ukraine's second city.

'Any time could be the last peaceful moment,' she said as we talk in a bar. 'We could be sitting here with a drink as the shelling starts, unaware that people I love might be dying.'

The 27-year-old tries not to think about the gathering storm clouds  but she knows all too well how life, families and friendships can be instantly shattered by malevolent Russian president Vladimir Putin.

For she was forced to leave another Ukrainian city after it was seized by Kremlin stooges  and is terrified history will repeat itself after she has worked so hard to create a new life in Kharkiv.

'I try not to think these thoughts, to calm my fears, to carry on living,' says Ekaterina, who set up an arts and human rights website after fleeing Donetsk.

Ekaterina Pereverzeva (above), 27, is struggling to stop fears of war tormenting her as vast numbers of Russian forces mass across the border near her home in Ukraine's second city

'But there's constant fear with this escalation of hostilities. I know how Putin starts wars, since I have suffered the consequences. So I must live with the fears because of my experiences.'

At the mention of Putin's name, the thoughtful, elfin woman bristles.

'I would like him to die,' she says. 'Not only Putin but all the people giving the orders to start the shooting, to start wars. I want them all to die.'

Amid the talk of invasion, it is easy to forget that Ukraine has been embroiled in conflict with its aggressive neighbour for eight years after Russian-backed separatists seized control of two self-styled republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.

This was Putin's brutal response  along with the capture of Crimea  to pro-democracy protests that ousted his ally in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

Ekaterina tries not to think about the gathering storm clouds  but she knows all too well how life, families and friendships can be instantly shattered by malevolent Russian president Vladimir Putin. For she was forced to leave another Ukrainian city after it was seized by Kremlin stooges. (Above, Ukrainian soldiers at a check-point in Donetsk on Friday)

The Kremlin's intervention has led to 14,000 deaths and 2.6 million people such as Ekaterina forced from their homes.

The war on Ukraine's eastern flank has been largely forgotten outside the country, while even inside, the problems confronting all these displaced people became known as the 'invisible crisis' after they melted back into society.

Yet if Putin unleashes a full-scale invasion, the impact would be highly visible and felt far beyond Ukraine.

'A major war would plunge the whole of Europe into crisis,' said Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine's Minister of Defence.

'The sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing a Russian invasion would be just one of many major concerns facing European society.'

Moscow denies its troops are in the breakaway Donbas republics, but one woman who witnessed the takeover from the inside is Olena Znatkova (above). As a senior local government official overseeing seven universities, she watched in dismay as colleagues fell for Putin's propaganda about the supposed Ukrainian 'threat'. She said the beliefs of the pro-democracy protests 'resonated' with her

His view is echoed by Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, who visited the country last week.

'We've seen already many Ukrainians driven out of their homes in the east as well as Russia's allies in Belarus weaponising migrants against Nato states such as Poland and Lithuania,' he said. 'We can only wonder with concern how many more people that Moscow is preparing to drive over the border into Europe.'

There are an estimated 1.5 million internally displaced Ukrainians in the nation of 44 million, with others migrating to Russia or elsewhere in Europe.

But aid groups believe the true figure is far higher as many people never registered with officials after settling with friends or relatives.

Most remained in Russian-speaking eastern parts of Ukraine, such as Kharkiv  areas where there are fears Putin might use his Special Forces to try to trigger some kind of provocation as an excuse to send tanks over the border.

Ekaterina's position perfectly illustrates the complexities of issues of identity and interwoven ties of communities in this snow-covered corner of eastern Europe.

Born in Russia to a Ukrainian mother, she despaired of being constantly told at school about Russia's greatness when surrounded by poverty and corruption.

A Ukrainian paratrooper is seen stationed on the frontline near Stanytsia Luhanska, Luhansk Region, Ukraine on Friday

After moving to Donetsk in her early teens, she declared herself Ukrainian. Yet she was forced to flee her new home with her mother and brother after pro-democracy protests led to the arrival of covert Russian troops.

She then watched them operate and the subsequent explosion of conflict in her adopted Donetsk.

Ekaterina recalls listening to radio reports of shooting and missiles at the airport, saying: 'I could not accept in my head that war was coming to my city.'

Most of her school and university friends have also left  except for one who now heads the Donetsk regime's youth party.

She says: 'He is in charge of brainwashing children with propaganda, telling them lies that Putin is their ally.' Like many displaced families, hers left with almost nothing.

Even today, only one in eight of those who fled have permanent accommodation as they have struggled to rebuild lives after abandoning homes and jobs.

Ekaterina said that, until recently, to dampen the pain of exile, she never talked about her life in Donetsk. Even now, she had to break off from our discussion to shed tears quietly in the toilet.

Another woman said her husband was so disturbed after being tortured by separatists that he beat her, leading to divorce.

A third said her daughter needed psychiatric help.

There are an estimated 180,000 displaced people in Kharkiv, the former capital of Ukraine located only 30 miles from the Russian border. Little wonder that many are terrified by the Kremlin's military build-up so close to their new homes.

Alina Foklina (above), 38, is mentally preparing a list of possessions to grab if forced to flee again with her daughter. 'Putin does not look a sane person,' she said. 'I feel tense all the time  as if I want to curl up on the floor like a child'

'People who ran away from the war feel uneasy. They say, 'we lost Donetsk and Luhansk, we can't lose Kharkiv',' said Eugenia Levinshtein, manager at Ukrainian Borders, a charity providing financial and psychological support for displaced citizens.

She added: 'These are people who lost all their property  sometimes family members  and started life from scratch in a new city without any help from the state. It's very scary to think that the new lives they have created could be taken away again.'

The charity is preparing for a fresh flow of traumatised people, with funds arriving from foreign partners to buy vehicles for emergency evacuation missions. 'We are getting ready for the worst-case scenario,' Eugenia said.

So is Alina Foklina, 38, as she mentally prepares a list of possessions to grab if forced to flee again with her daughter. 'Putin does not look a sane person,' she said. 'I feel tense all the time  as if I want to curl up on the floor like a child.'

Alina had to leave Stahanov, a town in the Luhansk region, after joining small pro-democracy protests with friends who waved Ukraine's blue and yellow flag near a statue of Lenin.

'I wanted to keep the country united and become European  less corrupt, more open,' she said. First, they faced jeers from pro-Russians, then threats and finally violence.

At the mention of Putin's name, Ekaterina bristles. 'I would like him to die,' she says. 'Not only Putin but all the people giving the orders to start the shooting, to start wars. I want them all to die'

Her friends were beaten in the streets, their cars were damaged. Her boyfriend was kidnapped and tortured in a basement. One man was shot dead in his garage.

Alina left after the region held a widely discredited self-rule referendum. 'In our town, there was our small group of pro-Ukrainians, a slightly bigger group of pro-Russians  but most just wanted their lives to carry on with no warfare.'

It was heartbreaking to flee the town where she grew up, went to school and built a car-painting business  but she believed it would be for just a fortnight until the tensions cooled. 'We only had one suitcase with a few summer clothes.'

She has never returned  having discovered that she had been sentenced to death for participating in protests. Nor has she spoken since to her father, a supporter of the separatists.

For her, life in Kharkiv has been a struggle  relying on piecemeal work, moving apartments several times, unable to visit dying friends and seeing her teenage daughter suffer mental health problems that led to hospitalisation last year.

Yet Alina has no regrets, despite telling me she sees only 'a fog' when she thinks of the future. 'If I watch the news or see pictures of the Russian military equipment, it feels like my whole body is in a state of danger again,' she said.

Moscow denies its troops are in the breakaway Donbas republics, but one woman who witnessed the takeover from the inside is Olena Znatkova.

As a senior local government official overseeing seven universities, she watched in dismay as colleagues fell for Putin's propaganda about the supposed Ukrainian 'threat'. She said the beliefs of the pro-democracy protests 'resonated' with her.

'It was a wake-up call for me when people came on to the streets to try and change their lives, create more freedom and open up the country.'

But most colleagues disagreed. She was ordered to ensure universities stopped such protests and did not fly their nation's flag.

After being presented with a loyalty statement to the new republic, and knowing she would be deemed an enemy of the state for refusing to sign, Olena fled into hiding at her parents' home.

Their house was three miles from the Russian border, so she saw Kremlin tanks roll past  then decided to escape after the fighting intensified and debris from a downed Ukrainian aircraft landed on their property. 'It seemed there was fighting everywhere and everything was on fire,' said Olena, 50.

'I felt we could all die. So I said my goodbyes and left.'

Taking no possessions except for her passport and nine-year-old daughter's birth certificate, the pair eventually reached Kharkiv.

Since then, this civil servant  who once owned a three-bedroom home in Luhansk  has stayed at friends' flats and university dormitories with her daughter, relying on donated clothes and eating student meals.

Meanwhile, she has helped move 1,500 people and those seven Luhansk universities back into Ukraine, including about one-third of their academics and students.

As she stocks up on coffee, tobacco and water in her office, steeling herself for another conflict, she tells me defiantly: 'After starting a new life here and moving all these people, I will not run away any more.'

Rather than being afraid, she says: 'I feel angry, very angry. At first I was very emotional. But now I'm emotionally drained.'

Yet when I ask her about Putin, the reply of this gentle, middle-aged bureaucrat is the same as the one I heard from website creator Ekaterina Pereverzeva: 'I hope he dies.'

Such words express the anguish of their silent suffering  along with the pain that their traumas are being stoked again by the sabre-rattling thug in the Kremlin.
Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of breaching her restraining order after she allegedly branded her ex-husband Kieran Hayler's fiancee a 'gutter sl*g' in 'abusive messages', MailOnline can reveal.

Sussex Police said a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in Partridge Green, West Sussex at around 12.15am last night. She has been released under investigation.

A spokesman added a report had been made at 5.45pm on Friday in relation to an alleged breach of a restraining order.

Later on Saturday, Katie Price was seen being driven out of Worthing Police station by her fiance Carl Woods.

Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of breaching her restraining order. Pictured: Her hand is seen on the headrest of a Mercedes, driven by Carl Woods, as she left the station

Katie Price (pictured in December) was arrested after she allegedly branded her ex-husband Kieran Hayler's fiancee a 'gutter sl*g' in 'abusive messages'

Messages were alleged to have called her vile names, as seen in mocked-up picture above

She was seen on the back seat of a Mercedes, with her hand on the headrest, as her fiance drove the vehicle.

Price, who lives in 'Mucky Mansion', is banned from contacting Mr Hayler's girlfriend Michelle Penticost under the terms of a five-year restraining order imposed after she verbally abused her in a school playground.

Miss Penticost is understood to have contacted Sussex Police on Friday to complain that Price had sent Mr Hayler 'abusive' messages aimed at her.

Sources claimed the messages branded Miss Penticost a 'gutter sl*g' and a 'c***ing we piece of s***', according to The Sun.

They added: 'The words were absolutely vile.'

Mr Hayler and his fiancee were understood to have been interviewed by police in their home before Price was taken into custody. She has been released under investigation.

Miss Penticost, 39, was said to have been left 'devastated and threatened' following the alleged messages.

On Saturday, Katie Price was seen leaving Worthing Police station, as she was driven out of the premises by Carl Woods after being released under investigation

Sussex Police said that a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in West Sussex at around 12.15am last night. Pictured: Katie Price is driven out of Worthing Police station

Price, who lives in 'Mucky Mansion' in Partridge Green, is banned from contacting Mr Hayler's girlfriend Michelle Penticost (pictured with Mr Hayler) under the terms of a five-year restraining order imposed after she was convicted of verbal abuse

A spokeswoman for Mr Hayler told The Sun: 'We can confirm that an incident took place on Friday after which Michelle was left distressed by a tirade of abusive insults and threats.'

Ex-glamour model Price, 43, has accused her estranged husband, 34, of grooming and raping an underage girl in 2016 before their divorce two years later.

Mr Hayler, a former stripper, has angrily denied the 'false' allegations' and vowed to co-operate with police.

'At 5.45pm on Friday (21 January) police responded to a report that a suspect had breached their restraining order,' a force spokesman said.

Pictured: Katie Price seen leaving Worthing police station today

Sussex Police (station pictured) said that a woman in her 40s was arrested at a property in Partridge Green, West Sussex at around 12.15am last night

'Officers arrested a woman in her 40s who has been released under investigation while inquiries continue.'

MailOnline has approached representatives for Price and Mr Hayler for comment.

Mr Hayler's fiancee Miss Penticost, 39, shared a cryptic message on Instagram which read: 'Normal people don't go around destroying other human beings.' She also shared the hashtag 'restrainingorder'.

Price claims that she went to police before the divorce  but suggests that the alleged victim has now come forward herself.

Sussex Police says Mr Hayler has not been arrested and described the alleged victim as a 'girl', who was under the age of 16 in 2016.

A spokesman said: 'We are investigating a report that in 2016 a girl was raped by an adult male known to her at a location in West Sussex.

Price's ex husband Kieran Hayler pictured for the first time since allegations that he assaulted a woman on three occasions in 2016

Pictured: Katie Price seen leaving Worthing police station today

Police are to question Price's ex-husband Mr Hayler over historic rape allegations relating to another woman they both knew

'No arrest has been made at present. The girl is receiving support from specially trained officers'.

Mr Hayler's spokesman previously told the Mirror: 'Kieran is absolutely devastated by these untrue allegations and has requested to meet the investigating officer as soon as possible to clear his name.

'He is certain that these allegations are false and have been fabricated by a third party in an act of revenge.

'He will fight to clear his name and moreover for those responsible to be brought to justice.'

A source close to Mr Hayler added to The Sun: 'Police have been in touch with Kieran regarding an allegation from 2016, which is believed to have been made by Katie. It relates to someone they knew while they were married.

'Kieran is co-operating and insists he has done nothing wrong  but he's happy to speak to the cops about it.

'He just wants to move on from his marriage to Katie.'
Steven Gerrard takes on old foes Everton today insisting he could never follow Rafael Benitez by crossing the divide between the bitter Mersey rivals.

Benitez was sacked by Everton this after barely six months in charge, meaning there will be no reunion of the manager and captain who led Liverpool to Champions League glory in Istanbul in 2005.

Instead Gerrards Aston Villa will meet a team managed by Duncan Ferguson, but Gerrard remains baffled that Benitez  who won four trophies in six years as Anfield boss  had opted to join Everton at all.

Steven Gerrard and Rafael Benitez won four trophies in six years together at Anfield

The duo famously lifted the 2005 Champions League after an epic comeback against AC Milan

It would never enter my head to manage a rival that I've competed against for over two decades, said Gerrard. That doesnt make sense. Rivalries are there for a reason.

With the legacy he had at Liverpool, his connection with the club and what he delivered, the biggest shock for me was that Rafa took the job in the first place.

He is in that bracket of world-class managers, I think he's proved that throughout his career but jobs can go right or wrong for a number of reasons. Sometimes certain things behind the scenes dont work out for you.

The Spaniard was sacked last week after Everton's 2-1 defeat away against Norwich

Gerrard said he was baffled the Spaniard agreed to join Everton in the summer to begin with

Gerrard also stressed Villas desire to keep key midfielder John McGinn, whose performances this term have attracted considerable interest from the Premier Leagues elite.

McGinn returns after suspension and has been praised regularly Gerrard since he succeeded Dean Smith in November.

The former England captain added: We dont want to be a selling club and our intention is to keep John McGinn here. We love the player, we love the human being and we want to help him.

We see it as a compliment when our players are linked with big moves away. It shows they are playing at a consistent level.
Manchester United's stoppage-time hero Marcus Rashford has dismissed claims his winning goal against West Ham United on Saturday was offside.

Rashford came on as a substitute to score the late goal in a game that looked destined to finish goalless.

Hammers boss David Moyes was furious with the decision, arguing that Cavani was offside in the buildup but the goal survived a VAR check to give Manchester United al three points.

Marcus Rashford said his controversial late winner against West Ham United was not offside

Speaking after the match to Sky Sports, Rashford said he knew it was not offside.

'I knew it wasn't (offside) from Edi (Cavani) to me, and I don't think it was from Anthony (Martial) to Edi.

'Before then I was just trying to get into the back post.

'It felt like a good goal and thankfully it stood.'

The goal angered David Moyes who felt that Edinson Cavani was offside in the build-up

The goal will be a welcome boost for Rashford who has been enduring a difficult run of form.

In his 17 appearances in all competitions this season, the United number 10 has scored just five goals.

He was highlighted for criticism by United fans during their FA Cup win over Aston Villa but Ralf Ragnick has vowed to stand by the England forward.

Rashford had been struggling with his form but his boss Ralf Ragnick vowed to stand by him

Rashford told the BBC it was 'an amazing feeling' to score so late on.

'It is obviously an important goal and such late on is an amazing feeling,'

'We have to use that winning feeling. We could have been a bit better on the ball but managed to get the goal we needed and can use that as motivation now.

Rashford said the team needs to use the momentum from the win and go on a run of victories

'When there are two teams so close together in the table, both are fighting to be in front of one another and today we managed to get there.

'We are sitting fourth now, some teams have games to play, but it is nice to be in that position.

'The wins are what's important, when you get wins, consecutive wins, you can really start to go on a run and that is what gives everyone confidence.

'We have had a difficult week, there have been many games in one week, so the break is needed. It'll be good for us.'
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As we stroll down the main street  where you can buy pasties the size of handbags  the mayor of Marazion, Derek Laity, says: You can tell which houses are lived in by locals and which are holiday lets. The holiday lets always have key code boxes by the front door.

But as far as I can see, there are surprisingly few of these giveaway key boxes outside homes with traditional Cornish names such as Cairn, Hendra and Gwynn.

Indeed, Im impressed by Marazions ability to retain its year-round population, just 15 miles from Lands End.

Coastal splendour: Marazion, pictured above, is home to a population of 1,404 people and is set just 15 miles from Lands End

Rob describes Marazion as 'one of the prettiest' towns in England. Pictured is a row of picturesque cottages in the town

A pair of choughs. Known as the crow of Cornwall, the bird was extinct in the area for nearly three decades

Whats more, it is applying for city status during the Queens Platinum Jubilee year. Or at least, it was until the rules changed, requiring a primary council to lend its support, and the paperwork needed from Cornwall Council wasnt completed in time. Not that this bothers the choughs, otherwise known as the crows of Cornwall, with their long beaks and pillar-box red claws.

The chough (pronounced chuff) was extinct in Cornwall for nearly three decades, partly due to a decline in the grazing grounds that the birds preferred for nesting. Unexpectedly, one pair returned in 2001, which eventually led to 66 fledged choughlets last year.

Perhaps they like the idea that only 1,404 people live here and most of the year its quiet  although it revs up in the summer with St Michaels Mount, the famed castle island, connected to the town by a low-tide causeway.

Little Marazion has the famed castle island of St Michaels Mount, pictured above, on its doorstep

Marazion received chartered status in 1257 from Henry III, making it one of the oldest towns in England. It is one of the prettiest, too. A jumble of cottages; flagstone-floored pubs; sweet shops; a stout, granite, toy-sized town hall and tiny art galleries selling pottery and watercolours.

Narrow alleyways contort and bend, leading out to a wide beach of pale, buttery sands strewn with rust-coloured seaweed. Palm trees and succulents add a tropical note. The towns Copper Spoon cafe sells pisky-ccino coffees named after the pisky fairies; diminutive, green creatures with red hair and wrinkled faces who are believed to live on the high moors.

When ordering a pasty in Philps, the bakers, Im told it will be with me dreckly, a Cornish phrase that could mean anything from five seconds to the rest of the day. In fact, it arrives almost immediately  golden brown and bursting with beef, potatoes, swede and onion. I attempt to walk it off by striding out to reach Marazion marsh, just outside town, where reed beds and willow scrubs teem with warblers in springtime, while mallards navigate the waters and herons build spindly nests.

'Over a pint in the snug of the Kings Arms (pictured), a friendly local tells me there is talk of some of the areas ancient tin mines being reopened again for extracting lithium,' writes Rob

Rob drives ten miles to the former Carn Galver mine, pictured, which is set near the tiny parish of Zennor

Marazion is a former fishing and mining town. Over a pint in the snug of the Kings Arms, a friendly local tells me there is talk of some of the areas ancient tin mines being reopened again for extracting lithium.

As the sun sets, I drive ten miles to reach the former Carn Galver mine near the tiny parish of Zennor. It was here, during the Great War, that D.H. Lawrence and his German wife were wrongly accused of sending light signals to German U-boats. More than a century on, the ruined engine house and chimney remain.

As the sun dips below the cliff tops, looming shadows stretch over the ancient walls and rumpled fields of a region that exudes charm. And may, one day, claim to have Englands smallest city in its midst.
A week-long caravan holiday in the UK can actually be more expensive than a four-star all-inclusive trip to Greece, according to a study.

Which? Travel investigated the prices of a week's stay in six different UK holiday hotspots in June 2022, comparing different accommodation types using Airbnb, Booking.com and Pitch Up. It found a static caravan holiday in Scotland costing 1,086, a higher tariff than a deal it discovered for a week in Halkidiki, Greece, for the same dates.

The study also found that staying in a bell tent in Cornwall can be more than 200 more expensive than checking in to a four-star hotel in the same town, while holidaying in a treehouse on the Isle of Wight can be more than double the price of a three-star hotel stay nearby.

A week-long static caravan holiday in the UK can actually be more expensive than a four-star all-inclusive trip to Greece, according to a new Which? Travel study (stock photo)

Which? Travel's study found a static caravan holiday in Scotland costing 1,086, a higher tariff than a deal it discovered for a week in Halkidiki (pictured), for the same dates

According to Which? Travel, in Newton Abbot, Devon, a week's stay in a tent in June costs 140, a caravan pitch 210, a static caravan 525, self-catering accommodation is priced at 425, and a yurt is 840. Which? Travel points out that while a yurt is a 'glorified tent' and 'you have to trudge across the field for the loo', it's 7 more expensive than a week in a three-star hotel (833) with a heated indoor pool 'on the banks of the River Teign estuary'.

It notes that both the yurt and the self-catering accommodation have cooking facilities - which saves on eating out. However, the latter is half the price of the yurt and sleeps four - working out at just 106 per person.

Which? Travel's Scottish pricing revelation came after analysing accommodation options in Annan in Dumfries and Galloway. As well as discovering that a static caravan can set you back 1,086, the magazine discovered that both a tent and a caravan pitch are priced at 157.50, a three-star hotel 378, self-catering accommodation 'set in an old sandstone farmhouse' with a hot tub 505, and a converted barn 1,023.

HOTEL, CARAVAN, SELF-CATERING OR YURT? THE COSTS REVEALED NEWTON ABBOT, DEVON Tent 140, caravan pitch 210, static caravan 525, three-star hotel 833, self-catering 425, yurt 840 HELSTON, CORNWALL Tent 122.50, caravan pitch 122.50, static caravan 700, four-star hotel and breakfast 770, self-catering 396, bell tent 980 HAVERFORDWEST, PEMBROKESHIRE Tent 159.25, caravan pitch 159.25, static caravan 485, three-star hotel 465, self-catering 485, pod and hot tub 1,436 ANNAN, DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY Tent 157.50, caravan pitch 157.50, static caravan 1,086, three-star hotel 378, self-catering and hot tub 505, barn 1,023 PICKERING, NORTH YORKSHIRE Tent 175, caravan pitch 210, static caravan 490, four-star hotel 525, self-catering 446, shepherds hut 417 SHANKLIN & SANDOWN, ISLE OF WIGHT Tent 147, caravan pitch 161, static caravan 490, three-star hotel and breakfast 525, self-catering 509, treehouse 1,093 Source: Which? Travel Advertisement

According to Which? Travel, a three-star hotel stay in Annan, Scotland, can cost 378 (stock photo), considerably less than the static caravan break it found

While the static caravan has access to a private beach, the lower-priced holiday in Greece includes a superior room in a four-star hotel 'among the olive groves', with buffet meals and alcoholic drinks as part of the package.

It adds that instead of a caravan stay, you could 'slash costs' by spending a week in the hotel (378), a seven-minute drive down the road.

Booking site Pitch Up told Which? Travel that static caravans had seen the biggest boom of all holiday park accommodation in recent years, with prices up by a quarter since 2019.

Which? Travel analysed prices in Helston, Cornwall (pictured), and found that both a tent and a caravan pitch cost 122.50, while a bell tent cost 980

Which? Travel also analysed prices in Helston, Cornwall, and found that both a tent and a caravan pitch cost 122.50, a static caravan 700, a four-star hotel and breakfast 770, self-catering accommodation 396, and a bell tent 980.

It says that those staying in the static caravan, despite paying an 'assault on the wallet' 100 a night, are still expected to bring their own bed linen, pillows and towels.

Which? Travel notes that the hotel (770) - which is 200 cheaper than the bell tent that's 'down the road' - has a four-poster bed and includes a full English breakfast every morning. However, it points out that holidaymakers could save 84 per cent in Cornwall if they trade in their hotel room for a regular tent (122.50).

Pitch Up told Which? Travel that there were tent pitches available for less than 10 per person per night in the UK

Pitch Up told Which? Travel that there were tent pitches available for less than 10 per person per night in the UK - and the study found that 'surprisingly', Cornwall turned out to be the cheapest camping location overall in Which? Travel's research.

The study, meanwhile, revealed that you could save 285 on a hotel stay by 'going against the crowd' and holidaying in a less popular location like Pembrokeshire, with its 'craggy clifftops, secret coves and wide sandy beaches' that are 'reminiscent of Cornwall  minus the crowds'.

In this region Which? Travel's researchers homed in on Haverfordwest, discovering that both a tent and a caravan pitch are 159.25, a static caravan 485, a three-star hotel 465, self-catering accommodation 485, and a pod with a hot-tub 1,436 - surmising that unless you splash out on the 'luxury twin-pod with a king-size bed and hot tub', most accommodation in the area is relatively affordable.

Guests at a 417 shepherd's hut in Pickering, North Yorkshire, can enjoy views of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park (pictured). Or check into a four-star hotel for 525

Which? Travel discovered that a treehouse in Shanklin and Sandown on the Isle of Wight costs 1,093 (stock photo)

WHICH? TRAVELS TIPS ON SAVING ON UK HOLIDAYS Book six months in advance: Which? Travel says that now is the time to book your summer holiday, and advises that you look for places with flexible booking terms or free cancellation. Choose a less popular destination: You can save a fortune by going against the crowd, Which? Travel says. Stay three miles down the road: Instead of staying in a 'honeypot resort', Which? Travel recommends choosing somewhere cheaper that's 'down the road'. Join a caravan club: Gain access to exclusive holiday parks and nab a discount with a membership scheme, Which? Travel suggests. Try a shepherds hut: A stay in a shepherd hut wont break the bank, according to Which? Travel - which lists Inshriach House in the Scottish Highlands as a worthwhile option. Source: Which? Travel Advertisement

In Pickering, North Yorkshire, Which? Travel found that a tent costs 175, a caravan pitch 210, a static caravan 490, a four-star hotel is priced at 525, self-catering accommodation at 446, and a shepherd's hut 417 - concluding that this hotspot is 'one of the most affordable'.

It notes that the self-catering cottage sleeps three people, working out as 149 per person, and that guests at the shepherd's hut can enjoy a wood-burning stove and views of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

Which? Travel's final study, looking at Shanklin and Sandown on the Isle of Wight, discovered that a tent is 147, a caravan pitch 161, a static caravan 490, a three-star hotel with breakfast 525, self-catering accommodation is priced at 509, and a treehouse 1,093.

Which? Travel notes that while the treehouse, set in a 'peaceful woodland 2km (1.2miles) from the beach', is more than double the price of the hotel (525) and self-catering accommodation (509), it offers a 'unique experience' and features an outdoor deck, a fire pit and barbecue facilities.

Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, said of the study's findings: 'Holidaymakers may feel priced out of a break this year with some accommodation providers appearing to cash in on the boom in popularity of UK holidays. It is extraordinary that a sunny all-inclusive holiday overseas in a four-star hotel can be cheaper than renting a static caravan at home.

'The good news is there are plenty of ways to make significant savings on the cost of a trip in the UK, from booking well in advance, to avoiding popular locations during peak season or staying just a few miles down the road.'

For more information visit which.co.uk/l/travel.
The psychological Western drama film was released on Netflix in November.

And Benedict Cumberbatch, 45, looked as dashing as ever as he attended a special screening of The Power of the Dog hosted by Tom Hiddleston, in London, on Friday.

The actor, donned a brown chequered jacket with a fleece trimmed collar as he turned up to speak with the Marvel actor, 40, at the event.

Dapper: Benedict Cumberbatch, 45, looked dashing in a chequered jacket as he joined a suave Tom Hiddleston, 40, for a special screening of The Power of the Dog in London on Friday

Benedict, who takes on the role of the lead character in the film, dressed down for the occasion as he teamed the jacket with washed out jeans.

He layered a cream shirt and grey T shirt underneath before completing his look with a pair of suede boots.

Tom looked slick in a navy ensemble as he wore as smart blazer with a matching sweater and suit trousers.

Low-key: The actor, who takes on the role of the lead character in the film, dressed down for the occasion as he teamed the Lumberjack style number with washed out jeans

Pals: Tom looked slick in a Navy ensemble as he wore as smart blazer with a matching sweater and suit trousers

Pose! Tom and Benedict looked as handsome as ever as they posed for photos

All smiles: Marvel actor Tom hosted the event for the Netflix hit

The actors sat down together as Benedict discussed his latest role with Tom before the screening.

The pair met in 2010 on the set of Steven Spielberg's epic War Horse and have been friends ever since.

Also in attendance was director Rupert Goold, 49, who posed for photos alongside his wife, actress Kate Fleetwood, 49.

Nicholas Pinnock, 48, best known for his role in Top Boy put in a casual display in an all-black ensemble as he wrapped up warm in a parka.

Bromance: The pair met in 2010 on the set of Steven Spielberg's epic War Horse and have been friends ever since

Chat: The actors sat down together as Benedict discussed his latest role with Tom before the screening

Plot: The Western drama is the film adaptation of Thomas Savage's 1967 novel of the same name

Drama: It tells the story of a charismatic rancher named Phil Burbank (played by Benedict) who inspires fear and awe in those around him

His Top Boy co-star, Ashley Walters, 39, wore a charcoal printed hoodie with cargo trousers and Nike trainers for his appearance.

The Western drama is the film adaptation of Thomas Savage's 1967 novel of the same name.

It tells the story of a charismatic rancher named Phil Burbank (played by Benedict) who inspires fear and awe in those around him.

When his brother brings home a new wife (played by Kirsten Dunst) and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

Story: When his brother brings home a new wife (played by Kirsten Dunst) and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love

Attendees: Top Boy stars Nicholas Pinnock, 48, and Ashley Walters, 39, wrapped up warm for the screening

Guests: Also in attendance was director Rupert Goold, 49, who posed for photos alongside his wife, actress Kate Fleetwood, 49

In light of his characters behaviour, Benedict used a promotional interview to explain the importance of exploring such topics.

He told Sky News: 'We need to fix the behaviour of men. You have to kind of lift the lid on the engine a little bit.

'I think it's ever relevant, and in a world that's questioning and ripping into and finally pointing out the inadequacies of the status quo and the patriarchy, it's even more important.

'You get this sort of rebellion aspect, this denial, this sort of childish defensive position of 'not all men are bad'. No, we just have to shut up and listen.'
Australian actress Pia Whitesell has revealed that she's against a California proposal that would allow preteens to get vaccinated without parental consent.

The former Home and Away star, 38, who now lives in Malibu with her husband Patrick Whitesell, 56, and her teenage sons Isaiah, 18, and Lennox, 15, from previous relationships, shared an article to her Instagram on Saturday with the text, 'Just.no.'

A California senator late yesterday proposed a bill that would allow children aged 12 and up to get vaccinated without parental consent.

Having her say: Australian actress Pia Whitesell (pictured), 38, has voiced her support against a California proposal that would allow preteens to get vaccinated WITHOUT parental consent

Pia is not against vaccination, having revealed in June last year that she's had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

'I got the Pfizer vaccine. I was able to get my first dose in LA and my second at RPA (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney),' she told her Instagram fans at the time.

Pia later confirmed her stance on California's proposal, sharing on her Instagram Stories on Saturday: 'I'm not against vaccines, my observation is simply that kids can't even take an Advil at school without parental consent.

Making headlines: The former Home and Away star, who now lives in Malibu with her husband Patrick Whitesell, 56, and her teenage sons Isaiah, 18, and Lennox, 15, from previous relationships, shared a news article to her Instagram Stories on Saturday

Clarification: Pia later confirmed her stance on California's proposal, sharing on her Instagram Stories on Saturday: 'I'm not against vaccines, my observation is simply that kids can't even take an Advil at school without parental consent'

'So, before this becomes something that it's not - Yes, I am vaccinated.'

Pia secretly tied the knot with multimillionaire Hollywood talent agent Patrick early last year, and now lives in a stunning property in Malibu, California.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Pia's representatives for further comment.

San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener argued for the change because the state of California already allows teens over 12 to consent to the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, and to treat for sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and mental health disorders.

But Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher hit out at Weiner's 'flawed policy' arguing that 'parents are vital' in child immunisation decisions.

Stance: Pia simply captioned the post, 'Just. no'

Happily ever after: The brunette beauty, who played police officer Kat Chapman on Australian soap opera Home and Away from 2015 and 2018, married Hollywood talent agent Patrick (pictured) early last year

'This to me seems to be another example of Democrats wanting to remove parents from the equation,' Gallagher said, adding that he thinks Wiener may have difficulty even in a Legislature overwhelmingly controlled by his own party.

Alabama allows such decisions at age 14, Oregon at 15, Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16, according to Wiener. Only Washington, D.C., has a lower limit, at age 11.

Wiener's bill would lift the parental requirement for that age group for any vaccine that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - including Covid-19 vaccines.

Children age 5 and up are currently eligible for coronavirus vaccines, but 28.6 per cent of those in California ages 12-17 remain unvaccinated  more than 900,000 of an eligible population of more than 3 million, or more than one in four, Wiener said.

Family: Pia is a proud mother to teenage sons Isaiah, 18, and Lennox, 15, (both pictured) from previous relationships

Making news: A California senator late yesterday proposed a bill that would allow children aged 12 and up to get vaccinated without parental consent (pictured, a nurse gives a Covid vaccine in Los Angeles on January 19, 2022)

Law: The state of California already allows teens over 12 to consent to the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, and to treat for sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and mental health disorders

Speaking late yesterday, Weiner said: 'Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents' beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health.

'It's unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.'

Wiener said vaccine hesitancy and misinformation has also deterred vaccinations against measles and other contagious diseases that can then spread among youths whose parents won't agree to have them vaccinated.

California Governor Gavin Newsom in October announced the nation's first coronavirus vaccine mandate for schoolchildren.

Views: Democrat Scott Wiener (left) argued for the change because the state of California already allows teens over 12 to consent to the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, among other treatments. But Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher (right) hit out at Weiner's 'flawed policy' arguing that 'parents are vital' in child immunisation decisions

But it likely won't take effect until later this year and allows exemptions for medical reasons, religious and personal beliefs  though lawmakers may try to limit non-medical reasons.

Wiener's legislation is permissive, not a mandate, but any vaccination legislation has been hugely controversial in California and elsewhere.

Even before the pandemic, busloads of opponents filled the Capital and lined up for hours to protest bills lifting religious and personal beliefs for the 10 vaccines already required of school children.

And in September, more than a thousand people rallied outside the state Capitol to oppose vaccine mandates, even though lawmakers had postponed their consideration of legislation requiring that workers either be vaccinated or get weekly coronavirus testing to keep their jobs.



'This to me seems to be another example of Democrats wanting to remove parents from the equation,' said Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher. 'I think that's flawed policy. I think parents are vital to these decisions.'

However, he thinks Wiener may have difficulty even in a Legislature overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.

'I think there will be bipartisan support for the proposition that parents should be involved in their kids' health care decisions, in deciding what types of medical care and drugs they should be taking,' Gallagher said.

On Wednesday, Wiener and other Democratic lawmakers announced that they have formed a 'work group' to examine ways to promote vaccines and fight misinformation.

Members include Sen. Richard Pan, a pediatrician who authored previous vaccine legislation; Sen. Josh Newman; and Assembly members Dr. Akilah Weber, Buffy Wicks, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and Evan Low.

Wiener, joined by Pan, planned a news conference about his SB866 Friday alongside San Francisco's public health director, Dr. Grant Colfax, and several school children.

Wiener held out the examples of children who may want to get vaccinated because they currently are barred from participating in sports, band or other activities because their parents either won't or can't get them vaccinated.

He said those 12 and up can also consent to abortions in California, though in that case lawmakers in 1987 passed a law that would have required minors to get their parents' consent absent a medical emergency or a judge's permission. But that law was overturned by the state Supreme Court.
He has been one of the favourites to take over the role of James Bond now that Daniel Craig, 53, has stepped down.

And it appears Idris Elba is still in the running for 007 as executive producer Barbara Broccoli, 61, said on Friday that the actor, 49, is 'part of the conversation' to play the role.

She did add however that she wouldn't 'think' or 'talk' about anybody else until 'No Time to Die has had its run and Daniel has been able to...reap the benefits'.

New role? Idris Elba is still in the running for 007 as executive producer Barbara Broccoli, 61, said on Friday that the actor, 49, is 'part of the conversation' to play the role

Speaking to Deadline, Barbara said: 'Well, we know Idris, we're friends with him, and he's a magnificent actor.

'And, you know, it's been part of the conversation, but it's always difficult to have the conversation when you have someone in the seat.

'I think we have decided that until No Time to Die has had its run and Daniel has been able to  well, we've all been able to savour, reap the benefits of Daniel's wonderful tenure, we're not gonna think about, or talk about anybody else.'

007: He has been one of the favourites to take over the role of James Bond now that Daniel Craig, 53, has stepped down

The Luther star had been hotly tipped to play the famous spy, but stated last year that he hadn't been offered the role.

The Sun reported that insiders are saying he will be taking on the mantle of the Bond baddie instead.

A source said: 'Idris has had informal talks with the studio and he has been told there is a role in the next Bond film for him, if he wants it.

Producer: Barbara said: 'Well, we know Idris, we're friends with him, and he's a magnificent actor'

'He won't be the title character, but they do recognise the amount of pull and respect he commands, and they want to work with him on a completely original character for the next instalment.

'It is still very early days for the conversations but, so far, it looks like it would be the role of a villain.'

Daniel signed off from from the Bond franchise with its most recent release No Time to Die.

Casino Royale: Daniel signed off from from the Bond franchise with its most recent release No Time to Die

Since then, the likes of Tom Hardy, Rege-Jean Page, Henry Cavill and Idris have been tipped as possible contenders.

Idris ruled himself when he confirmed: 'No I'm not going to be James Bond.' But when quizzed on whether he'd like to take on the role at some point, he added: 'Who wouldn't?'

The star is currently busy shooting the feature-length film of his crime drama Luther in the UK.
Land near Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, designated for future runways, was compulsorily acquired by the Government some years ago and cannot be acquired by anyone else.

The recent attempt to fence off part of the land by cement producer PPC Zimbabwe cannot be allowed, even though the compensation amount still has to be settled, the Government said yesterday.

For years, there have been wrangles over the land surrounding the airport which the Government has said was reserved for expansion and as a result some houses on the land alongside Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Road were demolished in 2016.

Since then, more developments have been made despite the area being under the ownership of the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ), the State entity assigned the land after its acquisition.

PPC recently fenced off a section of land a few kilometres from the airport.

Harare Metropolitan Province Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mr Tafadzwa Muguti yesterday said the Government had compulsorily acquired the land from PPC and surrendered it to CAAZ.

We also have residents who have been complaining about the area which has been fenced off by PPC. There was a judgment where that land was compulsorily acquired by the Government. However, the Government did not compensate at the point of acquisition. But that does not mean that the land goes back to PPC because once the Government has fully procured the land and taken over, it is then surrendered to the authority.

In this case, that land was procured and surrendered to CAAZ, as such it is part of the airport development, he said.

He said a stakeholders meeting held with the police, the special planning unit in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, CAAZ, the Airports Company of Zimbabwe, the Environmental Management Agency and City of Harare last week, agreed that any developments that took place within the precincts of the airport were not supposed to have taken place, according to the Civil Aviation Act and the Airports Company of Zimbabwe Act.

Mr Muguti said the 1976 plans showed that the area had been set aside for a second runway for the airport, hence it had always belonged to CAAZ.

As it is currently, PPC has no authority to be fencing off that area. We have met with all stakeholders and what remains is the discussion between PPC and the Government of Zimbabwe for compensation; but that land is designated for the airport and Civil Aviation is ready to start making plans to put a runway there, he added.

He also said all developments and houses being built in the area were considered illegal hence construction had to be halted.

We have red, yellow, and green zones and as it is now, the bulk of the developments that occurred between February last year and today are all in the red zone which means they are prone to disaster.

Any developments in that zone have to be specifically aligned to the functions of an airport that is why we are not keen on people occupying that land. We are approaching all courts and all the houses sitting within the red zone will be demolished. The law is the law, said Mr Muguti.

He said no other cemeteries would be allocated land in the area as there were suspicions that materials used in the present Zororo Memorial Park gravesites could be interfering with flight operations.

Mr Muguti said CAAZ had been instructed to start putting billboards on all boundaries to ensure people knew that land beyond the billboard was not available for occupation. Herald
They tied the knot two years ago and share a child together.

And Emma Stone and her husband Dave McCary put their partnership skills on display as they promoted the new movie they are producing, Jesse Eisenberg's directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World.

Emma, 33, and her husband, 36, made a rare appearance together in a virtual Sundance Film Festival 2022 Q&A where she discussed the new movie also starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard.

Teaming up! Emma Stone and her husband Dave McCarey made a rare appearance as they promoted the new movie they are producing, Jesse Eisenberg's directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World

The film follows mother and son duo Evelyn (Moore) and Ziggy (Wolfhard) seeking 'replacements for each other' with Evelyn attempting to 'parent an unassuming teenager at her shelter, while Ziggy fumbles through his pursuit of a brilliant young woman at school,' according to IMDB.

Stone, who starred opposite Eisenberg in the 2009 and 2019 Zombieland movies, said of her former co-star: 'Hes the most curious person Ive ever met. He studies everyone and asks so many questions. He has a deep empathy to him,' according to IndieWire.

'I knew that from acting with him, so it just felt like a no-brainer that wed attempt to work on something with him.'

The La La Land actress is producing the film through her production company Fruit Tree Production, which also comprises of her husband, producer Ali Herting and creative executive Kevin Kelly.

Star-studded! Emma, 33, and her husband, 36, appeared in a virtual Sundance Film Festival 2022 Q&A where she discussed the new movie also starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard

Observant: Stone, who starred opposite Eisenberg in the 2009 movie Zombieland, said of her former co-star: 'Hes the most curious person Ive ever met. He studies everyone and asks so many questions. He has a deep empathy to him,' according to IndieWire

The movie marks the first film Stone's production company will be taking on.

'It was an incredibly personal story to him that felt like something none of us had seen before. That's pretty much ticking every box of anything we could hope to be involved with,' she said.

Emma married her husband in 2020 and welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Louise Jean McCary, last year.

Domestic bliss: Emma married her husband in 2020 and welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Louise Jean McCary, last year; pictured 2019

The Scottsdale, Arizona-born actress began dating McCary in June of 2017, and they revealed they were engaged in December 2019 via social media.

They delayed having a large wedding last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pair was seen later in the year wearing wedding bands. A source confirmed to People that the couple had tied the knot.

The Easy A actress gave insight into her life as a mother during an interview last year on Lorraine.

Interviewer Mark Heyes told Emma: 'How has lockdown been for you? You're now a mummy which is amazing.'

A-listers! Stone and her husband struck a pose with Bradley Cooper in 2019

The actress replied: 'It's very, very exciting. I feel lucky with what lockdown has been but it has been an insane year.'

Emma's pregnancy was confirmed back in January when a source told E! News: 'Emma is pregnant and just loves married life!'

According to TMZ, who have obtained a 'copy of the birth certificate', the star chose the name, Louise Jean McCary, as a sweet tribute to her grandmother, who is called Jean Louise.

'Having a baby has brought them closer in a way they never expected,' an insider close to the couple told Us Weekly last year.

The actress 'has been at home with her husband and the baby,' and has remained 'very low-key and has asked people to just respect their privacy during this time.'

McCary has remained 'hands-on and helping with their daughter' since they welcomed the child in Los Angeles March 20, as the Oscar-winning La La Land actress has been 'soaking in all the precious moments of being a mom for the first time.'

Co-stars! Stone starred opposite Eisenberg in the 2009 and 2019 Zombieland films; pictured in the sequel Zombieland: Double Tap
Australian influencer Jade Tuncdoruk 'could be cancelled' after she was forced to apologise for a racially insensitive Uber Eats Facebook post from 2017 that went viral.

According to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential on Saturday, a high-profile publicist claimed that the 26-year-old is being 'pulled from invite lists' amid the scandal.

In the resurfaced post, Jade complained to Uber Eats about their 'annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers'.

Shunned? Fears controversial Instagram model Jade Tuncdoruk (pictured), 26, 'could be cancelled' and removed from invite lists as she goes private online - after her racially insensitive Uber Eats rant went viral

'This could very well get her cancelled. There has been one too many faux pas now,' a high-profile publicist reportedly told the publication.

Amid the backlash, Jade - who boasts 485,000 followers on Instagram - has gone private on the social media app.

On Friday, Jade apologised for her 'hurtful comments' after her Facebook post was uploaded by the Celeb Spellcheck Instagram page.

'This could very well get her cancelled': According to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential on Saturday, a high-profile publicist revealed that the influencer is being 'pulled from invite lists'

Going under the radar: Amid the backlash, Jade - who boasts 485,000 followers on Instagram - has gone private on the social media app

The resurfaced post read: 'I order off you guys all the time and I'm starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non English speaking delivery people who can't follow basic delivery instructions.

'I got a notification today saying my food was arriving and it took the person a further 20 mins to get to my door because he didn't read my delivery instructions properly and when I called him to explain he didn't understand a word I was saying.'

She continued: 'Your GPS is consistently sending drivers to the wrong address which I've explained in my instructions which most people read and have no problem with but when foreigners are delivering it takes twice as long for me to receive my then cold food. Sort it out.'

Apology: On Friday, Jade apologised for a racially insensitive Facebook post from back in 2017 where she complained to Uber Eats about their 'annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers'

Post: In the resurfaced post, Jade' wrote: 'I order off you guys all the time and I'm starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non English speaking delivery people who can't follow basic delivery instructions'

In her apology on Friday, the influencer wrote: 'I'm sorry to anyone I've hurt with my comments. I hold myself accountable for my actions.

'It doesn't excuse anything but know that I have grown immensely in the past several years. I always do my best to be someone others can look up to and I know I've let people down and for that I'm truly sorry.'

It comes after Jade was slammed for 'demanding' that a small business give her a refund for a deposit on her honeymoon - after she ignored the company's terms and conditions.

She raised eyebrows this week by whingeing to her online fans about the financial woes of cancelling her lavish Hunter Valley honeymoon with fiance Lachie Brycki due to Covid.

Apology: Jade apologised for her 'hurtful comments' after her post was uploaded by the Celeb Spellcheck Instagram page

Cash clash: It comes after Jade was slammed for 'demanding' that a small business give her a refund for a deposit on her honeymoon - after she ignored the company's terms and conditions

In her now-deleted post, Jade, who is frequently gifted with luxury designer handbags and clothing, explained that she'd booked her stay with premium holiday rental company Weekenda last year, putting down a $2,000 deposit.

She however decided to cancel her booking with the company Weekenda in August, after postponing her wedding due to Covid.

It's unclear why Jade opted to cancel altogether rather than simply postponing the trip, just like her wedding.

She demanded that the company refund her deposit - even though Weekenda's terms and conditions clearly states that customers aren't entitled to a refund of their deposit if they cancel.

'Incredibly poor form': In her now-deleted post, Jade explained that she'd booked her stay with premium holiday rental company Weekenda last year, putting down a $2,000 deposit. After cancelling the booking due to Covid, she demanded that the company refund her deposit. Weekenda denied their request

'We requested a refund due to the pandemic, but they said the best they could do was put it back up on line to be booked by someone else,' Jade explained.

'Six weeks out of [sic] the booking and we've asked again for a refund which they've denied. They've had months to refund us for a booking that we don't need. They're taking our money just because they can,' she raged.

She added: 'It's just incredibly poor form and so disappointing that businesses are taking advantage of people in the middle of a pandemic.'

In black and white: Weekenda's terms and conditions (pictured) clearly states that customers aren't entitled to a refund of their deposit if they cancel

Jade included a link to Weekenda's Instagram page, and it didn't take long for her supporters to lash out at the company.

She later claimed she was surprised that her followers had begun contacting the company directly and demanding they refund her money.

'Not y'all following them,' she wrote, rolling her eyes.

Not long after, Jade shared another post announcing that Weekenda had agreed to refund her deposit.
Garrett Hedlund is being sued for a car crash that took place on the night of his 2020 DUI arrest.

The actor, 36, is being accused of crashing into another car - containing a woman and three children - passed out drunk behind the wheel of his Jeep and running a red light.

The family claims that Hedlund - whose blood alcohol on the night in question was twice the legal limit of .08 - attempted to flee the scene without calling an ambulance.

Sued: Garrett Hedlund, 36, is being sued for a car crash that took place on the night of his 2020 DUI arrest. The actor is being accused of crashing into another car - containing a woman and three children - passed out drunk behind the wheel of his Jeep and running a red light; Pictured in 2019

In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the actor's conduct is deemed as 'despicable.'

'Hedlund's conduct was despicable in that he knew and was educated in the dangers presented to Plaintiffs and the public when he operated a vehicle while intoxicated,' the complaint read.

The complaint also described the strong odor of alcohol coming from the The Tron: Legacy actor.

'There was a very strong odor of hard liquor emitting from Hedlund's breath, body, and the cab of the Jeep despite the windows being open/broken,' it read.

The complaint went on to say that the star attempted to get rid of 'open bottles of alcoholic beverages' present in the vehicle before the police arrived.

The injured family also claims that he attempted to flee the scene and had to have his car keys removed to ensure that he wouldn't leave.

Negligent: The family claims that Hedlund - whose blood alcohol on the night in question was twice the legal limit of .08 - attempted to flee the scene without calling an ambulance. The family is suing Garrett for damages; Pictured in 2021

The actor refused a DUI test at the scene of the accident. When he was tested at the station two hours later, his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

The family is suing Garrett for damages.

Hedlund was arrested on two DUI offenses in February, 2020. Following the arrest, the actor was arraigned later that month and able to bail out on $100k bond.

The Tron: Legacy actor served a 36-months of probation, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents obtained by Page Six.

Hedlund was subsequently assigned three days of community service for one of the counts. The second charge was dismissed.

Additionally he was required to enroll in a nine-month first-offender alcohol and other drug education and counseling program.

His team says that Hedlund didn't resist seeking intervention for his substance abuse, according to Page Six. 'When the incident occurred, Garrett immediately sought treatment which was successful. Today, he is in a solid and great place,' reps told the outlet.

The arrest came as the actor was expecting his first child with actress Emma Roberts, 30. She went on to give birth to their son Rhodes at the end of 2020.

The couple have reportedly split up since then.
Brian Cox has mustered up an illustrious career as an actor by making his mark in film, theater and, most recently, the hit HBO television series Succession.

And in his new memoir, Putting The Rabbit In The Hat, the 75-year-old thespian details his journey as a working class lad from Scotland to a Hollywood star.

And on Friday, Cox slipped into promo mode and attended a launch event for the book at 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community center in New York City.

Promo mode: Brain Cox, 75, attended a launch event on Friday for his new memoir - Putting the Rabbit In The Hat - at 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community center in New York City

Ahead of the discussion, Cox hit the red carpet in brown slacks, a navy blue blazer over a blue-pattered shirt and tie, with brown shoes.

At one point, he posed for the cameras while holding up a copy of his memoir, which includes the details on why he turned down some famous roles in Game Of Thrones and the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.

Journalist Jessica Shaw also joined the celebrated actor for a few photos together, decked out in a shiny, off-white dress, which was worn over a black blouse, and black leather boots, with a lift.

Acclaimed: The Scottish actor detailed his celebrated career, which includes over 230 film and TV roles dating back to 1965, during the discussion portion of the event

Launch event: Ahead of time, the Succession star hit the red carpet in brown slacks, a navy blue blazer over a blue-pattered shirt and tie, with brown shoes.

Sharing the spotlight: Cox posed alongside journalist Jessica Shaw ahead of the discussion portion of the event

The memoir officially dropped three days earlier, on January 18.

In it, he talks about some of the 230 film and TV roles he has accumulated during his career that spans more than 55 years.

He also dishes on why he turned down some very famous roles like King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones, who would ultimately be played by Mark Addy.

The Dundee, Scotland native had previously worked with Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff on the 2002 movie The 25th Hour.

'Im often asked if I was offered a role in Game of Thrones - reason being that every other bugger was - and the answer is, yes, I was supposed to be a king called Robert Baratheon, who apparently died when he was gored by a boar in the first season,' Cox said.

Available now: Cox's memoir - Putting The Rabbit In The Hat - officially dropped on January 18

Turned down: The celebrated actor, with over 230 film and TV roles to his credit over more than 55 years, reveals that he turned down some famous roles, like Game Of Thrones, because the money wasn't that great; pictured in 2021

Bashing: Cox also revealed he turned down roles in the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, and bashed the acting chops of Pirates star Johnny Depp; Depp pictured in 2021

Cox confessed to knowing 'very little about Game of Thrones' and that he turned the role down because the money wasn't that great.

'Well, Game of Thrones went on to be a huge success and everybody involved earned an absolute fortune, of course. But when it was originally offered the money was not all that great, shall we say say,' Cox explained.

'Plus I was going to be killed off fairly early on, so I wouldnt have had any of the benefits of the long-term effects of a successful series where your wages go up with each passing season. So I passed on it, and Mark Addy was gored by the boar instead,' he said, adding, 'I lied. I did google it.'

No thanks: Cox was offered the role of King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones, who would ultimately be played by Mark Addy

Money: The actor confessed to knowing 'very little about Game of Thrones' and that he turned the role down because the money wasn't that great

He also shares how the lack of good paying roles is 'par for the course' and that 'theres always been a tendency for American productions to treat British actors differently from American actors, and hire with lesser pay.

The actor revealed that he always gets asked about 'Harry f***ing Potter.' It turns out he was up for the role of Mad Eye Moody, which ultimately went to Brendan Gleeson.

'I think someone had a burning cross held up for me not to be in Harry Potter, because all my pals were in it. I think the part I might have played was the one that Brendan Gleeson got, Mad-Eye Moody, but Brendan was more in fashion than I was at that point, and that's very much the way of the world in my business, so he got it. Also, he's much better than I would have been,' Cox candidly shared.

Too common: He also shares how the lack of good paying roles is 'par for the course' and that 'theres always been a tendency for American productions to treat British actors differently from American actors, and hire with lesser pay; pictured in 2021

Mad eye: The actor revealed that he always gets asked about 'Harry f***ing Potter.' It turns out he was up for the role of Mad Eye Moody, which ultimately went to Brendan Gleeson (pictured)

Mad Eye Moody debuted in the fourth Harry Potter movie, 2005's Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and he also appeared in 2007's Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix and 2010's Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1.

He confessed that he 'turned my nose up' at the role of the Governor in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, which was played by Jonathan Pryce.

'The guy who directed Pirates was Gore Verbinski, with whom I made The Ring, and he's a lovely chap but I think I blotted my copybook by turning down the Governor,' Cox said.

Franchise role: Mad Eye Moody debuted in the fourth Harry Potter movie, 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and he also appeared in 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and 2010's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Governor: Cox admitted he 'turned my nose up' at the role of the Governor in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, which was played by Jonathan Pryce (left)

Cox said the role would have been, 'a money-spinner' but added that the particular role was, 'the most thankless.'

'Plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I've done,' he explained, before taking aim the Pirates franchise star, Johnny Depp.

'Another thing with Pirates Of The Caribbean is that it's very much the "Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow" show, and Depp, personable though I'm sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated,' Cox claimed.

'I mean, Edward Scissorhands. Let's face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don't have to do anything. And he didn't. And subsequently, he's done even less,' Cox added.

Money-spinner: Cox said the Governor role would have been, 'a money-spinner' but he added that particular role was, 'the most thankless'; pictured in 2020

Missed out: 'Plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things Ive done,' he added, before bashing the franchise star, Johnny Depp (not pictured)

'But people love him. Or they did love him. They dont love him so much these days, of course. If Johnny Depp went for Jack Sparrow now, theyd give it to Brendan Gleeson.'

'So nono regrets about Pirates, I don't think,' he concluded.

Following backlash from fans over his critique of Depp, Cox appeared to walked back on his fiery comments.

"What certain people accused me of was my lack of respect, and I really do not disrespect anybody involved in this profession because I know how difficult it is,' Cox said.

'Now, I may have reservations about their talent, but I certainly don't disrespect them. And my reservations about Johnny Depp are minimal  absolutely minimal.'

'You know, I do think he's sometimes overblown, but I actually think he's also done some considerable work. Some of his work has really been extraordinarily good.'

Nothing: 'I mean, Edward Scissorhands. Lets face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you dont have to do anything. And he didnt. And subsequently, hes done even less,' Cox added; pictured in 2020
She's had a storied career as an iconic star of film, television and the live stage that spans seven decades.

But on Thursday night, Cher turned back time when she headed out on an errand run with a gal pal in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

She put her statuesque 5ft9in figure on display decked out in a pair of black, skintight leggings with a white stripe down the side of each leg, and a matching cropped jacket over a black top.

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On the go: Cher, 75, looked casual but still stylish while out on an errand run with a gal pal in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday night

The legendary entertainer, 75, looked nearly unrecognizable by wearing a protective mask over her mouth and nose and a black hat over her long dyed black tresses that flowed well past her shoulders.

Her casual but still chic ensemble was rounded put with a pair of black slingback wedges as she carried a black-and-white purse.

The two ladies appeared to be making their way back to their parked vehicle after checking out a few stores.

Lady in black: The legendary entertainer put her statuesque 5ft9in figure on display decked out in a pair of black, skin-tight leggings with a white stripe down the side of each leg, and a matching cropped jacket over a tight black top

The evening outing looked to be a success, considering that her companion was carrying a couple of bags with her right hand.

Her friend also kept it casual in the fashion department in black leggings with a burgundy shirt, that she left unbuttoned over a black tee, and white sneakers.

She pushed her long blonde locks back off her face by fashioning sunglasses on the top of her hair.

She too had a safety first approach to their excursion by wearing a white face mask, amid the still dangerous COVID-19 pandemic.

Ladies unite: Just over a week ago, Cher teamed up with rapper Saweetie for MAC Cosmetics' newest campaign, Challenge Accepted

Keepers of Individuality: The rapper, 28, called Cher, 75 her 'new bestie' when she posted a 30 second advert on Instagram

The campaign push: Mac Cosmetics wants to 'challenge you to put their high-performance products to the test'

Just over a week ago, Cher teamed up with rapper Saweetie (born Diamonte Quiava Valentin Harper) as the stars of MAC Cosmetics' newest campaign.

'Challenge Accepted,' she wrote, in a reference to the 30-second television advert that she posted on her Instagram page on January 4.

'How'd we do it, @Cher ?!!!' Saweetie began in the caption of her Instagram post on that very same day, adding, 'Me and my new bestie have teamed up with @maccosmetics to challenge you to put their high-performance products to the test.

She continued, 'Why? Because performance is EVERYTHING. #IKDR!!! Get my ICY look, set your challenge and show us what your MAC can do with #MACChallengeAccepted. #MACPartner Love Me Liquid Lipcolour in E For Effortless Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Eye Brows Styler Fix+ Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Painterly Brushstroke 24-Hour Liner in Brushblack '

Timeless: The music icon has been embracing the beauty and makeup industry in recent years

Go-getter: For Saweetie, the campaign is representative of her hustle persona

Icons: 'I was so honored to partner with a legend like Cher and a brand I've always loved like Mac, it was the perfect fit,' the rapper said in a statement

Blast from the past: The advertisement ends with Cher donning the iconic fit she wore on the 1975 cover of Time: 'I love lasting forever,' she says as a closing statement
Model Tahlia Giumelli and England rugby player Tom Burgess tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in a waterfront park in Sydney's Watsons Bay on Friday.

And as they arrived at their reception held at Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel, the couple, both 29, let loose as they grooved to Kanye West's 2005 hit Gold Digger.

Tahlia, who changed into a flirty white party frock with feathered details and accessorised with trendy white cat eye sunglasses, showed off her dance moves while husband Tom took over the microphone.

The newlyweds! Tom Burgess and Tahlia Giumelli (both pictured) let loose during their wedding dance to Kanye West's hit Gold Digger at Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney on Friday, as seen in a post shared on a guest's Instagram Stories

A friend of the couple posted the celebrations to their Instagram Stories, with Tom appearing eager to show off his rapping skills.

Tahlia looked sensational in the minidress, while Tom cut a sharp figure in the same dress shirt and linen suit jacket worn at the ceremony, paired with shorts and pristine white sneakers.

The couple were overjoyed as they let loose on the dance floor with their family and friends cheering them on.

A natural: British rugby player Tom, 29, appeared eager to show off his rapping skills

Blushing bride! Tahlia, 29, changed into a flirty white party frock with feathered details and accessorised with trendy white cat eye sunglasses

'Don't think anyone partied harder than these 2,' the friend captioned the party post.

For the ceremony, Tahlia was a fuss-free yet glamorous bide, looking gorgeous in a slinky white wedding dress from Prea James Bridal.

Meanwhile Tom, who plays as a prop for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL, looked dapper in a pale blue dress shirt, a beige linen suit jacket, black trousers and brown loafers.

Style: Tom cut a sharp figure in the same dress shirt and linen suit jacket worn at the ceremony, paired with shorts and pristine white sneakers

The pair looked nothing but thrilled and in love as they said 'I do' and shared their first kiss as newlyweds.

Tom and Tahlia announced their engagement on New Year's Eve in 2019, after three years of dating.

Daily Mail Australia confirmed last week that Tom and Tahlia would tie the knot in a waterfront park ceremony with friends and family.

Stunning: For the ceremony, Tahlia was a fuss-free yet glamorous bide, looking gorgeous in a slinky white wedding dress from Prea James Bridal

Sources close to the pair revealed the service would finally go ahead and that all the Burgess brothers - including SAS Australia winner Sam - would have roles to play in the proceedings.

It's understood lifelong Souths fan and close family friend Russell Crowe also RSVP'd to the event along with a large Souths contingent both past and present.

However he appeared to be a no-show on the day, and was not seen in photos from the ceremony.

The groom: Tom, who plays as a prop for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL, looked dapper in a pale blue dress shirt, a beige linen suit jacket, black trousers and brown loafers

True love: The pair looked nothing but thrilled and in love as they said 'I do' and shared their first kiss as newlyweds. Tom and Tahlia announced their engagement on New Year's Eve in 2019, after three years of dating

The couple were forced to postpone their nuptials on several occasions and were forced to ditch their most recent set of wedding plans in December after Tom contracted Covid-19 during a holiday to Byron Bay.

Tom and Tahlia first announced their postponement of their original wedding plans back in July following two years of intricate planning.

The couple already have two children together, daughters Sophie, two, and Elodie, one.
Julia Fox is shooting down the recent chatter that she's been dating Kanye West for the money and attention.

The actress, 31, appeared to reference all the headlines and media hype surrounding her connection with the Donda star during Friday's episode of her Forbidden Fruits podcast.

'It's funny cause I'm getting all of this attention, but I really couldn't care,' The Uncut Gems star said of her whirlwind romance with the rapper that spans about three weeks.

Denies being attention seeker: Julia Fox denies all the recent chatter that her romance with Kanye West is about the money and added attention; they are seen in LA on January 13

'People are like "Oh, you're only in it for the fame, you're in it for the clout, you're in it for the money." Honey, I've dated billionaires my entire adult life, let's keep it real,' she confessed during the podcast.

'Watch my movie, read my book. That is more thrilling to me now than eyes on me. I couldn't care less.'

While their relationship appears to already be getting serious, the Italian-American actress and model maintains she's focused on creating art and 'putting things into the world.'

Been there, done that: 'Honey, I've dated billionaires my entire adult life, let's keep it real,' the actress and model confessed during her Forbidden Fruits podcast

Fox went on to share some of the details behind a recent dinner that she and a few high-profile celebrities attended, including Madonna and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Antonio Brown.

'There was a lot going on. Madonna was there. I was actually supposed to be at dinner for just Madonna and I,' she shared, adding, that 'all of these other celebs crashed' the party.

She posted some images from the star-studded evening on her Instagram Story on Tuesday that included video of her snuggling up with West.

Packing on PDA: West and Fox have been seen sharing a several kisses since first meeting about three weeks ago, which included spending New Year's Eve together

There's a clip of them walking together, dressed in matching black outfits, and sharing a few kisses during an outing that appears to be the same night they partied with Madonna. Brown and retired world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, among others.

'They all had dinner in the private dining room,' a source revealed, before adding, 'They came separately but just ended up having dinner together. Kanye and Julia wouldn't leave each other's sides.'

When going public about her romance with West in Interview magazine, Fox disclosed that they had an 'instant connection' when the first met in Miami on New Year's Eve.

Celebrity dinner: Fox went on to share some of the details behind a recent dinner that she and a few high-profile celebrities attended, including Madonna and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Antonio Brown.

Over the past week, Kanye has begun a fresh outbreak of public drama with his estranged wife Kim Kardashian, with whom he shares four children.

He gave an interview to Hollywood Unlocked accusing her security of blocking him from entering her home recently.

A source close to the situation assured DailyMail.com that 'security didnt stop him from seeing the kids, picking them up or dropping them off.'

The insider added: 'He just can no longer walk inside her home without her permission. She has a right to privacy and is trying to set healthy boundaries.'

Kim's boundaries, according to the source, 'became necessary because there have been several incidents where her family, friends and staff have been left upset by his recent unannounced visits.'
Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund have reportedly split after nearly three-years of dating.

The pair welcomed their first child together, son Rhodes Robert Hedlund, in December 2020, which they happily shared to Instagram weeks after his arrival.

'It's sad, and they are trying their best to co-parent. It's been hard,' an insider told PEOPLE of their post-breakup dynamic.

DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Roberts and Hedlund for comment.

It's over: Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund have reportedly split after nearly three-years of dating

Last month, Emma and Garrett celebrated their baby son's first birthday by hosting rodeo-themed party.

'Loved every second of it. I love you Rhodes,' gushed Roberts, who shared several adorable shots from the shindig with her Instagram following.

Emma and Garrett first began dating back in March 2019 and, over a year later, would reveal that they were expecting a child.

Emma gave birth in December 2020 but waited to reveal the birth and the name of their baby until January 2021.

Baby in the mix: The pair welcomed their first child together, son Rhodes Robert Hedlund, in December 2020, which they happily shared to Instagram weeks after his arrival; Emma and Rhodes pictured in December

Hard times: 'It's sad, and they are trying their best to co-parent. It's been hard,' an insider told PEOPLE of their post-breakup dynamic

A source told PEOPLE at the time that the Tron actor had 'totally stepped it up' after Rhodes was born.

'Having a newborn in the pandemic has been a lot harder than either of them expected, but they're really, really trying their best to figure things out,' they alleged.

'Garrett totally stepped it up after Emma was still recovering after giving birth. He made sure that their house was stocked with things that Emma liked and needed so she felt comfortable. She's just starting to get back into a more "normal' routine."'

News of their split came after it was revealed that Garrett is being sued for a car crash that took place on the night of his 2020 DUI arrest.

Sued: News of their split came after it was revealed that Garrett is being sued for a car crash that took place on the night of his 2020 DUI arrest. The actor is being accused of crashing into another car - containing a woman and three children - passed out drunk behind the wheel of his Jeep and running a red light; Pictured in 2019

The actor is being accused of crashing into another car - containing a woman and three children - passed out drunk behind the wheel of his Jeep and running a red light.

The family claims that Hedlund - whose blood alcohol on the night in question was twice the legal limit of .08 - attempted to flee the scene without calling an ambulance.

In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the actor's conduct is deemed as 'despicable.'

'Hedlund's conduct was despicable in that he knew and was educated in the dangers presented to Plaintiffs and the public when he operated a vehicle while intoxicated,' the complaint read.

The complaint also described the strong odor of alcohol coming from the The Tron: Legacy actor.

'There was a very strong odor of hard liquor emitting from Hedlund's breath, body, and the cab of the Jeep despite the windows being open/broken,' it read.

The complaint went on to say that the star attempted to get rid of 'open bottles of alcoholic beverages' present in the vehicle before the police arrived.

The injured family also claims that he attempted to flee the scene and had to have his car keys removed to ensure that he wouldn't leave.

Negligent: The family claims that Hedlund - whose blood alcohol on the night in question was twice the legal limit of .08 - attempted to flee the scene without calling an ambulance. The family is suing Garrett for damages; Pictured in 2021

The actor refused a DUI test at the scene of the accident. When he was tested at the station two hours later, his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

The family is suing Garrett for damages.

Hedlund was arrested on two DUI offenses in February, 2020. Following the arrest, the actor was arraigned later that month and able to bail out on $100k bond.

The Tron: Legacy actor served a 36-months of probation, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents obtained by Page Six.

Hedlund was subsequently assigned three days of community service for one of the counts. The second charge was dismissed.

Additionally he was required to enroll in a nine-month first-offender alcohol and other drug education and counseling program.

His team says that Hedlund didn't resist seeking intervention for his substance abuse, according to Page Six. 'When the incident occurred, Garrett immediately sought treatment which was successful. Today, he is in a solid and great place,' reps told the outlet.
Lottie Moss left little to the imagination as she strutted her way to Betsy-Blue English's 23rd birthday party at The Windmill in London on Thursday.

The model, 24, certainly caught the attention of onlookers while flashing her black bra and skimpy thong through a sheer sparkly minidress.

She is thought to be dating heavily-tattooed rapper Milkavelli, who friends claim she is 'smitten' with amid their whirlwind romance.

Eye-popping: Lottie Moss left little to the imagination as she strutted her way to Betsy-Blue English's 23rd birthday party at The Windmill in London on Thursday

She layered the racy number beneath a smart charcoal blazer and added inches her enviable physique with a pair of knee-high black leather boots.

Clutching a dazzling silver handbag, Kate Moss's half-sister wore her gorgeous pink locks in a sleek middle parting and had flawlessly applied a full face of make-up.

She revealed to her Instagram fans that she had dyed her hair the eye-popping shade on a whim, in a Tuesday Instagram post.

A source told The Sun of her romance with Milkavelli: 'Lottie seems absolutely smitten with Milkavelli.

Hot stuff: The model, 24, certainly caught the attention of onlookers while flashing her black bra and skimpy thong through a sheer sparkly minidress

Incredible: She layered the racy number beneath a smart charcoal blazer and added inches her enviable physique with a pair of knee-high black leather boots

'They have mutual friends and after spending some time together they really clicked. It has been a bit of a whirlwind.

'Lottie has spent the past week at his house in London and they've been hanging out a lot. Their closeness is known among their friendship circles but publicly Lottie has been coy about him.'

It comes after Lottie was said to have fallen for another of her tattooed pals, with reports last week claiming she is dating Valentino model Teddy Corsica.

Surprise: She is thought to be dating heavily-tattooed rapper Milkavelli, who friends claim she is 'smitten' with amid their whirlwind romance

The influencer shared a sultry black and white picture of her fellow catwalk star feeding her a lollipop on Instagram earlier this month.

Pals close to Basingstoke-born pin-up Teddy, real name Edward Groucher, claimed the pair started dating following Lottie's split from The Vamps drummer Tristan Evans in November.

A source told MailOnline: 'Lottie and Teddy have been dating for a number of weeks having met on the London fashion scene.

Bad boy: Lottie is said to have fallen for one of her tattooed pals, with reports last week claiming she is dating tattooed Valentino model Teddy Corsica

'They hang out around in the same circles and clicked immediately, despite the fact Lottie called him out on social media early on.

'Teddy is a bit of a sofa surfer in London and has a bad boy image within that clique but that doesn't seem to put off Lottie.

They added: 'He can smooth talk anyone and it clearly worked with her.'
Allison Langdon injured her knee in a 'horrible' hydrofoiling accident in February last year.

And the Today show host says she struggled to parent her children, Scout, three, and Mack, five, while she was recovering.

'I was basically unable to parent for several months,' the 42-year-old, who is married to Michael Willesee Jr., told Stellar Magazine on Saturday.

Hard: Allison Langdon injured her knee in a 'horrible' hydrofoiling accident in February last year. And the Today show host says she struggled to parent her children, Scout, three, and Mack, five, while she was recovering. All pictured

'I was in a hospital bed at the front of the house and the kids' bedroom and bathroom was upstairs,' she explained.

'It has impacted the whole family, and even now Scout will come up to me and give my sore knee a kiss.'

Allison added that there is 'still a lot of recovery to do' and she is unable to wear high heels.

'I was basically unable to parent for several months,' the 42-year-old, who is married to Michael Willesee Jr. (right) told Stellar Magazine on Saturday

The Nine presenter spoke about her 'horrible' injuries on Nova's Fitzy and Wippa last year.

When asked how her knee felt now, she said: 'It's okay, it's still very sore.'

She added: 'I snapped the leg, I did the kneecap, I did the ligaments. I shattered the knee cap, snapped the leg, did the PCL, the meniscus... The tibia snapped.'

Ouch: The accident took place when the Today show was filming on the Gold Coast on February 4. Allison was flown from the Gold Coast to Sydney where she underwent knee surgery. 'It was pretty horrible,' she said

After the accident in February, Allison was flown from the Gold Coast to Sydney where she underwent knee surgery.

The star explained she had to sit with the excruciating pain for two and a half hours before she got any 'real drugs'.

'It was pretty horrible,' she added, noting that her knee had hit the hydrofoil when she fell over during the watersports segment.

She added: 'I snapped the leg, I did the kneecap, I did the ligaments. I shattered the knee cap, snapped the leg, did the PCL, the meniscus... The tibia snapped'

Allison then joked that the worst thing about the accident - which took place when the Today show was filming on the Gold Coast on February 4 - was that she didn't get to win the race against her co-host Karl Stefanovic.

The TV presenter made her return to the Today show in March, sporting a large brace over her knee and using a wheelchair and crutches to get around.

She has since been having regular sessions with a physiotherapist and her husband, media executive Mike, has been taking care of her.
CIVIL society organisations (CSOs) yesterday blasted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) for claiming that rights groups were funding registered voters to re-register multiple times to discredit the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Zec chairperson Priscilla Chigumba told a local television station, ZTN, on Wednesday that the electoral management bodys system had picked up several multiple voter registrants sponsored by civic groups.

But Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) spokesperson Obert Masaraure told NewsDay Weekender that the Zec allegations were meant to frustrate potential voters and the voter registration awareness campaigns.

The commission and government officials should not bad-mouth patriotic citizens who are working hard to strengthen our democracy. The coalition is moving in to co-ordinate voter mobilisation among its membership to avoid duplication of their great efforts, Masaraure said.

We salute all citizens who are working around the clock to mobilise citizens to register to vote. Our democracy is strengthened when the majority of our people are afforded the right to vote.

Residents Associations Coalition for Electoral Reforms spokesperson Marvelous Khumalo described the allegations by Zec as shocking.

As civil society, we are actually shocked that government is actually blaming CSOs and accusing them of assisting in terms of raising awareness on voting processes and doing some kind of voter education, Khumalo said.

As CSOs, we are non-partisan in terms of the scope of our work, so instead, government should be actually appreciating our efforts that we are going out of our hands in terms of making sure that we reach out to the communities

I can only laugh at such an allegation because look, what is our incentive? Where will we be getting such kind of money to pay people to vote?  they should simply approach the police and register a complaint and then the law must take its course.

Project Vote 263 chairperson Allan Chipoyi added: Chigumba doesnt even know or understand how the biometric voter registration (BVR) system works because it refuses to register a name that has been already registered. Secondly, she doesnt understand how BVR works.

He also said CSOs were only providing transport for people who wanted to register to vote, adding people are never rewarded for registering to vote. No one pays them.

Zec has said it would roll out a voter registration blitz in February and April to ensure all eligible voters register ahead of next years general election. Newsday
She recently announced that she was expecting her first child with her husband, Alex, 30.

And Olivia Bowen, 28, looked radiant on Saturday as she took to Instagram to show off her growing baby bump.

The former Love Island star wowed in a stunning bright pink lingerie set from Boux Avenue.

Beauty: Olivia Bowen , 28, looked radiant on Saturday as she took to Instagram to show off her growing baby bump

The sizzling two-piece was embellished with red love hearts and cute bows on the straps for Valentines Day.

The beauty oozed confidence as she posed up a storm in her bathroom and she donned a cosy cardigan which draped off her shoulders.

She captioned the post: 'Wearing the gorgeous new Sienne lingerie set from @bouxavenue valentines collection!'

'This year I defo think Ill be celebrating valentines a little differently then other years but it definitely wont stop me from feeling good in sexy lingerie. How does everyone else plan to celebrate their valentines/galentines?!'

Pose: The former Love Island star wowed in a stunning bright pink lingerie set from Boux Avenue

Looking good: The sizzling two-piece was embellished with red love hearts and cute bows on the straps for Valentines Day

She captioned the post: 'Wearing the gorgeous new Sienne lingerie set from @bouxavenue valentines collection!'

Earlier this month, Olivia took to Instagram to share the news that she is expecting.

Her New Year's Day post showed a series of instant photos and a pair of booties alongside the caption: 'Happy New Baby Bowen', before Alex then shared the same post and penned: 'This year we get to meet Baby Bowen'.

The trio of images included a shot of Alex kissing his wife's stomach, a selfie showing them holding the booties and a baby grow alongside sonogram pictures.

Great news: Her New Year's Day post showed a series of instant photos and a pair of booties

The caption read: 'Happy New Baby Bowen', before Alex then shared the same post and penned: 'This year we get to meet Baby Bowen'

Baby on the way: Olivia looked looked stylish in a patterned dress and knee-high boots as she cradled her baby bump alongside Alex in an Instagram post on Saturday

Olivia and Alex, formerly a sales executive and scaffolder respectively, soared to fame in 2016 when they appeared on the ITV2 reality show, where she was an original star and he, a late and extremely popular entrant.

After leaving the villa their romance soon when from strength to strength and Alex popped the question in New York in 2016.

Loved-up couple Olivia and Alex tied the knot in a luxurious Essex ceremony two years after meeting on Love Island during series two.
EastEnders fans in the United States have been left devastated after BBC cancelled the popular soap's Stateside syndication - despite being 13 years behind in storylines.

The soap, which began airing in 1985, built up the lag because episodes were screened only once a week in the US, as opposed to four times a week in the United Kingdom.

American fans are currently watching episodes from 2009 which are shown on public broadcaster PBS.

Shocked: EastEnders fans in the US have been left devastated after BBC cancelled the soap's Stateside syndication (pictured Danny Dyer as Mick Carter)

Albert Square fans are now in an uproar after the BBC said it would 'no longer be able' to hand over the episodes to the US.

Viewers are said to be devastated with one admitting it was 'like losing contact with a dear friend or family member'.

Michael Gordon, who is leading the fight to keep it on air in the States, told The Sun: 'There are lots of people from all walks of life who love it and it isn't fair to simply stop it like this. I don't want to miss 13 years of my favourite programme.'

Fans will miss out on iconic moments such as The Queen Vic's dramatic inferno, Danny Dyer's arrival as Mick Carter, and the dramatic deaths of Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell.

On set: The soap built up the lag because episodes were screened only once a week in the US, (pictured Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell)

At the moment, US viewers are eagerly awaiting the outcome of whether Peggy Mitchell - played by the late Dame Barbara Windsor - will win her bid for a place on the Walford council election campaign.

A representative for BBC Studios told MailOnline: 'EastEnders episodes that have been carried by just a few public television stations in the U.S. are over 10 years behind current episodes playing out in the UK, and unfortunately, we are no longer able to make these older episodes available.

'We are aware this is disappointing news for fans. However, current episodes of EastEnders are available to watch on streaming service BritBox.'

Spoiler! Stuart has recently been struggling with the news that he's been diagnosed with breast cancer and as a consequence has pushed his wife away (pictured Ricky Champ as Stuart Highway)

While in the UK EastEnders spoilers revealed that things are set to get violent on Albert Square as Stuart Highway dramatically punches Mick Carter amid suspicions he's having an affair with his wife Rainie.

Stuart (Ricky Champ) has recently been struggling with the news that he's been diagnosed with breast cancer and as a consequence has pushed his wife (Tanya Franks) away.

And after spotting an innocent moment between Rainie and Mick (Danny Dyer), tensions boil over in the Queen Vic as Stuart, consumed with jealousy, jumps to the wrong conclusions before attacking his childhood pal.
He's known to champion body positivity and mental well-being.

And Dr Alex George, 30, defied his 'fat shaming' critics as he hit the gym and shared a celebratory shirtless snap, on Saturday.

The former Love Island star declared that he was 'not ashamed anymore' after feeling embarrassed to exercise due to losing the six-pack he displayed on the ITV2 show.

'I am not ashamed anymore': Dr. Alex George, 30, defied 'fat shaming' critics and hit the gym with a celebratory shirtless snap on Saturday

Posing in the mirror for a shirtless selfie he draped his shirt over his shoulder and smiled in the gym changing rooms.

Alongside the candid photo he penned: 'MOVEMENT IS FOR EVERY BODY. Fat shaming and weight stigma can be such a barrier to exercise. Over the years I have felt embarrassed and nervous to train in the gym when I'm bigger.

'I AM NOT ASHAMED ANYMORE. Don't forget that you deserve to be in that gym as much as anyone else. If people judge you for how you look that says far more about them than you. I know who I would rather be friends with.'

Back then: The former Love Island star declared that he was 'not ashamed anymore' after feeling embarrassed to exercise due to losing the six-pack he showcased on the show (in 2018)

He later added another post to his Stories to thank his followers for their support and encouraging words.

The frontline medic found fame on Love Island back in 2018, a show that has been criticised for its lack of size diversity.

Dr. Alex was appointed as the Youth Mental Health Ambassador within the Department for Education in last year, after his work to prioritise mental health.

Inspirational: Alongside the candid photo he penned: 'MOVEMENT IS FOR EVERY BODY. Fat shaming and weight stigma can be such a barrier to exercise'

Support: He later added another post to his Stories to thank his followers for their support and encouraging words

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline in November Alex remarked: 'If it's someone you wouldn't ask an opinion of, why would you take the criticism?'

He explained how he harnesses social media in his fight to end the stigmas surrounding mental health and weight.

Alex added: 'Social media can be really powerful but you need to use it in the right way. I came off Twitter because I found it not to be helpful. It wasn't producing positive mental health.

'I use Instagram as my primary social media, and of course Tik Tok and YouTube,' he said.

Medication: Alex revealed that he is taking anxiety medication following the tragic death of his teenage brother last year

Following the tragic loss of his youngest brother Llyr last July to suicide, Alex admitted that he has been taking anxiety medication and has urged others to 'post their pills' in a bid to end the stigma.

Detailing his own mental health routine, the Welshman explained: 'I focus on trying to do the little things. This morning I didn't get a chance to [go outside]. I noticed it doesn't get my day in the right rhythm and I didn't feel as good. I don't feel as clear or as calm.'

His evening regime often includes finding time to put down his phone and have a bath, a luxury which Alex wallows in.

'If I didn't invest in myself I would feel so much worse,' he added.

This comes as he previously shared a shirtless snap whilst on holiday in Mauritius in November in another empowering social media post.

Sharing a shirtless snap in his swimming trunks, he penned: 'Define a BEACH BODY? Beach  Body  Be proud of the skin you live in.'

He went on to add: 'Zero shame x, before playfully declaring: 'And yes, I have factor 50 on'.

Dr Alex's post received a huge reaction from fans, including many of his celebrity friends, with Tallia Storm one of the first to comment saying: 'Go alex', followed by a flame emoji.
The Duchess of Cambridges parents famously made millions from a mail-order business selling hats, balloons and decorations for childrens parties.

Now Kates sister Pippa Middleton and her financier husband James Matthews are following in their footsteps by developing their own child-friendly tourist attraction just a stones throw from the Middleton family home in Berkshire.

Pippa Middleton and her financier husband James Matthews are developing their own child-friendly tourist attraction just a stones throw from the Middleton family home in Berkshire

James and his business partners plan to splash out 800,000 transforming a rundown petting zoo and deer park called Bucklebury Farm into an indoor play barn for children and expanding an existing barn to include a cafe and farm shop with outdoor seating.

The couple may already have come up with their name for the new venture. In November I revealed they had registered a company called Pippas Playground.

James, 46, who runs Mayfair investment firm Eden Rock, bought Bucklebury Farm last March and is the joint owner with his partner, James Murray.

Pippa, 38, can be regularly spotted in a wax jacket and wellies overseeing things at the farm.

Plans outlining their vision say visitor numbers will be capped at 400 a day, and that the venture will inject 2.3 million into the local economy.

James and his business partners plan to splash out 800,000 transforming a rundown petting zoo and deer park called Bucklebury Farm into an indoor play barn for children and expanding an existing barn to include a cafe and farm shop with outdoor seating

Murray and the farms manager, Oliver Shute, have presented the plans to parish councillors and permission is expected to be granted soon.

Pippas mother Carole set up Party Pieces from her kitchen table in 1987 while pregnant with her third child, James.

She started out preparing party bags for Kates school friends and it grew into a multi-million-pound business.

Kate and Pippas brother James has been courageously candid about his battles with depression, admitting he suffers from January blues.

But I hear whispers that the 34-year-old hopes the year ahead could bring happy news for him and his French bride Alizee, 32.

Kate and Pippas brother James Middleton, 34, has been courageously candid about his battles with depression, admitting he suffers from January blues. He is pictured with his French bride Alizee, 32

Sources say the couple, who married last summer, are hoping that 2022 is the year they start a family

Sources say the couple, who married last summer, are hoping that 2022 is the year they start a family.

James posted this picture, left, of him and Alizee, who works in financial technology, during a misty trip to the Highlands.

Heres hoping for brighter times
Emmerdale's Max Parker has revealed he is engaged to his on-screen brother Kris Mochrie.

The soap star, 39, got down on one during a romantic beach-side proposal and told how it was the 'happiest day of his life' in a sweet Instagram post shortly afterwards.

The pair met playing brothers on the ITV soap, with Max starring as Luke Posner, and Kris as Lee Posner.

Cute: Emmerdale's Max Parker has revealed he is engaged to his on-screen brother Kris Mochrie

Happy: Announcing the news Max wrote on Instagram: 'He deserves the world, but the best I could do was promise him my heart. HE SAID YES !

Announcing the news Max wrote on Instagram: 'He deserves the world, but the best I could do was promise him my heart. HE SAID YES !

'Happiest moment of my life. @krismoc my Fiance'

The couple celebrated with champagne on the beach and shared a sweet kissing snap in the post.

Lovely: The soap star, 39, got down on one during a romantic beach-side proposal and told how it was the 'happiest day of his life' in a sweet Instagram post shortly afterwards

Love: The pair met playing brothers on the ITV soap, with Max starring as Luke Posner, and Kris as Lee Posner

Max also posted a short video which shows him getting down on one knee with the ring, before they celebrate together with a kiss and a hug.

Kris wrote in his engagement announcement post: 'The beautiful soul that is my best friend asked me to marry him yesterday. I can't begin to describe how happy I am.

'I love him beyond words, we laugh every single day and I'm so so grateful that he came in to my life.

'I had no idea at all! But it was just perfect I mean this film says it all. Max had asked my Mum for any jewellery that my Gran had. Mum still had my Grans locket and he has had it made in to the middle of the engagement ring on the inside. So so special.

Thrilled: Max also posted a short video which shows him getting down on one knee with the ring, before they celebrate together with a kiss and a hug

Gushing: Kris wrote in his engagement announcement post: 'The beautiful soul that is my best friend asked me to marry him yesterday. I can't begin to describe how happy I am'

'Thank you to the job that brought us together, our incredible family and friends. And the amazing love from you all. I'm a very lucky boy. WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!'

Their co-star Lisa Riley was one of the first to congratulate them writing: 'Love love love to you both!!! CONGRATULATIONS!'

Anthony Quinlan, who played Peter Barton, typed: 'Aww buzzing! Congratulations guys  !'

Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce said: 'I AM SOBBING!'

Relationship: Kris and Max met on the soap and although they never shared a scene together, backstage a friendship developed and then romance blossomed

Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank penned: 'Wonderful. Congratulations boys . '

Kris and Max met on the soap and although they never shared a scene together, backstage a friendship developed and then romance blossomed.

It comes after in 2020 Max shared his coming out story, after confirming his romance with co-star Kris, asserting: 'I feel comfortable now knowing that I am gay!'

During the summer, the pair sparked dating speculation when they enjoyed a rainy hike and shared a snap of themselves sunbathing together to Instagram.

Romance: During the summer of 2020, the pair sparked dating speculation when they shared a snap of themselves sunbathing together to Instagram

The actor explained how aged 18 he came out as bisexual to just a few friends, before enjoying a seven-year relationship with a woman.

It wasn't until a year after they broke up that he decided he could no longer 'imagine himself being with a woman'.

Talking to Attitude magazine, Max explained: 'Around about 18 I came out [as bisexual] to a few friends. My ex-girlfriend knew that before I was with her - about my sexuality.

'As time went on I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to make her feel like people would ask questions. But it was only when we broke up when I was around 26, 27 that I started to tell more people about my sexuality.'

Detailing why their relationship ended, Max touched on the pressures to propose and have children after dating for so long when he wasn't sure he wanted to spend his life with a woman.

He said: 'One of the main reasons why we did split in the end was because I knew that she's a beautiful girl and she could basically be with anyone she wants, and I was stopping her from [doing] that.

'When you get to a certain age and people say, "You've been together for this long, are you going to propose, have kids?" all those kinds of questions, it makes you think "Am I doing the right thing by not pursuing this thing that I've had in the back of my mind?"

Max explained how, about a year after they broke up, his mindset changed and he embraced his homosexuality.

The meet! Discussing how his relationship with Kris began previously, Max revealed that while they met on the set of Emmerdale, it wasn't until he spotted Kris on Tinder than he slid into his DMs

He said: 'There did come a point, maybe about a year later, where I thought "From now on I don't think I can imagine myself being with a woman".

'Something in my mind just changed I feel comfortable now knowing that I am gay.'

Discussing his relationship with Kris, Max revealed that although they met on the set of Emmerdale, it wasn't until he spotted Kris on Tinder than he slid into his DMs.

Max said of their first meeting: 'He was filming his last day on set... That was the first time we met. I didn't know he was gay, but I remember thinking he's very handsome

'It was later I thought 'I've never done Tinder, so I'll have a go', so I went on Tinder and I saw him pop up, and I was like 'OK this is a sign'  so I made the first move by sending a message on Instagram.

'I didn't know he was gay and I didn't know that he would fancy me, but then he did.'

Max's interview came after he and Kris moved into their first home together, setting up a swanky love nest in Manchester.

The soap star gave fans a brief glimpse inside their apartment by showing off one of their hallway on his Instagram Stories with the caption: '#newhome,' which Kris reshared.

'I feel comfortable now knowing that I am gay!' In a 2020 interview, Max shared his coming out story, after confirming his romance with fellow soap star Kris

A source told The Sun: 'As first homes go, this is a doozy. Max and Kris are proud and excited to start the next phase of their relationship in style.

'Moving to Manchester works well for them as it's a central point between Leeds, where Max films Emmerdale, and London, where Kris does a lot of consultancy work. Plus, it's close to Kris' native Liverpool.

'It's a long way from the rural village life of Emmerdale, but they've worked hard for what they've got.'

A source previously told The Sun that Kris met Max after he filmed his final scenes as Lee and they kept in touch after he left the soap.

In September, Kris spoke to The Mirror about their romance, admitting: 'It's great to meet someone through work and have so many things in common and an understanding of each other's jobs.

'We didn't actually share any scenes together on Emmerdale but kept in touch after I left.

'I don't want to jinx things. We are seeing how we get on. We had a great time on holiday in Dubai. Let's see how it goes.'
Have Britains Got Talent bosses been bending Covid rules while filming the new series?

My spy in the wings at the London Palladium, where shows were being filmed last week, tells me that some people sitting directly behind judges including David Walliams and Amanda Holden did not have to wear facemasks.

It seemed pretty obvious they were doing it so there would be no masks in the background of camera shots of the judges, Im told.

My spy in the wings at the London Palladium, where shows were being filmed last week, tells me that some people sitting directly behind judges including David Walliams and Amanda Holden did not have to wear facemasks

Everyone else  those at the sides, further back and in upper levels of the theatre (pictured) - did have face coverings on

Everyone else  those at the sides, further back and in upper levels of the theatre  did have face coverings on.

At the time of filming, mask-wearing was compulsory in theatres.

A spokesman for the shows production company Fremantle cited a loophole that allowed those involved in filming not to wear masks, adding: They are socially distant from each other and the rest of the audience.

It started as a lockdown romance but Im sorry to report that I hear things are over already for Alice Eve and multi-millionaire aristocrat Pete Czernin.

The Star Trek actress started seeing the 56-year-old heir to the Howard de Walden barony, whose family owns 92 acres of Central London, last year.

He has two grown-up children with ex-wife Lucinda.

It started as a lockdown romance but Im sorry to report that I hear things are over already for Alice Eve and multi-millionaire aristocrat Pete Czernin

56-year-old film producer Czernin, second from left, is the heir to the Howard de Walden barony, whose family owns 92 acres of Central London

My source tells me: Alice wanted to start a family of her own but Pete did not.

I revealed the pair were in a relationship last August, with Alice splitting her time between Petes home in Oxfordshire and her own in West London.

Nine months after George Osborne popped the question to his former aide Thea Rogers, pals are urging them to set a date for the wedding.

The unwritten rule in high-society circles is that engaged couples wait no longer than six months before coming up with a plan for the big day.

Nine months after George Osborne popped the question to his former aide Thea Rogers (pictured together), pals are urging them to set a date for the wedding

The former Chancellor has won a battle with a neighbour to build a grand extension to his historic 1.6 million mansion in Somerset, pictured above

But George and Thea appear to be no closer to sending out those all-important invitations.

Mind you, George has had other things on his mind  the former Chancellor has won a battle with a neighbour to build a grand extension to his historic 1.6 million mansion in Somerset.
Artist Nicky Philipps warmly recalls a time when Princes William and Harry were 'so close' in an upcoming episode of Keeping Up with the Aristocrats, saying fondly of the time: 'Those were the days.'

The contemporary portraitist, 57, unveiled the first double portrait of the royal brothers in 2010, a decade before the Duke of Sussex, 37, and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, 40, announced their decision to 'step back as 'senior' members' of the royal family.

And, while painting three generations of females from the posh Sitwell family in scenes set to air on Monday, Nicky spoke of a time she had the royals at her own home, saying: 'I painted them for the National Portrait Gallery. They were so sweet. They were so close, those were the days.

Looking back: Artist Nicky Philipps, 57, warmly recalls a time when Princes William and Harry were 'so close' in an upcoming episode of Keeping Up with the Aristocrats

'I said, 'Could I possibly have them at home?', and they did, which was amazing. They were in full uniform and they just walked around, into the house and not one single one of my neighbours noticed anything, and this happened five times.

'That was in 2008 when I got savaged for giving William too much hair. I think the poor chap lost quite a lot of it in 2009. I don't know what happened then but it all fell out.'

Keeping Up with the Aristocrats follows the lives of four of Britain's most prominent aristocratic dynasties.

Work of art: The contemporary portraitist unveiled the first double portrait of royal brothers in 2010

Asset-rich but often cash strapped, the cameras follow the family members in a bid to reveal what really goes on behind their closed doors, over one summer's social season.

When the first oil portrait of Princes William and Harry by Nicky was unveiled in 2010 all parties declared themselves delighted at the result.

Nicky said she felt 'particularly pleased' with Harry's profile - including what she described as his broken nose.

Reflection: Nicky spoke of a time she had the royals at her own home, saying: 'I painted them for the National Portrait Gallery. They were so sweet. They were so close, those were the days'

And the balding Wills didn't complain that he was given rather more hair than he actually possessed at the time.

The brothers had never been persuaded to pose formally for an artist before and Nicky was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London to undertake the 11,000 painting, which measures 54in by 58in.

The siblings are shown wearing the formal dress uniform of the Household Cavalry Blues and Royals. At the time both were lieutenants in the regiment.

Screen stars: Nicky made her comments while painting three generations of females from the posh Sitwell family in scenes set to air on Keeping Up with the Aristocrats on Monday

The pair are depicted 'in casual conversation' during an imagined moment just before they leave the late Queen Mother's former residence, Clarence House, to take part in the 2008 Trooping the Colour.

In fact, the princes sat several times for the artist at her studio in South Kensington, while she later visited Clarence House to fill in the background.

William, training to be an RAF search-and-rescue pilot at the time, is wearing his dress uniform with the blue sash and star of the Order of the Garter and the Queen's Golden Jubilee medal in the work.

Telling the tale: Keeping Up with the Aristocrats follows the lives of four of Britain's most prominent aristocratic dynasties

Insight: Asset-rich but often cash strapped, the cameras follow the family members in a bid to reveal what really goes on behind their closed doors

Harry also wears the Golden Jubilee medal alongside his award for service in Afghanistan.

'Prince Harry has the most wonderful profile,' Nicky said at the time. 'When he was a little boy he had a bit of a ski jump nose but apparently he broke it at school and it has since straightened itself out. I also think the little quiff and his slumped shoulders are very him.'

Rumours of a rift between the brothers emerged in 2019 when they divided their households following a series of disagreements about Harry's role.

Revealed: Nicky unveiled the work for the National Portrait Gallery in 2010, saying William was delighted to see he had more hair in the art than he had on his head at the time

Regal: Prince William and Prince Harry watch a flyover from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2008 in the same uniforms as in the portrait

It also emerged that Harry was upset when William advised him not to rush into marriage with 'this girl', which the younger brother took as a slight against Meghan.

The Duke of Cambridge's rift with his brother is said to have soured even further in early 2020 when the Sussexes 'blindsided' Her Majesty by announcing they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals and moving to the US.

After the infamous 'Sandringham summit'  when the Megxit deal was hammered out  William and Harry went for a walk to clear the air. However they did not part shores as friends, it was reported.

Fall out: Rumours of a rift between the brothers emerged in 2019 when they divided their households following disagreements about Harry's role (pictured with Meghan in 2021)

William was said to have been particularly aggrieved by the couple's surprise launch of their 'Sussex Royal' website before the summit last January.

Later, when the Queen decreed they could no longer use 'royal' in their future ventures, Meghan and Harry hit back with a bold statement saying they did not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or 'Royal' even though there was 'not any jurisdiction' over its use overseas.

The issue was said to still be on William's mind at the Commonwealth Day service last year  the Sussexes' final engagement as working royals  when tensions between the brothers were palpable.

Then came the bombshell interview with Oprah in which Prince Harry admitted that he and his brother are on 'different paths' and have good and bad days in their relationship.

Harry added that he felt sorry for his brother and his father Prince Charles because they are trapped in their royal roles.

Keeping Up with the Aristocrats continues on Monday on ITV1 at 9pm.
He is well-known for having extended conversations with various celebrities on his talk show, Watch What Happens Live!

And on Friday, Andy Cohen showed that he was able to connect with his guests on a more personal level when he shared several videos with actor Ralph Fiennes to his Instagram Story.

The 53-year-old media personality and the 59-year-old actor bonded over the expressions in the popular children's book Corduroy, and the performer graciously explained one of them for the show host.

Interaction: Andy Cohen showed that he was able to connect with his guests on a more personal level when he shared several videos with actor Ralph Fiennes to his Instagram Story on Friday

At the beginning of the clips, Cohen noted that he had pointed out a specific phrase from the book that had confused several of his fans.

He stated: 'I've got a lot of feedback from a lot of people saying oh, it must be an English expression, like from the UK, "going his rounds."'

The show host then expressed that 'only one person that can solve this, master of the English language,' before introducing Fiennes, whom he described as a lord.

When the actor pointed out that he was not, in fact, a lord, Cohen quickly remarked that 'you should be.'

Right for the job: The show host expressed that 'only one person that can solve this, master of the English language,' before introducing Fiennes, whom he described as a lord

The performer then read the page that contained the phrase and concluded that it would generally not be used in his home country.

Fiennes specifically stated: 'I don't believe we would say that in England...it feels weird to me.'

Cohen excitedly said that he and his friend had figured out that the phrase was unlikely to be used in Great Britain.

He remarked that 'we solved it, this is not some highfalutin English term, Lord Voldemort, thank you.'

Verdict: The performer then read the page that contained the phrase and concluded that it would generally not be used in his home country

When Fiennes made a suspicious-looking face for the camera, the talk show host instantly stated: 'Oh no, I said his name.'

Cohen became aware of the line when he took a poll about the phrase's origin after reading the book to his son, Benjamin.

The reality television personality initially announced that he was going to become a father during a 2018 episode of Watch What Happens Live!

Start of the issue: Cohen became aware of the line when he took a poll about the phrase's origin after reading the book to his son, Benjamin

Big news: The reality television personality initially announced that he was going to become a father during a 2018 episode of Watch What Happens Live!

He later confirmed that he would be welcoming a son while hosting a New Year's Eve special that same year.

Benjamin Allen was later born with the assistance of a surrogate the following year.

Cohen's son has since made numerous appearances on his father's Instagram account in the years since his birth.
She's an Academy Award-winning actress with a host of incredible roles on her resume.

And Cate Blanchett addressed her decision to turn down the opportunity to play Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos during an interview with Variety.

The 52-year-old actress was originally cast in the Amazon Prime movie as the iconic comedian, but the role ultimately went to Nicole Kidman.

Finally opening up: Cate Blanchett addressed her decision to turn down the opportunity to play Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos during an interview with Variety

'It became the movie it needed to be,' she said. 'Those things happen in the right way, at the right time. In the best possible way, you dont always envisage the same thing; and then it goes on to become a different entity.'

'When Francis [Ford Copolla] calls, you just have to say yes. Because youre on the epic, life-changing adventure ride. Youre on that roller coaster. Im ready for that.'

The role that Cate is referring to is the six time Golden Globe winning director's newest film, Megalopolis, which is reportedly beginning production at the end of this year.

The co-stars: Nicole Kidman was joined alongside Javier Bardem to bring the iconic Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz characters to life

Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball: The 52-year-old actress was originally cast in the Amazon Prime movie as Lucille Ball, but the role ultimately went to Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman opened up about how she felt being cast as Lucy last year.

'I feel like theres a sacred pact among us all  whoever gets something, thats where it was meant to land,' Nicole said to the New York Times referring to replacing Cate.

Lucille and Desi Arnaz's daugher, Lucie, told the Times that she was 'devastated' when Cate left the cast.

'It just took too long and we lost her. I was devastated,' Lucie explained, also adding it was hard for her to find someone who would be the right fit to play her mother.

Premiere night: Nicole stunned at the New York film premiere of Being the Ricardos in December

'None of them made me happy. It was always like, "whos the flavor of the month? Whos got the hot movie of the minute?'

She also added how she felt about Nicole taking over the role and said, 'I thought thats good  we should only be looking at Australian actresses for this!'

Cate recently starred in Netflix's Don't Look Up, alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry and Ariana Grande.
ALBANY - New Yorks statewide COVID positivity rate fell below 10% on Friday, the first time the marker has dropped into the single digits in more than a month.

Speaking at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, Gov. Hochul said shes confident that the state is heading in the right direction following the omicron-fueled holiday surge.

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Here is a trend that you dont need to be a scientist to see: The trend is going down, a 66% drop in new cases over the past two weeks, the governor said.

On Friday, the state reported 28,296 new coronavirus cases, a fraction of the nearly 100,000 daily cases being recorded at the height of the most recent surge earlier this month.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

In the city, the seven-day average of new daily cases has been well under 20,000, New York City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said earlier this week. Hochul commended the city and Long Island for a swift decline in cases over the past two weeks.

On Friday, the citys seven-day positivity rate fell to 10.49% from 17.55% a week ago after peaking around 23% earlier in the month, according to state data.

While Hochul commended the city and Long Island for plummeting cases, she noted that hospitalizations remain above 11,000 statewide. Some areas upstate are still struggling as hospitals experience bed shortages and staffing issues.

The states overall seven-day average of new COVID hospitalizations is down 20.5% compared to one week ago.

Still, staffing issues remain a concern in the city, prompting Hochul to deploy an additional 88 nonmedical National Guard troops to support staff at nine nursing homes across the five boroughs.

Additional federal help is also on the way as military surge teams from the Biden administration arrive at a Brooklyn hospital and one in New Jersey in the coming days.

This is a reminder that this isnt over, Hochul said. Weve got overworked healthcare workers still on the front lines.

People stand in line at Times Square to get COVID-19 tests in Manhattan, New York. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

Despite the decline in cases and hospitalizations, another 154 New Yorkers died from the virus. While a far cry from the more than 800 daily deaths recorded during the first wave of infections in early 2020, Hochul said the current number is a reminder that mask and vaccine mandates are still needed to keep people safe.

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We are not letting our foot off the pedal until we can declare that were at a place that we can manage without all the restrictions we put in place -- but until then we do believe that everything were doing is making a difference, she said.

Hochul noted that both her sister and son recently contracted COVID, and she urged all eligible New Yorkers to get vaccinated or boosted for that extra suit of armor.

Were not through the surge yet, but boy do those numbers look good, she added.

The governor also took a dig at Long Island officials, such as Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and some local school district leaders, who have chosen to defy state mask orders.

I find it phenomenally disappointing that people are willing to play politics with childrens lives, Hochul said.

She said the states vax-or-mask rule for businesses and venues, set to expire Feb. 1, as well as the mask mandate for schools, will remain in place for the time being.

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Schools are safe, and why are they safe? Because people have been wearing masks, Hochul said. Kids are wearing masks, and theyre adapting to it. Not something were going to keep much longer, we know we dont have to, but this has kept children safe and in a learning environment.
While the number of patients hospitalized with COVID in Connecticut declined again on Friday, nearly half of them have been vaccinated, the state data shows.

As of Friday, 1,695 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to state figures, a decrease of 38 from the previous day. Of those, around 43 percent are fully vaccinated, the data shows.

However, health officials have said many of the vaccinated patients who have been hospitalized with COVID have been incidental cases, meaning they were being treated for another condition and also tested positive, or they have not received a booster.

Dr. Syed Hussain, chief clinical officer of Trinity Health of New England, said a majority of the hospital systems COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

Among those that are vaccinated, but ended up in the hospital, they have medical comorbidities, they tend to be older in age, and may have not been boosted yet, he said.

He said the vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. remain safe and highly effective against severe disease.

The governors office said unvaccinated people are still 3.2 times more likely to test positive for the virus, and nearly 14 times more likely to die from it compared to someone who is vaccinated.

On Friday, Connecticut recorded 4,444 new cases of COVID-19 from 32,459 tests, a daily positivity rate of 13.69 percent.

But while positivity rates and the seven-day rolling average of new cases have declined since earlier this month, the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 remains higher now than at any point since the spring of 2020.
The reopening of Flushing Library  one of the busiest public libraries in the U.S.  is way past due, say Queens leaders.

Its been closed since March 2020, when the pandemic shut down many public institutions. After the citys library systems began reopening in May of last year, the Queens Public Library said its Flushing site would remain closed due to problems with the heating, ventilation and A/C system.

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The library has not set a reopening date.

Its been an ongoing nightmare at this library and we understand it needs to be fixed, but there needs to be a better plan and timetable, state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens) told the Daily News on Friday.

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The three-story library with a shiny glass exterior was built in 1998, and boasted 1.7 million visitors in fiscal year 2019. The site, which has a large auditorium and a learning center for adults, also serves as a hub for Flushings diverse community.

Yet there were no signs of life  or any indication of renovation work  at the library on Friday.

The Queens Library in Flushing on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Its kind of like a town square for the community. So having it close is really an indication that Flushing is closed, said Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce Executive Director John Choe.

Hopefully in the new year as the pandemic recedes, the library will reopen and symbolize Flushing getting back on its feet, he added.

Last summer, the citys Department of Design and Construction helped the Queens Public Library come up with a plan for a new HVAC system.

The library is now developing a temporary HVAC set-up that will cost about $57,000 per month to operate, said a library spokeswoman.

A permanent HVAC fix will cost about $7 million, the spokeswoman said. A request for bids on the work is yet to go out.

Meanwhile, the Flushing Library is undergoing elevator improvements  renovating an old elevator, and installing a new one. That project started last month and will take about a year and a half, the spokeswoman said.

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Though the library does not have a target date for its reopening, it hopes to provide modified in-person service in the spring while the elevator work continues, she added.

The Queens Library in Flushing on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

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We look forward to continuing to work with elected officials, the city and other stakeholders to provide a modernized building that offers greater access to all of its resources, Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis Walcott said in a statement.

The uncertainty about the frustrates Flushing residents, said said the neighborhoods newly elected Councilwoman Sandra Ung (D-Queens).

To live in a state of uncertainty about when it will open is unfair, Ung said.

Another Queens Library branch has also had building woes. The fancy $41 million Hunters Point branch opened to much fanfare in 2019, but was panned for failing to provide adequate access to people with disabilities.

For the foreseeable future, Flushing residents will be left to seek services at other libraries. The Flushing Librarys website currently advises bookworms to go to the Queensboro Hill, Mitchell-Linden or McGoldrick libraries.

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I would ask for an even greater sense of urgency given how many people, families and children rely on the Flushing Library, said Liu.

With Barry Williams
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With Allu Arjuns latest film being a thundering success, Manish Shah of Goldmine Films, the producer of the Hindi-dubbed version of the actors previous hit Ala Vaikuntapuram Lo, was all set to release it on January 26, in the Bollywood market, hoping to capitalise on it.

There was strong opposition and naturally so because the same film is being remade in Hindi with Kartik Aryan and Kriti Sanon. The makers and actors from the Hindi remake of the film Shehzaada expressed apprehensions on how their film will be affected if the dubbed version releases pan India.

Finally, Manish Shah gave in. We had to take a call on not releasing the film. Ive spent a lot of money, but then money isnt everything. The producers of the film Ala Vaikuntapuram Lo are old associates of mine and we took a decision to not release the dubbed version now since Shehzaada with Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon is also being made. We had been in talks for a few days to resolve the problem and had to take a decision thats beneficial to the film industry, says Manish Shah, whos been buying dubbing rights of south films and releasing them on satellite and digital for many years now.

Shah, however, says hell not disappoint Allu Arjun fans. After Pushpa: The Rise Allu Arjuns fans have been waiting to see the Hindi version of Ala Vaikuntapuram Lo. Hence, Ill be releasing it on my own satellite channel, Dhinchak, on February 6, he said.

Remakes out, its dubbed version now

Interestingly, the remake rights of movies being sold as of now for a few crores may not happen anymore. All such pan-India films will be dubbed and released in the theatres because everyone has realised that theres a huge audience for that.

A remake right of a big south film, be it in Telugu or Tamil sells anywhere between Rs 1 to 5 crores only. But if the dubbed version happens and the monies come in, everyone makes over Rs 25 crore and theyd not let that go anymore, states Shah, explaining how the success of action entertainer Pushpa: The Rise is now a game-changer in terms of how films are going to be remade.
It is not always that a journalist gets a chance to be part of history in the making. But that is exactly the opportunity that came to Manash Ghosh, a young reporter in The Statesman newspaper during the time of the Bangladesh liberation struggle. A chance encounter with three East Pakistani Bengalis during a car rally led to momentous revelations and the adventure of a lifetime.

East Pakistan was in ferment and the world either did not care or was completely unaware of the cataclysmic events unfolding. A young Calcutta-based journalist was destined to make India and the rest of the world aware of the tragic and profound events within that country. The book Bangladesh War: Report from Ground Zero is a personal and compelling account of that journalists experience.

Veteran journalist Manash Ghosh recalls the heady times as a young cub reporter covering the Bengali uprising in East Pakistan that eventually led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and the creation of independent Bangladesh. For the author, the events were in many ways the best of times and the worst of times.

As a reporter he had an unprecedented opportunity to go where no one had gone before: into the depths of a largely unknown catastrophe that had emerged in neighbouring East Pakistan. West Pakistans military and civil leaders had unleashed a genocide and Bengalis were resisting. It was the worst of times because the world had not seen a similar carnage in recent history. Millions were being massacred and Manash Ghosh was among the first persons to record and report it.

The book reads like an adventure story, which in many ways it was for the author. His reporters instinct, doggedness in getting to the bottom of things and courage led to the finest coverage of the liberation struggle in what eventually became Bangladesh. His newspaper supported him to the hilt and he was even able to cross the borders into hostile territory to report on events. After the war, he was rewarded by being assigned the prestigious position of bureau chief of The Statesman in Dhaka, the capital of the newly liberated Bangladesh.

The book is not just about his personal experience but a first-hand account of developments during that period of intense conflict in Bangladesh. It explains the fundamental political issues, Awami League supremo Sheikh Mujibur Rehmans travails, the reaction of the West Pakistani overlords, the brutal army crackdown and most of all the heroic actions of thousands of East Pakistan Bengalis who were determined to rid themselves of the shackles of the West Pakistanis and their collaborators.

The book will also serve as a refreshing retelling of the events that led to the liberation of Bangladesh, which many among todays generation of Indians would not be aware. The author has made it a point to include stories of people like Indias Major General Shahbeg Singh and Brigadier Sant Singh, whose unflinching commitment to the training of East Bengali freedom fighters contributed hugely to the success of the liberation war. In fact, the book affirms the view that the story of Bangladeshs creation needs to be told and re-told in the subcontinent and its lessons never forgotten here.

He quotes the unforgettable December 4, 1971, address to the nation on All India Radio by Indias Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi:

A war has been forced upon us. We repeatedly drew the worlds attention to the annihilation of an entire people whose only crime was that it had voted democratically. But the world ignored the basic causes and concerned itself with certain repercussionsToday, war on Bangladesh has become war on India and this imposes upon me, my government and the people, an awesome responsibility. We are left with no other option but to put our country on a war footing. I have no doubt the united will of our people will decisively repel this wanton and unprovoked Pakistani aggression with fortitude.

The war that followed was one of the swiftest and most decisive the world has ever seen. In a matter of a fortnight the Indian army helped by Bangladeshi freedom fighters sliced through East Pakistan and reached Dhaka where the Pakistani army was forced to surrender.

Many seemed unprepared for this historic and dramatic development, Ghosh writes. Even I was overcome with an overpowering sense of fulfilment; it was as if I had realised a goal I had set out to achieve on March 27, when I first went to the Petrapole border to report on the liberation war and decided to stand by the persecuted and hapless Bengalis.

Manash Ghosh deserves to be commended for his commitment as a young reporter during those momentous times as well as his recent labours in recording his experiences in a book that will serve as a lasting reminder of a significant moment in the subcontinents history.

The writer is an independent commentator on political and security issues

Bangladesh War: Report from Ground Zero

By Manash Ghosh

Niyogi Books

pp. 220, Rs.695
On the vaccination for the age group between 15-18 years, he said till date 76.23 per cent of the eligible adolescents received the jabs while 1.84 lakh people received the 'precautionary booster dose' vaccination of the total 5.55 lakh people who were identified to receive the third dose. (AFP Photo)

Chennai: The number of fatalities caused due to COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu was 'less' as compared to other states because 65 per cent of the population has two doses of vaccination, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said on Saturday. Deaths due to COVID-19 occurred because the individual did not receive a single dose of vaccination and was above the age of 60 years with comorbidity, the Minister for Health and Family Welfare said here. Underlining the need to get inoculated to safeguard oneself from the virus, Subramanian said 89 per cent of the people have received their first dose of vaccination while 65 per cent got the second dose till now.

"Though it is satisfying to note that mortality rate (due to COVID-19) in Tamil Nadu has been low, it is unfortunate that those who succumb to the virus have not even received the single dose of vaccination. People should get inoculated to protect themselves from the virus", he told reporters.

Daily COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu was nearing 30,000 and was comparatively low as against Maharashtra which was hovering at 50,000; Kerala 30,000-40,000 and Karnataka at 30,000 daily cases, he said. On the vaccination for the age group between 15-18 years, he said till date 76.23 per cent of the eligible adolescents received the jabs while 1.84 lakh people received the 'precautionary booster dose' vaccination of the total 5.55 lakh people who were identified to receive the third dose. Subramanian said the number of people who received the single dose vaccination in Chennai has touched 94.19 per cent while second dose recipients are at 74.11 per cent.

"Nearly 1.60 crore people are eligible to receive the precautionary booster dose (in Tamil Nadu)...we have administered the booster dose vaccination to 38,880 people so far," he said.

"We appeal those eligible individuals to come forward and make use of the vaccination camps being held today or on Thursdays when we conduct exclusive camps for them," the minister said. In the 18 mega vaccination camps conducted by the health department, 3.32 crore people were benefitted, he said. The state government launched the weekly mega vaccination exercise on September 12 last year.
Speaker Pocharam Srinivas is reportedly making efforts to secure a ticket for his son Pocharam Bhaskar Reddy to contest from Banswada seat, which is currently being held by him. (Facebook)

HYDERABAD: Ministers and MLAs in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) are preparing ground to secure party tickets to their kith and kin to contest 2023 Assembly polls in case they are denied tickets on age or other grounds.

They are said to encourage their sons and daughters to actively take part in party and government activities in their respective constituencies to reach out to party cadres and people and get political hold on constituencies in the run up to Assembly polls.

They are participating in party and government programmes along with their fathers and distributing welfare schemes benefits such as Kalyana Laxmi and CMRF cheques in constituencies to get closer to people.

Party sources said several TRS leaders, who are either close to 70 years of age or crossed 70 years are not sure of getting party tickets on age grounds. Some other leaders who got elected multiple times from the same Assembly constituency fear denial of tickets on anti-incumbency grounds and they may be replaced by others.

Endowments minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy, who is 72-year-old, has been encouraging his son Allola Gautham Reddy and daughter-in-law Allola Divya Reddy to take active part in party activities in Nirmal constituency.

Speaker Pocharam Srinivas, who is already 72-year-old, is reportedly making efforts to secure a ticket for his son Pocharam Bhaskar Reddy to contest from Banswada seat, which is currently being held by him. Bhaskar Reddy is currently serving as DCCB chairman and politically active in the constituency.

Former Legislative Council chairman and MLC Gutha Sukender Reddy, who is 67-year-old is reportedly lobbying for a party ticket to his son Gutha Amit Reddy.

Former minister and MLA Jogu Ramanna, who is 58-year-old, is making efforts to secure a ticket for his son Jogu Premender from the Adilabad seat. Premender is currently serving as chairperson of Adilabad municipality.

TSRTC chairman and MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan, who is 67-year-old, wants his son Jaganmohan to contest from Nizamabad rural seat. Jaganmohan is currently serving as ZPTC member of Darpally. Former Deputy Chief Minister and MLC Kadiyam Srihari, who is 69-year-old, is reportedly lobbying hard to bag a ticket for his daughter Kadiyam Kavya from the Station Ghanpur seat.

She is currently working as a doctor and undertaking various social activities in the constituency.

Secunderabad Cantonment MLA Sayanna, who is 70-year-old and facing health issues, wants his daughter Lasya Nandita to contest from his seat in 2023. Lasya earlier served as GHMC corporator from Kavadiguda.

TRS MLAs from Korutla K. Vidyasagar Rao (68-year-old) and N. Diwakar Rao (69-year-old) are also reportedly lobbying hard to secure tickets for their sons K. Sanjay and N. Vijit respectively.

Although Assembly polls are two years away, the TRS leaders have already started efforts to bag tickets for the kith and kin anticipating 'early polls' either in 2022-end or early 2023.

The reason, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had dissolved the Legislative Assembly nine months in advance in 2018 December forcing early Assembly polls in December 2018 while the Assembly's tenure was till June 2019. They expect the Chief Minister to go for early polls again.

Some leaders are reportedly requesting party leadership to consider their kith and kin for Lok Sabha seats if they cannot not make it to the Assembly polls.
Transfer of state government employees was banned in 2013 due to the impending bifurcation of the undivided Andhra Pradesh. ( Representationa image/PTI)

Hyderabad: State government employees unions in Telangana are urging the TRS government to undertake general transfer of employees as transfers as per the new zonal system has been completed.

It has been four years since the state government undertook general transfer of employees with the last one being from May 25 to June 15 in 2018, which, incidentally, was the first since 2013.

Various employees unions submitted a representation to chief secretary Somesh Kumar in this regard on Friday.

Normally, general transfers are undertaken during summer vacation for schools and colleges as there would be no disruption of education of the staffs children.

Transfer of state government employees was banned in 2013 due to the impending bifurcation of the undivided Andhra Pradesh. General transfers could not be taken up by the Telangana government soon after bifurcation as division of existing staff between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was pending with the Kamalanathan committee for three years.

General transfers are done to ensure that no employee works at the same place beyond five years.

Newly-recruited employees, who complete two years of service, and senior employees, who complete five years at existing places, await general transfers to get postings in locations of their choice on a seniority basis.

The employees are now urging the government to undertake general transfers during the upcoming summer vacation.

There are nearly four lakh government employees and teachers in Telangana. Of them, only 70,000, mostly teachers, were transferred on the basis of the new zonal system.
Industries, trade bodies, and daily wage labourers cheered the governments decision to withdraw the weekend curfew as it would help revive commercial activities.

Hit hard by the clampdown of peoples movement, introduced by the government to curb the Covid outbreak, traders sighed in relief as weekends are the time for peak business.

We are happy with the Chief Ministers decision to roll back the curfew. The government should also remember while taking decisions in the future that predominantly 50 to 60% of retail and wholesale businesses happen over the weekends. We are looking forward to receiving customers again on the weekends," said Sajjanraj Mehta, a trade activist.

The decision particularly thrilled traders on Commercial Street, the citys prominent shopping hub.

With a lockdown and curfews, traders were cash strapped and that was not healthy for our business. We are hoping for better business during the weekends," said Sanjay Motwani, president, Commercial Street Traders Association.

Also read: Covid-19: Karnataka government lifts weekend curfew; night curfew remains

The hospitality industry also hailed the governments decision. Most families and youngsters choose to visit pubs and hotels on weekends, said a hotelier.

Chandrashekhar Hebbar, president, Karnataka Pradesh Hotels and Restaurants Association (KPHRA), thanked the government for lifting the weekend curfew. We dont have problems with the night curfew, which must be followed for everyones safety, he said. We are also ok with the 50% seating arrangement, given the current Covid situation. Well continue to follow all necessary measures to ensure our customers safety.

The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) said the removal of the weekend curfew will benefit all industries. Hospitality, events, cinema, tourism, and all other affected industries will see business and financial improvements. We will follow all Covid protocols, FKCCI president I S Prasad said.

People have gone into the mindset of staying at home on weekends now. With the lifting of the curfew, we are expecting them to come out. In a few weeks, we are expecting to serve more customers, said Sampath, general secretary, Adarsha Auto Union.

Prohibitory orders extended till January 31

Bengaluru city police commissioner Kamal Pant late Friday evening issued a fresh order notifying the withdrawal of the weekend curfew and further enforcement of the night curfew till January 31.

As per the order, when the night curfew is in place, the movement of all types of vehicles and activities are prohibited, except those exempted (essential services) by the state government between 10 pm to 5 am every day, including on the weekends.

Also read: L-G rejects proposal to lift Delhi weekend curfew

"If any person violates the prohibitory orders, they shall be liable for prosecution under sections of the Disaster Management Act, IPC Section 188, and Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act," the notification read.

Under the prohibitory orders issued by the police commissioner, all types of rallies, dharnas, and protests are prohibited.

"Marriage functions shall not be held with more than 200 people in open places and 100 people in closed areas. Pubs, clubs, restaurants, bars, and hotels shall not operate exceeding 50% of their seating capacity. Cinema halls, multiplexes, theatres, auditoriums, and similar places shall not operate exceeding 50% of their capacity," the order further said.

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Rite Aid is making the wrong move.

Thats the word from workers and patrons of a popular Manhattan branch of the drug store chain who say the pharmacy is shutting its doors for good next month because of a rash of thefts.

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The days are numbered at Rite Aids Eighth Ave. and W. 50th St. location. The 24-hour store and pharmacy is scheduled to fill its last prescription on Feb. 8, and the Hells Kitchen community is already mourning its loss.

The Rite Aid at Eighth Ave. and W. 50th St. in Manhattan is closing in February 2022. (Liam Quigley/New York Daily News)

Workers and customers speculated that the store had been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and an endless stream of shoplifters who have hurt the stores bottom line. They say the drug store should step up its security or cut back its hours before throwing in the towel.

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Yeah, they stole a lot, said one disappointed employee, who wanted to remain anonymous. Now people cant shop in their own neighborhood.

There were 74 complaints from that single Rite Aid store since Jan. 1, 2020, including 45 reports of petty larceny, or shoplifting, according to NYPD data. The other complaints included nine grand larcenies and eight robberies.

Empty shelves in the Rite Aid on Eighth Ave. at W. 50th Street in Manhattan. (Liam Quigley/New York Daily News)

In 2019, there were 35 reported petit larcenies. Workers said not all of the thefts were reported.

A corporate spokesman, Jeff Olson, said there were a number of factors involved in the decision to close the store, which opened in 1996.

Like all retail businesses, we regularly review each of our locations to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers, communities and overall business, Olson said.

A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously, and is in response to business conditions and viability specific to that store. It is not an indication of Rite Aids business as a whole; as a matter of fact, were eager to grow in markets we serve.

The Rite Aid on Eighth Ave. and W. 50th St. in Midtown is almost entirely cleaned out. (Liam Quigley/New York Daily News)

That was little comfort to loyal customers who will have to find somewhere else to fill their prescriptions.

Esther Moran, 63, said she has worked in the neighborhood for 40 years and was disappointed to learn of the closing.

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Im so mad, Moran said. It has the best service, the best items. Its still the best. The pandemic has really cost this area a lot of businesses. Life here is not the same. I cry every day.

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Crystal Byrd said the Rite Aid workers know her by name.

I go in there every single day to buy a bottle of water, she explained.

Byrd said she saw shoplifters stick bottles of shampoo and conditioner in their coats and leave without paying.

But Byrd said she is more concerned about the elderly customers who have a hard enough time crossing Eighth Ave. to get their medicine.

She worries about them having to walk another couple of blocks to get to another pharmacy.

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This store is vital to the elderly population and our community, Byrd said.

Store workers, who were clearing merchandise off the shelves, said they were also worried about their jobs. Olson, said the employees have been offered positions at other locations, but several Rite-Aid staffers said the alternative sites are inconvenient or inaccessible to them.
The traffic police will bring back a suspended ban on non-ISI helmets.

Riders found wearing substandard helmets (half or cap helmets) that do not offer adequate head protection will be educated and warned over the next 15 days and penalised thereafter for riding without a helmet, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda announced on Friday. The fine for helmetless riding is Rs 500 in Bengaluru. The ban will apply to pillion riders, too.

The ban on non-ISI helmets was once implemented briefly but was withdrawn following a public outcry. One of the reasons given by critics was that police personnel themselves wear half or cap helmets.

Traffic cops now say its time to enforce the ban once again in view of rising fatalities caused by these substandard helmets.

Speaking during an #AskBTP session on social media with Dr Gautham M S from Nimhans, Gowda said: This session is the first step towards creating awareness among road users. Next, we will create awareness on roads and after that, we will take legal action.

Responding to peoples comments about traffic police officers themselves wearing low-quality helmets, Gowda claimed that action was taken against 1,656 officers for the same offence last year. And the traffic police have written a letter to the government department concerned, requesting that the desired weight and dimensions of helmets be stipulated. Additionally, the traffic police will launch a campaign in association with

the said department.

Dr Gautham, who has done research on road safety, said: Strong ISI helmets act as barriers against accidents and distribute the force, thereby preventing open fractures. These helmets also provide 40-50% protection against death and 72% protection against severe injuries. Those without helmets in accidents are two times more likely to suffer severe head injuries.

In 2021, a total of 113 people who did not wear helmets died in road accidents. While 84 of them were riders, 29 of them were pillion riders.

Gowda stressed that the drive against non-ISI helmets wasnt aimed at collecting fines. We want to reduce accidents and lessen the socio-economic burdens on society that are imposed due to fatal accidents, he said.

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Dismissing Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's denial of involvement in illegal sand mining as a 'lie, Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Saturday said that as a chief minister, he had received specific inputs that Channi had a share in the mafia, along with several other Congress leaders and MLAs in the state.

"From top to bottom, right up to the level of senior ministers, many people were involved, as I had told Sonia Gandhi while I was the chief minister (of Punjab). She asked me what action I was taking in the matter, and I told her I will have to start from the top. The one and only mistake I made during my entire tenure was that I did not take any action then, out of my sense of loyalty to the Congress, since I did not get a go-ahead from Sonia Gandhi," Amarinder Singh said.

In an interview to a TV channel, Amarinder Singh spoke in detail about Channi's '#MeToo' case, which he said was not pursued by the woman in question as she accepted the then minister's apology.

Also Read | Many in Punjab Congress want Channi to be CM face; top brass says fighting polls under collective leadership

"Had she wanted to pursue the case, I would have taken action against Channi," he said, adding that his only role in the matter was to ask Channi to apologise to the woman officer, which he did and the apology was duly accepted by the woman.

The former chief minister, who made it clear he will contest once again from his home constituency of Patiala in the upcoming Assembly polls, ruled out any challenge from the Congress or any of the other parties in the fray, saying none of the CM faces or prospective CM candidates has the mental acumen to think of Punjab's future.

"How can a man who claims to actually talk to God an hour each in the morning and evening be stable," asked Amarinder Singh, taking a veiled dig at Punjab Congress chief to Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Also Read | Punjab CM Channi 'fell on his feet' and 'pledged loyalty to me', says Amarinder Singh

"The PPCC president can go around hugging Pakistan's Imran Khan and General Bajwa as much as he likes, but that is not going to bring peace, nor will people tolerate such things when our soldiers are being killed at the border every day," he said, adding that since 2017, Punjab alone had lost as many as 83 soldiers in Pak firing.

As for AAP's CM nominee Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief labelled him as an 'out-and-out comedian' whom Punjab definitely did not need.

The people of Punjab will not be fooled by AAP's and Arvind Kejriwal's antics, just as they were not befooled back in 2017, he said, rejecting some poll surveys putting the party ahead in Punjab.

Also Read | Hung assembly may whip up a curious post-poll scenario in Punjab

Amarinder Singh further said that the Badals and their Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are also not suitable for the state.

The former chief minister ruled out any post-poll tie-up with either the Congress or the AAP, saying the PLC has a clear alliance with the BJP and the SAD (Sanyukt), which will definitely win the elections.

The three parties are working on a common minimum programme for the state, which will secure Punjab and its people's future, he said, adding that the CM face of the alliance is yet to be decided.

Also read: PIL filed in Supreme Court against freebies by political parties

The former CM denied any paucity of good people in the PLC, saying the problem is not of people, of which the party has plenty, but of seats, since, as the senior party, the BJP naturally wants and expects more.

Hoping that the Election Commission would soon relax the Covid restrictions, Amarinder Singh said he will go to each of the 117 constituencies to take his message to the people and seek votes on the basis of his own achievements as chief minister as well as the Narendra Modi government's accomplishments at the national level.

The only real Punjab model is that of the state's future, said Amarinder Singh, taking a dig at the models being propagated by Sidhu and Channi, whom he dismissed as incapable of thinking for Punjab.

Even the much-touted Delhi model of AAP is a farce as Kejriwal simply uses cross-subsidy to give to the poor what he takes from the traders by taxing them, Amarinder Singh claimed.

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A near absence of BSP supremo Mayawati in the Uttar Pradesh electoral battlefield has not only baffled her rivals but has also left the Dalits, her core vote bank in the state, confused.

Though Mayawati has been meeting party leaders and those in charge of booths from across the state at her residence, she has not addressed any public meeting before it was banned by the Election Commission (EC) citing the rising number of coronavirus infections, or any virtual meeting in the past four months.

The last time she had addressed a public meeting was in October last year.

While her rivals have interpreted her "silence" in their own ways with some even claiming that she has already conceded defeat and some others suspecting a "tacit" understanding between her and the BJP in the forthcoming assembly polls, it has caused discomfort among the Dalits, especially the Jatavs, who have been her traditional voters.

Dalits, who formed around 21 per cent of the total electorate in the state, were divided in as many as 65 sub-castes, including the Jatavs (11 per cent) and 'non-Jatavs' (ten per cent), who comprised Pasi, Kori, Dhobi, Valmiki among others.

While Jatavs have been solidly behind Mayawati, a majority among the 'non-Jatavs' had shifted to the BJP in the past few elections. Incidentally, in the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP had won 76 of the 86 reserved seats in the state riding on the support of the 'non-Jatav' communities.

Also read: UP Polls: Owaisi announces alliance, proposes 2 CMs, 3 deputy CMs

Mayawati's silence in the polls has prompted her rivals to woo the BSP leader's core vote bank. The Samajwadi Party has inducted several Jatav leaders into its fold and also plans to field them in the polls from the reserved seats.

''Dalits, especially the Jatavs are a confused lot...they find Mayawati's silence intriguing,'' remarked a senior BSP leader while speaking to DH here.

The near absence of senior leaders from the community in the BSP rank has only added to the confusion among the Jatavs. Almost all the senior BSP leaders, including many from the Dalit communities, either deserted the party or were expelled on one ground or the other.

The BSP leader added that Mayawati needed to reach out to her core voters and assure them that she was very much in the contest.

Also read: Aparna Yadav's switch to BJP surprised few in Lucknow

BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had remarked in a rally at Moradabad recently that Mayawati had confined herself to her home as it was very cold outside.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also expressed surprise at Mayawati's 'silence' and said that she had never seen her (Mayawati) like that in the previous elections.

Mayawati had, however, come out with an explanation for her absence in the electoral field. ''My party is poor....it does not have funds like the BJP or others...if I hold rallies like them then it will incur financial burden on us,'' she had said and claimed her party workers were active at the grassroots level.

BSP had won only 19 seats in the 2017 assembly elections but as many as 15 of its MLAs either shifted allegiance or were expelled on charges of anti-party activities. Senior leaders like Ram Achal Rajbhar, former UP BSP president, and Lalji Verma, once a close confidante of Mayawati, have joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) along with half a dozen other BSP legislators. A similar number has switched loyalty to the BJP.

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BJP national president J P Nadda will on Saturday visit the western Uttar Pradesh districts of Bijnor and Amroha and meet party leaders and workers ahead of the upcoming state Assembly polls.

During the visit, he will meet party candidates, workers and leaders associated with the election campaign for the 30 Assembly seats in Bijnor, Amroha, Muzaffarnagar, Nagina, Muradabad, Rampur and Sambhal.

Also see: Gorakhpur to witness Maharaj vs Ravan in upcoming UP polls

Nadda will reach Bijnor by afternoon, where he will meet party candidates and office bearers of 15 Assembly seats of Muzaffarnagar, Nagina and Bijnor and take stock of the political situation.

After that, he will visit Gajraula, where he will meet the party candidates of the rest of 15 Assembly seats of Amroha, Muradabad, Rampur and Sambhal.

On Friday, Nadda had discussed the party's strategy for the elections in Agra's Braj area. This was his first visit to the Taj after the candidates were announced.

As the party's national president, Nadda is not only taking stock of political situation but also making up to the leaders who are disappointed for not getting a ticket to contest the polls.

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Congress is likely to announce its candidates for the Uttarakhand Assembly elections scheduled for February 14 after ironing out differences among factions on around 20 seats.

The Screening Committee concluded its meeting on late Friday with leaders expressing hope that the list of candidates will be announced on Saturday. The BJP has already announced its first list of candidates.

Devender Yadav, the party in charge of Uttarakhand, said a very fruitful discussion took place regarding candidates on all seats. Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal said the candidates will be announced on Saturday.

The list comes a day after Harak Singh Rawat, who was expelled from the BJP government, returned Congress along with his daughter-in-law for whom he is speculated to have managed a seat.

Also Read | You can see my face everywhere, says Priyanka Gandhi on Cong's UP CM face

"Harak Singh Rawat said that he wanted to serve Congress selflessly & everybody agreed to give him a chance. He will play an important role in strengthening the party," he said.

The Screening Committee has been meeting for a long but consensus evaded on around 20 seats while there has been agreement on 50 seats. The factions led by Harish Rawat and Pritam Singh had remained adamant on seats but now the leadership appeared to have managed to find a middle path.

The hill-state is going to polls for all the 70 seats on February 14 with the last date for nomination fixed for January 28. Congress has already announced its first lists for Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa.

Congress is hoping to usurp power from the ruling BJP in Uttarakhand where surveys showed a close contest between the principal opponents. In the 2017 polls, BJP won 56 seats garnering 46.51per cent votes while the then ruling Congress was reduced to 11 seats with 33.49per cent vote-share while in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party won all the five seats with 61.66per cent votes and its main opponent getting 31.73per cent votes.

The party leadership had managed a truce in the Uttarakhand state unit recently after Rawat tweeted that he was contemplating retirement from politics claiming that he was not getting cooperation from the state unit. He was also sulking over not being named the Chief Ministerial face.

Also Read | In Youth Manifesto, Congress vows to crack UP's unemployment problem

Top party leader Rahul Gandhi then held a meeting with Rawat and other leaders in the state during which it was decided that Rawat will lead the campaign though the party stopped short of naming him the face.

Recently, the party also deputed senior leader Mohan Prakash as a senior observer to Uttarakhand. Rawat has told the party leadership that the present in-charge Devender Yadav was siding with his rival factions, which the latter denied.

DH had on January 19 reported about the delay in finalising the list owing to differences among factions.

Sources had then said that Sahaspur was one of the seats yet to be decided where Pritam Singh's nominee Aarendra Sharma has an opponent in Rawat camp's Rakesh Kumar Negi. With two Muslim leaders also lobbying for the seat, the party will have to factor in minority votes, which are substantial in number.

In Raipur, Prabhulal Bahaguna and Mahendra Negi are in the race with sources saying both stand a chance. At the same time, there is also speculation that Heera Singh Bisht may be shifted from Doiwala to Raipur. In Dehradun Cantt seat, it is Youth Congress National Secretary versus the old guard.

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Denial of tickets has left powerful contenders in the BJP seething with discontent with several of them either preparing to cross over to other parties or enter the poll arena as independents.

While a number of those left out are sulking as the party has preferred Congress defectors over dedicated party cadres on many seats in its first list of 59 candidates, a few have come out in the open with their wounded feelings.

The most notable of them are the sitting MLA from Tharali Munni Devi Shah and Dwarahat MLA Mahesh Negi.

"The central party leadership must explain why it has denied a ticket to me. I have done considerable development work in my constituency besides taking the achievements of the central and state governments to the people," Shah said.

She said she would not be as hurt if the party had fielded a dedicated party worker from the seat but it preferred someone from Congress background. "It has broken the morale of party workers," Shah, who won the seat in a bypoll in 2018 following the death of her husband and sitting MLA from the constituency Magan Lal Shah, said.

Also read: Party-hopper Harak Singh returns to Congress in Uttarakhand

She said she is under pressure from her supporters and may enter the fray as an independent from the seat from where the BJP has fielded Bhopal Ram Tamta, a Congress defector. Negi, who had been accused of rape in September 2020, said he has been denied a ticket under a conspiracy.

He said his name was at the top in all organisational surveys still he could not make it.

Om Gopal Rawat, who was a strong ticket contender for Narendra Nagar seat from where the BJP has once again fielded cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal, is planning to join the Congress.

"BJP does not care for dedicated party workers who toil at the grassroots to strengthen the organisation. It has no principles or values. All it wants is power," Rawat said.

Former MLA Mahavir Rangad too is unhappy with Pritam Singh Panwar fielded by BJP from Dhanaulti.

He took the opinion of party workers on Friday and said he will contest as an independent.

Contender from Ghansali, Darshan Lal has also decided to enter poll fray as an independent.

Also Read | After UP, BJP sets eyes on Goa, U'khand: Parrikar's son denied ticket from family pocket borough

Tika Maikhuri, who had long been trying for a ticket from Karnaprayag, has also threatened to enter the poll arena as an independent since the party fielded Anil Nautiyal from the seat.

Manoj Shah in Bhimtal has threatened to quit as the party has fielded Ram Singh Kaira, the independent sitting MLA from the seat, who joined the BJP late last year.

"I am in the race for a ticket from the seat since 2002. Denying me a ticket is an injustice. I will contest as an independent," he said.

Aware of the mood within the party, the BJP says the discontent is only natural and the bitterness will subside in a couple of days.

"There can be many contenders for a ticket from a seat but it can be given only to one after taking into account all aspects. Everyone should accept the decision of the central leadership, BJP president Madan Kaushik said.

BJP is a disciplined party. It is just their initial reaction. I have confidence that they will understand," he said.

The party has begun efforts to pacify disaffected leaders with promises of position within the organisation, fearing eclipsing of chances of official BJP nominees if they enter the poll arena.

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One New York City police officer was killed and another was fighting for his life after the two were shot Friday while responding to a domestic violence call, authorities said.

Neither of the officers has been identified by police. Authorities said that the policeman who died was a 22-year-old rookie. A suspect, who police identified as LaShawn McNeil, 47, was also shot. His condition was not known. "It is our city against the killers!" Mayor Eric Adams, a retired police officer, said during a press conference. "This was just not an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York."

A spike in violent crime during the pandemic is an early challenge for Adams, who took over the helm of the city on January 1. Adams was elected after putting public safety at the centre of his campaign, promising to usher in policies to quickly quell the violence.

Also Read  Two New York City police officers shot in Harlem, are in 'critical' condition

Authorities said three officers responded on Friday evening to a 911 call in Harlem. A woman called saying she was having a fight with one of her sons. Shortly after police arrived on the scene, two officers were fired upon in a narrow hallway by the woman's adult son. The third officer then shot the suspect McNeil.

New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the officers were trying to help the entire family when the suspect "suddenly, without warning, opened fire on them".

"In a moment, a young, 22-year-old life was ended," Sewell said. "Our department is hurting. Our city is hurting."

A total of four New York City police officers have been shot this week.

One officer was shot in the leg on Tuesday as he scuffled with an armed teenager. Another officer was also shot in the leg on Thursday after a man fired through the door of a home that was being searched for drugs. Neither officer was killed in those shootings.

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The Saudi-led coalition on Saturday, in a statement, denied carrying out an air strike on a rebel-held prison in northern Yemen that left at least 70 people dead.

Reports of the targeting of a detention centre in the northern rebel heartland of Saada on Friday are "baseless and unfounded", said coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki, who was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

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US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have agreed to "push back" against China's attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and highlighted the importance of the Quad grouping as a critical forum for promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

During the 80-minute virtual meeting on Friday, their first formal summit meeting, Biden said the age-old alliance between the US and Japan is the cornerstone of peace and security in the strategic Indo-Pacific region and across the world.

"It was an honour to meet with Prime Minister Kishida to further strengthen the US-Japan alliance  the cornerstone of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world, Biden said in a tweet after the meeting.

Read more: 'Operation Snow Leopard' still on, troops on alert: Army Commander

"As Indo-Pacific powers, the United States and Japan are united in a shared purpose to sustain and enhance our commitment to the region," the White House said in a readout of the meeting.

"The two leaders resolved to push back against the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)'s attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and South China Sea," it said.

The US, India and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's aggressive military manoeuvring in the region.

The Chinese military is actively eying the strategic Indian Ocean region to step up Beijing's influence. China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it.

Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea. The US maintains it will support its regional allies in the defence of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The Japanese government said in a statement that "the two leaders shared the intention to coordinate closely under the strong Japan-US alliance and to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries such as Australia, India, ASEAN, and Europe, toward realising a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific'.

Biden and Kishida said they remain committed to working closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

The two leaders highlighted the importance of the Quad  Australia, Japan, India, and the United States  as a critical forum for promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to the White House readout.

They also decided to ensure that the Quad delivers practical results in areas such as Covid-19 response, climate and clean energy, and infrastructure.

In 2017, India, Australia, Japan and the US gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the strategically-vital Indo-Pacific region.

President Biden welcomed Prime Minister Kishidas invitation to visit Japan for the next Quad Leaders Meeting in the first half of 2022, the readout said.

Read more: China warns of 'no mercy' in corruption and monopoly crackdown

The two leaders also underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. China views self-ruled Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland even by force. Beijing has been conducting provocative military exercises close to Taiwan to deter the island from seeking independence.

Biden and Kishida said they shared concern about China's practices in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

China's Parliament in 2020 approved a controversial security law for Hong Kong, a move that critics said threatened the fundamental political freedoms and civil liberties in the semi-autonomous territory, also a major global trading hub.

Over the years, the CPC has tightened its grip on Hong Kong, quashing the pro-democracy movement.

China is battling allegations of human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims, including incarceration of thousands of Uyghurs in mass detention camps, forced labour in manufacturing units of the resource-rich Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Kishida, who took office in October, has placed priority on safeguarding national interests on the economic front, while the Biden administration has been tightening control over surveillance and other technologies that could be used to support the Chinese military or commit human rights violations, Kyodo News said.

As a lawmaker elected from Japan's western city of Hiroshima, which suffered US atomic bombing in World War II, Kishida also affirmed with Biden their intention to work together toward a world without nuclear weapons, it said.

The two leaders resolved to enhance economic ties between the US and Japan.

Noting the progress made under the Competitiveness and Resilience (CoRe) Partnership announced in April 2021, Biden and Kishida established a new ministerial-level Economic Policy Consultative Committee (the Economic 2+2), to track and drive economic cooperation and to strengthen the rules-based economic order in the Indo-Pacific region and the world, the readout said.

The two leaders affirmed the importance of US economic leadership in the Indo-Pacific, which President Biden committed to intensify. To that end, Prime Minister Kishida expressed strong support for President Bidens proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and pledged to work closely with the United States to build support for the initiative in the region.

They condemned the recent ballistic missile launches by North Korea which are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, it said.

The leaders committed to work closely together to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine, and Kishida pledged to continue close coordination with the US, other allies and partners, and the international community on taking strong action in response to any attack, the readout said.

Biden and Kishida affirmed the importance of close cooperation among the United States, Japan, and South Korea in addressing common challenges, and underscored the imperative of a strong trilateral relationship on security and more broadly, it said.
COVID-19 infection rates for tested New York state residents dipped below 10% for a second day in a row  a trend hailed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday as extraordinary progress.

Of nearly 300,000 COVID test results reported, 9.23% were positive, the state data showed. The data showed the downward trend was evident across the state.

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We are below 10% positivity rate for the second day in a row. This is extraordinary progress, Hochul said in statement Saturday.

As we continue to see numbers trend downward, lets also continue to do the right thing. Wash your hands, get the vaccine if you havent already, get the booster dose, and wear a mask. We will continue to see this downward trend in other parts of the state soon.

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(File) The states COVID-19 infection rates dipped below 10% for a second day in a row  a trend hailed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday as extraordinary progress. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

According to the state data released by the governor, as of Friday the number of hospitalizations also declined, along with the number of patients needing intensive care unit treatment. In all, 179 new deaths were reported.

The encouraging trend comes in the wake of good news the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dispensed about areas that were initially the hardest hit by the omicron variant  including New York.

At a White House briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the cases in some areas hit hardest by the super-fast spreading variant are now showing signs the infection has crested in New York and other northeastern states.

These reports add more evidence to the importance of being up to date on your COVID vaccinations, she said.

The number of New Yorkers whove completed a vaccination series, including a booster shot, is now at 71.3%, Saturdays state data showed.

In late December, the omicron wave fueled a 63% spike in statewide hospitalizations in just one week, and a staggering 22% test positivity rate.

The daily positivity rate was below 5% at the start of December, when the delta variant remained dominant.
A bomb blast on a minibus killed at least seven people in the western Afghan city of Herat on Saturday, officials told AFP.

The sticky bomb was attached to the fuel tank of the bus, and left nine other people wounded.

"Four women were among the seven killed," the head of Herat's provincial hospital, Arif Jalali said.

The blast was confirmed by Herat's intelligence office.

"Initial reports indicate it was a sticky bomb attached to the fuel tank of the passenger vehicle," said Sabit Harwi, a spokesman for the office.

Herat provincial police also confirmed the bomb blast.

Security in Afghanistan has vastly improved since a two-decade-long insurgency by the Taliban ended with the hardline Islamist group's capture of the capital Kabul in August.

However, several attacks are reported each week throughout the country, including some claimed by the regional chapter of the Islamic State group.

Herat is the country's third-biggest city, close to the border with Iran, and has remained relatively peaceful in recent months.

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With tens of thousands of Russian troops positioned near Ukraine, the Kremlin has kept the US and its allies guessing about its next moves in the worst security crisis to emerge between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Amid fears of an imminent attack on Ukraine, Russia has further upped the ante by announcing more military drills in the region. It also has refused to rule out the possibility of military deployments to the Caribbean, and President Vladimir Putin has reached out to leaders opposed to the West.

The military muscle-flexing reflects a bold attempt by the Kremlin to halt decades of NATO expansion after the end of the Cold War. In talks with the United States, Russia demands legally binding guarantees that the alliance will not embrace Ukraine and other former Soviet nations, or place weapons there.

Also Read | Where Ukraine's sunflowers once sprouted, fears now grow

It also wants NATO to pull back its forces from countries in Central and Eastern Europe that joined the alliance since the 1990s.

Putin has described NATO membership for Ukraine and the others as well as the alliance's weapons deployments there as a red line for Moscow, warning that he would order unspecified military-technical measures if the demands aren't met.

Putin pointed to NATO drills with the Ukrainian military, increasingly frequent visits of the alliance warships in the Black Sea and the flights of US bombers near Crimea to emphasize the urgency of Russia's security demands. He argued that by creating training centres in Ukraine, Western powers can establish a military foothold there even without its joining NATO.

"We have nowhere to retreat, Putin said. "They have taken it to the point where we simply must tell them: Stop!'

Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, has denied it intends to attack its neighbour. Last year, however, Putin issued a stark warning that an attempt by Ukraine to reclaim control of the areas in the east controlled by Russia-backed separatists would have grave consequences for Ukrainian statehood.

Also Read  Cold War flashbacks in Russia-US talks in Geneva

While Ukrainian authorities denied planning such offensive, US intelligence officials concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to carry out acts of sabotage in the rebel east and blame them on Ukraine in a false-flag operation to create a pretext for a possible invasion. Russia has rejected the claim as total disinformation.

Putin has repeatedly asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, and says large chunks of Ukrainian territory are historic parts of Russia -- arbitrarily granted to Ukraine by Communist leaders during Soviet times.

Over 14,000 people have been killed in nearly eight years of fighting in Ukraine's industrial heartland called the Donbas, where the Moscow-supported insurgency erupted shortly after the annexation of Crimea. A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped end large-scale battles, but a political settlement has stalled, and frequent skirmishes have continued along the tense line of contact.

Earlier this year, a spike in cease-fire violations in the east and a Russian troop concentration near Ukraine ignited the invasion fears, but tensions abated when Moscow pulled back the bulk of its forces after manoeuvres in April.

Also Read  From cyberattack to invasion: What's Russia's Ukraine plan?

The military buildup near Ukraine resumed in the fall, with Ukrainian and Western officials warning that the increased troop concentration could herald a multipronged Russian attack.

Putin noted with satisfaction that Russia has caused a certain stress in the West. It's necessary to keep them in that condition for as long as possible," he said in November, ordering his diplomats to push for binding guarantees against NATO expansion.

While the US and its allies rejected the Russian demands for a halt to NATO expansion, some observers note that Moscow's insistence on a written reply may reflect an intention to use it as an argument for a possible escalation.

At this stage, the parties don't intend to compromise and want to shift responsibility for a potential conflict, said Kirill Rogov, a Moscow-based independent analyst.

Adding to an estimated 100,000 troops deployed near Ukraine, Russia also has moved more troops from Siberia and the Far East for joint drills with its ally Belarus, which also borders Ukraine. In those exercises, Russian military units have moved to areas near Belarus' southern border, which is about 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Kyiv.

Also Read  US President Biden issues fresh warning to Russia against invading Ukraine

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry also announced a series of naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea and more distant areas such as the Mediterranean, northeastern Atlantic and the Pacific. The exercises that will start this month and last through February would involve over 140 ships, dozens of aircraft and more than 10,000 personnel.

Amid the tensions, Putin also worked to strengthen alliances with the countries opposed to the West. He has hosted Iran's hard-line president for talks on expanding cooperation and is set to travel to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing where he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In recent days, Putin also spoke by phone with the leaders of Nicaragua and Venezuela, and a Russian government plane was recently seen cruising between Cuba and Venezuela in a possible harbinger of the next Kremlin moves.

After the US and its allies rejected Russia's demands for a halt to NATO expansion, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov kept the door open for the deployment of military assets to Cuba and Venezuela.

Also read: 'Minor incursion' by Russia could complicate West's response

While voicing concern that NATO could potentially use Ukrainian territory for the deployment of missiles capable of reaching Moscow in just five minutes, Putin has warned that Russian warships armed with the latest Zircon hypersonic cruise missile would give Russia a similar capability if deployed in neutral waters.

Fyodor Lukyanov, a leading Russian foreign policy expert, observed that with Russia and the West taking intransigent stands in the talks, an escalation appears inevitable.

Tensions will be high, including demonstrations of force not necessarily near or in Ukraine, Lukyanov wrote in a commentary. Real talks with some room for manoeuvring and a broader agenda would ideally begin only after the next round of escalation in order to ease tensions.

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No third party should interfere in the friendly relations between Beijing and Colombo, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to the island nation earlier this month. It was not lost on anyone which country he referred to as the third party, given the history of strategic rivalry between China and India in the Indian Ocean region and their competition for geo-political influence in Sri Lanka.

Wang had reasons to send out a not-so-subtle message to Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The second of Mahinda Rajapaksa's two consecutive terms in the office of the President of Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2015 had seen China expanding its footprints in the island nation, causing much unease to India. He had ignored the security interests of India and allowed China to develop strategic assets, like Hambantota Port, in the island. Chinas debt-trap diplomacy had succeeded in making Sri Lanka give it the Hambantota Port on lease for 99 years.

Also Read | Sri Lanka invites more Indian investments in ports, infra, energy and manufacturing sectors

After Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected the President and Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to power as Prime Minister in November 2019, Sri Lankas drift towards China regained momentum. The government led by the Rajapaksas scrapped a trilateral treaty Sri Lanka earlier signed with India and Japan for development of the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port, apparently at the behest of China. It also got Sri Lankan Parliament pass the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill, which drew flak for allegedly allowing China to set up a colony in the Indian Ocean island nation undermining the sovereignty of the country. New Delhi is concerned over the CHEC Port City Colombo as it could eventually be turned into an overseas colony of China  less than 300 kilometers away from the southern tip of India.

China also sought to make a foray into Sri Lankas Tamil-majority northern and eastern provinces, obviously to expand its geo-political influence, elbowing out India. The state-owned companies of the communist country started working on infrastructure projects, including hybrid power plants, in the islets not very far from India.

New Delhis quiet and painstaking diplomacy with Colombo however paid off with India getting some success in clawing back the ground it lost to China in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka awarded the contract for the West Container Terminal to Adani Group of India in September 2021.

As a row erupted between Colombo and Beijing over the decision of Sri Lankan authorities not to allow a ship carrying 20000 tonnes of organic fertilizers from China to offload the consignment, India in November 2021 quickly stepped in and sent two C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the Indian Air Force to the island nation with a consignment of 100,000 Kgs of Nano Nitrogen.

China in December 2021 withdrew from the proposed power projects in northern Sri Lanka, citing security concerns from a third party. And, just days before the Chinese Foreign Minister arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka worked out a new agreement with India for joint development of the oil storage tanks, which were built by the British Government during the World War II in Trincomalee on the north-east coast of the Indian Ocean island.

If Colombo is signaling a rebalancing in its ties with Beijing and New Delhi, it perhaps rattles China, which has been trying to build strategic assets in the Indian Ocean to encircle India.

Also Read | Indias economic package has given Sri Lanka breathing space, need to seek bailout from IMF, says top Lankan economist

New Delhi is also providing two credit lines to Sri Lanka to help it recover from the economic crisis caused by the measures put in place to contain the Covid-19 pandemic  one of $ 1 billion to help the island nation import food, medicine and other essential items and another of $ 500 million for import of petroleum products from India. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa recently had discussions on the proposed credit lines. They also discussed two other initiatives New Delhi recently took to bail out Colombo  extension of the $ 400 million to Sri Lanka under the SAARC currency swap arrangement and deferral of Asian Clearing Union settlement of $ 515.2 million by two months.

New Delhi is also trying to connect with the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, which has regained momentum after the April 21, 2019 terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. It helped the Rajapaksa Clan to return to the helm of the government in Colombo. The Bharatiya Janata Partys government in New Delhi is now trying to reach out to the powerful Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, who have been opposing Indias traditional support to the clamour for more political power for the islands minority Tamils. New Delhi in September 2020 pledged a grant assistance of $ 15 million to develop Buddhist ties between India and Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021 himself hosted a delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, who arrived on the first flight that landed at the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh. He also warmed up to the GenNext of the first family of Sri Lanka with a one-on-one meeting with Mahindas son and Gotabayas nephew Namal Rajapaksa, who led the delegation.

The Modi Government, however, will have to tread cautiously to strike a balance between its bid to reach out to the proponents of the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism and its engagement with its traditional support base in the Indian Ocean island  the minority Tamils. New Delhi has been sticking to the ritual of regularly prodding Colombo to fully implement the 13th amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka for devolution of power to the provincial councils as well to hold elections to provincial councils. The voices within the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and some other organizations supporting the party have been opposing both. But the leaders of seven political parties representing the Tamils of Sri Lanka of late wrote to Modi, requesting him to nudge the government of the island nation to speed up implementation of the 13th amendment of the Constitution. This did not go down well with the ruling dispensation in Colombo, which advised them to take up their concerns with the Sri Lankan President, instead of writing to the Prime Minister of India.

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The Taliban's first official talks with the West on European soil since seizing power in Afghanistan will help to "transform the atmosphere of war" after a two-decade insurgency against NATO forces, the group's top spokesman told AFP Saturday.

The hardline Islamists stormed back to power in August as the US and foreign troops began their final withdrawal from the country following a stalemate on the battlefield.

No country has yet recognised the Taliban's government -- notorious for human rights abuses during a first stint in power between 1996 and 2001 when they were ousted by a US-led invasion.

Also Read | Afghan NGO women 'threatened with shooting' for not wearing burqa

"The Islamic Emirate has taken steps for meeting the demands of the Western world and we hope to strengthen our relations through diplomacy with all the countries, including European countries and the West in general," Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Saturday.

The Taliban want to "transform the atmosphere of war... into a peaceful situation".

Talks between the Taliban and Western officials will open in Oslo on Sunday on human rights and humanitarian aid as a poverty crisis deepens.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since the Taliban's takeover. International aid came to a sudden halt and the United States has frozen $9.5 billion (8.4 billion euros) in Afghan central bank assets held overseas.

Also Read | Reopening schools for girls our responsibility, not world pressure: Taliban

Hunger now threatens 23 million Afghans, or 55 per cent of the population, according to the United Nations, which says it needs $5 billion from donor countries this year to address the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The visit from Sunday to Tuesday will see meetings between the hardline Islamists, Norwegian authorities and officials from a number of allied countries including Britain, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and the United States, the Norwegian foreign ministry statement said.

The Taliban delegation is also expected to meet Afghans from civil society, including women leaders and journalists, at a time when the freedoms of those living in Afghanistan are being increasingly curtailed.

"These meetings do not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban" Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said Friday.

Also Read | Taliban kills eight Afghan resistance fighters in firefight

"But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster."

The 15-member all-male Taliban team, led by foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, left Kabul on Saturday on a plane organised by the Norwegian government, a Taliban spokesman said.

Ali Maisam Nazary, the foreign relations chief for the National Resistance Front (NRF) -- an opposition group that bills itself as the last bastion against total Taliban control -- condemned Norway over the talks.

"We all must raise our voices and prevent any country from normalizing a terrorist group as the representative of Afghanistan," Nazary, who is based in Paris, tweeted on Friday.

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Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymn 'Abide With Me' will not be played at the Beating Retreat ceremony, the culmination of Republic Day celebrations, on January 29, for the first time in the history of national day celebrations since 1950.

In 2020, there were reports that the hymn had been dropped, which triggered a controversy, for 'Vande Mataram' but in 'Abide With Me' found its place at the end along with the national song then.

'Abide With Me' is a Christian hymn penned by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte and has been played at the end of Beating the Retreat ceremony held at Vijay Chowk with the President, Prime Minister and other senior dignitaries in attendance.

This time, the official list of the 26 tunes to be played in the Beating The Retreat ceremony shared with media does not mention 'Abide with Me.'

A startup supported by the Technology Development Board, under Department of Science and Technology (DST) and incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, will conduct the drone show, the science and technology minister said.

Also read: R-Day parade: Navy's tableau to depict 1946 uprising; woman officer to lead marching contingent

India will be the fourth country after China, Russia and the UK to carry out such a large-scale show with 1,000 drones, Singh said.

The Beating the Retreat is a centuries-old military tradition dating from the days when troops disengaged from battle at sunset. As soon as the buglers sounded the 'Retreat', the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield.

At the end of Beating the Retreat ceremony, the flags are lowered against the backdrop of the setting sun followed by the lighting up of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, North Block, South Block and Parliament House in unison.

Officials said 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers will participate in the ceremony, which starts with the 'Fanfare by Buglers' and followed by Veer Sainik composed by Major Ashok Kumar and played by Mass Bands.

The Pipes and Drums band will play six tunes -- 'Hey Kanchha', 'Channa Bilauri', 'Jai Janam Bhumi', 'Nritya Sarita', 'Vijay Josh' and 'Kesaria Banna.' This is followed by 'Veer Siachin', 'Hathroi' and 'Vijay Ghosh' by the CAPF band.

Four tunes -- 'Ladaakoo', 'Swadeshi', 'Amar Chattan' and 'Golden Arrows' -- will be played by Air Force Band. The tunes played by Navy Band will be 'Swarn Jayanti', 'INS India', 'Yashasvee' and 'Jai Bharati.'

The Army Band will play 'Kerala', 'Siki A Mole', 'Hind Ki Sena.' At the end, Massed Bands will play three more tunes 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye', 'Drummers Call', 'Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon' followed by the retreat by buglers playing 'Sare Jahan Se Acha.'

Around 1,000 drones also will light up the sky for 10 minutes at the Beating the Retreat Ceremony next week.

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The Congress on Saturday kept up its opposition to Assam governments recommendation for a give and take formula to settle partially the long-pending boundary dispute with Meghalaya and demanded discussion on the matter in the state Assembly.

It said the Assam governments decision should be challenged in court and a mass movement should be built against it. Congress, which is the main opposition party in Assam, staged a demonstration in front of its headquarters here during the day against the governments proposal.

It also convened a meeting of academicians, intellectuals and lawyers to discuss the issue. Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia (Cong) wrote to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, saying the decision is against the interests of the state and demanded a special Assembly session to discuss the matter in detail.

"By taking a final decision on the Assam-Meghalaya border imbroglio in the state cabinet and sending a report to the Centre without a discussion in the state Assembly, you have done something that is against the states interests. This is irresponsible and unconstitutional, he said.

Saikia urged the chief minister to rescind the cabinet decision and the final recommendation. If you do not allow a discussion in the House on the issue and proceed without concern for public opinion, you will be remembered in history as the chief minister who surrendered, the Congress leader said in his letter.

According to the final set of recommendations given jointly by three regional committees formed by the two states, out of 36.79 sq km of disputed area taken up for settlement in the first phase, Assam will get full control on 18.51 sq km and Meghalaya on 18.28 sq km.

Also read: Assam may concede claims on half of disputed border with Meghalaya

The recommendations were approved by the cabinets of the two states on January 19 and were submitted to Union Home Minister Amit Shah by Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma on Thursday.

In the meeting organised by the Congress, civil society participants called for immediate withdrawal of the proposals made by the government, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) spokesperson Manjit Mahanta said in a statement.

The meeting was equivocal in stating that the public of Assam will never accept such surrender by the government, he said.

The statement said the government did not heed the Congress request for further discussion on the issue and went ahead and got it approved by the state cabinet. It said several persons present in the meeting pointed that the state government had on many occasions informed the Assembly that Meghalaya has been encroaching its land.

"Now the same government is ready to concede it". Speaking at the meeting, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupen Borah said the party will never allow such an "undemocratic, unconstitutional" decision as the one taken by the Assam government to be imposed on the people.

He also questioned the state governments failure to discuss the matter in the Assembly and to take the people into confidence before approving the recommendations of the regional committees and forwarding it to the union home minister.

Meghalaya was carved out of Assam in 1972 and it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to disputes related to 12 areas in different parts of the shared 884.9 km long border. Six areas with relatively less critical differences have been taken up in the first phase of the settlement of the inter-state border dispute.

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Not even a week following his removal from the BJP, Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat returned to the Congress almost six years after his departure.

Rawat, who was removed from the saffron party over alleged indiscipline, joined the Congress along with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain on Friday, in the presence of Congress leader Harish Rawat, who had initially opposed the entry of Gusain.

The Congress put up a united face on Friday  with PCC president Ganesh Godiyal, Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Pritam Singh and state party in-charge Devender Yadav in attendance  despite Harak Singh Rawat having played a key role in bringing down Harish Rawats government in 2016.

Harak Singh had joined eight other MLAs to bring down the Congress government in the state, after he was allegedly refused more portfolios, including PWD and Power.

However, this was not a first, as he has a history of changing parties.

Also Read  Denied tickets, Uttarakhand BJP leaders threaten to break ranks

Harak Singh had joined the BJP in 1984, following which he contested the assembly elections in the then undivided Uttar Pradesh. He lost out, but not for long. In 1991, he won the election from Pauri to become the youngest minister in the Kalyan Singh cabinet.

But not everything was rosy. He defected to the Bahujan Samaj Party soon after and upon being denied a ticket, jumped ship to the Congress in 1998. After Uttarakhand was separated in 2000, he won the 2002 and 2007 elections from Lansdowne for the Congress, even becoming the Leader of Opposition from 2007 to 2012.

True to form, after losing the 2012 elections in the race for the CMs post, Harak Singh moved back to the BJP in 2016. Despite his chequered history, his long history of election wins is an attractive proposition for any party.

Current standing

According to a report by The Indian Express, the Congress might not oblige him further though, and he would have to choose between himself and his daughter-in-law for a ticket. The report added that BJPs real provocation for doing away with him was the partys reluctance to give a ticket to Gusain as well.

While Harak Singh may have hoped to have better bargaining power with Congress, his dismissal from the BJP may have reduced his standing.

Also Read  Party-hopper Harak Singh returns to Congress in Uttarakhand

Talking to The Indian Express last month, Harish Rawat had indicated he would be accommodating, to an extent. I have already said we will not take those involved in dislodging the government. But later I also said that if the party thinks it right, then we can consider. However, the person has to regret that the step at that time was against Uttarakhand and democracy Regret for toppling the government is a must, he had said.

BJP spokesperson Suresh Joshi claimed that the decision of the Congress to induct Harak Singh proved that all the allegations the latter had once made against the party were correct.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will release the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, the first of its kind index for a union territory.

Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for State Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir will also address the event to be organised jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development in association with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad.

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said in a statement that Union Home Minister Shah will release the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

The District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir was prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcements made in the Behtar e-Hukumat  Kashmir Aelamia resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices in Srinagar, it said.

The exercise on the formulation of the District Good Governance Index was set in motion in July 2021 which has now been completed, and Jammu and Kashmir will become the first union territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index, it said.

The District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir represents a major administrative reform in benchmarking good governance at the district level and a significant step for timely collation and publication of statistics at the state/district level, according to the statement.

The index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir, it said.

During the occasion, a presentation on the formulation of District Good Governance Index will be made by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad, the statement said, adding that it will be followed by district presentations by selected 12 District Development Commissioners, who will be showcasing achievements of various sectors.

Thereafter a panel discussion will be held on District Good Governance Index - A Way Forward for futuristic 2.0 version of DGGI for measuring and benchmarking performance and improvement of districts in future as well.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday condoled with the families of those who died in a fire in Mumbai.

He wished for a speedy recovery to the injured and urged party workers to provide assistance to the affected.

"The tragic news of fire in a Mumbai high rise is disturbing. My condolences to the family of those who've lost their lives. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured," Gandhi said in a Facebook post.

Also read: Six killed, several injured in 20-storeyed Mumbai building fire

"I appeal to Congress workers to be of every possible assistance," he said.

At least six people died and 15 others were reported injured in a massive fire that broke out this morning in a Mumbai high-rise.

The fire reportedly broke out on the 18th floor of Kamla Building opposite Gandhi Hospital at Gowalia Tank in city's Tardeo area.

Video clips shared on social media showed a plume of dense smoke bellowing from the top of the building. Rescue work is still on.

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This year's Republic Day parade will have 16 marching contingents, 17 military bands and 25 tableaux of various states, departments and armed forces, the Indian Army said in a statement on Saturday.

The Army will be represented by a mounted column of cavalry, 14 mechanised columns, six marching contingents and a flypast by advanced light helicopters of its aviation wing at the Republic Day parade-2022 (RDP-2022), it said.

The mechanised columns of the Army will show one PT-76 tank, one Centurion tank, two MBT Arjun MK-I tanks, one APC TOPAS armoured personnel carriers, one BMP-I infantry fighting vehicle and two BMP-II infantry fighting vehicles, it stated.

Also Read | R-Day parade: Navy's tableau to depict 1946 uprising; woman officer to lead marching contingent

One 75/24 Pack howitzer, two Dhanush howitzers, one PMS bridge-laying system, two Sarvatra bridge-laying systems, one HT-16 electronic warfare system, two Taran Shakti electronic warfare systems, one Tiger Cat missile system and two Akash missile systems will also be part of the mechanised columns.

The six marching contingents of the Indian Army will be of Rajput Regiment, Assam Regiment, Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, Sikh Light Infantry, Army Ordnance Corps Regiment and Parachute Regiment, according to the statement.

One marching contingent each of the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy will also participate in RDP-2022, the statement said.

Also Read | Political row over rejecting Kerala's tableau for Republic Day

From the central paramilitary forces, five marching contingents of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Police Force (CISF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Border Security Force (BSF) will participate in RDP-2022, it stated.

Overall, there will be 16 marching contingents from the armed forces, central paramilitary forces, Delhi Police, National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) along with 17 military bands, pipes and drum bands at the parade, it noted.

Two Param Vir Chakra and one Ashok Chakra awardees will also participate in this year's parade.

Also Read | After Centre's rejection, Netaji tableau to be displayed at Kolkata Republic Day programme

Before the commencement of RDP-2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the nation in paying homage to the soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice by laying a wreath at the National War Memorial, the statement said.

RDP-2022 will begin at 10.30 am and end at 12 noon, it said.

Twenty-five tableaux of various states, departments and armed forces will be part of RDP-2022, it said.

Also Read | 4 poll-bound states' tableaux in Republic Day parade

Two teams -- one male team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and one female team of Border Security Officer (BSF) -- will do the motorcycle display.

Lieutenant General Vijay Kumar Mishra, General Officer Commanding Delhi Area, will be the parade commander and Major General Alok Kacker, Chief of Staff Delhi Area, will be the second-in-command of the parade, the statement said.

RDP-2022 will march from Vijay Chowk to the National Stadium through the traditional route of Rajpath, it said.

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The adorable Bronx baby shot in the face by a stray bullet marked her first birthday Friday while recovering from brain surgery as cops continued the manhunt for her callous shooter.

Little Catherine Gomez remained at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan two days after a gunman dressed all in black fired wild two gunshots at a fleeing man, with one of the wayward bullets tearing into the childs left cheek.

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The child was wearing a pink DKNY winter coat and sitting inside the family SUV when the bullet struck her around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Investigators believe the shooting was sparked by a turf battle between warring drug dealers and street crews, a high-ranking NYPD source told the Daily News.

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As relatives waited hopefully for Catherines recovery, the childs aunt posted a photo of the baby wearing a pink knit hat on a GoFundMe page seeking financial assistance for her overwhelmed family.

Catherine Gomez, the Bronx baby shot in the face by a stray bullet on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (GoFundMe)

As many of you may know, Catherine suffered a horrific trauma, read the appeal from Marta Orellana. She has had to undergo brain surgery and is still in the hospital recovering. I would like to help Catherine and her family with some financial assistance.

They have to deal with so much already and the last thing they need to worry about are all the financial issues that arise from medical treatment.

Doctors described the babys condition as critical but stable. Her black-clad shooter remained on the loose two days after the horrific shooting.

NYPD detectives investigate the scene on Valentine Ave. at E. 198th St., where Gomez was shot on Wednesday. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)

Cops released surveillance images of the gunman and the gray four-door sedan used to flee the scene.

As the citywide search for the suspect continued, the NYPD posted a $3,500 reward for help in locating the wanted man, officials said.

We cant let the person responsible for harming this innocent child get away with this, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said in a tweet. We need your help to identify and catch him.

The fugitive criminal stalked his target along the Grand Concourse until the man spotted the assailant and took off running. The shooter gave chase, police video shows. After firing his gun, he doubled back and escaped on the Grand Concourse.

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Cops were also hunting the intended victim, who fled the scene uninjured after dodging a literal bullet.

The babys mother, Miraide Gomez, was sitting alongside the little girl inside the family SUV as her father bought groceries in a nearby deli.

Police officers loaded the tiny gunshot victim into a squad car and rushed her to the hospital. The bullet was later found embedded into the back seat of the SUV.

The GoFundMe appeal mentioned the mounting medical bills facing the childs family, noting they already had myriad issues to handle going forward.

If you feel it in your heart to donate, please do, Orellana wrote to end her appeal. Lets help raise funds for this family. Thank you and God Bless.

Outside the deli where Catherine was shot, relatives and neighbors braved the cold for a vigil on Friday and sang a chorus of the Happy Birthday song.

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A bunch of helium balloons, some reading Happy Birthday, were tied to a tree outside the store where the girls dad had been shopping.

Were praying for the baby to come through, said Tony Soto, 60, an uncle. Its in Gods hands right now. This is real hard for us.

Were all hurting, Im trying to do my best to keep it together because the pain is killing me to see that my niece is fighting for her life.

Soto appealed to the gunman to turn himself in.

Im just hoping they catch the guy as soon as possible, said David Soto, 57. another uncle. My niece, its her birthday today. That hurts me.

Elected leaders weighed in on the shooting, the latest in a spate of gun violence that left another family devastated.

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I spoke with the parents this this evening on my way up here, just beautiful parents, said Mayor Adams. The night of this shooting when they they just walked into the room to speak with me. And all they said is can we just hold hands together in a circle.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

We have united around this issue of ridding our communities of the over proliferation of guns. We want to stop whats on the street and damn it, we want to stop it from coming on our streets.

Bronx DA Darcel Clark vowed to hunt the shooter down.

This is a message to that young man that shot that gun on the street, Clark said. You need to know that were not going to stop looking for you. This is a message to him: Turn yourself in. This is a message to the community: Turn him in,

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Adams said the gunmen dont care who they shoot, whether its cops or kids.

It doesnt matter to them if its someone in a blue uniform, someone in blue jeans, Adams said, or a baby in a pink coat.
The Cyberabad police busted an interstate ganja smuggling gang and seized 800 kilograms of marijuana from a truck transporting ginger.

A special operations team nabbed six interstate drug peddlers, identified as Ashok Khule, Amol Athawale, Rahul Kumar Singh, Vilash Jagannath Phachore, Firoz Momin and Sudam Ghotekar. Besides 800 kilograms of contraband, one car, one DCM and five mobile phones, all worth about Rs 1.8 crore, were seized.

The main accused, identified as Vikas Jadhav, of Nashik, to whom the supplies were routed and the supplier, Subhash Kumar alias Rahul Kumar, of Koraput, are still absconding. The gang was running a ganja transportation network from Koraput in Odisha to Maharashtra via Hyderabad.

Also Read  Outside visitors banned, ganja sent to Bengaluru prisoners by post

The police said that the consignment was packed in 156 packets, each containing five kilograms of dry ganja, concealed under the bags of ginger in the truck. To avoid police vigil, the truck was driven in routes without tolls, but was stopped at a checkpoint in Miyapur of Hyderabad on Friday morning.

According to Cyberabad police commissioner Stephen Raveendra, the accused purchased marijuana at Rs 3,000 per kilogram and sold it for Rs 20,000 per kilogram.

Following the instructions of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a few months ago, the Telangana police have increased its surveillance to curb the spread of the ganja menace.

Under the Cyberabad commissionerate limits alone, 2,863 kg of marijuana was seized in the past year and the PD [Prevention of Dangerous activities] Act was invoked in 25 instances. A total of 222 cases were registered in 2021 and 2022, with 459 persons arrested.

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The Democratic Party, an ally of the BJP-led NDA, on Saturday demanded action against the ruling CPI-M in Kerala for "glorifying" China at its ongoing party meetings.

State party president George Sebastian said the Centre should take steps to initiate a probe in the matter. "They enjoy the country's democratic freedom and then glorify China at the ongoing district party meetings. This is nothing but an anti-national act and a case should be registered," said Sebastian.

"The Centre should probe if they are getting funds for praising China," he added.

Also Read  Political row over rejecting Kerala's tableau for Republic Day

Last week, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan asked the CPI-M to spell out its policy on China as two of its top leaders have been speaking in different tones.

Veteran CPI(M) politburo members S Ramachandran Pillai and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in a gap of few days, had come out with divergent views on China following which Satheesan asked the party whether the national interest of their own country or that of China was more important.

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Six persons were killed and 17 others were injured after a fire broke out in the Kamala Building at Nana Chowk in Grant Road area of south Mumbai on Saturday morning.

According to the Mumbai fire brigade and police, the fire broke out on the 18th floor of the 20-storeyed building.

The fire, reported around 7:28 am, has been controlled and cooling operations are under way.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi terms Mumbai fire 'tragic', urges party workers extend help

Fifteen injured have been admitted to the Bhatia Hospital of which 12 are stable and three are in ICU in critical condition. Four injured persons were rushed to the Nair Hospital of which two were declared dead.

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the affected buildings and hospitals to inquire about the injured.

Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from PMNRF for the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the building fire. The injured would be given Rs 50,000.

In a tweet, PM Modi said, "Saddened by the building fire at Tardeo in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and prayers with the injured for the speedy recovery."

Aaditya Thackeray said, "The state government will provide a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to family members of those who lost their lives in this unfortunate fire."

"There were reports about 2 hospitals refusing treatment, however both hospitals informed me that they have admitted and treated some of those injured in this fire," he tweeted.

He said he visited the affected building and also spoke to the residents, whom he assured to provide "complete assistance". Talking to reporters, Thackeray said short-circuit was the prima facie cause of the fire and the building has been evacuated after the incident.

n a social media post, Fadnavis, who is Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, said, "I am shocked and anguished to know nearby hospitals refused admissions to the injured persons, which resulted into more deaths. If it is true then, BMC and State administration should fix the responsibility for these deaths and take action against those who are responsible for the deaths."

(With agency inputs)

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The Gujarat government on Saturday announced that the theme of the state's tableau to be exhibited in New Delhi on January 26 would be based on a "story highlighting tribal freedom fighters of Pal Dadhvaav", in which 1,200 tribals were said to have been massacred by Britishers, making it an event "worse than Jallianwala Bagh."

The theme of the tableau, titled "Tribal Revolutionaries of Gujarat", would depict an around 100-year-old story in Pal and Dadhvaav villages of Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat. "The Britishers had massacred 1,200 tribals, an event worse than Jallianwala Bagh. This republic day, the Gujarat government, through a tableau, will present this untold story of bravery and sacrifices of the Tribals," a release issued by the government stated.

Also Read | Republic Day parade to have 25 tableaux, 16 marching contingents, 17 military bands

"On the day of Amalki Ekadashi (March 7, 1922) just before Holi, freedom-seeking tribals gathered under the leadership of Motilal Tejawat, known as 'Gandhi of Koliyari, at a fair. At the very moment, soldiers from Mewad Bhil Corps arrived at the procession and under direction from its officer Major H G Saturn fired on the gathering. In the unprovoked firing, about 1,200 innocent tribals were killed," the release stated. It further stated that "Two wells  Dhekhadiya and Dudhiya  were overflowing with the bodies of about 1,200 innocent tribals."

"This horrific incident, which took place just three years after the Jallianwala Bagh incident, was forgotten," the release states. It adds that "on April 13, 1919, around 600 innocent civilians were killed at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab." It also mentions how the then chief minister Narendra Modi "brought this crucial chapter of history before the world" by building a memorial at the place where the event occurred.

Arun Vaghela, head of History Department at Gujarat University, told DH, "There is a lack of evidence on the exact number of persons killed in the event but legend has it that hundreds of them were killed. There are songs and stories in the Bhil community that recounts the event. I appreciate the fact that the state government has chosen to highlight this historical event to represent Gujarat."

Vaghela has written on book "Tribal Movements During Colonial Gujarat" where he mentioned about this incident. He added, "This is an important historical incident, which hasn't been highlighted as much as it should have been."

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The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership is busy flaunting what they describe as their "big catch"  Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Bisht Yadav, who switched loyalties to the BJP earlier this week.

It was hot news of the day and widely described by much of the mainstream media as a tit-for-tat by the ruling dispensation that had suffered repeated political onslaughts by the rival SP. Doubtlessly, SP chief, former UP chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, had stolen three influential ministers from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, besides the ruling party's 11 MLAs.

Undeniably, that seemed almost like a mini coup bound to rattle anyone in Adityanath's position. Significantly, the three ministers - Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini - belong to the extreme backward castes (EBCs). Narendra Modi had taken pains to woo the EBCs into the BJP since 2014. The BJP circles were agog with speculation that the high command has chastised the UP chief minister over the losses inflicted by Akhilesh Yadav.

Also Read | Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joins BJP

Under the circumstances, perhaps Aditynath could not think of a better option than ushering in Aparna Yadav. Considering her virtually non-existent political profile, which began and ended as the "younger daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav", she was not a patch on what the BJP had lost. In any case, Aparna Yadav's desperation to get political space in the BJP was an open secret. On several occasions, she was seen at events with the UP chief minister, whose original 'Bisht' family lineage (before he turned a monk) came in handy for her to strike a good social chord with him. 'Bisht' is Aparna's maiden surname too.

"Her Bisht connection has apparently allowed her to fulfil the political ambitions that she could not avail in the Yadav clan," remarked a prominent SP leader. In 2017, Mulayam Singh had insisted that she be given an SP ticket to contest from a local assembly seat in Lucknow. However, she lost pretty badly to the BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

No sooner did the BJP ride to power and Adityanath begin his innings as the chief minister, Aparna Yadav started to connect with the 'Bisht' in him. What began with the chief minister's visit to a gaushala (cowpen), ostensibly adopted by Aparna Yadav, eventually extended her the opportunity to now wear the saffron hat under Adityanath's patronage.

She did not hesitate to publicly shower praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UP chief minister. The message was loud and clear  obviously, she was not getting her desired political space in the Yadav family and would cross over to the BJP at the first opportunity.

But, it was misplaced to consider her plunge into the BJP a big deal for the ruling party. More than anything else, it was a win-win for Aparna Yadav, who would achieve her goal if the BJP were to allow her to contest the forthcoming state elections from the same Lucknow Cantt constituency where she witnessed defeat in 2017.

To that extent, her switch is a symbolic win for the BJP, but it surely cannot be treated as any significant dent in the SP's number one family. After all, it is common knowledge that the Yadav clan was already a divided house the day Mulayam Singh anointed Akhilesh as his political heir in 2012.

Even though Mulayam Singh named his younger son Prateek Yadav as the inheritor to business ventures allegedly running in multi-billions, Prateek Yadav's mother Sadhana Yadav was understood to be looking for a share in political inheritance too. Akhilesh Yadav's chief ministerial term had made it evident that he would not allow that.

Also Read | Mulayam tried to convince Aparna Yadav not to join BJP, says Akhilesh Yadav

It was precisely this tug-of-war for succession that caused a rift in the Etawah family in which yet another contender was Mulayam Singh's younger brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, who felt equally deprived. No wonder Akhilesh Yadav was left isolated against a visibly far more formidable combine of Prateek-Aparna-Sadhana under the patronage of a powerful Shivpal Singh, who together wielded the potential to influence Mulayam Singh. What gave this clique further strength was Mulayam Singh's man Friday, Amar Singh, who also pitched in to oppose Akhilesh Yadav.

Thus, it was no mean task for Akhilesh Yadav to fight back and save his crown. Mulayam Singh's ouster as the SP president resulted from that battle for survival, culminating with Akhilesh Yadav stepping into his father's shoes as the party's supremo in the run-up to the 2017 polls.

Under the circumstances, Aparna Yadav naturally did not see much scope to fulfil her political ambitions in place of her husband Prateek Yadav's. The latter by then seemed to have come to terms with the big real estate business he had in hand. Aparna Yadav went about making efforts to enter the rival BJP camp. Adityanath eventually opened the doors for her to pay Akhilesh Yadav in the same coin that the latter had dealt him.

However, the fact remains that Aparna Yadav's family owes much to Mulayam Singh, be it her mother's job in the Lucknow Municipal Corporation and subsequent shifting to a prized slot as an officer in the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and her journalist father Arvind Singh Bisht's appointment as one of the state information commissioners.

Adityanath was also always obliging towards the Bisht family was demonstrated when he allowed Aparna Yadav to retain a big type-6 house in an upscale government colony under the name of an allegedly non-functional non-governmental organisation (NGO). She does not live in the house.

Interestingly, not long ago, her mother Ambi Bisht had faced serious corruption charges for which action was also initiated against her by the then vice-chairman of LDA. However, despite Adityanath's much-hyped "zero tolerance" to corruption, the inquiries against her are believed to have been closed.

Such is the clout Aparna Yadav had enjoyed even before she was formally inducted into the ruling party.

(Sharat Pradhan is a journalist and author based in Lucknow)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
There are mixed signals on the Covid front in the last few days. The country reported about 3.5 lakh new Covid cases on Friday, 12% higher than the previous days daily cases. There is a view that the pandemic is flattening in some areas, especially in Delhi and Mumbai. After the third wave started, there were occasional dips at the national level on some days. But the positivity rate has continued to rise, except in some pockets. The weekly positivity rate is above 16% for the nation. In Kerala, where testing is high, the positivity rate has gone past 40%. That should make it clear that the dip in the number of cases on some days may have been caused by a reduction in testing. Testing was declining for some time and a new set of guidelines issued by the ICMR recently may have further slowed it down. These guidelines had said that asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients did not have to be tested. The number of tests in most places came down after this notification as it was felt that the benchmark for testing had been lowered for technical or other reasons.

But the Union health ministry has done well to reiterate that there should not be any laxity in testing. The health secretary has written to all states about this. But there is the need for more clarity on the matter because the letter has also endorsed the ICMR guidelines. It is not advisable to issue guidelines that are ambiguous and could be interpreted differently. As the letter stated, the basic objective of testing is early detection of infection, and this remains as valid in the case of Omicron as in the case of Delta.

Experts have said that the rates of hospitalisation and death should be the most important metrics to judge the impact of Omicron. But the high transmissibility of the variant can result in greater number of infections within a given time. Testing is an important tool to understand the incidence and trajectory of the disease. It helps in the identification of clusters and hotspots, which in turn help to set up containment zones and adopt other measures. All this will ensure reduction in mortality and morbidity. Testing now is only about 40% of what it was in the middle of last year but the caseload is about the same. That shows that the positivity rate is much higher now. That is why it should remain a key element of Covid management. Correct and ample data is needed for a better understanding of the disease and for the formulation of strategies, too.
For now, the heat and dust seem to have settled swiftly on the latest round of bickering between India and Nepal over the territorial dispute involving Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura after both issued back-to-back statements asserting their competing claims. Both countries stake claim to the 335-sq km of land located at the tri-junction of India, Nepal and Tibet.

India issued a statement first amidst growing outrage in Nepal over remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on December 30, where he said that the road to Lipulekh was being widened.

The reference to Lipulekh did not go down well in Nepal, among the political parties as well as the common people, with the mention of Lipulekh being perceived as undermining its territorial integrity.

Also Read | Don't construct road via Nepali territory unilaterally, Nepal tells India

The Indian embassy's statement in Kathmandu held that India's "position on the India-Nepal boundary is well known, consistent and unambiguous". It also said that "the established inter-governmental mechanisms and channels are most appropriate for communication and dialogue".

The Sher Bahadur Deuba-led Nepal government, in turn, came under tremendous pressure to counter the Indian statement not just from opposition parties, including the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN-UML, led by former PM KP Sharma Oli but also members of his coalition  the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and the CPN (Unified Socialist) - and his party, the Nepali Congress.

It, therefore, responded by saying that Lipulekh was an integral part of Nepal. But Kathmandu's assertion was not belligerent, noting that it was "committed to resolving the border issues on the basis of historical treaties and agreements, facts, maps and evidence through diplomatic channels as per the spirit of friendly relations between the two countries."

The conciliatory note struck by both New Delhi and Kathmandu indicated that neither side wants the territorial dispute to gain further traction in Nepal, where it is an extremely emotive issue.

But what is amply clear is that the boundary dispute remains a major irritant in bilateral relations. It has become a festering wound with the potential to take a turn for the worse at any time.

With parliamentary elections in Nepal slated towards this year-end, the political parties there will seek to rake up the boundary issue and whip up anti-India sentiments once again.

Bilateral relations had gone into a tailspin for nearly a year after India published a new map in early November 2019 following the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. It showed the disputed Kalapani as a part of India's territory.

In retaliation, the then Nepal government led by Oli published a new map in May 2020 that showed Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani as part of the Himalayan country's territory. The following month, the Oli government steered a constitutional amendment through both houses of Parliament, allowing for a change in the national emblem of Nepal to show the new map. It was passed by an overwhelming majority by both the houses.

Undoubtedly, Oli's shrewd move to change Nepal's map was driven by his desire to burnish his "nationalistic" credentials and strengthen his position as PM in the face of serious challenges to his leadership from within the coalition. However, matters may not have reached such a pass had New Delhi acceded to Kathmandu's demand for talks at the foreign secretary-level to discuss the territorial dispute instead of making the pandemic an excuse not to hold such a meeting even as virtual meetings were being held with other countries.

It is imperative that New Delhi and Kathmandu begin to engage on this dispute instead of allowing matters to drift any further. Indeed, it is incumbent upon India, as the bigger neighbour with its avowed 'Neighbourhood First' policy, to take the lead in initiating a dialogue to resolve the dispute, intractable as it might seem now that Nepal has altered its map to include the disputed territories within its boundaries.

Such a move may also help disabuse the notion within the Nepalese establishment that when it comes to complex issues, India is unwilling to discuss them. As a Nepalese ambassador to India once told me, "We have very close and deep-rooted ties with India. And yet, there's one thing that's missing in our ties. When differences arise, India just doesn't talk to us. Whatever may be the problem, at least we need to show that something is being done about it."

The Indian side may say diplomacy is conducted behind closed doors. But in the case of the boundary dispute, a visible effort by New Delhi to engage with Kathmandu may go a long way in checking the anti-India sentiment that builds up in Nepal over sensitive matters. The unofficial blockade imposed by India on Nepal in 2015, for instance, remains a sore point to this day.

Miffed as New Delhi has been with Kathmandu's alteration of the map, it needs to engage with Nepal on the boundary issue. This is also necessitated by the 'China factor' as it woos Nepal with resources and investments. China's imprint on Nepal's politics and polity has been steadily growing, with its envoy in Kathmandu openly and unabashedly meddling in the country's domestic politics.

Nepal, of course, is also not averse to playing the China card with India. In such a scenario, it is vital for India to protect its strategic interests. While PM Deuba's visit to India earlier this month had to be shelved owing to the Omicron surge, the Nepalese leader should be able to make the trip in the coming months. A beginning should then be made towards resolving the simmering territorial dispute instead of letting it boil over.

(The writer is a senior New Delhi-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
Chasing cases with Hoysala

Bengaluru is a city of 1.27 crore people. How does the Hoysala patrol  272 cars and 544 staffers  keep tabs on a city so big and diverse? We hit the road over many days to find out.

January 11, 1.30 am-3.45 am, Hennur

The neighbourhood woke up to the howls of a half-naked man on the street. He threw tiles, wood and stones at random gates and compound walls. Residents feared for their cars parked outside but none intervened. When the man did not leave for an hour, a citizen dialled 112.

In less than five minutes, Hoysala staff had contacted her, and 10 minutes later, the patrol car reached the spot. They scolded the man and sent him away. But he returned, 30 minutes later, with renewed anger, destroying pots kept outside homes.

It was 2.30 am. Women and children stayed indoors while the men stepped out and again called 112. The Hoysala police arrived in about 15 minutes. They walked the man to the main road and left him near a settlement. We dont round up anybody in a Hoysala unless a case is registered. We warn the conflicting parties, explained Radhakrishna L, head constable at the Hennur police station.

January 11, 6 pm-8.30 pm, Jalahalli

We patrolled Jalahalli for two-and-a-half hours in two Hoysala cabs and received no calls. The policemen honked at auto drivers to tell them to move from the bus stand and park at the designated spot nearby. They asked two boys standing next to a bike in a dark and forested corner near ISRO Colony to leave.

Constable Isak Jameendar, driving the car, said, People call to alert us about sandalwood theft in this area. One evening, we asked a man what he was carrying in his bag. He dropped the bag and ran into the woods. The bag contained tools, possibly to cut sandalwood.

A day before our visit, they were called to disperse a crowd violating Covid norms near the HMT auditorium.

December 13, 3.30 pm-8.30 pm, Banashankari

We were told Banashankari gets a lot of calls but not much happened in the five hours we were with the Hoysala team. At 7.34 pm though, the Hoysala pulled up near Kaveri Nagar. A girl was sitting at the bus stop alone, while four boys were hanging around on two bikes. Suspicious, the cops shooed them away.

Theft of two-wheelers, mobile and chain snatching, neighbour disputes, dogs barking, people objecting to public displays of affection, and boys harassing girls inside parks are common complaints here.

December 13, 3 pm-7 pm, Jayamahal Road

We had just got inside a Hoysala attached to the High Grounds police station when it was asked to rush to a house near the Cantonment station. A teenage girl had called 112 to complain that her alcoholic father was beating her mother. The violence was routine, we learnt.

When the police asked the woman if she would file a complaint, she refused, and pleaded with them to spare her husband. She was accustomed to the beatings and she did not want her children to grow up without their father. During family disputes, we turn into counsellors, says sub-inspector Jahida.

December 11, 2 pm-4.30 pm, Kamakshipalya

At 3.40pm, a pink Hoysala (No 242) attached to Kamakshipalya police station got a call from the Police Control Room. Our car was 3.5 km away from the spot, so the closer Hoysala (No 93) was sent. It reached the spot at 3.44 pm. Visibly drunk, two men were talking loudly on a pavement. They were taken to the police station for further investigation.

Hoysala tablet

The policemen dont let the Hoysala tablet, or the Mobile Data Terminal, out of their sight.

Most patrol staffers bring their lunch boxes and water bottles along, and when they eat outside, they unmount the tablet from the dashboard and carry it along, or one person stays back. If the tablet breaks down, the problem is relayed to the control room immediately.

Once the control room routes a case to a Hoysala, the tablet flashes a quick summary of the case: urgency (high in red, medium in yellow, easy in green), type, address, landmark, complainants contact, nearest police station, date and time. The cops log in the status of the case: Accepted, On Action, At Scene, Closed, and Abandoned.

Inside the nerve centre

When you dial 100 or 112, the call goes to a police control room attached to the police commissioners office on Infantry Road.

This is the nerve-centre of the police force, and it directs and oversees the work of 18,000 personnel tasked with keeping Bengaluru safe. It is manned by 200 people, who work in three shifts.

We made two visits and spent long hours inside the room, watching the operations. The staffers, all dressed in navy blue and light blue, are wearing headphones and talking intently into their phones. Their eyes are fixed on two computers before them.

They key in details as the complaints come in, pressing multiple buttons at the same time. They share the same body language  calm and confident about what is to be done. They speak Kannada, English, Tamil and Telugu, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the city.

The 200 people working at the control room are on contract from a private company called Bharathiya Vikas Group (BVG). The cyber section has 20 policemen manning the phone lines.

At the far end of the room is a giant screen that displays real-time data of how many calls are coming in, and how many Hoysalas are being dispatched to the trouble spots. Every computer in the room is synced with the giant screen and the speed of response is recorded. The screen is maintained by Matrix. The software support is given by Trinity Mobility.

Across this room sit men and women in regular police uniforms. They form the cyber wing, added to the police control room in December 2020 to tackle cyber fraud cases.

Santosh Babu K, deputy commissioner of police, intelligence (Bengaluru), says not all calls are related to emergencies. Some are crank calls or inquiries and people randomly calling to get numbers, but we treat every call with the same importance, he says.

In a year, the control room receives 1.84 crore calls, which is about 1.57 lakh calls a month. On an average day, it gets at least 5,000 calls. And in five minutes, not less than 20 calls come in. All calls are received manually.

The calls are divided into blank calls, crank calls, child calls, departmental calls, senior citizens calls, Suraksha app calls (womens safety) and other calls.

The caller interface saw a huge improvement in 2017, when Praveen Sood was the city police commissioner. He is the current Director General and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka.

Under him, a call centre with 100 lines came into existence. It worked with a software that enabled quick coordination.

A citizen in distress calls 100, a number easy to remember, or 112. Calls to both numbers go to the same control room. An executive receives the call and takes down the name, address and location. A call is usually picked within two seconds. The executive raises a ticket and sends details to the Hoysala closest to the spot. When a call comes in, a Hoysala closest to the caller is sent. It usually reaches the spot in less than five minutes, says Santosh.

Madhu Gowda, project manager at Trinity Mobility, explains how the software helps track real-time data. The giant screen helps us understand what kind of calls come in at what time of the day and we can analyse the patterns, he says.

Tech advantage

City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant says integrating technology with control room operations means getting a quick snapshot of crime in a city teeming with millions.

Otherwise, you need FIRs, filed in each station, to analyse data. With this system, you dont miss tracking any case. You can also compare the data of the last few years to understand what has changed and what new has emerged. We geographically track cases and understand which area is prone to what kind of problem, he says. The automated system instils confidence in citizens because of the quick response, explains Pant. Even those planning to commit a crime think twice because the Hoysalas will arrive in no time, he says.

Learnt to be patient

Manjunath H G, working in the control room for five years, speaks softly in Kannada. He has learnt over the years that he must be empathetic when he gets calls.

I once received a call from a man whose two-year-old daughter had been raped by a 75-year-old neighbour in Padarayanapura. The father was distraught and couldnt speak. I had to first calm him down and assure him that the Hoysala would reach him quickly if he could share his address and location. It was after my reassurance that he mustered the courage to share the details, he says.

Sometimes, he says, he has to play counsellor. This is a high pressure job where we handle sensitive cases. It has taught me to be patient, he says.

Seated across him is Raveena, a native of Kodagu. She joined the control room only nine months ago, during the pandemic. I was curious about who takes phone calls and how a problem is solved. It is only after I became part of the team here that I realised what a great responsibility we shoulder, she says.

Cyber crime helpline soon

The cyber wing in the control room, launched on December 20, 2020, is entirely managed by the police. They received 8,733 cases between December 22, 2020 and January 1, 2022.

The cyber wing gets 40 to 50 calls a day. They have two tasks after a complaint is routed to them from the control room  collect relevant documents and prepare a crime incident report (CIR).

In order to have a standardisation across the country, Ministry of Home Affairs has launched a new toll free number 155260. All cyber complaints will be routed to this number. It will be implemented in Bengaluru in another three months once the requisite technical issues are worked out, says Santosh Babu K, deputy commissioner of police, intelligence (Bengaluru). Even 112 will be linked to the national helpline very soon, he adds.

In an effort to ease the process and fast-track investigation, the cyber police encourage complainants to upload documents on the Karnataka State Police app (KSPA), available for Android and iOS. Once we receive documents, we ask the banks to freeze the fraud account. We have managed to recover more than Rs 78 crore this past year, says Santosh.

Integrated control room coming up

Praveen Sood, DG-IGP of Karnataka, says he saw how 999 in Lambeth, London, functioned and replicated the model in Bengaluru. With the launch of Dial 100, we were able to do three things  add 100 additional lines, link 100 with the Hoysalas, and outsource the process of taking calls to trained personnel. Dial 100 has now become 112, Sood tells DH on Saturday. The control room receives only distress calls and not property disputes and such non-emergency cases, clarifies Sood. It helps track crime patterns and acts as a deterrent. With the Hoysalas attending to distress calls, almost 85 per cent of the load is taken off police stations, he adds. He informs that in 2023, the city and state control rooms will be merged into one at the State Command Centre, now under construction on Richmond Road at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will convene an all-party meeting in the first week of February to discuss Karnatakas water disputes involving neighbouring states, which he said have reached a crucial stage.

This was one of the outcomes of Bommais meeting with Karnatakas legal team and senior officials where they discussed the Krishna, Cauvery and Mahadayi disputes.

In the first week of February, an all-party meeting will be held with advocates, senior ministers and floor leaders in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, Bommai told reporters after the meeting. We will discuss the status of these cases and how we should move forward. When it comes to land and water issues, weve always worked together, even when we were in the Opposition.

Also Read | Water Disputes Act creates more disputes: CM Bommai

Bommai said that Karnataka is a mid-riparian state. So, the states above and below us keep raising disputes, he said. When it comes to the Krishna basin, the Bachawat and Brijesh Mishra tribunals have delivered their award and the notification is awaited as the case is before the Supreme Court, he said.

In the case of Mahadayi, the tribunal order has come, but the SC is hearing cases as all three states (Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa) have filed objections on the water allocation, he said. In the case of Cauvery, the tribunal order has been notified. But Tamil Nadu has moved SC on various issues, including Mekedatu.

Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol said that it was decided to request the SC registrar to reconstitute the bench on which two judges have recused themselves from hearing the Krishna dispute. The Mekedatu case is coming up before the SC on February 16. Another meeting will be held before that to take stock of our preparation. And, the Mahadayi case is in the final stages in the SC. We decided to seek faster hearings, he said.

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With citizens staring at a hike in milk prices, water and power bills, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said that the government will not make any hasty decision when it comes to revising tariffs.

No decision has been taken. These things are common in administration. We will make a decision after considering all aspects. We wont make any hasty decisions, Bommai told reporters.

The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) has sought to hike milk prices by Rs 3 per litre. The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has sought to hike power bills by Rs 1.58 per unit. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), too, has asked for a hike in water charges.

Also Read | KMF proposes to hike milk price by Rs 3

Earlier this week, Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar said that an upward revision in power tariff is inevitable.

The plans to hike utility bills received flak from Congress. Life is already difficult because of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially those who live on small earnings. There should not be a hike in power or water tariffs, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar said the government should first take steps to increase citizens' income. Once people have enough income, the government can hike bills.

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan prayed by the bedside of Police Officer Wilbert Mora as the cop clung to life at Harlem Hospital Saturday.

The leader of the New York Archdiocese prayed quietly by the 27-year-old cops hospital bed before giving the critically wounded officer a blessing and consoling Moras mother and cousin.

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Mora was shot by gunman Leshawn McNeil on Friday after a 911 radio run on a domestic disturbance turned into a crazed firefight.

Officer Wilbert Mora (NYPD)

The cops partner, Police Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was fatally shot. McNeill was also critically wounded and hospitalized.

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Moras family were too grief-stricken to talk to the press when reached Saturday.

To the media, we have no comment. Please respect our privacy, a note to the front door of the familys Harlem home read. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

After visiting with Moras mother and cousin, Cardinal Dolan also called Officer Riveras brother to offer condolences.

The cardinal has a great relationship with the NYPD since he came to New York 13 years ago and is always available to help them in their time of need, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese said.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks to the media after a visit to Abraham House, a Catholic Charities Agency in the Bronx, on Dec. 22, 2020. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Both Mayor Adams and Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch returned to Harlem Hospital Saturday.

Hes in for a long struggle, but hes a strong kid and hopefully and one day youll all be here again and we walk him out (of here), Lynch said outside the hospital. Were hoping there is a long recuperation because the alternative is so much worse.

NYPD cars are seen outside Harlem Hospital on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Lynch said he and his members will be with Moras family for as long as they need them.

Sometimes youre there to just give a shoulder, he said. No words can take their pain away, so you are there for support and to help them with whatever they need.

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Sometimes you sit, sometimes you talk and sometimes we pray, he added. We do whatever they need.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin is this evening announcing an end to most Covid-19 restrictions in place in Ireland from 6am on Saturday morning, January 22.

NPHET met earlier this week to discuss the current measures, concluding their meeting by sending a letter to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly with the recommendation to end most measures.

It was left up to Cabinet to decide when to officially scrap the restrictions.

Cabinet met on Friday to discuss proposals and agreed to end a number of restrictions from 6am on Saturday.

From that time onwards, pubs and restaurants will be able to return to their normal working hours while nightclubs will once again be allowed to re-open fully. Neither setting will be required to ask for a Covid-19 vaccination or recovery cert.

Covid certs will only be required for international travel.

Full attendance will be permitted and all indoor and outdoor events. There will be no more requirement for social distancing and no limits on household visits.

The only restrictions remaining in place beyond Saturday will be the wearing of face coverings in most indoor settings, including retail and schools. However, this measure may even end some time in February, it has been indicated. to continue,

People with Covid symptoms are still expected to isolate and seek a test as per guidelines on testing currently in place.

'Not over yet'

Earlier on Friday, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar warned that the return of restrictions cannot be ruled out, and said some measures  such as mask-wearing  could be retained in the future.

This is a virus that has surprised us on many occasions, and its a virus that likes to rip up our plans, he said.

Nobody can rule out another wave after Omicron. Immunity does wane, there will be new variants of concern and of course, respiratory viruses spread more easily in wintertime.

So nobody can rule out the possibility of a fifth wave. Nobody can say for sure whether that would be a mild or severe one.

But I think thats why its important that we continue to build on some of the changes that have been made during the course the last two years.

He said Government will have to continue to increase capacity in hospitals and ICUs, and recruit more doctors, nurses and midwives into the health service.

He added: And were gonna need to put in place monitoring systems to make sure that we can identify new variants quickly, identify their spread quickly.

Also I think there will be a big focus on permanent changes to the way we act as individuals.

I think we may all choose to wear masks in certain settings in the future, particularly if we have symptoms.

We may all decide that we dont go to work or we work from home, if weve symptoms in particular.

He also praised the Irish public, health care workers and business sector for their response during the pandemic.

The only thing Id say, just a particular thanks to the Irish people. Its been a very long two years, he said.

Its certainly not over yet, but were in a much better place than we were in previously."
A new book featuring heartbreaking stories of how some of Derry's adults with learning disabilities coped with the Covid-19 lockdown has been published by local charity Destined in association with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

'Invisible Lives: Stories of the Covid Lockdown,' which features the stories of 38 adults with learning disabilities, was launched by Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke, who described the publication as 'execellent' and congratulated the contributors for telling their stories. Eddie Breslin, from the Housing Executive, also congratulated the contributors on their 'excellent' publication.

Speaking at the launch at Destined's North West Learning Disability Centre on Foyle Road, Charlene Keenan, the charity's manager, said the pandemic had a 'devastating effect' on people with learning disabilities and their families and carers.

Explaining how the book came about, she added: Back in 2009, we created a book entitled Invisible Lives.

The idea of the book was to capture the life stories of people with learning disabilities, and give them an opportunity, many of whom for the first time, to tell their story in their own words.

The result was a powerful piece of work which provided first hand insights on everything thing from parental sacrifice, bullying, to friendship and joy.

It also demonstrated how societys attitude towards people with learning disabilities has changed, mostly for the better over the last number of decades.

Contributor Roisin Doherty speaking at the launch of Invisible Lives: Stories of the Covid Lockdown.'

The days of people sitting at home alone in their bedrooms, were over, or so we thought as no one could of predicted the devastation that the Covid 19 pandemic would bring years later.

The pandemic has had a devastating effect on people with learning disabilities and their families and carers.

During the onset of the pandemic people watched on in fear and anticipation not knowing how and to what extent it would affect them.

The gravity of the situation soon became apparent and life for people with learning disabilities changed almost overnight as restrictions and lockdown came into effect closing businesses, service providers and healthcare facilities.

Many people with learning disabilities were now at home, all day-every day and families found themselves faced with the intensity of the demands of full time caring some juggling this alongside work commitments.

Our focus throughout the pandemic was to support families by reducing levels of isolation and encouraging positive mental health.

We developed a programme of support based around this which run seven days a week throughout the pandemic to support hundreds of families across the North West.

"Part of our programme involved a daily listening ear/advice service whereby people with learning disabilities /and their families could access support.

"We were inundated with calls of people in desperation. We were left with no illusions about the challenges that would lie ahead for people with learning disabilities.

Eddie Breslin, from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, speaking at the launch.

So, unsurprisingly when restrictions eased, we found ourselves dealing with the aftermath of a national lockdown and the effect that this had had on not only peoples physical health but their mental health.

"We started working with people to support them moving forward and adjusting to life post lockdown.

"The more we talked to people the more obvious it became that people had a story to tell and we felt it important to capture these stories which lead the development of our new book Invisible Lives-Stories of the Covid lockdown.

Thirty-eight people with learning disabilities tell the stories of their experiences of the Covid-19 health pandemic and we are delighted to have some of them here today to share their stories with us.

It will likely be some time before the full extent of the pandemic on people with learning disabilities can be told and a full analysis provided. It is crucial in the meantime that we work together to ensure that lessons have been learned when it comes to supporting people with learning disabilities and that they are not an afterthought when it comes to healthcare, education and day to day life.

She concluded: The government must plan for and provide adequate funding for the learning disability sector to ensure now more than ever, that the disproportionate inequalities that people have faced in the past remain exactly where they belong- in the past.

One of the contributors to the book, Destined member Daniel McLaughlin, told those present how he became 'upset and confused' at the start of the lockdown.

He added: I didn't understand what was happeninh. All of a sudden I couldn't come into Destined any more and see my friends and just do my normal routine that I was used to doing.

I was feeling down. I knew I would have to make a whole new routine so that I was kept occupied and busy during this time.

Daniel went on to tell how after beginning to help his mother and father at home, his father fell ill and, sadly, passed away.

This just broke our hearts as we cold not go to the hospital to see daddy due to Covid. It was only my mum and aunt who were allowed in to see dad.

Myself and my brothers and sister stayed at home and talked. We also supported each other as best we could.

When daddy's remains came home, the wake was 'close family only' because of Covid.

It was a very sad time for us all. During the wake, Dermot and Terry from Destined arrived to my home with flowers and on the card it said 'from everyone at Destined and staff.'

I was happy to see someone from Destined. We stayed outside and talked. We also had a few jokes that helped me to feel a bitter better and also happy.

Daniel McLaughlin, contributor, speaking at the launch of Invisible Lives: Stories of the Covid Lockdown.'

The next day, daddy was buried  it was again 'family only' at a private Mass.

Daniel told how his pet dog, Marlo, helped him through lockdown.

He said: I was glad I had Marlo. I would sit and talk to Marlo sometimes at home and when I would take him for walks.

He would just bark back at me as if he understood me and I used to just laugh back at him.
From the study of Fartology to the hidden science behind Derry Girls, discover how you, the universe and everything in between behaves when the NI Science Festival returns to Derry next month with a special programme of events.

The STEM celebration, which has grown to become the largest of its kind on the island of Ireland, will return for a packed 10 days of discovery from Thursday 17  Sunday 27 February.

Covering everything from the natural world, our planet, and the vast expanse of space to engineering, the mind and body, food and much more, the festival presents some of the most prominent scientific minds, thought- leading academics, and captivating authors.

Alderman Graham Warke, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, said the festival was a 'brilliant way' for young people, parents and schools to learn more about science in an engaging, interactive and fun environment.

He added:  The varied and comprehensive programme has something for everyone so I would encourage people to access it and get involved. I am looking forward to welcoming celebrated individuals from the world of science to the city for the event and I hope the programme inspires a new generation of scientists from our council area.

Anchoring the festival on its opening weekend will be the return of its Sustainability Fair which will be hosted in The Playhouse. Join a range of local, national and international organisations who will be demonstrating practical ways to meet the challenge of climate change and make a real difference for the future of the plane.

Ever wondered about the science that underpins your favourite small screen binges? Then Small Screen Science, a science-comedy podcast created by STEM communicators Emma Brisdion and Karen Collins, is the podcast you need to listen to.

In a special event focusing on the hit show Derry Girls, Karen and Emma will be joined by local comedian Diona Doherty to explore the hidden science behind the comedy series .

For younger audiences, the festival will host the most outrageous science show in the world, Fartology with Gastronaut. Hosted by Gastronaut Stefan Gates, embark on an unforgettable, explosive edible adventure exploring the bizarre science behind our food.

In her first-ever home town show, Emer Maguire, fresh from a jam-packed performance at the Ulster Hall, brings In Her Ele- ment to The Alley Theatre.

Emer flawlessly blends laugh out loud musical comedy, science and North- ern Irish charm in a truly unique and hilarious comedy performance.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke pictured with NI Science Festival creative producer Jillian Thompson launching the programme of the upcoming event.

In Gas Man  Observastions of an Anaesthetist, host Leona O'Neill is joined by Derry-born consultant anaesthesiologist Colin Black to discuss his journey from accidental medical student to HSE and NHS trainee and, finally, consultant paediatric Anaesthetist at the largest childrens hospital in Ireland.

On the theme of health, North West Cancer Centre will also host a Radiotherapy Open Day, inviting members of the public nd students with an interest in science and healthcare to visit the department and learn more about the facility and treatments on offer.

A Grief and Trauma Panel Discussion, chaired by Cherie Armour, Professor of Psychological Trauma and Mental Health, and Dr Paul Best from Queens University Belfast, looks at how three remarkable individuals  local 'Iron Man' hero Danny Quigley, who lost his father to suicide; Bronagh Burke who lost both her father and husband to sudden death; and Geraldine Mullen who tragically lost her husband and two children in a car accident  have navigated through their grief and trauma and how they've dedicated their lives and the memory of their loved ones to helping others.

In her first-ever hometown show, Emer Maguire, fresh from a jam-packed performance at the Ulster Hall, brings In Her Element to The Alley Theatre.

Emer flawlessly blends laugh out loud musical comedy, science and Northern Irish charm in a truly unique and hilarious comedy performance.

Cycles of Nature , a two-hour walking tour led by Far and Wild Adventure Company, in association with Indigenous Ireland, will explain the cyclical natural patterns that influ- ence geo-physical terrain of the historic Walled City.

For more information about NI Science Festival events and bookings, visit nisciencefestival.com.
There have been calls for Donegal County Council to install a ramp at Buncrana's iconic Fr Hegarty's rock, a popular walking spot for Derry people.

Speaking at January's meeting of Inishowen Municipal District councillors, Cathaoirleach Nicholas Crossan recalled that 2022 marked the 350th Anniversary of the Ordination of Fr Hegarty by [St] Oliver Plunkett in 1672, who was beheaded in 1711.

Cllr Crossan said: "I have been asking for a ramp up to the grave for some time and there is a special anniversary coming up this year.

"It is something I have be on about for a while and I was promised a few years back it would be done.

"There is a step up, which is about one metre high, or just under a metre and at his time of year, when it is very, very slippery.

"The last three or four times I have been walking out there, there have been people making their way up from the path, some of them not too young and some of them not to able bodied, to read the inscription on the grave. I think a ramp is something we would need done soon," said Cllr Crossan.

The Parish of Buncrana recounts: "Fr Seamus Hegarty was born in Inishowen in 1649. He was ordained a Dominican by Oliver Plunkett at Dundalk in 1672. He ministered in the parish of Lower Fahan and Desertegney and administered the Sacraments which were prohibited under penalty of death by the Penal Laws imposed by the English in 1698.

"Like other priests at that time, Fr Hegarty, refused to apostatize and sign the Oath of Abjuration. He would say Mass at night in lonely quiet areas in the countryside in all weathers to avoid being detected by the English forces. Some parishioners would act as look outs watching in case the English forces discovered them.

"During this time Fr Hegarty lived in hiding in a small cave north-west of Buncrana. His sister Mary often visited him bringing him food and she was the only family member who knew of his whereabouts. Her husband Thomas Doherty was rumoured to be an English-sympathiser.

"One day he discovered Father Hegartys hiding place after following his wife and turned him in to the Redcoats for the 5 reward. Soldiers under the command of an English officer called Vaughan went on horseback after Fr Hegarty but the priest fled on a horse which had been given to him by locals to the rock known today as Father Hegartys Rock.

"He jumped into the waters of Lough Swilly with the intention of swimming to the other side to avoid capture. His pursuers did not want him to be shot or drowned in the water fearing his body might be lost, called out to him telling him he would be spared if he returned. On his return however he was beheaded and his body was buried near the rocky outcrop where he had entered the water. He was buried near the spot where he had been killed. His head was sent to Dublin as there was a bounty on priests heads at that time.

"Thomas Doherty who had betrayed Father Hegarty, died when his horse stumbled and fell while on his way to avenge the death of two of his sons as they had been killed by a bandit named Stumpy'".

The Oath of Abjuration required Catholic Clergy (under penalty of deportation or death) to apostatize and reject Transubstantiation, the Sacrifice of the Mass and the adoration of The Virgin Mary and any of the Saints. In 1709 under the reign of queen Anne, all priests who had registered in 1704 were now required to take the Oath of Abjuration in open court before the 25th of March 1710. Of the 1,089 priests who had registered in 1704, only 33 are known to have taken the Oath of Abjuration.
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Aiming to make CDC nimble, agency director has rankled many

Brynn Anderson I AP Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Dec. 8, 2021, in Atlanta. One year into Walenskys tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself.

NEW YORK  From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information.

Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast.

One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky's tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled  moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public.

"I think they are absolutely trying to be more nimble  and that's a good thing. I don't criticize that," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "I criticize the fact that when you're doing this quickly, in an evolving environment, you can't just put it out there and think that people understand it."

Walensky has said that she came to the CDC thinking about ways to speed data collection and reporting. She once told The Associated Press that she didn't want the agency to spend months gathering data that gets published after it's useful. "Like, no one will care," she said.

Speaking to the AP last week, she said she was proud of what the agency had accomplished in the past year. Her examples included a torrent of CDC scientific reports, rapid identification of concerning vaccine side effects and quick research into new variants.

Among her particular points of pride: Last spring, the CDC was quick to investigate and report on rare but concerning side effects in some vaccine recipients, including an unusual blood clot in young women who had received Johnson & Johnson shots. The identification of about 15 cases  out of more than 8 million people who had gotten the vaccine  led the government to pause the dispensing of J&J shots for 11 days.

"Everyone has said that during a pandemic, CDC has to move faster," she said. "I think we really did that."

Her efforts, though, have sometimes gone awry:

 The agency's decision late last month to shorten isolation and quarantine caught many by surprise. Public confusion included questions such as whether the guidance applied to children and why people didn't need to test negative before going back to their jobs.

 The CDC briefly overstated the omicron variant's penetration in the U.S. In mid-December, the agency estimated 73% of the previous week's coronavirus infections were due to omicron. A week later, the CDC shaved it to 23%, based on additional data. (The CDC turned out to be a week early: Omicron now reigns.)

 Last spring, Walensky said fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in many settings, only to reverse course as the then-new delta variant spread.

Walensky has many defenders. They say that in most cases, core decisions made sense at the time they were made. The real problem, they say, was with how they were rolled out and communicated.

'WE NEED TO DO AN OVERHAUL'

The CDC has long been considered the crown jewel of U.S. public health, with great minds working to investigate illness and coordinate national efforts to prevent it. But it also has been repeatedly criticized as timid and slow in a crisis.

Much of the problem has been lack of funding and governmental authority, said Shelley Hearne, a John Hopkins University professor of health policy and management. She noted, for example, that the CDC can't require doctors or states to report disease case counts or other vital information.

Walensky is not going to change that, Hearne said.

"If the pandemic has shown anything, it's that we need to do an overhaul of how we protect our health," she said.

Compounding the problem is pressure on the CDC from both Republican and Democratic administrations to speak in harmony with the White House. That's not new, but there is now more second-guessing by other scientists and public health experts on social media.

And then there's the general fracturing of the nation.

Some politicians and others have repeatedly undermined the CDC's message, said Benjamin, of the American Public Health Association. CDC directors "didn't have this kind of mischief going on in the past," he said.

TOO SLOW

Early in 2020, the CDC was slow to send out test kits to help state labs identify the earliest coronavirus infections. The agency's kits had a design flaw and were contaminated.

CDC officials were initially focused on the risk of infections spreading from China and were slow to understand how much coronavirus was coming from Europe.

The agency also was criticized for being too slow to recommend people wear masks, to recognize that the virus can spread through the air and to ramp up systematic testing to detect new variants.

In 2020, the Trump administration was accused of political interference for working to control CDC messaging that might contradict the White House's portrayal of how the crisis was unfolding.

Walensky, an infectious-disease specialist known for her communications skills, vowed to restore public trust under President Joe Biden.

This week marks Walensky's anniversary as CDC director, and the agency is still criticized as slow at times.

For example, the CDC last week updated its website to acknowledge N95 masks are more protective than other types and the better choice for most people  something that has long been obvious to scientists.

"So why has its guidance come out late time & time again?" Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law expert, asked on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Biden defended the CDC, saying: "The messages, to the extent they've been confusing  it's because the scientists, they're learning more."

TOO FAST

Public health experts note the fast-changing pandemic has forced the CDC to reverse decisions that made sense at one point but later became problematic.

One example: For much of the pandemic, the CDC had advised Americans to wear masks when near others. But last spring, Walensky changed the guidance, saying fully vaccinated people could stop covering up in most settings.

Walensky said the decision was driven by rising vaccination numbers and declines in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Her call was characterized as a sensible incentive to get more people vaccinated.

"If we had not followed the science (at the time), and said masks need to stay on, I think we would have lost credibility," she said last week.

Still, the change surprised senior administration officials and some medical experts, who called it premature.

Within weeks, the delta variant triggered a new virus wave. A Massachusetts outbreak in July demonstrated the variant's ability to spread among vaccinated people, so Walensky recommended the vaccinated return to wearing masks in places where delta was fueling infections.

"We saw data on a Friday from Barnstable County," she said. "We had new guidance out on (the following) Tuesday."

Even public health leaders who voice strong support for Walensky have lamented how some CDC recommendations are communicated  without background briefings or documents that fully detail the scientific evidence.

In some instances, local health officials have learned about guidance changes through news reports, and then struggled to incorporate them, said Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

The CDC has become cautious about briefing others beforehand because such information has repeatedly been leaked to the media, said one agency official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

But that has created another kind of problem.

Last month, the agency cut the recommended isolation period for Americans with the coronavirus from 10 to five days, provided they have no symptoms. With no warning of the change, states scrambled for additional detail.

"We had a one-page media release" and a lot of unanswered questions, said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, explaining why the state delayed adopting the CDC recommendations.

Walensky acknowledged the recommendations were rushed, but insisted it was for good reason.

The agency had already decided the change was warranted, given research showing infectiousness was reduced after five days, she said. But Walensky felt she had to react to mounting reports that health care facilities and other businesses were struggling to maintain staffing amid omicron's surge.

With forecasts that infections were going to explode, "we needed to act quickly, given what we were about to face," she said.

Some observers say the CDC is in a can't-win situation: It is criticized when it waits for medical evidence to accumulate, and criticized when it acts quickly on scant data.

Hearne sympathizes.

"No one is used to watching a learning curve like this," she said. "This isn't normal."
Campaigners for the preservation of Dublin Moore Street which is synonymous with the 1916 Easter Rising have held a rally calling for Government intervention.

The event was organised by the Moore Street Preservation Trust, whose membership includes descendants of the rebels who staged the insurrection against British rule.

The leaders of the rising retreated from the GPO on OConnell Street to a row of terraced houses on Moore Street in the final stages of the rising.

Revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse formally surrendered to the Crown forces on the street.

Four properties in the red brick terrace row  14 to 17  are designated as a national monument and there are plans to turn them into a museum.

However, there are commercial plans to develop the rest of the street  proposals that would see the demolition of homes adjacent to the national monument.

Dublin City Council recently granted permission for two applications to develop parts of Moore Street and nearby Henry Street.

The applications by UK developers Hammerson were part of its masterplan to regenerate the wider area around OConnell Street on the north side of the city centre.

More than 200 demonstrators gathered for the rally on Saturday afternoon.

They heard calls for Housing Minister Darragh OBrien to intervene by issuing preservation orders that would prevent demolition.

Micheal Mac Donncha, the secretary of the Moore Street Preservation Trust, said the area should be sensitively regenerated as a historic quarter, along with the return of on-street market trading.

We are calling for Minister Darragh OBrien to intervene, said the Sinn Fein councillor and former Dublin lord mayor.

He can withhold consent from the developers proposed works which impinge on the national monument.

Hammerson says its plans will appropriately regenerate a historic part of Dublin, ensuring the retention and celebration of its long-standing traditions and important heritage.

The campaigners are intending to appeal the planning approvals to An Bord Pleanala.

A spokesman for Mr OBriens department said the minister is precluded under legislation from commenting or getting involved in relation to any individual planning case.

He said the Moore Street Advisory Group presented its final report to the minister last year.

This report included recommendations in relation to the national monument at 14-17 Moore Street as well as recommendations for the future development of the wider Moore Street area. This report was noted by Cabinet in May 2021, he said.

The Moore Street Advisory Group recommended in its report to the ministers that the process embarked on by the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the National Monuments Service of the department to restore the national monument and open it up to the public as soon as possible should continue.

Officials from both this department and the OPW have been liaising to progress this.

It is understood that the OPW are in the process of appointing a team to carry out phase one essential works to the monument, which will ensure stability and provide a pathway for the phase two completion works themselves at the monument.
Duncan, OK (73533)

Today

Strong thunderstorms likely. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High around 70F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low 62F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
A man was fatally shot early Saturday after a party in a Bronx warehouse turned violent, cops said.

The victim, 33, was attending the event on E. 139th St. near the Bruckner Expressway in Mott Haven  a desolate stretch of warehouses  about 6 a.m. when a fight spilled outside. It was not immediately clear what sparked the clash, a police source said.

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Cops responding to a call of shots fired found the victim outside the building with gunshot wounds to his stomach and both legs.

EMS rushed the man to Lincoln Hospital, but he could not be saved. He was not immediately identified.

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The gunman ran off and no arrests have been made.

Police on Saturday were scouring the street, where some of the warehouses appear shuttered, to look for surveillance images in hope of identifying the gunman.
The Food Starter programme is aimed at people thinking of starting their own food business or in the early stages of start-up (typically the first 24 months) and includes people who are hoping to progress their food hobby into a full time sustainable business.

The programme is run in conjunction with Bord Bia  The Irish Food Board (www.bordbia.ie) to help emerging food entrepreneurs bring their idea or product to life.

It is not aimed at those thinking of opening a cafe or restaurant or food service (catering).

On successful completion of the programme participants should have a sound knowledge of the rudiments of food business start-up and be in a position to go about their start-up in an effective way.

The programme will allow them to fully understand the legal requirements and consider the costs associated with setting up a food business, allowing them to decide if this is the direction they wish to take.

The aim of the programme is to provide participants with the knowledge of what is involved in setting up a food business. To include:

Understanding what is artisan food production

Identifying what are the pitfalls associated with starting your own food business

Minimum requirements, eg food safety, labelling requirements, insurance, etc.

Packaging and branding

How to build your pricing model

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When were speed limits first introduced in Dundak?

Legal speed limits within the town of Dundalk have been in place much longer than many may realise. The first mention I have come across was a stipulation in 1820 by the Louth Grand jury was that steam traction engines should not cross their newly erected bridge over the Castletown River at more than four miles per hour. The first mention of speed limits in a by-law, was contained in an order made by the Town Commissioners in 1888, under the Towns Improvement Act (Ireland) 1854 which enabled them to issue licences to hackney carriages. A section of this Act stipulated that the drivers of horse drawn vehicles 'drive at a rate of six miles per hour, except in crowded streets or round corners, when they shall proceed at a slower pace'. The R.I.C. were, probably, expected to enforce these regulations but how they gauged the speed is not clear!



When did 'The Night of the Big Wind' strike Dundalk?



This was a deep anti-cyclone that crossed Ireland on the night of January 6/7, 1839 that caused much destruction and loss of life in its wake, the worst damage to millions of trees blown down. The full force of the hurricane struck Dundalk between 3 and 4 am on January 7 and, according to contemporary reports, 'Thatches were whipped off houses and stacks of hay and turf were carried from the end of one townland to another'. In Dundalk town many homes were damaged and, by daybreak, 'the streets were littered with debris of all kind' but, surprisingly, no one was killed.



When did the big Civil Rights March take place in Newry?



There were many Civil Rights march throughout North Ireland in the years leading up to the 'Troubles' but the largest one in these parts was held in Newry on Saturday, January 11, 1969 when thousands of people from Dundalk walked from the area around the Railway Bridge over the main Dublin-Belfast Road at Cloughhogue to the centre of Newry to hear speeches by the organisers, The People's Democracy. Those from Dundalk were forced to walk part of the way because the R.U.C. stopped all cars and buses entering Newry. The day ended in a riot after the police stopped the march after about an hour, an action which marked the end of peaceful protests and the beginning of violence.



Where in Dundalk was the ' Bus Saloon'?



This was the licenced premises at 27 Park Street owned by William (Bill) Russell in the 1930s. It had previously been known as 'The Arcade' but Russell, a leading Dundalk business entrepreneur, changed the name after he obtained the contract to have buses stop outside to allow passengers to board and alight and had an office to handle parcels carried by the G.N.R. (I) Motor Department.

QUESTIONS for next week

Where in Dundalk is 'St. John's Bridge' and how is it better known locally?

What is the correct name for the 'Three Birds' on the heraldic crest of Dundalk?

Who published the book 'Voices of Dundalk'?

Why was Dundalk man Tomas MacAnna (1925-2011) famous in theatrical circles?

A topical poem

My good friend Noel Sharkey has kindly sent me a poem which is very topical at the present time with all the problems relation to children attending school during the Covid pandemic.

He calls it 

When We Never Had It So Good

In the days when we first went to primary school

We had a world made in Hollywood;

Wild West heroes, the epitome of 'cool',

And we'd never had it so good.

As we watched the nineteen sixties unroll 

A glorious optimism rotated time's spoke;

The dance halls were full with rock and roll

And we had the honest simplicity of Folk.

We had dreams to dream; songs to sing 

A world adults never quite understood;

And all the promise the world was to bring,

And we'd never had it so good.

Now aeons after, the innocence we once knew

Had been irretrievably lost along the way;

Our grandchildren's future, they looked forward to

Buried in a morass of anxiety today.

By a seemingly never-ending coronavirus

And a planet now facing inevitable flood 

A far cry from dreams which used to inspire us

When we'd never had it so good!
A delivery driver who fatally injured a 64 year old grandfather when his van collided with the victims car on the N2 north of Ardee, after he pulled onto the wrong side of the road to overtake traffic approaching a bend, was jailed for three years at Dundalk Circuit Court last week.

Paul McCleave (30) with an address at Gort na Mona Court, Springfield, Belfast previously admitted dangerous driving causing the death of Tom Begley, at Aclint, Ardee on April 28th 2018 and admitted driving while cocaine was in his system at his sentencing hearing yesterday.

The court heard last Friday how the victim had been returning home to Reaghstown after getting his car washed in Carrickmacross when it was hit head on around 5.40pm by a Mercedes Sprinter van driven by Paul McCleave, who had pulled out from a line of traffic onto the wrong side of the road and crossing double continuous white lines, to overtake as he was approaching a bad bend.

Mr. Begley was transferred from the scene by air ambulance to Beaumont hospital and died the following evening from the serious head injuries he had sustained.

One witness who was driving ahead of the defendant at the speed limit of 100 kph, told gardai Paul McCleave was driving too close behind him and he could see in his rear-view mirror that the van driver had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the window.

A second told investigating officers that there was a constant stream of traffic coming from the other direction and a third witness, an off-duty garda said the van driver had pulled back in earlier after a car had emerged at a junction, and he remembered thinking Why is he doing that? when the van moved out again to overtake on the bend.

In a victim impact statement Mr. Begleys daughter Lorraine said they had lost the rock of their family who would light up a room with his smile, humour and laughter.

She said a piece of them has died with him and added it had taken over three years for the defendant to plead guilty.

The investigating garda confirmed to the Defence that Mr. McCleave had no history of delinquent driving.

When Judge Patrick Quinn questioned the lengthy delay in the defendant admitting his guilt, the Senior Counsel said his client was filled with fear and anxiety at the prospect of prison to the point of being suicidal at one stage.

Judge Quinn imposed a five year sentence with the final two years suspended for the dangerous driving causing death charge, and a concurrent six month jail term for the drug driving offence and disqualified the 30 year old from driving for 12 years.
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Donations have been pouring to help the family of slain NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, with about $25,000 being raised in the first push of the drive.

The NY Police and Fire Widows & Childrens Benefit Fund, which provides financial assistance to families of firefighters and police officers who died in the line of duty, will be giving the money to Police Officer Jason Riveras wife next week.

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Rivera, 22, was shot and killed as he and his partner responded to a domestic violence call on W. 135th St. Friday, cops said.

New York Police Department Officer Jason Rivera was killed in a police shooting, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, in Harlem. (NYPD)

The Widows & Childrens fund plans to put together a fundraiser so Riveras partner can receive a yearly stipend from the fund for life said Stephen Dannhauser, Board Chair of the Fund, which is also known as Answer the Call. The stipends averages about $11,000 a year.

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We send our deepest condolences to the family of Officer Rivera, as well as the entire NYPD Community. Dannhauser said. Answer the Call vows to honor our fallen heroes by helping those they loved the most - their families. We are also keeping Officer Mora in our prayers. May we never forget the dangers our first responders face each time they report to work and may we always remember and honor those heroes who dont make it home.

The cops partner, Police Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, was also critically wounded in the firefight. Gunman Leshawn McNeil was also shot and critically wounded.

The group is accepting donations at www.answerthecall.org.
Claremont, NH (03743)

Today

Periods of rain. High 51F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 42F. Winds light and variable.
NYPD Officer Jason Riveras life-long dream ended with his senseless death in a Harlem hallway.

The devastated brother of the slain 22-year-old police officer killed while answering a domestic dispute call recalled his younger sibling as obsessed with a law enforcement career from a young age  and remembered his hard work to land a position with the NYPD in November 2020.

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He died doing what he loved, older brother Jeffrey Rivera told the Daily News on Saturday. My brother had integrity, dedication. I want people to know he cared a lot about honor. He wanted to be an honorable police officer.

NYPD Officer Jason Rivera (NYPD)

Rivera, 27, recalled how Jasons interest in policing started when he was still a boy and never waned. After graduating from the Police Academy, the 32nd Precinct became his first assignment  and then his last after eight months in the Manhattan house.

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Since he was a baby, he dreamed of being a police officer, said Jeffrey Rivera. It was his dream. He would spend days and hours watching police shows ... Theres nothing that matters to me more than my brother being remembered for the great man he was.

The young cop, whose family relocated to the Inwood section of Manhattan from the Dominican Republic, was shot to death while answering a domestic dispute call on W. 135th St. in Harlem.

According to a colleague, the recently-married officers wife broke down after arriving at Harlem Hospital and was consoled by her sister after collapsing to the floor.

She was shattered, said the colleague, who described Rivera as an upbeat presence in the precinct and well-liked by his fellow officers.

The kid had a perpetual smile on his face, the colleague continued. Just a really, really good kid.

The older brother said he never knew what sparked Jasons laser focus on law enforcement, but he recalled the young officers unstinting dedication to making the dream come true.

Bunting is put outside the 32nd Precinct station house in Manhattan on Saturday, in honor of Officer Rivera. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Theres such a shortage of great cops, said Jeffrey Rivera. And we lost someone who was so passionate, and it breaks my heart.

Residents in the familys Manhattan apartment building offered fond reminiscences of a young Rivera.

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Superintendent Rafael Montanez, 44, said the young cop had recently purchased a new car and was a well-known and well-liked figure in the building. He recalled an excited Rivera telling him about receiving his gun, vest and belt after going on the job.

Thats a good family, said Montanez, who met Jason back in 2007. Good kid, good family. Its just sad to see him go and in that way its crazy. Thats really all he spoke about, so when he finally became a cop Im pretty sure he told everybody.

Neighbor Kirsy Baez, 41, recalled meeting Jason when he was just 10 years old.

He was the best, she said Saturday. He was very nice and polite. I didnt even know he was a police officer, because to me he was just a kid. Its a shame because he was just starting his life and he deserved better. He was such a good person.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Baez had a hard time coming to grips with word of the young cops murder after hearing the news Friday night.

I couldnt stop crying, she said. I woke up with a headache.

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Jason Rivera, while still a probationary officer, penned a moving essay explaining how his distrust of the police morphed into undeniable calling as he grew older.

Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD, the greatest police force in the world, he wrote. Growing up in New York City, I realized how impactful my role as a police officer would go in this chaotic city.

I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple revise an issue, will put a smile on someones face.

His brother struggled to accept the death of a sibling who achieved his dreams at such a young age, with a bright future ahead.

He didnt even get to enjoy his career, said Jeffrey Rivera. He was 22. He just started and didnt get to enjoy it. He wanted it his whole life, and somebody took it away from him.
Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever
Scientists found record levels of microplastics in Arctic sea ice, a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications revealed.

Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) sampled ice from five Arctic Ocean regions and found up to 12,000 microplastic particles per liter (approximately 1.06 liquid quarts) of ice, an AWI press release reported.

It suggests that microplastics are now ubiquitous within the surface waters of the worlds ocean, British Antarctic Survey sea ice physicist Dr. Jeremy Wilkinson, who was not part of the research team, told The Independent Tuesday.

Nowhere is immune, he said.

In addition to assessing the quantity of plastic particles in the ice, the researchers were also able to determine where they came from.

They found that ice flows driven by Pacific Ocean water in the Canadian Basin contained high amounts of polyethylene, which is used in packaging. They hypothesized that these particles had originated in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

However, they also found local sources of plastic pollution in Siberian ice, such as paint chips from ships and nylon from fishing nets.

These findings suggest that both the expanding shipping and fishing activities in the Arctic are leaving their mark, the studys lead author Dr. Ilka Peeken said in the release.

Overall, researchers found 17 types of plastic over the course of three expeditions on the research icebreaker Polarstern. In addition to packaging, paint and nylon, another major plastic source was cellulose acetate, which is used to make cigarette filters.

In order to assess whether sea ice was transporting plastic, scientists collected samples from five areas along the Transpolar Drift that moves sea ice formed on the Siberian shelves to the Fram Strait between Norway and Greenland. They concluded that ice does temporarily store plastic and transports it to the North Atlantic via the Fram Strait.

The sea ice binds all this plastic litter for two to a maximum of eleven yearsthe time it takes for ice floes from the marginal seas of Siberia or the North American Arctic to reach the Fram Strait, where they melt, Peeken said. Once the ice melts, researchers did not know if the plastic stayed in the Arctic or traveled further south.



A graphic from the study showing a) the locations samples were taken from and the ocean currents (blue arrows indicate Pacific water), b) the particle load of microplastics (MP) per core sample, c) the percentage of various plastic types in each sample, and d) the ice cores drift trajectory. Nature Communications

Peeken said that one major concern raised by the study was what impact the microplastics in the ice would have on marine life.

During our work, we realized that more than half of the microplastic particles trapped in the ice were less than a twentieth of a millimetre wide, which means they could easily be ingested by arctic microorganisms like ciliates, but also by copepods, Peeken said.
In the U.S., more than one-third of food produced goes to waste. While these organic compounds may seem harmless to toss in a landfill, food makes up 22% of waste in landfills and emits greenhouse gases, namely methane, as it rots. For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a report detailing just how much of an impact the countrys food waste has on climate change.

The report, From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of Food Waste, notes the environmental impacts of wasted food. In its entirety, the report focuses on land use, water use, energy use, application of fertilizers and pesticides, and emissions.

For example, one years worth of wasted food has the same amount of greenhouse gases as 42 coal-fired power plants  and thats not counting the methane emissions generated after the food is discarded. The amount of water and energy that goes into producing one years amount of food waste could supply 50 million homes. The study also found that the amount of land used to produce food that is lost or wasted each year amounts to 140 million acres, roughly the size of all of California and New York.

As the United States strives to meet the Paris Agreement targets to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, changes to the food system are essential. Even if fossil fuel emissions were halted, current trends in the food system would prevent the achievement of this goal, the report states. Globally, food loss and waste represent 8 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (4.4 gigatons CO2e annually), offering an opportunity for meaningful reductions.

The report acknowledges, too, that this food waste could instead go a long way in increasing food security for millions of people. Research shows that the amount of food wasted in the U.S. each year has enough calories to feed 150 million people annually. Currently, its estimated that about 38 million people in the U.S. face food insecurity each year.

Food insecurity isnt driven by scarcity, its a distribution issue, Shannon Kenny, an author of the report and the senior advisor on Food Loss and Food Waste at the EPA, told Natural Resources Defense Council. If we fed everyone in the country fully and there was no food insecurity, we would still have food waste. We need to start looking at an array of solutions  prevention solutions, not just rescue solutions.

Despite pledging to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030, the U.S. is far from reaching its goal. As such, the EPA created the From Farm to Kitchen report in hopes of inspiring policies and individual change to minimize food waste.

This initial report will be followed by The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste: Part 2, which will focus more on different waste management options for food waste, such as composting, and their impacts on the environment.
A pair of extremely rare twin African elephants have been born in Northern Kenyas Samburu National Reserve. The baby elephants were discovered by guides from Elephant Watch Camp, who had been trained by Save the Elephants (STE)  a UK charity based in Kenya  to recognize individual elephants and elephant families in the reserve, STE said in a press release. After being notified by the guides, STE researchers confirmed that there was one female and one male calf.

Twins are rarely encountered in elephant populations  and form around only 1% of births. Quite often the mothers dont have enough milk to support two calves. In fact the birth of twins has only ever been recorded once before in Samburu in 2006. Sadly both calves died shortly after birth in Shaba National Reserve, the STE press release said. The next few days will be touch and go for the new twins but we all have our fingers crossed for their survival.

The twins are the second birth of a female elephant named Bora who is from a family of elephants called Winds II. Her older calf was born in 2017 and was recently spotted in the same area as its mother and the twins.

I have seen twins several times over my career and its always a big event for us when we have had twins a couple of times before it wasnt a happy outcome. However, they can survive. It always causes quite a stir when they are born, STE founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton told Newsweek.

African elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal, about 22 months, and give birth approximately every four years. The twin baby elephants will be monitored daily by the STE researchers, reported Newsweek. STE has been observing the Winds II family for decades.

Due to poaching and habitat loss, African elephants are on the International Union for the Conservation of Natures Red List of Threatened Species, according to BBC News. In 2020, the tourism ministry in Kenya reported that because of better efforts to fight poaching, the countrys elephant population had more than doubled from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,000 in 2018, as reported by Reuters.

The countrys first wildlife census in 2021 showed that Kenyas elephant numbers had increased by about 12 percent to 36,280, Down to Earth reported.

According to Douglas-Hamilton, the new twin elephants were looking healthy, though perhaps somewhat small, reported Newsweek.

The survival of the twins depends very much on the quality of the grass and vegetation and the experience of the matriarch, Douglas-Hamilton told Newsweek. This mother has had successful experience of raising a calf before and the fact that it has rained recently [means] the grass is green in Samburu and gives the little twins a greater chance of survival We have to cross our fingers, but we are cautiously hopeful.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Coronavirus vaccine boosters should be offered to the most vulnerable first, in a move away from its previous insistence that boosters were unnecessary for healthy adults and an acknowledgement that the vaccine supply is improving globally.



At a press briefing on January 21, the UN health agency said it was now recommending booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, beginning in the highest-priority groups, about four to six months after receiving the first two doses, in line with guidance from dozens of countries that embarked upon booster programmes months ago.

READ ALSO : Digital Divide: Fear of dropout strikes again in Chennai corporation schools after being shut down



Last year, WHO pleaded with rich countries to declare a moratorium on offering booster doses until the end of 2021, an appeal that went almost entirely ignored. The agency said its expert vaccine group assessed the increasing data about booster doses and noted the waning of immune protection over time. Numerous studies have shown in recent months that booster doses restore antibody levels and offer strong protection against severe disease, including against COVID-19 variants like delta and omicron.



"Boosters are part of the vaccination programme, but it doesn't mean unfettered use to all ages," said WHO's Dr Kate O'Brien, Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. "We continue to have the highest focus on vaccination of the highest priority groups," she said. WHO also endorsed the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as five, at a reduced dose. Countries including the US and Canada gave the green light to Pfizer's shot for young children last fall.
People attend the March for Life rally on the National Mall in Washington, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. The March for Life, for decades an annual protest against abortion, arrives this year as the Supreme Court has indicated it will allow states to impose tighter restrictions on abortion with a ruling in the coming months.
When I was growing up, if the Peru Tigers lost to the Marion Giants or the Logansport Berries, we accepted the verdict on the court. Those who didnt were labeled poor sports or bad losers.
Washington, MO (63090)

Today

Generally cloudy. High 67F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 55F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
A British astrophysicist visiting his girlfriend in Georgia was fatally struck by a stray bullet as he lay in bed in her Atlanta-area apartment, according to authorities.

Matthew Willson, who was from the London suburb of Chertsey, was just days into his trip when he was killed on Sunday by a single gunshot to the head. His girlfriend, Katherine Shepard, told WSB-TV on Thursday that they were startled awake around 2 a.m. by more than two dozen rounds of gunfire, coming from the unit directly behind her own.

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One of the bullets pierced the wall, Shepard said, hitting Willson. Theyd been dating for more than three years.

I held him for another 20 minutes while we waited for the ambulance, she recalled. And while we were waiting, there were more gunshots fired.

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Matthew Willson with his girlfriend, Katherine Shepard. (Brookhaven Police Department)

Authorities were already in vicinity of the apartments in Brookhaven, investigating other reports of gunfire, when they received the emergency call from Shepard, said Sgt. Jake Kissel of the Brookhaven criminal investigations division. Once officers arrived at the scene, they rendered aid until paramedics arrived.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

Dr. Willson was transported to a local trauma center where he succumbed to his injuries, Kissel said in a statement. The shooting appeared to be a random act involving individuals participating in the reckless discharge of firearms.

Shepard and Willson first met while they both studied astronomy at Georgia State University, where he worked as a researcher between 2017 and 2019.

He was supposed to be here for three months because weve been long distance for a while, Shepard said. I picked him up from the airport, took him to his favorite eating location, and the next day, hes gone.

Willson was also being mourned by his alma mater, the University of Exeter.

Matthew Willson was a former Ph.D. student at the University of Exeter and much-loved member of our astrophysics team, a university spokesman said in a statement.

No arrests have been made in the shooting as of Saturday afternoon. Brookhaven police have asked for witnesses or anyone with information about the shooting to contact them or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477).

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Cherry Lee Ward Yeager age 87 of Athens died Monday at Athens Limestone Hospital. Mrs. Yeager was born October 21, 1934 in Giles County Tennessee. She was a longtime member of First Baptist Church Athens where she sang in the chrior, and was active in the WMU. Mrs. Yeager was a Red Cross vol
While the automotive industry's collective attention is turned towards the 2020 Geneva Motor Show opening in March, Alfa Romeo is also looking forward to the party it will throw in Milan, Italy, to celebrate its 110th birthday. The city-wide festivities will culminate with the unveiling of a mysterious new model, according to a recent report.

Thousands of Alfisti from all over the world will convene in Milan on June 24 to commemorate the milestone, and Italian website MotoriOnline learned Alfa will take advantage of the media coverage to organize its own mini auto show. The publication added the model we'll allegedly get a preview of will be either a crossover or a coupe.

Both are intriguing propositions. While enthusiasts would undoubtedly prefer to see a born-again GTV, or a follow-up to the 8C, sales figures clearly demonstrate the crossover body style is popular all over the world with no risk of falling out of style, and Alfa's only take on it is the Stelvio. The yet-unnamed model that could break cover in Milan will be about the same size as the Jeep Renegade, the Fiat 500X, and the Mini Countryman, among other city-friendly soft-roaders. This positioning rules out the production version of the Tonale concept introduced during the 2019 Geneva show; besides, it's expected to appear at this year's edition of the event.

Little would prevent Alfa from using the platform found under the aforementioned Renegade and 500X , as all three carmakers are under the same umbrella, but MotoriOnline speculated the firm's third high-rider will be the first Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles ( FCA ) product built on a PSA platform . If that's accurate, it signals Alfa will unveil a concept car , not a production model, because the tie-up between the two giants hasn't even been finalized yet.

The second option floated by the publication is a heritage-laced two-door developed as a tribute to emblematic past models, like the Duetto and the GTV. While that's plausible, especially considering the event will be a anchored to Alfa's illustrious history, the chances of one day seeing it in showrooms are low because executives gave two-door models the boot when they put together the firm's latest product plan in late 2019.

Crossovers remain an essential component of Alfa's future range, however, and the aforementioned product plan clearly states a small SUV will join the range in 2022, a year after the Tonale, with an available electric powertrain. We've quizzed Alfa Romeo about its 110th birthday plans, and we'll update this story if we learn more.

Alfa doesn't celebrate its birthday annually, but it pulls out all the stops when it does. In 2010, when it turned 100, it held a multi-day celebration in Milan that included concerts and other events scattered across the city. It also used the occasion to unveil the then-new Giulietta, a hatchback that remains its entry-level model in 2020.

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Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the rights to an animated movie entitled A Winters Journey, which will be made in part using the PlayStation game-creation tool Dreams. According to Deadline, the film will blend live actors with CG and hand-painted animation and is an adaptation of Franz Schubert's set of 24 songs for voice and piano called Winterreise. It tells the story of a lovelorn poet who embarks on a dangerous journey that takes him across mountains and snow in 1812 Bavaria.

Dreams was originally created by Media Molecule, the studio behind LittleBigPlanet, for the PS4. The studio pitched it as a way to create "art, movies and video games" from the start, and we once described it as "an engine, learning suite and distribution platform rolled into one." Since then, people have been using it to create their own games, realistic renders of nature, immersive experiences of their favorite movies, among other things. A Winters Journey, however, will reportedly be the first time Dreams will be used on a feature film.

The movie has yet to get a release date, but shooting is expected to start in June in Wrocaw, Poland, with actors that include John Malkovich and Jason Isaacs. It'll likely take some time before it's ready to premiere. As for Dreams itself, it's currently on sale in the US PlayStation Store for $10, and it includes a rotating list of the most creative games made using the tool.
Weather Alert

...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM CDT THIS MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...Portions of Oklahoma and northern Texas, including the following counties, in Oklahoma, Alfalfa, Atoka, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland, Coal, Comanche, Cotton, Garfield, Garvin, Grady, Grant, Hughes, Jefferson, Johnston, Kay, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Logan, Love, Major, Marshall, McClain, Murray, Noble, Oklahoma, Payne, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Seminole, Stephens and Tillman. In northern Texas, Archer, Clay, Wichita and Wilbarger. * WHEN...From 6 AM CDT this morning through Thursday morning. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks. Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Low-water crossings may be flooded. Extensive street flooding and flooding of creeks and rivers are possible. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Showers and thunderstorms will develop Wednesday morning over a broad swath of the watch area. Another round of rain and thunderstorms is expected later in the afternoon and will last much of Wednesday night before ending Thursday morning. Storm total amounts of 2 to 5 inches are expected. Given recent rainfall, these additional amounts may cause flooding. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible Flood Warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop. &&
Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan by Shenila Khoja-Moolji, US: University of California Press, 2021; pp 321, `2,369.

For a Pakistani writer to do yoga feels like questioning the two-nation theory, wittily remarked the writers of a special issue, titled, How to Write about Pakistan, in the literary magazine Granta (Hamid et al 2010). A population of 200 million, and rising, speaking close to 70 languages with diverse physical and social landscape, was brought together under the banner of a single religion, Islam, to form an (un)imagined political community. Today, 74 years after its creation, Islam stands out to be the primary modality in shaping national imagination in Pakistan, producing emotional sovereign attachments by constructing gendered ideas of Islamic normativity.

In this insightful book, Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan, Shenila Khoja-Moolji critically interrogates the construction of nation, community, and gender by closely engaging with the print and online cultural production of two contenders of sovereigntythe Pakistani state and the non-state actor, the Tehreek-Taliban Pakistan (or Pakistani Taliban).
Increasingly, the all-pervasive use of social media in India calls for its regulation. Not only there exists no law to address queerphobic content over social media, but also the only possible regulation through social media content review committees has often been problematic. Any attempt at legislation has not been successful and hence the need for a new suitable framework.

In this age of the internet, social media has emerged as a new public space. Queerphobia on social media, through texts, videos, images, etc, is rampant. The absence of a legal regime to address the issue makes it worse, and regulation by the social media review committee (internal committees of social media platforms) has rather been problematic. In this regard, controversy sparked by CarryMinatis roast video and its removal by YouTube is a good point to begin the discussion. Using a mix of incident-specific and general analysis of queerphobia over social media, I shall argue that this form of queerphobia is different from queerphobia in traditionally understood public spaces and is far-reaching with tremendous implications. Therefore, it needs to be dealt with by having an appropriate legal framework in place. Framework and Scope
A Connecticut mother has filed a lawsuit against two social media giants, accusing them of relying on tactics that fueled her 11-year-old daughters addiction to Instagram and Snapchat, which ultimately resulted in her suicide.

Selena Rodriguez died by suicide on July 21, 2021. In the two years leading up to her death, her mother, Tammy, did everything she could to quell her childs intense dependence on social media. She brought her to a therapist and on one occasion, she went as far as confiscating all of Selenas electronic devices, but the girl only ran away so she could continue to use the popular platforms.

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(File) A Connecticut mother has filed a lawsuit against two social media giants, accusing them of tactics that helped to fuel her 11-year-old daughters addiction to Instagram and Snapchat, which ultimately resulted in her suicide. (Shutterstock)

On Thursday, the mourning mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Snap Inc., which operates Snapchat, claiming they are responsible for Selenas suicide. Despite being too young to be on either platform per their terms of service  both Instagram and Snapchat have a minimum age of 13  Selena was able to create her accounts due to a lack of adequate safety measures, like parental controls and age verification checks.

[The] defendants intentionally created an attractive nuisance to young children but failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring on their wholly owned and controlled digital premises, the lawsuit said.

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While using Instagram, Selena was constantly solicited for sexually exploitive content, according to a press release from Seattle-based law firm, the Social Media Victims Law Center. She ultimately succumbed to the peer pressure and sent the images through Snapchat, which were later leaked and passed around among her classmates.

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As a result, Selena was hospitalized for emergency psychiatric care and experienced worsening depression, poor self-esteem, eating disorders, self-harm, and ultimately, suicide, the statement reads.

The lawsuit comes amid increased scrutiny for social media companies, prompted in part by allegations from former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, who said the company promoted profit over user safety.

Meta Platforms and Snap knowingly and purposefully designed, manufactured, marketed, and sold social media products that were unreasonably dangerous because they were designed to be addictive to minor users, according to the SMVL statement.

A spokesperson for Snap, in response to the litigation, told the Washington Post it was dedicated to keeping its users safe.

We are devastated to hear of Selenas passing and our hearts go out to her family. While we cant comment on the specifics of active litigation, nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community, a Snap spokesperson said.

In fact, Snapchat helps people communicate with their real friends, without some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms, and intentionally makes it hard for strangers to contact young people.

Meta did not immediately return a request for comment.
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The right to freedom becomes freedom when such a right is exercised with a diligence of purpose and sincerity of persuasion. Participation in politics is also a freedom that comes with a moral demand on the part of those who would like to exercise freedom in order to achieve a greater good such as emancipation from unfreedom produced by casteism. It is in this sense that the political intervention into the historically driven process of emancipation promises freedom from social degradation, caste violence, and patriarchal bondage. Electoral politics, however, in the post B R Ambedkar phase has put a question mark on the historical role of political intervention made particularly by the Dalit political leaders.

The history of Dalit politics, particularly after Ambedkar, does not seem to foster confidence in Dalit commitment to emancipation. Emancipatory politics as envisioned and practised by Ambedkar was both critical and cautionary. It was critical of the politics of the establishmentcapitalism and Brahminismand it was cautionary inasmuch as it did not ignore the need for achieving moral progress that has been so necessary for pursuing a coherent affirmative alternative. It was cautionary inasmuch as it helped maintaining its robustness against the danger of instrumental co-option of Dalit leaders into mainstream politics.
India has embarked on the path of self-reliance with no clear road map. This paper highlights the need to demystify the concept and argues that any path to self-reliance would require creating new productive capabilities that would be determined not by what the country can produce but what it can export. Following the product-space perspective, promoted by Ricardo Hausmann and others at the Growth Lab of Harvard University stating that a countrys capacity to add new capabilities depends strongly on the existing ones, I assess Indias export performance since 1988 along three dimensions: growth, diversification, and upgrading, with the objective to understand how well India is prepared to achieve the goal in this globalised world and recommend developing a well-informed export strategy.

In todays world, the development policy landscape is entangled in a web of buzzwords (Cornwall 2010). One such buzzword that has come to dominate the development policy landscape in India is self-reliance. It has seen a meteoric rise after the Prime Minister called for a self-reliant India in May 2020 against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of self-reliance is not new to India. It was first introduced in the five-year plans when the Third Five Year Plan (196166) dedicated itself to self-reliant growth as a development objective in the face of worsening foreign exchange reserves and heavy reliance on external assistance. The objective was to progressively reduce and finally eliminate the reliance on external aid (Government of India 1961). Even though there was an active export policy, the focus was on import substitution, which was supported by a highly regulated and protected policy regime. Self-reliance remained a key objective in Indias development planning until the Ninth Five Year Plan (Government of India 1997). However, the concept was reinvented in the policy narrative whenever the macroeconomic context changed (Reddy 2000). For instance, in the 1980s, when the policy focus turned on structural change and efficiency, the term self-reliance was replaced by technological and economic self-reliance in the plan documents (Government of India 1980, 1985). Similarly, in 1991, when India transitioned from an import-substituting to an export-oriented regime with a series of far-reaching reforms, a self-reliant economy came to be defined as one which could meet all its import requirements through exports, replacing import substitution by promotion of exports as the critical instrument of self-reliance (Government of India 1992). The Ninth Plan (Government of India 1997) highlighted the need to attract foreign investment, which would provide access to technology for modernising industry and resources to avoid a build-up of external debt to help achieve self-reliance. Thus, the meaning of self-reliance evolved depending on the macroeconomic context.

The concept fell into disuse after being in use for four decades with different interpretations. Recently, it is brought back into the development discourse. However, in its reincarnation, its actual meaning is elusive and contested. It is floating free of concrete objectives, indicators, and targets; and shelter competing agendas of globalisation and import substitution. It is, as Cornwall (2010: ix) contends, full of sound and fury but signifies nothing. The concept needs to be demystified to assign a compelling sense of vision, aspiration, and commitment. I argue that in the current context of integrated global markets, the path of self-reliance would require the creation of new productive capabilities, which would be determined not by what the country can produce but what it can export. In other words, self-reliant India needs to be internationally competitive across diverse economic sectors (Singh 2020; Kant 2020). However, the literature suggests that a countrys capacity to add new capabilities depends strongly on the existing ones. In a series of articles, Hausmann and others at the Growth Lab of Harvard University (Hausmann et al 2007; Hidalgo et al 2007) argue that the countries with competitive strengths in the exports of sophisticated and complex products face better growth prospects than those with a low presence in these categories.
This paper summarises the key findings of an extensive research study recently completed in the Bengaluru and Raichur districts of Karnataka. Against the backdrop of the Skill India policy, the research focused on skill development centres that mobilise rural youth to undergo training and facilitate their entry into the lower rungs of the new service economy. While the organised services account for an increasing share of urban employment, the study found that such jobs are unlikely to lead to economic or social mobility. Instead, low wages, insecure tenure, and economic hardships in the city push service workers to switch jobs or return to their villages. The unregulated and precarious nature of work in organised services creates a fluid and unstable workforce, thus raising questions about the hegemonic skills paradigm and Indias development trajectory.

This paper presents some key findings of a recent study of youth migration and employment in Bengalurus new service economy. There is substantial literature on the large population of circular labour migrants from rural areas who work in construction and industries in Indian cities (Shivanand 2020; Srivastava 2020) as well as mobile high-skilled professionals (Upadhya 2016). Middling migrants (Gidwani and Ramamurthy 2018; Rutten and Verstappen 2014) who fill low-end jobs in the burgeoning urban service sector have been less researched. To fill this gap, the study explored the linkages between skill training, youth aspirations, mobility (both spatial and social), and service sector employment through long-term fieldwork in the Bengaluru and Raichur districts of northern Karnataka.1 Economic Restructuring, Unemployment, and Skilling
Declaring it an investment in America, President Joe Biden hailed an announcement by Intel Corp. that it will construct a $20 billion factory outside Columbus, Ohio, creating 7,000 construction jobs and an additional 3,000 permanent jobs.
China's car sector falling short of 'net zero' goals, Greenpeace says

China's massive car sector is unlikely to meet the country's 2060 net zero target, environment group Greenpeace says.
A villa in Rome containing the only known ceiling painted by Caravaggio went on a court-ordered auction block Tuesday, thanks to an inheritance dispute pitting the heirs of one of Romes aristocratic families against their stepmother, a Texas-born princess.

Princess Rita Jenrett Boncompagni Ludovisi, formerly known as Rita Carpenter, woke up Tuesday in the Casino dellAurora surrounded by her dogs on what might have been the last day that her home of nearly two decades was actually hers.

An online auction organized by the Rome tribunal began at 3 p.m. and closed a short time later without a winner. The starting bid had been set at 353 million euros ($400 million), and the villa just off the famous Via Veneto was assigned a court-appraised value of 471 million euros ($533 million).

With no winning bids in the first round, the villa will go up for auction two more times at lower prices, and the Italian Culture Ministry can try to match the highest bid at any stage. The next round is scheduled for April 7.

RELATED: 'Ugly duckling': Princess selling $530M Rome villa was shy as San Antonio child

Its been emotional since I received the notice from the judge on Sept. 2. Ive rarely slept, Boncompagni Ludovisi told The Associated Press before the auction began. Its like going through the stages of death and dying. ... Youre angry at first, and then you cant believe it, and then you finally go into a point of accepting it.

The house, built in 1570, has been in the Ludovisi family since the early 1600s. After Prince Nicolo Boncompagni Ludovisi died in 2018, the villa became the subject of an inheritance dispute between the children from his first marriage and his third wife, the San Antonio, Texas-born Princess Rita.

The villa, also known as Villa Ludovisi, was one of 42 lots up for court-ordered auction Tuesday but was by far the most prestigious and expensive, thanks to the Caravaggio that graces a tiny room off a spiral staircase on the second floor.

It was commissioned in 1597 by a diplomat and patron of the arts who asked the then-young painter to decorate the ceiling of the small room being used as an alchemy workshop. The 2.75-meter (9-foot) wide mural, which depicts Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune, is unusual: Its not a fresco, but rather oil on plaster, and represents the only ceiling mural that Caravaggio is known to have made.

Its probably the first work of Caravaggios that we know of, so historically, its a really a milestone, said Claudio Strinati, an art historian and Caravaggio expert. Its a beautiful piece about a mythological theme, which is rare in Caravaggios art because he mostly dealt with sacred themes.

So its a painting of real artistic and historic importance, and of great beauty, he said.

The listing on the Rome tribunals auction site highlights the Caravaggio among the homes other attributes, but notes the villa will need an estimated 11 million euros ($12.5 million) in renovations to comply with current building standards.

I had always wanted to turn it into a museum, actually, but thats not going to happen, Boncompagni Ludovisi said Tuesday as she took visitors on a tour. So my hope is that whomever buys it will treat it with the care and love that my husband and I did.

The American princess, who previously was married to former U.S. Rep. John Jenrette Jr. of South Carolina, married Boncompagni Ludovisi in 2009. At the time, the villa had fallen into disrepair, and her husband only used it as an office.

Together, they tried to renovate it as best they could. They opened the house up to visiting students and tour groups and hosted dinners to bring in revenue, and thanks to funding from Rutgers University helped to digitize the family archives.

Boncompagni Ludovisi doesnt know what will come next. With no immediate buyer, she has more time in the villa but assumes eventually shell have to move out. She would like to meet the new owners, give them a tour and teach them some of the history in hopes that theyll keep the home open for the public to enjoy.

It was really such a privilege to live here. Such a great responsibility, but such a privilege and a journey of love to be here, she said. Even when all the pipes would burst.
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City and public health officials dont know when the current surge of the COVID-19 pandemic might end  and warned Friday that it could get worse.

San Antonios risk level remains severe for a third consecutive week, and if the more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus keeps spreading at its current pace, that will shift to critical, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.

Its hard to tell if weve yet reached our peak or when we will reach our peak of newly diagnosed cases, the mayor said at an update on local pandemic efforts.

Hospitals here are knocking on the door of the highest number of COVID cases they have ever seen, said Eric Epley, executive director of the South Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates resources among medical centers in the region.

City and federal officials have opened more virus testing sites, which has boosted Bexar Countys testing capacity to about 12,000 people per day. It was 7,000 people per day in December.

The percentage of people turning up positive for the virus out of all those tested in Metro Healths service area now stands at 38.3 percent. Some other major cities in Texas are seeing positivity rates of more than 50 percent, Nirenberg said.

Public health officials pleaded for parents to vaccinate more children ages 5 to 11 to help keep schools open and fully staffed. Only 14 percent of Bexar County children in this age range have received both shots for the virus, said Dr. Junda Woo, the Metropolitan Health Districts medical director.

Fridays remarks portrayed elected officials, Metro Health and hospitals as trying to keep up with increased demands imposed by the fast-spreading omicron strain without knowing how long the heightened stress might continue.

I would hesitate to say that were coming to the end, Woo said. Its just hard for us to tell. ... Im not going to make an estimate.

On ExpressNews.com: Wish the numbers were lower  Omicron cases still rising in San Antonio schools

On Friday, 5,307 new cases of the virus were reported in Bexar County, along with 16 more deaths of people who contracted the illness.

A total of 1,257 patients who tested positive for the virus, including 35 children, are currently admitted at San Antonio hospitals, making up a third of all hospitalized patients.

They include 260 patients in intensive care units, with 115 on ventilators to help them breathe. About two-thirds of all patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

Vaccination remains a key way for people to protect themselves against severe illness and death if they contract the virus, officials said.

If you are eligible for a booster and you havent been boosted yet, go get one, Nirenberg said. You are not up to date if you havent.

We urge everyone who has yet to get vaccinated to please make an extra effort to do so.

So far, 88.5 percent of eligible Bexar County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 72 percent have been fully vaccinated, Metro Health director Claude Jacob said.

On ExpressNews.com: We need a break  Omicrons assault on San Antonio is fast, and felt everywhere

The youngest eligible for the vaccines  those 5 to 11 years old  have shown low rates of participation. The 35 pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 reported Friday are entirely too many when you consider that this is completely preventable, Woo said.

Vaccination is the key to keeping our schools open, and we can do better, she said. By having your children vaccinated, youre not just protecting your family. Youre helping schools stay open and fully staffed, which helps our entire community.

Free coronavirus vaccines are available for all residents ages 5 and up at various locations across San Antonio. That includes University Healths vaccination hub at the upper level of the Wonderland of the Americas shopping mall, which has given 8,473 shots since Jan. 3, including to 2,156 children, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

The Wonderland vaccine site doesnt require appointments or registration. Its open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Vaccines are also being given at a drive-thru operation at the Alamodome from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays. Appointments arent necessary.

More COVID testing sites have opened as more people are urgently seeking to be screened for the virus. On Tuesday, the city and the Texas Division of Emergency Management opened a federal drive-thru testing site at the Alamodome in Lot C to provide another resource.

People can register for an appointment at the federal testing site by visiting DoINeedACOVIDTest.com or by calling 1-800-635-8611. Testing appointments are offered from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. Those tests are free.

The city also opened six mass testing sites with the nonprofit Community Labs, while Curative is running an additional 20 testing hubs in San Antonio. A list can be found at covid19.sanantonio.gov under testing locations. Its also available to those who call 311 and press option 8.

Be careful in what you do, Wolff warned. You never know today where you are, whos got COVID around you. You dont want to pick it up.

pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: Peggy_OHare
The Texas chapter of the League of Women Voters is threatening to sue the state if officials do not provide the organization and other advocacy groups with additional copies of voter registration forms.

The organization made the threat in a letter to Texas Secretary of State John Scott on Friday, taking issue with the offices decision to limit the number of forms available for political and advocacy groups. The office cited supply chain issues, saying paper shortages and cost constraints have forced them to limit orders to 2,000 forms at a time.

But the league alleges that this practice  first reported by KUT  violates the National Voter Registration Act.

Voter registration organizations play a critical role in registering individuals to vote in Texas  particularly because Texas is one of only eleven states that do not provide their residents the ability to register to vote online, wrote Grace Chimene, the president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, and Danielle Lang, the senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center.

As such, any cap on the number of voter registration forms provided to voter registration organizations is concerning and impedes an organizations ability to conduct its work.

Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Secretary of States office, did not respond directly to the letters allegations. But he said the office is treating all requestors the same, and (we) are aiming to provide 75 percent of all bulk requests for voter registration forms, including to all of the various LWV chapters across Texas.

RELATED: Texas Secretary of State scrambles to address mail ballot application problems as deadline looms

Chimene said that promise isnt enough, and volunteer advocacy groups  including the League of Women Voters  shouldnt be responsible for printing out their own forms.

Which 30 percent are we not going to register? she said.

Fridays letter noted that Texas has a $7.85 billion budget surplus, and the state surely can apportion some of this surplus toward ensuring that every Texas citizen has an opportunity to engage in the fundamental right to vote.

Jan. 31 is the deadline to register to vote in the March 1 primary election.

The lawsuit threat is the latest escalation of the leagues dispute with the Secretary of States office. Their relationship grew tense this week, after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner criticized state officials for declining to send 2,000 forms to the leagues Houston chapter.

A volunteer had submitted the request last week, but the office notified her on Tuesday that it was only able to send 50 copies due to extenuating circumstances beyond our control.

Turner called the situation disgraceful, but Taylor, the spokesman for the Secretary of States office, asserted the accusation was absolutely false.

A copy of the volunteers emailed request and the ensuing response from the state verifies the leagues account, but it may have been a misunderstanding. Though the volunteer regularly corresponds with the Secretary of States office, she didnt identify herself in the initial request, potentially causing the confusion, Chimene said.

The office notified Chimene late Thursday that it would send an additional 7,000 free forms to the Houston chapter, but the group had already contracted a third-party company to print 10,000 copies. The effort will cost $1,800, Chimene said.

The league will likely direct the 7,000 forms to another chapter, she said.

cayla.harris@express-news.net
A massive, detailed painting depicting the Alamo during the height of the 1836 battle will be displayed in a new exhibit hall targeted for completion late this year, Alamo officials said.

Georgia artist Mark Lemon said his work, The Storming of the Alamo, March 6, 1836, will be moved from its current home at Alamo Beer Co., a brewery on the near East Side, to the $20 million Alamo Exhibit Hall & Collections Building.

Some of the 400-plus battle-era artifacts donated by rock music icon Phil Collins also will be exhibited in the building, which is now under construction on the northeast corner of the Alamo grounds.

Eugene Simor, CEO and founder of Alamo Beer, where the painting has been displayed in a conference room for nearly seven years, called Lemons work a wonderful piece of art whose scope and imagery prompt people to draw close and study it.

Whenever guests come over, they see it, and everybody finds something different in the painting because its so detailed and is very historically accurate, Simor said.

On ExpressNews.com: Reset saved Alamo project from unraveling in 2021

The nonprofit Alamo Trust operates the historic mission and battle site. Lemon said he hasnt yet received and signed a contract to sell the painting. Nor has the trust or the artist released details of an agreement to display it. But trust spokesman Kevin Femmel confirmed that Alamo officials plan to exhibit the work somewhere in the new building.

The painting, which is 8 feet high and 15 feet wide, depicts a birds-eye view of the Alamo from the northwest about 20 minutes into the early morning battle, when Mexican forces began to overrun the walls of the compound as the first rays of sunlight met the horizon.

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Lemon has called it the largest painting in the world that shows the entire battle going on.

He consulted Alamo researchers to provide as much visual accuracy as possible, from colors of uniforms to roads and adobe structures around the compound.

The painting depicts some 1,300 Mexican soldiers and about 200 Texian and Tejano combatants. Identifiable figures include Alamo commander William Barret Travis, mortally wounded by cannon fire along the north wall; David Crockett, firing a rifle near the west wall; Mexican Col. Jose Maria Romero, atop the east wall; and Mexican Gen. Martin Perfecto de Cos outside the west wall.

Lemon, 66, an Alamo aficionado and former Navy officer, has said he spent 3,500 hours over 14 months painting the work in his garage in an Atlanta suburb. He stood on a ladder to paint the sky and squatted, knelt or lay down to add details near the bottom. He said he endured eye strain, an arthritic wrist and a painful bout of shingles before finishing the work.

Lemon created the painting without a commission.

When he started looking for a buyer, he contacted Simor. He knew Alamo Beer was using the Alamo as part of its branding.

Simor was interested, but the $75,000 asking price was too high for him.

On ExpressNews.com: Alamo Church, Cenotaph to get critical repairs

I told him, Im not Budweiser. Im just a little local guy, he recalled.

Simor agreed to display the work at his brewery in hopes that it could find the right place here in San Antonio. He paid $4,000 to have it shipped 900 miles by truck, just in time for the brewerys 2015 grand opening.

William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

Since then, a collaborative effort involving the city, state and private fundraisers to improve and update the Alamo site has evolved into a nearly $400 million project that includes the 24,000-square-foot exhibit hall and collections building and a 100,000-square-foot museum and visitor center set to open in 2026.

Im really happy that he was able to get it to the folks at the Alamo. It think its going to be the perfect location for that piece, Simor said. It gave us a lot of pride to be able to display it.

Also to be displayed in the new exhibit hall is a 15-by-13-foot Alamo diorama built by Lemon. Collins had the piece transported to San Antonio in 2009. Alamo officials have said it will be restored and exhibited on the buildings ground floor.

Lemon spent 10 years as an active-duty naval officer. He later was an investigator for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service before becoming a private eye. All that time, he drew and painted on the side, often taking commissions for portraits, paintings, book cover illustrations and murals.

His previous Alamo works include The Dawn of Texas, which depicts a sunrise behind the mission-fort. The work, which is 6 feet tall and 12 feet wide, hung in the lobby of the Emily Morgan Hotel under a five-year agreement that expired in 2017. Lemon then sold it to a private collector.

shuddleston@express-news.net
Dr. Fernando A. Guerra, a pediatrician who served as the director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District from 1987 to 2010, died Friday at the Village at Incarnate Word. He was 82.

Guerra was born in San Antonio on Aug. 11, 1939. He exhibited an interest in medicine from an early age, following in his fathers footsteps. His father, also Fernando Guerra, was the second person of Hispanic descent to ever graduate from the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Fernando A. Guerra received his degree from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1964, during the Vietnam War. He soon shipped out to work as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam.

While he was in Vietnam, he not only helped soldiers, he also had to help the villagers there. He saw things like plague and things that you would not normally see in the United States, or at least not in most parts of the United States, said his wife, Beverly Purcell-Guerra. He's always said his time in Vietnam created his interest in public health.

When Guerra returned to the U.S., he taught at UTMB for a while before moving back to San Antonio. He had started his own practice by the time the city approached him in 1987 to oversee public health ahead of Pope John Paul IIs visit. His work so impressed officials they hired him to be the Metro Health director.

Staff file photo Staff file photo Staff file photo Express-News file photos

While Guerras tenure included health crises such as the AIDS epidemic and those caused by Hurricane Katrina, he still found time to see patients.

He had this incredible, incredible dedication to his work, former Mayor Henry Cisneros said. He would work all day as health director and then at 5 oclock go and start a second day in effect.

In 2010, following 23 years of service, Guerra retired to focus on his family. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Purcell-Guerra; six children; and eight grandchildren.

caroline.tien@hearst.com
The Michigan judge who berated an elderly cancer patient for not maintaining his yard has apologized for acting intemperately, after a video of the incident sparked outrage and prompted more than 240,000 people to sign a petition urging for her removal.

District Court Judge Alexis Krot, of Hamtramck, Mich., enraged social media users last week after telling a 72-year-old cancer patient during an online court hearing that he should be ashamed of himself over his unkempt alleyway.

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The remarks, which were shared on social media, quickly went viral, drawing widespread condemnation.

On Thursday, Krot released a statement apologizing to Hamtramck resident Burhan Chowdhury.

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I made a mistake, she said in a statement posted on the courts website.

I acted intemperately. Im very embarrassed that I did so. I apologize to the person who appeared before me and to our entire community for having failed to meet the high standards that we expect of our judicial officers, and that I expect of myself, she added in the statement, which was dated Jan. 18.

On Jan. 10, Chowdhury appeared with his son during the Zoom-powered hearing to explain to her why he wasnt able to maintain his property in better shape.

I am a cancer patient. Very old, maam. And I am a cancer patient. I was then very weak, added the Bangladeshi immigrant, as a photo of his homes exterior was shown on the screen.

Krot didnt seem moved by his answer. She ordered him to pay a $100 fine, and told him that if I could give you jail time on this, I would.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

After the mans son asked her if the fine can be forgiven because my father is currently sick, she asked him: Have you seen the photo? That is shameful  shameful! The neighbors should not have to look at that. You should be ashamed of yourself, she said again.

Judge Alexis Krot said she "acted intemperately." (31st Distrct Court)

Her tone had clearly changed in her mea-culpa statement.

When someone appears before me and has made a mistake, I expect them to own up to it, she wrote. I expect nothing less than myself. No ifs, ands or buts: That is the reason I self-reported my behavior to the judicial tenure commission. I had no legal duty to report myself to the commission. But I did so because, like apologizing to the community, it was the right thing to do, she added. I will continue to hold myself to the standards I set for others.

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According to her official bio  which no longer seems to be posted on the courts website  Krot was appointed to the bench by Gov. Rick Snyder in August 2016 and elected by the people of the City of Hamtramck in November 2018.

Shes involved in many community groups and events in Hamtramck and serves as the board secretary and a trustee for the Academy of the Sacred Heart.

An online petition urging the city to remove Alex Krot as a judge says that she has a history of being bigoted to immigrants.

Nearly 240,000 people have signed the change.org page as of Friday afternoon. Its one of the networks most popular petitions.
The Justice Department is seeking to close a Southwest Side pharmacy accused of ignoring signs of abuse and illegally filling opioid prescriptions.

Jitendra Chaudhary, the pharmacist-in-charge and part owner of Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply #2, is accused of unlawfully filling controlled substance prescriptions, according to a civil complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The complaint alleges that Chaudhary and Rite-Away ignored numerous red flags, or obvious signs of abuse or diversion, when filling opioid prescriptions. One patient died from toxic effects of fentanyl nine days after Rite-Away filled her prescription for that drug, according to the complaint.

As pharmacists, the defendants had a legal obligation to ensure controlled substance prescriptions are prescribed for legitimate medical purposes before being sold and distributed to patients, said Ashley C. Hoff, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. Their choice to repeatedly ignore signs of abuse and diversion when dispensing opioids is a failure to meet this duty at the expense of patient health. The U.S. Attorneys Office will use those resources available to stop pharmacies and pharmacists from avoiding their responsibilities amidst the opioid crisis.

The complaint alleges that by ignoring signs of abuse and diversion, Chaudhary and the pharmacy, located at 2716 S.W. Military Drive, illegally filled controlled substance prescriptions outside the usual course of professional practice and filled prescriptions that were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.

Both Chaudhary and the pharmacy altered prescriptions that lacked required information in order to make them appear to be in compliance with DEA regulations, the complaint said.

The complaint seeks civil penalties as well as a permanent injunction to prevent further violations.

The DEAs San Antonio District Office is conducting the ongoing investigation, officials said.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
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Texas saw its hottest December since 1889, with an average daily temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the states climatologist. Thats roughly 12 degrees warmer than the average Texas December during the 20th century.

The previous modern record was set in December 1933, when the average temperature was 53.3 degrees. The all-time record in December 1889 was about three-tenths of a degree warmer than last months average, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said, adding that climate measurements in the late 19th century were much less precise than today.

So we dont really know what the average temperature was (in 1889) by modern standards, but near as we can tell, it was pretty similar back then, he said.

The winter heat has aggravated a growing drought: As of Jan. 4, about 80 percent of the state was in at least a moderate drought, while roughly 55 percent of the state was seeing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The heat and lack of rain are consistent with a La Nina climate pattern, said Dev Niyogi, a University of Texas climate professor. La Nina, part of a natural cycle of the Pacific Ocean called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, occurs every three to five years and affects global weather, Niyogi said.

In the United States, La Nina typically brings a cold and stormy North and a dry and hot South, he said.

The last time we had a strong La Nina was when we experienced the 2012 drought, Niyogi said.

The Texas Panhandle has experienced the brunt of the heat, with about half of the area in extreme drought throughout December. Wildfires raged through the Panhandle last month, with an entire town evacuated due to the fires. Skellytowns residents had to leave for about a day while firefighters worked to contain a 15,000-acre fire.

Usually, winters are pretty quiet, but we had a fairly wet summer, so theres plenty of  dry grass, Nielsen-Gammon said. And when we get high wind conditions like we had back in mid-December, wildfires can result from that.

Besides fires, another effect of the sustained heat is water stress and poor crop yield, Niyogi said. The Panhandle had one of its worst winter wheat crops since the 2012 drought, he said.

Places like Amarillo have had zero rain for the last three months, Niyogi said. They had a record of almost, I believe, 90 days without a trace of rain. So we are definitely experiencing water stress and higher energy demand.

The relative heat can also trigger intense thunderstorms like those that swept across parts of Texas at the start of January, he said.

Despite warmer winter temperatures, Nielsen-Gammon said its still important to prepare for potential winter storms such as the one that walloped the state last February, knocking out power for millions of Texans and causing hundreds of deaths.

Despite La Ninas tendency to make average temperatures warmer, historically weve seen greater frequency of extreme cold during weak La Nina years or neutral years that are sort of leaning toward La Nina, Nielsen-Gammon said. You only have to go back to last February to see an example of that. Last year was a La Nina year also, and average winter temperatures were going to be above normal except for the middle 15 days of February.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of the Texas Tribune. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
With the 2022 midterm election less than a year away, neither Democrats nor Republicans have the foggiest idea about how to get or keep the support of Latino voters.

The fact that both political parties operate within an antiquated black-and-white paradigm doesnt help.

The ignorance about Americas largest minority  one of the fastest-growing parts of the U.S. electorate  is profound. Its also bipartisan. So is the arrogance. When trying to figure out why Latinos vote a certain way, the parties are often wrong but never in doubt.

What I despise about Democrats is that many of them dont go to the trouble of getting to know Latinos because theyre too busy taking our support for granted. They dont listen to what we want because theyre too busy telling us what they think we need. And they twist whatever support they do get from us to fit whatever agenda theyre pushing.

What I despise about Republicans is, well, pretty much the same.

Now that some Latinos are migrating away from the Democratic Party because they feel neglected, theyre willing to give the GOP a second look. And that has given some know-it-all Republicans the chance to show us all how little they really know about Latinos.

Although he now lives in Virginia, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt spent much of his life in California  a state that is 39 percent Latino. He should have picked up at least a few insights into this group over the years. He didnt. Maybe he wasnt interested. So why pretend to be an expert now?

This week, Hewitt interviewed Salena Zito, a conservative columnist for the Washington Examiner.

Commenting on Bidens racially charged speech in Atlanta recently in support of voting rights legislation, Zito voided the presidents race card.

I think this racist (label) that you throw at people every time they dont agree with you is tired, its worn, its over, she said.

That prompted Hewitt to interject.

I think thats one of the reasons why Latino votes are moving to the GOP, he said.

Absolutely, Zito chimed in.

They perceive the Democratic Party as not about working people, Hewitt said. Its become about African American agendas, primarily the progressive lefts agenda for African Americans, which isnt the African American agenda.

Im sure my Black friends appreciate  as I do  the willingness of a couple of white people to share their wisdom about how African American agendas are chasing off Latinos from the Democratic Party.

But as an actual Latino, I must correct the record. Latinos are not in competition with African Americans. The main reason were leaving the Democrats is that the party stopped coming around to ask for our support.

This is no time for ignorance mixed with arrogance. The political stakes are too high.

The 62 million Latinos in this country make up 18 percent of the U.S. population. More than 60 percent of Latinos are Mexican or Mexican American, a subset that is now a swing vote. Though were more likely to register Democrat  by a 2-to-1 margin  well support Republicans we like.

In 2020, 16.5 million Latinos voted, accounting for 10 percent of the electorate. An estimated 61 percent of them cast ballots for Biden.

Now, the president is persona non grata. A recent poll by Quinnipiac University found that only 28 percent of Latinos approve of his job performance.

Thats a bad omen for Democrats. In 2024, the battleground states are likely to include the heavily Latino states of Arizona, Texas, Florida, Colorado and Nevada.

Both parties are out of their depth with Latino voters. I want to help.

To make a serious play for Latinos, Republicans ought to do three things: When talking about immigration, resist the GOP catnip of nativism and racism; stop surrendering issues like education and health care to the opposing side; and focus not on protecting millionaires but on empowering working-class folks who aspire to become millionaires.

And, in the other camp, Democrats who want to make sure Latinos dont defect to the GOP should do these three things: Dont take them for granted and actually ask for their support for once; stop trying to be the toughest party on immigration enforcement; and turn your attention away from the causes the elites care about and toward bread-and-butter issues.

In politics, loyalty is overrated. It doesnt pay dividends. You know what does? Being up for grabs. Thats where Latinos need to be.
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WASHINGTON  Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, whose Laredo home and campaign headquarters were searched by FBI agents this week, has ties to a Houston-based businessman who was convicted of lying to Congress about Azerbaijans role in funding a 2013 trip to the western Asian nation for 10 lawmakers, federal records show.

Kemal Oksuz, who pleaded guilty in that case, was a regular campaign donor to Cuellar and other Texas politicians and in 2015 enlisted Cuellar, a Democrat representing South Texas, to establish a partnership between Texas A&M International University and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, one of the nonprofits used to help funnel money for that trip.

My thanks to Congressman Cuellar for his playing a very instrumental role for this affiliation, Oksuz said in a statement at the time.

Its unclear why the FBI is investigating Cuellar now, but ABC News reported it is part of a wide-ranging federal probe relating to the former Soviet state and several U.S. businessmen. Cuellar and his wife had been issued subpoenas for information including records related to Oksuz and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, ABC reported Friday.

POLITICAL IMPACT: FBI inquiry sideswipes Texas Rep. Henry Cuellars re-election campaign

Oksuz pleaded guilty in 2018 to illegally funneling money for congressional travel from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, or SOCAR, through his Houston-based nonprofits, which included the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians.

Four members of the Texas delegation were on the May 2013 trip to Azerbaijans capital, Baku. Cuellar was not one of them.

Cuellar did take a trip to Baku funded by the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians four months earlier, in January 2013, congressional travel records show. The group paid more than $25,000 for an eight-day trip by Cuellar and his wife, which included a stop in Istanbul, records show.

Cuellar  who has served as co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus and has met with Azerbaijani officials, including ambassador Elin Suleymanov  did not respond to a request for comment Friday; Oksuz could not be reached for comment.

Cuellars name did not surface in media coverage of the Oksuz case. No members of Congress were charged. Oksuz was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

The Texas members of Congress who attended the Baku conference  including Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston and now-retired Republican Congressman Ted Poe  have said they believed their trips were legally funded by the nonprofits.

Oksuz was a regular campaign contributor to members of the Texas delegation, according to the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. He gave Cuellar donations of $1,000 in 2012 and $2,500 in 2015.

The 2015 agreement between A&M and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, orchestrated by Cuellar and Oksuz, included collaboration on research, conferences, and faculty and student exchanges related to the international oil and gas industry, according to an announcement at the time.

A program under the agreement, which ended in 2019, sent faculty and students from Laredo to Azerbaijan to attend the Baku Energy Summer School, an annual two-week certificate program.

Im pleased to see the university staying true to its international commitment by bringing together world-renowned scholarship and academia in order to examine and gain a better understanding of the petroleum industry worldwide, Cuellar said in 2015. South Texas has been blessed with an oil and gas boom, and it is important that we provide a framework for our students in this important and growing industry.

As for the current FBI probe that led to the search at his home and campaign office, Cuellars office issued a statement saying he will fully cooperate.

He is committed to ensuring that justice and the law are upheld, the statement said.

Azerbaijan a key ally for Texas oil

Azerbaijan and its oil and natural gas fields have been of keen interest to the U.S. government and the nations oil and gas industry since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The former Soviet state has been an important U.S. ally in a volatile region and a key source of natural gas for U.S. allies in Europe, reducing the continents dependence on Russias natural gas fields.

Over the past decade, Azerbaijan and other gas producers around the Caspian Sea have been working to expand pipeline capacity into Europe. The United States has been a critical supporter of the project, known as the Southern Gas Corridor, said Jim Krane, a fellow at Rice Universitys Baker Institute.

Azerbaijan has been in need of U.S. diplomatic support to get it done, he said. The main selling point is that its non-Russian gas thats going to the EU via the Caucasus and Turkey, crossing international borders along the way.

Getting Azerbaijans oil and gas to market is vital not only for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic but also for the Western oil companies that operate there.

Texas-based Exxon Mobil is a part of a consortium that produces oil and gas from fields off the coast of Azerbaijan.

Exxon-Mobil owns a piece of an oil pipeline running to the Mediterranean. BP, which maintains its U.S. headquarters in Houston, operates the Shah Deniz, one of the worlds largest natural gas fields, located in the South Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan.

BP also owns a controlling interest in the South Caucasus Pipeline Co. The pipeline was built to export Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. It starts at a terminal near Baku.

The U.S. relationship with Azerbaijan has particularly benefited Texas, which is the second-largest importer to Azerbaijan among U.S. states, according to the research group Observatory of Economic Complexity.

As its role in European energy security grows, so has Azerbaijans power in the Caspian region.

In 2020, Azerbaijani troops reclaimed territory held by Armenian forces since a war between the two nations in the 1990s. President Ilham Aliyev called it a historic victory.

Azerbaijan seems to have found the right combination and mastered the delicate diplomatic balancing act required to get the lines built and connected while reclaiming long-lost territory, Krane said. Its been impressive.

Cuellar is one of at least seven members of the Texas delegation who have been listed as members of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. Others include Jackson Lee and U.S. Reps. Al Green, D-Houston; Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville; Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas; Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth; and Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, according to Legistorm, a company that follows Congress.

Eric Dexheimer contributed reporting from Austin.
National Weather Service / Contributed Photo

The cold weather is expected to continue this weekend with Connecticut getting another shot of polar air by Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.

After a frigid start with wind chills around zero to negative-10 degrees on Saturday morning, the weather service said temperatures today will reach the mid to upper-20s, about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year. However, the wind chill will make it feel between zero and 10 degrees, the weather service said.
MPs have written to the UK government and the EU urging both sides to remove barriers regarding the export of Scottish seed potatoes to the bloc.

The SNP MPs have echoed the concerns of NFU Scotland over the continuing obstacles farmers face in exporting seed potatoes to the EU.

Agriculture is a significant contributor to the Scottish economy, generating a gross output of 3.3bn annually, and Scottish seed potatoes are a crucial import for European markets.

The high quality of Scottish seed potatoes is reflected in the fact that Scotland grows 75% of the UKs seed potatoes which are exported to more than 40 countries.

However, since January 2021, farmers have been unable to export seed potatoes to the EU, including Northern Ireland, due to changes in post-Brexit trade rules.

The barriers have been put in place despite there being no change to the domestic UK plant health requirements for seed potatoes dating from when the UK exited from the EU on this date, or indeed any reduction in the quality of the product itself.

Richard Thomson MP (Gordon), Alyn Smith MP (Stirling) and Dave Doogan MP (Angus) all represent constituencies containing significant farming communities.

Writing to the UKs International Trade Secretary, the MPs said it was 'deeply concerning' that Scotlands farmers were unable to export seed potatoes to the EU.

"As you may know, potatoes grown in Europe are vulnerable to developing diseases which ultimately render the crops unsuitable

"Without ready access to an ongoing supply of the disease-free seed potato crop which Scotland can produce, there will be a steady diminution in quality of the potatoes able to be grown in the EU, which will begin to affect EU farmers, food producers and ultimately, consumers as well."

The MPs added: We believe that there would be an overwhelming mutual benefit for both the UK and the EU if a way could be found to swiftly remove the current barriers to trade in this important sector.

There is a strong desire amongst farmers and food producers alike in the EU to once again be able to import high quality Scottish seed potatoes.

"That desire is entirely reciprocated by the Scottish producers, who once again wish to be able to meet that demand.

NFU Scotland's vice president Andrew Connon said recently that it was 'apparent' that European growers sought Scottish seed potatoes, and vice versa.

The EU trade situation is a bad one for the whole potato sector, with no winners," he added.

"As we move forward, we must think about whats best in the long-term for the Scottish potato sector.

"Seed potato trade with the EU and GB must be reciprocal, this is an established principle that must remain in place for our members interests."
Warrenton, VA (20186)

Today

Light rain this morning. Scattered thunderstorms for the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 52F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
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The monkey business is over.

Multiple monkeys briefly escaped following a truck crash in central Pennsylvania, but all the primates were accounted for by Saturday night.

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Residents in Montour County had been warned against approaching a monkey on the loose Saturday morning because a pickup truck towing a trailer carrying about 100 of the animals slammed into a dump truck.

The bananas scene unfolded around 3:30 p.m. on Friday on State Route 54 near the Danville exit of Interstate 80, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick told the Daily Item. The truck carrying the animals was traveling to a lab. They had initially landed at Kennedy Airport from the island nation of Mauritius.

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No one was hurt in the crash, but authorities said four monkeys managed to escape.

Daniel Adkins, 59, a passenger in the monkey-hauling vehicle, suffered minor injuries in the crash, but both drivers escaped unharmed. Four monkeys initially managed to escape, sending cops and wildlife officials alike into the woods along the highway with flashlights through freezing temperatures.

Crash Update: All monkeys have been accounted for, Pennsylvania state troopers tweeted Saturday night.

The primates are part of the cynomolgus species, which are typically used for scientific research and can often cost up to $10,000. There has been an increased demand for the monkeys as of late, particularly for the testing of COVID-19 vaccines.

PETA expressed concern for the animals.

Because these 100-long tailed macaque monkeys were headed to a laboratory to be caged, tormented and killed, they were already in danger  but now the public is too, the group said in a statement before the final monkeys were retrieved. The four who got away are undoubtedly terrified and likely injured, and they may be harboring viruses that are transmissible to humans.
National Award-winning filmmaker Onirs film script on the life of a gay Major of the Indian Army who quit service, has been rejected by the Defence Ministry. Onirs movie is inspired by the real-life story of Major J Suresh who quit the service - one of the major reasons being that it became untenable for him to remain in the Army given his sexual orientation.

"According to the new law, if you have any character or anything to do with the forces, the Indian army, you have to get an NOC from the Indian army to be able to make that film. Otherwise, you won't be able to get that certified. On December 16, I formally applied (for the NOC) with my script, which I think treats everything with a lot of dignity and respect. I am not out here to demean anybody. I have a lot of love and respect for the Indian army, Onir told NDTV.

"Then, the day before yesterday is when I got the email and I was told that the 'content has been examined, analysed and rejected.' I, of course, have asked for clarification, asked why exactly (was it rejected). I was told over phone, it has not yet come in writing, that because there is no problem with the script. But, the fact that I have shown a gay character as an army man is illegal," he added.

I have utmost respect and love for my army and wish they would not discriminate anyone who wants to serve the country because of their sexuality, Onir tweeted on Friday evening. Its a long long road to being treated as equal citizens, who have the right like every other citizen to serve our nation and its army. Why should ones sexuality decide if one is capable? miles to go before we sleep, he added.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 21, 2022) - Eric Finlayson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaizen Discovery Inc. (TSXV: KZD) otherwise "Kaizen" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the appeal lodged by AM Gold following the March 22, 2021 dismissal of its legal action against Kaizen by the Supreme Court of British Columbia has itself been dismissed by the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which concluded that no errors were made in the trial judge's reasoning and that "there is no basis upon which this Court should interfere." The judgment is available on the Court of Appeal's website.

The trial judge made a supplementary judgment dated September 9, 2021, awarding "special costs" payable jointly by AM Gold and its principal, John Fiorino (refer to Kaizen's press release dated September 13, 2021). The award entitles Kaizen to pursue an indemnity for the costs it has incurred through a formal assessment process. Kaizen has incurred costs in excess of $3.2 million but the ultimate costs award may be varied in the assessment process.

Kaizen's Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Finlayson, commented, "As anticipated, the AM Gold appeal was found to be without merit. AM Gold and its principal John Fiorino have also appealed the September 9, 2021 Supreme Court order that AM Gold and Mr. Fiorino personally pay Kaizen's costs on an indemnity, special costs basis. We look forward to the hearing of that appeal and eventual recovery of the costs that we have been forced to incur in defending this litigation."

About Kaizen

Kaizen is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company with exploration projects in Peru and Canada. More information on Kaizen is available at www.kaizendiscovery.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY

Eric Finlayson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer

Information contact

Ran Li +1-604-689-8765

info@kaizendiscovery.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements with respect to recovering costs from AM Gold. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "potential", "target", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof.

Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which the Company operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results, and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, unknown impact related to potential business disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak, or another infectious illness, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators, including those described under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/111189
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 21, 2022) - Canoe Mining Ventures Corp. (TSXV: CLV) ( the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of CDN$500,000 through the issuance of 6,250,000 units in the capital of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.08 per Unit (the "Offering"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one whole Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.125 per Common Share until the date that is three years form the date of issuance (the "Warrant Term"), provided, however, that should the closing price at which the Common Shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange (or any such other stock exchange in Canada as the Common Shares may trade at the applicable time) at $0.16 or higher for ten (10) trading days within any thirty (30) day trading day period at any time following the date that is four months and one day after the date of issuance, the Company may accelerate the Warrant Term (the "Reduced Warrant Term") such that the Warrants shall expire on the date which is ten (10) days following the date a press release is issued by the Company announcing the Reduced Warrant Term, subject to adjustments in certain events. Gross proceeds raised from the Offering will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Closing of the Offering is subject to receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including the approval of TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation.

The Offering may constitute a related party transaction within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") as insiders of the Company may subscribe for 1,300,00 Units pursuant to the Offering. The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as the Company is not listed on a specified market and the fair market value of the participation in the Offering by the insider does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company will file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the of the Offering.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons as defined under applicable United States securities laws unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Scott Kelly

Director and CEO

+1 416 998 4714

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of that phrase under Canadian securities laws. Without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various degrees of risk. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current views with respect to possible future events and conditions and, by their nature, are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific to the Company. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. The following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: general market conditions, the uncertainty of future profitability and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. Additional information regarding the material factors and assumptions that were applied in making these forward-looking statements as well as the various risks and uncertainties facing the Company are described in greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis and other continuous disclosure documents filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities which are available at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on and the Company relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/111204
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.
Geneva, NY (14456)

Today

Cloudy with occasional light rain throughout the day. High 59F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Some passing clouds. Low 42F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Personalizations Personalize the user interface to make it your own  You can now create your own wallpaper by picking colors from your photos.  Third-party icons for apps on the home screen are now supported.  Three Dark mode styles are available: Enhanced, medium, and gentle; wallpapers and icons can be adjusted to Dark mode; and the display contrast can be adjusted automatically to ambient light. High Efficiency  You can now drag text, images, or files out of a floating window or from one app to another app in Split screen mode.  Optimized the editing page of Smart Sidebar: Two tabs are displayed and the order of items can be customized. System  Added "Tone tunes": Consecutive notification tones will be linked to form a single melody.  You can now determine a time period when Do Not Disturb is on.  Added weather animations to provide you with a more interesting experience.  Optimized vibration effects for text input and gameplay.  Optimized "Auto brightness". Launcher  You can now remove a folder or combine it with another one.  Added filters for "Drawer mode": You can now filter apps by letters, install time, or usage frequency to quickly find an app. Security and Privacy  Added "System cloner": You can create a system clone from your main system and use different fingerprints to enter different systems.  You can now turn "App lock" on or off in Quick Settings.  More powerful SOS functions Emergency info: You can quickly display your personal emergency info to first responders. The information can be shown even when your screen is locked.  Optimized "Permission manager": You can now choose "Allow only once" for sensitive permissions to better protect your privacy. Games  Added Immersive mode which reduces disturbances while gaming so you can stay focused.  You can change the way to summon Game Assistant. Communications  You can share your personal hotspot with others via a QR code. Photos  Added the Cloud Sync for Private Safe feature which allows you to sync the photos in your Private Safe to the cloud.  Optimized the photo editing feature with upgraded algorithms and more markup effects and filters. HeyTap Cloud  You can back up your photos, documents, system settings, WeChat data, and more, and easily migrate to a new phone.  You can select the types of data to be backed up or restored. Camera  Added shortcuts to instantly share and edit photos or videos you just took.  Added the inertial zoom feature which makes zooming smoother during video shooting.  Added the level and grid feature to help you compose videos. realme Lab  Added Sleep Capsule, help you schedule downtime and secure your sleep time Accessibility  Added "Sound amplifier": You can amplify faint sounds in the environment and soften loud sounds when wearing earphones.
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of seeking to replace Ukraines government with a pro-Moscow administration, and said former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate.

Murayev is head of the small pro-Russian party Nashi, which currently has no seats in Ukraines parliament.

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Britains Foreign Office named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services.

Its unclear what means Britain believes Russia might use to install a friendly government in Kyiv.

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The U.K. government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up. It comes amid a war of words between Moscow and the West over Russias designs on Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) greets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.

Truss urged Russia to de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy, and reiterated Britains view that any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs.

Britain has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine as part of efforts to bolster its defenses against a potential Russian attack.

Amid diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is expected to meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for talks in Moscow. No timing has been given for the meeting, which would be the first U.K.-Russia bilateral defense talks since 2013.

The U.S. has mounted an aggressive campaign in recent months to unify its European allies against a new Russian invasion of Ukraine. The White House called the U.K. government assessment deeply concerning and said it stands with the duly elected Ukrainian government.

This kind of plotting is deeply concerning, said National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne. The Ukrainian people have the sovereign right to determine their own future, and we stand with our democratically-elected partners in Ukraine.

Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

The assessment came as President Biden spent Saturday at the presidential retreat Camp David outside of Washington huddling with his senior national security team about the Ukraine situation.

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In another development, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania plan to send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, a move that the United States fully endorsed Saturday amid Kyivs escalating tensions with Russia.

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The defense ministers of the three Baltic states said in a joint statement that they stand united in our commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity in face of continued Russian aggression.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet that Washington saluted the NATO nations and former Soviet republics for their longstanding support to Ukraine.

I expedited and authorized and we fully endorse transfers of defensive equipment @NATO Allies Estonia Latvia Lithuania are providing to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to defend itself against Russias unprovoked and irresponsible aggression, Blinken said in another tweet.

Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv on Saturday. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier this week described the West supplying arms to Ukraine as extremely dangerous and said the shipments do nothing to reduce tensions.

Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops near the Russia-Ukraine border, leading to fears of an invasion. The West has rejected Moscows main demands  promises from NATO that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it will pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

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A meeting Friday between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended with no breakthrough. Amid the uncertain security situation, the U.S. State Department has been considering a range of options to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and its employees by moving to reduce its diplomatic presence there.

The defense ministers of the Baltic states said in their statement that Estonia would provide Javelin anti-tank weapons while Latvia and Lithuania were sending Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other related equipment to bolster Kyivs defensive military capabilities. It wasnt immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would be sent to Ukraine.
Abortion should be legal in all circumstances

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ALBANY  Its been an entire decade since legislation was first introduced in the State Capitol that would expand the definition of rape in New York.

A full ten years of advocates and supporters arguing for the measure, typically referred to as the Rape is Rape bill, and hoping lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will see the need to broaden the legal definition of rape beyond vaginal penetration.

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The bill, as written, would redefine rape to include non-consensual sexual contact, including oral and anal, which are currently prosecuted as criminal sexual acts.

Since 2012, the Democratic-led Assembly approved the bill, and it passed again last week by a margin of 129 to 16. The bill has failed to pass the Senate due to being under Republican control until 2019 and pushback from prosecutors.

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For the last 10 years, the Assembly has passed the Rape is Rape bill in our effort to give survivors of rape the dignity they deserve, said sponsor Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens). Our law is currently enshrined in outdated gendered notions of rape, creating different categories of sexual assault for what is clearly Rape.

New York State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens) (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

The bill is rooted in the story of Lydia Cuomo, a brave former Bronx school teacher who was sexually assaulted by an off-duty NYPD cop in 2011.

Former Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas introduced the measure a year after Cuomo was dragged into an upper Manhattan courtyard and sexually brutalized at gunpoint by drunken off-duty cop Michael Pena as she waited for a ride to work.

The crime was not considered rape under current state law and Pena was instead charged with crimes classified as criminal sex acts.

The 35-year-old, now living in North Carolina, argues that while carrying the same legal penalties, not calling the acts rape reduces their perceived severity.

[ Survivor of brutal attack by police officer heads to Albany to expand state's definition of 'rape' ]

The word rape is a powerful word, and its a powerful word for a reason, Cuomo told the Daily News in 2019, when she last ventured to Albany to push the Senate to pass the bill.

These are really powerful acts and were not calling them what they need to be called, she added.

Pena was sentenced to 75-years-to-life three based on three predatory sexual assault convictions.

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A full ten years of advocates and supporters arguing for the measure, typically referred to as the Rape is Rape bill, and hoping lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will see the need to broaden the legal definition of rape beyond vaginal penetration. (Shutterstock)

Despite Democrats taking over the Senate three years ago, the bill has yet to pass the upper chamber. A different version that had the support of prosecutors won approval in 2019 but was never reconciled in the Assembly.

Cruz said she wants to see the bill passed last week taken up as-is in the Senate.

I am hopeful that our colleagues in the Senate can finally follow suit to ensure that the State of New York stops negating the experiences of survivors, she said. It is our responsibility to right this wrong and to finally provide survivors the opportunity to obtain adequate justice and recognition.

The bill could very well come up for a vote at some point in the Senate this legislative session.

We understand the importance of the issue and we plan on moving on this issue this year, Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said.

Lydia Cuomo (David Handschuh/New York Daily News)

However, prosecutors continue to oppose the bill, saying they support the concept of eliminating the penetration requirement for rape, but contend the language as written would upend the penal law by needlessly folding criminal sex acts into the rape statute.

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Opponents also argue against eliminating the element of sexual intercourse from the rape statutes, which is defined as penetration however slight, and replacing it with vaginal sexual contact.

They say the change would impact sentencing because if more than one act occurred, the defendant would not be able to receive consecutive sentences.

The bill as currently written and that passed in the Assembly would create statewide chaos in sex crimes cases and compromise the ability of victims to achieve justice, said Washington County District Attorney J. Anthony Jordan, the president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York.

Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh (R-Ballston Spa) echoed prosecutors as she voted against the measure last week, calling for amendments to the bill.

What I find frustrating is that for 10 years, we could have had the essence of this bill, which is rape is rape, she said. We could do it, but do it in such a way to make it so that there is no risk of this problem with sentencing.
North Sydney, Jan. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North Sydney, New South Wales -

Bramelle Partners, a company based in North Sydney, NSW, Australia, wants to inform everyone that they are offering outsourced CFO services and they have established partnerships with businesses to provide them with a reliable finance team. Through these outsourced CFO services, business owners and managers will have peace of mind in knowing that their finances and their business and tax compliance needs are all expertly maintained and managed. As part of their outsourced CFO solution, Bramelle Partners is focused on continuous improvement across all parts of the finance function whether it be software implementation, process improvement, or migration of accounting software to another package, to make sure that the companys finance function is run as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Testimonials from clients offer evidence that the services provided by Bramelle Partners really work to enhance outcomes. One example is the case of Delivery Hero, which used the company to help with business and tax compliance requirements. Delivery Hero is a startup company with shareholders from all over the world, which is why they required someone like Bradley Seeto, founder of Bramelle Partners, who is experienced in international issues and also with the needs of a startup. The client says, With his experience in these areas, Brad has demonstrated to us his capability since day one and has been providing us with sound business and tax advice. We would recommend his services to any other similar businesses.

The outsourced CFO services provided by Bramelle Partners are usually packaged with the tax and business compliance needs of the client for a fixed monthly fee. This ensures certainty with regards to the actual fees to be paid for all of the ongoing taxation, accounting and business compliance needs for the whole year. These services can be categorised as being focused on certain areas, such as the: outsourced financing and accounting division; business and tax compliance; and advisory services. Bramelle Partners also works with various accounting software companies, such as Xero.

Services for outsourced finance and accounting division include: processing of transactions through to general ledger and management accounts; on time reporting as required by management; payroll processing; accounts receivable analysis and collection; accounts payable; cash flow management; creating additional management reports as required; documentation of procedures for each function for future handover; and streamlining of processes.

Business and tax compliance services include: tax planning & tax return preparation; activity statement preparation; payroll tax and workers comp compliance; corporate secretarial services (maintaining ASIC register); and applying for relevant government grants available. Advisory services include: tax advice; employee share schemes; and salary packaging advice and fringe benefits tax planning.

If a business does not need the full outsourced CFO solution and would like to keep some aspects in-house, they can also offer a package to accommodate such needs and develop a plan to ensure that the finance function will be working seamlessly.

Founded in 2013, Bramelle Partners was established by Brad Seeto, who spent most of his career working for big public practice accounting firms. His company was designed to provide a solution to a common deficiency in the services provided by conventional accounting firms. These accounting firms would usually charge clients based on time and not based on the results. Thus, the typical accountants were not incentivised to look for efficient or innovative solutions since their pay was dependent only on the amount of time they spend on the job. This actually worked against accountants doing their job efficiently. Providing a solution to this problem, Bramelle Partners was able to expand and move to their head office in North Sydney in 2016. Their accountants are ready to travel to clients at any location. By gaining a better comprehension of the goals of clients from a financial planning point of view, better results are achieved by working more closely with financial planners and coming up with a holistic approach for both tax and financial planning outcomes.

https://vimeo.com/491517382

Those who are interested in learning more about the services provided by Bramelle Partners can check out their website, or contact them on the phone or through email. More about the company can be gleaned by checking out Bramelle Partners on LinkedIn.

###

For more information about Bramelle Partners, contact the company here:



Bramelle Partners

Bradley Seeto

+61 02 9216 7640

admin@bramellepartners.com.au

Suite 902/50 Berry St, North Sydney NSW 2060, Australia


Gloucester, MA (01930)

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MANSFIELD [mdash] Patricia Ann Thursby-Daniels, 77, of Mansfield, Texas, formerly of Elkhart, Indiana, died Sunday April 10, at Mansfield Hospital in Mansfield, Texas. She was born May 30, 1944, in Elkhart, Indiana, to Robert James and Opal Mae (Allison) Thursby. On Feb. 14, 1965, she marrie
Thich Nhat Hahn, the Buddhist monk whose mindful focus and activist teachings changed how the world practices Buddhism, died Saturday morning. He was 95.

Thich Nhat Hanh died peacefully at exactly midnight in his home Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, according to a Facebook post from his account.

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Possibly the second-most famous monk in the world, behind only the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanhs teachings inspired an entirely new school of Buddhism known as the Plum Village Tradition. It is practiced throughout the world, with the first and largest monastery based near Bordeaux, France.

Thich Nhat Hanh speaks during the 4th International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak, in Bangkok on May 28, 2007. (AFP/AFP via Getty Images)

Thich Nhat Hanh is credited with founding the movement of Engaged Buddhism, which focuses on social activism for peace through Buddhist practices and teachings. Never one to toot his own horn, Thich Nhat Hanh said the idea of Buddhism for social change could be traced to a 13th-century Vietnamese king.

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But that man (King Tran Nhan Tong) chose a more private life than Thich Nhat Hanh, whose teachings were so popular that he spoke with presidents and parliaments worldwide.

Even after he suffered a stroke in 2014 that left him unable to speak, Thich Nhat Hanh continued teaching through his words  hes been credited with writing 100 books, many of them in English. His Facebook page also frequently shared messages of his past teachings.

Thich Nhat Hanh rose to international prominence for his anti-Vietnam War activism, but he was already a well-known monk before his international peace efforts.

Thich Nhat Hanh (front) prays during a three-day requiem for the souls of Vietnam War victims held April 20, 2007, at a pagoda in Soc Son district, suburban Hanoi. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP via Getty Images)

Born Oct. 11, 1926, in Hue, Thich Nhat Hanh joined Tu Hieu Temple as a novice at age 16. He quickly worked to adapt Buddhist practices to everyday life, and he was one of the first monks to ride a bicycle.

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Thich Nhat Hanh taught at Princeton and Columbia in the early 1960s, touring the world in a doomed attempt to promote a peaceful solution in his native country. The term Engaged Buddhism comes from his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.

In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh talked with Martin Luther King Jr. about the war, and encouraged King to speak out against it. Shortly after, the civil rights icon did just that in a famous speech from Riverside Church in Manhattan.

We combined our efforts to work for peace in Vietnam and to fight for civil rights in the U.S., Thich Nhat Hanh later wrote. We agreed that the true enemy of man is not man. Our enemy is not outside of us. Our true enemy is the anger, hatred, and discrimination that is found in the hearts and minds of man.

Thich Nhat Hanh arrives at Bangkok's international airport on May 19, 2007. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

But Thich Nhat Hanhs pleas for peace made him an enemy of North and South Vietnam alike. Both countries denied him the right to return to his homeland, and he spent 39 years in exile. During that time, Thich Nhat Hanh built the Plum Village Tradition across the world, spreading his message of activism through Buddhism.

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He was finally welcomed home in 2005, and again in 2007, drawing thousands-strong crowds for speeches on both trips. In 2018, he returned for good.

He has come back to the place where he grew up as a monk, his disciple Phap Dung told Vox in 2019. The message is to remember we dont come from nowhere. We have roots. We have ancestors. We are part of a lineage or stream.

Upon the news of their founders death, the Plum Village website reiterated one of Thich Nhat Hanhs teachings: Because we have seen the path, we have nothing more to fear.
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Theres one more thing about Manhattan DA Alvin Braggs policy memo thats been bugging us. It may not at first glance seem to matter as much as his arguably going easy on some armed robbers or effectively ruling out prison for many violent offenders, but its revealing nonetheless.

Bragg, who says he believes in focusing prosecutorial resources on violent crime and reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm, makes a convenient exception for people charged with public corruption (as well as some white-collar financial crimes). On what grounds does he consider this category of nonviolent offenders better candidates for prison than, say, people who rob grandmas on the street or drive while intoxicated or otherwise hurt their neighbors? The only honest answer is politics.

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Braggs memo creates a presumption of pre-trial non-incarceration for every case, with the following narrow exceptions: those with charges of homicide or the death of a victim, a class B violent felony in which a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument causes serious physical injury, sex offenses in Article 130 of the Penal Law, domestic violence felonies or charges of PL  215.50, public corruption, rackets, or major economic crimes, including any attempt to commit any such offense under Article 110 of the Penal Law.

Sesame Street had a game: One of these things is not like the others. The DA (allowing for his rules to be overridden in extraordinary circumstances) only wants to lock up those accused of the most brutal crimes, to the extent that he exempts from his list many who commit serious street violence. Yet at the very same time, he is fine imprisoning a small category of nonviolent offenders.

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The same out-of-character enthusiasm for incarcerating a special subset of nonviolent offenders applies after a guilty verdict or plea, where Bragg only wants prison time for people who do awful bodily harm  and those guilty of public corruption or major economic crimes.

Were more than fine with sending Shelly Silver or Dean Skelos or Malcolm Smith (who Bragg prosecuted in the federal system) upstate for years for ripping off the public fisc, but why is Bragg, who says as a matter of principle that incarceration should be a matter of last resort?
As a Black man raised in New York, I am cognizant that there is nothing unwise or untimely about ending that which harms us, that which undermines the civil rights of many in this country, and that which allows the Supreme Court to uphold laws that shield public officials whose actions disproportionately harm Black and Brown people. Yes, we must end qualified immunity now.

New York State prison guards brutally pummeled Dante Taylor, an inmate serving a life sentence for the murder of a Suffolk County mom, driving him to suicide, according to a lawsuit. (Obtained by New York Daily News)

Since the summer of 2020, we have found ourselves entrenched in a national conversation about police violence and paths to reforming policing. Although videos of Black and Brown bodies being beaten or killed by officers have filled our screens for decades, this moment feels quite different. Many conversations are happening across the country, leading communities to ask fundamental questions about what role police should play in our society. More than ever before, legitimate questions are arising about police power and the best tools to hold individuals and systems accountable when power is abused.

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An essential part of these conversations is about ending qualified immunity. Across the nation, we have police and correctional officers who continue to escape accountability when they break the law, shielded from liability by invoking this doctrine. From advocacy groups to Congress and federal judges across the political spectrum, many have called on the Supreme Court to end qualified immunity  arguing that it has no legal basis and fails to achieve its intended policy goals. That hasnt happened.

To fully grasp why this legal doctrine must be abolished, you need to understand the Civil Rights Act of 1871, section 1983. In 1871, to help realize the promise of equality protected in the 14th Amendment, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871, granting individuals the right to sue state and local officials who violate their rights, including police officers. In response, since 1967, the Supreme Court has issued several decisions gutting this protection by inventing the qualified immunity doctrine. This action prevents officers from being successfully sued for abuse of power or misconduct unless a prior case has clearly established that the abuse or misconduct is illegal. No other profession holds this unique protection.

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The constant stream of qualified immunity decisions tells officers that they are almost sure to avoid criminal prosecution and are highly unlikely to face any civil liability in state courts. Even when courts find that officers used too much force, judges typically grant immunity on the basis of precedent.

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There are many cases where Black and Brown families have been victims of qualified immunity. The details differ, but the general stories are the same: law officials murdered and assaulted Black and Brown sons, daughters, siblings, parents and grandparents, and state governments looked the other way because officers invoked qualified immunity. One of many New Yorks cases is the case of Dante Taylor, who was 22 years old when he was brutally battered by correctional officers, which subsequently led to him taking his own life. Taylor was beaten with batons and fists and kicked before he was hogtied and thrown down a flight of stairs on the night of Oct. 6, 2017, at the Wende Correctional Facility outside of Buffalo. The officers responsible remain working, having invoked qualified immunity.

Across the nation, we have other cases. In Dallas, a bicyclist was shot 17 times by five officers who were 100 yards away, killing him in a case of mistaken identity. In Heber City, Utah, an unarmed man was thrown to the ground by an officer after being pulled over for a cracked windshield, leaving the man with brain damage. In Maryland, an officer shot a man experiencing a mental health crisis who was stabbing himself and trying to slit his own throat. In Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, Luke Stewart, a 23-year-old Black man, who was asleep in his parked car when police approached him, was shot five times and died. He was parked legally, and he wasnt posing a danger to anyone.

In all these cases, the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing because they invoked the court-created doctrine of qualified immunity.

It is essential to highlight that ending qualified immunity does not hurt officers who follow the law in carrying out their duties. It merely stops officers who otherwise would be breaking the law from getting away with it and not being held accountable.

Sixty-six percent of people in this nation already agree that we must end it. In New York State, we have an opportunity to pass the nations most comprehensive bill in Albany that would allow us to do away with this doctrine.

The battle to end qualified immunity cant wait; too many Black and Brown families continue to suffer without any path for justice or retribution because of this obscure legal doctrine. End it to give them a chance to protect themselves and seek redress.

Jackson represents Inwood, Washington Heights, West Harlem and other neighborhoods in the state Senate.
Intel announced plans for an initial investment of more than $20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio. The investment will help boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors, powering a new generation of innovative products from Intel and serving the needs of foundry customers as part of the companys IDM 2.0 strategy.

To support the development of the new site, Intel pledged an additional $100 million toward partnerships with educational institutions to build a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region.





A rendering shows early plans for two new leading-edge Intel processor factories in Licking County, Ohio. Announced on 21 Jan 2022, the $20-billion project spans nearly 1,000 acres and is the largest single private-sector investment in Ohio history. Construction is expected to begin in late 2022, with production coming online at the end of 2025. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

As the largest single private-sector investment in Ohio history, the initial phase of the project is expected to create 3,000 Intel jobs and 7,000 construction jobs over the course of the build, and to support tens of thousands of additional local long-term jobs across a broad ecosystem of suppliers and partners. Spanning nearly 1,000 acres in Licking County, just outside of Columbus, the mega-site can accommodate a total of eight chip factoriesalso known as fabsas well as support operations and ecosystem partners. At full buildout, the total investment in the site could grow to as much as $100 billion over the next decade, making it one of the largest semiconductor manufacturing sites in the world.

Planning for the first two factories will start immediately, with construction expected to begin late in 2022. Production is expected to come online in 2025, when the fab will deliver chips using the industrys most advanced transistor technologies. Ohio will be home to Intels first new manufacturing site location in 40 years.

In addition to Intels presence in Ohio, the investment is expected to attract dozens of ecosystem partners and suppliers needed to provide local support for Intels operationsfrom semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers to a range of service providers. Investments made by these suppliers will not only benefit Ohio but will have a significant economic impact on the broader US semiconductor ecosystem. As part of todays announcement, Air Products, Applied Materials, LAM Research and Ultra Clean Technology have indicated plans to establish a physical presence in the region to support the buildout of the site, with more companies expected in the future.

To help develop and attract a pipeline of skilled talent from within the region, Intel plans to invest approximately $100 million over the next decade in partnership with Ohio universities, community colleges and the US National Science Foundation. These partnerships will span a range of activities, from collaborative research projects to building semiconductor-specific curricula for associate and undergraduate degree programs.

In addition to providing capacity for Intels leading-edge products, these new factories will support growing demand for the companys new foundry business, Intel Foundry Services (IFS).

With IFS, Intel is opening its factory doors wide to serve the needs of foundry customers around the globemany of whom are looking for more geographical balance in the semiconductor supply chain. The Ohio factories are designed for the Angstrom era, with support for Intels most advanced process technologies, including Intel 18A. These technologies are critical for enabling next-generation foundry customer products across a range of applications, from high-performance mobile to artificial intelligence. Dr. Randhir Thakur, senior vice president and president of Intel Foundry Services

The Ohio site will also provide leading-edge process technology to support the US governments unique security and infrastructure needs.
The Community Announcements calendar publishes twice weekly on Thursday and Saturday. The submission deadline for Thursday announcements is noon on the previous Tuesday. The submission deadline for Saturday is noon on the previous Wednesday.
The writer is president and CEO of Holston United Methodist Home for Children.
GREENWICH  Any property owner who disagrees with the findings of the recently completed revaluation is now facing a deadline for filing an appeal of their propertys value.

Owners must file by Feb. 22 for their case to be heard by the Board of Assessment Appeals, according the Assessors Department.

The town mailed preliminary assessments to property owners in November, but the deadline for appeals was announced only this week. The town said that next week it will mail the final assessments, after holding preliminary hearings on the new values.

Town Assessor Lauren Elliott told the Board of Estimate and Taxation on Tuesday night that by Friday she would sign the new Grand List, which details the value of all of Greenwichs personal, residential and commercial real estate properties.

The reval company hired by the town held hearings earlier this month to discuss the preliminary findings with residents, which could cut down on appeals, she said. According to Elliott, 764 hearings were held on residential properties and 116 were held on commercial properties.

Some changes were made, Elliott said, but the adjustments in value to the Grand List were still being calculated. The reval company can make those changes, but they are reviewed by the town.

With the preliminary hearings completed, the town will make those changes in the final assessment notices, which will be mailed next week to residents.

A notice is being sent out to every single property owner, regardless of whether they went to an informal hearing or not, Elliott said. On this final assessment notice, it will give every property owner their next appeal steps if they wish to do so.

Requests for appeals must be made in writing, and a full set of instructions is included with the notices.

Elliott told Greenwich Time on Wednesday that she was not ready to release the figures in the new 2021 Grand List.

Last fall, the BET granted Elliott an extension that would have allowed her to sign the Grand List at the end of February, which would have pushed the appeal deadline to March. However, the work was completed as originally scheduled and the extra time will not be needed.

BET Chair Dan Ozizmir thanked Elliott and her department for their work on the revaluation. BET Budget Committee Chair Leslie Tarkington commended Elliott and her staff for not using the extension.

The revaluation, which is completed every five years by state mandate, had been planned for 2020. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced a delay for a year. The work, however, was completed in 2021.

The next revaluation is still scheduled for 2025.

The net value of Greenwichs real estate for the 2020 Grand List  which included 20,109 residential properties, 957 commercial properties, 800 apartments, 28 industrial properties, 13 public utilities and 241 parcels of vacant land  came to a total of $32,221,783,022, an increase from the 2019 Grand Lists net value of $31,986,949,038.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
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A Connecticut woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Snapchat and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, claiming the social media giants did not do enough to protect her daughter from harmful and exploitative content before her suicide.

The 11-year-old died last July after struggling for two years with extreme addiction to Instagram and Snapchat, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. The mothers suit was brought by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a group founded last year seeking to hold social media companies accountable.

Hearst Connecticut Media Group is withholding the familys name because girl was a minor.

This isnt a question of opinion. Internal documents and testimony before Congress by a former employee reveal that Meta Platforms was fully aware of the flaws and addictive properties of its social media platforms and failed to adequately design their products to protect minor users from harm, Matthew Bergman, the centers founder and an attorney representing the mother in the suit, said in a statement.

In his statement, Bergman said no safeguards are in place on Snapchat, and the girls death is a direct result of the inaction and deliberate addictive design of these social media platforms to prey on vulnerable children.

Meta did not immediately respond Friday to a message seeking comment.

A spokesperson for Snapchat said in a statement the company was devastated by the news of the girls death, and our hearts go out to her family.

While we cant comment on the specifics of active litigation, nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community, the companys statement said. The spokesperson also highlighted that the app does not include some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms, and intentionally makes it harder for strangers to connect with young users.

We work closely with many mental health organizations to provide in-app tools and resources for Snapchatters as part of our ongoing work to keep our community safe, the spokesperson said.

The suit comes as social media companies have faced renewed scrutiny into their practices by lawmakers, after internal documents from Facebook were leaked by a former employee and reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Connecticut mothers complaint asks for damages to be specified in a jury trial. It also requests a court order against the two social media companies to stop the harmful conduct alleged herein, and remedy the unreasonably dangerous algorithms in their social media products.

The lawsuit also asks for the courts to order the companies to provide warnings to minor users and their parents that defendants social media products are addictive and pose a clear and present danger to unsuspecting minors.

The suit also claims the apps do not permit parental controls, limiting the mothers ability to monitor her daughters social media use and causing her to physically confiscate the girls devices. According to the lawsuit, this caused the girl to run away in order to access her social media accounts on other devices.

In the months leading up to her death, the girl was experiencing severe sleep deprivation that was caused and aggravated by her addiction to Instagram and Snapchat, and the constant 24-hour stream of notifications and alerts defendants sent, the lawsuit stated.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
The attacks on American Jews can seem to blur together.

Theres the Beth Israel synagogue in Charlottesville, Va. that the police declined to assign an officer to protect during Shabbat morning services amid the Unite the Right rally in August 2017. A single armed guard stood watch as three men dressed in camo and carrying semi-automatic rifles stood across the street while others yelled theres the synagogue and chanted Sieg Heil!

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And theres the (unrelated) Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Tex., where Malik Faisal Akram  whod flown in from the U.K. and then stayed briefly in a homeless shelter  was invited in just ahead of Shabbat morning services last week. He took out a gun and took hostages, including the rabbi, while demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a virulent anti-Semite imprisoned nearby.

Eleven hours later, the hostages escaped and the hostage-taker was shot and killed by the authorities. An hour after that, the FBI special agent in charge held a briefing where he said that the attack was not specifically related to the Jewish community. But were continuing to work to find motive, obliquely referring to Akrams attempt to trade the lives of the Jews in Texas for the freedom of the woman nicknamed Lady Al Qaeda, something that Al Qaeda and ISIS have both tried to do in exchange for Americans held abroad.

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Because the services had been streaming online, which has been a lifeline for the ill and the elderly during the pandemic, hours of the standoff could be heard over the internet as they happened.

Im surrounded, Im in a synagogue, Ive got four beautiful guys, Jewish guys with me, Akram told his brother back in Blackburn, England, in a call during the standoff that authorities listened in on at the time, and the London-based Jewish Chronicle later posted online. He said that hed been praying to Allah for two years for this and that Im opening the doors for every youngster in England to enter America and f--k with them.

Ive only been here two weeks and Ive got them all at gunpoint, he went on. Maybe theyll have compassion for f--king Jews.

A law enforcement vehicle sits near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on Jan. 16, 2022, in Colleyville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Im no G-man, but maybe theres a clue there about his motive?

On Sunday  after the news had widely gone out that Saturdays Texas synagogue hostage stand-off not related to Jewish community  the FBI backtracked and deemed it a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted. Five days after that, Director Christopher Wray finally acknowledged the self-evident, that this had been a hate crime and act of terrorism.

Murderous violence against Jews had been exceedingly rare in America before these last few years, but something seems to be changing for the worse.

In between the two Beth Israels, there was the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018, where 11 people were killed and six others, including Holocaust survivors, were wounded in the deadliest assault on Jews in American history.

The shooting at the Chabad of Poway in California in April 2019, where one person was killed and three others, including the rabbi, were wounded, by a gunman who opened fire at a Shabbat morning service on what was also the last night of Passover.

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The fatal shooting of a police officer and three people shopping in a kosher market in Jersey City in December 2019.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

The killing that same month of a rabbi inside his home by a man with a machete who stormed a Chanukah party in Monsey, N.Y. and wounded four others.

Back to motives: Those first two murders were committed by white men with right-wing politics angry about how American Jews are supposedly bringing non-whites into America as parts of some great replacement, while the next two murders  along with a spate of street assaults on Jews in New York City  were committed by Black people motivated by a different strain of anti-Semitism.

Its a distinction without a difference for the people who are being attacked, or the many other Jewish people worried about their kids safety inside of a synagogue or about being assaulted or worse for being recognizably Jewish.

Those worries are as old as the Jewish people, even if they had felt more distant to many less observant Jews in America for a generation or two when it seemed like we had been passed over only to have those worries rudely or violently revived over the last few years. What had been pleasantly blurred is being forced into focus.

But those who see politics as a sport and use Jewish casualties to keep score are concerned instead with whether a given attacker was supposedly motivated by right-wing anti-Semitism or left-wing anti-Semitism.

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Though left and right often arent relevant terms here, they alternately spotlight or obscure that anti-Semitism to rack up points and suit their ideological priors. The people playing this game are denying Jewish peoples fundamental humanity, dignity and autonomy in the process.

harrysiegel@gmail.com
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STAMFORD  A Norwalk city official accused of fatally shooting a 54-year-old tenant had a clearly deliberate motive in the homicide, a state prosecutor said Friday.

Ellen Wink, 61, was arraigned Friday in state Superior Court in Stamford on a murder charge stemming from the fatal shooting of Kurt Lametta, a tenant at Winks Nelson Avenue property in Norwalk.

Assistant States Attorney Michelle Manning the homicide was motivated by an ongoing dispute between Lametta and Wink, the Republican deputy registrar of voters in Norwalk and a former city clerk.

Wink and the victim in this case had numerous interactions over the course of a month, Manning said. She then very clearly showed her anger towards the victim. That anger escalated to the point where she shot him in his home  she brought the gun to that house and shot him yesterday. That, in the states view, shows that she is a very dangerous person who lets her anger guide her finger.

Dr. James Gill, the states chief medical examiner, said Friday Lametta died from gunshot wounds to the torso and ruled his death a homicide.

According to police reports, Wink and Lametta have had a contentious relationship dating back to September 2020, when Lametta allegedly stopped paying rent.

Last September, Wink was arrested after she locked Lametta out of the home and threw away his personal belongings, clothes, jewelry and cash, according to the police report. That case is still awaiting disposition and has been statutorily sealed, according to state court records.

In the wake of the deteriorating relationship with Lametta, Wink expressed she wanted to sell the Nelson Avenue property, according to the police report.

In a call to a 911 dispatcher following the fatal shooting, Wink said she went to Lamettas apartment to do some cleaning when he came at her, according to the police report. The report states Wink can be heard yelling he was after me in the 911 call.

She said I am so tired of this guy, he is on the floor, Detective John Sura wrote in his report regarding Winks conversation with the 911 dispatcher. She said that she had kept telling him to get out and had enough. Wink continued rambling about issues Kurt Lametta caused.

According to the police report, Wink also told a first responding officer that she had fired a revolver registered to her five times at Lametta, adding he was (expletive) driving me nuts.

A neighboring tenant told police he heard Wink and Lametta arguing Thursday afternoon when there was a loud bang, followed by Lametta yelling call 911, according to the police report.

Winks boyfriend told police he was in his office at the adjacent Nelson Avenue property that she owns when he heard bangs, a pause and then a few more bangs, according to the police report.

The boyfriend told police Wink later said, Lametta got in her face or something, so she shot him, the report said. He also told police Lametta was a big bully and Wink is afraid of him, according to the report.

During Fridays arraignment, Manning called Wink a danger to society and asked Judge John Blawie to raise her bond to $2 million.

Attorney Kevin Black, who represents Wink, said the fatal shooting was an isolated incident and the court should instead consider a $200,000 bond or less.

Blawie ultimately kept the bond at $1 million, where it had been originally set. If posted, Wink will be on house arrest and required to wear GPS monitoring, and face intensive probation services.

Wink did not post bond on Friday.

Wink has been a longtime Norwalk resident and has served in a number of positions in the city. In addition to currently serving as Republican deputy registrar, she served as city clerk from 2009 to 2011.

In 2020, Wink ran for state representative for the 137th District and lost to Democratic incumbent Chris Perone.
An interesting new leak today gives us a treasure trove of information regarding OnePlus' plans and overall strategy. To recap, the company's new market segmentation works like this: the numbered series is the flagship line, the R-branded models are targeted at regional markets, Nord and Nord CE devices are the mid-rangers, and Nord N phones are targeting the entry-level.

Speaking of R models, the OnePlus 9RT just launched in India as a successor of sorts to the 9R, but apparently there's going to be a 10R too later this year. Not only that, but global markets are seemingly getting a vanilla OnePlus 10 alongside the 10 Pro which was already unveiled for China.

OnePlus 9RT

While the 10 and 10 Pro (to be announced globally in April, allegedly) are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the OnePlus 10R will go with the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 instead.

After a long time of sticking with only Qualcomm chipsets, OnePlus first went the MediaTek route with the Nord 2, and now that the Taiwanese chip maker has a proper flagship SoC, it's ready to induct that into the flagship series, even if the 10R will be confined to some regions only.

According to this rumor, the reason for OnePlus not going with the Dimensity 9000 in the 10 or 10 Pro has to do with North America's love of mmWave 5G and the MediaTek chip's lack of support for that. The OnePlus 10R is headed to China and India with a 120 Hz AMOLED display, and "at least" 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The OnePlus 10R should be in stores in those markets at the end of Q2 (read: June). The delay has to do with the company wanting to give the 9RT some room to breathe. This phone was initially planned to launch in India in October, but issues with OxygenOS 12 pushed that to this month.

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The American Red Cross said national blood supplies are at a crisis level but supplies at Guam Memorial Hospital arent affected.

As of right now, Guam Memorial Hospital Authority is not experiencing a blood supply issue, despite the announcement by the American Red Cross, said Mai Habib, marketing and communications director for the hospital.

The Red Cross announcement described the situation as a national blood crisis  its worst blood shortage in over a decade, posing a concerning risk to patient care. Doctors have been forced to make difficult decisions about who receives blood transfusions and who will need to wait until more products become available.

Guam Memorial Hospital doesnt receive blood donations from residents on island; all blood is shipped from the states through the American Red Cross.

But if the shortage were to affect Guam, the hospital would be able to collect blood locally, Habib said.

Guam Memorial Hospital Authority has not faced a situation where the demand outpaced the supply. However, should the need ever arise, the hospital is prepared with contingency plans to collect from local donors, said Habib.

The Pacific Daily News didnt receive a response to questions sent to Naval Hospital Guam or Guam Regional Medical City on their blood supply situations.

Military flights

Early in the pandemic, there were worries about potential delays in weekly deliveries of blood, because of commercial airline flight cancellations and limitations globally, she said. However, the American Red Cross found a way around this issue by routing blood shipments through military flights to Guam.

Habib said hospital staff, particularly Jesse Manibusan in the materials department, coordinated with local authorities and military officials to get the blood deliveries to the hospital on time.

That was only needed for two to three weeks before commercials flights resumed, she said.

Pandemic byproduct

The American Red Cross supplies 40% of the nations blood to hospitals and clinics. The organization said the shortage stems from a low number of healthy donors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nationally, blood drives have been canceled because of illness, staffing limitations and weather-related closures.

The American Red Cross said the recent rapid spread of the omicron variant caused an increase in positive cases and added to the decline in donors. And its happening in January, National Blood Donor Month, a time of year when donations  even before the pandemic  are typically low because of the active flu and cold season, the organization stated.

At a time when many businesses and organizations across the country are experiencing pandemic challenges, the Red Cross is no different, the organization stated. We are all learning how to live in this new environment.
The Guam Office of Veterans Affairs in Asan will offer services by appointment only starting Monday in response to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

The office on Friday said the measure is meant to keep veterans, their families and staff safe.

While the policy may not sit well for some of our veterans and their families, its better to play it safe and continue the services by appointment only, said veteran Bill Cundiff.

Cundiff is a retired Air Force chief master sergeant, a member of the Veterans Affairs secretarys Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans and president of the Guam U.S. Air Force Veterans Association.

Should any of the employees at the Veterans Affairs office catch COVID-19, services will definitely be curtailed. Tough decisions have to be made for the safety of everyone, Cundiff said.

He added the federal Veteran Affairs Office in Tiyan also offers services for veterans and their families by appointment only.

Veteran Raymond Shinohara  the founder of Green Valor, a nonprofit to help veterans on Guam  said he is not opposed to the new policy and that it shouldnt discourage veterans and their families from being proactive in trying to contact the office for services they need.

If veterans need help, especially during this time, call the veterans affairs office or email them. There are multiple ways to reach out to the office, Shinohara said.

He added that Green Valor has been finding ways to provide support through social work and counseling despite the pandemic by using Zoom meetings.
Department of Public Health and Social Services employees and Guam National Guard personnel process, vaccinate and observe patients during an after-school vaccination clinic at M.U. Lujan Elementary in Yona Jan. 20, 2022.
Two hip-hop industry heavyweights who have taken the television industry by storm with their respective brews of gritty, urban storytelling are joining forces again.

Curtis 50 Cent Jackson and Mona Scott-Young are on board to produce Hip Hop Homicides, exploring the murders of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., and other rappers.

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Tupac Shakur (left) and The Notorious B.I.G. (AP)

Hosted by former TMZ personality Van Lathan, the eight-part investigative series is set to premiere later this year on WEtv as well as the ALLBLK streaming service. According to distributor Lionsgate, Hip Hop Homicides will make an attempt to uncover details of what really happened with this look into staggering number of unsolved murders in the community.

Jackson, or Fiddy as he is also known, has created a new and quite profitable career path for himself as the executive producer of the Power series universe for the Starz premium cable channel. Scott-Young is the celebrated mastermind behind VH1s wildly popular Love And Hip Hop franchise.

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Mona Scott-Young attends day 2 of REVOLT Summit x AT&T Summit on Sept. 13, 2019 in Atlanta. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Revolt) (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Revolt)

Both New York City natives share previous business ties. In 1996, Scott-Young co-founded the powerhouse hip hop management company, Violator, with a client based that boasted Missy Misdemeanor Elliott, LL Cool J, Q-Tip, Ja Rule, Mobb Deep and the In Da Club rap superstar.

50 and I created this show in response to the disturbing number of murders in hip hop, she said with Thursdays announcement. With this boots-on-the-ground investigative series, we will look to closely examine and explore leads surrounding these cases with the hope of finally providing loved ones with answers.

Jackson, an actor and entrepreneur, also produces the based on a true story BMF series for Starz and For Life for ABC.

G-Unit Film and Television has thrived by telling real stories. As I continue to grow my current slate, premium non-scripted programming will be a major focus, he said. Hip hop loves things that are damaged. This series will shed light on the artists that didnt make it through the struggle.

50 Cent attends the "Power Book III: Raising Kanan" New York Premiere at Hammerstein Ballroom on July 15, 2021. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images) (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

In November, Jackson announced that he is developing a series based on Snoop Doggs 1996 murder trial. Named after Snoop Doggs 1993 hit song, Murder Was the Case, the show will explore when the Gin and Juice rapper was charged with first-degree murder for the shooting of Philip Woldemariam, a member of a rival gang.

The West Coast rap star, whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr., was represented by the attorney Johnnie Cochran, famous for also representing O.J. Simpson in his 1995 trial for the murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

He was acquitted after a jury of seven men and five women deliberated for more than a week.

On Friday, Jackson teased an announcement that the series was greenlit on Instagram.

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At age 24, Brooklyn-born The Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls) was shot dead in his car on March 9, 1997 as he left a Vibe magazine after-party in Los Angeles.

The Notorious B.I.G., who won rap artist and rap single of the year, clutches his awards at the podium during the annual Billboard Music Awards in New York on Dec. 6, 1995. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) (Mark Lennihan/AP)

Six months earlier, his friend-turned-foe Tupac died in Las Vegas days after a drive-by shooting at age 25.

Both murders took place amid the infamous East Coast vs. West Coast rap war of the mid-1990s.

While neither case has been solved, the primary subjects have been the focus of several movies, TV series and books throughout the years.

This is a significant show for WE tv and also for our ALLBLK streaming service, WEtv and ALLBLK general manager Brett Dismuke said.  and to have this dream team come together on a culturally significant series like this is important to me and to driving our business as we continue WE tvs history of serving Black viewers and grow ALLBLK into the #1 streaming home for Black voices and stories.




Haiti - Justice : Accused of corruption, Judge Orelien gives notice to Pierre Esperance to prove his accusations





A correspondence dated January 18, 2022 bearing the signature of Pierre Esperance, Executive Director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) addressed to the Superior Council of the Judicial Police (CSPJ) accuses of corruption the examining magistrate Garry Orelien (whose the mandate was not renewed https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35753-haiti-news-zapping.html ) and who was in charge of the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise explains [] While the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) was carrying out its investigation, several arrest warrants were issued by the Public Prosecutor's Office near the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince. As soon as he was appointed as an examining magistrate, Garry Orelien began to contact the persons in question and asked, to each of them, to pay him up to fifty thousand (50,000) US dollars for the cancellation of these arrest warrants. For the lifting of a departure ban issued against a personality whose name was cited for having spoken with one of the individuals indexed in this assassination, two million (2,000,000) Gourdes were paid to the examining magistrate Garry Orelien [...]



[...] On January 3, 2022, Magistrate Garry Orelien ordered the release of four police officers who were imprisoned in connection with the case relating to the assassination of President Jovenel Moise [] At least one of them paid twenty-five thousand (25,000) United States dollars to the magistrate [...]



[...] As soon as he was appointed as an investigating magistrate, Garry Orelien made contact with people, against whom arrest warrants were issued by the Port-au-Prince prosecution. He asked them, each of them, to pay him up to 50 thousand US dollars for the cancellation of these arrest warrants [...]



Reacting strongly to these accusations, Judge Garry Orelien in a note of clarification published on January 20, 2022 writes :



"Judge Garry Orelien condemns with the greatest rigor the false, defamatory and unworthy allegations made by Mr. Pierre Esperance against him in the context of the case of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise [...] which statements tend to undermine his integrity, his honor and that of his family when his author tries to make the public believe that the judge would have engaged in acts of corruption within the framework of the treatment of this file.



The investigating judge gives notice to Mr. Pierre Esperance to produce such facts and/or such justifications which may give some basis to such allegations.



Judge Garry Orelien thus warns Mr. Pierre Esperance and all other individuals, and this, subject to the most express reservations of legal proceedings, who for reasons or interests which are personal or maliciously, would have sought, at the through reputed criminal organizations to discredit a professional concerned with transparency, discretion and the integrity of his mission."



To be continued



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35753-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35687-haiti-justice-6-months-after-the-assassination-of-president-moise-the-judicial-police-report-blockages.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35209-haiti-flash-the-safe-of-the-general-registry-of-the-tpi-of-port-au-prince-has-disappeared.html

35111

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34567-haiti-flash-new-investigating-judge-in-the-assassination-of-president-moise.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : Interventions of the PM at the international visionconference on the Haitian crisis





Friday, January 21, 2022, Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, chaired the meeting by videoconference https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35754-haiti-politic-meeting-of-the-international-community-on-haiti.html on the crisis in Haiti, which brought together no less than 17 countries and many international organizations. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry ensured the opening of these meetings during which the international community reaffirmed its solidarity with Haiti and underlined the importance of promoting solutions developed by and for Haitians.



In his speeches, Prime Minister Henry declared :



"I extend my thanks to all the countries and international organizations that continue to support Haiti in this particularly trying time. Thank you for taking the time to reflect on what is happening in Haiti.



Today, the main concern of my compatriots is insecurity and blind terrorism which considerably disrupt everyday life, sow grief in families and isolate several departments of the country from the rest of the country. South.



There is an urgent need to address these problems and find lasting solutions. I am convinced that the root cause of such a situation lies mainly in the abject poverty in which a significant part of our population lives.



This is a necessity if we want to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves for this interim period, which are, among other things : the return to normal functioning of our democratic institutions, the handing over of power to elected officials as soon as possible.



In the coming days, the transitional bodies will be formally constituted. It is the authority to control and monitor government action, the Provisional Electoral Council and the National Constituent Assembly.



[...] I know that your respective countries and organizations feel concerned by the deterioration of the political climate since the heinous assassination of the President of the Republic https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html , as well as the assassination attempt on my person recently in Gonaives https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35632-haiti-flash-assassination-attempt-against-prime-minister-henry.html .



I can also add the dysfunction of democratic institutions, the rise of insecurity which translates into blind acts of terrorism and the devastating effects of the repeated natural disasters which affect my country.



[...] My government is more determined than ever to bring the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Mose to a successful conclusion. The perpetrators and sponsors of this heinous crime must be prosecuted and punished.



[...] February 7 does not mark the end of the mandate of the Government, which is responsible for organizing free and democratic elections. The next tenant of the National Palace will be a president elected freely by all the Haitian people.



There is no legal or constitutional provision that authorizes anyone to arrogate the right to appoint a provisional President. I hope that everyone will come to understand that such initiatives only deepen divisions.



[...] I sincerely hope that the commitments you will make today will materialize quickly, so that, in the coming months, a security climate, conducive to investments and the organization of elections, will be established in Haiti."



Regarding the continuation of the Prime Minister after February 7, 2022, Brian A. Nichols, T$

*he Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the United States Department of State, in a press note from the Creole Voice Service of America at the end of the meeting declared "The mandate of Prime Minister Ariel Henry is not linked to the mandate of the late President [Jovenel Moise] on February 7. What the Haitian people are hoping for is progress so that they have elections and a democratically elected President. This is what the government is currently working on. I do not believe that the Haitian people are focused on the date of February 7" adding "The United States and the international community want to ensure before, that the National Police of Haiti (PNH) is ready to face the insecurity"



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : Canada announces $50.4 million in aid for Haiti





Friday, January 21, 2022, during the virtual meeting, during which the international community reaffirmed its solidarity with Haiti and stressed the importance of promoting solutions developed by and for Haitians, the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau underlined the long history of collaboration between the 2 countries, and he highlighted Canada's work to support the Haitian people alongside its international partners.



As a long-standing partner of Haiti, Canada is committed to supporting the aspirations of Haitians for a more democratic, secure and inclusive future. That is why, at the meeting, Minister Joly and Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada announced a contribution of $50.4 million dollars to fund 9 initiatives that will support health services for Haitians, build Haitian security capacity and infrastructure, support sexual and reproductive health and rights, and help address insecurity food and other humanitarian challenges.



Projects supported by this investment include, among others :



$12.35 million to increase the capacity of the Haitian National Police through essential training and increased efficiency, while increasing the meaningful participation of women in policing.

$3 million to increase the number of female police officers in the Haiti National Police, contributing to improved security and peace in the country.

$17.48 million across three projects to improve the sexual and reproductive health rights of the most vulnerable women and adolescents

$12 million across two projects to address food insecurity and support humanitarian services through the World Food Programme.



Haitis Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Jean Victor Geneus, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Religious Communities, along with foreign ministers of like-minded democracies and high-level officials from multilateral organizations, discussed ways that the international community can support Haitians in implementing sustainable solutions to tackle growing insecurity, strengthen political dialogue and improve aid coordination.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-35772-haiti-politics-interventions-of-the-p-m-at-the-international-vision-conference-on-the-crisis-haitienne.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Diaspora Covid-19 : Daily Bulletin #673





GLOBAL SITUATION 2019-2022:

Epidemiological situation:



Saturday January 22, 2022 the number of people infected worldwide with the Covid-19 coronavirus and its variants since the start of the pandemic (March 11, 2020) amounts to 347,172,997 cases (+3,785,605 in 24 hours ), the day before (+3,725,186)



Number of countries infected: 221



*Healings: 276,781,488 people have been cured of Covid-19 worldwide (+318,867 in 24 hours), the day before (+3,216,506)

*Deaths: 5,603,940 people died of Covid-19 worldwide (+10,005 in 24 hours), the day before (+9,545)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries) in the world is currently 64,787,569 cases (+3,456,733 in 24 hours), the day before (+499,135)



Average cure rate in the world: 79.72% (-)



Average mortality rate in the world: 1.61% (-)



World: Number of daily confirmed cases:





(Day 1)



Vaccination: 9.84 billion doses of vaccine injected (+20 million doses injected in 24 hours. Updated January 21, 2022 (latest data available).



HAITI:

Epidemiological situation:

According to the Ministry of Public Health, +133 new cases in 24 hours of Covid-19 and its variants were confirmed in Haiti on January 17, 2022 (latest partial data available ) for a total of 28,250 confirmed cases throughout the national territory (48.2% women and 51.8% men), since the first case (March 19, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html ). Previous update (+87 cases on January 16, 2022).



Healings: 24,234 (+17 in 24h)



Cure rate: 85.78% (-)



Deaths: 780 deaths +0 since January 7, 2022 (last data available)



Death rate: 2.76% (-)



5th Wave (Omicron Dominant):

Total of the 5th wave (starting December 27, 2021) amounts to 2,255 confirmed cases and 14 deaths



Haiti: Active Cases Trend: (less recoveries and deaths)





(Day-1)



Screening since the start of the pandemic: 162,844 tests (+746 in 24 hours) since March 19, 2020, latest data available. Note that the very small number of people screened at the national level out of a population estimated at 11.6 million citizens, does not statistically allow us to make a representative estimate of the situation in Haiti, which translates into a number of cases confirmed daily largely undervalued. By way of comparison, the Dominican Republic has carried out more than 2.8 million tests on its population since the start of the epidemic with an average of the last 7 days close to 30,000 daily tests.



TOP 5 of the most affected municipalities in the West (2021-2022):

Delmas: 3.146 (+17); Petionville 2,469 (+26); Port au Prince 1.673 (+23); Tabarre 1.355 (+22); Croix-des-Bouquets 1,293 (+7)



Confirmed cases by department (2021-2022):

West: 11,404 (2020: 6,945 cases)

North: 789 cases (2020: 677 cases)

Center: 1,112 cases (2020: 508 cases)

Artibonitis: 904 cases (2020: 593 cases)

Northeast: 449 cases (2020: 314 cases)

Southeast: 868 cases (2020: 274 cases)

South: 1,002 cases (2020: 262 cases)

North West: 423 cases (2020: 229 cases)

Grand'Anse: 910 cases (2020: 176 cases)

Nippes: 262 cases (2020: 149 cases)



Cumulative deaths by department (2021-2022):

West: 270 deaths (2020: 104 deaths)

North: 53 deaths (2020: 34 deaths)

Center: 63 deaths (2020: 13 deaths)

Artibonite: 37 deaths (2020: 39 deaths)

North East: 6 deaths (2020: 6 deaths)

South: 49 deaths (2020: 6 deaths)

Southeast: 13 deaths (2020: 9 deaths)

North West: 15 deaths (2020: 12 deaths)

Grand'Anse: 7 deaths (2020: 13 deaths)

Nippes: 26 deaths (2020: 5 deaths)



Distribution of deaths by age (since the start of the epidemic):

0-9 years: 13 deaths

10-19 years: 10 deaths

20-29 years: 26 deaths

30-39 years: 48 deaths

40-49 years: 77 deaths

50-59 years: 125 deaths

60-69 years: 183 deaths

70-79 years: 171 deaths

80 years and over: 127 deaths



Vaccination:

125,492 Haitians (1.08% of the population) +221 in 24 hours have received a 1st dose of "Spikevax" vaccine from the MODERNA Laboratory since July 16, 2021, date of the first injection through 149 open vaccination centers https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35051-haiti-covid-19-list-of-149-vaccination-centers-open-in-the-country.html and 79,410 Haitians are fully vaccinated (2 doses, 0.68% of the population) + 270 Update January 14, 2022 latest information available (source MSPP).



List of the 149 Vaccination Centers open in Haiti (and hours) by department:

(updated October 20, 2021)

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35051-haiti-covid-19-list-of-149-vaccination-centers-open-in-the-country.html



DIASPORA:

Epidemic situation :



USA:

*Cases since the first case (February 29, 2020): 71,394,579 cases (+849,717 in 24 hours), the day before (+736,512)

*Healings: 44,191,512 healings (+143,713 in 24 hours), the day before (+155,522)

National Cure Rate: 61.89% (-)

*Deaths: 887,643 deaths (+3,740 in 24 hours), the day before (+2,927)

National mortality rate: 1.24% (-)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries): 26,315,424 (+702,264 in 24 hours), the day before (+578,063)

Tests: 901,261,460 last data available.



USA: Number of daily confirmed cases





(Day-1)



Vaccination: 532.85 million doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection in the United States (990,000 doses injected in 24 hours. Updated January 21, 2022 (latest data available) .



DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

Confirmed cases since March 1, 2020:530,998 cases (+6,363 in 24 hours) the day before (+7,024). First case (March 1, 2020)

Healings: 492,254 healings (+7,918), the day before (+6,412)

National Cure Rate: 92.70% (+)

Deaths: 4,279 deaths (+5 in 24 hours), the day before (+0)

Mortality rate: 0.80% (-)

Positivity rate over 4 epidemiological weeks: 30.7% (+)

Active cases: (excluding deaths and recoveries) 34,465 cases (-1,560) the day before (+611)





Dominican Republic: Trend of active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths)





(Day-1)



TOP 5 of the provinces with the most new cases in the last 24 hours:

National District: +1,895 cases (-685)

Santo Domingo: +1,025 cases (-165)

Santiago: +812 (+242)

La Vega: + 393 cases ()

Espaillat: +350 (-324)



Tests (since the 1st case): 2,867,969 tests (+29,810 in 24 hours), the day before (+27,988)



Vaccination: 14.47 million doses of vaccine injected since February 16, 2021, date of the first injection in the Dominican Republic (+10,000 doses injected in 24 hours). Updated January 20, 2021 (latest data available).



QUEBEC:

Confirmed cases since the first case (February 27, 2020): 824,942 (+5.995 in 24 hours), previous (+6.528)

Healings: 761,215 people (+7,574 in 24 hours), preceded (+5,822)

Cure rate: 92.27% (-)

Deaths: 12,698 deaths (+59 in 24 hours), previous (+98)

Death rate: 1.53% (-)

Active cases: (excluding death and recovery) 51,029 cases (-1,638 in 24 hours), previous (+608)



Test: 15,825,387 people tested since the first case (+41,258)



Vaccination: 16,915,403 million doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection (+108,305 doses in 24 hours, latest data available - MSSS as of January 21, 2022)



FRANCE:

*Confirmed cases since the first case (January 24, 2020): 16,001,498 cases (+400,851 cases in 24 hours), the day before (+ 425,183)

*Healings: 10,063,812 healings (+219,126 in 24h), previous (+231,724)

National Cure Rate: 62.89% (+)

Deaths: 128,347 deaths (+233), the day before (+245)

Death rate: 0.82% (=)

Active Cases: 5,809,339 (+181,492 in 24 hours), the day before (+193,214)

Test: 216,918,555 (last data available January 15, 2022)



France: Number of daily confirmed cases





(day-1)



Vaccination: 133.81 million doses of vaccine injected since December 27, 2020, date of the first injection in France (+380,000 doses injected in 24 hours). Update January 18, 2022 (latest data available)



Previous bulletin: https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35768-haiti-diaspora-covid-19-daily-bulletin-672.html



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30165-haiti-flash-first-case-of-covid-19-in-the-dominican-republic.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Arcahaie : A businessman targeted

Thursday evening the businessman Yves Louissaint, owner of several companies in the town of Arcahaie, was the target of armed individuals as he returned home. Hit by several bullets, he is in critical condition.



Ex-police commissioner Patrice Israel shot dead

Thursday January 20, 2022, the former police commissioner Patrice Israel hit by several bullets in Croix-des-Bouquets on Wednesday January 19 succumbed to his injuries.



The international will provide assistance to the PNH

Friday during the virtual high-level meeting in Haiti "countries are committed to providing the necessary assistance to the PNH in the fight against banditry" according to Chancellor Jean Victor Geneus, without providing more details...



Towards the resumption of work on the Ennery / Camp Coq road section

"I spoke, by videoconference, with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) : Raphael Dewez, Gilles Mori and officials of the Dominican firm ESTRELLA. This exchange made it possible to show the need to resume rehabilitation work on the Ennery / Camp Coq section of the RN#1 road [project signed about 4 years ago]" informed Rosemond Pradel Minister of Public Works



Barbados : Congratulations from the PM

"I extend my congratulations to Ms. Mia Amor Mottley on her re-election as Prime Minister of Barbados. May it be assured of the readiness of my Government to engage in an open and confident dialogue with Barbados, on the dimension of the friendship that binds the two countries," declared Prime Minister a.i. Ariel Henty



Australian Open : Naomi eliminated in the 3rd round:

Friday, January 21 at the Australian Open the Japanese of Haitian origin Naomi Osaka, defending champion, was eliminated in the 3rd round by the American Amanda Anisimova in the super tie-break (4-6, 6-3, 7 -6 [10/5]).







See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35755-icihaiti-tennis-open-australia-naomie-qualified-for-the-3rd-round-video.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35737-haiti-news-zapping.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/01/21

According to news reports released on January 21st, actor Kim Eui-sung has appeared at filming locations for the upcoming science fiction drama "Black Knight - 2022" which is set to air on Netflix later this year. As this is not an official report, there are no details as to what character he may be playing. Little is known about "Black Knight - 2022" as of yet aside from the setting- a polluted future world where Kim Woo-bin will play the leading role as a legendary delivery driver.

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"Black Knight - 2022" will be Kim Woo-bin's comeback project following a six year absence due to his diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Kim Eui-sung would be a logical co-star for many reasons. He's known Kim Woo-bin for quite some time, appearing as the younger man's father in the 2015 film "Twenty" earlier in his career. Both actors are also appearing in the film "Alien Part 1" which is also expected to release later this year.

Lastly, Kim Eui-sung has a major role in the currently screening "Special Delivery" which also deals with an infamous delivery driver. However, that movie takes place in a contemporary setting rather than a futuristic one. Kim Eui-sung also had a prominent appearance in the popular vehicular themed television drama "Taxi Driver" from last year.

Written by William Schwartz
Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a serious car crash Friday night in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

Schwarzenegger escaped with only minor injuries, according to TMZ, but a woman in another vehicle was bleeding and taken to a hospital.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks in his keynote about digital sustainability during the Digital X event on Sept. 7, 2021 in Cologne, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The SUV belonging to the action star and former California governor was pictured resting atop two different vehicles on Sunset Boulevard, TMZ reported. The airbags in his SUV had deployed.

A woman driving one of the other cars, a Toyota Prius, was bleeding from her head and rushed to a hospital, according to TMZ. Schwarzenegger stayed behind at the scene of the crash. Its unknown if he or a friend was behind the wheel.

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The Terminator star had just left his home in a GMC Yukon, a spokesman told the Los Angeles Times.

Investigators said no one at the scene was impaired, and no arrests have been made.

Police said Schwarzeneggers car was trying to turn left and drove through a red arrow signal, KCBS reported. The woman who was hospitalized was trying to make a U-turn and apparently had the right of way, according to the cops.
Published on 2022/01/22 | Source

Korean documentary "Shark, A Sad Predator" added to HanCinema database

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"Shark, A Sad Predator" (2021)

Directed by Lee Tae-hun

Synopsis

Cocos Island, a national park with a beautiful marine ecosystem 550 kilometers off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Cocos Island National Park is a place where rare sea creatures that were difficult to access usually gather, and is known as the best place to observe various species of sharks and stingrays. However, the number of sharks visiting Cocos Island is decreasing every year so their movements are being identified to protect them

No release date in Korea yet
Mary Lou Montgomery, retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this regions foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri," and "The Historic Murphy House, Hannibal, Mo., Circa 1870." She can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at maryloumontgomery.com
Hartford City, IN (47348)

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Mostly cloudy skies. Low 46F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
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George Skelton: Lithium might not be a gold rush. But it could be for people near the Salton Sea
Latania Logan: Superbugs are coming. The US needs to spur the development of new antimicrobials
Philanthropy. It is a word that means a desire to improve the material, social and
Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund have split.

The American Horror Story actress, 30 and Mudbound actor, 37, broke up a few weeks ago, multiple sources told People, with one noting the actors are trying their best to co-parent their son Rhodes Roberts Hedlund, who they welcomed in December 2020.

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Its sad, the insider told the magazine. Its been hard.

Garrett Hedlund and Emma Roberts attend Spring Places Oscars party honoring Andra Day and the cast of The United States vs. Billie Holiday on April 25, 2021 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Jerritt Clark/Getty Images)

The pair started dating in March 2019 and last month celebrated Rhodes first birthday with a rodeo-themed party, which Roberts said she loved every second of in an Instagram post.

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I cant believe youre #1  , Roberts subsequently captioned a snap of herself holding Rhodes in another post.

Having a newborn in the pandemic has been a lot harder than either of them expected, but theyre really, really trying their best to figure things out, a source previously told People, noting that Hedlund totally stepped it up after the couple welcomed their son.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Hedlund joined Instagram on Monday to promote new music and so far only follows five musicians. Roberts, who also sings, is not among those he follows.

Hedlund as of Friday is facing a personal-injury lawsuit for negligence in relation to a head-on car crash he allegedly caused in January 2020.

The actor, according to Marina Venegas and daughter Jennifer Castillos suit obtained by E! News Friday, was allegedly drunk when he passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle and ran a solid red-light at a high rate of speed, hitting the car that held Venegas, Castillo and two children. All four suffered severe and permanent injuries, according to the suit.

As if the excessive drunkenness and speeding were not enough, Hedlund also began weaving in and out of his lane, speeding and passing vehicles just before the crash, according to the suit.

He was charged at the time with driving under the influence, according to the filing.

Prior to her relationship with Hedlund, Roberts was engaged to Evan Peters, who she was with from 2012 to 2019. Hedlund was previously with Kirsten Dunst from 2012 to 2016 and the two were engaged for a short time.

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Neither Roberts nor Hedlund have so far commented on their reported split.
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
One Illinois police department is enduring double the grief this month after losing two officers to coronavirus this month.

Officer Brian Shields and Sgt. Ken Thurman of the Aurora Police Department died just over a week apart from one another, the department announced in tributes for each officer.

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Shields, 51, died on Jan. 11 and Thurman, also 51, died this past Wednesday, both of complications from contracting COVID while serving the Aurora community, the department said.

Officer Brian Shields, left, and Sgt. Ken Thurman.

This has been an extremely difficult few weeks for the men and women of the Aurora Police Department, said Chief of Police Keith Cross. Our entire department is mourning; please keep our APD family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Our condolences and prayers go out to Brians family, his friends, and to all those he served with during his more than 16 years as an officer with the Aurora Police Department. Our police department family will do everything possible to provide support and comfort to Brians family, the statement read. Brians memory will live on forever at APD. Our entire department is mourning with the Shields family.

Officer Brian Shields is 10-42 for the final time. Rest In Peace Officer Shields, weve got it from here, the department tweeted this week with footage from his funeral procession. Officer Shields served with dedication, loyalty, and honorable police service to the City of Aurora for more than 16 years.

A GoFundMe has been established by the Association of Professional Police Officers in memory of Shields.

Thurman would have celebrated his 22nd year with the department in May and was promoted to sergeant in the summer of 2008.

He worked in various roles including patrol supervisor, jail supervisor, and most recently, the Patrol Support Sergeant, said the department. Sgt Thurman was known throughout the department and the community as one who always puts others before self. In both his words and his deeds, Sgt. Thurman enhanced thee quality of life in those he served.

Our condolences and prayers go out to Kens family and to all those he served with during his more than 21 years as a member of the Aurora Police Department, said Cross. Our police department family will do everything possible to provide support and comfort to Kens family. Kens memory will live on forever at APD.
Walker and Nan (Geoffrey Lawrence and Sarah French) have a complicated sibling relationship in "Three Days of Rain," onstage in Oviedo in an Ensemble Company production. (Mike Kitaif / Courtesy photo)

Three Days of Rain is concerned with connection: Our connection with family, our connection with friends, our connection with the truth and most of all, our connection with the past.

The play by Richard Greenberg, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama, is onstage in an appropriately intimate production by The Ensemble Company. As directed by Matthew MacDermid, the hazy tentacles linking past to present hang delicately in the air, especially in the much sharper first act.

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Attending a will reading creates drama for Nan (Sarah French, from left), Pip (Steven Johnson) and Walker (Geoffrey Lawrence) in "Three Days of Rain," onstage in an Ensemble Company production. (Mike Kitaif / Courtesy photo)

Greenberg has artfully constructed his play so the three actors each play two roles. The first act takes place in the 1990s when Walker Janeway (Geoffrey Lawrence) has returned home after a years disappearance for the reading of his fathers will. Also attending: His sister Nan (Sarah French) and Pip (Steven Johnson), a longtime friend who is the son of their late fathers partner in an architecture firm.

As the trio discusses the fate of Janeway House  a distinctive building that was their fathers greatest achievement  the audience sees their perspective on their parents and their shared history. But Act 2 takes place some 30 years prior and shows us the reality of what happened among architect Ned Janeway (Lawrence), his partner Theo (Johnson) and Lina (French), the woman who would become Walker and Nans mother.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Greenberg ponders the importance of what parents show and tell their children, the past isnt exactly as Walker, Nan and Pip picture it. Even the plays titular Three Days of Rain  a cryptically banal journal entry in 1995  takes on new significance in 1960.

Nan and Pip (Sarah French and Steven Johnson) share a secret in "Three Days of Rain," onstage in an Ensemble Company production. (Mike Kitaif / Courtesy photo)

Greenbergs writing is lyrical at its best, often witty, and peppered with astute insights. Despair can be attractive  in a young person, Pip remarks. The actors also do a masterful job of using the dialogue to illuminate their characters. When French, as Nan, enters Walkers shabby apartment and queries with a wrinkled nose: Is this where youre living? we immediately have a sense of the sort of woman Nan is. And the playwright  and actors  niftily create echoes of the older generation in the younger.

After the intriguing and well-paced setup of the first act, things sag in the second. Once it becomes clear how the older generation is going to get from point A to point B, the dramatic stakes feel lessened, especially as a dinner scene goes on and on. And while Greenberg has surprises in store for his two male characters, the biggest surprise about Lina is how he fails to satisfactorily connect the woman we see in Act 2 to the woman we heard about in Act 1.

Walker (Geoffrey Lawrence) exasperates his sister and friend in "Three Days of Rain," onstage in an Ensemble Company production. (Mike Kitaif / Courtesy photo)

And where the tension should feel highest in Act 2, it curiously does not.

French makes underwritten Lina a pleasure to watch but really shines as well-adjusted, frustrated, loving, down-to-earth Nan. Lawrence succeeds in making Walker  a bundle of neuroses and aggravating behavior  relatable and even sympathetic; his Ned is equally sympathetic but not as layered as such a complicated man could be. Johnson does fine work switching between Pip, a man completely comfortable in his own skin, and his father, Theo  a man who decidedly is not.

The plot plays out on Bonnie Sprungs tidy and inventive set that cleverly provides an exterior and interior for that shabby apartment while neatly emphasizing that these characters, for better or for worse, are confined with each other and their shared history  even if that history isnt true at all.

In the flashback second act of the Ensemble Company's "Three Days of Rain," Sarah French plays Lina, who shares a life-changing dinner with Ned (Geoffrey Lawrence). (Mike Kitaif / Courtesy photo)

Three Days of Rain

Length: 2:05, including intermission

2:05, including intermission Where: Penguin Point Productions at Oviedo Mall, 1700 Oviedo Mall Blvd. in Oviedo

Penguin Point Productions at Oviedo Mall, 1700 Oviedo Mall Blvd. in Oviedo When: Through Jan. 30

Through Jan. 30 Cost: $16-$20

$16-$20 Info: penguinpointproductions.com/tickets

Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts, facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theater and arts news and reviews? Go to orlandosentinel.com/arts. For more fun things, follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Anthony Big Tony Moscatiello and Anthony Little Tony Ferrari, the men previously convicted in the murder of Miami Subs founder Gus Boulis, circumvented a retrial on the eve of jury selection this week by pleading guilty to second-degree murder charges, ending a 22-year-long saga in one of South Floridas most infamous cases.

Both men pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and Boulis two sons and ex-wife approved the agreement in advance, Paula McMahon, a spokesperson for the Broward State Attorneys Office, said in an email.

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Moscatiello, 83, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, and Ferrari, 65, was sentenced to 18 years. With time served, both will be free men in just two years.

[ RELATED: Men convicted in murder of Miami Subs founder Gus Boulis will reunite for retrial ]

The plea agreement was reached primarily due to the appeals court rulings in the case, which meant that some evidence could no longer be used in trial, and the unavailability of some witnesses due to the age of the case, McMahon wrote. The wishes of the victims family and the ages and health of the defendants also factored into the decision.

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Boulis, also the owner of the gambling cruise ship fleet SunCruz Casino, was shot by a hired gunman on Feb. 6, 2001, when he was ambushed while leaving a business meeting in Fort Lauderdale. The alleged gunman, John Gurino, was killed in a separate shooting in 2003.

In past trials, prosecutors alleged Moscatiello was behind Boulis murder by hiring Gurino as the hitman and that Ferrari helped orchestrate the plan, along with a third man, James Pudgy Fiorillo. Previously, Moscatiello repeatedly denied any connection to Gurino and the fatal shooting of the prominent South Florida business mogul.

[ RELATED: Heirs of murdered millionaire Miami Subs founder fight for their fortune ]

Anthony Ferrari, left, and Anthony Moscatiello, right, are shown in a trial in Broward County. Both men agreed to plea deals before jury selection in their retrial in the murder of Miami Subs founder Gus Boulis. (Mike Stocker / Sun Sentinel)

After prosecutors initially tried for the death penalty for both men, Moscatiello was convicted of murder and murder conspiracy in the high-profile case in 2015, two years after the trial began, and sentenced to life in prison. By the time Moscatiello was sentenced, Ferrari had already been sentenced also to life in prison in a separate trial.

In 2018, the Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned Moscatiello and Ferraris convictions and granted them retrials after deciding the jury heard testimony from a witness who should not have been allowed to testify. Their retrial was initially set to begin in March 2020, but the pandemic made that impossible. Jury selection was set to begin this month.

[ RELATED: Hes the man who killed the man who killed the Miami Subs founder ]

Assistant State Attorney Stephen Zaccor read a statement from Boulis family in court Thursday, signed by Margaret Hren, Boulis ex-partner and mother of two of his sons.

22 years ago my children and I lost their dad, Gus Boulis. You will both now have the chance to reconnect with your family, friends and society. You have to decide what kind of father, friend, citizen you are going to be again, the statement read. I am hoping that you try, even in the smallest way and even when things seem hard, to try to create something positive with the time you now have, for you and for them.
After two pandemic-laden years, and so much civil unrest and disagreement, sometimes the world of community service seems like a roller coaster. Events are planned, and then canceled. Strong opinions within club leadership can make coming to a consensus difficult at times, and when peoples emotions are stretched thin to begin with, there are times when we are all ready to throw in the towel and just go have a margarita somewhere. Then a new day dawns, we awaken refreshed and renewed, and realize, ok, it was just a bad day. Well reschedule that event, and we love our Family of Rotary - strong opinions come from strong leaders. Lets go have that margarita TOGETHER!

One of those great new days is dawning in the world of Rotary very soon and its one we are all very excited about. In July 2022, Rotary International and Rotarians around the world will see its first female International President step to the podium. That woman is Jennifer Jones and we cant imagine anyone more deserving.

President Elect Jennifer wants Rotarians to dare to dream and to open their hearts and minds to the possibilities before them. She wants us to Imagine Rotary and has given us those two simple, powerful words as her theme for the 2022-23 Rotary year.

PE Jennifer is a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, I urge Rotarians, she says to dream big and harness (your) connections and the power of Rotary to turn those dreams into reality. Imagine a world that deserves our best, where we get up each day knowing that we can make a difference.

Meeting virtually recently with incoming Governors Elect from around the world, PE Jennifer told a story about a club member who asked for her help in getting a young peace activist out of Afghanistan during the U.S. troop withdrawal last year. What a frightening situation that would be. She was at first unsure if she could help/should help/or how she could make it happen. She told the group she dug deep to find that certain Rotary magic and made contact with a Rotary Peace Fellow she had met years earlier. Less than 24 hours later, it happened - the activist was on the evacuation list, and was soon thereafter safely in Europe.

To better engage members, Rotary needs to adapt and retool she continued and heres a personal example. Windsor was once the automotive hub of Canada. But after plant closings left thousands without work, the city needed to retool, in the same way an auto plant would, preparing for new parts or a new model. Now Windsor is a leader in agribusiness and medical and aerospace technology. For Rotary, finding the right part to engage each member should be our core function. It comes down to the comfort and care of our members Engaging members is crucial to retaining members. We need to ask members what they want to get from Rotary and give them meaningful responsibilities.

In closing she said It is our offer of hands-on service, personal growth, leadership development, and lifelong friendships that creates purpose and passion in our organization... Lets make sure we engage our members so they love their clubs and their Rotary experience. We have been entrusted with leadership in our great organization. Now it is up to us to be brave and intentional in our actions, and let others help us lead.

What an inspirational leader, and yes, we CAN imagine the amazing things that await us on this journey. Cheers Jennifer! Its going to be A Beautiful Thing!
FORT COLLINS, Colo.  The boyfriend of slain cross-country traveler Gabby Petito admitted killing her in a notebook discovered near his body in a Florida swamp, the FBI announced Friday.

It was the first time authorities squarely pinned the blame for Petitos death on Brian Laundrie, though he was the prime suspect all along.

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Investigators meanwhile announced that Laundrie, 23, had sent text messages to intentionally deceive people that Petito, 22, was still alive after he beat and strangled her in late August, according to a statement released by the FBI in Denver.

All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case, FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in the statement. The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.

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Petitos body was found Sept. 19 at a campground near Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming. A coroner determined shed died about three weeks earlier of blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.

Laundrie returned home to Florida in early September but went missing soon after. In October, his parents found an item belonging to him in a nature preserve near their house.

Further searching turned up Laundries remains, a revolver, backpack and the notebook. Medical examiners determined Laundrie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The FBI did not specify what, exactly, Laundrie had written in the notebook and in the texts hed sent to mislead. The texts were sent between Laundries phone and Petitos phone, according to the statement.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

The timing and content of these messages are indicative of Mr. Laundrie attempting to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression that Ms. Petito was still alive, the statement said.

Grand Teton was the last place the couple visited during a cross-country van trip last summer that ended with Laundrie mysteriously returning home alone in the vehicle.

The couple documented their trip on Instagram. They crossed Colorado and on Aug. 12 were stopped by police in Moab, Utah, after the two got into a scuffle.

Police video showed Petito describing a fight that escalated. Police concluded Petito was the aggressor but officers decided to separate them for the night rather than file charges.

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Attorneys for the Petito and Laundrie families did not immediately respond Friday to emails and text messages seeking comment about the FBIs conclusions.

___

AP reporter Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.
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A Houston police dog named Nate was stabbed Saturday morning as officers searched for a criminal suspect, authorities said.

Police were dispatched to an attempted carjacking on Memorial Drive, according to Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite,

The suspect fled to a nearby H-E-B, stole a phone charger, and ran away again. Eventually, officers tracked him down to a parking garage near Yale and the Katy Freeway. He managed to evade them by leaping between apartment complex parking garages and then made his way back to the street. Police gave chase, and K9 Officer Paul Foster released Nate, who pursued the suspect, catching him behind a building just out of sight of officers.

Then, Satterwhite said, the dog's handler heard a yelp of pain. He rounded the corner to find the man brandishing a large butcher knife "which you would normally see in a kitchen" after apparently just stabbing the dog, leaving a deep wound in the pup's chest.

As officers then grabbed the suspect, who was identified by a law enforcement source as Ryan Smith, 26.

Nate's handler grabbed him and rushed him to the animal hospital, Satterwhite said.

Police took the dog to an animal hospital on the Katy Freeway. Nate, a 4-year-old Malinois, was brought onto the department three years ago, and was assigned to the SWAT division two years ago.

Houston Police Officers' Union President Douglas Griffith said the stabbing was an important reminder that police dogs are an "important part" of HPD.

"If one is assaulted, we take it very seriously and are praying for a quick recovery," he said. "The K9 did his job, even injured was able to secure the suspect so the officers could move in safely and arrest (him)."

Later on Saturday, police gathered outside the west Houston animal hospital to provide updates about the incident. Satterwhite said Nate had suffered several cuts, with the worst being the deep stab wound to his chest. "Nate lost a lot of blood," Satterwhite said.

"The doctors say surgery was successful and everyone is hopeful he will make a full recovery. He should even be able to go home with his handler in a few days," HPD posted Saturday night.

Prosecutors have accepted charges of aggravated robbery, evading arrest and aggravated assault of a peace officer, Satterwhite said. None of the other people the suspect encountered -- either at the attempting carjacking or the robbery -- were seriously injured, Satterwhite said.

Former Chief Art Acevedo and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez both weighed in on Twitter Saturday morning.

"Send your prayers to this K9 #hero," Gonzalez wrote. "Injured while protecting the community."

Acevedo, who left the Houston Police Department in March 2021 for an ill-fated stint at the head of the Miami Police Department, also offered condolences to his former officers.

"Sending thoughts of healing for the K9 and comfort for the handler," he wrote. "Hang in there."

Gabrielle Banks contribued.
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Houston is poised to officially hit 400,000 COVID cases Monday, about a month after the city crossed the 300,000-case mark, as infections level off across the region.

The Houston Health Department on Friday reported 3,286 new and backlogged cases to bring the total number to 399,987, including recoveries and deaths. That means the virus has infected about 17 percent of Houstonians since the start of the pandemic.

The speed at which the city will reach this benchmark is a bleak reminder of the unprecedented contagiousness of the omicron variant, which triggered record high infections worldwide and continues to stress weary frontline healthcare workers treating another crush of sickened patients.

"I am shocked that it has (grown by) 100,000 in this short period of time, said Dr. David Persse, Houstons chief medical officer. I am amazed that weve been able to manage it as well as we have. I don't think we can credit hospital workers enough."

COVID HELP DESK: What is 'stealth' omicron?

While omicron causes a milder illness than earlier strains, the overall number of infections is sending more COVID patients to the hospital than ever before. The Texas Medical Center has reported more than 400 average daily COVID hospitalizations the last three weeks - a benchmark not reached until omicron took hold.

Staffing shortages, more than bed capacity and a lack of equipment, have become the largest hurdle for hospitals struggling to unclog waiting rooms. Most providers are postponing certain non-urgent procedures on a case-by-case basis to maximize capacity.

But there is evidence of ebbing infections.

The viral load is dropping at most of Houstons wastewater treatment plants - one of the most reliable indicators of the future spread of the virus. Harris Countys testing positivity rate is 34 percent, still a gravely high level but down from 38 percent on Jan. 6.

If Houston has crested the peak, the variant will continue to apply pressure to the areas healthcare infrastructure for the next few weeks.

COVID HELP DESK: When is the omicron surge expected to peak?

Dr. James McDeavitt, executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, expects cases to fall at a pace similar to that recorded in South Africa and Great Britain. Both countries have seen a precipitous drop in cases since their respective peaks in late December and early January.

A rapid decline does not mean Great news, the pandemic is over, he said. It means we still have patients to watch in the hospital. The backside of the curve is just as bad as the front, like the backend of a hurricane is just as bad as the front.

McDeavitt stressed that the number of reported cases is likely an undercount, especially as more people use at-home test kits, the results of which are not included in the official case count. People should wear an N95 mask and practice social distancing, he said.

Vaccines remain a highly effective tool at preventing severe illness from the virus, despite a higher prevalence of breakthrough infections compared to the delta wave. Booster doses are 90 percent effective against hospitalization with omicron, according to data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Houston-area resident Samuel Levin, 91, was vaccinated and boosted when he started coughing last week. His mild COVID infection had nearly cleared by Friday, but his doctor wanted him to undergo a monoclonal antibody treatment at Houston Methodist Hospital because of his age.

I got my vaccination as early as possible and got the boosters and cant quite understand why people dont like to take the precaution, he said. The people who dont take the precaution end up with more severe reactions.

Unvaccinated people make up the vast majority of COVID patients in Houston-area ICUs. But overall, COVID patients are not exhibiting symptoms as severe as those infected with the delta variant. A detailed analysis of 4,468 COVID patients at Houston Methodist Hospital shows the median length of stay is about two days shorter than patients hospitalized during the previous wave. Among omicron patients, 5.5 percent require breathing machines, compared to 10.7 percent of patients infected with delta, the study shows.

Hospitalization data generally lags behind case counts by two weeks. Some of the areas largest health systems report a plateauing number of COVID patients.

Houston Methodist Hospitals COVID patient census has been hovering around 800 for at least 10 days without significant growth. Texas Childrens Hospital has been holding steady for two weeks with about 100 COVID patients, including some expectant or new mothers.

Dr. Catherine Gordon, the chief pediatrician at Texas Childrens and chair of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, said the hospitalization data is not as concerning as the hidden mental health toll of the virus on children and adolescents.

She said the hospital is seeing a three-fold increase in the number of patients with restrictive eating disorders.

I worry its going to be the serious long-term (complication) of this pandemic, she said. Weve had multiple surges now in Houston, but we have persistent mental health concerns about our youth.

julian.gill@chron.com
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Metro cannot put any more distance between most of its workers and bus riders, so it is putting some glass between them instead  wanting to ward off not only risk of infection, but risk of violence.

All Metropolitan Transit Authority buses would be retrofitted to have glass partitions between the drivers and passengers, under a proposal by transit officials. The addition follows attempts during the COVID pandemic to protect drivers with plastic screens, and as Metro considers other security upgrades such as more use of video surveillance on buses.

Officials have not set a timeline for the installation of partitions or costs, with more details likely after they solicit bids.

San Antonio, which outfitted 500 buses in 2020, spent $2.5 million to separate bus operators and riders.

The partitions were a priority for operators, when Metro polled them to discuss how transit officials could better recruit and retain drivers. The agency has 3,958 as of December, according to Metros monthly human resources report. Thats exactly the same number of staff as in January 2021, keeping the agency stable despite some higher-than-predicted turnover. The agency had a 20.8 percent turnover rate for bus operators annually, second only to the 23.4 percent rate for light rail operators.

Workers, as part of internal discussions, identified safety, pay, inconvenient shifts and outdated break room facilities as concerns. The glass partitions  replacing plastic ones installed during the COVID pandemic  were proposed as a way to address the concerns.

They ensure the safety of our operators for many reasons, Metro CEO Tom Lambert said.

Metro spokeswoman Tracy Jackson said concerns over health safety and overall personal security were equal factors in the decision to add glass.

Lately, the risk has been decidedly more focused on public health. Metro, which was hobbled in 2020 by frequent cases and many leaves of absence related to fears over the virus, saw cases spike during December as omicron took hold in the region. Last month, the agency reported 279 new positive cases, by far the largest monthly total of the year.

Meanwhile assaults of drivers are less frequent, typically a few dozen annually. For the last seven months, since Metro began tracking assaults in more detail as part of its monthly safety report, 24 bus operators were assaulted, which can mean either physical violence or threats and intimidation.

In 2015, Metro responded to an uptick in assaults with a public service campaign, aimed at urging passengers to keep their emotions in check. At the time, officials said lack of payment often led to confrontations.

Rarely, those assaults can be severe. Almost four years ago a driver was stabbed in the neck, nearly crashing a Metro bus into a home.

Many transit agencies around the country use dividers between drivers and riders, with many increasing their use during the pandemic. VIA in San Antonio installed them in 2020. Many New York and Boston buses are outfitted with doors separating operators. Dozens of agencies have used plastic screens or more permanent barriers.

Houston area bus riders, meanwhile, said the dividers would have little effect on their use, provided operators could still answer questions.

I guess it would be a shame if someone couldnt find out if they were on the right bus, or how to get where they needed to go, said Ruth Shelby, 64, as she waited for a Route 9 bus near Holman and Scott streets.

Its just a shame it has come to having to protect them from the passengers, she said.

The dividers are one of a handful of security changes Metro is planing to address both worker and rider safety. In December officials approved security monitors on 190 local buses and the 14 Silver Line bus rapid transit buses.

The monitors tie into the existing surveillance camera systems, and add a 15-inch monitor visible to the driver and a 32-inch monitor visible to the passengers. Eventually, officials said, monitors will be installed on all Metro buses.

The hope, they said, is adding video screens will decrease crimes and bad behavior.

It is a pretty good deterrent, when you know that you are thinking to do something that is inappropriate, that it is going to be seen and recorded, Metro board member Jim Robinson said.

dug.begley@chron.com
Attorney General Ken Paxton denied Friday that he violated the states open records law, rejecting allegations by a local prosecutor that his office should release communications from the week of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Paxton had given a speech at a pro-Trump rally just hours before the violence erupted in Washington, but his office hasnt released messages to Texas media outlets that sought the records under the Texas Public Information Act.

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garzas office launched an investigation after top editors at several of the states largest newspapers wrote a joint complaint about Paxtons denials of their information requests. Those papers are the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.

The district attorneys office warned Paxton last week that it would file suit if his office did not fix violations of the open records law within four days. In a letter to the Travis County district attorneys public integrity unit, Paxtons office called the claims meritless and said there was no violation to cure.

Frustrated that they have failed to uncover anything worth reporting following numerous records requests to AG Paxton(s) office for various documents, complainant newspaper editors have sought to leverage your offices authority to further their fishing expedition, or worse, manufacture a conflict between our respective offices that will give rise to publishable content for the complainants media outlets, wrote Paxtons general counsel, Austin Kinghorn.

The attorney generals office provided a copy of the letter to the Texas Tribune. Paxtons office did not return a request for comment from the newspapers nor did it provide a copy of the letter.

Garza is a Democrat. Paxton is a Republican running for re-election this year. He is currently facing the fiercest scrutiny of his decades-long career, with several GOP challengers, three state criminal indictments, allegations of an extramarital affair and a pending FBI bribery investigation.

Paxton has denied any wrongdoing. A spokesperson with the district attorneys office confirmed officials received the letter but declined to answer further questions.

In a joint statement, editors for the newspapers said they are disappointed in the attorney generals response.

We believe these records are public and should be released, the statement said. We hope the Travis County district attorney continues to hold the attorney general accountable for following our states open records laws and continues to advocate for the publics right to know in this case.

The Texas Public Information Act guarantees the publics right to government records, even if those records are stored on personal devices or public officials online accounts. The attorney generals office enforces this law, determining which records are public and which are private.

A coalition of Texas news outlets in March sought to bring attention to the issue by reporting a joint story on the denied requests for information and their finding that the office lacked a policy for releasing work-related messages stored on Paxtons personal devices or accounts.

On Jan. 4, five newspaper editors filed a complaint asking the district attorney to investigate the alleged violations. Anyone who files an open records request in Texas can also file a complaint with a local prosecutor if they believe a public agency is withholding information in violation of the Public Information Act.

The district attorneys office had thoroughly reviewed the editors complaint and agreed with each concern they raised, according to a Jan. 13 letter to Paxton from Jackie Wood, director of the public integrity and complex crimes unit.

Wood said Paxtons office was violating the law by claiming all his messages around the time of the Jan. 6 rally fell under attorney-client privilege. Wood noted nearly 500 pages of communications to and from First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster during that same time frame had been released, and no exemption was cited for those records.

The attorney generals office responded that all non-privileged communications were released and the news organizations had no evidence that Paxton or his office had not complied with the law.

In another example cited by the media outlets, a Dallas Morning News reporter sent Paxton a work-related text message in February, and another reporter later requested all the attorney generals messages for that day.

Paxtons office responded to the open records request by saying no responsive messages existed. A spokesman for Paxton later said the attorney general doesnt have to retain unsolicited and unwelcome text messages to personal phones. Wood, in her letter, said that the attorney generals office had violated the law by not retaining or providing work-related messages on his personal devices.

In the letter Friday, Paxtons office reiterated its contention by saying if the message was public information, it would be considered transitory and could be deleted.

Wood also agreed with the editors complaint that Paxton appeared to be releasing copies of other peoples communications in response to requests for his text messages and wasnt able to provide his own copy.

For example, in response to an information request by reporters, Paxton did not provide his own text messages with officials at the attorney generals office in Utah  where he and his wife traveled during the February freeze  and instead turned over a copy of another persons text to Paxton.

The attorney generals office did not explain why Paxton didnt provide his own version of the text exchange.

The (Public Information Act) does not obligate a custodian of records to provide every version of transitory information that existed at some point in time if those versions are no longer maintained at the time of the PIA request, the letter read.

Bill Aleshire, an attorney and transparency expert, characterized some of the agencys explanations as hogwash.

Even if a record is considered transitory, he said, it cannot be deleted once a member of the public has requested it under state records law. Aleshire also disputed that questions sent by a reporter could be considered transitory.

The fact that he received a request from a reporter that was unwelcome does not make it transitory. Its official business, he said. If he chose to ignore it, fine, but then the record shows he chose to ignore it.

This is the guy who is supposed to be enforcing the act, Aleshire said. Its astounding.

Most of the messages sought by reporters focus on Paxtons communications during a nearly weeklong time frame around the Jan. 6 riot. Hours before the attack, Paxton had stood at a lectern in front of a crowd of thousands at a pro-Trump Save America rally, promising to not quit fighting the results of the 2020 election.

A month earlier, Paxton challenged the general election results in four battleground states won by President Joe Biden: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In the U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit, he argued the states made unconstitutional changes to their election laws amid COVID-19. The case was rejected by the court because of lack of standing.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has unearthed dozens upon dozens of text messages and other communications, shedding new light on the timeline of that days events as well as efforts by some urging the former president to de-escalate the event. Little is known, however, about Paxtons activities that day.

Eleanor Dearman, staff writer with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, contributed to this report
Houston City Councilmember Michael Kubosh said Friday he plans to file grievances against almost every Harris County criminal court judge, citing what he said were low bail settings for defendants with violent histories who then killed somebody while they were out on bond.

Kubosh, a former bondsman, said he would file the grievances with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against every Harris County criminal district judge save for Brock Thomas. He claimed the rest had all overseen bail hearings where they gave defendants with violent histories low or free bail that led to slayings.

I have got to do something to send a strong message to these judges, said Kubosh, who gathered Friday with pastors and read the names of murder victims.

State District Judge Kelli Johnson, who is also the administrative judge over the Harris County state district criminal courts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The commission on judicial conduct has power to investigate complaints about sitting Texas judges. It can then issue private or public sanctions, the most severe of which is a public censure. In more severe cases, it can also recommend a judges suspension or removal from office.

Those actions are rare. In fiscal year 2021, the commission took disciplinary action in 96 of 1,565 disposed cases, or about 6 percent, according to the commissions most recent annual report.

Bail settings in Harris County have become a charged political isssue in recent years, with victims advocates and law enforcement officials arguing judges are too lenient and letting felony defendants with violent rapsheets out of jail too easily. Criminal justice reform advocates, meanwhile, argue the court system continues to keep poor people in jail because they are unable to afford bail.

Houston Chronicle investigations have revealed that 18,796 defendants were charged with new felonies or misdemeanors while out on bond in 2020, a number that has tripled since 2015. The Chronicle identified 231 deaths between 2013 and 2020 that were linked to defendants previously charged with crimes and out on bonds. The murder cases accounted for less than 1 percent of those charged with new crimes while out on bond, and 7 percent of all homicides in Harris County during that time period.

Another Chronicle investigation found bondsmen have let people out for less 10 percent fees for surety bonds. The Chronicle found bail bondsmen have been accepting lower-percentage fees for years, with more of those cases now involving an increasing number of violent felonies.

Johnson, the administrative judge, has pointed to that trend in the past.

What is most frustrating as a judge is to go through the whole process of a meaningful bail hearing and set an appropriate bond, only to have a bondsman come up behind you and accept a nominal amount of the bond and no collateral, Johnson told the Chronicle last year.

Kubosh, a former bail bondsman himself, said he would not entertain that debate.

I dont even want to get into that, he said. Nobody gets a bond unless the judge gives them one.

A grievance typically takes six or seven months before it is decided, according to the commissions annual report.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
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Said Qahir Hashimi and his wife watched as an army of volunteers turned pieces of pine wood into beds for their three children. His 2-year-old daughter played with a pillow as the volunteers added sheets with unicorns and Little Mermaid characters.

The beds for his children were among roughly 230 beds, a mixture of single twin beds and bunk beds, that the Sleep in Heavenly Peace nonprofit is building for Afghan evacuee families resettled in the Houston area.

Luke Mickelson started the nonprofit in Twin Falls, Idaho, after building a few beds for his community. He was particularly moved when delivering a bed to a 6-year-old girl who had been sleeping on a pile of clothes. Her mother was so happy to have that space for her daughter.

Right there, I realized it was a lot more than just a bed we were delivering, Mickelson said.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace now has nearly 300 chapters nationwide, and it recently created a disaster relief program to build beds after wildfires and hurricanes or for humanitarian needs like Saturdays build in Houston. The event was in partnership with the Houston Furniture Bank, which made and donated the mattresses, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, which has helped roughly 900 Afghan evacuees settle into the Houston area since September. It anticipates helping 1,200 individuals to find homes and prepare the adults to find jobs by the end of February.

These children have experienced so much trauma, said Natalie Wood, senior vice president of programs for Catholic Charities. Having a bed is like having their own territory.

It gives them a safe space, she said.

So about 80 volunteers met at a warehouse in Cypress on Saturday morning. Bundled up in coats and gloves, they worked in an efficient assembly line to cut wood, drill holes, assemble headboards and then brand those headboards with SHP, for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. The wood was coated in vinegar that had steel wool dissolved in it. This protects it from bed bugs.

The volunteers in this assembly line prepared wood for 60 beds on Saturday. Another group of volunteers in a different Houston-area location prepared wood for 50 beds. The beds are assembled inside the families new homes.

Sleep in Heavenly Peaces mission statement is no kid sleeps on the floor in our town, and that slogan caught the eye of Oli Mohammed, executive director of the Houston Furniture Bank.

The Houston Furniture Bank, a 30-year-old nonprofit that works with social services agencies to donate furniture to families in Houston, has a program called No Kids on the Floor. The organization collects $150 sponsorships and then provides a mattress, box spring and bed frame to families with children sleeping on the floor.

Houston Furniture Bank started the program after learning from former Mayor Annise Parker that roughly 300,000 children in the greater Houston area sleep on the floor, Mohammed said. He thought the similarity with Sleep in Heavenly Peace would provide for a good partnership.

Mohammed said its nice to provide childrens beds for these Afghan evacuees who put their lives on the line for Americans. And its also an opportunity to raise awareness and address the fact that many Houston children sleep on the floor.

There is no need for a child to sleep on the floor in a wealthy city like Houston, he said.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Department of Public Safety

A Department of Public Safety special agent died in West Texas Saturday morning, after getting into a "tragic accident" near Eagle Pass the day before.

In a brief news release, DPS officials identified the agent as 37-year-old Anthony Salas.
It is seldom that shoes come in wide or narrow widths. This is not a case of one size fits all. Most are medium, whatever that means. (I consider small, medium and large the most inaccurate words in the language for most products, especially clothing.) Shoe width is especially important for people suffering foot problems or post-surgical conditions, let alone the general public.

I ride a motorbike around Central Florida regularly. I am noticing many of the roadways have deteriorated like the roads do in Michigan or Chicago, even otherwise smooth streets. What has happened? Why are the roads getting so many ruts and holes? Many roads look as though chunks of the road surface have been peeled off about an inch deep, which is especially rough on motorbikes.

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To the major fried-chicken chain that offered me a gift card when I had an issue at one of their locations. Thank you. Then they took back the offer because the gift card only worked at company locations and they offered me points on my nonexistent loyalty account, which doesnt exist because I dont have a smartphone. Now this huge company cant figure out how to compensate me. I cant be the only person in the world who doesnt have a smartphone.

To the customer in line [Friday] morning at Walgreens: I am sorry if I got impatient behind you, but it is not the pharmacists job to guide you through setting up your online account on your phone right at that very moment so that you could shop the discounts in the store! Todays pharmacists are stressed to the max with their real job, and stores are short-staffed as is! Please, next time, find the manager or call the 800 number on your card!

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I am really ticked off and saddened that people (or companies) can spend $5.5 billion to build the SoFi stadium while we have huge numbers of people who have no place to stay and no food and no health care. We are indifferent to what should be our No. 1 priorities.
Regarding A case can be made for approving medical aid in dying, (Jan. 20): A Connecticut woman, dying a prolonged and difficult death, was mentioned in this article as being quite rightly offended knowing that 75 percent of Connecticut voters favor medical aid in dying (MAID) but their state legislature had no time to consider this issue but had time to make pizza their states official food. Shameful! In recent polls, the majority of Americans support MAID, with a Gallup poll revealing that the majority of church attendees support it, as do all political groups, including Republicans. Texas state leaders need to answer this question: If they value personal liberty, individual responsibility and self determination in medical care decisions, what is keeping them from supporting medical aid in dying? A dying, suffering human being deserves a last best gift  the right to choose the right to die humanely.

Cindy Merrill, co-founder of Texas Death with Dignity

George Wills excellent opinion piece on MAID is headlined A case can be made for approving medical aid in dying. I believe that a more appropriate headline would read Numerous cases beg for approval of medical aid in dying. The strongest case in my memory is my father, on his deathbed, saying, Gee, theyd let a dog die with more dignity than theyre letting me go.

I dont want to die among strangers in an ICU on a ventilator with tubes stuck in every orifice of my body, struggling to breathe, with broken ribs from CPR. I want to die the way my dogs have always died: in loving arms, with soothing words, perhaps munching on my favorite snack.

Page S. Williams, Houston

Balanced news

Regarding Tomlinson: Billionaires' good intentions for Texas journalism come with high risks, (Jan. 21): I have been a Chronicle subscriber since I moved to Houston over 10 years ago and have subscribed to daily newspapers most of my adult life. I am an avid consumer of local, national and international news and find that daily newspapers present the most complete coverage. I also watch television news around 6 p.m. every weekday. As an ethnic minority person and having experienced the scourge of socialism and communism at an early age, I believe I am in a unique position to try to make sense of this complicated world.

I always read Chris Tomlinsons commentary and although I dont always agree with him, I find he does his homework. I found his article on the planned media outlet insightful.

I find that the political coverage by the Chronicle and articles the newspaper prints by the New York Times and Washington Post are usually biased, mostly supporting the Democratic Party positions. Not just the newspapers commentary, but the news reporting as well, which is the real problem. I firmly believe that I could find biased straight news reporting in the Chronicle every single day. As one example, there was a Chronicle front page New York Times article covering President Bidens press conference where the writer failed to mention the presidents comment on the minor incursion into the Ukraine by Russia.

In summary, I believe the above provides another explanation why there is a push by non-profits to get into the news reporting business. In my case, I feel compelled to watch Fox News Bret Baiers show daily to balance the Chronicles commentary and daily news.

Juan Campo, Houston
We are all either caught between the culture war battle lines today or are firing the bullets ourselves. The weapons of culture wars are stories which establish an in crowd who will side with a particular culture army and an out crowd, who is the enemy. This is much different than what we might call the culture peacetime, where opposing narratives are aimed at seeking truth or solutions. During wartime, no truth is sought. Its only about winning.

Trusted culture warriors also must stay strictly in line or risk being trampled by the charge. Even Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who led many a culture war charge, is drawing fire from local Republican challengers for offering independent thoughts.

Today, narratives about our countrys founding are framed in the same binary way  should we be ashamed or proud? In the culture war, we cannot acknowledge the dark shadow of slavery still echoes today while also holding up our founding, which enshrines human life and liberty, as a truly remarkable achievement. Expressing both positions puts us between culture war armies who will brand us as either a CRT pusher or white nationalist.

Failing to fall in the line with one side of the culture war makes us no use to the armies fighting it. A person is not useful to the culture armies if they consider border security the bedrock of national sovereignty but also see the need for robust immigration to fuel our economy. If the red army can stir their anger, however, by showing them masses of people flowing across the Rio Grande, they can direct their anger at the blue army.

A person is not useful to the culture armies if they embrace self-determination as key to human flourishing and also accept disparity in outcomes is often bred by unequal opportunity. But if the Blue army can anger this person by showing them a broken public education system, they can direct the anger at the Red army.

The culture armies do not care about immigration or border security or capitalism or inequality. They care about winning the war. It is about an in-crowd of good soldiers, an out-crowd of enemies, and wielding the nearest available weapon to strike a blow.

Those who step out from the culture army ranks, like Crenshaw, Liz Cheney and the seven Republicans who voted to convict President Trump for inciting an insurrection, take fire from the Red culture army. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema take fire from the Blue culture army for opposing another massive spending bill in a stream of many. Each get rhetorically bombarded and abandoned, not because most Americans disagree with their positions, but because they damaged their armys chances of winning the culture war. Watching this carnage gives us all pause about stepping out.

Those of us trying not to become a cannonball or good soldier are not only fearful of stepping out, but also find it hard to know where to fight back if we wanted to. In a two-party system, must you back one army so the other army does not win or merely sit on the sidelines and watch the war unfold? I think there is another way.

It starts with a simple question posed by Ben Hunt, who studies narratives for a living: Why am I reading this now? You can exchange reading for watching or hearing, but asking this question before consuming information is the first step in a negotiated peace to the culture war. You can still agree with the underlying policy position but asking why you are seeing a story at this moment might change how you feel about it. It might make you less angry or make you wonder about the motives of the producer. In both cases it prevents you from being a weapon for either culture army.

A negotiated peace, where we can once again debate ideas rather than only strike rhetorical blows, is not impossible. The culture armies do not give us the power to see wrong and right, God does. Our nation was born on an altar to the gifts of life, liberty and freedom to pursue happiness. This is our story. This is our song. In the near-term, we will get drowned out by the culture army artillery, but we must keep singing so when the gunfire ceases, we are ready to fill the silence with the song we know well, lest something worse take its place.

Ending the culture war does not end the competition between conservative and liberal. On the conservative side, we at Principles First will meet in Washington on February 26-27. There are many similar organizations on the left and right. We will hear from some with culture war wounds, like Adam Kinzinger and Bill Kristol. But mostly, we rank and file citizens keeping our heads down and being careful to avoid the armies using us as a weapon will gather to keep the song alive. You should find a place to sing the song too.

Pitcock, a US Marine Corps veteran and member of the principled conservative organization, Principles First, is a small business owner in Texas.
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This illustration reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
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Canadas Financial Regulator Bans 37 Binary Options Brokers

After multiple complaints filed by many representatives of the English-speaking trading community, the CSA, Canadas financial regulator, decided to ban a number of binary options brokers. All in all, there are 37 brokers on the blacklist. The decision was made on March 9th, 2016.

It is interesting to note that the CSA is going to expand the blacklist, should some other brokers compromise themselves. That is why the financial regulator urges the trading community to the regulators websites and report their complaints on other brokers if they are trying to play dirty tricks or scam their customers.

Loss of Trading Capital - Major Risk With Binary Brokers

According to the professional trading community of Masterforex-V Academy , binary options are nothing but a certain kind of casino business tailored to financial markets.

Basically speaking, binary options traders, like casino players, bet on how the chosen asset (for instance, EURUSD) is going to behave over a certain period of time. Simply put, they can bet on whether EURUSD goes up or down in, say, 5 minutes relative to the current price level. There is nothing wrong with that. If the broker is honest and doesnt play dirty tricks on you, there is a chances to capitalize on trading binary options provided that you have enough skills and expertise in doing so.

Still, the thing that spoils everything is the fact that there are many scams operating in the niche, which is why the folks may have a hard time telling reputable and honest companies from fakes. The thing is that a lot of binary brokers are registered in offshore areas and their businesses are regulated by local legislation. When dealing with offshore brokers, some traders may face a serious problem when trying to withdraw their profits, if this happens to be a disreputable broker.

Is it possible to make money trading binary options? Yes, it is!

However, Masterforex-V Academy experts say that this is possible only if you are an expert in trading binary options and if you trade with a reputable broker.

With that being said, it is crucial to go with a reputable broker. A couple of years ago, a scam FX broker named Broco refused to pay a Masterforex-V Academy trader $8000 of profit. In 6 months, the broker was banned in the USA and disappeared with client funds.

CSAs Blacklist 2016

The regulators blacklist contains 37 binary broker to date. However, it is strongly recommended to visit the regulators official website to check the blacklist for updates. For now, the blacklist looks as follows:

10trade.com, 24option.com, 247binary.com, 24winner.com, amberoptions.com, anyoption.com, bancdebinary.com, binareo.com, binarytilt.com, bosscapital.com, cedarfinance.com, cherrytrade.com, dragonoptions.com, fmtrader.com, goptions.com, grandoption.com, gtoptions.com, leaderoption.com, lionlive.com, no1options.com, onetwotrade.com, opteck.com, optionfair.com, optionrally.com, optiontime.com, optionweb.com, option.fm, poweroption.com, rboptions.com, redwoodoptions.com, stockpair.net, sycamoreoptions.com, topoption.com, traderush.com, tradersking.com, triumphoption.com, ubinary.com.

However, the CSAs decision seems to have had zero impact on the binary options industry in Europe, where binary options have been very popular with traders of all kinds. Still, the CSAs ban may well trigger a wave of closer attention to the industry by other financial regulators and central banks worldwide. Different financial regulators exchange valuable information with each other and are perfectly aware of the fact that a blacklisted company may violate the law in other countries as well. Thats why savvy clients of such blacklisted companies are among the first to start withdrawing their funds since they know whats probably going to happen next. However, this is happening everywhere expect Russia and the CIS. Lets consider 24option as an example. The company concealed the incident from the clients and keeps on promoting the service through Yandex.Direct and Google AdWords.

The companys official website says that it can boast as much as 9 prestigious awards!!!

24option is still a member of Russias CRFIN.

Rodeler Limited, which owns 24option and some other related brands, keeps on promoting them in the EU. It is licensed and regulated by the CySEC. The licenses are given to:

The bottom line is ambiguous at best. A binary options broker banned in Canada is officially licensed and allowed in Russia, the CIS and even the EU.

Ratings Should Be Up To Date

Under circumstances when financial regulators blacklist brokers ONLY AFTER they scam people or have already done something illegal, he only way for the average trader to avoid such scams and fakes is to make use of unbiased ratings of brokers. While most ratings out there keep on promoting those brokers banned by the CSA, there is a handful of ratings that stay honest and unbiased.



On top of that, Masterforex-V EXPO is the only source of ratings that was quick to reach to the incident and instantly updated the ratings of binary brokers based on the CSAs blacklist.

As you can see from the screenshot of the rating of binary brokers by Masterforex-V EXPO, none of the 37 blacklisted brokers can be found in the ultimate league of binary brokers, which is includes the industrys most reliable companies to date. Moreover, 6 out of 37 brokers belong to the secondary league. With that being said, if you want to go with a secondary league representative, please keep in mind that you are doing so at your risk. The rest of the blacklisted brokers can be found in the 3rd league, which includes the brokers you are strongly recommended to avoid.

The bottom line is that Masterforex-V EXPOs ratings can be treated as some kind of leading indicators for the FX and BO industry. This is an unbiased project based on dozens of independent factors taken as criteria for the ratings  from year of expertise to client feedback/open voting. We also fine any broker that was caught blacklisted or playing dirty tricks on their clients. Thats why even tough such brokers as AnyOption, OptionRally, and OptionFair are fairly popular in the industry and have a lot of rating points, they still dont belong to the ultimate league anymore since they were find for 100 points, which made them go way down. This is basically one of the key reasons why you can trust Masterforex-V EXPOs ratings. Stay tuned and good trading!

You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors
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Prince William County Public Schools will require shorter quarantine times for COVID-19 starting next week, bringing the divisions policy into alignment with Centers for Disease Control guidance in a change promised by Superintendent LaTanya McDade last week.

On Friday evening, the division sent a notice to families detailing the new policy. For unvaccinated students or staff, a five-day quarantine will now be required for close contacts of COVID, but no quarantine will be required for fully vaccinated contacts who dont show symptoms or have had a confirmed COVID case within the previous 90 days.

The change does not apply to pre-kindergarten students.

For students who test positive, isolation will still be required for a full 10 days, as the division says the new five-day masking period that the CDC recommends after five days of isolation for positive cases is untenable with school cafeteria set-ups.

But teachers can now return to work from a positive COVID case after five days of isolation.

In her message, McDade reiterated that the divisions universal mask mandate for students, staff and visitors will remain in place, despite an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin that goes into effect Monday and allows parents to opt their children out of masking requirements in schools.

In compliance with the current law, the PWCS masking requirements  in place since the first day of school remain in effect until such time as PWCS receives clarification on the conflict between the Governors recent Executive Order and existing state and federal law, McDade wrote.

McDade urged parents to follow the school system's mandate.

"We appreciate your continued cooperation by having your student wear a mask, as they have done very well all year," she added. "We also thank you for your support and respect for our school administrators and staff, who are obligated to enforce these legal requirements."

As of Friday, the school systems COVID dashboard showed 1,398 students and 360 staff members isolating because of COVID-19 cases, with another 2,969 students and 27 staff members in quarantine. The school system has about 90,000 students and 10,000 staff members.

Earlier Friday afternoon, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued additional guidance regarding his executive order allowing parents to opt out of mask mandates. While the new guidance primarily addressed mitigation strategies other than masks, Youngkin said in a statement that until courts rule on the validity of his order in relation to existing state law, parents should listen to school administrators.

I have said all along that we are going to stand up for parents. Executive Order 2 is not about pro-masks versus anti-mask, its about empowering parents," he said. "I am confident that the Virginia Supreme Court will rule in the favor of parents, reaffirming the parental rights clearly laid out in the Virginia code... In the meantime, I urge all parents to listen to their principal, and trust the legal process."
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In its task of providing uniquely designed security services to suit individual company requirements, the Reconnaissance Group team is comprised of operatives from a range of military, police, security, legal, and business backgrounds.

The company is already under way with adding 20 new positions in response to an increase in demand for its services.

We have certainly had a very good 2021 and towards the end of that year we established a team in Dublin with a view to growing the business there  something we previously hadnt done, explains CEO Shane Henry of the prospects for a similarly active year in 2022.

The 20 roles will be split between security services and Covid protocols around client issues in relation to the pandemic, he says.

We are thrilled to be growing our business on home soil and opening up new positions which have come into play as a result of the pandemic.

The organisation has made great strides across Ireland and we hope to expand further and help mitigate the risks businesses face in security, health and safety as 2022 continues.

Shane Henry: Recruiting additional staff.

Reconnaissance Group plans to recruit the additional staff within the next six months, with the roles predominantly in security and compliance for VIP and high-level clients and organisations.

The increase in Covid-19 compliance laws has ensured the necessity of all parties abiding by health and safety guidelines.

Since the organisation was first established in 2006, it has provided security and risk management services to customers worldwide, including hotel groups, data storage facilities, NGOs, and telecommunications companies.

Comprising over 1,600 employees spread across the globe, the Reconnaissance Group is constructed through three main pillars: security risk management; business continuity; and training. These core services include personal security, logistics and fleet/asset management, offices, residence security, network security, and infrastructure.

Like any other company, weve had to adapt over the past two years to the context we found ourselves operating in.

We put our heads together very early in the pandemic to come up with strategies and innovative ways to adapt our business model," says Shane. "In fact, that has worked out very well in allowing us look beyond the security and protective services that we do.

Weve branched into areas of organisational resilience and working with companies to help prepare their teams to better weather events that occur  be they natural disasters, pandemics or security issues that firms find themselves facing.

"The fact that we have 15 years experience operating in some of the worlds more challenging business environments gives us a unique leverage in terms of what we can provide.

Background

Founded in 2006, the company is headquartered in Dublin, with sister offices in New York and Haiti.

Prior to establishing Reconnaissance Group, Shane was as a Non Commissioned Officer in the Irish Defence Forces, serving in Lebanon and Liberia. He travelled to Haiti in 2006 and began a new chapter with the founding of the company.

He has a Degree in Security & Risk Management from the University of Leicester, a Certificate in Crisis Management, Diploma in Business Continuity with Londons Business Continuity Institute, and is currently completing a Masters in Organisational Resilience.

Drawing on its extensive expertise, the Reconnaissance Group continues to provide specialised security services to a portfolio of global clients, operating across a variety of challenging landscapes, overcoming historic operational and economic hurdles.

Since its inception, we have envisioned Reconnaissance Group as an industry leader offering specialised solutions to clients, Shane says.

In the recent PWC Annual CEO Survey, 59% of Irish business leaders cited extreme concern about the threat of pandemics and other health crises.

Additionally, the survey also found that 90% of Irish business leaders are planning to reassess their organisations tolerance for risk as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Threat of cybercrime

Cybercrime is a threat to individuals, never mind organisations, Shane says.

And now, with home working having become such a crucial part of many businesses, it has become an area of concern that organisations did not previously have to address.

"It is an area that we are involved in, and working with companies to define their policies in relation to this.

Cyber threats evolve on a daily basis.

Given that cyber threats evolve on a daily basis, both for companies and government institutions, Irelands open economy brings its own challenges: There is a huge requirement in Ireland to cope with these constantly emerging threats, and we have done very well in assembling a team of diverse talents dedicated to this area. This has allowed us to expand, as well as identifying new areas for growth into the future.

Shane credits his time with the Irish Defence Forces as being responsible for key aspects of the Reconnaissance Group operational ethos: I joined the Irish Army in 1999 and have had tremendous experiences from that, including travelling with the UN to Lebanon and Liberia, both of which shaped my own view of the world at a young age.

The Irish Defence Forces have left a very deep imprint on who I am today, and gave me values which apply across a wide spectrum.

He says the personal growth he experienced in the army has informed much of his educational and business life.

It instilled in me a desire to extend myself into a life of continual growth and to constantly extend who I am and what Im capable of, he says.

The Defence Forces instilled a tremendous set of values and a moral compass developed at a very young age. My time there has been central to the subsequent success of both my personal and professional life and an experience that continues to guide me in so many ways.
Family and friends are to gather on Sunday for an anniversary Mass in memory of Urantsetseg Tserendorj  who was killed a year ago after leaving work.

The Mongolian woman had finished a night shift in offices at the Irish Financial Services Centre, where she worked as a cleaner, in Dublins north inner city and walked across the plaza.

The attack occurred beside the CHQ building on Custom House Quay at about 9.30pm on January 20, 2021.

Ms Tserendorj, a wife and mother of two, died in the Mater Hospital two weeks later from her injuries.

This allowed her own family back in Mongolia to fly over to say their final goodbyes.

Ulambayar Surenkhor, widower of Urantsetseg Tserendorj is expected to speak at her remembrance Mass: File picture: Collins Courts

Her husband, Ulambayar Surenkhor, and her direct family and friends have organised an anniversary Mass at 12pm on Sunday at St Kevins Church on Harrington Street.

It is thought Mr Surenkhor may speak at the Mass.

Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu, who was Dublin Lord Mayor at the time of the killing, said she hoped the ceremony would provide some comfort to the family.

I and my partner will be going and I hope the Mass will mark for the family some support from the public and let us show we are behind them, Ms Chu said.

She said she went down to the CHQ area on the anniversary of the attack and laid some flowers on the spot.

Friends and supporters of Urantsetseg Tserendorj, outside the Central Criminal Court in October, where a 15-year-old boy accused of her murder appeared at a hearing. Picture: Collins Courts

I walk by the Dail nearly every day and there was the vigil for Ashling Murphy and theres candles and flowers there and weve had the outpouring of grief across the country and that is really important, but it made me think we need to do the same for the other 243 women [killed since 1996], including Urantsetseg.

She added: She is remembered by friends and family, but seems to be forgotten as a nation.

I was mayor at the time and I remember commenting on it, I remember raising awareness about it and we lit a candle at the Mansion House, but I dont remember any vigil at the scene.

She said it was during lockdown and there were not many people going out and this would have limited any opportunity to gather or hold a vigil.

Cllr Chu said it was "heartbreaking" that her family had to fly all the way over during lockdown.
A Dublin-based Brazilian man and a Sao Paolo escort have been remanded in custody after airport customs officers intercepted a case with 740,000 worth of cocaine.

Dublin District Court heard that the drugs were partly in liquid form, in shampoo bottles.

Gardai arrested Jefferson Pedrucci, 32, of Carrigmore Glen, Saggart, Dublin, and 28-year-old Pamela Da Silva, who is of no fixed address, after their flight landed at Dublin Airport on Thursday evening.

They appeared before Judge Dermot Simms on Saturday.

They were charged with unlawfully possessing and importing cocaine and having it for sale or supply. Ms Da Silva has an additional charge for carrying false immigration documents.

The defendants listened to the proceedings with the aid of an interpreter.

Garda Peter Morrison told Judge Simms that Ms Da Silva made several replies when charged at Ballymun Station.

The court heard she told Garda Morrison: Those drugs werent mine.

Another answer was: "No, because the drugs were not mine, I don't know anything about them. The only thing I do is be an escort in Brazil; if I want to, I would be an escort here, but that would not be my intention."

In response to the fake identity charges, she said: "They provided me false documents to show the immigration officer. I only realised they were false when I got to the airport, it was never my intention to produce false documentation."

She was granted legal aid, and her solicitor John O'Doherty told Judge Simms there was no application for bail at this stage.

Judge Simms remanded her in custody to appear again on Friday.

Garda Ross Brierley told the court that her co-accused Mr Pedrucci made no reply to the charges.

Garda Brierley objected to bail due to flight risk fears and added that Mr Pedrucci could face a sentence of up to 14 years. He allegedly travelled with a female companion from Sao Paolo via Lisbon and landed at Terminal One just after 4.30pm on Thursday.

The woman was stopped by immigration because she had a non-EU passport. The accused, travelling on an EU passport, carried on and waited.

Custom officers X-rayed their suitcases, containing 8.5 kilos of cocaine worth 600,000. In addition, there were two bottles of shampoo, weighing two kilos, which was found to be "cocaine in liquid form" and valued at 140,000. Garda Brierley said the man was caught red-handed.

Questioned by defence solicitor Michael French, he said the drug weight and value were estimations of custom officers from "presumptive testing".

He agreed that it has not yet been tested by Forensic Science Ireland, which carries out drug analysis for the criminal justice system. The garda confirmed Mr Pedrucci denied knowing the contents of suitcases he claimed were given to him by people in Brazil.

He also maintained the shampoo bottles were for a friend's wife, a hairdresser in Ireland.

Mr French said his client had lived in Ireland since 2015 and now offered an address in Saggart.

The solicitor said the man, who may not face trial until 2025, was anxious to get bail and would turn up to court. However, Judge Simms ruled that the objections were well made, and he refused to grant Mr Pedrucci bail. He was remanded in custody to appear again on Friday.

Directions from the DPP have to be obtained.
The Covid-19 pandemic has taken from us all. It has stolen some of lifes most precious milestones. At its cruellest, it has taken our loved ones and removed all the usual supports for the grieving process.

But, while we have all lost something, there can be no doubt that older people, and those most vulnerable in our society, have borne the brunt of this virus.

In terms of morbidity and mortality, Covid-19 disproportionately affects older people, particularly those with underlying conditions and, in Ireland, almost 80% of deaths attributable to the virus have occurred in those aged 75 and above. Half of deaths occurred in nursing homes.

This is the first part of Nicole Glennon's series in which she asks older people how they have fared during the pandemic. Click on Ageing in the pandemic to read the second part.

Between July and November of last year, one in 20 Irish adults aged 60 and over had lost a family member or friend due to Covid-19.

In order to protect older people and the most vulnerable, healthcare professionals and government officials sought to introduce policies with the sole aim of preventing premature deaths due to a deadly virus. But, as we approach the second anniversary of the first case of Covid-19 being recorded in the Republic (on February 29, 2020), we need to face up to the fact that some of the policies introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19 in social settings, residential settings, and in family homes, have caused irrevocable and lingering damage that may well outlast the threat of the virus.

It remains to be seen whether, ultimately, the policies themselves may contribute to premature deaths among the population we sought to protect.

Many felt 'more vulnerable and older' The idea that were all equal  older people realised thats not true during Covid, says Sean Moynihan, chief executive of Alone. 'Get up, get dressed, get moving,' is good advice to everyone, including older people  but Sean Moynihan of Alone points out it could be hard for some, especially during periods of cocooning. Picture: Arthur Carron Some older people entered the pandemic very resilient; volunteering, contributing, active retirement, running businesses, running social clubs, he says. All of a sudden, those things were taken away, and people who had never considered themselves vulnerable or old felt a little bit more vulnerable and older. Those who went into the pandemic already prone to loneliness or poor mental or physical health have suffered the most, he says: But everybody across the spectrum of older people has been affected. Theres a whole range of issues that have been deferred. And if youre 75, two years might be a fair percentage of maybe what the road ahead is, time that youve lost. Of particular concern to Alone, a charity that supports older people to age at home, is the declining levels of physical activity amongst older people during the pandemic. Research from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (Tilda) found that almost 70% of people over the age of 70 reported exercising less frequently or not at all while cocooning. Healthcare professionals  including GPs, geriatricians, and nurses  are already seeing the consequences of this decline in movement, with many reporting high levels of deconditioning, where inactivity can lead to a loss of muscle tone. People who were pre-frail, maybe thats been accelerated because they couldnt do their exercises or couldnt go swimming or couldnt do their normal things, Mr Moynihan says. The message that Alone repeatedly gives to older people is get up, get dressed, get moving, but this was hard for some, especially during periods of cocooning. We all know as a society we can be too sedentary and keeping active, good nutrition, friends, family  this is what keeps us all healthy. Ultimately, older people were denied that opportunity for quite a long time. That has been detrimental to both their physical and mental health.

Before, I never acknowledged my age

Mary OBrien, who is in her mid 70s, had a remarkably busy life prior to March 2020. That all came to a screeching halt when then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar addressed the nation on March 12 that year.

Mary O'Brien, who sets the Simplex crossword for the 'Irish Times', jokes that cocooning caused her to get ahead of deadline for the first time in 36 years. Picture: Garry O'Neill

I need to speak to you about coronavirus, he said, as he announced the first in a wave of restrictions that  22 months later  still have not been entirely lifted.

I know that some of this is coming as a real shock and it is going to involve big changes in the way we live our lives. I know that I am asking people to make enormous sacrifices.

In the week that followed, one such enormous sacrifice was introduced  cocooning. Mary, who lives on her own in Greystones, Co Wicklow, said at that point, panic set in.

I couldnt leave my house. I couldnt go to the shop. I had no food or drink in the house and there were no delivery slots in my local supermarket for three weeks.

I dont think Leo Varadkar understood what he was asking So many of us live alone, with no family near and friends of a similar age. The rug  my comfort and security  had been pulled out from under me.

Like many of the older people the Irish Examiner spoke to, despite cocooning being advice rather than a legal requirement, Mary says it never crossed her mind that she could disobey the guidance.

It never even dawned on me, she says now. During this time, Mary tried to stay busy. Despite taking early retirement some years ago, she still compiles the daily Simplex crossword for The Irish Times and, for the first time in 36 years  I was ahead of deadline, she jokes.

An hour of dance with Loreto and Robert of the Dance Theatre of Ireland also saved my sanity, she says: It was the only activity during the worst days of Covid that was both enjoyable and good for me, unlike all the chocolates and cream cakes that I consumed.

Almost two years later, shes still participating in the dancing class over Zoom, but shes also back in the gym for the Super Seniors exercise classes at least twice a week.

Of course, these are great for the old body but an unintended consequence is that theyre good for my soul too. Ive made some great pals and we always go for coffee and a chat afterwards.

The most lasting effect of the pandemic for Mary, and for many people approaching their twilight years, is that she was forced to face her own mortality.

Before the pandemic, I never acknowledged my age. I wasnt old, I had years and years, she said. Now, Ive been told so many times that I am old. Thats difficult to deal with sometimes.

Its hard to accept that my time here is limited... Theres so much more I want to do. I want to stay around.

'I missed hugs from my grandchildren' Manus ODonnell, who is in his early 80s, feels the Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on older peoples sense of self, their independence and their wellbeing. Manus says he and many of his friends contributed to their Donegal community through volunteering and other outlets before the pandemic, he says: I was involved in a lot of things in the community  that has been taken away from me for no reason other than my age. As a cancer survivor, he is also concerned about physical health issues that have been put on the long finger. Everything has been centred around Covid, cancer clinics, indeed all clinics, have been downgraded and people were afraid to attend hospitals out of fear of getting Covid. I had cancer myself and was attending a clinic in Scotland for treatment. Its coming up to two years now where I havent been able to attend my clinic. I am in remission, but its still a problem. Living through Covid-19 has made him extra aware of the beauty of the simple things and made him acutely aware of things he had taken for granted, he said. What I missed most was hugs from my grandchildren. Manus said the vaccine was a ray of hope for him and his wife. I felt very vulnerable before I got the vaccine, and it gave me a sense of confidence. It was very liberating for me.

'A lot of grandparents have really missed their grandchildren'

Lucia Gannon, a Tipperary GP, has seen this impact on both physical and mental health in her practice. Dr Gannon says she has seen a rise in older people speaking about depression in recent months.

'Even now, older patients are fearful of being sent to hospital,' says Dr Lucia Gannon.

She has also prescribed more antidepressants to older people since the onset of the pandemic:

Older people wont come in to talk about depression but you will often spot it or suspect it, and it can take a while to address it.

When patients come in [now], theres often a lot of physical things that theyve been meaning to show you or tell you about, the mental health often comes at the end of a long consultation and it might not even have been acknowledged by them until they come in.

Dr Gannon, a GP in Killenaule Surgery in Co Tipperary, says when her elderly patients started returning to her practice she noticed some people had gotten very frail very quickly. Others showed various degrees of cognitive decline which had advanced quicker than what would be considered the norm in such a short period of time.

I think its a mixture of a little bit of depression too, because of a lack of stimulation and a lack of contact, and just a lack of being able to care for people as much as being able to feel cared for, she says.

A lot of grandparents, in particular, have really missed their grandchildren, particularly healthy grandparents who would have been looking after grandchildren after school, where they would have come in and maybe had their tea and did their homework there before the mum or dad collects them, and that was all taken away from them.

That was a big source of stimulation and a purpose in life that was just taken away.

Dr Gannon also notes that older patients were not presenting with the typical chest infections or throat infections, but many had bigger ailments or chronic pain that they had put off addressing for some time.

They didnt tell us about certain things because they were scared we would say, you need to go to the hospital.

Even now, older patients are fearful of being sent to hospital.

As a GP, Dr Gannon says her advice to older people who are struggling is to try to stay connected with a small bubble of people  if you are concerned about your mental health, your doctors door is always open.

Loneliness in a pandemic is understandable, Dr Gannon says, but if you are feeling a loss of sense of purpose, that theres no enjoyment in your day, nothing to look forward to, your future looks bleak, and thats not the way you usually are, then it is time to get help.

And there is help available, she emphasises.

People were feeling, will this ever end? Rose Tobin, a volunteer with Seniorline for close to five years, has seen first-hand the loneliness, fear, and isolation that Covid and the resulting restrictions have had on Irelands older population over the past 22 months. Seniorline, Irelands only national dedicated peer-to-peer telephone service for older people, has seen a huge increase of calls since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, the service received around 10,000 calls. However, in 2020, this nearly doubled to some 18,000 calls. In 2021, the service received in excess of 18,700 calls. Ms Tobin says that many of the callers were people who may not have access to the internet or may not be confident using it  making them doubly isolated. For most of us, Zoom kept us going, she says. But for a lot of the older people, certainly those who would have been ringing us regularly, they werent really connecting online at all. In Ms Tobins experience, many older peoples experience of the second wave and the winter lockdown of 2020 was even more difficult than the original lockdown in March that year. The loneliness and the feeling that they really hadnt spoken to anybody face-to-face. Some of them said they were going nuts. There were some people really feeling, will this ever end? Now that were freer, its easy to forget how confined people were." I mean the 2km, the 5km that kind of confinement people found very, very hard. For people who were used to having the ICA, the cards, the bridge, whatever it was, they really missed that. And, you know, chatting to people on the streets, sitting in a cafe, meeting people. When case numbers begin to climb, anxiety and fear increase, she says, and there is a sense of are we ever getting out of this? During periods when case numbers have been particularly high, every call is intense: People are wondering if they will ever get back to normal," she says. The nervousness isnt just about going out and maybe getting Covid... Its about connecting with people again. Its a muscle, and if you havent exercised it for a bit, people can get out of the habit, especially if youre a bit shy or socially awkward. Ms Tobin says her experience volunteering with Seniorline has made her more aware of being friendly and kind to strangers, especially older people who may be on their own. Somebody said to me once that they would go out and nobody would even say hello to them. It was a big thing if somebody just said hello and talked about the weather or something very simple. Now, when she is out herself, she says she is very aware of older people who may be on their own and the importance of a simple smile and a hello.
Whether it is or isnt the end, this is a watershed moment in this countrys response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just three short weeks ago, the national conversation was one of enhanced restrictions, a risk of schools not reopening and a repeat of the bleak lockdown of early 2021.

Thankfully, the Omicron threat came and went without our hospital system being overwhelmed. That has allowed the effective ending of almost all Covid-19 restrictions starting this weekend. In that three-week period, there has been a distinct shift in tone from our political leaders.

From limiting movements and telling us that meeting up on New Years Eve was unsafe to now needing to reopen society quickly for the good of our people  it's some turnaround.

Look at Leo Varadkars comments to a private meeting of his parliamentary party on Tuesday, where he made clear the time to open up has come. He singled out the impact Covid-19 on young people.

"They haven't had the rite of passage that is normal for young adults for about two years now. They're seeing their friends on Instagram having much more normal lives in London, in New York, and Dubai, and people are finding it very difficult, he said.

We've seen very strict rules around all those things for two years now, probably the only country in the world where it hasn't been possible to stand in a bar for two years or to go to your office. With the exception of about three weeks, it's been very hard to attend a concert or a gig or nightclub or a full stadium, he said.

He followed an expansive interview with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly where he said he expected a faster than previously expected reopening, as did Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.

Unlike in the past, when ministers were slow to pre-empt the advice of chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan, this week a clear message was being sent from within the Cabinet.

The political masters were seeking to wrestle back control of the narrative from their public health advisors who have been guilty of springing surprises at various times in this pandemic. They were making it clear what they wanted to hear.

No more Nphet soap opera

Some in Government, even on the Fine Gael side, have pointed to interventions by Taoiseach Micheal Martin, since the New Year as to why things have changed.

They point to Monday, January 3, when Martin held a meeting with Dr Holohan in advance of Nphets meeting that week, rather than waiting until after the scheduled Nphet get-together.

Those government figures have said such a meeting and similar interactions since have allowed Martin to take control of the narrative away from the soap opera of letters to government after Nphet meetings.

This week, it was important from a government perspective that it was Martin articulating the message rather than awaiting the leaks from the letter.

Sources have said that with Martin, rather than Donnelly, keeping a much closer eye on Nphet, it has made it much harder for them to dictate the pace of the conversation.

Read More The longer we delay global vaccination, the greater the harm

What is clear is that the tolerance for Nphets ultra-cautious approach has run out within Cabinet and such comments from ministers and Martin in public are not coincidental. Whereas before, we would have had plenty of ministers sniping about Nphets behaviour, the tone has been far more collegiate of late.

This reflects a greater degree of confidence among the politicians, not necessarily dismissing Nphet, but certainly forcing the conversation into one that is far more grounded in economic and societal reality.

The additional restrictions introduced before Christmas, including the dubious 8pm curfew on hospitality, were introduced on a precautionary basis.

Once Stephen Donnelly declared the peak of the Omicron wave had passed, the basis for retaining restrictions fell away immediately.

Now, those who have railed against the highly conservative nature of Irish restrictions will say finally commonsense has prevailed and we as a country can step out of the shadow of the virus and begin to walk again as a truly free people.

Restrictions lifting too fast?

Certainly, several ministers did express some pleasurable surprise at how swiftly the restrictions have crumbled. They noted that some constituents are anxious that the country is moving too quickly from severe restrictions to a near full reopening.

There was talk yesterday from some immune-compromised people that this reopening will force them back into cocooning. They have asked is it fair that they be set aside for the greater good?

While their concern is justified, it is simply not tenable to impose strict restrictions on the 98% in the hope of protecting the other 2%. Such concern is also inevitable, given how we have been conditioned into fear repeatedly over the past two years.

While the ending of many restrictions is certainly welcome, it would be exceptionally foolhardy to assume it is the end of Covid-19 or the end of Nphet. Ministers have made clear that moving forward, the governments response to future bumps needs to see restrictions only used as a final resort and not a lazy default one.

They are insisting that the health system must retain the ability to quickly roll out a new vaccine programme if required, increase testing capacity quickly and to look to other remedies which mean imposing restrictions is used only in exceptional circumstances.

It's clear we need enhancements to our hospital bed capacity, particularly in intensive care units, to allow society to continue, to avoid inflicting huge pain on the masses in a bid to protect hospitals from being overwhelmed.

After 22 months, the patience of a weary public has been beyond tested and the good news of reopening is a moment to savour. While there will be an inquiry into how the pandemic was handled, as confirmed by Micheal Martin this week, it is not something that will be done in a spirit of vengeance but rather one of learning.

Let us hope that this reopening is truly the beginning of the end and not another false dawn.
All freshly calved cows are challenged to maintain normal calcium levels within the first 72 hours of calving, so the modern dairy farmer needs to understand the risk of milk fever within the herd and aim to prevent it wherever possible, advises Maura Langan, Norbrook Vet Adviser.

Milk fever or hypocalcaemia occurs when the cow is unable to mobilise her own calcium reserves quickly enough to match the increased demand created by the production of colostrum and the onset of lactation.

Some cows will struggle to adapt to the increased need for calcium more than others. Cows particularly at risk of milk fever include those that are over-conditioned (BCS 3.5 or more), under-conditioned (BCS 2.5 or less), older cows (third lactation plus), those with a history of milk fever, high-producing dairy cows and breeds such as Jersey.

Maura Langan, Norbrook Vet Adviser.

Milk fever has been found to increase the risk of other clinical diseases from retained placenta and left displaced abomasum to mastitis and lameness. The impact of clinical cases, reduced milk yield and sub-optimal fertility also have significant financial implications, leading many experts to recommend a whole-herd approach to the management of milk fever.

Maura explains: Calcium is stored in the bones so it takes time for the cow to mobilise what is needed. By providing a calcium supplement around calving, we can give her a little extra time to access her own supply and meet her needs naturally. In many Irish dairy herds, I would recommend an oral calcium supplement like Calcitrace D3 bolus or Calcitrace P liquid is given to every cow shortly after calving.

For really at risk cows this should be followed up with a second dose after around 12 hours. This will give high levels of easily absorbed calcium that will not interfere with the cows natural metabolic processes.

For many farmers, a case of milk fever involves a downer cow, when clinical hypocalcaemia results in a loss of appetite, low body temperature, muscle weakness causing her to go down and a slowing of her heart rate.

Prompt veterinary treatment with intravenous Calciject 40+3 delivers high levels of calcium very quickly, getting the cow back on her feet.

IV Calcium infusion is a lifesaving treatment, adds Maura. I always recommend a follow-up oral calcium supplement is given to every downer cow as this is the most effective way to ensure she has a continued calcium supply post-treatment until she is able to match her requirements naturally.

Farmers are also being urged to be vigilant for other metabolic diseases and mineral deficiencies in Transition Cows.

Milk fever is often complicated by deficiency in phosphorus and can bring an increased risk of ketosis when the animal goes off her feed. Your vet or animal health adviser or nutritionist will be able to advise about appropriate supplements or treatments, advises Maura.

The calving season can be very busy and stressful for farmers, vets and cattle, concludes Maura. But with careful milk fever management its possible to reduce the need for clinical intervention and promote a healthier more productive lactation.

www.norbrook.com

For more information about Norbrooks range of Transition Cow products:
Top US and Russian diplomats have agreed to keep talking amid the stand-off over Ukraine, despite a summit in Switzerland producing no movement on the crisis.

There are fears that Russia will invade Ukraine after Moscow massed tens of thousands of troops at the border, while the west has ramped up supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met for about 90 minutes in Geneva at what the American diplomat said was a critical moment.

The first shipment of assistance recently directed by President Biden to Ukraine arrived in Ukraine tonight. This shipment includes close to

200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine. [1/2] pic.twitter.com/YeYanK0Px6  U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) January 22, 2022

Expectations had been low going in, and there was no breakthrough.

Mr Blinken told Mr Lavrov the US would give Russia written responses to Moscows proposals next week, and suggested the two would likely meet again shortly after that  offering some hope that any invasion would be delayed for at least a few more days.

The US secretary of state said America and its allies remain resolute in rejecting Russias most important demands, which were reiterated on Friday.

Moscow wants Nato to promise that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it should pull back its forces from central and eastern Europe.

The United States and its allies and partners are standing together to expedite security assistance to Ukraine. We are utilizing all available security cooperation tools to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of Russian aggression.  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 22, 2022

Despite that, there was no indication the US responses would be any different from the flat-out rejections already expressed by Washington and its allies, clouding future diplomatic efforts.

We didnt expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path to understanding each others positions, Mr Blinken said after the meeting.

He said he also wanted to use the opportunity to share directly with Mr Lavrov some concrete ideas to address some of the concerns that you have raised, as well as the deep concerns that many of us have about Russias actions.

Ukrainian soldiers stand on a check-point close to the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in Mariupol, Donetsk (AP)

Mr Blinken said Mr Lavrov repeated Russias insistence that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, but the US and its allies remain unconvinced.

He said: Were looking at what is visible to all, and it is deeds and actions and not words that make all the difference.

Mr Blinken added that Russia should remove its troops from the Ukrainian border if it wanted to prove its point.

Mr Lavrov, meanwhile, called the talks constructive and useful but declined to characterise the US pledge.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks at a press conference in Geneva (AP)

I cant say whether we are on the right track or not, he told reporters. We will understand that when we receive the US written response to all of our proposals.

Mr Blinken suggested there was no leeway on Russias demands, saying firmly: There is no trade space there. None.

The US and its allies say Russian president Vladimir Putin knows his demands are non-starters, adding that they are open to less dramatic moves.

Mr Blinken said the US would be open to a meeting between Mr Putin and US president Joe Biden, if it would be useful and productive.

The two have met once in person in Geneva and have had several virtual conversations on Ukraine that have proven largely inconclusive.

 FM Sergey #Lavrov during talks with @SecBlinken:



In a recent statement you said that you were not expecting a breakthrough from this meeting.



 We are not expecting a breakthrough either. What we are expecting are replies to our proposals.



 https://t.co/KRJ7PgpqH0 pic.twitter.com/40hkT1lNj2  MFA Russia  (@mfa_russia) January 21, 2022

An estimated 100,000 Russian troops have been sent to areas near Ukraine, and more are moving into the area for training exercises with neighbouring Belarus.

Late on Friday, the US embassy in Kyiv tweeted photos of a shipment it said had just arrived from the America, with close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine.

Western allies are also supplying weaponry and equipment to Ukraine. The UK sent anti-tank missiles earlier this week, while the defence ministers of the Baltic nations issued a statement saying they received US approval to send Stinger air defence missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to strengthen Kyivs defences.

Estonian defence minister Kalle Laanet said: Today, Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia.

Lets face it  the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor.

The Pentagon said the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will participate in a Nato maritime exercise in the Mediterranean, which will continue through until February 4  something that had been planned since 2020, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

Mr Blinken said there was no negotiating room on Russias demands (AP)

He said officials considered whether to carry on with the exercise because of the ongoing tensions, and decided to move ahead.

Mr Kirby said the exercise was not planned anticipating a Russian move on Ukraine and is not designed against any of the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine.

On Thursday, Russia announced sweeping naval manoeuvres through February, some apparently in the Black Sea.

The US and its allies scrambled to present a united front. Washington and its allies have repeatedly promised consequences such as biting economic sanctions against Russia  though not military action  if it invades.

Mr Blinken backed up that stance on Friday, saying the US and its allies are committed to diplomacy but also committed if that proves impossible, and Russia decides to pursue aggression against Ukraine, to a united, swift and severe response.
Burma Junta Watch: Regime Leader Repeats His Predecessors Palm Oil Folly, and More

Naypyitaw Commander Maj-Gen Zaw Hein (right) receives money donated by Natsin Taya Sayadaw for the military to use in its efforts to protect the Burmese race and Buddhism on Jan. 19. / Cncds

Min Aung Hlaing inherits Than Shwes dream

Former Myanmar military dictator Than Shwe once dreamed of turning Tanintharyi into the oil pot of Myanmar in an attempt to ensure domestic edible oil sufficiency.

Consequently, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land were put under oil palm cultivation in Tanintharyi under his guidance. Thanks to a resulting increase in consumption of the saturated fat-rich oil produced from oil palms, many Myanmar people have developed heart problems and suffered strokes, while valuable forests and vacant land were wasted on the project.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing called for continued efforts to realize his predecessors dream as he visited an oil palm cultivation project last Saturday in Tanintharyis Bokepyin.

Perhaps he wants to revive the project as an ego trip. But obviously his immediate goal in increasing domestic oil production is simply to create some breathing space, however small, for his cash-strapped regime by spending fewer US dollars on imports.

A crow who thinks herself a peacock

Daw Thet Thet Khaing, the junta-appointed social welfare minister, attracted lots of scorn and sneering on social media earlier this week when she appeared in Kachin State clad in traditional Kachin dress.

As a former outspoken parliamentarian from the National League for Democracy, whose government the military ousted last February, Daw Thet Thet Khaing is one of the most controversial figures in the regime and has frequently come under fire since she accepted the ministerial position.

This time, people are accusing her of copying detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who also dressed in Kachin traditional dress during her visits to the northern Myanmar state. Netizens posted photos of the two, showing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi looking decorous and elegant in her Kachin dress, juxtaposed with Daw Thet Thet Khaing looking visibly awkward and sloppy in the same outfit and a black facial mask.

Daw Thet Thet Khaing left the NLD in 2019 following a row with the party leadership. She then established the Peoples Pioneer Party in the same year and dedicated herself to finding fault with her former party. She has since sided with Myanmars military and was rewarded with the Social Welfare portfolio after the February coup last year.

Explosions took place at a construction site and jewelry shop run by her family soon after she became a minister in the military regime. On Jan. 4, Myanmars Independence Day, her husband was awarded an honorary title by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing.

High-profile monk receives donations from killers

Sitagu Sayadaw, one of the favorite monks of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, received donations from the commander of the Myanmar militarys Southern Command at his Buddhist missionary university in Taungoo on Monday.

Once highly venerated by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, the monk, who is also known as Ashin Nyanissara, has fallen into disgrace in the eyes of his former followers since the February coup due to his ties with the coup leader.

While many young Buddhist monks were taking to the streets nearly every day in response to the coup in February last year, Sitagu Sayadaw never failed to receive Min Aung Hlaing and his wife at his monastery at Sagaing Hill. When Min Aung Hlaing took blessings from Myanmars senior monks for his construction of the worlds largest Buddha statue in Naypyitaw last March, Sitagu Sayadaw was there. By the time the monk gave his blessings to Min Aung Hlaing in late March, five dozen protesters had already been killed by the junta since February.

The monk accompanied the juntas No. 2 man Vice Senior Soe Win as he traveled to Russia last September to supervise the construction of a pagoda in Moscow. He stayed for four months at the Myanma Theravada Buddha Vihara Monastery in Moscow, to which Min Aung Hlaing and his wife, among others, are donors.

He reportedly returned to Myanmar in December. His first public appearance since then was in an online Dhamma talk organized by the junta to mark the New Year, and the second was when he received donations from a military commander this week.

The 85-year-old monk also has close ties to U Kovida, Min Aung Hlaings astrological adviser, and Ashin Chekinda, who also has a close relationship with the coup leader.

USDP-linked monk funds junta

Natsin Taya Sayadaw and his disciples donated 30 million kyats (about US$16,840) to Myanmars military on Wednesday to use in its works to protect the Burmese race and Buddhism.

The donation was accepted by the commander of Naypyitaw Command in Myanmars capital.

A spiritual adviser to the militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leadership, the Buddhist monk from Yangons Thanlyin Township is a member of the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, a nationalist group better known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha.

When Natsin Taya Sayadaw donated free food during the campaign period ahead of the 2015 general election in Ayeyarwady Regions Myaungmya together with then ministers of the USDP government, a group of men distributed pamphlets bearing the Ma Ba Tha logo claiming that the country and Buddhism would be at risk if voters chose Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD.

The USDP denied distributing such pamphlets at the event, but then-Immigration Minister U Khin Yi (who also holds the same post in the current regime) and then-Sports Minister U Tint Hsan, who would contest the poll from Myaungmya, were in attendance along with USDP vice chair U Htay Oo.

Ma Ba Tha successfully lobbied former president U Thein Sein to approve a controversial set of four laws on race and religion that imposed restrictions on interfaith marriage, birth spacing, polygamy and conversion, believed to be targeted at Muslims. The laws were approved in 2015.

Former Ma Ba Tha chair Ashin Tilawkar Biwonsa, who has a close relationship with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, is Natsin Taya Sayadaws mentor.



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Myanmar Junta Lays Landmines Around Chinese-Backed Pipelines

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Myanmar Junta Reports 118 Omicron Cases
Burma Myanmar Junta Sentences Lawmaker From Suu Kyis Party to Death

Ex-NLD lawmaker U Phyo Zeyar Thaw

A Myanmar military tribunal sentenced a member of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis ousted party to death for terror offenses on Friday, the junta said, ramping up a crackdown on the toppled leaders party.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,400 killed in a subsequent crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

Junta opponentsincluding allies of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD)have gone into hiding across the country, and Peoples Defence Force groups have sprung up across the country to take on the military.

U Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a member of the NLD arrested in November, was sentenced to death for offenses under the counterterrorism act, the junta statement said.

Prominent democracy activist Ko Kyaw Min Yubetter known as Ko Jimmyreceived the same sentence from the military tribunal, the statement added, carrying pictures of both men.

Their sentences were also read out on state medias nightly news.

The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent, but Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.

Tip-off

U Phyo Zeyar Thawwhose real name is Maung Kyawwas arrested at an apartment in the commercial hub Yangon following a tip-off and cooperation from dutiful citizens, according to the junta.

The former lawmaker was in possession of two pistols, ammunition and an M-16 rifle, it said at the time.

He had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a shooting on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.

A hip-hop pioneer in Myanmar whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organization and possession of foreign currency.

He was elected to parliament from Daw Aung San Suu Kyis NLD in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule.

Ko Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmars 1988 student uprising, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.

Part of the so-called 88 Generation movement that challenged Myanmars previous military government, the junta issued an arrest warrant for him last year, alleging he had incited unrest with his social media posts.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is facing a raft of criminal and corruption charges, including violating the countrys official secrets laws, and if convicted of all of them could face sentences tallying more than 100 years in prison.

She has already been sentenced to six years for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, flouting COVID rules and incitement against the military.

Before the coup, she was on the cusp of beginning another five-year term as the countrys de facto leader after the NLD won a landslide in the November 2020 polls.

Since the coup, many of her political allies have been arrested, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail.

You may also like these stories:



Myanmar Junta Lays Landmines Around Chinese-Backed Pipelines

Myanmars Army of Overseas Workers Join Fight Against Junta

Myanmar Junta Reports 118 Omicron Cases
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Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for Kat? Send an email to kjeanne@enidnews.com
Ithaca, NY (14850)

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...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Spalding, northeastern Pike, southwestern Butts and northern Lamar Counties through 500 AM EDT... At 433 AM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was over Orchard Hill, or near Griffin, moving east at 15 mph. HAZARD...Up to 40 mph wind, frequent cloud to ground lightning and heavy rain. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Expect minor damage to tree limbs and blowing around of light, unsecured objects. Heavy rain may cause temporary street flooding especially in poor drainage areas. Locations impacted include... Griffin, Milner, Orchard Hill, East Griffin, Liberty Hill, Goggins, Johnstonville and Chappel Mill. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... People outdoors should seek shelter immediately. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Motorists should slow down and be prepared for possible loss of control due to hydroplaning. && MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN; MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH
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Joplin, MO (64801)

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Scattered thunderstorms this morning, overcast during the afternoon with occasional rain likely. High around 60F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

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State Reporter

Eric covers state government and does special projects. Eric joined the JI in June 2014. He graduated from CCSU, and his hobbies include speaking truth to power and exposing hypocrisy. He is a fan of the New York Giants and Metallica.
Opinion Columnist

Chris Powell has worked for the Journal Inquirer since 1967, first as a reporter, then as an editor, and now as a columnist. He was managing editor from 1974 until retiring from that position in 2018.
Today

Rain early. A mix of sun and clouds by afternoon. High 83F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

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In "Bad and Crazy" episode 10, Ryu Soo Yeol (Lee Dong Wook) got stabbed during their mission which also gave him the opportunity to remember his past memories. K (Wi Ha Joon), on the other hand, also recalls himself killing someone.

'Bad and Crazy' Episode 10: K Decides to TDisappear in Ryu Soo Yeol's Life

K has a dilemma to know if he really killed someone in the past, for the first thing that comes to his memories was he was covered with blood and had a knife on his hand. Since he was bothered by his memories, K decided to disappear from Ryu Soo Yeol's life.

Days after Soo Yeol got discharged from the hospital due to the stab wound he got from their mission, he felt empty, for K is not anymore with him. There are things that remind him of K, which drives Ryu Soo Yeol crazy, and want to admit that he misses his partner in crime.

The police officer went to visit his psychiatrist Yum Geun Soo (Choi Kwang Je) and discussed what happened between him, and K. Geun Soo has assumptions that K might not really have killed someone, and what he just did was a defense to save Soo Yeol from death.

Yum Geum Soo and Ryu Soo Yeol also have the same conclusion that Shin Joo Hyuk (Jung Sung Il) might be gaslighting the police officer in order for him not to trust himself.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Bad and Crazy' Episode 9: Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Joon Entangled in a Mysterious Situation From Their Past

Ryu Soo Yeol Tries to Save Shim Jung Hoon From Misery

Soo Yeol sees his past experiences from Shim Jung Hoon (Park Min Sang) current situation, who is trapped in a mysterious game and being chased by a murderer. The gist is in order to save his friend Baek Young Joo (Park Seo Yeon), Jung Hoon needs to kill Park Sung Gwan (Yang Dae Hyeok) in exchange for life.

The police officer finally found Shim Jung Hoon after a long chase. He promised to save him and Baek Young Joo against the culprit manipulating their minds due to a mysterious game. Saving the two young individuals is the only way for Ryu Soo Yeol to help them have a better future for themselves.

Shin Joo Hyuk is the Mastermind Behind the Mysterious Game

After Soo Yeol and his team saved Jung Hoon from beating Park Sung Gwan, the police officer tried to look for the mysterious guy, Jeong Yun Ho, who is said to be the culprit behind the dangerous game that almost killed Shim Jung Hoon and Baek Young Joo.

Ryu Soo Yeol went to Shin Joo Hyuk, a psychiatrist in the Dream Youth Shelter, and admitted that he has a split personality. He was not surprised about Joo Hyuk's reaction as he already knew his current health status. The police officer asked Joo Hyuk to treat his condition, which the psychiatrist promised to do. Little did he know, Ryu Soo Yeol and K already confirmed that Shin Joo Hyuk is Jeong Yun Ho after Jung Hoon confessed all the manipulation they got from the evil psychiatrist.

This will be the start of K and Ryu Soo Yeol's epic battle against their childhood friend Jeong Yun Ho, who hid his real identity and used Shin Joo Hyuk as his new name.

Have you watched "Bad and Crazy" episode 10? What can you say about it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Written by Shai Collins.
As one of the successful idol-actors today, Cha Eun Woo is commended not just for his acting and singing. He also receives praises for his fit physique.

Read on to know Cha Eun Woo's fitness secret.

Cha Eun Woo Workout Routine 2022: Things to Consider to Have a Healthy and Fit Body

ASTRO member and actor Cha Eun Woo has a strong and slim shape, but still has a more slender back.

During his rookie days, Cha Eun Woo struggled to do some heavy physical activities. Thanks to his perseverance, the actor begand to have a more healthy and balanced lifestyle.

He improved a lot and is still in the process of being at his best.

The "Hit the Top" star soon enough led an active lifestyle, and his hard work paid off.

Now that he is about to make his return in dramas, Cha Eun Woo needs preparations for his comeback. Above all, his physical strength is much more needed.

Others say that the ASTRO member goes to gym because he quickly gained muscles. Here's the routine Cha Eun Woo follows to maintain his figure.

Cha Eun Woo's Primary Source of Maintaining a Tone Body - Dancing

For those who want to achieve Cha Eun Woo's fit figure, you can start by doing fewer cardio exercises, like dancing, running, or biking. For the "True Beauty" actor, dancing is the easiest thing for it is part of his profession as an idol. He regularly does dance practices with his members, and by doing so, he already conditioned his body and saw the results after weeks or months.

You can also do a circuit routine in the free body exercise to tone your muscles and work on your cardiovascular. Doing it for 20 to 30 minutes is already considered a full-body workout.

Cha Eun Woo also does push ups, planks, crunches, squats, leg raises, lunges, and even weight-lifting to further enhance his body strength. Everything is possible once you have the discipline to follow the routine you set for yourself.

Despite his busy schedule, the "My ID is Gangnam Beauty" star makes sure to allot time in working out.

Meanwhile, 2022 will be a busy year for Cha Eun Woo as he is already booked with new projects. His first action-adventure film "Decibel," alongside Lee Jong Suk and Kim Rae Won, is expected to premiere in the first half of 2022.

Cha Eun Woo is also gearing for a new drama, titled "Island."

This coming January 29, the Korean heartthrob will meet his Filipino fans in an exclusive virtual event.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'True Beauty' Star Cha Eun Woo to Hold an Exclusive Virtual Event for His Filipino Fans

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Shai Collins wrote this.

Kdramastars owns this article.
A gunman killed 5 people and wounded others in a shooting spree across the Denver area, police say
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There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort, says James Austen. So, instead of traveling and waiting for hours by standing in a queue, what if health care is provided to you at home? Thats why home hospital care (HHC) is a viable solution for physicians and patients. HHC is an innovative, technologically advanced, and effective care model in which certain patients receive hospital-level care at their homes compared to traditional hospitalization. HHC is an effective model regarding patient care experience, population health outcomes, and treatment cost.

The benefits of home hospital care

HHC provides treatment and care facilities to patients selected for the program through an eligibility criterion. These programs offer certain facilities that different patients require, including intravenous medications, respiratory therapies, blood tests, remote monitoring of heart rate, temperature, and respiratory rate. All these can be monitored virtually in a patients home.

Its cost-effective

The Johns Hopkins Model of Home Hospital Care has shown that the cost of treatment in this model is 32 percent less than traditional hospitalizations ($5,081 vs. $7,480). Moreover, the mean length of stay was also shorter, about one-third of the hospital stay, and lesser possibilities of delirium. More than a quarter of the US retired citizens suggest that health care expenses have hurt their retirement.

Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an immense crisis in hospitals worldwide. This is on top of the growing population of baby boomers, increasing the demand for hospital facilities. The simplest and effective solution in such crises is to utilize the HHC model without spending a significant amount on constructing new infrastructure for patients. In such a dilemma, HHC can decrease the burden on hospitals as well as limit the extra shifts that physicians, nurses, and health care staff may have to take.

Increased patient satisfaction

HHC has a considerable impact on patient satisfaction because there is no pressure of any kind. The patient can be surrounded by their loved ones, including family and friends, and be treated at the same time without getting admitted to the hospital. At Presbyterian Healthcare Services, patient satisfaction at HHC was 90.7 on average, more significant than 83.9 at hospitalized care. Similar feedback has been seen all over the globe.

Patient-centered approach with better quality

HHC is a patient-centered approach in which respectful and responsive care is provided to the patients preferences. Participants in a workshop on health care regarded HHC as around the kitchen table, which means health care decisions and management is carried out right in front of the patients families at their doorstep. Moreover, the quality of care in HHC is comparable to hospitals.

Better wound management without hospital visits

Almost one-third of patients in HHC require wound care and management, of which more than 40 percent of patients suffer from multiple or compound wounds. Recent studies have shown that home hospital nurses can accurately identify and manage wounds efficiently (88 percent). Different means of communication are utilized to improve the efficacy; telemedicine is one of the effective methods to communicate with nurses of health care workers providing home care to the patients. The use of telemedicine has increased healing rate, decreased healing time, and lessened hospitalization of wound patients.

Decreased patient falls and hospital readmissions

Although hospitals have trained staff and health care workers, the number of falls after surgery or an illness is quite common. HHC can help decrease patient falls by allowing the patients family to play their part in patient management.

Hospitals are doubtlessly blessings, but so are our homes. Due to the continuous exponential population growth and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are under an immense crisis, thus, making it difficult to adjust and admit patients suffering from chronic illness.

One significant advantage of HHC is that there is limited psychological stress related to the hospital to the patient, which escalates the recovery process.

Moreover, HHC limits the chances of complications of sedatives, anesthesia, delirium, and restraints compared to a hospital. Hospital administrators, physicians, nurses, and health care workers should consider the HHC model to lessen the overcrowding of hospitals and improve health outcomes overall.

Satya Moolani is a premedical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Remember in Jurassic Park when Ian Malcolm describes Chaos Theory to Ellie Satler, watching a drop of water roll down her hand? It might roll to one side or the other based on any number of differences in the hair on her hand, subcutaneous blood flow, imperfections in her skin, all tiny variations in a complex system, affecting the outcome. The scene came to mind last week when in 24 hours, my teen daughter and I had our worst doctor visit ever, followed by one of the best. Through the lenses of a fellow physician, concerned mother, and patient, I saw two physicians whose development in the complex world of medicine have had very different outcomes. We saw firsthand how moral injury to physicians, described by Drs. Talbot and Dean appears in different guises.

First, we had a follow-up with a late-career pediatric cardiologist in a Big City not for profit health system about her ongoing POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) symptoms. They are life-impacting and scary. She has missed a lot of school, and she recently fell into a wall during another syncopal episode, before getting up and going to school to take a midterm exam to complete her semester on time. Our first visit with this physician was reasonable and informative and ruled out structural and electrophysiologic heart disease.

Last weeks follow-up, in contrast, was horrible. He quickly set an antagonistic tone, interrupting us both at every sentence. He discounted her efforts to follow his recommendations and questioned whether I had read the POTS literature given to us on our last visit. I could not answer without interruption. He implied that I lied about the direction from his staff about the intake paperwork. He insisted that her myriad symptoms, all consistent with POTS in the literature that he gave us, needed to be checked out by other subspecialists. He then pressed me to practice tough love in making my daughter, a nearly straight-A student, tough out bad days, when she is ashen and vomits stomach acid while light-headed, to go to school.

As exasperated as I was, she offered to show him a picture of the hole in the wall and the vomit on the rug from her last syncopal episode. He showed little interest in her story until I reminded him that I am a physician with a good understanding of the physiology and pharmacology he was explaining. He was upset that I had not made that clear earlier. (How could I have with constant interruption?) His demeanor shifted. He seemed chagrined and slightly more open to supporting a waiver for her school policy of needing a physicians note to excuse every absence. We discussed more rationally at this point whether to change her medication regimen, and he agreed to support the waiver. My daughter and I sat in the car, fuming and venting before I could drive away. I repeated my support to help her feel better to achieve her life and school goals. I apologized for his dismissal of her concerns and efforts and assured her that we will never see him again.

The next day, we had her first appointment with our new primary physician, who practices in a direct primary care (DPC) model. This mid-career physician and I met previously, and we discussed her motivations for moving to DPC. Frustration with payor interference, fractionated care, office overhead, and financial pressures to see too many patients all played a role. She now values unhurried, thorough appointments, and close communication with her patients between visits. She finds good lab and test values and the best prescription prices for her clients.

We spent over an hour with her, carefully discussing my daughters health and concerns. She epitomized open-ended interviewing, good listening skills, and recapping plans and concerns. We discussed my daughters and my goals for her health and how to achieve them cost-effectively. She was patient, kind and gained my daughters trust and buy-in to work on the changes she needed to make. Simple, right? We left feeling buoyed to have someone in our corner.

Where does the moral injury come in? Doctor number one, long forged in subspeciality corporate medicine, has numbers to see, procedures to perform and charge, reams of redundant insurance click boxes. He is busy; no time to listen. Patients bring nuisance forms daily. He sees a busy clinic load before rounding at the hospital on another quota to satisfy his corporate overlords. I get it. From an anesthesiologists vantage, I have heard all this from many angles and have felt it myself. But who benefits when the patient leaves angry and dismissed? Is this how he imagined his career would go? I suspect not. He wanted to help children with heart disease  a beautiful goal! Why did his demeanor change when he realized that I am a physician? Did that make my observations of my daughters health and concerns more valid? It should not have.

Our DPC physician has created a truly patient-centered model. She creates a positive, cost-effective health environment, building trust and buy-in with her patients, truly laying the path for improved health. She spends time with her patients without the constraints of excess documentation for regulation and payors or a corporate quota.

These doctors are not drops of water but human beings who brought different backgrounds to their medical careers. Their choices were not random, nor were the forces driving their practices. Physicians cannot lose focus on the important objectives in medicine  improving human life and caring for others in the way they need. Our medical system thwarts us at every turn, with fee-for-service structure, paralyzing insurance and regulatory procedures, and demoralizing production pressure. Too many physicians are at the edge of defeat. Experiencing a success story as a patient was very heartening. Please dont stop fighting for what brought you to medicine.

Sarah G. Bodin is an anesthesiologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
EUGENE, Ore. -- Some patients are returning to the hospital after being discharged because of long wait times at local pharmacies, according to PeaceHealth Oregon's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jim McGovern.

"We have seen a few cases where patients have gone out and been unable to get medications filled and come back to us within a few days," McGovern said.

McGovern said he's aware of a small number of instances when this has happened across the PeaceHealth Oregon network. He said PeaceHealth is expanding its Meds to Beds program, which attempts to get patients medications they will need after they're discharged before they leave the hospital.

"We really feel badly that it's gotten to that point," said Joe Schnabel, the executive director of the Oregon State Board of Pharmacy.

Schnabel is urging people who are struggling to get their medications at one location to look at other options.

"It may be sometimes necessary to call your doctor to see if they can call the prescription into a different pharmacy, try to find a pharmacy that can fill it more quickly," Schnabel said.

That's exactly what Mark Grigsby, a Coos Bay resident, said he did in December. He said he started experiencing delays at the Rite Aid pharmacy in North Bend about six months ago.

"It does affect my health and my ability to get up, run around, play with my grandkids," Grigsby said.

He said he recently switched to Safeway in North Bend and has been more satisfied with the experience there.

"We are seeing the impacts I think of a number of things, one of which is the closure of all of the Bi-Mart pharmacies in Oregon, many of which were in rural communities," Schnabel said.

The owner of Reedsport Pharmacy, Jamaica Standiford, said it's becoming more difficult for pharmacies to stay afloat.

"Reimbursements from insurances are at an all-time low. Drug prices are going up; reimbursements are not. There is a large percentage of prescriptions we fill on a daily basis that are actually at a loss," Standiford said.

Standiford said there are multiple challenges pharmacies are currently facing that are contributing to the long wait times.

"Increased prescription load, under-reimbursement causing pharmacies to shut down, and short staffing, those are the top three points right there," Standiford said.

At Reedsport Pharmacy, staff is working as quickly as they can, according to Standiford.

"Because we're a little store, we know almost everybody that walks in the door, so as we look up and see who's in line if we know we're processing something, we can pull those out of line and get them done before they even get to the register," Standiford said.

Pharmacists around the state are asking people to be patient as the search for solutions to these delays continues.

"Just try to be nice to the staff. We're doing our best to take care of everybody," Standiford said.
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Members of the New York State Park Police and the Niagara Falls Fire Department carry an injured woman from the Niagara River Gorge in Whirlpool State Park on Aug. The ranks of Park Police have thinned since a 2019 order by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the agency be taken over by the New York State Police.
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In a significant recognition to the social welfare schemes launched by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the World Bank has approved a loan of $125 million (nearly Rs 1,000 crore) for inclusive social protection.

Earlier, IANS had indicated that the World Bank intends to finance the state government towards the cost of the "Women's Empowerment and Inclusive Social Protection Programme" and apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. This will help in certain welfare schemes launched by the state government like 'Kanyashree', 'Rupashree', 'Lakshmir Bhandar', 'Swastha Sathi', 'Widow Pension' and 'Old Age Pension'.

On Saturday, in a press statement, the state government announced that the World Bank on January 19 in recognition of these efforts of the state government has sanctioned $125 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) loan to the West Bengal government to support the state's effort to help the poor and vulnerable groups access social protection services. Mamata Banerjee's earnest endeavour to identify the problems of the weaker sections of the society and redress them has paid a huge dividend, the statement read.

The World Bank communique states that West Bengal runs more than 400 programmes which provide social assistance, protection, care services and jobs through an umbrella platform 'Joy Bangla', the state's unified delivery system with focus on vulnerable group such as women, elderly, tribal and scheduled caste, people with disabilities and those in the disaster-prone coastal regions,

The unique 'Duare Sarkar' programme has been able ensure improved and faster identification of beneficiaries, providing service delivery at the doorsteps of the citizens and monitoring benefit delivery will get impetus under this World Bank assisted social protection scheme.

The loan under the "West Bengal Building State Capability for Inclusive Social Protection" operation will strengthen the capability of this state to expand coverage and access to social assistance and targeted service for poor and vulnerable groups of the state, the statement read.

This World Bank assisted programme will help the state in improved ease of access for citizens to avail social protection services, medical help through tele-medicine, improved support for elderly and differently abled; financial Inclusion of citizens with digital payment, improved targeting, identification and disbursement of benefits for the public schemes, efficient execution and monitoring of welfare schemes; standardized beneficiary experience across state for all public and social welfare services and benefits and enhanced efficiency, transparency and accountability in delivery of welfare services and benefits.

Earlier, the World Bank had said that the state government will have to engage an Independent Verification Agency (IVA) that will verify the Disbursement Linked Results and if proven satisfactory, then only the bank will disburse the loan.

According to the state finance department the state government and the Bank have agreed to concentrate Bank financing into two key Result areas that contribute to the achievement of Program Developing Objective (PDO).

The areas include strengthening Social Protection Delivery Systems for Vulnerable Populations empowering Women and Vulnerable Populations.

In order to provide evidence of continued progress towards the PDO as well as achievement of intermediate outcomes, the state government and the Bank have agreed on a set of Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs).

As a part of the understanding with the bank, the state government had to engage an IVA who verified periodically, through paper and physical inspection and field survey wherever applicable to confirm the accuracy and quality of results and eligible disbursement amounts, claimed by the state government in its documentation supporting each disbursement claim. In accordance with good audit practice, the verification will take place against a verification framework and frequency.

"This will be huge boost to the social welfare schemes. In this pandemic situation when the country is suffering from an economic slowdown this will help the state government to carry forward its social welfare schemes more effectively," a senior finance department official said.
Mark Schlissel has been removed from his position following an inappropriate relationship with a university employee.




U.S. President Joe Biden makes remarks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors 90th Winter Meeting in Washington, Jan. 21. Reuters-Yonhap





<table class="tinymce_table" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 0 10px; border-collapse: collapse; width: 100px;" border="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://www.scmp.com/frontpage/international" target="_blank"><img src="https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/SCMP_logo_w100(0).jpg?1" alt=" U.S. President Joe Biden makes remarks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors 90th Winter Meeting in Washington, Jan. 21. Reuters-Yonhap " width="100" height="100" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table> U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Japan this spring for an in-person summit with Quad alliance members, the White House said after Biden spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Friday.







Details on the timing of the meeting of the Quad  a regional security alliance comprised of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India  have yet to be worked out, with arrangements dependent on the spread of COVID-19.







The virtual meeting will feature wide-ranging discussions on the U.S.-Japanese military alliance, tension in the Taiwan Strait and China's growing nuclear arsenal, a senior administration official said.







The two leaders also agreed to a new "2+2" forum aimed at strengthening economic cooperation  especially technology and supply chain issues  between the two nations and across the region.







"The close alignment between the United States and Japan was really on full display  so, very broad discussion on security, on views about the challenges in the Indo Pacific," including "very in-depth discussions" on China, the administration official said.







These included shared concerns about "some of the steps that China had taken across the board in terms of intimidating neighbors, taking steps that were predatory trade in other realms," he added. "Prime Minister Kishida was particularly concerned about the nuclear build-up in China and what that augured for regional security."







Nuclear containment is an issue of particular urgency for Japan  the only nation to suffer nuclear attacks  and for Kishida, who is from Hiroshima.







The U.S. Defence Department estimates that China has some 350 deliverable nuclear warheads, a figure that could double by 2027 and triple by 2030. While these are a fraction of the estimated 6,200 warheads Russia has, and the 5,600 under U.S. control, according to the Federation of American Scientists, Beijing has balked at joining nuclear arms control agreements.







On Thursday, a joint U.S.-Japan statement called on Beijing to reduce nuclear risks, increase transparency and seek further disarmament. On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticized the statement, accusing Washington of clinging to a "Cold War mentality" and Tokyo of hypocrisy for stockpiling weapons-grade plutonium.







"It is nothing but a trick to deflect attention, shift responsibility and conceal their deplorable track record in the nuclear sector," Zhao added.







Friday's 90-minute meeting  beamed into the White House Situation Room, with top security, diplomatic and trade officials on both sides in attendance  saw the two sides resolve to counter China's bid to "change the status quo" in the East and South China seas, maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait and condemn North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches, the White House said.







In response to mounting security challenges, Kishida pledged Friday to boost Japanese military spending, now around $47 billion, by 8 percent.







Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in his official residence in Tokyo talks in a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, shown in the monitor, Jan. 21. AP-Yonhap





On other fronts, the two nations agreed to cooperate on energy security; fighting climate change; easing the semiconductor shortage; building regional infrastructure; and distributing some 1 billion vaccine doses globally in 2022.







This was the second, and more substantive, meeting since Kishida became prime minister in October. Biden and Kishida spoke briefly on the sidelines of the COP26 global summit in Scotland in November.







Friday's meeting unfolded as Japan becomes an increasingly vital partner in U.S. efforts to check China's muscle-flexing.







In a speech Monday at the opening of his nation's parliament, Kishida called the U.S. alliance "the linchpin of Japan's diplomatic and security policies."







While traditionally wary of confronting China, analysts said that Japan has become more increasingly explicit in its support for Washington on issues related to Taiwan and Beijing's expanding political, military and economic footprint  a "pacing challenge" in military circles.







"The administration talks a lot about China as the pacing challenge, and Japan has been the pacing ally," said Zack Cooper, formerly with the Pentagon and now a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute. "Over the past, maybe two years, you've seen Japanese leaders being far more vocal on Taiwan."







"Part of what's happening, many in Japan are noticing, if there was a conflict in the Taiwan Strait and the U.S. was involved, it would be very difficult for Japan to avoid getting involved  not that the U.S. would necessarily force Japan into it, but there's a high likelihood that China would target U.S. bases in Japan."







Washington and Tokyo closely agree on most issues, but there are differences over trade, U.S. military bases and, to a lesser extent, North Korea, analysts said.







Tokyo continues to bridle over 25 percent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Japanese iron and steel exports to the U.S. A senior official said Friday that Biden hopes negotiations over these issues will be "concluded rapidly."







The Japanese public has also grown concerned in recent weeks that the 55,000 U.S. troops based on the archipelago could fuel the spread of Covid-19, particularly on the southern island of Okinawa where three-quarters of them are deployed.







Regarding North Korea, analysts said, many in Washington  already juggling Russia's threat to invade Ukraine, tense nuclear talks with Iran and strained relations with Beijing  view Pyongyang as a secondary risk.







"The administration doesn't think it can make a lot of progress," Cooper said. "It doesn't want to spend a lot of energy on things it can't do much better on."







Japan, close to North Korea and the victim of kidnappings and missiles launched over its main island of Honshu, sees the threat in more existential terms.







More North Korean missile launches could energize a domestic debate in Japan over the deployment of U.S.-supplied Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense systems  a debate Beijing is likely to watch closely.







Kishida called for a more hawkish military posture on his campaign trail, including consideration of a missile strike capability against potential foes.







Japan has also been instrumental in strengthening the Quad, earning Washington's appreciation, with a focus on bolstering ties with India and Australia. India and Japan celebrate their 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year; earlier this month, Tokyo and Canberra signed a deal making it easier to conduct joint military exercises.







"President Biden applauded Japan and Australia's signing of the Reciprocal Access Agreement that will enable closer trilateral defense cooperation," the White House said after the meeting. "The US-Japan Alliance has never been stronger or more necessary."


Principles of State responsibility from a general context, and the various theories appurtenant thereto, which doubtless apply to the subject addressed in this article, have been addressed in some detail elsewhere

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne in Montreal

When in doubt, hold your altitude; nobody ever collided with the sky.

The Issue

On 19 January 2022 AT&T and Verizon started turning on their 5G service around the United States using newly acquired wireless spectrum in what's known as the C-band, thereby sparking a conflict of interest between the providers and the State. 5G is the next generation of wireless service, which is expected to increase network speeds and make them more responsive.

On the one hand the providers were interested in activating the 5G high-speed networks for their customers as the two telecom giants had reportedly spent $67 billion (collectively) on C-Band licenses and had planned to launch new 5G service in early January in many U.S. cities. On the other hand, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)  the United States regulator - warned that signals from telecom towers could interfere with key equipment in airplanes: Because the proposed 5G deployment involves a new combination of power levels, frequencies, proximity to flight operations, and other factors, the FAA will need to impose restrictions on flight operations using certain types of radar altimeter equipment close to antennas in 5G networks.

One media report stated: At issue has been the possibility of interference with aircraft radio altimeters, which operate on the high end of the C-Band frequency. The altimeters measure the distance between a plane and the ground and are crucial for landing in low-visibility conditions like heavy fog, snow and rain and at airports near physical hazards like mountains or bodies of water. A radio altimeter, or radar altimeter, is used to measure the distance from the aircraft to the terrain directly beneath it. It is used primarily during instrument approach and low level or night flight below 2500 feet. The radio altimeter supplies the primary altitude information for landing decision height. It incorporates an adjustable altitude bug that creates a visual or aural warning to the pilot when the aircraft reaches that altitude. Typically, the pilot will abort a landing if the decision height is reached and the runway is not visible.

Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, writing in Forbes says: on December 30, Airlines for America, a trade group representing the airline industry, filed an emergency petition asking regulators to temporarily block the deployment. The petition cited an airworthiness directive issued earlier this month by the FAA, which deemed it unsafe to rely on cockpit safety systems in the presence of 5G transmitters in the C-Band. The agency warned that the 5G rollout would cause major inconveniences for the flying public. These limitations could prevent dispatch of flights to certain locations with low visibility and could also result in flight diversions.

It was reported that there was significant concern on the part of airlines operating into the United States: the signals could disrupt aircraft altimeters used for landing in poor visibility, major international airlines, including Emirates, Japan Airlines and ANA, started canceling flights involving Boeing-made planes to several major US airports. This action would have resulted in more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers being subjected to cancellations, diversions, or delays.

CNN reported that in 2020 the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) had warned: "[A]ny failures or interruptions of [radar altimeters] can ... lead to incidents with catastrophic outcome, potentially resulting in multiple fatalities." The airlines affected claimed that Europe had successfully obviated the problem of interference to aircraft equipment caused by 5G installations and that this approach could have easily been replicated in the United States. AT&T, with Verizon concurring, said: We are frustrated by the FAA's inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it to do so in a timely manner." The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)  responsible for the safety of aviation in 31 European countries - had said : The technical data received from EU manufacturers offers no conclusive evidence for immediate safety concerns at this time. At this time, EASA is not aware of any in-service incidents caused by 5G interference."

The matter stabilized somewhat, when on 20 January FAA approved 78% of the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet to perform low-visibility landings at airports where wireless companies deployed 5G in the C-band. The 13 cleared altimeters are found on a variety of commercial aircraft, including eight Boeing and eight Airbus models, as well as some Embraer 170 and 190 regional jets.

The Responsibility

One has to begin with international treaty. Article 28 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) devolves responsibility on the State to provide inter alia in its territory, airports, radio services, meteorological services, and other air navigation facilities to facilitate international air navigation, as well as to adopt and put into operation the appropriate standard systems of communications procedure, codes, markings, signals, lighting and other operational practices and rules. Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention (Aeronautical Information) provides that each State has to provide an Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) which will ensure that aeronautical data and aeronautical information necessary for the safety, regularity or efficiency of air navigation are made available in a form suitable for the operational requirements of the air traffic management (ATM) community, including: those involved in flight operations, including flight crews, flight planning and flight simulators; and the air traffic services unit responsible for flight information service and the services responsible for pre-flight information.

Annex 10 to the Chicago Convention (Aeronautical Telecommunications) in Volume I, provides an international Standard on the ground and flight testing of radio navigation aids.

The Annex divides aeronautical telecommunication services into four areas: aeronautical fixed service; aeronautical mobile service; aeronautical radio navigation service; and aeronautical broadcasting service . Standard 2.6 of the Annex is on interference and provides that before authorizing tests and experiments in any station, each administration, in order to avoid harmful interference, is required to prescribe the taking of all possible precautions, such as the choice of frequency and of time, and the reduction or, if possible, the suppression of radiation. Any harmful interference resulting from tests and experiments are required to be eliminated as soon as possible. Standard 5.4 of the Annex stipulates that the station addressed by an aircraft being subjected to an act of interference (of whatever nature), or first station acknowledging a call from such aircraft, are obligated to render all possible assistance, including notification of appropriate air traffic services units as well as any other station, agency, or person able to facilitate the flight.

Principles of State responsibility from a general context, and the various theories appurtenant thereto, which doubtless apply to the subject addressed in this article, have been addressed in some detail elsewhere (for instance, in the authors article on exogenous interference with air navigation appearing in Air & Space Law). Article 28 of the Chicago Convention and the two Annexes discussed above) places responsibility squarely on the State to provide air navigation services, including radio and meteorological services. Therefore, safety of air transport must remain the ultimate responsibility of the State concerned and should not be compromised by political or other considerations.
New York 22 Jan, 2022 (SPS)- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Morocco and the Polisario Front to "dialogue" to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara "finally", and "not only maintain an endless process".

Guterres said on Friday, in statements quoted by the United Nations website that the The time has come for the parties to the conflict to understand the need for dialogue and to seek a solution, and not just to maintain an endless process, without hope for a solution.

He also added, "I hope that the political process will develop again," considering that it is a "problem that has been going on for several decades in a region of the world in which we see very serious security problems, where we see terrorism proliferating in the Sahel and increasingly near the coasts." It is in everyone's interest to solve the problem of Western Sahara once and for all."

Guterres' statements come at a time when the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, concluded on Wednesday his first visit to the region since his appointment last October, in light of the Polisario Front's affirmation of its position in favor of a political solution based on a referendum for self-determination.

090/110 TRA
The Northern New England Red Cross is installing smoke detectors this weekend. Do you have a fire evacuation plan for your home? How about when you are traveling?
Sharon Kurtz of Emmaus, Lehigh County, Pa., took home the blue ribbon and a check for $200 with her Apple Pie Jam Bars at the 2022 Pennsylvania Farm Show.
Dear Procastinator, we get it.

Theres a lot going on in your life and Valentines Day on Monday, Feb. 14, seems sooo far away.

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Cupids favorite holiday will be here before you know it and you really cant book a table too soon.

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Sure, its true that SoFlo is a foodie paradise with loads of dining options, but it is also true that the warm subtropics is a chill destination for people around the world. In other words, its not just locals competing for that reservation.

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Heres a little corazon hack: If you cant get the booking you want, keep trying. Many of the restaurants say that cancellations are common, especially with Valentines Day falling on a work day.

So, check out our curated list of restaurants, lounges and bars where wed like to go wine and dine with the ones we love.

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And keep in mind that the prices given do not include taxes and gratuities.

Also, come back to this post for updates.

Amar Mediterranean Bistro

522 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. 561-865-5653. AmarDelray.com.

Amour at Amar will be celebrated 5-10 p.m. with a four-course tasting menu including hot and cold shareable mezze, one entree per person and a shared dessert for $130 per couple. You can add wine pairings for an additional $65 per couple.

[ RELATED: Amar Bakery & Bistro expands Kurban familys reach from Delray Beach into Boynton Beach. ]

The Ben, Autograph Collection in downtown West Palm Beach will have a Valentines Day special of one-dozen oysters and a bottle of Pommery Apanage Champagne at the rooftop lounge Spruzzo. Also at Proper Grit, the hotel's signature restaurant, there will be an aphrodisiac-infused four-course menu. (Palm Beach Influence / Courtesy)

The Ben Hotels Proper Grit and Spruzzo

251 N. Narcissus Ave., West Palm Beach. TheBenWestPalm.com.

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West Palm Beachs waterfront hotel will have a prix fixe menu at its signature restaurant, Proper Grit, as well as a Valentines Day offering at its rooftop lounge, Spruzzo.

At Proper Grit there will an aphrodisiac-infused four-course menu for $150 per couple. The menu, which is only on Valentines Day, will include:

First course choices of either grilled oysters or scallop crudo.

Second course options are roasted beets with aerated lemon-scented goat cheese or a Caprese salad with truffled burrata.

Third course selections include a petite filet or crab-stuffed prawns.

The fourth course has desserts of either a flourless chocolate cake with red berries or a pistachio panna cotta with candied orange dust.

Each guest gets a free glass of rose per and a palate-cleansing sorbet intermezzo following the second course.

At Spruzzo you can order one dozen oysters and a bottle of Pommery Apanage Champagne for $99. The regular Spruzzo menu will also be available.

[ RELATED: The Ben hotel in downtown West Palm Beach. ]

Botanic at the Kimpton Goodland Hotel Fort Lauderdale

2900 Riomar St., Fort Lauderdale. 954-908-7308. BotanicFL.com.

This restaurant just a few blocks off Fort Lauderdale beach will serve a prix fixe dinner for $74 per person 5-10:30 p.m. (along with the regular menu).

The special Valentines dinner includes a blood orange spinach salad, a surf and turf for two (filet mignon, lobster tail, pommes puree and salsa verde) and a panna cotta for dessert.

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You can add Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label for an additional $30 a glass or $125 a bottle as well as Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve for $60 (for a 375 milliliters or roughly 12.68 ounces).

[ RELATED: Botanic restaurant opens in refurbished Goodland Hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach ]

Brule Bistro and Roses Daughter

Brule Bistro is at 200 NE 2nd Ave., Delray Beach. 561-274-2045. BruleBistro.com.

Roses Daughter is at 169 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 561-271-9423. RosesDaughterDelray.com.

Sister restaurants Brule Bistro and Roses Daughter will celebrate Valentines Day on Friday, Feb 11 and Saturday, Feb. 12 (both are closed on Mondays). In addition to the a la carte menu, the special menu at both eateriesis $175 per person and includes a bottle of wine from the featured menu as well as:

Florida lobster bisque and porcini cappuccino

Bronzini crudo with avocado, pickled salad, Tuscan olive oil and smoked sea salt

Bone-in prime cowboy steak with brand peppercorn sauce, spinach souffle, rock shrimp, foie gras mac & cheese and crushed fingerlings

A chocolate tasting of flourless chocolate cake, chocolate gelato, white chocolate mousse and chocolate macaroons

Carne Argentine Steakhouse

3249 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. 561-717-6163. CarneHouse.com.

This relative newcomer to the Boca Raton cuisine scene will offer one free appetizer for each couple on Valentines Day.

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[ RELATED: Boca Ratons La Rural Argentine Steakhouse is now Carne Argentine Steakhouse ]

The Love Potion cocktail at City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill in West Palm Beach. (City Cellar / Courtesy)

City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill

700 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Bech. 561-366-0071. CityCellarWPB.com.

For dinner on Feb. 14, the hours are 5-10 p.m. (late night pizza hours are 10:30 p.m.-midnight). Executive chef Rolando Anocetos Valentines Day menu includes an appetizer of yellowfin tuna crudo for $18, an entree of grilled 14 ounce dry-aged veal porterhouse for $52 and a dessert of Rose tres leches cake for $10.

There is also a special Love Potion cocktail of Absolut Citron Vodka, St Germain Elderflower Liqueur, aperol, simple syrup, lemon and rose petals garnish for $13.

City Oyster

213 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. 561-272-0220. CityOysterDelray.com.

Chef Jordan Stilley will offer New Zealand lamb chops (three per order) with housemade chimichurri sauce, a Maine lobster tail, grilled asparagus, whipped mashed potatoes and herb butter, all for $65 per order. There will also be a slice of chocolate raspberry cake for $13.

Corvina Seafood Grill

110 Plaza Real South (at Palmetto Place), Boca Raton. 561-206-0066. CorvinaBocaRaton.com.

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The new eatery tucked between Royal Palm Place and Mizner Park will have a three-course table dhote style menu for Valentines Day dinner ranging from $70 to $95 (depending on the main course). Guests will get a glass of sparkling wine, an amuse-bouche of a heart-shaped sushi roll as well as a choice of entree and dessert.

[ RELATED: Corvina Seafood Grill brings Washington D.C. culinary team to Boca Raton ]

Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar

800 E. Las Olas Blvd., in Fort Lauderdale. 954-314-6500. CubaLibreRestaurant.com/en/fortlauderdale.

The theme for Cuba Libres Valentines Day celebration is Blinded by Love and will run from Friday, Feb. 11 to Monday, Feb. 14. The dinner specials come with a black satin eye mask and chocolate truffles, while supplies last.

The specials include:

Paella negra with head-on prawns, Spanish chorizo, squid tentacles and squid ink-bomba rice with lemon-garlic mayonesa and Dominican chili relish for $30.

Costillitas de Cordero al Carbon (charcoal roasted-pistachio crusted lamb chops) with a side of sweet plantain fufu and salsa criolla for $32)

There will also be a sweet drink special of Island Rose martini with a mix of Garzon Rose Pinot Noir wine, Brinley Shipwreck Vanilla Rum, St. Germain liqueur, lime juice and edible rose petals for $12.

The featured dessert special will be a fallen chocolate souffle tart with dulce de leche, chocolate ice cream, chocolate-orange sauce and blueberry compote for $9.

Death Or Glory Bar in downtown Delray Beach. (Death or Glory Bar / Courtesy)

Death or Glory Bar

116 NE Sixth Ave., Delray Beach. 561-808-8814. DeathOrGloryBar.com.

This popular gastropub will have a Death to Valentines Day Emo Night 4 p.m.-midnight with the bartenders playing their personal favorite emo, punk and grunge music. There will also be Cupid Shots for $3 and Black Heart drinks (Don Q Gold rum, cold brew coffee, coffee liqueur, Giffard Banane de Bresil, Batavia Arrack and coconut) for $10.

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Dune by Lauren Tourondel

2200 N. Ocean Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. 754-900-4059. DuneByLT.com.

This restaurant at the Auberge Beach Residences and Spa will have a prixe fixe Valentines Day dinner for $130 per person that will start with a glass of sparkling rose, gluten-free gougere and roasted beets pani puri.

Then you can choose a three-course menu with options such as the lobster salad, a Valentine maki roll with 24k gold, Wagyu beef carpaccio, roasted black Angus filet, seared Chilean sea bass and seafood ravioli.

Dessert will be a milk chocolate peanut butter croquant as well as take-home Valentine petit fours.

[ RELATED: Chef Laurent Tourondel dishes about his Dune on Fort Lauderdale beach ]

Hooters of Boca Raton

2240 NW 19 Street, Suite 1101-A in Boca Raton. HootersFlorida.com.

This Hooters is hosting a pet adoption happy hour on Monday, Feb. 14 from 5-8 p.m. with furry friends from the Tri County Animal Rescue. This Valentines Day we hope you find a rescue friend who will always love you forever, says Suzi Goldsmith, the animal shelters co-founder and executive director.

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Kapow Noodle Bar's "Happy Endings Box" for Valentine's Day. (Kapow Noodle Bar / Courtesy)

Kapow Noodle Bar

431 Plaza Real, Boca Raton (in Mizner Park). 561-347-7322. KapowNoodleBar.com/product/happy-endings-giftbox.

519 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. 561-246-3827

Kapow will have a Happy Endings Box for $45 filled with Thai doughnuts, two prosecco splits, two champagne glasses, chocolate-dipped fortune cookies and a box of bonbons from 5150 Chocolate.

Daisy Deadpetals, one of the entertainers at Lips in Oakland Park. (Daisy Deadpetals / Courtesy)

Lips Fort Lauderdale

1421 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park. 954-567-0987. FlaDragShow.com.

This supper club formerly titled Lips Drag Queen Show Palace, Restaurant & Bar will have a three-course prix fixe dinner for $40 per person along with the female impersonator show. Seating starts at 7 p.m.

Along with a free glass of champagne, the menu options include:

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Starters: choose either shrimp cocktail, mushroom ravioli or a Lips salad.

Entrees: choose either lobster ravioli, stuffed chicken breast, panko herb crusted grilled salmon, baby back ribs, chicken penne a la vodka or a grilled portobello mushroom.

Dessert: a triple layer chocolate mousse cake.

[ RELATED: Behind the scenes with the ladies of Lips as Fort Lauderdales drag queen palace reopens ]

The Sensual Sushi Platter for Two at Lola 41 in Palm Beach. (Ovi Mustea / Courtesy)

Lola 41 Palm Beach

290 Sunset Ave., Palm Beach. 561-599-5652. Lola41.com.

This bistro and sushi bar will have a Sensual Sushi Platter for Two for $75, which will include three pieces each of toro nigiri and toro sashimi as well as toro tartare topped with Osetra caviar. You can also order The Aphrodite Cocktail with Anejo tequila, lemon, honey, passion fruit, strawberry puree, a Thai chili and served in a citrus chili rimmed rocks glass for $21.

The Melting Pot in Boca Raton.

5455 N. Federal Highway, suite A, Boca Raton. 561-997-7472, MeltingPot.com/boca-raton-fl.

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At the fondue-centric Melting Pot you get a curtained booth, one dozen roses and a souvenir framed photo as well as a four-course combination dinner for two for $225 per couple Friday, Feb. 11, to Monday, Feb. 14. Without the roses, the price is $175 per couple. The dinner menu includes cold-water lobster tail, filet mignon, teriyaki sirloin, white shrimp, salmon and herb chicken.

Meso Beach House will have a Valentine's Day special menu curated by chef Sean Olnowich, a James Beard Foundation honoree. (Meso Beach House / Courtesy)

Meso Beach House

900 E Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. 561-562-6416. MesoRestaurants.com/meso-beach-house.

This new restaurant in Delray Beach will offer a candle-lit, five-course prix fixe menu for $115 per person.

The Mediterranean-inspired dishes curated by chef Sean Olnowich  a James Beard Foundation honoree  will include seared scallops, prime short rib and lobster as well as tagliatelle.

You can also have a five-course wine pairing, including unique and small batch wines, for an additional $55.

[ RELATED: Meso Beach House, New York Mediterranean restaurant, coming to Delray Beachs Atlantic Avenue ]

The Modern Rose

331 SE 15th Terrace, Deerfield Beach. 954-405-8448. TheModernRose.com.

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33 SE Third Ave., Delray Beach. (in the Delray Beach Market food hall). 561-668-3784.

Throughout February both locations of this coffee/tea/food cafe will have pheromone-infused and aphrodisiac-themed specials drinks including:

Aphroditea  For her, a tea latte blend called Flow, which is a shatavari tea sweetened with strawberry puree with almond foam, whipped cream and Bada Bing cherries for $6.50

Perform Tea  For him, a mens performance boosting fermented black tea, goji berries, oat straw, fennel and ashwagandha for $5

Mi Amoreo Latte  Vanilla latte with red infused milk, chocolate drizzle and crumbled Oreos for $6.50

Also, at the Deerfield Beach location, there will be culinary specials, including:

Mon Amour Nutella-Stuffed French Toast - Nutella-filled brioche French toast with strawberries, chocolate condensed milk, whipped cream, powdered sugar and maple syrup.

The Shape Of My Heart Wich  White meat chicken avocado salad sandwich, heart-shaped tomato garnish, balsamic glaze, crushed red pepper, truffle olive oil and spring mix.

Cinnamon Bun Waffle Platter  With shipped cream, fruit and organic maple syrup for $11.

[ RELATED: Delray Beach Market opens as the largest food hall in Florida. ]

Reality TV star, Memphis Garrett inside his restaurant, No Man's Land "cocktail parlor" in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, October 29, 2021. (Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

No Mans Land

666 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale (in Victoria Park Shoppes). NoMansLandFTL.com, Instagram.com/nomanslandftl or GarrettHospitalityGroup.com.

Memphis Garrett, a reality TV star from season 10 of Big Brother in 2008 and Big Brother: All-Stars in 2020, opened this craft cocktail lounge in Fort Lauderdale this past winter. For its first Valentines Day celebration No Mans Land will have an aphrodisiac offer of a dozen oysters and a bottle of Champagne for $100. For reservations, email Adam@garretthg.com.

[ RELATED: "Big Brother" reality TV star Memphis Garrett adds Fort Lauderdale cocktail parlor to his eats empire ]

Pizza Craft Pizzeria

330 Himmarshee St., Fort Lauderdake. 954-616-8028. PizzaCraftPizzeria.com.

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This Himmarshee district eatery will have a three-course dinner for two for $99 per couple with a spotlight on truffles from Truffleist from Friday, Feb.11, through Monday, Feb.14. You can also add a wine or cocktail pairing for an additional $25 per person.

The first course will offer you a selection between truffle burrata or fiocchi with black truffle cream.

The main course will have a choice of truffle mushroom pizza, truffle honey-glazed salmon or homemade ravioli with black truffle and porcini mushroom.

Dessert will be a vanilla truffle honey creme brulee.

Planta in West Palm Beach's The Square will have a 100% plant-based prix fixe menu by executive chef and co-owner David Lee. (Planta / Courtesy)

Planta

700 S Rosemary Ave Suite 142, West Palm Beach. 561-208-5222. PlantaRestaurants.com.

Located in The Square (formerly Rosemary Square), this eatery will have a vegan Valentine for diners with a prix fixe menu for $75 per person. Chef David Lees dinner will feature vegetable, fruit and nut-based dishes as well as favorites such as crispy rice, coconut ceviche, pizzas and their signature bang-bang broccoli.

Pollo Tropical

140 locations in Florida. PolloTropical.com.

On Monday, Feb. 14 all Florida locations of this fast food chain will have a 2 for $14 on 2/14 special where you can get two half-chicken platters for $14. Each order comes with two side dishes and an order of shareable sweet plantains.

If you order online or use the MyPollo app, at checkout enter the promo code CVALEN2CK.

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Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

5550 NW 40th St., Coconut Creek (the corner of U.S. 441 (State Road 7 and Sample Road). 954-977-6700. CasinoCoco.com.

The restaurants at this casino will have special Valentines Day menus and entertainment.

NYY Steak will offer a dinner special on Saturday, Feb. 12 and Monday, Feb. 14 from 5-11 p.m. The dishes will include:

Appetizer choice of Manhattan seafood chowder for $18 or baby beet & goat cheese salad for $16

Entree options of Japanese Wagyu filet mignon for $24 an ounce, surf & turf for two for $214 or Mediterranean prawns for $95.

Dessert will be a sweet goodbye mirror glazed chocolate cake with strawberry mousse for $19

Also, Jam Band Duo will perform at the Legends Lounge on Monday, Feb. 14 from 6-10 p.m. during the NYY Steaks Valentines Day dinner service.

The 1st Street Deli will have a three-course special on Monday, Feb. 14 from 11 a.m.-midnight for $40 per person. The menu will include:

Roasted tomato bisque or strawberry salad for the first course

A choice of petite sirloin and lobster cake or bourbon pecan chicken (both with Yukon gold whipped potatoes) for a main course

Molten lava cake for dessert.

Warren

Warren is at 15084 Lyons Road, Delray Beach. 561-455-4177. WarrenDelray.com.

This restaurant from the Damn Good Hospitality group (Revolution Live, Stache Drinking Den, Backyard, Green Bar & Kitchen) will have two drink specials and an a la carte menu on Valentines Day.

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The cocktail specials will both be $14 each and include:

A Strawberry Kiss for the ladies with muddled strawberries, Wheatley Vodka, house-made simple syrup, and citrus

A Cupids Arrow for the gentlemen with Bulldog Gin, house infused strawberry Campari and Cocchini Sweet Vermouth.

The a la carte menu will include:

Deviled egg with sundried tomato hummus, pickled shallots, chives and sumac for $9.

Scallop-yellowtail ceviche with avocado crema, tomato, caviar and plantain crisps for $16

40-ounce tomahawk steak for two with roasted mashed potato, asparagus and house steak sauce for $165

Pan-roasted Chilian seabass with julienned vegetable medley, rainbow chard and saffron beurre blanc for $48

Surf & Turf with 8-ounce filet mignon and a half Maine lobster with roasted potato hash, sauteed spinach, port wine demi and truffle butter for $70

Strawberry shortcake with white chocolate crumble and vanilla bean whipped cream for $10

[ RELATED: Warren is whiskey bent and Delray Beach bound ]

Hooters of Boca Raton is hosting a pet adoption Happy Hour on Monday, Feb. 14th from 5-8 p.m. Tri County Animal Rescue will have dogs available for adoption on the restaurants patio. (South Florida Hooters / Courtesy)

Dune by Laurent Tourondel's milk chocolate peanut butter croquant. (Dune by Laurent Tourondel / Courtesy)
Estimated breeding values are a numerical estimate of the genetic merit of an animal. EBVs are the most accurate way to compare sheep and goats, especially those from different flocks or herds. EBVs are science-based and industry proven.
Dehradun, Jan 22 (PTI) Denial of tickets has left powerful contenders in the BJP seething with discontent with several of them either preparing to cross over to other parties or enter the poll arena as independents.

While a number of those left out are sulking as the party has preferred Congress defectors over dedicated party cadres on many seats in its first list of 59 candidates, a few have come out in the open with their wounded feelings.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: Anurag Thakur, Yogi Adityanath Launch Election Song Phir Se BJP (Watch Video).

The most notable of them are the sitting MLA from Tharali Munni Devi Shah and Dwarahat MLA Mahesh Negi.

"The central party leadership must explain why it has denied a ticket to me. I have done considerable development work in my constituency besides taking the achievements of the central and state governments to the people," Shah said.

Also Read | Major Fire Breaks Out in Mumbais 20-Storey Kamala Building Near Bhatia Hospital in Tardeo, Two Injured.

She said she would not be as hurt if the party had fielded a dedicated party worker from the seat but it preferred someone from Congress background. "It has broken the morale of party workers," Shah, who won the seat in a bypoll in 2018 following the death of her husband and sitting MLA from the constituency Magan Lal Shah, said.

She said she is under pressure from her supporters and may enter the fray as an independent from the seat from where the BJP has fielded Bhopal Ram Tamta, a Congress defector. Negi, who had been accused of rape in September 2020, said he has been denied a ticket under a conspiracy.

He said his name was at the top in all organisational surveys still he could not make it.

Om Gopal Rawat, who was a strong ticket contender for Narendra Nagar seat from where the BJP has once again fielded cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal, is planning to join the Congress.

"BJP does not care for dedicated party workers who toil at the grassroots to strengthen the organisation. It has no principles or values. All it wants is power," Rawat said.

Former MLA Mahavir Rangad too is unhappy with Pritam Singh Panwar fielded by BJP from Dhanaulti.

He took the opinion of party workers on Friday and said he will contest as an independent.

Contender from Ghansali, Darshan Lal has also decided to enter poll fray as an independent.

Tika Maikhuri, who had long been trying for a ticket from Karnaprayag, has also threatened to enter the poll arena as an independent since the party fielded Anil Nautiyal from the seat.

Manoj Shah in Bhimtal has threatened to quit as the party has fielded Ram Singh Kaira, the independent sitting MLA from the seat, who joined the BJP late last year.

"I am in the race for a ticket from the seat since 2002. Denying me a ticket is an injustice. I will contest as an independent," he said.

Aware of the mood within the party, the BJP says the discontent is only natural and the bitterness will subside in a couple of days.

"There can be many contenders for a ticket from a seat but it can be given only to one after taking into account all aspects. Everyone should accept the decision of the central leadership, BJP president Madan Kaushik said.

BJP is a disciplined party. It is just their initial reaction. I have confidence that they will understand," he said.

The party has begun efforts to pacify disaffected leaders with promises of position within the organisation, fearing eclipsing of chances of official BJP nominees if they enter the poll arena.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gurugram, Jan 22 (PTI) A man allegedly molested a woman on a bus and fled away after biting her thumb when other passengers tried to rescue her, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday evening when the woman, who works at an automobile showroom in Gurugram's Sector-18, was on her way home, they said.

Also Read | Delhi Govt Mulls To Re-Open Schools As COVID-19 Cases Decline in the National Capital.

Based on the woman's complaint, an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (causing hurt), 354-A (molestation), 506 (criminal intimidation) was registered at Bilaspur police station.

On Friday evening, the woman, after her duty, boarded a private bus from IFFCO Chowk. When she reached Panchgaon Chowk around 7.30 pm, a co-passenger started staring at her and abused her, police said citing the complaint.

Also Read | Assembly Elections 2022: ECI Extends Ban on Physical Rallies, Road Shows Till January 31.

"He molested me on the bus near Bilaspur Chowk and did not stop even after I protested. When other passengers came to my help, he pulled my hand and fled after biting my thumb and he also threatened to kill me," the woman told police.

Station House Officer (SHO) Jai Prakash said police have identified the accused, who is a resident of Bilaspur Kalan. He is absconding now, but will be nabbed soon, said Inspector Jai Prakash.

In a separate incident in the district, a Class 10 student was allegedly thrashed by a group of men following an altercation over an Instagram video.

The accused held the student hostage using weapon, thrashed him and fled after threatening to kill him. The student is injured critically and is being treated in a private hospital. An FIR has been registered at Badshahpur police station.

According to the complaint filed by the student, a resident of Saktapur village, an altercation had broke out with two youths of the village over the video.

The student was attacked by the assailants, who arrived at the spot in a car and bike, on Thursday when he was going for a walk from the village towards the hilly area with his friends.

He said Sitesh, a co-villager, called him and asked where about his location. After five minutes, Sitesh and Nikhil along with several others arrived there and started beating him with sticks and iron rods, according to the police complaint.

"One of them hit my head with a sharp object, showed a knife and threatened to kill me and then fled the spot," the student said in the complaint.

An FIR was registered against two main accused and others under IPC sections 323 (causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and provisions of the Arms Act at Badshahpur police station.

"FIR has been registered and we are conducting raids to nab the accused who are absconding," said Inspector Dinkar Yadav, the SHO of Badshahpur police station.

Meanwhile, a massive fire broke out in the godown of a tent house in Bhondsi in the early hours of Saturday. Goods worth lakhs of rupees were gutted in the fire.

The fire brigade team doused the flames after five hours' efforts and also rescued two women and a man trapped on the first floor of the godown, officials said.

About 50 LPG cylinders kept in the godown were also removed, averting a possible tragedy. The cause behind the fire is believed to be short circuit, said Gulshan Kalra, Deputy Director of fire brigade.

The fire started around 3.30 am and over 25 people present in the godown and nearby houses were evacuated, the officials said. The information about the fire was given to the police control room 112 and the fire station.

(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 22 (ANI): As Janata Dal (United) failed to cobble an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Janata Dal United (JDU) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Saturday expressed displeasure against Union Minister and party MP RCP Singh over the matter.

JDU president Rajiv Ranjan Singh released the list of candidates for 26 seats for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls today in the national capital.

Also Read | Akhilesh Yadav, Who Was Wary of Contesting Elections, is Now Nervous About Releasing the List, Says Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajiv Ranjan Singh said, "RCP Singh, a Minister in the Union Cabinet from our party, had informed us earlier that a discussion regarding the Uttar Pradesh polls was held with BJP leaders Amit Shah, JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan. He had told that BJP is ready for an alliance. That is why we kept waiting."

The JDU president said that even after a long wait, there was no positive response from the BJP and JP Nadda himself stated gave a statement that BJP's allies in Uttar Pradesh are Apna Dal and Nishad Party.

Also Read | Dearness Allowance for Bank Employees: Govt Should Treat Bankers As 'Dear' As LIC Staff.

Referring to RCP Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that only the former was having talks with the BJP leadership on behalf of JDU.

"Apart from him, no one from our party was talking to the BJP leadership. So, he knew everything about this subject. Now, only he knows how truthfully and honestly he was telling us everything. Had we known in advance that the alliance was not happening, we would have contested more seats with better preparation," emphasised the JDU president.

He said that every party has the right to expand and JDU had contested elections in many states including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before.

Asked about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's campaigning for the party in Uttar Pradesh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh refused to answer.

He also did not give any answer to the question of whether JDU will field a candidate against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Sadar or not.

Elections to the 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10.The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chandigarh, Jan 22 (PTI) Senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Saturday attacked Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the Congress, days after the recovery of a huge amount of cash from the premises of his nephew during ED raids.

He also accused him of being involved in illegal sand mining in his constituency Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar district and demanded a CBI probe into it.

Also Read | Goa Assembly Elections 2022: Congress Candidates Take Pledge To Not Quit Party After Polls.

Taking on the Congress for filing a complaint with the Election Commission of India against the recent ED raids, Majithia asked the ruling party that it should have rather questioned the recovery of crores of rupees from the premises of Channi's nephew.

"Instead of complaining to the ECI over the misuse of central agencies, the Congress should have explained how a huge sum of money was seized from the premises of Channi's nephew," Majithia told the media.

Also Read | Republic Day 2022: Delhi To See Partly Cloudy Sky but No Rain on January 26, Says IMD.

He questioned why the Congress party came out in defence of Bhupinder Singh Honey, the chief minister's nephew who was allegedly running the illegal mining racket.

Meanwhile, All India Congress Committee (AICC) media incharge for Punjab elections Alka Lamba trashed Majithia's allegations as "baseless".

Majithia sought to show Honey's proximity to Channi through various purported photographs, and said Honey had even been provided security.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader said that with the chief minister also holding charge of the mining and environment departments, this was a case of conflict of interest and "Channi did not have any moral right to continue in office".

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday had said it seized cash amounting to over Rs 10 crore, including about Rs 8 crore from a relative of Channi, during raids conducted in connection with an anti-money laundering investigation against illegal sand-mining operations in the poll-bound state.

The Congress on Thursday had complained to the ECI, seeking stern action against Enforcement Directorate officials for carrying out illegal and malafide raids to defame Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the incumbent state government.

Majithia also demanded a probe into the illegal sand mining in Channi's home constituency Chamkaur Sahib including that on forest land, alleging that the chief minister had looted the state exchequer.

"The total loot by Channi in his 111 days' tenure will be more than Rs 1,111 crore," alleged Majithia.

The senior Akali leader also released some purported audio recordings in order to show that the chief minister and his nephew were partners in the illegal sand mining business.

He alleged that Salapur village Sarpanch Iqbal Singh and his son Binder were carrying out illegal sand mining business at the instance of Channi.

The audio recordings were done by one Darshan Singh who had befriended members of the sand mafia to expose them, Majithia claimed.

Channi had rejected the allegations against him and accused the BJP-led central government of hatching a "conspiracy" to "trap" him in the case in which raids were conducted by the ED at many places in the poll-bound state.

He further alleged that former chief minister Amarinder Singh and Majithia had a role in "this conspiracy".

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Panaji (Goa) [India], January 22 (ANI): Utpal Parrikar, son of former CM Manohar Parrikar who decided to contest the upcoming Goa election as an independent candidate from Panaji constituency, on Saturday said that his stand on Panaji is a 'principled stand'.

"My stand on Panaji is a principled stand. I said yesterday that if the party fields an honest candidate with integrity and no criminal records from Panaji, then I'm ready to withdraw (as an independent candidate)," Utpal told ANI.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: Akhilesh Yadav Promises Jobs for 22 Lakh Youths in IT Sector.

Utpal also resigned from the primary membership of BJP on Friday after the party denied him a ticket from the Panaji constituency and fielded Congress party turncoat Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate.

"I will be contesting as an independent candidate from Panaji constituency. Panjim people voted for Manohar Parrikar all these years because he stood for certain values. I also have those values in me. The time has come for me also to stand up to those values," Utpal said.

Also Read | Delhi Govt Mulls To Re-Open Schools As COVID-19 Cases Decline in the National Capital.

Meanwhile, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said that the central leaders of BJP were in conversation with Utpal Parrikar and had offered him two constituencies to contest the election in the upcoming Goa Assembly polls.

BJP on Thursday released its first list of 34 candidates for the upcoming Goa assembly election.

Goa will go for assembly polls on February 14. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (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 [India], January 22 (ANI): Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday said he was carrying out the work assigned to him of leading the Congress campaign in Uttarakhand and his task is to get a majority for the party in the upcoming polls.

Rawat told ANI in an interview that he has been told by the party's central leadership that the election will be fought under his leadership.

Also Read | Delhi Govt Mulls To Re-Open Schools As COVID-19 Cases Decline in the National Capital.

Rawat, who heads the party's campaign committee for Uttarakhand, said he focuses on one thing at a time and was working to oust the BJP government in the state in next month's polls.

"I have one work assigned by the party. I'm doing that. I focus on one thing at a time. My work is to see that we get the majority," Harish Rawat said.

Also Read | Assembly Elections 2022: ECI Extends Ban on Physical Rallies, Road Shows Till January 31.

"Chunaav tumhare netritva mein lada jaega (I have been told election will be fought under my leadership)," he said.

Rawat said if the party gets the majority, then it's "our time-tested tradition that we request the Congress president to nominate our leader". "She will do that," he added.

He was asked who will be the chief ministerial candidate if Congress comes to power.

Asked if he is the natural leader of the party who will be sworn in as the Chief Minister if the party gets a majority, Rawat did not give a direct reply.

Polling for Uttarakhand Assembly Election will take place in a single phase on February 14. The results will be declared on March 10. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chennai, Jan 22 (PTI) Tamil Nadu has rights both on legal and humanitarian grounds to implement the second phase of the Hogenakkal Drinking Water Project, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan said here on Saturday.

Also Read | Punjab Assembly Elections 2022: AAP CM Candidate Bhagwant Mann Challenges Charanjit Singh Channi To Contest Against Him From Dhuri.

Responding to his Karnataka counterpart Govind Karjol, Duraimurugan cited several aspects of the final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal including clause-18 and consumptive use and the Supreme Court judgment of February 16, 2018 to underscore that Tamil Nadu has rights to execute this project, which is essential for drinking water needs.

Also Read | Kerala Nun Rape Case: Prosecution To Appeal Against Acquittal of Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

Karnataka Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol had on Friday said the state government would oppose the proposed water project at Hogenakkal and that Tamil Nadu cannot take it up unilaterally.

In a statement, Duraimurugan said Tamil Nadu has rights both on legal and humanitarian grounds to implement the Hogenakkal project's second phase.

"The Cauvery-Hogenakkal project's second phase will be implemented for sure," the Tamil Nadu Minister said, hours after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced an all-party meeting in February to discuss inter-state water disputes.

On January 20, Chief Minister M K Stalin had said that the Tamil Nadu government would prepare a detailed project report to implement the second phase of the Hogenakkal combined drinking water project for Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts at an estimated cost of Rs 4,600 crore.

The first phase of the Hogenakkal project, for drinking water supply and fluorosis mitigation was implemented during the 2006-11 DMK regime.

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Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 22 (ANI): Union Minister Anurag Thakur, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with other BJP leaders on Saturday flagged off "Prachar Rath" (election campaign vans) from the party office in Lucknow.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh were also present.

Also Read | HD Devegowda, Former Prime Minister, Tests Positive for COVID-19.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the double engine government of BJP has fulfilled all the promises it had made.

"BJP is launching a new program through this van for its election campaign today in 403 Vidhan Sabha constituencies. What BJP had said, the double engine government has fulfilled all the promises it had made. The population of 25 crores of the state have seen that before 2017 the traders and common citizens used to migrate but after 2017 the criminals are migrating and the state is setting a new paradigm of progress to bring happiness in the lives of 25 crore people of the state which is clearly visible to all of us."

Also Read | Mumbai Fire: Blaze Erupts in 20-Storey Building, 7 Dead, Several Injured; Here's What We Know So Far.

He further said that the double engine government in the state has worked for the development of the people.

"With the motto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas', the double engine government worked for the development of the villages, upliftment of the poor, happiness of the farmers, employment of the youth and safety of the women in the state," he added.

The Election Commission of India is scheduled to hold a meeting today with the Union Health Secretary and the Chief Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to review the ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties ahead of Assembly elections.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra will hold virtual meetings with the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary, and Chief Electoral Officers of five poll-bound states to take stock of the situation as India is reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The progress on vaccination will be a key factor in allowing relaxations.

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bulandshahar (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 22(ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that Bharatiya Janata Party does social justice not only through government but also through candidates as the party has given 66 per cent of its tickets to candidates coming from minority communities.

"66 per cent of BJP candidates come from minority communities. The model of social justice has been done not only through the government but also through the candidates of BJP," said Yogi Adityanath.

Also Read | Kerala Nun Rape Case: Prosecution To Appeal Against Acquittal of Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

Adityanath said this after addressing a party gathering in Bulandshahar of Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in the day, Adityanath along with Union Minister Anurag Thakur and other BJP leaders flagged off "Prachar Rath" (election campaign vans) from the party office in Lucknow.

Also Read | Pune Shocker: Woman Gang-Raped in Shirur; Five Arrested, Search On for 3.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the double engine government of BJP has fulfilled all the promises it had made.

"BJP is launching a new program through this van for its election campaign today in 403 Vidhan Sabha constituencies. What BJP had said, the double engine government has fulfilled all the promises it had made. The population of 25 crores of the state has seen that before 2017 the traders and common citizens used to migrate but after 2017 the criminals are migrating and the state is setting a new paradigm of progress to bring happiness in the lives of 25 crore people of the state which is clearly visible to all of us."

He further said that the double engine government in the state has worked for the development of the people.

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colleyville (Texas), Jan 22 (AP) On the eve of her 100th birthday Saturday, Ruth Salton told her daughter she was going one way or another to Friday night Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel, just days after a gunman voicing antisemitic conspiracy theories held four worshippers hostage for 10 hours at the Fort Worth-area synagogue.

I want to support my people, said Salton, a Holocaust survivor. She said she told her daughter if she doesn't take me, I'll go by myself, because I feel I belong there. I am Jewish, and this is my faith, and I am supporting it.

Also Read | US Blocks 44 Flights by Chinese Airlines in Escalating Dispute.

She's far from alone.

Jewish leaders throughout the US are calling for a strong turnout at this weekend's worship services as a statement of defiance against antisemitic acts such as last weekend's hostage siege at Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.

Also Read | Omicron Sub-lineage BA.2 Variant Under Investigation in UK.

SHOW UP IN SHUL THIS SHABBAT ... IN DEFIANCE/JOY/TO SEE FELLOW JEWS, Emory University history professor Deborah Lipstadt tweeted, using a traditional term for synagogue. She is President Joe Biden's nominee as a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism abroad.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, who survived the Oct 27, 2018, mass shooting at his synagogue, echoed the call. After a gunman killed 11 worshipers from three congregations at the synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic hate crime in US history, people packed synagogues around the country the following weekend.

Do not let the antisemites terrorise us and win by keeping us out of our sacred spaces, Myers wrote in his blog. Show up in synagogue, and loudly state by your presence that you will not be driven into hiding...(Antisemites) will not chase us from our home. Not now. Not ever.

Authorities say Malik Faisal Akram, a British national, took the four people who were at Congregation Beth Israel last Saturday hostage. He was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of trying to kill US troops in Afghanistan and who is serving a lengthy sentence in a prison in Fort Worth, which is 15 miles (23 km) southwest of Colleyville.

The hostages said Akram cited antisemitic stereotypes, believing that Jews could wield power over President Biden to have Siddiqui released.

The siege ended after the last hostage ran out of the synagogue and an FBI SWAT team rushed in. Akram was killed by multiple gunshot wounds. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the case a homicide, which under Texas law indicates that one person was killed by another but does not necessarily mean the killing was a crime.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who was among the hostages, said Thursday that the congregation was doing its best to heal.

We're going to have services on Shabbat evening. We're going to have services on Shabbat morning. We're going to have religious school on Sunday, Cytron-Walker said during a webinar Thursday hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.

I stand before you with great gratitude just to be alive, he added during a Friday news conference.

Cytron-Walker encouraged those in the Jewish community to have a Shabbat shalom, a Sabbath of peace.

God willing, we're able to find a sense of wholeness with our families, with our communities...And I would extend that not only to the Jewish community, I would extend that to all communities, he said.

Congregation Beth Israel's services this weekend were being held at another location because the investigation at the synagogue is ongoing. Attendance was limited to members.

I expect it to be emotional, because we have not had the opportunity to come together and express or experience whatever emotions we have, said Anna Eisen, Salton's daughter. I'm ready to hug people.

Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said congregations in his region were preparing for greater attendance and were taking coronavirus-related precautions.

In face of a new wave of antisemitism, where Jews are threatened online, forced to prove themselves on campus and fear eating in restaurants, we must not let the fear our enemies want to instill in us define us, he said Friday. He called on Jews everywhere to show the world that we are not afraid to live Jewishly.

Many Jewish leaders have said the hostage standoff was an example of a larger rise in antisemitic acts. The Anti-Defamation League says such incidents have reached their highest levels since it began tracking them decades ago.

Eisen said the supportive response of local police and the FBI has made her feel safer in my community and my country, but that it's also important to confront antisemitism.

Eisen, co-author of books about her father's Holocaust experience and her own as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said synagogues in Nazi-controlled Europe were attacked, and people were attacked and killed, because of the same kind of hatred that was shown last Saturday by the hostage-taker.

It's nothing new to me. I hate antisemitism. I don't understand why people feel that way about us, Salton said.

At the same time, having survived the Holocaust and much else, she is ready to celebrate her centennial.

I would very much like to be 18, but since I'm 100, I'm grateful that I came to a point to live to 100 years, 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)
Taipei [Taiwan], January 22 (ANI/Xinhua): Taiwan reported 130 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 82 of which were locally transmitted confirmed cases, a daily record high for the year, while the other 48 were imported, the island's disease-monitoring agency told a press briefing.

Of the new local cases, 14 have been linked to recent infections reported in Kaohsiung City, 63 are employees of Askey Computer Corp.'s factory near Taoyuan International Airport, and one is a former worker of the company, the agency said.

Also Read | Taliban Deny Detaining Female Protestor Tamana Zaryab Paryani in Kabul.

In response to a rise in local infections, tightened disease prevention rules were announced during the press briefing, including a ban on eating and drinking on public transport that will take effect on Sunday, as well as rules regarding religious events and places of worship.

To date, Taiwan has reported 18,238 COVID-19 cases, of which 14,853 were local infections. (ANI/Xinhua)

Also Read | When Is Chinese New Year 2022? Know Date, Animal Zodiac Sign, History and Significance of Chinese Lunar New Year.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
The only gun shop in all of Mexico is behind a fortress-like wall on a heavily guarded military base.

To enter the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, customers must undergo months of background checks  six documents are required  and then be frisked by uniformed soldiers.

The army-run store on the outskirts of Mexico City embodies the countrys cautious approach to firearms, and a visit here illustrates the dramatically different ways two neighboring countries view guns, legally and culturally.

Like the 2nd Amendment in the United States, Mexicos Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, but it also stipulates that federal law will determine the cases, conditions, requirements and places of gun ownership. For many Mexicans, even those who love guns, the thought of an unfettered right to owning one is perplexing.

Yet on this issue, like so many aspects of life in Mexico, the influence of its powerful neighbor to the north is keenly felt: Each day the army gun store sells on average just 38 firearms to civilians, while an estimated 580 weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

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That paradox is increasingly relevant given Mexicos unprecedented levels of gun violence, which have claimed more than 100,000 lives over the last decade. Last year was Mexicos deadliest since the government began releasing homicide statistics in 1997. This year, the violence is on track to surpass that record.

American firearms are directly driving the violence, although U.S. appetites for drugs and rampant corruption among Mexican officials also play a role. About 70% of guns recovered by Mexican law enforcement officials from 2011 to 2016 were originally purchased from legal gun dealers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Mexican leaders have long complained about the phenomenon. In 2012, then-President Felipe Calderon erected a giant billboard in the border city of Juarez that spelled out the phrase No more weapons. The letters, formed using crushed firearms seized by authorities, were visible from Texas.

Most trafficked guns are purchased in the U.S. from one of the countrys more than 67,000 licensed gun dealers or from private sellers who dont hold a federal license. When dealing from private sellers, buyers often arent required to present identification or submit to background checks.

1 / 8 Hugo Joy Gallegos Sanchez, 32, of Mexico City examines a handgun at the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, the only outlet for legal gun purchases in Mexico. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 2 / 8 Gun buyers sometimes wait for hours for their paperwork to be processed at Mexicos Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 3 / 8 A customer takes delivery of a hunting rifle at the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales. Mexican law allows citizens to have one handgun for personal protection and up to nine rifles, as long as they can prove they are members of shooting or hunting clubs. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 4 / 8 A customer walks the aisles of the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales in Mexico City. Prospective buyers must present at least six forms of identification, including proof of employment, and have a clean criminal record. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 5 / 8 Col. Eduardo Tellez Moreno, who runs the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, said he believes gun ownership is a privilege. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 6 / 8 Col. Eduardo Tellez Moreno points out the serial number used to keep track of a handgun. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 7 / 8 Customer Eduardo Nieto Rodriguez of Mexico City, left, makes sure the serial number on a handgun hes buying matches the number on his registration. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times) 8 / 8 A Mexican soldier makes his rounds at the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, located on an army base on the outskirts of Mexico City. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times)

By contrast, would-be gun owners in Mexico must offer a birth certificate and proof that they are employed, and have no criminal record. The atmosphere at the directorate is more sterile than at a U.S. gun store or pawnshop. There are no moose heads on the wall and no promotional specials. Guns stamped with the armys logo are kept in locked cases and customers arent given the chance to heft a rifle to their shoulder to see how it feels.

Buyers spend hours shuffling between different counters to get their paperwork processed, waiting for long stretches under fluorescent lights in uncomfortable chairs. It feels a bit like the Department of Motor Vehicles, until one notices the no-nonsense army colonel running things and the machine-gun-toting soldiers patrolling the aisles.

The store manager, Col. Eduardo Tellez, said he believes gun ownership is a privilege. He sees his job as making sure firearms end up in the hands of moral and responsible people only.

Current law allows citizens one handgun and up to nine rifles if they can prove they are members of shooting or hunting clubs. A separate permit that is difficult to obtain is required to carry the guns in public.

Hugo Gallegos Sanchez, 32, a police officer in Mexico City, decided to purchase a handgun at the store for personal use because he was concerned about rising crime.

You need protection, Gallegos said.

He spent months waiting for his paperwork to be approved, but said he was happy to wait. Proper screening for gun owners is important, said Gallegos, who said he also supports Mexicos ban on heavy assault weapons.

A civilian shouldnt be able to have the same power as the military, he said.

Whereas Mexican leaders have long groused about firearms trafficked from the north, U.S. gun control advocates have only recently begun to highlight the impact of lax American gun laws on Mexico and other countries.

We have such a serious domestic problem that it can be hard to get any oxygen related to international drug trafficking, said Chelsea Parsons, an expert at the Center for American Progress who recently co-wrote a report detailing the impact of American guns on Mexico. The report found that 66% of Mexicos homicides were committed with a gun in 2017, up from 15% in 1997.

In recent months, Mexican leaders have again seized on the issue, in part to counter headlines about the countrys spiraling violence and President Trumps complaints that Mexico isnt doing enough to stop the northward flow of migrants and drugs.

President Enrique Pena Nieto brought the issue up at a news conference with Trump shortly before the 2016 presidential election, blaming the influx of U.S. firearms for strengthening the cartels and other criminal organizations that create violence in Mexico. Candidates vying to replace him in Mexicos July 1 presidential race are also using it as a rallying cry.

Instead of threatening walls, instead of threatening to militarize the border, we demand that they stop the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico, Ricardo Anaya of the National Action Party said recently in the violence-ridden border state of Tamaulipas.

Front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement has demanded a new investigation into the defunct Fast and Furious program, under which U.S. federal agents allowed guns to be purchased illegally in the hope of tracing them to leaders of Mexican drug cartels. Jose Antonio Meade of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party has called for construction of a technological border that would detect vehicles crossing into Mexico bearing guns.

Gun control advocates on both sides of the border say Mexican leaders should also push the government to do a better job of ensuring that guns issued to police and soldiers dont fall into the hands of criminals, which many often do.

They are also concerned about a new Trump administration proposal to deregulate the export of American guns by putting the Commerce Department in charge of the application process instead of the State Department, which advocates say is better suited to weigh the possible risks of firearm sales against any benefits.

The proposed rule change, which was expected to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, has long been sought by gun companies eager for easier access to international markets, but advocates worry it could put more guns in the hands of corrupt governments.

U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) introduced a bill that would limit the impact of such a change, as well as legislation that would make gun trafficking a federal crime. Torres said she has not sought to draw attention to her work to stop arms trafficking because she is wary of pushback from gun industry groups such as the National Rifle Assn.

This shouldnt be a controversy, she said in a recent telephone interview. It should be about how do we help Mexico deal with its violence.

She said Mexican authorities frequently raise the issue of gun trafficking in meetings with American officials.

Its something they bring up in every conversation, Torres said. Reducing the flow of guns south, she said, is something we should do if we care about our relationship with Mexico.

Back at the gun store outside Mexico City, gun enthusiast Fausto Gerard was helping a friend buy a rifle. Gerard works for a Slovakian gun manufacturer, Grand Power, that sells guns to the Mexican military. He is the silent partner in a gun store in the U.S. He is passionate about bringing the sport of target shooting to Mexico.

Still, he thinks limits are OK.

Its good to have liberties, but there has to be a mechanism for control, he said. He said he would support even more restrictions, including screening for mental illness among gun buyers.

But he thinks Mexico could do more to encourage people to buy guns legally. Having just one gun store in the entire country is impractical, he said. It might even encourage people to buy firearms coming in from the United States.

In Tijuana or Juarez, he said, its much easier buying a gun on the black market.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum
Rio de Janeiro Carnival street parades in Brazil will not happen as planned. Instead of happening in the final week of February, the festivities in the world-known city were moved in late April.

This is not the first time that the parades have been delayed. In 2020, the city's officials also decided to move the festivities because of the global COVID pandemic.

Now, the ongoing health crisis has once again forced Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes to do the same thing this year.

According to Channel News Asia, the Carnival activities were moved to prevent the further spread of the new COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Rio de Janeiro Carnival Street Parades in Brazil Delayed

NPR reported that Rio de Janeiro, together with Sao Paolo, another popular city in Brazil, decided to hold the parades until April 21.

READ NEXT: New Mexico Asks National Guard to Be Substitute Teachers Amid COVID-19 Surge; Around 800 School Staff Needed

Rio de Janeiro's mayor and his Sao Paulo counterpart, Mayor Ricardo Nunes, conducted a video call to discuss the health crisis in Brazil. They coordinated with their health secretaries so that they could properly decide on what to do next.

"The decision was made respecting for the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil and the need, at this time, to preserve lives and join forces to drive vaccination throughout the country," as stated in the joint letter of Sau Paulo and Rio de Janeiro cities on Friday.

Samba School Parades in Brazil Will Still Happen

Despite the sad news from the city mayors, the popular Sapucai carnival, the parade performed by Rio's samba schools, will still happen as planned. Paes clarified that these festivities would proceed at the Sambadrome just like before, without any delay, because authorities can control who goes into the stadium.

Participants and viewers are required to show their vaccination statuses and their negative COVID-19 test results before they can enter the arena.

As of the moment, both of the cities are still trying their best to lessen the coronavirus cases. Aside from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, some cities in Brazil also canceled their street parades. These include Teresina, Belem, Fortaleza, Florianopolis, Salvador, Campo Grande, Cuiaba, and Curitiba, as reported by CNN Travel.

READ MORE: Elza Soares: Brazilian Samba Singer and Legend Dies at 91
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday released a final report on Gabby Petito's case as the agency revealed that Brian Laundrie admitted to killing his fiancee in his notebook that was found alongside his remains.

According to the FBI in Denver, the discovery of Brian Laundrie admitting to his crimes came after a review of the notebook.

"A review of the notebook revealed written statements by Mr. Laundrie claiming responsibility for Ms. Petito's death," the FBI said in a statement.

Despite confirming that Laundrfie admitted to his crimes, the agency did not further on the specific words Brian wrote on the notebook in connection to killing Petito.

FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said that "logical investigative steps have been concluded in the case," and that their agency's probe did not identify "any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie" directly involved in the death of his fiancee, New York Post reported.

Schneider then offered their agency's gratitude to the public as the case involving Petito and Laundrie is coming to its conclusion.

"On behalf of the FBI, I want to express my deepest appreciation to the public for the thousands of tips that were provided during the investigation," Schneider said, also thanking their partners from the local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the North Port Police Department confirmed on Friday that their department was briefed by the FBI about soon closing of Gabby Petito's case, Fox News noted.

Former Federal Prosecutor Neama Rahmani noted that when Laundrie's remains were found in October, the criminal investigation was "essentially over" unless authorities discovered another person of interest in Petito's death.

"The criminal case is done. There's no prosecuting a dead person," Rahmani said.

READ NEXT: Here's What Brian Laundrie Family Attorney Knows so Far on FBI Probe Related to Notebook Found Near Remains

Gabby Petito's Family Thanks FBI

On Friday, Petito's family, through their family attorney Richard Stafford, thanked the FBI for their efforts in connection to Gabby's case.

"We truly appreciate the FBI's diligent and painstaking efforts in this extremely complicated case, Stafford noted in the statement.

Petito's attorney also pointed out that the number of facts and information gathered by the FBI "leave no doubt" that Brian Laundrie was behind Gabby Petito's death.

Laundrie's attorney, Steven Bertolino, also released a statement on Friday, expressing his hopes that the conclusion of Gabby and Brian's case may bring closure to both families.

"We can only hope that with today's closure of the case each family can begin to heal and move forward and find peace," Bertolino underscored.

Bertolino also pointed out that the tragedy surrounding Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie has caused "enormous emotional pain and suffering" to all those who loved them.

Petito and Laundrie Families Agrees on Property Distribution

The revelation of Brian Laundrie admitting to killing Gabby Petito came a day after their families agreed to split the couple's belongings as the influencer's parents met with the FBI in Tampa Florida on Thursday.

Bertolino confirmed that he and Stafford compiled a written agreement to specify how the property to be released by law enforcement will be distributed when the time comes.

The FBI did not mention on Friday which family will receive Brian Laundrie's notebook.

Bertolino said earlier that Brian's parents, Chis and Roberta Laundrie, were trying to get the notebook back as part of their formal proceedings to control their son's estate, which they filed in Sarasota County, Florida on December 8.

Meanwhile, Petito's mom, Nichole Schmidt, filed a petition request in the same county to obtain all of the possession of her late daughter in Laundrie's home on North Port Florida. However, court records did not mention which items Schmidt wanted to be collected.

It can be recalled that Gabby Petito's remains were found in the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton Nation Park in Wyoming on September 19, after she went missing on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie.

Laundrie on the other hand was named as the person of interest in the disappearance and death of Petito after he went back home alone in Florida 10 days before his fiancee was reported missing.

His remains were discovered in a swampy area of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20, and an autopsy revealed that his death was due to a single gunshot wound in the head. His manner of death was determined as suicide.

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Sleuth Unveils New Proof That Gabby Petito's Fiance 'Is Not Dead'

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Brian Laundrie Claimed Responsibility for Gabby Petito's Death in Notebook, FBI Says - WFLA News Channel 8
Donald Trump's executive order draft was found that it would have authorized the secretary of defense to send National Guard troops to confiscate voting machines around the country in the weeks after the 2020 election.

The order was not signed by the former president. It also would have appointed a special counsel to "institute all criminal and civil proceedings right based on the evidence gathered, according to an NBC News report.

The draft of the executive order noted that it would call on the defense secretary to release an assessment 60 days after the action started, which would have been set after Trump was about to leave office on January 20.

Politico obtained the said executive order. However, it did not say how it acquired the document or whose possession it was in.

Trump's drafted executive order seems to be among the documents that the House select committee was looking at in light of the January 6 attack.

It was part of the trove of documents that the select committee was asking from the National Archives.

READ NEXT: Former Pres. Donald Trump Could Spend Three Years in Prison for the Violation of Hatch Act - Legal Experts

Donald Trump's Unsigned Executive Order

The executive was dated December 16, 2020 and was entitled "PRESIDENTIAL FINDINGS TO PRESERVE COLLECT AND ANALYZE NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION REGARDING THE 2020 GENERAL ELECTION," according to a CNBC report.

The executive order echoes the claims made by lawyer Sidney Powell, as well as former national security adviser Michael Flynn during a December 18 meeting at the White House.

The draft does not name the person that Trump would appoint as a special counsel. However, it does refer to the person a "her."

The report also mentioned a "forensic report" that was touted by Powell falsely claiming that Dominion Voting System machines of being deliberately designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud, while also influencing election results.

Meanwhile, Dominion is suing Powell for defamation.

The company has strongly refuted the claims, while dozens of courts around the country threw out cases claiming widespread fraud.

Trump's lawyers have sought to keep the document and other White House information from reaching the hands of the select committee.

However, the January 6 panel started receiving documents after a Supreme Court ruling declined Trump's bid to shield the documents, according to a Daily Mail report.

Meanwhile, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also said that she learned about secret meetings held in White House before the January 6 incident.

Grisham said that people were pushing "bonkers" legal theories.

Trump had claimed that he was entitled to keep the documents undercover with his executive privilege.

However, U.S. President Joe Biden has revoked the executive privilege over documents.

Evidence emerged in court papers that prosecutors have posed questions to at least one January 6 defendant, which involved Trump and his allies to disrupt the certification of Biden's victory, according to The New York Times report.

The papers were filed by a defense lawyer in the case of Brandon Straka. Straka was a former hairstylist who founded a group called Walk Away Foundation, seeking to persuade Democratic voters to leave the party.

READ MORE: Pres. Joe Biden Says He Does Not Care if People Think He's 'Satan Reincarnate' After Expressing Support On Bipartisan Probe of Capitol Riot

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Jan. 6 committee asks Ivanka Trump to cooperate with investigation - from ABC News






During talks with top Mexican officials this week, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Friday that she had frequently raised concerns about the risk to investors of Mexico's plan to tighten state control of the energy market.

U.S. Energy Secretary Visits Mexico

On a visit to Mexico City on Thursday and Friday, Granholm met with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and top members of his Cabinet, including Energy Minister Rocio Nahle, to discuss the Mexican power market proposal.

The Biden-Harris administration expressed its real concerns about the possible negative impact of Mexico's proposed energy changes on U.S. private investment in Mexico, according to a statement from Granholm.

"The proposed reform might further obstruct coordinated sustainable energy and climate efforts between the United States and Mexico."

North America's competitive energy markets, according to the Energy Secretary, should be maintained, Reuters reported.

Granholm had been assured that Mexico is dedicated to supporting sustainable energy and resolving current energy project problems within the rule of law.

Officials, politicians, and business leaders say in private that they believe Lopez Obrador's power market initiative will be watered down, but it is uncertain how much or whether it would be enough to restore bruised investor confidence.

As AMLO answered questions about the discussions with Granholm, he said his government will deal with future energy problems with companies "case by case."

Last year, Lopez Obrador announced a constitutional reform to give the government more control over the electricity market, claiming that it was a matter of national security and that previous governments had manipulated the market in favor of wealth creation.

ALSO READ: 21 People Killed in Mexico in Just 24 Hours Amid Bloody Turf War Between Mexican Drug Cartels

The reform proposes giving the Commission Federal de Electricidad (CFE) control of half of the power market and putting it in charge of establishing private generator arrangements.

The bill would also put the state in charge of future lithium extraction and eliminate energy regulators, putting them under the control of the Energy Ministry and the CFE.

The president, a leftist resource nationalist, has frequently portrayed his hostility to foreign and private involvement in the energy industry as part of his fight against corruption.

Responding to potential disputes, he stated, "We were talking about all this, and (Granholm) understands that our purpose is to eradicate corruption from our country as well as showing our openness to discussion, and to proceed case by case."

He admitted that "a small number" of companies from both the United States and Canada have complained, but he did not name any of them.

According to Granholm, Mexico has so much renewable energy potential.

If fully realized, the Mexican state could power the country at least ten times over, creating millions of jobs, and build an export economy that would cater to a world that is looking for clean energy solutions.

Mexican Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O stated at an event with the secretary that Mexico would collaborate with the rest of North America to attract manufacturing investment from Asia across the Pacific and lower trade deficits.

After Granholm's meeting with Lopez Obrador, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced on Twitter that an "agreement" on clean energy in North America will be established.

READ MORE: 'Encanto' Song 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' Overtakes 'Frozen's' 'Let It Go' as Top Disney Animated Hit Song

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Secretary Granholm Highlights the Benefits of Geothermal Energy at GRC 2021 - from U.S. Depertment of Energy
Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman allegedly ordered to kill two men who asked him to pay $500,000 for a pair of long johns meant for his son, Ivan Guzman Salazar, a new book claims.

Ivan was serving a three-year sentence for money laundering at the time at the maximum-security prison of La Palma or Altiplano, where El Chapo had once been imprisoned in the early 1990s, New York Post reported.

Ivan's cell was reportedly so cold in the winter of 2007-2008, and he asked through different intermediaries to get his father to send the long underwear worn under clothes to keep a person warm.

Ivan has been tapping his dad for help, particularly when he was arrested with three others and charged with double homicide in Jalisco state in 2005. He only faces accusations of money laundering with the help of lawyers hired by El Chapo.

According to the book "Emma and the Other Narco Ladies," El Chapo asked Edgar "the Barbie" Valdez Villareal, a fellow drug trafficker, to find out whom he had to bribe in the maximum-security prison to get his son warm clothes.

The book's author, veteran Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez, wrote that with one phone call, one of the soldiers found a guard at the prison that could get the clothing to El Chapo's son.

READ NEXT: Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo Faces Bigamy Claims as He Had 2 More Wives Apart From Emma Coronel Aispuro

Authority and Power of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo

Anabel Hernandez said the guard charged $100,000 for the favor. However, the two soldiers, who made the contact, decided to ask El Chapo for five times the amount.

The two soldiers even offered to cut the Barbie in on the deal. But according to Hernandez, the drug trafficker declined the offer as he knew who he was dealing with.

El Chapo paid the full amount of $500,000 and got his son a couple of shirts and thermal underwear. However, Hernandez said the Sinaloa cartel leader investigated and found out what the soldiers had done from the Barbie.

The two men were then tortured and killed by a hit squad dispatched by El Chapo. Hernandez noted that the men's bodies were quartered and left on the outskirts of Mexico City's international airport.

Ivan was released after a few months, but El Chapo's other son, Edgar Guzman Lopez, was gunned down in a hail of bullets. El Chapo himself allegedly ordered the hit in what proved to be a case of mistaken identity.

But this time, Hernandez said the Sinaloa Cartel boss seemed to become merciful as he pardoned the hitmen, and there were no reprisals.

El Chapo Orders 'Viagra' and 'Sex Workers' From His Prison Cell

Anabel Hernandez's book also claimed that El Chapo is a "sex addict" who slept with women whenever he wanted. The drug trafficker also ordered drugs in prison, including the anti-impotence drug Viagra.

Daily Star reported that the book alleged that El Chapo had female inmates raped inside his prison cell apart from the prostitutes brought from outside.

Hernandez said that El Chapo also had several lovers, including a 23-year-old serving time for robbery. The woman allegedly got pregnant before El Chapo forced her to have an abortion.

The book noted that another female prison, who refused his advances, was brutally beaten and raped.

In 2018, prosecutors said that if a lawyer for El Chapo is allowed to keep talking, witnesses could wind up dead at the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel.

U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue claimed that El Chapo lawyer's Eduardo Balarezo had put potential witnesses in harm's way by allegedly leaking their personal information, according to another New York Post report.

Prosecutor said that Balarezo previously had to sign a protective order promising to stop divulging personal information to ensure that the Sinaloa Cartel does not harm or kill witnesses. However, Balarezo allegedly had not only violated the order once but twice.

READ MORE: Brother of El Chapo, 3 Other Sinaloa Cartel Members Charged on Drug Trafficking Charges

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: The Sinaloa Cartel Is Alive And Thriving Without El Chapo - From Vice News






Authorities said two Canadian tourists were killed, and another was wounded in a shooting at a resort in Mexico on Friday.

The latest brazen act of violence took place in Hotel Xcaret at Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo, ABC News reported. Playa del Carmen is a coastal resort town along the Yucatan Peninsula's Riviera Maya strip of Caribbean shoreline.

State authorities said all three victims were taken to a hospital, but two died. Quintana Roo state security secretary Lucio Hernandez Gutierrez tweeted that "the three guests are of Canadian origin." However, he did not identify any of the victims.

Deadly Encounter in Mexico Fueled by Disagreement

According to Hernandez Gutierrez, the incident began with a disagreement among hotel visitors. He shared several photos of a man in a sweatsuit in his Twitter account.

In one photo, the man was seen carrying a gun. In another, he appeared to be holding a mobile phone and a third photo shows the man sitting in a lounge chair.

According to the Quintana Roo state prosecutor's office, the suspect was also a guest, and the Canadian police informed them that he was a known criminal with a record of robbery, drug, and weapon charges.

Security forces are now seeking the suspect. Following claims that Canadian nationals had been affected, Canada's foreign ministry said in a statement that consular officials were contacting local authorities to gather further information.

No additional information could be disclosed to the public at the moment for concerns of privacy. Vicente Carrera, the director of Noticaribe, a local news website, who was in the hotel, said: "Police, army, and National Guard personnel filled the hotel and closed off entry."

"This is the first time a tourist has been the aggressor in a shooting," Carrera added.

READ NEXT: 21 People Killed in Mexico in Just 24 Hours Amid Bloody Turf War Between Mexican Drug Cartels

Foreign Tourists in Mexico's Riviera Maya Are Becoming Victims of Violence

In recent months, there had been a worrying spate of attacks on foreign tourists in Mexico's Riviera Maya region.

Mayan Riviera region is the crown jewel of the country's tourism industry, which includes resorts in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.

In early November, guests at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun hotel in Puerto Morelos rushed for safety when 15 gunmen from a gang opened fire on rivals, leaving two suspected drug dealers dead.

Although one tourist was reported to have been hit in the head with a weapon, no other tourists were seriously injured in the incident.

In late October, two foreign tourists were killed after they were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers in Tulum, a beach town about 80 miles south of Cancun.

Following these events, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dispatched roughly 1,500 members of the National Guard to the region to increase security.

According to a National Statistics Institute survey, gangs fighting for control of territory in Mexican resorts have usually avoided tourist areas.

However, the millions of tourists who visit Quintana Roo each year were reportedly driving a strong demand for illegal drugs that was fuelling the violence.

READ MORE: 'Encanto' Song 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' Overtakes 'Frozen's' 'Let It Go' as Top Disney Animated Hit Song

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Mexico Resort Hotel Shooting Near Playa Del Carmen Leaves 1 Canadian Citizen Dead, 2 Wounded L ABC7 - From ABC7
The future of one of Mexico's most popular and important art collections, La Coleccion Banamex, is now facing uncertainty after CitiBanamex, the bank to which it belongs, has been put up for sale.

According to The Art News, Citigroup, an American multinational investment bank, finally decided to sell its subsidiary in Mexico. The financial company confirmed this detail on January 18.

That means that Citigroup is ending its 20-year retail presence in the country's banking market, as reported by Reuters. But it seems like the move is concerning many critics and enthusiasts.

Why? Because they believe that the La Coleccion Banamex will also be affected by the decision. La Coleccion Banamex is consist of more than 6,000 works including masterpieces by Frida Kahlo and Clemente Orozco.

La Coleccion Banamex: One of Mexico's Most Popular Art Collections in Trouble?

Although Citigroup did not confirm that it will also sell the art collection since CitiBanamex's collection and bank sales are different, the offloading still worries some Mexican artists.

READ NEXT: U.S. Forest Service Cannot Log its Way Out of the Climate Crisis, Wild Earth Guardians Says

Graciela de la Torre, the cultural promoter and former director of the Museo Nacional de San Carlos and Museo Nacional de Arte, said she was not actually worried about the art collection since Mexicans will not allow that to happen.

"I am much more concerned about the integrity of the cultural archives and the Formento's ongoing cultural work such as the research and philanthropic activities," she added.

On the other hand, Museo Unversitario Arte Contemporaneos Chief Curator, Cuauhtemoc Medina, said that La Coleccion Banamex should not be impacted by Citigroup's offloading of CitiBanamex.

What Would Happen to CitiBanamex's Employees?

Aside from the famous art collection, employees are also worried about their jobs in CitiBanamex. In November 2021, the bank's staff reached more than 31,000 workers, leading to 220,921 employees in total.

As of the moment, experts said that these people would only have two scenarios once the bank is sold in the coming months. First, their positions will be at serious risk of the buyer being an established national participant.

Meanwhile, Altonivel explained that the workers can still have their jobs if the buyer is a new foreign participant in Mexico's banking market. Right now, the best thing they can do is to expect the worst but hope for the best.

READ MORE: Small Businesses Send 20,000 Letters Urging Congress To Oppose Anti-Tech Legislation
Citing personal and family health reasons, Florida International University President Mark Rosenberg unexpectedly announced his resignation Friday, prompting the schools trustees to quickly select an interim replacement.

Rosenberg, who led the university since 2009, sent a letter to the FIU community Friday outlining the reasons for his departure.

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I am stepping back so that I may give full attention to recurring personal health issues and to the deteriorating health of my wife, Rosalie, he said.

Rosenberg, the universitys fifth president, began his academic career at FIU in 1976 as an assistant professor of political science, according to a biography on the schools website.

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In his parting message, Rosenberg said he would stay on at FIU as a professor.

I am proud of where we are today as a university and what we have achieved together in the last thirteen years since I was named as president. I intend to return to my first professional love as a member of the faculty and to resume my research and teaching on inter-American affairs and higher education, he wrote.

Mark B. Rosenberg, President of Florida International University, poses in front of the Steven and Dorothea Green Library located at the FIU Modesto Maidique Campus in Miami, on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. (Pedro Portal /Miami Herald via AP) (Pedro Portal/AP)

The universitys board of trustees held an emergency meeting Friday afternoon to vote on an interim president.

The board appointed FIU Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Jessell, who also serves as the universitys senior vice president for finance and administration, to take the helm. The state university systems Board of Governors will have to approve Jessells interim appointment.

Jessell has been the universitys CFO since 2009. Throughout his 26-year career at FIU, Jessell held what FIU Board of Trustees Chairman Dean Colson called key leadership positions, including high-profile interim posts.

Jessell previously served as interim university provost, interim vice president for university management, executive director of the FIU Foundation, and associate university provost. The newly minted interim leader addressed the trustees during Fridays meeting.

I will always be available. I will always do everything that is right. And I know that I can count on all of you, as I have over the last 13 years, to help me be the best interim president that anyone can be, Jessell said.

Colson briefed the trustees on the next steps for FIUs hunt for a permanent president.

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As a board, we all are going to have a lot of work to do. Over the next few weeks  leading up to our March 3 board meeting, were all going to learn a lot about searches, search committees, hiring search firms and (things) of that nature. In the next four to six months following that were going to be very busy as we do a search. And theres going to be an immense amount of interest in this job, Colson said during Fridays emergency meeting.

Rosenbergs departure made FIU the fourth state university that is either currently searching for a permanent president or poised to launch a presidential search.

The University of North Florida and the University of South Florida are currently being led by interim presidents and are in the process of seeking new leaders.

Earlier this month, University of Florida president Kent Fuchs announced he will be stepping down in fall of 2022 to work as a professor in the schools department of electrical and computer engineering.
The Education Minister of Buenos Aires City in Argentina is being criticized for her comments about students in poor areas who dropped out of school in the wake of the pandemic.

Currently, some areas in the United States are deciding to close their schools since the daily COVID-19 cases seem to worsen. Recently, WHO and other health agencies and independent researchers confirmed the appearances of Omicron, Delta, and Deltacron variants.

These new strains are considered to be more infectious than the recent variants. Since Argentina is one of the affected areas of COVID-19, many children are now deciding to leave their schools, particularly those residing in impoverished areas.

Buenos Aires City Education Minister in Argentina Now Criticized

According to Buenos Aires Times, the issue with Buenos Aires City Education Minister Soledad Acuna started after she said it was "too late" to look for dropouts from poor areas that failed to return to their classes after temporary shutdowns related to the pandemic.

READ NEXT: Donald Trump's Unsigned Executive Order Would Have Allowed National Guard to Seize Voting Machines: Report

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Acuna said the dropouts were now "lost" in the city's shantytowns and active in drug trafficking or had been forced to go to work. She added that there was no possibility for these students to re-enter the educational system.

"They have lost all possibilities and self-confidence regarding their opportunities to study. Obviously we must give it a try, but it is much harder than if this had been known two years ago with the [corresponding] decisions take," Acuna said.

Because of this, the ruling coalition's members considered her statement as a sign of "giving up" on the young individuals dropping out of school.

Economics and Politics reported that after Acuna made her remarks, Jaime Perczyck, the Minister of National Education, confirmed that they recorded 500,000 students who have not returned to their classes yet.

Soledad Acuna's Statement Receives Backlashes

Although Soledad Acuna received backlash over her statement, Argentina AS reported that it attracted the attention of various government agencies and officials in Argentina.

The National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) said the words of Acuna were discriminatory and stigmatizing since she had already made an early conclusion.

Gabriela Cerruti, the spokesperson for President of Argentina Alberto Fernandez, also shared her thoughts and said that it is never too late to encourage students to go back to their classes.

She noted that the national government always makes educational programs available to the public so everyone can attend or start returning to their classes this school year.

READ MORE: U.S. Speaks on 'Real Concerns' Regarding Mexico's Energy Plan During Energy Secretary's Visit
The New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) applaud New York Governor Kathy Hochul for prioritizing individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and the workforce that cares for them in her 2022 Executive Budget.

Here is the statement of New York Disability Advocates President Tom McAlvanah on Hochul's Executive Budget:

"The New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) applaud Governor Hochul for prioritizing individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and the workforce that cares for them in her 2022 Executive Budget. For too long, provider agencies who provide life-preserving care have been neglected by New York State.

With Governor Hochul's inclusion of the vital 5.4% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), as well as providing additional workforce retention funding for the I/DD community in her Executive Budget, it is clear a bright new day is upon us.

READ NEXT: New York Caring Majority: 'Hochul Missed Chance to End Home Care Crisis - Budget Leaves Seniors & Disabled People in Danger'

Direct Support Professionals are the backbone for the intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) community, and these investments are the recognition of their selfless and dedicated work. New York's I/DD community consists of over 130,000 people with I/DD, their families, friends, and support systems.

Governor Hochul's leadership has brought renewed hope to our community after a decade of contending with a workforce crisis. We look forward to working with the Governor, her administration, and the New York State Legislature to ensure these investments are included in the FY 2022-2023 Budget to sustain vital services for our community."

About New York Disability Advocates

New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) is a statewide coalition of seven non-profit provider associations encompassing more than 300 non-profit agencies providing vital services and support to more than 130,000 New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

READ MORE: Statement of New York Disability Advocates on Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2022 State of the State
Brian Laundrie's parents will not face any charges in connection with Gabby Petito's death, their attorney said.

Laundrie's family attorney Steven Bertolino told The Independent on Friday that he does not expect Chris and Roberta Laundrie to face any charges.

"To my knowledge there will be no charges," Bertolino said. The lawyer's statement came hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that Laundrie confessed to killing Petito in a message left in his notebook.

In its final report on the case, the FBI said a review of the notebook revealed written statements by Laundrie claiming responsibility for Petito's death. The FBI investigation has concluded that Laundrie was the only person responsible for Petito's "tragic death."

In a statement, FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said that while the agency had investigated all logical leads, the investigation immediately focused on the last person believed to see Petito alive, who was Laundrie.

Schneider noted that Laundrie has sent text messages between his and Petito's mobile phones after her death. According to Schneider, the timing and content of these messages were indicative of Laundrie "attempting to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression" that Petito was still alive.

"All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case. The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito. The FBI's primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family," Schneider said.

The FBI official then thanked the public "for the thousands of tips" provided. He also lauded their law enforcement partners "for their work throughout the investigation."

Petito's family attorney Richard Stafford thanked the FBI for its "diligent and painstaking efforts in this extremely complicated case."

"The quality and quantity of the facts and information collected by the FBI leave no doubt the Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby," Stafford said in a statement.

Bertolino also released a statement after the release of the FBI report. The lawyer said that "this tragedy has caused enormous emotional pain and suffering" to all those who loved Laundrie and Petito.

"We can only hope that with today's closure of the case, each family can begin to heal and move forward and find peace in and with the memories of their children. May Gabby and Brian both rest in peace," Bertolino added.

READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie, Gabby Petito Families Finally Agreed to Split the Couple's Belongings - Including the Notebook

Brian Laundrie Parents Want to Get Hold of the Notebook Found Near Their Son's Remains

Brian Laundrie's parents had reportedly tried to get possession of the notebook found near their son's remains. FBI agents took the said notebook after they found it during their search at the Carlton Reserve in Florida on the day they discovered Laundrie's remains.

The North Port police and FBI agents found Laundrie's remains at a swampy area in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20, after a month-long manhunt for him.

Laundrie's parents were present in the park when their son's remains and items were found. Questions surrounding the timeline of events between Laundrie's parents telling authorities they were going to search for their son and the discovery of his belongings have been raised by many people.

They had come under scrutiny for apparent contradictions in what they told authorities about when they last saw Laundrie and allegedly refused to cooperate with Petito's parents when they searched for her.

The elder Laundries never spoke with Petito's parents or told them that their son had come back to Florida. Petito lived at the Florida home with Laundrie for two years before taking off on their cross-country road trip.

FBI Says a Gun Was Found That Likely Belongs to Brian Laundrie

Apart from the notebook, the FBI confirmed on Friday that they also found a "backpack" and a "revolver" upon further search of the area, where Brian Laundrie's remains were found.

Bertolino earlier said that Chris and Roberta Laundrie noticed that one of their guns was missing when they voluntarily surrendered their firearms to authorities. He noted that Laundrie's parents discovered that one handgun was not in its case.

Bertolino said that the FBI and the North Port police were present at the time of the discovery. He noted that the elder Laundries had surrendered their firearms to authorities, except for the one missing, on September 17 - the same day that their son was reported missing.

The lawyer said the elder Laundries have "five or six guns" stored in their Florida home.

At present, although the FBI said they found a gun where Laundrie's remains were found, it was still unclear whether this was the firearm that was missing from the Laundrie family. But with the FBI closing the case, this gun was probably the one used by Laundrie to kill himself.

The partial skeletal remains found at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park were confirmed to belong to Laundrie after a review of dental records. According to the autopsy report, Laundrie died of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death was suicide.

Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. They were traveling to Oregon when the Petito stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.

Laundrie was named a person of interest by the North Port police after returning home alone on September 1 or 10 days before Petito was reported missing by her family.

On September 19, Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said Petito was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

Brian Laundrie was never charged in connection with Gabby Petito's murder. But an arrest warrant was issued for him for allegedly using Petito's debit card after her death.

READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Case: Probe Into Utah Cops Who Responded to Gabby Petito and Fiance's Domestic Dispute 'Close' to Wrapping Up
Portland, TN (37148)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 70F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Low 54F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Homes in the Innovation at Hidden Lake neighborhood off Hartwood-Marsh Road in Clermont, Fla., equipped with rooftop solar panels, Thursday, January 6, 2022. Florida Power & Light with the largest electric utility customer base in the U.S. is lobbying state lawmakers to introduce legislation that would suppress the use of rooftop solar power for Florida residences, according to reporting by the Miami Herald. Along with most of the east coast of the state, FP&L serves much of Seminole County in Central Florida. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Two years ago, a Republican state representative wrote to the people who regulate Floridas electricity markets, asking them to review a popular program that incentivizes residents to install rooftop solar panels.

In his letter to the Public Service Commission, Rep. Lawrence McClure of Dover cited a report from a think tank that was critical of the policy, known as net metering. The current system is fiercely opposed by the states utility providers, including Florida Power & Light, the nations largest energy company.

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Records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show that think tank  an organization known as Energy Fairness  has received extensive funding from entities controlled by FPL consultants.

Those consultants, who at the time worked for Alabama-based political consulting firm Matrix LLC, were involved in orchestrating the ghost candidate scheme in which independent candidates in three battleground Florida Senate elections in 2020 were promoted as progressive outsiders, evidently to siphon votes away from the Democrats in each race.

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They are among a network of political operatives who an Orlando Sentinel investigation revealed have in recent years used deceptive tactics to sway elections and ballot measures across the state, often to promote the interests of Floridas most powerful corporations.

The Public Service Commission ultimately decided not to act on McClures letter, but he and another legislator are now pushing a bill in Tallahassee that would end net metering in Florida. That bill was written by lobbyists for FPL, according to the Miami Herald and nonprofit news organization Floodlight.

FPL spokesperson David Reuter said in a statement the company complies with all laws concerning political activity and discloses contributions as required.

Like many Americans and most companies, FPL participates in the political process because nearly every aspect of our business is impacted by policy decisions at every level of government, Reuter wrote. We engage with various partners throughout the state of Florida to support our community outreach and education efforts on issues that affect our customers, our employees and our company.

He did not directly address questions about the companys relationship to Energy Fairness. McClure did not respond to questions about whether he knew about the connections between FPL and the think tank when he cited the report in his letter to the Public Service Commission.

Matrix operatives fueled anti-net metering group

Floridas net-metering program, which lawmakers approved in 2008, allows utility customers who install renewable energy sources, like solar panels, on their homes or businesses to sell excess electricity those devices generate back to utility companies.

The current policies have led to significant growth in the rooftop solar industry, but still, only about 1% of the states more than 8.5 million energy customers sell energy back to utility companies.

Solar advocates say utility companies, which have regional monopolies, are trying to crush the rooftop solar industry because its a potential competitor. Critics of net metering programs, including utilities, say they force customers without solar panels to pay higher prices because they end up subsidizing people with solar panels.

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In recent years, Floridas utilities have pushed to end net metering.

Theyve had a big ally in Energy Fairness.

The organization published a report in 2020, cited in McClures letter, that says Florida utilities should not pay customers with solar panels the retail rate for excess energy generated and those customers should be assessed charges for the cost of maintaining the electrical grid. A previous report, published in 2017 under Energy Fairnesss previous name, Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy, offered similar recommendations.

As a social welfare nonprofit, the think tank doesnt have to disclose its donors.

But a cache of records sent anonymously to the Sentinel last year showed Matrix LLC consultants, who were at the time being paid by FPL, were also working with Energy Fairness in recent years.

Those documents include a ledger of payments by entities controlled by the consultants which shows nearly $200,000 in support of Energy Fairness in 2018 for work related to FPL.

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Those payments included more than $65,000 to McNicholas and Associates, a Florida-based lobbying and public relations firm.

Paul Griffin, the executive director of Energy Fairness, didnt answer emailed questions from the Sentinel about his organizations relationship to Matrix and FPL, though he said he had never been employed by Matrix. He said his organization tries to alert lawmakers to the dangers of badly designed net metering programs.

We published our 2020 report on net metering in Florida because we had serious concerns that the states overly generous net metering program would force low-income customers to pay for rooftop solar for richer families. We continue to have those concerns not only in Florida, but in states like California, Griffin wrote in an email.

The Matrix records also show FPL has donated more than $10 million in recent years to other dark-money nonprofits controlled by some of the same consultants, including organizations that paid for many Energy Fairness expenses. About half of the $400,000 raised by Energy Fairness in 2018 came through organizations tied to the consulting firm, the documents show.

And Abigail MacIver, a former Matrix employee who helped coordinate fundraising for Grow United  the nonprofit that directly funded the political committees behind the ad campaign that promoted the ghost candidates  also used to work for Energy Fairness.

The Matrix records also show entities controlled by the consultants paid $38,000 in June 2018 to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group of state lawmakers and business leaders, on Energy Fairness behalf.

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Two months later, the think tank presented at the organizations annual meeting in New Orleans, with the organizations then-executive director speaking on a panel called Flexibility, Fuels and the Future.

New group pushes net metering opposition

This session, a new group seeking to end Floridas net metering programs has shown up in Tallahassee.

A lobbyist working as a subcontractor for Energy Fairness is now representing Seniors Across America, which is championing the current legislation sponsored by McClure and Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Orange Park, that would end Floridas current net metering program.

Senate Bill 1024 passed its first committee vote last week.

Seniors Across America aims to improve the quality of life for Americans 65 years and older, according to the groups website. Its top priorities include promoting policies that do not punish seniors with higher electric bills to offset the savings enjoyed by those with rooftop solar panels on their homes.

The nonprofit organization, formed in June by prominent Republican attorney Bucky Mitchell, is led by John Grant, a former state lawmaker who has previously lobbied for bills backed by FPL and for a Koch Brothers-backed group called 60 Plus Association. Grant didnt respond to voice messages and emails seeking comment from the Sentinel.

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Speaking during the public comment portion of the Senate Committee on Regulated Industries last week, Grant made arguments similar to the ones McClure detailed in his letter to the Public Service Commission two years ago. He told lawmakers that net metering rewarded wealthy homeowners at the expense of people who live in apartments or cant afford to install solar panels on their rooftops, especially seniors.

There should be fairness and there should not be a premium paid to those who can afford solar, Grant told the Senate committee.

FPL has long been a heavy hitter in Florida Politics. The company is one of the largest donors to state legislative campaigns and the Florida Senate is particularly important to the utility company because it must confirm appointments the governor makes to the Public Service Commission, which recently voted to let FPL raise rates by nearly $5 billion over the next four years

Records from the Matrix internal investigation obtained by the Sentinel also show that the same former Matrix consultants whose entities provided payments that benefited Energy Fairness played a key role in the states ghost candidate scandal.

The consultants billed FPL for more than $3 million days before they began moving money through the dark money entity that paid for advertisements championing independent candidates in three Florida Senate races. The ads were worded to appeal to progressive voters, part of a scheme to siphon votes from the Democrats in those races.

Former state senator Frank Artiles has been charged with bribing a friend to file to run in one of those races, a Miami-area district where Republican Ileana Garcia defeated Jose Javier Rodriguez by just 32 votes, while independent candidate Alex Rodriguez drew more than 6,000 votes.

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FPL has repeatedly denied its employees had any involvement in the ghost candidate scheme.

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com
There were no beds in Portlaoise hospital where Covid-19 patients continue to require care on the eve of the lifting of many pandemic restrictions by the Government.

The Covid-19 Daily Operations Update from the Acute Hospitals Performance Management and Improvement Unit in the HSE reported on cases at 8 pm Thursday, January 20.

It showed that there were eight patients with Covid-19 at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. Of these two had been admitted in the previous 24 hours. There was one critically ill patient in the hospital's ICU fighting the virus under the care of Frontline staff.

The report also reveals the bed situation facing staff and management at the Laois hospital. There were no general beds or intensive care beds for patients in the Laois hospital on Thursday.

The virus continues to be a issue for doctors, nurses and other staff at other hospitals in the HSE's Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.

There were ten people with the virus at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. Two people were critically ill. It had 13 free general beds but no ICU beds.

Naas General had 15 patients with Covid-19 of whom three were admitted in the previous 24 hours. The Kildare hospital's ICU had one critically ill Covid-19 patient. There were eight free general beds but no vacant ICU beds in the hospital.

Tallaght and St James's are the other two acute hospitals in the group.

Tallaght had 30 Covid cases on Thursday of whom four were critically ill. There were no available general or ICU beds in the big Dublin hospital.

St James's had 39 confirmed virus cases. Nine of these people were in ICU. It had six general beds but no ICU beds.

Nationally, there were 849 people in hospital with the virus with 122 admitted in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday night. There were 89 people with Covid-19 in ICUs in Ireland.

There were 105 available general beds and 15 ICU free beds across the country.
Stealing someones bike is a nasty offence, Judge Catherine Staines said last week in Portlaoise district court.

She made her comments in the case of Christopher OBrien, 33, of 107 St. Brigids Place, Portlaoise who was charged with stealing a mountain bike at Laois Shopping Centre on June 2, 2021.

Sgt JJ Kirby said that at 11am on that date the injured party parked his bike at the Laois Shopping Centre. Christopher OBrien took the bike. It was valued at 120 and had not been recovered.

Appearing for Mr OBrien, solicitor Barry Fitzgerald noted that this was Mr OBriens longest period of time out of custody. His nephews bike had been taken and he thought this was the bike.

He had 120 in compensation in court, and he had paid this in instalments into Mr Fitzgeralds office. He apologised for what had happened. He was engaging with the services and was drug free. He was doing well in the context of his past history.

Judge Catherine Staines said that stealing someones bike was a nasty offence.

She asked what he had done with the bike.

Mr Fitzgerald said that he had left it at his nephews home.

Judge Staines told him to hand over the compensation. She noted that she had previously given Mr OBrien huge chances last year.

She imposed a three month prison sentence, suspended for one year.
County Kildare Chamber has welcomed the announcement by Government to ease the public health restrictions which will provide businesses across Ireland an opportunity to reach their full potential.

Following the announcement by An Taoiseach on Friday, Chamber chief executive Allan Shine said: The decision by Government will come as a relief to the many business owners in Kildare and across Ireland who have played a crucial role in navigating the threat posed by Covid-19. Through several immensely challenging periods, they have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting public health. Their businesses, which are hugely important to the people and strength of our local economies, now have a chance to make their full contribution to their communities and the staff they employ.

Of course, this commitment has not been without cost. This must be recognised by Government as it considers the future of its business support schemes. Even in a best-case scenario, the risk of insolvency will still exist for businesses through no fault of their own. Existing schemes have been extremely valuable in securing continuity and stabilising the economy but, as we enter a new phase, supports will be required for those working in vulnerable sectors.

As we manage a return to the workplace, it is also important that businesses engage with employees to deliver a safe and fair return that takes account of changes that have taken place in the last two years. For many, flexible and remote working has been a consequence of the pandemic but every effort should be made to retain the benefits it has provided to employees and the economy. The long-term benefits of doing so will be happier staff, a more inclusive labour force and higher levels of productivity.

We must also remember that previous experience has shown that calling an end to the pandemic while the virus continues to circulate is premature. Our high vaccination level has provided an important layer of protection across the island but the threat of future variants remains. The most important step we can take to avoid that threat is to advocate for, and participate in, efforts to deliver vaccine equity and achieve high levels of protection in all regions of the world.
The Government has approved future plans for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).

The new arrangements agreed for the PUP scheme are as follows:

PUP will close for new applications on 22 January 2022 in line with the Government decision to lift restrictions.

With effect from 8 March 2022, anyone still in receipt of the PUP will move to a weekly rate of 208. This represents a four week extension on what was previously announced.

PUP recipients will start transitioning to standard jobseeker terms, and if eligible, will move onto a jobseeker payment effective from 5 April 2022. Minister Humphreys said: The Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been an absolutely vital support for workers and their families.

What was originally intended to be just a six week short-term payment will now last for over two years with over 9 Billion in payments issued to workers.

In line with the widespread lifting of restrictions, the Government has today approved plans for the winding down of the PUP over the coming months.

The decision to lift restrictions represents a hugely positive step which will see tens of thousands of people return to work over the coming weeks as the country begins to return to normal.
The following deaths have occurred in the wider Leitrim area:

Teresa Finlay (nee Fair), Loch Gowna, Cavan / Mayo



Finlay, Teresa, (nee Fair) Loch Gowna, Co. Cavan, (formerly of Mayo and London) Thursday, 20th January, peacefully, at Virginia Health Centre. Predeceased by her husband Brendan. Sadly missed by her treasured family, daughters; Caroline, Josephine, Eileen and Monica, sons in law; Richard, Selwyn, Peter and Nick, grandchildren; Roisin, Siobhan, Amy, Patrick, Molly, James, Annie and Lucy great-grandchildren; Orla and Rufus, extended family and a large circle of friends. Requiem Mass will be held on Saturday, 22nd January at 11am in the Church of the Holy Family, Loch Gowna (H12 FT54) with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Funeral Mass can be viewed on https://www.facebook.com/parishofgownaandmullinalaghta Due to the current restrictions and guidelines walk through only at the Funeral Home and Church with no handshaking and face coverings must be worn at all times.

Patricia (Patty) Spillane (nee Ellis), Arva, Cavan



And Luton, England. Predeceased by her husband Liam in 2016. She will be sadly missed by her son Brendan (Luton), daughter Una (Navan), grandson Stephen, extended family, relatives and friends. Reposing at the Lakelands Funeral Home, Dublin Road, Cavan this Saturday evening from 4pm until 6pm. Removal on Sunday evening arriving to the Sacred Heart Church, Arva at 6pm. Funeral Mass on Monday morning at 11am followed by burial in Cornea Cemetery. Please continue to comply with Covid 19 Government guidelines with regard to social distancing, handshaking and face-coverings.

Kathleen (Kay) McCamphill (nee McGoldrick), Malahide, Dublin / Leitrim



McCamphill (nee McGoldrick), Kathleen (Kay), Malahide and formerly of Co. Leitrim, 14th January 2022. Peacefully, in the care of Beaumont Hospital and cared for by the staff in Care Choice Nursing Home. Beloved wife of Jarlath. Very sadly missed by her loving husband, daughters Jane and Susan, sons-in-law Steve and Robin, grandchildren James, Laura and Joshua, sisters Maureen and Rois, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family, friends and neighbours. Reposing in Staffords Funeral Home, Golf Links Road, Portmarnock on Monday, 24th January, from 2pm to 4pm. Removal to St. Sylvester's Church, Malahide on Tuesday morning for 10.30am Funeral Mass followed by cremation in Dardistown Crematorium. Family flowers only please. A live stream of Kathleen's Funeral Mass can be viewed on the following link: https://www.churchservices.tv/malahide

May they all Rest in Peace
OPTEL Group, which has a local base in the Raheen Industrial Estate has made a fresh acquisition.

The firm, a world leader in supply chain traceability has bought the track-and-trace unit of the Korber Business Area Pharma, formerly known as Traxeed, based in Germany. Korber is an leading international technology group.

This gives Optel a second base in Europe to go alongside its premises locally.

This will allow Optel to leverage the units expertise in pharmaceutical and agrochemical track-and-trace technologies, provide the company with a second foothold in the European marketplace and contribute to its diversification plans.

Creating a strong presence in the German market is key to the success of our strategic objectives because Germany is a well-established manufacturing hub, with a strong history of developing innovative manufacturing efficiency solutions and Industry 4.0 technologies, said Louis Roy, the founder and president of Optel."

We are pleased that we have found a solid and future-oriented new owner with a broad international market access, from whose global network and years of experience in the highly specialised track-and-trace sector customers will clearly benefit. We are furthermore convinced that the new strategic owner can open up attractive development opportunities for the team, added Dr Jurgen Krebs, chief technology officer and chief operating officer in the Korber Business Area Pharma.

The acquisition will see Optel, which employs around 100 in Limerick, welcome highly skilled pharma track-and-trace experts from Korber, complementing its existing strengths in traceability, vision technologies, software and hardware.

The firm adds it will solidify and expand its company's presence in the European market by providing a second base of operations after Limerick.

In addition to the acquisition, a close collaboration between Optel and Korber's Business Area Pharma is planned in future. Founded in 1989, Optel has become the worlds top provider of track-and-trace solutions to the pharma industry.
A dog up for adoption at the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption in Ft. Lauderdale Florida on Wednesday, December 30, 2020. A stinging audit has uncovered a slew of problems at the troubled county-run animal shelter, lambasted by activists for years over allegations of mismanagement. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Almost a decade ago, Broward County commissioners passed a resolution for our county animal shelter to become no-kill. Browards homeless animals are still waiting. During the past 10 years, the shelter has been called out multiple times for poor conditions and inhumane treatment of animals. Multiple directors have been brought in to try to remedy the sinking ship. The community sees through this ruse, and the animals continue to suffer.

The shelter is failing to provide basic care of its animals and continues to kill at a high rate. The new director closes shelter intake services and leaves animals on the streets or in the hands of citizens not equipped to care for stray animals. Adoptable pets succumb to kennel stress due to overcapacity and inadequate programs and are killed for reasons of behavior.

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Euthanasia should be reserved only for irremediably suffering animals, which is not the case in Broward. The citizens of Broward County and its homeless animals deserve a shelter that adheres to the principles of no-kill after waiting for a decade for it to come to fruition. As always, we stand willing and ready to assist in a true no-kill endeavor.

Sloan Cowart, Dania Beach

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(Editors Note: Asked to respond, Broward Animal Care Division Director Emily Wood said the 2012 no-kill resolution was a goal and that in 2021, 86% of animals were released to the community. She said euthanasia is used only to end irremediable suffering or if an animal poses a threat to the community. Wood said intake services have not closed).

Creeping authoritarianism

Gov. Ron DeSantis knows that an authoritarian state needs protection squads to enforce its will on the people, and he is quickly putting his forces into place.

His private police force will reestablish the Florida State Guard. An election police force will create an office of election crimes and security. An individual freedom bill will create thought police. If you believe these forces are there to protect your freedoms, they are not. They are there to take them away. Unfortunately, this is something that people living under authoritarian regimes usually learn too late.

Lanny Budd, Fort Lauderdale

DeSantis silver lining

DeSantis did it again. He will defy the federal mandate for vaccination of hospital workers. This may cause job losses for workers who refuse to be vaccinated, but theres more. Most hospitals serve their communities as emergency medical clinics for the uninsured.

Without federal funding, this will lead to even more cutbacks of hospital staff  or worse, closings of hospitals that serve their communities. Once again, the people of Florida will lose, but the silver lining in all this is DeSantis national attention for 2024.

Gary Kaufman, Boca Raton

Blue lives matter, too

Why didnt the Sun Sentinel put the case of the Cleveland Browns defensive tackle running down a sheriffs deputy on the front page?

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Its because the often biased newspaper prefers to showcase a Sunrise police sergeant as its latest target. Sadly, blue lives really dont matter all that often.

Richie Baptista, Fort Lauderdale
Taoiseach Micheal Martin became somewhat emotional on Friday evening as he announced the lifting of almost all Covid-19 restrictions.

Cabinet had earlier signed off on plans to lift all regulations  except for mask-wearing, self-isolation and Covid passes for international travel  from 6am on Saturday morning.

Workers will return to offices on a staggered basis from Monday while normal hours will resume in the hospitality industry this weekend.

An Nphet report has advised Government that Ireland has weathered the Omicron storm and that all the key indicators have stabilised and are going in the right direction.

In an address to the nation, Mr Martin said: It confirmed that Irelands world-class vaccination programme and the rollout of the boosters has utterly transformed our situation.

Based on this evidence, weve concluded that the rationale and justification for continuing most of our public health restrictions are no longer in place.

Therefore from 6am tomorrow morning Saturday], the majority of public health measures that we have had to live with will be removed.

Guidance on household visits and restrictions on gatherings at indoor and outdoor events will be lifted.

The Covid-19 pass for international travel will remain, due to the Covid-19 situation in other countries.

Masks will still be needed in all the locations where they are currently required.

Protective measures will also remain in place in primary and secondary schools.

This will be reviewed at the end of February, by which time all children aged five to 11 will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, he said.

He urged parents to vaccinate their children and speak to their GPs about any concerns they may have.

However, the Taoiseach warned that the coronavirus pandemic is not over.

It will still require all of us to be vigilant. The changes were making will likely lead to a temporary rise in infections in the short term but we are advised that the impact of this rise will be limited by the scale of vaccination in the population, he said.

It is important also to say that I cant promise you there wont be further twists in this pandemic requiring different decisions in the future but I do know this, solidarity with each other and trust in science has got us to where we are today and will get us through whatever else this virus may throw at us.

He said there will be challenges ahead, including vaccinating the developing world.

He added: There is much to do, but today is a good day.

And we should all take a moment to appreciate how far weve come, to appreciate the effort and sacrifice of those who put themselves in harms way to keep us safe, to remember and appreciate the lives and contribution of those we lost.

We think of all those who died with Covid and indeed all those who passed away over the course of the last two years, who we were not able to mourn as we would have liked or as they deserved.

Todays news would be warmly welcomed by many, but Im conscious that some among us including our more vulnerable will be feeling some anxiety about re-engaging with others.

For those who do feel like that, Id ask you to be open about it. Share it. We all need to be open with each other, be supportive of each other, mind each other.

He became emotional as he added: Spring is coming. I dont know if Ive ever looked forward to one as much as Im looking forward to this one.

Spring is coming.



We need to see each other again,



we need to see each other smile,



we need to sing again. pic.twitter.com/149ZHQLfJx  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) January 21, 2022

Humans are social beings and we Irish are more social than most.

As we look forward to this spring, we need to see each other again. We need to see each other smile. We need to sing again.

As we navigate this new phase of Covid, it is time to be ourselves again.

The Taoiseach went on to say that the recovery of society is under way and government will continue to do what is necessary to support it.

The government decided today to continue and extend the provision of a number of key supports particularly the employment wage subsidy scheme, he said.

The @hpscireland has today been notified of 6,597* confirmed cases of #COVID19. In addition, on Thursday 20 January, 4,564** people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) January 21, 2022

A further 6,597 cases of Covid-19 were notified in Ireland on Friday.

In addition, 4,564 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.

As of 8am on Friday, there were 892 Covid-positive patients in hospital, with 88 in intensive care.
In view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the country, Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje on Friday said that lockdowns and curfews are not required if people are disciplined.

The Union Minister of State, who was on a personal visit to her hometown, urged people to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols.

"We have to learn to live with COVID-19 at present. We are living in the presence of this virus for the past few months. I know that curfews disturb people's lives. I believe that lockdown and curfews are not required if people are disciplined. I urge all the people to wear masks and follow the COVID-19 guidelines," she said while addressing the reporters on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, she said the government and health department should take the opinion of experts on imposing curfews and lockdowns.

Hailing the decision by the Karnataka government to lift the weekend curfews, the minister said that such decisions are taken keeping in interests of autorickshaw drivers, taxi drivers and those involved in hotel businesses.

The Karnataka government on Friday decided to withdraw the weekend curfew in the state.karns

As per a release from the Chief Minister's Office, the decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on COVID-19 situation in the state.

However, depending on the hospitalisation trend next week, a suitable decision would be taken at a meeting on whether to reimpose the restrictions, added the release.

On January 4, amid surging COVID-19 cases, the Karnataka government had imposed a weekend curfew in the state for the next two weeks.

During the meeting, it was decided that the night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am will continue be in force. Malls, hotels, bars, clubs and pubs will continue operating at 50 per cent capacity and mandatory double vaccination against COVID-19.

Karnataka on Friday recorded 48,049 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per the state health bulletin. The state has recorded 22 Covid related deaths from this virus yesterday.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 / Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy photo /Webb County Sheriffs Office Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A traffic stop on Thursday led to the recovery of four stolen vehicles, weapons and ammunition, according to the Webb County Sheriffs Office.

Sheriffs officials also arrested one man in relation to the case. He was identified as Christian Salinas, 27, of Laredo.
New Delhi/Toronto, Jan 21 (UNI) The bodies of four Indians, including an infant and a teen, have been found frozen to death at the Canada-US border, in a suspected human smuggling operation. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has expressed shock at the incident and directed the Indian ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation.

The EAM said in a tweet:

Shocked by the report that 4 Indian nationals, including an infant have lost their lives at the Canada-US border. Have asked our Ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation.
The second phase of the 'Rail Trail' in the Town of Lockport will go from Murphy Road to the City of Lockport/Town of Lockport line. It's been funded by a state grant of $168,000.
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Netflix has offered a first glimpse at the second series of its hit show Bridgerton ahead of its release in March.

The costume drama arrived on Netflix on Christmas Day 2020 and proved to be one of the streaming giants most popular original series.

It starred Rege-Jean Page as the dashing Duke of Hastings, who will not be returning in the latest series, and Phoebe Dynevor as debutant Daphne Bridgerton.

Welcome back to Bridgerton  here is your first look at Season 2 pic.twitter.com/Fx44Cf5NSs  Netflix (@netflix) January 19, 2022

In a tweet on Wednesday, Netflix said: Welcome back to Bridgerton  here is your first look at Season 2.

Stills from the new series introduce viewers to new character Kate Sharma, played by Sex Education star Simone Ashley.

One image shows her character wearing an elaborate costume and having a seemingly romantic exchange with Lord Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey, as the two prepare to dance.

In another, she is standing in the forest holding a firearm with Lord Anthony lurking in the background.

Kate and her sister Edwina Sharma, played by Charithra Chandran, are the newest cast members to the show.

The series will follow eldest Bridgerton sibling Viscount Anthony as he sets out to find a suitable wife, as detailed in the second romance novel in a series by Julia Quinn.

In the first look at the series, Bridgerton brothers Anthony and Colin, played by Luke Newton, are seen sparring while Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) watches from the sidelines.

Across Grosvenor Square, the Featheringtons are welcoming the newest heir to their estate, while Penelope, played by Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, has an intense conversation with her friend Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie).

Series three and four have already been commissioned by Netflix, as well as a prequel series telling the origin story of Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel.

Netflix said the show had become its biggest original series after it was viewed by a record 82 million households in 28 days.

The second season lands on March 25.
Mary Lou McDonald has welcomed the lifting of most Covid restrictions in Ireland as a very good day but said politics now needs to get back to work.

The Sinn Fein president was reacting following the announcement by Taoiseach Micheal Martin around the lifting of the majority of Covid restrictions.

She also paid tribute to the public for their efforts.

'Let's raise a glass': Longford's hospitality sector rejoice at lifting of Covid-19 restrictions Longford's hospitality industry are waking up this morning to the ending of two years of Covid-19 restrictions following last night's state address by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

People will still have a level of caution because of course the virus is still here, its nasty, you dont want to catch it, so there are still precautions that need to be taken but its very clear now that vaccination, that boosters and above all else, I want to pay tribute to the community at large, the general public, our frontline workers, our carers, our young people for whom it has been a really, really difficult two years, she told RTE.

People really have been incredibly responsive, incredibly responsible and it is time now to get back, not to normal because I think we have to learn the lessons from the pandemic in terms of our health service, housing need which is chronic for so many people.

Politics now needs to get back to business, we need to knuckle down and there has to be delivery for people and I too think particularly this evening of those families who lost loved ones over the course of what has been a very difficult two years, and I think we need to learn the lessons of everything weve been through.

Its now time to get back out, get back to work, get back to life and in some respects to pick up the pieces but in a broader political sense to start driving on and to deliver the kind of change our people deserve.

Mrs McDonald also emphasised that support payments are needed to help businesses restricted over the last two years to rebuild.

This is something that weve raised consistently with government in the course of this emergency, she said.

Its very important when people couldnt go to work, when businesses could not open their doors that the state supported them fully, and its very important that there isnt a cliff edge.

This is something we need to keep under constant review.
The Government has approved future plans for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).

The new arrangements agreed for the PUP scheme are as follows:

PUP will close for new applications on 22 January 2022 in line with the Government decision to lift restrictions.

With effect from 8 March 2022, anyone still in receipt of the PUP will move to a weekly rate of 208. This represents a four week extension on what was previously announced.

'Let's raise a glass': Longford's hospitality sector rejoice at lifting of Covid-19 restrictions Longford's hospitality industry are waking up this morning to the ending of two years of Covid-19 restrictions following last night's state address by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

PUP recipients will start transitioning to standard jobseeker terms, and if eligible, will move onto a jobseeker payment effective from 5 April 2022. Minister Humphreys said: The Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been an absolutely vital support for workers and their families.

What was originally intended to be just a six week short-term payment will now last for over two years with over 9 Billion in payments issued to workers.

In line with the widespread lifting of restrictions, the Government has today approved plans for the winding down of the PUP over the coming months.

The decision to lift restrictions represents a hugely positive step which will see tens of thousands of people return to work over the coming weeks as the country begins to return to normal.
Colombo/Male, Jan 22 (UNI) Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has said he does not see a bigger role for China in the Maldives and his governments India First policy must remain Males foreign policy, even as he slammed the India Out campaign of former president Abdulla Yameen as very misguided and very unpopular.

Parliament Speaker Nasheed, who is visiting Colombo, in an interview to the Daily Mirror, when asked about a bigger role for China in the Maldives, said: I dont see a bigger role for China. I think our India First policy must remain the foreign policy of the Maldives. And it is.

Asked about the India Out campaign being actively promoted by Yameen, he said: I think its very misguided. Very unpopular.

For whatever reason President Yameen feels that he can whip-up anti-Indian sentiment in the Maldives, a xenophobic, nationalistic tendency.

But I dont think the people are buying it. I dont think there will be popular support for any movement against India or for that matter any country. I think its very misguided, he said, and added that President Yameen must stop it.

He also said his Maldivian Democratic Party will continue to pursue the India First policy.

Yes, that will be the policy that the MDP will always pursue and for the last 3-4 years we have done that. And I am sure we will continue doing that.

Asked about his views on Presidents Ibrahim Solihs government, he said: First, it is a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Government. The President is fulfilling the pledges that we made to the people.

I believe that the Government is successful in doing much of what we have promised. But, of course there are shortcomings and we have a lot of work to do. But I do believe that we have delivered on much of the pledges that we promised to the people when we came to Government this time.

Asked if the Maldives administration was doing enough to fight against extremism, he said: Yes, they are. The President has formulated a counter terrorism unit in the Presidents office.

It is now co-ordinated. The Police and military are both engaged in the work and I believe that we are addressing the issue and we will be able to root out the violent elements within.

On concerns that Maldives is becoming a haven for Islamist extremists, he said: Throughout the world there are extremist views. Especially extremist religious views.

Yes, our young people are being indoctrinated to these extreme views. And it is happening in many places. We have to be very careful about it. We have to have programmes that would educate our people, that would enlighten our people on how things should work.

And I think this is a very serious issue for all our governments, including the Maldives Government and other regions, the Sri Lankan Government and everyone. We must join our hands and fight against extremism and terrorism.

Nasheed had been the target of a bomb attack in May last year and had suffered serious injuries.

He said he is much better and that all the injuries and all the wounds have healed. And his health is now fine. I am good.

UNI/RN
An Irish man on a Delta flight from Dublin to New York has been charged after allegedly refusing to wear a mask, throwing a can that hit another passenger and exposing his buttocks to a flight attendant.

Shane McInerney, 29, from Galway, created numerous disturbances on the January 7 Delta flight that was heading to John F Kennedy International Airport, according to a federal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

'Let's raise a glass': Longford's hospitality sector rejoice at lifting of Covid-19 restrictions Longford's hospitality industry are waking up this morning to the ending of two years of Covid-19 restrictions following last night's state address by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

The legal papers read: During the approximately eight-hour flight, the defendant repeatedly refused to wear a face mask despite being asked dozens of times by flight crew personnel.

McInerney has been charged with interfering with flight crew, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

He made a court appearance last week and was released on bond. His lawyer, Benjamin Yaster, declined to comment.

In a statement, Delta said the airline has zero tolerance for unruly behaviour at our airports and aboard our aircraft as nothing is more important that the safety of our people and our customers.

According to the complaint, McInerney at one point walked from his seat to complain to an attendant about the food, and on his way back pulled his pants down, mooning the attendant and nearby passengers.

The pilot attempted to speak with McInerney, the complaint said, at which point the passenger put his cap on the pilots head.

He also told the pilot not to touch him and put his fist near the pilots face, according to the complaint.

As the plane made its final approach to JFK, McInerney allegedly refused to stay in his seat, instead standing in the aisle. Authorities took him into custody upon landing.

Accounts of unruly passenger behaviour have risen sharply, with US airlines saying there were more than 5,000 episodes last year.

The majority of them, over 3,600 cases, included people allegedly refusing to wear face masks as required.
Hello Manistee County! I hope you had a great week and you have some nice plans for the weekend.

I actually had a really nice week. It was very busy, but I got a lot accomplished this week. Sometimes I am busy chasing my tail and trying to get a lot of things done, trying to solve so many problems, but when I can sit and just get work done, I always feel better.

We had some great people following the yellow brick road this week. Our staff thought it would be fun to give the walkers something to look at or have a little fun on their walk around the building. So they came up with the yellow brick walk from the Wizard of Oz. It is fun to see all of the ideas people come up here to entertain our seniors.

It was funny, I had a provider training this week on zoom and the speaker is a retired, educated University of Michigan Professor who is also a psychiatrist. She was speaking about how to manage our burnout. The funny thing was that she says such funny things and doesnt realize that she is funny. While she is talking, she says things like, "you are the way you are because of biology, stupid," or what a dummy she was when it came to her life and when she was teaching. I love the fact that she is who she is when teaching this class and it makes learning more fun.

I had a couple of calls from people who wanted to learn how to play pickleball too. If you want to give it a try, meet me at the Armory Youth Project on Monday Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. and we will see how it goes. I am really anxious because I am very clumsy and out of shape, but at this point in my life I just really want to give it a try.

Well it was decided to have a little Valentines Day get together on Feb. 14 starting at 12:30 p.m. If you want to come in and have lunch before the festivities begin, just give us a call and get signed up. We will have some great music by Gary Loper and some treats and surprises. We will need to limit the crowd so let us know if you are going to come and join us for this special day. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the day with all of us. I hope to see you there.

Wow, yesterday we had our monthly food bank and I cannot get over the number of seniors that are participating in this service. The numbers seem to be climbing due to the higher costs of everything in the world. I am just amazed how many seniors are going to be struggling just to make ends meet. I have heard from so many who live off of their social security that they got a raise on their checks, but that their medical went up substantially so their checks are the same. If you can give back to your community, give to our local food banks. This is a great opportunity to help your neighbors with non-perishable items or a monetary gift.

Our senior nutrition program is really doing well and getting larger. If you or someone you know might want to give a couple of hours a week to be a volunteer driver, that would really help out. We are going to make a couple of new routes with all of the new homebound seniors we are adding. My favorite thing about the route is seeing a lot of happy faces when I am delivering a meal. If this sounds like something you would like to help with, give Beth and Shannon a call at 231-723-6477.

I hope you have a great week and remember to try something new!

CONGREGATE MEALS

The congregate meal site at the Wagoner Community Center is serving lunch Monday through Friday at noon. Remember to call and reserve your lunch by noon the day before. The congregate meal site in Wellston is closed temporarily. The Onekama meal site at the Farr Center is handing out meals at 11:15 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesday for curbside carryout. The menu is subject to change, as certain food shortages can affect the kitchen.

FOOD BANK

The senior center food bank takes place from 9-11 a.m. on the third Friday of the month. Seniors from Manistee County who are 60 years of age and older are eligible to participate. If you are picking up for another senior, be sure you have a proxy note, along with their name, address, birthdate and household information. Monetary and non-perishable food item donations are always appreciated. Next food bank is Friday, Feb. 18, 9-11 a.m., 260 St. Mary's Parkway.

EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE

If you are a Manistee County senior and are in need of emergency food assistance, call the senior center at 231-723-6477 and speak to a staff member. We have an emergency food pantry that we use to help prevent food insecurity in our senior population during these times.

SENIOR REIMBURSEMENT PROGRAM

The Manistee County Council on Aging has a program designed to help seniors remain independent, by reimbursing qualifying expenses. If you are a senior from Manistee County, you could receive reimbursement for payments you have made for house cleaning, yard work, snow removal services. For current clients in the senior reimbursement program, take note, all receipts must be current, no more than 30 days old. Income requirements apply. New clients must fill out a registration form. Mail all receipts to 260 St. Mary's Parkway. Call the Senior Center at 231-723-6477 ext. 214, for more information. Once a senior has moved out of their home, they are no longer qualified for the reimbursement program.

EXERCISE OPPORTUNITIES

Sit and Get Fit is at 10 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday at the Wagoner Community Center. Cardio drumming classes are Thursday evenings at 5:45 p.m. Yoga classes are Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. (chair yoga), and Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. (regular yoga). Tai Chi is at 9 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Zumba classes are at 2 p.m., Monday and Wednesday. Indoor walking group, is at 1 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Monday. All classes are free to all seniors, and donations accepted for those under 60.

DEMENTIA SUPPORT GROUP

The dementia support group will meet the second Thursday of the month. The group is a supportive, friendly gathering for caregivers, family members or anyone interested in learning more about and supporting our senior dementia community. The next meeting will be at 3 p.m. on Jan. 13. Contact Jacki Krolczyk, 231-883-1341 for more information.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT GROUP

The Parkinson's support group meets at 11 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month.The next support group meeting will be on March 17 at the Wagoner Community Center. Call Marcia Holbrook 231-614-937-4442 for more information. There are no meetings in January or February.

MEDICATION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

The Manistee County Council on Aging has started a medication management program. Jean Anderson, the RN on staff, is available to assist in this area. Feel free to call with your questions. 231-723-6477, ext. 215

SENIOR NUTRITION MENU Jan. 24-28

Monday: Egg and cheese omelette, sausage, peppers and onions, apple juice, blueberry muffin

Tuesday: Sloppy Joe on a bun, oven diced potatoes, baked beans, fruit cocktail

Wednesday: Cabbage rolls, spinach, stewed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, banana, roll

Thursday: Macaroni & cheese, peas, California blend vegetables, diced pears, pretzel roll

Fri: Baked pork chop, sweet potatoes, green beans, cinnamon apple slices, roll

Menus are subject to change.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan. 24

 9 a.m. - Tai Chi

 11 a.m. - Walking group

 1 p.m. - Pinochle

 1 p.m. - Mah Jongg

 2 p.m. - Zumba

Jan. 25

 11 a.m. - Music with Sonny

 2 p.m. - Knitting/Crochet circle

 3:30 p.m. - Chair Yoga

Jan. 26

 9 a.m. - Tai Chi

 10:30 a.m. - TOPS

 11 a.m. - Fun Bingo

 1:30 p.m. - Genealogy group

 2 p.m. - Zumba

Jan. 27

 10 a.m. - Cribbage

 11 a.m. - Bunco

 4:30 p.m. - Yoga

 5:45 p.m. - Cardio drumming

Jan. 28

 1 p.m. - Walking group
The American Red Cross has gone from a record high 10-day supply, reached during the Sept. 11 tragedy, to less than a one-day supply of blood. Red Cross officials are trying to avoid an even more serious critical state, such as an emergency, where hospitals would have to cancel surgeries. Luckily, that hasnt happened yet.

40 YEARS AGO

Boss of the Year

Boss of the Year and other awards were presented during the Manistee Jaycees annual awards presentations held last night at the Elks Club. John DeVries was awarded Boss of the Year with other award winners Art Anderson, Outstanding Youg Man; John Carlson, Big Wheel award; and David Carlson, Distinguished Service award.

Now playing

Now playing at the Vogue Theatre is Time Bandits directed by Terry Gilliam. The outstanding comedic fantasy will show on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and the remainder of the week at 8 p.m.

60 YEARS AGO

New school planned

The pastors of five Catholic parishes in the Manistee area announced the formal beginning of the Manistee Catholic Central high school campaign at all masses last Sunday. The campaign is being conducted to underwrite the cost of construction of the proposed Manistee Catholic Central high school, which is $750,000. The high school will be constructed on 40 acres of property on Highway U.S. 31 across from Mercy-Community Hospital. The proposed plans will provide for 500 high school students and 240 junior high school students. Present plans call for the school to open in September 1963.

Tickets on sale

Although the sale of Shrine Circus tickets was scheduled to end in the various schools throughout the county today, the sale will continue at a number of Manistee business places. It is expected that about 700 children and adults will make the circus trip to Grand Rapids on Wednesday aboard a special C & O train.

80 YEARS AGO

Larsen honored

Lawrence Larsen, manager here for the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, who is observing his 25th service anniversary with the company this month, is being congratulated by friends and fellow workers. He was the recipient, last Thursday, of a service pin commemorating his long association with the phone company.

Check housing facilities

A complete canvass of rooming and housing facilities in Manistee is now being conducted by the board of commerce. The board wishes to compile complete lists of rooms, apartments, houses or cabins available whether they are furnished or unfurnished, heated or unheated and would like to hear from anyone having heated cottages near the city.
MANISTEE  After four years of serving local customers, the Manistee Save A Lot is permanently closing its doors at the end of January.

A sign thanking shoppers for their patronage was posted at the discount supermarket. The store is set to close by 6 p.m. on Jan. 30.

The Manistee franchise, which has been owned by brothers Tim, Tom and Paul Freeman of Freeman Family Enterprises, opened to customers on Jan. 10, 2018.

The trio owns a total of 22 Save A Lot stores in northern Michigan, according to an April 2021 article published on the Save A Lot website, savealot.com.

Freeman Family Enterprises closed its Gaylord location in June 2019. In 2018, the News Advocate reported the brothers owned 26 stores in Michigan.

For 36 years, the building had been home to Olesons Food Stores, which closed in summer 2016.

Since 2019, Save A Lot has leased its space at 160 Memorial Drive in Manistee from the Oleson family, who owns the building and surrounding property, according to county records.

Stacie Bytwork, president and CEO of the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce, lamented what the stores closing could mean for Manistee-area consumers.

We are deeply saddened to lose a business here in our community, Bytwork said in an emailed statement to the News Advocate. Our team at the chamber will work with the owners of the property to look at other opportunities.

Bytwork pointed to challenges facing grocers not just in Manistee, but throughout the region since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grocery store market segment, as a whole, is facing competitive pressures beyond our community, she stated. We see that other Save A Lot stores have not renewed their leases and closed in northern Michigan and this could be the effect of the pandemic.

With over 900 stores in 32 states, Save A Lot is one of the largest discount supermarket chains in the U.S.

Save A Lot announced its plans to convert to a wholesale business model in December 2020, according to Supermarket News. This has led to the closing of locations, and the ongoing sale of 300 corporate stores to independent retailers.

Most recently in December, Save A Lot sold 33 company-owned stores in Florida to Ascend Grocery LLC. The sale of these locations follows the July sale of 32 corporate-owned stores to Yellow Banana, a subsidiary of 127 Wall Holdings LLC.

As a franchise store, it is unclear the extent this corporate shakeup has impacted the decision to close the Manistee Save A Lot.

Representatives from Freeman Family Enterprises did not respond to requests for comment as of Friday afternoon.
Weather Alert

...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...Portions of Arkansas and Oklahoma, including the following counties, in Arkansas, Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Madison, Sebastian and Washington AR. In Oklahoma, Adair, Cherokee, Choctaw, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Haskell, Latimer, Le Flore, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Nowata, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Pushmataha, Rogers, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner and Washington OK. * WHEN...Through Thursday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff will likely result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations, especially in areas that have already received heavy rainfall over the past few days. Several main-stem rivers could go into flood. A few locations could see significant flash flooding. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Multiple rounds of thunderstorms are expected today through Thursday afternoon with the potential for very heavy rainfall. Widespread 2 to 3 inches of rain is expected with locally higher amounts of 5 to 6 inches. The heavier rain will begin to shift east of far southeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas Thursday afternoon. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible Flood Warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop. &&
Members of the Owensboro regions state House delegation said they were all pleased with the budget House members passed Thursday.

The proposal includes funds for public schools and postsecondary education, while providing raises for KSP trooper and state employees, lawmakers said.

The $65-billion, two-year budget was approved on a 85-8 vote, and will now go to the Senate for consideration. After the Senate amends the budget, House and Senate leaders will likely have to negotiate their differences to craft a final plan.

Rep. Scott Lewis, a Hartford Republican, said the House budget increases the states per-pupil spending, puts money into all-day kindergarten and allocates additional funds to school family resource centers.

Lewis, a former Ohio County Public Schools superintendent, said school districts are receiving increased funding for teacher raises.

Legislators didnt want to impose a set teacher raise on school districts, Lewis said. The districts will decide how large raises should be, Lewis said.

The money is there to the districts, but we didnt want to mandate the amount (of raises) because each district is different, Lewis said.

Some districts might have already given raises, so legislators didnt want to impose another raise, he said.

Lewis, who was a KSP trooper before becoming an educator, said the budget includes $15,000 across the board raises for troopers, which is long overdue.

The House plan would give 6% raises to state employees.

Given we have the additional money, Im pleased we are able to provide raises to state employees, and were able to provide flexible funding to schools, so they can meet the needs at the local level, said Rep. DJ Johnson, an Owensboro Republican.

We strongly believe in allowing school superintendents and school boards, as much as possible, to direct the funds to where they need them, Johnson said. I very much hope our local school boards and superintendents will provide pay raises for our teachers.

The plan is still a work in progress in the legislature, Johnson said.

There are several things in this bill Im pleased with, Johnson said, adding, well iron out more of the details as we go forward.

Rep. Suzanne Miles, an Owensboro Republican, did not return a call for comment Friday.

Rep. Melinda Gibbons Prunty, a Belton Republican, said the budget contains general fund dollars for road projects, to supplement declining gas tax revenue.

Back when the gas price went way up, (lawmakers) knocked the gas tax way down, Prunty said. The idea was to give drivers relief from higher gas prices, but when gasoline prices declined, the gas tax rate stayed the same, Prunty said.

Its a different way of funding the Transportation Cabinet, Prunty said. There are so many projects that havent gotten done, because of the gas tax.

The House proposal also includes funds for airports and increased funding for senior meals, Prunty said.

I like the fact that is gives state workers a raise, Prunty said. The budget plan gets our unemployment trust fund back to pre-pandemic levels, she said.

I think its fiscally responsible, Prunty said, adding, there are unappropriated funds, so (we) dont have to go into the reserve trust.

The unbudgeted fund opens up the possibility of lawmakers exploring tax reform this session, Prunty said.

The plan will be amended by the Senate, Lewis said.

Im sure they have some objectives, or they may change some things, Lewis said. I would be surprised if it was intact after going through the Senate, Lewis said.

Johnson said, I honestly dont know what the Senates priorities are. Once we get their vision, well start the negotiations.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse
Trump appointee blocks Biden federal worker vaccine mandate

WASHINGTON  A U.S. judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction on Friday barring the federal government from enforcing President Joe Bidens requirement that federal workers without qualifying medical or religious exemptions be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump, ruled that opponents of Bidens vaccination mandate for federal employees were likely to succeed at trial and blocked the government from enforcing the requirement.

Biden announced in September that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions. The requirement kicked in this past November, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that 98% of federal workers are vaccinated.

We are confident in our legal authority here, she added.

Those out of compliance with the policy were referred to counseling and could be terminated under an executive order signed by Biden.

Texas hostages escaped synagogue as FBI SWAT team rushed in

COLLEYVILLE, Texas  In the final moments of a 10-hour standoff with a gunman at a Texas synagogue, the remaining hostages and officials trying to negotiate their release took near simultaneous plans of action, with the hostages escaping as an FBI tactical team moved in, an official said Friday.

I think we both kind of realized around the same time that: Its time to go, Matt DeSarno, the FBIs special agent in charge in Dallas, said at a news conference.

DeSarno said that just after 9 p.m. on Jan. 15, he authorized his teams to enter the synagogue at the moment the hostages came to a similar conclusion to escape.

The Tarrant County medical examiner on Friday said Malik Faisal Akram was killed by multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide, a determination that does not necessarily indicate it was a crime.

U.S. unveils changes to attract foreign science, tech students

The Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math.

The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to a notice in the Federal Register. There will also be an initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses.

Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study to a program that allows international graduates from U.S. universities to spend up to three additional years training with domestic employers. The program generated about 58,000 applications in fiscal 2020.

The programs are designed to ensure that the U.S. is a magnet for talent from around the world, attracting scientists and researchers whose breakthroughs will enable the economy to grow. Government data shows that international students are increasingly the lifeblood of academic research.

It is the latest example of the Biden administration using presidential powers, as Donald Trump did, to retool the immigration system in the face of decades of congressional inaction. The Migration Policy Institute tallied nearly 300 changes to the system during Bidens first year in office, many of them to undo Trumps actions to restrict immigration.

The Trump administrations agenda frequently included plans to reduce or eliminate visas that allow college graduates, largely in STEM fields, up to three years to chart a career path in the United States. It never announced a change, though, which would have added to other measures that limited legal immigration.

The governments National Science Board reported this week that international students on temporary visas account for more than half of U.S. doctoral degrees in economics, computer sciences, engineering and mathematics and statistics. But in the sciences and engineering, China is fast closing the gap in doctoral degrees by generating nearly as many graduates as the U.S. did in 2018.

Business groups and immigration advocates welcomed Fridays announcement, while critics said it would damage job prospects for native American citizens.

These targeted actions will help American companies meet their critical workforce needs moving forward and is one of a series of key actions needed to address the workforce shortage crisis, said Jon Baselice, the U.S. Chamber of Commerces vice president of immigration policy. Much more needs to be done to update and modernize our nations immigration system, and those types of changes require congressional action.

U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group critical of the post-graduation visas, said the changes will encourage companies to discriminate against native-border job applicants.

This is exactly the kind of policy that destroys the career prospects of young American graduates, the group posted on Twitter.
Daviess County and surrounding counties saw another record day for incidence rates Friday.

Each county has surpassed an incidence rate of 200, as of Friday, according to data from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, with Daviess County sitting at a rate of 329.5 new cases per day for a population of 100,000.

The incidence rate in Daviess County and the regional average have risen significantly in each report from the Green River District Health Department for the past two weeks, paying homage to just how contagious the omicron variant truly is.

Just Wednesday, the incidence rate in Daviess County was 206.6, rising by more than 150 cases on average in just two days.

Daviess County also reached a new record for positivity rates for COVID-19 tests administered  34.6% of tests came back positive, as of Friday, according to the KCHFS.

In total, there have been 25,386 cases in the county, 332 fatalities related to COVID-19, 610 hospitalizations and 151 ICU admissions.

The number of COVID-19 patients is also continuing to rise, according to reports from Owensboro Health.

Thursday, OH Regional Hospital reported a total of 51 COVID-19 patients, 10 in critical care and five intubated.

Throughout all three OH facilities in Owensboro, Greenville and Leitchfield, a total of 66 patients were reported, 15 total in critical care, including two at the Muhlenberg hospital and three at Twin Lakes.

Statewide, Kentucky also broke another record for positivity rates as well, reaching 32.1, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.

Statewide numbers have also continuously increased on a daily basis since omicron was detected in the state.

The overall incidence rate in Kentucky, as of Friday, sits at 237.01.

Some tough news today: our highest day ever for COVID cases at 16,130 and our highest ever positivity rate at 32.1% Beshear said Friday in a live streamed video.

The state surpassed one million COVID-19 cases Wednesday since the beginning of the pandemic.

The increase in cases is severe, by far more than any other surge weve had, he said.

According to Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, assuming Kentucky follows the same pattern as other states who have experienced significant omicron surges, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for the current surge.

Both Rhode Island and New York are showing a rapid decline in new cases that appears to mirror the immediately prior vertical climb, he said. If Kentucky follows this pattern, then we may see our own peak within the next one to two weeks. This would be a very welcome reprieve.

Beshear recommends vaccination to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

To schedule a vaccine appointment, visit OwensboroHealth.org/Vaccine.

Vaccines are available to anyone ages 5 and older, with 5-11-year-olds receiving a smaller dose than those ages 12 and older.

Anyone ages 12 and older who has been fully vaccinated for at least six months with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is eligible for a booster. Anyone ages 18 or older who has been vaccinated at least two months by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also eligible for a booster dose.

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360
No one has been immune to the impact of the pandemic, including Kentucky Wesleyan College, according to Eddie Kenny.

Kenny, KWC vice president of advancement, said the school created a COVID Response Team, which consists of administration, faculty, and staff.

That team has met regularly since the onset of the pandemic to determine campus policies and responses.

In the beginning, all on-campus classes were moved online in a 48-hour period. Soon after a hybrid delivery model was developed and used during the 2020-21 academic year.

The school welcomed students back to campus for a fully in-person experience for this school year, at which point campus activities and events resumed, Kenny said.

The pandemic has also impacted enrollment, but in unpredictable ways, he said.

We actually increased overall enrollment for the sixth-straight year in the fall of 2020, he said. However, we did experience a slight decrease of 7.6% in total headcount enrollment from fall 2020 to fall 2021.

In the midst of that, however, the schools online headcount increased to an all-time high of 48.1%.

Matthew Ruark, KWC vice president of admissions and financial aid, said new student recruitment was impacted by the shutdown of schools in 2020, and the inability to gather in large groups. That lack of access continues for various schools.

More than that, the pandemic has created the issue of students having uneven access to colleges.

We have had more students visit campus than at any time in our history; however, these are students who know they are going to college, Ruark said. The most negatively-impacted students remain those on the fringe who may not be aware of their options, dont believe they can afford to go to college, and dont have someone who can take them on a college visit.

While the school has students back on campus participating in events, the pandemic has caused a shift in the college experience, said James Cousins, KWC vice president of academic affairs.

Cousins said study abroad opportunities were significantly limited, and then halted all together. Now travel restrictions continue to hamper the schools efforts at providing that option for students.

Those same restrictions have also limited speaker events, academic conference travel, and other professional development opportunities, he said.

Some good things have occurred since the onslaught of the pandemic, however.

Rebecca McQueen-Ruark said the schools new office of equity and inclusion was established and has introduced many new programs.

For example, the new MALES program is aimed at providing leadership development for men in marginalized student populations.

The schools Student Health Services office has also been faced with the difficult task of monitoring, testing and supporting student needs throughout the pandemic, McQueen-Ruark said.

An important initiative of note is the increased number of students, faculty and staff who have been mental health first aid certified, she said.

Due to federal funding, KWC has been assisted with slight enrollment shortfalls, as well as providing refunds and vaccination incentives for students, Kenny said.

The school has also been able to use those funds to improve campus facilities by providing PPE for all, connectivity upgrades for better remote learning, and HVAC improvements for better airflow, he said.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 7, 2022

CONTACT: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112

LANSING, Mich. - Today, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) announced that the federal government has granted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's request for additional staffing assistance at a fifth Michigan hospital, Henry Ford Hospital in Wyandotte. Under the agreement, a civilian Disaster Medical Assistance Team is being sent to support Henry Ford's doctors and nurses as they treat COVID-19 and other patients.

"Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital desperately needs support and resources to provide the critical care that our neighbors deserve. I've heard from members of the community and providers on a daily basis about a system strained to a breaking point, and now they will get the help they need," said Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12). "These additional health care personnel will help address the rise in COVID-19 cases in Michigan and ensure residents have access to quality, affordable care, I appreciate the Biden Administration's continued assistance and will work closely with federal, state and local partners to ensure that our state's front line health care workers and providers receive the support they need."

"I am grateful to our federal partners for providing critical resources and relief to Michigan's hospitals and health care professionals as we face down the Omicron surge together," said Governor Whitmer. "We have been facing this deadly virus for nearly two years and our health care workers have been working tirelessly on the frontlines through it all. Every Michigander can take action right now to protect themselves and their loved ones, and help our hospitals and health care workers do their jobs. I urge Michiganders to get their safe, effective vaccine, their booster shot, and take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including testing and masking. We have the tools and I am confident that we can get this done."

"As the Omicron variant is quickly spreading and case rates and hospitalizations in our state are accelerating, I am grateful to our federal partners for continuing to provide much-needed relief to Michigan's hospitals and health care personnel," said Elizabeth Hertel, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director. "The pandemic continues to take a tremendous toll on our health care workers and we are pleading with all Michiganders to do their part to support our state's health care workers by getting vaccinated, wearing a mask in public indoor settings regardless of vaccination status, social distancing and staying home and getting tested regularly."

The 30-member team will include advanced practice physicians, ED and ICU nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, and logistics and supply chain personnel. The team will begin treating patients Monday, Jan. 10 and provide support for the next 14 days. Four Department of Defense teams have already been deployed to Michigan and are providing support at Beaumont Hospital - Dearborn, Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw and Mercy Health Muskegon.

"We are grateful to the federal government and State of Michigan for bringing this much needed support and relief to our team at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital," said Bob Riney, President of Healthcare Operations and Chief Operating Officer at Henry Ford Health System. "The resiliency and determination of our team members throughout the pandemic have been awe-inspiring. But our team members are battle wearied and drained emotionally, mentally and physically. This support couldn't have come at a better time for us, as well as the Downriver communities we serve."

Michiganders are being asked to carefully consider where they seek health care. A primary care office, virtual visit or urgent care may be the best choice as hospital and emergency departments are experiencing high demand. However, for emergency conditions such as stroke symptoms, chest pain, difficulty breathing, significant injury or uncontrolled bleeding, Michiganders should still seek emergency care.

The federal staffing teams come as Michigan hospitals strain due to a spike in COVID-19 patients, the vast majority of whom are unvaccinated. In October, unvaccinated people had 4.3 times the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and 13.2 times the risk of dying from COVID-19 than people who were fully vaccinated.

From Jan. 3 - Dec. 15, 2021, people who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated represented: 85.1% of COVID-19 cases, 88.1% of hospitalizations and 85.5% of deaths.

As of Jan. 7, more than 4,500 Michiganders are hospitalized for COVID-19.

# # #
OPELOUSAS, La., Jan. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New from Tony Chachere's Famous Creole Cuisine, a special blend of seasoning and spices will take your chili to the next level and tantalize your taste buds. Introducing Tony's Chili Seasoning Mixes!

Tony Chachere's easy and convenient mixes give people who love the robust flavors of Tony's seasonings that satisfying warm and hearty taste in their chili, perfect for a chilly winter evening, a weekend tailgate, or a get together with family and friends. As part of its 50th Anniversary celebration, Tony's introduces its authentic Cajun/Creole-Style Chili Mixes in two flavors  Original and Mild. The new Original Chili Seasoning Mix has a little more kick than the mild and is similar to using Tony's BOLD Creole Seasoning. The new Mild Chili Seasoning Mix packs less heat for those who are so inclined and is similar to using Tony's More Spice Seasoning. Each box mix is designed to be used with two pounds of ground beef or venison, for that perfect pot of chili.

"For years people have been using Tony's products in their chili to help boost the flavor, so we knew it was time to simplify the process and give the people what they want," said Celeste Chachere, Director of Marketing for Tony Chachere's. "Our new Original and Mild Chili Mixes bring the best of our seasoning flavors to this classic dish for a unique spin on an old favorite."

Tony's new Original Chili Seasoning Mix and Mild Chili Seasoning Mix are currently rolling out to grocery stores and retail partners like Brookshire Grocer, SuperValu, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Valu Merchandisers, AG Baton Rouge, Piggly Wiggly and AWG. They are also available at tonychachere.com. Treat yourself to Tony's entire line of seasonings, rice dinner mixes, injectable and pourable marinades, salad dressings and more.

About Tony Chachere's:

Tony Chachere's Famous Creole Cuisine is celebrating its 50th Anniversary! Founded in 1972 by Tony Chachere, the "Ole Master" of Creole cooking, Tony Chachere's continues to be family-owned-and-operated in Opelousas, Louisiana. The Louisiana family has carried on the tradition of authenticity and flavor through its line of seasonings, marinades, dinner mixes, salad dressings and more for both pantry and table.

tonychachere.com

#PassAGoodTime

@tonychacheres

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/a-new-cajun-classic-301462176.html

SOURCE Tony Chachere's
Michigan's forest partnership with Finland and the state of Maine continues with four new hourlong webinars beginning Thursday, Jan. 27. Michigan, Maine and Finland all are heavily wooded and share long traditions in the forest industry. The partnership aims for cooperation in the transition toward a modern, sustainable bioeconomy that supports growth while protecting long-term forest health. The webinars, all starting at 9 a.m. EST, include: Jan. 27: "Institutions, policy and actors" examines different influences on the forest sector, as well as law and regulation policy for forestry and wood-based products. Speakers are Leena Leskinen of the Finnish Forest Centre, Mike Smalligan of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Patrick Strauch of the Maine Forest Products Council. Register by Jan. 23.

examines different influences on the forest sector, as well as law and regulation policy for forestry and wood-based products. Speakers are Leena Leskinen of the Finnish Forest Centre, Mike Smalligan of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Patrick Strauch of the Maine Forest Products Council. Register by Jan. 23. Feb. 24: "Ecology and management" looks at which species and forest types are most important to each location and what forest management practices are in use at each one. Speakers include Kari T. Korhonen of the Natural Resources Institute, Finland; Mike Walters, associate professor of forest ecology at Michigan State University, and Ian Prior, analyst with Seven Island Land Company in Maine. Register by Feb. 20.

looks at which species and forest types are most important to each location and what forest management practices are in use at each one. Speakers include Kari T. Korhonen of the Natural Resources Institute, Finland; Mike Walters, associate professor of forest ecology at Michigan State University, and Ian Prior, analyst with Seven Island Land Company in Maine. Register by Feb. 20. March 24: "Economics, forest operations and technology" features speakers Kalle Karha of the University of Eastern Finland, Charlie Becker of Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands and Dana Doran of the Maine Loggers Association discussing the journey from logging to value products via mechanization. Register by March 20.

features speakers Kalle Karha of the University of Eastern Finland, Charlie Becker of Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands and Dana Doran of the Maine Loggers Association discussing the journey from logging to value products via mechanization. Register by March 20. April 28: "Current issues and opportunities: a look towards the future" focuses on research, development and innovation. Topics will include climate change and maintaining biodiversity. Speakers are Jyrki Kangas of the University of Eastern Finland, Raju Pokharel of MSU and Bri Borman of FOR/Maine. Register by April 24.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 21, 2022

Contact: press@michigan.gov

Believe in Michigan: Protecting Public Safety, Building Strong Communities

Michiganders celebrate why they believe in Michigan through video series leading up to Governor Whitmer's State of the State address

LANSING, Mich. - Leading up to the Governor's State of the State address, Gov. Whitmer's team set out to hear from Michiganders across the state on why they believe in Michigan. We'll share their thoughts each day leading up to the address in a video series.

"As a former prosecutor, I am committed to protecting public safety so we can build strong, vibrant communities together," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "I will work with anyone to bring down crime, treat every Michigander with dignity and respect, and help families feel safe in their community. Together, we can build a more just Michigan where every family can thrive, where every kid can get a great education, and where every person has a path to a good-paying, high-skill job."

Meet Ann Arbor resident and Washtenaw County Sherrif, Jerry Clayton.

"I want a state government to focus on the areas that contribute to high quality of life for all Michiganders," said Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton. "To help make our roads we travel, the water we drink, and the air we breathe safe. Support public health and strengthen the safety net for those living with behavioral health challenges. Work with us to co-produce public safety, invest in our future by supporting high quality education for our children. I want our state government to be our partner and servant leader with a vision of what can be and the competence and integrity to help make what we aspire to possible. If we're going to face and conquer some of the most profound problems around race, poverty, global warming and other critical issues, we must have the commitment and capacity to work together."

When asked why he believes in Michigan, Clayton added, "I believe in Michigan because I believe in Michiganders, that they are resilient, innovative and committed to creating a state where each of us has the opportunity to maximize our potential. To learn, to grow, achieve and contribute. What excites me and gives me the most hope is our young folks. I always walk aware impressed by their intelligence and thoughtfulness. But, most importantly, I'm always impressed and inspired by their commitment to creating a better world."

Governor Whitmer's Focus on Protecting Public Safety

As a former prosecutor, public safety is a core issue for Governor Whitmer. She has worked closely with local leaders, law enforcement officers, and community organizations to bring down crime and ensure people feel safe whether they're going to work, picking up their kids from school, or grabbing groceries.

Through her time in office, Governor Whitmer has enacted historic criminal justice reform. She signed bipartisan "Clean Slate" laws which will help hundreds of thousands of Michiganders emerge from the criminal justice system with enhanced opportunities for jobs and housing and allow them to pursue their full potential. She also launched task forces to address pretrial incarceration and juvenile justice and pursued reforms to improve relationships between law enforcement and the people they serve. Some of Whitmer's signature accomplishments include:

Additional highlights of Whitmer's efforts to protect public safety and build up communities can be found online.

Visit the 2022 State of the State page for videos and more.

###
Courtesy Photo/Via HATC

The Huron Area Technical Center recently announced the Student of the Month recipient for January 2022. Students are selected based on a variety of criteria including: achievement in career technical education, outstanding attendance, enrollment status, CTE related extra-curricular activities, on-the-job-training placements, work experience, and future CTE Program-related education and/or employment plans.

Lily Kieliszewski is the HATC Student of the Month for January. She is a senior at Ubly High School and is a student in the Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program at the HATC. Lily is a member of National Honor Society, Student Council, and participates in volleyball and track.
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The Westport Library is holding the Childrens Winter Reading Program: Chill Out and Read, reading challenge event from Jan. 24 through March 19.

The program is for children of all ages and their grownups.

A child will receive a snowperson that will be displayed in the library for every 50 minutes he or she reads.

The child will be able to choose a free book from the librarys selection of books to keep.

The library also has an activity sheet that will help the whole family warm up and chill out during the winter season.

The library is located at 20 Jesup Road in Westport.

Registration is available at westportlibrary.libguides.com/chilloutandread.

Candidates sought for civilian review panel

The Westport Representative Town Meeting Public Protection Committee is seeking candidates to recommend to the members of the full RTM to fill two volunteer seats on the Westport Civilian Review Panel.

The towns elected leadership and public safety departments recognize the need to foster, and maintain the publics trust, and its personnel, according to information from the town. The Civilian Review Panel was formed in December 2020 in order to do so.

The panel is comprised of five civilian members of the Westport community.

It includes the second and third selectwomen, one member of TEAM Westport, who is appointed by the first selectwoman, and two members from the Westport electorate, who are appointed by the RTM.

The initial RTM-appointed members will serve for a term of two years. The terms of each subsequent RTM-appointed members are four years. Applicants must be registered voters in Westport.

The members may be reappointed by the group for unlimited consecutive terms.

No more than a bare majority of the Civilian Review Panel may be members of the same political party.

The panel works closely with the members of the Westport Police, fire, and emergency medical services departments, to diversify hiring, oversee the investigation of civilian complaints, and evaluate opportunities to improve transparency, and accountability.

The mission of the panel is to build on the foundation of public trust between the departments, and residents in the town.

No member of the Civilian Review Panel shall be an employee, or a family member of an employee, of the police, fire, and emergency medical services departments.

People who are interested in applying for the vacancies, are asked to email a resume, and a letter of interest noting how their experience qualifies them for panel, to Westport Town Clerk Jeffrey M. Dunkerton at jdunlerton@westportct.gov, or mail to Westport Town Clerk, 110 Myrtle Ave. Room 105, Westport, CT 06880.

The deadline for submission is Feb. 7.

Westport Library hosting state Sen. Will Haskell

The Westport Library is hosting state Sen. Will Haskell, (D-Westport), at 7 p.m. on Jan. 27. He will talk about his new and first book, 100,000 First Bosses: My Unlikely Path as a 22-Year-Old Lawmaker.

Seats are available in the library for the event by registering at westportlibrary.org.

The book is the story about how Haskell waged the campaign of his young life, fought for change that he believed in at the Connecticut state capitol, and proved that his generation is ready to claim a seat at the general table.

Staples High School announces January Students of the Month

Staples High School Principal Stafford Thomas, Jr., has announced the schools recipients of the January Students of the Month.

The students are ninh grader Maxwell Manchester, tenth graders Timothy Herold and Sofia Santamaria, 11th graders Mia Vindiola and Jackson Oliver, and 12th graders Alexa Anastasi and Jacob Yarish.

The Students of the Month award program at the school, recognizes students, who help make the school, a welcoming place for their peers, and teachers alike. The recipients are nominated by their teachers .

Historical society hosting jewelry appraisal, consignment event

The Rago auction house is having its third jewelry appraisal and consignment event, Rago Arts Appraisal Day 2022 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Feb. 15 at the Weston Historical Society, 104 Weston Road.

Rago is an auction house that has previously been featured on the PBS television channels series titled: The Antiques Road Show.

Parking for the event is in the Historical Societys parking lot.

Rago will donate a portion of its commission on property that is consigned from the event to the historical society.

Rago is scheduling the appointments, not the historical society. No walk-ins are requested.

RSVP to Robin Daum, at robin@ragoarts.com, or call 609-460-3619.

Masks will be required for all attendees, regardless of their COVID-19 vaccine status. Social distancing will also be in place.
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The most recent update of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has risen Fairfield University to the doctoral classification category.

The new category distinguishes Fairfield University in the U.S., and reflects the academic strength, and growth of Fairfield Universitys graduate, and professional programs.

Fairfield is one of 73 new doctoral and professional institutions to be added to the category. It was formerly classified among graduate degree institutions.

The Carnegie Classification Update Public Review period began, Dec. 15, when the public review version was released.

The public review is six weeks. The classification will be announced as official by the end of January.

The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed a classification of colleges, and universities to support its programs of research, and policy analysis, beginning in 1970.

Members of Fairfields National Charity League win award

Twenty-two members of the Fairfield chapter of the National Charity League, Inc., have been awarded the 2021 Presidential Volunteer Award.

Four bronze, five silver and 13 gold medals were awarded. The awardees range from eighth through twelfth grade. The 22 awardees served a combined 2,813 volunteer hours supporting the leagues Fairfield Chapters 18 local, and national philanthropies, including Operation Hope, Save the Sound, The Pilot House, Special Olympics and the Norma Pfriem Breast Center.

The award honors outstanding volunteers whose service have a positive impact on their community.

The gold medal recipients include Isabella Baptista, Ava Beatty, Grace Beccaria, Audrey Compare, Natalie Compare, Adriana D'Elia, Giana D'Elia, Madeline DePiano, Sofia Dillabough, Delaney Dwyer, Sidney Ferrone, Anna Gedacht and Karina McMahon.

The silver medal recipients are Erica Bender, Caitlin Benson, Lila Greenberg, Dina Lacugna and Daphne Pardo.

The bronze medal recipients are Amanda Dillabough, Claire Fuchs, Mia Nishiyama and Kayla Thomson.

The National Charity League is a mother and daughter volunteer organization.

Fairfield announces keynote speaker for MLK convocation

Author and educator, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., is the keynote speaker for the 2022 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation event at the Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts, at 1073 North Benson Road.

The event is at 7 p.m. on Feb. 2.

The theme for the event is The Wrong Side of the World Revolution: Kings Internationalism and the Lessons for Today.

The event is free, and open to the public.

Visit quickcenter.fairfield.edu for more information.

Fairfield University is also having a week of programming to celebrate the life, and the influence of Dr. King, in February. It includes a civic reflection, a Black History 101 Mobile Museum, live discussions, and a Youth Leadership Summit.

Visit fairfield.edu/mlk for more information and to register.

Color Play art show opening

The public is invited to a reception for the art show, Color Play, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Feb. 10, in the Bruce S. Kershner Gallery of the Fairfield Library.

The exhibition will also have the art of its artists in, Earl Grenville Killeen, Dionne Pia, and Emily Teall.

The library is located at 1080 Old Post Road in Fairfield.

The show begins Feb. 5, and will then continue after the reception, through April 2.

Fairfield annual awards dinner honorees announced

Fairfield University is going to host its 2022 Fairfield annual Awards Dinner to benefit student scholarships.

The dinner is an opportunity for the university to recognize some of the individuals, who have made significant contributions to the vitality of the University community. It will also honor five individuals in the community, who exemplify the Jesuit tradition of professional excellence, and service in the community.

The event is taking place at the Cipriani 42nd Street venue in New York, N.Y., at 6 p.m. on April 20.

The event benefits the Fairfield Universitys Alumni Multicultural Scholarship Fund, and other scholarships. The annual awards dinner has raised nearly $20 million in scholarship money over the years, for deserving students.

, according to information from Fairfield Univeristy Vice President for University Advancement Wally Halas.

The honorees and awards are:

- Michael Archbold, Class of 1982, professional achievement award

- Maureen Errity Bujno, Class of 1990, alumni service award,

- Rev. Gerry Blaszczak, S.J., the universitys alumni chaplain and special assistant to Fairfield University President Marc E. Nemec, distinguished faculty/administrator award

- John and Lori Berisford, parents from the Classes of 2020 and 2021, parent leadership award

The co-chairs of the the 2022 Fairfield annual Awards Dinner, are: Trish Comey Preston from the universitys Class of 1980, and Adrienne A. Johnson, from the universitys Class of 1991.

Visit fairfield.edu/awardsdinner, or contact the Director of the Fairfield Awards Dinner, Jennifer Kane, at jkane1@fairfield.edu, or 203-254-4000, extension 2464, for additional information.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. High 89F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Police departments around the state expressed their condolences after one New York Police Department officer was killed, and another injured, in a Friday night shooting.

NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed while responding to an incident in Harlem on Friday. Another officer, identified as Wilbert Mora, 27, was also shot and remains in critical condition, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

Many Connecticut police departments took to social media to offer their condolences and share their support.

The loss of such a young and bright Officer is felt across all of law enforcement. Despite the recent violence you have endured as a department you still answer your calls with unwavering fortitude. We continue to pray for your Officer who is fighting for his life and extend our deepest condolences for your fallen brother, the Connecticut State Police said in a statement.

The Stamford Police Department sends our prayers and condolences to our brothers and sisters with the NYPD, Stamford police wrote on social media.

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Officer Jason Rivera, Trumbull police said in a Facebook post.

The men and women of the Darien Police Department hold our sisters and brothers of the NYPD close to our hearts tonight, and forever, Darien police said in a statement.

Police departments in Bethel, Wilton, Norwalk and beyond posted similar messages.

Middletown Police Chief Erik M. Costa wrote an open letter that was posted online by the Middletown Police Department on Saturday afternoon.

Im sickened by the fatal shooting of Officer Jason Rivera and critically injured Officer Wilbert Mora of the New York City Police Department. Last night they responded to a domestic incident in Harlem where they were ambushed by a 47-year-old suspect with a firearm, Costa said.

He offered his condolences to the victims, and prayers for the officers in his own department.

We must value the mission of all law-enforcement officers and the officers themselves as they answer the calls of service across our nation, where behind any closed door could be a life changing event, Costa said. We must start to change the culture of violence to a culture of awareness and community.

According to reporting from the Associated Press, Rivera and Mora were responding to a reported domestic dispute between a woman and her adult son in a Harlem apartment.

The man that reportedly shot the two officers has been identified as Lashawn J. McNeil, 47. He is also currently hospitalized in critical condition, authorities told the Associated Press. He was on probation for a 2003 drug conviction in the city, and also had several out-of-state arrests.

Rivera joined the NYPD in November 2020.
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MILFORD  As a missionary in the West African country of Togo in 2007, Elizabeth Simonetti tended to the medical needs of thousands of Togolese.

While medicine brought relief for many, too often she found herself holding the hand of a person who did not survive, whether it be from malaria or other intestinal bacteria.

It was those experiences that sparked her desire to remain a presence in Togo and find ways to attack the poverty and dangerous living conditions that were the root of the cycle of sickness in the country of about 8 million located just to the east of Ghana.

After a year working with in Togo, my assignment may have been over, but I knew my work there was not, Simonetti, a longtime Milford resident and Shelton native, said. This only started my journey in Togo.

Simonetti, a pharmacist by profession, founded the non-profit Assi Le Assime: The Togo Development Partnership.

The partnership, which she runs with Togolese entrepreneur Kokou Mountou Herve Tchamsi, began in 2011, three years after she completed her missionary work with the Canossian Daughters of Charity, a Catholic religious institute that dates back to 1808.

We used to see patients every couple of months, coming in with malaria, intestinal worms, other recurrent chronic diseases, Simonetti said about her time in Togo as a missionary. The questions I kept asking myself was What is going on upstream before they hit our clinic and how can we fix it?

Now she visits Togo twice a year, although the pandemic has prevented regular trips the past two years.

Simonetti last visited in October, and plans to return in March.

The organizations name, in the native language Ewe, means Hand in Hand  a perfect description of its goal, according to Simonetti. The groups work is focused on eliminating poverty and disease through global philanthropy and local enterprise.

Her operation helps to create jobs by establishing small enterprises that make mosquito canopies and water filters to alleviate poverty and provide education to help these small enterprises meet local market needs. The idea is to help create jobs by establishing small enterprises that make mosquito canopies and water filters to alleviate poverty and provide education to help these small enterprises meet local market needs, she said.

Simonetti has seen the ability of modern medical treatments to improve lives. Her parents owned White Cross Pharmacy on Center Street in Shelton. From Shelton, she attended the University of Connecticut. After pharmacy school, she did her residency in Washington D.C., where she stayed for 10 years with the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP). When she left, she was acting director of educational services.

She then moved to Atlanta, Ga., where she was a faculty member at the Mercer University School of Pharmacy. When she left, she was vice president for international education, spending time in Asia and opening the universitys office in Hong Kong.

Simonetti then joined the New Jersey-based office of Hoffmann-La Roche, a Swiss multi-national healthcare company commonly known as Roche. It was at Hoffmann-La Roche that the opportunity arose to work for up to 18 months in a developing country  and that led to her deciding to choose missionary work.

I was the first American to take this opportunity with Roche, she recalled. I am a devoted Catholic, so I wanted to be a part of something that fit with my faith. That led to the missionary work, and to Togo, where I stayed ever since.

Access to clean water is a problem is Togo, which in turn leads to poorly prepared crops and animals that carry disease that ends up infecting the population.

Through Assi Le Assime, Simonetti acquired more than two acres of land in Togo, on which now sits a farm. On the farm, Simonettis crew  headed by locals John and Pacha  raises pigs and chickens. The goal is providing jobs and quality food for the population.

We raise pork without diseases and we train people to raise pigs that are disease-free, Simonetti said.

Simonetti said the pig business had started to solve a major problem  supplying nutritious, disease-free pork to restaurants and consumers alike.

We started by improving the local breeds of pigs, by administering vitamins, anti-parasite medications to keep them disease-free, and by feeding organic feeds with plenty of fresh water, she said. The result is that we sell 6-month-old pigs to consumers and to restaurants. We know that they are disease-free, because at harvest there are no liver, heart, or intestinal parasites.

Chickens are common in Togo, and there are many farmers looking to either begin their own flocks, or to replace older chickens. Hatcheries across the country sell day-old chicks. But farmers cant be sure if those chicks are from local chickens or hatched from eggs imported from France or Belgium, Simonetti said.

Simonetti said her farm hatches chicks from carefully selected ISA brown chickens, bred and hand-raised in Togo.

We carefully select and sort the eggs that will go into our incubator, which holds 4,000 eggs, she said. We average about 150 chicks per hatching, and all the chicks are sold to farms at prices 50 percent less than hatchery prices.

Simonetti said the farm gets about 5,000 eggs per month from its laying hens, and sells them for about $1 per dozen. The local farmers know their chickens are local to Togo, that they are organically raised, and that the chicks from local stock will thrive in the area, she said.

We act as a wholesaler. We sell them to women who sell them in the marketplace, she said. With the money the women make, the pay for their childrens school fees and household expenses.

She said the next project is for the farm to start making its own animal feed. This is another project that will employ workers, involve purchases from other farms and keep more money in the pockets of the nearby population, she said.

Our goal is to eliminate poverty and disease, Simonetti said. There is the nutrition angle, the economic development angle and raising awareness about healthy living. This is at the heart of what we do.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
The following email was sent to Missouri State employees on January 18, 2022.

Subject: Responding to K-12 changes

Several local school districts have announced that they are planning to move to virtual learning or closing for the remainder of this week or next week.

This will create challenges for many members of our campus community.

As I said in Clifs Notes last week, well continue to be as flexible as we can while also ensuring the continuation of campus operations.

While some employees may need to temporarily move to remote work:

Offices should continue to be staffed and open during regular operating hours.

Classes need to continue, even if some need to be temporarily moved to an alternate delivery method.

Ensuring continuation of classes

We do not plan to change the overall modality for classes. However, faculty impacted by K-12 classroom adjustments or other COVID-19 reasons should work with their department head and dean to make limited temporary adjustments as needed.

These adjustments could include moving a seated class to Zoom while children are home.

Faculty must gain approval from their department head (in consultation with the dean) before making any temporary adjustments to course delivery due to COVID.

Adjusting work schedules

We do not plan to implement widespread work-from-home arrangements as we did in 2020.

However, between now and mid-February, supervisors should be flexible in accommodating staff members pandemic-related scheduling needs.

Employees must demonstrate a legitimate pandemic-related scheduling need. School closures and childcare unavailability are two examples of such a need. Additionally, the needs of each employees office and job must continue to be met.

There is not a one-size-fits all solution to meet the scheduling needs of our staff members and the needs of each office at the university.

If you need a scheduling adjustment, you should collaborate with your supervisor to develop a plan that balances the requirements of your position, your needs and the needs of your co-workers.

Employees who are not able to work from home and need to miss work to care for children whose schools have moved to online instruction are eligible for COVID-19 Emergency Paid Leave.

Our Guiding Principles for Employee Return to Campus continue to provide good guidance for supervisors managing through the Omicron wave.

Scheduling adjustments are different from requests for accommodation related to disabilities. Disability accommodation requests should be made to the deputy compliance officer, who may be contacted at JuliaHolmes@MissouriState.edu.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif

Clifton M. Smart III

President
21.01.2022 LISTEN

The airwaves have been inundated with the call for a power shift from the North to the South even though zoning and rotation are not expressly provided for in the 1999 Constitution handed down to us by the Military under Gen Abdulsaalam Abubakar rtd. It is an internal arrangement by political parties aimed at balancing power and stemming the crisis that may arise if a particular people continue to hold on to power. Since the return to democracy uninterrupted in 1999, this arrangement has received some sort of stability at the Centre and in most states. While we have practised the North-South rotation, the dynamics are shifting to the six geopolitical zones with the North and South having three zones each.

The rotation along the zones seems to be threatened towards the build up to 2023 General elections. The South is where the battle will be fought and the victory will be in the North.

The silence of the Nigerian Constitution as well as the Electoral Act as amended is the catalyst for the coming implosion in the South as some political gladiators from the South West and by extension the South-South are already throwing their hats into the ring. The South East which is the only zone in the South to have clinched the top job, ordinarily in the spirit of Equity and Fairplay is facing an impending self-destruct with the ideals of the Apex Igbo Socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo being weighed on a moral scale. The group believes that the Igbo people are also found in other states other than the South East, thereby making it difficult to deny their kith and kin from Rivers, Delta, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross River and Akwa Ibom the right to contest for the Presidency in 2023. It is gradually becoming an individual race as more persons indicate interest to run. Those who insist on the Zonal arrangement have also forgotten that the North with two opportunities - late Musa YarAdua and Muhammadu Buhari have failed to transit from one zone to another. The two hail from the same State and Zone. It is even more interesting that they are both from the same tribe-Fulani.

The unfortunate ill-health of President Umaru Yar'adua threw up the highly debated Doctrine of Necessity which had Goodluck Jonathan his Deputy step in as the Acting President and subsequently, President, when Yar'Adua eventually died. He had barely spent only two years in office and a constitutional crisis erupted. It was not shocking to many as rumour of his ill-health was rife even before he was inaugurated as President. I recall the funny but unfortunate incident during one of the Presidential campaigns where the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo made a call to the ailing candidate of the PDP asking if he was dead or alive. In his usual humorous way, Obasanjo asked Yaradua who was hospitalised after collapsing at a Presidential rally if he could confirm or refute the rumour that he was dead.

Yes, YarAdua was not dead at that time but he was sick, and very sick. It was a common knowledge in and around Katsina State where he was Governor for eight years that he could not have fully discharged his role as the Chief Executive due to his aliment. It was not about his age though certain ailments are triggered by old age. It's a natural occurrence.

The unfortunate crisis created by President Obasanjo who many believe knew the state of Yar'Adua's health vis-a-vis eventually altered the zoning pattern with the South-South replacing the North West for a period of six years. This new order paved the way for a South to hold sway for fourteen years. Obasanjo from the South West and Jonathan from the South-South spent eight and six years respectively while Late Yar'Adua spent two years and Buhari from the same North West will be spending eight years, totaling ten years for the North West.

There are different pressure groups that have cited different reasons why power should shift either to the South or be retained in the North. The arguments are right depending on the perspective it is viewed from and whose interest it aims at serving. For the Nigerian people, what matters is balance in structure, security and a stable economy. Beyond the clamour for power shift, there is an earnest camouflaged desire for a leadership shift in real terms and as exemplified by other nations who have conquered religion and ethnicity. An Obama wouldn't have been if it were in Nigeria!

The reason why the agitation for a shift in where power resides is borne out of the precarious situation where appointments are lopsided in the Federal Civil Service as well as the deliberate marginalisation of a group of people. But then, should good leadership be sacrificed on the altar of zoning and rotation?

The nature of the Nigerian political system where the winner takes all creates an even more difficult situation as only those who seem to have been very much around the corridors of power are opportune to vie for these positions albeit tested and not trusted.

The present state of the nation calls for a true National Conference to chart the way forward. But the noise coming from different political camps has consumed any reasonable voice of truth.

The Banditry, Boko Haram, Kidnapping and ritual murders amongst others are issues that must be addressed or else, these monsters will consume the nation in less than no time.

When a similar scenario played out in the Niger Delta region, it was President Umaru Yar'Adua who instituted the Amnesty Program which brought lasting peace in the region. Unfortunately, his good intentions were cut short by death, barely two years after he was elected into office.

It is rather worrying that as the nation grapples with a similar challenge though heightened, the temptation to hand over a sick nation to the South by the North is not being resisted.

The major issues facing Northern Nigeria are unfortunately the creation of the North- Banditry, Boko Haram and kidnapping. If the tide is not stemmed under a President from the North, with most Service Chiefs and heads of security from the same region, is it likely that a Southerner, especially a Christian would be empowered to clean up the augean stable?

Can the nation survive another four or eight years of a relatively old President with rumours of manageable health?

Without being pretentious, I make bold to say that the secret plot to field those above the age of sixty years to succeed Buhari could be a reenactment of the challenges we have faced under a Buhari Presidency. To be categorical, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has no moral grounds to seek to succeed Buhari considering his age, mental and physical status.

I smell a rat. The Northerners who have joined the campaign are doing so out of a selfish purpose. They want power retained in the North just the way Jonathan continued after Yar'Adua, giving the South an edge over the North.

Also, the joker in the political game is the call for President Jonathan to seek reelection for a period of just four years. That will guarantee the North another eight straight years from 2027!

Either way, it is opportunistic.

The South must reject whatever Greek Gift being offered by the North.

Written by Chief Obiaruko Christie Ndukwe, a socio-political commentator, analyst and columnist based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State
The founder and 2020 flagbearer of All people congress (APC) Dr Hassan Ayariga has criticised the visit by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to Appiatse, a day after the massive explosion occurred on Thursday, January 20.

The Vice-President on Friday, 21 January 2020, paid a visit to the scene of the explosion at Appiatse, a town between Bogoso and Bawdie in the Western Region.

Dr Bawumias visit is to assess the extent of the disaster.

But Hassan Ayariga said it was unprofessional for the Vice President to have visited the devasted community which he claims was unsafe.

His reason is that there might be a lot of chemicals still left on the ground that can explode at any time.

Appiatse, a mining community in Bogoso in the Western Region has turned into a ghost town following an explosion that destroyed 500 houses. Preliminary investigation reveals that a truck carrying explosives to a mining site was involved in an accident with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.

Thirteen people have so far been confirmed dead.

Fifty-nine others were also injured out of the 76 rescued.

Below is full statement:

Dr Hassan Ayariga warns:

It was unprofessional and not safe for our vice president and government officials to hurriedly visit the explosion site.

The security experts and other security institutions should have declared the place safe before allowing people including our Vice President to visit the place because there could be a possibility of another explosion due to the level of chemical content involved. It wasnt right to have allowed anybody to go there.
The Minister of Land and Natural Resources has directed the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, with immediate effect, to suspend the registration of Maxam Company Limited with the Minerals Commission, thereby precluding the company from manufacture, transportation and/or supply of explosives for mining operations, pending the outcome of the investigations into this disaster.

This follows the explosion at Appiatse near Bogoso in the Western Region on Thursday January 20.

The Minister also, on 21st January 2022 directed the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission to interdict the Chief Inspector of Mines with immediate effect, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigations into the tragic event which took place at Apiate, a statement said.

The statement indicated that the Chief Inspector of Mines is responsible for for the supervision of the manufacture , storage, transportation and use of explosives for mining and mine support services.

Following the disaster on Thursday January 20, the Police said its preliminary investigation established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.

Reference to our earlier emergency public notice, the Police have taken charge of the situation providing security to enable the emergency workers including the Ghana National Fire Service , NADMO and the Ambulance Service to manage the situation.

The public has been advised to move out of the area to nearby towns for their safety while recovery efforts are underway.An appeal is also being made to nearby towns to open up their classrooms, churches etc to accommodate surviving victims.

Meanwhile, preliminary investigation has established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion. Most of the victims have been rescued and are on admission at various hospitals and clinics within the Bogoso Municipality.

Thirteen people have so far died in relation to this accident.

Speaking to journalists on Friday January 21, the Director General, Public Affairs Directorate of the Police Service, ACP Kwasi Ofori said It was misreported that they were dead but when they were taken to the hospital, the medical officers certified that they were not clinically dead and as such they were admitted and treatment is ongoing. So it is 13 and we should take note of that.
Any Ghanaian living in Europe, America, or outside Ghana, who claims that the current government in power is better than the previous governments and, therefore, it is good for the common people, is not only a tribalist but a very wicked person with no sympathy in him.

This article will reveal the hypocrisy and wickedness of many Ghanaians in the Diaspora, whose dogs and cats are even receiving better medical care than the common Ghanaians, yet they live in the UK, Holland, America, Belgium, Germany, etc; and continue to promote the bad NPP government because of tribalism.

If I analyze the kind of politics today in Ghana, many things tell you immediately that the current politicians in power are struggling or will do anything evil if necessary to win the 2024 elections for them to survive but not a fight for the survival of the common people.

Before anyone doubts what I am saying, I need to ask you a few questions. Has it been easy for the common Ghanaians in the past five years since Nana Akufo Addo became the president?

If five years have been wasted and have benefited only the NPP politicians, what is the guarantee that 2024 will be better for the common people?

It is not an exaggeration, since the president has failed to protect the publics purse and has kept every corrupt NPP politician and journalist in his government, there is nothing anymore Akufo Addo will say about the fight against corruption for the common people to believe him, therefore, that promise is over.

Nana Akufo Addo will be more than a comedian or will become a laughing stock if he ever raises his voice to say I, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, I am not corrupt, therefore, I will continue to declare war against corruption."



If you are a Ghanaian and you see such a beautiful animal hospital, then you dont need to look far or imagine how real hospitals for human beings are in Europe or the United States of America.

I will not sit down in fear because someone will kill me for criticizing Akufo Addo's bad and nepotic government, without looking for a better life for the common Ghanaians.

I will continue to make a hell for all the corrupt Ghanaian politicians because they have made the common people too experience hell, unnecessary suffering, and hardships caused by the NPP's incompetence and corruption.

Nothing is working in Ghana, everything has gone bad in the country. The people have no job, crime has increased and the country is under huge debt, yet the NPP government is talking of breaking the eight, breaking what? Let them break 10.

Dont they have compassion for the suffering Ghanaians? Can't they see they are gradually causing suffering and hunger holocaust in Ghana? Why are they so greedy that they have failed to see the havoc they have caused to Ghana?

The reality is in any good country if there will ever be a free and fair election, I dont think among the political parties, the NPP will even get 1% vote after elections and certainly, in any developed country, none of the NPP politicians, including the president will ever get a post because each one of them is a waste.

A waste of natural resources, a waste of Ghanas taxpayers money because these politicians, including Akufo Addo, are collecting fat salaries and benefits but they have denied the country everything for the common people to live like normal human beings.

Im sorry to say that animals in developed countries live better than the common Ghanaians. In the developed countries, the animals veterinary is more equipped with modern health facilities to diagnose animals' health problems than what the Ghanaian hospitals have for human beings.



In Europe and the United States of America, animals have ambulances, how many ambulances do Ghanaian hospitals have? So if you look at the way animals are even treated better than the common Ghanaians, then I am right to say what is being practiced in Ghana is not politics at all.

Sometimes, its annoying when you realize that the government in power has failed the people, moreover, they are not good to rule, yet they want to force and win the election that follows 2020.

Its insane, I think its the same anger that often ignites military coups in Africa or West Africa. The NPP will never win the 2024 elections because they have proved to be criminals and corrupt more than the NDC government they painted black.

Jane Mensah, the Electoral Commission's boss, wouldn't dare this time to repeat the same mistakes she did which has earned her military protection for the rest of her life because people mustn't play with the hunger and anger of the youth.

Any party that comes to power after the NPP must set up an independent judiciary panel to investigate the NPP government to uncover how the country's finances were used. In fact, this is what they are afraid of.

Anyone found guilty of stealing the government's money, including the president, shouldn't be spared. All of them should be thrown into prison to serve between five and fifteen years. It is not only military governments that jail corrupt politicians, democratic governments can do that too.

Go to Google and find out how many corrupt politicians have been jailed in the United State of America? Without that Ghana will never be a successful country. That's why on December 28, 2021, I published "Fighting Against Corruption Is Not By Mouth Akufo Addo, These Corrupt American Politicians Were Jailed"

A country where its law works jail everyone, including corrupt politicians. These are some of the jailed corrupt American politicians. Akufo Addo shouldn't say that since Mahama didn't do that I will not do it. A little thing makes someone different and respectful.

I am writing with confidence that in 2024, the NPP government will lose the elections but what will happen aftermath is what will shock Ghanaians. Many of them will run out of the country to live outside Ghana because they know the financial crimes they have committed will be exposed by the opposition.
WACAM together with Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis (CEIA) has expressed its deepest condolences to victims of Appiatse explosion, a town close to Bogoso in the Western region on Thursday.

Preliminary investigations reveal that a vehicle conveying explosives materials to Chirano Mining Company collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.

Some 13 persons have so far been confirmed dead with over 50 others sustaining various degrees of injuries.

The statement noted, Wacam and CEIA express our deepest condolence to the Chief and people of Appiatse community who have lost their loved ones. We wish those who were injured a speedy recovery.

Whiles commiserating with the people of Appiatse, the statement added that, though it is too early to officially establish the root cause of this tragic incident it could have been avoided if due precaution had been adhered to.

The people of Apiate and the nation could have been spared the agony of the incident that had shocked the whole nation and its related damage if due precaution had been exercised and the safety provisions in the Minerals and Mining (Explosives) Regulations, 2012 ( LI 2177) had been adhered to in the transport of the explosives.

WACAM, a mining advocate, over the years has consistently stayed focused on the advocacy of responsible mining.

The statement emphasized that Our call for responsible mining practices in the country is to prevent incidences of such nature and cyanide spillages which tend to expose host mining communities to avoidable dangers.

It however commended government for immediately activating the National Emergency Response Mechanism to address the situation. "We salute the gallant men and women from Ghana Police Service, Fire Service, Ghana Armed Forces, NADMO, National Ambulance Service, Staff of Ghana Health Service in the affected area as well as the entire citizens who assisted in bringing relief to the affected people."

Wacam and CEIA further commended the Churches in the area particularly, the Catholic Parish in Bogoso for releasing their church hall to be used in accommodating the displaced residents from the community.

We want to use this medium to reiterate our call for all mining companies to adhere to responsible mining regulations.

"In furtherance to this, we call on mining sector regulatory agencies to effectively regulate the mining companies to avoid Regulatory Capture and Agency problems to ensure strict adherence to all regulations governing safe and responsible mining practices.

Read below full statement:

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT OF WACAM AND CEIA ON

VALLEY MUNICIPALITY

Thursday, 20th January 2022 which appeared to be a normal day for the people of Apiate turned out to be a sad day for the people and Ghana. Apiate is a small farming village and mining community in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality.

A vehicle conveying explosives to Chirano Mining Company exploded at Apiate community after colliding with a motor cycle. The explosives detonated, setting the whole town ablaze killing and maiming scores of residents as well as destroying properties of the residents. Wacam and CEIA express our deepest condolence to the Chief and people of Apiate community who have lost their loved ones. We wish those who were injured a speedy recovery. We also commend Government for immediately activating the National Emergency Response Mechanism to address the situation. We salute the gallant men and women from Ghana Police Service, Fire Service, Ghana Armed Forces, NADMO, National Ambulance Service, Staff of Ghana Health Service in the affected area as well as the entire citizens who assisted in bringing relief to the affected people.

Wacam and CEIA further wish to commend the Churches in the area particularly, the Catholic Parish in Bogoso for releasing their church hall to be used in accommodating the displaced residents from the community.

Wacam and CEIA recognising that it is too early to officially establish the root cause of this tragic incident, call on government and relevant agencies to conduct full-scale investigation into the incident.

The people of Apiate and the nation could have been spared the agony of the incident that had shocked the whole nation and its related damage if due precaution had been exercised and the safety provisions in the Minerals and Mining (Explosives) Regulations, 2012 ( LI 2177) had been adhered to in the transport of the explosives. Our call for responsible mining practices in the country is to prevent incidences of such nature and cyanide spillages which tend to expose host mining communities to avoidable dangers.

We want to use this medium to reiterate our call for all mining companies to adhere to responsible mining regulations. In furtherance to this, we call on mining sector regulatory agencies to effectively regulate the mining companies to avoid Regulatory Capture and Agency problems to ensure strict adherence to all regulations governing safe and responsible mining practices.

Signed

Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis Wacam

Dr Samuel Obiri Hannah Owusu-Koranteng (Mrs)

Executive Director Associate Executive Director

Dated: 21st January 2022
In the aftermath of the tragic explosion recorded at Appiatse near Bogoso in the Western Region, fresh information provided by the police puts the total casualties at 190.

Out of this number, 96 of them have been discharged from the hospital, while 36 are still receiving treatment.

Some 384 persons have been displaced.

The death toll has been put at 13 .

Director-General of Police Public Affairs, ACP Kwesi Ofori, gave these details in a media interaction on Friday, January 21, 2022.

Officially, the Ambulance Service and Allied Agencies recorded 190 casualties. Out of that, 13 are certified to be dead. It is not 17 as earlier reported. Rather, four of the injured were seriously wounded, and they were taken to the Okomfo Ankoye Teaching Hospital. Initially, due to their condition, it was misreported that they were dead, but when they were taken to the hospital, the medical officers certified that they were not clinically dead, and they were admitted and treatment is ongoing.

The town of Appiate has been left deserted after the incident, which occurred after a truck conveying mining explosives crashed with a motorcycle, according to reports.

It has emerged that the persons who unfortunately lost their lives included a seven-month-old baby .

Today, we can say that 36 are on admission at the moment 96 have been discharged, and they will be reporting to the medical authorities as and when necessary. Displaced persons are about 384, and they are being housed at St. Michael Catholic Parish at Bogoso, ACP Kwesi Ofori added.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia , who was in the town on Friday, assured that the government will do all it can to support the affected families, to ensure that normalcy is brought back to the town.

Government on its part is going to do everything to support the families, he said.

The Vice President, on behalf of the government visited the Bogoso Catholic Parish Relief Centre where over 300 of the displaced persons are being catered for and donated mattresses, bags of rice as well as GH200,000 for the upkeep of survivors.

citinewsroom
Home > 2022 > Significance of a Human Security Approach for Global Peace and Development (...)

by Manoj Kumar Mishra *

The concept of human security was articulated by Pakistani scholar Mahbub ul Haq in 1994 when he drew attention to the concept in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report. Henceforth, human security became a part of academic discourse and the concept required a shift of focus from the physical security of a state to socio-economic security and development of its citizens along with their personal, civil and physical security.

This article is a modest attempt to emphasize how this concept also implied separation of security from the territoriality of a state by shifting the focus from national citizens to the people of the world at large, as the emphasis is on human beings and not on a states own citizens.

The Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the interconnectedness of human-beings across the globe demonstrating cases how a specific variant of the virus generated in one country is affecting others within a short span. Further, the developing countries are more susceptible to non-traditional security threats such as poverty, disease and insurgencies on account of their weak political and rickety socio-economic institutions compared to developed countries. Pandemics such as Covid-19 could further destabilize the institutions and engender civil war like situations in the long-term which could in turn impinge on international peace and security.

A report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in 2021 pointed to the glaring fact that while the pandemic had little direct impact on the conduct of armed conflicts in 2020; it led to increases in psychological stress and domestic violence. The pandemic also had major economic and political effects. It led to reduced economic output in all except 20 countries, reversed three decades of progress in poverty reduction, and contributed to widespread deterioration in the quality of democracy. All these effects will in turn have possible future security consequences. [1] More insecurity and instability in the developing world will have serious repercussions on global peace and development.

Need for Shift from Human Rights to Human Security Paradigm

Compared to the human rights perspective, the human security perspective provides a larger framework to contribute to global humanitarian causes for a number of reasons.

First, the international regime of human rights is riddled with controversies, as the developed states prioritized civil and political rights over social and economic rights and the developing countries preferred the opposite. Human security requires all the rights to be protected equally to ensure a secure and healthy human existence. The concept of human security underlines the symbiotic relationship between the two sets of rights. By prioritizing one set of rights over the other, states jettison the concept of rights altogether.

While notions of human rights are particularistic and specific to a states belief system and practice, human security can have universal relevance and acceptance. Individualistic notions of human rights with a priority on civil and political rights (as emphasized by the developed countries of the West) have failed to address the socio-economic predicaments of developing countries during humanitarian crises.

For instance, a militaristic turn in US-led Operation Restore Hope in Somalia led to a perception among many Somalis that the mission was a form of imperialism and occupation. The American and other Western troops soon withdrew, indicating their inability and unwillingness to study the socio-economic conditions of the East African country. This led to the United Nations operation becoming primarily a developing countries mission.

Second, human rights are considered claims and rights of individuals against their state, but these do not intend to correct the in-egalitarian international structure that leads to many cases of human insecurity. Nevertheless, human security necessitates an egalitarian world order to enable each state to provide security for its own people. A human security perspective on humanitarian crises focuses on the in-egalitarian international economic and social order as a significant source of intrastate conflicts that engenders poverty, inequality and discrimination, and causes disorder within developing countries, paving the way for authoritarian rulers filling the vacuum. In this context, the UN needs to play a pivotal role in economic affairs based on the comprehensive notions of security, primarily because its charter treats all member countries as equal, despite differences in economic and military strength. However, global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are not only mandated to perform most of the economic functions globally, the great powers have institutionalized their economic privileges over the weaker ones in these institutions.

Third, the human rights regimes preoccupation with enforcement of the rights of individuals may call for international intervention taking an intense form bent on regime change even at the expense of minimum human security. On the contrary, the human-security perspective places emphasis on the socio-economic and security factors of the people during peacekeeping operations. Second, socio-economic and cultural aspects of human life must be considered as important as military and defense concerns.

Emphasis must be placed on achieving peace through persuasion, negotiation and moderation before switching to military means (to be used as a last resort). It can be argued that even while the powerful developed countries of the globe have involved themselves in various UN peacekeeping activities, they have demonstrated a power-centric approach towards these.

The SIPRI report on the pattern of armed conflict released in 2017 recorded the statistics that out of the 49 active conflicts in 2016, 47 were fought within states and over government (22), territory (24) or both (1) indicating a clear trend toward sharp rise in the number of intrastate conflicts compared to inter-state ones. The report further noted that Africa was the region with the highest number of conflicts in 2016 (19 active conflicts) followed by Asia (15 conflicts). [2] The 2021 report of the institute went on to state that just as in preceding years, most conflicts took place within a single country (intrastate), between government forces and one or more armed non-state group(s). The increasing number of intra-state conflicts accompanied by a steep decline in inter-state conflicts needs to be seen from a human security perspective  embracing security as a comprehensive concept rather than a militaristic notion.

Great powers missions abroad have been conceived more as counter-terrorism or regime-change operations than long-term socio-economic engagements. The difficulties in managing post-war situations in Iraq and Afghanistan highlighted the importance of long-term socio-economic engagement and the problematic nature of over-reliance on military operations.

The UN initiatives in the post-Cold War period have often been more punitive in nature, with more frequent use of economic and military sanctions, as seen in Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. The need for quick action and a lack of unanimity within the UN Security Council motivated (and gave tacit legitimacy to) the security organizations of the developed countries such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and global powers such as the US to take immediate steps in order to address situations around the globe. In cases such as Iraq, Libya and Syria, the US and its allies threw their weight behind UN Security Council resolutions that implicitly promoted the US/NATOs active role in strengthening anti-regime forces, helped them push the agenda of democracy and assigned them militaristic roles without exhausting all the peaceful options. However, apparently, the militaristic approach toward intervention has very often led to militaristic shifts in humanitarian missions and state-building exercises. On the contrary, the widely publicized loss of 18 American soldiers during a humanitarian mission in Mogadishu to facilitate the delivery of aid during the civil war led to Rwanda, another African state, being left to its fate when it faced a major humanitarian crisis. Washingtons reluctance to get involved came to be known as Somalia bodybag syndrome. Similarly, it was the 9/11 attacks on the American mainland that prompted the US to intervene militarily in Afghanistan. Washington had ignored the civil war ravaging the country and the human rights violations committed by the Taliban regime until then because it considered it a stabilizing force. The hardline regime was helping to advance US geo-strategic interests by assisting it in laying down the alternative Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) pipeline bypassing Iran and Russia.

Differences in approach between the UN, which largely represents the developing countries, and NATO, which represents the developed ones, were palpable in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The differences in institutional perspectives on the use of military power between the UN and NATO were clear when NATO stressed the effective application of military power even when used in a limited fashion, but the UN emphasized optimal restraint.

Fourth, the human rights perspective cannot address global problems like climate change, environmental pollution and terrorism, which compromise the rights of individuals as well. On the other hand, the human-security perspective takes all these global problems into account for the secure and sustainable lives of individuals.

Therefore, the human-security perspective locates the problem of human insecurity in structural inequalities between the developed and developing countries, in the negligence of the developing and under-developed countries security concerns during peacekeeping operations and in global problems like environmental pollution and climate change.

Fifth, from a human security perspective, the preservation of territorial integrity and the strengthening of state institutions remain priorities for the security of individuals. On the other side, the human rights perspective asks for enforcement of individual rights in failed states but remains reticent on a prior strengthening of the state institutions so that they do not fail. The issues of failed and rogue states must be addressed before they arise and the doctrine of humanitarian intervention is invoked. There are far too many cases of sophisticated weapons systems supplied by great powers being misused by rogue states. A human security perspective, in this context, requires continued extreme caution and an understanding of the implications of such military contracts for the security of human beings, as well as long-term measures that can address the problems of failed and rogue states.

However, the concept of human security rejects an obsession with territorial and military security and assumes that the foreign policy of a country should also seriously strive to attain other important goals for improvement in the quality of life of citizens.

The people of a country not only have the right to freedom from fear, they are also entitled to freedom from want. While the conventional notion of security emphasizes the former, human security respects both. Freedom from fear and freedom from want are interrelated because it is only in a relatively peaceful environment that people can achieve developmental objectives and, conversely, people deprived of basic needs and minimum benefits of development would be constantly involved in fighting for scant resources.

Citizens of a particular country can live a peaceful life with dignity only when the surrounding region and the world at large become safer without serious conflicts, the socio-economic concerns of the third world countries are addressed and an egalitarian international order is established.

The state institutions of developing countries need to be strengthened and they must be properly represented in international organizations to ensure the security of their citizens. There are also many global problems such as terrorism, environmental pollution and climate change that require the attention of the developed and developing world alike, and a human security perspective can address them.

In sum, it is pertinent that a states foreign policy must incorporate the changed understanding of security in its relationship with other states. Citizens of a particular state can realize freedom from fear and from want through security and development only within a peaceful world mediated through a peaceful region. While the adoption of a human security perspective can go a long way in bridging the gaps between developed and developing countries on security, a reformed UN Security Council could provide the multilateral body with the requisite mechanisms to check the hegemonic tendencies of the worlds most powerful countries. A reformed and strengthened UN could check the militaristic approach of the powerful countries, which is often expressed through security organizations like NATO.

(Author: Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra, Lecturer in Political Science, SVM Autonomous College, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha)
Stop us if you have heard this before, but Amity is the new No. 1 team in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Baseball Poll. The Spartans claim the top spot after previous No. 1 Warde dropped a 2-1 decision to...
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Prestea- Huni Valley, Dr Isaac Dasmani has said his office needs building materials to reconstruct the damaged houses in Appiatse, a community near Bogoso in the Western Region where the explosion occurred on Thursday January 20.

The explosion led to the destruction of the entire community.

Speaking on the Key Points on Saturday January 22, he said I will need building materials because for how long can we feed the victims. We want the authorities to come to our aid to start construction as soon as possible.

He added  By Monday, we will clear the site and start construction as soon as possible.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia had also assured that efforts were being made to rebuild the community.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who visited the scenes on Friday January 21 said  Government on its part is going to do everything to support the family, to support those who have been injured. Thankfully, the Ambulance Service played a major role in the rescue.

 For the houses that have been destroyed we are already beginning to think about how to rehabilitate and rebuild for the community.

The president has given us the directive, I have spoken to the State Housing Cooperation inclusion with the Mining companies here we will quickly try to put in lace the facilities that will help those who have been displaced.

Government is fully engaged in all these process and we are going to see to it that the people are taken care off.

The Police had said its preliminary investigation established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.

Reference to our earlier emergency public notice, the Police have taken charge of the situation providing security to enable the emergency workers including the Ghana National Fire Service , NADMO and the Ambulance Service to manage the situation.

The public has been advised to move out of the area to nearby towns for their safety while recovery efforts are underway.An appeal is also being made to nearby towns to open up their classrooms, churches etc to accommodate surviving victims.

Meanwhile, preliminary investigation has established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion. Most of the victims have been rescued and are on admission at various hospitals and clinics within the Bogoso Municipality.

3news.com
Two persons have been nabbed by the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Northern Regional Police Command for allegedly producing and selling 'Toffees' suspected to be produced by cannabis in Tamale in the Northern region.

The suspects Aisha Tahiru,45 and Amina Mutarla,27 were arrested at Sakasaka, a suburb of Tamale.

The Northern Region Crime Officer, Supt. Bernard Baba Ananga, who confirmed the arrest of the suspects said preliminary investigations indicates that the suspects sell the 'Wee Toffees' to pupils in various schools in the Tamale metropolis.

He indicated that the suspects have been charged with possession of Narcotics drugs , prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs and supply of narcotic drugs.

 If you look at the Toffees they are being processed into some substances and we will look at the manufacturing aspect of it how they get the cannabis and other substances to put them together to come up with the Toffees.

According to him, the suspects will be arraigned before court after investigations.

Supt. Ananga, however, urged parents to advise their children to be careful about the kind of locally made toffees they buy at school.

When we were making the arrest some school children who were passing were saying they have been buying the toffees and they said it was their favorite but they never knew that it was produced with cannabis.

DGN online
Teenage Belgian-British aviator Zara Rutherford this week became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the world in a solo aircraft, flying 52,000km by microlight over 31 countries.

"It was very difficult but very rewarding," confessed the 19-year-old after completing her solo round-the-world odyssey, breaking the record set by American Shaesta Waiz in 2017.

She touched down at an airfield outside the Belgian town of Kortrijk, welcomed by a crowd of journalists, well-wishers and family just over five months (159 days) after she set off on 18 August, 2021.

"It's very strange being back here," she told a media conference, adding that after her epic journey she was looking forward to putting her feet up in just one place.

"I'd like to do nothing next week," she laughed. "It was harder than I imagined."

Rutherford, whose parents are both pilots and whose father flew for Britain's air force, fielded questions in English, French and Dutch.

She explained that Russia's vast, frozen expanse of Siberia was the "scariest" leg of her journey: a place of overwhelming distance between habitations, and where the temperature fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius.

"I'd be going hundreds and hundreds of kilometres without seeing anything human ... no electricity cables, no roads, no people ... and I thought if the engine stopped now I'd have a really big problem," Rutherford said.

'Nerve-wracking'

Navigating the world in a tiny 325-kilogramme Shark UL single-propeller plane, loaned to her under a sponsorship deal, meant Rutherford had to skirt around clouds and could not fly at night.

Many times she was made to divert or make hasty landings, including taking to ground quickly early this month just a short distance from Dubai, to avoid getting caught in the first thunderstorm that city had seen in two years.

There was also a three-week stretch for most of November in a Russian eastern coastal town called Ayan where she could not take off because of the weather, relying on kind locals who were "very willing to help with anything I might need".

Rutherford did not escape the Covid pandemic and related restrictions, either.

China barred her from its airspace because of virus curbs, "which meant I had to do a huge detour to avoid North Korea  and that took six hours over water," she said. "That was a pretty nerve-wracking experience."

Rutherford was subjected to PCR tests "all the time" to get clearance, and "Asia was extremely strict, so I had to make sure that I stayed in hotels".

But the 52,000-kilometre trip, tracked on her website and caught on cameras she took with her, also brought its share of unique experiences.

They included flying around the Statue of Liberty and seeing a SpaceX launch in California, soaring above Saudi Arabia's "diverse" landscape, stopping in Colombia, seeing an isolated house on its Icelandic island, and powering along "beautiful" Bulgarian valleys.

'Go for it'

Rutherford is not the youngest person to have flown around the world solo. That title goes to an 18-year-old Briton, Travis Ludlow, who completed his feat in July last year.

But, once confirmed by Guinness World Records, she assumes the title of the youngest woman to do so, displacing a US pilot of Afghan origin, Shaesta Waiz, who circumnavigated the planet in 2017, aged 29.

Rutherford said she hopes she'll serve as an example for girls and women to go more into aviation and studies traditionally dominated by men: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

More than that, though, she said her feat is a tribute to seizing hold of dreams and making them happen, saying she had to get past her initial fears that her goal would be "too expensive, too dangerous, too complicated".

"I want to encourage people to do something crazy with their lives  to go for it."
The title of this publication, Advice to Apraku my Senior may remind Ghanaians of one popular, although deceased, Ghanaian prophet, known teasingly or otherwise as Apraku my daughter. This publication has nothing to do with mockery, but to seriously admonish my one time senior at then Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School (TKSS) in Kumawu, now Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School.

I am aware of how resolutely determined Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku is to rendering service to Ghanaians and mother Ghana in the capacity of president.

He was my senior at Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School in the 1971/1972 academic year. When I was in form one, he was in form five. We were both in House Four but in different dormitories. He was in Biafran Lodge on the 1st floor while I was in the dormitory on the ground floor of same building block.

I vividly remember how some unknown form five mates of his punished him by dumping his cloth in a water closet (WC), pooed on it and attempted to flush the toilet.

What was his sin to merit such dastardly attack on him by some his faceless form five mates, one may query? It was all about him reporting to the examining authorities in Kumasi when some form five students were discovered by him to resort to illegal means to cheat in some of the final year GCE papers they were writing. The subject papers in which the students were established or alleged to have cheated were all cancelled to affect the entire form five final year students, whether one was among those cheating or not.

The little history told about him is to convey to Ghanaians how serious and probably honest Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku is, and also, how nothing can stop him from doing what he feels is right and he has the right of.

He knew the risk involved in reporting the en masse cheating in the exams by his colleagues, yet he went ahead to do it. He did not want students to cheat to pass their exams but to work harder to earn the better passing results they desire.

I heard he was once commended by the late Emeritus Professor Adu Boahene when he had the opportunity to read a book authored by him (Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku), when he, Emeritus Professor Adu Boahene, visited a library in the United States of America (USA). Professor Adu Boahene was said to have concluded that Dr Apraku was a presidential material.

Could he have been incited to go into politics with the ambition to become president following Professor Adu Boahenes high esteem for him? Whether yes or no, he has the right to exploit his unlimited potentials to benefit Ghanaians and himself.

However, I shall advise him to be a bit politically savvy going into the NPP flagbearership primaries and the subsequent general elections 2024. Among the possible aspirants, Dr Mahammudu Bawumia, Messrs Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng and Boakye Agyarko, Dr Akoto-Afriyie and himself, he stands the least chance of landing the NPP flagbearer. Again, for NPP to be taken very serious with any chance of breaking the eight, Dr Bawumia must be elected by the delegates to lead NPP as their flagbearer cum presidential-candidate, supported by Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng as the vice presidential-candidate. Should anything differently happen, then NPP is doomed for opposition.

,

Knowing that Dr Apraku stands no chance this time around, same as it was with his previous attempts, I shall advise him not to waste his money going into a contest he is bound to lose and of which he is very much aware of his fate. He had better spend his money on something that will be more beneficial to his former Offinso constituents or his town, Akomadan. The people will appreciate that more than to throwing the money down the drain.

He must bear in mind that wisdom is not the prerogative of the rich, the highly educated or old people. Wisdom can be the portion of anyone according as God chooses and bestows on them. Therefore, he should not think the author of this publication is nobody to advise him and that he will not take any advice from anyone who is not as highly educated or old as himself.

For as President John Dramani Mahama said he would not accept any advice from anyone who has never been a president before, then finally seeing himself proven difficult and eventually voted out of power by Ghanaians, I dont expect same from Apraku my Senior.

You have earned your money and have the right to do whatever you want with it. Nevertheless, it will be very unwise of you to throw your money down the drain, except that you still want to showcase yourself as a presidential material in case your name and face would be etched in the minds of Ghanaians to consider you next time around.

I was really hurt when I read one of our usual online columnists making a mockery of your education and how hard you try to speak English with the American accent. Being my senior and knowing how brilliant you were when at TKSS, I wouldnt like to see anyone underrate your intelligence because of politics hence this piece of advice to you.

A word to the wise is sufficient.

Rockson Adofo

Saturday, 22 January 2022
Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe the Member of Parliament for Akatsi North constituency in the Volta region who doubles as the chairman for parliamentary select committee on education said the idea by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to run basic schools under semester system will collapse Ghana's education system.

According to him, basic schools and their teachers will find it very difficult to stay in schools for 20 weeks per semester.

He added that the country's education system has been running the there term system for over decades without any hiccups.

"How can our little children be in school continuously for five months?" he stated.

Mr Kotoe said he was happy all teacher unions in the country kicked against the cruel system by government.

He stressed that government should have been thinking of building classroom blocks for students in deprived areas and communities.

He added, "they even wanted to change 3 years of Senior High School system to 6 years which we disagreed."

Mr Kotoe said this at Keta during a town hall meeting held at Word Power Ministries Church, Keta-Abutiakope organized by Keta MP, Mr Dzudzorli Kwame Gakpe, where he was sitting as the chairman of the occation.

Mr Gabby Hottordze, the central Tongue Member of Parliament who was at the occation urged the party faithfuls and the general public to have confidence in the NDC.

He took the gathering through the one year journey of Volta MPs in Parliament.

At the occation were some Volta MPs, Togbe Gatsiko IV of Keta Dzelukope, Mama Nugbemado ll of Agbozume Afegame, Hanua Kenneth Binna of Abutiakope, constituency executives, party constituency elders among others.
Mr Richard Kwame Sefe, the Member of Parliament for Anlo constituency in the Volta Region has stated the confusion and fisticuff in the Parliament among members was in order to kick against the controversial e-levy.

According to him, they have fought a good fight to protect the already burdened Ghanaians from being overburdened with harsh taxes.

He stated that the e-levy the government is trying to bring will send many people to their early grave following the rising cases of suicides among Ghanaians who are fed up of living in a hopeless country with so many taxes.

"They promised not to tax Ghanaians, but what do we see now, taxes here and there and the load is just becoming too much for our beloved citizens to bear" he added.

He continued "if not that fight in Parliament, the cruel NPP government would have passed the e-levy taxes".

Mr Sefe said this during a town hall meeting at Keta-Abutiakope Word Power Ministries church on Friday January 21,2022.

The theme for the program was "Parliamentary Representation and Accountability: Upholding our Covenant with the People."

Mr Dzudzorli Kwame Gakpey, the Member of Parliament for Keta constituency, the host of the program in his turn asked the constituents to rally behind the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to come back to power in 2024 election.

"We will put Ghana back to work in the year 2024 after the general elections," he stated.

He added that Ghanaians who are suffering under the Nana Addo led NPP administration are yearning for NDC come back to deliver the country.

Mr Gakpey added that the NPP government has deceived Ghanaians resulting in total hardship.

According to him, the NPP promised to move the country's economy from taxation to production.

He noted that Ghanaians can now attest for themselves the lies and deceit of the NPP entangling Ghanaians in a web of many taxes since it took over power from the NDC.

He said for the past one year of being a member of Parliament, he assisted 850 youths to learn various types of trade to mitigate the level of hardship.

He continued that, through his initiative, he organized an eye screening exercise for about 750 people within his constituency.

Mr Gakpey urged Ghanaians to continue to endure the hardship awaiting the return of NDC to power in 2024.

Present at the ceremony were Mr Gabby Hottordze, MP for Central Tongu; Mr Peter Nortu-Kotoe, Akatsi North MP; chiefs, constituency executives among others.
Dr. Alfred Gardemor, an optometrist at the Nsawam Government Hospital, has cautioned drivers against the use of night vision spectacles, saying, doing that is unsafe for persons with eye problems.

He said the tinted or polarized lenses used on the night vision glasses were designed to reduce the amount of light getting to the eye and therefore anyone who does this at night will actually make it harder to see, not easier.

Wearing such a spectacle at night would reduce the light entering the eyes - the ability to see clearly at night would be reduced by about 40 per cent.

Dr. Gardemor was speaking at a sensitization programme jointly organized by the Ghana Optometric Association and the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to encourage people to report to the hospital early with any eye disorders.

The advocacy programme has the added goal of getting policy makers to give priority to the promotion of eye health.

Dr. Gardemor indicated that reducing the amount of light seen by wearing night vision glasses contributed to additional visual impairment which affected one's ability to drive safely at night.

They are not appropriate because already we are trying to see, and our streets are not well lit, we are using the car highlight and now wearing tinted glasses which would reduce the small light entering.

He added that the wearing of night vision spectacles was only worsening the night driving challenges.

Dr. Kwame Yeboah, optometrist at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital reminded drivers to go for regular eye checkups, noting that, good vision was one of the main and essential ingredients for driving automobiles.

Without vision you can't drive properly; of the five senses, vision is the most important for driving and road safety. It is needed to see the road and everything on it; it is needed to protect pedestrians, identify road hazards, road signs and see indicators on the dashboard.

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the GNA, said the association and the wire service had agreed to work together to promote vision health.

GNA
Hon. Samuel Nii Adjei Tawiah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Korle Klottey, says the reconstruction and rechanneling of drains from Paloma and Asylum Down is the cause of the delay of the Odawna Market rebuilding.

He said the Assembly together with the Ministry of Works and Housing were working towards reconstructing the drains before work commenced on the market redevelopment.

One of the reasons why we have to wait is to ensure that the reconstruction happens before the building of the market or at least have the plan for the drains so that we know where we can build and the sort of things that can be put on top of the drain, he said.

The MCE said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the disbursement of items to Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in the Municipality.

The Assembly presented startup items, including provisions, hairdressing equipment, and phone repair accessories to the PWDs to enhance their livelihood.

The Assembly also offered educational support to three PWDs, two at the tertiary level and one in basic school.

The items were estimated at GHC60,000 and was the third disbursement by the Assembly since its establishment in 2019.

Mrs Jean Ameley Tagoe, Director for Social Welfare Department at the Assembly, said the disbursement was funded by the three per cent of the District Assembly Common Fund allocated to PWDs.

She entreated them to put the items to good use to enable them to establish and fend for themselves.

The MCE said the reconstruction of the drains formed part of the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project being implemented by the Government to ease congestion in the area as well as prevent floods.

He said some investors had shown interest in the market redevelopment and that they would be partnering the Assembly to commence the construction soon.

The MCE, in a related development, said the Assembly was also in the process of reconstructing the Tema Station Market into a modern bus terminal and market.

We are far ahead with the Tema Station plan and we have been able to select a company to rebuild the station, market and a hotel, he added.

The Odawna Market at Kwame Nkrumah Cirlce Interchange was gutted by fire on November 18, 2020, destroying property worth thousands of cedis.

GNA
The reconstruction of buildings destroyed by the explosion at Appiatse, near Bogoso in the Western Region could commence on Monday, January 24, 2022.

Ghanaians were hit with bad news on Thursday when a truck carrying some mining explosives crashed with a motor bicycle, resulting in the explosion.

The tragic incident did not only lead to the loss of lives, it also saw almost every house in Appiatse destroyed one way or the other.

According to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Prestea-Huni Valley, Dr Isaac Dasmani, the construction of the destroyed buildings will start on Monday.

I will need building materials because for how long can we feed the victims. We want the authorities to come to our aid to start construction as soon as possible.

By Monday, we will clear the site and start construction as soon as possible, the MCE told TV3 on Saturday.

Already, government has given the assurance that no stone will be left unturned in efforts to restore normalcy to Appiatse.

During a visit to the affected community on Friday, Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia stressed that government will be involved to ensure all destroyed houses are rebuilt for the victims of the tragic explosion.

In the first step, the President, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has donated GHS200,000 to support the victims.
The Bureau for Public Safety is calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the Bogoso-Appiate explosion.

This comes after the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources interdicted the Chief Inspector of Mines and temporarily suspended the license of Maxam Company Limited pending the outcome of the investigations.

Chief of Party for the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada in a Citi News interaction said, although the swift commencement of investigations by the Ministry is welcoming, it must, however, ensure that the processes are not meddled with.

I think we must commend the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for the action they have taken so far. We believe that it is in accordance with best practices when such things occur. That main actors step aside to allow unimpeded investigations. We will also expect that the members of the investigative committee should be known to the public, and we will expect that, this investigative committee will also be from all the parties that are linked to this incident.

The government has suspended the license of a mining services contractor; Maxam Limited, following a huge explosion at Bogoso-Appiate on Thursday, January 20, 2022.

The explosion occurred after a motorcycle went under a truck carrying explosives owned by Maxam Limited.

The explosives were being transported to the Chirano gold mine, run by Toronto-based Kinross (K.TO).

A statement from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources which disclosed the suspension also indicated that the Chief Inspector of the Mines has been interdicted, as investigations into the incident continue.

Consequently, the Hon. Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, MP, has, as of 21st January 2022, directed the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission to interdict the Chief Inspector of Mines with immediate effect, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation into the tragic events which took place at Appiate.

Further, the Hon Minister has directed the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, with immediate effect, to suspend the registration of Maxam Company Limited with the Minerals Commission, thereby precluding the company from the manufacture, transportation, and/or supply of explosives for mining operations, portions of the statement said.

The explosion has killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 100 others as well as levelling several buildings in the area.
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- There has been a decrease in new COVID-19 cases nationally compared to the previous week, said South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Friday in a virtual briefing.

The minister said COVID-19 cases had been decreasing steadily over the last seven days. Gauteng had ceased to experience the fourth wave pandemic, whereas eight other provinces were still experiencing it.

He said hospitalizations due to the Omicron has decreased after being high in December.

Phaahla said despite some researches showing that the Omicron variant to be less severe than previous variants, it is still deadly to the elderly, people with comorbidities, and non-vaccinated,

"We must emphasize that the 4th wave is showing unequivocally the protection of vaccination against severe illness and death," he said.

South Africa has set up many vaccination spots even by the border and beaches to allow people to vaccinate, However, Phaahla said the vaccination campaign is still struggling to reach more.

He said the vaccines campaign was failing to vaccinate 100,000 people per day, the minister noted.

"As of the close of business last night, 28.7 million doses had been administered to a total of 18.4 million adult individuals which translates into 45 percent of all adults above the age of 18 years having received at least one jab," he said. 
22.01.2022 LISTEN

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, says research conducted by the National Teaching Council revealed that 94.5 per cent of headmasters or headmistresses in the public schools have no formal training in school management.

This cannot happen in this 21st century that you can become head of a school without formal training in school administration, the Minister said.

To address the situation, Dr Adutwum said the Ministry, through the National Education Institute and the National Inspectorate, was mobilizing all agencies under the Ministry to train heads of the schools and equip them with modern knowledge in school administration.

The Minister said this on Friday at a meeting with Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society Organizations in the education sector to explore ways to support the Ministry to deliver on its strategic objectives.

That, he said, was crucial because the Ministry needed the experiences of such organisations to champion the government agenda on transformational education for socio-economic development.

He said the introduction of the National Standardized Test for all primary four students in the country, which started on December 17, 2021, was to evaluate learning outcomes in English and Mathematics at the primary school level.

The Minister said this years' timetable for the test would come out early for primary two, four and six, adding that the initiative would create a system to ensure value for money.

He said President Akufo-Addo recently broke grounds for the construction of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School in Accra, to reorient the educational system to focus more on science and technology.

As part of the commitment to the advancement of STEM education in the country, he said the government had commenced the development of 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM Senior High Schools across the country, which were at various stages of completion.

The construction of STEM Schools, he stated, was necessitated by calls from stakeholders and industry experts on the need for the country's curriculum to reflect the demands of the industry.

Dr Adutwum announced the government's intention to roll out the Community of Excellence Project to enhance literacy among children and ensure continuity of access to education of the younger generation.

Under the project, he said, the government envisioned a community where 90 per cent of the children at the age of 10 would be able to read and write meaningfully from Junior High School to Senior High School and transition to the tertiary level.

The NGOs commended the Minister for the engagement and stated that such collaboration would improve the country's educational system.

Mr Bright Appiah, the Executive Director of Child Rights International, urged the Minister to be proactive with the incentive to teachers in rural schools to address the attrition challenges in the rural communities.

Mr Peter Obeng-Asamoah, the Executive Director Ghana Blind Union, appealed to the Minister to include persons with disabilities in government educational programmes to ensure inclusive development.

GNA
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister has urged members of the Keta Municipal Assembly to work hard to turn their fortunes around.

He said the performance of the assembly in the 2020 district and municipal assemblies rating in the country was nothing to write home about.

He continued that, the abysmal performance of the municipality resulted in it placing 248th among the total of 260 districts in the country.

Dr. Yao Letsa challenged them to work harder for a better position in the upcoming ranking since they are now going to work under a new administration led by Mr Emmanuel Gemegah the current Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

He praised Anloga District for doing well in the rankings since they were one of the new districts that placed 5th and 100th positions in the regional and national rankings respectively.

He continued that the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) has been adjudged the best in the country for 2020.

"Am very sure and l believed that we are going to retain our number one position among all the Coordinating Councils in the country through our hardworks," he stated.

Dr Archibald said this at Keta municipal assembly hall on Friday January 21,2022 during his tour to all 18 Municipal and District Assemblies within the region.

He said the tour will continue next week, especially to other Municipal and District Assemblies yet to be visited.

Assembly members of Keta municipal assembly also pledged to put up their best. for better future of the assembly.
A former Member of Parliament on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Adentan Constituency, Kojo Adu Asare has downplayed the impact of the withdrawal of the military detail of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.

The Minority had earlier expressed concerns over the development, describing it as ill-motivated. But Kojo Adu Asare thinks otherwise.

Speaking to the host of Citi TV's Parliament-focused show, The Chamber, Duke Mensah Opoku, the former NDC legislator said the concerns raised against the move are unnecessary.

For me, much as it seems something like that is going on, I ask myself, what is the big deal if the military is withdrawn from the Speaker? How will it compromise security? If you have security in a manner of well-trained people to manage the office whether they are customs, fire, or immigration officers, if they are qualified to manage the reason for which they are deployed, then that is it.

The Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces wrote to the Speaker of Parliament telling him that the four officers were attached without proper procedure.

The officers, WO1 Jafaru Bunwura, WOII Apugiba Awine David, S/Sgt Agbley Prosper and Sgt. Bonney Prince, have been serving Bagbin's office since he became Speaker in January 2021.

The Majority further rubbished claims that the withdrawal of the military personnel was an attempt to gag Mr. Bagbin.
The Ketu Divisional Police Command has arrested two suspects, Kpelly Kwame, 29 and Anani Sasu, 19, for peddling narcotics.

They were apprehended following a tip-off.

The suspects, both Togolese, were arrested in an uncompleted building at Apedido, a suburb of Aflao, with quantities of dried leaves and seeds suspected to be narcotics, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mrs Effia Tenge, Volta Regional Police Public Affairs Officer, told the Ghana News Agency.

She said the Divisional Command received several complaints from residents around the area that a group of young men were peddling drugs in the area and harassing residents.

She said preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects, together with others, had been peddling drugs in the community for some time.

The suspects were being processed for court, she added.

GNA
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the powerful son of Uganda's president, met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali on Saturday in a visit that marks warming relations between the neighbouring countries after years of tension.

Kainerugaba -- a general who is rumoured to be a possible successor of his 77-year-old father, President Yoweri Museveni -- was received by Kagame in the afternoon during the one-day trip.

The border between the East African nations has been closed for nearly three years.

Rwanda's presidency said the pair met "to discuss relations between Rwanda and Uganda", tweeting a picture of the two together, the general wearing civilian clothes.

The Ugandan government also tweeted pictures of the meeting, saying "for a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically united East Africa".

A source close to Kainerugaba earlier told AFP that "the issues between the two countries are on the agenda" of the meeting.

The meeting comes after Uganda's UN representative met with Kagame on Monday to deliver a message from Museveni, according to the Rwandan foreign ministry.

It also comes less than a week after Kainerugaba tweeted two photos of Kagame, one of the president as a young man wearing military fatigues and a more recent image of him in a suit.

"This is my uncle, Paul Kagame. Those who fight him fight my family. They should all be careful," the tweet said.

Kainerugaba's father Museveni and Kagame were close allies over the 1980s and 90s during struggles for power in their respective country, before becoming bitter rivals.

Rwanda abruptly closed its border with Uganda in February 2019, cutting off an important trade link.

Rwanda accused Uganda of abducting its citizens and supporting rebels seeking to topple Kagame.

For its part, Uganda accused Rwanda of spying as well as killing two men during an incursion into Ugandan territory in 2019 -- a claim Kigali denies.

Talks between Kagame and Museveni were hosted by Angolan President Joao Lourenco and Congolese leader Felix Tshisekedi, the last such meeting taking place in February 2020.

No meeting has been held since, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Relations between the countries also soured after an investigation last year found that Rwanda used Israeli Pegasus spying software to hack into the phones of Uganda's prime minister and foreign minister, among others.
Education think tank, Africa Education Watch, has asked the Ghana Education Service (GES) to channel its energies towards addressing challenges in the sector rather than introducing policies such as the semester system at the Basic to Senior High School level.

The calls come on the back of the services decision to revert to the trimester system for basic schools after some opposition to the new system.

In an interview with Citi News, however, the Executive Director of the think tank, Kofi Asare described the decision as welcoming but hurriedly indicated that there is no need for a change in the status quo following the lack of consultation.

The decision to revert to the trimester system is a good one. There was no need to move to a semester system because there was no flaw in the trimester system which was not surmountable. So, going back to where it came from, obviously, is the best thing to do. I believe that the lesson from this in developing this policy will have to be building consensus among the parties involved.

The government went back on its earlier directive for basic schools to run a semester-based academic calendar.

It made the announcement in a statement on Friday, January 21, 2022.

The directive for basic schools, including Kindergarten, and Junior High School to change the trimester-based calendar to a semester-based one last week, was received with controversy with many teacher unions kicking against it.

Many of them were not enthused that the government had not engaged them on such a major switch, although the government insisted that it had held extensive consultations with them.

Some of the education workers vowed to resist the directive and called for its withdrawal.

After hesitating initially, the government has now decided to reverse the decision.

The Ministry of Education in the statement indicated that the decision was taken after engagements with various education stakeholders and the conclusion was to reinstate the trimester system.

Consequently, the first term starts on January 18 to 14th April 2022.

The second term commences 10th May and ends on 18th August 2022, while the third term will span 13th September to 22nd December 2022.

---citinewsroom
It has happened again.

People were going about their business at Apiate, a village near Bogoso, in the Western Region, on January 20, 2022.

All of a sudden, all they heard was a very loud BANG!BOOM!

To some of them, that was the last noise they were ever to hear on Planet Earth.

They died.

To others, the noise was followed by excruciating pain.

Some suffered stinging burns.

Others had lacerations on all parts of their bodies.

Clothing was torn off the bodies of many. Iron sheets and woodwork tumbled down, burying bodies beneath them. A road broke in half  as if it had been bombed from the air by a jet fighter.

Buildings everywhere in the village collapsed like Lego structures. News footage of the destruction captured the wails of one person who must have been standing near whoever shot the film: Ei!Ei!Ei!Ei!

Yes, the person was so stupefied that only a single-word vocabulary emanated from his vocal chords. Ei!Ei!Ei!

How often will Ghanaians condemn themselves to uttering such lamentations?

For without prejudice to any investigations that are being carried out, the facts known so far point clearly to a word which seldom occurs in our discourse but which we cannot avoid  neglect!

Our scientists and lawyers have put their heads together and written Regulations that oblige persons transporting explosives to observe certain safety measures that should have made the accident at Apiate simply impossible, repeat impossible.

Regulations such as: A person who transports explosives  shall give notice to the Chief Inspector of Mines about the type and amount of explosives to be transported at least forty-eight hours before the explosives are transported.

Was this done? The investigators should tell us that as quickly as possible. For we dont want to be mystified into lamenting ceaselessly, as if Fate is trying to punish us (as numerous false prophets are no doubt proclaiming already!)

Other Regulations specify that:

A person who drives a vehicle that carries explosives shall not carry explosives in the drivers cab of that vehicle;

A person who drives a vehicle in which explosives are transported shall keep the interior of the explosives compartment clean and in good order.

A person who uses a vehicle to transport explosives shall ensure that the vehicle is authorised and (a) is of sound construction and free from any patent defect, and is maintained in good working order;

(b) is propelled by a diesel engine;

(c) is provided with two fire extinguishers mounted on a suitable holder that are readily available for use and which are kept in good working order at all times;

(j) the exhaust pipe of the vehicle is fitted and directed in a manner that ensures that neither the pipe nor the exhaust gases pass under any part of the compartment used for carrying the explosives;

except where the vehicle is empty, [it must have] at each corner, so as to be distinctly visible from the front and rear, a red flag at least four hundred and fifty millimetres square, with the letter E in black superimposed in the middle; the vehicle is loaded with explosives, [shall be] posted on the two sides and on the front and the rear in red paint on a white background and in a manner that enables it to be distinctly visible from the front, rear and sides, a sign that bears the words:DANGER-EXPLOSIVES;

*REGULATION 105ROUTE AND SPEED LIMIT*

(1) A person who transports explosives by road shall convey the explosives by the most direct route and by the quickest and safest means

4. A person who drives a vehicle that is transporting explosives shall not drive faster than sixty kilometres per hour.

Regulation 106Hours for conveying explosives by roads

A person who transports explosives in a motor vehicle, shall transport the explosives between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm.

*REGULATION 107VEHICLES TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY COMPETENT PERSON AND POLICE ESCORT*

(1) A person who transports explosives in a road vehicle shall ensure that the explosives are under the direct control of a person who has a certificate of competency in explosives in accordance with Regulation 15 (2).

(2) Without limiting sub-regulation (1), a person who transports explosives in a road vehicle shall ensure that the transportation is done under a police escort.

[A vehicle carrying explosives can only park in a] town or village at a location off a public road and at a reasonable and safe distance from an inhabited building, if the vehicle is kept in charge of a blastman and is accompanied by a police escort, both of whom stay with the vehicle throughout the period the vehicle is parked.

Preliminary reports say that the vehicle carrying the explosives was in collision with a motor-cycle or an adapted motor-cycle and that the driver got out of the vehicle to warn people nearby to leave their homes and work-places because he feared it would catch fire and cause a deadly blast. If he did this, he deserves praise.

The question is: if the vehicle had a police escort  as required by the Regulations  how could a motorbike come so close to the vehicle as to collide with it?

The answers to these questions must, I repeat, be given to the public. For we all know how corrupt many systems in Ghana are, and it is patent that those who neglected to conform with the Regulations would do everything to cover up their neglect.

Without anyone caring enough for the public safety as to expose and punish them, so that others might learn that if they engage in such neglect in future, they too will be exposed and punished.

By Cameron Duodu
22.01.2022 LISTEN

A suspected thief who allegedly invaded the Akro Secondary Technical School has been beaten to death by students of the school.

Another suspect who survived the physical assault is currently in critical condition at the St. Martins De Poress Hospital.

The incident occurred around 10pm on Friday, January 21, 2022.

The two were arrested and physically assaulted until they became unconscious.

The two, whose names were given as Sackitey Emmanuel Kpabitey and Odoi Solomon, were subsequently sent to the hospital by five police officers who visited the school after receiving information about the invasion from the schools headmaster.

However, Sackitey Emmanuel could not survive and was pronounced dead on arrival by hospital authorities.

The remains of the deceased have been deposited at the hospital mortuary for autopsy.

Narrating the incident, the District Commander of Odumase, Supt. Doris Grant said: I had information that some two boys had invaded the school, and they were thieves. My men responded and came here and saw that they had been physically assaulted. I gave directives that they should be taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, one died.

---citinewsroom
Security experts have warned that the continued existence of gang groups in slum communities could be fertile grounds for terrorist groups to engage the youth.

They said though there could not be any direct link between the gangs at Nima and Maamobi, both Islamic communities in Accra, their continued existence could pose a security danger.

Dr Festus Aubyn, security analyst, said extensive research carried out in the areas could not link the two rival (Bombom and Kumordzie) groups that engaged in violent clashes recently to any terrorist group.

He, however, stated that terrorist groups always thrived on some of the happenings between such groups and their violent characteristics.

Just like we said about political vigilantes, terrorists always look for entry points and once they have these entry points, it makes it easier for them to gain a foothold in any community or country to start a similar activities, he added.

He, therefore, said, beyond the Police arrest, which deals with the criminal dimension of the problem, we need to unravel what has caused the longstanding feud and put measures in place to deal with that.

Mr Abid Saani, a Foreign Policy and Security analyst, affirmed that the violent activity that such groups engaged in opened them up to terrorists and any hardened criminal groups.

He said "arresting, having people on the ground and intelligence gathering is fine, but it is not sustainable. The most sustainable-simplistic way to deal with this is to address this issue of insecurity so that the quality of life of the people is improved.

If they have jobs in the first place, they would have been at work and not engage in violent act; but if their life is wretched, there's even more reason to die than to live.

He also called for stronger partnership between the Government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs), and all relevant stakeholders to improve education in the inner cities.

GNA
Reverend Eastwood Anaba, the President of the Eastwood Anaba Ministries, has admonished Christians not to substitute prayer with work if they want their businesses to succeed.

There is nothing wrong with prayer, but when prayer becomes a substitute to work, you are going nowhere. Truth is that we pray, but we are lazy. Many times, wherever Christians are, you will find laziness, he said.

Rev. Anaba said this in a sermon at the church's 31 days restoration programme on the theme; Reposition, being held at the Desert Pastures, a branch of Fountain Gate Chapel in Bolgatanga.

The programme, the maiden event of the Church in 2022, is to help members to reposition themselves for a new experience.

God created man to till the earth, and as soon as He created him (man), He said work. When you read the creation of man, there is no prayer there, Rev. Anaba said.

He said the difference between the secular world and the church was hard work and that most people in the secular world worked hard and lived better lives than some Christians.

God created the world and everything in it and so it is the duty of man to take advantage of the opportunities created to work, think and make his living conditions better.

We must work with thoughtfulness, the most powerful people in this world are people that think. There are many people who work but they don't think. When you go into our public service, civil service, in our churches, in our homes, you can see that many of the people are really working, but they are really not thinking, Rev. Anaba said.

He called on managers of the various ministries, departments and agencies to work hard and properly manage and grow what was handed over to them.

Rev. Anaba prayed that Christians would understand the importance of work and diligently pursue it to earn decent salaries to improve their living conditions.

GNA
BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Friday unveiled a master plan on boosting the green transformation of consumption in key areas, the latest move for the country to achieve its carbon peak and neutrality goals.

The plan, jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and six other government organs, said that green consumption modes will prevail by 2025, calling for efforts to arouse people's awareness of green consumption, curb extravagance and waste, and enhance the market share of green and low-carbon products.

"China's green consumption is yet to be stimulated," NDRC official Chang Tiewei told a press conference. He noted the importance of green consumption in spurring the low-carbon transition on the supply side, improving the attractiveness of China as a super-large market, and shoring up high-quality development.

The plan detailed measures in various major fields, ranging from food, clothing and housing to transport, tourism and electricity.

To encourage green housing, the plan urged efforts to incorporate measures of energy saving and environmental protection while renovating old urban residential communities and rural houses.

On green transport, efforts will be made to vigorously promote the use of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), such as enhancing supporting facilities like battery charging and swapping stations, and increasing the application of NEVs in public service vehicles.

Official data shows that China's NEV sales came in at 3.52 million units last year, ranking first globally for a seventh straight year. NEV ownership in China rose to 7.84 million units in 2021, accounting for about half of the world's total.

As for shifting to green electricity consumption, the plan underlined that newly-added renewable energy and energy used as raw materials would be excluded from the cap on total energy consumption. The proportion of green electricity in residential power consumption will be raised.

As an active participant in addressing climate change, China has announced its ambition of peaking CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

2021 is viewed as a critical year for China's decarbonization efforts. The country released a top-level design document for peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality and an action plan for peaking carbon emissions by 2030, both of which outlined specific measures on boosting green consumption. 
The cases of men impregnating young girls and denying responsibility for the pregnancy are increasing in the Northern Region, leaving the pregnant girls in a state of total agony.

In 2021, 52 cases of denial of pregnancies were reported to the Northern Regional office of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

In 2020, the total number of cases of denial of pregnancies reported to CHRAJ in the region stood at 41.

Mr Inusah Iddrisu, Senior Public Education Officer and Investigator at the Northern Regional office of CHRAJ, who announced this, attributed the situation to the high numbers of young boys and girls engaging in sex.

He was making a presentation at a forum in Tamale on the trends of abuse in the region and how CHRAJ acted on them.

The forum was organised by Norsaac, a civil society organisation (CSO), with support from the Dutch Embassy as part of a three-month project to bring critical stakeholders together to discuss how they responded to human rights issues.

State institutions engaged in promoting human rights, including the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service and the Legal Aid Commission made presentations on their mandate and activities during the forum.

Representatives of some CSOs, youth groups and public institutions in the region attended the meeting.

Mr Iddrisu said CHRAJ acted on the cases, saying, "Some of the cases were handled through mediation; parties came and accepted responsibility and the men accepting to take up the responsibility of the pregnancies until the girls delivered and thereafter maintain the children."

He added that "Others, we are still in court so that the court will provide for interim maintenance so that the men will assume temporary responsibility until the girls deliver and, thereafter, a DNA request will be made to determine the paternity of the children."

Meanwhile, 21 cases of non-maintenance of children were reported to CHRAJ in the region in 2021 as against 26 cases reported in 2020.

Mr Inusah said despite efforts by CHRAJ to resolve the cases, some families always demanded to withdraw such cases for settlement in the home.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Emmanuel Horlortu, Northern Regional Coordinator of DOVVSU, decried the non-reporting of rape and defilement cases in the region, saying it left the victims without justice.

Mr Horlortu said about 80 per cent of such cases were not reported, adding even the few reported cases were sometimes not fully prosecuted because families wanted such cases settled out of courts.

Mr Issah Mahmudu, Northern Regional Director of the Legal Aid Commission, said legal services were very expensive in the country, making it very difficult for many of the citizens to access justice at the courts.

Mr Mahmudu said there were plans to open more offices for the Legal Aid Commission in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions to ensure improved access to legal services to the citizenry.

Hajia Hafsatu Sey Sumani, Head of Programmes, Policy and Campaign at Norsaac, said as part of the project, "For the past month, we engaged youth groups, and today we engaged some CSOs to look at how we understand human rights laws hence engaging CHRAJ, DOVVSU and Legal Aid Commission to shed light on their mandate and activities, and how they respond to critical human rights issues."

Hajia Sumani said the knowledge gained during the forum would help the CSOs and the youth groups to collaborate effectively with state agencies to ensure a peaceful environment for all.

She observed that the state agencies faced a lot of influences in the performance of their functions, which most of the time, led to the halting of cases, emphasising the need for continued advocacy to stop the trend.

GNA
The Obuasi East District Assembly through the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, has presented items and disbursed money to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the district.

The items which included gas oven, gas cylinder, cosmetics, provisions, deep freezers, sewing machines, and many more were procured with the three per cent allocation of the Assemblys common fund for PWDs to enhance livelihoods.

All the items were procured based on request after which a needs assessment was conducted by the Department.

All 24 beneficiaries benefited from GHC44,770.00 which was subjected to vetting process.

Two (2) people received cash to foot their medical bills whiles one person was given educational support.

Mr Godwin Bansah Director, Department of Social Welfare Unit, said the gesture was part of measures put in place by the Assembly and Government to prevent Persons with Disabilities from begging on the streets.

The intervention, he stated, was meant to make PWDs self-sufficient and to empower them to contribute meaningfully to societal and national development.

Hon Faustina Amissah, District Chief Executive, called on the beneficiaries to properly utilise the items to ensure the objectives of disbursement are fully achieved.

He said the government, through the Assembly, was committed to empowering Ghanaians irrespective of their circumstances in life and would continue to initiate pro-poor policies to reach out to all.

The DCE assured that the Assembly would continue to adopt intensive monitoring exercise to ensure that the items and the cash received were used judiciously.

Kwaku Ankrah, the Leader of the group in the District lauded the Government and the Assembly for the donation. He pledged their commitment to putting the items and cash to good use to serve the intended purpose.
Some disgruntled caterers of the School Feeding Programme in the Lambussie District of the Upper West Region are up in arms against the District Chief Executive and Member of Parliament for the area, George Naluri Gerald and Bright Bakye Baligi for allegedly terminating their contracts without serving them any prior notice.

At a press conference in Lambussie on Friday, the group accused the DCE and MP of allegedly replacing them with their cronies.

According to the visibly angry caterers, they have a contract with the Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP) and none of us have been notified officially by the GSFP terminating our contracts and in furtherance to that, theres a letter from the GSFP dated 17th January 2022 from the head office directing only caterers on their pay list to prepare and start work on Tuesday 25th January 2022.

The 26 caterers, who are known supporters of the New Patriotic Party, are demanding an immediate reversal of the alleged decision by the duo.

They have vowed to remain at post until their names are restored.

Read below the full press statement by the group:

PRESS STATEMENT BY ILLEGALLY DISMISSED CATERERS  LAMBUSSIE DISTRICT.

Good morning friends of the media. We wish to express our deep seated gratitude for honouring this our invitation to Lambussie here today.

Today we have invited you here to share with you some worrying developments in the Lambussie district regarding the Ghana school feeding program in the district.

On Monday 17th January, 2022 our attention was drawn to a purported list posted on the notice board of the assembly in which over twenty-six (26) of us were allegedly sacked for no apparent reason.

Some attempts to reach Hon. George Naluri the ( DCE) on phone on the matter as he was not in office on Monday proved futile as he refused to pick calls or return them.

Friends of the press, it will interest you to note that per our checks, across the entire country, it is only in the Lambussie district that the DCE, MP and their cohorts colluded to carry out this malicious and inhumane act.

The reasons that are being peddled around by Hon. George Naluri (DCE) are that, we this allegedly dismissed caterers are not cooking which is a pathological liar.

We wish to indicate without any shred of doubt that this was premeditated and executed by the DCE and MP to take away our livelihoods unjustifiably.

Below are further and better particulars regarding the schools of we the affected caterers:

1. Billow Primary

2. Happa Primary

3. Dahile KG

4. Dahile Primary

5. Banwon primary

6. Buu Primary

7. Nabaala Primary

8. Samoa KG

9. Kokya R/C Primary

10. Hakyagan Primary

11. Sina Dindee Primary 4  6

12. Koro Primary 4  6

13. Tapumu Primary

14. Karni Dampuo

15. Karni Zumara

16. Karni Primary A

17. Girgan Primary

18. Kulkani Primary

19. Kokoligu primary

20. Suke Primary 5  6

21. Lambussie T. I

22. Hamile D/A Primary

23. Sentu Primary

24. Hamile R/C Primary

25. Hamile T.I Primary

This information is provided for you the media and any interested persons who will want to cross check and get the facts yourselves in order to confirm our story or otherwise.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, this action by the Hon. Member pf Parliament (Hon. Bright Yelvieldong Baligi) and the Hon. District Chief Executive (George Naluri ) is not only inhumane but malicious, capricious and despicable to say the least. We shall resist this action with all our might and strength.

We want to ask the duo these questions:

1. Which letter from the GSFP authorize them to sack us

2. What was the reason(s) for sacking us?

3. Has the GSFP in the district queried any of us for non-performance? If any provide evidence to that effect

Media personnel present, we want to send a word of caution to the people who have illegally been sent to our schools as caterers to note that we are still at post and will not condone any illegality on Tuesday at our various schools as we go to start work.

We have a contract with the GSFP and none of us have been notified officially by the GSFP terminating our contracts and in furtherance to that theres a letter from the GSFP dated 17th of January 2022 from the head office directing only caterers on their pay list to prepare and start work on Tuesday 25th January 2022. Attach is copy of that letter for your perusal.

We want unequivocally that, the two personalities behind this shameful and humongous act are the MP and the DCE and we will not sit down and allow us to be treated this way as it will amount to travesty of justice.

We also want to further admonish the Hon. MP and the Hon DCE to know that the NPP in Lambussie constituency does not belong to them and for that matter we will not watch them derail the gains of the party in the constituency through their actions that seek to only satisfy their selfish and parochial interest.

We want to seize this opportunity to thank his excellency the President for sustaining and expanding the school feeding program in the country.

Addressing the media, a former NPP Deputy Constituency Womens Organizer, Ibrahim Hanatu, who is the Vice-Chairperson for the Wa Municipal School Feeding Caterers Association, explained that the majority of their members were awarded the contracts because of their roles in the fortunes of the NPP in the Wa Municipality and that any attempt to disengage them will spell doom for the party in the next general election.

Signed

Alhassan Mohammed

Spokesperson for the group

0502114214
We Swim Or Sink Together, Nobody Should Deceive Himself Or Herself That He Or She Plus Family Will Escape The Consequences Of Our Intransigencies

FIRST, PLEASE PERMIT ALL MY DISCLAIMERS:

I am definitely not one of the nations or Minor Prophets nor clairvoyants nor soothsayers nor village fetish priests nor witch-doctors nor fortune-tellers to want to claim I can see into the future or to profess to foretell events; I am just a simple Ghanaian, very mindful of historical antecedents to appreciate and foresee the kind of paths that lie ahead of us post 2020 Elections with our HUNG PARLIAMENT.

What even makes the disclaimers quite necessary is the apparent presence of a certain Sword of Damocles in plain sight over supposed Prophets or Men of God, who attempt to prophesize or foretell events related to our national politics and or the almighty economy of our dear nation. I also do not possess the supernatural power of seeing objects or actions far removed in space or time from natural viewing or credited with a quick, intuitive knowledge of things and people as a clairvoyant; nor endowed with the capacity or practice or art of foretelling events or prediction as soothsayers.

Worse still, I am again not imbibed with the ability to predict the future like a fortune-teller; nor operate as a person who attempts to cure sicknesses and to exorcise evil spirits by the use of magic, which sometimes gives some insights into the spiritual world to know things that ordinary people have no idea of as a witch-doctor; or a local juju-man or fetish-priest regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or having magical potency to peek into the heavens and foretell what is to come.

I do not claim to be any of these.

I am, however, a student of history, Ghana History & Global Literature, and also interested in trying to appreciate the reasons why human beings keep repeating the MISTAKES of the past as if we are condemned not to learn any lessons from the past except to re-live and own same mistakes as our own.

For those who have had the opportunity to read (and or performed excerpts of JULIUS CAESAR), you might recall the famous phrase The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene III, L. 140-141).

In the play, the quote the fault is not in our stars is used to express the position that the actions of men are their own to choose, and are not the result of fate that is out of their control; and that the fault lies in us, not the stars; and therefore blaming bad choices on fate is a cowards justification for doing wrong. In short, it isnt fate that dooms men, but instead their own failings. Cassius also meant that sometimes people take steps they imagine they could not as they should not allow their circumstances, limitations or problems to define them except to endeavour to rise above all and collectively, strive to hit the mark or reach the goal.

As a student of history, I have watched how we have allowed all-mighty PARTISAN POLITICS to divide us  amongst families, friends, colleagues, neighbours, mates, clansmen, townsmen, churchmen, schoolmates, married couples, college mates and complete strangers, to the extent that everything is now LIFE or DEATH: meaning there can be nothing that could possibly bind us together as GHANAIANS than that which divides us politically?

You see, the way we are handling matters arising out of the Hung Parliament is creating a precipice, akin to angry, furious, raging, tempestuous, wild clouds on the horizons of our nation, exciting to watch for those outside the Parliament House but lets not forget that any volatile, furious or unpredictable winds could easily lead to torrential rains, never witnessed on our shores for the simple reason that we have all allowed our personal egos to take the better side of us, because of the colours of the political parties we support or belong to.

We need to engage groups threatening one strike after another as the consequences of these intransigencies hold dire straits for our faltering economy, even as attempts to arrest the almighty dollar after its escape from custody holds new threats for our way of life, be it education, industry, agriculture, construction, commerce or trade.

Pretenders as most of us are, when we saw the fighting in the Parliament House over the E-LEVY passage, suddenly we saw all manner of people of different callings admonishing the Parliamentarians, when we had earlier refused to condemn the chewing of ballots during the voting for the Speaker of Parliament a year earlier. We also kept our silences over the withdrawal of the Speakers military security details.

Worse still was the deafening silence on the deaths of youngsters during the 2020 General Elections because they werent our own children but of some nonentities, who can afford to weep un-end for their losses without anybody taking notice or demanding justice?

The way we are going about the whole matter of GOVERNANCE at all levels is most scary, especially as we are all pretending not to see anything wrong when things arent panning out well: please do not get me wrong, I define myself as The Ghanaian because I refused to be partisan, but rather, a simple nationalist  this is the CROSS I intend to bear for all my lifetime here on earth.

Unfortunately, like the cry of Okonkwo of Umuofia in the book THINGS FALL APART, there are no men left in this land, anymore to stand up for the truth, defend the defenseless, as well as cry out for the orphans of Ghana, including those by whose calling as Men of God are expected to stand up for the truth and defenseless always.

The days ahead of us, right to the 2024 General Elections will be most critical for us as a nation and as a people, especially as each and every one of us will be tested to the fullest as to our allegiances, loyalties, patriotism, nationalism, identities, and character, including what defines us as Ghanaians.

From where I sit, we are all only interested in our rights as Ghanaians than the responsibilities as individuals and together as a nation as we have lost it by miles than inches, becoming scavengers, who are only interested in pecks of office and opportunities to utilize our turn in office to loot as much as possible for our descendants  children, childrens children, right down to the umpteenth generation: sincerely, is this what PUBLIC SERVICE has become? Where did we go wrong?

Even worse, is the emerging tribal angle or the re-positioning of some tribes as the MASTER RACE  indeed? What was then the rationale for the fight for independence, if after only sixty-five (65) years, we will become like the ANIMAL FARM syndrome: after taking over, we become like the very people who colonized us (two legs good, four legs bad).

Do we think we will never account to anybody for what we have become after we leave this earth?

If that is anybodys thinking, then I will implore each and every one of us, desiring public office to re-think their motives because whether we like it or not, a NEW GHANAIAN will definitely emerge from the ashes of all corruption, petty squabbling over things that do not inure to the public good, and abuse of power.

Our case is even more worrying as some of the Men of God or Prophets and elder statesmen, who should speak truth to power, have opted to stay silent.

As a student of life and history, I would refer all of us to read MICAH 3:1-11, where the rulers and heads of all aspects of our national lives are being asked: Is it not for you to know and administer justice? You who hate good and love evil, Who tear the skin off my people And their flesh from their bones; You who eat the flesh of my people, Strip off their skin from them, Break their bones And chop them in pieces as for the pot, Like meat in a kettle; and particularly the verse 11  Her leaders pronounce judgement for a bribe, Her priests teach for a fee, And her prophets foretell for money; Yet they lean on the LORD, saying, Is not the LORD among us? No tragedy or distress will come on us.

For me, I am left in no doubt whatsoever that, WE NEED A NEW GHANAIAN at this point in our Nations history, who will not go back to the old ways of doing business as usual, including who, when they have something good to bite with their teeth, they call out, Peace, But against the one who gives them nothing to eat, They declare a holy war  like justice for sale.

We need to begin a nationwide engagement to discuss and define the characteristics of the NEW GHANAIAN, who will be imbibed with new values, new work ethics, new principles and new habits to redeem us from the pit we find ourselves enslaved to and handcuffed within, knowing we cannot afford any time-wasting as we walk towards year, 2024, where our individual and collective votes ought to count one way or the other.

Need I say more? A Change Is Gonna Come, sooner than later

By Magnus Naabe RexDanquah, the Ghanaian  is a Land Economist & Appraiser,

Events Architect & Planner, SportBusiness Consultant, Social Commentator and an Author
We dont wake up to see handcuffs around our wrist, shackles on our ankles, denied bread or water and then told to accept another random man to drive us home.

It has been a few decades since the last soldiers refused to be cowards and toppled a government that they didnt want. Looking back, they might have toppled those leaders for less. Maybe I didnt live at the time so I am assuming that they werent worse.

I am however, glad I had at least witnessed the democratic selection of the drivers that followed. From times when the sea waves had washed away roads, to when it had washed away homes, and gutters were choked, I have seen governments attempt to be relevant. Act to make citizens feel the benefits of taxation, not just that, some have gone into the gutters themselves to clean up the cities to inspire the citizens to take their destiny into their hands.

We have also seen elected officers dissipate state owned corporations and shared the assets left among themselves. They became rich in the process. No one chased them for the loot, and the money they stole enabled them to afford to offer gifts to random poor people which became their means of buying some respect and influence. This also served to motivate a section of the citizens to also join the queue in politics.

Regardless, how low we sunk, the worse of the leaders we didnt need were still lurking in the dark. They started off by opposing taxes, pretending to awake citizens and telling them how there was so much money that we dont even need taxation to survive.

I agree, and I am sure many others also agree that the volume of natural resources we have as a nation is enough to build us paradise without taking a pesewa in direct tax from any citizen. The taxes are being collected anyway, and citizens have since reluctantly paid. Sometimes when they drive on a fine road and see how the government builds them a sea defense or a beautiful school block, or a bridge they are encouraged to pay willingly with so much joy.

Nations grow towards a positive future, but here, the change seems to be for the worse. The evil change is not even happening slowly and this makes it very scary. Citizens are beginning to notice suddenly that in spite of the responsibilities they have tried to fulfil to the state, the police are unable to prevent criminals from looting out state. Thieves of State have found their way into government, and citizens are pained that the military and police that are surviving on their tax are dedicated to protecting and defending these criminals but not the citizens. The nation is sinking by the day, citizens are being forced to pay even more taxes when there is no evidence that what was collected earlier was used for their benefit and citizens are wondering what kind of people have hijacked their country.

Flirting with mistresses have been an age-old problem with leaders. This was said to be the holy method that God used to invite the terrible Abacha of Nigeria over. It exists everywhere, and whether a leader flirts in Pajamas or does that with an alleged HIV infected TV personality it is none of our business. However, our concern is why the nations tax should be used to hire expensive private jets just because a leader needed to treat his lesbian mistress with class.

The leaders we dont need seem to be driving us into an abyss and we seem to be looking on with those who share a tribal with these leaders being the most confused. Whenever an intelligent argument comes up against the leader it soon degenerates into tribalism. His confused tribesmen suddenly begin to think their tribe is under attack and must be defended at all cost or they will rather not get involved because those mobilizing dont bear their kind of name. This practice had played beautifully into the hands of leaders we do not need.

Jus a few weeks ago, the coast of the South Eastern part of Ghana was ravaged by the sea. Even Mobuto Sese Seko, the late despotic leader of DR Congo would have seized the opportunity to visit the wife of Patrice Lumumba to show the world that he was human too. However, the disaster happened to be the right time for the democratically elected president, His Excellency, William Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo of Ghana to take a holiday trip abroad. It baffles me to imagine that over 100,000 people from the region voted for him in the last election. Maybe he understands politics to be the new tribal war and so the tidal wave was the doing of his ancestors to destroy their arch-enemy the Ewe (Evhe) ethnic group and so he doesnt need to interfere. The destruction of the homes of people who pay their taxes for him to manage is simply a victory for his tribe. What a Shame!

How can a nation like Ghana be cursed with a leader like this in the 21st century? He was passed of as a human right lawyer, a Black Lives Matter sympathizer, A Democrat, the list goes and we believed all. He is lording it over us now and the evidence from his records is nothing close to the beautiful accolades. Do we really need to give everyone a four-year term even if their actions are traitorous to the state?

His true colour as a tribal bigot was not long in rearing its ugly skull when a truck carrying explosives detonated near a small village in an akan district killing about a dozen and destroying even fewer houses than had been destroyed by the sea at Keta. The shameless leader this country does not need suddenly became aware of his country. It did not take him an hour to start twitting, directing NADMO and making promises to rebuild the village and pay hospital bills. Maybe this is what he understands as leadership, but for those who are recovering from the damages caused by the tidal waves at Keta, such happenings in the akan areas where their hater loves and cares about simply makes them smirk. A nation of people hating themselves, caused by this hateful and vindictive leader. How can this be the leader that human beings voted for?

Author M.A.Y Kulewosi
It has been a nice winter day across Montana, with partly to mostly cloudy skies with breaks in the clouds across central Montana.

Temperatures have warmed to the 30s and lower 40s.

A quick look at your weekend shows milder-than-normal and dry.

High pressure will build into Montana tonight and this weekend.

That means relatively mild.

However, inversions will develop west of the divide, so some cold air will be trapped in the valleys with inversional fog possible in the Missoula and Kalispell areas each morning.

A back door cold front will move into central and eastern Montana Monday bringing a quick shot of snow from Great Falls, Helena and Bozeman east to Billings and Glasgow.

Some accumulations will be possible.

Colder central and east Monday with milder weather the rest of the week.

Lows tonight in the 10s and 20s.

Highs this weekend in the 30s and 40s, although holding around 30 with the inversions in the west.

Highs drop to the upper 20s and 30s Monday and Tuesday east of the divide, rebounding back to the 30s and 40s the rest of the week.

Enjoy it because models suggest a very cold and snowy start to February.
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BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Friday issued amended regulations on the trying of cases involving civil compensation arising from false statements in securities markets, scraping the pre-litigation procedures required for court acceptance.

The new regulations stipulate that administrative penalties or criminal judgments will no longer be preconditions for people's courts to accept such civil compensation cases, lifting the restrictions for victims to file lawsuits, according to the SPC.

In addition to stock exchanges and securities trading venues approved by the State Council, the regulations are also applicable to misrepresentations in lawfully established regional equity markets.

Efforts will be made to coordinate the handling of cases by people's courts and relevant investigations by the securities regulator to address the difficulties victims may encounter in collecting evidence for litigation, the SPC said. 
Police officers help a child to evacuate from Huangzhuang Village in Weihui of Xinxiang, central China's Henan Province, July 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A State Council executive meeting has reviewed and approved a report on an investigation into the disaster caused by torrential rains in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, in July last year, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The torrential rains struck Zhengzhou on July 20 last year, causing waterlogging in urban areas, river flooding, mountain torrents and landslides, which resulted in heavy casualties and property losses.

The investigation group of the State Council identified the event as an "extraordinarily serious natural disaster."

The municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government of Zhengzhou, as well as relevant districts, counties, departments and units, did not have a strong sense of risk, nor did they have sufficient understanding and preparation for this disaster, the probe revealed.

They also acted poorly in organizing disaster prevention and dealing with emergencies, according to the outcomes of the probe.

The mentioned authorities are deemed guilty of negligence and dereliction of duty, especially considering the casualties in the subway and the tunnel that were not supposed to take place, according to the probe.

Torrential rains hit the province from July 17 to 23 last year and affected over 14.79 million people in 150 county-level areas. A total of 398 people died or went missing due to the disaster and 95.5 percent of them were from Zhengzhou.

Party chiefs and senior officials of Zhengzhou and relevant districts and counties should shoulder leadership responsibility for the event, the probe said, adding that other relevant officials and those in charge of relevant departments and units should shoulder leadership responsibility or direct responsibility for the event.

The disaster caused direct economic losses of 120.06 billion yuan (about 18.91 billion U.S. dollars) in the province, with 34.1 percent of the total reported in the capital city of Zhengzhou.

Although the disaster was triggered by extreme weather, many problems and deficiencies were exposed, the probe noted.

To identify the problems, sum up the experience and learn lessons from the tragedy, upon approval of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council set up an investigation team to look into the disaster in Zhengzhou.

Many problems and shortcomings in the local emergency-management system, including disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, have been exposed and the lessons have been profound, the team said.

The weaknesses also exist to varying degrees in many parts of the country, it noted, urging close attention and solid deeds to rectify them.

The investigation team discovered that the municipal CPC committee and the government of Zhengzhou failed to effectively implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC central committee and the State Council, as well as those of the provincial CPC committee and the government of Henan.

They failed to take the primary responsibility in flood prevention and disaster relief, and seriously lacked risk awareness regarding extreme-weather disasters, according to the investigators, who also pointed out problems such as the practices of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism.

Authorities in Zhengzhou concealed or delayed the reporting of those killed and missing in the disaster. They did not tally and report casualties on a daily basis as required, and have deliberately impeded and withheld reports of up to 139 cases, according to the investigation team.

The investigation team thoroughly probed into events that caused major casualties and aroused public concern, concluding that the tragedies of passengers trapped in the flooded Zhengzhou Metro Line 5 and Jingguang North Road tunnel were liability accidents, while the dam overtopping at the Guojiazui reservoir was ruled a law-breaking event.

Urban drainage infrastructure construction in Zhengzhou seriously lags behind the urban development, according to the investigators, who also pointed out prominent problems including weak links in the emergency-management system and capacity, as well as the mechanism connecting early warning and response in the city.

The investigation team also put forward measures to improve disaster response, saying that work should be done to enhance the local flood-prevention accountability mechanism, conduct in-depth reform and evaluation of the emergency-response mechanism, and build up the disaster-prevention and reduction capacities of urban areas.

Highlighting the necessity of the probe, the team said that the move could help summarize experiences and lessons, as the country is likely to face greater natural-disaster risks and more extreme weather against the backdrop of global climate change.

Problems and weak links identified in the investigation can be used to guide the country in making targeted improvements, better prepare it for future major disasters and protect people's lives and property, the team said. 
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A new financial advisory firm offering private wealth management just launched last September and has already spread to Texas, opening in Corpus Christi, San Antonio and now Midland.

Private Wealth Asset Management opened its Midland office at 901B Tradewinds Blvd. It is staffed by Michelle Acton, Bryan Jarman and Gayle Fincher, all serving as partners and advisors and all West Texas natives.

For us, Midland made perfect sense, said Bryan Frazier, head of energy management at Private Wealth Asset Management. While he said large banks and wealth management companies target the biggest markets, companies like his can offer services tailored to cities like Midland.

Midland is strategically located in the Permian Basin with its oil and gas assets, agreed Rodney Kleman, head of real estate management. But there are also large ranches, he said, adding that it is also close to Lubbock and the South Plains region.

Both men have visited Midland a number of times in their past work at Wells Fargo. Kleman sees Midland as heavily concentrated in oil and gas and in real estate, with past clients moving into private wealth management. Be it large (private) oil and gas companies, the larger ranches or charitable organizations.

Frazier said some clients use the company to supplement their own staff while others use its services to exit the oil and gas business yet hold onto their personal holdings like royalty interests.

Whether its a limited partnership, a limited liability company, an individual or trust, we can serve in a fiduciary capacity or even as an agent, Frazier said.

The two agreed that Midland customers like the local service. Midland is not an 800-number town, said Frazier.

Reflecting on his experience managing oil and gas assets, Kleman cited the technological advances hes seen over the last 12 years.

Its the advancement in oilfield drilling, how it related to production and surface management, he said. It opens opportunities for income growth, easier management of the surface and doing a better job.

For Frazier, it is how Midland has handled the boom and bust cycles of the oil and gas industry.

I think in the past, boom and bust cycles were more pronounced, he said. When oil hit negative $40, you didnt see utter and complete shock, you didnt see people leaving in droves. It was calm, reserved, well get through this. It feels different. When you drive across town, you see slow and steady.

At Wells Fargo, Frazier managed thousands of energy assets valued at $1 billion while Kleman managed real estate in West Texas for Wells Fargo.



The firm officially launched in September with offices in Omaha, Nebraska, West Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, then opened locations in San Antonio and Corpus Christi last October. The team viewed Midland and West Texas as the next logical location for expansion, knowing potential clients in the area had unique needs.

It was not a question of if but when, Frazier said of opening the Midland office.
Lets be honest, nobody cares whats happening to the Uyghurs, said Chamath Palihapitiya, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors. Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line.

Social media caught ablaze Monday as Chamaths comments about the Uyghur crisis surfaced from a clip of the All-In Podcast. Many were shocked by his blatant apathy for the gross human rights violations in Xinjiang, while others defended him, citing the context of the podcast. After all, Chamath is the CEO of Social Capital, an organization whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the worlds hardest problems. Its not that he doesnt care about the Uyghurs he just thinks the United States should handle its own issues first.

However, the context does nothing but expose Chamaths stagnant whataboutism.

The pillar of his argument is as laughable as it is blood-boiling:

I dont think I have the moral absolutism to judge China, and I would say that when NATO is silent, the United Nations is silent, all of western Europe is silent, and America is effectively silent, that this issue may be small data points being extrapolated in a way to create a narrative that [may] not be true. And if it is true  there is a responsibility for those body politics to [do] something because that is the early warning signal that the rest of world uses to say hold on, let me reprioritize my list of things.

Chamath claims that because he is not an absolute moral authority, he cannot judge Chinas actions. Admittedly, he is right; no one with an ounce of moral fiber could have knowledge of the Uyghur genocide without caring. Who does Chamath then entrust with this absolutism?

Kazakhstan and China, both of which utilize mass surveillance for mass incarceration and have little to no free speech, occupy seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Chinese Communist Party weighs in on human rights issues, despite President Xi disregarding the concept as a Western ideology. The United Nations, a supposed early warning signal, cannot enforce its own Paris Climate Accords, constantly receiving criticism from Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

Chamaths reasoning disqualifies every institution and government to call out China on its atrocious human rights track record.

Who, with their spotless track record, liberated the prisoners of Auschwitz in 1945? It was the same regime that would eventually kill an estimated 20 million people: Stalins Soviet Russia. The Allies would go on to hold Nazi Germany accountable for war crimes, charging them with crimes against humanity. Imagine how absurd it would be if the United States suddenly backed out of the Nuremberg Trials because of its state of civil rights at the time. According to Chamath, the US should have cleaned up its own house before taking any conclusive action.

There is no doubt that the United States still works to practice the principles on which it was founded, but it is somehow impossible for the billionaires simultaneous support of both domestic and global progress. Hes more concerned with the thought of virtue signaling another nation, and any effort to expose this inhumanity is merely an effort to concoct an anti-China narrative.

Tell that to Xinjiang survivor Gulzira Auelhan, rescued through ChinaAid. She suffered at four different camps just over a year, bound in shackles for six months. Tell the families of the victims they are small data points.

Each action the world takes, whether its the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act or the Uyghur Tribunal, is a step toward justice. We have not yet solved the problem, but we move a little closer each day.

We act to help the oppressed not because we are perfect already. Instead of denying and looking for excuses for inaction and silence in the face of evil, we have both a moral imperative and historical experience to tackle this global menace of genocide while holding ourselves accountable for the better.

--

Bob Fu served in the Chinese underground church until he escaped to the United States in 1997. Fu quickly became one of the leading voices for persecuted faith communities in China.

A Midland native, Jonathan Dingler graduated from Hardin-Simmons University. He currently works as ChinaAids Communications director
Muskogee, OK (74401)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 67F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low 62F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China firmly rejects the United States' use of all sorts of pretexts to sanction and suppress Chinese enterprises, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a news briefing on Friday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the comments in response to reports that the U.S. Federal Register had issued a notice announcing sanctions against China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) First Academy, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) Fourth Academy, and Poly Technologies Incorporated (PTI) for engaging in missile technology proliferation activities.

The notice was issued on the U.S. government body's website, with a publishing date of Jan. 21, local time.

Zhao said that, for political reasons, the United States uses all sorts of pretexts to sanction and suppress Chinese enterprises. "This is typical bullying practice," said the spokesperson. "China deplores and rejects it."

He said that the Chinese government consistently opposes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and their means of delivery.

China exercises strict controls on the export of missiles and related items, as well as technologies, in accordance with domestic policies, laws and regulations on non-proliferation, he said, adding that China's normal cooperation with relevant countries does not violate any international laws or involve the proliferation of WMDs.

In recent years, the United States has been flagrantly applying double standards on non-proliferation, said the spokesperson.

"Besides conniving at and supporting its allies' development of missiles and related technologies, it also plans to sell to Australia the Tomahawk cruise missile, which has a flight range of up to 2,500 kilometers and is capable of carrying nuclear warheads," Zhao said.

He stressed that the United States should earnestly reflect on its non-proliferation record and arms-trade policy, noting that it is in no position to make wanton comments on other countries' normal arms-trade cooperation.

"We urge the United States to correct its mistakes, withdraw the decision on imposing sanctions, and stop suppressing Chinese companies or maligning China. The Chinese side reserves the right to adopt further measures," Zhao said. 
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Buchheit stores and divisions participated in the Dec. 18 Wreaths Across America event, which featured coordinated wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and more than 3,100 other sites in the United States and abroad.

More than 2.4 million wreaths were placed during the day, and Buchheit Logistics had a hand in making sure the wreaths arrived where they were supposed to be.

Worcester Wreath Co. owner Morrill Worcester of Harrington, Maine, started Wreaths Across America after his first visit to Arlington National Cemetery. Years later, he began sending each state seven wreaths  one for each branch of the military plus one for prisoners of war and those missing in action.

Worcesters family and others then joined together in 2007 to form the non-profit Wreaths Across America. Buchheit joined the effort in 2015 and since has delivered more than 35,000 donated wreaths.

Buchheit donates wreaths and trucks and Buchheit Logistics drivers donate their time to deliver the wreaths to veterans cemeteries in the region. This year, Buchheit Logistics and its sponsors, Missouri Great Dane and Cline Wood Insurance Agency, donated the transportation of two truckloads of wreaths, or approximately 10,000.

U.S. Army veteran Michael Black and U.S. Navy veteran David Ayers were chosen to represent Buchheit Logistics in this years efforts to honor fallen U.S. veterans.



Black started working in the vans division of Buchheit Logistics in May 2019. He joined the Army in October 1985, earning several awards and attaining the rank of E-4 before leaving the Army in 1990. He has great-uncles who served in World War II, a son who served in the Navy, a daughter who served in the Army and a son who is serving in the Air Force, stationed in Italy.

Ayers started working for Buchheit Logistics in April 2019 as a capital sand end dump driver. He owned a diner in Malden, Missouri, before 9/11, when he was inspired to enlist in the Navy. He had attained the rank of petty officer second class when he left the Navy in 2005 and became a Butler County sheriffs deputy.

U.S. Army veteran Daniel Sparks made the Buchheit delivery to the Missouri National Veterans Memorial. Sparks is a 12-year veteran a who joined Buchheit in 2020.

You've probably had somebody tell you they would take a bullet for you, Sparks said of his time in the military. I had the honor of serving with many that proved they would."
Council for Exceptional Children Chapter 99 will have a Zoom-based workshop from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 1.

The workshop, led by Bev Johns, will focus on Accommodating Students in Academics and Behavior: The After Effects of the Pandemic on Students and Supports Needed.

Johns is a former adjunct professor at MacMurray College, an author and a well-known speaker.

The workshop is free for parents and family members, students, paraprofessionals and CEC members. To register, email cecchapter99@gmail.com. Include the date of the meeting, your name, email address, phone and school, if applicable.

Teachers and other professionals should go to cec99.org to pay the $15 fee for the workshop, which is eligible for professional development hours, or send a check to CEC Chapter 99, P.O. Box 475, Jacksonville, IL 62651.

If you have special needs, please includes those in your email. Stay safe and well.

 Submitted by Martha Vache



Jacksonville Noon Rotary Club

President Cathy Jo Littleton Wahl called to order the Jan. 14 meeting of Jacksonville Noon Rotary Club at noon at Hamilton's.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and "America" was sung. The Reflection was given by Cathy Jo Littleton Wahl.

Volunteers were thanked, including Karen Walker and Alberta Robinson, greeters and 50-50; Cathy Jo Littleton Wahl, Reflection and song leader; and note taker Anne Jackson.

Announcements:

 The Polio-Plus Jars are on the tables.

 Dont forget the Fabulous February Fun-raiser.

 Steve Holt was looking for volunteers to help with the scholarship competition.

 Dave Fisher is seeking help with the Bass Tournament on April 3.

 We are collecting supplies for South Jacksonville School. Please see Joan McQuillan for details.

 Jenna Tucker is looking for host families for the exchange student program.

 Karen Walker gave an update on Paul Harris Circles. Paul Harris presentations will be March 4.

Breanna Van Matre and Madison Rever were in attendance today. They have been approved to join the club.

Steve Holt gave a brief presentation on the history of the Rotary Scholarship program. Jenna Tucker introduces Ryan Turke, who spoke on "That I Place".

Dave Fisher drew unsuccessfully for the 50-50 drawing.

The Four-Way Test was recited and the meeting was adjourned at 1 p.m.

 Submitted by Anne Jackson



Kiwanis Club of Jacksonville

Jan. 13 meeting recap:

Jared and Jacob want to thank everyone who attended last weeks meeting, whether it was in person or on Zoom.

Our very own Brian Gillespie gave our program for the day. Brian and his wife, Amy, are co-chairs of this year's Prairieland United Way campaign. The United Way plays a huge role in our community. Tables are still available for The Price is United dinner game show, which will be Feb. 5.

Announcements:

 Jenna Tucker of Rotary came to talk about that club's foreign exchange student program. If you have desire or want more information on how to host a student, contact Jenna Tucker at 217-245-6177 or contact Forrest Keaton.

 Our Pancake and Sausage event is set for March 14. The Pancake and Sausage Committee, chaired by Erin Kleinlein and Sam Bobor, voted to make it a drive-through-only event again this year. Collectively, we truly believe this is the best decision at this time. With the success we had with last years drive-through, I have no doubt that this year will be the same.

Thank you again to everyone and hope to see you Thursday!

 Submitted by Heather Wardlow
Although some groups have resumed meetings, others schedules may have changed because of pandemic restrictions. It is recommended you contact the group in advance to verify details. Any changes in meeting schedules can be emailed to JJCsocial@myjournalcourier.com.



ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

217-370-4002

Jacksonville locations:

 First Baptist Church, 1701 Mound Ave. Wheelchair-accessible.

 Club HOW, 638 S. Church St.

Monday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Bowen Group.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Tuesday

 Open discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Womens open meeting, 5:30 p.m., First Christian Churchs Fireside Room.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 7 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, Main and Washington streets.

 ROODHOUSE: Closed discussion, 12-step/12 traditions, 8 p.m. at Grace Center, 114 W. Palm St.

Wednesday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Thursday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. Newcomers Group.

Friday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW. TGIF Group.

 Closed discussion, 5:15 p.m., Big Book Study at Club HOW.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at United Methodist Church, 401 E. Broadway Ave.

Saturday

 Open speaker, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

 Open meeting, noon at Club HOW.

Sunday

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. 12 & 12 Group.

 Closed discussion, 10 a.m. at Club HOW. (Second Sunday is open)

 SPRINGFIELD: AA for Women, 10 a.m. at Discovery Club, 313 W. Cook St.



AL-ANON

Meetings are nonsmoking and open to anyone. The only requirement is that there be a problem of alcohol with a loved one or friend. 217-248-6434.

Wednesday

 Al-Anon, 7:30-8:30 p.m. at Centenary United Methodist Church, 331 E. State St. (use Morgan Street entrance).





NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS

All meetings are nonsmoking. Not affiliated with any religious organization.

Jacksonville locations:

 First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. (enter through far southeast door). 217-883-1975.

 Lutheran Church for the Deaf, 104 Finley St. (enter through back door). 217-883-1975.

Wednesday

 Open discussion group, 8 p.m. at Lutheran Church for the Deaf.

Friday

 Open discussion group, 7:30 p.m. at First Christian Church.



OTHER MEETINGS

Monday

 Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. at Faith Tabernacle, 571 Sandusky St. Use side entrance to church hall.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. in the basement of Subway in Pittsfield. 1-800-323-1388.



Tuesday

 American Legion Post 279, first Tuesday of every month, 7 p.m. at 903 W. Superior Ave.



Wednesday

 Breastfeeding support group, 6 p.m., Passavant Area Hospital, Meeting Room 2.

 ROODHOUSE: Women with Hearts of Love (WWHOL), 6-7 p.m. at House of Restoration, 208 W. Franklin St. 217-602-1670.



Thursday

 Jacksonville Area Chess Club, 6-9 p.m. at Jacksonville Public Library. 217-370-0882.

 Jacksonville Kiwanis Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 WHITE HALL: Addicts Victorious, teens 5:30-6:30 p.m.; adults 7-8 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of New Life Church, 626 Curtis St.

 Cancer support group, 6-7:30 p.m., Winchester United Methodist Church. 217-742-3610.



Friday

 Jacksonville Rotary Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 6 p.m. at Assembly of God, 575 Piper St. 800-323-1388.



Saturday

 Jacksonville Amateur Radio Societys Net, 9 p.m. Transmitted on K9JX repeater. K9JX.com.
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The following are being sought on arrest warrants, according to various sheriffs departments. The addresses listed are the last known addresses provided by the warrants and may be outdated.

 Devin A. Vannuys Clark, 21, of 2876 Courier Road, Alexander, is being sought on a warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

He is a white male standing 5 foot 10 and weighing 150 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes.

 Sandra G. Downey, 59, of 734 Allen Ave. is being sought on a warrant accusing her of driving while license is suspended, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and two counts of possession of methamphetamine.

She is a white female standing 5 foot 4 and weighing 123 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

Morgan County

Jacksonville Police

BURGLARIES, THEFTS

 Someone left Walmart, 1941 W. Morton Ave., about 4 p.m. Friday with a cart full of groceries for which they did not pay.

 During the past several months, someone removed about $4,700 worth of merchandise from a business in the 400 block of East Morton Avenue, according to a report filed at 11:40 a.m. Friday.

ACCIDENTS

 Emily J. Williams, 54, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to yield right-of-way after the car she was driving and one being driven by Cohen N. Million, 20, of Jacksonville collided at 1:20 p.m. Friday in the 500 block of West Independence Avenue.

VANDALISM

 The rear door was broken between 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and 5:30 p.m. Thursday at a residence in the 200 block of Howe Street.

OTHER REPORTS

 A woman told police she asked two men to turn down a speaker they were playing while walking about 9:30 p.m. Thursday in the 800 block of Goltra Avenue and they flipped her off and threatened to shoot her. Officers checked the area but could not find the men.

South Jacksonville Police

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 A purse was taken from an unlocked car in the 1800 block of South Main Street, according to a report filed at 3:58 p.m. Thursday.

Waverly Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Larry A. Crowder, 38, of Joliet was cited on charges of speeding, driving while license is suspended and operating an uninsured motor vehicle after being stopped at 6 p.m. Wednesday on Elm Street.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
MOUNT STERLING  After four years, a federal civil rights case against two former correctional officers charged in the death of Western Illinois Correctional Center inmate Larry Earvin soon may see an end  without going to court.

It's something Earvin's family is praying for.

"I can tell you that the Earvin family is optimistic and wants Mr. (Larry) Earvin to rest in peace," said Jon Erickson, a Chicago-based civil rights attorney with the law firm Erickson & Oppenheimer.

A settlement hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 27 at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield. A trial is scheduled to begin March 28 if a settlement is not reached.

Earvin, 65, was assaulted on May 17, 2018, while being transferred to another unit at the correctional center. He suffered multiple broken ribs, a punctured colon and other internal injuries; he died June 26, 2018. He had been set to be released just months later after serving a six-year sentence related to a Cook County robbery.

Corrections officers Todd Sheffler of Mendon, Alex Banta of Quincy and Willie Hedden of Mount Sterling were indicted in connection with the death. Hedden since has pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges; Sheffler and Banta are charged with conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights and obstruction of justice.

The state is a party to the lawsuit because the correctional officers were state employees at the time of Earvin's assault, but Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul recommended that the state not reach a settlement with the family. The Earvin family hopes that changes during the settlement hearing.

Earvin's death prompted a state lawmaker to push legislation he said would eliminate a legal loophole that allowed the attorney general to deny a settlement.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, has introduced House Bill 4119, which seeks to take away the state attorney general's to recommend not paying a settlement to Earvins family. Ford said it is a matter of providing civil justice for Earvin and other victims of the state correctional system.

When a prisoner was accosted in 2017 by correctional officers at Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac and died as a result, then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan recommended the state pay the family upward of $2 million, Erickson said, adding that he is asking Raoul to do the same for the Earvin family.

The Earvin family is "praying that the attorney general does the right thing," he said.
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- It has been found that people roll their eyes while sleeping, an action scientists once hypothesized could help humans keep alert against predator attacks. Chinese neuroscientists have now found evidence to support the claim.

The study published on Saturday in the journal Neuron reported a common circuit that regulates both innate fear and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, a stage when one's eyes move around rapidly in a range of directions, causing people to wake up briefly and periodically.

The research team led by Wang Liping from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that a brain region capable of promoting the hormone release also regulates REM sleep.

In the experiment, the rodents slept in a sealed chamber and were exposed to an odor stimulus indicating the advent of a predator.

The odor triggered rapid arousal from REM sleep but not from non-rapid-eye-movement sleep, suggesting that REM sleep is linked to a mechanism that allows quick awakening in response to potential dangers.

Then, the researchers examined the medial subthalamic nucleus, a brain region containing a high density of neurons releasing a chemical called corticotropin.

The chemical can activate the adrenal glands to release adrenaline into the blood, which quickens the heart rate and increase blood pressure, making animals all ready for a bolt.

Also, those neurons could lower the arousal threshold during REM sleep and increase defensive responses after awakening, according to the study.

The find is an example of how evolution leads to two distinct but related functions with one tool kit in the brain, the researchers said.

"Natural selection favors optimizing existing neural circuitry for efficiency in signal transduction and energy usage over metabolically more expensive solutions," said Wang, the paper's corresponding author.

The study was supported by the co-occurrence of increased REM sleep and stress-related mood disorders found in clinical studies.

It has thus opened the possibility of treating mental disorders by targeting the common regulatory circuit of sleep and fear, according to the researchers. 
What's new at Jacksonville Public Library:

"The Maidens" by Alex Michaelides: Mariana Andros is certain Edward Fosca is a murderer, but Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike  particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. This novel is a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder and obsession.

Adult Nonfiction

"The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality" by Mike Sielski: Kobe Bryants death in January 2020 rattled the world of sports, celebrity and beyond. This book traces the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of Kobes early life. This inside look at one of the most captivating figures in our culture includes never-before-heard interviews.

DVD

"On the Rocks": Laura thinks she is happily married, but when her husband starts logging late hours at the office with a new coworker, Laura begins to fear the worst. She turns to the one man she suspects may have insight, her charming and impulsive father, Felix, played by Bill Murray.

Childrens Picture Book

"Aaron Slater, Illustrator" by Andrea Beaty: Aaron Slater dreams of becoming a storyteller but fears his learning disability will hold him back. Tasked with writing a story for class, Aaron is disheartened when he cant get his words on the page  until he realizes words arent the only way to tell a story.

Juvenile Graphic Novel

"Tidesong" by Wendy Xu: In this story of magic and self-acceptance, amateur witch Sophie is shipped off to live with her aunt to train for the Royal Magic Academy. But when she arrives, her aunt and cousin treat her more as an errand girl than as a powerful witch-to-be. Sophie attempts to cast a spell on her own but, when it goes wrong, her magic is intertwined with Lirs, a young water dragon suffering from memory loss.

Did you know?

The library is hosting an author event with Silvia Moreno-Garcia at 7 p.m. Wednesday via Zoom. The bestselling and award-winning author of "Mexican Gothic" will discuss her newest book, "Velvet was the Night," one of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2021. Email Sarah Snyder at ssnyder@jaxpl.org to receive the Zoom link or you can watch it via Zoom in the librarys meeting room.
HONG KONG, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday firmly rejected and strongly condemned the so-called Hong Kong-related resolution of the European Parliament.

A spokesperson for the office condemned the resolution for smearing "one country, two systems," wantonly interfering in China's internal affairs, and calling on the European Union (EU) to impose sanctions on Chinese officials.

"Any external forces interfering in Hong Kong affairs and repeatedly staging such self-deceiving political farces are doomed to failure," said the spokesperson.

Some anti-China disruptors will surely be punished for their illegal acts, and any external forces cannot change the outcome, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed that the development of China-EU cooperation is an overwhelming trend, and the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong bear on the interests of more than 2,300 EU enterprises and 350,000 EU citizens in Hong Kong.

"We urge some European politicians to grasp the situation, respect the facts, and not to lift the stone only to drop it on their own feet," said the spokesperson.

In response to the European Parliament resolution, a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR also said on Friday that in violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the European Parliament once again judged others' democracy with condensation and interfered in China's internal affairs including Hong Kong affairs, which is unacceptable.

The commissioner's office also criticized the resolution for smearing Hong Kong's democracy and freedom, for calling for sanctions against the central government and HKSAR government officials, and for asking for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

"In disregard of history and reality, the European Parliament has repeatedly smeared Hong Kong and attacked China under the pretext of so-called 'democracy and freedom' for a publicity stunt," the spokesperson noted.

The commissioner's office urged some politicians of the European Parliament to follow the historical trend, change course, stop the political hysteria against China and China's HKSAR, stop bullying acts of threatening to impose sanctions, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs including Hong Kong affairs in any form.

The HKSAR government on Friday also voiced strong opposition to the European Parliament resolution, saying European Parliament made baseless allegations and smeared the rule of law, freedom and democratic development in Hong Kong.

"Regarding the suggestions by foreign politicians on the so-called 'sanctions' on HKSAR government officials, the HKSAR government despises the suggestions and will continue to strive to safeguard national security," a spokesperson noted.

"We urge foreign politicians to immediately stop breaching international laws based on their biased political interests to intervene in Hong Kong matters, which are purely the internal affairs of China," the spokesperson said. 
Four Plainview ISD School Board seats will be up for election in May.

The board officially called for a general election during a three-hour-long regular meeting Tuesday night.

The election is set for May 7, the same day as the general elections for the City Council and for Hale County.

Seats up for grabs include Precincts 2, 3, 4 and 5 currently held by Sofia Rivera, Tyler James, Amber Bass and JoAnn Rey, respectively.

Board members are elected to serve four-year terms. There are no limits regarding how many terms a candidate can run.

All four board members whose seats are up for election are relatively new to the board. They all joined in 2018. This is the end of their first term.

The filing period for these positions officially opened this week. Those interested in running have until Feb. 18 to file. Applications can be picked up at the PISD Administration building and they must be turned in to Rosie Licero, secretary to the superintendent.

Early voting is set for April 25 through May 3. Early voting poll locations are as follows:

Hale County Justice Center, 225 S. Broadway

Lemond Community Center, 110 Stevenson, Hale Center

Abernathy City Hall, 811 Ave. D

Petersburg City Hall, 1524 Main Street

During the early voting dates, those polling locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Petersburg polling location will close for lunch each day from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Election day is set for May 7. Polling locations on that day will include the Ollie Liner Center, 2000 S. Columbia St., and the Lemond Community Center. Both locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The board approved all this unanimously.

Election judges and clerks were also unanimously approved by the board.
Hale County was named a recipient of a 2021 Safety Achievement Award from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) Risk Management Pool.

Hale is one of 17 TAC RMP members to receive this award as a result of its commitment to safety in the workplace, according to a news release from TAC.

Counties must participate in the TAC RMP Workers Compensation Program and must have a safety program or accident prevention plan, in addition to meeting other criteria.

Its attention to safety has saved taxpayers dollars by minimizing workers compensation costs, the news release notes.
Much has been written about Barton Springs and its summertime quintessence  its powerful, healing iciness in a warming world. How can you survive in the August Austin heat? is a question lobbed at me every year, mostly by coastal elites (my friends in New York and Los Angeles).

Simple. I drag my sorry self down to Zilker Park multiple times each week, burn my body to a crisp on the sloped south lawn that abuts the springs, and, when I can no longer handle the cruel sun, drop into the chilly abyss. It feels cold, yes, but that coldness feels cleansing, for some reason. This is a realistic amelioration of human suffering when the temperature rises above 100 degrees and stays there for three months, as it did for a total of three months 2011.

But Barton Springs, popular as it is between spring break and the end of summer  mid-October or thereabouts, in Austin  is open year-round. When the temperature dips down toward freezing, though, it has to be empty, right? Who in their right mind would decide to warm up in a 68-degree body of water? I decided to find out, despite the fact that 12 hours before, it was sleeting at my house.

As I pulled into an unrecognizable parking lot on Azie Morton Road, I realized how strange it was to feel out of place in such a familiar area. It looked new because it was virtually empty, with nary a Tesla or sticker-plastered vintage pickup in sight. I parked in the literal first spot, closest to the south entrance, for the first  and maybe last, I thought  time in my life.

I walked through the unmanned front gate  Barton Springs is free through February  and was greeted with the overwhelming quiet of the south lawn. Normally packed with throngs of undergrads, families, and yoga practitioners, the consistent buzz was absent. I could hear the gentle whooshing of a few faraway lap swimmers, the faint barking of an unseen dog, and not much else. It was jarring. It was peaceful.

Chris O'Connell/MySA

Deciding to take a (walking) lap around the pool to get the blood flowing before my plunge, I ran into two men who had just finished swimming and were chatting on the main entrance side. Fielding Baxter has been coming to Barton Springs for 20 years, usually every day.

Multiple times a day sometimes, he told me. Its lovely [in the winter], as you can see. Its always temperate in the water. On the south side of the pool it warms up nicely.

Baxter was talking with a bearded, long-haired swimmer named Kevin Heimers when I walked up. Heimers is a recent convert to Barton Springs, having just arrived in Austin two months ago. He had heard of Zilker Park, so he walked over, and when he arrived, the springs caught his eye.

The first time I saw Barton Springs, it was really aesthetically pleasing to me, he said. The fact that the water isnt chlorinated in any way makes it more permissible for me to swim in. Other than that, I really connected with the energy here."

I asked them both what drew them to Barton Springs during the wintertime, and if it held any special significance surrounded in a chilly, calm serenity versus the bustling spring and summer months.

I come no matter what, but its really peaceful in the winter when theres hardly anyone around, Baxter said. Heimers claimed to feel a bond with the winter dippers.

The fact that only the people who are really dedicated will come in the winter, it then will imply that the people here are really connected with Barton Springs, so that will lend itself to a commonality we will have, he told me.

Beyond that, I wanted to know if they believed in the healing powers often ascribed to the spring water.

Yes, Baxter said, almost before I could finish asking. Heimers went further.

I read a book called The Coming Race that says there are humanlike creatures that live under the ground, he said. And apparently they have very adept powers of chi. In this book, they would infuse bats with chi energy. I think it may be hypothetically possible that these beings have infused this specific water with chi energy that now surfaces.

Baxter told me that people tell similar stories because they love water and sunlight so much that theyll create mystical, enchanted tales around them.

They are the two most basic elements in life, he said, so its just very special to be here where those are the dominant forces.

Chris O'Connell/MySA

Taking my lone spot on the slope near the south entrance, I soon formulated the hypothesis that there were only two types of people who visit Barton Springs in January: dedicated swimmers seeking physical and spiritual exercise and those looking for a quick, refreshing cleanse. The latter group rarely sticks around for long.

Three young women brushed by my towel, eager to get the thing over with.

My little toes are so cold! one in Birkenstocks cried.

They placed their belongings as close to the edge of the pool as possible. Two of them quickly got in, wriggling slowly down the steps.

Its warm! one of them said. The other: Its warm  but its cold. My little armpit hairs!

Their friend just hopped right in, without saying a word. The three of them were in and out of the grounds in under five minutes.

But just when Id decided that my ideas about winter Barton Springers were incontrovertible facts, a gaggle of students appeared at the north entrance, across from where I sat. Yelling and laughing before, during, and after cannonballing into the water, paddling over to the diving board to do flips, and playing Marco Polo. They seemed, to me, confused. What is this, August? I asked them what was going on. I found out they are all UT students just having a swim on a 35-degree day.

David Koeller, a native Austinite, told me hes been to Barton Springs many times during the winter months.

We did the math and its warmer in the pool than it is outside, he said. We figured it might be enjoyable out here.

His friend Aaron Hawkins decided that his first visit to Barton Springs should be in the dead of winter.

Its awesome, he said. Its kind of refreshing. Its kind of nippy outside, but being a little colder wakes you up and energizes you. It wakes me up mentally, emotionally, it aligns me well for the day.

I asked Hawkins if he believed in the cleansing power of the springs.

I do feel cleaner than I did before jumping in, he told me. Not physically, Koeller quipped.

Chris O'Connell/MySA

What surprised me most about Barton Springs in January is, beyond the serenity of its general quietude, that those who make the journey out behave  more or less  like they would otherwise. You just get dressed more quickly once you emerge from the water.

I saw others taking turns on the diving board. A steady stream of lap-swimmers strapped on flippers and performed their daily exercises. The undergrads started a lively game of Marco Polo. And I discovered that yes, women (or at least one woman, when I was there) still swim topless in January.

I decided I would follow my normal routine. I always bring a book, hopping in once I overheat but not before Ive finished a chapter. Fingers turning to ice, I flipped through recently departed Texas critic Dave Hickeys Air Guitar, needlessly rushing through the self-titled essay so that I could get into the springs. As I flung off my fleece, I could only laugh at the amount of clothing I needed to shed before getting in. And at 35 degrees, when I laughed, I saw my breath.

Keeping to my normal script, I hopped in, feet-first, at my usual spot, scared of the outcome. Immediately, though, I felt right. My submerged body felt warm, not Gulf Coast warm, but noticeably more pleasant than it had on the towel. My head froze, but it didnt bother me; I was (nearly) alone, slowly swimming back and forth, feeling the familiar rocks beneath my feet on either end of the pool, squinting at the sun. It was heaven.

Ive witnessed many folks stand at the edge of the glistening springs in the late-summer heat, dragging their toes in the icy water, unsure if they should get in. Content and enveloped in a clean, warm hug, with almost the entire place to myself, I was reluctant to leave.
Looking at the daily caseload numbers since the beginning, over 80,000 people in San Antonio have tested positive in the span of over two weeks. It's safe to say that a considerable amount of those people will have to return to work soon.

The CDC cut the isolation and quarantine period for people in December down to five days. Those who don't have the option to work from home will return to the workplace, and some of those people may still have COVID-19 present in their body.

Metro Health Assistant Director Dr. Anita Kurian says people can still test positive up to 90 days but that does not mean you're infectious.

How long are you infectious?

Kurian says most people who have tested positive with the omicron variant of COVID-19 are most infectious one to two days prior to symptoms and three days after a positive test result and the onset of symptoms.

Still some people might be free of any symptoms. But if people are still testing positive after five days, Kurian says they should watch for improvement in their symptoms like remaining fever-free after 24 hours without the use of medication.

I still have a cough

Kurian notes that some symptoms may still persist for weeks after the first 10 days following the onset of symptoms or testing positive.

She says most people are safe to return to a work after five days but should wear a tight-fitting mask for an additional five days.

"Most people are good to come back provided you have shown symptom improvement," Kurian says.

Metro Health generally recommends that businesses use the symptom-based strategy instead of the test-based strategy when it comes making a decision on when someone can return to work.

However, test-based strategies should still be used for employees who are immunocompromised since they tend to shed the virus much longer.

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

Why are so many people testing positive?

Omicron. The latest variant accounts for over 90 percent of positive cases. Kurian says this new variant is highly contagious because the virus tends to double more quickly  in one-and-a-half to two days. The delta variant, for comparison, doubled in about 8 to 10 days.

This has led to San Antonio's fourth surge in the COVID-19 era.

Fortunately, symptoms for most cases have been less severe than the delta variant for individuals who are fully vaccinated and boosted.

Will it slow down soon?

"The crystal ball is as murky as it can be mighty," Kurian says.

At the moment it's hard to make a definitive call as to where we are in this surge. The first surge in 2020 was eight weeks long. The second surge was 17 to 20 weeks long. The third surge was also about 17 weeks.

Looking at the trends, Kurian says this surge could last about 8 to 20 weeks. We are currently in the third week.

"I would hesitate to say it's coming to an end," says Dr. Junda Woo, medical director for Metro Health during Friday's press conference.

Kurian reminds people that the virus is still changing so predictions like this should be taken as just that, a prediction.

Steven Santana | MySA

What do the numbers look like now?

San Antonio's positivity rate currently sits at 38.3, a 7 percentage point increase from earlier this week, as new daily caseloads stay in the thousands. But even as four out of five of the city's indicators hit "critical" risk levels, San Antonio is hanging in the "severe" range.

There were 5,841 new cases and 10 new deaths as of Friday.

San Antonio's overall risk level also still sits in "severe," which is a stark contrast to some of Texas' other major cities like Austin and Houston. Both cities are in their highest risk stages despite some of their numbers being lower in Austin.

Why is that?

Kurian says every city bases their risk levels off of varying metrics.

Austin just breached the 3,000 mark in new cases on Tuesday, according to Austin Public Health. But the Capital City currently in a Stage 5 risk level, which recommends vaccinated people wear masks every where and unvaccinated people avoid public gatherings, travel and dining in restaurants.

Austin's hospitalizations are much lower than San Antonio at 682 as of Wednesday.

Houston and Harris County are in a similar situation in terms of new case numbers. On January 9, Harris County Public Health and the Houston Health Department reported over 8,000 new cases. It's most recent new daily caseload dropped to 1,600 new cases for January 20. Houston is currently sitting at a 34.3 percent positivity rate and is also at Level 1 threat level.

Level 1 threat level signifies a severe and uncontrolled spread. The threat level recommends minimizing contact with others wherever possible and staying home except for the most essential needs.

Kurian says that San Antonio hasn't hit its highest risk level because it factors in the stress hospitals are under, while some cities in Texas might not. Hospital stress levels look at the number of patients with COVID and available resources to treat them (staff, beds, ventilators). Eric Epley, executive director of the South Texas Regional Advisory Council, said at a press conference on Friday, January 21, that area hospitals have received 521 additional contract staff through the state.

The number of COVID patients jumped to 1,263 with 277 people in the intensive care unit as of Friday.

What can we do?

On top of getting the vaccine and wearing masks while in public spaces, Kurian encourages San Antonians to get tested. Knowing you have to take the proper isolation procedures will help mitigate the spread.

San Antonio has 33 free testing sites on its website, including a new FEMA mass drive-through testing site at the Alamodome. The sites collectively tested upwards of 11,600 people on Wednesday. (I didn't have the best experience with a testing site.)

Of course the increase in testing means a longer wait for results. People should expect to receive their results anywhere between 48 to 96 hours.

Kurian is also encouraging individuals to sign up for the at-home testing kits that are being sent out by the government at COVIDTests.gov. Households can sign up to receive four free at-home testing kits through the mail.

Kurian says that people can sign up for reimbursement through their health care provider for purchasing at-home test kits. Be sure to check with your insurance provider before, as some users have reported that the process was more complicated than expected.
Yves here. Yours truly has long been saying no to doctors pushing tests and treatments that look to be beside the pointbut how many are wired that way? Particularly when sick with Covid and having heard monoclonal antibodies can help?

And thats before getting to the fact that Americans have been indoctrinated to think that surely there is a magic pill or procedure for every ailment and therefore pressure their doctor to provide them. That attitude is behind the widespread bad practice of MDs handing out antibiotics like candy to patients show up in their office with a bad case of flu. The US instead needs placebos that get new names every year or more often to satisfy patient demands that the MD Do Something when not much can be done.

Having said that, I wonder why the monoclonals are able to be used at all. Even under Delta, when they were beneficial, my understanding is that access was restricted because even then the supplies werent high enough to meet surge-level demand, plus they are also pricey. So only patients who met certain specific criteria could get them. So it appears there are still quite a few who meet the requirements for a now-pretty-likely-to-be-ineffective treatment (although it would make sense to sequence to be sure it isnt actually Delta).

By JoNel Aleccia, a Senior Kaiser Health News Correspondent focused on aging and end-of-life issues on the KHN enterprise team and previously, a health reporter at outlets including The Seattle Times, NBCNews.com, TODAY.com and MSNBC.com. Originally published at Kaiser Health News

As the omicron variant completes its sweep across the U.S., states with scarce supplies of monoclonal antibody therapies continue to use two treatments that federal health officials warn no longer work against the highly contagious version of the virus that causes covid-19. The antibody treatment now most recommended is sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, and its in short supply.

Use of the newly ineffective treatments produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co. is highest in a dozen states. They include several Southern states with some of the nations lowest vaccination rates, but also California, which ranks in the nations top 20 for fully vaccinated residents, a KHN analysis of federal data shows. Many hospitals and clinics are still infusing the costly treatments  often charging hundreds of dollars a session  that public health officials now say are almost certainly useless.

Thats because of the near-total dominance of omicron, which accounted for 99.5% of new covid infections in the U.S. during the week that ended Jan. 15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That point was underscored this week by updated guidelines from the National Institutes of Health that now recommend sotrovimab as the primary monoclonal treatment for the disease.

Unless providers are certain they are still treating patients infected with the delta variant, they shouldnt use the others, said Dr. Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, who is also a former commissioner of the FDA and former administrator of CMS. And the delta variant is increasingly rare, accounting for 3% of cases in Louisiana, 7% in California, and 10% in Ohio, as examples.

Theres not a medical justification based on the evidence on the Regeneron and Lilly products, McClellan said.

Determining which patients are infected with the delta vs. omicron variant is complicated, said Dr. Christian Ramers, chief of population health and an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of San Diego.

His clinic is one of the few sites in the nation using laboratory screening of positive PCR covid tests that can tell whether patients are infected with delta vs. omicron  and then treating them accordingly. Otherwise, youre giving this false sense of security to a patient that theyre getting treatment, Ramers said. I dont think it is ethical, and it goes against the principle of doing no harm.

At Dr. Christian Ramers clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when theyre confident theyll help. Prescribing monoclonals that arent effective against the omicron variant goes against the principle of doing no harm, Ramers says. (FAMILY HEALTH CENTERS OF SAN DIEGO)

Overall, U.S. hospitals used about 72,000 doses of the Regeneron and Lilly monoclonal antibody therapies from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health and Human Services. Data regarding hospital-level use of sotrovimab, which became available more recently than the other products, is not yet available on the HHS site.

By comparison, hospitals used about 153,000 courses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments from Dec. 22 through Jan. 4. They used about 169,000 courses from Aug. 26 through Sept. 8, near the height of the delta surge.

On Jan. 19, hospitals still had about 295,000 doses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments on hand.

Nationwide, the federal government is distributing more than 50,000 courses of sotrovimab per week, though it remains in short supply. The Biden administration has agreed to buy about 1 million doses, including about 600,000 promised by March, GSK officials said.

Respectively, Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Ohio, New York, and Mississippi used the most courses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18, KHNs analysis showed.

In Florida, which used more than 5,200 courses of the outdated treatments during that two-week period, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he is not convinced that the Regeneron and Lilly products dont work against omicron. In Florida, omicron accounted for 97% of cases as of Jan. 20; delta accounted for 3%.

We have had practitioners give both of those to people with omicron who said the symptoms got resolved, he said in a Jan. 5 speech provided by his spokesperson, Christina Pushaw.

Federal health officials managing allocation of the monoclonal antibody therapies paused shipments of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments on Dec. 23, after laboratory tests showed they were less effective against the surging omicron variant than the delta variant. But the Biden administration resumed shipments on Dec. 31, after complaints from DeSantis and some doctors that those therapies could still help people in places where the delta variant persisted.

Regeneron itself has said its antibody treatments are ineffective against the omicron variant. It contains more than 30 mutations in the viruss spike protein, which makes the variant better at dodging the monoclonal antibody treatments.

Its really not justified at this point unless theres some other underlying secondary gain, political pressure, or perhaps the providers are truly not in touch with the reality of the variant proportions, Ramers said.

Earlier this month, HHS officials indicated that shipments of the three monoclonal antibody treatments would continue through Jan. 31, despite the growing proportion of omicron cases. A department spokesperson on background said the agency would continue to assess any impacts to covid-19s therapeutic allocations.

Monoclonal antibody treatments are lab-based molecules that mimic the bodys immune response to infection. They are most often given through IV infusion, though some can be delivered with an injection. The federal government has agreed to purchase millions of doses of the Regeneron and Lilly products at a cost of about $2,100 per dose. The medicines are free to consumers, though hospitals and clinics do charge fees for administering the drugs and monitoring patients during the process.

Other treatments expected to be effective against omicron in high-risk, non-hospitalized patients include AstraZenecas Evusheld, a long-acting injectable monoclonal antibody for immunocompromised people, and a three-day infusion of Gilead Sciences remdesivir, which is approved by the FDA. New oral antiviral pills also are expected to be effective, although they, too, remain in short supply.

Providers in several states that have continued to use the Regeneron and Lilly products have offered varied reasons. Some said they believed delta infections continued to circulate locally; others said they felt desperate to try something.

Officials in Michigan, which used more than 5,800 doses of the Regeneron and Lilly products during the most recent two weeks, and California, which used more than 3,400, have allowed health care providers to use their clinical judgment about which treatment to prescribe.

But in Mississippi, where omicron is rampant and fewer than half of residents have been fully vaccinated, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs called for an end to the use of the treatments.

We will be recommending that clinicians and physicians do not use these products right now based on the distribution of omicron vs. delta, he said during a recent press conference.

At Ramers clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when theyre confident theyll help. That has meant sending batches of positive PCR tests to a laboratory in nearby Irvine, where they are screened to see whether one of three target genes is not detected, a known marker for an omicron infection.

Patients infected with the delta variant were able to be treated with REGEN-COV, the Regeneron product, preserving sotrovimab for the growing number of omicron cases, said Pauline Lucatero, the clinics director of nursing.

Looking into my patients eyes and seeing fear, just fear, all I could tell them is we believe this treatment works and were going to do everything we can to save as many people as we can, she said.

Phillip Reese, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento, contributed to this report.
(Natural News) WND and The New American contributor Alex Newman appeared on an episode of Critical Disclosure Radio, which is hosted at Brighteon, to deliver an emergency message about how South Miami Hospital in Florida is trying to murder his father with deadly treatments for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).

Newman explained to host James White that he is currently in a crisis situation because South Miami Hospital is insisting upon treating his father with remdesivir, a deadly drug from which Tony Fauci profits and that government tests in Africa revealed kills upwards of 40 percent patients.

Were in a crisis situation right now, Newman said right off the bat in somewhat of a panic.

Theyre trying to murder my dad in the hospital. Theyre trying to put him on this remdesivir crap thatll kill you, and they wont let him have the treatments that he needs  the ivermectin and all that stuff  so were in the middle right now of coming up with a plan, were gonna bust him out of there.

The roughly 24-minute segment is available for viewing at Brighteon below:

These maniacs are trying to kill him because theres a big dollar sign, a big check attached to hooking him up to the poison.

Many American hospitals are prison wards and slaughter centers, not sanctuaries of medicine

Back in October, we warned that remdesivir damages the kidneys and potentially causes renal failure, which Newman also addressed during the segment.

The personal doctor of Newmans dad warned the family not to take remdesivir, and to instead take ivermectin, vitamin D, vitamin C and several other remedies. That doctor even wrote a prescription for ivermectin for Newmans father.

South Miami Hospital, however, will not allow it. And now the hospital is refusing to release Newmans dad, or to allow Alex or any of his other family members to enter the facility to see him.

Newmans dad is basically being held as a prisoner at South Miami Hospital, and Newman is livid and ready to take action to free his father and hopefully help any others out there in a similar situation to do the same.

This is a criminal operation disguised as a medical system, Newman says about American medicine.

It turns out that life-butcher Fauci ran tests on remdesivir in Africa  because blacks are usually the test subjects of choice for the elite  that resulted in nearly half of all patients dying from the drug. The results of these tests are available on government websites and through the National Institutes of Health.

Whats killing people is not covid, its the protocol that Dr. Fauci has mandated, Newman says. Its the Fauci protocols that are killing people, not the covid.

Weve got to get together and weve got to stop these people, Newman added about how Americans need to band together and take action against this horrific tyranny whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.

This is basically a prison ward masquerading as a hospital, and as you called it a slaughter center, and its unconscionable and it needs to stop.

Another growing problem at American hospitals is organ donation centers refusing to save the lives of people who are unvaccinated. Only those who get jabbed for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) are deemed eligible for organ transplants, while the non-jabbed are being left to die.

They literally would rather have them die, pretty much, at home without the transplant rather than give them the transplant if they do not have the jab, White explained.

Be sure to watch the full segment at Brighteon.com.

The latest news about covid can be found at Genocide.news.

Sources for this article include:

Brighteon.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Belgium has stopped the administration of Modernas Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to Belgians 30 years old and below. The European nation cited cardiac inflammation risk as the reason for dropping the mRNA vaccine.

According to a Brussels Times report, Belgium stopped using Modernas mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as a primary shot for those younger than 31 years in December 2021. The country instead recommended the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for initial vaccination despite also being linked to cardiac inflammation.

Following the advice of the countrys Superior Health Council, Moderna vaccines were reallocated for booster doses. Half the standard dose would be injected to Belgians between 18 and 30 years old. Joris Moonens, spokesman for the countrys care and health agency, said the Moderna vaccine will be used for the rest of the booster vaccination campaign unless the scientific insights into its use change.

Gudrun Briat, spokeswoman for Belgiums vaccination task force, said the move was based on research showing a higher risk of cardiac inflammation. She told Brussels Times: The decision for the basic vaccination of 18- to 30-year-olds is based on international knowledge of possible side effects. We took this decision as a precaution. (Related: Risk of heart inflammation is higher from Moderna vaccine than from COVID-19 among people under 40.)

Briat cited international data on the Moderna vaccines side effects as factors for the decision. One study in Denmark showed a higher risk of myocarditis  inflammation of the heart muscle  in young men following injection with either the first or second Moderna dose compared to the Pfizer vaccine. If there is an alternative vaccine available, it makes more sense not to take any risks, the spokeswoman added.

Belgiums decision to stop offering the Moderna vaccine for those under 30 followed several Nordic countries halting the vaccine over cardiac inflammation concerns. FOX 19 reported back in October 2021 that Sweden, Denmark and Norway issued warnings about the mRNA shot. Stockholm and Copenhagen suspended its use on individuals below 30 years old, while Oslo urged younger people to get the Pfizer vaccine instead.

Japan also warns of cardiac risks linked to Moderna shot

Aside from European countries, Japan also raised red flags over the use of the Moderna vaccine due to the cardiac inflammation concerns. The countrys Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) announced the raised alertness through a press release published by the Kyodo News Agency.

The Dec. 3, 2021 press release said the ministry decided to raise alertness to serious side reactions' about the cardiac risk from the normal warnings. It has also required doctors to report symptoms of myocarditis and pericarditis reported more frequently in young men following vaccination with both the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. (Related: Japan Health Ministry issues HEART WARNING for Pfizer and Moderna covid vaccines.)

An article by government-owned public broadcaster NHK acknowledged the issue, adding that instances of cardiac inflammation occurred at a higher rate in males 12 to 29 years old. Because of this, the MHLW allowed individuals in the cohort to choose either Pfizer or Moderna for their first or second shot.

The situation has prompted [the MHLW] to provide information that allows men in the target group to make an informed choice between the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for their first or second shot. Health officials debated whether they should recommend the Pfizer vaccine for all young men. But with some heart inflammation cases also linked to Pfizer, they decided to provide information that allows men in the target group to choose for themselves.

According to the NHK piece, Japanese men aged 12 to 29 who got the Moderna shot as their first can switch to Pfizer for their second vaccine dose. However, an interval of more than 27 days is needed before the second Pfizer dose can be injected.

Watch this video of Dr. Peter McCullough explaining why cardiac inflammation from vaccines is much more serious than the one caused by COVID-19.

This video is from the Take down CCP channel on Brighteon.com.

VaccineDamage.news has more about the cardiac inflammation risks linked to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

BrusselsTimes.com

FOX19.com

LettreElectronique.WordPress.com

NHK.or.jp

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Remember this time last year when the vax bandwagon really got rolling? The vax had been announced in November 2020 and was fast-tracked through the approval process (on an experimental basis at the time).

(Article by James Rickards republished from DailyReckoning.com)

But it took a while to get to doses shipped and distributed and for people to become aware of where they could get it. That played out over December 2020, but by January 2021, the effort was in full swing.

The first thing those getting jabbed learned was they would have to return in a few weeks for the second dose. That was understood and widely accepted, although the Janssen vaccine is different and only requires one shot. Janssen is not nearly as available as the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

The bandwagon continued through 2021 to the point that about 70% of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated.

So Much for the Pandemic of the Unvaccinated

But by September 2021, doubts arose about the efficacy of the vaccines. They never did stop infections and dont stop the spread of the virus, but the public was led to believe otherwise. As the Delta variant raged in August and September, followed by the Omicron variant in November, the entire vax story started to fall apart.

The elites who have blamed earlier outbreaks on the unvaxxed and those who are fully vaxxed themselves began to get COVID by the millions. They belatedly realized that this was not a pandemic of the unvaxxed but was a pandemic where everyone is vulnerable.

As Ive said all along, the virus goes where it wants.

Big Pharma Doubles Down

Still, Moderna and Pfizer came forward with a booster shot, which is really just another dose of the same vaccine as a solution. Tens of millions lined up for their boosters in the fall of 2021, only to get the Omicron variant of COVID when it ran out of control in December.

So the booster didnt work either. In fact, there was some evidence that the vaxxed and boosted are more vulnerable to Omicron than the unvaxxed because we have taught the virus to evade the vaccines by giving people so many injections.

Theres also some evidence suggesting that repeated vaccination weakens the immune system overall, making people more vulnerable to other diseases. Since these vaccines are experimental, itll take years to fully understand their effects.

But rather than admit failure or at least offer a note of caution, Big Pharma is at it again.

Big Pharma Triples Down

The CEO of Moderna says a fourth dose of his vaccine will be needed by this fall. He doesnt call it a fourth dose; he calls it a second booster. But its the same thing.

What this really means is that the effects of the vaccine wear off after threesix months and youll have to get boosters the rest of your life and take your chances with serious side effects, including heart failure and even death.

I can understand why the drug companies favor that. I dont understand why everyday Americans would. Maybe we should all look to Israel

96.2% Vaccinated Israel Swamped With COVID

When it comes to vaxxing the entire population, no country is more aggressive than Israel. They acquired large quantities of imported vaccines and recently began an effort to manufacture their own vaccines in order not to rely on imports.

Beginning in December 2020, Israel vaccinated 14% of their population in a mere three weeks. Today, the rate of fully vaccinated Israelis is 96.2%, the highest in the world. Israel was also aggressive when it came to boosters and is already working on plans for a fourth shot (or second booster).

But this vax campaign has not really helped Israel. They had huge outbreaks last summer and another wave from Delta and are now swamped with new cases from the Omicron variant.

All of this is consistent with the best research that shows the vaccines do not prevent infection and do not stop the spread of the disease. However, they do reduce severe cases and fatalities, at least until they lose their potency after a period of months.

Scientists Want Government to Admit Vaccine Failure

Now serious scientists and clinicians in Israel are calling upon the government to admit that the vaccines dont work as expected and to work on other ways to control the virus, including effective treatments instead of ineffective vaccines.

The letter is addressed to the Israeli government, but its equally accurate as applied to vaccine mandates anywhere in the world, including the U.S.

As I stated earlier, it looks like were at the point where the vaccines may be doing more harm than good by, in effect, training the virus to mutate in ways that defeat the vaccines.

The irony of this is that the unvaccinated may have better natural immunity than the vaccinated against Omicron since the virus has mutated in order specifically to defeat the spike proteins produced by the vaccines.

Mounting Evidence of Serious Side Effects

More evidence is emerging about the side effects of the vaccines, including heart failure among otherwise healthy men under 40 and reproductive damage to women of childbearing age.

In addition, the number of young, otherwise healthy professional athletes who have died or suffered serious cardiac events is alarming. The number of incidents greatly exceeds what can be expected by chance, based on previous years data.

Its unlikely the Israeli government will admit to any of these failures; they have taken an all-or-nothing approach to the vaccines, much like U.S. public health authorities like Dr. Fauci.

Unfortunately, this means the vax mandates and endless boosters will continue for now.

Still, the rest of the world is wresting with the same issues. Lockdowns, quarantines and mandatory vaccines are not free. They destroy economies. Lets hope the vaccine madness ends before the economy is run into the ground.

Reason for Hope

And today, theres new reason for hope.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just announced that England will be lifting requirements for COVID passes, ending mask mandates and canceling work-from-home requirements.

As COVID becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others, Johnson said.

In other words, the virus is here to stay and were just going to have to learn to deal with it, like we deal with annual flu outbreaks.

We should protect the most vulnerable (the elderly and those with serious comorbidities), but the rest of society needs to function as normally as possible.

Were you listening, President Biden?

Regards,

Jim Rickards

for The Daily Reckoning

Read more at: DailyReckoning.com
RAMALLAH, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Friday condemned what it termed as "the endless and brutal Israeli practices and actions" against the Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it was reacting to the storming of a Palestinian house in the neighborhood, noting that "breaking into this house is an Israeli message and a response to the international consensus that rejected the demolition of homes in Sheikh Jarrah."

The ministry called for immediate international and American intervention to end the ongoing Israeli aggression.

Palestinian eyewitnesses in Sheikh Jarrah told Xinhua that clashes broke out in the neighborhood between the Palestinian residents and Israeli police after Israeli soldiers and right-wing activists stormed the Palestinian home on Friday night and tension was running high.

The Palestinians want to declare East Jerusalem, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque, the capital of their future state, while Israel insists on considering unified Jerusalem as its capital. 
(Natural News) Canadas vaccine mandate is now in effect, affecting Canadians and cross-border truckers coming into the country. Canadian truckers who are not fully vaccinated now have to show proof of negative PCR tests collected within 72 hours of arriving at the border and will need to quarantine after arrival, while unvaccinated American drivers will not be allowed to cross.

However, the new mandates come with new problems. Canadian trucking companies are now reporting driver shortages due to the vaccination mandates for all truckers crossing the borders.

Robert Penner, president of the Winnipeg-based Bison Transport and one of the largest trucking firms in Canada, said that his company alone already lost nearly 10 percent of its drivers due to the mandate that took effect on January 15.

Penner noted that the COVID vaccination mandates for truckers have created challenges for our industry, noting that it will drive up costs on all goods originating from or going to the United States.

Mark Millan, the president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada also warned the federal government of possible shortages of goods moving across the border even before the mandates took place. We already have a fractured supply chain, Millian said, adding that if the supply chain is damaged, they are going to see a shortage of the supplies necessary for Canadians health and safety.

The Trudeau government also recently reinstated a requirement for all truckers crossing the border to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 15, which came as a surprise to many as multiple media reports noted the day prior that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers would be allowed to enter Canada from the U.S.

The government claimed that the message was erroneous and that it would be going ahead with its vaccination mandate upon truckers arrivals using the ArriveCan app. Meanwhile, Canadian truckers coming from the U.S. who are not jabbed will still be allowed to enter the country but will be forced to do a COVID test and then quarantine for up to two weeks. American truckers, if unvaccinated, will be denied entry.

Initially announced on November 19, 2021, trade associations from Canada and the U.S. began warning that the vaccine mandate could impact an already stressed supply chain, which has already seen massive disruptions since the pandemic began. (Related: Trucking companies sound alarm, say Canadas draconian vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers will devastate economy.)

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) also estimated that the mandate will impact up to 30,000 or 30 percent of Canadian truck drivers and about 16,000 American truck drivers that enter Canada on a regular basis.

Truckers respond to unconstitutional vaccine mandates

Truckers are now fighting back against the mandates, with a nationwide Freedom Convoy to begin in Ottawa. The protests GoFund Me page says that the truckers are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people.

The group also said that truckers from the Vancouver area will begin a large slow roll convoy on January 23, moving eastward, eventually making their way to Ottawa by January 28.

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP for Southern Manitoba, Ted Falk, was onsite at the protest to show his support for unvaccinated truckers, blasting the COVID mandates by saying that Trudeau has villainized the men and women involved.

Im here to support these truckers and protesting against Justin Trudeaus vaccine mandates because we know theyre not ethical, we know theyre not constitutional, we know that these mandates are wrong and thats the message these truckers are trying to communicate, he said. (Related: EXPECT SHORTAGES: Canadian truckers not exempt from new vaccine mandate despite recent announcement.)

UBC Sauder School of Business professor Mahesh Nagarajan said that there will be shipping delays as a result of the new mandate, however, it will be difficult to predict the extent of how it can affect the supply chain.

Nagarajan said that there is already a scarce pool of drivers and the pool has gotten shorter due to the mandates. He recommends that government and private companies optimize their trucking. where they could take vaccinated drivers and get them across the border.

Its a business trade-off because the disruption that a Covid outbreak can cause in a company is much higher than the fact that some of them will not be vaccinated, he noted.

Watch the video below to learn more about the vaccination mandates for truck drivers.

This video is from the InfoWarsSideBand channel on Brighteon.com.

Get more updates about COVID-19 at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

BC.CTVNews.ca
(Natural News) Dr. Juliette Engel joins Alex Newman in the January 19 episode of The New American, where she talked about her horrifying experiences as a part of the Central Intelligence Agencys operations, such as Operation Paperclip and MK Ultra.

Project MK Ultra had the CIA conducting hundreds of clandestine experiments to assess the potential use of LSD and other drugs for mind control, information gathering and even psychological torture.

Speaking about her experience, Engel explained that her uncle and great uncles were all German-speaking American operatives at the Nuremberg trials, and were instrumental in bringing hundreds of Nazi scientists who have done experimentation on concentration camp victims for about 20 years, including for the mind control experiments, as well as the first experiments in transhumanism and creating what they called cyborgs.

When I was six years old, my father took me to the park and basically, he drugged me with a bottle of Coca-Cola. And basically, they associated my father then raped me in front of him and made me watch him take the money, Engel shared about her indoctrination in the MK Ultra program.

And it went on from there, various annexes, different places, everywhere we lived. We moved often because the schools would pick up on something very wrong in our family. And then we would move to a new place. And it all started again.

Project MK Ultra and the Secret Butterfly Program for young girls

How the program was explained to her was different. It was described to me as the secret butterfly program. So we were given little pins that look like birds, but told that they were actually butterflies. And then there you go with the programming, because the initiation into every programming session, they would tie me to a wheel, spin the wheel faster and faster and faster while people around it chanted, she said.

There is no good, there is no bad, there is no light, there is no dark, there is no day there is no night, and it would go on and on and on. Theres no black, theres no white, there is only when youre just spitting and ready to throw up. They say theres only green, and green is the deliberation or the district destruction of all consciousness: Its not all humanity. And at that point, youre supposed to be no longer human.

Engel went on to describe her parents involvement with the CIA while her family was stationed at various areas along the southern border. They made me watch while the associate who molested me paid my father. And when I was begging him for help, he said: This is what I raised you for.

I couldnt trust my father, so I had no one in my life that I could trust. And if it wasnt for well-meaning teachers and school districts and social workers in schools, I dont know what would have happened to me.

Engel went on to explain that the MK ultra program is Hitlers manifesto for national socialism. They described his plan for the Third Reich and basically, the future of the New World Order. In that, he describes a race of slaves who come through the psychological conditioning and become operatives all over the world for the controllers, for him, basically, for the National Socialists. (Related: Mind control now confirmed by scientists: Memories implanted directly into brains.)

Furthermore, the CIA recruited children of high-level government officials, people in the industry and those from intelligence communities because they had the best chance of becoming academics who can infiltrate the State Department and high-level government agencies. Engel even went so far as to mention that they were taken to Disneyland, where they pick up men to molest them in one of the rides or take pictures of them.

So that was all part of the becoming a seductress or learning those skills. And so the programs took place in Seattle, all over different places in California, Chicago, and quite a bit of the time, my time was spent down on the border of Mexico.

Engel noted that trafficking is a major issue all over the world, adding that a lot of the real evil thats going on is being fueled by such action.

Watch the full January 19 episode of The New American below:

You can watch more episodes of The New American on its own channel at Brighteon.com.

Follow BigGovernment.news for similar stories.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

History.com
(Natural News) Renowned surgeon Dr. Lee Merritt told the public that mask wearing is never about controlling the virus.

This is about human control. And thats what Im going to say about masks and the art of psychiatric biowarfare. This about control  masks are a symbol of subservience, she said during the first episode of Merritt Medical Hour Wednesday, January 19, on Brighteon.TV.

You cannot tell me this is about contagion control when you have to wear a mask six feet into the restroom. But then you can take it off to go sit at the bar. (Related: Biden wants to enact a federal mask mandate immediately after inauguration.)

Merritt emphasized that the masks are damaging children the most and in multiple ways.

You and I may not go crazy because were wearing a mask for six months, but for small children thats a high percentage of their life. Behind the masks, theyre being psychologically damaged, Merritt said.

We are human beings. We interact with each other face-to-face. And this is a major thing that children have to learn very quickly. They need to recognize their mother, recognize their father, recognize family members, then other people. They need to learn how to understand what that person is really thinking when theyre looking at them. Because its not just what they say; its the mode in which they say it.

Merritts guest, Dr. Mark McDonald, couldnt agree more.

I think the children have really been the biggest victims of this whole pandemic of fear from the beginning. I first said in May of 2020 at Orange County School Board of Education meeting, we have let our children down, we have failed our roles as parents and as protectors of children, said McDonald, a child psychologist and psychiatrist currently practicing in Los Angeles, California.

Because weve closed the schools, where we require them to wear masks, we are depriving them of a normal developmental stage of growth in their life, which is so critical for them to reach adulthood in a healthy fashion.

McDonald noted that the pandemic is nearly over, if not already.

Nearly 100 percent of the population is developing full 100 percent natural immunity to it. And yet, were still pushing boosters; were still pushing mass vaccinations; were still pushing anti-social distancing. And the children are suffering as they have been from day one. The children are still anxious; theyre still depressed; theyre still scratching and cutting and drinking and fighting; theyre still going into residential treatment centers; theyre still overdosing.

Parents need to protect children

The parents, McDonald said, are largely to blame.

The parents are the ones that are supposed to protect their children. The parents have not fought hard enough for the childrens safety and on their behalf. We can blame government all we want, but its really ultimately up to us. The buck stops here, as a parent, as a father, as a mother, it is your job. It is your duty to protect the sanctity of your childs mind and your childs body. And if you fail to do it, youve got no one to blame but yourself.

In September last year, Merritt warned American parents that the people behind the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) were targeting the children.

I have sons to whom I want to give a better world than this. Its not so much about us  its about our children. Theyre coming after our children, and there are many ways to demonstrate that, Merritt said at the time. They dont really care about science.

She explained that masks are traditionally put on slaves and on cult followers. Its a cult symbol of I would be quiet, I would obey, I would submit, I would transform myself into whatever you want me to be. Thats what cult symbolisms for masks are.

Masks could lead to trauma, developmental delays

Along with social distancing, wearing masks for extended periods could lead to trauma and developmental delays among younger generations.

Theyre damaging our basic humanity by separating us from fellow humans in our particularly unique human way. You take that away, and we dont develop right, we will not be happy people, Merritt said.

During her Wednesdays program, Merritt pointed out the vast number of people wearing masks is a sign of fear. Fear is the great mindbender. It makes you do things that you would not normally do just to get out of the fear and to just exist.

She also mentioned the confusion created by the government. (Related: Fauci says people will have to wear masks inside airplanes FOREVER.)

Where did the confusion come from? Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and the mask dance, Merritt said. First he said, Oh, you dont need to wear masks. Thats only for the medical people. Its only for hospitals. And then he said, Oh, no, everybody needs to wear a mask. And then it was like, Well masks are really not for the virus. Its really just to keep your hands off your face.'

Merritt said those things made people confused. When you add confusion to fear, you get anxiety. And people cannot live in an anxiety zone. So when you become anxious, you have to get out of that anxiety some way.

One way to get out of that anxiety zone is to comply.

Watch the full January 19 episode of Merritt Medical Hour in the video below. Catch new episodes of this program every Wednesday at 7-8 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow Pandemic.news for more news and information related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com 1

Brighteon.com 2
(Natural News) Members of six professional organizations representing thousands of doctors, nurses and allied health practitioners urged Australias leaders to end the countrys campaign to vaccinate children against COVID-19.

(Article by The Defender Staff republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

Citing new disclosures from Pfizer about safety issues and pointing out that vaccine alternatives now exist, the experts warned the vaccines could cause serious harm to children.

In an open letter to Australian leaders, the experts wrote:

It came as a huge surprise recently, to discover evidence that Pfizer knew about a whole range of adverse events likely connected to their product; a novel gene-based vaccine that departs radically from all prior vaccine technologies. This arose from a freedom of information request to the FDA, which resulted in a court determining the immediate release of the information was in the public interest.

According to the letters authors, Pfizers COVID vaccine safety data showed more than 1,200 deaths over a period of only 10 weeks. Pfizer conceded this was a large increase in adverse event reports.

Pfizer data listed vaccine injuries including:

Cardiac diseases.

Hematological conditions.

Renal conditions.

Autoimmune disorders.

Neurological conditions.

According to the letter, the risk/benefit ratio in children, which was not in favor of COVID vaccination originally, is now very likely to be very negative by any reasonable assessment.

The authors pointed to a Physicians and Medical Scientists Declaration listing 38 scientific papers in support of their position.

They also noted that the Australian government had to give Pfizer full indemnity as part of the contract negotiations, and that the Commonwealth also further indemnified medical practitioners and vaccine administrators, leaving no one accountable for injuries sustained from the vaccines.

Read the open letter to the Australian government here.

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
(Natural News) A Department of Justice (DOJ) letter in response to a Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts (FOIPA) request confirmed that Big Pharma company Pfizer and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have exchanged communications about investigative journalism organization Project Veritas.

The FOIPA request by the legal advocacy nonprofit group Judicial Watch sought all communications regarding Project Veritas between FBI officials and employees/representatives of Pfizer. The DOJ responded by claiming that it could not release any of the information requested because the requested documents were part of an ongoing investigation, which made them exempt from disclosure.

The FBI has completed its search for records responsive to your request. The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U.S.C.  552(b)(7)(A). 552(b)(7)(A) exempts from disclosure, the DOJs letter said.

The DOJ added that sharing the requested documents regarding FBI and Pfizer communications about Project Veritas could sully a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding. (Related: Corrupt Biden Justice Department, FBI raid homes of Project Veritas journalists for the crime of doing their jobs and exposing malfeasance.)

There is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. Therefore, your request is being administratively closed, the DOJs letter concluded.

Pfizer potentially retaliating due to previous Project Veritas investigations

James OKeefe, founder and CEO of Project Veritas, said in a video unveiling his groups and Judicial Watchs discoveries, that it remains unclear why Big Pharma company Pfizer is contacting the FBI regarding journalists.

But he argued that it may have something to do with the fact that Project Veritas has released multiple investigative pieces over the past year regarding Pfizer and its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

Last year, Project Veritas published multiple videos of a Pfizer scientist discussing how natural COVID-19 antibodies were better at protecting people against the virus than the vaccines.

Undercover reporters working for Project Veritas were also able to catch Pfizer employees calling for Nazi-style registration databases for unvaccinated individuals.

Shortly after these revelations, Project Veritas headquarters was raided by the FBI in November 2021. Days after this raid, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla bragged about how the Big Pharma company was in communication with law enforcement agencies to crack down on so-called vaccine misinformation. He added that those who spread such misinformation should be considered criminals.

So, the question is, why would Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, be talking to the FBI about Project Veritas right after those pieces of reporting? OKeefe asked. Why is a pharmaceutical company and the FBI having conversations about journalists in the United States of America? Is this another example of the DOJ being weaponized by corporate and political interests?

In an official statement, Project Veritas called the revelations troubling.

It is troubling, not just that Pfizer apparently believes it can rely on the FBI to squash truthful reporting via investigations into law-abiding journalists, but also that they appear to be right in thinking the FBI will willingly target dissenting press with unconstitutional raids, Project Veritas said in its statement. There should be no place for such retaliatory attacks on journalism in America.

Watch this clip of Project Veritas founder James OKeefe explaining the revelation that the FBI and Pfizer have been exchanging communications regarding the organization.

This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

RedVoiceMedia.com

ProjectVeritas.com

InfoWars.com
(Natural News) Natural immunity acquired from a previous Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infection provided significantly more protection against the virus than the vaccines. This is according to a bombshell new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The study, released Wednesday, reviewed data from New York and California from May to Nov. 2021. During this time, the post-vaccine delta variant was the most dominant COVID-19 strain circulating in the United States.

The CDC researchers examined four categories of people  the unvaccinated and vaccinated with no prior COVID-19 infection and the unvaccinated and vaccinated who had recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection.

According to the results of the study, by the first week of Oct. 2021, COVID-19 rates among the vaccinated who did not experience any previous infection were 6.2 and 4.5 times lower in California and New York, respectively, than among the unvaccinated with no previous infection.

But among those who were unvaccinated but had experienced a prior COVID-19 infection, the case rate was 29 times lower in California and 14.7 times lower in New York.

These results demonstrate that  surviving a previous infection protects against a reinfection and related hospitalization, admitted the CDC.

The CDC could not claim that natural immunity alone can protect people against COVID-19. The agency claimed that the data showed people who were vaccinated and had survived a previous COVID-19 infection were the most protected group among the four studied.

But the CDC did admit that natural immunity provided more protection against the vaccine-resistant delta variant and that the supposed immunity provided by the vaccines had begun to disappear by the time the post-vaccine variant became the dominant strain in the United States.

Research proves natural immunity superior to vaccine immunity

Public health officials and leading members of the government have repeatedly attempted to downplay the effectiveness of natural immunity against the coronavirus, insisting that the experimental and dangerous vaccines alone are sufficient in protecting people against COVID-19.

What the CDCs research shows is that prior infection offers more protection than the vaccines.

Mainstream media outlets that covered this story attempted to downplay the finding that natural immunity outperformed vaccine-acquired immunity. They instead attempted to overemphasize that a combination of both natural and vaccine-acquired immunity supposedly offered the best protection.

Before the delta variant, COVID-19 vaccination resulted in better protection against a subsequent infection than surviving a previous infection, said Dr. Benjamin Silk, an infectious disease epidemiologist working for the CDC. When looking at the summer and fall of 2021, when delta became dominant in this country, however, surviving a previous infection now provided greater protection against subsequent infection than vaccination.

During a media briefing, Silk was forced to backtrack by claiming that the evidence presented in the study does not change the CDCs recommendations regarding vaccination.

We know that vaccination is still the safest way to protect yourself against COVID-19, he said.

Government officials have also gone on a media blitz to try and bury this study by promoting more vaccinations.

Dr. Eli Rosenberg, Deputy Director for Science for the New York State Department of Health claimed that the safest course of action, especially for people who have never had COVID-19, is still to get vaccinated.

Having COVID the first time carries with it significant risks, and becoming vaccinated and staying up-to-date with boosters really is the only safe choice for preventing COVID infection and severe disease, he said.

Dr. Marty Makary, a professor and public policy researcher for Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has called out policymakers for their failure to acknowledge the power of natural immunity.

The pandemic of the unvaccinated is a misnomer. Its a pandemic of the non-immune, he once wrote. More precisely, its a series of regional outbreaks in select pockets of the country with low population immunity.

Watch this episode of The HighWire with Del Bigtree as he talks about how natural immunity is the way out of the pandemic.

This video can be found on the channel The Highwire with Del Bigtree on Brighteon.com.

Learn more about natural immunity against COVID-19 at ImmuneSystem.news.

Sources include:

WesternJournal.com

DailyCaller.com



Reuters.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Scientific American just did a hit job on one of Americas leading biologists and conservationists. All that, right after his passing. This marks a shameful low point in a steep decline of the magazine in recent years.

(Article by Peter Burns republished from Medium.com)

Scientific American is the oldest magazine in the US dealing with science. Continuously in print since 1845, it is known for being full of articles by world-class scientists on different topics. According to its About page, over 200 Nobel Prize winners have contributed to it.

One guy who wrote articles for them was Edward O. Wilson, an American biologist often touted as Darwins natural heir. Unfortunately, this great mind passed away on the 26th of December, 2021. His ideas have greatly influenced my thinking on the world. Learning of his death, I decided to Google around the internet a bit, trying to find some summaries of his lifes work.

The almighty algorithms suggested one particular article. The title was The complicated legacy of E. O. Wilson. Subtitled We must reckon with his and other scientists racist ideas if we want an equitable future, it dragged this important scientist through the mud.

I was surprised to find who published this ominous piece. It was none other than Scientific American!

Accusations of racism are a serious charge

Basically, the article accused Wilson of being a racist. Since he died a few days ago, there is no way for him to defend himself. Yet, this type of a piece published in one of the most renowned scientific magazines can seriously smear a persons reputation and legacy.

What proof did the author present to support this accusation? None. There was not a single quotation from Wilson showing any racist speech. In fact, on her Twitter, the writer of the piece wrote: I purposively didnt quote his work so you could read it for yourself. Seriously?

Lets dig a bit deeper into the non-sense that was published in Scientific American. Strap in. It will be a bumpy ride!

The author started off by saying Wilsons field is fraught with racism.

Wilson was hardly alone in his problematic beliefs. His predecessors  mathematician Karl Pearson, anthropologist Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel and others  also published works and spoke of theories fraught with racist ideas.

Granted Karl Pearson and Francis Galton were proponents of eugenics, however Charles Darwin never advocated anything related to what later came to be called Social Darwinism. While Darwin is a stretch, the name from the list that really struck me was Gregor Mendel.

Seriously, how was Gregor Mendel a racist? This guy spent his entire life in a monastery in Brno (in what is now the Czech Republic) observing peas grow. Unless he wrote somewhere that yellow peas are racially superior to green peas, I dont see why his name was on the list. However, his inclusion shows the real target of the authors rant: genetics.

Wilson wrote several books on sociobiology, a field which aims to explain social behavior based on evolution and genetics. He applied it not only to the analysis of various types of animals, but also humans.

The author of the hit-piece of course isnt really a big fan of one of his most influential works.

His influential text Sociobiology: The New Synthesis contributed to the false dichotomy of nature versus nurture and spawned an entire field of behavioral psychology grounded in the notion that differences among humans could be explained by genetics, inheritance and other biological mechanisms.

So basically the crux of the authors argument why Wilson is racist is because he came down on the nature side of the debate. Why is stating that genes play a role in a persons behavior even controversial now days? Sure, you can argue the extent to which genes contribute, but even Wilson himself wrote numerous treatises examining the intricate interplay between genes and culture in determining behavior.

The author apparently didnt care that her arguments didnt make sense. She went on to cite geneticist J. Craig Venter in order to make some sort of a point on racism being inherent in the discipline.

Even modern geneticists and genome scientists struggle with inherent racism in the way they gather and analyze data. In his memoir A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life, geneticist J. Craig Venter writes, The complex provenance of ideas means their origin is often open to interpretation.

Yes, but what does the complex provenance of ideas and their origins being open to interpretation have to do with racism, especially with the accusation that E. O. Wilson was racist?

Fun with statistics and other stuff

The author of the text goes on to make another interesting statement.

First, the so-called normal distribution of statistics assumes that there are default humans who serve as the standard that the rest of us can be accurately measured against. The fact that we dont adequately take into account differences between experimental and reference group determinants of risk and resilience, particularly in the health sciences, has been a hallmark of inadequate scientific methods based on theoretical underpinnings of a superior subject and an inferior one.

No, that is not what the normal distribution is. The normal distribution is not about default humans. Its about the fact that in many statistical studies, the characteristics of the population tend to cluster around a mean. So if the average height of the human population is 5 foot 7, then most individuals will be around that height. The outliers, the very tall or very short people, will be just a tiny minority.

The author then points to other pearls of wisdom.

Other scholars have pointed out that feminist standpoint theory is helpful in understanding white empiricism and who is eligible to be a worthy observer of the human condition and our world.

Now this is the first time I heard of white empiricism, and so I clicked on the linked study. I was hit with more instant classics.

White empiricism undermines a significant theory of twentieth-century physics: General Relativity. Albert Einsteins monumental contribution to our empirical understanding of gravity is rooted in the principle of covariance, which is the simple idea that there is no single objective frame of reference that is more objective than any other. All frames of reference, all observers, are equally competent and capable of observing the universal laws that underlie the workings of our physical universe.

And this:

Why are string theorists calling for an end to empiricism rather than an end to racial hegemony? I believe the answer is that knowledge production in physics is contingent on the ascribed identities of the physicists.

And this:

Through the recognition of white empiricism, a bifurcated logic that serves white supremacist traditions in science while deontologizing marginalized Black women physicists, I propose that the Black feminist theory intersectionality should change physics  and not just through who becomes a physicist but through the actual outcomes of what we come to know.

WTF? Can someone please give me a translation from woke speak? Now, I support the promotion of diversity in the science field, but the laws of the universe dont change according to your gender or color of your skin.

Reading that, I immediately wondered whether this was some sort of a hoax. Back in 1996, Alan Sokal, a physics professor got fed up with post-modernist discussions. He decided to show how non-sensical they were by submitting a totally made up essay to one of the most prestigious post-modernist publications. To his surprise, the piece was accepted.

Its title? Transgressing the boundaries: Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity. Unfortunately, unlike the Sokal article, all the previous stuff I quoted is real!

Learning from history: Lysenkoism and the downfall of genetics under Stalin

Early on in the 1930s, the Soviet Union was at the forefront of genetics research in the world. Its smart scientists were making very important contributions to understanding heredity and how genes influence behavior. Not only that, it even attracted talented researchers from abroad such as American scientist Hermann J. Muller, who moved to Leningrad in 1933 with his family.

Unfortunately, this was also the time of growing repression under Stalin, marked with the rise of what has been termed as Lysenkoism, or the one true explanation of human behavior. Muller left the Soviet Union in 1937, but many Soviet scientists were not so lucky. In 1948, genetics was put on the black list and declared a a bourgeois pseudoscience.

The scientists who opposed this did not fare so well. Many were dismissed from their posts. Some were imprisoned. Some even killed. Only after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, was this ban on genetics reversed and the scientists freed.

What can be learned from this horrific episode? The fact that science should not be put under shackles by any political ideology, whether from the right or left. University of Kansas professor Charles A. Leone put it best in one of his essays.

Science cannot long remain unfettered in a social system which seeks to exercise control over the whole spiritual and intellectual life of a nation. The correctness of a scientific theory can never by adjudged by its readiness to give the answers desired by political leadership.

Unfortunately, the US is not heeding this lesson. Science is under attack from ideologues on the far right, with their climate change denialism, creationism, and other quackery. It is also increasingly under attack from the far left as well. Particularly concerned here are the fields of biology, genetics, but also many social sciences. Self-censorship is becoming rampant.

This is a dangerous path to embark upon. We can see that increasingly many previously apolitical scientific journals and magazines are adopting woke ideology as the standard to follow. This could impede important discussions to take place, and even shackle many fields from studying certain questions. Science, and human progress will be impacted.

The real legacy of E. O. Wilson

It doesnt do justice to any marginalized community to drag E. O. Wilson through the mud like this. Wilson was not only an expert in biology, but he made great contributions in the fight to save the planet. Darwins heir was not his only label. He has also often been called the father of biodiversity, helping popularize the term biodiversity.

Increasingly, we are starting to realize how harmful the loss of biodiversity can be for our planet. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, biodiversity is essential to the existence and proper functioning of all ecosystems. With the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and other such events, we are learning how interconnected everything really is. The EPA lists many other benefits of biodiversity, including in medicine, food security, and mental health.

E. O. Wilson fought tooth and nail to reverse this loss. He founded the Half-Earth Project, whose aim is to reserve half the planet for wildlife. Smithsonian Magazine quotes him as saying:

Its been in my mind for years, that people havent been thinking big enough  even conservationists. Half Earth is the goal, but its how we get there, and whether we can come up with a system of wild landscapes we can hang onto. I see a chain of uninterrupted corridors forming, with twists and turns, some of them opening up to become wide enough to accommodate national biodiversity parks, a new kind of park that wont let species vanish.

We must protect the planet. In an interview with Vox, Wilson had this as his main message:

If we want to know what is on this planet and why it is a live planet  what contributes to that life and what it all means, ultimately, for human existence  we should try to save it all.

This is the real legacy of E. O. Wilson. This is what we should be fighting for. We will never get there if we start censoring science in order to promote some sort of an ideology.

Read more at: Medium.com
This picture taken on May 4, 2020 shows a gentoo penguin cleaning its feathers in an enclosure at the Ocean Park theme park, which is currently closed due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, in Hong Kong. - Save for an absence of gawping crowds, life for the penguins of Hong Kong's Ocean Park has been much the same during the coronavirus pandemic -- but their carers have worked long shifts to keep the monochrome troupe healthy. (Photo : Photo by RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images)

Novel penguin populations were spotted in the Antarctic as warming climate attributed to the global warming, driving species southward.

On Andersson Isle, in the Antarctic Territory's east coast, investigators found a fresh hive of gentoo penguins and the penguins' initially reported sightings in an unknown area near the northeastern point.

New Penguin Colonies Spotted

It is one of the area's southernmost recordings for gentoo penguins, where it was previously too frigid for the more humid species to effectively rear babies.

Originally, just one lone gentoo habitat was discovered thus far south. On Andersson Peninsula, investigators uncovered a nest of 75 gentoo babies throughout a subsequent investigation.

Mainly fueled by the inexorable utilization of carbon energy, growing worldwide warming, is resulting lasting damage in arctic territories, such as the swift disappearance of glaciers and ice sheets. The landmass introduces a clear high temperature account, reaching 18.3C in February 2020.

According to Petteri Taalas, general secretary of the World Meteorological Organization, the Antarctic Island is known to be quickest region with increasing temperatures on the planet, depleting by nearly 3C in the last five decades.

"This latest climate system is thus constant with the global warming that we are seeing," he added.

Penguins can also offer additional early alerts about the wellbeing of the Antarctic environment.

A further notable voyage, for instance, discovered that chinstrap penguin territories on Elephant Archipelago had declined by up to 77% in the last five decades.

The gentoo penguin is distinguished by a white patch throughout its forehead, a bright crimson beak, and a lengthy tail that flicks from both sideways when it ambles.

Broadly speaking, penguin species are the 3rd largest, following imperial and royal penguins, and may reach heights of 90cm. They are the quickest penguins when it comes to diving down, attaining performance of up to 22mph.

Experts are conducting the very first census of their hives, addressing critical information deficiencies on the gentoos' condition.

Also read: These Animals Have the Longest Arms in the Animal Kingdom

Climates Crisis Poses A Threat To Penguins

The experts were aboard the Arctic Sunrise vessel as participants of a Greenpeace mission to the vicinity.

In an interview voyage leader and instructor of biology and ecology at Stony Brook College in New York, Heather Lynch, clarified that the journey implicated aerial surveys on foot, for the very first time, critical aspects of the mainland where penguin territories was already sighted from space telescopes.

"Identifying these distant islands will provide us with a deeper comprehension as to how the town's penguins are reacting to extreme weather events," Lynch explained.

"As predicted, we're discovering gentoo penguins just about all around us, providing empirical support that global warming is severely altering the populations combine here on the Polar Region."

While Ms. Louisa Casson, Greenpeace's Safeguard the Coastal movement defined it and states that the global warming occurring today next to with us eyes.

"In Antarctica, among the utmost isolated locations on the planet, we are witnessing a 'gentoofication' phenomenon in which this subspecies of penguin is expanding into suitable environment and reproducing farther south: a biological representation of ice sheet disappearance," she further said.

Casson urged states to sign a proposed World's Oceans Agreement that will safeguard at least 30% of the world's seas by 2030.

"Penguins and people everywhere simply cannot wait: we urge lawmakers to act immediately to safeguard the oceans," she continued.

The results were revealed public on Thursday to coincide with Global Penguin Recognition Day.

Also read: Increase of National Parks Will Not be Enough to Halt Nature's Destruction, Scientist Warn Us
An unusual storm between Hawaii and California in the Pacific Ocean is being watched for signs of tropical cyclone development.

Keeping an Eye on the Development

In Miami, Florida, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) keeps an eye on the Pacific disturbance. On the Big Island of Hawaii, a well-defined region of low pressure producing gale-force winds is centered a little over 1,000 miles east-northeast of Hilo.

According to the NHC, shower and thunderstorm activity has lately grown in coverage and organization around the center.

While environmental circumstances appear to be only marginally favorable for further development, the NHC believes that if current activity continues, a short-lived subtropical or tropical cyclone might emerge within the next day or two. Environmental conditions are projected to deteriorate by Friday, making further work unfeasible.

Related Article: As Climate Change Worsens, West Coast Should Brace for More Blackouts and Higher Power Costs



Forecasts

Computer forecasts are split when it comes to the storm's future potential. Meteorologists use many computer models to aid weather forecasting, including the GFS and ECMWF.

While meteorologists have several tools to make, weather forecasts, the ECMWF from Europe and the GFS from the United States are two of the most commonly used global forecast models. While the models use many of the same beginning material, digesting it and calculating alternative outcomes differs.

In some instances, one is superior, but the opposite is true in others. No model is always "correct." Aside from the ECMWF and GFS models, various models from different nations, academic organizations, and commercial businesses are also considered when formulating forecasts.

This disturbance is currently dissipating, according to the GFS, as its remnants slide south of Hawaii's Big Island. Although some residual moisture might reach Hawaii in time, the GFS predicts more waves than a cyclonic hazard.

The ECMWF's answer, on the other hand, is a little more robust, implying a more developed region of low pressure sliding onto Hawaii from the north over time. While this model's trajectory does not indicate a hurricane, it might be a more powerful system with more rain and wind if it materializes.

Related Article: Winter in US is Going to be More Intense as Cold Air Intensifies Increasing Snow

In the Meantime

For the time being, the National Hurricane Center will keep an eye on this odd storm. While the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season doesn't begin until May 15, and the Central Pacific Hurricane Season doesn't begin until June 1, tropical or subtropical cyclones form in the "off season."

While one forming in the Pacific between Hawaii and California right now would be extremely rare, it's not impossible: the National Hurricane Center says there's a 40% chance that something will form in the next 48 hours.

Also Read: Tsunami Alert Raised as Underwater Volcanic Eruptions Sent Giant Waves to Tonga

For similar news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
The feeding process of whales usually involves taking in a large amount of water, how they do this without drowning could be an important question asked out of curiosity.

Feeding Mechanism of Whale

A lung feeding whale has a fleshy bulb in its mouth called the 'oral plug', this bulb moves backward to seal off the upper airways during feeding, while their larynx closes to block the lower airways preventing water from entering the lungs while they feed, according to Phys.org.

"It's kind of like when a human's uvula moves backward to block our nasal passages, and our windpipe closes up while swallowing food," according to Dr. Kelsey Gil, the study's lead author and also a postdoctoral researcher in the department of zoology.

This lung-feeding predator engulfs their prey along with gallons of water that are sometimes larger than their body, the group of whales according to Dr. Gil involved in this process includes the humpback and the blue whale, Earth's largest animal.

The fin whale which is also a lung feeding whale is specifically studied, this is because researchers discovered that the oral plug needs to move to the back of the animal's head in order to allow food to pass to the esophagus thereby blocking the nasal passages anytime the whale try to swallow.

At the same time, cartilages close the entrance of the larynx, and the laryngeal sac moves upwards, blocking off the airways below.

Also Read: Three Pregnant Killer Whales Might Save Their Population From the Brink of Extinction

How Lunge-feeding Evolved

Mr. Gil said researchers haven't noticed similar protective mechanism both in other animals and in the literature. Most of researchers' knowledge concerning whales and dolphins are gotten from toothed whales.

But toothed whales possess a very different respiratory tracts and so many makes similar supposition about lunge-feeding whales. The major component and evolution of lunge-feeding whales depend solely on the oral plug.

According to Dr. Robert Shadwick, a senior author and also a professor in the UBC department of zoology, "Bulk filter-feeding on krill swarms is highly efficient and the only way to provide the massive amount of energy needed to support such large body size.

This would not be possible without the special anatomical features we have described."

Further Research on Whale's Feeding Mechanism

Due to less advancement of technology, working on the anatomy of whales involves dissection of dead whales which is quite difficult and comes with lots of challenges.

Dr. Gil and his colleagues had performed their dissection on dead whales in Iceland in 2018 and had expressed how thrilling it would have been to have a more advanced technology that can give a more detailed picture of whales feeding while they are alive.

Since there are a lot of human impacts that affect food chains, and discovering how whales eat and the amount of food they consume, it's important to gain as much knowledge as possible so that the animals and their eco systems can be protected.

Related Article: Scientists Claim Whales Have Previously Walked In North America Coastline

For more news, updates about whales and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
U.S. President Joe Biden walks out from the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C. Jan. 21, 2022. Dozens of U.S. Congress members Thursday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking for the review and overhaul of existing counterterrorism policy, which killed innocent civilians and eroded the rule of law and the United States' image abroad. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of U.S. Congress members Thursday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden asking for the review and overhaul of existing counterterrorism policy, which killed innocent civilians and eroded the rule of law and the United States' image abroad.

"Without systematic reforms centered on human rights and international law, the status quo will continue to undermine counterterrorism objectives, produce significant human and strategic costs and erode the rule of law and the United States' image abroad," said the letter signed by 11 senators and 39 members of the House of Representatives.

As many as 48,000 civilians in seven countries have been killed by the U.S. strikes over the past two decades and at least 14,000 U.S. airstrikes have been conducted by unmanned aircraft since 2002 killing as many as 2,200 civilians, said the letter citing third-party sources.

The actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher given the difficulty of comprehensive reporting and the United States' consistent underreporting of these numbers and reported refusal to investigate death report, said the letter.

"In far too many cases, rather than achieving the policy goal of eliminating hostile combatants to preserve U.S. national security, lethal U.S. strikes have instead killed thousands of civilians, including children," the legislators said in the letter.

The Biden administration initiated the process to recalibrate U.S. policies on drone strikes but has not made an announcement of decision.

"We cannot ignore the terrible consequences of U.S. drone strikes over several administrations," said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a statement.

"When U.S. strikes kill civilians abroad, it's both a moral failure and national security liability," said a report by New York Times quoting Senator Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut.

When there is little policy change or accountability for repeated mistakes this grave and this costly, it sends a message throughout the U.S. armed forces and the entire U.S. government that civilian deaths -- including deaths where there was no military target -- are the inevitable consequence of modern conflict, rather than avoidable and damaging failures of policy, the letter added.

Both Warren and Murphy signed the letter and they led the efforts to push for overhaul of counterterrorism policy. 

U.S. President Joe Biden walks out from the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C. Jan. 21, 2022. Dozens of U.S. Congress members Thursday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking for the review and overhaul of existing counterterrorism policy, which killed innocent civilians and eroded the rule of law and the United States' image abroad. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

U.S. President Joe Biden walks out from the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C. Jan. 21, 2022. Dozens of U.S. Congress members Thursday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking for the review and overhaul of existing counterterrorism policy, which killed innocent civilians and eroded the rule of law and the United States' image abroad. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
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New Castle, PA (16103)

Today

Light rain this morning. Then remaining cloudy. High around 60F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 46F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 21, 2021.(Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Initial reports indicate at least 60 deaths and over 100 injured among the inmates in Yemen's Saada city following Friday's airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Friday's airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against a detention center in Yemen's Saada city, said his spokesman.

Initial reports indicate at least 60 deaths and over 100 injured among the inmates. Further airstrikes have been reported elsewhere in Yemen, also with reports of deaths and injuries among civilians, including children, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement.

An airstrike on telecommunications facilities in Hodeidah has also significantly disrupted vital internet services across much of Yemen, added the spokesman.

"The secretary-general reminds all parties that attacks directed against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by international humanitarian law. He further reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure that civilians are protected against the dangers arising from military operations, adhering to the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution," said the statement.

Guterres calls for prompt, effective and transparent investigations into these incidents to ensure accountability, and for urgent de-escalation of the situation, it said.

The secretary-general urges the parties to engage with his special envoy for Yemen to advance the political process and to reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen, it said.

Recalling the severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen, Guterres urges donors and all other stakeholders to enable humanitarian relief efforts with adequate funding, access and other support, said the statement. 
Newburyport, MA (01950)

Today

Rain likely. High 51F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy and damp with rain early...then becoming partly cloudy. Low 46F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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RAMALLAH, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian protestors and several Israeli solidarity activists were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, medics and eyewitnesses said.

Eyewitnesses said that on Friday afternoon, fierce confrontations erupted between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in three villages near the West Bank city of Nablus.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that at least 120 Palestinian demonstrators were injured, including 15 who had been shot and wounded by rubber bullets fired by the Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, paramedics said that 10 Israeli solidarity activists were injured after they were attacked by Israeli settlers in the village of Burin.

Eyewitnesses said that some Israeli activists, who are members of an Israeli movement of solidarity with the Palestinians, joined on Friday a campaign of planting olive trees in the lands that are threatened to be confiscated for settlement building.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said in a statement that the Palestinian government condemns the brutal attacks by the Israeli settlers and soldiers, adding that "the violent desire of the right-wing groups in Israel must be stopped." 
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Longview, TX (75601)

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Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..

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Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
XI'AN, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an is expected to clear all areas classified as high and medium-risk for COVID-19 on Jan. 25, provided no special circumstances arise, a government official said on Saturday.

Zhang Fenghu, deputy secretary general of the Xi'an Municipal Government, told a press conference that the prediction was made after careful expert study and evaluation.

Should the prediction become a reality, the ancient city, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, will resume regular prevention and control in most areas, Zhang said.

There are currently two medium-risk areas and one high-risk area in Xi'an.

As of 12 p.m. Saturday, the city had reported 2,053 confirmed local cases, with 1,667 recovered. 
Jeffersonville, IN (47130)

Today

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 65F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

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(Newser)  Got any big plans after "first sleep" tonight? This question might have actually made sense centuries ago, when human sleeping patterns appeared to be much different from those of today. As Zaria Gorvett explains at the BBC, people in the Middle Agesand perhaps for long before thatcommonly slept in what amounts to two shifts. They'd go to bed somewhere between 9pm and 11pm, sleep for a few hours, rouse in the middle of the night for a few hours, then return to bed for the second sleeping shift. The period of wakefulness in the middle of the night was known as the "watch," and people would use it for all manners of productivitychores, prayers, sex, burglary, you name it.

The story is based on research by historian Roger Ekirch, who noticed matter-of-fact references to "first sleep" or similar phrases in court transcripts from the Middle Ages. He dug deeper and concluded that the practice of "two sleeps"he dubbed it "biphasic sleep"was widespread and may have been so for millennia, all over the world. It came to an end for good during the Industrial Revolution, when electric light changed not only our circadian rhythms but cultural norms as well. The story cites modern research suggesting that people gravitate back to the pattern under the right circumstances. Ekirch adds that the discovery might ease the anxiety of those who stress about being unable to sleep through the nightit could be their bodies reverting to an age-old habit. Read the full story. (Read more sleep stories.)
(Newser)  A Florida man who helped Rudy Giuliani seek damaging information against Joe Biden in Ukraine was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $10,000 Friday in an unrelated campaign finance case. Igor Fruman was told to report to prison March 14, per the AP. He pleaded guilty in September to a single charge of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. As part of the plea, Fruman admitted soliciting a million dollars from a Russian entrepreneur, Andrey Muraviev, to donate to Republicans in Nevada, Florida, and other states as part of an effort to launch a recreational marijuana business.

Federal prosecutors in New York had urged Judge J. Paul Oetken to sentence Fruman to between three and four years in prison. Defense lawyers had argued he should face no incarceration because he has otherwise led a law-abiding life. Oetken said the crime of soliciting foreign money for US political campaigns was serious and deserved incarceration. "It undermines the integrity of elections in our country," he said as he announced the sentence. "It undermines democracy." Fruman was charged in the case along with Lev Parnas, another Florida businessman who helped Giuliani's attempt to spoil Biden's quest for the presidency on the Democratic ticket.

The pair served as liaisons between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials and business tycoons as the former New York City mayor tried to persuade prosecutors in that country to investigate Biden's son, Hunter, over his work for an energy company. US prosecutors haven't brought any charges in connection with the Ukrainian influence campaign, which was the subject of one of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trials, but focused instead on donations that Fruman and Parnas made to US politicians as they sought to build influence in Republican political circles. Parnas was convicted in October of campaign finance crimes and awaits sentencing.

Politicians who got the illegal donations, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, have said they were unaware the money secretly came from a foreign source. Muraviev wasn't charged in the case. Giuliani, who worked for Trump as a personal attorney, faces a continuing investigation into whether he was required to register as an agent of a foreign government during his dealings with Ukraine authorities. Fruman, 55, the father of four children, told the judge Friday he'd reflected on his crime. "It's a shame that will live with me forever," he said through a white face mask as several family members watched from wooden benches in an area for spectators.

(Read more Igor Fruman stories.)
(Newser)  A Craigslist post saying "it's time to put a bullet" in a Georgia elections official has resulted in the indictment of a Texas man, prosecutors say. Chad Christopher Stark was charged Friday, CNN reports. The indictment says Stark posted the threat on Jan. 5, the day before the attack on the US Capitol. "Georgia Patriots it's time for us to take back our state from these lawless treasonous traitors," the message said, according to the filing. "It's time to invoke our Second Amendment right it's time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese." The shooting threat refers to an election official who isn't named in the indictment, Justice Department prosecutors say. Stark threatened other people, as well, the filing says.

Stark's case is the first brought by a Justice Department task force formed last June. An official said the task force has opened dozens of investigations or taken action after receiving more than 850 referrals of potential threats. "The time to address threats is when they occur, not after a tragedy has struck," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. He told the US Conference of Mayors that the Justice Department will work to keep officials safe and hold those who attack or threaten them responsible. "Indeed today, we are taking law enforcement action to that end," Garland said.

Election officials across the country have been under threat, often by people influenced by former President Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. "These unsung heroes came under unprecedented verbal attack for doing nothing more than their jobs," said Kenneth Polite Jr., head of the department's Criminal Division, per the Washington Post. Before the charge was announced, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, assessed the task force's progress. "There is an impression that bad actors are not being held accountable, and they can use threats to try to intimidate election officials," she said. "I do appreciate them launching the task force, but I do think there's a lot of work to do." (Read more Election 2020 stories.)
(Newser)  A notebook kept by Brian Laundrie made his guilt clear in the slaying of Gabby Petito, the FBI announced Friday. The Denver field office said the investigation into the death of the 22-year-old Florida woman will be closed shortly, per CNN. "All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case," an FBI statement said. "The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved" in Petito's death. The notebook was found near Laundrie's body in October after he killed himself in Florida, the FBI said. Agents disclosed for the first time that a revolver also was found near his remains.

The FBI blamed Laundrie directly for the first time in the statement, per the AP, though he'd been under suspicion since she disappeared. Petito's body was found near a campground in Wyoming in September. The FBI did not reveal exactly what Laundrie wrote in the notebook, other than that it contained statements "claiming responsibility" for the killing. Laundrie's parents, the media, and others had tried and failed to get a look at the notebook before now, per USA Today. Laundrie, 23, had texted Petito's phone after her death, according to the FBI release, apparently trying to deceive investigators.

The families of Petito and Laundrie, who had been engaged, have agreed on who will get their possessions, including the notebook, a Laundrie family attorney said. A Petito family lawyer issued a statement thanking investigators and saying, "The quality and quantity of the facts and information collected by the FBI leave no doubt" that Laundrie was the killer. The Denver office called its statement the final investigative update on the case, per the New York Times. (Petito's parents have started a foundation in her name to work against domestic violence.)
(Newser)  The only son of Oscar-winning actress and director Regina King has diedjust a few days after his 26th birthday, People reports. Ian Alexander Jr., a musician and DJ, committed suicide, according to People. A representative of King's confirmed that to CNN. In a statement, King said her son was such a bright light who cared so deeply about the happiness of others and asked for respectful consideration during this private time. Alexanders father was Kings ex-husband, record producer Ian Alexander Sr., according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Kings son posted on Instagram just three days before his death about an upcoming event. Not long before that, King herself took to social media to encourage her followers to listen to Alexanders new song Green Eyes. On Kings 50th birthday in 2021, Alexander posted a loving tribute to the star of If Beale Street Could Talk: ...to have you as my mother is the greatest gift I could ask for. King won the best-supporting actress Oscar for her role in that movie.

During a 2017 interview with The View, King said she and her son were taking Kabbalah classes together and also had matching tattoos of unconditional love in Aramaic. In 2019, Alexander was on Kings arm at the Golden Globes and called her super mom while she said he made her happier than anything in the whole world. King raised Alexander as a single mother after her divorce from his father in 2007. (Read more suicide stories.)
(Newser)  Arnold Schwarzenegger is OK after a bad multi-vehicle crash in Brentwood on Friday that left one woman injured. Officer Drake Madison of the LAPD tells KTLA that the four-car accident took place around 4:30pm at an intersection in Brentwood, Calif. Per the police report cited by CBS Los Angeles, a black GMC Yukon rolled up and onto a red Toyota Pruis, then kept rolling before hitting two other vehicles. A spokesperson for Schwarzenegger confirms the 74-year-old actor and former California governor was driving the Yukon and wasn't injured, per the Los Angeles Times.

TMZ has photos of Schwarzenegger at the scene of the accident, which one witness told the outlet "looked like a stunt in a movie." Law enforcement sources also tell the outlet that the accident appeared to be Schwarzenegger's fault, as he tried to make a left before the left turn arrow had turned green.

The LAPD says the injured woman suffered "an abrasion to her head" and that her injuries weren't life-threatening; she was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Schwarzenegger's rep says the actor was concerned about the woman and spoke to her, as well as to first responders at the scene. No citations were issued or arrests made, and "neither alcohol or drugs are suspected as a factor in this collision," the LAPD noted in a statement, per the Times. An investigation is ongoing. (Read more Arnold Schwarzenegger stories.)
The Chinese medical team to Rwanda donates a consignment of medical supplies to Kibungo referral hospital in Ngoma district, Eastern Province, Rwanda, Jan. 20, 2022. The items presented by the team to the hospital include hand disinfectant, surgical hand disinfection gel, medical surgical mask, disinfectant tablets, disposable protective clothing, disposable operating coat and disposable medical surgical mask. (Xinhua/Ji Li)

KIGALI, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese medical team to Rwanda on Thursday donated a consignment of medical supplies to Kibungo referral hospital in Ngoma district, Eastern Province.

The items presented by the team to the hospital include hand disinfectant, surgical hand disinfection gel, medical surgical mask, disinfectant tablets, disposable protective clothing, disposable operating coat and disposable medical surgical mask.

Receiving the donations at the hospital, Gahima John, director general of Kibungo referral hospital said that the hospital has been in collaboration with China through the Chinese medical team for many years.

"We are grateful for the medical supplies we received today, and we thank the Chinese medical team for support not only in medical practice, but also in equipment. We have received equipment from the Chinese medical team many times. This has helped us to give support to our people and that is something we are grateful for," said John.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, the Chinese medical team has been here playing a big role in the treatment of the Rwandan patients, according to him.

"We look forward to continuing the collaboration between our hospital and the Chinese medical team."

John said that the Chinese medical team has been at Kibungo for many years, and they have been supporting the hospital in different ways.

"Today, we have donated this medical equipment to Kibungo hospital, because we are friends, brothers and sisters" said Peng Jikui, head of the Chinese medical team.

China started to dispatch medical team to Rwanda in 1982. 

Peng Jikui (L front), head of the Chinese medical team to Rwanda, and Gahima John (R, front), director general of Kibungo referral hospital, attend a ceremony for the Chinese medical team's donation of medical supplies to Kibungo referral hospital in Ngoma district, Eastern Province, Rwanda, Jan. 20, 2022. The items presented by the team to the hospital include hand disinfectant, surgical hand disinfection gel, medical surgical mask, disinfectant tablets, disposable protective clothing, disposable operating coat and disposable medical surgical mask. (Xinhua/Ji Li)

The Chinese medical team to Rwanda donates a consignment of medical supplies to Kibungo referral hospital in Ngoma district, Eastern Province, Rwanda, Jan. 20, 2022. The items presented by the team to the hospital include hand disinfectant, surgical hand disinfection gel, medical surgical mask, disinfectant tablets, disposable protective clothing, disposable operating coat and disposable medical surgical mask. (Xinhua/Ji Li)

Peng Jikui (1st L), head of the Chinese medical team to Rwanda, and Gahima John (C), director general of Kibungo referral hospital, attend a ceremony for the Chinese medical team's donation of medical supplies to Kibungo referral hospital in Ngoma district, Eastern Province, Rwanda, Jan. 20, 2022. The items presented by the team to the hospital include hand disinfectant, surgical hand disinfection gel, medical surgical mask, disinfectant tablets, disposable protective clothing, disposable operating coat and disposable medical surgical mask. (Xinhua/Ji Li)
(Newser)  A Virginia mom who insists she wasn't trying to threaten anyone with her remarks at a local school board meeting this week has been charged. CBS News reports that on Thursday, the board for Page County Schools convened a special meeting to vote on Gov. Glenn Youngkin's recent executive order giving parents control over whether or not their kids wear face masks to school. One parent, 42-year-old Amelia King, got up to take her three minutes at the mic during the public-comments part of the meeting, and when she was told her time was up, things got "confrontational," per CNN.

"My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on," King can be heard informing the board members in a video posted by WUSA (her full speech can be seen here). "All right? That's not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to ... I will call every..." At that point, one of the board members again tells King that her time is up, to which she replies, "I'll see y'all on Monday," before leaving the room. King's remarks soon went viral online, with many wondering why no action had been taken against her. That changed after school officials contacted police, who started a probe and flagged state and federal officials, reports the Washington Post.

The Luray Police Department says King has since been charged with making an oral threat on school property. "The statement that was made absolutely caused public alarm, the parent that made the statement realized that, and immediately contacted law enforcement to apologize because the statement was not intended the way it was perceived," the police department said in a statement. "I was speaking figuratively," King wrote in a later email sent to the board, per CNN. School district officials say there will be increased police presence at all schools in the district on Monday, which is when Youngkin's order is set to go into effect. The board did vote 4-2 to allow parents to make the choice regarding masks. The police department notes King has been released on a $5,000 bond. (Read more threats stories.)
(Newser)  Update: The man who shot and killed an NYPD officer Friday has died. The suspect, Lashawn McNeil, was shot during the incident by one of the three NYPD officers who responded to a domestic violence call in Harlem, and McNeil died of his injuries Monday, the AP reports. The third officer, who was also shot by McNeil, remains in critical condition. Our original story from Saturday follows:

A 22-year-old officer with the NYPD is dead and another critically injured after they responded to a domestic incident Friday evening. Police say around 6:15pm, rookie Jason Rivera, along with fellow cop Wilbert Mora, 27, and a third officer, responded to a call in Harlem regarding a mother who said she was having a dispute with her son, per CBS New York. When they arrived at the apartment, they found the woman and another son, and she told them the son she'd been fighting with, IDed as 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, was in a back bedroom. Police say the third officer stayed with the woman and her other son, while Rivera and Mora went to find McNeil. When they got to the bedroom, the door swung open and shots rang out, hitting both officers, per police. They say that as McNeil tried to flee, the third officer shot him, hitting him in the arm and head.

All three were taken to a local hospital, where Rivera died. Both Mora and McNeil are said to be in critical condition. McNeil has a string of arrests to his name, including for a felony drug charge in 2003, per the New York Times. Officials say Rivera and Mora are the fourth and fifth NYPD officers to be shot this month, reports CNN. "Tonight, we mourn the loss of a hero officera son, husband, and friend," the NYPD tweeted early Saturday. "We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice." Keechant Sewell, the department's new police commissioner, spoke at a presser at the hospital where the officers were taken, noting she was "struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring," per the Times. "We're mourning, and we're angry."

The New York Post profiles Rivera, noting that his experiences growing up in the Inwood section of New York City, where he saw a strained relationship between police and the community, inspired him to join the force. In a November 2020 letter to the commander of the Police Academy, Rivera recalled once seeing his brother get stopped and frisked, and that his "perspective on police and the way they police really bothered me." He wrote in the letter that when he saw the NYPD start to work to change its policies and do better, he knew he wanted to be a part of that. "When I applied to become a police officer, I knew this was the career for me," he noted. "Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD, the greatest police force in the world." (Read more NYPD stories.)
(Newser)  Update: The remaining monkeys that escaped when a truck carrying a trailer packed with 100 of them crashed on Friday in Pennsylvania have been captured. The AP reports a CDC rep on Saturday night confirmed all 100 of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys were accounted for and that three had been euthanized. The email noted they were euthanized humanely following American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines, but it did not specify why they were put down. Our original story from Saturday follows:

Two monkeys that apparently didnt want to arrive at a Florida lab have escaped after a truck crash in rural Pennsylvania, according to NBC News. Approximately 100 cynomolgus monkeys were in an enclosed trailer attached to a pickup truck on Friday night when the driver crashed into a dump truck, the New York Times reports. Four of the primates escaped, but two were located. While no humans or animals were injured in the crash, it did close the interstate on which it occurred for about three hours. The crash happened in Danville, Pa., which is about 60 miles from Wilkes-Barre and 70 miles from the famous Hershey Park, according to Google Maps. Philadelphia is about 150 miles away.

Cynomolgus monkeys are often used for scientific research and the group could have cost as much as $1 million to purchase, per the Times. Their final destination was Florida, but little is known about their ultimate fate or whether they have health problems. A Pennsylvania state trooper working the case says anyone who sees one of the missing primates should not interact with the animal and instead call 911. Another official, a Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman, says the department is committed to capturing the monkeys in a humane manner. Animal specialists with tranquilizers are helping law enforcement. Officials and local residents say theyre concerned about the monkeys because overnight temperatures were near zero.

Cynomolgus monkeys are also called crab-eating or long-tailed macaques and have reddish-brown fur and pink faces with whiskers, according to the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. These primates can live for 31 years and weigh between five and a half and 18 pounds. Cynomolgus monkeys were in high demand at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for research and some scientists said they wanted to stockpile the animals as the US government does with oil and grain, per the Times. (Read more monkeys stories.)
(Newser)  Three years after becoming a hero to Arizona Democrats for winning a US Senate seat long held by Republicans, Sen. Krysten Sinema was formally censured Saturday by the state party for her part in blocking voting rights legislation. The Arizona Democratic Party's executive committee cited Sinema's vote against changing the Senate's filibuster rules to allow Democrats to pass the measures, ABC News reports. "In the choice between an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will," Chairwoman Raquel Teran said Saturday.

Teran's statement criticized Sinema's "failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy." Sinema's stand had brought praise from the state's Republican governor this week, per KTAR. "I want to give Sen. Sinema credit for standing up and protecting a Senate rule that she believes in," Gov. Doug Ducey said. Sinema's office released a defense of her decision on Saturday, per CNN. "During three terms in the US House, and now in the Senate, Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the statenot for either political party," it said.

The party's decision is symbolic but illustrative of the growing divide between Sinema and most Democrats. She says her positions prove her independence, while other Democrats and organizations decry them as opportunism, per the Washington Post. Two groups that support abortion rights, Emily's List and NARAL, ended their support of Sinema unless she changes her mind on the filibuster. Sinema maintains she supports the voting rights bills despite her support of the filibuster. (The party is considering supporting challengers to Sinema in 2024.)
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Couple ready to welcome 3 teens into their home

Kevin Mertz/The Standard-Journal Mike and Tori Istre will be adopting three teenagers, who are expected to arrive Tuesday at their home near Watsontown.

WATSONTOWN  Mike and Tori Istre once welcomed a 5-year-old foster child into their home who had only ever eaten chicken nuggets.

Mike and I have liked working with kids who have a lot of trauma, and can be hard to place, Tori said. We were hoping to adopt through foster care.

The Istres, who live in the Watsontown area, have been married for five years, and spent about two years serving as foster parents.

Through that time, they fostered eight different children. It can be difficult working with children coming from heartbreaking situations, like the boy who had only ever eaten chicken nuggets.

Its hard, and you see that in the kids body health, Tori noted.

We had teenagers who were meth and heroin addicts in our home, to detox, Tori said. Trying to meet their emotional needs is very important.

Realizing there are multiple challenges  primarily legal issues out of their control  associated with adopting a child through serving as foster parents, the Istres stepped back from fostering.

Instead, they started working with an agency in an effort to adopt. On Tuesday, three teenagers  two boys and a girl, ages 13, 15 and 17  will arrive at the Istre home from Texas.

After a six month pre-adoption phase is complete, the Istres plan to adopt the three.

While he is now doing well, due to a genetic condition, Mike has experienced some health issues. Because he didnt want to pass the genetic condition on to another generation, he and Tori quickly realized adoption we be the best option for them to welcome children into their home.

Weve always been interested in giving a home to a child who needs one, Tori said.

Weve had children we thought we were going to adopt but didnt, she said. It was traumatic for us to go through repeated losses (of children we thought we were going to adopt)... Theres lawyers and a legal system that has to be honored.

By working with an adoption agency, the Istres were matched with the three teenage siblings in need of a permanent home.

As soon as he saw the teens profile, Mike knew they would be a good match for he and Tori.

Theyre looking for a family with a sense of humor, Tori said, of the teens.

The kids themselves have always advocated they want to be in a Christian home, Mike added. Its very important.

After completing a home study, the Istres became certified to adopt. They also completed a virtual interview with the teens caseworkers, and in November traveled to Texas to meet the three.

They have a biological relative that is unable to adopt them, Tori explained. We were able to spend time with them. That was a really good experience.

The teens will be maintaining contact with that relative even after their adoption is complete.

During the visit to Texas, Tori said it took the teenage siblings a little time to begin feeling secure with she and Mike. However, it was emotional for everyone involved when it came time for the Istres to travel back to Pennsylvania.

When we left... the oldest one gave me a hug and refused to let me go, Mike said.

The Istres have since remained in contact with the teenagers daily. The three have even been providing input on color schemes and furniture they wanted the Istres to place in their new bedrooms.

The couple is anxiously anticipating the arrival of the teenagers on Tuesday.

I have no nerves, Tori said, adding that the same is true of the teens.

My daughter says Im not nervous, Tori continued. I have absolute confidence.

The Istres have endured significant expenses as part of the adoption process. To help cover those costs, a spaghetti dinner fundraiser will be held.

The fundraiser is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, at Revival Tabernacle, 960 Susquehanna Trail, Watsontown.

The event will include a raffle and indoor carnival.

The Istres noted their expenses have included traveling to Texas, furnishing the bedrooms for the teenagers, purchasing clothing and related items, as well as some adoption agency and legal fees.

The couple also explained why they must wait six months from the time the children arrive until the adoption can e complete.

They require the six months because its to make sure the kids are a good fit, Tori said.

While many adoptees look toward younger children, the Istres said its important to realize there are many teenagers who also need a family.

Older kids want parents, Tori said. Theres a huge misconception that those kids dont want to be adopted. They do.

For more information on the fundraiser, or on contributing to the cause, email becalyson35@gmail.com.
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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Boeing announced on Friday that the company and the British Ministry of Defence have signed an agreement for Boeing to provide long-term training, support and sustainment for the British Army's new fleet of 50 Apache AH-64E helicopters.

With 14 of the new variant already in the UK, the new Apache AH-64E fleet will grow to 50, with deliveries expected to be completed in 2024.

Under the new 348 million U.S. dollar Long Term Training and Support Services contract, Boeing will work with the British Army to provide maintenance and engineering support, supply chain and logistics management at Wattisham. Boeing will also deliver aircrew and maintainer training from its advanced facility at Middle Wallop, the announcement said.

The new agreement, which will run until 2040, will create more than 200 jobs in the UK during the initial four years, according to the announcement. 
Christopher Venn, chief of the Resource Management Office at U.S. Army Garrison Japan, speaks with his staff during a meeting at Camp Zama Jan. 18, 2022. Venn was one of 14 Army civilians across the world chosen for the 10-month resident cohort at the Army War College, which begins courses in late summer as part of the masters degree program. (Sean Kimmons)
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday strongly condemned the deadly attacks by the Islamic State militants on the Iraqi military headquarters in Diyala, which claimed the lives of 11 Iraqi soldiers.

The attacks, the foreign ministry said, are cowardly and contravene all international laws. The international community should come forward to condemn these heinous terrorist acts, the statement said, also affirming solidarity with the Iraqi government in the measures it takes to maintain security and stability.

Bahrain expressed deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims families and brotherly Iraqi people. Iraqi Defence Minister Jouma Anad, in a tweet, confirmed the attack.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on its affiliated Telegram channels. Meanwhile, Kurdish-led forces in Syria killed 23 Islamic State militants, including foreigners, in clashes after the jihadist group attacked a prison in the northeastern city of Hasaka on Thursday, a military source in the Kurdish-led forces said.

The SDF military source said the attack on the prison coincided with Islamic State attacks in Iraq and what he described as movements by the militant group in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zor. Islamic State is trying to impose its control on the area and to revive its organisation once again, the source said.

Seven members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and an allied security force called the Asayish were killed in the attack, the SDF military source said yesterday.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) on Friday issued a special-event stamp sheet to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The stamp sheet consists of 10 stamps of a denomination of 1.30 U.S. dollars each, with the UN logo on the left and a gongbi-style (meticulous painting) tiger among roses on the right, as the Chinese lunar year for 2022 is the Year of the Tiger.

The sheet can be personalized by replacing the UN logo design with photos.

The UNPA completed the entire Chinese zodiac cycle of 12 animals in 2021. The new tiger stamp is the start of a new zodiac cycle issued for UNPA's Lunar New Year stamp series.

The tabs of the stamps and background design feature artwork by Tiger Pan of China, said UNPA. Pan also illustrated the Lunar Calendar series in 2018 for the Year of the Dog.

The Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important holiday for Chinese around the world. This year's Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1. 
The Home Minister will embark on a door-to-door campaign in Kairana on Saturday afternoon. The constituency had seen an exodus of Hindu families in 2016 and their return later after huge efforts.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be travelling to western Uttar Pradesh for the first time since the announcement of assembly polls in the state. He will hold a door-to-door campaign, meet party workers and interact with intellectuals during his visit to Shamli and Merrut districts of this region which is crucial for BJPs prospects in the polls.

The Home Minister will embark on a door-to-door campaign in Kairana on Saturday afternoon. The constituency had seen an exodus of Hindu families in 2016 and their return later after huge efforts. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, eldest daughter of late Hukum Singh who had won the seat several times. The Home Minister will hold a closed-door meeting in Shamli with party leaders from Shamli and Baghpat. He will hold a meeting with intellectuals in Meerut on Saturday evening to conclude his engagements for the day.

The polls in western Uttar Pradesh are crucial for BJP as it involves about 108 seats and the party had done well in the previous assembly election. The party had won 83 seats in the region in 2017 and the party leadership is confident of repeating the performance.

The BJP swept Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections winning 78 out of 80 seats. It won over 300 seats in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and 62 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Amit Shah was the party chief.

Amit Shah is known to have good understanding of caste dynamics in the state and knows key workers personally across constituencies in the crucial state. State BJP leaders are hoping that his campaigning and organisation skills will again help the party register an impressive victory.

Elections to 403 member Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held in seven phases. The first phase of polls will be held in parts of Western Uttar Pradesh on February 10.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra will hold virtual meetings with the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary, and Chief Electoral Officers of five poll-bound states to take stock of the situation as India is reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Election Commission of India on Saturday will hold a meeting with the Union Health Secretary and the Chief Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to review the ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties ahead of Assembly elections. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra will hold virtual meetings with the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary, and Chief Electoral Officers of five poll-bound states to take stock of the situation as India is reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The progress on vaccination will be a key factor in allowing relaxations. As of today, India reported 3,37,704 fresh COVID cases (9,550 more than yesterday) and 2,42,676 recoveries and 488 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total 21,13,365 active cases are in the country with a daily positivity rate of 17.22 per cent.

The five states going to polls are Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa. The Election commissions aim is to have maximum voters vaccinated before the elections held in these particular states. Uttar Pradesh which currently has 98,238 active COVID 19 cases has inoculated 96 per cent of its population with the first dose in the 18 plus category. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand inoculated 99 per cent of its population with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 84 per cent of its population with the second dose. Goa has vaccinated 98 per cent of its population above 18 years of age with a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier on January 15, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided that no physical rallies, roadshow, pad-yatra, cycle/bike/vehicle rally and procession shall be allowed till January 22, 2022. However, the commission also granted relaxations for the political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand, where assembly elections will be held from February 10 till March 10.
BRIDGEPORT  A former Fairfield print shop employee, convicted of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy he met through the shop, was charged Friday with violating his probation after authorities allegedly found hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer.

Paul Sykes, 52, of Capitol Avenue, was taken into custody and charged with violation of probation when he showed up at his probation office Friday morning.

He was later brought before Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton who ordered Sykes held in lieu of $150,000 bond and continued the case to Feb. 1.

He has a scary and horrendous record, the judge noted.

Sykes, who had previously been convicted of sexual assault in Maine, was working in a print and copying shop in Fairfield center in 2007 when he was accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy during a visit to the boys Fairfield home to repair a computer.

He was subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to risk of injury to a minor, fourth-degree sexual assault and possession of child pornography.

According to court records, he was released on probation in April 2016. In 2018, he was charged with violating that probation after he was found having a sexual relationship with another probationer and using the internet without permission, records show.

He was re-sentenced to a suspended 8-year term followed by 390 months of probation.

The new arrest warrant affidavit states that last June probation authorities seized Sykes computer during a routine check.

They found two videos and 196 images of child pornography on the computers hard drive along with 113 documents dealing with weapons and explosives, the affidavit states.
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NEW HAVEN  An adaptive reuse and a proposed high-rise could bring nearly 200 more apartments downtown, while a small complex has been approved in the Hill section by the citys land use boards.

A total of 5 ground-floor apartments, topped by 5 duplexes, on city land have been approved for Columbus Avenue and Salem Street.

The complex is fully covered by sprinklers, but City Plan Commission members still questioned having only one exit for nine of the apartments.

The larger projects have received some necessary ancillary approvals, but still need fleshed-out plans and a site plan review.

PMC, owner of the Strouse Adler apartments at 78 Olive St., received approval this week from the City Plan Commission for a zone change from BA general business to BD-1, central business/residential, for the 2.5-acre property.

The BD-1 zone generally allows for greater height and density and favors a transit-oriented development.

Attorney Christopher McKeon said PMC, a Philadelphia firm with several developments in New Haven, said preliminary plans call for a new building on the site with 136 apartments fronting on Chapel Street.

He said they are talking about 12 units on floors 2-12 and four apartments on the 13th floor, where there also would be a fitness center. McKeon said they would all be one-bedroom apartments.

Strouse Adlers Smoothie building, a longtime occupant already on the site and one of the first industrial conversions to housing in the city, has 142 apartments and 148 parking spaces.

PMC for years had a contentious relationship with its neighbors, filing multiple legal challenges to the proposed apartments along Olive Street that now are nearing completion and pose competition to the Smoothie units.

In a separate project, the owners of the Olympia Building at 142 Temple St. propose topping the office building with four floors of 15 apartments each for a total of 60 apartments, from studios to one- and two-bedroom units.

They would maintain the first floor for administrative uses, and the second and third floors for office space. The L-shaped building spans Temple Street to Crown Street, but does not include the corner parcel.

City Plan recommended that the Board of Zoning Appeals grant special exceptions to allow zero off-street parking where 27 spaces are required and zero off-street loading spaces where 2 are needed for the Temple Street plan.

Attorney Ben Trachten said the building owners have an agreement with the New Haven Parking Authority to satisfy the parking requirement.

The large PMC parcel is bound by Chapel, Olive and Court streets, as well as the railroad tracks behind the State Street Train Station.

Of the three recently considered developments by City Plan, the PMC site is generating the most scrutiny.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand, who is also a commissioner, pointed out that the BD-1 zone allows for much taller buildings and a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 6.0 for a denser project.

That is limited however to a FAR of 3.0 and a height of 70 feet when the property is immediately adjacent to a residential zone. The property across from the site on Olive Street is zoned residential (RM-2).

FAR 6.0 means that the floor area may be up to six times as large as the lot area.

Marchand supported the zone change as he currently understands it if the height and FAR limits are applicable to a development.

He wants to know how far into the zone the height limits extend for potential projects, such as the portion of the parcel immediately adjacent to the tracks, some 200 yards from Olive Street.

The question is whether the property, as currently configured, would allow a 13-story building, unless it was subdivided.

What does this map change make possible? It is not 100 percent clear in my mind, Marchand said. He said he reserved the right to reconsider his support in the zone vote by the alders, which is needed for final approval.

McKeon said if they dont get it, they cant build on the lot.

The zone change has to stand on its own merits without consideration for a particular plan. The 13-story structure may be submitted to the city for review by the end of January. McKeon said he is in discussions with the city on an affordable housing component.

At the recent Downtown Wooster Square Community Management team meeting, McKeon first discussed the zone change and the proposed building.

Tony Kosloski, a neighbor in attendance at the meeting on Zoom, questioned the height, pointing out it was almost twice as high as the developments along Olive Street.

This is a significant change for our side of the railroad tracks and it seems to be pushing things a bit. Just want to make that point. There is a large spatial issue here, Kosloski said.

The new buildings being put up on Olive Street have turned everything into a canyon, he said. Anything that is twice as tall as any of those buildings, will make it even more so.

The zone change is not unique as the city in 2014 approved the same change for 630 Chapel St., the former Comcast site, 673 Chapel St. and 87 Union St, where hundreds of apartments are under construction along Olive Street in Wooster Square in seven-story buildings.

The city eight years ago recommended that this PMC property be rezoned to join the other parcels connecting the Chapel Street corridor to Wooster Square. When the city had not yet done that, McKeon said PMC took the lead and applied for the change.

In the current vote, City Plan staff have joined in that recommendation as has the citys economic development office.

Deputy Economic Development Director Steve Fontana said the zone is broadly consistent with the planning and evolution of this neighborhood and ... enables the kind of positive development we wish to seek.

He said it follows a 2016 study of Wooster Square that recommended focusing on denser, walkable and transit-oriented development there.

McKeon said the purpose of the change is to create a corridor from downtown through the Chapel Street section and make connectivity with Wooster Square.

McKeon said PMC is actively engaged in discussions with city staff and will meet with the development committee of the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team for input. Alder Eli Sabin, D-7, is arranging for a community meeting on the plan.

City attorney Michael Pinto said there are some four orphan parcels in the area that also need to be rezoned to BD-1 from BA, but that would have to be done in a separate meeting after proper notice is given.

As for the 232-235 Columbus Ave. housing, Commissioner Ed Mattison asked why they shouldnt hold a public hearing on it as requested by some residents.

Commission President Leslie Radcliffe said there had been a hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals on the density and it was deemed reasonable. There also is a land disposition agreement with the city on the plan and a community management team review.

Pinto said site plan review goes through a checklist of technical measures and is not a forum for testimony on whether a resident likes a project. The board ultimately decided not to have a public hearing.

Pinto, in answer to questions, said the city solicited proposals for housing on the parcel and Ralph Mauro was chosen for the work. James Pretti of Criscuolo Engineering made the presentation.

The longer discussion was on the limited egress and the inconvenient walk for tenants to the outside trash receptacle.

There are two exits for the one handicapped ground-floor apartment, although the other four could also have a second exit, if needed.

For the two-level townhouses on top, which feature two bedrooms, the only exit is a front staircase, which necessitated a sprinkler system in the building.

Pretti said originally the builder proposed six to eight apartments for the site, but the city wanted 10, which restricted some construction. The ground-floor units are approximately 800 square feet; the townhouses are about 1,500 square feet.

Commissioner Ernest Pagan said it was a long walk to the dumpster for people in the townhouses in particular. They have to walk a block to empty the trash. Can we work on that? he asked Pretti.

The engineer said he did not know how they could add another staircase given the size and shape of the property and the number of units. They already needed a variance for the lot size per unit.

Architecturally you would probably have to redesign the whole building, Pretti said.

Pretti said the plans have gone through the fire marshals office and the building department and is the reason for the sprinklers.

Marchand said he agreed with the quality-of-life questions by Pagan, but he was not sure that was within their purview. Pinto said the imperfections of the design are not grounds to either table it or request additional information.

The vote was 3 to 2 in favor with Pagan and Mattison voting against the proposal.
A rainbow appears in the water mist of a sprinkler near Yongning Gate in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

XI'AN, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an is expected to clear all areas classified as high and medium-risk for COVID-19 on Jan. 25, provided no special circumstances arise, a government official said on Saturday.

Zhang Fenghu, deputy secretary general of the Xi'an Municipal Government, told a press conference that the prediction was made after careful expert study and evaluation.

Should the prediction become a reality, the ancient city, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, will resume regular prevention and control in most areas, Zhang said.

There are currently two medium-risk areas and one high-risk area in Xi'an.

As of 12 p.m. Saturday, the city had reported 2,053 confirmed local cases, with 1,667 recovered. 
Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW HAVEN  Police said the citys SWAT team conducted a search of two homes Thursday for a suspect wanted by an out of state agency, but were unable to locate the person.

Police did not identify the suspect, or provide a description of the person. Police did not say which agency is searching for the individual, or what the person is wanted for.
WEST HAVEN  How will the city spend roughly $29 million in federal pandemic recovery funding? It may be anybodys guess, but some residents have begun dreaming up possibilities.

City officials have not released a draft plan for how to spend the American Recovery Plan Act funding, although they opened an online submission form for residents ideas months ago. While Mayor Nancy Rossi initially informed members of the City Council that a draft plan was expected by the end of January 2022 to meet a deadline, an official with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities informed Rossi and council members in November that a January reporting deadline does not mean the city needs a finalized spending plan.

Where is the plan?

No plan had been made publicly available as of Friday. According to Bridgette Hoskie, chairwoman of the City Councils finance committee, council members have not seen a plan.

Theres been no meetings or anything held with the mayor. She did put out an ask where residents were able to send her feedback through the city website on what they would like to see ARPA used for, and we have not been privy to any of that, Hoskie said. We were given a high overview that people said to use the money to build a library or give Allingtown a firehouse  those sorts of things  but we werent shared a breakdown of things submitted.

Rossi said theres a reason to move forward carefully.

I want to present a good, comprehensive plan, and its better to take our time because this is a collaborative effort, she said.

As a former certified public accountant, Rossi said her outlook on spending is conservative: she prefers to be meticulous and deliberate, she said.

Hoskie said she knows the mayors style, but she believes it is not well-suited to the present moment.

I think the mayor is diligent, very diligent, in what she releases in the plan. With that said, I do find it frustrating, because if you go around the country and research, other cities have implemented their plans. Other cities are doing grant programs or forgivable loans and they did not have the final rendering or decision, Hoskie said. ... I dont necessarily agree with the way in which that is being done, but it is her right as the mayor to do it that way.

Rossi said when she does release a plan, it likely would account for about 75 percent to 80 percent of the total spending.

Right now there is that flexibility. Nowhere does it say you have to spend every dollar right here and now, she said. If we hold onto a retainage, we have somewhere to go in the future if theres an emergency.

Neither Rossi nor Finance Director Frank Cieplinski were present at a special meeting of the City Council on Wednesday to discuss the ARPA plan. City grants manager Doug Colter said the delay was in part because of changing federal guidelines on how the money can be spent.

I think were coming close to a plan, he said, but city officials are wary of making any mistakes that could lead to the federal government pulling funding for improper usage after the money already has been spent.

Rossi said she has not seen a lot of concrete plans from nearby municipalities  she said she saw a partial plan from Milford when she looked for one.

I want to present a good, comprehensive plan, and its better to take our time because this is a collaborative effort to take our time and do it right than to rush through it, she said.

Hoskie said she also intends on getting it right, but she believes the public has been left with too many unanswered questions.

It would have been great to see what the mayor has already come up with, she said.

New Havens Board of Alders has approved several ARPA expenditures, including $12 million for video surveillance equipment and other technology they say will aid public safety officials.

West Haven City Council Chairman Peter Massaro said he does not believe there is tremendous urgency around the timing issue.

There is no time limits on the ARPA plan, he said, other than a rule that the money must be obligated before the end of 2024. Although Massaro does not feel the city must rush to present its plan, he said the council also will remain firm on its approved resolution that it will not approve any ARPA spending until there is a plan.

However, spending for one city project already appears to be in flux because of the citys apparent delays.

How will the city fund an HVAC system?

When an HVAC system in the citys Police Department began to show its age through regular malfunctions, the city determined it made more financial sense to buy a new system than to make increasingly-frequent repairs. With global supply chain concerns raising doubts about how quickly a machine manufactured in Sweden could arrive in the city, officials acted fast.

On Jan. 12, Colter informed the council that machine parts were ordered and loaded onto trucks headed to the city. However, there was one issue: the city did not have enough money in its contingency fund to cover the full costs; although the city eventually intends to include the new system as a cost under ARPA, it did not have an account to charge without the council offering its approval. Colter suggested the city charge it to a local capital improvement fund balance before shifting the expenditure over the ARPA funding, but the council learned the city had not yet received an expected January deposit of the capital improvement funds, either.

Im not committing to pay something when we have no money to pay for it. Thats bad, bad precedent and Im not going down that road, said Councilman Ron Quagliani, D-At Large. We cant keep playing guessing games here. We need to know and see where this money is coming from.

The council did not take action on approving funding for the HVAC system, pending the citys receipt of its expected share of capital improvement funds. Without a plan, Hoskie said, the council could not approve ARPA spending.

Arts center

Although the City Council has not seen a plan, residents were invited Wednesday to discuss the projects and ideas they would like to see funded.

One of the few projects Rossi explicitly has committed to funding is an arts center. Years ago, city officials began to eye an old Masonic Lodge in the citys downtown district as a site for a performing arts center and gallery space.

State Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven, said discussions for the centers future are moving forward. However, she said the initial plans  which included restoring an old organ in the building  were deemed in a private meeting with stakeholders to be very grand, but supporters believe they can use ARPA funding to provide a functional meeting space that will improve civic life through the arts and foster economic development by adding foot traffic to the citys downtown.

Elinor Slomba, an arts consultant and member of the citys Economic Development Committee, said she believes $1.5 million in state bonding for the arts center will enable the immediate development of the space, but further funding from ARPA will promote more economic development. Spending on arts can benefit both the printer that pays for exhibition labels to what goes in the babysitters pocket when a couple goes out to the theater, she said.

This recirculation of dollars creates social capital, restoring confidence and hope that is much needed in our economy, she said.

Public health

Borer said she believes the citys top priority must be public health. The federal government has allocated four at-home COVID-19 tests per household for every household that requests them, but Borer said the city should create its own capacity.

I think we have to do our due diligence and make sure we have our own supply, she said. Having a supply of masks and test kits for our residents and businesses is key.

She said she also hears from constituents who are homebound for various reasons and cannot travel to vaccination clinics; Borer said the city should invest pandemic recovery money into resources to ensure all residents can receive the same basic preventative materials and vaccinations.

Resident Heather Shea said she believes vaccination clinics should be permanent  and not just for COVID-19.

Streamlining services

Years ago, leadership of Vertical Church began to meet with city officials about the Dream Center  a streamlined way to provide community resources to meet the greatest needs, such as employment, food, clothing, poverty, recovery and health care.

Paul Bronson, outreach coordinator for Vertical Church, said ARPA funding could make that dream a reality.

We could lease or purchase a location to provide much-needed services, he said. When the pandemic hit, that didnt derail the vision of the Dream Center, but it put it on hold.

Since the start of the pandemic, Vertical Church claims to have provided more than 2 million pounds of food throughout the region through partnerships and fundraising.

Councilwoman Robbin Watt Hamilton, a member of the church, said she believes it can be a hub for future activity.

Leonora Rodriguez, a city resident who serves as executive director of the Milford Senior Center, said the city should think about hub models to support seniors and families. She encouraged the city to think of ways to streamline services, so that residents are not faced with bureaucracy to have their needs met  she gave an example of someone living in senior housing with an adult child with disabilities who requires social services.

We have the ability right now, with the funding available to us, to really create something special, she said.

Borer encouraged the city to think about creating a streamlined triage system, similar to the statewide 211 program.

If Im a mom and I have a 15-year-old child in crisis, where do I go? she said. For many residents, a service navigator or one-stop-shop may provide answers to those questions.

Environmental resiliency

Shirleen Waller said her neighborhood near the Boston Post Road is notorious for flooding.

Every time it rains, our neighborhood floods. Its terrible, she said. Every time it rains, we panic. Something has to be done to fix our drains in our community. We dont know what to do and its no way to live constantly having water in your home.

Planning and Zoning Commissioner Christopher Suggs said the city does not have a comprehensive list of its problem areas.

Borer suggested the city consider a strategic plan to study and document the areas of the city with the largest vulnerabilities to weather and general entropy.

Going through that process would be valuable so that when we have other opportunities for funding were not behind the 8-ball, she said. We might also consider a climate resiliency plan.

West Haven united

At Wednesdays special meeting, when the council heard feedback and ideas from residents, several people observed that the requests were utilitarian in nature, with project ideas intended to lift up the entire city instead of supporting individual goals or ideas.

Suggs called it a global mindset.

The residents are speaking with the entire city in mind, he said.

Shea said she believes if West Haven residents could continue to collaborate with everyones needs in mind, the city would be much better off for it.

Everyone has ideas and all our groups are amazing, but we need to work together, she said.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Cloudy with occasional light rain...mainly in the morning. High 58F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low near 40F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo told leaders of opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday that he wont return to the party. ...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo told leaders of opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday that he wont return to the party.

Obasanjo, 84, made this known when a PDP delegation led by the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, four former governors, and members of the partys National Working Committee visited him at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

In the team include the PDP Vice-Presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Peter Obi; former Governors, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Donald Duke (Cross River).

The Deputy National Chairman of PDP (South), Taofeek Arapaja, and other party officials were part of the entourage.

Addressing the PDP delegation, Obasanjo said, Im no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that can bring back. Anybody who wants my advice, I will always be there in the best interest of Nigeria.

Whatever I do in my own lifebecause I became president on the platform of PDP, PDP will continue to be part of my life. Since the day I tore my PDP card, that was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP. That day I vowed not to be a member of any political party.

I will continue to be a statesman.

Obasanjo told Ayu that he has the problems of PDP and Nigeria on his shoulders, and prayed God to give him the wisdom to carry it.





Responding, Ayu told Obasanjo that if you leave PDP, the blood of PDP will never leave you.

He said the party would always require his fatherly advice towards governance in Nigeria.

Obasanjo was first Head of State from 1976 to 1979. After his prison ordeal, Obasanjo was later elected Nigerias President from 1999 to 2007 on the platform of the PDP.

He, however, publicly tore his PDP membership card in February 2015 after a feud with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
WINDHOEK, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Over 200 wild birds along the Namibian coast had been found dead as a result of a suspected avian influenza outbreak, authorities said Friday.

A branch of Namibia's Directorate of Veterinary Services (DYS), under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWLR), received the report of dead wild birds on Jan. 13, the DYS said in a statement.

"Live sick birds were also observed showing clinical signs such as tremors, shivering, staggering movements and swollen heads. Some sick birds showed signs of tameness and reluctance to flee from humans," MAWLR Chief Veterinarian Officer Albertina Shilongo said.

Samples have been collected and sent to Namibia's Central Veterinary Laboratory for confirmation and the results are pending, she said, adding that the source of infection is suspected to be wild migratory birds.

Shilongo also urged the public not to handle the sick or dead birds, nor to consume products made from these birds. 
Arsenal is ready to offer manager Mikel Arteta a new contract before this season ends, SportsMail reports. Arteta will be entering t...

Arsenal is ready to offer manager Mikel Arteta a new contract before this season ends, SportsMail reports.

Arteta will be entering the final 12 months of his current deal in June.

The Gunners hierarchy is satisfied with Artetas work since he replaced Unai Emery two years ago and want to keep him at the club, despite the team finishing eighth in both his seasons in charge.

Arsenal is confident they are making progress under the Spaniard as he builds his team around young players like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe.

Arteta also played a key role in persuading players to take temporary pay cuts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arsenal is also conscious that the expiry date of Artetas contract in the summer of 2023 coincides with Pep Guardiolas planned departure date at Manchester City, and continued improvement at the Emirates could see him emerge as a successor.

The 39-year-old is happy at Arsenal and will welcome the talks. Any extension would lead to an increase on his 5 million salary, with Arsenal seeking to commit Arteta to the club for two more years.
Rivers State Governor has criticized the federal government for being indifferent in the fight against soot in the state. The governor acc...





Rivers State Governor has criticized the federal government for being indifferent in the fight against soot in the state.





The governor accused the federal government, which he said controls the oil industry and the security agencies of being unresponsive to the soot pandemic and the damage it is inflicting on the health of the residents of Rivers State.





Wike made the claims during a meeting with traditional rulers and the 23 local council chairmen in the state at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Friday.





Governor Wike said the federal government was meant to fight illegal bunkering in the state the same it intends to fight insurgency in the north east.





He said I should think that the way the federal government intends to fight insurgency, is the way they should fight illegal oil bunkering, because it is a sabotage on the national economy. Very big sabotage. It affects our own revenue.





If we are supposed to produce 2 million barrels for example, we are now producing 1.2 million. And in that 1.2 million barrels, it affects Rivers state because we are not producing up to the number we are supposed to produce, and then we cant get the money to do whatever you want us to do.





It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to see how this thing can be stopped. As I speak to you, nobody has called me from the Federal Government to say how they can support us. But that is not my business. My business is the health of my people. I will not because the federal government is not interested to stop it, therefore my people should die. If everybody dies, who are you going to govern?





The governor, therefore, urged the traditional rulers to join the fight against the operators of illegal oil refineries and mobilize members of their Community Development Committees and the youths to work together in dislodging them from their domain.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has condemned the death of Hanifa Abubakar, a five-year-old pupil who was allegedly killed by a school ...

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has condemned the death of Hanifa Abubakar, a five-year-old pupil who was allegedly killed by a school proprietor in Kano.

The pupil was kidnapped in December and her abductors had demanded N6 million ransom.

On Thursday, the police in Kano arrested Abdulmalik Tanko, Abubakars proprietor, who allegedly abducted and killed her.

In a statement on Saturday by Emmanuel Yawe, the forums spokesperson, ACF called on governments at all levels to take urgent steps to curb the menace of anti-social behaviour and criminal acts in schools across the country.





The Arewa Consultative Forum wishes to express its shock and revulsion over the anti social and criminal acts going on in Nigerian schools, Yawe said.

These border on bullying, murder, kidnappings, homosexuality, cultism etc.

The latest of these cases of horror is the alleged kidnap and murder of five-year-old pupil, Hanifa Abubakar by her teacher Abdulmalik Muhammed at a private school in Kwanar Dakatar in Kano state.

This is a horror story comparable to what happened in December last year when Sylvester Oromoni a 12-year-old student of Dowen College was bullied and then tortured to death by his fellow students because he refused to join them in their cult activities.





The Arewa Consultative Forum would like to call the attention of the authorities to this new epidemic of drugs, brutality, cults and death which is taking over all schools across the country and endangering the lives of our daughters and sons and the future of our country.

These horrors are not limited to private schools. But we are particularly concerned about what goes on in private schools because they take their students as commodities which should be traded for money.

This is a horrible trend that will not only destroy the future of these innocent children but that of our Nigeria. We call on our governments to step in forcefully and nip this trend in the bud.

The ACF also warned the government to save the children who have been trapped in the web of inhumanity.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, is currently in a closed-door meeting with former President Oluse...





The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, is currently in a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.





Ayu had on Saturday led four former governors and members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) to Obasanjos residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State.





The PDP leaders arrived at the former Presidents Pent House residence at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Oke Mosan, at about 12:25 pm.





The PDP Vice Presidential candidate in 2019, Peter Obi; former Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, as well as Liyel Imoke and Donald Duke, both of Cross River State, are at the meeting.





Also, the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP (South), Taofeek Arapaja, and other officials of the party were part of the entourage.
The management of Al-Qalam University, Katsina has dispelled trending reports on social media that the Institutions campus was bombed on Fr...





The management of Al-Qalam University, Katsina has dispelled trending reports on social media that the Institutions campus was bombed on Friday.





The disclaimer was made in a press statement issued by the Head of Public Affairs of the university, Atiku A. Atiku.





Atiku described the purported bomb blast trending on social media as unfortunate, unfounded, fake and misleading.





He called on the general public to disregard the fake information, assuring that the University is completely safe.





On what actually transpired, Atiku said, the tyre of a moving truck along Dutsinma Road busted around 8.30pm but mischief makers capitalized on the incident to say that there was a bomb blast inside the University.





Atiku, however, noted that efforts are ongoing to fish out the source of the purported rumour which threw the campus and its environment into confusion.
The National Executive Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has outlined a number of conditions which the Federal Government must meet ...





The National Executive Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has outlined a number of conditions which the Federal Government must meet before it can fully deregulate the downstream oil sector.





Presiding over the meeting in Abuja on Saturday, TUC President, Quadri Olaleye, said government has no basis for proposing to finally hands off subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) when it has not taken into consideration palliatives to over 40 million extremely poor Nigerians.





The TUC equally noted that there must be assurances that refineries are fully overhauled and establishment of modular refineries encouraged.





They also noted the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, lamenting that while it has resulted in several job losses, there should be concrete policy initiatives by government to generate mass employment.





Recall that an existing adhoc committee set up by the National Economic Council (NEC) with Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai as chairman, had met severally, where they drafted a report proposing total liberalisation of the downstream oil sector, a development that may shore up the price of PMS from the current N165 to N302 per litre.





While they met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, last week Thursday, to harmonise their position, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, had disclosed that the committee had not yet decided on the subsidy removal, as a time line of June 2022 still exits before it can be reconsidered.





But among other conditions, the TUC expects government at the state and federal levels to meet, including putting measures in place to ameliorate the suffering of the people through food security and infrastructural development.





According to the union, the proposal by the National Economic Council on the final removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) as from June 2022 should take into consideration the attendant economic impact on the economy.





While acknowledging the giant stride in rice production through various interventions of the Buhari administration, TUC said the Federal Government should ensure that price of rice in the market becomes affordable to the common man in order to justify the rice revolution policy of the administration.





It also said it expects that privatisation of the power sector should be reviewed since the contracts have expired to ensure viability, job security and effectiveness of the sector.





Olaleye said failure to meet these demands, TUC state executives would mobilise for industrial action against the government.





NEC-in-Session insist that Federal Government MUST ensure that the conditions precedent put forward by the TUC on the deregulation of the downstream such as; the revitalization of existing refineries, establishment of new ones including modular refineries, effective policing of boarders to stem the rate of petroleum products smuggling, e t c are implemented.





NEC-in-Session enjoined Congress members nation-wide to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and ensure active participation in the democratic process ahead of 2023 general elections. Members are also urged to support the Political Commission of the Congress in creating groundswell awareness for providing leadership alternatives that deliver on democratic dividends and transformative governance to the people.





Finally, NEC-in-Session has mandated the Congress led by the President to take all necessary steps to ensure that these conditions are met before SUBSIDY is removed. Consequently, NEC-in-Session directs State Councils and affiliates to commence mobilisation of members for industrial actions against subsidy removal without government fulfilling conditions precedent, the TUC President stated at a press conference.
Two men have died in an accident that occured at Fidiwo, along the Lagos-Ibadan highway, Ogun State. It was learnt that the crash occurred a...





Two men have died in an accident that occured at Fidiwo, along the Lagos-Ibadan highway, Ogun State.





It was learnt that the crash occurred at about 3:18 pm on Friday, involving a Lexus SUV and a truck.





The Lexus RX35 was registered as AKD405AQ, while the Mack truck has JE32 XM as its registration number.





The spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun State, Florence Okpe, confirmed that four men were involved in the accident.





A total of 04 persons were involved, all male adults. No injury was sustained, but two persons were recorded dead from the crash.





The suspected cause of the road crash was excessive speed, which led to loss of control, Okpe said.





She added that bodies of the deceased victims have been deposited at FOS Morgue, Ipara.





While describing the accident as avoidable, the Ogun FRSC Sector Commander, Ahmed Umar, cautioned motorists to avoid excessive speed, especially when approaching a junction or turning point.





Umar condoled with the families of the crash victims, urging them to contact the FRSC office in Ogunmakin for more information.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Rain. High 56F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 38F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
SUVA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Samoa said it will start a 48-hour national lockdown from Saturday evening after reporting more COVID-19 cases from a recent charter flight from Australia.

According to Samoa Observer, Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa announced the lockdown after an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday morning.

The lockdown will start at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and end at 6:00 p.m. local time on Monday.

Fiame said in a national address that the decision for Samoa to go into a lockdown follows the cabinet meeting and its approval while taking into consideration the country's safety.

Samoa will go into Alert Level 3 as there are now 15 confirmed COVID-19 cases, following a charter flight that flew in from Australia on Wednesday, she said. Five more cases have tested positive on Saturday.

According to the prime minister, essential services of the Samoan government will continue, but there will be no public transport allowed except for authorized vehicles and those in essential services.

Schools, restaurants and churches across the island nation will also close. 
Yes. Gov. Hochul chose Mr. Benjamin, and she's stuck with him through the election.

No. The state should have the option to remove someone under criminal indictment.

Vote

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New York artist Sanford Biggers has been busy despite the pandemic. Last year, he debuted a suite of works at New York Citys Rockefeller Center, anchored by a 25-foot cast-bronze statue called Oracle, which blends concepts of classical Greco-Roman sculpture and African art. There also were other sculptures, flags, multimedia works with photographs and video, and a large-scale mural inside the center.

The mural featured the words JUST US, set shadowed in a blue sky full of clouds. If that seems familiar, its because Biggers was commissioned to create a similar mural on the much larger wall of the Contemporary Arts Center as part of the Helis Foundations Unframed series. Created in conjunction with New Orleans artists Wendo Brunoir and JoJean Laborde, the mural has taken shape over the past three months and was officially unveiled on Jan. 20.

At first sight, the mural is an eye-catchingly bright burst covering a 140-by-20-foot wall, but its not so simple or straightforward. The words JUST US function as a homonym for justice, and its not clear how to read it.

Everyone sees something different when they look in a cloud, Biggers told Gambit before the unveiling. In this case, if you look hard enough you might be able to find justice. Justice is something were always looking for. Sometimes its very hard to find. Everyones journey towards justice is quite different.

Biggers is adept at blending diverse artistic traditions and ideas. He notes that clouds are common in surreal art, as well as in graffiti. He painted graffiti murals while growing up in Los Angeles, and it was an early public display of his talents.

His career is defined more by sculpture and mixed-media work, and he studied classical sculpture in both Rome and Florence. He also lived in Japan for three years and has explored Buddhist ideas and art from many Asian nations. References to Buddhist mandalas and thangkas often figure into his work. But JUST US also relates to pop-culture and social commentary, and Biggers says its possible to relate the mural to comedian Richard Pryors work.

Some works deal with text and satire and dark humor and surrealism, Biggers says. (This work) happens to be one of them.

Biggers had long planned on being in New Orleans at about this time. He is just closing a show called Codeswitch at the California African American Museum. The show features more than 50 works based on quilts, including tapestries and 3D pieces. He collected and restored old quilts to repurpose in his work, and he sees them as historical references. Codeswitch builds on his multi-media works and the title refers to multiple meanings and codes of communication. In what he calls his Codex series, Biggers has created works in which texts and social contexts can have multiple meanings.

Codeswitch was co-curated by Andrea Andersson and Sergio Bessa. Andersson founded the locally based Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought and is a former visual arts curator at the CAC. Following a visit to Biggers studio in Harlem, she worked on Codeswitch with Bessa, and it opened at the Bronx Museum in September 2020. Following the Los Angeles expo, it was supposed to come to New Orleans. The pandemic changed those plans, and instead it goes to Louisville, Kentuckys Speed Art Museum, though Biggers would like to see the show come here eventually.

Biggers is familiar with New Orleans. His father is a graduate of Dillard University, and he visited the city often. His first major contribution to the citys art scene was a sculptural piece called Blossom that was shown at what is now the New Orleans Jazz Museum during Prospect.1 in 2008. It featured a baby grand piano with a tree growing through it, while it played Billie Holidays Strange Fruit, a work referencing lynchings of Black people in the South.

Biggers work was included in the national Billboard Art Project in 2011, which featured an early version of JUST US. In 2019, he came here to work on the visual concepts for the film Antebellum, starring Janelle Monae. It was filmed in New Orleans and at Evergreen Plantation.

Biggers also has a band, called Moon Medicin, and it was supposed to have performed in New Orleans during the planned Codeswitch expo, though that plan also was put on hiatus. Biggers is a fan of the Meters, jazz, zydeco and Mardi Gras Indian music.

JUST US is the ninth in the Helis Foundations Unframed series of large-scale murals in the Warehouse District. They include work by local artists Brandan BMike Odums, Jessica Strahan and Ayo Scott as well as international artists such as Canadas Danae Brissonnet and the Polish duo who create street art as Etam Cru. The program is administered through the Arts Council of New Orleans, and Helis managing director Jessie Schott Haynes expects the program to add two more murals in 2022.

For more information about Unframed murals, visit thehelisfoundation.org.
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Police in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir said on Saturday that a militant was killed in a gunfight with government forces in the region.

The gunfight, according to the police, broke out at village Kilbal in Shopian district, about 55 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Today contingents of police, paramilitary and army cordoned off Kilbal village here. The moment they reach the suspected area, militants fired upon them triggering a gunfight. In the exchange of the fire a militant was killed," a police official said. "The operation is underway in the area."

The operation was launched on a specific intelligence suggesting the presence of militants.

Police said the government forces have not suffered any damage during their fight with the holed-up militants.

A guerrilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the region since 1989. However, of late Indian policemen too have been trained to fight them.

The gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. 
Scores of art lovers gathered at the former Lee Circle in New Orleans on Saturday morning to witness the unveiling of a 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture by celebrated artist Simone Leigh. It was the grand finale of the Prospect.5 international art exhibition that began in October.

With no fanfare, the sculpture was lifted into place earlier in the week, wrapped in black plastic sheet, leaving the public to speculate on its appearance. Now it can be seen: an attenuated female figure with a drum-shaped head, wrapped in an enormous serpent. The Prospect.5 website says the artwork is intended as an homage to history and continued presence of traditions of the African diaspora in New Orleans."

The tall, thin sculpture, titled "Sentinel (Mami Wata)," roughly echoes the shape of the column in the center of the traffic circle, which was topped by a statue of Robert E. Lee, leader of the Confederate army in the Civil War. The Lee statue was removed in 2017, sparking discussion of what might take its place.

One of the themes of the Prospect.5 exhibition was a search for alternative models for New Orleans monuments, which were historically devoted to mostly militaristic, often racist, White males. Other Prospect.5 outdoor sculptures can be found in Crescent Park, Joe W. Brown Park, on Esplanade Avenue and at the New Orleans African American Museum, Those sites, as well as the placement of the Leigh sculpture, were sanctioned by Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a City Hall representative said.

On Thursday, Prospect executive director Nick Stillman said exhibition planners first considered craning Leighs sculpture to the top of the column where the Lee statue stood. Though the installation would have been spectacular, Stillman said, the artist advocated that her sculpture belonged closer to the ground, at the level of the people.

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A contemporary art star, Leigh will represent the United States at the Venice Biennale exhibit, the Olympics of the art world, later this year. Born in Chicago and based in New York, Leigh produces heroic ceramic and bronze sculptures of the Black female form. The "Sentinel (Mami Wata)," figure is inspired by an African water spirit.

Stillman said Leighs piece is temporary, and will be removed on July 22. He hopes other artists will use the location for future works.

The Prospect series of art exhibits started in 2008 and has taken place every two or three years since. Prospect.5 exhibits continue through Sunday at the New Orleans African-American Museum, the Ogden Museum of Art, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Newcomb Art Museum and other locations. For details, visit the Prospect.5 website.
Law enforcement agencies investigating a rash of car break-ins and thefts in the New Orleans area have arrested six people, three of them juveniles - including a 17-year-old accused of trading gunfire with a Kenner resident.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrested five of the suspects Thursday at Oakwood Shopping Center in Terrytown, after receiving a tip that credit cards stolen in some of the burglaries were being swiped inside the mall, Sheriff Joseph Lopinto III said.

Lopinto made the announcement Friday during a news conference with New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson, Kenner Police Chief Mike Glaser, Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Gerald Turlich and Capt. Donovan Archote, commander of Louisiana State Police Troop B.

Oakwood arrests

Arrested at Oakwood were Datayna Howard, 20; Mister Mackey, 19; Teshonda Mercelin, 20; a 16-year-old girl; and a 15-year-old-boy, Lopinto said.

They were taken into custody in the mall's parking lot, upon returning to a Volkswagen Atlas that had been reported stolen Sunday in New Orleans. That vehicle has also been linked to other burglary investigations, including cases in Kenner.

Inside the vehicle, investigators found cash, guns, ammunition, stolen credit cards and identification materials, ski masks and tools used to shatter glass, Lopinto said. One of the guns had been stolen in a Plaquemines Parish auto theft reported Sunday night, Turlich said.

"Crime knows no boundaries," Lopinto said.

Thus far, Howard, Mackey and Mercelin have been booked with possession of stolen property, theft, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and multiple counts of forgery, bank fraud and computer fraud. Howard is also facing several gun charges.

Detectives from the various departments are working together to track stolen property and determine what, if any, additional crimes can be linked to the suspects, Lopinto said.

In addition to the Oakwood mall investigation, authorities have recovered a six stolen vehicles reportedly taken in Jefferson, Plaquemines and Orleans parishes. They've also uncovered ties to several other crimes, including vehicle burglaries on Severn Avenue in Metairie and an attempted carjacking on Howard Avenue in New Orleans, police said.

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Kenner shootout

Kenner investigators have evidence that two of the suspects are "associates" of a 17-year-old boy who was part of a crew that broke into about a dozen vehicles at the Sunlake Apartments on Jan. 13, said Lt. Michael Cunningham, Police Department spokesperson.

About 1:30 a.m., a resident of the complex overheard his car alarm and went outside to check on his vehicle, Glaser said. The man confronted the group, including the 17-year-old boy.

At least two people in the group shot at the resident, who was armed and returned fire, Glaser said. The burglary crew hopped into a 2021 Infiniti QX80, which had been reported stolen in New Orleans, and chased the fleeing resident, Cunningham said.

Even though the stolen SUV crashed into a patio, the armed thieves got out and continued to shoot at the resident before scattering, Cunningham said.

"That just shows you how it can escalate, quickly," Glaser said.

Evidence left behind led detectives to the 17-year-old suspect, who was booked with this week with being a principal to attempted second-degree murder, 11 counts of simple burglary, being a juvenile in possession of a gun and being a principal to aggravated criminal damage, Cunningham said.

Though the 17-year-old boy knows at least two of the five people arrested at Oakwood Mall, there's no evidence, so far, that Oakwood suspects took part in the Kenner smash-and-grabs and subsequent shootout, Cunningham said.

Report burglaries

Lopinto and the other law enforcement chiefs urged residents to report thefts and burglaries. They said the information helps investigators tie suspects and recovered property to reported crimes.

Authorities think a small number of people are responsible for the vast majority of burglaries and thefts.

"We need to you to report every burglary that you have so we can link it to these groups and get them off the street," Glaser said.
If the secretary of state had received Shelta Richardsons resignation letter just three days later than it did, elections to the St. Tammany School Board next fall would be far less complicated.

But since the remainder of Richardson's term spanned more than a year when the letter arrived, a special election must be held in November to select a replacement for the last few weeks of the term. And because there is already a primary election scheduled that same day, three different people could end up filling Richardson's seat in the span of just a few weeks.

On December 2, Richardson announced she would step down from her post in District 7, which covers the Lacombe area. The Secretary of State's Office didn't get her official notice until Dec. 29, at which time the board was notified it had 20 days to appoint an interim member. On Jan. 18, members appointed Isabelle Moore, a longtime educator, to fill the vacancy.

Thats where things get complicated.

Because Richardson resigned with more than a year left to serve  the new term begins in Jan. 2023  state law requires that a special election be held alongside the next congressional or gubernatorial election.

The next available date in Louisiana is the Nov. 8 congressional primary -- the same day as the primary election for the entire school board. School board elections fall every four years.

So on Nov. 8, St. Tammany residents will vote twice: first to choose a candidate to serve the remaining 7 1/2 weeks of Richardsons term, then again for a board member who would take office in January 2023 and serve the next four years.

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"This is a very unique situation," Paul Harrison, one of St. Tammany Parish School Board's lawyers explained to the board at the meeting on Jan. 18 before they appointed Moore.

Harrison noted that if no one wins the Nov. 8 special election outright and the election goes to the Dec. 10 runoff, the winner would hold the office for less than a month.

The matter is further complicated by redistricting measures, which could shift the lines for District 7 based on population changes recorded in the 2020 census. A demographics consultant told the board in October that changes will be presented to the state in May.

"If that wasn't confusing enough, it gets more interesting because there has to be a second set of booths for this vote because of the redistricting. So different people will be able to vote for the unexpired term as compared to the people who will be voting for the new term for the person starting in January," Harrison said.

Harrison said that the complications would be mostly moot if only one candidate qualifies for both the special and general elections in November.

Jefferson Parish recently filled a vacant position on their school board. Rafael Rafidi, a Metairie businessman, the interim appointee, resigned after objectionable social media posts surfaced days after he took the job. Though Jefferson Parish school board members are up for election this year, Rafidi's replacement will be named on Jan. 21, with less than a year left in the term, so there will not be a special election.

Dwayne Wall, the registrar of voters in St. Tammany Parish, said it's not a frequent occurrence, but elections where residents have voted on the same thing in the same election have happened before in the parish.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration must begin transitioning the city's sizeable fleet to environmentally-friendly vehicles starting next year under a City Council ordinance passed unanimously on Thursday.

The measure, sponsored by City Council President Helena Moreno, directs the city to begin buying and leasing low-emission vehicles in 2023 and to purchase only no-emission passenger vehicles like electric cars by 2025.

The city must also produce an annual report detailing the fuel economy of its fleet and how many of its vehicles are powered by fossil fuels.

There are important exceptions to the green mandate. The city can keep the gas guzzlers it already has. It will also be allowed to buy fossil fuel vehicles for public safety purposes like the Police and Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services, a large portion of the fleet.

The administration didnt immediately comment Friday or provide the number of vehicles the city owns.

+2 With new climate panel, New Orleans City Council aims for money to harden power grid With the federal government poised to spend billions of dollars on green infrastructure, New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno roll

Ditching gas and diesel could improve air quality and put the city on the forefront of the electric car revolution, but it could also come at a higher cost. The ordinance doesnt include an estimated price tag for buying and maintaining the vehicles.

On the other hand, the bipartisan infrastructure act passed by Congress last year includes pots of money for cities and states to build out their electric charger networks and reduce fossil fuel emissions.

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President Joe Biden last year committed to replacing the entire 645,000-vehicle federal fleet with electric cars, trucks and SUVs, a move that in itself could speed along the transition to electric.

Morenos ordinance was one of the first from the newly-created climate committee she chairs. The committee also passed a resolution, which the full City Council approved Thursday, urging the municipal government to draw all of its power from renewable sources.

Moreno created the climate committee with an eye on federal dollars. As the citys utility regulator, the Council is angling for federal grants to harden the local power grid against climate change and hurricanes.

Cantrell also wants to position the city to vie for climate-related grant money in the bipartisan infrastructure act.

In a press release Friday, the Mayors Office said that Cantrell has been in Washington, D.C. this week attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where she took part in discussions about energy grant and loan funding.

The mayor also met with U.S. Environmental Agency Administrator Michael Regan to discuss redeveloping the Gordon Plaza area, a residential neighborhood built on top of a toxic landfill, into a solar farm.

Gordon Plaza residents have demanded that the city provide them with a fully-funded relocation to other parts of the city.
In January 2020, New Orleans City Councilman Jason Williams called for a public hearing in hopes of holding someone accountable for the Hard Rock Hotel construction collapse that three months earlier had killed three workers. The city's inspector general asked Williams to stand down, however, and to let his office handle the investigation.

Now 1 years later, Williams is the district attorney and has assembled a team to consider criminal charges based on the findings of the IG and other agencies. But he's still waiting for the inspector generals office and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to produce reports so he can start building prosecutions - and he might be running out of time because of legal deadlines to file certain criminal charges within two years.

We are working with a short window to go through a lot of material - close to three months, Williams said in an interview with WWL television. "We don't have a single piece of paper that's been referred to us as of yet.

Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer also says shes waited long enough for the IGs office to conclude its investigation. Palmer's district includes the area where the 18-story steel and concrete structure pancaked, killing Jose Ponce Arreola, Quinnyonn Wimberly and Anthony Magrette, injuring others, damaging adjacent property and closing the major intersection at Canal and Rampart streets for almost two years. She asked interim Inspector General Ed Michel in a July 7 letter about the status of the investigation, and gave him him until Friday to respond.

Having received none, Palmers office invited Michel to testify at a council committee hearing Thursday and answer why its taken so long for his investigators to produce a report that Williams could use for a criminal case.

I would really like them to release a report or an explanation even why they cannot release the report and what the timeline is moving forward, Palmer said. I think not only do the families need closure, I think the city needs closure. We need to figure out how to how to move on.

Walter Becker, general counsel for the inspector generals office, said Michel did not receive Palmers letter until Tuesday and that he will be out of town and when the City Council committee meets.

Williams said he, too, has been trying for months to get any kind of investigative report from the inspector general or from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited several construction companies last year for safety violations but has turned down requests for a more detailed final report, before the companies have a chance to appeal their citations.

The DA said hes been told that the inspector general may not share OSHAs report, under a formal cooperation agreement between the two investigative agencies. But he said hes not bound by that agreement and that he will subpoena the OSHA report if the federal agency doesnt cooperate.

We need this report, and I would hope that we would have a good amount of voluntary support to get to the bottom of why this building collapsed and who was responsible for it and who should have caught it, Williams said.

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Williams said he met with the IGs office in mid-June and was promised a final report within two weeks. Two weeks later, on July 2, the he sent Michel a letter complaining he had not received "a single document from any agency related to the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel."

Its been three more weeks, and Williams said he still hasnt received anything. Hes baffled.

The idea that that you would investigate something in perpetuity and hold on to it, he said, I mean, it sort of defeats the purpose of an inquiry.

Criminal charges over what might have caused the collapse are sure to be complicated, yet the OSHA report is expected to lay out the cause. Less complex are issues involving New Orleans building inspectors who allegedly falsified reviews of the Hard Rock construction work before the collapse.

That was the focus of the IGs lead investigator, Kristen Morales. But she was fired in January for several alleged administrative offenses that presumably have nothing to do with her investigative work. Palmer, Williams and others said they were informed that Morales had concluded her investigation of possible criminal wrongdoing before she was fired.

+2 Firing of investigator slows criminal probe into Hard Rock Hotel collapse, worker deaths As the last rubble is cleared and the streets finally reopen where the partially built Hard Rock Hotel collapsed in October 2019, local offici

It has been more than six months since the Morales report was shelved, Palmer wrote in the July 7 letter to Michel. This provides ample time to reproduce any of the interviews or investigatory data that were in question.

Becker said Michel and Palmer had a very productive conversation about her letter on Wednesday. But he would not say anything more about it. He also said Michel has been talking with Williams and additional meetings are scheduled in the very near future.

Morales investigation focuses on former building inspectors Julie Tweeter, Eric Treadaway and Thomas Dwyer, who approved construction work at the Hard Rock before the collapse but allegedly falsified the inspection records. A joint investigation by WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate in February 2020 found those inspectors filed reports saying they visited the construction site on days when GPS tracking of their city vehicles indicated they did not stop at or near the Hard Rock.

Palmer is calling for accountability while running for an at-large seat on the City Council. As a district councilperson in 2011, she wrote the ordinance that gave the developers of the project at 1031 Canal St. special permission to build a structure almost three times higher than the limit for the site.

Recently, she led the council in a unanimous vote to rescind the so-called conditional use allowance. She said the more recent change is designed to prevent lead developer Mohan Kailas from pursuing his plans to rebuild the Hard Rock Hotel at Canal and Rampart streets.
Wind-whipped flames are marching across more of New Mexicos tinder-dry mountainsides, forcing the evacuation of area residents and dozens of patients from the state's psychiatric hospital as firefighters scramble to keep new wildfires from growing. The big blaze burning near the community of Las Vegas has charred more than 217 square miles. Residents in neighborhoods on the edge of Las Vegas were told to be ready to leave their homes. It's the biggest wildfire in the U.S. and is moving quickly through groves of ponderosa pine because of hot, dry and windy conditions that make for extreme wildfire danger. Forecasters are warning of extreme fire danger across New Mexico and in western Texas.
I was all set to write about it when I received an email from a friend and former colleague (who is now a professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC). He told me hed been reading these columns and appreciated the good news that Ive tried to convey.
DUBLIN, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ireland will drop most COVID-19 restrictions starting from Saturday, its government announced Friday.

Starting from 6 a.m. on Saturday, there will be no social distancing requirements in public venues, no restrictions on the number of people attending indoor and outdoor events, no limits on household gatherings, and no domestic requirements of a valid EU Digital COVID Certificate for access to various premises, said the government in a statement.

Businesses in the hospitality sector such as restaurants and bars will no longer need to be closed before 8 p.m. and nightclubs can reopen, it said, adding that people can also return to work in office on a phased basis starting from Monday.

But a limited number of public health measures will remain in place until the end of February, which include mandatory wearing of face masks on public transport and in public indoor settings and adherence to current protective measures in schools and early learning and care facilities, the statement added.

Public health measures regarding international travel including the requirement of a valid EU Digital COVID will also remain unchanged, the statement said.

The decision of the Irish government came at a time when Ireland saw a notable decline in its COVID-19 infections in the past week or so.

On Monday, Ireland's daily confirmed COVID-19 cases dropped below 10,000 for the first time in more than three weeks and has since remained below that level for the last five consecutive days.

High uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and booster vaccines in Ireland is another factor that has shored up confidence in easing the restrictions.

Official data showed that as of Thursday, more than 7.61 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Ireland and more than 3.85 million people in the country had been fully vaccinated, accounting for about 77 percent of the country's total population.

Besides, over 2.62 million people in Ireland had received a booster as of Thursday. 
Danville, Pa.  At least one monkey is still unaccounted for this morning after a truck and dump truck collided Friday afternoon in Valley Township near Danville at the Route 54 interchange with Interstate 80 westbound.

"There is still one monkey unaccounted for, but we are asking that no one attempt to look for or capture the animal," said Trooper Andrea Pelachick of Pennsylvania State Police at Milton on a Twitter update.

Pelachick advised that anyone who sees a monkey should not approach, attempt to catch, or come in contact with the animal. Instead, you should call 911 if you see a monkey.

A total of three to four monkeys have been missing since the crash occurred near Danville. The truck reportedly was carrying 100 monkeys to a lab when it crashed with a dump truck around 3:30 p.m. Route 54 was closed for several hours as responders worked to clear the scene, according to PennDOT.

The Pennsylvania State Game Commission spent much of the night searching the nearby woods with flashlights. State police also used a helicopter in an attempt to track down the monkeys.

When asked what the investigators would do with the monkeys once caught, Pelachick said, "The Department of Health and the CDC are responsible for the monkeys at this time."

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The department and Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) are offering tips to help consumers make sure their contributions are going to legitimate charitable organizations. Consumers can protect their contributions and prevent becoming a victim by learning how to identify a charity scam.

Red Flags of Charity Scams:

1. Similar Sounding Name  Scammers often use names that sound similar to legitimate charities to intentionally create confusion.

2. High Pressure Solicitation  Fraudsters will try to force a hasty decision by turning up the pressure. They may cold call, identifying you as a previous contributor, and asking for your renewed support or to update your credit card information. These attempts rely on catching consumers off guard to extract financial information.

3. 100% Guarantee  Most people want to ensure that their donations are going toward legitimate program expenses. Every organization has some level of administrative cost, which can include mailing and printing, rent and utilities, staff, or fundraising. An organization that promises that 100% of your funds are going directly to an individual in need might require additional scrutiny.

4. Donation by Wire Transfer or Gift Card  Legitimate charities will not ask you to make payment via money order or wire transfer. If you are being solicited for a donation and are asked to pay by these means, hang up immediately. A charity may ask for donations of gift cards such as from a grocery store to supply to someone in need. Never read the information from a gift card over the phone or provide it via email. After verifying the legitimacy of the charity, take any physical gift card donation directly to the location of the charity and request documentation of your contribution.

Here are a few tips that can help you avoid being the victim of a charity scam:

Always research before giving.

Visit the Department of States online charities database to verify an organizations basic financial information about expenses for program services, fundraising, and management: charities.pa.gov

You can also check to see if an organization has been subject to corrective action by the Department of States Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations by checking its enforcement and disciplinary actions page.

Check whether an organization is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a Tax Exempt Organization: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ o Groups such as the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, and CharityWatch offer information and ratings about charitable organizations.

Dont feel pressured to make a donation on the spot. Take time to do research before sharing your money or information.

Check websites closely. Charity scams can be vehicles for identity theft by directing victims to fake charity websites where personal and financial information are taken for nefarious purposes.

Avoid wire transfer or money order donations. Any requests for these kinds of payments should be approached with caution.

Direct your payment to the charity. Never make a check payable to an individual; write the check to the verified organization. DOS offers helpful tips on charitable giving to protect generous Pennsylvanians from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous groups.

If youve been the victim of a charity scam, contact the Department of States Division of Charities Investigation Unit/Audits at RA-STBEICIU@pa.gov or use the online complaint form. You should also file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and contact local law enforcement through non-emergency channels.

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Local shelters try to keep homeless community warm and safe as temperatures drop

Severo Avila The white flag flies outside the Salvation Army signifying that temperatures have dropped below 32 degrees and those needing shelter from the cold can spend the night on a cot and get a blanket as well as a warm breakfast and coffee in the morning. The Salvation Army is located at 317 E. First Ave.

The white flag is flying outside the Salvation Army and that means those needing shelter from the cold are welcome.

Captain Paula Blevins with the Salvation Army said they put out their white flag when temperatures drop below 32 degrees and thats a sign to residents and the public that anyone who needs shelter can stay on a cot overnight.

We provide them with a cot and a blanket and they can stay until 10 a.m. the next day, Blevins said. We did have people (Thursday) night and we expect a few days of really cold weather so were probably going to keep that white flag out until early next week.

She said those staying at the facility, located at 317 E. First Ave., also get breakfast and a cup of coffee.

They can shelter up to 10 people, Blevins said, but when temperatures drop this low, theyll take in folks as long as they have any space to accommodate them.

We start that intake as early as 7 p.m., she said. Thursday night we had three people standing at the door waiting to get in.

Since theyre sheltering more people, Blevins said their resources are running a little low. Donations of coffee, powdered creamer and styrofoam cups would be appreciated as well as quick breakfast items such as pop tarts and oatmeal.

We try to serve a hot breakfast when we can but it just depends on what we have on hand, she said. We also nee snack items we can send out with them during the day. And were running low on bottled water.

The salvation army is also in need of handwarmers and twin or full size blankets since they provide residents with blankets that they get to take with them when they leave.

The William S. Davies Homeless Shelter also looks at the forecast to determine some daily activity.

Executive Director Devon Smyth said normally guests at the shelter must leave for the day at 8 a.m. Mondays through Fridays and at 9 a.m. on the weekend.

But until the temperature gets above 32 degrees our guests dont have to leave until much later in the day, she said. We dont want them out in that extreme cold so we just watch the forecast and wait for it to warm up a bit.

She said she expects the numbers of guests at the shelter to jump during the next few days. There is room for additional guests at the moment.

But that means the shelter needs additional supplies of household items.

Whatever youd use in your own home, we use here, Smyth said. We need things like laundry pods, dishwashing pods, toilet paper and bleach. Think of all the things youd use around your house and we use it, just more of it.

Smyth said the shelter is always in need of breakfast foods. They try to serve guests a breakfast with something hot and something cold so they need cereal, milk, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon and sausage.

Our weekend manager always makes biscuits and gravy on the mornings shes here, Smyth said. The residents love it so we try to make sure we have all the ingredients on hand. Were just trying to keep everyone warm, safe and well.
GENEVA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Apart from agreeing to work to ease tensions over Ukraine and keep in contact, top U.S. and Russian diplomats meeting here on Friday achieved no major breakthrough as expected.

NO BREAKTHROUGH

After his talk with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called their conversation "frank and substantive," which he said would allow both sides to carry forward the diplomatic work of resolving their differences.

"We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path in terms of understanding each other's concerns, each other's positions," Blinken told reporters.

During a separate press conference, Lavrov also described the meeting as open and useful.

"It's good that such a meeting took place. The continuation of dialogue at the ministerial level is an important indicator of the readiness of both sides to continue communication," said Andrei Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council.

"Of course, we cannot expect this meeting to radically change something. We saw during the actual meeting that the agendas of the parties diverged. Moreover, one side of the parties has a reason to avoid discussing the other's concerns," Kortunov said.

Both parties said they were open to further dialogue and did not rule out the possibility of the leaders' future summit.

"The most important thing is that this dialogue will continue in the future and it will not end with some monstrous provocation from radicals in Ukraine or somewhere else," said Andrei Bystritsky, chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of Russian think tank Valdai Discussion Club.

TENSION OVER UKRAINE

Relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated recently, with both sides deploying large numbers of military personnel and equipment in their border areas.

The United States, Ukraine, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have accused Russia of having assembled heavy troops near the eastern border of Ukraine, with a possible intention of "invasion."

Russia denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.

Before Friday's meeting, Blinken had swung through Europe to try to shore up U.S. allies' commitments to slap economic sanctions on Russia if Russia "invades" Ukraine. Blinken assured Ukraine of U.S. support in Kiev on Wednesday, and met German, French and British officials in Berlin on Thursday.

Following Friday's meeting, Lavrov called on the West to end the "anti-Russia hysteria" concerning this issue, saying that Russia is not threatening anyone and is not invading any country.

He also said Russia had worries of its own, "not about invented threats, but real facts that no one hides," such as the U.S.-led alliance "pumping Ukraine with weapons and sending hundreds of Western military instructors."

Blinken said that Lavrov repeated to him that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine. But the U.S. secretary of state warned of a "swift, severe" response once Russia does so.

WRITTEN RESPONSE

A promised written response from the United States next week to Russia's proposals on security guarantees was part of the outcomes from the meeting.

Last month, Kremlin issued a set of demands to the United States and NATO, including a promise that the military bloc would not expand further eastward, according to U.S. media reports.

Moscow also wants NATO to promise that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it pulls back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

NATO has said that it rebuffed Moscow's chief demand that Ukraine never be admitted.

Blinken said on Friday that Washington will share those ideas in written form with Russia next week.

Lavrov told reporters that Moscow would understand if the 90-minute Geneva talk is "on the right track or not" after receiving the U.S. written response to all of Moscow's proposals. 
The Chinese car company Geely allegedly has plans to start making phones as well. To this end, it is said to be in talks to acquire the OEM Meizu. Meanwhile, the same brand has confirmed that it will release 2022 devices with Qualcomm silicon, prompting the release of an image projecting how such handsets might look.

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Geely may be best known as a company that makes cars that then sell under marques such as Polestar. However, it now seems that it wants to start making other devices, namely smartphones. According to the media outlet 36Krypton, it might need some help designing these products, which is where a merger with Meizu allegedly comes in.

The auto manufacturer has reportedly already invested around 10 billion yuan (~US$1.6 billion) on its prospective move into Meizu's industry, and may spend even more on this possible acquisition. Then again, the OEM in question has yet to respond publicly to these new rumors.

The brand has had a record of launching flagships with unique looks and attractive prices compared to their rivals; however, this has not exactly led to meteoric success for the OEM in its native China, not to speak of the international market, to date.

On the other hand, Meizu has gotten more conventional in recent years, as illustrated by its most recent 18 and 18s series of flagship smartphones. Nevertheless, the company's CEO, Huang Quban, has asserted that it will continue to partner with Qualcomm to offer "high-quality and distinctive products" in 2022.

This announcement has become the basis of a new render showing prospective "19-series" devices that not only have elements of possibly Samsung- and OnePlus-inspired design, but also exhibit giant Pentax logos in their camera humps. However much of a genuine new collaboration this detail proves evidence of remains to be seen.

Meizu also makes TWS earbuds that are available on Amazon.
Dale Den Herder concluded 52 years of work as city councilman and mayor at the end of 2021. He credited the people he worked with and exciting projects as reasons for his long stay with the city.
A project that will boost Great Lakes shipping in a crucial bottleneck and another intended to protect the lakes from invasive carp will get big funding increases under the Biden administration's infrastructure package, officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would pump $479 million into construction of a new navigational lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, expanding a complex that enables vessels to haul bulk cargo between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.

Additionally, the Corps will devote $226 million to the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, where plans call for the installation of obstacles to prevent invasive carp from migrating up the Illinois River to Lake Michigan.

The projects have been top priorities for members of Congress from the eight states that border the Great Lakes. The infrastructure measure, which also includes $1 billion to improve water quality, makes "the single largest investment ever in the Great Lakes," Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters of Michigan said in a statement.

About 7,000 vessels pass annually through the Soo Locks on the St. Marys River, which connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron and has a 21-foot elevation drop. Two locks are operational but only the Poe Lock can accommodate the biggest freighters, which are around 1,000 feet (305 meters) long.

The industry has long pushed for another, warning that if the Poe were disabled for long, it would disrupt the transport of commodities essential to Midwestern manufacturing.

Nearly all domestically made steel used in automobiles and appliances is produced from iron ore mined in Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula and shipped through the Poe Lock.

"The new lock at the Soo will provide much needed resiliency in the Great Lakes navigation system," said Kevin McDaniels, deputy district engineer for the Corps' Detroit District. "It will eliminate the single point of failure in our nation's iron ore supply chain."

The new funding will be enough to finish building the $1.3 billion lock, Stabenow and Peters said.

"The critical role that Great Lakes waterways play in sustaining and advancing America's economic vitality cannot be overstated," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat and chairwoman of the House Energy and Water Subcommittee. "The revitalization of the Soo Locks will strengthen America's commercial shipping capabilities and support good-paying jobs throughout the Industrial Heartland."

The Brandon Road Lock and Dam funding will complete preconstruction, engineering and design work on upgrades to block the path of invasive carp, as well as initial construction. Electric barriers, bubble screens, noisemakers and other devices will be used.

Rivers and canals between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan are infested with carp imported from Asia in the 1960s to clear sewage lagoons and fish farms of algae and weeds. They escaped into the Mississippi River and have spread into its tributaries and are competing with native species for food.

Scientists say an invasion of the Great Lakes would threaten its $7 billion fishing industry.

The new funding "is an historic step forward for this critically needed project to add a chain of smart technologies to the waterway that will stop invasive carp from reaching Lake Michigan," said Molly Flanagan, chief operating officer of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

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Farmers in Indiana reported record-high corn and soybean yields in 2021.

Indiana ranked fifth nationwide in both corn and soybean production last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The state produced 1.03 billion bushels of corn, a 5% increase over 2020, according to USDA State Statician Nathanial Warenski. Famers planted 5.27 million acres of corn, a slight year-over-year increase.

Hoosier farmers yielded 195 bushels per acre, an 8-bushel increase over 2020.

Nationally, the United States produced 15.1 billion bushels for corn for grain production, a 7% increase over 2020. The average yield nationwide was a record 177 bushels per acre, a 5.6 bushel increase over the previous year.

Corn yields increased last year in the Northeast, Southeast and Eastern Corn Belt. Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin all posted record yields.

Indiana soybean production fell 1% to 336 million bushels last year, according to the USDA.

Hoosier farmers harvested 5.64 million acres of soybeans, down 90,000 from 2020. The average yield of 59.5 bushels per acre however was a record and 0.5 bushels higher than 2020.

Soybean production nationwide hit a record 4.44 billion bushels last year, a 5% year-over-year increase.The average yield was 51.4 bushels per acre, a 0.4 bushel per acre increase over the previous year.

Farmers harvested 86.3 million acres of soybeans, a 5% increase over 2020.

Indina, Illinois, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin all saw record yields.

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Enter the robot. The robotic equipments software uses the information generated by the scan to create a personalized preoperative plan for the surgery. With the surgical plan in place, the surgeon uses the robotic arm to insert each end of the artificial hip joint exactly where it should go to maximize anatomical function. The robot moves within a predefined area, minimizing the possibility of surgical deviance from the preprogrammed plan while still allowing the surgeon to make adjustments during the surgery if needed.

Once the robot comes into the field, it acts as a navigator and co-pilot, Dr. Meere said. The surgeon is still in command but needs to expose less tissue and is more confident because the robot knows exactly where the cutting instruments are and where the boundaries of the safe cutting zones lie.

If the surgeon should drift from the safe zone, the robot issues an alert, comparable to the lane-departure warning in modern cars, and shuts off. In this way, Dr. Meere said, the robot minimizes the risk of inadvertent damage to bone or surrounding tissues. It also relieves the surgeons stress when operating on complex cases.

A critical factor in successful hip replacement is making sure the leg that is attached to the new hip matches the length of the other leg. Robotic-assisted surgery is reported to be five times more accurate in matching leg length than is conventional surgery. It is also better at inserting the new hip joint at the proper angle.

Before the surgical wound is closed, the surgeon can tell whether the joint is properly aligned and the leg lengths are even, which results in a more stable joint.

Robotic surgery is where things are going, Dr. Douglas B. Unis, orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, told me. It more accurately reconstructs the patients anatomy and results in better mechanical function. Off-the-shelf implants and the carpentry tools used to prepare bone are not good business or clinical models. Its becoming more economical and practical to design customized implants, he said, than it is to customize the patients bones to fit an existing implant.

Not only have surgical techniques used in hip replacements improved. So has anesthesia, which now usually relies on a combination of treatments like a regional spinal block and peripheral nerve block together with a pain-relief cocktail that is injected directly into the local wound, Dr. Meere said.
Image Outside the building in Harlem where two police officers were shot on Friday night. Credit... David Dee Delgado for The New York Times

One New York City police officer was killed and another was critically wounded when a gunman opened fire on them inside a Harlem apartment on Friday, the police said. They were the third and fourth officers to be shot in the line of duty this week, according to the police.

The police initially reported that both officers had been killed, but later said one was in critical condition at Harlem Hospital. The police said the officer who was killed was Jason Rivera, 22, who joined the department in November 2020. The critically injured officer was identified as Wilbert Mora, 27; he joined the department in 2018.

The gunman, identified by the police as Lashawn McNeil, 47, was shot in the arm and head by a third officer who was at the scene of the confrontation, an apartment on West 135th Street near Lenox Avenue, officials said. He survived but was in critical condition, the police said.

Speaking at a news conference at the hospital where the two officers were taken after being shot, Keechant Sewell, the police commissioner, described Officer Rivera as a son, husband, officer and friend who had been killed because he did what we asked him to do.

Im struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring, said Ms. Sewell, her voice rising in anger. Like the man who hired her, Mayor Eric Adams, she began her job overseeing the largest police force in the United States this month.

Were mourning, and were angry, she added.

Mr. Adams  who had been in the Bronx earlier attending a vigil for a baby who was hit in the face by a stray bullet on Wednesday night  also spoke with a raised voice at the news conference.

This was just not an attack on three brave officers, he said. This was an attack on the City of New York and an attack on the children and families of this city.

The shooting of the officers was the latest in a series of crimes early in Mr. Adamss term that has tested his vow to heighten public safety after increases in certain crimes amid the pandemic.

The chief of detectives, James W. Essig, gave the following account of the events surrounding the shooting:

Image The police said that Officer Jason Rivera, left, was killed and Officer Wilbert Mora was critically wounded while responding to a 911 call on Friday. Credit... New York Police Department

Around 6:30 p.m. on Friday, three officers from the 32nd Precinct answered a 911 call from a woman who said she was fighting with her son. When the officers arrived at the apartment, they were met by the woman and a second son. There was no indication from the 911 call, officials said, that there were weapons in the apartment.

The woman told the officers that the son she had been fighting with was in a back bedroom at the end of a long, narrow hallway. As officers Mora and Rivera approached the bedroom, the door swung open and Mr. McNeil began firing. After shooting the two officers, Mr. McNeil tried to leave the apartment and was shot by the third officer, whose name has not been released.

Mr. McNeil, 47, was on probation after being arrested in New York on a felony drug charge around 2003, officials said. He also had four arrests in other states, all more than a decade ago.

On Tuesday, an officer was shot in the leg as he scuffled with a teenage suspect during a confrontation in the Bronx. And early Thursday, a detective was shot in the leg when a man fired through a door during a search for drugs at a Staten Island home, officials said. Neither of their injuries was life-threatening.

Reporting was contributed by Lola Fadulu , Chelsia Rose Marcius , Troy Closson , Dana Rubinstein , William K. Rashbaum and Ali Watkins .
Andre Leon Talley, the larger-than-life fashion editor who shattered his industrys glass ceiling when he went from the Jim Crow South to the front rows of Paris couture, parlaying his encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history and his quick wit into roles as author, public speaker, television personality and curator, died on Tuesday in White Plains, N.Y. He was 73.

Called The Only One by The New Yorker by virtue of his being the rare Black editor at the top of a field that was notoriously white and notoriously elitist, Mr. Talley, who stood 6 feet 6 inches tall, was an unmistakable figure everywhere he went. Given to drama in his personal style (he favored capes, gloves and regal headpieces), his pronouncements (My eyes are starving for beauty) and the work he adored, he cultivated an air of hauteur, though his friends knew him for his subcutaneous sentimentality.

He was, said the actress and talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg in the 2018 documentary The Gospel According to Andre, so many things he was not supposed to be.
WASHINGTON  Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona sued the Biden administration on Friday to block its efforts to claw back pandemic relief money that the state has been using to undercut mask requirements in schools.

The lawsuit is the latest legal fight between a Republican-led state and the Biden administration over how the $350 billion in state and local pandemic aid that Congress allocated last year can be used. It follows a series of warnings from the Treasury Department that Arizona could lose some of the $4.2 billion that it was awarded in the rescue package.

The funds in question relate to two education programs that Mr. Ducey, a Republican, established last year in response to mask requirements that some school districts in the state enacted. The state tried unsuccessfully to enact a law banning school mask mandates last year, but Mr. Ducey continues to oppose rules that require them.

The state has used federal money to help schools and students get around the mandates. A $163 million program, funded by federal relief money, provides up to $1,800 per pupil to public and charter schools but excludes schools that require masks.
COLLEYVILLE, Texas  Eleven hours into the standoff in a synagogue in suburban Fort Worth on Saturday evening, it was clear to the F.B.I. that the situation was devolving. The attacker, who had entered Congregation Beth Israel that morning and taken four hostages, was becoming more agitated and less communicative.

He was giving ultimatums and deadlines about killing hostages, Matthew DeSarno, the bureaus top agent in Dallas, said in an interview on Friday. We took him at his word.

Mr. DeSarno decided to launch the F.B.I.s elite Hostage Rescue Team, which had arrived from Quantico, Va. Inside the synagogue, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker had come to a similar conclusion: It was time to take action.

At around 9 p.m., almost simultaneously, and unaware of the other groups plans, the hostages inside the sanctuary moved for an exit as the highly trained agents outside moved in elsewhere. As the congregants staged a daring escape, the agents shot and killed the attacker, Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen.
As a brash senior commander who would crow to the press about his intent to liquidate rebels, General Kvashnin commanded a harsh campaign in Chechnya, which was part of the Russian Federation. Tanks and bombs reduced Grozny to rubble, yet despite its superior military might, Russia found itself embroiled in some of the most horrific urban fighting since World War II.

Thousands of Russian soldiers were taken hostage, tortured and killed, appalling and haunting the citizens of a fallen superpower that was trying to enter a new era under Boris N. Yeltsin, the first democratically elected post-Soviet leader.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Russian military analyst, told The New York Times at the end of General Kvashnins tenure, in 2004, that his leadership had killed more Russian soldiers than any Chechen warlord ever did and made him the most hated general in the Russian military.

The first Chechen war ended in 1996 in stalemate, which later provided an opening for Mr. Yeltsins successor, Mr. Putin, who promised to establish order and avenge a national failure.

General Kvashnin helped him achieve that goal by overseeing the initial phase of a second Chechen war, which began in 1999 and concluded about a decade later with Russia stabilizing the rule of a friendly local government.
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In recent years, questioning the ongoing existence of the World Economic Forums annual confab in Davos became almost as much of a ritual as the event itself. Each January, mainstream media outlets would publish headlines like Does Davos still matter?, Is the World Economic Forum in Davos still relevant? and Does the world need Davos?, even as those same publications sent their correspondents to report on all the hot air being spewed in the Alps.

Now, finally, the naysayers have a chance to test their thesis. For the second year in a row, the annual in-person meeting in Davos was scrapped because of the pandemic. An IRL gathering was announced for late May, but the relatively last-minute cancellation makes it easier to assess what has until recently been a hypothetical debate: Would it matter if Davos just went away?
Harvey G. Stack, the patriarch of the family firm that calls itself the nations largest rare coin business, died on Jan. 3 in New York. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by his son, Larry.

Mr. Stack joined Stacks Rare Coins as a teenager in 1947, 14 years after his father and uncle transformed what his great-grandfather had founded in 1858 as a foreign exchange house in Lower Manhattan into a dealership devoted exclusively to collectible currency.

Before formally retiring in 2009, Mr. Stack, with his wife, his cousins and his children, helped turn what is now known as Stacks Bowers Galleries into an industry nonpareil.

He developed a standardized grading system for appraising coins, and he expanded demand among hobbyists by urging Congress to approve the U.S. Mints enormously popular 50 State Quarters Program, which, beginning in 1999, honored each state with a commemorative coin in the order in which they ratified the Constitution or were admitted to the union.
Lisa Goddard, a climate scientist at Columbia University who harnessed cutting-edge computer models to bring invaluable data about upcoming floods, droughts and heat waves to people worldwide facing increasingly extreme weather events, died on Jan. 13 in Mount Kisco, N.Y. She was 55.

Her husband, David Cooperberg, said the cause was breast cancer.

At Columbias International Research Institute for Climate and Society, where she spent most of her career and which she ran from 2012 to 2020, Dr. Goddard specialized in honing predictive climate models for what scientists call subseasonal-to-seasonal forecasting  the temporal space between everyday weather and long-term climate.

To most people, she believed, such information was more important than the kind of far-off climate predictions that often make headlines.

The types of hazards we worry most about with respect to climate change projections  such as droughts, heat waves, inundation events  are happening right now, and we can predict them with weeks to months of lead time, rather than merely projecting how their statistics may change in 50-100 years, Dr. Goddard said in a 2021 interview for the Columbia Climate School website.
When Madison speaks of a minority in the context of the Senate, he means an economic interest, not an organized political faction. In all civilized Countries, he says, the people fall into different classes having a real or supposed difference of interests. There will be creditors & debtors, farmers, merchants & manufacturers. There will be particularly the distinction of rich & poor.

He continues:

In framing a system which we wish to last for ages, we should not lose sight of the changes which ages will produce. An increase of population will of necessity increase the proportion of those who will labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings. These may in time outnumber those who are placed above the feelings of indigence. According to the equal laws of suffrage, the power will slide into the hands of the former.

The issue for Madison, a young Virginia planter at this point in his life, is how, using the principles of republican government, to prevent the rise of a leveling spirit. When he asks, How is the danger in all cases of interested coalitions to oppress the minority to be guarded against? he is not speaking about different parties; hes speaking about the mass of the poor, working and indigent against the owners of property and wealth.

The question of how to balance power between two partisan factions within a legislature never came up, which should make it difficult to use Madison in defense of something like the filibuster. The most we can say is that Madison expected the Senate to be an elitist body and within that body, it would operate on the principle of majority rule except for when the Constitution stated otherwise.

You could make the argument that by blocking most egalitarian legislation, the filibuster does fit within the design and intent of the Senate. Then again, Madison was worried that the legislature would be carried away by the passions of the moment. It is unclear what he would think about a system that required deliberation over time to pass legislation. To carry out its agenda, a party has to win at least two consecutive election cycles. During that time, party elites and affiliate groups debate and deliberate among themselves over their priorities should they win power. And then, once in power, they have to negotiate the specifics of the bills in question.

Put another way, the debate over majority rule in the Senate isnt about whether the chamber will have the power to stop any irrational exuberance in its tracks. Its about whether, after an extended period of time, internal deliberation and public debate, a partisan majority in the Senate can pass its agenda into law using a simple majority.

I think it should. If the path from idea to bill to law includes multiple election cycles, where different and overlapping electorates weigh in on the parties and policies in question  and if it includes deliberation and debate within the chamber itself, including cooperation and negotiation with both the president and the House of Representatives  is that not akin to the proverbial cooling saucer?

I think we should at least consider the temporal hurdle Ive described a kind of supermajority requirement that, once met, entitles a governing party to using a simple majority to pass its legislation. Between bicameralism, separated powers, the diverse and fractious nature of the parties themselves and the simple passage of time, we already have the forces that prevent whiplash and chaos. We dont actually need another.
Tulle, he murmured ominously. Blanche DuBois.

Another time, he took me to a White House brunch celebrating Barack Obamas second inauguration. This is your date? President Obama asked Andre, raising an eyebrow. But Andre didnt care. He was focused on my footwear. Rag & Bone bootees are not for going to the White House, he instructed me when we were out of the receiving line. They are for going to Starbucks.

As Andre said about his advice, I AM NEVER WRONG! He advised all women to moisturize their skin as well as Melania Trump, although, increasingly appalled with the racism he saw in the Trump White House, he instructed me: We are never to talk about her again. She is nouveau riche trash.

He loved Jackie Kennedys style but turned on her when he learned that she had snubbed Ann Lowe, the Black designer of her wedding dress, calling Lowe simply a colored dressmaker.

I dont like Jackie O, he said. She is now Jackie No.

When Andre was spending the night with me for that inaugural, he got the flu and ended up staying for five days. I cleared out of my bedroom and gave him my queen-size bed. He glowered at the closet that was too stuffed to close and barked at me to remove a hat from the wall, a broad-brim, pink-ribbon number that Id worn to Easter Mass when I was little.

Your look is not sweet, he bellowed. It is equestrian S&M!

He missed his own tiger-stenciled sheets and he called me Bad Nurse. He kept me running with his requests for chicken noodle soup, Georgetown Cupcakes, chocolate milk and turkey chili.
If a rock falls on Mars, and no one is there to see it, does it leave a trace? Yes, and its a beautiful herringbone-like pattern, new research reveals. Scientists have now spotted thousands of tracks on the red planet created by tumbling boulders. Delicate chevron-shaped piles of Martian dust and sand frame the tracks, the team showed, and most fade over the course of a few years.

Rockfalls have been spotted elsewhere in the solar system, including on the moon and even a comet. But a big open question is the timing of these processes on other worlds  are they ongoing or did they predominantly occur in the past?

A study of these ephemeral features on Mars, published last month in Geophysical Research Letters, says that such boulder tracks can be used to pinpoint recent seismic activity on the red planet. This new evidence that Mars is a dynamic world runs contrary to the notion that all of the planets exciting geology happened much earlier, said Ingrid Daubar, a planetary scientist at Brown University who was not involved in the study. For a long time, we thought that Mars was this cold, dead planet.

To arrive at this finding, Vijayan, a planetary scientist at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India, who uses a single name, and his colleagues pored over thousands of images of Marss equatorial region. The imagery was captured from 2006 through 2020 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and revealed details as small as 10 inches across.
Seventy-six countries, home to four in 10 women, allow abortion for any reason for a certain number of weeks. The most common threshold is 12 weeks. A dozen or so countries besides the United States allow abortion without any restrictions or conditions after 15 weeks, the cutoff in question in the Mississippi case. They include North Korea, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and Vietnam. In February, France increased the threshold to 16 weeks from 14.

Through the lens of comparative national law, Mississippis abortion regime is more permissive than in most countries, wrote 141 international legal scholars in a brief to the Supreme Court in support of Mississippi.

Some countries have more access than the law suggests 

Some of these countries, however, allow abortion after the cutoff if the woman has a valid reason, and law scholars say that in some of them, abortion until fetal viability is as accessible as it is in the United States under Roe.

In Germany, for example, abortion is permitted on request until 12 weeks, and until 22 weeks if, in the womans view, it is necessary for her physical or mental health or for present or future living conditions. In Denmark, which also has a 12-week cutoff, abortion is allowed after that time for factors including health; the persons age, income or housing; or her interests or occupation.

Other countries also allow exceptions after 12 weeks, but they are less broad. In Ireland, for instance, the exceptions are to prevent serious health issues or death, or if the fetus has a severe, incurable illness.

Gestational cutoffs, even if they have exemptions, can present obstacles to abortion access. One strong piece of evidence is the large number of women who travel to less restrictive countries in Europe for later abortions, Professor Mishtal said.

Gestational age limits are serious barriers, she said. Even in places that are ostensibly liberal, that limit creates a real barrier to the people who need the service beyond that limit.
On Wednesday, an American Airlines flight from Miami to London turned around about an hour into its journey because of a passenger who refused to wear a mask, the airline said.

In October, a passenger was accused of punching an American Airlines flight attendant in her nose, giving her a concussion, after a mask dispute. And in December, a California woman pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching a flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines flight, bloodying her face and chipping three teeth.

Over the past year, we had seen a dramatic uptick in unruly passenger incidents, and weve undertaken a number of measures to get that under control, Steve Dickson, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said during an online discussion this week.

And Im happy to say that the rates are down significantly, year over year, but weve still got more work to do, Mr. Dickson said. And this is, again, something that we need to continue to stay focused on.

In a statement filed in court, an F.B.I. agent said that Mr. McInerney had refused to wear a mask despite being asked to do so dozens of times during the eight-hour flight. He threw an empty beverage can, hitting another passenger in the head, and kicked the seat back in front of him, disturbing the passenger there, the statement said.
PHOENIX  A rift between Senator Kyrsten Sinema and fellow Democrats back home in Arizona deepened on Saturday as the state party formally rebuked Ms. Sinema for refusing to change the Senates filibuster rules to pass sweeping voting rights legislation.

The censure from the partys executive board was symbolic, but it crystallized a growing sense of anger and frustration among liberal activists and Democratic voters aimed at Ms. Sinema.

They accuse Ms. Sinema, a first-term senator, of impeding key parts of President Bidens agenda, and have vowed to withhold donations and search for a liberal primary challenger when she is up for re-election in two years. Activists have staged protests outside her office and begun a hunger strike to urge Ms. Sinema to support changing the Senate rules to allow voting-rights legislation to pass with a simple majority of the 100 senators rather than the 60 votes required under Senate rules.

But she has steadfastly refused, and reiterated her opposition to scrapping the filibuster in a Jan. 13 speech on the Senate floor, arguing that the parliamentary tactic has been used repeatedly to protect against wild swings in federal policy.
A spokesman for the Department of Childrens Services declined to comment on the case, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The office of the Tennessee attorney general, Herbert H. Slatery III, did not reply to an email. Holston United Methodist Home for Children, the agency that refused to work with the Rutan-Rams, referred questions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization in Scottsdale, Ariz., which did not reply to an email.

Holstons president, Bradley Williams, said in a statement that the agency was committed to Christian biblical principles and places children with families that agree with our statement of faith.

We view the caregivers we partner with as extensions of our ministry team serving children, he said. So from the very beginning, we seek to find alignment with them, and if we cannot do so, we try to help them find an agency that may be a better fit.

The couple first saw the boy, who was about 3 years old, last January, Ms. Rutan-Ram said in an interview on Thursday, on the website for the Heart Gallery of Tampa, a nonprofit organization that profiles children in the foster-care system and helps match them with adoptive families. Drawn to his smile, his age and his resilience in overcoming developmental challenges, the Rutan-Rams decided to start the adoption process.

Ms. Rutan-Ram said she had asked Holston if us being a Jewish household would be a problem. The agency said it would get back to them, she recalled. At first, Holston agreed to provide the mandated parent training and home-study certification, which would then be presented to Florida before the guardianship could take effect, the lawsuit said.

The couple would have then been eligible to foster the child in their home for six months before adopting him. But on Jan. 21, 2021, the day they were scheduled to begin the foster parent training class, Melissa Russell, a Holston employee, emailed Ms. Rutan-Ram.

The lawsuit quoted the email as saying, As a Christian organization, our executive team made the decision several years ago to only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system in order to avoid conflicts or delays with future service delivery.
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine  Ukrainian soldiers, Kalashnikov rifles slung over their shoulders, patrolled through a silent, snowy forest, passing homes so long abandoned that vines twirl through the broken windows.

The fields are fallow, the cities deserted and the entire Chernobyl zone in northern Ukraine is still so radioactive it would seem the last place on Earth anybody would want to conquer.

But while most of the attention around a potential invasion by Russia is focused on troop buildups and daily hostilities in the east, the shortest route from Russia to Ukraines capital, Kyiv, is from the north. And it passes through the isolated zone around the Chernobyl power plant, where the meltdown of a reactor in 1986 caused the worst nuclear disaster in history.

In one of the incongruities of war, that makes Chernobyl an area that Ukraine thinks it needs to defend, forcing its military to deploy security forces into the eerie and still radioactive forest, where they carry both weapons and equipment to detect radiation exposure.
Overseeing a small island dominated by a castle, seals and a pub, an English council is searching for a new king or queen.

Claimants to the ancient throne, carved from old oak and soaked in the beer of coronations past, can apply for the job through the local governments website.

The job listing, posted last week by the Barrow Borough Council in Cumbria, is technically seeking someone to run the pub on Piel Island, half a mile off Englands northwestern coast. Winters are wet, travel is limited and an eccentric tradition of naming a king survives at the islands old pub.

Were not talking about St. Lucia or the Hawaiian islands, said John Murphy, a 73-year-old resident of nearby Walney Island, and the guide of walking tours of the area for four decades. Were talking about a small and very isolated island in the north of England.
According to the British assessment, Russian planners were considering installing a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament named Yevgeniy Murayev as leader of a pro-Kremlin puppet government in Kyiv. Once a member of the Russian-backed Party of Regions, Mr. Murayev is now head of a political party called Nashi, part of a constellation of opposition parties opposed to Ukraines pro-Western parties. Last September, a massive banner with his photograph was hung on the facade of Federation of Trade Unions building on Kyivs Independence Square with the slogan This is our Land.

In a recent Facebook post he accused the current government in Kyiv of selling out to the United States, which he said was whipping up war hysteria to reap financial rewards from the sale of weapons.

The hawks are looking forward to a feast, he wrote.

It is not clear from the British statement whether Russia had informed Mr. Murayev that he was being considered as a possible future leader of Ukraine. But after a journalist with a British newspaper tipped him off about the revelations, he posted a photo of himself to Facebook posing as James Bond with the comment, Details tomorrow.

Russian spies maintain extensive networks of agents in Ukraine and contacts between Ukrainian officials and intelligence officers are not uncommon, according to Ukrainian and Western security officials

All four of the other Ukrainians named in the communique once held senior positions in the Ukrainian government and worked in proximity to Paul Manafort, former President Donald J. Trumps campaign manager, when he worked as a political adviser to Ukraines former Russian-backed president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. After Mr. Yanukovychs government fell in 2014, they fled to Russia.

One of those named, Vladimir Sivkovich, was among four Ukrainians targeted last week with sanctions by the United States Treasury Department for their ties to Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine.

If the British assessment is accurate, it would not be the first time the Kremlin tried to install a pro-Russian leader or interfere in Ukraines government. In 2004, Russian efforts to fraudulently sway a presidential election set off what became known as the Orange Revolution, which forced a redo election that led to the defeat of Mr. Yanukovych, who was the Kremlins favored candidate.
Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump must become wistful thinking about the good old days of early 2017 when her biggest worry was about retailers dumping her clothing line.

Dad, Donald, lashed out at Nordstrom via Twitter for treating the First Daughter so unfairly after it pulled Ivankas line from its shelves. Neiman Marcus also joined the fun and dropped her clothes.

Ivanka was cast into the harsh media spotlight after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News fans to go buy Ivankas stuff. How tasteless of Kellyanne.

But Ivanka had no inkling what PR disasters lurked down the pike.

She is now besieged by the House committee that is probing the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection. It wants to know whether she tried to persuade Dad to call off the thugs that trashed the Capitol.

And then there is New Yorks bulldog attorney general Tish James who alleges that the First Daughter was deeply involved in the financial shenanigans at the Trump Organization.

Be strong, Ivanka.

Donald Trump casts PR shade on Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corp. In his just-released Dec. 16 unsigned executive order, which is loaded with typos, calling for the Defense Dept. to seize Dominion Voting Systems machines in Antrim, MI, Trump implied that HSBC was part of a conspiracy to rig the election.

Trump noted that Toronto-based DVS assigned its intellectual property, including patents on software, to HSBC, a bank with its foundation in China and its current headquarters in London.

We know The Donald wasnt a big fan of China, but Britain? Didnt he long for a tea with the Queen?

I have such a great relationship, and we were laughing and having fun. And her people said she hasnt had so much fun in 25 years. Then I got criticized for it because they said we were having too much fun, he said after his state visit to the UK in 2019.

Trump did bring out thousands of people to the streets of London but they weren't exactly his fans.

Mighty Unilever takes a PR stumble as it walks away from a $68B takeover offer for GSK Consumer Health.

The company was forced to acknowledge its bid for the maker of Tums, ChapStick, Polident, Advil and Aquafresh on Jan. 15 after news leaked to the press.

On Jan. 17, Unilever issued an update to stockholders that GSK Consumer Healthcare would be a strong strategic fit, creating scale and a growth platform in the US, China and India.

After receiving a cold shoulder from GSK, Unilever bailed out on Jan. 19, saying it was unwilling to jack up the asking price.

The move left Unilever with a proverbial egg on its face. Tulchan Group handles the companys financial PR

Unilevers shares are down 30 percent from 2019 and shareholders are pressing the worlds No. 1 ice cream maker and marketer of Hellmanns mayonnaise to step up its drive into healthier marketing categories.

Management will release full-year 2021 financials on Feb. 10. Theres a lot riding on those numbers.
Indonesias economic development has not benefited the entire population Indonesias recovery from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis has led to an impressive reduction in poverty and a significant improvement in living standards. However, the decline in poverty slowed significantly after 2010, with 38.2% of the population remaining poor or vulnerable. At the same time, inequality rose strongly until recently. Social protection is at the centre of Indonesias inclusive growth strategy Since 2000, Indonesia has made great progress towards establishing a social protection system that covers a wide range of risks as part of its strategy to promote inclusive growth as a critical enabler of the countrys continued economic and social development. Yet it is not operating at its full potential. Households eligible for PKH are also entitled to complementary initiatives to promote their sustainable exit from poverty, including scholarships, free health insurance and subsidised rice. However, it is rare that poor individuals benefit from all these programmes, due to institutional fragmentation and uneven use of the Unified Database (UDB), which has been developed since 2005 as a common targeting mechanism for social assistance. Indonesias social insurance programmes, such as retirement pensions and health insurance, are well established, and the government is taking steps towards reducing coverage gaps. The national health insurance system, JKN, is making extraordinary progress towards universal health coverage, covering three quarters of the population as of October 2018. However, there are concerns regarding its long-term sustainability. At the same time, a new pension system is struggling to increase coverage amongst Indonesias large informal sector. Active labour-market policies are required to enhance the skills and productivity of poor, vulnerable and marginalised workers, but these are currently implemented at a relatively small scale. Meanwhile, passive labour policies, such as minimum wages and severance pay, risk distorting the labour market and compliance is low. Severance pay is considered a constraint to hiring and firing workers, while minimum wages are high relative to the median wage. Over the coming decades, Indonesias elderly population is expected to grow rapidly. This means that the focus on alleviating child poverty will shift over time to programmes for older people. Increasing coverage of contributory pensions is a policy priority of Indonesia but will be difficult to achieve, especially for individuals closer to retirement today. Demand for alternative approaches to ensuring welfare in old age is likely to intensify.

Strengthening the social protection system Indonesia is realising its commitment to establish a social protection system. Important progress has been made in strengthening coherence and coordination across a number of dimensions, including legislation, policies and institutions. However, financing for social protection is low by international standards, reflecting the countrys weak domestic resource mobilisation.

Policies to expand social insurance coverage, enhance tax compliance and promote formalisation should work hand-in-hand to increase the resources available to social protection while ensuring Indonesians have access to better jobs.

Did you know...? The challenge of reducing poverty is in part a result of the major economic disparities across the country: in 2018, the poverty rate in Jakarta was below 4% but exceeded 20% in a number of eastern provinces.

Did you know...? The majority of the Indonesian workforce is informally employed: in 2016, the informality rate stood at 57%. Informal workers (and their families) often find themselves in the missing middle of social protection coverage, whereby they are ineligible for poverty-targeted social assistance but excluded from employment-based contributory arrangements.
The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) and Offaly heating solutions company Grant are partnering up to ensure "a more sustainable built environment."

The new partnership will see Grant, which has played a leading role in the plumbing and heating industry for over 40 years, supporting the IGBC in accelerating the decarbonisation of residential heating.

Pat Barry CEO at the Irish Green Building Council said: Decarbonising our homes is critical to reach carbon neutrality. As it currently stands, the residential sector accounts for about one quarter of the energy used in Ireland. Grant is the first heating company to join our organisation as a partner member and we are looking forward to working with them to support the decarbonisation of our built environment.

Stephen Grant, Founder of Grant, added: We are delighted to join the Irish Green Building Council, bringing over four decades of knowledge, innovation and expertise in the heating industry. We are committed to the decarbonisation of residential heating and will continue to focus on helping homeowners throughout Ireland reduce their carbon footprint and future-proof their homes.

The Government Climate Action plan requires Ireland to instal 600,000 heat pumps by 2030. To make the shift to heat pump technology, Grant is ramping up education of installers, architects, engineers and local authorities, offering free CPDs.

Niall Fay, Director at Grant commented: We look forward to working together with the Irish Green Building Council and fellow members, to educate homeowners but also installers, architects, engineers and local authorities alike, on how making the shift to renewable. Heat pump technology can deliver a fully decarbonised, resource efficient home heating system, whilst also allowing long term cost saving and increased comfort.

Further demonstrating its commitment to education, Grant has recently launched a new Knowledge Hub section on its website. Dedicated to giving homeowners easy access to information and advice to help them make informed decisions when selecting heating technologies to best suit their needs, the Knowledge Hub emphasises the importance of making sustainable home heating choices.
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Kelly Clarkson and her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock have reached an agreement over their embattled Montana ranch. People reports that according to new court documents, the Stronger performer will give the 45-year-old talent manager 5.12% percent of the property, which is equal to $908,800 of its $17,750,000 value. Click inside to read more The filing also [...]
A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued for Michael Jackson, 52, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his seven-year-old daughter to prevent her from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
Thich Nhat Hanh, who popularised mindfulness in the West, spent nearly four decades in exile after being banished from his homeland for calling for an end to the Vietnam-American War.
Russia's defence minister has accepted an invitation to meet his UK counterpart Ben Wallace amid fears that an invasion of Ukraine is "imminent".
Demonstrators formed a human chain in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Saturday for the annual Unity Day, which marks the anniversary of the country's unification
In a highly unusual public statement, backed by U.S. officials, London named the putative head of a potential puppet government but few other details.
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In its coverage of an antisemitic incident in London, the BBC reported that a member of a Jewish group had provoked attackers with an anti-Muslim slur.
New Zealand is on the brink of a major border failure which will plunge the country into red, an expert warns.University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker is urging the Government to immediately tighten the border,...
Wales Online 21 Jan 2022

The First Minister has been grilled on the difference between rules in Wales and England and said the PM had 'abandoned' science in..
The US suspends 44 flights from Chinese carriers after China canceled US flights in recent days due to COVID-19 concerns.
ODN 31 Mar 2022

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace confirms more lethal and military aid will be sent to Ukraine and that as Russian tactics change, the..
It can make it much harder for some to get on the property ladder.
A British tourist was killed and his friend badly injured in an alleged sickle attack by a man in Thailand.
New Zealand Herald 28 Jan 2022

When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the..
Ottumwa, IA (52501)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High around 60F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 49F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
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BIG RAPIDS  The Big Rapids area's first mobile food pantry distribution of 2022 has a new time.

The Greater Big Rapids Area Mobile Food Pantry will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, instead of at 9 a.m., at the Mecosta County Fairgrounds, at 540 West Ave., Big Rapids. Check in will be at 9:30 a.m. at the drive through entrance off of Pere Marquette. Feeding America will provide enough food for 150 families in the drive-through, with no-contact distribution.

Hosted by Angels of Action and Manna Pantry, the monthly food truck distributes free food for people in need in the greater Big Rapids area. Additional distributions will happen at 10 a.m. Feb. 26, March 26, April 23, May 21, June 25, July 23, Aug. 27, Sept. 24, Oct. 22, Nov. 10 and Dec. 17.

Feeding America also will have food distributions at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, at the Fork Township Community Center, 3265 20 Mile Road, Barryton, and 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, at the Morley Community Center, 151 7th St, Morley.

For more information about the Greater Big Rapids Area Mobile Food Pantry, call 231-408-2940 or visit www.angelsofaction.org, www.facebook.com/angelsofaction, www.mannapantry.org or www.facebook.com/MannaPantry.

For more information about Feeding America West Michigan, visit www.feedwm.org/findfood.
Photo provided/Delta College

In response to local employer workforce needs, Delta College is offering two short-term job training programs: Chemical Process Operator Fast Start and Manufacturing Warehouse & Logistics Fast Start.

These critical roles support the supply chain and ensure regionally produced products can make it out the door to the businesses who need it, said Jennifer Carroll, director of Corporate Services for Delta. "Without these roles filled, businesses will struggle to meet growing demand. Delta efficiently trains people to ensure they have the skills employers say they need to be successful on the job. Because of the unique partnerships with employers and Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works!, Delta College Fast Start program completers are guaranteed an interview and a path to immediate employment.
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Albert Pruss of Midland has experienced quite a bit of history during his lifetime. Sitting in his armchair in the house that he built himself over 70 years ago, Pruss recently reflected on his experiences shortly before his 101st birthday, which will be this Monday.

Albert J. Pruss was born on Jan. 24, 1921, on a farm near Snyder, Nebraska, to Albert B. and Bessie Pruss, as the eldest of 10 sons. Following graduation from high school, Albert joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a work relief program following the Great Depression. His brother, Francis, was part of the same CCC camp in the early part of 1940 before moving to Midland.

Albert worked with the CCC from January 1939 to June 1940 before one of Franciss contacts offered Albert a job in Midland. In August 1940, Alberts parents drove him from Nebraska to Midland, dropping him off with $5 before returning home.

We didnt have money. They could only afford to do so much. They had to leave to get back home to the rest of the kids, Albert said.

Albert and Francis stayed in a rooming house, sharing the living room with four other tenants. While Francis worked at a hamburger shop on Main Street in downtown Midland  where Huntington Bank stands today  Albert got a job as a clerk at Kroger, which was also located downtown at the time.

We did everything. We unloaded our own trucks and we stocked all the shelves. We had bread stacked up six feet high with sheets between each layer of the loaves, Albert said.

Albert stayed at Kroger only a short time before working at the post office during the Christmas holiday rush, carrying mail and handling parcels. By that time, Francis had moved to Florida and invited Albert to join him. Albert had planned on driving one of his colleagues at the post office down to Dearborn before continuing on to Florida. His plans on heading south were derailed, however, when that same colleague died right before the trip.

I never went to Florida. I decided that because it was the way it happened, I had better not go to Florida, Albert said.

Instead, he got a job at Dow Chemicals power plant in April 1941, making 70 cents an hour.

It was around that time that Albert courted the former Selma Kapanka, who grew up on a farm in rural Midland County.

Mom always said that (Dad) was test-driving a convertible and was driving up and down Main Street. Mom worked at the farm office and he was waving at her, trying to impress her as she was walking down the street, said Dianne Pruss, Albert and Selmas daughter.

The couple were married on June 19, 1942. Together, they raised a family of six children: Ellen Snedeker, Cathy Coultrip, Tom Pruss, Doug Pruss, Dianne Pruss and Todd Pruss. Albert also has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Albert is also a World War II veteran. He served in the Army Air Corps from December 1942 to January 1946, achieving the rank of technical sergeant. He was stationed in North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; and Madison, Wisconsin before finally serving the rest of his term in Panama as the communications director for the air base there.

Once he was discharged, Albert returned to his former job at Dow, where he worked until his retirement in 1982. His final position was superintendent of instrumentation and refrigeration for the Midland plant, overseeing about 180 employees.

I was probably the only superintendent who wasnt a college graduate, Albert said.

Albert continued to better himself, attending night school for many years; he earned a degree in math with minors in physics and chemistry from Central Michigan University. He also became a master electrician and built a house for his family in 1950; he resides there to this day.

There was no street. The subdivision had just opened up at that time, Albert said.

The Prusses were among the original families of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, attending Mass at Northeast Middle Schools gymnasium before the sanctuary was built. Albert served as the head usher and performed odd jobs around the church. He also worked with John Hopfensperger on constructing the new sanctuary.

I became involved because I was willing to dig into it, Albert said.

Albert is also a family man at heart. In addition to chronicling Pruss family history, including publishing a book in 2016, he has worked to maintain connections with distant relatives. While traveling to a national roofing show in Texas in 1983, Albert and Selma stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas, to connect with a distant branch of the Pruss family.

They were successful in their endeavor and continued to maintain contact between the Arkansas and Nebraska Pruss relatives. Albert returned to Little Rock to mark the official Pruss Family Day, proclaimed by then-governor Bill Clinton on July 25, 1986.

We had small kids in Midland, so we couldnt all go, we couldnt afford it. I went and attended that. There were hundreds of people, Albert said.

After 60 years of marriage, Selma died in 2003. Three years later, Albert met Lois Schwandt while playing euchre at a senior club. They were married in 2008 by Alberts youngest brother, Rob, who is a priest and is now the only other surviving sibling.

Alberts family expanded to include Loiss four children as well as her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Albert and Lois enjoy travelling as well as ballroom, square and polka dancing.

Hes been a dancer his whole life, Dianne said.

Looking back, Albert attributes his good, long life to hard work.

I was a hard worker. I just took life the way it came, Albert said. Thats how I got along.

Alberts children hosted a large get-together last year when he turned 100. This year, however, the family is celebrating with a small, intimate dinner this weekend, with a larger party planned for the summer.
MSU Extension of Midland County and cooperating parent educators sponsor the Parents Corner. Send submissions to Midland County MSU Extension Educator, Lisa Treiber, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland, MI 48640.

Top 10 Credit Tips. MSU Extension will host this virtual workshop 12-1 p.m. Jan. 25. During this lunch and learn, discover the difference between credit, credit reports and credit scores. The session will also cover what makes up a credit score and offer tips on how to improve your credit score. Participants will also learn about habits that can hurt their score and why credit is needed and the benefits of good credit.

There is no charge to attend. Pre-registration is required, to register visit www.canr.msu.edu/mimoneyhealth/ click on the link online classes which will include this course as well as other options that might be of interest. Registration for this class closes on Jan. 23.

Food Safety Q & A. MSU Extension offers a week 30-minute informational program about food preservation. A short presentation will be shared focusing on the featured topic, leaving plenty of time for Q & A. The next session is Preserving MI Harvest: Water Bath Basics. Join in on this quick free presentation at 1 p.m. Jan. 24. To register, visit events.anr.msu.edu/FoodSafetywinter2022/

Investigating Food with Science. Each week at 4 p.m., youth will explore the aspects of cooking as an experiment and baking as a science. A kid-friendly recipe or experiment demonstration will be presented for youth to try at home with an adults assistance. The following week, youth can share their experiences or pictures. All sessions will be presented via Zoom. The Jan. 24 topic will be Globby Gluten. To register visit events.anr.msu.edu/IFWSwinter2022/. Any questions should be directed to Kellie Jordan at jorda136@msu.edu.

Preserving MI Harvest Series. Michigan State University Extension will be offering a series of food preservation classes online, these free classes will be offered at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursdays. The topic on Jan. 27 will be "What to Do with All Those Dry Beans." These sessions will not be recorded, they will only be offered live. Supporting materials will be emailed to all participants after each broadcast. Join in the fun, sign up for one, some or all these educational sessions. There is time at the end of each program to ask questions. To register visit events.anr.msu.edu/PreservingMIHarvestWinter2022/

Evening Snowshoe Hike. Discover the beauty of a winter night at Chippewa Nature Center from 5-6:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 or Jan. 31. Well look for signs of animals, study tree silhouettes and enjoy the winter sky. Pre-register and reserve snowshoes at www.chippewanaturecenter.org or call 989-631-0830. Bring a headlamp or flashlight. This program is designed for ages 15 and up (ages under 18 with an adult).

Safe Food = Healthy Kids. MSU Extension is offering a three-hour online training for childcare providers with the Safe Food = Healthy Kids (SFHK) program, 6-9 p.m. Jan. 25. Learn about the best practices for food safety to keep the children in your care safe. Food safety education topics discussed in the class include proper cleaning and sanitizing, cooking, storing food, as well as personal hygiene and more. SFHK is an approved training for Great Start to Quality, and this class will count toward annual training hours. Class is facilitated by MSU Extension Food Safety Educators. To register, visit events.anr.msu.edu/SFHKWinterSpring22/ This is a free program, participants must attend the whole session to receive their training hours.

Protecting Your Identity and Avoiding Scammers Webinar. MSU Extension will host this virtual workshop 12-1 p.m. Jan. 27. During this lunch and learn, discover what identity theft is, how to protect your credit, how to identify scams, what to do if you become a victim of identity theft and scams that are now happening due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Spend an hour of your time to increase your financial awareness. There is no charge to attend. Pre-registration is required, to register visit www.canr.msu.edu/mimoneyhealth/ click on the link online classes and you will then see this course as well as other options that might be of interest to you. Registration for this class closes on Jan. 25.

Nature Book Club: Winter World. Chippewa Nature Center will host a book club chat and naturalist-led hike 1-3 p.m. Jan. 30. Januarys book is National Bestseller Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich. This program is designed for ages 15 and up (ages under 18 with an adult). Register by Jan. 28 at www.chippewanaturecenter.org.

Cooking for Crowds. Is your organization preparing for a food event? Cooking for Crowds provides food safety education to volunteers and groups who offer food fundraisers and events such as dinners and bake sales. Join MSU Extension for this online Zoom class, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 8 to learn how to keep the community safe and prevent foodborne illness. There are a variety of food safety risks that develop when cooking large volumes of food. Learn to reduce these risks and help prevent the conditions that may lead to a foodborne illness.

Educational topics include defining a foodborne illness, safe purchasing, storage, preparation, and safe service of food items. Class will include information based on the Michigan food code and regulations for the state of Michigan. The cost for this three-hour class is $15, with each participant receiving a food safety manual in the mail after registering for the class. https://www.canr.msu.edu/cooking_for_crowds/events
The Breaking Bread Village (TBBV) was born in 2020 and I was able to connect with local, national and international guests, gratefully. When I started dreaming about what I wanted to see for TBBV in 2021, I declared that some of the people I had the honor of meeting online, that I would break bread with them in person. I truly believe in envisioning what you want to see come true, so I did just that. I wrote down a list and hoped for the best.

In March 2021, I was chatting with my sister friend Natalie about the vision I saw for TBBV and she casually asked, Did you ever take Jane Elliott up on her invitation to visit?" I replied, Nah, I didnt but I should, huh? I had to think back to my conversation with Mrs. Elliott. If youre not familiar with Jane Elliott, she is an American diversity educator. As a teacher, she became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. When I interviewed her, she shared that she restored an old church and school house. I thought that might be a cool thing to see so I jokingly invited myself and she replied, Come on down, you can stay in the church and of course I thanked her and replied, Dont say that, cause Ill take you up on it. But honestly, I never thought about it again. So often people say, Lets do lunch, lets grab coffee, or lets link up and it never happens so I just brushed that off as polite chatter and didnt give it much thought.

But Natalie's question triggered a connection in my heart and brain, and I remembered my declaration for 2021. I said to her, You know what, Im going to do it. Matter of fact, Im gonna email her right now and see if she replies. Not only did she reply but within the hour she ecstatically replied with a yes. So, over the next several months we set it up and my husband and I traveled 11 hours that June.

When we arrived, we realized that we were in a world that Ive talked about and somewhat prepared for but didnt plan to see on this trip. I was informed when we got there that it was an area not fond of Black Americans. As we drove through, the looks we received confirmed it. The sound of the Proud Boys on their motorcycles, blaring up and down the old county highway she lives on, gave me a little pause as we sat on her porch sipping tea. The sound was deafening. It was like an unwelcoming party. Of course, this is my interpretation.

Nevertheless, we proceeded to tour her property. She offered to show us the schoolhouse where her journey started. The place where the exercise took place. To get to the schoolhouse, we drove through a very small town that definitely noticed us. When we arrived at the school, I was able to jump out of the car and snap a quick picture. I had to do it quickly because I was warned that the house next door to the school wouldnt be very welcoming to me because of how I looked and especially being accompanied by Mrs. Elliott. I understood what she was sharing and respected it and assumed she knew them, and they knew her. The conversation went a bit like this: Let me jump out and take a picture and then my husband asked Mrs. Elliott and me, Do you want a picture together in front of the school? Mrs. Elliott replied as she sat in the car, No you dont want me in there because that would mean that the neighbors that live right over there, whos out in their pool right now, would see us. They dont care too much for me and even less for you. Take your picture and get back in the car. So, I did just that.

We proceeded to drive off and she mentioned how they may not even recognize her car, as we drove back through the small town, I had to switch cars. she said. (Theres a story behind that.) She also mentioned the death threats and calls she still receives. She spoke of the children that scream slurs out of their parents cars as they drive pass and about her next door neighbors who constantly yell drunkenly from their porch, Yeah, at Elliotts house you never know what color youll see coming out. She spoke of all this as we drove and I took it in. I realized I was in the middle of decades of hate, rage, pain and heaviness. It was such a weird feeling because I felt the burden of the hate while also feeling in awe of the beauty of the emerald green rolling hills we passed by and the beauty of the history she was sharing.

Speaking to an educator with her perspective was so enlightening. She asked, well almost demanded, me to not ever say white privilege and instead say undeserved advantage." She said, Privilege is earned, what have we earned? I didnt have much to add to that question. I just continued to take it all in.

We made it back to her home and while we sat in the old church house that she converted into a gathering space, she spoke so beautifully about her husband of 59 years and the sadness that goes with his absence but also some funny times. She spoke of the things people said in his passing (13 years ago), that she never knew he did for them which gives her such joy. She also shared how hard it was for him at times with how she chose to advocate. Her daughter came by to visit and shared stories of what she endured simply for being a child of Jane Elliott. Ill let her tell her own stories, but it was so eye-opening as we dont always think of how our choices impact others.

We sat on the back porch swinging as she told stories of the trees she planted in that yard and why. We watched families of deer that come on her property that she feeds. We watched all the birds she tends to and listened to them sing while they ate in the many feeders. Even in the midst of knowing that there were people riding motorcycles up and down the street that didnt seem to want us there, it was a spiritual and calming experience.

She served everything in her kitchen from cheese, crackers, three-bean salad, chicken, ham and wine. I decided on the cheese and crackers while she ate the salad, and we broke bread together.

We stayed up until midnight sharing stories, laughs, vulnerable conversation, some lemon bars she made and love. It was a beautiful time.

Throughout the night we could still hear the sounds of motorcycles riding up and down the old county road and slowly passing her house. We knew they were intentionally driving by because they would stop in front of her house and speed off. We didnt sleep well that evening. My husband stood watch in the window while I tried to get some sleep. We decided to leave early in the morning, around 4 a.m. to be exact; we thought it would be better to leave before the sun came up and the long journey back home began safely and quietly.

So, the time spent with a woman who happens to be 87 years young, is still witty, sharp, hilarious, spunky, a trash talker and wise was time well spent. Ill never share all she shared (unless she wants me to) but I wrote it all down, so Ill never forget. So much depth, wisdom and love came out of the time. Ill always cherish it. Always. My time with Mrs. Elliott reminded me that we dont always have to agree with someone 100% to enjoy and take in their message and wisdom. There was beauty in that.

Im thankful she trusted me, opened her home to me, broke bread with us and shared her life stories. Weve stayed in touch via phone and email. When we talk, she laughs, shares and goes on about racial equality. I value our conversations. I learned a lot and am thankful that despite us seeing things differently at times, we still can break bread over cheese and crackers.

Erin Patrice is a conversationalist who loves to connect with the community and is the host of The Breaking Bread Village. She can be reached at 4steps2thesun.org
Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Some sun this morning with increasing clouds this afternoon. High around 70F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.
Palestine, TX (75801)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA)- Some 109 illegal migrants, mostly Eritreans, were Friday rescued off the coast of Libya by a ship of "Medecins sans Frontieres", the humanitarian organization announced here
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths has ended a four-day visit to Nigeria, pledging support and promising the United Nations will do everything it can to help rebuild the lives of vulnerable families who have been impacted by violence and extremism there
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

A growing number of students across the country are staging protests by launching petitions, walk-outs, and raising concerns that school officials are not doing enough to protect them from surging COVID-19 cases.

On Tuesday, hundreds of teenage students from the city's public high school walked out of class to call for a remote learning option. Students say that they want the school to be in-person, but with the surge of COVID-19 cases, they are concerned about getting sick at school.

In Oakland, California, students call for district officials to increase COVID-19 safety measures. Otherwise, students are threatening to walk out next week.

In Chicago, a group of students walked out of their classes Friday from various Chicago Public schools and rallied in front of the district's headquarters. The students demanded that mitigation measures be implemented immediately during the pandemic. The protesters also called for better treatment of minority communities.

Read Also: Boy, 13, Dies Due to Fentanyl Exposure From Connecticut Middle School

The Chicago Public School's Radical Youth Alliance also protested after a week-long dispute between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the teacher's union. Mayor Lightfoot pressed for the schools to open, while Chicago Teachers Union called for more masks, testing, and temporary remote learning to curb the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 virus.

In Boston, an online petition initiated by a high school student garnered more than 8,300 signatures. The petition called the attention of Gov. Charlie Baker to allow remote learning again.

Calls for remote learning, more masks, and testing

According to Haven Coleman, 15, and a 10th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, Colorado, 30 to 40 percent of students are missing, and at least ten teachers are sick.

In a Change.org petition, Boston Latin School student William Hu expressed that in-person learning is not safe. "In packed conditions such as the hallway, lunchrooms, and auditoriums, and given the alarming infection rate of the new Omicron variant, schools have become a literal COVID-19 breeding ground," the petition stated.

The students call the district to return to remote learning until COVID-19 cases decrease. Coleman added that if it is not possible to go back online, KN95/N95 masks should be provided to all students on all campuses. She also called for PCR and rapid testing for students in person two times a week.

Proper classroom ventilation and more access to outdoor spaces for safe lunches are also among students' demands. The school authorities should also implement more social distancing measures in the hallways and stairs of the school. Coleman's petition received around 300 signatures in just ten hours.

Several schools across the nation echoed similar calls.

Students gaining positive response

Protesters are already beginning to get positive results. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said that he would meet with the students involved in the protests, and he is not considering a temporary remote option for classes. The statement contradicts his initial stance to keep kids in the classroom.

The students contradict the view pushed by mayors, governors, and President Joe Biden, which is to keep schools open so parents can work, and the economy can bounce back.

Related Article: California School District Asks Parents To Help With Janitorial Duties Due to Staff Shortage
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

Father and daughter Nate Bowen, 41, and Annabelle, 2, were recently diagnosed with cancer at the same time. What puzzled the doctors the most was that baby Annabelle was the second child in the family who was diagnosed with cancer.

Cancer in the family started in 2018 when the couple lost their baby Crosby to a very aggressive brain tumor. The family grieved but eventually decided to have another child.

"We decided to have another child," Nate said. "We felt there was another person meant for our family. And so we had Annabelle, and she's been awesome and great."

In 2020 however, the couple noticed that Annabelle had a bump on her leg. When they returned to Texas Children's Hospital for a check-up, the doctors said the mass was vascular. They eventually diagnosed Annabelle with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer of the muscles. The doctors successfully removed her entire tumor before going through chemotherapy. The chemo sessions will end on January 24.

The doctors did several tests to understand why the couple had two children with cancer.

Read Also: New Satan Club: Parents Upset at School for Allowing Club To Have Fun Activities in Campus

The Li-Fraumeni syndrome

The doctors suspected that Annabelle and Nate share a rare condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome. It is a condition where the TP53 gene makes broken p53 proteins, which cannot prevent the development of cancerous tumors. Doctors suspect that Crosby had the condition, too, although they are not yet sure about it.

Nate's wife, Allison Bowen, and children Dalton and Tessa do not have it. Bowen said he must have developed it on his own as his parents tested negative on the mutation.

Although Nate Bowen never had cancer as a child, doctors did several cancel screenings on him. In September, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor or grade 2 astrocytoma and had it removed a month later. He opted not to have chemotherapy or radiation as it would increase his chances of having other types of cancers.

"We're trying to be very careful and only do that if they absolutely need to," he said. The doctors successfully removed 90 percent of Nate's cancer, but he still has 10 percent cancer cells remaining in his body.

Nate has been recovering well, but the family admits that it is challenging to have two family members with cancer. Annabelle needs to spend a lot of time in the hospital because developing a cold or fever requires extra medical support.

The cancers often associated with Li-Fraumeni syndrome include breast cancer, a rare form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma, and cancers of soft tissues.

Li-Fraumeni syndrome is likely to happen in 1 to 5,000 to 1 in 20,000 people worldwide.

Strong faith and network of support from the community

The family accepts that cancer will always be in their lives because of Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Likely, the father or daughter will soon develop another form of cancer. Nate, however, has become more focused and appreciative of another day or a week in their lives.

Nate said that having a solid faith in God and outpouring support of family and friends helped them battle cancer and accept Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

Related Article: The Common Challenges of Family Life
Photo: (Photo : RONNY HARTMANN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Tennessee mom Vanessa Blanchard, 39, told the school of her son with autism that he died from a seizure after asking why he wasn't reporting to his classes. However, the actual reason for the boy's absence might send his mother to prison after the police found the 12-year-old boy abandoned and locked up in a motel.

Following an investigation, Blanchard was charged with a false impression of death and delinquency of a minor after confessing to authorities she lied about the death of her son with autism, per reports from WZTV. The boy, who has remained unnamed, was discovered after he opened the laptop issued by the New Providence Middle School, which traced his location at the Vacation Motor Motel.

News of the boy's death spread in school, leaving some of the kids very upset. Mom Alicia Maslo told reporters that her son came home one day "bawling his eyes out, hugging me" because he could not believe that his friend was no longer alive.

Read Also: Grandfather of Baby Left in Dumpster by Teen Mom To Seek Custody

School Raised Money for the Funeral

The school organized a fundraiser to help with the boy's funeral arrangements, which was common among small communities. However, when they were ready to turn over the money, Sykes Funeral Home informed them that no funeral arrangements were made for Blanchard's son with autism.

Perplexed, the school officials contacted the mother, who told them that her son's body was not yet released at the hospital because of a pending autopsy. However, they discovered something peculiar about the boy's laptop, which informed his whereabouts several miles away from their community. The school reported their discovery to the cops, who launched an investigation.

Detectives reached out to Blanchard, who eventually confessed that her son with autism did not die of a seizure, but she left him in a motel alone for weeks. The mom claimed she checked up on her son once a day, but the police had little reason to believe that she did.

Meanwhile, Anthony Johnson of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System said that Blanchard did not receive the money raised for her son. To their knowledge, the family was given flowers only, and nothing else was provided before everyone found out that the boy was still alive.

Maslo said that she and her son were shocked to see the boy at a game store in December, several weeks after his "death."

"It's the most disgusting thing that I could have ever heard," Maslo said. "I could never imagine my child being gone, let alone lying about it."

Out on Bail

Blanchard is currently out on a $10,000 bond after the cops detained her as she faces a trial for her crimes. She is scheduled to return to court on Thursday, January 20, but her public defender, Jeffrey P. Watts, refuses to comment on her case since it's already pending in court.

The mom's offenses of creating a false impression of death and contributing to the delinquency of a minor are both Class A misdemeanors in Tennessee. She could face up to a year in prison for each of her crimes if convicted.

Her son with autism, on the other hand, is safe and healthy. It's unclear if the boy has returned to the same school, but a spokesperson for the police will not comment on who has custody of the boy today.

Related Article: Colorado Mom Kelly Turner, Who Faked Daughter's Illness, Admits Guilt Over Her Death
Photo: (Photo : Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)

The leading scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, has suggested that COVID boosters for children and teenagers are not needed to supplement their current vaccinations if they have no health issues.

During a WHO briefing with the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), Swaminathan said there is "no evidence right now" on subjecting healthy children to another vaccination shot. She said that the point of giving boosters is to protect groups with the highest risks for severe complications of COVID-19, such as the elderly population, the healthcare frontliners, and those with compromised immunities or underlying conditions.

Though vaccine researchers have confirmed that immunity against the COVID-19 Omicron variant may wane among those who have had their first and second doses, Swaminathan believes that more research must be done to determine who else should get the boosters aside from the vulnerable groups.

Read Also: Omicron and Croup: Parents Need to Watch Out for This New Symptom in Kids Under 5

Booster Every Three Months?

Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's executive director for health emergencies, acknowledged the people's apprehension over the possibility that boosters will be given every three months. But the doctor also said they still have no answers to this concern because further studies are still being undertaken.

The current assessment is that COVID vaccines could suffice with just two shots among the healthy population. However, some people may need three to four if they have underlying conditions.

The comments from the WHO officials come as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in early January 2022 that booster shots might be administered to children in the ages of 12 to 17 as well as immunocompromised young people in the ages of 5 to 11 years old.

The FDA also trimmed down the time it needs for teenage kids to get the boosters from six months to five months after the second vaccination. Per FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodrock, the trimming down was due to the current wave of infection brought on by Omicron.

"It's critical that we continue to take effective, life-saving preventative measures such as primary vaccination and boosters," Woodrock said.

However, these changes are only good for Pfizer vaccines. According to the FDA, individuals who have been vaccinated with Moderna will still need to wait six months for the boosters. The agency also said that the Pfizer booster shots for 12- to 15-year-old kids had no reported safety concerns based on a study among 6,300 children.

Side Effects of COVID Boosters in Kids

The CDC said that most children had experienced mild side effects from their COVID boosters, similar to adults. These include soreness on the injection site, fever, and fatigue.

A rare but mild side effect may also include myocarditis or heart muscle inflammation, especially in male children. But the experts emphasized that acquiring COVID-19 poses more risks than the vaccine, no matter the age or gender of the individual.

Booster shots are readily available at mass vaccination sites, doctor's clinics, public health offices, and pharmacies with vaccination programs. While kids typically have a low risk for severe complications from the disease, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that the case counts among the children have been the highest as of early January 2022. The group said that one in 10 children in the U.S. had acquired the virus two years ago since the beginning of the pandemic.

Related Article: Trial for Pfizer COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 Fails to Provide Immunity
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The Western Regional Directorate of Public Health has alerted stakeholders and the public about the outbreak of avian influenza (AI) in the Sekondi- Takoradi Metropolis and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality in the Western Region.



The Deputy Director of Public Health, Western Region, Dr Gifty Amugi, issued the caution in a statement copied the Deputy Director, Clinical Care, municipal/district directors of health service and medical superintendents, in the Western Region.



She added: This serves to alert you of an outbreak of avian influenza in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality. This came to light when the Regional Veterinary Laboratory confirmed the infection in two poultry farms in the two districts.



Dr Amugi said all the birds in two farms have since been destroyed and preliminary disinfection initiated.



She requested all health personnel to look out for signs and symptoms of avian Influenza since it was highly infectious and could be fatal to humans.



Dr Amugi said suspected and confirmed avian Influenza cases can be detected in any person presenting with unexplained acute lower respiratory illness with fever more than 38Celsius and cough, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing.



Others include exposure within seven days prior to symptom onset, close contact within one metre with a person caring for, speaking with, or touching who is a suspected, probable, or confirmed.



Dr Amugi explained that these might occur during handling, slaughtering, de-feathering, butchering, culling, preparation for consumption of poultry.



She said consumption of raw or undercooked poultry products in an area where avian influenza infections in animals or humans have been suspected or confirmed in the last month, close contact with a confirmed avian influenza infected animal other than poultry or wild birds.



Dr Amugi said confirmed avian Influenza case is where a person meeting the criteria for a suspected case and positive laboratory results from a laboratory whose avian influenza test results are accepted by World Health Organisation (WHO) as confirmatory.



Avian influenza is a highly contagious viral disease that affects both domestic and wild birds. AI viruses have also been isolated, although less frequently, from mammalian species, including rats, mice, weasels, ferrets, pigs, cats, tigers, dogs and horses, as well as from humans.



Circulation of avian influenza (AI) viruses is not a new phenomenon. There are many descriptions of historical outbreaks of avian influenza disseminating within domestic poultry flocks in the literature. AI occurs worldwide and different strains are more prevalent in certain areas of the world than others.



Avian influenza outbreaks can lead to devastating consequences for the poultry industry as well as at national level.



Several factors can contribute to the spread of AI viruses, such as globalisation and international trade, farming and sale (live bird markets) and wild birds and migratory routes.



In birds, AI viruses are shed in the faeces and respiratory secretions. They can all be spread through direct contact with secretions from infected birds, especially through faeces or through contaminated feed and water.



Because of the resistant nature of AI viruses, including their ability to survive for long periods when temperatures are low, they can also be carried on farm equipment and spread easily from farm to farm.



Wild birds normally carry AI viruses in their respiratory or intestinal tracts but they do not usually get sick, which allows them to carry the viruses long distances along their migration flyways.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor says his outfit, through the Minerals Commission, is working with the security agencies, including the military, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to complete investigations into the incident.



Mr. Jinapor has assured that the investigations will be thorough, to determine the actual cause of the incident and its aftermath. He noted that the manufacture, storage, transportation and use of explosives, are governed by law, particularly the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) and the Minerals and Mining (Explosives) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2177). Mr. Jinapor said any person found to have flouted these regulations will be made to face the law.



According to Mr. Jinapor, this is without prejudice to any liabilities and/or criminal culpability whatsoever.



The Member of Parliament for Damongo Constituency made this known on Friday, January 21, 2022, when he joined a Government delegation led by Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to visit the Apiate community and commiserate with the victims of Thursdays explosion.



He assured that, Government will implement all recommendations that will result from the investigations, to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.



The Minister also said the Ministry will hold meetings with all stakeholders, including mining companies, Ghana Chamber of Mines and mine support service companies, to discuss the entire regime of handling and use of explosives and other hazardous chemicals for the mining, with a view of developing safe and healthy mining operations and support services in the country.



The delegation included Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State, senior officers of the security services and officials of the Minerals Commission.



The explosion, which occurred around midday on Thursday, January 20, 2022, resulted from a collision between a truck belonging to Maxam Ghana Limited which was transporting explosives to a mining company, and a tricycle.



The impact of the collision is said to have caused the explosives to detonate, causing the vehicle to explode. The situation was exacerbated by a nearby transformer which also exploded in the process.



Initial reports indicate that about thirteen (13) people have died in the process, while over a hundred people suffered various degrees of injuries. The injured are being treated in nearby hospitals, with some referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.



The impact of the explosion also caused damage to several houses in the community, leaving many families displaced.



The Government delegation was briefed by the security agencies on the ground, and the chief of the community.



Speaking to the media at the site of the explosion, the Vice President expressed the condolences of Government to the bereaved families and conveyed the Presidents sympathy to the injured and displaced families.



He said Government has directed the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to coordinate with the State Housing Company and the mining companies, to rebuild the destroyed houses. The delegation also visited some of the injured in the hospital and the displaced families who are being housed in schools and churches.



The Vice President disclosed that Government will be fully responsible for the medical expenses of all the injured persons.







Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta has banned the sale of scrap metal in the country.



The immediate ban comes amid an effort to end what the government says are "rising cases of vandalism of key public installations".



It will be in force until the government puts in place a framework to regulate the sourcing, trade and export of scrap metal.



Kenya was last week plunged into a national blackout, its worst in recent years, with initial findings linking it to vandalism of high-voltage lines in the capital Nairobi.



Nine senior managers of the state electricity distributor Kenya Power and Lighting Company have been arrested and arraigned in connection with the power outage.



Kenya has been witnessing increased vandalism of key infrastructure, including railway tracks, communication masts and electricity transmission lines.



Mr Kenyatta says the destruction of key infrastructure is a treasonable act as it amounts to economic sabotage.



It is not the first time the president has issued a warning on the matter.



While launching the new standard gauge railway in 2017, Mr Kenyatta said he would approve the execution of anyone sentenced to death for destroying the multibillion-dollar infrastructure project funded from Chinese loans.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has assured residents of Appiatse that the government is collaborating with mining companies and the State Housing Corporation to rebuild the farming community which was levelled by a huge explosion on Thursday, January 20, 2022.

Speaking after a tour of the community on Friday, January 21, 2022, Vice President Bawumia expressed the condolences of the government to the families of the 13 persons who had died from the blast so far.





Dr Bawumia also stressed that the government would do everything on its part to support the families of the deceased and the injured and cater for the medical bills of the 179 injured persons.



He further commended the various security agencies and the community members for their swift response to the tragedy.



For the houses that have been destroyed, we are already beginning to think about how to rehabilitate and rebuild for the community here," Dr Bawumia said.





"I want to assure Nananom that his Excellency the President (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) has already given the directive. We have already spoken to the State Housing Corporation and are in consultation with the mining companies around here, we will quickly try to put in place facilities that will help those who have been displaced. That will be a priority for all of us.



"Just to assure you that government is fully engaged in all these processes and we are going to see to it that the people here are taken care of. We will learn lessons... but for now, we are very much concerned about how to complete this rescue effort, how to take care of the injured, how to take care of the families and people who have survived".



Hospital bills



After a visit to some of the injured victims of the explosion who are receiving treatment at Aseda Health Centre, Bogoso, Dr Bawumia also disclosed that the government would cater for all their medical bills.



Cause of explosion



Preliminary investigations by the Police have established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to the Chirano Gold Mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion at Appiatse, a farming community between Bogoso and Bawdie in the Prestea Huni-Valley municipality in the Western Region.



Most of the victims were rescued and are on admission at various hospitals and clinics within the Bogoso Municipality.

Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Reigning Artiste of the Year, Diana Hamilton has been unveiled as the new brand ambassador for Awake Purified Drinking Water.



The partnership would see the award-winning gospel musician become the latest ambassador of the water product manufactured by Kasapreko Company Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of alcoholic and non-alcoholic products.



At the official signing ceremony in Accra, Mr. Gerald Bonsu, Commercial Director of Kasapreko Company Limited, speaking on behalf of the General Manager Mr Richard Adjei stated that Diana Hamilton was chosen to lead the face of the Awake Brand due to her passion for changing lives which according to him aligns with the company's vision.



"We are thrilled and excited to have the popular gospel musician in our family and hopefully this partnership would be beneficial to both parties.



"As a company we felt she could serve as a good ambassador and she encompasses our brand values and would take our products to much greater heights thus in pursuance of our programmes which focuses on changing lives in Ghana,' he said.



Diana Hamilton who is the first female gospel musician to win Artiste of Year at Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) was elated and expressed gratitude to the company for believing in her abilities to promote the products as well as assist in various Corporate Social Responsibility programmes which aims at changing and touching lives.



"To say I am excited is an understatement. This is a product I believe in and I can vouch for their quality. It is a humbling experience to have this merger with and ready to promote their good course," she said.



The Awake Purified Drinking Water back in 2021 won the topmost prize at the Ghana Beverages Awards considering its fast rise as a top mineral water brand in Ghana as well as its life saving initiative dubbed "One4Life campaign" which sets aside 10p from the purchase of every 500ml of Awake mineral water to the National Cardiothoracic Centre.

Source: Peacefmonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Students arrive for in-class learning at an elementary school in Mississauga, Ont., Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Some parents in Ontario are raising concerns about the three-ply cloth masks their children received from schools this week, saying the masks are too big and not protective enough against the highly contagious Omicron variant. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Cox wants to help students in Arizona pay for college
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The East Face of Cerro Catedral in Patagonia. Dos Hermanos put up by Cristobal Senoret and Juan Senoret climbs the mountain's NE Face and is not visibile in this photo Photo by Juan Senoret, Cristobal Senoret

The route line of Dos Hermanos on Cerro Catedral in Patagonia first ascended by Cristobal Senoret and Juan Senoret Photo by Juan Senoret, Cristobal Senoret

Dos Hermanos on Cerro Catedral in Patagonia first ascended by Cristobal Senoret and Juan Senoret Photo by Juan Senoret, Cristobal Senoret

On the summit of Cerro Catedral in Patagonia after the first ascent of Dos Hermanos (Cristobal Senoret, Juan Senoret 18-19/01/2022) Photo by Juan Senoret, Cristobal Senoret

New route on Cerro Catedral in Patagonia by Senoret brothers

22.01.2022 by by Planetmountain

Cristobal Senoret and Juan Senoret from Chile have made the first ascent of 'Dos Hermanos' on the NE Face of Cerro Catedral in the Paine massif in Patagonia.

Juan Senoret (34) and his brother Cristobal Senoret (31) have established an interesting new route up the NE Face of Cerro Catedral in the Paine massif in Patagonia. The Chilean mountain guides approached the mountain via the French valley and then climbed the 800m line over a two day period, from 18 to 19 January 2022.

They made one bivouac during the ascent on a huge ledge at circa half-height, and placed 3 bolts during the climb. After summiting in perfect conditions they descended via the line of ascent. The new route, Dos Hermanos, breaches difficulties up to 5.11+, while some of the upper pitches were wet and therefore not climbed free. This is the first route up the mountain's NE Face, and the first time the brothers have climbed this peak.

The Senoret brothers started dreaming about Cerro Catedral when they climbed Trono Blanco diretly opposite in October 2019, but were unable to return until only recently due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to planetmountain after their successful ascent, Cristobal stated "The route is amazing. It is long, sustained, and a real adventure providing a good mix of cracks and some face climbing. We are super, super happy."



Info: www.senoretbrothers.com


Government Crackdown? Texas Card House in Dallas Loses Permit, Owners Baffled

January 21, 2022 Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

The Texas Card House (TCH) in Dallas mysteriously had its permit revoked by the city months after it was approved, but the room is still in operation and games were spread as of Friday evening.

PokerNews reached out to the Dallas City Attorney's Office for an explanation as to what violations the card room allegedly committed but we haven't yet received a response. We also contacted Ryan Crow, CEO for Texas Card House, and are awaiting a response. We'll share any information we're provided as soon as possible.

TCH issued the following statement on social media:

"As we understand the concern, we can assure you that we would honor any outstanding chips or balances for our members in the event that we are shut down. However, we feel strongly about our ability to overcome this battle and foresee this process taking a long time in the interim. One of the many perks of playing at TCH locations, we are bigger than just one location. Additionally, we back our product 100% and are committed to doing the right things by our players, staff, and community."

Is it Gambling or Not?

In the meantime, what we know thus far is that the city sent TCH a letter informing the poker club that their business license is being revoked, but with only a minimal explanation provided. According to the notice, the Northwest Dallas business had its city permit revoked for "keeping a gambling place."

That claim is in question considering Texas Card House doesn't take rake out of any pots. In the state of Texas, collecting rake in cash games is illegal per the state's strict gambling laws.

Poker rooms must operate differently in the Lone Star State than elsewhere. Instead of taking rake, the rooms charge membership and/or seat fees that are charged hourly or sometimes daily. At TCH, players must pay $13 per hour to play, and that is specifically why the card room is confused as to the reason for the permit revocation.

Crow told Dallas' CBS affiliate (KTVT) that he spent hundreds of hours over a two-year period communicating his plans with the city, ensuring that his business was operating within the law.

His permit was approved last year and the Northern Texas poker room quickly became a popular spot to play cards in the area. More than 400 players fill up the room each day, on average. Not only that, but over 200 employees will lose their jobs if the room is forced to close.

Other Rooms Facing Similar Issues

Texas Card House operates three other rooms throughout the state in Austin, Houston, and Rio Grande Valley, where local authorities are less hands-off when it comes to poker room operations.

In Dallas, however, things are a bit different, and TCH isn't the only poker room to learn that the hard way. Champions Club, an upscale establishment featuring a high-priced steakhouse, opened as a members-only club last summer.

The company initially applied for a license as a standard poker room but the city's building official denied the application. Champions then reapplied with a restaurant and bar and the Certificate of Occupancy was approved. But after an appeal with the Dallas Board of Adjustment, the city upheld the original decision, meaning Champions could only open as a restaurant and bar without poker.

Champions has since filed a lawsuit against the city and still hopes to one day add a poker room to its operation. The proposed card room promoted a $2 million guaranteed poker series in September prior to its grand opening, but that was of course canceled.

When Champions attempted to open a poker room, many residents in the area voiced their displeasure and protested the proposed plan.

As residents of the communities that will be directly and adversely impacted by these proposed poker rooms, we should have the right to decide whether a gambling operation opens so close to our family homes, schools, churches, businesses, and parks, a July petition opposing the Champions Club poker room reads. We vehemently oppose the operation of any organized poker/gambling venues adjacent to our neighborhoods.

The petition was successful in stopping Champions Club from opening a poker room.

PokerNews will continue to monitor the situation in Dallas at bot Texas Card House and Champions Club.

*Image from Texas Card House Twitter.

Sharelines Find out details on the unexpected Texas Card House's forced closure in Dallas.
Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Resort in Rozvadov was filled with poker enthusiasts from all over Europe, all staking their claim at potentially winning the elusive WSOP Circuit gold ring. The flagship tournament of the 2022 WSOP International Circuit in the Czech Republic kicked off and the event is off to a decent start thanks to 335 entries on the first of two starting flights.

This has put the marquee event with a buy-in of 1,700 half-way to meeting the 1,000,000 guarantee and Day 1b is expected to have another solid turnout. On top of that, players also have the chance to enter and re-enter during the first two levels on Day 2, which will take place on Sunday, January 23.

Valon Olluri ended the night atop the leaderboard with a stack of 552,500 after he gained most of the chips during a hot streak in the middle to late stages. Josef Huber almost caught up to that at the very end but fell just shy with 535,000 with the nearest follower, fellow Swiss player Silvan Boesiger (383,500) trailing by quite a margin.

Top 10 Chip Counts 1,700 Main Event Day 1a

Position Player Nationality Chip count Big Blinds for Day 2 1 Valon Olluri Kosovo 552,500 276 2 Josef Huber Switzerland 535,000 268 3 Silvan Boesiger Switzerland 383,500 192 4 Sharon Ben David Israel 360,000 180 5 Luc Ta Germany 355,000 178 6 Abd El Ghanim Austria 347,000 174 7 Chun Chang Netherlands 332,000 166 8 Albert Hoekendijk Netherlands 318,500 159 9 Majid Bozakraft Netherlands 309,000 155 10 Steve Savio France 305,000 153

Other notables with big stacks include Albert Hoekendijk (318,500), Karol Konopka (214,500), Eyal Bensimhon (208,000), Stefan Drusca (200,000), Enrico Campanile (200,000), Narcis Nedelcu (184,000), and King's regular Marek Blasko (178,000). A handful of WSOP bracelet winners also took part and two of them made the cut on Day 1a in Sergiu Covrig (155,000), and Simone Andrian (143,000).

Dutchman Antoine Vranken, who won his maiden WSOP gold bracelet at the King's Resort a few months ago and added a circuit ring during the ongoing festival, was among those to bust and the same also applied for Emil Bise. Another big name to fall on the first of two starting days was defending champion Andrea Ricci, 2021 finalist Aliaksandr Shylko will also have to try again as well.

The father and son duo of Josef Gulas and Josef Gulas Jr failed to bag up chips for Day 2 just yet and can be expected to take another shot at the seven-figure prize pool. On top of the cash prizes, the top 12 finishers will also receive an entry into the 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event as well. This promotion by King's was partly responsible for setting a new attendance record and Gulas Jr turned his ticket into a seven-figure payday.

2021 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Josef Gulas Jr was among the Day 1a casualties

All those that came up short on Day 1a can re-enter on the second starting day, which will get underway at 2pm local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide as much of the action from the table as possible until a winner has been crowned.
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Charleston Home + Design Show returns after pandemic hiatus

Giveaways, a $2,000 home improvement grand prize and lots of free advice from housing and building professionals will be available when The Charleston Home + Design Show returns this year to a new location after being on hiatus during the pandemic.

The event comes on the heels of record-breaking home sales across the Charleston region, including more than $1 billion in property sales on nearby Kiawah Island.

Set up at the Charleston Area Convention Center off International Boulevard in North Charleston, the Feb. 4-6 show will feature seminars and discussion panels on home design and planning.

It also will offer one-on-one sessions with a professional interior designer or architect for a free consultation or chats face-to-face with Charleston-area contractors. Call 843-577-7652 to make an appointment with a professional.

The show starts Feb. 4 with free admission from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. as well as free parking. Hours on Feb. 5 are 10 a.m.-6 p.m., while hours on Feb. 6 are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $7 per person but drops to $2 after 2 p.m. both weekend days.

The first 100 families with paid admission on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 will receive a free Tervis Tumbler with lid from the Tervis shop in downtown Charleston.

One lucky attendee will win a $2,000 home improvement prize of lighting and ceiling fan from Charleston Lighting & Interiors. The recipient does not have to be present to win.

A Top 10 Awards Party will take place the evening of Feb. 4. The event sponsor, Charleston Home + Design Magazine, will honor the top kitchen, bathroom and outdoor living projects published in 2021.

Party tickets of $45 are available at CharlestonHomeAndDesign.com or at the door. Participants will find an open beer/wine bar and catered shrimp and grits, and chicken/sausage jambalaya.

Masks are recommended, but not required. Hand sanitizer stations will be available throughout the show and custodial staff will be wiping down frequent touchpoints.

For those who can't attend in person but would like to talk to a vendor, message Charleston Home + Design Show's Facebook page with questions about a home project and the information will be provided to an event contractor.

For a complete list of events, go to charlestonhomeanddesign.com/events.

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$119M paid for Charleston apartments in Cainhoy

Boston-based West Shore bought the 320-unit Sweetwater Apartments off Clements Ferry Road for $115 million and paid $4 for two adjoining parcels.

By the numbers

3.25: Millions of dollars paid for a downtown Charleston retail building on King Street.

234: Number of apartment units proposed for the site of shuttered restaurant in West Ashley.

76,000: Number of households in the Charleston area deemed to be paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to a recent study commissioned by the Charleston Trident Association of of Realtors. They are called "cost-burdened" since 30 percent is the generally accepted upper limit a household should be paying for housing.

This week in real estate

+ Bubbling up: Economists debate talk of Charleston 'housing bubble,' but they agree it's not like 2008.

+ Changing hands: Former Hughes Lumber site in Charleston that has been OK'd for a hotel recently sold for $12.25 million.

+ New tenant: A new eatery with cookie dough, ice cream and other treats plans to set up shop in a West Ashley shopping center.

Hoopstick Island near Charleston sells for $7.5M

An Atlanta investment firm paid $7.5 million for the 55-acre Hoopstick Island, a private slice of land on Bohicket Creek on Johns Island.

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Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun with a slight chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 84F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
JAMESTOWN  Steve Scott probably didn't know it as a child, but his future held a career in the construction industry.

While living in Minnesota at the age of 5, he spent one summer with a great aunt who had stripped down a house to get ready to build a new one.

Scott saw a pile of boards and decided to start tacking some together.

"I built a table and an outhouse," he remembered with a chuckle. "They were all crooked, but it kept me out of their hair."

Scott later took a course in a junior high school shop class when he built some other items, though not quite as hastily nailed together as the structures from his former years.

He even built a small wooden boat in his parent's basement while in high school.

But even with his love of building things, Scott decided to take a different path than the construction industry for his life's work.

Prodded by his father, an aerospace engineer, Scott attended Hamline and Wake Forest universities and majored in chemistry. He earned a master's at Wake Forest in chemistry and physics before heading to Florida State University to earn a doctorate in chemistry.

He taught chemistry at Penn State for a couple years, then went to work for General Electric in Indiana for about eight years.

Then Raybestos recruited Scott as a technical director and brought him to the former Garco Mill in North Charleston to help develop new products to replace the cancer-causing asbestos the company had made for years.

That's also where Virginia "Ginny" Drews worked. The two met, got married and later had a son.

After moving around quite a bit with job opportunities in several states across the eastern U.S., they moved back to Charleston in the late 1990s when the company Scott worked for was bought and operations were moved to Mexico.

Scott took an interim job with a company in Spartanburg that served as a feeder plant to BMW. The company paid for his weekday accommodations while he was in the Upstate, but Scott knew he wanted to work closer to home.

"I was looking for a permanent job in the Charleston area and found out this operation (the sawmill) was for sale," he said. "I thought my background would fit into it even if it was in a different industry."

Back to building

In 1999, Scott took the plunge and bought Charleston Heart Pine. With construction in his blood, he now owned the sawmill on the edge of the Francis Marion National Forest in the tiny Berkeley County hamlet of Jamestown, about 45 miles north of downtown Charleston.

Frank Parker and Joe Cantley had started the Charleston Heart Pine business in 1984. Five years later, Hurricane Hugo flattened every structure except an old trailer near the front gate. It now serves as the office for the 20-acre business.

The former owners of Heart Pine rebuilt the sawmill, and it thrived for several years after the hurricane, since a ready supply of timber was coming from all the broken trees in the nearby national forest.

After Scott bought the business, nearly three dozen people worked at the sawmill. Then the housing market crashed during the Great Recession.

Exports of materials for doors and window frames to Europe comprised a large part of the company's business, but they evaporated in the deep downturn.

When the economy started to rebound, Europe looked for a less expensive source of materials, and businesses on the continent switched from southern yellow pine to Russian red pine, Scott said.

"It's hard to compete when the price is a lot cheaper, even though the product might not be as good," he said.

The crux of Charleston Heart Pine's business now, where five people are employed including Scott's son, is the flooring and furniture business.

Good heart pine needs to be at least 60 to 70 years old, Scott said as he walked among the business's grounds where piles of massive tree trunks wait to be carved into boards and sheds are stuffed with cut lumber slated to be placed in new homes throughout Charleston, the Palmetto State and other states.

"It's more difficult to get older trees now," he said.

Overharvesting since Colonial times nearly vanquished the older long leaf pines with their bounty of center-hardened wood used for many types of construction materials at one time.

Today, it's not uncommon for companies to use salvaged logs from river bottoms for building materials.

Scott said most of his firm's stock comes from within a 50-mile radius, but the company also works with mills in other states to ship in older logs and lumber.

Business base

While flooring is a company centerpiece, custom-made furniture is a staple as well.

Tables, benches, chairs, mantels and bedframes are among the specialty items.

Of stair treads and handrails, which the company also custom makes, Scott said, "They are very profitable because hardly anyone does it from heart pine."

And not everything is fashioned from heart pine, the sturdy center that hardens over many years to give long-leaf pine trees their strength and support.

Walnut and white oak are popular choices as well. A cypress log was being split into boards for wall paneling during a recent visit.

Almost all of Heart Pine's business is by telephone or online orders, but Scott occasionally gets a walk-in visit from someone passing through the tucked-away town of 82 people, where South Carolina highways 41 and 45 converge with U.S. Highway 17A south of the Santee River.

While most of the company's finished products end up in private homes, a bit of its work is on display at a large software company in Charleston.

When Blackbaud decided to build a new headquarters building on Daniel Island a few years ago, the company wanted to preserve some of the wood at the new construction site.

They reached out to Scott, who transformed some of the pine and oak trees into benches on Blackbaud's grounds.

"With the benches created by Charleston Heart Pine, our employees, customers and visitors can take in the Lowcountry beauty, while sitting on a piece of wood that was grown on that very land," said Otto Orr, senior director of global real estate for Blackbaud.

"Its a beautiful tribute to what makes Charleston a great place to live and work, and were so grateful for Charleston Heart Pines help in bringing our vision to life," Orr said.

Scott, now 79, called the benches a good conservation project and one of the many items he takes satisfaction in building from scratch.

"You can see the results of your efforts," he said. "It's satisfying to be able to make something that's somewhat unique."

To relax, Scott often spends weekends walking on the beach on Sullivan's Island. In a couple of years, he will turn the business over to his son, Taylor, 39, now the company's operations manager.

Taylor, who lives within walking distance of the sawmill, said he will be ready when the time comes.

"It's a big role to fill," he said. "I will have to fill my role as well as his, and I still have a lot to learn, but we plan to move forward and continue the business."
GREENVILLE  Months after Greenville County Council passed an ordinance proclaiming the county a Second Amendment sanctuary, the issue came back before the council Jan. 20 as frustrated gun owners said the law hadnt gone far enough in its punishments.

The ordinance restricts the use of county tax revenue and resources to enforce any potential future federal gun restrictions.

A group, many wearing orange Guns Save Lives stickers, attended the council meeting after social media calls by the nonprofit, locally-organized United Patriots Alliance said residents' rights to keep and bear arms were in danger because the council removed criminal penalties from the version of the ordinance it passed in September 2021.

That ordinance was championed by the same group and brought to the council by Councilman Steve Shaw, a gun law attorney. Shaw modified the ordinance to remove the criminal penalties and focus solely on financial implications after Attorney General Alan Wilsons office issued an opinion on a similar ordinance considered in Aiken County.

The attorney general's opinion issued in August 2021 said the state legislature covers the field on the regulation of firearms and his office expected attempts by counties to regulate firearms would not be upheld if challenged in court.

At the time, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis also said he was concerned about criminal penalties that could snag sheriffs deputies who unknowingly went against the county ordinance. But Councilman Joe Dill, who reintroduced criminal penalties in an amendment the council will consider, said the county either needs to have a penalty for breaking its ordinance or it should do away with it entirely.

I think it will stand up, Dill said. I dont think theres a judge that will say youre overstepping your bounds.

If the amendment passes, it would add penalties of up to 30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine to anyone who violates the ordinance.

Councilman Lynn Ballard said he still has questions about who the ordinance would target and how it would be enforced.

Dill said that would include anyone who comes on a residents property and tries to confiscate a weapon. That could include the arrest of federal officers or those designated to enforce possible future gun rights restrictions, he said.

Residents who spoke Jan. 20 questioned whether Republican members of the council were conservative enough. Speakers included a pair of candidates who have announced plans to run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House District 4 seat, including Michael LaPierre and Mark Burns.

We should have a voice loud enough that says if you come to Greenville County and you utilize our local law enforcement officers who are knowingly taking away a weapon from a law-abiding citizen, there should be a criminal penalty that takes place, said Burns, who sometimes served as former President Donald Trumps top pastor during his candidacy and presidency.

Burns also called the U.S. government communist rule and asked for the crowd to shout, amen in agreement, which many did.

LaPierre said Americans are stuffing the Marxist genie back in the box and have been pushed to the point of no return. He said adding criminal penalties to the Second Amendment sanctuary is the right thing to do and that sheriffs deputies like his father once was would agree that deputies should be fined or put in jail if they didnt defend residents gun rights.

The amendment was referred to the councils public safety committee for discussion.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 88F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
NORTH CHARLESTON  Documents obtained by The Post and Courier show how a feud between two gangs led to a quadruple shooting in December 2020 that left one man dead and three others injured.

Jermaine Bunch Jr., 26, was charged with murder in the death of Jordan Mullins, just over a year after the 25-year-old was gunned down outside an apartment complex. Three other men, who have not been publicly identified, were also injured in the shooting.

Between July and December 2020, several members of the "Never Switch Up" gang were targeted in an ongoing feud with Bunch's gang, according to a copy of his arrest affidavit. Two of the unnamed victims in the quadruple shooting were Never Switch Up members, the affidavit states.

The conflict grew increasingly bitter through the summer and fall.

GPS data recovered from the victims phones placed them several times in the Woodside Manor neighborhood when shootings targeting Bunch and his gang occurred, according to the affidavit. Two of the surviving victims were identified as suspects in those shootings.

The tension culminated the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2020. North Charleston police officers were sent about 2:15 p.m. to the Palmetto Exchange apartment complex on Shipley Street, just off U.S. Highway 78 in Ladson.

They found Mullins dead from gunshot wounds in the front passenger seat of a silver car, according to the affidavit.

Another man walked up to police, alerting them his brother also was shot. Officers found a third injured man, and the surviving victims were taken to the hospital.

Mullins and the three men had been on their way to the apartment complex after leaving to buy marijuana when a driver in a black car started shooting at them, two of the victims told officers.

Detectives obtained surveillance videos from businesses along the victims route. The videos show a black Nissan Altima following the victims from the College Park neighborhood  where they allegedly purchased marijuana  to Shipley Street, where the shooting occurred, according to the affidavit.

Police later determined the black Nissan was registered to Bunchs older sister and was seen in other incidents spanning the length of the feud between the rival gangs, the affidavit states.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for the cellphone belonging to the driver of the victims car. About 15 minutes after Mullins and the others were shot, the driver called a number later determined to be one of Bunchs relatives, according to the affidavit.

North Charleston police officers, along with U.S. Marshals, arrested Bunch on Jan. 20, spokesman Harve Jacobs said.

Detectives identified him as a suspect in the quadruple shooting after search warrants gave officers access to crucial data from one of the victims phones, Jacobs said. It took police 13 months to retrieve the data they needed to build their case, he said.

In addition to the murder charge, Bunch faces three counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a deadly weapon while committing a crime, jail records show.

Bunch remained in custody at the Charleston County jail on Jan. 21 after waiving his bond hearing.

While the police investigation remains ongoing, additional arrests and charges are not expected at this time, Jacobs said.
In the 1990s, the Catholic Diocese of Charleston planned to sell a piece of property off Line Street on the Charleston peninsula.

It appeared to be nothing more than a small field, its history (and visibility) obscured by the construction of the Crosstown Expressway in the late 1960s, a highway that severed in two this old residential neighborhood, a center of African American life in the city.

In fact, the field is a Catholic cemetery with more than 1,000 human remains buried in its consecrated ground, and thanks to an effort now underway, it will be transformed into a memorial park, replete with 20-foot granite cross, landscaping, paths for casual strolling and benches upon which to sit, pray and contemplate the dead.

St. John Cemetery, nearly lost to time and indifference, once again will remind residents and passersby of a fascinating aspect of the Black experience in Charleston.

Making a memorial

Once the dioceses intentions became known in the mid-1990s, members of two Black churches voiced their concerns. They knew this was no ordinary field; they knew it contained hidden treasures that could be lost forever if the land was sold and buildings erected.

The people of St. Patrick Catholic Church on St. Philip Street and Calvary Episcopal Church on Line Street just in front of the old cemetery, wanted to know how the Catholic diocese acquired the property in question, how it had been used, and how it came to be abandoned.

So Calvary, working with the diocese, commissioned the Columbia-based Chicora Foundation to research the history of the site and generate a report.

While there is some oral history concerning this property, it is scattered, of variable accuracy, and (most regrettably) not collected in any systematic fashion, wrote Chicoras Michael Trinkley and Debi Hacker. Consequently, there were stories of the property being obtained by a Catholic laymans benevolent society for the burial of free and slave black Catholics, of being the site of several churches, and having monuments until relatively recently, but there was little documentation against which to compare these accounts.

Nevertheless, the Chicora Foundation managed to piece together enough information to convince Catholic officials to change their plans. The diocese would protect and maintain the property, and perhaps find a way to pay tribute to the souls at rest there.

In recent months, the diocese committed $25,000 to the restoration project, and a volunteer group called Carolina Catholic Professionals has raised more than $70,000. The end-of-year goal is $100,000, with which the team will pay for the monument, landscaping, furnishings and discrete project areas such as prayer corners where the unnamed dead and the children buried on the site can be remembered.

Lead volunteer Frank Dirks said QR codes available on the grounds will enable visitors to link to carolinacatholicprofessionals.com where they can read details about the history of the cemetery and Black Catholics in Charleston.

(The website) gives people scattered across country with ancestors buried there to access information, Dirks said.

Once the memorial park is completed, the diocese will be responsible for attending to the grounds. It might also develop future programming for the site, officials said.

As Catholics, we believe that consecrated ground is a space that has been liturgically blessed and is dedicated to the honor and glory of God, as well as a place to remember and show respect for the remains of the deceased, diocese officials said in a statement. It represents the continuation, even in death, of the spiritual unity which makes all Catholics members of one family.

Black Catholicism

This is one of several Black burial grounds in Charleston that have been at risk, or nearly lost. Others have been paved over, built upon or forgotten.

St. John Cemetery is an important part of the history of Black Catholicism in the Lowcountry. John England, first bishop of Charleston, reported in 1833 that about 1,200 of the citys enslaved population was Catholic. Those numbers would increase.

In 1853, a subdivided portion of a large tract near Line Street was purchased by the Very Rev. Richard S. Baker, diocese administrator, for $650 and held in trust for the diocese, for the use of the colored Roman Catholic population of the City of Charleston and Charleston Neck, as a cemetery or Burial ground for the said Colored Slaves or free.

A fascinating combination of cultures and religious practices produced a unique expression of Black Catholicism in the Lowcountry.

European slave traders introduced their religion to African slave merchants and captives, thus Catholicism trickled into the Lowcountry. A few planter families, especially those along the Ashepoo River in Colleton County, west of Walterboro, had converted to Catholicism by the late 1700s and early 1800s, influencing the slaves who worked the rice fields, according to Suzanne Krebsbach, author of the 2002 essay "Catholic, Black and Proud."

The presence of Spanish settlers in the Southeast also helped introduce Catholicism to the region, and it's likely that Black Catholics from parts of the Caribbean and Louisiana  French and Spanish colonies  added to the Charleston areas local population.

Initially, White and Black Catholics shared the same churches, though enslaved people were relegated to the galleries. But traveling down the peninsula to St. Marys or the Cathedral was inconvenient to Black worshippers who lived farther north. In 1867, the diocese established the first church meant for Charlestons African American Catholics, St. Peters, at 34 Wentworth St., the site of a former Jewish synagogue.

In 1880, the diocese dedicated the first Immaculate Conception Church at the corner of Coming and Shepard streets. In 1904, the sisters of Our Lady of mercy converted it into a parochial school for African Americans. The cemetery served as a playground.

In 1928, a new Immaculate Conception Church, larger and build of brick, was opened on the site. The school was attracting not just the citys Black Catholics but African Americans of other denominations as well. The last recorded burial at the cemetery took place in 1930.

Saving history

In 1965, the diocese sold a portion of the cemetery property to the states highway department so the Crosstown  later named the Septima P. Clark Parkway  could be built. And as desegregation took hold, Catholic officials closed St. Peters and Immaculate Conception in 1967 and merged their congregations with St. Patrick Church which, until then, had been predominantly White.

Once Catholics abandoned the property near Line Street, the cemetery fell into neglect  until 1994, when St. Patrick parishioners worked with Calvary Episcopal Church to retain the Chicora Foundation for the purpose of studying the site.

That research prevented a real estate transaction that likely would have resulted in construction projects which, in turn, would have shrouded further the history of this sacred site.

Instead, now, volunteers are working with the diocese to reclaim a nearly obliterated piece of Charlestons history, and to ensure that those interred in this consecrated ground can rest undisturbed.
Aiken County could see a mix of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain this weekend, according to the forecast from the National Weather Service in Columbia.

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for Aiken County from 1 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.

Rain is likely, mainly after 4 p.m. Friday. Less than a tenth of an inch of precipitation is expected.

After sundown, snow, freezing rain and sleet are likely before 1 a.m. Saturday. Then there is a slight chance of snow between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Saturday.

Based on the National Weather Service prediction, there could be total snow accumulations of up to one inch and ice accumulations of a light glaze as the temperature drops to around 25 degrees. Saturday's high will be around 41 degrees with a low around 23 degrees.

"Plan on slippery road conditions," the National Weather Service said in the advisory. "The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute ... Slow down and use caution while traveling."

Emergency planning

Were on standby, said Aiken County Emergency Management Director Paul Matthews at around noon Friday. Were obviously watching it (the weather) and participating in conference calls with the states Emergency Management Division and the National Weather Service. But we havent done anything beyond that yet.

South Carolina Emergency Management does a disaster intelligence briefing with us, he continued, and theyre not anticipating any major power outages in Aiken County. Now thats not to say that there couldnt be some general, spotty outages. Due to the wind, there could be occasional branches falling and stuff like that.

Matthews added that people need to be worried about black ice Saturday morning.

Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian reported that the Roads and Bridges Division of the countys Public Works Department had all its vehicles ready to go if the South Carolina Department of Transportation asks for assistance.

There is a list of DOT roads that we scrape if they have snow on them and if DOT calls us, he added. I think it is about a dozen.

The countys Buildings and Grounds Department has salted sidewalks and driveways at Emergency Medical Services stations or has made sure that salt is available to put down in those locations in case it (wintry weather) starts (to cause problems), Killian continued.

He said the county wanted emergency vehicles to be able to leave and return to the stations without any trouble and also wanted to prevent county employees and others from slipping and falling.

Power companies

Dominion Energy is mobilizing across the state in preparation for the weather.

More than 2,000 company employees are engaged in storm response across South Carolina, as well as approximately 100 additional line workers from utilities in Tennessee and Alabama, according to Paul Fischer, senior communications specialist, who spoke with the Aiken Standard on Friday.

Dominion's Aiken operations facility is located at 132 Langley Dam Road in Warrenville, where equipment and vehicles are staged and ready for action.

Fischer said trees and tree limbs are the main reason for outages and can create dangerous travel conditions, which can sometimes limit access for crews.

For Dominion customers who suffer an outage, Fischer said they should report the issue through the Dominion app or online at dominionenergy.com.

Other tips during a storm, Fischer said, are to have an emergency kit packed, which can include bottled water, non-perishable food items and a flashlight, and to stay away from any downed power lines.

"Every storm is different, but we want our customers to know that our level of preparation remains the same," Fischer said.

Aiken Electric Cooperative said it is continuing to monitor the weather conditions and is prepared should its service territories be affected by ice and snow this weekend.

Aiken Electric crews and additional contractor crews have their trucks fully equipped and are on standby in the case of inclement weather.

If members find themselves experiencing an outage at any time, the quickest way to alert the dispatch center is by calling or texting OUT to 1-877-264-5368. Members can also report outages through the AEC mobile app. A live outage map can be viewed at aikenco-op.org.

Check back with Aiken Standard. This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
A former lieutenant with the Sumter County Sheriffs Office told state authorities two years ago that longtime Sheriff Anthony Dennis raped her in his home in 1997 and groped her again in 2004 in a department office. She gave the State Law Enforcement Division names and other leads to corroborate her claims.

But SLED did little to verify or debunk her explosive allegations, a Post and Courier Uncovered investigation found. Agents didn't open a formal case, and theres no evidence that detectives contacted people who might back up her statements.

In a letter to SLED Chief Mark Keel two weeks ago, the S.C. attorney generals crime victims' ombudsman described the ex-lieutenants allegations as very serious and ones that warrant a full investigation." Her letter followed months of document requests and questions about the case from The Post and Courier.

Keel told the newspaper on Jan. 19 that SLED will do a proper investigation. He explained that an agent who initially looked into the allegations died in late 2020.

"Unfortunately, and to be perfectly honest, it sort of fell through the cracks," Keel said.

In an interview, Dennis said his accuser was a disgruntled former employee who had lost a previous lawsuit against his office.

"I blatantly deny all of those allegations," he said. "I have a 40-year career in law enforcement, and I can assure you that Sheriff Dennis has never sexually assaulted anyone or made any sexual advances too."

He said he welcomes a SLED investigation.

Aside from the former lieutenants allegations, SLEDs slow walk toward a meaningful investigation in Sumter County raises fresh questions about how the agency handles sensitive claims against fellow law enforcement officials. The stakes are high: Haphazard and incomplete criminal investigations can mean the difference between justice delivered and justice denied.

The case in Sumter County also comes amid a growing train of sheriff scandals across South Carolina. Since 2010, 16 sheriffs have been accused of violating laws they swore to uphold. Its a litany of corruption that affected one out of three South Carolina counties  so egregious that Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this month called for legislation requiring sheriffs undergo annual ethics training.

Was there also an abuse of power in Sumter County?

The allegation

Anthony Dennis began his law enforcement career in 1982, working his way up to major of operations in 1996 and chief deputy in 2000. He was elected Sumter County sheriff in 2004 and served as president of the S.C. Sheriffs Association in 2019. In 2020, the General Assembly passed a resolution honoring him for exceptional leadership, his work with youth groups in Sumter and for being one of Sumter Countys longest-serving sheriffs. He was reelected that year to a fifth term.

Melissa Addison joined the department in 1997 as an evidence technician under then-Sheriff Tommy Mims. She was in her early 30s, had separated from her husband and was struggling to make ends meet. Before, she'd held a series of grueling and mostly low-paying jobs: graveyard shift at a turkey processing plant, flipping fast-food burgers, factory work. Her new sheriff's office job was a godsend.

"I was a single parent with three kids, and now I had stable hours with an opportunity to advance," she recalled in an interview with The Post and Courier. "The job was beyond important to me."

She said that in the fall of 1997, she got a phone call from Dennis, who at the time was one of Mims' top commanders. Dennis asked her to come to his home and not to use her county vehicle, she alleged in a written statement she submitted to SLED in 2020.

I was nervous about going but was too afraid not to go as he had given me a direct order.

When she arrived, he asked her to go into his living room, she wrote in her statement. He began to make advances, she said.

I was telling him no and to stop, but it fell on deaf ears.

She alleged that he raped her, and that she left the house in tears.

She said she felt ashamed and fearful that no one would believe her.

I believed that I would just end up looking like a fool and most likely lose my job that I very much needed, her statement said.

She decided to not tell anyone and stay with the department.

"My children came first. I wasn't sure I'd get a job with that kind of income. I was just starting out in law enforcement. The uncertainty and risk was too much. So I stayed."

***

She said that over the next few years, she continued to balance her desire to succeed in law enforcement with depression and fear. She became a deputy and a criminal investigator.

Then, as Dennis was running for sheriff in 2004, he called her into his office and groped her, she alleged in her statement to SLED.

I told him to stop  Dennis replied, What are you going to do, get me for sexual harassment? 

Addison said she decided to report what happened to Thomas Mims, the sheriff then, soon to retire. She drove to Mims house. Mims wasnt home, but his wife, Diane, answered the door.

I began crying, Addison wrote in the SLED statement.

She said she left without mentioning what happened. Thomas Mims died in 2016.

Contacted recently by The Post and Courier, Diane Mims confirmed that Addison came to the house.

I remember her. I remember her being in tears. She was very upset.

Addison filed a complaint in February 2005 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that Dennis made sexual advances toward her. She didnt report the sexual assault she says happened in 1997.

This has been the worst experience of my life, she wrote in that EEOC complaint, adding that she was afraid of reporting the incident to Sumter Countys human resource director because the sheriffs wife held that job. (Lorraine Dennis is currently Sumter County assistant county administrator.)

But she quickly withdrew the complaint, in part because of fear and terror over what she believed Dennis could do to her personally and professionally, she told The Post and Courier.

Yet, during Dennis' tenure as sheriff, she continued to get plaudits for her work: She was named investigator of the year in 2006 and deputy of the year in 2007. Dennis promoted her to sergeant in 2009.

A story at that time in The Sumter Item quoted Dennis about his efforts to promote women: I always brag about them. Theres not a female here that I wouldnt send to do the same job that a male officer does, he told the newspaper. In the same story, Addison said her promotion to sergeant means the world. Its validation of all the hard work Ive done.

But, in recent interviews with The Post and Courier, Addison said the weight of her secret only grew heavier over time. She finally told another deputy, Jerry Kelly.

Contacted by The Post and Courier, Kelly confirmed that conversation, which he said happened about 10 years ago.

I was upset. I believed her. Im not going to lie to you. We cried together through the whole conversation."

Kelly eventually left the department for a neighboring law enforcement job. Addison later identified Kelly as a potential witness, but he said that no one from SLED contacted him.

***

By 2015, she'd made lieutenant but then was sidelined into a lesser job.

In 2016, she filed a second discrimination complaint alleging that she was unfairly demoted because she is a Black woman. She did not report the alleged 1997 sexual assault.

I wasnt ready emotionally, she said.

Then, during Christmas vacation 2016, a department major hand-delivered a letter to her.

"As you are aware, deputy sheriffs in South Carolina serve at the pleasure of the Sheriff," Dennis wrote in the letter. "I have decided not to renew your appointment." He included no other explanation for her termination.

The S.C. Human Affairs Commission declined to take the discrimination case, but Addison eventually sued the department. A jury found in favor of the sheriff in early 2019.

In December 2019, Addison wrote Keel at SLED that shed sought counseling, and through this work, she realized that she needed to report her sexual abuse allegations.

I am coming forward now as part of my recovery and because it is the right thing to do for me.

The investigation

Last summer, The Post and Courier asked SLED for any documents related to Addisons allegations. The state Freedom of Information Act allows the public access to files when investigators close a case. But a SLED spokesman said in October that the agency never opened a case, and that they couldn't locate any documents.

That was surprising given Addison supplied SLED with pages of statements and a witness list with phone numbers and addresses. Addison documented more than 80 emails, texts and other communications to and from SLED, many of which she shared with The Post and Courier. The newspaper contacted several people on her witness list. None said SLED contacted them.

Addison did meet with two SLED agents on Aug. 21, 2020, at SLEDs office in Florence. While agents often videotape or record interviews, SLED provided no recordings to The Post and Courier or written summaries of the interview.

This apparent failure to document a preliminary investigation appears to go against basic standards set by SLEDs accreditation agency, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Standards call for identification of witnesses, interviews and creation of case files.

Seth Stoughton, a criminal justice expert at the University of South Carolina and a former police officer, said most investigative activity should be documented. It's important to lock in details for future investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

"That (documentation) may be in an investigative report, an intake screening report, a daily activity log or something," Stoughton said. "As a rule of thumb, the more formal the interaction, the more likely it is to be documented."

In contrast to SLED's questionable record-keeping, Addison kept close track of interviews, phone calls and emails. She even recorded conversations with SLED agents, including her initial meeting with them. She provided a copy to The Post and Courier.

It lasted for more than an hour and a half. Early on, SLED Capt. Johnnie Abraham, one of the agents, raised his voice and said he didnt have much to work with.

How can we substantiate what youre saying? Im not doubting something happened. Is there enough to do something with what youre telling us?

Addison submitted names of people to corroborate her elements of the story. She mentioned that one of her witnesses was a therapist shed confided in. The second SLED agent interrupted her and incorrectly said the therapist should have immediately reported the allegation to police. (Therapists are not required to report rape allegations if their clients are adults.)

Addison broke down several times during that back-and-forth.

I understand the tragedy of it, the second agent said. We need evidence to convince other people outside the room.  If you think of anyone I can talk to, call me.

She continued to supply them with information.

In one phone recording, Abraham said, I got everything you sent. Ill recheck my file.

In another, an unidentified agent told her: I wish you had reported it to us when it happened, not several years after. Another problem is that you waited until after you lost your civil case before you reported it to us, a reference to her 2016 discrimination claim and lawsuit. Thats a problem.

***

In an interview, Dennis said Abraham phoned him nearly two years ago "about some type of allegations  He mentioned sexual assault, that she had made allegations something to that effect." Dennis said he told Abraham that she had just lost her civil lawsuit at trial.

"I think (Abraham) knew what it was all about. I think Ms. Addison is upset she lost at trial, and it seems like she's continuing to give false statements."

Dennis said no one from SLED ever followed up.

Abraham, the SLED captain, died in December 2020.

As a former detective, Addison was aware that people might perceive her sexual assault allegations as sour grapes over losing her discrimination claim and lawsuit.

But some events she described to SLED happened before she filed that 2016 complaint. Details such as her emotional conversation with the wife of Sheriff Thomas Mims in 2004, her conversation with Jerry Kelly 10 years ago, her attempts to seek medical help for depression. She hoped that if agents confirmed those and other parts of her story, then they would be more confident she was telling the truth.

But SLED agents failed to document any follow-up interviews to corroborate these facts, The Post and Courier found.

Frustrated with SLEDs inaction, Addison wrote other public leaders, including the S.C. Attorney Generals crime victim ombudsman.

Justice delivered or delayed?

SLED has wide latitude when it comes to opening cases, its policies show. The agency can open cases based on requests from a private citizen, another agency or the governor and do so based on the nature of the allegation and availability of SLED resources.

On Dec. 29, 2021, Veronica Swain Kunz, the S.C. Attorney Generals crime victim ombudsman, wrote to SLED about Addisons case.

In her letter, she wrote that shed asked SLED for records of its work, but that SLED was unable to find any. She urged SLED to open a full investigation.

At this point, I would like to see a case opened and an agent (who has no association with Sumter County) assigned to work with Ms. Addison to get to the bottom of the issue, she wrote.

Keel acknowledged that mistakes were made early on. The agency should have opened a formal case, which would have triggered a review process.

"But the bottom line is that it kind of went off the radar after he (Abraham) passed away."

Keel said the agency did eventually find a file of materials, but only recently  after Kunz from the Attorney General's Office sent the letter.

"I've talked to the sheriff, and he asked me to open an investigation," Keel said. "And, of course, we had already planned on doing it anyway."

As far as violating any of the agency's standards, he said, "We're not perfect. We all make mistakes sometimes. We're going to go back and do the best we can to correct any mistakes."

To be sure, SLED often has its hands full, with agents tasked to investigate everything from police shootings to the sprawling investigations into the Murdaugh family shootings last summer and spin-off probes into the powerful Hampton County family's real estate and banking empire.

But when it comes to investigating fellow law enforcement officers, its performance has been mixed.

In recent years, the agency successfully collared high-profile sheriffs, often working with the FBI. This includes cases against former Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood and former Colleton County Sheriff Andy Strickland, both of whom were convicted of using their public positions for personal gain.

But the agency bungled other cases. In the mid-2000s, for instance, agents failed to properly investigate the death of a Mount Pleasant pharmacist, whose boyfriend was a police officer. It was botched so badly the Charleston County Coroner held a rare inquest and SLED was forced to do another investigation. The agent assigned to the original case was fired and two commanders were reprimanded.

The Post and Couriers 2015 Shots Fired analysis of police shootings also uncovered case after case where SLED agents failed to answer key questions about what happened, failed to document the troubled backgrounds of the officers who drew their guns, and failed to pinpoint missteps and tactical mistakes that could be used to prevent future bloodshed.

In Sumter Countys case, SLEDs failure to investigate a serious allegation has left both accuser and accused in limbo.

Dennis said he feels like he's the target of "a personal vendetta" that could be damaging "to my career and my office. And my family is going to be affected."

Addison said sexual abuse victims often take years to come to terms with what happened and come forward, and she said she's an example of that.

"I can't die with this inside me."

As for SLED's initial response to allegations, she said she felt as if they never took it seriously, a form of injustice in itself.

Editors note: This story was done in collaboration with The Sumter Item, an Uncovered partner.
There have been contradictions about our local government's strategy on COVID-19 testing and limitations for those who have come in close cont Read more
President Biden issued four orders purporting to require vaccinations in various populations. Two of those mandates have been addressed by the Supreme Court. The other two were challenged in a case brought in Texas by a group called Feds for Medical Freedom. Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown issued an order enjoining the federal government from enforcing Bidens mandate that all federal employees be vaccinated, or lose their jobs.

Judge Browns order is here. I have not studied these issues exhaustively, but from a quick read it seems persuasive. Judge Brown relied in part on the Supreme Court decision that barred implementation of an OSHA rule that would have required all employers of more than 100 people to force their employees to be vaccinated, or else fire them.

This is the key section of the courts opinion:

The final statutory authority on which the government relies is  7301, which provides in its entirety: The President may prescribe regulations for the conduct of employees in the executive branch. 5 U.S.C.  7301. According to the government, the act of becoming vaccinated is plainly conduct within the meaning of the statute. Dkt. 21 at 27. But the plaintiffs argue that rather than regulate conduct, the federal-worker mandate compels employees to assume a vaccinated status, and one that is untethered to job requirements, no less. Dkt. 3 at 12. Moreover, the plaintiffs contend, even if becoming vaccinated is conduct, it is not workplace conduct, which is all that  7301 reasonably authorizes the President to regulate. Dkt. 23 at 12. Assuming that getting vaccinated is indeed conduct, the court agrees with the plaintiffs that under  7301, it must be workplace conduct before the President may regulate it. Any broader reading would allow the President to prescribe, or proscribe, certain private behaviors by civilian federal workers outside the context of their employment. Neither the plain language of  7301 nor any traditional notion of personal liberty would tolerate such a sweeping grant of power. So, is submitting to a COVID-19 vaccine, particularly when required as a condition of ones employment, workplace conduct? The answer to this question became a lot clearer after the Supreme Courts ruling in NFIB earlier this month. There, the Court held that the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C.  15 et seq., allows OSHA to set workplace safety standards, but not broad public health measures. NFIB, 595 U.S. ___ slip op. at 6. Similarly, as noted above,  7301 authorizes the President to regulate the workplace conduct of executive-branch employees, but not their conduct in general. See 5 U.S.C.  7301. And in NFIB, the Supreme Court specifically held that COVID-19 is not a workplace risk, but rather a universal risk that is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. NFIB, 595 U.S. ___ slip op. at 6. Accordingly, the Court held, requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is outside OSHAs ambit. Id. Applying that same logic to the Presidents authority under  7301 means he cannot require civilian federal employees to submit to the vaccine as a condition of employment.

That reasoning appears sound to me. So one more attempt by the Biden administration to act unlawfully, to jam extreme measures down the throats of Americans, has fallen short. Joe Biden is compiling a record of failure that is truly impressive.
I dont know anyone who believes the U.S. should respond with American boots on the ground. I know few people who believe the U.S should do nothing.

The range of acceptable options lies somewhere between imposing more sanctions on Russia, but going no further, and providing some form of military assistance short of ground troops.

As to sanctions, theres a debate about how much damage even stringent ones would impose on Russia. Theres also the question, raised by Joe Biden himself during his most recent press conference, of the extent to which Europe would go along with stringent sanctions.

Based on what Biden said, its fair to infer that Europe would balk at severe sanctions. If so, its fair to infer that a sanctions regime wouldnt impose the kind of damage on Russia that would cause it pull out of Ukraine or deter it from such adventurism. Indeed, I question whether any sanctions regime could induce Putin to curb his territorial ambitions.

In sum, sanctions are a weak response.

What other options, short of ground troops are there? Michael Vickers, a Defense Department official during the Obama years, lays them out in this article. He raises the possibility of deploying U.S. air power against Russia. He does so in the context of deterring Putin from moving against Ukraine, but for air power to be a credible deterrent, we must be prepared to use it in case Putin is not deterred.

Even just the use of our air power would put Americans in harms way and put America at war with Russia. I dont see a prudent administration doing this.

Vickers suggests the following course of action, on top of sanctions, if Russia attacks Ukraine:

The United States should also support Ukrainian resistance to Russian occupation and a Russia-installed government with lethal means, to include advanced anti-armor and anti-air weapons. We drove the Russians out of Afghanistan during the 1980s using similar means, and we can drive them out of Ukraine should they invade and occupy the country. We should also support the resistance to Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, which will significantly expand Putins territorial control problem and increase the cost of his invasion. As part of this strategy, Poland should also open its borders to Belarusian refugees. Finally, we should employ cyber and other covert means to undermine Putins rule in Russia. Its past time to give Putin a taste of his own medicine.

I dont know whether Vickers is correct in his assessment that we could drive the Russians out of Ukraine through the same methods we used to help the Afghans drive out the Russians in the 1980s. But theres no doubt that Putin doesnt want another Afghanistan or anything like it. Nor do the Russian people. Were Russia to become bogged down in Ukraine and incur a steady loss of Russian life there, Putins grip on power might well slip.

Therefore, we should make it clear to Putin, if we havent already, that we will support Ukrainian resistance to Russia. And we should make good on that threat if there is an invasion/occupation.

Some might argue that this response isnt warranted because Ukraines fate has no bearing on U.S. interests. I consider this argument frivolous in the context of a debate over whether to provide the kind of assistance described above. Its clear to me that America has enough of a stake in opposing Russia to justify providing aid, as opposed to troops, to support Ukraine.

Nonetheless, before the U.S. comes to Ukraines aid against a Russian attack, that U.S. interest will have to be spelled out, not just asserted.
In 1966, Vermont Senator George Aiken, addressing the Vietnam War, said that it was time to declare victory and go home. As usual with such quotes, the reality is perhaps more complicated. But there is a reason why Aikens supposed quote has gone down in history. If he didnt say it, he should have.

In my opinion, we are at an analogous point in the covid epidemic. The time has come to stop vowing to crush covid, or to achieve the impossible goal of preventing a virus from spreading. It is time to declare victory over covidor a truce, anywayand go home. The U.K. is now following that path, along with other European countries.

Kevin Roche expresses similar thoughts:

The level of total immunity in Minnesota and the country is very, very high right now. A huge percent of the population is vaccinated or has been infected or both. I would guess there cannot be more than 10% to 15% of the population that has no immune response to CV-19, based on vax stats and seroprevalence surveys and estimates of detected and undetected infection ratios. This Omicron wave has pumped numbers up to a very high level. Remember when the experts told us that if we got to 70% or 80% infection the epidemic would be over? I was astounded at those pronouncements because of the misunderstanding of adaptive immunity they evinced, coupled with the widespread and increasing use of oversensitive PCR and antigen tests.

Pretty much everyone else got that wrong, too.

So why isnt it over despite such high levels of total immunity? Because, for the 100th time, adaptive immunity does not and cannot stop exposure. If people are exposed and there is constant testing, you will find infections, most of which have no clinical meaning. Because the virus has a million reservoirs and a far greater ability to survive and travel in the air than we have understood or accepted. Because population immunity does not mean there is no virus; it means that transmission and infections are very low and impose a low morbidity burden. How do the experts not know this, or if they do, how can they be so bad at communicating and even worse at designing policies that take these basic facts into account. If we only counted as cases those infections that had symptoms requiring, requiring, medical care, and we only counted as CV-19 hospitalizations those in which the primary reason for admission was CV-19 and the primary treatment was for CV-19, and we only count as CV-19 deaths those in which the actual cause of death was CV-19 disease; the epidemic is over now. On those more rational parameters, what we have now is a typical or less than typical flu season, and that is how we count flu events.

The epidemic is over now. It is time to declare victory and go home. The damage we have done to our children in our futile attempt to stop the virus is a crime. We will be living with the consequences for many years to come. Meanwhile, the best thing we can do, as George Aiken may have said many years ago, is declare victory and go home. Let us at least stop inflicting further devastation on the next generation.
The National Assembly is mandated by the Constitution to sit for at least 181 days in a year. Section 63 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty-one days in a year. But in 2021, the House of Representatives only held plenary sessions 70 times.

PREMIUM TIMES had in a first review of the first quarter of 2021 said the lawmakers may violate the Constitution by the end of December because they had only sat for 14 days then.

The standing rules of the House provide guidelines on plenary days. Order 5 rules 4 and 5 of the standing rules of the House allow it to sit from Monday to Friday.

Erroneous interpretation of sitting days

PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported how the Senated also violated the law by sitting for only 66 days in 2021. Following the report, Ezrel Tabiowo, the Special Media Assistant to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, claimed that committee meetings are also recorded as sitting days.

Committee meeting days and Public Hearings are also recorded as sitting days. Therefore, budget defence sessions are considered sitting days which also count for the times lawmakers sit during a legislative session, Mr Tabiowo said.

But Jiti Ogunye, a constitutional lawyer, described the interpretation by Mr Tabiowo as wrong.

Such a closet interpretation. Is it in the Constitution? So where did he get his interpretation? There is a violation. Go to the definition section of the constitution, section 318, is it there? Is committee meeting part of the consideration for the calculation of sittings under section 63? Such an interpretation is fallacious, that interpretation is not correct, Mr Ogunye said.

Furthermore, a careful review of the Constitution and the standing rules of the House also suggests Mr Tabiowos assertion is not supported by law.

Section 53 of the Constitution says:

1. At any sitting of the National Assembly 

A) in the case of the Senate, the President of the Senate shall preside, and in his absence the Deputy President shall preside; and

B) in the case of the House of Representatives, the Speaker of that House shall preside, and in his absence the Deputy Speaker shall preside

2. At any joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives 

A. the President of Senate shall preside, and in his absence the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall preside; and

B. in the absence of the persons mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection, the Deputy President of the Senate shall preside, and in his absence the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall preside.

Therefore, when Section 63 refers to sittings, it means either the sitting of the House or the Senate. Hence, there is no ambiguity in the word sitting. Committees are presided over by a Chairman, and the Constitution only refers to Senate President, Speaker and their deputies while referring to who can preside over a sitting.

In addition, Order 5 of the House standing rules (Sittings of the House) elaborates the provision of the constitution on sitting by providing the process and procedure. There is no ambiguity as to what sitting means as this order clearly refers to plenary, not committee sittings.

To ensure there is no ambiguity, Order 17 rule six sub-rule 5 states that all committee meetings can only commence after 3 p.m. on every legislative day, except as may be authorised by the House or the speaker.

Mr Tabiowo, using his contentious interpretation of sittings, said the Senate in the first legislative year (June 2019 to 2020) sat for 154 days. Even that figure is still below the minimum of 181 days stipulated by the Constitution.

Details provided by the Director, Senate Chambers, showed on the contrary that the upper chamber sat for 154 days in the first session between Tuesday, June 11, 2019 and June 10, 2020. The number of times it sat was affected around February, 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was announced in Nigeria,

The spokesperson of the Senate, Ajibola Bashiru (APC, Osun) also invoked COVID-19 as the excuse, while also citing other activities.

It suffices to say that the work of the National Assembly is not limited to plenary, we have committee assignments, we have oversight functions and we have constituency work.

We had to adjust our calendar administratively to ensure that we comply with the COVID-19 demands.

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Kelechukwu Eni-Otu, a legal practitioner, faulted the position of the Senate on the issue. The Constitution is not a buffet that lawmakers can pick based on convenience, the lawyer told PREMIUM TIMES. He said the lawmakers should, instead, amend the Constitution if they are convinced that they cannot meet up with the provision of the Constitution.

Mr Ogunye further dismissed the COVID-19 excuse on the basis that the lawmakers continued to receive remunerations.

It is not a valid argument. Did they suspend their allowances and money they were receiving during that period because of COVID? Why did they receive salaries? Meaning that you are being remunerated without working, he said.

The lawyer cited the case of the judiciary, which initially shut down activities after the outbreak of the virus but later adopted certain COVID-19 measures to continue to function.

He added that the National Assembly chambers are big enough for social distancing to be adopted.

Apart from violating the law when it comes to sittings, the lawmakers have a history of disregarding their own rules. For instance, Order 5 rule 2 sub 4 states that the House shall sit at 10:00 a. m. and unless previously adjourned, shall sit till 6:00 p.m., provided that at 1:30 p.m., the Speaker may suspend sitting until 2:00 p.m.

Most times, the House in the 9th Assembly does not commence plenary until about 11:30 a.m., as against the 10 a.m. stated in the standing rules.

Also, committees of the House continue to sit at the same period as plenary time, despite the position of the law that committees should start by 3:00 p. m.

Regulating activities must not be in contravention of the Constitution. Any rule, standing order that is inconsistent with the express provision of the Constitution, to the extent of its inconsistency is null and void, Mr Eni-Otu said.

Can citizens seek redress against indolent lawmakers?

So, can the electorate seek redress against the lawmakers for indolence and violation of the Constitution, the infractions that they have committed by failing to put in the number of sittings required of them by the Constitution?

Abdul Mahmud, an activist, said it will be difficult for an ordinary citizen or civil society organisation (CSO) to pass the locus standi test in our jurisprudence for any such pursuit. He said a progressive lawmaker will be in the best position to institute such action.

A member of the House, who is progressive and interested in standing on the side of the Constitution, has more than sufficient interest to appear before the court to ask for interpretation.

Registered NGOs would still have to pass the locus test. What specific interest does he have that affects him more than any other citizen, any other organisation? It is a difficult test, he said.

Mr Mahmud said he made an attempt to sue the House in 2021.

I got a member of the House of Reps. Unfortunately, our disagreement was in respect of the consequential order we were going to ask for if the court holds that the House of Reps fell far too short of the 181 days that the Constitution provides. If the salaries earned are not genuine, the court can make an order for a refund. The order would have affected him, he said.

But Mr Eni-Otu said a civil society group can sue the National Assembly and seek an injunctive order against the House or even ask the court to mandate the lawmakers to pay back all emoluments received.

In legal terms, it could be said that the legislative days are not in compliance with the constitution. Nothing will happen, except if an NGO that is registered for the purpose of supporting good governance and democracy decides to question or challenge their failure to do so in the court  for the court to make a declaration, maybe an injunctive release, against the federal lawmakers.

A court can interpret the constitution in that regard. It will come with no punitive measure, except if they took salaries as if they had sat for the complete number of days constitutionally provided for.

The lawyer also said other jurisprudence like India long ago reviewed the locus standi rule to allow citizens to take legal action on public interest matters.

I as a voter will want to know that the person I am electing into the national parliament to make laws for me also respects the law. Jurisdictions like India have long moved away from this narrow interpretation of the law.

In Nigeria too, there is no consensus from our court. You find judgments where the court would uphold the fact that a citizen must show sufficient interest in a matter, and you also find decisions where the court has ruled that the fact that you are a taxpayer establishes sufficient interest in a matter of public interest. It is a lottery.

It is an important provision that the lawmakers must sit for 181 days.

Mr Ogunye also disagreed with Mr Mahmud on locus standi. According to Mr Ogunye, locus standi has been liberalised over the years. He cited cases where courts have made pronouncements allowing citizens to institute cases on public interest.

The issue of locus standi has been liberalised as in the case of Senator Adesanya and the President, that is in the Second Republic, where Senator (Abraham) Adesanya, who is late now, took the president to court. The interpretation was that he as a senator could represent his senatorial district for him to have the locus to sue the president. But the Supreme Court held differently.

In the case of Fawehimi and Akilu, that issue of locus standi was further expanded. In that case, the issue was whether Chief Gani Fewehinmi, of blessed memory, could take up the issue of Dele Giwa, who was the late editor of NewsWatch magazines. Then the Supreme Court said yes, Dele Giwa was his client, and a fellow Nigerian.

On that issue, the issue of who has locus standi, even the biblical injunction that we should be our brothers keeper. The issue of locus standi has been liberalised. It is not true that any civil society organisation or a Nigerian will be considered a busy body, if they were to go to court to seek the appropriate relief against the National Assembly, he said.

According to the constitutional lawyer, a pronouncement by the court against the lawmakers will advance our constitutional democracy.

Yes, the court can make a declaration and the court can then, based on that declaration, prohibit them that they should henceforth not sit below the days prescribed by the constitution, and further give a mandatory order that they should now be sitting in conformity with the constitutional provision. That kind of constitutional interpretation will promote the rule of law, develop further our constitutional democracy, and it will underscore that the legislature should not be a law unto itself, Mr Ogunye said.

Other violations of the Constitution by lawmakers

Other the years, the National Assembly has struggled to form a quorum at plenary or during committee sittings. The question of quorum has also been subjected to debates and interpretations.

Section 54 of the Constitution provides that The quorum of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall be one-third of all the members of the Legislative House concerned.

This means for the House of Representatives to commence a plenary session, there must be 120 members on the floor of the House.

Oftentimes, this has not been the case. However, the argument has always been that once a quorum is formed on the attendance register (which they keep secret anyway), then they can proceed, even if there are fewer members than what the constitution stipulates.

However, such an argument is at variance with section 54(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that: If objection is taken by any member of the Senate or the House of Representatives present that there are present in the House of which he is a member (besides the person presiding) fewer than one-third of all the members of that House and that it is not competent for the House to transact business, and after such interval as may be prescribed in the rules of procedure of the House, the person presiding ascertains that the number of members present is still less than one-third of all the members of the House, he shall adjourn the House.

While the Constitution only provides what constitutes a quorum and what to do in the event of lack of one, the Standing Rules of the two chambers are much more explicit on the procedure to implement the provision of section 54 subsection (1,2,3,4) of the Constitution. As a matter of fact, the Constitution made reference to the Standing Rule for detailed interpretation.

The two chambers often hide behind the register to justify scanty attendance at plenary, by stating that as long as the register has the required quorum, the House/Senate can continue even if members on the floor are not up to the one-third required.

Despite the huge resources expended on the lawmakers, it has become a challenge to have 120 members on the floor of the House to conduct business. Often, the House sits without the required quorum and such violations are ignored by the lawmakers.

The spokesperson of the House, Ben Kalu (Abia, APC), did not respond to calls and messages requesting his comment on the issues raised in this report
When James Iniama, an estate surveyor and valuer from Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, secured the ticket of a major political party to contest the 2007 governorship election in Akwa Ibom, he had an incredible experience that changed his life  people, whom he says were agents of the Akwa Ibom State Government, went after him. Godswill Akpabio, now minister for Niger Delta Affairs, was governor of the state at the time.

He abandoned his thriving business in Uyo, the state capital, and fled with his family to Abuja, Nigerias capital.

In this first part of his interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Iniama, now a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), speaks on the events of 2007 and his interest in the 2023 governorship election in the state.

PT: You contested the 2007 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State under the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), what was the impact like?

INIAMA: Well, I can tell you it was really impactful.

PT: Did you win in any local government area?

INIAMA: Well, you cannot really lay claim to what you won and what you did not win, but we know that the results we had in our hands were evident that we won in some local government areas. We won sufficiently to have been declared the governor.

PT: Really? Was ACN really popular at that time?

INIAMA: We came with a clear agenda for the people of Akwa Ibom State. We didnt just come with the political rhetoric, we came with a clear message of things we thought were the needs of the people and we were poised to address those needs.

PT: But after that election, you disappeared, people didnt see nor hear from you anymore?

INIAMA: What did I have to do in Akwa Ibom State when the government of the time was bold enough to declare me an enemy of the state?

PT: Publicly?

INIAMA: I wouldnt know (whether it was publicly or not), it didnt have to matter, but lets get to the issue. From 2007, there is no street in Akwa Ibom State that was safe anymore for residents. There was no business place that was safe for business, the thing that became popular was kidnapping, assassinations, rape. So, that wasnt anymore a society to live in, and for a wise person the best thing to do is get out of that environment. We have to stay alive. If I didnt stay alive you wouldnt be talking with me today. I can tell you I knew I was branded the first target for whatever evil that was in their mind.

PT: What happened to your supporters?

INIAMA: What does the Bible say? Smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock would flee. My supporters were not the target. The target was the principal, the candidate. Bullets were shot into this house (his residence) almost every day. I had to relocate my family before the election because it wasnt safe at all.

PT: Anyone who wanted you, could have still come after you in Abuja?

INIAMA: Anybody who came to Abuja was coming to a neutral ground, Ill face you. If I remained in Uyo, the instrument of government was residing with the government, anything could happen. Government paid thugs to raid my office at 43 Aka Road, Uyo, from the ground floor to the last floor, my private property, with my private businesses. And when I confronted the governor then, he told me he was told my property is a government property. It was deliberate, it was to make sure I was wiped off the face of the earth.

PT: When you were going into the election, did you anticipate this was going to happen?

INIAMA: Democracy was not intended to be fraught with violence. At the time, the government of Akwa Ibom State took it beyond tolerable boundaries  violence everywhere.

You know the number of people who were kidnapped, you know how many of our mothers were murdered and stripped on the streets of Akwa Ibom State? It is something of which this state should be ashamed, we should go to God in repentance. How could you possibly strip my mother? Murder my mother, strip her and leave her on the street? My mother? Dont forget, God had to tell Cain the blood of your brother is crying from the earth for vengeance. We are a Christian people, there are things that should not be heard of us.

I sued the Akwa Ibom State Government after all of that action, and from the High Court in Uyo, the court decided in my favour, to the Court of Appeal where the government appealed on those issues, the court decided in my favour. The Akwa Ibom State had to appeal on the matter to the Supreme Court. Thank God, I dont know how it happened, it was Governor Udom Emmanuel who instructed that the matter should be settled out of court.

PT: Has that been done?

INIAMA: Oh yes, it was done.

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PT: What did you want from the court?

INIAMA: I needed to be protected, I needed to be compensated for my assets that were looted.

PT: Have you been compensated?

INIAMA: It was a negotiated out-of-court settlement, so at that stage you dont want to go too far.

PT: Do you think this horrible past (in Akwa Ibom) has been sufficiently dealt with?

INIAMA: We will not deal with it all in eight years, but I will give credit to Governor Udom Emmanuel, he has taken certain bold and very definite steps to discourage those things, speak against them, signed Executive Order to that effect.

He (Governor Emmanuel) has launched a programme he calls Maintain Peace Movement, intended to drive to the consciousness of Akwa Ibom State and the people the need for us to live together in peace and in harmony, if we intend that this state must continue to experience any kind of growth as we have experienced today. We will need a succession that will sustain it.

Definitely, the things we did in this state offended men, and I believe God himself was not happy with us. I wasnt happy with this state, I felt my government came with arms against a harmless citizen, and a senior citizen for that matter, who has contributed to the state. And for what offence? He aspired to be the governor of the state. I am a priest of God, I didnt need to cry on the street, but I cried before God. And can you imagine how many people were crying before God when their wives were kidnapped, when their mothers were assassinated on the street, when they were shot, when their brothers, their sons and daughters were shot and killed?

PT: This horrible past you are talking about, was it always like this or was it particular about that period?

INIAMA: No, Uyo was very peaceful, it was a place you would love to live in, you could walk out of your house and leave the doors open.

PT: Are you still scared today of what might happen to you?

INIAMA: By the grace of God, I am not a fearful person.

PT: Are you contesting for the governorship in 2023?

INIAMA: Without doubt, yes I am aspiring on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, that I will be approved of the Almighty God who makes kings and I will be found acceptable to members of my political party to become the PDP governorship candidate, building towards the election that would hold maybe next year when INEC has published the (election) timetable.

PT: Are you not afraid that what happened to you in 2007 might happen again?

INIAMA: I am not afraid of anything, I am not afraid of the risk, I dont even see the dangers. As a Christian, I pray over the issues of my life, I do not step into matters that are not resolved in my spirit. I have always had the burden to serve my people, the people of Akwa Ibom State, and that is why I deliberately undertook to familiarise myself with this state.

I know my people, I know their history, I know their needs. I know them to the remotest part of the state.

To be continued
President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured Kaduna State residents of the resolve of the Nigerian Armed Forces, under his watch, to crush terrorists and criminal gangs operating in the state and other parts of the country.

The presidents media aide, Garba Shehu, in a statement on Friday, said the president stated this at a State Banquet to commemorate his official visit to the state.

The president commended the support Kaduna State had been providing to security agencies, noting the establishment of a ministry dedicated to Internal security.

I wish to assure the people and government of Kaduna State that the Federal Government is doing its utmost to contain and crush the terrorists that have been menacing our citizens and their property in parts of the country.

On behalf of the Federal Government, I commend the efforts of the Kaduna State Government to respond to the demands of development.

The relationship between our tiers of government represents an instance of successful collaboration between the national and state governments for progress, peace and prosperity.

I urge Malam Nasir El-Rufai to push on and not relent in his efforts to accelerate change and progress in Kaduna State, he said.

While reviewing his programme in the state since he arrived on Wednesday, the president said he was delighted to have inaugurated projects undertaken by the state government led by El-Rufai.

I have been most impressed by the consistent efforts of the Kaduna State Government to develop the state, to seek progress on so many fronts and to boldly confront challenges.

Most of my visits to Kaduna State since 2015 have been in connection with clear strides of progress.

I was here in 2017 to commission the hatchery and feed mill project of Olam, a multinational agribusiness company that has sited a major factory in Kaduna.

In August 2019, I had the honour to commission Phase 2 of the Zaria Water Project and a road project.

Therefore, I am not surprised that Malam Nasir El-Rufai and his team have undertaken such a major investment in infrastructure development.

I am glad to say that I have seen with my own eyes the remarkable changes across all the three Senatorial zones, he said.

The president declared that he looked forward to inaugurating more and more projects in the state.

He lauded the Kaduna State Urban Renewal Programme for its sheer audacity, breadth of imagination and quality of project execution.

Projects under this programme have been described as an unprecedented investment in urban infrastructure in the state.

When completed, these projects will define the city of Kaduna for the next 50 years.

State Governments have direct responsibility for the quality of life of the residents of their state. Kaduna State is providing an example of how this can be done.

While highlighting other achievements of the state government, the president said it was noteworthy that the hardwork of the present administration attracted 2.8 billion dollars in foreign investment to the state since 2015.

This was further confirmed by Kaduna State being ranked as the Number One state for ease of doing business in the last published World Bank Doing Business Report for sub-nationals in Nigeria.

We have also seen the El-Rufai government increase the internally generated revenue of the state by almost four times in five years, from N13bn in 2015 to N50.7bn in 2020.

On health, the president recalled the strong response of Kaduna State in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria early in 2020, welcoming the completion of the 136-bed Infectious Disease Centre inaugurated on Thursday.

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On education, the president noted that the state had also demonstrated commitment to equality of opportunity at the basic and senior secondary levels.

The policy of making education free and compulsory up to the completion of secondary school is a significant contribution to human capital development, and I commend it wholeheartedly.

I have been told that back in 2015, you inherited a school in the Rigasa area with reportedly over 20,000 pupils instead of the planned 1,500 pupils. We are impressed that Kaduna State Government has built more schools to accommodate these students, he said.

In his remarks, Governor El-Rufai called for further military action to stop the activities of terrorists in the state.

We have spent considerable sums to support federal security agencies in the State in order to promote the safety and wellbeing of our people.

We are implementing a Safe City project, created a Vigilance Service to provide community level security services and established a Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs to improve coordination among security agencies and intelligence sharing.

We believe that further military action and more boots on the ground are needed to stop the terrorists that menace our people.

But as we tackle security, we must also move forward with the things that our resources and planning enable us to do to make life better for our people, he said.

On ongoing road projects in the state, the governor informed the president that the Nnamdi Azikiwe Way (the old Western bye-Pass) is being reconstructed into a six-lane concrete highway by the Dangote Group under the Presidents innovative Tax Credit scheme.

He, therefore, appealed to the president to direct the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to end the two-year delay suffered by this project and give Dangote the go-ahead to start the construction and completion of the earthworks before the onset of the rainy season.

He added that vital projects to reconstruct the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road up to the boundary with Niger state and the Birnin Gwari-Dansadau road, which passes through Katsina State and terminates in Zamfara State, were also stalled at the Federal Ministry of Works, despite the expressed readiness of the Dangote Group to work on them.

With the rapid progress in the construction of the Eastern Bye-Pass by the Federal Government, our government has completed plans to begin the construction of a new Western Bye-Pass to link with the Eastern Bye-Pass.

This is to create the Third Ring Road of Kaduna from the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway behind the Rigasa Train Station and the Kaduna International Airport and terminating at the Kaduna-Zaria highway.

We need the commitment of the Federal Government to support this laudable project that will further expand economic opportunities for the people of Kaduna State and Nigeria at large, he said.

The governor thanked Buhari for the working visit to Kaduna State as well as his unflinching support toward the development of the state. (NAN)
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says consistent decrease in COVID-19 case positivity indicates the end of the fourth wave in the state.

Mr Abayomi disclosed this through his verified Twitter account, @ProfAkinolaAbayomi, on Saturday, while giving the states COVID-19 update for January 20.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state had on December 7 announced the beginning of the fourth wave as the daily infection figure from the virus spiked.

Mr Abayomi said that there was a reduction in positivity rates of COVID-19 infection from 29.3 per cent recorded on December 21, to 1.9 per cent as of January 20.

According to him, bed capacity utilisation now stands at two per cent, and fatality rate stands at 0.71 per cent.

The commissioner said that 46 new infections were confirmed on the reported date increasing the number of COVID-19 infections in the state to 98,284.

He noted that 1,023, 203 sample tests had been conducted since the start of the pandemic in the state.

Mr Abayomi advised residents to get vaccinated and continue to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to further reduce the spread of the virus.

Background

While Nigerians prepared for Christmas in 2021, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Nigeria had crossed 1,000 new daily infection cases with a total of 1,424 on December 7, confirming the Lagos governments announcement of the beginning of the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Days after the Lagos government made the announcement, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, the agency of government in charge of the research and monitoring of the pandemic, eventually announced that the country had entered the fourth wave of the pandemic.

According to the NCDC, as of December 19, the country had recorded 223,887 cases and 2,985 deaths from the virus.

Mr Sanwo-Olu in his earlier announcement had emphasised compliance to the countrys travel protocol by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, and pledged that his state would ensure total enforcement.

Mr Sanwo-Olu reiterated the need for inbound passengers to take the post-arrival Day 2 test within 48 hours of arrival into the country, as well as an additional Day 7 PCR test for all partially or unvaccinated returning travellers.

Based on this, we will commence the prosecution of those that refuse to submit themselves for these mandatory tests by blacklisting their passports for 1 year.

This would be carried out in partnership with the Presidential Steering Committee. In addition, all foreigners that flout the rules would be subject to possible deportation, he said.

Relief

According to NCDC records, as of December 28, 2021, Lagos State began to record a reduction in positive cases of the virus.

The state continued to record a reduction in cases until it announced the end of the fourth wave Saturday.

Though the Nigerian government has not confirmed this development, as the epicentre of the pandemic in the country, the governors position may soon be endorsed by the government at the centre.

Nigeria Statistics

On January 21, 2022, Nigeria recorded a total number of 236 new confirmed cases and 1 death.

According to NCDC, as of Saturday, 251,930 cases have been confirmed, with a total of 225,906 persons treated of the virus and discharged nationwide while a total of 3,124 deaths have been recorded in the country.

In all of these, Lagos recorded the highest number of infections with 98,044 confirmed cases, followed by FCT with 27,989 and Rivers State with 16,307.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday restated his decision to stay off the party politics, saying nothing can make him return to party politics.

Mr Obasanjo made his position known, while addressing reporters shortly after a closed-door meeting with members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abeokuta.

The former president said he was contented to remain as an elder statesman, adding that nothing would make him return to party politics.

I want to emphasise that I am no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that will bring me back to partisan politics.

I will always be interested in what is good for Nigeria and anybody who wants to have my advice, I will distinctively give it in the best interest of Nigeria and in the best interest of Africa.

This is why I have the type of responsibility that I now have in the horn of Africa, which is not an easy thing, the former president said.

He, however, said that PDP would continue to be part of his life history because he attained unto the position of the president of the country on the platform of the party.

Mr Obasanjo explained that in spite of his retirement from party politics, he could not retire from his commitment to the welfare of the people.

He said: I have been with the party right from inception.

Whatever I do in my life, because I became president on the platform of PDP, the party will continue to be part of history of my life.

I must, however, add that the day my ward decided to tear my PDP card, was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP. And that day, I vowed that I will no longer be a member of any political party.

I will remain a statesman in Nigeria, West Africa, Africa and indeed in the world at large.

Though, I have retired from partisan politics, but I cannot retire from the welfare and wellbeing of the people, whether in my own community, in my own state, in my own country, anywhere in Africa or indeed anywhere in the world.

Mr Obasanjo said the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, has a huge responsibility in restoring the lost glory of the party, praying that God would grant him the wisdom to succeed.

In his remarks, Mr Ayu said he considered it appropriate to visit Mr Obasanjo with the party chieftains so that they could learn from his wealth of experiences.

The PDP chairman said that the tenure of Mr Obasanjo as Nigerias president on the platform of the PDP, remained the golden era of the party.

During that period, not only did you grow Nigerias economy to be the biggest in Africa, you were able to take the country away from slavery by negotiating and cancelling so much of its foreign debts.

The Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) in the country was on the increase on daily basis with attendant respect for Nigeria from the international community.

Most of the institutions and agencies set up during your tenure, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), are still useful in the country.

You are very passionate about this country and you did a lot. So, we thought we should come and thank you for what you have done, not just for Nigerians, but also for our party and the African continent.

I think today, in all modesty, after the departure of late President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, there remains only one person of such stature on the African continent.

We are proud that the person is a Nigerian in the person of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mr Ayu, who described Mr Obasanjo as a de-tribalised leader, recalled that the elder statesman once told him that he (Obasanjo), would feel diminished, if anyone limits him to a particular tribe, rather than Nigeria as a country.

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He explained that the thought had stuck in his head that he, and every Nigerian, has the responsibility to keep Nigeria united and take it to an enviable height.

Though, you retired from partisan politics, partisan politics will never retire from your blood.

You always want the right thing done and since you want the right thing done, for life, you will remain the emeritus member of the PDP.

You cannot build a house and leave it to collapse.

We will continue to contribute our own quotas to the growth of the party and the nation and we will continue to come to you.

So, I want to plead with you, please dont be tired of us as we come knocking, asking for your advice and wisdom because the words of elders are the words of wisdom, he said. (NAN)
Some young Nigerians and military officers from the Defence Headquarters have expressed worry over the gaps that exist between the Nigerian youth and security agencies.

At a summit held in Abuja on Wednesday and Thursday, the participants called for trust and youth involvement in security matters in order to achieve a better response from them.

The Summit themed Building Trust for an Improved Security Response in Nigeria, was organised by Abuja Global Shapers Community (AGSC) in collaboration with Defence Headquarters.

At the event, participants including the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, a lieutenant general, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, representatives from the Ministry of Interior, security agencies, among others, discussed the disturbing gaps that exist between Nigerian youth and the security forces.

Besides the problems of lack of synergy between Nigerian youth and security personnel, participants also discussed the spate of insecurity in the country and major criminalities like killings and kidnapping-for-ransom.

This summit comes amid increased terrorism, banditry and all other kinds of security vices including killings and kidnapping-for-ransom which has spread across the country and spanned over a decade.

The programme

In his welcome remark, Mr Irabor disclosed that the military is currently advancing the whole-of-society approach as a means of solving security challenges  of which Nigerian youths could play a pivotal role.

He described the collaborative venture between the Nigerian Armed Forces and the AGSC as enlightening in order to better understand the roles and responsibilities of the military in surmounting internal and external threats as well as protection of lives and property.

While he identified freedom from dangers and threats to the nations ability to defend and develop, promote its core values, and legitimate interests as well as enhanced wellbeing of its citizens as component of national security, he noted that youth engagement practically makes them part of the fabric of stability of the society towards enhancing national security.

The AGS Hub Curator, Umar Naveed, noted that the event was aimed at placing youth at the centre of national security conversations like this as well as encouraging collaboration between both parties.

This menace has spread over all six geopolitical zones and crippled economic, academic and social activities in these regions. It has also forced many to flee their ancestral homes and seek refuge elsewhere.

No doubt, the security situation in our country has evolved into a very serious challenge. And for this reason, the Abuja Global Shapers Community has strived to be at the forefront of security conversations and initiatives like this  with the aim of addressing some of the persistent security challenges with a grand strategy approach, he said.

Key recommendations

The event was divided into four panels spread across the two days.

The panel sessions comprised youth, technical and security experts who were able to make recommendations on how to build trust among the youth and the security personnel for improved security response.

As advice to security agencies, Mr Itodo prayed that their personnel attend conversations as such with an open mind and willingness to listen to the plight and point of the youth.

This, he said, is one way to create and maintain synergy between both parties.

I dont think we would divorce these discussions around kidnapping without the context which is  when a state has failed in performing its own responsibilitiesthese manifestations (insecurity) are just evident of the fact that the state has failed, he said.

If you come to dialogue with young people, come with an open mindset. A mindset that seeks to understand how these guys are thinking and the best way to achieve this is to listen to them and their messages and dont think that you know it all or that they are criticising you.

You dont talk at young people, you talk with them because the dynamics are different. If you want to build trust within young people, you must come to the discussion with a different approach.

He said judging by the #EndSARS campaign in 2020, it will take years to build trust between security agencies and citizens but one way to fast track that is to acknowledge that young people come from a background and have been victims.

Dont think that they dont know the depth of the challenges that we encounter. They are the victimsNigerians have a duty to hold the authority to account because democracy cannot survive if you dont ask questions.

Other participants noted the need for genuine investment in community policing  which requires that the whole security apparatus begins to intervene in the communities.

One way to achieve this, they said, is by introducing a system where top security officers who live in the community, interact with the police, army and members of the community. Such will allow for more citizen participation.

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They also stressed the need for accountability and justice  with regards to whistleblowing and reporting suspicious behaviours, a crime or violence.

Participants also agreed that there is a need to invest in dialogue and mediation as well as an established and reliable warning systems like hotlines in terms of emergencies. This, they said, will help build confidence.
A private secondary school in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has retracted its statement over the alleged abuse of a female student by an official of the school.

The school, King Solomon Secondary School, has also apologised to the girls parents over the incident.

The schools initial position was that the 16-year-old girl who is in SS3 was indecently dressed to school and had muttered offensive words when confronted by the school official.

It had also said a report of the incident posted on Facebook by Celestine Mel, a relative of the girl, was exaggerated.

Mr Mels Facebook post has photos of the student with bruises all over her body allegedly inflicted by the official, identified as Ndifreke.

The charge was that her school uniform was too short, and goes against the Bible, which forms the moral pillar of the school.

She wanted to strip the child down. The child tried to run away. Ndifreke (the official) descended on her, using every weapon within her reach: cane, stick, planks. From the head to her back, shoulder, thighs, legs, etc, Mr Mel wrote.

Continuing, he wrote: There were bumps, blood and bruises. She looked like a lucky survivor, out from a bombed-out rubble in a war zone. The head bulged out. The eyes blood-shot. Her skin peeled here and there, lacerated and bleeding. She left the school by foot and in pain, and walked home by foot, several kilometers away. Alone. With no mercy. Or money. Or pity,

We are sorry  School authorities

The Principal of King Solomon School, Ubong Akpan issued a statement on January 14, saying that the matter has been resolved between the school and the girls parents, following the intervention of the police and the commissioner for education in the state.

The affected student, after the resolution, returned to school on January 17, according to Mr Akpan.

Mr Akpan said the school management regretted what happened.

He said the student, apart from the incident, has been of good behaviour since her admission into the school at JSS2.

The management apologises to the parents and assures of no repeat of such incident for the time their daughter shall remain in King Solomon Secondary School.

The management hereby wishes to retract all publications made on this matter as if it was never made, especially that of 11 January, 2022, the principal said in the statement.
A former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff, has said no person has worked more and better for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) than himself.

He said as one of the founders of the party, he has nothing but the interest and growth of the party at heart.

Mr Sheriff made this statement at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

The former governor is an aspirant for the position of the APCs national chairman.

Although the party is yet to zone the position, it has scheduled its national convention for February 26.

Mr Sheriff, who was once the national chairman of Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, had said he would run for the position if it is zoned to the North-east east.

He had also disclosed that consultations with party leaders across the country had begun, on the need for repositioning ahead of the challenges that may arise after President Muhammadu Buharis tenure.

He was responding to questions on his sojourn in the PDP and his plans to beat other qualified candidates when he said he has worked hard and his experience in the PDP is a plus.

Ive never been a member of PDP in my life They gave me the position of national chairmanship in the party and I believe that should be a credit for our party.

I was part of the founders of APC. I was among the six people that sat first. I was the chairman of the board of trustee of the ANPP.

No person has worked for the APC in his life more than me. And because I wasnt comfortable (in PDP), I went back home. It should be a plus for the party.

While stating that the party will get the national convention right, Mr Sheriff said if elected as national chairman, he will do ten times more than what he did at the PDP.

No presidential ambitions

He also dismissed rumours that he is nursing presidential ambition, saying his aspiration is to lead the APC to electoral victory in 2023.

Please, I want to put it on record today, I am not looking for president. I am looking for APC national chairmanship position so that I can lead a campaign as we did in 2014 to make sure that our father and leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, hands over power to another APC man as a president.

If I want to be president, I am not afraid of anybody. But I dont want to be president but the national chairman of the APC, he said.

While he described other aspirants as eminently qualified, he said he is the one for the job.

With the greatest respect and humility, I make bold to declare that I am that person because I have the skills and experience to unite different interests within the party and across the diverse groups in the country, he said.

Mr Sheriff is among 11 other prominent members of the ruling party jostling for the position.

They include a former governor of Nasarawa State and serving senator, Tanko Al-Makura; his counterpart from Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, the Special Duties Minister and former senator, George Akume, and Niger senator, Sani Musa.

Mr Sheriff had said one of the aspirations of the APC is to rule Nigeria for the next 40 to 50 years.
A new report has shown that children and adolescents in Sub Saharan Africa hospitalised with COVID-19 experience higher mortality rates than their counterparts in the United States of America and Europe.

The report, titled; Assessment of Clinical Outcome amongst Children and Adolescents Hospitalised with COVID-19 in Six Sub-Saharan African Countries, was conducted by a collaboration under the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth), a consortium of cross-disciplinary health personnel across Africa.

The study, which was published in the international JAMA Pediatrics journal, featured researchers from the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

The study collected data from 25 health facilities across Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.

This included 469 African children and adolescents aged three months to 19 years hospitalised with COVID-19 between March and December 2020.

Study Findings

Findings from the study show that African children reported a high overall mortality rate of 8.3 per cent compared with 1 per cent or less reported from Europe and North America.

It also shows that infants younger than one year had nearly five times the risk of death than adolescents aged 15 to 19 years.

Children of all ages with comorbidities including high blood pressure, chronic lung diseases, haematological disorders, and cancer, also were at higher risk of dying.

Furthermore, African children less than a year old and with pre-existing non-communicable diseases were more likely to have poorer outcomes, including intensive care requirements and death.

The report shows that 18 participants had suspected or confirmed multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a serious complication of COVID-19 where different parts of the body become inflamed. About four of the children died from this complication, the study indicates.

Although our study looked at data from earlier in the pandemic, the situation hasnt changed much for the children of Africa  if anything, it is expected to be worsening, with the global emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant, an associate professor of infectious diseases and microbiology and epidemiology at Pitts Graduate School of Public Health, Jean Nachega, said.

Mr Nachega, who is also the lead author of the study, said vaccines are not yet widely available, and that pediatric intensive care is not easily accessible.

The study, which included investigators across all six of the African countries that provided data, found that 34.6 per cent of hospitalised children were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) or required supplemental oxygen, and 21.2 per cent of those admitted to the ICU required invasive mechanical ventilation.

High morbidity

Mr Nachega said the high morbidity and mortality associated with hospitalised children with COVID-19 challenge the existing understanding of the virus as a mild disease in this population.

But if a child has comorbidity, is very young and is in a place where there are limited or no specialised doctors, facilities, or equipment for pediatric intensive care, then that child faces a very real possibility of dying.

Our findings call for an urgent scale-up of COVID-19 vaccination and therapeutic interventions among at-risk eligible children and adolescents in Africa, he said.

He said this also raises further, the acute need for capacity-building and support for pediatric intensive care in these settings.

Applying findings

In a statement issued late Friday, IHVNs Senior Technical Advisor for Paediatric and Adolescent HIV and first co-author of the publication, Sam Agudu, said the findings serve as evidence from multiple countries to show that African children also experience severe COVID-19.

Mrs Agudu urged Nigerian authorities to act upon the study findings, to protect children; including the expansion of vaccine approvals and procurements to include children, as variants emerging since our studys completion have either caused more severe disease and/or more cases overall.

We cannot leave children behind in the pandemic response, she said.

The chief executive officer of IHVN, Patrick Dakum, said the data from the study puts science from Nigeria and the rest of Africa squarely on the map for pandemic-responsive research, particularly for young populations.

Mr Dakum said the institute will continually work towards contributing to research discoveries in Nigeria, West Africa, and beyond.

Reacting to the findings, the director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ifedayo Adetifa, said there is an urgent need to factor children into age-disaggregated COVID-19 disease surveillance and reporting, and consider COVID-19 illness when they present to the hospital.

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Mr Adetifa said the high in-hospital mortality rate reported indicates a need for investments in critical care for children in African settings.

We need more of such rigorous multicenter studies to inform evidence-based policy-making in Nigeria and other African countries, he said.

Similarly, the Executive Director of the IHVN International Research Centre of Excellence, Alashle Abimiku, said the pediatric COVID-19 findings of the collaborative research underscores the value of sustained investments in strong research institutions and collaborations.

Mrs Abimiku said Nigeria could generate rigorous local data to guide local, regional, and international health policy and practice.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, four former governors and members of the partys National Working Committee (NWC) are currently holding a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta.

The meeting is holding at the former Presidents penthouse in the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State.

The PDP bigwigs arrived at the former Presidents house around 12:25 p.m.

In the convoy of the PDP National chairman is the PDP Vice Presidential candidate in 2019 election, Peter Obi, former Governors, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Donald Duke (Cross River).

Others are the Deputy National Chairman of PDP (South), Taofeek Arapaja, and other party officials.

Details later
Civic technology is supporting the fight against corruption by raising accountability and transparency through online services, transparency or open data portals, information crowdsourcing, civic crowdfunding, online corruption reporting, service automation, and digitalisation.

Digitalisation is recognised as an important tool for fighting corruption across countries of the world. It provides society with the capacity to effectively prevent and detect different forms of corruption.

Corruption involves a violation of conduct or professional obligation arising from formal or other entrusted duties. It arises when a person misuses the authority derived from his or her roles/positions in a manner that leads to the accrual of personal benefit, as against public interest.

Leading global non-governmental anti-corruption movement, Transparency International (TI), defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

But thanks to the coronavirus crisis, society has the unique opportunity to reinvent governance processes and public service delivery by using emerging technologies to transform different systems.

Digitalisation supports the fight against corruption by widening transparency, enabling accountability, reducing discretion, and limiting human interaction/interface.

Civic technology is among the new technologies that governments are deploying to engender more open engagement with citizens and thereby enhance the relationship between the people and government.

With the groundswell of mutual trust and cooperation garnered from civic technology, governments are better equipped to tackle corruption and address other social, economic, and political challenges.

Civic technology describes the technology that reinforces citizen engagement and strengthens the accountability and transparency of governance. It includes software built by citizens to support the government in the areas of communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process.

Civic technology plays an important role in the fight against corruption. It provides digital tools for educating and empowering citizens to directly impact the capital budgeting and procurement processes.

As part of the governments ongoing efforts to curtail corruption in Nigeria, the country joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP)  an international multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and responsiveness to citizens through civic technology.

Blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, are among the emerging technologies assisting governments and citizens with new tools to detect, prevent, investigate and reduce corruption.

BudgIT (Tracka), Shine Your Eye, Follow the Money, I Take Actions, Civiclab, and Connected Development (CODE), are some of the renowned civic technology solutions startups that are operating in Nigeria.

These civic tech organisations have created innovative digital tools/platforms that bolster citizen engagements with the government, enable public input, the monitoring of project implementation, and participatory budgeting to curb wastage and leakages in public expenditure.

In Nigeria, e-government initiatives such as Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Government Information Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), and Bank Verification Number (BVN) have contributed to the governments anti-corruption crusade.

Civic technology is supporting the fight against corruption by raising accountability and transparency through online services, transparency or open data portals, information crowdsourcing, civic crowdfunding, online corruption reporting, service automation, and digitalisation.

As part of the governments ongoing efforts to curtail corruption in Nigeria, the country joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP)  an international multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and responsiveness to citizens through civic technology.

So far, the Federal Government disclosed that it spent a total sum of N152 billion on digitalisation in 2021, a substantial raise from the N9 billion expended in 2019 and 2020, according to the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami.

Speaking at the 2021 Service Wide Capacity Building programme on e-Government in Abuja, Pantami explained that the amount was the total sum approved by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for the CBN, NNPC, CAC, Immigration, and Customs among other government agencies for 2021 fiscal year.

He reaffirmed the Federal Governments commitment to ensuring that paperless government is achieved by the year 2030 using emerging technologies that would guarantee data integrity and security.

civic technology platforms can help to mobilise people against corruption. Thus, a convergence of rapport between those who work in technology and those who work in government becomes imperative to conquer the monster of corruption.

Also, the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS 2017-2021), a robust policy initiative of the IT regulator, NITDA, has been developed to ensure adequate utilisation of digital technologies to minimise corruption.

It is anchored on the five pillars of prevention; engagement; ethical re-orientation; enforcement; sanctions and recovery; and management of proceeds of corruption and other forms of financial crimes.

The civic technology ecosystem in Nigeria has also been embarking on strategic engagements to learn from other civics by exploring similar tools that have been developed elsewhere for the benefit of our people/communities.

A recent example is an agreement signed between an indigenous solutions and innovations firm, iStrategic Transparent Solutions Limited, and Russian Software Trade House (RSTH), to collaborate on the deployment of security and anti-corruption civic technology solutions.

By this agreement, the two companies would kickstart the development of computer software for use by public and private institutions across Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region to address the challenges in the areas of security, financial crime, and cybercrime.

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From the foregoing, civic technology platforms can help to mobilise people against corruption. Thus, a convergence of rapport between those who work in technology and those who work in government becomes imperative to conquer the monster of corruption.

Moving forward, public and private stakeholders have to ensure that everyone (target audiences) is carried along and given options to communicate their needs throughout the process of building civic technology platforms/projects.

In conclusion, this will enable the people to trust and use civic technology tools to make a real impact in sustaining mutual understanding and participation in the management of our countrys commonwealth.

Inyene Ibanga writes from Wuye District, Abuja; email: inyeneibanga@yahoo.com.
Prominent Nigerians have continued to visit the Ogbomoso residence of the former Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala , to commiserate with his family.

Some of the dignitaries who visited the Opadoyin residence of the Alao-Akalas on Friday were Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti.

Others were Florence Ajimobi, widow of former governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders Advisory Council in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the home of the Alao-Akalas had become a Mecca or sorts since the demise of former governor died on January 12.

Earlier, Bola Tinubu, one of the APC national leaders of APC, and governors Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun and Seyi Makinde had visited the family.

Also on the list were Governor Abdur-Razaq Abdulrahman of Kwara and Senators Abdulfatai Buhari, Teslim Folarin, Kola Balogun and former governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun.

Others were Hazeem Gbolarumi, Niyi Akintola, Supo Ayokunle, Folake Olunloyo-Oshinowo, Abideen Olaiya, Dibu Ojerinde, Bisi Ilaka and Dare Akande.

Mrs Ajimobi, in her condolence message, described Alao-Akalas death as another great loss to her family, saying she looked up to him to fill the vacuum her late husband had left behind.

I thought and hoped you will be there for us as family for a very long time. Yet death threw a big blow at us. But who are we to question God? We submit and accept.

READ ALSO:

You sacrificed for APC and that labour will not be in vain. We will definitely miss you a great deal.

Please greet my dear husband Abiola, your own friend and brother. We love you, but God loves you more. Rest in perfect peace, she wrote.

She prayed that God receives the souls of the departed and spare those they have left behind.

NAN recalls that that youths and other residents of Ogbomoso had on Wednesday in their thousands held a candle light procession in honour of the late Alao-Akala.

(NAN)
Wendy Hall of the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge lets Jonas, a red-tailed hawk, perch on her arm in May 2018 at the Big Green Shin-Dig event in front of Lake Placid High School. Hall, a co-founder of the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge who spent around two decades rehabilitating wild animals, died on Sunday after battling terminal cancer.
Plattsburgh, NY (12901)

Today

Cloudy with periods of light rain. High 54F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 42F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
DENVER, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gov. Jared Polis has issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 23-Jan. 29 to be "Colorado School Choice Week." In doing so, he joined a growing number of state and local leaders who have taken pen in hand to officially recognize School Choice Week and the importance of every child receiving an effective education.

Families and teachers will celebrate Colorado School Choice Week with more than 450 events and activities. From at-home activities to a large school fair in Colorado Springs, the diverse celebrations echo the varied learning needs of students across the state. The goal of the Week's celebrations is to raise awareness about educational opportunities, bringing parents from every background and income level clear and hope-filled information about their learning options.

More than 26,000 events have been independently planned for the week nationwide, raising awareness about public, private, virtual, and home education.

"Thank you, Gov. Polis, for recognizing that parents want and indeed must have options for their children's education," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "We wish Coloradans the best in their National School Choice Week celebrations and look forward to seeing many wonderful pictures of the festivities."

National School Choice Week shines a spotlight on effective K-12 education options for children. As a not-for-profit effort, the Week focuses equally on traditional public, charter, magnet, online, private, and home education options. Every January, participants plan tens of thousands of events and activities  such as school fairs, open houses, and student showcases  to raise awareness about school choice across all 50 states. Year-round, National School Choice Week develops resources and guides to assist families searching for schools or learning environments for their children. The effort is nonpolitical and nonpartisan and does not advocate for legislation.

For more information, visit schoolchoiceweek.com/colorado .

SOURCE National School Choice Week
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jan. 23-Jan. 29, 2022 will officially be Wyoming School Choice Week, thanks to a recent proclamation from Gov. Mark Gordon. This is the ninth time in ten years that Wyoming School Choice Week has been proclaimed by the state's governor.

Gov. Gordon joins more than 25 other governors and several hundred local leaders around the country who have issued proclamations to coincide with the twelfth annual National School Choice Week, which celebrates opportunity in K-12 education.

Wyoming parents, teachers, and community organizers have planned 44 events for the Week, including school open houses, at home celebrations, and more. The goal of these events is to celebrate the school choices available to families and spark conversations about how parents can find the best educational fit for their children.

Nationwide, more than 26,000 independently planned events will raise awareness about school choice. Schools of every type  traditional public, public magnet, public charter, private, online, and homeschool  will join in the celebration.

"Wyoming students have different needs and learning styles, and the Week celebrates all the education options that serve those needs," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "We are glad to see Gov. Gordon recognize the Week and we wish Wyoming families the best in their festivities."

National School Choice Week shines a spotlight on effective K-12 education options for children. As a not-for-profit effort, the Week focuses equally on traditional public, charter, magnet, online, private, and home education options. Every January, participants plan tens of thousands of events and activities  such as school fairs, open houses, and student showcases  to raise awareness about school choice across all 50 states. Year-round, National School Choice Week develops resources and guides to assist families searching for schools or learning environments for their children. The effort is nonpolitical and nonpartisan and does not advocate for legislation.

For more information, visit schoolchoiceweek.com/wyoming .

SOURCE National School Choice Week
This ceremony was the fourth since Employ Prince George's relaunched the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program's Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative in September 2021 with funding from Prince George's County Government. Today's ceremony was the largest to date, both in grant amount and the number of recipients. Businesses who meet the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative requirements are eligible to receive up to $15,000 per new hire.

"The Arc Prince George's county would like to thank Employ Prince George's Rapid Re-Employment Grant initiative for this great opportunity," states a representative from The Arc, Prince George's County. "With the awarded money, we can use this to recruit and employ our amazing Prince George's County residents while serving this great population." The Arc Prince George's County received $59,000 during this distribution.

In 2020, Employ Prince George's launched the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program serving over 600 residents and distributing more than $540,000 in Rapid Re-Employment Grants by the end of the year to businesses helping unemployed Prince George's County residents to regain employment during the pandemic. In 2021, through funding from Prince George's County Government, Employ Prince George's relaunched the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program's Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative with plans to distribute over $5,000,000 to qualified businesses over the next three years.

"As Prince George's County focuses on economic recovery in the midst of a continual COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that we think strategically about getting people back to work and increasing our investments in programs that are successfully serving local businesses and people most affected," said President and CEO of Employ Prince George's, Walter Simmons. "EPG's Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative is helping hundreds of people to get access to high demand jobs throughout the region, through workforce training, job placement and sourcing assistance, and building skills to get people hired quickly."

Interested businesses can apply for the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative by visiting www.EmployPG.org/RapidGrants. For more information regarding the Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative, please contact the Employ Prince George's Community Development Department at [email protected].

Employ Prince George's (EPG) provides workforce intelligence and solutions for the job seeker and business. EPG's mission is to contribute to the economic vitality of Prince George's County by providing a demand-driven system that delivers qualified workers to business and provides job seekers with opportunities for careers in high-demand/high-growth industries.

For more information, please visit www.Employpg.org.

SOURCE Employ Prince George's
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As learning disruptions persist for families nationwide, Gov. Abbott has proclaimed Jan. 23-29 "Texas School Choice Week," recognizing the importance of flexible, personalized education options for students and teaching professionals across the state.

Gov. Abbott's proclamation coincides with the twelfth annual National School Choice Week, a public awareness effort that shines a positive spotlight on options and opportunity in K-12 education. Dozens of governors and more than 250 city and county leaders nationwide have issued similar proclamations for the Week so far.

Texas parents, schools, and other organizers have planned 2,214 events and activities to celebrate School Choice Week 2022. These events take many shapes and forms: from a school fair at the zoo in Houston to an educational event at a community food bank in San Antonio. These diverse festivities aim to bring parents community support in exploring their public, private, virtual, and home learning options.

"Since the start of School Choice Week more than a decade ago, Texas families have planned some of the Week's biggest, most iconic celebrations," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "We are inspired by Texan's enthusiasm for K-12 education, and we are grateful for Gov. Abbott officially proclaiming the Week."

In the Lone Star State, this marks the ninth time in ten years that Texas School Choice Week has been officially proclaimed.

National School Choice Week shines a spotlight on effective K-12 education options for children. As a not-for-profit effort, the Week focuses equally on traditional public, charter, magnet, online, private, and home education options. Every January, participants plan tens of thousands of events and activities  such as school fairs, open houses, and student showcases  to raise awareness about school choice across all 50 states. Year-round, National School Choice Week develops resources and guides to assist families searching for schools or learning environments for their children. The effort is nonpolitical and nonpartisan and does not advocate for legislation.

For more information, visit schoolchoiceweek.com/texas .

SOURCE National School Choice Week
NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ).

In September of 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a cease-and-desist order to the Company for its "failure to disclose between November 2015 and June 2016 material information regarding its print supplies channel inventory management and sales practices," relating to a variety of tactics used to increase quarterly operating profit, while leading to "an erosion of profit margin and an increase in channel inventory." The SEC also announced that the Company had agreed to pay $6 million to settle the charges.

The Company has also been sued in a securities class action lawsuit for failing to disclose material information, violating federal securities laws, which remains ingoing.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether HP's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to HP's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of HP shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-hpq/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. The convenience of using nail care products market report will offer immense growth opportunities. To leverage the current opportunities, market vendors must strengthen their foothold in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Nail Care Products Market 2021-2025: Segmentation

The nail care products market is segmented as below:

Product

Nail polish



Nail accessories and implements



Nail strengthener



Nail polish remover



Other



The nail polish segment will significantly contribute to the market growth of nail care products during the forecast period. For a long time now nail polish vendors are being encouraged to launch new innovative products in the products category as it is becoming one of the most important makeup products worldwide. Moreover, manufacturers launch their different nail polish collections on a seasonal basis and vendors that offer trendy color nail polish shade are expected to register exponential sales compared with their counterparts.



The nail polish segment will significantly contribute to the market growth of nail care products during the forecast period. For a long time now nail polish vendors are being encouraged to launch new innovative products in the products category as it is becoming one of the most important makeup products worldwide. Moreover, manufacturers launch their different nail polish collections on a seasonal basis and vendors that offer trendy color nail polish shade are expected to register exponential sales compared with their counterparts. Distribution Channel

Offline



Online



Geographic

Europe



North America



APAC



South America



MEA



APAC has a high penetration of nail care products and the region will contribute 33% of the market growth during the forecast period. China and Japan are the key markets for nail care products in APAC region. Primarily, the increasing trend of nail art and use of artificial nails and accessories in the region is one of the reasons significantly attracting vendors on a large scale in APAC region. In addition, majority of the population in the region comprises millennials, who quickly adapt to new trends in fashion. Therefore, such factors are expected to propel the growth of the nail care products market during the forecast period.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research and customization of report- https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40486

Nail Care Products Market 2021-2025: Vendor Analysis and Scope

To help businesses improve their market position, the nail care products market report provides a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the market. Some of these vendors include Coty Inc., KISS Products Inc., LOreal SA, Light Elegance, Oriflame Group, Revlon Inc., ORLY International Inc., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., LVMH Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, and Unilever Group

The report also covers the following areas:

The increasing number of new product launches is likely to emerge as one of the primary drivers of the market. However, the high price of nail care products and the availability of cheaper substitutes may threaten the growth of the market.

Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the nail care products market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile & M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

Nail Care Products Market 2021-2025: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2021-2025

Detailed information on factors that will assist nail care products market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the nail care products market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the nail care products market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of nail care products market vendors

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Personal Care Products Market in South Africa- The personal care products market in South Africa is segmented by product (skincare products, hair care products, color cosmetics, oral care products, and others), distribution channel (offline and online). Download FREE Sample Report

Sun Care Products Market- The sun care products market is segmented by products (sun protection products, after-sun products, and self-tanning products), distribution channel (offline and online) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). Download FREE Sample Report

Nail Care Products Market 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 $ 2.40 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.30 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 33% Key consumer countries US, Brazil, China, UK, Germany, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Coty Inc., KISS Products Inc., LOreal SA, Light Elegance, Oriflame Group, Revlon Inc., ORLY International Inc., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., LVMH Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, and Unilever Group Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization 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.

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Nail polish - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Nail accessories and implements - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Nail strengthener - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Nail polish remover - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Offline - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Online - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer Landscape

Overview

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

and - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Competitive Scenario

Vendor Analysis

Coty Inc.

KISS Products Inc.

LOreal SA

Light Elegance

Oriflame Group

Revlon Inc.

ORLY International Inc.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

LVMH Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuitton

Unilever Group

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

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SOURCE Technavio
DALLAS, Jan. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE: NREF) ("NREF" or the "Company") announced today the pricing of its underwritten public offering of $35 million aggregate principal amount of its 5.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2026 (the "Additional Notes"). The Additional Notes were issued at a price of 100.875% of par with a yield to maturity of 5.514%. The Additional Notes are an additional issuance of the Company's existing $135 million aggregate principal amount of its 5.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2026 (the "Existing Notes") and the Additional Notes will be issued under the same indenture as the Existing Notes, will be treated as a single class of debt securities with the Existing Notes and will have the same terms as the Existing Notes, other than the issue date and offering price. The offering is expected to close on or about January 25, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.

The Company intends to contribute the net proceeds from this offering to its operating partnership, NexPoint Real Estate Finance Operating Partnership, L.P. (the "OP"), in exchange for OP units. The OP intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to acquire several pipeline investments which are expected to close in the foreseeable future. These investments consist of multifamily, life sciences and hospitality debt and preferred positions offering attractive risk adjusted returns supported by strong, experienced, and well-known sponsors.

Raymond James is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. The Company is making this offering pursuant to a shelf registration statement that became effective on March 31, 2021. This offering will be made solely by means of a prospectus and prospectus supplement, copies of which may be obtained from Raymond James & Associates, Inc., 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, telephone (800) 248-8863, email: [email protected] or through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the Additional Notes, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. is a publicly traded REIT with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NREF." NREF is primarily focused on originating, structuring and investing in first mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and alternative structured financings in commercial real estate properties, as well as multifamily commercial mortgage backed securities.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management's current expectations, assumptions and beliefs. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should" and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the intended use of proceeds and the closing of the Additional Notes offering. They are not guarantees of future results and forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement, including the ultimate duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effectiveness of actions taken, or actions that may be taken, by governmental authorities to contain the outbreak or treat its impact, as well as those described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), particularly those described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review NREF's other filings with the SEC for a more complete discussion of risks and other factors that could affect any forward-looking statement. The statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release and except as required by law, NREF does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Contact:

NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

Investor Relations

Jackie Graham

[email protected]

833.463.6697

SOURCE NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.
SINGAPORE, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Metaverse Blockchain Fusion NFT company, Coinllectibles, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings, Inc. (OTC: COSG) is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Spink to offer the First Ever Collectible NFT Coin to be offered by an international auction house. This will also be the first NFT ever issued by Spink, a renowned collectors' auction house dating back to 1600s.

Like the yellow petals of the broom plant adorning the cap of the Plantagenets, the powerful immutability of this almost pure gold coin has remained untarnished and unexposed for centuries. That was until a chance signal on Sunday 26 September 2021 rediscovered its beauty, a beauty that has caused a viral media sensation across the globe in the days prior to auction at Spink.

About the 'Non Fungible Penny'

This specially commissioned virtual moving graphic, to be minted into a similarly immutable Hybrid NFT, commemorates that unique moment, as the Hemyock soil is finally removed after 765 years to unearth the most important single coin find made in Britain for over a decade, and the first time a new coin of this type has been placed in the archaeological record for almost 260 years. Where once the coin fell from the pocket of Lord of the Manor John de Hidon, it lands in all its beauty not just in our hands but our combined consciousness. And why would our embattled and emboldened King Henry, enthroned for centuries not wish to give us a cheery wink as he is once more exposed to the world?

*In 1257 King Henry III of England launched a gold coinage. It was not a success and only seven of the coins are known to have survived, that is until September 2021 when an eighth was discovered by a metal detector in a field at Hemyock in Devon. It is the image of this eighth coin that is the subject of the present auction. Henry's coinage was the first minted in gold since the Norman Conquest, all the Norman and Angevin kings having confined themselves to minting silver pennies. A series of questions naturally arise. Why did Henry mint his coinage? Where did the gold come from? Why did the coin have a unique design? How many coins were minted, and what happened to them? Why did the enterprise fail? Fortunately, the source material allows at least some answer to these questions. It also permits a suggestion as to how one of the coins ended up at Hemyock.

Read the full story here:

https://d3ums4016ncdkp.cloudfront.net/auction/catalogue/22104/22104.pdf (lot 220 that precedes sale of NFT lot 221)

How to bid for the 'Non Fungible Penny' on Coinllectibles' MetaMall

The h-NFT (Hybrid NFT) contains the ownership title to the private and commercial licences described therein with respect to the video Mp4 4k UHD file. Proceeds from the auction will be split over charities chosen by the vendor and Spink, specifically The Rodney Cook Memorial Fund and the Himal Foundation.

To bid for the h-NFT, please visit Coinllectibles' MetaMall, click on the project details and transfer your bids to the digital auction wallet. The details of the digital auction wallet will be made available at 7.00am UTC on http://www.coinllectibles.art/.

Bidders can bid for the h-NFT in either Binance Coin (BNB) or Colligo Tokens (COTK). A bid is considered when someone transfers BNB/COTK to the digital auction wallet and each bidder will be recognised by the unique digital wallet address. To illustrate, if Bidder A makes a bid for 2,000,000 COTK while Bidder B holds 2 wallets and makes bids at 1,600,000 COTK and 1,700,000 COTK respectively, Bidder A will be deemed the winner. While Bidder B made a total bid amounting to 3,300,000 COTK, they are deemed to be separate bidders due to the different wallet addresses.

There is no limit to the number of bids and/or counterbids each wallet can make.

To reconcile the different digital currencies, the conversion rates at 5.15pm UTC will be taken. For the avoidance of doubt the winning bid on the Coinllectibles platform will be integrated in the Spink live auction, minus the 20% buyers' premium charged by Spink, so all bidders are treated pari passu, and the Coinllectibles winner does not pay more than original bid.

If, in the live auction, no bids exceed the Coinllectibles winning bid, then the NFT will be transferred to the Coinllectibles highest bidder.

If, in the live auction, the winning bid is above the Coinllectibles winning bid (minus the 20% Buyers premium), then the NFT will be transferred to the live auction highest bidder. Once the winner is announced, the h-NFT will be transferred to the auction winner while the rest of the tokens will be refunded.

Starting price for the h-NFT is GBP5 (USD6.70 or COTK2900, based on current exchange rates). and the auction will close at 5:15pm UTC on Sunday 23 January 2022.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future business activities including the expansion into the decentralized financing space. These forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described or projected herein include uncertainties associated with operating a business in Singapore and Hong Kong, risk of interference by the PRC government, ability to compete, that financial resources do not last for as long as anticipated, and that COSG is a holding company that may not realize the expected benefits of NFT's offered by Coinllectibles. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in COSG's regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in its current report on Form 8-K filed on September 17, 2021. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. COSG undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.

For media queries, please contact:

Ms Rachel Lim

Director, Marketing & PR

[email protected]

About Cosmos Group Holdings Inc

Cosmos is a business group that operates in two business segments:

Arts and Collectibles

Financing

Through Coinllectibles, the group provides authentication, valuation and certification (AVC) service, sale and purchase, hire purchase, financing, custody, security and exhibition (CSE) services to art buyers through traditional channels, as well as through leveraging blockchain technology through the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

With subsidiaries licensed under Hong Kong's Money Lenders Ordinance, the group currently primarily provides unsecured personal loan to private individuals, with a small portfolio of mortgage loans.

The group is integrating the two business segments by offering secured financing services to prospective art and collectibles purchasers to provide a one-stop arts and collectibles purchasing and financing experience.

About the Company  Coinllectibles

Coinllectibles is an ACT (Arts and Collectibles Technology) company, which is redefining how the world thinks about art and collectible ownership in the digital age.

Their minted curated Fusion NFTs, capture all the rights and independent valuation and ownership of physical arts and collectibles securely underpinned by smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs bridge the physical and virtual dimensions of the arts and collectibles market, providing a pleasurable, transparent, and frictionless experience to customers from all walks of life.

About Coinllectibles Fusion NFT

Coinllectibles prides the Fusion NFT as the industry "Gold Standard". Being a Gold Standard, a Fusion NFT contains the following on the blockchain  (1) a sale and purchase agreement reflecting the purchase, by the person minting the Fusion NFT, of the underlying asset at a fair value with all rights and restrictions clearly detailed, (2) bailment terms governing the rights to possession whilst the underlying asset remains with Coinllectibles, (3) a transfer deed reflecting the transfer of the ownership of the underlying asset (together with all rights and restrictions) by the transferor to the holder of the Fusion NFT, (4) ownership title deed written into the description of the Fusion NFT and (5) the unequivocal identification file of the underlying asset, whose ownership is reflected in the title deed represented by the Fusion NFT. In summary, a Fusion NFT is a Digital Ownership Title (DOT) to the physical collectible it represents.

About Spink

Spink is the world's leading auctioneer of Stamps, Coins, Banknotes, Medals, Bonds & Shares, Autographs, Wine & Spirits, Books and Handbags & Accessories. Since its foundation in 1666, the Spink name has become synonymous with tradition, experience and integrity. Holder of royal warrants and numerous records for prices achieved at auction, Spink offers an unparalleled range of services to collectors worldwide. Headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland, Spink holds over 70 auctions a year. Catalogues can be accessed through the Spink website ( www.spink.com ), Spink Live online bidding platform (www.live.spink.com) or via the Spink App for mobile phones and tablets.

SOURCE Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.
NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE: QS).

On January 4, 2021, an investigative report issued by Seeking Alpha highlighted numerous measures of subpar performance discovered in the Company's solid state battery products that rendered them "completely unacceptable for real world field electric vehicle performance," contrary to the Company's prior statements touting its battery's performance data. The report also noted other significant challenges "to be overcome before they can put the first car in the field."

Thereafter, the Company and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. Recently, the court presiding over that case denied the Company's motion to dismiss, allowing the case to move forward.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether QuantumScape's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to QuantumScape's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of QuantumScape shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-qs/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Washington, Jan 22 : US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have agreed to boost cooperation on economic and trade issues with the set-up of a new ministerial-level dialogue.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida established a new ministerial-level Economic Policy Consultative Committee (the Economic "2+2"), to track and drive economic cooperation and strengthen the rules-based economic order in the Indo-Pacific region and the world," the White House said in a readout of the virtual meeting between the two leaders on Friday.

The so-called "2+2" new economic forum, which will include US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, "has not been fully worked out," a senior US administration official said on Friday during a background press call.

"But the expectation is that they will work in a number of areas, including export controls, but most directly in the current environment -- supply chains, technology investments and standard setting," the official said.

During the 90-minute virtual meeting, the US President and Japanese Prime Minister also expressed their desire for the "swift resolution" of trade issues, according to the White House.

The promise of a "swift" resolution to trade issues signals the two leaders were unable to agree yet over whether to ease or eliminate tariffs imposed by the US, under the Donald Trump administration in 2018, on Japanese steel and aluminum imports, Bloomberg News reported.

The so-called Section 232 tariffs were applied on national security grounds and have been a thorn in otherwise close ties, the report said.

The US official who briefed reporters said that Raimondo is in regular contact with her Japanese interlocutor to negotiate tariff issues, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I think the President made clear that his hope would be that these negotiations would be concluded rapidly," the official said.

Biden also accepted Kishida's invitation to visit Japan in the late spring for the so-called "Quad" meeting among the US, Japan, India and Australia, according to the official.

"I think he did accept the invitation, obviously, with details to be worked out. And obviously, we have to see how Covid plays out," the official said.

Friday's virtual meeting was the first substantial exchange between the two leaders since Kishida took office in October last year. The leaders had a brief conversation on the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

The Japanese PM had hoped to hold an in-person meeting with US President early this year, but surging Covid-19 infections forced him to give up on visiting the US before the start of a parliamentary session in Japan earlier this January.
London, Jan 22 : The British government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that it has underpaid 134,000 pensioners, mostly women, over 1 billion British pounds ($1.36 billion) of their state pension entitlement.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that in a report on Friday. Some errors date as far back as 1985.

"The errors, which mostly affect widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband's pension contributions for some of their pension entitlement, happened because of the department's use of outdated systems and heavily manual processing. Small errors that were not recognised each time added up over years to significant sums of money," the report added.

Meg Hillier, Chairman of the PAC, said an unknown number of pensioners died without ever getting what was due to them, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fixing the DWP's mistakes is expected to cost taxpayers over 24.3 million British pounds in staff costs alone by the end of 2023, the report said.

With experienced, specialised staff moving away, the DWP is already experiencing backlogs in processing new applications, the report added.

Describing the long-term underpayment of state pensioners as a "shameful shambles," Hillier said, "For decades, the DWP has relied on a state pension payment system that is clunky and required staff to check many databases -- and now some pensioners and the taxpayer are paying in spades." She added that there was no assurance the errors that led to the underpayments in the first place will not be repeated in the correction exercise.
Kabul, Jan 22 : A high-ranking delegation of the Taliban-led Afghan government will embark on a trip to Norway on Saturday where they will discuss important issues with Norwegian officials, envoys from the US and the European Union (EU), as well as some influential Afghan figures, a spokesman said here.

Confirming the trip, Taliban deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani said on Friday that the visit comes on an invitation by the Norwegian government, TOLO News reported.

The Foreign Ministry in Oslo also confirmed that a high-level summit on Afghanistan with a focus on girl's access to education and human rights, will be attended by the Taliban delegation.

"These meetings do not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban. But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster," TOLO News quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt as saying in the statement.

This is the second foreign trip in January by a Taliban delegation.

Earlier this month, a delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi visited Iran, where he held talks with Ismail Khan, the former Governor of Herat province, and Ahmad Masoud, leader of Resistance Front.

However the Resistance Front said that the negotiations didn't reach a positive result.
"It has been confirmed; the United Nations has informed us (...) that in the next hours a team of international experts will visit our country to provide technical assistance," he told RPP Noticias on Friday night.
Seoul, Jan 22 : The Japanese Embassy in Seoul has refused to accept President Moon Jae-in's Lunar New Year gift, claiming the gift's box bears an image of South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, news reports said on Saturday.

South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae had sent a gift box with traditional liquor and other items to Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi and other foreign ambassadors in Seoul to celebrate the Lunar New Year that falls on February 1, reports Yonhap News Agency.

But the Japanese Embassy returned the gift on Friday, as the box has an illustration that resembles the image of Dokdo in the East Sea, according to the reports.

Upon the refusal, the Embassy lodged a protest and renewed territorial claim to the islets.

The image of a sunrise is believed to represent South Korea's commitment to overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic and starting anew in the new year.

Dokdo is where people can watch the first sunrise.

The presidential office, however, did not make specific comments on the issue.

South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.

Still, Japan repeatedly claims sovereignty to the rocky outcroppings.
Geneva, Jan 22 : The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that it will hold its 2022 annual meeting from May 22 to 26 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

"Under the theme, 'working Together, restoring Trust', the Annual Meeting 2022 will be the first global in-person leadership event since the start of the pandemic," the WEF said in a statement published on its website.

The meeting will offer world leaders an opportunity to take stock of the state of the world and shape partnerships and policies for the crucial period ahead, the WEF said.

Topics on the agenda will include the pandemic recovery, tackling climate change, building a better future for work, accelerating stakeholder capitalism, and harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it said.

The WEF will continue to communicate closely with the Swiss government on the public health situation in Switzerland.

"The meeting will take place as long as all necessary conditions are in place to guarantee the health and safety of its participants and the host community," it added.

"We need to establish the atmosphere of trust that is truly needed to accelerate collaborative action and to address the multiple challenges we face," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.

Due to the Omicron Covid variantoutbreak, the WEF deferred its 2022 annual meeting, which was originally scheduled for January 17-21.
January 22 : Sushmita Sen shared a mother-daughter moment that she will cherish a lifetime. The Aarya actress shared a video on her Instagram page, wherein she can be seen singing a Spanish song that she had loved since her teenage days. The actress felt proud as her teenage daughter Alisah now sang the song with her.

Taking to Instagram, Sushmita shared the sweet moment with Alisah. In the video, the mother-daughter can be seen sing the Spanish song, La Soledad, a popular track from the 90s, as they travelled in a car. Sushmita can be seen sitting in the front seat of her car, while Alisah was sitting in the back seat. The mother-daughter duo was seen singing along with the Spanish song that was played in her car stereo. The actor felt proud to see that her teenage daughter was singing the same song with her which she had loved since her teenage days.

Sharing the video, Sushmita wrote, "#lasoledad A Spanish song Ive loved since my teenageand now my teenager sings along with me!!! Aah, life comes a full circle!!! May you always find the courage to sing through lifes journey Alisah ShonaThis memory I will cherish a lifetime!!!#proudmaa @laurapausini YOU ROCK!!! I love you guys!! #sharing #apieceofmyheart #duggadugga #happyweekend.

The song, La Soledad by Laura Pausini, was released in 1993. Tagging the artiste, Sushmita wrote, "@laurapausini YOU ROCK!!"

Sushmita has two daughters. She had adopted Renee in 2000 and Alisah in 2010. Renee made her acting debut with a short film last year.

The actress is currently basking in the glory of her triumph, as she has acquired global recognition by winning the International Association of Working Women Award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television series presented by DC South Asian Film Festival 2021. Helmed by Ram Madhvani, Aarya 2 was recently released on Disney+ Hotstar with Sushmita playing the lead role. She received great reviews from critics as well as audience for her power-packed performance.

Sushmita Sen made her comeback with the web series Aarya. The series as well as her performance garnered immense appreciations, and it was nominated in the Best Drama Series category in the International Emmys last year. The series is an official adaption of the hit Dutch series Penoza.
Mumbai, Jan 22 : At least two persons were killed and 13 others injured when a blaze engulfed the 18th floor of a building in Tardeo, South Mumbai, on Saturday, the BMC Disaster Control said here.

The fire was noticed at the top part of the 20-storied Kamla Building at around 7.30 a.m.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) rushed with fire tenders as the flames quickly spread to the two upper floors sparking panic among the building residents.

At least 13 injured persons were rescued by the MFB teams, of which four were critical and rushed to the BYL Nair Hospital nearby.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar rushed to the spot to supervise the rescue and relief operations.

Two persons succumbed to their injuries and the cause of the fire is being probed.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Tarouba : , Jan 22 (IANS) South Africa skipper George Van Heerden led from the front, smashing a 93-ball 111 as he helped his team secure a Super League quarterfinal berth with a 153-run win over Ireland in a Group B match at the Brian Lara Stadium here on Saturday (IST).

Van Heerden's 111 and Dewald Brevis's 96 helped the Proteas score a mammoth 315/7 from their rain-reduced 47 overs before bowling out Ireland for 158 in 33 overs. Matthew Boast (3/26) and Liam Alder (3/20) were the standout bowlers for South Africa as they secured the second spot in Group B and, with it, a Super League berth.

The two sides started their winner-takes-all final Group B game level on points, with South Africa having a slight net run-rate (NRR) advantage. With India all but assured of their place in the Super League last-eight ahead of their final game against Uganda, South Africa and Ireland faced a shootout for second place.

Ireland made an encouraging start when Reuben Wilson removed South African opener Valentine Kitime in the first over for a duck before Liam Doherty bowled Ethan-John Cunningham (11). At 18/2 after four overs, South Africa were in dire straits but Brevis restored order and moved to 27 from 29 balls with two boundaries to take his side to 53/2 after 10 overs.

Ireland responded by taking the wicket of Gerhardus Maree (14) as Wilson struck again. It brought Van Heerden to the crease to form a steady partnership with Brevis. Brevis continued to score boundaries at regular intervals as Van Heerden provided support from the other end.

But just four runs short of his century, Brevis played a loose cut shot off Scott MacBeth, with Matthew Humphreys' diving catch at gully sending the South African packing on 96.

While that dismissal briefly halted South Africa's charge, Van Heerden soon brought up his fifty before stepping on the gas with Andile Simelane. An explosive 25 from 12 balls from Simelane only added to Ireland's troubles as South Africa moved to 207 for four.

Simelane was dismissed in the next over but Mickey Copeland chipped in with a 43 from 18 balls before Van Heerden brought up his century with a four in the 46th over. Van Heerden was eventually dismissed in the final ball of the innings, which was shortened to 47 overs due to an earlier rain delay.

Ireland's response could not have got off to a worse possible start as Liam Doherty was caught by Maree off the bowling of Matthew Boast for a golden duck in the first ball of the innings. Nathan McGuire steadied the ship with 42 from 33 balls before Simelane took his wicket, with Joshua Cox and Ireland captain Tim Tector both falling cheaply to Boast.

Philippus Roux (33) provided some resistance along with Humphreys (38) but a lack of support meant Ireland were always fighting an uphill battle and they were eventually all out for 158. Boast was the star of the bowlers for the Proteas with 3/26 while Liam Alder also took 3/20, with Asakhe Tsaka and Simelane contributing two each.

Brief scores: South Africa 315/7 in 47 overs (Dewald Brevis 96, George Van Heerden 111, Michael Copeland 43) beat Ireland 158 in 33 overs (Nathan McGuire 42, Matthew Humphreys 38; Matthew Boast 3/26, Liam Alder 3/20) by 153 runs D/L Method.
United Nations, Jan 22 : The members of the UN Security Council have strongly condemned the "heinous terrorist attacks" in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as in other sites in Saudi Arabia carried out by the Yemen-based Houthi militia.

The attacks on Monday killed two Indians and one Pakistani national, while injuring six others, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a statement on FRiday, the members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of the Houthi attacks and to the governments of India and Pakistan, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

The Council members reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.

They underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states to cooperate actively with the UAE government and all other relevant authorities in this regard.

The members reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.

They reaffirmed the need for all states to combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
Chennai, Jan 22 : Well-known spiritual orator Suki Sivam, who is in the advisory committee of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department for modernisation of temples, has urged the state government to take measures for making temples the centre or nucleus of Hindu religion.

Suki Sivam said this during a meeting of the advisory committee of the HR&CE department chaired by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Thursday. He also said that at present some institutions led by certain individuals are turning as the nucleus of Hindu religion and added that this was not a good sign.

The spiritual orator called upon the HR&CE department to thwart this move and to bring back temples as the nucleus or centre for the Hindu religion.

Suki Sivam said that the HR&CE department was very important as the assets and deposits of the temples could be monitored by the department and said that if the department was abolished, the money and other valuables with many temples across the state would fall into the hands of individuals who do not have any commitment towards either religion or temples.

He also said that the government was doing a great service to the Hindu religion by attaching back the properties of the temples encroached upon by powerful people and lauded the efforts of the Chief Minister and the HR&CE minister, P.K. Sekar Babu in this regard.

However, the statement of Suki Sivam has not gone down well with certain established ashrams in the state.

A Public relations officer of a prominent Ashram of Tamil Nadu while speaking to IANS said: "Suki Sivam is trying to get some brownie points in the presence of Chief Minister. He is just a spiritual orator who does not have any idea of how the Hindu religion works. He is singing praises to the DMK people who had destroyed our temples and infringed upon our culture and hereditary. Just for a few crumbs of bread, people like him will toe the line of government. His idea is to bring all the ashrams and mutts under the control of Tamil Nadu government so that they can usurp the wealth of the ashrams also. We don't accept his statement."
San Francisco, Jan 22 : E-commerce giant Amazon is set to face a probe by the labor board in the US for allegedly firing a worker at one of its New York warehouses, the media reported.

The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is preparing to issue a formal complaint against Amazon for illegally firing Daequan Smith who has since been homeless.

Amazon Labor Union (ALU) tweeted on Friday: "It's official: the NLRB found merit to the charge that Daequan Smith, ALU organiser, was illegally terminated by Amazon for engaging in union activity.

"Daequan is now homeless and sleeping on a couch, another casualty of Amazon's endless war on workers." According to The Verge, the ALU is awaiting a hearing on its petition to hold a union election at four of Amazon's warehouses in Staten Island.

Smith was a worker at one of the Staten Island warehouses.

An NLRB spokesperson said: "The complaint would allege a discharge because of union and other protected concerted activities, among other allegations".

The NLRB in August last year ordered Amazon to redo a union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, after finding the company interfered in the first election in April 2021.

An initial assessment from the NLRB recommended workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama's Bessemer held a new election to determine whether to unionise with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Chennai, Jan 22 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the owners of mechanised boats and Rs 1.5 lakh each to the owners of country boats that are presently in the custody of Sri Lankan authorities.

At least 128 mechanised boats and 17 country boats are in the custody of Sri Lankans at present.

The Chief Minister's office made the announcement on Friday evening.

Stalin also announced a package of Rs 5.66 crore compensation for the 105 fishing boats and equipment that were damaged during the Northeast monsoon that lashed the state.

Fishermen association leader S. Bharathi said that the state government's announcement is a major support to the beleaguered fishermen of the state who are being hunted down by the Sri Lankan Navy and police on trivial charges.

In 2021, five fishermen lost their lives during an attack by Sri Lankan authorities, including Naval personnel.

Sixty-eight fishermen were arrested and 15 were released from prison recently. The remaining 55 fishermen are still languishing in Sri Lankan jails.

The Union Ministry of External Affairs, has already entered a diplomatic discussion with the Sri Lankan authorities on the arrest of Indian fishermen and the complaints being lodged by the fishermen of Rameswaram, Mandapam, and other areas of Tamil Nadu who were facing tough times in the sea near the Katchatheevu island as well as the International Marine Boundary Line (IMBL).

Krishnaswami Rajendran, who is the owner of a fishing boat at Rameswaram, while speaking to IANS said: "The Sri Lankan Navy is creating problems with our fishermen and it is high time that the government of India takes stringent action against the perpetrators who are attacking Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu regularly.

"There has to be an end to this. The real situation in the sea is really tough and we are being attacked regularly for no fault of ours."
Washington, Jan 22 : Dozens of U. Congress members have jointly sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for the review and overhaul of existing counterterrorism policy.

"Without systematic reforms centred on human rights and international law, the status quo will continue to undermine counterterrorism objectives, produce significant human and strategic costs and erode the rule of law and the US' image abroad," said the letter signed by 11 Senators and 39 members of the House of Representatives.

As many as 48,000 civilians in seven countries have been killed by the US strikes over the past two decades and at least 14,000 airstrikes have been conducted by unmanned aircraft since 2002 killing as many as 2,200 civilians, Xinhua news agency quoted the letter as saying citing third-party sources.

The actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher given the difficulty of comprehensive reporting and the US' consistent underreporting of these numbers and reported refusal to investigate death report, it said.

"In far too many cases, rather than achieving the policy goal of eliminating hostile combatants to preserve US national security, lethal US strikes have instead killed thousands of civilians, including children." The Biden administration initiated the process to recalibrate policies on drone strikes but has not made an announcement of decision.

"We cannot ignore the terrible consequences of US drone strikes over several administrations," said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a statement.

"When US strikes kill civilians abroad, it's both a moral failure and national security liability," said a report by New York Times quoting Senator Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut.

"When there is little policy change or accountability for repeated mistakes this grave and this costly, it sends a message throughout the US armed forces and the entire US government that civilian deaths -- including deaths where there was no military target -- are the inevitable consequence of modern conflict, rather than avoidable and damaging failures of policy," the letter added.

Both Warren and Murphy signed the letter and led the efforts to push for overhaul of counterterrorism policy.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Millions of people in 48 countries have received two shots of Sinovac, a Chinese-manufactured Covid-19 vaccine, but those vaccinations alone are of no help against the Omicron variant, a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Medicine has said.

An analysis of blood serum from 101 individuals from the Dominican Republic showed that Omicron infection produced no neutralising antibodies among those who received the standard two-shot regimen of the Sinovac vaccine.

ntibody levels against Omicron rose among those who had also received a booster shot of the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, showed the new study by researchers at Yale University and the Dominican Republic.

When researchers compared these samples with blood serum samples stored at Yale, they found that even those who had received two Sinovac shots and a booster had antibody levels that were only about the same as those who'd received two shots of the mRNA vaccines but no booster shot.

In other studies, the two-shot mRNA regimen without a booster has been shown to offer only limited protection against Omicron.

The researchers also found that individuals who had been infected by earlier strains of the SARS-Cov-2 virus saw little immune protection against Omicron.

"An additional booster shot, and possibly two, are clearly needed in areas of the globe where the Sinovac shot has been the chief source of vaccination," said Akiko Iwasaki, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and senior author of the paper.

"Booster shots are clearly needed in this population because we know that even two doses of mRNA vaccines do not offer sufficient protection against infection with Omicron," Iwasaki added.

Omicron has proven particularly problematic to combat because it possesses 36 mutations on the spike proteins on its surface, which the virus uses to enter cells.

Existing mRNA vaccines are designed to trigger antibody response when spike proteins are recognised.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 : The Democratic Party, an ally of the BJP-led NDA, on Saturday demanded action against the ruling CPI-M in Kerala for "glorifying" China at its ongoing party meetings.

State party president George Sebastian said the Centre should take steps to initiate a probe on this.

"They enjoy the country's democratic freedom and then glorify China at the ongoing district party meetings. This is nothing but an anti-national act and a case should be registered," said Sebastian.

"The Centre should probe if they are getting funds for praising China," he added.

Last week, Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan asked the CPI-M to spell out its policy on China as two of its top leaders have been speaking in different tones.

Veteran CPI(M) politburo members S. Ramachandran Pillai and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in a gap of few days, had come out with divergent views on China following which Satheesan asked the party whether the national interest of their own country or that of China was more important.
New York, Jan 22 : Indian-origin Maju Varghese is leaving his position as the director of the White House Military Office, according to a media report quoting him.

"Right now, it's best for me and my family that I kind of just try to strike a little bit more of a balance," CNN quoted Varghese explaining his decision to leave the White House.

"One thing I learned during two tours here is it's a demanding place to work and it's because the work is really important, and we throw all of ourselves into this," he said of leaving after a gruelling year.

At the White House, his role included working with the military to ensure medical support, emergency medical services and presidential transportation, communications and organising official ceremonies and functions.

"These are complex movements, helicopters and planes and ground transportation and communications and supporting large events and global travel in and of itself is hard," Varghese told CNN.

"Now you throw Covid in, you've got to think about all that comes with health and safety." He worked closely with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy when he was the chief operating officer of Biden's election campaign, and later at the White House to ensure everyone's health during the pandemic.

Murthy told CNN: "The way he would run meetings and to both chart out a path forward, reassure people, his calmness in the face of serious adversity and uncertainty -- those are invaluable qualities that he brought to the operation." He had also worked for former President Barack Obama as a special assistant to the president and the deputy director of advance organising his travel in the US and abroad.

He was also the executive director of Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris's inauguration - the swearing-in ceremonies and the festivities around it.

Varghese's parents immigrated from Thiruvalla, Kerala, to the US, where he was born.

He is a lawyer by training.

CNN said that he did not reveal future plans.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)
Bhopal, Jan 22 : The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the government's decision to rename Habibganj railway station after Gond queen Rani Kamlapati and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner.

A division bench of Justices Sheel Nagu and Sunita Yadav dismissed the petition, terming it as 'frivolous' and 'vexatious' piece of litigation which has consumed precious time of the court.

The court dismissed the plea observing that it does not perceive any public cause involved in the petition, which appears to have been filed to gain cheap publicity.

"This court fails to comprehend as to how the name of a particular Railway Station would lead to furtherance of public cause," it said.

The court further noted that a cause of public is served by quality and quantity of amenities and facilities available at a railway station and in facilitating ease of travelling by train. This act of facilitation has nothing to do with the name of a particular Railway Station.

"The present petition stands dismissed with cost of Rs 10,000 which shall be paid by the petitioner in the Registry to be utilised for purchasing necessary articles and equipment for dealing with the crisis arising out of the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic," the court said.

The petition was filed by a Seoni-based lawyer, A.S. Qureshi on the ground that in 1973 one Guru Habeeb Miyan had donated his land to the Railways on which the station was constructed. Therefore, the station's old name (Habibganj) should be restored.

The Habibganj railway station which has been renovated and facilitated with world class amenities for the passengers has been renamed after Gond queen Rani Kamalapati during a visit of Prime Narendra Modi's visit in Bhopal on November 15, 2021.
Chennai, Jan 22 : Gitanjali, who is also the wife of Selvaraghavan, has announced that she has tested positive for Covid-19. She is a Tamil film director, as is her husband Taking to Instagram, the director explained the discomfort she was facing by way of a post that was laced with humour.

She wrote: "My achy breaky head ... Isolation day 2. Dear God, When I said help me get rid of all negativity in my life this year, I did not mean this. I will happily take any number of negatives in my Covid tests. Yours sincerely, Gitanjali." The list of those from the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industries testing positive for Covid-19 keeps getting longer with each passing day. Only recently, Mammootty, Dulquer Salman, Keerthy Suresh and Suresh Gopi announced that they had tested positive.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
London, Jan 22 : A new form of Omicron named BA.2 has been designated a "variant under investigation", with 426 cases of the Covid-19 strain's sub-lineage confirmed in Britain, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

"Overall, the original Omicron lineage, BA.1, is dominant in the UK and the proportion of BA.2 cases is currently low," with the earliest dated December 6, 2021, Xinhua news agency quoted the UKHSA as saying in a statement on Friday.

In total, 40 countries have uploaded 8,040 BA.2 sequences to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) since November 17, 2021 and at this point, it is not possible to determine where the sub-lineage may have originated, it added.

The first sequences were submitted from the Philippines, and most samples have been uploaded from Denmark (6,411), while other countries that have uploaded more than 100 samples are India (530), Sweden (181), and Singapore (127), according to the UKHSA.

Meera Chand, incident director at the agency, said new mutations are "expected" as the pandemic continues.

"So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than Omicron BA.1, but data is limited and UKHSA continues to investigate."
Patna, Jan 22 : The Bullion Market Association of Patliputra (BMAP) has gone on an indefinite strike on Saturday in protest against a massive loot at a jewellery shop in Bakaranj area of the city.

Vinod Kumar, the president of (BMAP) said the jewellery shops will remain shut till criminals are arrested and the looted jewellery recovered.

"We have demanded police protection to jewellers so that such an incident does not take place in future. We are strongly protesting against this incident and will also seek support of other bullion trading organisations of Bihar, Kumar said.

Around half-a-dozen masked men looted a prominent jewellery shop of the city's Bakarganj wholesale market on Friday afternoon and decamped with gold, silver and diamond ornaments worth more than Rs 14 crore.

While scanning CCTV footage, it appeared that the robbers were in the age groups of 18 to 25. They all were carrying firearms and speaking to each other in some other language.

"By the accent and tone, they did not seem to be residents of Bihar. Their faces were not visible as they were wAaring face masks while committing the crime," said an official of Patna police.

"While talking to each other, they could deliberately be using the accents and tone of other states to mislead the police. We are investigating it from all angles. One of the accused is already arrested after the crime. He has given some leads about the identities and locations of other accused," he said.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Delhi Police has summoned an 18-year-old man from Lucknow to join probe in a case in which obscene and derogatory remarks were made against Muslim women on an audio chat application called Clubhouse.

The man identified as Rahul Kapoor, a resident of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, was found to be a user of ID Bismillah. "He was traced and he admitted that on the direction of Sallos, he created an Audio Chat Room in Clubhouse and handed over the moderator key to Sallos," a senior police official told IANS.

Sources further said a police team has been sent to Lucknow. "Rahul will be joining the investigation at Delhi by today evening," said the official.

It was also learnt that the police have seized the mobile phone of Rahul. The senior official also clarified that Rahul has not been arrested yet.

Notably, the cyber cell of Mumbai police has also arrested three men from Haryana in the same case after a complaint was lodged in Mumbai by a woman.

Earlier this week, on January 17, a video of a Clubhouse conversation on the topic 'Muslim gals are more beautiful than hindu gals' went viral on social media. In the said conversation, the participants were allegedly heard making obscene, vulgar and derogatory remarks targeting Muslim women and girls.

Then next day on Tuesday, January 18, taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, Delhi Commission for Women issued a notice to the Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police demanding immediate registration of an FIR and a punitive action against the alleged persons.

An FIR was then registered under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 354A (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code at the Special Cell police station.
San Francisco, Jan 22 : Google is reportedly working on its own in-house smartwatch and now a popular tipster has revealed that the tech giant might release it on May 26 this year.

Popular tipster Jon Prosser took to Twitter to provide details of the Google Pixel Watch.

"Pixel Watch. I have heard that Google is planning on launching it on Thursday, May 26, over a year since we leaked it. This is the first time we have seen a set date on the device behind the scenes. Google is known for pushing back dates, but if they do, we will know," he said.

This timeline syncs with the Google I/O developer conference where Google announces a sleuth of hardware and software upgrades.

Pixel Watch is expected to debut with features that may not be initially available on other Wear OS watches. One such anticipated feature is the next-generation of Google Assistant.

There is also a possibility that Google might go with an Exynos-based Tensor chip for its upcoming smartwatch. Currently, Google Pixel 6 devices are using the Tensor GS 101 chipset, which is basically an Exynos processor with hardware enhancements.

AIn addition, the Watch will have basic fitness tracking features, including step counting and a heart rate monitor, with Google also reportedly working on debuting a Fitbit integration into Wear OS with the new watch when it launches.

Google was earlier expected to unveil its first smartwatch alongside the Pixel 6, but the launch was reportedly delayed.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Indian Navy will highlight naval uprising of 1946 -- an event which contributed in India's struggle for Independence -- in its tableau this Republic Day.

Lieutenant Mayank Bhagour, an Aviation Officer currently posted at INS Rajali, giving details of the Naval Tableau said, "The forward part of the tableau depicts the Naval uprising of 1946, an event which contributed in India's struggle for Independence." The officer further stated that the rear section of the tableau illustrates the 'Make in India' initiatives of Navy particularly for the period 1983 to 2021.

The model of indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant with Light Combat Aircraft in air takes the centerstage flanked by models of indigenous missile Corvette Kora, the Destroyer Visakhapatnam, Frigate Shivalik on left and P-75 submarine Kalvari, frigate Godavari and destroyer Delhi on the right side.

"Frames on the lower section of the trailer depict construction of Indian Naval platforms in India," the officer said.

Explaining about the Tableau Lieutenant Preeti, an Education Officer, posted at INS India, says: "The tableau of Republic Day Parade 2022 of Indian Navy is in pursuance of the Navy week theme of Indian Navy 'Combat Ready, Credible and Cohesive'." The tableau endeavours to highlight Indian Navy's sustained focus on 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat' initiatives maintaining combat readiness in service of the nation and Navy's contribution to our freedom struggle. It also showcases the multidimensional capabilities of Indian Navy.

The naval contingent comprises 96 Men, three Platoon Commanders and one Contingent commander.

Lieutenant Commander Aanchal Sharma, describing the preparation and the sentiments of the contingent said, "The hard work and tough schedule in the last two months has paid off and if you see the contingent today, it is full of passion and pride and each individual has a sense of honour to be marching in front of our Supreme Commander, The President of India. The enthusiasm and energy of the contingent is unparalleled. It is indeed an honour to be leading the Indian Naval Contingent." The naval band is led by Vincent Johnson, Master Chief Petty Officer Musician.

He will lead a 72-men naval band as its drum major in front of the President of India, with millions watching India's most loved ceremonial event.

From Sydney to Mauritius and St Petersburg to Edinburgh, Vincent Johnson has led the Indian Navy band at various military events across the world, but if there's a celebration that's closest to his heart, it's the Republic Day parade.
The group of experts will be arriving in Peru in the coming days with the mission of conducting a rapid assessment of the socio-environmental impact and providing advice to local authorities on response coordination and management.

Likewise, the UN will propose effective actions so as to reduce the risk of future disasters in the country.

Given this, the organization immediately activated the emergency care protocols so as to make technical support available to the Government through a mission of experts in environmental disasters.

Nota informativa sobre la asistencia que la ONU brindara al Peru ante el derrame de petroleo en #Ventanilla ??https://t.co/QAvL43hrv8 pic.twitter.com/KYOXb0RSR4
Bengaluru, Jan 22 : The Karnataka High Court has cancelled bail to a lecturer who is facing charges of raping a girl and taking nude pictures of her. The accused had obtained bail from a local court.

The bench headed by Justice H.P. Sandesh gave the order on Friday after taking up the inquiry into the petition filed by the victim's parents challenging the bail orders from a local court.

The incident had taken place in the limits of Subramanya police station in Dakshina Kannada district in 2018. The parents of the girl had lodged a complaint in this regard in 2021. The accused was charged of raping the girl and later taking nude pictures of the victim.

The police, after lodging the FIR, have taken the accused into custody and sent him to judicial custody. Two days later, Dakshina Kannada District and Sessions Court granted bail to the accused lecturer L. Gururaj. The parents have submitted a petition in this regard challenging the order.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : India's hotel and restaurant industry has urged the Centre to make travel expenses deductible under IT returns in Budget FY23.

Notably, the sector has been heavily battered due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions imposed to check the infections' spread.

According to Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, since foreign travel is at least 12-15 months away from returning to the pre-pandemic levels, Centre should give impetus on domestic travel.

"We have requested Finance Minister to allow domestic travel for individuals and corporates to be a deductible expense in their IT returns. This tax incentive could be offered for a fixed number of years until hospitality comes back to pre-pandemic conditions," Kohli told IANS.

"The move will encourage the 28 million-plus people who otherwise travel out of the country, to holiday in India. We also ask for a review of the decision to introduce LTC cash vouchers in lieu of LTC fare to the Central Government employees." Besides, the hospitality industry has asked the Centre to be granted the infrastructure status.

At present, only those hotels built with an investment of Rs 200 crore or more have been accorded infrastructure status.

"This threshold has to be brought down to Rs 10 crore per hotel to give a fillip to the budget segment hotels. This will enable hotels to avail of term loans at lower rates of interest and also have a longer repayment period," he said.

"We have also requested that hospitality should be accorded an industry status and set up a corpus fund to incentivise all states to align their policies and set off any losses that may occur due to its implementation. The lower cost of operations spread over a higher payback period will reduce the cost of our supply which will boost demand." Among other measures, the industry has requested for working capital support with a guarantee from the Centre to banks and NBFCs.

In addition, it has asked that the Rs 60,000 crore 'Loan Guarantee Scheme for Covid Affected Sectors' be notified with immediate effect.

The Union Budget is slated to be tabled in the Parliament on February 1.
Dakshina Kannada : , Jan 22 (IANS) Karnataka police have arrested two persons including a married woman on charges of honey trapping a priest and extorting Rs 49 lakh from him in Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada district, police said on Saturday.

According to police, Bhavya, 30, a resident of Somavarpet in Kodagu district and Kumar a.k.a Raju, a resident of Arakalagudu in Hassan district have been arrested in this connection.

The police said, the accused invited the priest from Chikkamagalur to their home in Padavinangady in Mangaluru to perform special pooja. They told the priest they wanted a solution for family disputes.

When the priest came to their home, the lady behaved intimately with him and took photos and videos. Later, the priest was blackmailed by the accused persons and an extortion demand was made. They threatened the priest that if he doesn't pay up, his photos and videos would go viral.

The priest, fearing for his image in society, paid Rs 49 lakh to the accused. He deposited the money in various bank accounts as told by the accused. The priest told the police that due to the pressure of the accused he had taken a loan of Rs 15 lakh to pay them.

When accused further demanded money, the priest tried to commit suicide. After this, he complained to the police. Acting on the complaint, the police arrested the accused persons. They have seized two gold rings worth Rs 37,000, Rs 31,000 cash and four mobiles from the accused persons.

The accused was found to be leading a lavish life with the extorted money. They had shifted to a flat taken on lease for Rs 10 lakh. Earlier, they lived in a small rented house. They had spent about Rs 7 lakh on luxurious household things and purchased a two-wheeler. Further investigation is on.
January 22 : Neetu Kapoor remembered her late husband, superstar Rishi Kapoor on their wedding anniversary today. The actress took to her Instagram handle and shared a post, wherein she can be seen with Rishi Kapoor.

Sharing two fun pictures, Neetu Kapoor captioned them as, In remembrance, and followed it with a heart emoji. The pictures of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kappors were from their appearance on The Kapil Sharma Show a few years back. Reacting to the post, their daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and Maheep Kapoor dropped heart emojis on the post. Fans also showered love as one of them wrote, To the most beautiful couple ever. Another wrote, This was one of the cutest episodes I watched... You both are the original sweethearts.

On The Kapil Sharma Show, Neetu Kapoor had revealed that when Rishi Kapoor was in Paris, he wrote about his feelings for her in a telegram and sent to her in Kashmir where she was shooting for Kabhi Kabhie. Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor got married in 1980.

Riddhima also shared a cute picture of her parents on her Instagram stories and wished them on their anniversary.

Rishi Kapoor died on April 30, 2020, after battling with cancer for two years. Neetu Kapoor often remembers her husband and share posts remembering him. On his birth anniversary last year, she shared about the last few traumatic years, when he was undergoing chemotherapy in New York. She had written, Hope and being strong is what he taught me... Value each day... We all miss him today!!! I can picture how excited he would have been for his 69th birthday!!! Im sure he is celebrating with his family up there. Happy birthday Kapoor Saab, she wrote on her Instagram.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Neetu Kapoor will soon be seen in Raj Mehtas Jug Jugg Jeeyo, co-starring Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, and Kiara Advani.
Srinagar, Jan 22 : A gunfight is underway between terrorists and security forces in Kashmir's Shopian district, police said on Saturday.

A joint team of the police and the security forces cordoned off the Kilbal area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.
Houston, Jan 22 : A judge in Texas has blocked President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees, dealing another blow to the White House's anti-Covid efforts.

The US Department of Justice immediately filed an appeal and case could be heard by the Supreme Court, reports Xinhua news agency.

On Friday, Judge Jeffrey Brown, appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by former President Donald Trump, issued a nationwide injunction ruling that the mandate exceeded Biden's authority.

The case is about "whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment", Brown wrote in his opinion.

"As the court has already noted, Congress appears to have limited the President's authority in this field to workplace conduct," Brown wrote.

"For its part, this court will say only this: however extensive that power is, the federal-worker mandate exceeds it." Earlier this month, the Supreme Court blocked Biden's mandate that employees at businesses with 100 or more workers get vaccinated or regularly tested, while upholding the measure for healthcare workers.

The White House announced in September 2021 that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that 98 per cent of federal workers were already vaccinated.
Chennai, Jan 22 : Actor Unni Mukundan has expressed support for Manju Warrier, after she was trolled for having deleted a post she put up to promote the Malayalam film 'Meppadiyan'.

Taking to Instagram, Mukundan said, "Hello friends, It has been brought to my notice that a certain issue related to a goodwill post made by Manju Warrier to promote my film 'Meppadiyan' is making unwanted news.

"I would like to clarify that it was well informed in advance by Manju Warrier's social media team that any goodwill post of this nature will be removed after a week from their social media handles.

"So we don't see any issue here. Hence, it's a request not to drag an honoured and celebrated actor with such feeble concerns. Hope all concerns related to this issue end here." 'Meppadiyan' has been directed by Vishnu Mohan. Unni Mukundan, apart from starring in the film, has also produced it.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The majority of Covid-19 testing in Pakistan may be yielding inaccurate results, according to a health expert who reported that nearly 80 per cent of imported testing kits were of substandard quality.

There is no uniform national policy regarding Covid-19 testing in Pakistan, resulting in unregulated testing practices and the use of low-quality kits in many health facilities, the Friday Times reported.

According to Saeed Khan, Professor of Pathology at Dow University Ojha campus, there is a high chance of human error in most of the testing kits used across the country.

"If a patient's sample is taken and placed in the sunlight or in a warm place, the results will be radically different," the Friday Times quoted the professor as saying.

He reported that while some large hospitals in the country are administering US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, high-quality testing kits, smaller laboratories have resorted to using unreliable, cheaper kits.

Pakistan has imported Covid-19 diagnostic kits from China, Turkey, the US and several European countries.

Khan recommended stricter testing regulations to stop the use of non-FDA approved kits, as well as a uniform national policy on the diagnosis of infectious diseases, like Covid-19.

Pakistan shattered previous records on Friday, when the country reported the highest number of new daily cases since the pandemic began in early 2020.

Currently in the fifth-wave of the contagious Omicron-variant spread, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) reported that the Covid-19 positivity rate was hovering around 11 per cent.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Aiming to boost the strong governance performance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will virtually release India's first "District Good Governance Index", prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Minister of State for PMO, Personnel, PG and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh and the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will take part in the programme, according to an official statement.

The collaboration received from Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, enabled the conceptualization and formulation of an index that measures the diversity of governance model in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It provides a roadmap for similar benchmarking of Governance at the District level for all States and Union Territories of India.

The Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Amit Shah had released the National Good Governance Index on December 25, 2021.

The Good Governance Index 2021 indicated that Jammu and Kashmir had registered an increase of 3.7 per cent in Good Governance Indicators over the 2019 to 2021 period. Strong performances were witnessed in Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Allied Sectors, Public Infrastructure & Utilities, Judiciary and Public Safety Sectors.

Significant improvements were reported in Ease of Doing Business, Tax collection, Skill training imparted, Connectivity to rural habitations, Economic empowerment of women, Health insurance coverage and Housing for all.

There were improvements in conviction rates, disposal of court cases and proportion of women police personnel. Citizen-Centric Governance sector witnessed a strong performance.

In this backdrop of strong governance performance at the National level, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir's initiative of benchmarking governance at District level assumes considerable significance. The District Good Governance Index has helped identify the impact of various governance interventions at district level and provide a futuristic roadmap for improving district level governance with targeted interventions.
Gaza, Jan 22 : Qatar signed an agreement to guarantee the supply of natural gas for operating the only power plant in the Gaza Strip, Doha's Ambassador to Palestine Mohammed al-Emadi told reporters here.

Al-Emadi said that he signed the agreement with the Gaza Electricity Generation Company and the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, reports Xinhua news agency.

Also head of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, the envoy said: "The agreement includes establishing an escrow account to cover the costs of supplying gas and generating electricity through the only power plant in Gaza." Under the agreement, the committee will be the primary owner of this account and will organise and manage the payments, he said.

The committee will finance the construction of the gas pipeline from the supplier company in Israel to the Gaza border.

In February last year, a joint agreement was reached among Qatar, the UN, and the European Union on a project to install a supply system from Israel to the only power plant in the Gaza Strip after years of negotiations.

The Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, needs 500 megawatts of electricity per day.

But currently only 210 megawatts are available, including 120 supplied from Israel, and the rest is produced by the only power plant in Gaza.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The working visit of President Armen Sarkissian to the United Arab Emirates was marked by a number of practical agreements. In particular, this concerns the field of renewable energy sources.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, Emirati company Masdar, one of the leading international companies in the field of renewable energy, has already launched the Ayg-1 program for the construction of a 200-megawatt photovoltaic power plant in Armenia, the agreement on implementation of which was reached in 2019 during the visit of the President of the Republic Armen Sarkissian to the United Arab Emirates. Still then, Armen Sarkissian noted that this program is only the beginning of a long journey, and much more can be done together.

During a recent working visit to the UAE, President Sarkissian met with Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al-Ramahi, aiming to reach an agreement on the construction of another 200 megawatt solar photovoltaic station in Armenia.

Plans for solar power plants with a total capacity of 400 megawatts in Armenia involve large investments. They are also of strategic importance for improving the security, the level of independence of the country's energy system, as well as for the diversification of the energy sector. These programs will also help make Armenia greener.

During his visit to the UAE, President Sarkissian discussed with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, the possibility of large-scale investments in wind energy, in particular, the construction of an additional 500 MW power plant. President Sarkissian noted that Armenia has a huge potential for environmentally friendly energy resources.

According to the agreement reached during the working visit to the United Arab Emirates, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will soon start operating flights to Yerevan.

In general, the working visit of the President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sarkissian to the UAE is another practical step towards rapprochement with the Arab world and strengthening cooperation.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : An illegal arms factory that was manufacturing around 1,000 weapons per year was busted by Delhi Police in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district and one man was apprehended in this connection, an official said here on Saturday.

The apprehended accused, identified as Ravi Mahor, was making illegal arms in a shop being used as a manufacturing unit.

The details about the arms factory were revealed during the interrogation of notorious arms supplier Shakil alias Sherni, who was arrested earlier this week after an encounter with the Special Staff of Outer North district.

Furnishing details, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North district) Brijendra Kumar Yadav said during police custody remand of accused Shakil alias Sherni, a raid for source of weapons was conducted near Maya Chowk, Mohalla Sarai Man Singh, in Aligarh after which accused Mahor was apprehended.

"Several raw materials used in the manufacturing of Arms were recovered such as barrels, triggers, body of arms etc along with Khairat machine, bits used in the machine, Bhatti, okhli, gripper etc were recovered," the DCP said.

Apart from these nine unfinished arms and 10 finished country made pistols were also recovered. The senior official further said that the accused was also found involved in one previous case of rape.

"Accused Mahor's uncle Mukesh was also present in the shop at the time of the raid but he managed to escape. Search is on to nab him," the official added.
Patna, Jan 22 : The rift between the Janata Dal(United) and BJP -- two major alliance partners of Bihar-- is apparently widening with each passing day ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

JD(U) has decided to contest the Assembly election alone with CM Nitish Kumar campaigning against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath.

Meanwhile, the national president of JD(U) Lalan Singh on Saturday released the first list of 26 candidates for the polls in Delhi.

The party finalised the list of 51 candidates for the polls after the talks between union Steel Minister RCP Singh who was authorised by JD(U) to negotiate with BJP top leadership in the rank of Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan failed.

"We have issued the list of 26 candidates who are contesting in first and second phase of Uttar Pradesh election. We have already shortlisted the name of the candidates which will be announced at an appropriate time," said K.C. Tyagi, the national general secretary of JD(U) and in charge of Uttar Pradesh.

In the wake of the change in political equations, the stand of Nitish Kumar, who was critical of PM Modi before 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, would be interesting in view of the "DNA" politics they indulged in in the past.

During July 25, 2015 Parivartan rally in Muzaffarpur Bihar, Prime Minister Modi had lashed out at Kumar saying: There seems to be some problem in his (Nitish Kumar) DNA because the DNA of politics is not like this.

In a retort, Nitish Kumar had stated: "I am a son of Bihar and my DNA is similar to that of the people of the state." Currently, the BJP and JD(U) are coalition partners in Bihar government sharing 74 and 45 seats respectively.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Los Angeles, Jan 22 : Johnny Depp will star as French king Louis XV in the next film directed by French Cesar-winning actress and director Maiwenn. The shoot will begin this summer, 'Variety' has confirmed.

Filming for the movie, whose title and exact plot are being kept under wraps, will take place for three months on location across Parisian landmarks, mainly at the Versailles Palace.

Maiwenn will star as Jeanne du Barry, a countess who was Louis XV's last mistress.

Louis XV, who was nicknamed 'the beloved' and reigned for 59 years, the longest in the history of France after that of Louis XIV. He died, paradoxically, as an unpopular king after being accused of corruption and debauchery.

Depp, who has been accused by his ex-wife Amber Heard of domestic violence, as a result, hasn't made a film since Andrew Levitas's 'Minamata' (2020), a film about war photographer W. Eugene Smith, notes 'Variety'.

Although he has fallen from Hollywood's good graces since the accusations and his libel case against UK tabloid 'The Sun', Depp hasn't faced much backlash in Europe, 'Variety' adds.

The period movie will mark a departure for Maiwenn, whose films are all contemporary and often personal. Her film 'Mon Roi' earned its star Emmanuelle Bercot a best actress award at Cannes in 2015; earlier, her 2011 drama 'Polisse' won the Cannes jury prize.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Suva, Jan 22 : Fifty-one Fijian military personnel flew out to Australia's Brisbane on Saturday for a co-deployment mission to Tonga which was hit by the massive volcanic eruptions and a subsequent tsunami last weekend.

Fijian military Commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said on Saturday that the military personnel, consisting of engineers, medics and other specialists, will team up with the Australian soldiers to carry out rehabilitation and further assessment in Tonga, reports Xinhua news agency.

As per the initial planning process, the Fijian soldiers are expected to be on the ground, putting the hard yards, in a span of 10 days.

However, this is subject to change depending on the extent of rehabilitation required in the island nation, he added.

The commander stressed that the majority of troops deployed are engineers and plant operators, considering the massive infrastructure damage in most parts of Tonga.

The military personnel have completed their pre-departure isolation period in their respective bubble and have tested Covid-19 negative before departure.

They were also vaccinated with a booster shot.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, about 65 km north of Tongan capital city of Nuku'alofa, is part of the highly active Tonga-Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a sub-duction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji.

Over the past decades, the volcano has erupted several times.

The eruptions and tsunami on January 14-15 have caused three deaths and multiple injures, which are likely to rise in the days to come.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday condoled the death of three persons in the huge fire in Mumbai.

Taking to Twitter in Hindi, President Kovind said he is saddened by the fire incident and expressed deepest sympathies with the families who lost their near and dear ones in the fire. He also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

A tweet from the PMO handle said: "Saddened by the building fire at Tardeo in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and prayers with the injured for the speedy recovery: PM @narendramodi." The Prime Minister also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the PMNRF for the next of kin of those who lost their lives while the injured would be paid Rs 50,000 each.

At least 6 persons have been killed and 23 others injured when a major blaze engulfed the 18th floor of a building in Tardeo, South Mumbai at dawn on Saturday.

The fire was noticed at the top part of the 20-storied Kamla Building at around 7.30 a.m. with people in neighbouring buildings and morning walkers alerting the fire brigade.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) rushed with 13 fire tenders as the flames quickly spread to the two upper floors sparking panic among the building residents.

The MFB managed to rescue at least 23 injured persons from the inferno that raged in the top three floors, and the firemen continued to battle the blaze in the afternoon.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : A 52-year-old woman was found dead in her house in the national capital, an official said here on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Shashi Lata Pandey, a resident of G-66, Saket in south Delhi.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Benita Mary Jaiker said a PCR call was received at Saket Police Station around 7.09 p.m. on Friday stating that a scuffle broke out between an elderly couple after which both were injured and the man was taken to a hospital while her wife is lying dead at the residence in Saket.

As soon as the information was received, the police rushed to the spot. "On the spot, blood was found scattered and dead body of a lady was lying on the floor of bed room on first floor," the DCP said.

The caller who had informed the police about the incident was also on the spot. He told the police that at around 6.00 p.m. on Friday, he received a call from his aunt asking him to immediately reach their flat on the first floor. As the caller reached there, he rang the bell and the door was opened by his uncle identified as Chander Mohan Pandey, 57, whose clothes were soaked with blood and there was a deep cut on his left side of the neck.

Pandey told the caller to inform the police and tell them that "everything is finished now". Thereafter, an Ambulance of Max Hospital, Saket was called.

In the mean time his cousin, the son of the deceased, also reached there from Okhla as he was also informed by his mother. "Doctor in Ambulance checked the grievously injured Shashi Lata Pandey and declared her dead, however, her husband Mohan was rushed to the Max Hospital," the official said.

The DCP further informed that the husband is currently under treatment at the hospital and his statement is yet to be recorded. "Presently his condition is not stable and he is being shifted to the Intensive Care Unit," the official said.

Meanwhile, a Crime Team of Delhi Police was called and during examination, a blood stained kitchen knife was found on the LCD Panel of drawing room, just adjacent to the bed room where the deceased's body was lying. "All related exhibits were seized from the spot. Dead body has also been shifted to Mortuary, AIIMS Hospital," the police said.

During enquiry, Shivam, son of the deceased told the police that there were some issues between his mother and father over residing in this house as his father wanted to sell it against her mother's wishes. "His father was under some depression as he was unemployed for the last two years," the official said.

The police have registered a case under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and further probe is on.
Delhi, Jan 22 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that elections will soon be held in J&K since the delimitation process has already started.

Speaking at the virtual launch of the district good governance index in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah said, "Delimitation has started and elections will soon be held." He reiterated that he has given assurance in the Lok Sabha that as soon as the situation becomes normal in Jammu and Kashmir, statehood will be given back.

He slammed some leaders for spreading false propaganda and alleged that they are doing so for their own political benefits.

"Many leaders have been doing false propaganda. I want the youth to ask them, crores of investment have been coming, tourists have been coming and they are doing propaganda for their own political benefits. Democracy has reached grassroots level and that is why they do this propaganda and youth should not listen to them." "Today is an important day also for the country as what has started from Jammu and Kashmir will be going to other parts of the country. I want to say to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the Union Territory is going through a transformation that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has always thought of. Hail PM Modi's vision for the Union Territory.

"There has been a change after 2019, there were 87 MLAs in Union Territory and only three families were ruling, but today there is 30,000 public representatives. These families said that after the abrogation of Article 370, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has worsened, but I want to tell them there has been a 40 per cent decrease in terror related incidents and 87 per cent decrease in killings.

"I want to ask these three families why they were not able to do so in the last so many years. Why are they misinforming people," Shah said.

Shah attacked former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

He said now the people are receiving direct benefits from the government schemes in the Union Territory.

Shah said Jammu and Kashmir is among the top five States and UTs in India in implementing Centre Schemes and congratulated Lt governor Manoj Sinha for making the UT a top performer.

"Several development works are being done. Record number of tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir this year. People are receiving direct benefits from the government scheme.

"After the launch of the district good governance index there will be a healthy competition within the districts which will help the development of the area and this will benefit the people.

"With the Prime Minister's initiative tourism has been boosted as 1,13,000 tourists have visited the UT.

"This year record number of tourists have come but these leaders are doing propaganda so that the tourists should not come to Jammu and Kashmir.

"I want to tell those who forced the youth to go to Pakistan for MBBS that nine Medical Colleges have come up in the UT and 1,100 seats have been added. I appeal to the youth of the Valley to come and walk on the path of development and don't listen to the propaganda being spread", he said.

He released the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, a move that will make Jammu and Kashmir the first Union Territory in the country to have an index of this kind.

The District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir was prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcements made in the "Behtar e-Hukumat - Kashmir Aelamia" resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices held in Srinagar.
New York, Jan 22 : People suffering from depression are more likely to believe vaccine-related misinformation, according to a new study.

The study found that people with moderate or greater symptoms of depression were more likely to believe at least 1 of 4 false statements about Covid-19 vaccines.

Those who believed the statements to be true were half as likely to be vaccinated, the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicated.

"It is clear the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of Americans, especially young people," said researcher Katherine Ognyanova from Rutgers University, the US.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately one-quarter of adults in the US have consistently reported moderate or greater depressive symptoms during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The findings suggest that people suffering from depression may be at a higher risk of Covid-19, highlighting the need to address mental health disorders.

For the study, the team used data from the research group The Covid States Project, which conducted surveys approximately once every six weeks since April 2020.

The researchers analysed data from 15,464 adults in the US and the participants were asked to rate vaccine-related misinformation as accurate (statement is true), inaccurate (statement is not true) or not sure.

The four statements of misinformation included "The Covid-19 vaccines will alter people's DNA", "The vaccines contain microchips that could track people", "The vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses", and "The -19 vaccines can cause infertility, making it more difficult to get pregnant".

The survey participants completed a health questionnaire to measure major depressive symptoms over two weeks.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Bengaluru, Jan 22 : The Haryana Steelers will be looking to continue their winning streak as they prepare to take on UP Yoddha in Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The Steelers defeated Dabang Delhi KC 36-33 in their previous match on Friday. Haryana's defender Jaideep Dahiya expressed that the team is even more motivated to perform in their upcoming matches.

"We played really well in our last match. We have won two games in a row and we have broken into the top six in the standings. The team is even more motivated to do well now. The confidence is high within the group. In our first few matches of the tournament, we didn't play well in the second half, but now we are playing well in the first and second halves of our matches. We have worked on our mistakes and gotten better as a side," he said.

Jaideep also spoke about the aspects that has helped Haryana attain form in the last couple of matches.

"Our defense unit combination is working really well. Everyone in the unit is chipping in with points. In our first few matches, one defender used to get a High 5, while the others didn't contribute much. But now, every defender is picking up points for the team." Speaking about their next match, the defender said, "Our preparation is going really well for our next match against UP Yoddha. They have good raiders such as Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill. We will look at the video footage of their game and accordingly put our strategies in place."
Los Angeles, Jan 22 : Renowned Hollywood producer Mace Neufeld died at the age of 93 in Beverly Hills, California. A representative for the Mace Neufeld Productions notified that the producer died peacefully in his sleep, reports 'Variety'.

Neufeld, whose first film was the ground-breaking horror movie 'The Omen' (1976), was survived by his wife, Diane Conn, and two sons and a daughter, as well as nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Born in New York City, Neufeld started his career as a songwriter. Eventually, he progressed as a talent agent, managing comedy and music talents, including Don Knotts, Don Adams, Randy Newman and Neil Diamond.

He turned a television producer in the 1970s, receiving a primetime Emmy nomination for the TV movie 'East of Eden' in 1981.

While working in TV, he ventured into cinema as well, starting with 'The Omen' in 1976 and producing its sequels as well.

Neufeld, notes 'Variety', had a long association with author spy thriller writer Tom Clancy, which started with 'The Hunt for Red October', starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin. His production company with Robert Rehme shepherded Clancy projects for Paramount. including 'Patriot Games' and 'Clear and Present Danger'.

After Rehme became president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Neufeld went on to produce the Ben Affleck-starrer 'The Sum of All Fears'.

His other projects included 'Sahara', 'Invictus', directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, the 'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' series for Amazon, and the Denzel Washington-led 'The Equalizer' and 'The Equalizer 2'.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of ArmeniaNikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The sides discussed the implementation of the agreements reached by the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020, January 11, 2021 and November 26, 2021.

The interlocutors also discussed issues related to the strengthening of cooperation within the CSTO, exchanged views on the current situation of regional and international security.

The leaders of the two countries also touched upon the current issues of the bilateral agenda.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police on Saturday said that its Kandivali unit has arrested a Nigerian national for allegedly supplying drugs in the city.

The ANC said that they have recovered 970 grams of Methaqualone from him which is valued at Rs 97 lakh in the international market.

The accused was arrested following a tip off from Goregaon, a senior ANC official said.

The police have lodged a case under relevant sections of the NDPS Act against him.

During probe, officials found that he had earlier been involved in two cases registered against him by ANC Worli.

He was taken to a nearby government hospital where he was made to undergo medical checkup. The police after getting his negative Covid report produced him before the concerned court.

As he was not required for further questioning, the police requested the court to send him to judicial custody. The court heard the contention of the prosecution and allowed their move. The accused has been remanded to fourteen days judicial custody.

The police will inform the Nigerian Embassy and the concerned Central Ministry Department regarding his arrest.

Further probe in the matter is underway.
Chennai, Jan 22 : Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss on Saturday termed as shocking the statement of Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari saying challenges are being faced in laying National Highways in Tamil Nadu.

Ramadoss said the Tamil Nadu government should explain the status as Gadkari's charge is a serious one and National Highway projects are important for the state's economic growth.

The PMK leader also said the eight lane expressway between Chennai-Salem is not necessary as it destroys the livelihood of several farmers.

Ramadoss said the Tamil Nadu government should not implement the Chennai-Salem expressway even if the central government puts pressure.

Recently Gadkari said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is finding it difficult to source construction aggregates and getting forest clearance in Tamil Nadu due to its bureaucratic system.

Gadkari urged Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to look into the matter and sort out the issues.

Last December, the NHAI had said it is foreclosing four major highway projects as the contractors were not able to source the construction aggregates.
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 : The prosecution which was in a state of shock when it heard a lower court acquitting Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the nun rape case, on Saturday decided to appeal the verdict at the Kerala High Court.

The special prosecutor in the case Jithesh Babu submitted the legal advice to this effect to the Kottayam SP, who will go forward in the appeal, as the time period for it is 90 days, from the date of the verdict which came from the Kottayam Additional district court judge G. Gopakumar on January 14, whose verdict enabled Franco to walk out free.

Incidentally, soon after the verdict came, the former Kottayam SP Harisankar, who oversaw the probe, said he was supremely confident that the verdict would be against the accused.

"This was the least expected as the witnesses did a very clean job. An appeal should be filed," said Harisankar, then.

The trial in the case extended over 105 days with 39 witnesses being examined and 122 documents produced before the court.

While serving as Bishop of the Jalandhar Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, he was accused of raping a nun, who belonged to the Missionaries of Jesus congregation.

During his visits between 2014 and 2016 to Kerala, he was accused of raping the 43-year old nun on 13 occasions. Later, he was removed from the charge of the Jalandhar diocese.

A complaint was filed against him in June 2018 in Kerala and Mulakkal was arrested on September 21, 2018 on rape charges.

He secured bail on October 16, 2018.

The charge sheet names 83 witnesses, including the Cardinal of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Mar George Alencherry, three bishops, 11 priests and 22 nuns.

Of the 83 witnesses, 39 were called and they were heard.

Franco had approached the Kerala High Court and also the Supreme Court to quash the FIR against him, but both the courts refused to do so and the trial began.
New Delhi, Jan 22: Amid the tension on the fencing on the Durand Line between the Taliban and Pakistan, Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the disputed Durand Line on Thursday to take stock of the situation.

"We will restore full security in Pakistan and we will not leave the blood of our dead unanswered, we will fence the remaining 200 km of the border," Bajwa told his troops.

According to Pakistani sources, Bajwa instructed the former ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed Bajwa, who is now the Peshawar Corps Commander, to finish the "fencing job" despite the violent protests from the Taliban fighters.

"Enough is enough, we have been observing maximum restraint to avoid any escalation in tensions but no more," Bajwa reportedly told his Commander Lt Gen Hameed.

Bajwa was also furious with the increased attacks on his troops by the banned militant organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

On Monday, the TTP militants attacked a police party in the heart of the capital Islamabad killing two senior police officials in a rare overnight raid.

What made Bajwa furious was that instead of condemning the attacks, the Taliban leaders have been daring Pakistani forces to carry out the fencing on the border. The Pakistani military establishment believes that the TTP is planning some major attacks in the country.

"Both (TTP and the Taliban) are two sides of the same coin," Bajwa reportedly said.

Pakistani watchers say that there is growing friction in the Pakistan-Taliban relationship over two major issues -- fencing and the TTP, following which the Pakistani military leadership is facing domestic political pressure to recalibrate. Pakistani generals thought that helping the Taliban to capture power will end its problems of the TTP and border problems but to their dismay, these problems have been aggravating taking more violent turns.

"Pakistan's military establishment is aware of the Taliban's hostile perception of Pakistan. This is one of the reasons for the military actively pursuing the fencing of the border," says a Pakistani journalist.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
"Murder is a crime. Describing murder is not. Sex is not a crime. Describing sex is," American cultural critic Gershon Legman said in 1949, decrying the official attitude that allowed cultural depictions of graphic violence but not sex.

As the 1960s began, however, two high-profile trials in the UK ('The Lady Chatterley' case) and the US saw rulings that sex in literary works could not be penalised on grounds of obscenity, and the erotic element became quite mainstream.

Sex has figured in literature, right from the ancient era, but saw a major fillip -- and got differentiated from pornography -- as the novel developed in the 18th century, with John Cleland's 'Fanny Hill' (1748), or actually 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure', possibly being the first erotic novel.

The genre really hit its stride in the 20th century, as even established writers espoused it. 'Josephine Mutzenbacher or The Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself' (1906) was published anonymously, but is now attributed to Felix Salten, otherwise known for children's classic 'Bambi'.

Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' (1934) and 'Tropic of Capricorn' (1939), Anais Nin's 'The Delta of Venus' (from the 1940s, but published 1977), Pauline Reage's 'The Story of O' (1954), Emmanuelle Arsan's 'Emmanuelle' (1959), and Terry Southern's spoof 'Blue Movie' (1970) are some notable ones.

Furthermore, sex scenes became common in other genres too -- take Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, and even in thrillers, say, Sidney Sheldon, Irving Wallace, the 'Modesty Blaise' series. A notable outlier was Alistair Maclean, who when asked about the absence of sex in his works, said it got in the way of the action.

With society becoming more liberal (mostly) and new forms of media (OTT/online publishing) emerging, the trend has become common. As the success of 'Sex in the City', '50 Shades of Gray' and their ilk shows, the erotic in fiction, or even erotic fiction, no longer is seen as prurient, or as the preserve of dodgy publishers, or hidden away in bookstore corners (Indian readers of a certain generation would recall coming across Nancy Friday and 'Letters to Penthouse' and being chased away by bookshop owners/parents). And like other media (cinema/OTT especially), it no longer has to be apologetic, though challenges from "moral guardians" still persist.

India had a long tradition of erotic literature down the ages. Let alone the 'Kama Sutra' or the 'Ananga Ranga', Kalidasa and his vivid descriptions (one about Shakuntala got the British translator all worked up), Jaydeva's 'Gita Govinda' (though some deem it to be a religious allegory), Vallabhadeva's 'Subhashitavali', Bihari's 'Satasai', Telugu poetess Muddupalani's 'Radhika-santvanam' (Appeasing Radhika), and many others show that our forebears were not shy about the topic.

Closer to our times, there were "bold" writers such Ismat Chughtai ('Lihaaf'), Krishna Sobti, Khushwant Singh -- never averse to pulling his punches on this count -- and Shobhaa De. And now, authors don't even need that label, as the range of anthologies, web stories, and the Indian imprint of the Mills & Boon series, apart from other works, shows.

Before listing some contemporary examples, it is important to note that the quality of the writing is important -- there is even a 'Bad Sex in Fiction Award', run by a British literary journal since 1993, which has gone to one Indian writer too.

Depiction of sex should "evoke a feeling and root for the character, not make it creepy, dirty, or derogatory to any gender," says Madhuri Banerjee, whose oeuvre, relevant here, includes 'Losing My Virginity And Other Dumb Ideas' (2011), 'Mistakes Like Love And Sex' (2012), 'Scandalous Housewives' (2014) and 'Forbidden Desires' (2016) as well as the screenplay for 'Hate Story 2'.

Kiran Manral's versatile as well as prodigious output, spanning frothy romance ('All Aboard', 2015, and 'Saving Maya', 2108) to 'Himalayan Noir' ('The Face at The Window', 2016), to darker journeys into mental neverlands, as in 'Missing Presumed Dead' (2018) and 'More Things in Heaven and Earth' (2021), always qualifies on this score.

She says she is "generally not very explicit and detailed, I tend to leave a lot to the imagination. My aim is not to titillate but to put the reader in a scene, so they go with the moment." She notes: "One doesn't really add a sex scene thinking, okay, let's add a sex scene here. For me, the process is very organic, if the moment is progressing in a way that one needs to write it out so the reader will experience what the protagonist is going through, then one does so. If it would seem gratuitous, then I desist. I feel it is the characters who drive what I will write and it is they who tell me when they are going to have sex, and whether I need to write it out or merely allude to it and move on." Kiran also admits that "sex scenes are perhaps the most difficult scenes to write, after humour".

Some others to see include Abha Dawesar's 'Babyji' (2005), a coming-of-age story of a rather precocious teenage girl student in the early 1990s -- a rather tumultuous time for the Indian youth, career and otherwise -- as she explores her own sexuality and navigates complex relationships, including with her classmates and adults. Ananth's 'Play With Me' (2014) may seem a fantasy but also provides food for thought on the intensity and durability of relationships, longing, and emotional support.

In short stories, Apurv Nagpal's 'Eighteen Plus: Bedtime Stories. For Grown-Ups' (2013) uses various forms, including the transcript of a texting exchange, to explore sexuality in urban India. The uproarious 'At the Big Fat Indian Wedding' set in a resort where the bridegroom is having second thoughts and his friend has a series of encounters, stands out.

In 'Eighteen Plus Duets' (2016), Nagpal collaborates with 18 women writers to fashion another range of sex-themed stories, including 'A Day of Desh Seva' (along with Jo March), a satirical look at Indian politicians and bureaucrats in the course of a day.

'A Pleasant Kind of Heavy and Other Erotic Stories' (2013) by Aranyani also expands the genre's scope, especially in its first story when a post-lunch massage leads to all sorts of things.

Then, two anthologies deserve mention -- 'Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book Of Erotic Stories' (edited by Ruchir Joshi) (2009) and 'The Pleasure Principle: The Amaryllis Book of Erotic Stories' (edited by G. Sampath; 2016).

There are many more, but it's time to ask what do we make of sex in books? Just passing it off as a way to titillate readers, the literary equivalent of the Bollywood "item song", would not be very valid, for it does provide insights into emotions, personal and gender relations, social mores, and norms, the state of society itself -- and desires and aspirations.

While for Kiran, making her female protagonists sexually active "has been this need to show agency and female desire", Madhuri says: "I write about women empowerment. And one facet of that empowerment is sexual liberation. I add a scene when the character has a desire and has been denied or repressed for a long time as I did in 'Scandalous Housewives' (2014), where each character was scorned for some reason but found happiness in a new way." That we can relate to.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Delhi Police has arrested a 32-year-old man who used to befriend women through matrimonial websites and extort money by threatening them to share their private pictures and videos on social media, an official said here on Saturday.

The accused, identified as Sahil Sachdeva, a resident of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a sharp minded person having Btech and MBA degrees.

According to the official, a complaint was received from a woman at Shahdara police station stating that in October 2021, she met the accused person through a matrimonial site. The accused made a false promise to marry her, after this they started building their relationship. "Accused Sahil Sachdeva took her nude pictures during video calling and threatened her to upload them on social media if she does not pay him," Deputy Commissioner of Police R. Sathiyasundaram said, adding that the accused extorted Rs 2 lakh from the complainant in two months.

Subsequently, the police registered a case under section 384 (Punishment for extortion) of the Indian Penal Code. "A police team was constituted which obtained his location with the help of technical analysis, it was revealed that he is staying at Neb Sarai, Saket, New Delhi. Hence a raid was conducted at his hideout and the accused Sahil Sachdeva was apprehended," the official said.

During interrogation, three more girls were found to be extorted to the tune of more than Rs 2 lakh each by him.

"The mobile phone of the accused having nude pictures and videos of more than four girls has been recovered from the possession of accused Sahil," the official informed.

As per investigation conducted so far, it has been revealed that the accused has committed the same crime with a few other girls from Ghaziabad, Bhopal, and JanakPuri, Delhi.

"Further probe into the case is still on," the official added.
Srinagar, Jan 22 : Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in an encounter between the terrorists and the security forces at Kilbal area in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, officials said on Saturday.

"One more terrorist killed... incriminating materials including arms and ammunition recovered. Search going on," a police officer said.

The firefight between terrorists and security forces took place after a joint team of the police and the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.
Bhopal, Jan 22 : The Madhya Pradesh government has sought New Delhi-based Central Zoo Authority's (CZA) approval for relocating two rescued tigers and four leopards to the neighbouring state of Gujarat, a move being strongly opposed by the wildlife activists.

As per the officials in Madhya Pradesh wildlife department, the decision has been taken considering the availability of adequate space for rescued animals in the state in future.

The officials said that wildlife department often rescues wild animals from different parts of the state, and since they are not supposed to be released in open forests, they need be kept under close observation.

Rajneesh Singh, a senior official in the wildlife department in Bhopal, said that rescued animals are not put on display at any zoo or national park.

"Decision to send tigers or other rescued wild animals to other places are sometimes taken as per future planning, including to provide adequate space to the animals. It happens when we have wild animals in surplus numbers," Singh said.

The recused big cats will be handed over to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC) located in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Currently, they have been kept at the Maharaja Martand Singh Judeo White Tiger Safari and Zoo in Rewa district.

The decision came after GZRRC in December last year wrote to Madhya Pradesh's wildlife department and requested for acquisition of rescued wild animals housed in zoological parks, rescue centres, and transit facilities in the state.

Therefore, the department has written to the Central Zoo Authority seeking its approval.

However, when the department initiated the process to send these animals to Jamnagar, wildlife activists in Madhya Pradesh raised questions on this issue.

Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dube has written to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Central Zoo Authority, and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouan seeking their intervention on the matter.

Dubey has come up with several points as to why the felines should not be relocated.

Talking to IANS, Dube said: "I have not objected the decision but have sought attention on legal grounds. First and foremost, why would MP want to send its tigers and leopards to Gujarat when it already has two rescue centres in the state? "Secondly, the forest department wrote to the Central Zoo Authority to seek its consent without taking the Chief Minister's permission. The Chief Minister is the head of the state wildlife board and if the department has already got his approval in the matter, why it has not mentioned it in its letter?" MP government is planning make tiger safaris in Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pachmarhi by spending crores of rupees. It has been proposed that rescued wild animals will be released in the tiger sarafis. How can the department consider sending these big cats to Gujarat then, Dube asked.

While GZRRC in Jamnagar has sought permission to acquire the rescued big cats from MP, Dubey said that for nearly three decades, there has been nothing positive on the translocation of Gir's Asiatic Lions to MP, despite a Supreme Court order of 2013 in favour of the state.

He said that MP should rather have been persistent in asking Gujarat to send its lions instead of sending tigers from here.
Mumbai, Jan 22 : Actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee, who will be seen soon in the upcoming web series 'The Great Wedding of Munnes', has called its schedule an adventure as it involved shooting across multiple cities.

It did get a bit hectic but, but he is happy with the outcome and is in love with his producer Raaj Shaandilyaa's vision for the show.

Sharing the experience, the actor said: "It was a hectic schedule. We did not have any off days so the entire crew and cast put in a lot of hard work! The show for me was like an adventure. We shot in multiple cities, had multiple challenges and a crazy plot. I love the vision of Raaj Shaandilyaa." Abhishek said that Shaandilyaa's sense of humour helped him as an actor. "He is one of the funniest guys I have ever met," he said. "He thinks on his toes. I don't know how he comes up with all these funny situations, but I love that, I mean that's what an actor needs." Directed by Sunil Subramani and produced by Raaj Shaandilyaa, the series will have Abhishek Banerjee and Barkha Singh playing the leads.
Chandigarh, Jan 22 : Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Punjab president and chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann on Saturday challenged Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to contest against him from Dhuri.

Mann told the media in Amritsar that perhaps Channi did not know that his Chamkaur Sahib assembly seat is a reserve.

"Neither I nor our national convener Arvind Kejriwal can contest from there. If Chief Minister Channi has confidence, then he should come to Dhuri and contest against me." Mann said he (Channi) is welcomed there. "The people of Dhuri will have the final say," he added.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky approved on Friday a decree by Ukraines National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on several Russian companies, Tass informs.

January 22, 2022, 10:34 Ukrainian president authorizes sanctions against 24 Russian companies

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 22, ARTSAKHPRESS: According to the document, published by the presidential website, the blacklist includes construction companies Lenpromtransproyekt and Geozemstroy, as well as a Russian insurance company, Insurance Business Group.

The list also mentions Sevastopols state-run Culture Development Center, the National Culture Heritage foundation for social and cultural projects, the Departmental Security Service of the Russian Transport Ministry and the Transstroy holding company.

Overall, the list has 24 companies whom the Kiev government holds responsible for "illegal construction and use of the railway section of the transport route across the Kerch Strait," organizing rail service between Crimea and mainland Russia and "damaging the national cultural heritage on the territory of Sevastopol."

After the February 2014 government coup in Ukraine, the authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol held referendums on the issue of reunification with Russia. The voting took place on March 16, with turnouts exceeding 80%. Reunification with Russia was supported by 96.7% in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol. On March 18, the Russian president signed a treaty on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. Russias Federal Assembly ratified the treaty on March 21. Despite the unequivocal outcome of the referendum Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

Zelensky also has approved a decree by Ukraines National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on Russian Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Yury Chaika.

The sanctions, imposed for a five-year period, include blocking of assets in Ukraine and suspension of financial transactions.
Hyderabad, Jan 22 : The government of Telangana on Saturday constituted a state level monitoring and implementation committee to improve air quality in Hyderabad.

A Government Order (GO) was issued constituting the nine-member committee headed by the chief secretary.

The panel has been constituted for implementation of 15th Finance Commission's recommendations to million plus cities for augmenting the measures to improve air quality component.

The committee members include special chief secretary, environment, secretary, state urban development department, representative of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), chairman, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), secretary, state transport department, a representative from the state chamber of commerce and industries, commissioner and director of municipal administration and commissioner, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

According to the GO, the committee will make performance assessment of 15th Finance Commission recommended city/urban agglomeration and recommend release of grant to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change as per the indicators/guidelines after ensuring compliance with general entry level conditions.

The municipal administration and urban development department shall function as the secretariat and in coordination with the state environment department will convene meetings of the state level monitoring and implementing committee as frequently as required or at least every six months, reads the GO.

The municipal administration and urban development department shall also receive proposals from the million plus cities/urban agglomerations in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change prescribed formats and place the same for consideration in the meetings of the state level monitoring and implementation committee. It shall also forward the recommendations of the state level monitoring and implementation committee to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change for further action.
Imphal, Jan 22 : The Election Commission has allowed the cadres of the pro-talks militant outfits of Manipur, who are currently residing at various designated camps, to cast their votes using postal ballots in the two-phase Assembly elections scheduled on February 27 and March 3, top officials said on Saturday.

Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal said that the EC has allowed the cadres of the pro-talks militant outfits which are under ceasefire agreements with the government and those who are currently residing at various designated camps in the state to cast their votes.

"The cadres of the pro-talks militant outfits would be allowed to exercise their franchise in the upcoming elections through postal ballots. Around 2,000 cadres of various militant outfits are living in the 14 designated camps in different parts of Manipur," Agrawal told IANS.

However, the names of the cadres of the extremist outfits should be in the electoral roll of Manipur, the CEO said.

The poll panel has taken the decision in consultation with the Central and state governments.

According to the officials of the Manipur Home Department, over 20 Kuki militant groups operating in Manipur under two conglomerate groups -- United People's Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO) -- had signed a tripartite Suspension of Operation agreement with the Manipur and Central governments in 2008.

Another election official said that the poll panel has also allowed those involved in essential services to avail the facility of postal ballots to cast their votes.

According to the ECI's notification, the list of essential services includes Electricity Department, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Railways, Post and Telegram, Doordarshan, All India Radio, Health Department, aviation, fire services, ambulance services and mediapersons authorised by the Commission for poll-day coverage.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Indian Ocean island nation Maldives president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih tested positive for the coronavirus after a PCR test on saturday. The president was to go on an election campaign, but now has been advised by doctors to stay at home and have proper medication.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Solih a speedy recovery and assured him that India is always with Maldives in this Covid pandemic situation. During the pandemic, India supplied 3.12 lakh vaccine doses to Maldives.

"Hoping for your speedy recovery and good health. Our best wishes are with you and the people of Maldives in successfully overcoming the challenges of COVID. India will continue to extend full support to your efforts," tweeted PM Modi.

On New year, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar discussed bilateral cooperation with his Maldivian counterpart, Abdulla Shahid. The call was made by the External minister to greet foreign minister of Maldives and both talked on bilateral issues. Abdulla Shahid was recently elected the President of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where India holds few key positions.

Maldives' proximity to the west coast of India, it is barely 70 nautical miles away from Minicoy island in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles rom India's West coast, and its situation at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through Indian Ocean, and its potential to allow a third nation's naval presence in the area imbues it with significant strategic importance to India.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Kuala Lumpur, Jan 22 : Scotland and Sri Lanka registered impressive victories over Kenya and Malaysia respectively on day four of the ICC Commonwealth Games Qualifier 2022 being played at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur.

From the five teams participating in the tournament, the topper of the event will grab the one remaining slot for the main competition in this year's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

In the first match, quick cameos from Abbi Aitken-Drummond and captain Kathryn Bryce propelled Scotland to 70/3 in a rain-affected eight-over-a-side affair before their bowlers restricted Kenya to 54/3 to seal a 16-run win.

After winning the toss, Kenya elected to bowl. Sarah Bryce scored back-to-back boundaries to kick off things in style but got out soon, scoring eight off three balls. A fine partnership of 38 between Abbi (21) and Kathryn (27) helped Scotland set up a challenging target. They scored 15 in the final over to end with 70/3.

In reply, Kenya's opening batter, Queentr Abel had a blazing start with consecutive boundaries. She, however, surrendered to Fraser in the second over. Fraser wasted no time in sending Veronica Abuga (1) back to the pavilion on the very next ball. With captain Margaret Ngoche cheaply dismissed by Abtaha Maqsood, Sarah Wetoto then scored 24 not out and Sharon Juma was unconquered on 10 but couldn't chase down 71.

In the second match, Malaysia had won the toss and was elected to field. But the experienced Sri Lankan outfit posted an imposing total of 175/3 in 20 overs. As expected, skipper Chamari Athapaththu handed a great start to Sri Lanka by scoring 30 off 17 balls.

After her departure, Harshita Madavi took control and scored a commendable 65 off 42 balls. She was ably supported by Nilakshi De Silva, who scored 49 off 31 balls. In reply, Malaysia lost opener Wan Julia with no runs scored. Captain Winifred Duraisingam was the only batter who managed to play well, compiling 42 not out off 54 balls.

Sri Lanka's Sugandika Dasanayaka and Oshadhi Ranasinghe went on to deliver top-notch bowling by taking two wickets each, giving away 12 and 14 runs, respectively. Eventually, Malaysia could only manage 82/7 in their 20 overs, losing by 93 runs.

With three matches to go, Sri Lanka are on top with six points and are undefeated in the competition. Bangladesh and Scotland are placed second and third at the points table with four points each but separated by net run rates.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Supreme Court has said the trade mark of a company may be infringed upon either by spoken use of words or their visual representation, as it decided in favour of a US-based hotel chain, Renaissance, and restrained an India company from using the same word for its hotels.

A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna said: "The words 'Renaissance' and 'Sai Renaissance' are phonetically as well as visually similar. As already discussed, Sub-section (9) of Section 29 of the Trade Marks Act provides that where distinctive elements of a registered trade mark consist of or include words, the trade mark may be infringed by the spoken use of those words as well as by their visual representation." The US company, Renaissance Hotel, fought a legal battle for over 13 years with Sai Renaissance over using the word 'Renaissance'.

Justice Gavai, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said: "The use of the word 'Sai Renaissance', which is phonetically and visually similar to 'Renaissance', would also be an act of infringement in view of the provisions of SubAsection (9) of Section 29 of the said Act." The top court said that in an infringement action, where the trade mark is identical with a registered trade mark, an injunction be issued as soon as it is proved that the defendant is improperly using the plaintiff's trade mark.

"When the trade mark of the defendant is identical with the registered trade mark of the plaintiff, and that the goods or services of the defendant are identical with the goods or services covered by the registered trade mark, the court shall presume that it is likely to cause confusion on the part of the public," said the bench in its 61-page judgment.

The US hotel chain had moved the trial court against Karnataka-based hotel company Sai Renaissance. The trial court ruled in favour of the US company by refraining the Indian company from using the name, but rejected the claims for damages.

In 2019, the Karnataka High Court observed that there was no infringement of trade mark, and allowed the appeal by the India hotel company and set aside the trial court order passed in June 2012. The US company then challenged the order in the top court.

The Indian firm argued that Renaissance is a generic word and no such exclusive rights can be claimed over it in India, as it is neither a well-known trade mark, nor it has any reputation built up in India.

Upholding the trial court order, the top court said that it was not open for the high court to have entered into the discussion as to whether the appellant plaintiff's trade mark had a reputation in India.

Quashing the high court order, the top court said: "We find that the high court has failed to take into consideration two important principles of interpretation. The first being of textual and contextual interpretation. It is thus trite law that while interpreting the provisions of a statute, it is necessary that the textual interpretation should be matched with the contextual one." The Indian hotel company had also used the Renaissance branding in bath robes, slippers, shirts, hats, matchboxes, writing paper, candies, etc.

The bench emphasised that no part of a statute and no word of a statute can be construed in isolation, and statutes have to be construed so that every word has a place and everything is in its place.
Srinagar, Jan 22 : Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed in an encounter between terrorists and security forces at Kilbal area in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district have been identified, officials said on Saturday.

They have been identified as Sameer Ahmad Shah and Rayees Ahmad Mir.

Police said based on a specific input generated by police regarding presence of terrorists in village Kilbal area of Shopian, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by the police, army and the CRPF.

"During the search operation, as the joint search party proceeded towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated effectively leading to an encounter," police said.

"In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF) were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter." "As per police records, both the killed terrorists were part of group involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities," a police officer said.

Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter.

Police have registered a case and investigation has been initiated.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Delhi High Court has asked the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) to provide information to help a probe into a fake Aadhaar card case, in which over 400 persons have been allegedly issued fake cards for enrolment in civil defence training in the national capital.

Hearing a petition seeking issuance of appropriate orders for providing information of Aadhaar card holders for the investigation agency, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh directed the UIDAI to provide all relevant information of the persons as required for the purpose of probe as per the provisions of the Aadhaar Act.

Advocate Nidhi Raman, counsel for the respondent authority, submitted that the UIDAI has no objection in sharing the information being sought, to the extent and in a manner as permissible under the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, upon being directed by the court.

The petitioner has also sought to issue appropriate orders directing the respondents to ascertain the date and place of issuance of Aadhaar cards, date of updation and the documents submitted for updation from the Aadhaar card issuing authority.

Advocate Kusum Dhalla, the public prosecutor for the state, sought a direction for disclosure of information as per the relevant sections of the law.

She stated that in the course of the investigation conducted so far, prima facie it has emerged that the then District Magistrate of Shahdara and others had committed criminal misconduct by abusing their official position as public servants with an ulterior motive to give benefits to ineligible persons, and in total, approximately 450 candidates with fake Aadhaar cards had enrolled for training in civil defence.
Jaipur, Jan 22 : Union minister and BJPs election in-charge for Punjab, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said on Saturday that those joining the BJP in the state are looking at the future of the poll-bound state.

The number of people joining the BJP in Punjab has increased, as they are confident that this time, an alliance led by the saffron party will form the government in the state, Shekhawat said.

Shekhawat, who is the Union Jal Shakti Minister, also questioned the Congress government in Rajasthan over the law and order situation in the state.

The minister said that before coming to power in the Desert state, the Congress had promised to provide good governance and security, but today Rajasthan has emerged as 'Rapistan' of the country.

Instead of taking the responsibility, the government is trying to destroy evidence, which is unfortunate, Shekhawat said.

"No government can commit a greater crime than this. The people of the state are going to take revenge by ousting the Congress in the coming elections," he said, referring to the Alwar rape case where a deaf-and-dumb girl was raped and the accused are yet to be arrested.

Shekhawat was speaking to the media during a visit to his Parliamentary constituency in Jodhpur.

Attacking the Congress government in Rajasthan, he said that more than 19,500 cases have been registered in the state for crimes against women.

Rajasthan has become the state with the highest incidence of crime and gang-rape against women and small children, he said.

The kind of incidents that happened recently in Banswara, Pratapgarh and Alwar have shamed the state, Shekhawat added.

On loan waiver for farmers, Shekhawat said that the faith of the people in Congress is gone now.

"The Congress leadership had assured the farmers of Rajasthan that loans would be waived in 10 days. Now the farmers of the state want to ask what happened to that announcement," he said.

Speaking on Jal Jeevan Mission, Shekhawat said, "Going by the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken forward the mission, I hope that this time too there will be enough budget allocation for the mission so that the target can be fulfilled by 2024." On Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Union minister said that the good governance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the last five years has liberated the state from 'goondaraj'.

"He (Adityanath) has done a good job during the Corona pandemic, and BJP's unilateral victory is certain," the minister said.
Srinagar, Jan 22 : A terrorist associate linked with Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has been arrested in a joint operation by the police, CRPF and army at Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Saturday.

Police said Awantipora Police along with Army's 55 RR and 185 Bn of the CRPF arrested a terrorist associate linked with the proscribed terror outfit JeM in Awantipora.

He has been identified as Umer Farooq Bhat.

Incriminating materials including a hand grenade has been recovered from his possession.

"Preliminary investigation revealed that the arrested terror associate was involved in providing shelter, logistic support, transportation of arms/ammunition and assisting the terrorists to shift their locations," police said.

"Besides, he was also passing sensitive information regarding movement of police/security forces to the terrorists of the proscribed outfit JeM." A case has been registered and investigation has been initiated.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Patiala Session Court here on Saturday refused to grant anticipatory bail to accused Vishal Jha, in connection with the Bulli Bai App case after observing that the allegations against him are grave in nature as it is a direct onslaught upon the dignity and modesty of the women of a particular community.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana while rejecting his bail plea said: "I concur with the Ld.Addl.PP that to unravel the obscure and undetected aspects of the crime, sustained custodial interrogation of the applicant is desirable. Considering the totality of circumstances, I do not find any merits in the application at hand and the same is accordingly dismissed," the order read.

The court noted that other accused Neeraj Bishnoi in cahoots with Jha and other co-accused persons has developed the scandalous Bulli bai app.

Vishal Kumar Jha, 21, hailing from Patna, is an engineering student who was the first one to be arrested by Mumbai Police from Bengaluru. He and two others are booked under sections 154(A), 153(B), 295(A), 509, 500 and 354(D) of IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act.

The accused was earlier tested positive for Covid-19 and has been sent to a quarantine centre.

On January 1, the Bulli Bai app posted photos of several women of a particular religion including journalists, social workers, students and famous personalities.

It happened six months after the controversy of Sulli Deals.

Jha was one of the followers of Bulli Bai that led the police to the accused team.

Github which provided space to Sulli Deals, hosted the Bulli Bai app too. However, Github had later removed the user from its hosting platform.

But by then, Bulli Bai had sparked controversy nationwide.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned the West against attacking the Union State, Tass informs.

January 22, 2022, 12:02 Belarus Lukashenko warns West against attacking Union State

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 22, ARTSAKHPRESS: "We do not want war. Neither us, nor the Russians. But we build our security in order to protect ourselves. Should they not simply keep poking us constantly, but deploy their armies against us, threaten us, then we will hit so hard it wont be pretty. It is impossible to defeat us," he told journalists Friday, adding that "this is not a threat, merely a warning."

"We are the kind of people who cannot be defeated both in terms of spirit and in terms of territory: from Brest to Vladivostok. Many have tried already, we remember that. You know how it ended. We do not try to get into anyones backyard, we have enough ground. God help us keep it and develop it. These are our goals. But I repeat, in case someone missed it: it wont be pretty," Lukashenko said, according to his press service.

He admitted that he could have never imagined that he would need to build defenses against his own kind one day.

"To build not a simple fence, but the most expensive security system at the southern border," he explained.

Lukashenko underscored that Minsk and Moscow do not want a war, because "it will affect everyone."

"This is why we do not want to fight a war. We also do not want it because we remember the war that we had seventy years ago," the President said.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : The Hindu Front for Justice through its president and others has moved an intervention plea before the Supreme Court in the hate speech case related to the recent Dharma Sansad in Haridwar.

The plea claimed that since the top court has agreed to examine hate speeches against Muslims, it should also examine hate speeches against Hindus, citing over two dozen alleged instances involving political leaders like Akbaruddin Owaisi and AAP leader from Delhi, Amanatullah Khan.

"The applicants herein through the present application are praying to this court to direct an SIT to investigate the hate speeches given against the members of the Hindu community, their gods and goddesses," read the plea.

It further urged the court to direct a probe into the incident of hate speech given against the Constitutional spirit as well as the unity and integrity of India.

The plea pointed out that some leaders and preachers of the Muslim community have been propagating against Hindu religion and against the sovereignty and integrity of India.

"The provocative speeches delivered by Muslim leaders have created an atmosphere of fear and unrest in the Hindu community. Such statements remind us of the working of Muslim League, which resulted in the Partition of the country," added the plea filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain.

Another intervention application has been filed by the national president of Hindu Sena to oppose the PIL, which seeks criminal action against the speakers at the Dharma Sansad conclave held at Haridwar and another event in Delhi.

The application sought directions to the state governments to register an FIR against Asaduddin Owaisi, Tauqeer Raza, Sajid Rashidi, Amanatullah Khan, and Waris Pathan for allegedly making hate speeches.

On January 12, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Uttarakhand government and the Centre on a petition by journalist Qurban Ali and former Patna High Court judge Anjana Prakash, seeking action against those who allegedly made hate speeches against the Muslim community at the Dharma Sansad in Haridwar.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana allowed the petitioners to approach the local authorities with their plea to stop a proposed Dharma Sansad scheduled in Aligarh on January 23.
New Delhi, Jan 22 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday urged the National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets to strive for a new dawn of progress from petty jealousies and soul-sapping prejudices of regions, religions, castes and classes, calling for equality between men and women, enjoying the highest measure of liberty, consistent with the common good.

He laid equal emphasis on moulding with the continuously evolving times and carrying forward Indian values, traditions and the feeling of humanity while bringing about that change, while virtually interacting with the cadets of National Cadet Corps (NCC), taking part of the Republic Day Camp.

The minister also exhorted the NCC cadets to dream big and work diligently towards achieving their goals by breaking the shackles of fear and scepticism.

"Go ahead in your lives with a vision to create something new, something of the highest order, something that makes you successful and makes our country proud," he said.

Rajnath lauded the youth organisation for instilling into its cadets the qualities of a leader, soldier, artist, musician and above all a good human being, making them a complete person.

He commended NCC for developing the qualities of its cadets so that they create their own paths and give a new direction to society. He urged the cadets to find purpose in life and take inspiration from many NCC alumni who made a mark in society by adopting the qualities of unity, discipline, truthfulness, courage, harmony and leadership taught at the organisation.

"The NCC is doing a yeoman service to the nation by transforming the youth into a cohesive and disciplined force," he said.

The minister cited a saying of Swami Vivekananda, "You are lions, you are souls, pure, infinite, and perfect. The might of the universe is within you", exhorting the NCC cadets to dream big and work diligently towards achieving their goals by breaking the shackles of fear and scepticism.

The minister decided to interact with the NCC cadets virtually as he is still Covid-19 positive and following all protocols. He told the cadets that, being an NCC alumnus and a teacher himself, he ensures that he does not miss any event organised by NCC.
Mumbai, Jan 22 : A day after Covid-19 cases scaled a new high above 48,000 mark, Omicron infections set a new record with Mumbai notching the maximum cases of the variant and deaths remained in double-digits, health officials said here on Saturday.

After the previous record high of 48,270 (January 21), the number of daily Covid infectees cooled and returned to the 46,000 level, 46,393 on Saturday -- a drop of 1,877 new cases compared with Friday.

As the spread continued in Pune, the Maharashtra government has dropped plans to reopen schools in the district from January 24, said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The fatalities also came down from 52 a day earlier to 48 on Saturday, and the mortality rate fell from 1.91 per cent to 1.09 per cent.

After notching a peak of 238 Omicron cases (January 14) the state infections of the variant catapulted to a new record -- from 144 a day earlier to a staggering 416 on Saturday.

The government is continuing the intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports - Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur - since December 1.

A total of 307,966 travellers have landed here, including 48,505 from the "high risk" countries from where 579 have tested positive and another 670 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.

Another staggering 6,090 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with the results of 103 are awaited, the officials said.

Omicron has spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 2,759 cases till date, 1,225 have recovered.

Pune district remains at the top with 1,182 cases of the variant, 1,009 in Mumbai, 178 in Nagpur, 134 in Thane, 59 in Sangli, 31 in Amravati, 20 each in Raigad and Aurangabad, 19 in Kolhapur, 15 in Satara, 13 in Wardha, 11 each in Osmanabad and Akola, 7 in Palghar, 6 in Buldhana, 5 in Nashik, 4 in Ahmednagar, 3 each in Nanded, Latur, Jalna, Parbhani and Gondiya, 2 each in Gadchiroli, Nandurbar, Jalgaon and Bhandara, 1 in Beed, besides one from another state.

Of the 46,393 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, Mumbai Metropolitan Region showed a decline from 10,493 a day earlier to 8,471 infections, while Mumbai city also fell sharply from 5,008 to 3,568 fresh cases.

The next is Pune Circle's 18,729 infectees, Nagpur Circle 6,394, Nashik Circle 4,958, Aurangabad Circle 2,170, Latur 2,102, Kolhapur Circle 2,053, and Akola Circle's 1,516.

The number of people sent to home quarantine declined sharply - dropping from 23,87,593 on Friday to 21,86,124 now, and another 3,382 have been shunted to institutional quarantine.

Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Raigad and Palghar remain at the top with the highest number of aactive cases' currently in the state, with the afflictions shooting up from 264,388 a day before to 279,930 on Saturday, and the recovery rate again dropping 94.47 per cent to 94.03 per cent.

The state's cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 74,66,420 cases and 142,071 deaths, while a total of 70,40,618 patients have fully recovered till Saturday.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Patna, Jan 22 : The police in Bihars Purnea district have arrested seven persons, including the nephew of state minister Lesi Singh, on murder charges, an official said on Saturday.

The local police said that the nephew of Lesi Singh, Ashish Singh alias Athiya, is allegedly involved in three murder cases, including that former district council president Viswajeet Singh alias Rintu Singh, which had hit the headlines for several days.

Purnea SP Daya Shankar said that the accused have confessed to the crime.

Athiya, a notorious gangster, was allegedly present at the time of the murder of Rintu Singh and Beni Singh, who were killed due to a political revelry. Also, Athiya was the main conspirator in the murder of Neeraj Jha.

"Following the murder of Rintu Singh on November 14, 2021, Athiya escaped to Madhya Pradesh. After technical surveillance on many of his family members, relatives and known persons, the location of Athiya was detected. Subsequently, we arrested him," Daya Shankar said.

Following his confession, the police arrested six more persons who are said to be the sharp shooters of Athiya.
Gandhinagar, Jan 22 : The Gujarat tableau at the Republic Day parade this year will depict the massacre of Pal and Dadhvav villages of Sabarkantha in which 1,200 tribal people were martyred in 1922 while protesting against the British rule.

Led by Motilal Tejawat, a number of tribal people had gathered on the banks of Her river to protest against the land revenue system and laws related to Jagirdar and Rajwada imposed by the British rulers on March 7, 1922.

Following a firing order issued by Major H.G. Sutton, around 1,200 tribals were reportedly martyred on that fateful day. It is also said that wells in the area were filled with the bodies of the tribal people.

The Gujarat tableau on Republic Day will depict the 1922 incident. It will have a 7-foot statue of Motilal Tejawat, besides a statue of the British officer and others. A total of six artistes will perform on the tableau.

The two wells named Dhekhadiya Kuva and Dudhiya Kuva, said to be the graveyards of the martyrs, will also be a part of the tableau. A representation of two earthen horses will be made on both sides of the tableau.

Traditional 'Ger' dance and music will be performed by the tribal artistes of Poshina taluka of Sabarkantha.
London, Jan 22 : The English Premier League match between Brentford FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Brentford, West London, on Saturday was halted for some time during the first half because of a drone that hovered about the stadium.

"Play has been halted due to a drone above the stadium. The teams are heading back into the tunnel," Brentford FC in a tweet on Saturday. The teams were locked goalless when the match was halted.

The players remained inside their change rooms for some time before the drone was brought down eventually.

The players were back out for a short warm-up and the match resumed soon after. The officials decided to add 19 minutes additional time to the clock in the first half and this did not include injury stoppage time, thus the players went out again after 71 minutes after the match had started for half-time.

Wolverhampton Wanderers eventually won the match 2-1, riding on the winner scored by RAben Neves with a right-footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner off a pass by Joao Moutinho.

The Wolves went into the lead in the 48th minute when Moutinho sent in an assist by Nelson Semedo right-footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.

Brentford made it 1-1 when Ivan Toney lodged a right-footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner. Bryan Mbeumo set up the goal with a cross following a set-piece situation.

But the match took another turn in the 78th minute when Neves scored what eventually turned out to be the winner.
New Delhi, Jan 23 : To understand the impact of Covid-19 on the children, the Delhi government has decided to conduct a survey on the basis of which the Happiness Curriculum will be updated.

Updating the Happiness Curriculum will help in taking care of mental and emotional well-being of school-going children as being away from schools for a long time leading to mental stress and fear among them. Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia gave instructions to the concerned officials, the Delhi government said in a release.

"This is for the first time that such a survey is being conducted. Along with children, the study will also focus on analysing the changes in parenting style, psychological and emotional state of parents, as children have spent most of their time during lockdown with them, in the past two years." "Along with students and parents, teachers have also seen many changes in their routine and teaching styles. This survey will analyse this aspect too. Since "Happiness" is a holistic process, it is important to understand the mental state of each and every person in students' lives," it added.

Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said that the last two years have been really tough and very stressful for the school children. Due to school closure students have been confined to home, which is leading to a situation of fear and stress among students. It is very important to understand their mental state, to bring them back to the normal situation. "With the help of this study and help from experts, we will modify the Happiness curriculum by introducing new chapters, stories and activities, so that students can learn to be stress-free in challenging situations like pandemic," it added.
Shillong, Jan 23 : Amid the surge of Covid-19 cases in Meghalaya, anti-vaccination protesters organised a rally in the capital city Shillong against the alleged mandatory inoculation drive by the state government.

Organised by the NGO Awaken India Movement (AIM), the anti-vaccination protesters took out a protest march from Motphran to Khyndailad, strongly opposing the compulsory vaccination by the health department.

AIM Chairman Banshai Marbaniang, who led the protest march, said that people are protesting the mandatory vaccination by the state government against their fundamental rights of taking the vaccine jab of their choice.

The protesters are also against the compulsory wearing of face mask and testing of their samples.

"The authorities are forcing and harassing the non-vaccinated people to test their samples every 10 days. The AIM would hold protest marches on the matter in other parts of the state," Marbaniang told the media.

According to reports of the National Health Mission, Meghalaya, the state on Saturday recorded the highest ever single-day spike of 406 new Covid positive cases pushing the number of active cases to 2,002, with one death due to the infection raising the total number of casualties to 1,496.

Aman War, Meghalaya Director of Health Services, said that East Khasi Hills in which the state capital Shillong falls, the most coronavirus-hit district registered 304 fresh cases on Saturday, with the district currently having 1,377 active cases with 1,018 people succumbed to the contagious disease.

Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong while talking to the media said that the state government is not considering imposing lockdown in the state following the sudden rise of new Covid-19 cases.

The state government would review the situation arising out of sudden spurts of Covid cases and in view of the positive cases of Omicron variant found in the hill state and in the neighbouring states, Tynsong added.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Jan 23 : Six persons who took part in the Clubhouse conversation where obscene and derogatory remarks were made against Muslim women have been identified, the Delhi Police said, adding all six individuals have joined the ongoing investigation into the case.

"All the six were made to join the investigation either at their place of stay or the office," Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO), KPS Malhotra told IANS.

The Mumbai Police Cyber Cell has also arrested three men from Haryana in the same case after a complaint was lodged in Mumbai by a woman.

On January 17, a video of a Clubhouse conversation on the topic 'Muslim girls are more beautiful than Hindu girls' went viral on social media.

In the said conversation, the participants were allegedly heard making obscene, vulgar and derogatory remarks targeting Muslim women and girls.

Taking suo-motu cognisance over the issue on January 18, Delhi Commission for Women issued a notice to the Delhi Police Cyber Cell demanding immediate registration of an FIR and punitive action against the alleged persons.

An FIR was then registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 354A (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code at the Special Cell police station.

Sharing further details about all six suspected people, DCP Malhotra informed that of the six people that are being questioned, two are women and one is a minor boy.

The first user was identified as Anchal Anand (username- koko0107), a resident of Kerala. She has admitted to using the name Anchal on Club House. She had participated in a conversation with one Roma. During the chatroom discussion, other members had passed derogatory and vulgar comments regarding women, but Anchal Anand had only passed general remarks. Her mobile phone and notepad have been seized.

The second user was identified as Naumaan Jabber (user name - versace_on_me), a resident of Jodhpur in Rajasthan. He had created an account on the clubhouse in July 2021 in the name of @mr_casanova. He has been using this account continuously since then and created another account on the clubhouse around two months ago in the name of @vercase_on_me (name Toosexytoohandle) as a backup account.

On January 6, at the request of one of his clubhouse friends Akash Suyal, Jabber shared his second account with him. Akash was having his account on the Clubhouse in the name of 'ryuga'. Later Akash changed the name of this account as '2ez4Akash xd' and again changed it to 'Kira xd'.

On January 18, after this incident, Akash informed Naumaan regarding police action and the use of the clubhouse account. Meanwhile, the mobile phone of Nauman has been seized for forensic examination.

The third user was identified as Harsh Pal, a resident of Dehradun in Uttarakhand. He created Clubhouse account '?? hrsh' in June 2021 and the same was deactivated on January 19, after the said incident on January 18.

He said that he participated in the alleged Clubhouse Room for about 10 minutes but did not speak anything. His first name '??' was reflected in the alleged room and he was just a listener.

Harsh Pal further informed that 'Harsh', whose name is mentioned or heard in the conversation (video) was another Harsh. The police have seized his mobile phone and one laptop for forensic examination.

IANS earlier reported about the fourth user identified as Rahul Kapoor, a resident of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. During interrogation, he revealed that on directions from one Sallos, he had created the audio chat room in Clubhouse and handed over the moderator key to Sallos.

Sallos joined other members and started talking dirty then he left the group. Rahul disclosed the real name of Kira x as Akash.

The fifth user was a minor who is studying in class 12. During interrogation before his parents, the 17-year-old boy admitted being the moderator of the group.

He had initially created the clubhouse account by the name of Sellos and later changed the account name to Alcoholic Singh. His mobile phone has been seized for forensic examination, the Police said.

The sixth user was also a female identified as Roma Makkar, a resident of Nizammudin. The Police said that she had joined the investigation and had admitted to her voice.

The DCP further informed that no one among the six identified has been arrested in the present case.

"Before proceeding with any arrest, the authenticity of the video recording is to be ascertained. We have to rule out any voice modulation in the video, as the same may affect the trial of the case," Malhotra said.

According to the official, the only evidence in the present case is the first source, who had video recorded the audio conversation.

"That is the only evidence of the vulgar remarks, as the app does not record the audio conversations in the chat rooms," he added.

Before making any arrest in the case and proceeding further, the DCP said that the authenticity of the video and the voice matching of the alleged persons is to be ascertained.

(Ujwal Jalali can be reached at ujwal.j@ians.in)
New Delhi, Jan 23 : Pakistan Federal Interior Minister, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has said that talks with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke down due to group's harsh conditions, Samaa TV reported.

He added that the Afghan Taliban guaranteed their soil won't be used against Pakistan and mediated talks with the TTP.

"We had a talk with some TTP groups. But their conditions were such that they couldn't be agreed upon. If the TTP wants to fight, we will fight them," the Interior Minister said.

"(Afghan) Taliban were talking to the TTP. But their demands were so harsh that talks couldn't proceed. The TTP broke the ceasefire and that's why there is a spike in terror attacks." "Today, the environment there (in Afghanistan) is not hostile towards Pakistan. There are Taliban," he added.

Sheikh Rasheed asked the Opposition alliance of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to change its date for a long march towards Islamabad as roads will be closed due to the presence of VVIP dignitaries in the federal capital. The coalition said it would march on March 23.

"OIC leaders are coming to attend the March 23 parade. From March 21, roads will be closed. So, move it (your march) to March 24 or 27," the Minister said.
PM to unveil hologram statue on Sunday, Bose's daughter says 'nice gesture'

New Delhi/Kolkata: As a symbol of Indias indebtedness to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Centre has decided to install a grand statue of the iconic freedom struggle hero at India Gate. Announcing this on Friday, ahead of Netajis 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the grand statue will be made of granite, and till the time it is ready, a hologram statue of Netaji will be put in place there. The PM added that he will unveil the hologram statue on Sunday, January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji. Netajis daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff, who lives in Germany, has termed this as a nice gesture by the Centre.

At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate. This will be a symbol of Indias indebtedness to him, Mr Modi tweeted.

Official sources said the dimensions of the granite statue will be 28 feet long and six feet wide, and added its installation will be a case of India reclaiming its history. The statue will be installed under a canopy that used to have a statue of King George V till it was removed in 1968.

The announcement came on a day when the Opposition parties criticised the government for its decision to put out the flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and merge it with the immortal flame at the National War Memorial. However, defending the move, official sources said the flame was not being extinguished but only being merged with the flame at the National War Memorial.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh said Boses statue at India Gate will inspire patriotism, self-respect and valour in the minds of Indians. He added that the decision to erect a statue was an expression of respect for Netaji by a grateful nation on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary.

The statue will ignite in people the spirit of sacrificing everything for maintaining the independence of the country. I express my thanks and congratulations to the Prime Minister for this decision, he tweeted.

Netajis daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff hailed the nice gesture by the Centre and hoped it will put to rest the controversy over the rejection of West Bengals tableau for the Republic Day parade. Welcoming the decision as better late than never, Ms Bose-Pfaff said it took her by surprise.

I am very happy about the decision. It is very good location. I am certainly glad that his statue would be put up at such a prominent place. What surprises me is it came all of a sudden now. One might have prepared a bit earlier, but better late than never, I must say. I hope that the controversy about the tableau can also be put to rest in a satisfactory manner, Ms Bose-Pfaff said over the telephone from Germany, where she lives.

Last year the centenary celebrations had started, and there were announcements that all sorts of things should be done. This committee (for celebrating Netajis 125th birth anniversary) was set up, of which I am also a member, (the panel) never called a meeting. As far as I know, I havent heard about it. Then all of a sudden, when the West Bengal government proposed to send a tableau, the Central government turned it down... I do think that even if the decision came late, it is not a bad decision. It is a nice gesture in any case, she said.

Ms Bose-Pfaff, the only child of Bose, earlier said the legendary freedom fighters legacy has often been partly exploited for political reasons.

In West Bengal, the Trinamul Congress welcomed the PMs move to instal the statue but at the same time criticised the Centre for dropping the states tableau on Netaji and putting out the eternal flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate.

Trinamul MP Sougata Roy said: Installation of Netajis statue at India Gate is a matter of great joy. We welcome this. As a patriotic Bengali I will support and praise whoever takes any step to honour Netaji in whatever way. But I have a question. Why is the tableau of our state government on Netaji dropped from the Republic Day parade while his statue is being installed? Why was the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate doused while honouring Netaji? I fail to understand these contradictory steps.

On relocation of the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame, Dr Roy said: I strongly protest it. The Central government is playing with the history of the country. It started constructing Central Vista by demolishing buildings. Amar Jawan Jyoti was at India Gate since 1971 when we won the (Bangladesh) liberation war. But the way it is being removed is shameful. The Centre is trying to either wipe out or distort the history and heritage of the country.
Tire Store Price Match Guarantee Coupon by Joe Heidt Motors

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To receive a price match, customers have to buy tires through the Volkswagen Tire Store that meet the specifications of the vehicles Owners Manual and shows a lower printed competitor pre-tax price quote for the same tires within 30 days of purchase. The competitor should have a physical retail location within 50 miles of the dealership. It is not applicable for competitor quotes where pricing includes rebates, closeout, or clearance. This coupon can only be redeemed at participating Volkswagen dealerships.

Road Hazard Protection provided by a third party ends after two years from the date of replacement tire purchase and when less than 3/32 of tread remains. Only Volkswagen original equipment tires, winter tires, wheel, and tire packages are eligible. The coupon expires on December 3, 2022.

Individuals can visit the Joe Heidt Motors website to learn more about it or call the dealership at 201-327-2900. Potential buyers can also browse the online inventory. The dealership is located at 515 State Route 17 South.
The store, called Amazon Style, will open in high-end shopping destination The Americana at Brand, in Los Angeles, at an undisclosed date later in 2022. The store promises to provide an innovative, high-tech, in-store shopping experience that draws inspiration from the tech giants historically successful ecommerce operations and leverages the tech companys shopping app platform. While the online retailer has been shunned by luxury and higher-end fashion brands in the past due to fears of brand dilution, designers like Oscar de la Renta, La Perla, and Altuzarra are carried on Amazon.com, and it is safe to assume shoppers can expect to find offerings from those designers in the new Amazon Style store.

Beyond that, the company has indicated its new physical store will offer up to double the number of available styles as traditional stores. The increased capability will be powered by smart technology and intelligent inventory management tools that remove friction and streamline stocking enablement. The brands on offer will be chosen by fashion creators in concert with the companys own robust database of customer shopping behavior. By leveraging insights into customer behavior and preferences gleaned from Amazons historically unheralded ecommerce database, the tech retailer plans to provide a shopping experience that integrates best-in-class convenience with best-in-class assortment.

Cementing the new storefront as a truly innovative offering, and even as a prescient look into the future of brick-and-mortar, is the synergies enjoyed between the Amazon Style store experience and the Amazon Shopping App. Rather than having to search manually for an item in the right size or color, shoppers visiting the new store will be able to scan the item they wants QR code through the app to see available sizes, colors, customer reviews, and other details. The platform even uses an AI-powered algorithm to generate more product recommendations and shoppers are able to send the items that catch their eye to the fitting room to try on, or directly to the pickup counter to purchase directly. Shoppers use the app to access the fitting rooms, and each fitting chamber is outfitted with LED touchscreens that greet the shoppers by name and allow them to request new items to try on, which are delivered using the same technology Amazon deploys across its fulfillment centers. Items purchased online by shoppers can also be returned at the new store, and any item a user scans while in Amazon Style is saved to the app.

While Amazon has expanded in-real-life to a number of Fresh grocery stores, book stores, and even a hair salon, this is the companys first fashion-oriented physical retail offering. The personalized shopping experience was built out using strategic cues from Amazons deep expertise in digital, and integrating them with the unique benefits of the in-store occasion. Retailers blending the best of omnichannel offerings through next-generation technology offerings and in-store innovations is a trend the PSFK research team has been following across industries, and one that points to a promising, convenient future for the retail industry and its consumer base.

+++

This article originally appeared in the PSFK report, Technology Innovations Fueling Intelligent Store Operations.
A serial killer may be stalking 1939 Berlin in Scarrows Blackout (Kensington, Mar.).

How does your book differ from those of authors such as Philip Kerr, who have also set whodunits in Nazi Germany?

I was aware of Kerrs books and started reading one sometime before I decided to write Blackout. However, I felt I wanted to distance my reader from the protagonist and so avoided Kerrs first-person approach. Nazi Germany was a place of facades where it was a very difficult thing to do to get under someone elses skin. Therefore, a third-person narrative seemed most appropriate.

Why give your lead, Horst Schenke, a racing car background before he became a police inspector?

Ive mentioned that Nazi Germany was a culture of facades. By making Schenke a celebrity, I aim to underscore that perception. Its a world that injured him, and that hes left behind to pursue his police career. However, his past, like anyones, follows him, and therefore his celebrity status amplifies that sense of being different from the way the world perceives you.

How did you approach crafting a narrative in which an honest cop tries to tackle routine crime under a criminal regime?

Theres always crime. And theres always a semblance of the law which affects to uphold what the people consider to be a systematic application of the principle of justice. In a corrupt system, a good police officer is one who attempts to find a way to serve justice no matter how far the corrupt regime he serves attempts to drag the law in the opposite direction. In a way, Schenkes predicament prefigures the Nuremberg defence: in the end it is not enough to obey ordersa servant of the state must ultimately place higher morality above higher authority.

What surprised you the most as you researched policing under the Nazis?

How much guarded contempt there was for the political arrivistes in the police force. A surprising number of senior police officers managed to resist pressure to join the party and/or accept an SS rank. Many saw themselves as professionals and were proud of their expertise. At the risk of drawing attention to contemporary resonances, I find it tragic that expertise and the authority of knowledge carries far less weight than it should in an era of cheap populist politics.
Essayist Jazmina Barreras Linea Nigra (Two Lines, May), which takes its title from the so-called pregnancy line that runs down the middle of the abdomen, is a narrative memoir punctuated by reflections on literary and artistic considerations of the maternal body and child-rearing. This is a book about writingwriting during pregnancy, writing during motherhood, says Barrera, who includes a bibliography of poems, short stories, interviews, and essays she read while breastfeeding. Its also about visual representations of motherhood, especially related to my mother, whos a painter.

Barrera spoke with PW about work in translationthe book was first published in Spanish in the authors native Mexicoand finding comfort in literature.

What compelled you to write this memoir?

When I got pregnant, I started writing a journal. It was very personal writing that I didnt plan to share. I also started looking for references, particularly about the process of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in literature and visual arts. I was writing about my own experience, but also compiling. I found motherhood in [the work of] so many Mexican writers and also English-speaking writersMary Shelly, Shirley Jackson. It was very exciting to make these small discoveries. Its a universal topic as much as death, as much as illness, as much as love. I think feminism has made the space for it to be talked about even more.

Then life itself started to change the text. There was an earthquake in Mexico and my mother got sick with cancer. There came a point when I realized that what had helped me so much during that very difficult time was literature, that I had found comfort in dialogue with other womens voices. I realized that maybe my book could keep another woman company.

How is it to see your work in translation?

Christina [MacSweeney] is a good friend and we have had a correspondence from a few years back. The process of translating this book was part of that conversation. She sent me her questions and we answered our doubts together. She found solutions for when things were difficult to translate, because Christina is not only a wonderful translator, shes also a wonderful writer. This book has been improved by her translation. Its an exciting experience because my work feels new in her words, yet familiar.

Was this a difficult book to write?

The challenges came with the physical state of pregnancy and the first months of early motherhoodjust the fact of having the time to write and finding the energy to do it. Many [authors of] books on motherhood have faced that challenge by writing very fragmentary books. I liked that my form resembles so many other books on motherhood. There are many wonderful writers that write in this formless hybrid genre, mutant books which are like the mutant stage of pregnancy. It felt like being a part of a tradition.

Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

Writing is a way of thinking, a way of deepening issues I find interesting. There are so many mysteries in motherhood. The transformations of the body and the fact that a cell becomes a human being inside youall of the implications of that are something that I explore with writing. The uncanniness of the situation was something that didnt resolve, but with writing, it acquired a new dimension.

Back to the main feature.
University of Michigan law and philosophy professor Scott Hershovitz titled his forthcoming book Nasty, Brutish, and Short (Penguin Press, May) after Thomas Hobbess speculation on what life without government would be like. The same words can apply to children and how they approach rights, revenge, punishment, and authority, Hershowitz says. In these situations, its an apt description. The author, whose book pairs the observations and arguments of his young sons, Rex and Hank, with those of classic and contemporary philosophers, spoke with PW about the rewards of raising curious children.

Whats your books central thesis?

Every kid is a philosopher. A kid saying youre not the boss of me is expressing the thought that anarchist philosophers are having. Gareth Matthews wrote, The adult must cultivate the naivete that is required for doing philosophy, but to the child such naivete is entirely natural. The adult takes a lot of things for granted and doesnt think about them, but the kid is just puzzled everywhere and asking questions about it. My hope is to capture the imagination of a parent to think, When my kid says something thats profound and interesting, thats worth taking seriously and having a conversation about.

How has fatherhood informed your academic work?

My thinking around tort law is seeing it as an adult-world substitute for the revenge people might take if there werent the civil remedies available. The books second chapter is about revenge: my younger son, Hank, took revenge at preschool. I asked, Did you do something mean to this other boy because he said something mean to you? And he looked at me and said, as if Im the stupidest person in the world, Yes. He called me a floofer doofer.  My academic work is about how we should respond to wrongdoing, so I spent time thinking about that exchange. Its natural to him that if somebody does something mean to him he should do something mean back. Thats not how I want him to think about the world, but its another step toward understanding why people have these thoughts.

What have your sons taught you?

Rex asked whether God exists. I reflected the question back to him. I think that for real, God is pretend, he said. And for pretend, God is real. Its a staggeringly profound thought for a then four-year-old; philosophers call this fictionalismthe thought that something could be real in a fiction, even if its not real in our actual world. Id never thought about God in this way, and our conversation helped me deepen my own relationship to religion.

Why raise children who ask questions?

Theres a story in the book called How to Raise a Philosopher, which starts with Rex posing the question of Theseuss ship to a friend. Theseuss ship is in the harbor in Athens and its been dilapidated over time. People keep replacing planks and eventually all the planks are replaced. The question is: Is that thing in the harbor Theseuss ship? And if its not Theseuss ship, when does it stop being Theseuss ship? My son asked these questions of his friend, and the two of them had a conversation. That was a triumph. Ive gotten my kids not just interested enough in a question to think about it themselves, but also engaged enough to start doing the work of asking questions of others.

Back to the main feature.
Anne Tylers 24th novel, French Braid (Knopf, Mar.), opens with a scene set at Philadelphias 30th Street train station in 2010. The first line describes how the old information board clickety-clacked as the various gate assignments rolled up, noting that the board has since been replaced. Its an invitation to the past, and a sign that the novel will operate like many of Tylers books, reaching through the decades with the feeling of time travel. Indeed, much of the book takes place in the 1950s and 60s.

All my life, the thing Ive wanted to do most in the world was be invited on a time machine, says Tyler, 80. Shes speaking by phone from her home in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, which is known for sprawling Victorians, porches, old trees, and public paths designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead that run through peoples backyards. At one point, the battery runs down on her handset, and Tyler pauses to switch to another, a series of beeps triggering memories of landlines. Her voice is clear and crisp, and she answers questions with ease and candor, belying her reputation as one of those private, reclusive writers.

Like much of Tylers work, French Braid is set in Baltimore. It follows a family through three generations, tracing its gradual and inexplicable dissolution.

It is happenstance, more than anything else, that keeps Tyler returning to the city in her fiction. She moved there with her late husband, Taghi Modarressi, in the 1960s. She didnt like it at first. She was a young mother in her early 20s with two books under her belt, and their surroundings felt very old and sort of patrician, she says.

Originally from Minnesota, Tyler was struck by Baltimores class-oriented culture. She wanted to go back to Montreal, where theyd lived for a spell because Modarressi, an Iranian doctor, ran out of time on his U.S. visa. At their new home, a neighbor across the street would sometimes get drunk and yell out the window, Iranians go home. But then Tyler decided shed try to be philosophical about it. She realized she was kind of in a time machine on this street, and Id better just relax and enjoy it.

Tylers fourth novel, The Clock Winder (1972), was her first Baltimore book. It follows a young woman named Elizabeth who works odd jobs around the house of a very snooty old lady, as Tyler describes Mrs. Emerson. Tyler says Elizabeth is as appalled by Mrs. Emerson as Tyler herself was by some of her own neighbors from the period, adding that theyre probably all dead by now. She confesses that the main reason she writes so often about Baltimore is that its convenient. She needed a place, and Baltimore doesnt require research. I dont feel very well rooted in my real life, she says, and I have to remind myself to root my stories in some kind of geographical setting.

The novels often come from bits of overheard conversation on the street or in a grocery store, like Eddies in Roland Park, where Tylers fans hope to catch a glimpse of her. The big dream is to see her there, says Marion Winik, an author and critic who lives in the neighborhood. In fact, fellow Baltimore writer Jessica Anya Blau wrote recently for LitHub about her triumph of standing behind Tyler in the Eddies checkout line. But sightings are rare, Winik says, noting that Tyler and the filmmaker John Waters, who also lives in the area and throws a big Christmas party every year, are like the yin and yang of North Baltimore.

Tyler is quick to point out that, though she might be struck by things she overhears (Ill, think, What was that about? And I sort of invent a story), her novels arent based on real life. Im always telling people, if you read it in my book, you can be sure it didnt happen.

Of course, some things have changed with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since weve all become so isolated, I miss eavesdropping, Tyler says. But in six decades of writing books, her process hasnt changed. She still jots down her stray observations on index cards and writes her manuscripts in longhand. I do feel its almost like a craft. I always say, if I got arthritis, I would have to stop writing. Its just coming out through my fingers.

Tyler considers her fifth novel, Celestial Navigation (1974), about a painfully shy man who inherits a boarding house, her creative breakthrough. The previous books, which she wishes she could buy out and destroy, stemmed from her onetime belief in the value of writing spontaneously. Once she began doing more revisions, though, her work took on greater life.

I didnt realize that the deeper you go, the more you live the life of another person, she says. Thats when I suddenly realized I want to write stories not because I want people to read them, but because I want to see what its like to be such and such a person.

In the 80s, Tylers novels were regularly finalists or winners of major prizesjudgments that only partly reflected her own assessments. For many years, I would say that the book of my heart has always been in some ways Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, she says, because I felt like I was scraping my soul to write it, taking off layers of myself and putting them in the book. Published in 1982, it was a finalist for the Pulitzer. The Accidental Tourist, which followed in 1985, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and again made the list of Pulitzer finalists. Breathing Lessons won the Pulitzer in 1988. All I could think was, Why that one? she says. Her work has been recognized in recent years, as well, with A Spool of Thread (2015) selected as a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

In French Braid, a young woman named Serena Drew, while on her way back to Baltimore, thinks she recognizes her first cousin Nicholas in a train station in Philadelphia, but she cant be certain. Serenas doubt and lack of explanation for how her extended family came to feel so remote leads to the story of Serenas grandparents, who raised three children in the 1950s. The grandmother, Mercy, dutifully takes care of the house and children while dreaming of becoming an artist. After the last child leaves for college, Mercy spends most of her time in a rented studio, sleeping there for chunks of the week and making strange paintings of peoples home interiors, each for a modest fee.

Mercy is a quintessential Tyler character. As Winik points out, Tylers characters convey a gentle quirkiness specific to Baltimore, where people are hapless, not driven achievers. In The Accidental Tourist, a man separates from his wife and moves in with his three adult siblings to the house where they grew up. One of the siblings quirks is that they never answer the phone, a habit that passes without explanation.

Such unexplained quirks make readers wonder why a person might be a certain way. And in Tylers world, even if the endings dont have big revelations, they offer great insight.

Every family has things that are there, but they kind of pretend arent, she says, describing the Drews in French Braid. I mean, the fact that they can go through all those years where basically that couple is separated but not really, and everybody is behaving as if everythings normal...

Characters, not stories, drive Tylers fiction. My gosh, she says, nothing happens in any of my books if you get right down to it.
DEAL OF THE WEEK

Ngs Hearts Beats for Penguin A new novel by Celeste Ng (Little Fires Everywhere) was acquired by Ginny Smith Younce at Penguin Press. The North American rights deal was brokered by Julie Barer at the Book Group, with Penguin Canada set to publish in Canada. Penguin said Our Missing Hearts takes place in a near-future U.S. where, after years of economic decline and unrest, a set of laws aimed at maintaining American culture ban books deemed unpatriotic, among other things. Bird Gardner, a 12-year-old who lives alone with his father, has been taught to disavow his mother, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine. (His mothers work, under the culture laws, has been banned.) But after receiving a mysterious letter, he begins to search for her. The novel, Penguin added, is a story about the powerand limitationsof art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact. Our Missing Hearts is set to be released in October.

Morrow Lands Barrs Memoir

Former U.S. attorney general William Barr sold a memoir to William Morrow. One Damn Thing After Another is slated for March and was acquired by Mauro DiPreta in a world rights agreement brokered by Keith Urbahn at Javelin. It provides, the publisher said, a candid account of Barrs historic tenures serving two vastly different presidents: George H.W. Bush and Donald J. Trump. During Trumps time in office, the author faced an unrelenting barrage of issues, such as Russiagate, the opioid epidemic, Chinese espionage, the Covid outbreak, civil unrest, the first impeachment, and the 2020 election fallout. The book, Morrow added, is essential to not only understanding the Bush and Trump legacies but also how both men viewed power and justice at critical junctures of their presidencies.

Mann Unveils New Novel for His Imprint

Michael Mann sold Heat 2 to Jennifer Brehl at Manns eponymous imprint at William Morrow. The book, due out in August, will be the first title published under the imprint, which was announced in 2016. Set both before and after Manns 1995 film Heat, the work is a novel, not a novelization, the publisher emphasized. Heat 2 opens a day after the end of the film (which chronicles a heist planned by an about-to-retire criminal, and the efforts of a veteran L.A. detective to stop it), and then moves back and forth in time. In addition to Heat, Mann directed such films as The Insider and Collateral and has been nominated for four Oscars; he also produced the 1980s TV series Miami Vice. Shane Salerno at the Story Factory brokered the world rights agreement for Mann.

Pantheon Welcomes Trundles Daughter

In a North American rights agreement, Deb Garrison at Pantheon bought Boo Trundles debut novel, The Daughter Ship. Alice Tasman at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, who represented the author, said the book is an exploration of the inheritance of shame, narrated by a darkly comedic chorus, the submerged inner selves of a daughter, wife, and mother. The Daughter Ship is slated for 2023. Trundle is an artist and musician who released a handful of albums in the 1990s via the independent label Big Deal Records; she has published work in, among other outlets, the Georgia Review, the Brooklyn Rail, and Prairie Schooner.

Stage Sells Mothered to T&M

For Amazon Publishings Thomas & Mercer imprint, Liz Pearsons bought Zoje Stages Mothered at auction. Stage (Baby Teeth) was represented by Stephen Barbara and Claire Friedman at InkWell Management in the world English rights agreement. Barbara categorized the novel, set for February 2023, as psychological horror and said its an intimate and claustrophobic account of a woman who invites her aging mother to live with her.
Shortly after the great editor Robert Giroux arrived, in 1955, at the publisher then known as Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, some of the best American poets of the timeand, as it happens, of all timefollowed him. John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, T.S. Eliot, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, and Allen Tate were all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux during the Giroux era, among many others, and it also published works by such poets as Pablo Neruda. According to former FSG president and publisher Jonathan Galassi, New Directions was arguably FSGs only worthy poetry publishing rival at the time.

As the decades passed and new editors joined the press, FSGs list grew to include authors as wide-ranging in form and style as Charles Bernstein, Joseph Brodsky, Eleanor Chai, Carol Ann Duffy, francine j. harris, Seamus Heaney, Ishion Hutchinson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Marianne Moore, Carl Phillips, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, James Schuyler, Derek Walcott, C.K. Williams, Charles Wright, and Adam Zagajewski. Then theres Frank Bidart, whose Half-Light: Collected Poems 19652016 won the National Book Award for poetry in 2017 and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2018, and Louise Gluck, whose Faithful and Virtuous Night won the 2014 poetry NBA, and who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. Both poets published new books with FSG last fall, and Galassi said the press will publish a new prose work by Gluck, titled Marigold and Rose, this year.

The FSG Poetry Anthologyedited by Galassi, who is now FSGs chairman and executive editor, and Yale University associate professor and FSG consulting editor for poetry Robyn Creswellculls some of the best work from the publishers formidable poetry list. Published last November, in part to celebrate the presss 75th anniversary, the anthology reads as a history in verse of the past century of American poetry, as well as a forecast of verse to come.

That, Galassi said, was by design. When discussing the anthology, he was quick to note the works by young poets, acquired by rising FSG editors Jackson Howard and Molly Walls, included in the anthologys final section, dedicated to the 2020s. Those are two of our young editors buying and reading great things, he said. Its not just us acquiring, and it shouldnt be. Young people should be reading young poets work.

While other presses, such as Minneapoliss Graywolf Press and Brooklyns Nightboat Books, have seen their profiles in the poetry world skyrocket over the past decade, FSG remains a force, even putting aside the works of Bidart and Gluck. Recent books cited by Galassi include Carl Phillipss Then the War: Selected Poems 20072020, as well as works by Roya Marsh, Iman Mersal, Ange Mlinko, Nelly Sachs, Chetla Sebree, and Hannah Sullivan. Titles to come this year include books by Les Murray, Shane McCrae, Ange Mlinko, Henri Cole, Nelly Sachs (in a new translation), and Maggie Millner.

Nearly all of the poets published by FSG throughout its history have work within the pages of the new anthology. Creswell said he and Galassi compiled it by divvying up the spoils. He added: There were lots of surprises, including the poets themselves (We hadnt even read some of them, he said with a laugh). Other surprises came from finding the influence of earlier poets in the FSG backlist on todays poets. I was actually surprised at how often I heard echoes of Berryman on later poets at FSG, Creswell notedsometimes even poets that I wouldnt have expected.

Galassi noticed a broader trend, which he explained by way of anecdote: A British editor I know was talking to me about the poetry list at their publisher, and they said, Well, we have our commercial poetry, and we have our, you know, poetry poetry. And I thought, Oh, well, we dont have that. Poetry, for us, has always been a form of literary expression. The poets that we have published traditionally have been really preoccupied with matters of languagealthough all poetry is part of a tradition, as its all based on whats come beforebut that conscious tradition is still at the heart of what were doing. But I think that people are not afraid of poetry the way they used to be. Theyll read anything, if it captures them at all, which is a great thing.

That is the hope for The FSG Poetry Anthology. And for Creswell, theres another hope, as well: I hope that the anthology suggests that the poetry is actually getting stronger, and that its getting more varied."

This story has been updated for clarity.
Ibram X. Kendis How to Be an Antiracist, which explores how to create an equitable and just society, struck a chord with readers in the wake of the widespread protests that followed George Floyds 2020 murder; it has, to date, sold more than 930,000 print copies. The book also prompted a question from parents: How do we pass along these values to our children?

In How to Raise an Antiracist, a June release from One World, Kendi, a National Book Award winner, suggests some answers, drawing on scholarship and his experience as a father. Ibram points out that its not about the individual work you do with your individual child, but its also the work we do as adults to make our society one we can raise our children in, says Chris Jackson, publisher and editor-in-chief at One World. Its productive and generative and loving work that asks how we make ourselves a stronger, better, more caring, inclusive society, and how we as individuals represent those ideas within ourselves. Thats what every parent wants for their child.

Kendis book is one of several new titles that address race and related social justice issues within the context of parenting, a fact that Jackson finds unsurprising given the events of the past two years. What we saw in 2020 was one of the largest social movements in the history of the world, he says. People were suddenly, inescapably, having to deal with issues that wed been avoiding in this country for a very long time. These ideas were no longer things that you could just sweep aside, but parents didnt have a language for it.

PW spoke with authors and editors about forthcoming titles that help parents make sense of the present moment and imagine a more just future.

Continuing education

Several books take a practical, interactive approach to anti-bias parenting. Educator Britt Hawthornes Raising Antiracist Children (Simon Element, June), written with Natasha Yglesias, is divided into four sectionsHealthy Bodies, Radical Minds, Conscious Shopping, and Thriving Communitieseach accompanied by questionnaires, stories, activities, and tools aimed at fostering an anti-racist worldview, with input from 15 other contributors.

Its a book thats community-centered and BIPOC-written and led, says Hawthorne, a Black biracial parent. Here, you have a connection with so many anti-racist caregivers across the country and a window into how they are doing it. The author cultivates similar conversations with her more than 96,000 Instagram followers and in the online community Collective Liberation, which offers webinars and other anti-bias resources.

The parenting realm is overwhelmingly white, cisgender women who are middle-class or upholding middle-class ideals, she says. The ideas in the book are being met with a new level of openness and connection in a way that this conversation hasnt been met with before. People are being forced to, or being invited to, reckon with systemic oppression, with language that feels challenging to them, to think about terms like white domination, white supremacy, and white toxicity. The book offers actionable next steps to minimize or mitigate harm.

The Race-Wise Family (WaterBrook, May) is geared toward Christian parents, offering biblically sound advice for raising anti-racist children. Coauthors Helen Lee, whose books include The Missional Mom, and Michelle Reyes, vice president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative, highlight key scripture underpinning a biblical theology of race, and suggest questions, prayers, conversation starters, and activities for families to use in their homes and church communities.

Lee and Reyes, who are Asian American, have both written about homeschooling their children, but the public face of homeschooling is overwhelmingly white. Blogger and professional speaker Amber ONeal Johnston is one of the few prominent Black parents in the homeschooling space. In A Place to Belong (TarcherPerigee, May), she expands on the tenets of her website, Heritage Mom, which details ways in which Black families can honor and celebrate their cultures.

The book encourages parents to affirm their cultural or ethnic backgrounds, and to acknowledge the similarities and differences in how others live. Traditionally, homeschoolers have been seen as having their children in this bubble, not wanting them to integrate with the larger world, ONeal Johnston says. But I see the home as an incubator to prepare our children to integrate beautifully and to become tethered within their local and global communities.

Though her Christian faith informs her websites content and her childrens upbringing, ONeal Johnston stresses that her book is written for families of all backgrounds. It includes tips on fostering open dialogue, teaching difficult history, curating an inclusive library, and celebrating culturally specific art and music in the context of daily family life. Anti-racism is not a lesson plan, she explains. I show parents how to create a home life of intentional natural rhythms that help build a childhood of mutuality, with a goal of raising adults who actively engage in vibrant communities of all sorts.

First person

Other books use personal narrative to reckon with larger societal issues. In Wanting Whats Best (Parenting Press, May), Sarah W. Jaffe, who is white, details her struggle to reconcile her familys privilege with her anti-bias ideals. A former attorney in the foster care system, Jaffe interviewed dozens of parents like her who are questioning, and walking back from, the cultural message that parents must seek out every advantage for their children and remove every obstacle in their path, which often leaves the children of others behind. The Varsity Blues college admissions scandal is a very strong indictment of where extreme privileged parenting leads, she says.

The book offers guidance in making important family decisions, especially around education, while encouraging collective action that can make systems better for everyone. Jaffe profiles parent activists and addresses wealth, legacy, and inheritance. Lets talk about what were actually doing and how were spending our money, she says, and the harder things, like surrendering our advantages and not just trying to keep the status quo.

The essay collection Raising Raffi, by novelist, translator, and journalist Keith Gessen, which Viking will release in June, considers the ways in which parenting choices intersect with political realities. Keith is an immigrant, and everything he writes is from the perspective of having been born a Jewish person in Russia and having fled that country with his family to seek a better life in the United States, says Allison Lorentzen, executive editor at Viking. One of the best essays in the book is about their familys experience in the early months of the pandemic. Gessen and his wife, novelist Emily Gould, and their two sons lived near the intersection where one of the largest demonstrations of the 2020 uprisings took place, Lorentzen explains. The piece is about what it was like to experience that as a parent and try to explain the dangers of being a Black man in America to a young [white] child.

In 2018s Like a Mother, Angela Garbes combined scientific information and personal experience to ease help readers anxiety around pregnancy; PWs review called it an empowering resource. Her follow-up, Essential Labor (Harper Wave, May), grew out of a widely read 2021 essay for the Cut, The Numbers Dont Tell the Whole Story, in which she examined the unfair burden Covid-19 has placed on women caregivers.

Using Garbess familys experience as care workers from the Philippines as a jumping-off point, Essential Labor offers an overview of the current state of caregiving in America and explores the idea of motherhood as a means of social change. Her central thesis is that change begins at home, and she draws from the reproductive justice movement, Black feminism, and feminist scholarship, as well as her own life, to illustrate her points.

I wanted to write something that was a celebration of the beauty of care work, andthis is where the social justice part comes inI wanted to give parents a space to reimagine care work as a place where we can actually begin the work, Garbes says. Its the day-in, day-out place where we can teach children about their own inherent worth and value.

Garbess tone is hopeful, looking toward a world not bound by the oppressive systems we live under now, she explains. Parenting isnt glamorous or big picture movement work, she says, but we need all kinds of engagement on all levels. Parenting isnt particularly immediately gratifying. It requires the belief that the world can be a better place, and that you have to work toward that, even though theres a really good chance you wont be around to see it.

Pooja Makhijani is a writer and editor in New Jersey.

Below, more on parenting books:

Lifes Labor: PW talks with Jazmina Barrera

In 'Linea Nigra' (Two Lines, May), essayist Jazmina Barrera reflects on literary and artistic considerations of the maternal body and child rearing.

Family Matters: Parenting Books 2022

New titles approach the particular concerns of queer prospective parents through the lenses of psychology and midwifery.

Wonder Why: PW talks with Scott Hershovitz

University of Michigan law and philosophy professor Scott Hershovitz titled his forthcoming book 'Nasty, Brutish, and Short' (Penguin Press, May) after Thomas Hobbess speculation on what life without government would be like.

Single Handed: Parenting Books 2022

Forthcoming books speak to the particular and growing needs of solo and single parents.
The internet took swings at former senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., son of convicted Martial Law strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who was officially a no-show at multi-awarded journalist Jessica Sohos Presidential Interviews special which airs tonight on GMA News.

READ: So what was so bad about martial law?

The GMA News and Public Affairs division is under GMA-7, the network with the widest reach in the Philippines after the Duterte administration shut down the countrys largest broadcaster ABS-CBN in 2020.

The hashtag #MarcosDuwag (#MarcosCoward) topped Twitter trends as election drama unfolded towards the end of the week. After Marcos confirmed he was skipping Sohos interviews  the only presidential bet in the upcoming May polls to do so , screencaps of an alleged troll farm manager surfaced online, who tweeted alleged instructions to defend Marcos Jr.s absence at the interviews before deleting said tweet, further fueling the flames of Twitter dissent.

Guard! Guardddd! Natweet niya ang instructions sa troll farm.



 pic.twitter.com/Y2FAYUnECq  PinoyAkoBlog (@PinoyAkoBlog) January 21, 2022

This was followed by news reports that Twitter had suspended over 300 pro-Marcos accounts, citing violation of its policies against platform manipulation and spam, and also came days after news website Rappler released a report on Twitter handles promoting Marcos Jr.

After two days of silence, Marcos camp today released an official statement explaining his decision to skip the interview by Soho  one of the countrys most respected broadcasters  and cited the journalists supposed bias against the Marcos family, whose members have been tried and convicted of corruption and graft-related cases in local and international courts.

Obviously a reputational attack to media. They would rather prefer to be asked by their mouthpieces instead so their narratives remain aligned and amplified. Media isnt the enemy. Media is here to ask questions based on facts, then we let our audience decide. pic.twitter.com/0huKwbAi2y  Jules Guiang (@julesguiang) January 22, 2022

The reason why Bongbong Marcos decided not to join the Jessica Soho show is founded on our belief that the hostess of the said popular talk show is biased against the Marcoses, and therefore, we believe her questions will just focus on the negativity about (Marcos) which the UniTeam dislike, Marcos Jr.s spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said in a statement, referring to the tandem of Marcos and Dutertes daughter, Sara, his running mate in the 2022 polls.

Story continues

(The UniTeam) will not subscribe as it hopes the discourse must focus on how the aspiring presidents will solve our countrys lingering problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and what their plans are for our country to roll up from economic stagnation.

This was met by anger online, fueling the rise of the #MarcosDuwag hashtag.

Twitter users took the opportunity to shade the candidate on his guesting on actress and host Toni Gonzagas YouTube vlog.

READ: The internet is fuming at Toni Gonzagas interview with Bongbong Marcos

Bongbong Marcos Jr. be like:



On Toni Talks On Jessica Sojo

Presidential

Interview #MarcosDuwag pic.twitter.com/HkgVDpIC5H  3dx2yrs#letlenilead (@vrncrstbl23) January 21, 2022

He would prepare to be interviewed by Toni Gonzaga rather than a celebrated journalist like Jessica Soho. https://t.co/JpYgzSXAoR  Scott Martin (@scottmarrtin) January 22, 2022

He would talk to Toni Gonzaga, but not Jessica Soho. Says a lot.  Prinz Magtulis  (@prinzmagtulis) January 21, 2022

marcos, a simple interview will not hurt you. how can you handle the president position in our country when you are afraid to take this simple interview? the way you accepted toni gonzaga and not jessica soho says it all.#MarcosDuwag  caleb (@i2cale) January 22, 2022

READ: Is Toni Gonzaga becoming the Boy Abunda of presidentiables?

Others poked fun at the candidate, accusing him of being afraid to be interviewed by Soho, and revived an old video of him bungling an old interview with the journalist when he was running for senator.

Nawwwwt this interview made him fear Jessica Soho FOR LIFE HAHAHAHA  https://t.co/q7s86B4qBt  Ash Presto  (@sosyolohija) January 22, 2022

will just focus on negativity about BBM



so you agree? that there are negative things about LBM #MarcosDuwag https://t.co/6yOxFj3ogE pic.twitter.com/044IM0L3aO  Jason Singson (@jeisamsoon) January 22, 2022

Meanwhile, sociologist Ash Presto surmised that Marcos Jr.s no-show at the Soho interviews could undermine Marcos machinery.

Very interesting to see how Jessica Soho will respond (if at all) to DiktaJr's allegation of bias. With journalism awards & a highly mainstream platform at her disposal, she can actually put a dent in the Marcoses' disinformation machinery. Have I mentioned she's also an Ilocana?  Ash Presto  (@sosyolohija) January 22, 2022

READ: Eraserheads fan brings colorand meaning to old photos of Buddy Zabalas missing mother-in-law
Pirates of the Caribbean and Edward Scissorhands actor Johnny Depp has landed the lead in an as-yet-untitled French film about King Louis XV.

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French actress Maiwenn will play Jeanne du Barry, the monarch's mistress, who was beheaded during the French Revolution.

Maiwenn is also onboard to direct the project, which is scheduled to be shot on location at France's Versailles Palace and around Paris this summer.

Depp has lived in France for many years, but this will mark his French-speaking debut film role.

Warner Bros. announced in November 2020 that Mads Mikkelsen would replace Depp in the Fantastic Beasts films, which take place before the Harry Potter tales.

Earlier that month, Depp said he had been asked to step down from the role of Gellert Grindelwald after he lost a libel lawsuit against a British newspaper that described him as an abusive husband during his marriage to actress Amber Heard

Louis was King of France for 59 years, starting in 1715 when he was five.

Maiwenn's films include Polisse, Mon Roi and DNA.
Maika Monroe said her new film Watcher, which premiered Friday virtually at the Sundance Film Festival, reflects a very common experience for women.

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Monroe, 28, plays Julia, a woman who moves to Romania with her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), and believes a man ( Burn Gorman ) across the street is watching her.

"I immediately connected with Julia and what she was going through," Monroe told UPI in a Zoom interview. "I think a lot of people watching this will relate."

Julia sees the man watching from his window. When she encounters him in public, Julia begins to suspect he is following her.

Unfortunately, Francis isn't entirely supportive. He tries to explain away their meetings as coincidence, and at one point calls her hysterical.

Monroe said having a loved one not believe her is the most relatable experience. Monroe said she feels isolated when people she confides in don't believe her.

"What I connected with the most was when a person doesn't believe you or tells you that you're overreacting or being dramatic," Monroe said.

Having appeared in movies and television since 2009, Monroe said she is used to fans recognizing her. However, she still has moments where she is alone and unsure of the intentions of people around her.

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"I've been walking down the street and I've put my car key between my knuckles because I'm scared there's a person behind me," Monroe said. "It's just part of being a female that's unfortunate."

Monroe's mother first taught her to be guarded in public. Monroe said she remembered the lesson her mother imparted when they traveled to Europe and South America when Monroe was a child.

"She just said, 'As a female, we are traveling alone. We don't have a male here. We have to be extra careful,'" Monroe said. "I just always remember that. That was just ingrained in my head as a young kid."

Monroe's breakthrough film, the horror film It Follows, was also about a form of pursuit. Monroe said both Watcher and It Follows reflect characters struggling to convince people their pursuers are real.

"It's such a relatable, simple idea," Monroe said. "But it's such a beautiful way to tell this story through genre film."

In It Follows, teenagers were pursued by phantoms slowly approaching them. They could delay the pursuit by sleeping with someone and passing the spirits onto them.

The followers never went away. The teens could only put distance between themselves and the followers by passing the curse onto others via sex.

Monroe was in her early 20s when she made It Follows. Monroe said eight years and more long-term relationships later, she could relate to different aspects of Watcher.

"At the end of the day, I am a woman and he is a man and there are just certain things that he will never understand," Monroe said. "I hadn't really had that experience while filming It Follows."

It Follows was also mentioned in the recent Scream sequel as an example of "elevated horror" of which the killer is not a fan. Monroe said she has not seen Scream but her friend notified her that her film was pivotal enough to be in the self-referential series.

"That's pretty cool, I have to say," Monroe said.

Horror was a part of Monroe's life before she starred in horror movies. Monroe said she and her middle school friends would watch The Shining and John Carpenter films at sleepovers.

Monroe said those films allowed her to experience dangers she'd not yet lived through.

"It was feelings that I had never felt before, running for my life or being in these horrific situations," Monroe said.

Monroe said acting in films like Watcher and It Follows, as well as The Guest and Villains, allows her to have those experiences even more vividly. However, Monroe said, they're not easy.

"I think it's probably one of the hardest genres to film as an actor," Monroe said. "It's demanding physically and mentally beyond anything else that I've had to do."

While Watcher begins as a relatable stalker drama, the film also escalates like many of Monroe's previous efforts.

"Horror just feels like every day is a challenge because every day I'm going to be running for my life or crying or screaming," Monroe said. "It's taxing but it's also so rewarding."
The New York State Senate on Thursday confirmed Dr. Mary Bassett as state health commissioner, but Cayuga County's three state senators were split on the vote.

The state Senate voted along party lines, 43-20, to confirm Bassett. Democrats supported Gov. Kathy Hochul's nominee to lead the state Department of Health, while Republicans opposed the nomination.

One of Cayuga County's representatives, state Sen. John Mannion, voted with Democrats to confirm Bassett. But two of the county's state senators, Pam Helming and Peter Oberacker, cast votes against confirmation.

Helming, R-Canandaigua, explained in a statement that she could not support Bassett's confirmation for several reasons, namely "her unwillingness to address the March 25, 2020, directive and the loss of more than 15,000 nursing home residents to Covid."

The directive Helming mentioned was issued by Bassett's predecessor, former state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under that order, COVID-positive patients could be moved into nursing homes.

Zucker, along with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has been criticized for the directive, which may have introduced COVID into nursing homes and led to outbreaks that were reported by numerous facilities.

When Bassett appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, she told senators she "wasn't going to try and unravel what had happened in the nursing homes under (Zucker), but simply look forward." However, she added that she would resign instead of issuing such a directive.

"These seniors and their families deserve transparency and accountability. Dr. Bassett said she won't look back. That's not leadership," Helming said. "New Yorkers deserve assurances that the state's new chief physician will be an independent leader who will not repeat the mistakes of the past and who will ensure the health department protects the health and well-being of all New Yorkers."

Oberacker, R-Schenevus, identified a few reasons for opposing Bassett's nomination. He panned Bassett's support of Hochul's mandates, especially the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers.

Oberacker did not mention the vaccine mandate specifically, but was clearly referring to that when he said Bassett "helped oversee the firing of thousands of health care workers who had dedicated their lives to the well-being of others." Health care workers who did not get vaccinated either resigned or were fired, but a vast majority of medical professionals complied with the mandate.

Bassett, according to Oberacker, also lacks a strategy to address the decreased number of health care workers and volunteer first responders in rural areas. And he criticized her support of supervised drug injection sites  a position she has held since serving as New York City health commissioner. Oberacker says that's "the biggest red flag."

"As the ranking member on the Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee and a member of the Senate Heroin Task Force, I strongly disagree with the use of taxpayer dollars to perpetuate the use of illegal drugs," he said. "Education and treatment are strategies that I endorse to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, however, legalized shooting galleries do not have my backing."

Despite his opposition, Oberacker is willing to work with Bassett and "educate her about rural health concerns."

After her confirmation, Bassett said in a statement that she is honored to serve as state health commissioner.

"As I have said from the beginning, I will continue to be open and transparent and make decisions based on science, data and improving the health of all New Yorkers," she said. "I will continue to work with our experts at the Department of Health and our partners at all levels of government on the COVID-19 response and other critical public health issues."

Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 69F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Low 51F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
New data released by the Cayuga County Health Department reveals that 85% of residents who died of COVID-19 were unvaccinated.

According to the department's summary, 106 of 124 people who died were unvaccinated and 18 were vaccinated. However, the death toll includes 24 deaths in 2020 when the COVID-19 vaccines were not available  Moderna and Pfizer didn't receive emergency use authorizations for their vaccines until December 2020 and the shots weren't widely available until early 2021.

All but seven of the residents who died of COVID-19 were ages 60 or older. The older age group has the highest vaccination rate  according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 79% of county residents ages 65 and older are fully vaccinated, and 73% are fully vaccinated with a booster. But most of the older residents who died (99 of 117) were unvaccinated.

The seven people under age 60 who died of COVID-19 were all unvaccinated. One of those deaths occurred before the vaccine was available.

Cayuga County's vaccination rate is 57.5%. Among individuals ages 5 and older who are eligible for the vaccine, the rate is slightly higher (60.6%). The county lags behind the national and state vaccination rates. Nationally, 63.3% of Americans are fully vaccinated. In New York, 73.4% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The health department's release coincides with a change in how it will provide daily updates. The department said on Friday that it will no longer report new daily cases. That decision is due to another made by the department to no longer call COVID-positive residents.

Earlier this month, the state gave counties the option to continue contact tracing investigations. It was through contact tracing that positive cases were asked for information about who may have been exposed to the virus.

While Cayuga is no longer conducting contact tracing investigations, the state is handling the calls. But the health department noted that the state may not call everyone due to the recent surge in cases.

New daily cases won't be part of future reports, but Cayuga County will continue to release numbers of active cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The health department said Friday that there are 743 active cases, up from 688 one day ago, and 23 residents hospitalized with COVID-19. No new deaths were reported.

Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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WINSTED  Before arriving at The Gilbert School in July as its new head of school, Greg Shugrue spent 17 years running New Milford High School.

Those years of working with a large group of students is benefiting him now in a much smaller venue.

I definitely think my past experience with a bigger school system helped me get ready for this job, Shugrue said from his office.

He said he has a great team in student services director Julie McDougall and associate principals Deb Lewis and Maura Hurley.

They are all very connected with the department chairs and the teachers; they are boots on the ground in the school, he said. Having them working closely, as liaisons with the department chairs, makes better communication and a better relationship with that side of the job.

He said the group meets regularly to discuss how the students are doing.

Right now were discussing mandated standardized testing, and anything else that comes up, he said.

The contract

Shugrue developed a 10-year contract with Winsteds Superintendent of Schools Melony Brady-Shanley, and presented it to the towns school board and the Gilbert School Corp. in December. Both groups agreed to review it and meet again.

I havent had an opportunity to circle back to discuss the contract (with Brady-Shanley), Shugrue said. Its been a hectic month for both of us. But we plan to do so, very soon. Melony has been very responsive and we work well together.

He knows the importance of the contract.

Next month, were consumed by budget meetings, but we will meet on it soon, he said. Both boards want continuing dialogue and our families are what were talking about here  our families, not us and them. Were trying to eliminate the divide.

The Gilbert School is a private, six-year, comprehensive, middle and high school that serves as the public high school for the towns of Winchester and Hartland.

Setting goals

On a wall in his office, Shugrue has a framed quote by educationalist Peter Senge. It reads, Schools are not broken and in need of fixing. They are a social institution under stress that needs to evolve.

Thats pretty much my approach to education in general, Shugrue said. It sums up my thinking. I love history and tradition, but to say weve always done something is rather myopic.

His approach is reflected in the goals hes set for himself and his administration.

Weve made a school improvement plan that has four points: academic success, student belonging, aspirations and culture, he said. We want to see students thrive academically, and we have to improve our test scores; but we also focus on the whole child.

We want to give them a good experience, a better understanding of their education, and good, solid instruction, Shugrue said. But theres also the social and emotional side, which is so big. The pandemic has emphasized the need to pay attention to that.

Inclusiveness and tolerance

Gilbert soon will welcome Wing Man from Dylan Hockleys Wings of Change, a movement in honor of one of the first-graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, with a program on Feb. 19 that focuses on team-building and collaboration.

Youll see a sense of excitement with the students in this program, Shugrue said. Theyll be learning about leadership, and inclusiveness, to make school more inclusive.

Their time at Gilbert is important, and I want students to walk out of here with a sense of accomplishment, but also a sense of being more inclusive, more tolerant, Shugrue said. If a student drops their books on the stairs, do other kids laugh? Or do they go over and help? Thats how acceptance works, and eliminates that isolation.

As representatives of the Wing Man, three cohorts of 24 students each will meet with Wing Man every month to talk about inclusiveness and helping others.

Theyll learn to interact with their peers, Shugrue said. Were not training them to be counselors or staffers, but to make friends, to be more accepting ... And if a student is in crisis, well have channels to help them.

Working to improve a students academics as well as his or her emotional and social heath are heavy lifts, Shugrue said, but theyre worth it.

It gives us a way to create dreamers, who believe in what they want to do, and will follow their aspirations, he said.

Looking ahead

What Shugrue wants for his school  and for everyone, for that matter  is a return to consistency.

This year, theres been challenges, he said. COVID-19 numbers are up, mask mandates are back ... theres that inconsistency with schedules. We wanted to have Pearson students here for a holiday concert, and we had to cancel that. Were all longing for consistency.

New Milford High School had many of the same experiences during the pandemic, he said.

There are similarities, he said. Both towns have three distinct areas of town; theres a lake community, and a town center. And we know our students, we know the families.

Ive found the people here to be very receptive and welcoming, he said. I want to eliminate the us and them. This is our school, and these are our students.
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NORWALK  To many who knew Kurt Lametta, the victim of Thursdays fatal Nelson Avenue shooting, he was known simply as Puff.

His nickname was Puff because he was a big, big dude, a gentle giant and gentle soul, family friend Andrew Colabella said Friday.

Lametta, 54, was shot and killed in his rented home on Nelson Avenue. By Thursday evening, Lamettas landlord, Ellen Wink, 61, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with his death.

An outpouring of support and memories of Lametta flooded social media after his identity was released by Norwalk police on Thursday evening. In the departments social media post about the arrest, many expressed sadness over Lamettas death and remembered him as a kind-hearted man.

Colabella, 32, previously worked for the Norwalk public works department. While driving around the city, paving roads and passing by construction sites, Colabella said hed often run into Lametta.

I had about six to eight people call me because they saw the police presence on Nelson Avenue, Colabella said. When I worked for the city, I would plow that road and that was where I saw Puff. I immediately called his nephew and was like, Is everything OK? They were all concerned, and I didnt know what was going on. No one knew at the time it was him.

Colabella said he was about 16 years old when he first met Lametta and grew up knowing members of the family.

Its weird, you meet someone and keep running into him and realize how our worlds are so small, he said. I knew his brothers kids growing up, went to high school with them. I went from knowing the kids to working on projects with him.

Lametta was always busy and had a strong work ethic, Colabella said.

He had the same work ethic as his brother. He was a hard-working person, thats all he ever did, Colabella said. He was always buzzing, always happy and positive. He always had your back. He had your back and knew how and who to defend, but he was a wild soul.

When he wasnt working, Colabella said Lametta loved spending time with his siblings, nieces and nephews, and fishing.

He was really into fishing and being an outdoorsmen, that was why he worked in construction, Colabella said.

Colabella, who no longer works for the city, is now a Representative Town Meeting member in Westport.

Amid the circumstances surrounding Winks arrest, Norwalk officials are calling for her to be placed on leave from her role as the Republican deputy registrar of voters.

City spokesperson Josh Morgan said Winks role is an appointment made by the Republican Registrar of Voters, according to state statute.

However, its the citys recommendation that she be placed on a temporary administrative leave for everyones benefit, he said.

Republican Registrar of Voters Brian Smith did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Republican Town Committee Chair Fred Wilms said he preferred to not take immediate action.

We need to wait and see as the investigation unfolds and more information comes to light before we make any action, Wilms said. Ellen has been actively engaged in Norwalk, a longstanding member of the community in so many different capacities. This story is very shocking. Of course, our thoughts go out to the victims family. My thoughts go out to Ellen and her family.

According to the police report, Wink and Lametta had a contentious relationship dating back to September 2020, when Lametta allegedly stopped paying rent.

Wink was previously arrested in September 2021 following an argument in which she locked Lametta out of the home and threw away his personal belongings, clothes, jewelry and cash, according to the police report. That case is still awaiting disposition and has been statutorily sealed, according to state court records.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police

State officials are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the homicide of James Stone Jr.

State police said Stone was found killed in his trailer on the Golden Hill Paugusett Reservation in Colchester on May 18, 2018.
In crafting the $216 billion budget she released Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul faced a dilemma every pol dreams of: an insane gusher of cash thanks to billions in federal funding on top of mountains of new state revenue from a booming stock market and last years tax hikes. Her solution: shower funds on interests she needs to win this years Democratic primary.

 New York already spends twice the national average per student on public education, yet Hochuls budget hikes school aid a whopping 7.1%. Teachers and other school staff will love it.

 Shed add $10 billion in new multi-year health-care spending.

 Her $25 billion, five-year housing plan will do nothing to ease New Yorks housing crunch.

In all, shes looking to spend more than Texas and Florida combined, even though each has more people than New York. Gone is Gov. Andrew Cuomos 2% cap on the growth of state-funded spending: Her plan aims to goose those outlays by 3.1%, from $115 billion to $119 billion.

Hochul channels some cash to reserves, aiming to hit 15 percent of state operating funds. But the commonly accepted benchmark is 17 percent. Worse, many of her programs would continue forever, long after federal aid runs out. She projects no budget gaps through 2027, but thats out the window if the economy falters.

Meanwhile, the states nation-leading tax burden has residents and businesses fleeing. Yet the gov did nothing to address the high taxes that even her budget director, Robert Mujica, admits have driven folks out of the state.

This is a budget aimed at keeping Kathy Hochul in power, not at reversing the Empire States decline.

 New York Post

A piece of legislation passed last week by the state Assembly and Senate drew Assemblyman Andrew Goodells ire.

We couldnt agree with the Jamestown Republican more.

The bill, A.8591/S.7623, continues the states authorization for local governments to move to remote meetings as long as the local government provides audio of the meeting and to make verbatim transcripts available. That authorization also allows the local boards to bar the public from attending in person.

First, audio-only is nearly useless unless each and every speaker introduces themselves every time they speak. Sound quality has been an issue for many local boards that moved to remote-only meetings during the early days of the pandemic, and boards that didnt have a name-card in front of members were difficult to follow even for professionals used to covering government meetings.

Second, nothing prevents local governments from providing an audio or video option for interested constituents to listen to or watch a meeting. Mayor Eddie Sundquist knows that full well. Shortly after taking office Jamestown meetings have been live-streamed on Facebook. Dunkirk Common Council meetings are broadcast and Chautauqua County meetings are streamed live on the Internet. The state needed to take no action for those governments to put their meetings online.

We hope, however, that no local governments takes the state up on its offer to ban the public.

There is absolutely no reason for any local board to bar the public or the press from attending a meeting. It was ludicrous for the state to give its blessing to closing meetings. We hope Hochul sides with public access and vetoes this legislation in favor of a new bill that guarantees public access.

 Dunkirk Evening Observer

Yes, our national discourse has been consumed with an incendiary lie about a stolen presidential election thats become a mass delusion  and New York politics are hardly immune to it.

But that doesnt mean the nations or the states voting systems are perfect. Quite the contrary. Weve seen right here in the Capital Region how bad actors will take advantage of any weakness they can.

While those shenanigans may make no real difference in the outcome of elections there is no reason not to keep trying to establish a more perfect election system. In doing so, lawmakers might put to rest some of the concerns people have.

Heres a modest place to start: Clean up the absentee ballot process.

Absentee ballots were in the spotlight last week when the two Republican members of the state Board of Elections criticized several bills signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. One allows people to apply for an absentee ballot without the signature of the voter who will receive it. The other requires local elections boards to open absentee ballots at least 40 days before the election and to continue opening them until 17 days after an election.

There are arguable reasons for these bills. The first would potentially make it easier for people to obtain absentee ballots, the second would help end the slow counting of ballots that can delay the outcome for days.

But there are legitimate concerns, too, especially with having people, often political operatives, handling peoples ballots. We saw years ago how Democrats in Albany County preyed on elderly people who in some cases had no recollection of voting. And State Police are investigating allegations of absentee ballot fraud by Republicans in Rensselaer County.

We support making mail-in balloting widely available rather than limited to voters who are out of their home county or ill at the time of an election. Too bad voters rejected allowing universal mail-in balloting in the state constitution, a change worth trying for again. We also agree with the goal of having election results posted in a timely fashion.

 Albany Times Union
Attendees thought a major announcement was in the works. Instead, they listened to another talk on patriotism.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, January 19, 2022 in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) January 20, 2022.

When North Koreans got the word to report to work for a special announcement, many expected a major announcement. Instead, they said they heard more of the same: directives about loyalty to the country and its leaders.

A day after the 6th Politburo meeting of the 8th Central Committee, North Koreas government raced to tell its citizens what had transpired in emergency lectures convened nationwide in every government enterprise and neighborhood watch unit on Thursday. The answer, apparently, was not much.

Today, they suddenly organized a special lecture session at every factory in Chongjin, a resident of the northeastern citys surrounding North Hamgyong province told RFAs Korean Service Thursday.

In most factories these days there are material shortages, so other than a few officials, the employees do not report for work. Instead, they are assigned to go make money outside the factory, but since they wanted to convene a special lecture on short notice, they activated the emergency contact network to bring all the employees in, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

North Koreas manufacturing sector has been hit hard by the closure of the border with China and suspension of all trade that started at the beginning of the pandemic and only recently resumed. Many factories lay idle, unable to produce anything for lack of imported raw materials.

The source said that some of the employees were worried that something serious had happened to warrant calling them away from their outside jobs for a meeting on such short notice.

But they were frustrated when the lecturer  just delivered an order from the Politburo to disseminate the decisions made during the Politburo meeting, the source said.

The order to disseminate was the main decision that was disseminated, along with another order to show loyalty and patriotism in the workplace, according to the source.

Residents in nearby South Hamgyong province were also surprised by the lectures organized on such short notice, as these types of lectures usually take time to plan, a resident of the province told RFA.

During the special lecture they said that the Central Committee decided on how everyone should celebrate the 80th birth anniversary of Kim Jong Il on Feb. 16, and the 100th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung on April 15, said the source, referring to the late former rulers of the country, the father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.

They also talked about the tense atmosphere surrounding the Korean Peninsula, ordering everyone to remember that they are descendants of the Great Leader, national founder Kim Il Sung, and warriors of General Kim Jong Un, both at work and at home.

Dropping hints

The tenseness of the atmosphere likely refers North Korea recent tests of what it calls a hypersonic missile and precision strike weapons, which have drawn condemnations from the U.S. and South Korea.

North Korea said at the Politburo meeting that it would consider resuming nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches, which have been suspended since April 2018 due to a self-imposed moratorium, state media reported Thursday.

At Wednesday's meeting, in the presence of General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the politburo discussed countermeasures against the U.S. for its condemnations of recent weapons tests, which the report called recklessly faulting for no reason the DPRK's legitimate exercise of sovereignty, the report said, blaming the Biden administration for trying to deprive North Korea of its right to self-defense.

The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee unanimously recognized that we should make more thorough preparation for a long-term confrontation with the U.S. imperialism, the report said.

It concluded to take a practical action to more reliably and effectively increase our physical strength for defending the dignity, sovereign rights and interests of our state, it said.

The end of the self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and ICBM testing is only a matter of time, the RAND Corp.s Soo Kim told RFA.

Kim may be eyeing a window of opportunity to pressure the U.S. to change its position on the North Korean nuclear issue. In signaling an end to the moratorium, perhaps Kim is articulating a last, best chance for the Biden administration to take action before the situation escalates, she said.

However, I dont think this means Kim will follow through right away. In making this announcement, hes allowing both the U.S. and himself time to gauge and respond, she said.

The North Korean regime is doing the only thing it knows how to do, David Maxwell of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told RFA.

Kim Jong-un is executing a political warfare strategy against the ROK, the U.S. and the international community. It is also preparing its warfighting campaign to be able to attack South Korea. These two lines of effort are not mutually exclusive, they are in fact mutually supporting and reinforcing," Maxwell said.

The more capability military systems the regime possesses, the more likely it can negotiate from a position of strength. And these actions and negotiations can contribute to driving a wedge in the ROK/US alliance to try to achieve one of the regime's key objectives: to drive U.S. forces from the peninsula, he said.

The question about whether Kim Jong Un would remove the moratorium depends on several factors, including the Biden administrations approach to denuclearization and the results of the upcoming South Korean election, Ken Gause of the Virginia-based CNA think tank told RFA.

Kim Jong Un has to make an assessment about the Biden administration... The Biden administration is a very conventional administration and it's not likely to engage with North Korea the way the Trump administration did. And so, therefore, the possibility of getting sanctions relief is probably not very high, Gause said.

The only thing that kind of stands in the way of North Korea pushing off the moratorium is the fact that you still have a progressive administration in Seoul.  So, the question becomes not if they're going to get rid of the moratorium, but when are they going to get rid of the moratorium if the current situation stays, Gause said.

North Korea must also consider its relationship with China if it decides to lift the moratorium, the Atlantic Councils Robert Manning told RFA.

I think that part of the reason for that they kept their moratoriums since 2018 is probably pressure from China that didn't want to see a new crisis between North Korea and the U.S., Manning said.

I think anything that they do [that disrupts] the Olympics would be seriously frowned upon by Beijing, he said.

The White House, the U.S. mission to the U.N., and the EU delegation to the U.N. reiterated to RFA that they preferred a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue, and voiced support for existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

Meanwhile, the South Korean National Intelligence Service on Friday said that North Korea is considering various means, including test-firing ICBMs, to pressure the United States.

Analysts in South Korea said that China could potentially use North Korea as a tool to keep the U.S. in check, meaning that Beijing would prefer the status quo.

Isn't North Korea's value increasing as China's countermeasure against the U.S.? said Park Young-ho, director of the Peace Research Institute Seoul.

It seems that China's position is that it would be better for the parties involved in the Korean Peninsula to manage and maintain the situation rather than getting angry with North Korea, he said.

Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Low water levels and a lack of sediment have affected the ecosystem and peoples livelihoods.

The left image shows a full Mekong River in January 2019, while on the right is the Mekong in January 2022. (Planet Labs with RFA analysis)

Laotians and Thais who depend on the Mekong River for lifes necessities  food, water, income  fear the mighty waterway may be drying up.

They say climate change may be a factor in recent droughts in the region, but believe the direct cause of their troubles are the many dams China and Laos have built upstream that siphon off water for agricultural and other uses before it reaches them. Experts say the dams make the impact of periodic droughts in the Mekong basin worse and rob the river of the "pulse effect" that spreads water and nutrients that support fisheries and farming.

On the Lower Mekong, fewer fish are being caught and some days water levels are so low people can walk from one shore to the other. With more dams planned in Laos to generate electricity for export, farmers and fishermen fear the worst may be yet to come.

The Mekong River is dry because of the dams. The more dams we have, the drier the river will become. Nobody is trying to compensate us and mitigate the problem, said a Thai villager who lives along the Mekong in Loei province.

The Mekong is one of the worlds most biodiverse river basins with more than 1,100 species of fish. As the worlds largest inland fishery, the river is a vital food source for the 70 million people in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam who live in its basin.

But the rivers flow over the last three years has been among the lowest ever recorded, with 2020 the lowest on record, according to analysis of Mekong River Commission data by the Washington-based Stimson Centers Mekong Dam Monitor project.

The commission is an intergovernmental organization that works with the governments of the four Mekong basin countries to jointly manage the shared water resources and the sustainable development of the Mekong.

The Mekong River is so dry and so low that local residents can walk across it at some locations like the one between Sangthong district in the Lao capital Vientiane and Pak Chom district in Thailands Loei province, a member of the Thai Mekong Peoples Network from Eight Provinces, who declined to be named so as to speak freely, told RFA.

When there is little water coming down from the north, the lower region will have less water, says a Lao official who works closely with the Mekong River Commission. (RFA)

The group represents people who live along the Mekong River in eight Thai provinces, including areas on the border with Laos, and face transboundary environmental impacts from the Xayaburi Dam hydropower project, Laos first dam on the Lower Mekong River.

The Mekong River is not the same  sometimes it is low, and sometimes it is high, a Lao fisherman, who lives on the bank of Mekong River in Xayaburi province, said. I can catch more fish in the Xayaburi Dam reservoir than I can in the area below the dam.

and the Don Sahong Dam, were the first two of Laos' Mekong mainstream dams, and were completed in 2020. Three others are in the planning or early construction stages

The Xayaburi Damas the government looks to generate revenue by selling the electricity from its hydropower projects to its neighbors, especially Thailand.

Laos has 78 dams in operation and has signed memoranda of understanding for 246 other hydroelectric projects, despite uncertainty about Thailands willingness to purchase the electricity they generate. China operates 11 mega-dams on the river, with at least two more planned.

Planned Mekong River dams such as Luang Prabang Dam and Sanakham Dam will make the drought worse, added the fisherman, who declined to give his name.

There will be no more fish at all. I dont want any more dams on the river, he said.

The lack of fish is also being felt in markets in Laos capital Vientiane.

This year, we dont have enough fish to sell; fish are scarce compared to last year, a fish trader there told RFA Lao Service on Jan. 14.

Another fish trader said he hadnt procured any fish for two weeks.

A Lao official who works closely with the Mekong River Commission told RFA that the water levels of the Mekong depend on the amount of water released by China.

When there is little water coming down from the north, the lower region will have less water, he said. Sometimes, there is too much water in the north, so a lot of water is released. Thats why sometimes, the lower Mekong River region is dry and sometimes flooded.

Recent reports by the MRC and by the Mekong Dam Monitor say the main driver of drought in the Mekong basin is lack of rainfall during the wet season, said Brian Eyler, head of the Stimson Centers Southeast Asia Program and the Energy, Water, and Sustainability Program.

The driving factor is a lack of rain during the wet seasonno other factors can be so large to account for the gap, he wrote in e-mailed comments.

However, we have also determined that by and large, throughout these last three years of low flow, most dams in the Mekong basin were operated the same way as they operated in previous years of high or normal flow, said Eyler.

The upstream practice of holding back water in relatively low-flow years takes a relatively larger amount of water out of the system, meaning that dam restrictions during a time of drought hurt the Mekong even more, he wrote.

The fears expressed by fishermen and farmers reflect the fact that "the impacts of these restrictions are the most noticeable nearest to the dams themselves," added Eyler.

An Pich Hatda, head of the MRC Secretariat, said in a press release on Jan. 13 that the drought has been affecting agricultural production and the fishery industry as well as putting more pressure on livelihoods of those who live along and depend on the Mekong River.

Its also been threatening the ecosystem of the river, he said. Therefore, aggressive cooperation is important, not only cooperation from China but from all MRC members to tackle this problem.

The low water levels are putting more pressure on livelihoods of those who live along and depend on the Mekong River. (RFA)

A representative from the Network of Community Organization Council of Seven Northeastern Provinces, another Thai group that represents people who live along the Mekong, emphasized the need for sustainable development in the Lower Mekong Region in which residents have genuine input, in comments to a Mekong-U.S. Partnership seminar on Jan. 10.

The U.S. and five lower Mekong nations launched the partnership in September 2020 as a new multilateral cooperation framework amid growing concerns about Chinas expanding influence in mainland Southeast Asia.

In the last five years, our Mekong River has had a lot of problems with the water becoming clear [because of the] lack of sediment and food for aquatic species, the representative said.

The water level is down by more than half, [and] the river is flooded during dry season and dry in wet season.

Its not normal, he said. The water turns blue, affecting the ecosystem, natural resources, the environment, and the fish population.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Police attribute string of thefts to former rail workers who have become addicted to drugs.

Lao authorities this month arrested five men accused of stealing electric cable from the Lao-China high-speed railway, the latest in a string of thefts police say were committed by former workers on the rail line who have become addicted to drugs.

The five stole cables valued at $8,000, according to a police officer who spoke to RFA on Wednesday. They were taken into custody on Jan. 15.

A lot of electrical cables were stolen, and those who took them were relatively young men, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

The $6 billion railway, which opened in early December, is a centerpiece of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative of state-led lending for infrastructure projects to tie countries across Asia to China. It offers land-locked Laos the promise of closer integration with the worlds second largest economy.

Speaking to local media on Wednesday, Lt. Col. Thatsaphong Savanmanychanh  deputy police chief of the Hatxayfong district of the capital Vientiane  said the accused men had stolen the cables from the districts Dong Phosy railway station between Jan. 6 and 15.

The men confessed to their crimes, saying they had come from the provinces to work as laborers building the station, but when the station was complete they didnt go back home. Instead, they stayed at the worker camp near the station.

The men had stolen cable on nine occasions. They then sold their haul to a store that purchased metal, Thatsaphong said.

They then used the proceeds to buy meth pills, got high, and played a lot of video games, Thatsaphong said.

The five men now being held were identified as Vang, 25, from Luang Prabang province; Mi, 38, from Xayaburi province; Malae, 29, from Houaphanh province; Sing, 28, from Houaphanh province; and Phoutthasak, 31, from Hatxayfong in Vientiane.

Residents of Vientiane told RFA that they wanted more security on the rail line and more effective government policies to address unemployment, poverty and crime in the one-party communist state.

These drug addicts are everywhere in the capital, one resident said, speaking like RFAs other sources for this story on condition of anonymity. These people will get high, do nothing during the day and then go out to steal during the night, the source said.

They are sometimes taken to a rehab center, but a short time later they just come back again.

Another Vientiane resident called for the recently opened rail line connecting Laos with China to be patrolled around the clock.

They shouldnt let down their guard, its too dangerous, and something could happen there, he said.

A third resident called for the government to do more to increase employment in the area.

These thieves might be homeless and have no food to eat, and most of them are drug addicts, he said. If they had jobs, they wouldnt steal things like that.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
A record of the verdict says the women were imprisoned for illegal religious activities.

A Uyghur woman holds a placard as she demonstrates to ask for news of her relatives in northwestern China's Xinjiang region and to express concern about an extradition treaty between China and Turkey, near the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, March 8, 2021.

A court in Xinjiang sentenced five Muslim Uyghur women from one family to lengthy jail terms for illegal religious activities, according to a copy of the 2019 verdict recently obtained by RFA.

The women  an elderly mother, her three daughters, and her daughter-in-law  received jail terms of between seven and 20 years, according to the document from the Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) Municipal Peoples Court. Korla is the second-largest city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Halcham Pazil, Melikizat Memet, Patigul Memet, Zahire Memet and Bostan Ibrahim, were convicted of disturbing public order and inciting ethnic hatred for hearing and providing a venue for illegal religious preaching, according to the document.

The eldest of the five Uyghur women, Halcham Pazil, is 78 years old, and the youngest, Bostan Ibrahim, is 33. Four of the women are housewives and one is a civil servant.

The verdict issued on April 2, 2019, indicates that the charges against them were brought by the Korla Municipal Procuratorate.

The verdict also mentions an imprisoned woman named Kadirye Memet, adding that her case would be dealt with separately.

Halchigul Memet, whom the document says led the women in religious discussions and is now living in exile, said Kadirye is a relative of the other five.

Chief Judge Shirali Memet, Judge Ahmetjan Kurban, Judge Ibadet Yasin and registrar Dilmurat Parhat signed the sentencing document. An official from the Korla Municipal Court declined to answer questions about the case.

Why do you want to know about our judge? What government department are you calling from? he asked.

The official told the RFA reporter that an officer from the local police department would contact him, but no one did. Another official confirmed that chief judge and other two judges who had signed the verdict were still working at the same court.

Halchigul Memet, mentioned in the verdict as having led the five women during the religious gatherings, told RFA she was related to the five imprisoned women.

We were all relatives. I mean they were all direct relatives, and I was like a relative to them and them to me, she told RFA from Turkey.

The women followed traditional Uyghur customs and frequently visited each other to talk about their children and to practice their religion, Halchigul said.

We used to go to each household regularly on weekly or biweekly basis, she said. We would talk about how to improve our quality of life and help sharpen our religious knowledge.

We never had any political or anti-government talks, she said. We only talked about how to improve our well-being and our familys well-being and how to be traditionally good Muslims.

The prosecution and jailing of the five women for holding traditional religious gatherings is proof of the Chinese governments genocidal policies against Uyghurs, Halchigul said.

She said the other women arrested  Kadirye Memet  was also a member of the family of five women named in the verdict, she said.

Halchigul said that three other members of the same family  Mehmut and Musajan Memet, and Zohragul Hudaberdi, who married into the family  also had been sentenced to prison, bringing the total number of imprisoned relatives to nine.

The Chinese government cracked down on this kind of simple gathering as a crime against the country, Halchigul said. They were seven siblings from this family, and all were detained and imprisoned, even the familys in-laws were imprisoned. It was devastating to the entire family.

Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The defendants say they have no books to read or paper to write on to send letters.

Two Ugyhur men accused of bombing a Hindu shrine in Bangkok in 2015 have never been permitted to contact relatives, are not allowed time in a prison yard and are sometimes fed pork despite their Muslim faith, they told RFA-affiliated BenarNews this week.

Dressed in brown prison uniforms and wearing handcuffs and leg restraints, Uyghurs Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili spoke to a BenarNews reporter as they left a scheduling hearing Monday in the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court following their first court appearance in two years.

We are not allowed to make any phone calls in prison, Karadag and Mieraili told BenarNews through an interpreter following the three-hour hearing. Our families have not heard from us or are even aware of our arrests in 2015.

The defendants said they have no books to read or paper to write on to send letters.

Some of the meals contain pork even though we are Muslims, they said. The hardest part is that we are not allowed to step outside of the building and do not get to see the sky.

Karadag and Mieraili have been housed at the militarys Lak Si temporary detention center since their arrests within two weeks of the blast that killed 20 people and injured more than 100 at the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist site, on Aug. 17, 2015. It has been called the deadliest terror attack in modern Thailand.

A military court began hearing the charges against them in 2016 before the case was moved to a Bangkok civilian criminal court in 2019.

Karadag and Mieraili, who identified themselves as Uyghurs from Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China, pleaded not guilty before both courts. They could face death sentences if convicted of charges including premeditated killing and possession of explosives.

Chuchart Kanpai, the lawyer representing Karadag, said the defense and prosecution teams agreed that testimony would begin late this year.

The prosecution requested interviews with 424 witnesses, Chuchart told BenarNews. The next questioning of a witness will be on Nov. 1, 2022."

Mieraili lawyer Jamroen Panonpakakorn said the defendants will seek to question only five to 10 witnesses. The court scheduled sessions for Nov. 1 and 2, Nov. 22 through 25, and Dec. 6 through 9.

Delays

Over the years, the trial has been beset by delays linked to interpreters. A lawyer and an NGO worker assisting the Uyghurs with their defense previously said Karadag could not speak Chinese and would prefer a Uyghur-speaking translator while Mieraili can communicate in English, but not fluently.

On Monday, the Uyghurs met an interpreter proposed by the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok and signed documents accepting the arrangement. The interpreter was selected in August 2021 but was not able to travel to Thailand until this month because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the Peoples Empowerment Foundation, a Thai NGO, expressed concern about the decision.

The defendant should have a basic right to choose the interpreter because it has a great impact on the case and it is a matter of life and death, Chalida told BenarNews.

We see that the court does not have an understanding of Uyghur and Chinese politics because the court should not employ an interpreter from the Chinese government under these political circumstances. It shows that this process of hiring an interpreter is not sensible.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Top U.S. and Russian diplomats have agreed to keep working to ease tensions over Ukraine as the United States promised a written response to Russian security demands and kept open the possibility of another presidential meeting.



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on January 21 in Geneva at what Blinken said was a "critical moment" in the crisis over Russia's buildup of tens of thousands of troops near the border with Ukraine.



Blinken told Lavrov the United States would give Russia written responses to Moscow's requests next week and suggested the two would likely meet again shortly after that.



Blinken also said the United States and its allies remained resolute in rejecting Russia's most important demands, including promises that Ukraine will never be added as a member of NATO and that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders.



But Blinken said he believes the United States and Russia "are now on a clearer path to understanding each other's positions."



Based on the conversations that have taken place this month, Blinken said he thinks there is a "means to address some of the mutual concerns that we have about security."



Blinken said Lavrov repeated Russia's insistence that it has no plans to invade Ukraine despite amassing an estimated 127,000 troops in occupied Crimea and near Ukraine's borders, raising alarm bells in Western capitals that it is preparing further military action against Ukraine.

"We're looking at what is visible to all, and it is deeds and actions and not words that make all the difference," Blinken said.



Blinken said he also repeated during the meeting with Lavrov that the United States and its allies were committed to diplomacy and warned of a "swift, severe" response if diplomacy fails.



Lavrov called the talks "constructive and useful" and said he hoped "emotions will decrease."



"I can't say whether we are on the right track or not," he told reporters. "We will understand that when we receive the U.S. written response to all of our proposals."



Russia's Foreign Ministry said later that in his talks with Blinken, Lavrov had warned of "the most serious consequences" if Washington ignored Moscow's security demands.

Lavrov agreed that another meeting between him and Blinken could be held, but said it was "premature" to start talking about another summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.



Blinken said the United States would be open to such a meeting if it would be "useful and productive." The two have met once in person in Geneva and have had several inconclusive virtual conversations on Ukraine.



Biden plans to spend the weekend meeting with his national-security team at Camp David in Maryland, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.



After the meeting, Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and reaffirmed U.S. support for Kyiv's sovereignty and stressed that no decisions would be made without his country's input, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

Kuleba tweeted that he welcomed the fact that diplomacy "remains active." He added that he and Blinken had discussed further strengthening Ukraine's defenses.



Washington also announced the first shipment of assistance to Ukraine had arrived to "bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression."



"The shipment includes close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front-line defenders of Ukraine," the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said on Twitter.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
The United States has called on the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina to put aside divisive rhetoric, saying Washington is ready to impose more sanctions on individuals who "sow divisions."

Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID), said the United States had stood by the people of Bosnia through war and peace "and we stand with you now," but the current "talk of war" is making it difficult to attract investment from outside the country and to build a strong economy.

Power spoke on January 21 at the end of a three-day visit to Bosnia during which she met with members of the country's tripartite presidency.

She told a news conference in Sarajevo that the United States was very concerned about the current political crisis, the country's worst since its 1992-95 war.

Power called on Bosnian politicians to put aside rhetoric that brings into question the durability of 26 years of peace.

"President Dodik particularly has created a climate of tension, one that is vulnerable to miscalculation and the risk of escalation," Power said, referring to Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the country's presidency.

Power said that pulling the Republika Srpska out of the national institutions, as Dodik has threatened to do, would only hurt the region economically.

The United States earlier this month slapped new sanctions on Dodik, and Power said more sanctions would be coming against others who engage in corruption and threaten to undermine the U.S.-brokered, 1995 peace accord for Bosnia.

"We recognize the gravity of sanctions and the impact that they have on individuals' financial holdings, on their travel, and on their reputation," she said. "On the question whether the U.S. is considering more sanctions, the answer is yes."

Dodik repeated that he and Bosnian Serbs were being picked on unfairly by the United States and wrongly accused of corruption. After meeting with Power, he indicated some willingness to consider the Serbian representatives' return to work in Bosnia's shared institutions.

The Dayton peace accords, which ended the war, split the country into two highly autonomous regions, the Orthodox Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat federation dominated by Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks. The two regions are linked by a weak central government.

Dodik has long advocated the secession of the Republika Srpska and its eventual unification with Serbia and recently intensified his secessionist campaign.

With reporting by Reuters and AP
Russia's Foreign Ministry has dismissed Britain's claim that Moscow is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine amid mounting concern over a Russian military buildup near its border with Ukraine.

The British Foreign Office said on January 22 that it had information the Russian government is considering former Ukrainian parliament member Yevhen Murayev as a potential candidate while it decides "whether to invade and occupy Ukraine."

The ministry did not provide evidence to back its accusations, which included naming several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on January 23 described the British claims as "disinformation" and another example of NATO members "escalating tensions around Ukraine."

"We urge the British Foreign Ministry to stop provocative activities," the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

"The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement alongside the intelligence assessment.

"As the U.K. and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs," she added.

"There'll be very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade but also install a puppet regime," British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said in a January 23 interview with Sky News.

The British statement claimed there were "numerous" former Ukrainian politicians with ties to Russian intelligence and who had served under former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The pro-Kremlin Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 amid popular protests that led to a pro-Western government taking control in Kyiv.

Among those alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence are Serhiy Arbuzov, who was first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2014 and acting prime minister in 2014; Andriy Kluyev, first deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2012 and chief of staff to Yanukovych; Volodymyr Sivkovich, former deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council (RNBO); and Mykola Azarov, prime minister of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014.

The United States finds the allegation that Moscow intends to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine "deeply concerning," a statement from National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said.



"This kind of plotting is deeply concerning. The Ukrainian people have the sovereign right to determine their own future, and we stand with our democratically elected partners in Ukraine," Horne said.

Some analysts questioned the British claims, pointing to Murayev being a marginal figure who himself is under Russian sanctions. He is also not close to Viktor Medvedchuk, the Kremlin's most prominent ally in Ukraine who was put under house arrest last year in a treason case.

In a Facebook post, Murayev dismissed the British claims.

"The time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is over," he wrote on January 24.

"I appeal to everyone who is invested in Ukraine's fate: stop dividing us into categories -- into pro-Russian and pro-Western -- stop putting us head to head against each other and we will build peace in our country ourselves," the post continued.

Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian security policy, said on Twitter he had doubts about the British claims.

"We have seen way too many assertions, airily backed by claims of intel, disappear or be disproved in recent years," he wrote. "The Russians -- like everyone else -- plan for multiple contingencies. They don't know what will happen next."

Various Russian intelligence agencies and centers of power have "all kinds of rival and speculative schemes," but "this is not in itself evidence of any coherent Kremlin plot and specific intent, let alone an associated and definite intent to take over the whole country through invasion and setting up a puppet government," he said.

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops in occupied Crimea and near Ukraine's borders, raising alarm bells in Western capitals that it is preparing further military action against Ukraine.

Moscow is backing separatist fighters in an ongoing war in eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 13,200 lives since 2014, the same year it illegally annexed Crimea. Russia denies planning an invasion.

The British claims come a day after the top U.S. and Russian diplomats failed to make a major breakthrough in talks to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, although they agreed to keep talking.

Russia has ramped up its belligerent rhetoric recently as it presses for a list of security guarantees. The demands include a promise from NATO never to admit Ukraine and for a significant retreat of the alliance from Eastern Europe. Moscow is also angered over Western military support to Ukraine.

The West has repeated it wants diplomacy, but with positions entrenched on both sides, successive talks between Western and Russian officials in Geneva, Brussels, and Vienna this month failed to yield any breakthrough.

Meanwhile, European and Russian media reported Truss would visit Moscow in February for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the crisis along the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Truss's proposed visit would be the first by a British foreign secretary to Moscow since December 2017.

The AFP news agency earlier on January 22 quoted a "senior U.K. defense source" as saying Defense Secretary Ben Wallace had invited Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to hold talks about the Ukraine tensions.

With reporting by AFP, AP, TASS, and Reuters
India Yamaha Motor recently announced the launch of the new DLX trim for the FZ S FI motorcycle and now the company is likely to launch the new 2022 FZS25 in the Indian market soon, dealer sources have told HT Auto. Although there is no official communication from the firm's end yet.

The new motorcycle is likely to sport a new exterior paint theme to give it a refreshed look. Apart from new colours, the rest of the details are likely to remain the same.

(Also Read: Yamaha Aerox 155 performance scooter becomes costlier in India)

The yearly refreshed model is expected to feature the same 250cc single-cylinder engine that is capable of delivering 20bhp of maximum power and 20.1Nm of peak torque. The engine comes mated to same five-speed gearbox.

The Japanese automaker might also update the feature list on the motorcycle which currently includes full-LED lighting, LCD console and dual-channel ABS.

As far as the pricing is concerned, the updated model may cost marginally higher than the pricing of the existing model which retails from 1.43 lakh (ex-showroom). It will continue to go head to head against the Bajaj Dominar 250, Bajaj Pulsar F250, and the Suzuki Gixxer 250 bikes.

(Also Read: Ex Yamaha Partha Choudhary joins LML as COO, will push brand towards e-mobility)

Meanwhile the company has recently rolled out the new EMF electric scooter for the Taiwan. This scooter has been developed in collaboration with Gogoro. And it is the second from the house of Yamaha after the EC-05 which was first globally revealed back in 2019. (More details here)

First Published Date:
A British citizen imprisoned in Iran on spying charges is launching a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment and what his family said on January 22 is a lack of pressure to secure his release.

The 67-year-old Anush Ashoori, a dual British-Iranian national, was sentenced in 2019 to 12 years in prison after being convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.

In a video statement shared on social media, Ashoori's daughter, Elika Ashoori, said that her father was beginning the hunger strike at Tehran's notorious Evin prison on January 23 after failing to see "any progress" from Britain to free him.

Elika Ashoori also said the family had seen "no sign the welfare of hostages held by Iran is a priority of the U.S., European, and U.K. governments."

"Needless to say we are extremely concerned for his physical health as he approaches his 68th birthday," she said, adding that the strike aims to bring "global attention" to her father's plight and those of other foreign or dual-national individuals being held in Iran.

Ashoori was sentenced along with two other individuals accused of spying.

Aras Amiri, a woman who had worked for the British Council while allegedly spying on cultural activities in Iran, was sentenced to 10 years. The second, Ali Johari, was sentenced to 12 years for alleged ties to Mossad.

Iran does not recognize dual nationalities.

Ashoori's protest follows a hunger strike in December begun by a Frenchman who has been jailed in Iran on spying charges. Benjamin Briere, 36, went on trial on January 20 and appeared severely weakened by his strike, according to his lawyers.

Briere was charged with spying and propaganda against Iran after being arrested in May 2020 after flying a remote-controlled mini-helicopter in the desert near the Turkmenistan-Iran border. A spying conviction is punishable by death in Iran.

A decision in his case is expected in the coming days.

Elika Ashoori said her father's hunger strike was in "full solidarity" with a hunger strike begun in Vienna by Barry Rosen, a former U.S. diplomat who was held hostage after Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Rosen, 77, is demanding the release of all the foreign "hostages" in Iran, saying they "are human beings, not bargaining chips".

Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese national who was held in Iran on spying charges from 2015-19, has joined Rosen's hunger strike in Vienna.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and The Guardian
More than 460 people are still being held on terrorism and public-disorder charges in connection with mass disorders earlier this month, Kazakh officials have said.

Eldos Kilymzhanov, a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, said on January 22 that about 500 other people were being held on less serious charges such as theft, disorderly conduct, and weapons possession.

He added that 73 of the detainees were wounded, including "29 people with gunshot wounds."

A number of former detainees have alleged they were abused while in custody.

Earlier this month, Russian-led forces were called into Kazakhstan to put down mass unrest that was initially triggered by price hikes for fuel.

The government has blamed the violence on international terror cells, while analysts attribute it to a power struggle between elites loyal to President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and former President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Prominent relatives of Nazarbaev have since been dismissed from corporate and government posts.

Over 2,000 troops sent by the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization completed their withdrawal from the country on January 19.

With reporting by AFP
President Maia Sandu has dissolved the Moldovan parliament and called snap elections for July 11, shortly after the Constitutional Court canceled a state of emergency that lawmakers had approved.

"The Constitutional Court has opened the way for Moldovan citizens to elect a new parliament," Sandu told a televised briefing.

The state of emergency, which was declared last month to help fight a surge in COVID-19 infections, had prevented Sandu from calling an election.

Sandu, who came to office in November on a pro-European Union ticket, has accused the pro-Moscow, Socialist-dominated parliament of sabotaging her reform agenda and repeatedly pushed for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe's poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with the European Union and, especially, neighboring EU member Romania.

Most of Moldova was part of Romania until World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and a majority of its population is ethnic Romanian.

With reporting by Reuters
When the notorious warden of a prison controlled by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine told a court during his arraignment in November that he had been living in Kyiv for more than two years, many people were shocked.

Denys Kulykovskiy first became known to the Ukrainian public in December 2019, when freed hostages returning from the separatist-held areas of the Donbas following a swap spoke of the brutality of the plump man overseeing Izolyatsia, a makeshift prison located inside a former Soviet-era factory in the provincial capital of Donetsk.

The 37-year-old former Ukrainian penitentiary officer who sided with the Kremlin-backed separatists following the downfall of Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 allegedly beat, tortured, and raped multiple people being held at the prison, including Ukrainian soldiers and ordinary citizens.

He was soon a wanted man in Ukraine. The Prosecutor-General's Office in Kyiv formally declared Kulykovskiy a suspect in December 2020 -- but apparently believed he was far from their reach, living either in the separatist-held part of the Donbas or in Russia.

In fact, he was living nearby.

Kulykovskiy had relocated to Kyiv in 2019 after he began cooperating with the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) on a counterintelligence operation, three former SBU officers told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, which investigated the matter in cooperation with the open-source research group Bellingcat. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media.

One of the former officers provided details of Kulykovskiy's purported cooperation with the SBU, but it could not be independently verified. Stanislav Aseyev, a former contributor to RFE/RL who was held at Izolyatsia from 2017-2019, said it was likely that Kulykovskiy possessed substantial information about the activities of the separatists -- as well as Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) -- in the Donetsk region.

The same former officer told RFE/RL that he and other agents working with Kulykovskiy were rotated to another agency in the autumn of 2019 and their work with the former warden ended. Kulykovskiy, the former officer said, "essentially became a free man" living in Kyiv.

As evidence that Kulykovskiy cooperated with the agency, the same former officer provided RFE/RL with a video that purportedly showed the former warden speaking by phone from his apartment in Kyiv in 2019 to Vasyl Yevdokymov, who is a senior figure among the separatists in Donetsk and who set up the Izolyatsia prison.

The other two former SBU officers also said that Kulykovskiy assisted with counterintelligence work, and confirmed the details of the video. RFE/RL was not able to independently verify the location and date of the video.

A separate piece of possible evidence was a recording published in January 2020 by a Ukrainian news site in which a man identified as Kulykovskiy is heard speaking about criminal activity with an assistant to Yevdokymov.

In a statement to RFE/RL, the SBU said that "there are no grounds" to claim that Kulykovskiy was an informant and that it moved to arrest him as soon as his whereabouts became known. "When information about Kulykovskiy's presence and movements on the territory of Ukraine was confirmed, he was detained by the SBU counterintelligence," the statement said. It did not provide any explanation of his whereabouts or activities in the years prior to that.

Following The Trail

Intelligence agencies worldwide rarely acknowledge that an individual is or was cooperating with them because it could damage their ability to recruit new sources in the future. Suspects who cooperate are usually given reduced sentences or allowed to remain free -- a tradeoff that can be controversial when someone suspected of serious crimes is treated with leniency.

Kulykovskiy was detained on November 9, 2021 after Aseyev, who is now an expert at the Kyiv-based think tank Ukrainian Institute for the Future, teamed up with Christo Grozev, the lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat, to track him down.

Aseyev had been following the state's investigation into torture at Izolyatsia since being freed and noticed in August 2021 that Kulykovskiy was not among the individuals being charged in absentia by a court in the government-controlled Donetsk region with torture at Izolyatsia.

When he inquired with local police why they left Kulykovskiy's name off the list, he was told the former warden could not charge him in absentia because they had information indicating that he crossed into government-controlled Ukrainian territory in April 2019.

Aseyev then contacted Grozev for help locating Kulykovskiy. Their investigation led them to the first former SBU officer, who said he recalled Kulykovskiy assisting with a counterintelligence operation in 2019. That former officer said he no longer knew where Kulykovskiy was but recommended they inquire with the second former SBU officer, who had been keeping an eye on the former warden.

When contacted by Aseyev and Grozev in October, that former SBU officer said that he knew Kulykovskiy's whereabouts and was ready to turn him over to the authorities. At that point, Aseyev and Grozev urged the police to apprehend the suspect.

The police passed the information to the SBU and officers of the security agency arrested Kulykovskiy on suspicion of "taking part in the killing and torturing of illegally held Ukrainian citizens." The charges against him include human trafficking, involvement in terrorist activities and illegal armed forces, and war crimes.

At his arraignment the following day, Kulykovskiy admitted that he had worked at Izolyatsia. He was ordered held in pretrial detention pending further investigation. He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Drunken Brutality

The shifting history of Isolyatsia, a sprawling compound 7 kilometers from the center of Donetsk, reflects the stark changes in the fate of the industrial Donbas region in the past three decades. Its name, which in English means "insulation," not "isolation," comes from the product that was made there in the Soviet era.

For a time, like shuttered factories in many places around the world, it served as a center for the arts, with statues and other installations dotting the grounds. But in June 2014, after the separatists seized parts of the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk provinces at the start of a war that has killed more than 13,000 people, those forces transformed it into a rudimentary prison that some former inmates have likened to a concentration camp.

Kulykovskiy was tapped as warden nearly from the start.

According to accounts from former inmates, he often took part in what several of them described as frequent beatings, abuse, and torture of people being held there, including electric shock and rape. He was a heavy drinker, according to the accounts.

Stanislav Pechonkin, a former prisoner at Izolyatsia, said that he and his cellmates were once forced to sing for Kulikovskiy on his birthday, were beaten, and narrowly escaped death when the intoxicated warden ordered them shot.

"My cellmates were taken out so that we could entertain those who were celebrating and sing songs for them. All this turned into a beating, and then [Kulykovskiy] and those who were with him -- they were all already quite drunk -- ordered the guard to shoot us," Pechonkin said. He said they were saved by the guard, who was sober and led them back to their cell.

Other inmates claim they were painfully sprayed down with high-powered water, beaten with batons, and had their fingers broken. Women inmates were raped, according to prisoners.

Kulykovskiy was removed from his position in 2018, for excessive violence. Former inmates claim that his dismissal was the result of a financial dispute with Yevdokymov.

Following his dismissal, Kulikovskiy was held for a short period of time as a prisoner at Izolyatsia, where former inmates say he was beaten.

According to the first former SBU officer, Kulikovskiy traveled to Russia after being released. However, in April 2019, he returned to Ukraine, where he was met by SBU agents.

Shortly after his arrest in November, the Kremlin-backed forces controlling Donetsk and part of the surrounding province declared that Kulikovskiy was wanted on charges of treason, torture, and murder.

At least 166 people have been held at Izolyatsia, though the exact number is unknown. The prison is believed to be still in operation.

Written by Todd Prince based on reporting by Donbas.Realities of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. Petr Serebrianyi contributed to this report
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has accused Germany of "undermining unity" and "encouraging Vladimir Putin" by refusing to supply weapons to Kyiv amid heightened fears of a possible Russian invasion.

Kuleba wrote on Twitter on January 22 that "recent statements by Germany about the impossibility of transferring defense weapons to Ukraine...do not correspond to the level of our relations and the current security situation."

While Kuleba said Kyiv was grateful to Berlin for its support since 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and began backing separatist fighters in the east of the country, "Germany's current stalemates are disappointing and run counter to this support and effort."

As Russian military and diplomatic moves and the massing an estimated 127,000 troops near Ukraine's borders have heightened concerns of a possible invasion, some of Germany's fellow NATO members have announced provisions of weapons to help Ukraine defend itself.

On January 22, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a newspaper interview that Berlin will send a field hospital to Ukraine in February, but rejects the delivery of arms.

"Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment -- that is the consensus in the federal government," Lambrecht told Die Welt.

Ukraine has requested that Germany provide 100,000 helmets and protective vests while also asking Berlin to rethink its position on arms deliveries.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, told the Handelsblatt business newspaper on January 22 that Kyiv would "not rest in convincing the German government...to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine."

In a separate development, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on January 22 summoned Germany's ambassador regarding comments made by a German military leader that appeared to express empathy for Russian President Putin.

During an appearance in India on January 21, Vice Admiral and head of the German Navy Kay-Achim Schonbach said that what Putin "really wants is respect," adding that it would be "easy to give him the respect he really demands and probably also deserves."

Schonbach also said that "the Crimean Peninsula is gone. It will never come back [to Ukraine].

Schonbach apologized for his remarks, calling them a "clear mistake" in a tweet, before resigning on January 22.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has described the comments as "unacceptable."

Germany's Defense Ministry distanced itself from Schonbach's comments, saying they "in no way correspond to the position of the Defense Ministry."

On January 22, a shipment of U.S. military aid, including unspecified lethal weapons, arrived in Kyiv.

The day before, NATO members Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania announced that they would provide anti-armor and antiaircraft missiles to Ukraine in a weapons transfer approved by the United States.

Estonia is also seeking to provide Soviet-era howitzers that once belonged to East Germany to Ukraine, but the move would have to be approved by Berlin.

Britain earlier delivered light anti-tank weapons to Kyiv, and other NATO members are mulling provisions to Ukraine.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier this week described arms supplies to Ukraine as dangerous and said they "do nothing to reduce tensions."

Washington and its fellow NATO allies have held separate talks with Russia amid rising tensions over Ukraine.

But the respective sides have refused to budge on their positions, with Moscow demanding security guarantees including that NATO never admit Ukraine as a member, and the Western negotiators saying sovereign states have a right to choose who they ally with and calling on Russia to pull back its troops.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and AFP
Ukrainian military intelligence says that Russia has boosted its military support for separatist formations in parts of eastern Ukraine in recent weeks and that the "active recruitment of mercenaries" has been stepped up in Russia.

In a statement posted on Facebook on January 21, the agency said more than 7,000 tons of fuel, tanks, self-propelled artillery, and other weapons and ordnance had been sent into Ukraine from Russia in recent weeks.

Moscow denies military involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine, despite compelling evidence that it has provided military, economic, and political support to the separatist formations controlling parts of Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions since the conflict erupted in early 2014.

The Ukrainian military intelligence statement also said recruitment centers in Russia had increased efforts to recruit mercenaries to fight in eastern Ukraine.

The claims come against the background of a large Russian military buildup along its border with Ukraine and in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea.

Authorities in Kyiv and Western governments have said Moscow could be preparing a direct military intervention in Ukraine, an accusation that Moscow denies.

The top diplomats of the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met in Berlin on January 20 and warned Moscow of a "swift, severe response" and "grave consequences" in the event of further escalation of the conflict.
The first part of a security support package from the United States has arrived in Kyiv, the U.S. Embassy said on January 22. The 90-ton shipment includes lethal weaponry, although its precise content has not been disclosed. The delivery followed U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's visit to Kyiv last week amid concerns over tens of thousands of Russian troops massed at the border with Ukraine.
LOS ANGELES  EvaDiamondxx, who won the title of Aspiring Live Cam Model of the Year at the 2020 Live Cam Awards Gala, has been named host of the 2022 Live Cam Awards.

Established in March 2015 and billed as "the first award show dedicated exclusively to the live cam industry," the eighth annual edition is scheduled for February 24th at Finca Mas Solers, Barcelona.



"We are extremely happy to host the eighth Annual Edition at Finca Mas Solers," said Alexandra Georgia, LCA founder and organizer. "LCA's innaugural edition took place in this magical venue in March 2015. After eight years, we are back to this historical place, perfect for a fairy-tale celebration.

"Finca Mas Solers is a Catalan mansion built in late nineteenth century Renaissance style that, during its golden age, housed the former Gran Casino Barcelona. We want to thank EvaDiamondxx for accepting the invitation of being this year host of our gala. Now more than ever we are grateful to be able to host the event again and meet our friends and partenrs safely."

EvaDiamondxx remarked, "By far the most memorable event has been the Live Cam Awards of 2020 in Lisbon, where I proudly and happily took home the Aspiring Model of the Year award. The awards show is a pivotal and important chance to connect not only with the core of the business but to be part of a truly elegant and exquisite event. I am honored to present this years awards. Its been a tough two years in our industry and we have seen many changes. I respectfully thank every model who changed and adjusted to new norms and to the sites that supported us and molded to new needs and situations."

EvaDiamondxx continued, "To be the host of this years Live Cam Awards is a dream I didnt know I had. I am proud to be a cam model, proud to represent my studio Models4Models and proud to be part of such a wonderful group of people who daily help to break the stigma of this industry. I look forward to seeing you all there and offer my congratulations to every nominee and urge you all, to write your own story."
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PHOENIX -- Insisting it will make students safer, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to let anyone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon bring it on to university and college campuses, including classrooms and dorms.

The move came as Republican lawmakers on the panel rejected arguments by Michael Thompson, the chief of police of Arizona State University, who told them that SB 1123 is a bad idea.

"I'm here to tell you from first-hand experience that university students make very poor decisions on a daily basis, sometimes hourly basis," he said. "Adding guns to an already high-risk environment of alcohol, drugs, overreaction, lack of life experience and immaturity is a very dangerous combination."

And Thompson, who has been ASU police chief since 2014, said doesn't even take into account mental health issues and students who are considering suicide.

But Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, the sponsor of the measure, said his objections and those of lobbyists for the universities and community colleges ignores what she said is current reality of those ignoring existing law.

"How do you know how many weapons are on campus?" she asked.

Thompson conceded she has "a very good point."

Rogers pressed on.

The senator suggested a situation where "a potential perpetrator" comes onto a college campus.

"But then I understand that it's legal for fellow students to be carrying," she said.

"I would be less apt to inflict harm if I knew that other students might be carrying to protect themselves," Rogers said. "Is that not true?"

"That would be an assumption that I couldn't make," Thompson responded.

Other Republicans picked up on the theme.

Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, cited a 2015 incident at Northern Arizona University when Steven Jones, an 18-year-old freshman, shot four people and severely injured three others in a parking lot on the campus. Originally charged with murder, he later pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and three counts of aggravated assault and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Petersen said that proved there are guns on campuses despite the ban.

"They are being carried by those who do not care about the law," he said. They are being carried by those who are going to rape people, commit crimes, hurt people.

More to the point, Petersen argued that the results might have been different had SB 1123 been on the books.

"Had those other students been able to defend themselves they probably wouldn't have been shot," he said.

But Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, said that is based on the mistaken assumption that more guns on campuses actually creates a safer environment.

Quezada said he looked up data from Colorado that has allowed campus carry since laws against it were struck down in 2012 by that state's supreme court.

"The rates of rape actually increased ... and not by small amounts," he said, up 25% that year and 33% the year after that. "The research from other states with similar laws backs that up, too."

Yet Quezada said none of that has halted what have become perennial efforts in Arizona to expand who can carry weapons, and where.

Policies that force colleges to allow guns on campuses are likely to lead to more shootings, to more homicides, to more suicides and to more dangerous situations, not less, he said. We keep promoting this false narrative that guns are the answer to all our problems. And no, it's not. We need to stop portraying this narrative that anybody can be a hero because if they're armed with a gun in a dangerous situation."

And Quezada told colleagues this isn't just about claims about college students and their ability to react in an emergency.

"I don't trust most of you people if there was a dangerous situation to pull out a gun and be able to save anybody, much less not spill your drink on the dais up here," he said.

Proponent said this isn't about allowing anyone to be armed.

Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, said the legislation is limited to those with a concealed-carry permit. That is available only to those 21 and older -- 19 for veterans.

But Jody Liggett who lobbies for the League of Women Voters, pointed out that the requirements to get a CCW permit have been loosened over the years.

"A person can obtain one without training in firearms, weapons or showing proficiency," she said. "Therefore, to assume that holding such a permit mitigates the danger of guns on campus is wrong."

Much of the argument for the measure, however, came down to pure numbers.

Thompson acknowledged that he has just 92 officers to cover four ASU campuses with more than 100,000 students. The staffing is similar at the University of Arizona which currently has 53 sworn officers -- it actually is authorized 66 but is still looking to hire -- for a campus that has about 50,000 enrolled.

But Thompson said there are other safety measures, ranging from the ability of students to get escorts at night to "blue light" emergency call boxes.

Borrelli was unimpressed.

"The police are minutes away, minutes," he said.

Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, had similar questions, citing a letter he got from a woman working at a community college -- he said he did not know which one -- who told him that classes can end as late as 9 p.m.

"She talks about the parking lots she has to cross," he said.

"She talks about the fact that in those parking lots there have been robbings, there have been muggings, there have been rapes." Leach continued. He said there just isn't the police presence to provide sufficient protection.

But Kristen Boilini who lobbies for community colleges, urged lawmakers to leave the issue to locally elected governing boards.

"All of our college boards work closely with law enforcement and security personnel to ensure that the policies they set protect students," she said.

Thompson noted that students are not defenseless, even if they cannot carry firearms.

In 2018, facing a demand by some lawmakers, the Arizona Board of Regents agreed to let those on campus carry non-lethal weapons.

That includes things like over-the-counter pepper sprays as long as they are not the same concentration as used by law enforcement. Students, staff and visitors also can have shock devices that can be purchased by the general public as long as they require direct contact with an assailant and do not shoot out electrically charged wires.

The measure still needs approval of the full Senate before going to the House.

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Danvers, MA (01923)

Today

Periods of rain. High 53F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Light rain early. Partial clearing overnight. Low 46F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Inside a 28,000-square-foot nondescript building off Auto Parkway in Escondido, Mike Simon and his team of 45 TransPower employees are shaping the future of large electric vehicles like big rig trucks and school buses.

Funded almost exclusively by government grants and contracts aimed at reducing the countrys dependence on fossil fuels, TransPower has clients all over the world clamoring for the businesses experimental technology.

Its exactly the type of company that Escondido leaders have been trying to attract for years  employers that offer high-paying jobs in up-and-coming fields.

TransPower will be one of the businesses featured later this month in a city promotional video that will debut at the Mayor Sam Abeds State of the City Address.

I think this is an impressive specialty business thats serving San Diego and the entire world, Abed said. Theyre already running out of room.

Advertisement

Simon started his business in 2011 in the Poway Business Park, but outgrew that site in 2016 and moved 20 miles north to Escondido, into a building once used by an aerospace company to manufacture weapons.

In the past six years, the company has received more than $50 million in local, state and federal grants, and has been perfecting its electric drive and battery storage systems.

Our technology is very research intensive, Simon, 57, said. Its taken years to develop our hardware and our software and our battery pack designs.

Government funding has been key since what TransPower does takes years to bear fruit. Private investors want a faster return on their investments, Simon said.

Weve been fortunate enough to find government agencies that promote energy efficiency, reduced emissions and reduced dependency on fossil fuels and weve competed for grants and contracts, he said.

But relying on a government committed to future energy needs can be nerve-racking when a new administration takes control in Washington D.C.

Its not clear yet how committed President Donald Trump might be to alternative forms of energy, but Simon is optimistic.

We all want clean air, he said. We all want good jobs. We all want, as Americans, to have leadership roles in industries of the future like renewable energy and like electric vehicles. Im pretty confident that once all the facts are put on the table and once all the businessmen in the current administration get to talking about all the jobs companies like TransPower are creating, there will be a strong support for us, no matter who is president.

Plus, Simon said, private companies that manufacture fleets of vehicles worldwide are paying attention.

Weve had visitors from Sweden just last week, he said. Weve had visitors from Finland, South Africa, fleet operators in France, South America, South Korea, Vietnam. Its really global and comes from all corners of the planet. And we dont even do global marketing. Its all word of mouth and our website (transpowerusa.com). Its quite exciting.

Uncertainty about future trade with China  which supplies most of the tens of thousands of batteries Transpower uses in its designs  led Simon to approach Escondido last year about the building a battery factory in the city.

He envisions a day when electric heavy equipment will make up a large part of the trucking and large-vehicle economy.

Diesel engine big rigs will still be needed for long-distance hauling because current battery technology isnt even close to allowing for lengthy trips without recharging. But for local hauling, once the technology gets into mass manufacturing, Simon believes the costs and fuel savings will change the industry forever.

School buses would seem perfect for widespread conversion. Recently the Blue Bird Corp., a large-scale manufacturer of school buses, received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop electric buses  money that has found its way to TransPower, which will be converting 12 new buses in the coming year.

Simon says 500 of his systems could eventually be built in Escondido annually and then shipped to Blue Birds massive bus factory in Georgia for installation.

Simons wife, Kirsten Andleman Simon, said when the electric school buses the company has already converted are put into use the children, drivers and parents all rave about the quiet, emissions free ride they provide.

And buses can be used in the morning to take kids to school, brought back to a central yard where the batteries would be recharged, then taken back out again in the afternoon for school pick up.

Simon says he plans on hiring 15 more people this year and he sees a future that could bring 200 new employees to TransPower if the Blue Bird tests prove a success.

No matter how much fracking we do and how many wells we drill, theres only a finite amount of fossil fuel that will be used up, Simon said. Long term, we need renewable sources of energy for transportation. Which countries are in the lead in creating those industries will be key. Its important that America remain in the lead in electric vehicle technology.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
Sanford, NC (27330)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Sanford, NC (27330)

Today

Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Update: 22-01-2022 | 17:04:26

The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on December 30, 2021 issued a resolution allowing the implementation of a number of mechanisms and policies in the healthcare sector serving COVID-19 prevention and control activities, including the management of drug and drug ingredients.

After the document was promulgated, Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) Alain Cany, on behalf of European businesses in the country, sent a letter to NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, expressing his appreciation for the promulgation of this Resolution, describing it an important step forward for both Vietnamese and European enterprises in socio-economic recovery and public health protection.

In particular, the EuroCham Chairman emphasised that the extension of the use of the circulation registration license until December 31, 2022 together with other regulations on drugs and ingredients will help ease difficulties and burdens caused by the lingering and complicated pandemic.

Previously, on December 15, 2021, the Ambassadors of EU member countries, the Ambassadors of Switzerland and Japan sent diplomatic notes asking the legislature to consider promulgating the Resolution within December to allow the continuation of the use of the circulation registration permit to import and circulate drugs in 2022.

The promulgation of this Resolution by the NA Standing Committee demonstrates its determination in COVID-19 prevention and control, its interest in economic activities, the legislative bodys companionship with and its efforts to solve difficulties and obstacles for businesses in the context of the pandemic as well as during economic recovery and development./.

VNA
Update: 22-01-2022 | 17:04:26

The Singaporean Ministry of Health on January 21 informed that the number of COVID-19 cases began to increase sharply in recent days, from an average of 800 cases last week to nearly 1,500 cases on January 20, with community infections accounting for the majority.

According to the ministry, the cases could double every two to three days, and could reach 10,000 to 15,000, or even more, per day.

It said to better protect local patients and healthcare workers, particularly settings with vulnerable persons, in-person visits to all hospital wards and residential care homes will be suspended for a period of four weeks, from 24 January to 20 February 2022.

Meanwhile, the permissible group size for social gatherings in the upcoming Lunar New Year remains at five persons. Correspondingly, the maximum number of unique visitors per household will remain at five persons per day.

To maximise its protection against Omicron, Singapore will extend the booster vaccination programme to individuals aged 12 to 17.

Earlier, the nation announced that from 14 February, persons aged 18 years and above will be considered fully vaccinated only for 270 days after the last dose of their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines. Thereafter, to retain their fully vaccinated status, they need to receive a booster dose./.

VNA
Update: 22-01-2022 | 17:04:26

Winners of the Bua Liem Vang (Golden Hammer and Sickle) Award 2021, the sixth National Press Award on Party Building, were announced at a ceremony at the Hanoi Opera House on January 21 night.

The organisation board presented six A, 12 B and 16 C prizes as well 30 consolation prizes to outstanding works choosen from over 2,000 entries, along with 10 thematic awards.

The A prizes were presented to six works by journalists from the Nhan dan Newspaper, Ca Mau Newspaper, Lao Cai Radio-Television Broadcaster, Bao Dau Tu (Investment Review), Xay dung Dang (Party Building) Magazine, and the Vietnam Television.

This year, for the first time, three media agencies  Nhan dan (People) Newspaper, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Dang Cong San Vietnam (Communist Party of Vietnam) online newspaper- were honoured for their creative communication products on Party building. The State-run Vietnam News Agency's website on the 13th National Party Congress was one of the three awarded creative media products.

According to the organising board, this year, the entries are diverse in forms and topics and have high quality. They have timely reflected "hot" events and issues of public interests , with many highlighting the protection of the Party ideology, rejecting wrongful arguments of hostile forces, and reflecting new ideas on Party-related theory and reality.

Addressing the ceremony, Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committees Secretariat Vo Van Thuong underlined that media works on Party building have helped the public inside and outside the country gain a better understanding of the Party and the countrys achievements under the Partys leadership, contributing to fostering peoples trust in the Party, State and regime.

The works also popularised exemplary models in Party building work, he said.

Thuong stressed the role of the press in the field, and asked journalists to continue to produce more high quality works on the topic.

At the ceremony, on the occasion of the 92nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 2, 1930-2022), Truong Thi Mai, Politburo member and head of the Party Central Committees Organisation Commission, who is also head of the Steering Committee on the Bua Liem Vang Award, launched the seventh edition of the award for 2022./.

VNA
WYMORE -- In the cold of Friday morning, a fire erupted in the laundry room of Hope-Wymore Assisted Living Center.

Chief Mark Meints said the Wymore Volunteer Fire Department, based just across the street, responded within seven minutes after a fire alarm went off at 6:22 a.m.

The fire was contained to the laundry room, Meints said.

Meints said smoke doors prevented smoke and fire from spreading into the wings where residents live, and no one suffered injuries.

The State Fire Marshals office, alongside a restoration company, is investigating and inspecting the facility to determine when residents can return.

There could be a good chance within the next 24 they could be returning to the facility, Meints said.

Meints said the staff had started an evacuation of the 58 residents by the time the Wymore department arrived. The Wymore department was aided by Blue Springs Fire and Beatrice Fire and Rescue.

We evacuated them originally to the Wymore Fire Department across the street to get them out of the cold, he said. And then they took them over to the Wymore Community Center. We have some cots here available for that, and then they also contacted emergency management. Gage County Emergency Management also arranged for some cots for them to be staying in the community center.

Meints said damage was minor and the employees working in the assisted living community did a great job handling the situation on their end.

The sprinkler system activated and did its job, and one of the employees used a fire extinguisher also, he said. Most of the damage was water damage from the sprinkler system.

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A San Francisco public safety agency affiliated with the citys police department appears to have posted  and then promptly deleted  a widely discredited hoax that people were being robbed by thieves peddling poisoned face masks door-to-door.

San Francisco SAFE, a non-profit that works with the San Francisco Police Department to promote safer neighborhoods, according to its website, posted a warning, which has since been removed, on Twitter and Nextdoor on Thursday, advising residents to be aware of a poisoned mask scam it said could result in being robbed.

The post, credited to SF SAFE executive director Kyra Worthy, featured a photo of some N-95 masks and the following caution:

WARNING! People are going door-to-door handing out masks, claiming its a new initiative from local government. They ask you to put it on to see if it fits you but it has been doused with chemicals which knock you out. Once youre knocked out, they proceed to rob you.

The posts were later removed from social media without explanation. SF SAFEs Worthy did not respond Friday afternoon to a call or an email seeking comment.

The warning, similar to others that have gone out across the country, has been discredited by fact-checking websites. San Francisco police spokesperson Robert Rueca said the department was aware of the posts  but not of any events involving poisoned masks.

We do not have information of any such incident being documented or undocumented in San Francisco, he told The Chronicle.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Rueca described SF SAFE as a partner of the police department. The organization, once part of the department, receives most of its funding from the police, according to its website. Rueca also said he doesnt know why the post was removed or by whom.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
There is a saying in my culture about a grain of rice  a bhaath no daano. You want to know what is happening in the pot of rice on the stove? The quality, the texture, the doneness of the rice? All you need is a bhaath no daano, a grain of rice, between your thumb and forefinger  pick out that grain, squeeze it between your fingertips, and it tells you all you need to know about the whole pot.

As a doctor who treats COVID patients, I get more opportunities than most to test the rice and see how our national anti-COVID efforts are faring. And thats been especially true since omicron struck.

Two weeks ago, I referred three of my patients who were suffering from COVID symptoms for monoclonal antibody treatment, which has been highly effective in stopping disease progression for those in high-risk categories. A day and a half later, I received an email from the infusion center informing me they would be unable to treat my patients. The center had 200 referrals for a mere 18 doses that week. Despite the fact that two of my patients were pregnant, prioritized for treatment under National Institutes of Health guidelines, they did not make the cut to receive care.

I immediately phoned my parents.

Illness from omicron has the reputation of being less severe than previous coronavirus variants  but it can still be deadly. For those most at risk of falling gravely ill, it was clear the most effective COVID treatments were quickly running out amid omicrons lightning-fast spread.

Both my parents are over 75 and immunocompromised as a result of chemotherapy for cancer. And yet NIH guidelines put them in the same priority tier to receive treatment as an unvaccinated 75-year-old with no medical conditions. I explained to them that with limited monoclonal antibody and anti-viral doses available, there were no guarantees they would get the treatment they needed if infected. I begged them to be extra careful, to use only N95 masks around others and to limit any activities to the outdoors only.

Later that week, as scarce supplies of the new oral COVID anti-virals Paxlovid and Molnupiravir starting trickling in, clinicians like myself started playing a mainly futile game of whack-a-mole, assembling and sharing spreadsheets to try and track supply. A local pharmacist told me they had just dispensed their 50th and final dose of the drugs, and they had no idea when they would get another shipment.

God forbid this information be freely available to clinicians in a central database with real-time tracking. Billionaires can hobby launch themselves into space, but, somehow, we cant have that.

Once again, I rung up my parents.

Really, now is not the time to get COVID, I insisted. We are losing nearly 2,000 Americans a day from this virus, hospitals are filling up, we cant get monoclonal antibodies to our patients, there are critical blood shortages and crisis standards of care are being activated.

Meanwhile, think pieces started their viral dissemination in the media, musing over whether people should stop trying to avoid the virus and accept the inevitability of contracting it.

I wanted to scream.

Yes, everyone may contract the disease eventually. But when there are critical shortages of staff, tests and treatments  at a moment when surgeries to remove cancer tumors are being delayed due to an overwhelmed system  this wasnt the time to subscribe to the COVID Inevitability Doctrine.

Not too long after, mom woke up with symptoms.

She went to the urgent care at her health maintenance organization, the one that claims it wants her to thrive. They tested her for coronavirus via a PCR test and informed her that the turnaround time for results was a whopping five days. The clinic did not have rapid tests and pharmacy shelves all over the county were bare.

My mom put me on the phone with her doctor, and I piped up to say how this would be a problem, since the anti-viral medication Paxlovid  which reduces the risk of death and hospitalization from COVID by an astounding near 90%  needs to be taken within five days of symptoms.

The doctor encouraged us to scrounge around for a rapid test and kindly handed mom a prescription for Paxlovid in case we were able to get a positive test result. We dont have any supply at any of our pharmacies, she said, but perhaps you can try any an outside pharmacy and see if you have any luck.

I asked her if she had successfully procured this medication for any of her patients. She hadnt. But, she helpfully added, I heard they have a lot in Texas.

Thus began the first scramble for rapid tests. A combination of luck, family and friends enabled us to score a few.

I simultaneously began the quest to find a pharmacy that dispensed Paxlovid. I will not weary you with the details, but suffice it to say that had I not been doctor, it would have been impossible.

I located a single pharmacy in the county that had supply, and only after speaking to countless doctors and pharmacists who knew nothing about the new drugs existence, how it worked or that it was even available.

Mom tested negative on the rapid antigen home test that day. We still await the lab results of her more reliable PCR test.

Wouldnt it be nice to get a definitive answer about her infection status so that her window to receive Paxlovid does not close? It sure would.

It didnt have to be this way.

Nearly two years into a pandemic, a PCR test should not take five days for a result. Every home should have already had ample rapid tests available to them. Every person in the country should also already have high quality N95 masks freely accessible to them, in various sizes, so that businesses and schools can stay open safely and people would not have to read or write articles about how to spot fake masks from real ones.

Nearly two years into a pandemic, an average of nearly 2,000 people a day should not be dying. Nor should the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider the fact that the majority of the vaccinated dead from omicron had multiple comorbidities encouraging news.

Nearly two years into a pandemic, the CDC should not be shortening isolation guidelines unless those changes are grounded in science, not guided by what the economy can bear. Nor should the health and safety of our workplaces be up to the whims and political leanings of nine justices with lifetime appointments who live in a rarefied bubble.

We are nearly two years into this pandemic. My moms story is just one grain of rice in a pot of millions. And yet its enough to tell us about the broader condition. It is clear that ours is a pot not fit for human consumption.

Dipti S. Barot is a primary care physician in the East Bay. Twitter: @diptisbarot
Last week, prosecutors recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice drop charges against Gang Chen, an MIT professor accused of concealing his ties to China while seeking federal grant money. Chen was charged in January 2021 as part of the departments China Initiative, a program launched during the Trump administration and presented as an effort to combat economic espionage and spying by China.

But far from keeping America safe, the China Initiative threatens our economy and our core ideals.

Since launching in 2018, the China Initiative has become a top priority for U.S. law enforcement and domestic counterintelligence. Yet, as a recent report from MIT Technology Review points out, details of the program are vague. The first country-specific program of its kind, the report explains that the DOJ has not publicly defined the initiative or answered many basic questions about it. And although the secrecy surrounding the program makes it difficult to assess, its negative effects over the past few years are very apparent.

Critics have long accused the program of racial profiling  and for good reason. According to the same MIT Technology Review report, nearly 90% of the known defendants charged under the initiative are of Chinese descent. Rep. Judy Chu called the China Initiative an instrument for racial profiling.

This kind of racial profiling feeds into a long history of anti-Asian and specifically anti-Chinese sentiment, going back to at least the late 19th century, and only serves to stoke the latest wave of violence and hatred against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. According to survey by the organization Stop AAPI Hate, 1 in 5 Asian American and Pacific Islanders experienced a hate incident last year.

Although the initiative claims to focus on economic espionage, the MIT Technology Review report found that of the 77 cases they could identify as being under the China Initiative, only a quarter of them included charges of violating the Economic Espionage Act. Over the years, prosecutors have increasingly moved their attention to questions of research integrity, bringing charges against academics for failing to disclose all ties to China on grant-related forms rather than any intent to spy. As the prosecutor in the recent case against Harvard professor Charles Lieber explained, The case is about false statements, false tax returns, and an unreported bank account in China. But such disclosure obligations are a minefield for the unwary and busy scientist. Even the new director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Eric Lander, conceded this point, saying, Its very hard to figure out what youre supposed to be disclosing. Agencies have different rules, and their definitions also vary.

In other words, what is a bureaucratic nightmare for scientists is a gold mine for prosecutors with an agenda.

That prosecutors have not charged any scientists with espionage is not surprising in the academic community. As an open letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland from 177 Stanford University faculty members explained, the openness of scientific research in academia makes acts of espionage unlikely.

The negative effects of the China Initiative go far beyond the lives of the individuals charged. A recent survey of nearly 2,000 scientists at 83 research institutions found that the U.S. governments search for spies among scientists has had a chilling effect, leading to about half of the scientists of Chinese descent surveyed feeling fear or anxiety about U.S. government surveillance, as opposed to just under 12% of non-Chinese scientists indicating similar concerns.

The culture of fear that the U.S. government has created among scientists is stifling innovation. The same survey found that many scientists, and disproportionately scientists of Chinese descent, are limiting their communication with collaborators in China and deciding not to involve China or work with collaborators in China in future projects. Moreover, 42% of non-U.S. citizen scientists of Chinese descent indicated that FBI investigations and/or the China Initiative have affected their plans to stay in the United States.

Much like other xenophobic initiatives initiated during the Trump administration, including the Muslim travel ban, the China Initiative is contributing to fewer international students and researchers wanting to come to the U.S.

The case brought against Lieber, who recently became the first scientist targeted by the initiative to be found guilty, marks a further step in the effort to deter all scientists from collaboration or association with China. That Lieber is neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent but was still convicted for failing to disclose research ties, sends a very clear message: Anyone conducting research in collaboration with researchers in China is suspect. FBI Director Christopher Wray, a strong advocate of the China Initiative, has spoken of a need for a whole-of-society approach to the China threat, encouraging other fields and industries to be suspicious of any connections in their workflow connected to the country.

To be sure, espionage against the U.S. is a genuine problem that needs to be addressed. But the China Initiative has veered from that task and done significant damage. If allowed to persist, the program will continue to threaten the fabric of our democracy as well as our ability to be a leader in innovation, ultimately affecting our economy.

The Justice Department says that one of the goals of the China Initiative is to educate colleges and universities about potential threats to academic freedom. Unfortunately, by instilling fear across academia, the China Initiative is that threat.

Julie Tang is a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge. Dr. John V. Walsh is a retired professor of physiology and neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.
After a downturn because of the omicron coronavirus surge, restaurant reservations in San Francisco are beginning to rebound despite continuing high case rates. Reservations are still down an average of 63% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, but data from OpenTable shows an 8 percentage point increase in reservations from Jan. 12, 2021 to Jan. 20. In addition, the percentage of San Francisco restaurants taking reservations on OpenTable rose 15 percentage points in the week of Jan. 5 to the week of Jan. 19.

Data from the California Department of Health show omicron cases probably peaked in the Bay Area around Jan. 18. With fewer cases, restaurants anticipate continued growth in patrons, according to Laurie Thomas, the owner of San Francisco-based restaurant Terzo and the executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.

Thomas says the ability to quickly shift to outdoor dining has been the key to the initial comeback. While in previous surges, many restaurants were learning to serve outdoors on the fly, this time they were ready.

At Fiorella, a neighborhood Italian restaurant with three locations across the city, co-founder Brandon Gillis says he really struggled in December. Beyond omicron, a rainy month made things even slower, as there was no way to comfortably seat outdoor diners. In January, the weather improved and so did business. Still, he says Fiorella restaurants sales are down about 20% from where they would typically perform in a normal January.

Outdoor dining was also essential to the rebound at Terzo, enabled by the parklet Thomas built at the start of the pandemic. With the lack of rain, Thomas says she is able to turn her outdoor tables at least twice.

Thomass parklets were legal due to the Shared Spaces program created by the San Francisco city government. The Shared Spaces program is a part of San Franciscos Economic Recovery Task Force. At the beginning of the pandemic, this program was put in place to allow business to move outdoors for approved purposes like retail and dining space. Though parklets did exist prior to the pandemic, the Shared Spaces program made it easier for businesses to build them as they did not have to follow previous code requirements of the city.

In December, Mayor London Breed proposed legislation to extend the time frame for businesses to bring their outdoor seating parklets up to code. Without the extension, Thomas would have to spend money to redevelop her parklet and wouldnt have use of the space while it was being reconstructed.

We really want the ability to still use our shared spaces, Thomas said. The last thing we want is for all of us to have to rip up our parklets and redo them or make significant modifications to them by March, so we are hoping that an extension would get introduced so we can all try and recover.

Even with the recent rebound, San Franciscos restaurant market recovery is among the weakest in the nation. OpenTable collects data from 45 U.S. cities, and San Francisco has the second lowest rate of seated diners when compared to 2019 just behind Philadelphia.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The number of restaurants open is also down. In San Francisco, just around 75% of restaurants on OpenTable are accepting reservations, while New York has over 80% of restaurants and Miami is showing almost 100% of restaurants on OpenTable taking reservations. The national average is a little over 90%. Thomas thinks this is because San Francisco is simply a cautious, educated city, and that characteristic is contributing to a slow rebound.

OpenTables data comes from a sample of 20,000 restaurants that share their inventory in states and cities with 50 or more restaurants on the OpenTable network. Because some restaurants do not use OpenTable or simply do not take reservations, their numbers may overestimate or underestimate the COVID downturn for restaurants. Still, it is a good proxy for the state of the industry.

Gillis believes that with updated guidance on quarantine lengths and clear testing requirements for his staff, San Francisco restaurants will emerge from omicron into a period of stability. He feels many small businesses were left scrambling in this surge, with few resources from the city. Gillis yearns for this to be the last major coronavirus wave, but he wont plan on it.

Im just hopeful that everyone comes down safely off the omicron surge and that all of the small businesses have the opportunity for a stable operating environment for a sustained period of time, Gillis said.

Amy Coval is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: amy.coval@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @amy_coval
Belden Place is one of those atmospheric slices of San Francisco that feel as if they could be nowhere else. Too bad they also can feel as if theyve seen better days, especially after two years of pandemic-fueled stress and strain.

The question now is whether a focused design intervention can bring new life to the cafe-lined Financial District block without homogenizing it  and, in the process, serve as a model for how other pedestrian nooks can evolve once their novelty wears off.

We could be a prototype for using other alley spaces downtown, said Peter Quartaroli, the managing partner of Sams Grill, which has been at the corner of Belden and Bush Street since 1946. We definitely dont want Disneyland, but weve lived with what was in the initial era and now we want to improve it.

To understand why Belden matters, you need a quick history lesson.

For most of its life, by all accounts, the block-long byway was nothing much. It began at Bush near Kearny Street, the hinge between Union Square and the Financial District, and ended at the base of the 52-story 555 California St. Beldens low buildings were lined with garbage bins and not much else.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle 2004

But it stirred to life in the 1980s, and became a bona fide destination in the early 1990s, when such culinary outposts as Cafe Bastille and Tiramisu began to fill the aged storefronts. Owners also started taking over the asphalt, without planning and without permits.

Italians, thats what we do, put tables outside with umbrellas, said Giuseppe Scoppetta, who opened Tiramisu in 1992 with Pino Spinoso. The pair remain the owners.

A decade later, nine restaurants lined the east side of the block. The cosmopolitan scene was embraced by City Hall, which repaved the street to bring it level with the sidewalks while improving drainage and adding bollards and the lone design flourish, a pair of low iron gates. The city had also proposed banners and custom pavings, but the restaurateurs werent interested.

We didnt want to become, like, high hat, one said at the time.

While thats still not the desire, Beldens varied players have joined forces with the local business improvement district to draw up plans to refresh a block where a mural featuring Salvador Dali cloaks a wall beneath a sign for facial waxing.

Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle

Theres talk of investing in new overhead lighting to replace the battered strings that now are there, or adding more art. Ideally, there should also be a lightweight canopy or a single elegant canvas extending overhead the length of the block  a unified span that could keep out rain and wind while reviving the sense of a lively and open linear piazza.

They dont want to pretty it up  its an alley  but they want to up their game, said Claude Imbault, deputy director of Downtown San Francisco, which works with funds raised by a fee charged to property owners in the district. They know its not what it was.

Blame this in part on COVID-19: When your customer base draws heavily from nearby office buildings, youre going to struggle if most of those employees are working from home.

But time has taken a toll, as well.

Decades have passed since Belden Place was a hip spot for locals in the know. Today, restaurateurs and diners seeking the cool frontier are more likely to head to Dogpatch than the Financial District (assuming they dont bypass both to head for Oakland).

Nor is Beldens ambiance what it was, honestly. For a variety of reasons, including afternoon winds exacerbated by the rise of a 19-story tower nearby at 350 Bush St., most restaurants traded in their colorful umbrellas for large canvas tents. Thats good for a pandemic, when outdoor dining often has been the only option, but oversize enclosures dont offer much in the way of visual appeal to passersby.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The sight lines got narrower and narrower, said Imbault, a longtime fan of the once-vibrant scene.

These factors make it difficult to conjure up a nimble makeover of a strip that came to life in fits and starts. The good news at Belden? Theres still plenty to work with.

That isnt the case with other onetime hot spots such as Claude Lane, which now seems totally vacant. Or the alleys that were upgraded by the city in the 1980s but are ghostly without people around. The busiest outdoor lunchtime spot is the alley alongside posh Wayfare Tavern on Sacramento Street, but Im guessing its diners will head back inside once they feel they can relax.

Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle

Belden can seem forlorn, as when cars pull off Pine Street after lunch to grab an illegal parking spot. Yet you can imagine a relatively small investment in well-designed extras helping to bring a renewed spark as summer arrives and (we hope) the latest pandemic variant fades.

We need to look at downtown as a destination that attracts more than workers, come up with a new template, said Kate Sofis, who heads the citys Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Belden and some of these sweet spots are what can set the place apart  theyre jewels, spatially, within the city core.

Sofis moved to San Francisco in the 1990s. She remembers discovering Belden Place while working in a typical tower. The setting was a welcome counterpart to corporate sameness. Soon, she was exploring other downtown lanes and byways to see what they had to offer.

If Belden gets a fresh burst of energy, it might bring a fresh wave of people checking things out. Not just on a single block, but beyond. A revival of this sort can plant seeds  and help to spark the creative excitement that todays San Francisco so desperately needs.

John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
Ziggy and Stella Ziegler celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary at Henrys Garage in Billings on Sunday Jan. 16, 2022.

They were married on Jan. 19, 1957 in Los Angeles, California.

Ziggy, born and raised in Los Angeles, and Stella, who relocated from New York at 7-years-old, went to the same elementary school where they initially met. Ziggy attended a year of college before being drafted into the army for the Korean War. When he returned, Stella had grown up. The seed of their romance began when Stellas boyfriend at the time did not want to escort her to an event. Their mothers suggested that Ziggy take her and so began a friendship that budded into romance.

In 1974, the married couple moved to Montana after purchasing a KOA campground. The Zieglers quickly became loved by the Billings community as they established themselves with Stellas Kitchen and Bakery that they owned and operated for 41 years. Ziggy was a county commissioner for 12 years and a county auditor for 4 years.

Their daughter Judy lives in New York, their son Jim Jr. lives in Laurel, their son Jerry lives in Eerie, Colorado, their son Joel lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and their daughter Jacque lives in Independence, Oregon. They have eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

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In its 21st year, the Magic City Blues festival will move in August from Montana Avenue to MetraPark, and will remain outdoors.

Festival co-founder Pam Goodridge said the move is necessary to keep the outdoor music festival financially viable. There will be two evenings of live music  Aug. 5 and 6  featuring national touring acts performing on two stages. In previous years, MCB presented a free show on Thursday night, but that will not be offered this year.

The Budweiser Stage will be bigger this year and will feature the headline acts. The Sibanye-Stillwater Stage will also host acts, including one yet-unnamed Montana band, the only local band performing at the festival. Stages will be set up in the area around the outdoor pond and Chiesa Plaza. The event will be open to all ages and fans can bring in chairs and blankets to sit on.

Goodridge expects to announce the lineup as early as February, saying she has confirmed almost all of the acts.

The escalating talent prices made this necessary, Goodridge said. We had one artist who had given us a quote of $250,000 a few years ago. Now they want $800,000 to $1 million.

Together with her husband, Tim Goodridge, Pam founded Magic City Blues in 2002 at a time when there were few live music festivals in Montana. It was almost a decade before the Red Ants Pants Music Festival started, and long before the Under the Big Sky Festival. And, Magic City Blues came along early in the revitalization of Montana Avenue.

Tim Goodridge is now interim general manager at MetraPark and has handed control of the festival over to Pam and the couples son, Will. MCB will rent the space from MetraPark.

Pam Goodridge said the decision was made last October to switch locations, and the move was announced this week on Magic City Blues social media feeds. She saw how successful the Montana State University Billings Wine & Food Festival was in September at MetraPark, and thought the area had great potential, with plenty of parking, room for food trucks, and secured, fenced off grounds.

Weve had a good response, Goodridge said. I got a few comments about not using the Depot platform. But we are not staging a small boutique festival anymore.

With the increased space, Goodridge plans to bring in 6,000 to 10,000 people to the festival, which is much more than Montana Avenue had space for. Popular acts like George Thorogood and Steve Miller sold out MCB because the space was limited. Goodridge reiterated the need to go bigger in order to keep the festival going.

Billings businessman Mike Schaer owns several businesses on Montana Avenue, including the McCormick Cafe and Computers Unlimited, and has done much to revitalize the neighborhood. He's been a big supporter of MCB from the beginning and said he understands the need for the move.

Tim and I have been doing things together for years and years and years, Schaer said. I understand why they are moving.

Schaer said MCB impacted Montana Avenue one weekend of the year, increasing business at bars and restaurants in the area. It also improved the music scene in Billings, and brought more people downtown. Schaer said he is working with other Montana Avenue entities to keep live music downtown this summer. The plan is to present live music once a month during the summer, possibly in the parking lot of the McCormick Cafe, which is where the Sibanye-Stillwater Stage has been set up for MCB.

Schaer said he saw smaller crowds in 2021 at MCB compared to previous years, something he attributed to COVID and acts not widely known by local fans.

Pam Goodridge said she has always enjoyed bringing a diverse collection of artists to MCB. She spends most of the year listening to music and researching bands, and her son Will has helped with that. The two other Goodridge children, Henry and Jane, will also help out at the live event in August.

I love to mix up the music. Im open to anything, Goodridge said.

MCB has brought blues and rock greats to Billings, including Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Lucinda Williams, Ziggy Marley, John Fogerty, and introduced up-and-comers like the Lumineers.

MCB expanded with an all-ages Sunday concert at South Park for five years, and hosted a run and an art show. Goodridge hopes to bring back some of those ideas and present new options, including a possible car show, at the bigger space at MetraPark.

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A Laurel contractor pleaded guilty Friday to a series of fraud charges in Yellowstone County District Court.

Matthew Jason Welch, who ran a construction company in Laurel, admitted to pocketing thousands of dollars from clients throughout the county without doing any of the work he promised over the course of several years. He also pleaded guilty to writing bad checks to a Laurel casino.

I just want to get it done with, the 39-year-old Welch said Friday before District Court Judge Donald L. Harris read the charges.

From 2015 through 2020 Welch either stole from or defrauded at least 13 people, according to charging documents. By allegedly taking checks and cash from those customers and failing to do the work he guaranteed, Welch took about $121,400. Yellowstone County prosecutors charged Welch with seven counts of deceptive practices and four counts of theft by deception, all felonies.

In one of those cases, court documents say, a woman hired Welch to work on her roof. She agreed to pay him a deposit of $4,000, along with monthly payments of $500 over a period of 10 months. After writing out predated checks to Welch ahead of time, and texting back-and-forth with him asking when he would start on the project, she confronted Welch a few weeks into their contract. He had done no work on her roof nor did he show proof of purchase for any materials that would be used to complete the project, according to court documents. But Welch did cash one of the checks written out to him.

Welch pleaded guilty Friday to keeping $5,656 of the womans money for his own use.

Although an agreement was reached between Yellowstone County prosecutors and Welch prior to Fridays hearing in which he pleaded guilty to all 11 counts, he maintained his pleas of not guilty on two charges in the courtroom. One count charges Welch with allegedly obtaining gutter supplies from a Yellowstone County citizen under the guise that a bank would provide reimbursement. The other alleges that Welch accepted a nearly $5,100 deposit to repair gutters on several rental properties without doing so.

Adding to the the nine felonies for theft by deception and deceptive practices, Welch also pleaded guilty to writing bad checks out to a Laurel casino throughout January 2018 amounting to $2,100.

In June 2021, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Welch to five years of probation following his guilty plea of fraudulently applying for the federal Paycheck Protection Plan. He applied for the loans meant to provide relief for those impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in order to pay off fees and fines related to criminal charges across two states, The Gazette previously reported. U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen said that he hoped court-ordered gambling and mental health counseling would assist Welch better than incarceration. Welch had previously been sentenced for writing bad checks in Gallatin and Dawson counties in 2010.

He is scheduled to be sentenced for the 10 charges that he pleaded guilty to March 4. Welch faces up to 10 years imprisonment, fines of up $10,000 and payment of restitution for each party hes found guilty of defrauding.

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After hearing directly from Montana State Hospital staff about the workforce shortage at the Warm Springs facility, state lawmakers on Friday urged officials to take action and relieve the burden on remaining staff.

"It sounds to me as if there's a fire going on and we're going to have to study how to put fires out and we should, but in the meanwhile if we wait the outcome of that to deal with this crisis  I see that as being quite dangerous," Rep. Ed Stafman, a Bozeman Democrat who chairs the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Committee told the state health department director Friday.

Current and former employees have grown more vocal in recent months about their frustrations with a continuing staff exodus driven by what they describe an unresponsive and inadequately trained administration. Several current employees testified before the committee on Friday, albeit hesitantly, with some voicing their concerns about retaliation for speaking out publicly.

Larissa Holbrook, president of the one of the unions in Warm Springs and an employee at the hospital since 2000, told legislators her membership is down from 320 four years ago to 150 employees. The Department of Public Health and Human Services, which operates the hospital, recently reported 40% of positions are vacant at the hospital, although many of those functions are being performed at a much more expensive rate. According to DPHHS, the state hospital contracted with 22 traveling staff in 2019, and that number rose to 136 in 2021.

Holbrook said Friday those contract workers often lack the training to intervene when patients can grow violent.

"When you take a unit where the majority of the floor staff is contract staff  they can't do anything," she said.

To stabilize the workforce and bring the department's health care facilities under one division, DPHHS in November put out a request for bids for a consultant to provide temporary management of the facilities, not just the state hospital. The contract award is $2.2 million, and the services would be in place for 16 months, after which the state would hire a permanent manager.

Many who testified at Friday's hearing said that money would be better spent on retaining staff. Sen. Mark Sweeney, a Democrat whose district includes the state hospital, said the new position would just add another "unnecessary" layer of management.

"We have a problem right now that needs to be addressed, without another layer of management coming in," he said.

Sweeney was part of a three-person panel that kicked the hearing off. Sweeney said, having heard from employees for months, he believes the facility's administration should be held accountable for the staff exodus.

Jeremy Hoscheid, also on the panel, said tensions have grown fraught between the staff and management. Hoscheid is the executive director of the Mental Disabilities Board of Visitors, which advocates for and represents state hospital patients.

"There's a very clear us-versus-them environment and that sort of work environment is not conducive in any place, let alone a state-run psychiatric hospital," he said.

"And while staffing struggles themselves are not new at the state hospital, current drastically inadequate staffing levels are placing patients and staff in life-or-death situations," he added.

An inspection of the facility in September uncovered four deficiencies, including a failure to maintain staffing levels. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which requires the facility to meet certain standards in order to receive federal funding, in November told state hospital administrators no corrective plan was needed.

The Montana State News Bureau last week asked why no corrective action was needed in light of the deficiencies, which includes a failure to investigate whether a patient's death was the result of neglect. On Thursday, CMS said it was going to revisit the inspection report and follow-up with the state hospital.

"The issues cited in this case raised concerns with CMS," a CMS spokesperson said in an emailed statement Friday. "We remain concerned, and we are in active discussions and follow-up with the state officials on this case to ensure that the health and safety concerns cited have been addressed."

The federal health agency, however, declined to comment when asked if staffing requirements have been loosened due to the nationwide workforce shortage in the health care industry.

A number of employees testified remotely Friday in defense of the hospital's administration with a handful of statistics that show conflicts between patients and staff are down. Patient-on-staff assaults, for example, are down 68%, said Derek O'Brien, a psychiatric social worker. Patient grievances and abuse investigations are down, as well as patient-on-patient assaults.

"Patient care isn't any worse than it was in 2018," O'Brien said. "It might actually be improving."

The defense of the state hospital administration prompted several employees up to the podium who had not yet testified, Holbrook among them. Of course patient-on-staff assaults are down, she said; there are fewer staff to assault.

"I don't feel it's an accurate representation of why our numbers are down," she said.

Adam Meier, director at DPHHS, told the committee he is seeking more context around the issues raised at the state hospital, but he was hesitant to be hasty about shaking up the administration.

"I think there's been some meaningful improvements in operational aspects but there may be personality mismatches, right? There may be some things that are abrasive about certain members of the senior administration," Meier said. "I want to make sure that we're correcting this, too.

"So I agree that there are fires burning that I think are the same fires that most providers are facing across the state, some more acute than others," he added.

Stafman, the committee chair, said near the end of the meeting he may assign two committee members to follow the matter at the state hospital closely over the next couple months. Meier, in response, said he would provide lawmakers access to the contractor.

"In fact, I included a requirement in the (contract) for the contractor to be willing to testify in front of a legislative committee for updates, so you will have as much access as you desire," Meier said.

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Driver Brett MacDonald had the hot hands on a frigid Friday, Jan. 21 at The Raceway at Western Fair District, winning half the card including the evening's featured Preferred 2 with O'Brien Award finalist Power And Grace.

Trained by MacDonald's father Ron, trotting mare Power And Grace beat the boys for the second consecutive week at the London, Ont. half-mile oval, leading all the way in the $13,000 Preferred 2 Handicap. Assigned outside of her five rivals, the seven-year-old daughter of Holiday Road and Mark Of Honour powered to the lead and carved out panels of :28.4, :59.2 and 1:28.1 en route to the 1:57.4 score. The time of the mile was just three-fifths of a second off the divisional track record she set last March.

Power and Grace and driver Brett MacDonald crossing over from post six into the first turn at The Raceway on Friday night (Jan. 21).

Power And Grace paid $3.20 to win as the 3-5 favourite. Scene A Magician (Garrett Rooney) followed 2-1/2 lengths behind in the pocket and Sizzlen Hot Herbie (Natasha Day) advanced first-up to finish third.

After defeating her Preferred foes in an added distance event last week, Power And Grace is now two-for-three to start the year. The win was her 35th lifetime and boosted her bankroll to $295,164 for owners Lormer McClure of Guelph, Ont. and Hartel Maintenance Inc.

Power And Grace is a 2021 O'Brien Award finalist in the Older Trotting Mare of the Year category. The winners will be announced at the virtual presentation of the awards on Sunday, Feb. 6, which will be live streamed on standardbredcanada.ca.

MacDonald set the tone for the night early, sweeping the Daily Double with Darryl Laver's homebred Petro Dealin ($8.20) and Saulsbrook Velveta ($6.10), a recent newcomer to the Ron MacDonald stable.

He then reeled off three straight wins, starting in the fifth race with another Laver trainee, Petro Angel ($2.60). After Power And Grace's victory, MacDonald completed his five-win performance in a photo finish with Whiskey To Win ($7.70), trained by O'Brien Award finalist Richard Moreau. In his four other drives, he had three runner-up finishes.

MacDonald, a former Future Star Award winner who ranked fifth in Canada for wins in 2021, is off to a fantastic start this year with 22 trips to the winner's circle so far. The Freelton, Ont., reinsman earned 247 victories last year and enjoyed a career-best season for earnings with his mounts banking more than $1.78 million.

In other action, Friday's $10,000 Preferred 3 Trot went to 4-5 favourite Jayport Hi Class ($3.90), who followed cover three-wide from the backfield and held off second choice Goaltender (Samuel Fillion) as that one closed widest of all from last after a break at the start. Jayport Hi Class finished a head in front of Goaltender in 2:00.4, with Herbs Journey (Scott Coulter) two lengths behind in third. The five-year-old Muscle Mass-Jayport Forever gelding was driven by Greg Dustin, who also handles the training duties for owners Ted Melchers of Komoka, Ont., and Gys Versteegh of London, Ont.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - The Raceway at the Western Fair District.
In a novel study, Idaho fisheries biologists are attempting to speed the growth of some Hells Canyon sturgeon and thereby establish a tool that could help sustain or expand the population of the long-lived fish.

Sturgeon can reach ages that rival some older humans, and it can take them decades to reach spawning size  about 7 feet for females. Their growth rate is dependent in part on the availability of food and competition for that food.

Biologists for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Power and the Nez Perce Tribe have tracked Snake River sturgeon populations in a long-running monitoring project. They documented that juvenile fish living in Hells Canyon tend to grow much slower that those living in Lower Granite Reservoir west of Lewiston.

Fish less than 40 inches grow 2-4 inches per year in the reservoir but less than 1 inch per year in Hells Canyon. At that rate, it can take 50 years for a fish to reach spawning size. But some sturgeon in high-density pools in the canyon are growing much slower  only about a 10th of an inch per year.

At that rate they will never grow out of the growth bottleneck and just die before they ever reach sizes (at which) they will spawn, Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston.

Once sturgeon reach 40 inches, the growth rate of the Hells Canyon fish steadily increases and eventually matches that of fish in the reservoir.

So biologists from the department and Idaho Power are undertaking a pilot study to determine if they can increase the number of spawners in the population by moving some slow-growing fish living in deep, high-density sturgeon pools in Hells Canyon to the reservoir where growth rates are much better and fish densities are lower.

This fall, they captured 80 juvenile sturgeon from three pools in the canyon and implanted them with tracking tags. Of those, 55 were moved downstream. The rest were released where they were caught.

Some of the fish caught for the experiment had been previously caught and tagged as part of an ongoing monitoring program. DuPont said five of those had annual growth rates of just millimeters. They also documented that fish living in different pools have different growth rates and those in the most crowded pools are growing the slowest.

The biologists will track movements of the fish and recapture as many as they can to monitor their growth rates. DuPont said some answers will come quickly and others will take some time.

One: Did most of those fish stay or did most of them leave? If we want this to be a tool in the future and 80 percent of fish leave, its probably not that great of a tool, he said. Two: If they stay, will they experience a growth spurt even if they are decades old?

Even though the reservoir seems to humans to be a better place for the smaller fish, the sturgeon might not see it that way. There may be something upstream they like or the fish may simply be pulled there by some genetic signal to migrate.

DuPont said some of them may have already spent time in the reservoir. Sturgeon are broadcast spawners. Females release their eggs, males fertilize them, and the eggs sink and stick to rocks in fast-moving water. When they hatch, the larva drift and go wherever the current takes them. Many are flushed far downstream. But at some point in their lifetime, the fish move back upstream. When and why is little understood.

These fish have always gone through a larval drift stage and before dams some of these fish went 100 miles, and if they didnt have the urge to migrate upstream, they would all be downriver.

If they stay, DuPont said it may take some of the relocated fish only a year or two to push past that 40-inch mark where they tend to grow at the same rate whether they live in the reservoir or the canyon.

The number of fish that stay and grow will help determine if moving younger sturgeon is a viable tool in managing the population.

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BERKELEY (BCN)

The Berkeley Police Department Saturday morning reported areas of Berkeley were experiencing power outages and downed power lines due to weather.

There are reported power outages in areas including Cedar Street, Solano Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way up to Euclid Avenue, police said.

There are reported traffic lights and power lines down in the area of Delaware and Acton streets, the 2800 block of Short Street and at 2000 Parker Street, police said.

Police are asking residents to avoid these areas.

PG&E Saturday morning was reporting there were more than 5,000 people without power in areas of Berkeley.

The Bay Area is expected to see high winds through Saturday morning.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
A state district judge on Friday refused to delay the release of thousands of documents related to security during the construction in North Dakota of the heavily protested Dakota Access Pipeline.

South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland in late December ruled that the documents are public and subject to the state's open records law. Attorneys for pipeline developer Energy Transfer asked Feland to put on hold the part of her ruling permitting public disclosure of the records while the company appeals to the state Supreme Court.

Feland in a Friday ruling gave Energy Transfer the go-ahead to appeal, but she rejected the request to delay the public release of the records, which the company considers confidential, proprietary, and privileged documents that shouldn't be made public.

Feland wrote that "Energy Transfer provided no specifics and has failed to provide sufficient information to assess the validity of a claim of privilege or exception that would prohibit the disclosure of even a single document within the 16,000 documents that comprised the disputed documents."

The ruling is another victory for The Intercept news organization, which sued in November 2020 to get access to the documents for investigative journalism.

The documents are being held by the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, which obtained them during a case involving TigerSwan, the North Carolina company that Energy Transfer hired to oversee security during construction. The records later became entangled in three lawsuits involving the Intercept, TigerSwan and Energy Transfer subsidiary Dakota Access LLC.

One of those lawsuits is already at the state Supreme Court -- Dakota Access is attempting to intervene in the administrative case involving TigerSwan and the board. It focused on whether TigerSwan operated illegally in the state in 2016 and 2017, when thousands of pipeline protesters gathered in southern North Dakota and law enforcement made hundreds of arrests.

The administrative case culminated with a settlement in September 2020 under which TigerSwan agreed to pay $175,000 to the board but did not admit to any wrongdoing.

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The American Red Cross opened a shelter late Friday evening for residents of the Palo Colorado area of Monterey County who received mandatory evacuation orders because of a fast-growing vegetation fire that also shut down Highway 1 south of Carmel.

The emergency shelter opened at 11:30 p.m. Friday at Carmel Middle School, 4380 Carmel Valley Rd., Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Cal Fire officials said late Friday evening that the fire -- called the Colorado Fire -- has grown to between 75 and 100 acres as of 11 p.m. The fire was first reported at about 7:30 p.m.

The California Highway Patrol has closed Highway 1 at Rio Road just outside of Carmel-by-the-Sea due to the fire. From south of the fire, Highway 1 is closed at Andrew Molera State Park, just north of Big Sur.

The area affected by the evacuations is for residents living along Palo Colorado Road from Highway 1 east to the Rocky Creek Bridge and Bixby Creek Road.

San Francisco city officials Friday launched the new Bayview Vehicle Triage Center, providing a safe space and services for people living in their vehicles.

The long-awaited center, located at the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area's boat launch parking lot, is a joint project between the city, California State Parks, and Bayview District community members.

The new center will include as many as 135 parking spaces for 203 people. The center will also have 24-hour security and staff onsite, as well as bathrooms, showers, and water access.

Residents will also have access to services like health care, as well as assistance with housing and employment opportunities.

A major thoroughfare in Fairfield has been shut down early Friday evening.

The Fairfield Police Department said Air Base Parkway, between Walters and Peabody roads, is closed as of 7 p.m. due to a traffic investigation there.

A police spokesperson said there is no estimated time for reopening the roadway.

Motorists are being asked to use alternate routes to Travis Air Force Base.

The National Weather Service forecast for Saturday for the San Francisco Bay area calls for mostly sunny skies after morning fog burns off. Highs will range from the upper 50s to the low 70s. Overnight lows will range in the 50s.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Ashley Harrell

With tsunami destruction dominating the news last weekend, I had been spending a lot of time contemplating the horrors of gargantuan waves. And coincidentally, back in December, I had visited a historic lighthouse in Trinidad, California, where volunteers there told me a story.



In 1914, they said, a lighthouse keeper named Fred Harrington watched as a 200-foot wave crashed into the lighthouse. He documented it in a log, writing: I observed a sea of unusual size.



Was this, I wondered, the tallest wave that ever crashed onto California shores? I read some articles and called some experts in an attempt to answer that question. Heres what came of the investigation.

More:



Why Yosemite may limit visitors this summer  it's not for COVID-19. Park officials are warning of a perfect storm for the parks busiest seasons. Read more.
Located in northwest Connecticut, the oldest home to hit the market on Realtor.com is priced well below the national median and was around during the Revolutionary War. For a buyer in search of a history on a budget, just make your way to the Nutmeg State!

This vintage dwelling is located in the town of Winchester, which is known the "Gateway to the Berkshire Mountains." The quaint area is known for its period architecture and also boasts one of the state's largest lakes.

Other highlights from the 18th century this week include a Pennsylvania stone home that is now surrounded by an events business, an updated beauty on the Connecticut River, and a Colonial-Federal style farmhouse in the town of Roxbury, CT.

For more antique home dreams, have a look at all 10 of this week's oldest homes.

Price: $349,900

Year built: 1700

Revolutionary War history: This antique Colonial in northwest Connecticut survived the Revolutionary War and has centuries of tales to go along with it.

There are four fireplaces in this spacious home, which has historical charm everywherefrom the built-ins to the high ceilings. Updates over the years include an eat-in kitchen with a gas stove, a primary suite with a whirlpool tub, and updated windows.

Winchester, CT Realtor.com

Price: $3,250,000

Year built: 1739

Bear Mill Estate: A stone Colonial from 1739 is only one part of this compound, designed for big parties. In East Cocalico Township, the parcel also comes with a two-story events facility, currently being used to host weddings for up to 150 guests, as well as a flower shop and a separate home for the owners.

This Colonial's classic history is preserved in its formal walkways, covered porches, slate roof, beamed ceilings, and its stone fireplace. Modern appointments in the main residence include an updated kitchen with stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops, walk-in showers, and a soaking tub.

The event spaceformerly the first gristmill in Lancaster Countyhas a two-story glass elevator.

Denver, PA Realtor.com

Price: $495,000

Year built: 1750

Antique charm: This classic wood-frame structure with clapboard cladding was renovated in 2015, and now features a custom kitchen with quartz countertops.

Charming elements of this Colonial's history can be seen in the exposed post-and-beam ceilings, built-ins, natural woodwork, wide pine floors, and corner cabinetry. The primary bedroom is located on the first floor and features radiant flooring, while the second and third floors offer three more bedrooms and a full bathroom.

Deerfield, NH Realtor.com

Price: $1,450,000

Year built: 1750

Old World charm: This classic Colonial combines Old World charm with modern amenities like a custom chef's kitchen, whole house generator, marble en suite primary bath, and a detached garage with loft.

Well-preserved original details include wide-plank hardwood flooring, four fireplaces, traditional millwork, and hand-notched, beamed ceilings.

All the bedrooms are located on the second floor, and the spacious primary suite has a separate dressing area and office, while the third floor features a great room with a wet bar.

Thornwood, NY Realtor.com

Price: $345,000

Year built: 1760

Riverfront location: At this delightful home, which has been carefully maintained throughout the centuries, the bathrooms have been updated, a new roof was installed last year, and a ductless central air system has been added.

In the historic district of North Cromwell, this waterfront Colonial is just steps from the Connecticut River, with views that can be enjoyed from the enclosed porch.

Its historic charm can still be found in the exposed beams, hardwood floors, and five fireplaces. A modern kitchen has been updated to include a double-oven, stainless-steel range, granite countertops, a farm sink, and modern cabinetry.

Cromwell, CT Realtor.com

Price: $200,000

Year built: 1772

Westville Recreation Area: This historic four-bedroom farmhouse was relocated several years ago from the Westville Recreation Area to a private hillside lot across the street.

Its proximity to the Recreation Area means easy access to hiking, fishing, and boating. Heating and electrical systems have been updated, but the budget-friendly structure needs a new owner to transform it into a home.

Southbridge, MA Realtor.com

Price: $1,275,000

Year built: 1780

Ideal location: With a coveted Monk Road address, this 18th-century stone farmhouse is complemented by a modern addition.

There are two fireplaces, a covered balcony, and original pine floors in this four-bedroom home. Inside are a mix of Old World details and modern updates.

Highlights include a lovely kitchen with a side-by-side Sub-Zero refrigerator and a primary suite with a covered balcony and separate dressing area. If a buyer wants to create a compound, the adjacent lot is also available.

Gladwyne, PA Realtor.com

Price: $3,565,000

Year built: 1789

South of Broad home: This classically elegant, five-bedroom house features luxe amenities like a built-in refrigerator, six-burner Thermador gas stove, and a primary suite with a marble bathroom.

A covered outdoor porch just off the kitchen lends itself to hosting a big party, and a den space at the back of the house has a bar. For comfort, central HVAC units and ductwork were installed recently on the second and third floors. A spectacular primary suite has a private screened-in porch and a spacious, dual walk-in closet.

Charleston, SC Realtor.com

Price: $379,900

Year built: 1790

John Clark Homestead: This notable home is listed in the "Houses of Essex, Vol. II," for its ties to the piano-making Comstock family.

A separate cabin on the property with private access could be used to accommodate visiting family and friends or alternatively, rented out for additional income.

The main house has been updated with softwood flooring, new paint, and stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen. For even more space, it has a two-story heated barn in the private backyard.

Essex, CT Realtor.com

Price: $2,785,000

Year built: 1790

Colonial-Federal style farmhouse: This four-bedroom home sits on nearly 24 acres and features a 19th-century former smokehouse, an English, U-shaped barn, and a stream that runs through it.

Abutting Roxbury Land Trust, the residence, only 90 miles from New York City, is close to nature trails and preserves. Its period details include exposed beams, four fireplaces, and original hardwood flooring.

Modern amenities are evident in the country kitchen, with a butler's pantry and a formal dining room with a cathedral ceiling.

Roxbury, CT Realtor.com

The post Built in 1700, an Affordable Connecticut Classic Is The Week's Oldest Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Kevin Dublin, a San Francisco-based poet and writer, is doing everything he can to keep the citys literary culture alive. He leads a number of writing programs, including the Elder Writing Project, which brings creative writing classes to retirement communities across the Bay Area. He also hosts a community-building reading series, mentors under-resourced kids, spends his summers teaching writing at various youth camps and dreams of founding his own writing youth camp in San Francisco. He is exactly the kind of guy you would want as your neighbor. Hes also exactly the kind of guy the city of San Francisco is least hospitable to.

Theres so much opportunity here, but a lot of people are holding on by a shoestring, says Dublin.

The community of artists and writers to which Dublin belongs is fighting to hold on to their place in the most expensive city in America. In 2015, the same year Dublin moved to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Arts Commission surveyed nearly 600 local artists and found that more than 70% of them had either already left San Francisco or were about to be displaced from their work, home or both. The pandemic has only intensified these problems. A report by Americans for the Arts found that 53% of artists have no savings whatsoever as a result of the pandemic.

Photo courtesy of Alexa Trevino/LexMexArt

In an effort to mitigate what appears to be an existential threat to the arts, in March 2021, the city of San Francisco partnered with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to launch a guaranteed income pilot, called the SF Guaranteed Income Pilot for Artists, or SF-GIPA, that gives 130 local low-income artists who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for 18 months. Dublin is among them.

YBCA was selected out of a pool of proposals to run the program on behalf of the city because of its experience and connections. At the time, YBCA was planning to launch its own guaranteed income project for artists, and this allowed it to combine forces and take both projects further. The first six months of funding for the SF-GIPA project came from the Arts Impact Endowment, which is funded by San Franciscos hotel tax and designated for underserved communities. YBCA extended the project by an additional 12 months with private funding from the Start Small Foundation, a philanthropic initiative by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

The selection process was extremely difficult, because the need is so much greater than the available resources, says Stephanie Imah, who is leading YBCAs pilot. Its hard for anyone not to be heartbroken. Twenty-five hundred people applied for the program, but we could only select 130. You end up carrying the weight of that every day. There are so many more people that need support.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

From bad to worse

San Franciscos artistic community has been quietly dwindling for decades. Over the past few years, it has seen some of its most important concert venues, theaters and art galleries shuttered. The pandemic has accelerated this downward trend, with the closing of institutions like Gallery 16 as well as the renowned Gagosian in early 2021. After 30 years of representing local independent jewelry designers, the Gallery of Jewels permanently shut down in October 2021, joining 3 Fist Studios, the Museum of Ice Cream, Christian Daniels Gallery, Guerrero Gallery and Irving Street Projects.

But the most dramatic closures have come from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which laid off or furloughed more than 300 staff members, cut the remaining staffs salaries by 20% and announced the elimination of the organizations online arts magazine, Open Space publishing platform, film program, podcast, its hybrid restaurant gallery space In Situ, as well as Modern Art Council. But perhaps most devastating of all was SFMOMAs permanent closure of its Artists Gallery, which has financially supported local artists by selling and renting their work to the public for the past 75 years.

All this isnt just bad for artists, its bad for the citys economy as a whole. According to a 2017 Arts & Economic Prosperity report by the San Francisco Arts Commission, the nonprofit arts and culture sector generates $1.45 billion in total economic activity, supports 39,699 full-time jobs, and generates $1 billion in household income to local residents.

The arts are truly critical to our local economy and are an essential part of our long-term recovery, said San Francisco Mayor London Breed in a statement announcing the launch of SF-GIPA in March. If we help the arts recover, the arts will help San Francisco recover.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

A YBCA report on SF-GIPA paints artists in a similar light, as economic saviors central to reimagining, reawakening, and rebuilding a post-pandemic America. But to those whove been paying attention  specifically, the citys artists themselves  the notion of casting a historically underresourced demographic to be the driver behind saving the economy is glaringly ironic.

Supporting yourself as an artist has never been easy, but as a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts report reveals, even before the pandemic, broader economic trends such as rising costs of living, greater income inequality, high levels of debt, and insufficient protections for gig economy workers are putting increasing pressure on artists livelihoods. Few places have felt the brunt of these changes as much as San Francisco, the birthplace of the gig economy and a national emblem of unaffordability.

Being an artist here is very challenging since the cost of living has gone up so much, and artists' pay hasn't, explains Marika Brussel, one of YBCAs guaranteed income recipients. Brussel has lived in San Francisco since 1996, working as a choreographer and teacher. I make almost the same hourly teaching rate as I did in 2008, she says. If I wasnt married, I dont think I could afford to live here.

Brussel specializes in contemporary ballet, and her performances are heavily informed by social justice as well as her personal experiences. I try to tell stories that are relevant to our time, she explains. I choreographed a ballet called From Shadows about homelessness, and that was based on my fathers story. When Brussel was 11, her father became homeless as he fought, and eventually won, his battle with heroin addiction. Her work makes an art of empathy building.

The additional income from SF-GIPA has allowed her to pay for studio space, compensate her dancers, and produce a film of her latest ballet called "House of Names," which explores the Me Too movement through the lens of mythology.

Photo courtesy of Alexa Trevino/LexMexArt

An economic Catch-22

In order to sustain themselves, people like Dublin and Brussel have to work more, losing the time they would otherwise invest in their creative pursuits. This is what Jim Pugh, co-founder of the Universal Income Project, calls time scarcity. (While universal basic income would offer a set amount of money to everyone, guaranteed income programs target specific demographics, such as mothers or artists, but both emphasize the value of a basic income.)

If you have a family that you are providing for, you don't have the option to just pause providing for them in order to plan for your future, he explains. If youre not giving people a way to overcome that poverty of time, they are effectively trapped.

A recent paper by a team of academics out of the London School of Economics and Political Science found that escaping poverty is only possible when individuals are able to afford time off work to do more productive things, like attend job interviews, get more career training or work on something unique and innovative like a business or creative project. The London School of Economics paper emphasizes that moving people permanently out of poverty requires big push policies that help households reach a living wage.

This is essentially the same idea as an income floor, the basic principle behind guaranteed income. Its about providing people with that Goldilocks threshold of income  not too little, not too much, but just enough to make permanently escaping poverty possible. Without an income floor, people like Dublin and Brussel have to stretch themselves to a breaking point.

And its not just artists: The San Francisco program was spurred, in part, by the success of Stocktons Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) project in 2019. Organized by former Stockton Mayor Michael D. Tubbs, the SEED project gave 125 low-income residents $500 every month for two years  the country's first city-led guaranteed income pilot. Proponents said it proved that guaranteed income increased employment, mental well-being and created new opportunities for a better life. Cities across the country, now including San Francisco, have followed Tubbs lead with various similar programs.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Though the additional income from SF-GIPA is a welcome relief, as the project moves past its halfway point, the question remains: Will 18 months be enough time to truly make a difference in these artists lives? YBCA is currently scrambling to find a way to continue supporting guaranteed income recipients after the project's scheduled end in October 2023.

Its just so sad; people come to San Francisco because of the art and culture, but the art and culture makers cant afford to live here, says Imah. This is very much a rental problem. Its really hard for artists living in San Francisco unless they work in tech. Its clear we need long-term solutions.

For YBCA, that means advocating for big policy changes down the line.

Our eyes are on the federal government, YBCA CEO Deborah Cullinan explains in an interview with Berkeleys Aurora Theatre. Wed like to see guaranteed income programs across the country for all people.

For now, the organization is focused on collecting university standard research in order to make an irrefutable case for universal basic income as a viable long-term solution to poverty.

There is an important human aspect to all this, says Imah. The money artists receive is not conditional on their creative output. Yes, we want to help artists, but this program goes beyond that. This is about helping people live their lives, pay rent, support their kids, visit their family, whatever they need to do to live happier, healthier lives.

Fittingly, when asked how his life has changed as a result of YBCAs guaranteed income program, Dublins answer had nothing to do with art or writing. When I think about the ways my life has improved, what's most significant is being able to afford having my son live with me full-time, he says thoughtfully. Its something I've been chasing for years. For Dublin, this experience is as much about building an artistic practice as building a life with his son in the city he loves. Whether the city will love him back remains to be seen.

Natalia Borecka is an SF-based writer, photographer and founder of Lone Wolf Magazine. She is currently working towards a master's degree in journalism at NYU.
Congestion of argicultural products at border gates in the Northern border area



Currently, the country participates in trade agreements, including the recent RCEP The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

According to Head of the Department of Agriculture-Rural Area under the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission Nguyen Van Tien, the agency is studying a project to promote agricultural export to China, survey key border gates in the provinces of Lang Son, Quang Ninh and Lao Cai; however, there has been lack of the connection process from production to consumption and weak chains of frozen warehouse and logistics. The congestion of argicultural products at border gates between Vietnam and China does not only happen this year but also in previous years. To ensure stability in export activities, it is important to synchronize the production, processing and trade to meet the requirements of the Chinese market.Mr. Nguyen Van Tien also said that the country had to change from production to negotiation and trading, from unofficial to official exportation and have pioneering enterprises and accept that it takes up to nine to ten year negotiation to officially export some products to China.Currently, Vietnam is bracing for difficulties in exporting fruits and agricultural products. Within recent three to four years, many big factories have been formed in provinces of Son La, Ninh Binh and the Central Highlands and Southeastern region; however, the assurance on quantity and quality of materials for factories, the interregional linkage between planting areas and factories are the biggest issues at the current time.Hence, enterprises need to develop planting areas linking farmers and cooperatives in accordance with safety procedures to create planting areas codes and geographical instructions which would be favorable for official export activities.At the current time, China has granted 1,448 product codes for over 1,200 export enterprises. In the upcoming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to collaborate with relevant ministries and agencies to be granted more product codes by China.

By Phuc Van- Translated by Huyen Huong
Vietnam plans to bring dragon fruit into Indian market

Currently, it only takes about 2-3 weeks to transport dragon fruit from Vietnam to India, and the fruit can be kept in 6-7 weeks enough for export and distribution to the market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Duan, General Director of Song Nam ITD Company, the experience of exporting dragon fruits to India is that in addition to the requirements on standards and quality, businesses need to be strict in contract negotiations. Businesses must ask customers to pay 50 percent of the contract value in advance.

Particularly from 2020 until now, businesses must require customers to pay 100 percent of costs in advance to avoid the risk of not being paid by partners.

Some Indian traders placed orders directly in Vietnam and labeled the product as Indian dragon fruit for export. In the long run, this will make Vietnamese dragon fruit lose its brand, affecting the countrys export market expansion; thus seriously impacting on the dragon fruit export industry.

Therefore, authorities, as well as manufacturing enterprises, need to standardize product packaging and work together to build brands.

Yesterday, the Department of Industry and Trade in the South-Central Province of Binh Thuan said that it had sent a document to sub-divisions under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Department of Industry and Trade in provinces and cities to support the consumption of dragon fruit and watermelon in the province.

From now until March 2022, Binh Thuan province has nearly 237,000 tons of dragon fruit and 300 tons of watermelon that have been harvested.

However, over the past time, farmers and businesses faced difficulties in import and export activities through border gates and border crossings in northern provinces, leading to a sharp decrease in the prices of agricultural products, especially dragon fruit.

Therefore, to remove difficulties, Binh Thuan Department of Industry and Trade proposed that responsible agencies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade continue to organize trade promotion activities and expand export markets as well as inform e-commerce businesses of market situation to attend in farm produce trading.

In addition, Binh Thuan Department of Industry and Trade also provides information of enterprises and cooperatives of dragon fruit and watermelon products to departments of industry and trade nationwide to help connect them with businesses, distribution facilities, supermarkets, and trade centers.

By staff writers  Translated by Anh Quan
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North Dakota is challenging the federal governments awarding of lucrative mineral rights under a Missouri River reservoir to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, otherwise known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The state attorney generals office said Friday that it notified the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that it plans to intervene in the tribes lawsuit against the federal government. The Interior Department ruled in February that the tribes own the rights, in what has been a long-running dispute. At stake is an estimated $100 million in unpaid royalties and future payments certain to come from oil drilling. The government dammed the river in the 1950s, flooding more than a tenth of the tribes' reservation and creating the reservoir.
As Gov. Ned Lamonts executive authority is set to expire, hes asking state lawmakers to extend 11 orders beyond next month.

In a letter Friday sent to the state legislature, Lamont also asked lawmakers to extend Connecticuts public health and civil emergencies beyond when his executive power expires Feb. 15.

Weve come so far in the pandemic, theres a bit of a playbook in place now, said Anthony Anthony, a senior press secretary for Lamont. Theres no need for the 300 executive orders that were originally in place. Weve dialed it back to this limited amount.

We really want to collaboratively work with the legislators to determine whats best for the state moving forward, Anthony added.

Here is a look at the 11 executive orders Lamont wants to extend:

Social distancing and masks in schools

The commissioners of the Department of Education and Early Childhood can implement binding guidance, rules or orders on schools or child care settings to respond to the pandemic, according to the order. These rules could include mandatory masks and social distancing.

Read Executive Order 9-1 here.

Vaccine requirements for hospital workers

State hospital employees need to be vaccinated, and receive a booster, if eligible, by Feb. 11, Lamonts order states. This does not apply to those with religious or medical exemptions.

State hospital employees cannot test out of the requirement, according to the order.

State hospitals can no longer hire or maintain contracts with people who are not fully vaccinated, not begun vaccination or do not have an exemption, the order states.

The order originally applied to teachers, child care providers and state employees. Anthony said the order at first prompted many to get vaccinated.

But now, weve hit a plateau, he said.

However, Lamont wants to maintain the requirement for state hospital employees to protect vulnerable populations, Anthony added.

Read Executive Orders 13G and 14C.

Vaccine requirements for nursing home visitors

People wishing to visit nursing homes need to submit proof of vaccination, and a booster vaccine, if eligible, or a negative COVID test, the order states.

The state will also help provide rapid antigen tests to nursing homes to quickly test visitors.

Read Executive Order 14F here.

Vaccination requirements for long-term care staff

This requires long-term care facility staff to be vaccinated. Facilities cannot hire or employ staff or contractors who are not fully vaccinated and boosted by Feb. 11, or who have not started the vaccination process, the order states. This does not apply to those with medical or religious exemptions.

There is no testing out option for this group, Lamont said in his letter.

Facilities who dont comply could face civil penalties.

Read Executive Order 14B here.

Mask mandates

Unvaccinated people 2 years or older need to wear a mask when indoors and when they cannot socially distance, the order states. This does not apply to those with a medical exemption.

The commissioner of the state Department of Public Health can order mask wearing in facilities, venues and other locations regardless of someones vaccination status.

The order also allows municipalities, as well as private and public entities, to issue their own mask orders.

Read Executive Order 13A here.

Hospital staff shortages

State officials can waive certain licensing requirements to increase the number of health care workers available to treat patients, the order states. This can include respiratory care practitioners, registered nurses, clinical nurse specialists and other health care workers.

These are highly trained individuals who can provide needed assistance now, Lamonts letter stated.

This also modifies regulations so the Office of Health Strategy can increase the licensed bed capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.

Read Executive Order 14D here.

Temporary nurses aides program

The DPH commissioner can change the training, competency, scope of practice and temporary hiring policies for temporary nurse aides to make up for staffing shortages caused by the pandemic, according to the order.

Read Executive Order 13E here.

Fund non-communal housing for people at risk

Various state agencies can provide non-congregant housing for people who are at increased risk of exposure or transmission of COVID-19, the order states. This could include people experiencing homelessness or survivors of domestic violence. The order also allows the state to seek reimbursement for this housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Read Executive Order 7P-1 here.

Emergency procurement of essential goods and services

This allows the heads of state contracting agencies to waive several state statutes that require competitive solicitation of supplies, materials and equipment, as well as contracts for essential services, the order states.

The agency head needs to have in writing why the waiver is necessary to expedite the goods or services to respond to the pandemic, according to the order.

Read Executive Order 14A, Section 4, here.

COVID-19 vaccination database

The state Department of Public Health can disclose a persons vaccination status to their health care provider, school nurse or local health director, according to the order. This makes a persons vaccine information readily available even if they have misplaced their vaccine card.

School nurses and local health directors can also look up a persons vaccination status to respond to any COVID outbreaks, the order states.

Read Executive Order 13C here.

Out-of-network COVID-19 vaccines

If a person who is insured can go to an out-of-network provider to get a COVID vaccine, the out-of-network carrier needs to reimburse the provider at 100 percent the Medicare rate, according to the order.

This does not affect the person getting the vaccine, as the CARES Act requires the COVID vaccine be provided free of charge, the order states.

Without this, out-of-network providers could bill carriers above the Medicare rate, making the carrier cover the cost difference, according to the order.

Read Executive Order 9Q-3 here.
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U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor was right to reject a North Dakota request to order the federal government to hold oil lease sales. The issue had been handled earlier in a Louisiana case.

Theres no doubt the oil lease sales are important to North Dakota. President Joe Biden last year issued an executive order pausing oil leasing on federal lands nationwide while a review of the leasing program could be conducted.

A number of states, but not North Dakota, joined the same suit to force the lease sales to resume. A federal judge in Louisiana in June of last year issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the federal government from enforcing the pause. The injunction applies nationwide.

Still, North Dakota filed its own suit over the leasing sales. Traynor questioned the need for the request and later rejected it. The federal government argued in court that lease sales will resume in North Dakota during the first quarter of this year.

The government also offered another reason for pausing the lease sales. It said the Bureau of Land Management needed to revisit the way it conducts environmental analyses following unrelated court rulings tied to leasing.

North Dakota has valid reasons to question that explanation. Biden had opposed oil leasing while running for president. So his executive order didnt come as a surprise.

While the government is appealing the Louisiana decision, it has promised to comply and schedule lease sales.

A date hasnt been set for the lease sale thats expected to include 15 parcels of land in North Dakota. The sale doesnt mean drilling in those areas will be imminent. Companies can bid on the parcels to secure a lease, which gives them 10 years to develop the federal minerals. A company also must secure a separate permit from the federal government before drilling.

Companies are basically reserving the right to drill in the future.

Why Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem didnt ask to intervene in the Louisiana case is uncertain. Traynor pointed out in court that option made sense. Stenehjem has vowed to revisit his suit if the government doesnt deliver on its promise to hold the lease sale.

The Tribune editorial board finds it disappointing that Stenehjem chose to go to court. The leasing issue already was making its way through the court system with an early victory for the states. Why clutter the court system with a redundant lawsuit? North Dakotas support for the oil industry is well documented; the state had nothing to gain by going to court.

Its likely the Biden administration will pose future challenges for the oil industry and North Dakota. When that happens the state can respond. Until then, North Dakota shouldnt waste the courts time.

Correction

The Wednesday editorial about UND's gender inclusion policy contained incorrect information reported by The Associated Press. The North Dakota Catholic Conference sent letters to Catholic high schools with a request to distribute them to parents of students. The conference did not send letters to parents of UND students, as initially reported by AP. The AP has since corrected its story.

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Throw food scraps like peel and skin into a council-approved green waste bin, or better yet, get a compost bin or worm farm to feed your soil.

Sponsor a childs education

For the one in six Australian children living in poverty, disadvantage can affect all aspects of life, including their education. Children in low-income households often miss out on things that young people themselves consider essential for their learning, such as uniforms, books and school supplies, a computer or learning device, internet at home, and school excursions.

Education is vital to empowering children in need. Credit:The Smith Family

By sponsoring a child in need through The Smith Familys Learning for Life program, youll ensure they have the essentials they need to learn, for the duration of their schooling. Learning for Life provides financial assistance for school essentials, a support worker matched to their family, and access to learning and mentoring programs.

Education can be a key circuit breaker for children who experience poverty, so becoming a sponsor is an effective way to help children in need create better futures for themselves, says Doug Taylor, The Smith Family CEO. The wraparound support we provide helps children to fully participate in their schooling and achieve their full potential.

For many students, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed even greater educational challenges, so theres never been a more important time to help.

The pandemic has exacerbated many of the challenges children face in their educational journey. Taylor says. For example, the shift to online learning during the COVID crisis shone a light on issues such as the digital divide and access to required technology.

To find out more about sponsoring a child, all you have to do is visit our website, thesmithfamily.com.au.

Donate blood

There are many great reasons to donate blood.

Donating blood takes just one hour of your time and each blood donation helps to save the lives of at least three people, says Jemma Falkenmire, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood spokesperson. It saves the lives of unborn babies; helps those battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and those in road trauma.

Each blood donation provides life-saving support to at least three people. Credit:Getty Images

Appointments last about an hour, which includes a free health check and snacks.

Just three percent of Australians roll up their sleeves to make lifesaving blood donations, yet one in three of us will need it in our lifetime, Falkenmire points out. We cannot synthesise blood or make it in a lab  we depend on the generosity of people in our donor centres every day.

Wear your clothes at least 30 times

Did you know that the apparel industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined? And that it takes 9982 litres of water to make a pair of jeans and 2700 litres to make one cotton shirt?

Next time youre shopping, do as the UN suggest and ask yourself whether you will wear something at least 30 times prior to purchasing.

Give your shopping habits a sustainability makeover. Credit:Getty Images

Follow the waste hierarchy, reduce, re-use, recycle in that order, starting by looking at your consumption habits and assessing what you really need rather than what you want, Bell suggests.

If you do really need something, choose second-hand or products that are made to last and can be easily repaired. Look also for items that can be reused or recycled at the end of their life so materials are kept in circulation at their highest value for longer and the need for virgin resources is reduced.

Practice mindfulness

Its tempting to think of meditation and mindfulness as a relatively selfish pursuit, practiced to ease our own stress and make life a little smoother.

But increasing research is suggesting that it has bigger picture benefits, making us kinder and more compassionate to others, which can have an incredible snowball effect. In fact, studies have found people who did mindfulness meditation had a decrease in aggressive behaviour; were less likely to make racial or age biases; and were more likely to offer a chair to someone in need.

Mindfulness has been shown to boost compassion. Credit:Getty Images

Just three weeks of [a] mindfulness practice can increase compassion by 21 per cent, says clinical psychologist Mary Spillane, Headspace app mental health expert. And just 10 days of using the Headspace [app] resulted in a 16 percent increase of positivity.

Spillane says shes witnessed firsthand how beneficial meditation can be for the people around us.

Ive seen it make a difference to people in relationships  it can reduce irritability and emotional reactivity, she says.

Thankfully, Spillane says you dont have to sit like a cross-legged yogi all day to reap the rewards. Start small  even just doing three minutes per day, youll notice benefits, she says.

Try to commit to 10 days and see what happens  most people [discover] a benefit and are then motivated to keep doing it.

For 100 years, The Smith Family has been helping children in need to create better futures for themselves. To find out more about sponsoring a child through The Smith Family visit thesmithfamily.com.au.
More than six in 10 of those surveyed last week thought Johnson should resign, according to YouGov , and rumour has it hes about to get thrown under a bus  perhaps the one from his Brexit campaign that falsely claimed Britain sent the EU 350m a week?

Its the most ironically apt political self-immolation since Tony Abbott decided to give a knighthood to the same late prince. Johnson is discovering about Britons what Novak Djokovic failed to realise about Australians: people who have been asked to make big sacrifices have little patience for members of the elite who flout the rules.

Boris Johnson isnt known for self-restraint in his private life or at the barber, where his standard request is scarecrow whos had an all-nighter. But the British PM has outdone himself by getting busted for Downing Street holding multiple sets of parties during strict lockdowns, including two the night before Prince Philips funeral. Clearly, Johnson is more committed to partying than the Vengabus.

The Queen did not seek an exemption from Johnsons strict lockdown rules, so had to get through her late husbands funeral sitting alone. Given that the very idea of a Queen involves special treatment, her dignified acceptance of social distancing was quite a contrast from Johnson and his cronies shindig the night before.

In NSW, our leaders have ingeniously insulated themselves from the risk of breaking their own rules by not having all that many. We wear masks and arent allowed to sing or dance in public  unless were in Hillsong. Otherwise, we in NSW are left well alone, just like I used to be in nightclubs.

NSW Police did not fine Hillsong for a youth camp that was ordered to stop singing and dancing. Credit: Instagram

This is now the DIY state, where we test ourselves, hunt for more tests ourselves, decide how cautious to be ourselves and then self-isolate when we get COVID-19 anyway. If you are seriously ill, youll get to hospital faster if you drive yourself because ambulances are harder to get than RATs and will likely take more than 15 minutes to arrive.

The continuing antigen test shortage is another frustrating example of Australias smug COVID exceptionalism coming unstuck. We thought we could afford to wait for other countries to road-test vaccines for us, not imagining that a new variant might slip past borders so porous that an entire cruise ship made it through in March 2020. Then we decided that rapid antigen tests werent accurate enough, ignoring the possibility that we might someday need mass instant testing to manage an outbreak. Now its our infection rate thats exceptional  globally.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Early one morning, a young fella named Boondjil Noorook was out spearing seals to get some ngulli [meat] for his family when he heard a big noise out in the ocean. Boom, boom, boom. Before long he spotted something strange, what looked like a big canoe with white wings on it coming in towards the coast. Well, that was the Endeavour with Lieutenant Cook, later known as Captain Cook. This is when the Endeavour was coming from New Zealand and they were heading straight for Gunai country, the south-eastern parts of Australia, and doing the soundings with the ships cannon. Boom, Boom, Boom. Boondjil Noorook spotted them out there and it looked like trouble. He went back to his elders and told them about it, what hed seen. They said to him, Send a smoke signal and a song and forewarn all the people up along the coast. The south-westerlies were blowing fairly strong and the Endeavour was turning up along the east coast. So, this is a story about Boondjil Noorook discovering Cook. Boondjil Noorook sent off the smoke signals to communicate with all the different mobs up along the coast. Our people were communicating and sharing information with our family and friends, our neighbours, our alliance groups, to forewarn them about something out there that looked like danger.

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Since the first sighting of the Endeavour coming, there were messages sent to other peoples. It was a form of resistance, of looking after our country, forewarning the people that it could be danger: Keep an eye on them people out there, whoever that is out there. Each group would relay their own song and story within the smoke they sent. It was a form of awareness and therefore resistance to what was coming, especially up around Gulaga, what Cook called Mount Dromedary, the place near Wallaga Lake. As the ship went up further along the east coast, these become fires. In Joseph Banks journals and in Cooks journals they both write about the sighting of land and various landmarks and where the locations were, and where they sighted these smoke signals and fires. Im told that when they went out around Barunguba (Montague Island), the mob sent smoke signals. But then when the Endeavour came back, the mob lit big fires. From there, thats when you see a series of fires up along the coast. That message also got relayed, You keep away from here. This is not welcoming smoke here. And in fact, Cook even wrote that in his journals. So he got the message, he got the feeling. The people are resisting them coming on shore. Wayne Thorpe leading the Gurandji dancers in Corroboree at the Dupang Festival in South Australia. Credit:Justin McManus Two laws When they got to Kamay Country, what they call Botany Bay now, and the Gweagal people were on the shore, well, Cook and his men started firing shots. They were under orders not to do that, so they broke the law in that sense. They broke their own law and their orders from their king.

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And they broke our law. Its important for people to realise there are two points of view here. Two laws were at play, and there still are. We never ceded any sovereignty and theres been no agreement. And there still hasnt been a treaty. So we are looking at ways of resolving some of these situations. Were always looking for solutions because we need to be better looked after and treated better on our own country. We need to have our own debrief and then make informed decisions. Theres a bit of consensus then, and thats a tribal way. Uncle Wayne Thorpe on the Yoo-rrook process. I remember reading about and hearing a lot of stories from our elders, who talked about the connection with the different clan countries up along the coast, and even inland from the start of the Snowy River, and how theyd come down the Snowy to Cape Conran. Now there might be a whale thats beached itself, so theyd call on the different peoples to come. They did not just use smoke signals for Captain Cook out there, but also to say come and cook the feed, theres a beached whale, come and share the food. Then thered be the bogong moth season when we travelled up and met together again. There werent these hard perimeters like they want for Native Title that cause so much tension and grief in our communities today. There were alliances formed with the different tribal groups around the east coast part and over the mountains right up to country on the Murray River.

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Native title But there were also stories about how we didnt get on so well with the west side of Gunnai Country. It was over swan egging rights and it was a seasonal thing. For instance, down Yiruk  at Wilsons Prom  well, thats a shared place for food at seasonal times. You see? When that food resource seasons finished, well, seasons finished, time to go home. So people did, but then there were some people who came back, stealing the last couple of eggs. That caused fights. When it kept happening there was a fight, then payback  a hard sort of fighting. And at a point in time, then we became enemies. But before that we were in alliance, some sort of agreement, you see. The boundaries between clans, tribes and groups are not always as clear as the Native Title Act would like, says Wayne Thorpe. Credit:Justin McManus And so when Native Title started asking us, Wheres your boundaries, wheres the line that cut you off from that one? I thought, well, from my awareness, theres no single, hard line. Now with the eastern part of the country, we had great alliances, and its even in the language that its Gwan-Dhang, which is rough throat speech, mixed speech, and a dialect of Maak-Dhang, the overall language continuum. Now the language is mixed because theres a lot of trade. Theres a lot of interaction between the groups from that area. Even the dialect indicates that. But it seems like Native Title was designed to separate and divide again, to weaken. You weaken the alliances, then people are standing alone.

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Yoo-rrook I think what the people need before the [Yoo-rrook Justice] Commission comes to Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) is the opportunity to speak among ourselves. What do we want? When do we want it? What have we got? We can ask one another this. Because weve been blinded by the white all the time. You see? And theyre in our faces. Its in our faces. It might take a couple of visits before we talk. We need to have our own debrief and then make informed decisions after that. Theres a bit of consensus happening then, and thats a tribal way. We need an opportunity to speak within ourselves, to establish ourselves, so we are talking in the same direction. Because weve had an informed discussion with our elders, with our peoples who will talk in these meetings, but also wont talk up properly in these meetings. You see? So we need to organise ourselves in our structures. Loading Another important thing is that Truth-telling is supposed to be about both sides telling the truth. Right? That doesnt happen, and I noticed it with reconciliation. When they first talk about reconciliation, its always, Oh, come on all your blackfellas, tell us about your story. And will you dance for us too? And will you do this for us too?

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Boaters, kayakers and jet-ski users have been urged to wear a lifejacket when they take to the water this weekend, even if they are not legally required to, as part of a statewide blitz aimed at saving lives.

On Saturday, as a search continued off Sydney for a 49-year-old man who was not wearing a lifejacket when his boat capsized, officers from NSW Maritime took to inland and coastal waterways to check that vessels were complying with safety regulations.

A man holds up a fire extinguisher during a NSW Maritime safety check on Saturday. Credit:Rhett Wyman

A man on one boat near the Opera House waved a fire extinguisher to show he had his required safety equipment. Nearby, a family gave the thumbs up as maritime officers passed, and a group of kids posed in multicoloured lifejackets as they enjoyed a day on the water.

Shane Davey, the acting director of NSW Maritime in Greater Sydney, said this is exactly what he wants to see: people having fun and enjoying the water safely.
Ugur Nedim Credit:Facebook

A Sydney law firm principal whose Porsche became airborne while he was drink-driving will serve a 12-month community corrections order for high-range drink-driving.

Ugur Nedim, the founder and principal of Sydney Criminal Lawyers  which claims to be Australias leading criminal defence and traffic law firm  was pulled over by police as he drove his luxury car down Oxford Street on the night of October 7.

Police in a marked car watched as the car first turned into the oncoming traffic lane and hit the small concrete diving strip, causing the vehicle to become momentarily airborne and sparks to fly out of the underside of the vehicle as [it] entered the correct lane, according to court documents seen by The Sun-Herald.

Nedim then turned into oncoming traffic.
Advice from the Coast Guard indicates the channel has continued to widen and deepen since the breakthrough. As this breakthrough is a naturally occurring event in a dynamic coastal environment at the tip of Bribie Island, there are no planned remedial actions. The Pumicestone Passage is in a marine park conservation zone as well as being a listed Ramsar Site, while much of Bribie Island is a national park. Bribie Island had a significant breakthrough in 1971. Authorities try to keep the area as close as possible to its natural state, without human interference.

Daniel Harris, a researcher at the University of Queenslands Remote Sensing Research Centre, said the location had been primed to breach for some time. This event, while not being the most extreme we have seen even in the last few years, was the final straw that led to the split breach, he said. The breakthrough is not the first for the island. In the 1970s, the entrance to the Pumicestone Passage was well south of its current location, and just north of the new entrance. Looking at other breakthroughs, Jeff Callaghan, the former head of extreme weather forecasting in Queenslands Bureau of Meteorology, also recalled the breakthrough at Jumpinpin, turning Stradbroke Island into two islands.

This [at Bribie Island] was a minor event in the context of historical coastal damage, he said. In the longer term, some reorganisation of the island and sediment formations in the passage could be expected owing to the new conditions, which would be critical to monitor, Mr Harris said. The Bribie Island breakthrough has widened since the start of the month to 300 metres. Credit:Caloundra Coast Guard There may be an increased risk of erosion and inundation for the regions immediately behind the breached location but this may be mitigated with the formation and change of sand bars and deltas in the passage, Mr Harris said. If natural processes were to continue, the infilling of the northern entrance and connection of the north side of Bribie Island to Caloundra may occur.

Mr Harris said dramatic breaching events were common, but they were noticed mostly near developed regions. For example, Narrowneck and Currumbin Spits in the Gold Coast breached up until the 1970s when stabilisation works were implemented, he said. Migrations of inlet location are also common and the inlet on Bribie Island itself has changed location through time. A 50-metre wide sinkhole opens at MV Beagle Campground, north of Queenslands Rainbow Beach at Inskip Point. Similar events at Noosa led present coastal management regimes to stabilise Noosa Spit Street to prevent breaching and a change to inlet position.

The department said it would continue to monitor the breakthrough, while warning people in the area and boaties to steer clear due to instability. Another area being monitored by authorities was Inskip Point, near Rainbow Beach, where several landslides, often referred to as sinkholes, have swallowed cars, caravans and camping trailers in recent years. Inskip Point is the northern part of Rainbow Beach in the Gympie area north of Brisbane, which is the vehicular gateway to Kgari (Fraser Island). This month, rangers reported the erosion from high tides and swells had impacted the access road to the peninsula, including the Kgari barge landing point.

The road has been limited to single-lane traffic, requiring repair. Members of the public are urged to take care during the high tide and to exercise caution when travelling and swimming, the DES said earlier in January. Conditions along the coast, particularly at Bribie Island, needed to be managed, Mr Harris said. What this [Bribie Island] has triggered though is a new state on the coast and it will be important to monitor the changes for the rest of the island, the passage, and the northern entrance up to Caloundra. From a natural processes perspective, there is no great problem with this event occurring.
One of Sydneys most scenic roads is a battleground of trucks, vehicles and building material pockmarked by massive excavations, as property owners bulldoze blocks to build what one local councillor has called monstrosities.

Northern Beaches Liberal councillor Rory Amon also said his council was approving building projects that do not comply with local planning rules, while the state government allowed these developments by stealth.

A residents group described Whale Beach Road as a battleground of trucks, vehicles and building material due to multiple construction projects. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Sixteen development applications for properties on Whale Beach Road have been approved in the past two years, and 36 notices of commencement, announcing the start of a construction project, have been issued in the past five years.

Whale Beach Road winds along the ocean side of Barrenjoey Peninsula, past Whale Beach, from Barrenjoey Road to Florida Road.
Afghan human rights advocates have condemned the federal governments insulting pledge to resettle 15,000 refugees from the war-ravaged country through Australias existing humanitarian channels over four years, as they renewed calls for a special intake similar to that made to Syrian refugees in 2015.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke announced the commitment on Friday hours after a Senate committee delivered a report scathing of the governments failure to evacuate many interpreters and other locals who helped the Australian Defence Force before Kabul fell to the Taliban last year.

Refugees board a Spanish air force plane during the evacuation of Kabul. Credit:AP

Barat Ali Batoor, a photographer who fled Afghanistan in 2012 and now lives in Victoria, said the announcement was insulting and disappointing and was an attempt to distract from the Senate inquirys findings.

Those who have helped us have been left to the mercy of the Taliban and many of them are facing heavy consequences for their support to the Australian troops, Mr Batoor, an organiser at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said.
The University of Rhode Island gave honorary degrees to former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani and former U.S. Army lieutenant general Mike Flynn, both now among the most blatantly deranged Trump cronies. Yesterday, the University of Rhode Island revoked those degrees.

The Committee's findings:

 General Flynn pleaded guilty twice to a felony count of "willfully and knowingly" lying to the FBI in exchange for a plea agreement.

 In June 2021, at a conference in Dallas, Texas, General Flynn appeared to suggest that a military coup was needed in the U.S., much like the one staged by the military in Myanmar in 2021.

 In November 2021, during a rally in San Antonio, Texas, General Flynn called for the establishment of "one religion" in the U.S. His behavior was widely condemned as a violation of the doctrine of religious freedom enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 Mayor Giuliani participated in the January 6, 2021, rally that incited the assault on the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. His words encouraged domestic terrorist behavior aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

 Mayor Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law in Washington, D.C., and the State of New York for his unfounded claims of rampant fraud during the 2020 presidential election. The courts have determined that there is evidence that Mayor Giuliani has made false and misleading statements in representing President Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump's failed reelection efforts.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says 2.4 million vaccine doses will be available for children next week  outstripping the number of those aged five to 11 who need them  as Labor accused the government of again bungling the vaccine rollout.

A patchy supply of vaccines for the five to 11-year-old cohort has hampered the rollout through GP clinics, fuelling anxieties among parents that many students will return to school from next week unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated.

Mr Hunt said there were currently 1.8 million vaccines for children in the field and urged parents to check for vaccination appointments at pharmacies if their local GP was fully booked.

If your particular provider already has full bookings ... please check with your pharmacist, Mr Hunt said. We know that the state systems have a significant number of available bookings, so [its] important to check to see if there are other options.
Vilinus: NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will provide Ukraine with US-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, their defence ministers said in a joint statement on Saturday (AEDT).

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and their Allies are working together expeditiously to hand over the security assistance to Ukraine, the statement said.

Estonia will send Javelin anti-armour missiles, and Latvia and Lithuania will send Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

Ukrainian soldiers use a launcher with US Javelin missiles during military exercises in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Credit:AP

The US State Department has cleared Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send US-made missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, three sources familiar with the decision said on Wednesday, as US President Joe Biden predicted Russia would move on Ukraine.
Saada/New York: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on Saturday (AEDT) that reportedly killed at least 60 people in a detention centre in the Houthi-held Saada province.

A Reuters witness said several people, including African migrants, died in the attack. Guterres spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said further deadly air strikes had been reported elsewhere in Yemen with children among those killed.

A man is rescued after Saudi-led airstrikes targeted a site in the contested city of Hodeida, Yemen. Credit:AP

An airstrike on telecommunications facilities in Hodeidah has also significantly disrupted vital internet services across much of the country, Dujarric said in a statement. The Secretary-General calls for prompt, effective and transparent investigations into these incidents to ensure accountability.

Save the Children said in a statement that three children were reportedly killed in the western city of Hodeidah.
US President Joe Biden has not had a good first year in office. He has underwhelmed his supporters and offered discouraged Americans no reason to believe that he will make a difference in their lives.

Many things have gotten worse in America since he was elected and some of them are even his fault. Yet the Republican Party may find itself in no state to challenge him in 2024.

Joe Bidens first year in office has been disappointing. Credit:AP

Downtown Los Angeles has been cleaned up over the last 20 years. Its gone from worse to bad. Broadway, the ragged strip of theatres which in its heyday glittered with the stars of Hollywood, is now a row of pawn shops reselling cheap gold  the sickly yellow metal polished up by the miserable fingers through which it has passed.

A shop owner smokes a shisha pipe outside his shop, a pasha to whom the desperate come with their shoddy wares. Security guards dot the strip. They are paid to protect the pawnshop pashas and their treasuries.
Washington: The US government said on Saturday (AEDT) it would suspend 44 China-bound flights from the United States by four Chinese carriers in response to the Chinese governments decision to suspend some US carrier flights over COVID-19 concerns.

The suspensions will begin on January 30 with Xiamen Airlines scheduled Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight and run through March 29, the Transportation Department said.

A Southern China Airlines flight. Credit:AP

The decision will cut some flights by Xiamen, Air China , China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

Since December 31, Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines and 14 Delta Air Lines flights, after some passengers tested positive for COVID-19. As recently as Tuesday, the Transportation Department said the Chinese government had announced new US flight cancellations.
PHILIPSBURG:--- After consultation with CPS and considering CDCs new guidelines, the Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor, Omar Ottley stated that after garnering the necessary information, he has decided to reduce the COVID-19 isolation time to 7 days. Minister Ottley emphasized that it is critical that persons continue to wear well-fitting masks and take additional precautions after leaving isolation or quarantine.

Please note that the new COVID-19 isolation rules do not apply to health care personnel, persons who are immunocompromised, or those with severe to critical illness. It will apply to the general population in the community, including workplaces and schools. Health Care personnel will follow the COVID-19 isolation guidelines implemented in their workplace, as their guidelines are dependent on the situation at the time. (E.g. contingency, crisis etc.)

The Minister stated that other countries (UK) have already reduced their isolation period after CDC announced that the isolation period was reduced to 5 days. However, Minister Ottley opted to be on the safe side and reduce the isolation period to 7 days instead, which is a middle point between the previously established 10 days and the newly established 5-day period.

A). Who is not suitable for shorter isolation and quarantine periods?

 Children < 2 years of age and other individuals who are unable to wear a mask.

 People who have a moderate or severe illness.

 People who are immunocompromised.

B). Who MUST isolate?

- People who have a positive viral test for COVID-19, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms.

- People with symptoms of COVID-19, including people who are awaiting test results or have not been tested.

- People with symptoms, even if they do not know if they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19.

Guidelines:

Isolate for 7 full days from the date of the first symptom.

End isolation if fever-free for 48 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and if other symptoms have subsided.

After ending isolation:

Continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public.

Avoid travel until a full 10 days after your first day of symptoms.

Avoid eating around others at home and at work until a full 10 days after your first day of symptoms.

C). Who does not need to isolate/quarantine?

- People who are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines.

- People who had confirmed COVID-19 within the last 90 days

Guidelines:

Wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days from the date of last close contact with someone with COVID-19 (the date of last close contact is considered day 0)

Get tested at least 5 days after close contact with someone with COVID-19. If the test is positive or you develop symptoms, they must isolate.

D). For persons who are unvaccinated or have not been fully vaccinated:

- Stay home and away from other people for 10 days after the last contact with a person who has COVID-19. The date of your last close contact is considered your start date.

- Continue wearing a well-fitting mask when around others.

- For 10 days after last close contact with someone with COVID-19, monitor for COVID-19 symptoms.

- If symptoms develop, get tested immediately and isolate until test results have been received.

- If test is positive, follow isolation recommendations.

- If symptoms do not develop, get tested at least 5 days after you last had close contact with someone with COVID-19.

- If the test is negative, you can stop quarantine, but continue to wear a well-fitting mask until 10 days after your last close contact.

- If you are unable to get tested, you can stop quarantine after day 10 if symptom-free throughout the 10 day period, and you should continue to wear a well-fitting mask when around others at home or in public. End isolation if fever-free for 72 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and if other symptoms have subsided.

Minister Ottley ended by stating that these changes facilitate individual social and well-being needs, return to work, and maintenance of critical infrastructure and the economy. Shorter isolation/quarantine periods focus on the period when a person is most infectious and the continuation of layered prevention strategies are key to preventing COVID-19 and decreasing transmission within the community.
Somerset, KY (42501)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 49F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Buffalo lawmakers voiced support for landmarking the long vacant, deteriorating Charles G. Curtiss Co. Malt House.

But they want to know how the owner of the 1100 Niagara St. property plans to stabilize and secure the structure so that it doesnt follow the path of the Great Northern grain elevator saga.

Great Northern, located on Ganson Street, has been called by preservationists a textbook example of how a local landmark allowed to become rundown turns into a crisis leading to the threat of emergency demolition.

The Curtiss Malt building has been mothballed for 10 years, and we dont want another grain elevator situation on Niagara Street, said Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera, whose Council district includes the building.

Earlier this week, the Common Councils Legislation Committee recommended a local landmark designation for the building. The full Council is expected to vote on it Tuesday.

The committees approval came after owner Giles Kavanagh explained he has secured $100,000 to stabilize and secure the building. In about two months, Arc Building Partners will put up a new fence around the property and work on securing parts of the building that need a bit of work, including some brick work.

The building is largely stable, but there are some areas that we can improve the stability and just the security around it, Giles said during the committee meeting.

Rivera directed Kavanagh to submit to the Council a document outlining the scope of work he will do to reinforce the property and the timeframe for the work to be completed. The purpose is to make sure the building is secure and safe.

Give us details. I just cant accept that thats just going to happen without follow-up, Rivera said Friday. Because its just not enough to say youre going to do it. We landmark a building, but there has to be a plan to do something with the building to shore it up, to stabilize it.

The Curtiss Malt building and property are located along the I-190, across from Bird Island Pier and the Niagara River, just north of the Peace Bridge.

Kavanagh has owned the property for the past eight years.

Kavanagh ultimately wants to renovate the building and possibly turn it into an event space with a rooftop bar, possibly a spa, maybe some connection to the arts and film, he said Friday. The four-room, 42,000-square-foot building has a large hall and three rooms facing the Niagara River.

There have been three or four prospective tenants interested in the site, he said. He plans to use brownfield and historic tax credits for the project.

Im firmly committed to making sure this gets preserved and renovated, he said. Step one is securing and stabilizing the building.

Still, Rivera said he doesnt want the property to become a case of demolition by neglect.

Im concerned that if we dont do something to shore up the building, we could have another grain elevator situation on Niagara Street, Rivera said. And that poses a risk to public safety, as well.

The building's namesake, Curtiss, arrived in Buffalo in 1857 and became a leading businessman, with a focus on grain and malting for the breweries that came with the later influx of German immigrants, according to the landmark application.

Constructed from 1898 to 1899, the malt house features a two-story brick industrial building with a three-story brick addition to the rear, facing the railroad tracks and the former Erie Canal.

A reinforced concrete grain elevator was added in 1922 to the southwest corner of the building, along with a stucco-frame addition along the south facade with a shed roof and a gabled-roof frame office building on the East Side.

The business and building were sold in 1911 to Fleischmann Co. but ceased operating when Prohibition began. It became a farmer's cooperative grain warehouse from 1920 until 1982, when it began to deteriorate under a series of owners and poor maintenance.

The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
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A former official of the Seneca Nation is trying to force the Indian tribe to continue its legal battle with New York State over $540 million in disputed casino payments.

Susan Abrams, a longtime Seneca Nation activist and a former member of the Tribal Council, filed a lawsuit Friday in the tribes Peacemakers Court.

Abrams asked the court  which is run by the tribe and has authority within Seneca Nation territories  for a temporary restraining order stopping any payments under a 2002 agreement that allowed the Senecas to open casinos in Western New York.

The Senecas stopped making the payments in 2017, claiming they were illegal. On Jan. 12, Seneca President Matthew Pagels announced that he had reached an agreement with the state to resume the payments and negotiate a new casino agreement.

The agreement is an illegal action, Abrams alleged in a news release issued Friday, and she charged that Pagels has let down the Seneca people.

A Seneca Nation spokesman declined to comment because the Seneca Nation had not seen the court filing.

In his Jan. 12 announcement, Pagels said the the Senecas have "vigorously raised many legal issues during a four-year court battle against the state.

Rather than continue the legal fight, the Senecas will pursue their interests by negotiating a new casino compact with the state, Pagels said on Jan. 12.

Abrams said an estimated 300 Senecas attended two recent public meetings raising questions about the agreement announced by Pagels.

The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Gov. Kathy Hochul reinforced her commitment to converting a section of the Kensington Expressway that runs through the East Side into a below-ground tunnel while speaking Saturday morning at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

The governor announced the required federal environmental review of the project "begins immediately."

"It's really important to me to start putting the resources behind this," Hochul said. "This community has literally been splintered apart. Righting the wrongs of the past is so smart for countless reasons, and they all tie into my philosophy of connecting communities once again and also stimulating the economic development and affordable housing opportunities."

Hochul made her comments, similar to ones made during her State of the State address earlier this month, as part of a broader commitment to reconnecting neighborhoods torn apart more than a half century ago by highway projects. She has also prioritized the removal of portions of the I-81 in Syracuse, the Inner Loop in Rochester and the Cross Bronx Expressway.

"It's been done before with great success," Hochul said in reference to the removal of the East Inner Loop highway in Rochester in 2017, which enhanced walkability and jump-started 6 acres of economic development.

The once tree-lined Humboldt Parkway on the East Side, which connected to Delaware Park and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was destroyed to make way for the Kensington Expressway. A leading plan would deck the portion of the highway between Best and East Ferry streets, creating a tunnel for traffic.

Proponents see it as the first phase of a long-term plan to reconnect a tree-lined Humboldt Parkway to Delaware Park.

Hochul gives impetus to Kensington Expressway project Restoring a stretch of Humboldt Parkway with a deck over the Kensington Expressway is no longer a long shot. Now, it is a New York State priority.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, who accompanied Hochul to Buffalo on Saturday, said the possibility of the Federal Highway Administration expediting the project is similar to what Gov. Andrew Cuomo was on track to do with the Skyway. That reduced what would have been a three- to four-year timetable to two years.

"We are working with our federal partners right now to see exactly how we can move the environmental review process forward as soon as possible," Dominguez said. "Obviously the governor's announcement will go a long way toward helping us do that."

The State Department of Transportation did studies on the Kensington Expressway in 2012 and 2019. The new assessment will consider environmental, community, economic and other impacts of such a project and lead to a final plan, state DOT spokesman Joseph Morrissey said recently.

The scoping report, expected to include a public meeting in the spring, will also evaluate different decking scenarios and their respective costs. It is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Proponents say burying the Kensington would allow multiple streets to be reconnected, the health of those who live near the highway would improve by reducing air pollution and a beautiful parkway would serve as an impetus for residential and commercial development.

"We're ecstatic. I'm pinching myself," said Richard A. Cummings, vice chairman of the Restore Our Community Coalition. "It took us a long time to get here, but we're here, finally."

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who introduced the governor, was also elated at seeing the Kensington project move to the head of the table.

"Our governor, Kathy Hochul, has decided to move this from a conversation to action," Peoples-Stokes said.

She also wondered aloud how East Side neighborhoods could have been allowed to be torn apart decades ago to make way for the highway.

"Why do we have to go backwards to rectify things that were torn down?" Peoples-Stokes said. "Why do people make decisions that, maybe not intentionally, but ultimately destroyed people's lives? Why?"

Rep. Brian Higgins, State Sens. Tim Kennedy and Sean Ryan and County Executive Mark Poloncarz also expressed their enthusiasm for the Kensington project.

"This will create a better Buffalo. This will create a better Erie County," Poloncarz said. "Sometimes you look back on a career and you think what did I do that had a greater impact on the greater community, a legacy project? This will be a legacy project for everyone in our community."

The project's cost and where the money will come from is still to be determined.

A federal fund for such projects that local leaders hope to tap is smaller than originally planned. President Biden proposed $20 billion to replace highways that destroyed mostly Black neighborhoods, but funding dropped to $1 billion in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Congress passed in the fall.

Other federal infrastructure dollars will be available, but with a typical price tag of $500 million and up for highway removal projects and a long list of them hoping to move forward, competition for federal funding is expected to be steep.

Mark Sommer covers preservation, development, the waterfront, culture and more. He's also a former arts editor at The News.

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Expanding red giant stars swallow close-orbiting planets. In our solar system, the sun will engulf Mercury and Venus, and perhaps Earth as well.

A red giant is a dying star in the final stages of stellar evolution. In about five billion years, our own sun will turn into a red giant, expand and engulf the inner planets  possibly even Earth.

What does the future hold for the light of our solar system and others like it?

Star facts: The basics of star names and stellar evolution

Forming a giant

Most of the stars in the universe are main sequence stars  those that convert hydrogen into helium in their cores via nuclear fusion.

Over the course of their "normal" lives, the outward pressure of fusion inside main sequence stars balances out the inward pressure of gravity. Once the core fusion stops, however, gravity takes over and begins compressing the star.

"This raises the internal temperature of the star and ignites a shell of hydrogen burning around the inert core," Swinburne University of Technology in Australia wrote in a stellar evolution explainer.

"Meanwhile, the helium core continues to contract and increase in temperature, which leads to an increased energy generation rate in the hydrogen shell," the explainer continues. "This causes the star to expand enormously and increase in luminosity  the star becomes a red giant."

Red giant stars bloat to 62 million to 620 million miles in diameter (100 million to 1 billion kilometers)  100 to 1,000 times wider than our sun is today. Because these stars' energy is spread across such a large area, their surface temperatures are actually relatively cool, reaching only 4,000 to 5,800 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 to 3,200 degrees Celsius), a little over half as hot as the sun. This temperature change causes stars to shine in the redder part of the spectrum, leading to the name "red giant," though they are often more orangish in appearance.

Red giants' core temperatures, however, continue to rise as the core contracts further, eventually reaching levels where helium fuses to form carbon. (This is known as the "triple alpha process" because it involves three helium-4 isotopes, or alpha particles.) If the star is at least 2.2 times more massive than our sun, helium-to-carbon ignition is a relatively gradual process. But for less hefty stars, it occurs with an explosive flash.

Eventually, the helium in the core runs out and fusion stops. The core shrinks again and a helium shell just beyond it ignites, as happened with hydrogen shortly after the star burned through its stores of that initial fuel.

This ignition causes the giant's outer layers to expand even further, but its core continues to collapse in on itself. The star eventually becomes incredibly compact, turning into a superdense object known as a white dwarf. Around the time of this transition, the star ejects its outer layers in huge clouds of gas and dust known as planetary nebulae. (The misleading name was given by early astronomers, who thought these sky sights looked like planets.) These shells are much larger and fainter than their parent stars.

After spending about 1 billion years as a red giant, our own sun will become a white dwarf, packing most of its initial mass into a sphere roughly the size of Earth. This fate awaits many other stars as well  all of them that are less than about eight times more massive than the sun, in fact.

The end-of-life scenario for giant stars is different. Stars roughly eight to 40 times more massive than the sun, for example, go through a "red supergiant" phase. Their cores get hot enough to burn carbon, which our sun never will, and they eventually die in powerful supernova explosions. When it's all said and done, these massive stars leave behind either a neutron star or a black hole.

And this all happens quite quickly, cosmically speaking, because huge stars burn through their fuel very fast. For example, while our sun will end up fusing hydrogen in its core for about 10 billion years, stars that become red supergiants exhaust their reserves in just 10 million years or so. And they march through the other late-life steps even faster than that.

Some of the brightest and best-known stars in the night sky are red supergiants. Betelgeuse, which forms the shoulder of the constellation Orion (The Hunter), is a red supergiant. So is Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.

Related: Amazing photos of supernova explosions

Studying red giants

In recent years, astronomers have gotten some good looks at a few relatively nearby red giants, learning more about how these behemoths operate.

In 2017, for example, an international team of astronomers examined the surface of the red giant 1 Gruis using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. They found that the star, which lies about 530 light-years from Earth, has just a few convective cells, or granules, each of which is about 75 million miles (120 million km) across. By comparison, the sun has about two million convective cells, and each one is about 930 miles (1,500 km) across.

That same year, researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array radio telescope in Chile to study W Hydrae, a red giant found about 320 light-years from Earth. They found a surprisingly bright, compact spot in the giant's atmosphere.

"Our measurements of the bright spot suggest there are powerful shock waves in the stars atmosphere that reach higher temperatures than are predicted by current theoretical models," Theo Khouri, an astronomer at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and co-author of a study reporting the results, said in a statement at the time.

Red supergiants are coming into slightly clearer focus as well. For instance, Betelgeuse began dimming noticeably in fall 2019 and had lost about two-thirds of its apparent brightness by the following February. Some astronomers thought the giant star might be entering its death throes, the final stages before it was destroyed in a supernova explosion.

By April 2020, however, Betelgeuse  which is 11 times more massive than our sun and 900 times more voluminous  had brightened back up to its normal levels. It appears that the "Great Dimming" was caused by a cosmic dust cloud, which temporarily came between the star and telescopes here on Earth. Some intrinsic cooling of the star may have played a role as well, researchers have said.

The future of the sun

In approximately five billion years, our own sun will transition to the red giant phase. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus and also reach Earth. Scientists are still debating whether or not our planet will be engulfed, or whether it will orbit dangerously close to the red giant sun. Either way, life as we know it on Earth will cease to exist.

In fact, surface life on our planet will likely be wiped out long before the sun turns into a red giant. Our star has been getting warmer over the eons, as main-sequence stars of its mass do, and in a few hundred million years, it will be hot enough to start evaporating the oceans. So there may not be much left for our bloated, red-giant sun to destroy.

"The future of the Earth is to die with the sun boiling up the oceans, but the hot rock will survive," astrophysicist Don Kurtz, of the University of Lancashire, told Reuters.

Our changing sun may provide hope to other planets, however. When a star morphs into a red giant, it changes its home system's "habitable zone," the range of orbital distance where liquid water can exist on a world's surface. Because a star remains a red giant for approximately a billion years, it may be possible for life to arise on distantly orbiting planets and moons, which will finally receive some warmth.

"When a star ages and brightens, the habitable zone moves outward, and you're basically giving a second wind to a planetary system," exoplanet scientist Ramses M. Ramirez, a researcher at Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute, said in a statement. "Currently objects in these outer regions are frozen in our own solar system, like Europa and Enceladus  moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn."

The window of opportunity will be open only briefly, however. When the sun and other smaller stars shrink back down to white dwarfs, the life-giving light will dissipate. And supernovae from larger stars could present other habitability issues.

Additional resources

You can find good introductions to the basics of stellar evolution at this Swinburne University of Technology page and from NASA here. To learn more about red giants in particular, check out this lecture posted by the University of Oregon. And NASA's exoplanet site has a nice summary of what will happen in our solar system when the sun becomes a red giant.

Bibliography

Jastrow, Robert. "Red giants and white dwarfs: The evolution of stars, planets, and life," Harper and Row, 1967. https://www.amazon.com/Red-giants-white-dwarfs-evolution/dp/B0006BO9H8

Landau, Elizabeth. "Life and death of a planetary system." https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/life-and-death/intro/

NASA, "The life cycles of stars: How supernovae are formed." https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lessons/xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html

Vlemmings, Wouter et al. "The shock-heated atmosphere of an asymptotic giant branch star resolved by ALMA," Nature Astronomy 1, 848853 (2017). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0288-9

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd or on Facebook. Follow us at @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
Brussels, 22 January 2022 (SPS) -The Moroccan occupation, which continues lies and tendentious propaganda, is facing a new setback internationally, said the Polisario Front Representative for Europe and the European Union (EU), Oubi Bouchraya Bashir, warning the United Nations (UN) Security Council that the persistence of Moroccos policy towards the Sahrawi issue could lead the UN envoy for Western Sahara to throw in the towel.



In a statement to APS, Bouchraya Bashir said that "the refutation, by the Spokesman of the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, of all the lies relayed by the media of the Makhzen on the alleged presence of child soldiers during the visit of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, is a new setback for the Moroccan occupation.



"Even if the EU and international human rights organizations constantly denies all the Moroccan tendentious propaganda, the hysteria of the Makhzen will not stop because colonization is a scourge based on lies and falsification," said the Saharawi diplomat.



Regarding the first tour of Staffan de Mistura in the region and his visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps, the Sahrawi official said it aimed to establish direct contact with the two parties to the conflict and the two neighboring countries. "It is a procedural step more than anything else," he said.



"The visit was an opportunity for the UN envoy to inquire about the experience of the Sahrawi people in struggle and the reality of the institutions of the Sahrawi Republic, by going directly to meet with Sahrawi officials and people to listen to their expectations without any intermediary.



The Polisario Front, the only legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, "has not submitted any proposal to the UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura, but has reaffirmed its constant position in a context marked by a new deal since November 13, 2020, with the return of war in Western Sahara, following the violation by Morocco of the Ceasefire Agreement after more than 30 years of disregard for the international community and UN decolonization efforts," said Bouchraya Bashir.



"We must not waste time looking for a solution because it already exists and it is the UN-AU (African Union) Settlement Plan of 1991 and its complementary agreements signed in Houston in 1997. These are the only agreements signed between the two parties and their implementation depends on the political will of the occupying state and the UN Security Council, he continued.



In response to a question on the ability of the UN envoy to give impetus to the peace process against the backdrop of the violation of international law by Morocco, Bouchraya said that "it depends on the Security Council which has adopted a biased approach in managing the conflict for 30 years instead of solving it and leans in favor of Morocco.



"De Mistura is a seasoned diplomat but he risks, like all other former UN envoys, to give up if no radical and real change is made at the Security Council in the treatment of the issue, he continued.



The Sahrawi diplomat warned against attempts by Morocco to bog Algeria down in the conflict, saying that "the position of Algeria on the decolonization of Western Sahara is in line with the UN resolutions that consider it as a neighboring observer country in the settlement process, just like Mauritania, no more and no less.



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Coyotes  more often heard, hauntingly, than seen, more often misunderstood than appreciated  are mating.

By spring, there will be pups and a family unit, yipping and howling at night, the few sounding like the many. By fall, the kids will be grown up and leave home, finding a new place to hunt and mate and vocalize.

That place? Wherever. They are the most adaptable predator around.

Theyre very smart and very social, said urban wildlife expert Laura Simon.

Which is why coyotes  which only migrated eastward into the state about 70 years ago  are now found everywhere in Connecticut. They live in the woods, in the fields, in suburbs and cities.

They live close by us, said Paul Colburn, master wildlife conservationist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. They are much more enterprising and opportunistic than other animals. Theyve learned to live the way we live.

Colburn gave a Zoom talk about coyotes last week to the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy.

Paul Elconin, the conservancys director of land conservation, said coyotes show up with regularity on nature cameras set up at various spots on its 13,000 acres. He said he hears them at his home in Westchester County, when the windows are open and the coyotes are talking.

Bethany Sheffer, naturalist and volunteer coordinator at the Sharon Audubon Center, said shes seen and heard coyotes are there as well.

Both, she said.

Nor are they only howling at a distance  Sheffer said she heard up close and personal yipping one night when she was checking on injured birds in the centers avian rehab center.

Coyotes are the only canid predator native to North America. From the Great Plains, theyve spread north to Canada and Alaska, south to Central America.

The coyotes we see in Connecticut are eastern coyotes. They have a healthy dash of wolf DNA in their genetic makeup with some domestic dog DNA thrown in as well. That makes them larger than their western counterparts.

Colburn said that unlike wolves, coyotes hunt in small family units  mother, father and offspring. The parents are monogamous and both share in raising their young.

One reason they are so adaptable is that they are omnivores. They mostly eat small rodents  mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits.

But theyll also feast on roadkill carrion and, in winter, take down an ailing or injured white-tailed deer. In season, theyll feed on fruits, nuts and berries. They have molars to grind as well as incisors to slash.

In the suburbs, alas, they can also nab small dogs and cats for a meal. They poach poultry pens and kill unguarded calves and lambs.

We have a farmer on one of our properties that raises sheep, and coyotes are a problem for him, Elconin said.

Colburn said people can guard against coyotes by keeping their small pets in at night, by not leaving pet food and garbage where coyotes can find it and by keeping their livestock well-penned. The DEEPs factsheet on coyotes is at portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Coyote

Urban wildlife expert Laura Simon said communities in the west have learned collectively to move coyotes along by harassing them  yelling, waving arms, making a fuss.

Coyotes get the message, she said. They can be taught to stay away.

Their howling, Colburn said, is just their way of communicating  to greet one another, to call pups home.

Sometimes, they just do it because they can, he said.

It only takes a few coyotes to make an unholy racket. But they can harmonize.

When they all howl together, it sounds like a symphony, Simon said.

Modern humans have not done well by coyotes. The federal government tried to exterminate them, killing about 6.5 million by trapping, shooting and poisoning.

Federal programs today now kill about 500,000 coyotes annually. Colburn said hunters and trappers in Connecticut kill 400 to 600 a year  about a 10th of the 4,000 to 6,000 coyotes in the state.

Yet, coyotes prevail  too smart, too wary, too wily, too adaptable. When the population gets low, the females have more pups. They repopulate.

Theyre still going, despite our best efforts, said Michelle Lute, national carnivore conservation manager for Project Coyote, a California-based organization that advocates for human-coyote coexistence.

People are afraid of whats unfamiliar to them. But coyotes, even in Connecticut, are as American as mom and apple pie.

Theyre quintessentially American, Lute said. Theyre our song dog.

Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com
RICHMOND, Va. - The big unknown about Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin as he ran for office last year - apart from the exact size of his vast fortune - was just how red the political newcomer really was behind that easygoing demeanor.

One week into his term: Mystery solved.

Youngkin stormed into Richmond with an assertion of executive power that has thrilled the GOP base but caught even some allies off guard, and he has made clear that he views his two-point margin of victory as a mandate for conservative change.

Republican lawmakers say they're energized by the fast start. "November's election was a call for change in the commonwealth, and, like a lot of voters across Virginia, I'm excited to see that our governor has hit the ground running on Day One," House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, said.

But already the new governor has drawn a lawsuit from parents in Chesapeake over his executive order declaring an end to mask mandates in public school systems. The challenge led him Friday to issue another statement, which seemed to add to confusion about what will happen when his order takes effect Monday, saying parents should "listen to their principal" and "trust the legal process."

Another executive order proclaiming a ban on teaching critical race theory - or any "inherently divisive concepts" - has the head of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus accusing Youngkin of a "war on Black history."

"I was wondering if he would be more like DeSantis or Larry Hogan," said longtime Richmond political analyst Robert Holsworth, referring to hard-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Maryland's more moderate Republican governor. "But he really started with the culture wars, and, I think, in doing so, he has lost some political capital that he might have had with the Democrats."

It's a sharp turn for a state that had trended steadily blue for more than a decade and carries political risk for Youngkin. Although Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Delegates, Democrats still have an edge in the Senate - giving them power to put the brakes on Youngkin's agenda during the legislative session that began earlier this month.

The governor's office issued a formal list of legislative priorities Friday evening, identifying specific bills and budget amendments that he supports to carry out his promises. Those include measures to expand the state's Board of Elections and require a photo ID at the polls, as well as bills and budget items to suspend the gasoline tax, eliminate the grocery tax, boost the standard deduction and issue one-time tax rebates.

Youngkin's wish list also includes a bill aimed at undoing some pro-labor measures Democrats enacted, such as repealing a mandate for project-labor agreements on public works and repealing the ability of public employees to engage in collective bargaining. Other legislation would pay for establishing public charter schools, putting resource officers in all schools and giving parents more power to prevent their children from being exposed to sexually explicit works in the classroom.

All of it would require action by the General Assembly and buy-in from Senate Democrats to become law.

Youngkin's muscular use of executive action requires no such cooperation, though, and goes far beyond the practice of his predecessors in the Executive Mansion over the past 20 years. The five most recent governors - four Democrats and one Republican - all used their first executive actions on less incendiary topics: to call for fair and equal treatment of state employees; lay out powers for their chiefs of staff; and call for studies on issues of concern.

Youngkin, by contrast, has poked a stick directly into a host of polarizing issues, such as expanding the duties of the state's diversity chief to include being an "ambassador for unborn children." Along the way, his national profile has only risen, with Stephen Colbert satirizing his critical race theory directive on late-night TV and the conservative National Review posting a laudatory article about his quick, decisive actions.

"I'm suspicious that a number of issues he picked seem to rate more to a national movement, and he picked staff more related to national efforts than to Virginia," said Del. Ken Plum, D-Fairfax, the longest-serving member of the House. Many of Youngkin's Cabinet picks are from outside Virginia.

But his advisers say Youngkin is focused on being governor. The national attention is "all organic," said Kristin Davison, a political consultant with Axiom Strategies, which continues to advise Youngkin. "He's not doing anything to pump it up. He's very, very cognizant of focusing on [the legislative] session. . . . He's not even focused on the national front. That doesn't mean the national front isn't focusing on him."

It appears that Republicans running for office in other states are trying to latch onto Youngkin or some of the trappings of his campaign. In Illinois, for example, Gary Rabine, a businessman running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has plastered a photo of himself with Youngkin on a flier. A rival for the nomination, Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey, has begun sporting a vest embroidered with his name and campaign logo - much like Youngkin's signature campaign attire.

Youngkin has received at least two dozen requests to headline GOP fundraisers in other states, including two from New Hampshire, according to an adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. He has turned them down so far, the adviser said.

Youngkin is "off to a good start," said state Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta, a veteran lawmaker who has sided with Democrats on issues such as Medicaid expansion. When Democrats grumble that Youngkin is like DeSantis, Hanger replies with a grin: "But he's pleasant about it."

"The thing that impresses me about him is he's a great salesman," Hanger said. "Of course, he'll have to at some point be realistic about the politics of the moment and work for what's doable."

Youngkin's actions "should come as no surprise to anyone who's paying attention. He's doing exactly what he campaigned on and what he said he would do on the campaign trail . . . and we're not going to apologize for that," Kilgore said this week in a floor speech.

But some of Youngkin's actions go further than what he suggested last year, particularly his order banning mask mandates in schools.

During the campaign, Youngkin made clear that he opposed mask or coronavirus vaccine mandates, and, at one point, he told an interviewer that he would favor a DeSantis-like ban on local mandates. But then his staff clarified that Youngkin would not prohibit mandates, saying he would leave the decision up to local authorities.

Shortly after being elected, Youngkin told Richmond's WRIC TV station that when it comes to ending state mandates, "localities are going to have to make decisions the way the law works."

That's not what his executive order did, though. It told parents they could decide whether their children would mask up. That led parents in Chesapeake to challenge the order as violating a bipartisan state law passed last year that requires school systems to follow federal health guidelines to the maximum extent "practicable."

Even some fellow Republicans have questioned Youngkin's action on masks.

Republican former lieutenant governor Bill Bolling said Youngkin had created "unnecessary controversy, confusion and litigation" - all for an effort he predicts will fail because it is "in direct conflict with an existing state law."

Todd Stottlemyer, former chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, donated $25,000 to Youngkin on Jan. 10, just five days ahead of his swearing-in. A week later, Stottlemyer was on Facebook objecting to Youngkin's executive action on masks.

"Glenn Youngkin is a friend and someone I have known and respected for many years. He is smart, kind, generous, and a person of genuine faith," he began. But the order prohibiting localities from requiring masks in schools runs contrary to Youngkin's professed conservative and federalist beliefs that decisions should be made at the level of government closest to the people, Stottlemyer wrote.

The new governor has also lighted a match under racial tensions with his focus on banning critical race theory, an intellectual framework for examining the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism. Youngkin acknowledges that Virginia history contains "ugly" chapters but aimed an executive order at stopping schools from teaching "inherently divisive" concepts about race.

Many Democrats in the General Assembly - particularly members of the Black Caucus - took offense at Youngkin's message.

"I can't find any other word to describe it other than 'dangerous propaganda,' " said Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, head of the Black Caucus. "I am surprised that he's doubling down on these bad ideas, and I really was hoping that Virginia was far past this, but this administration is taking us back rather quickly."

In some ways, Youngkin's hard-charging start as governor resembles the first few weeks of the governorship of Democratic former governor Terry McAuliffe, said Quentin Kidd, head of Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Civic Leadership.

Both men entered office without any experience in governing, and both began their terms with the assumption that they could push through what they considered to be a mandate from voters, Kidd said.

McAuliffe energetically wooed Republicans but soon learned that his main campaign promise - expanding Medicaid benefits to more Virginians - was not going to make it through the Republican-controlled House of Delegates, forcing him to back away from the issue, Kidd said.

But Holsworth, now an analyst in Richmond, said he sees similarities between Youngkin and former governor George Allen, another Republican who came into office (in 1994) after a long Republican drought in the top job. Allen used swagger and tough language to make big changes in education policy and to eliminate parole. But unlike Youngkin's slim victory, Allen could use his 17-point win to claim a resounding mandate.

In an interview, the former governor said he is a big fan of Youngkin and his fast start, noting that every Virginia governor comes in with a sense of urgency because the state constitution prohibits them from serving consecutive terms.

"You don't have time to dawdle," Allen said.

He said Youngkin went a little further than he had expected by banning mask mandates. "During the transition time, it seemed like it was going to be a local option, and you'd have the Northern Virginia ones, generally speaking, keeping masks and all that, and then others would not," Allen said.

But he praised Youngkin's aggressive overall approach. "To the extent he could do anything on Day One, he's done it," he said. "And I think that's fantastic. . . . I feel that Virginia's getting liberated, I really do, from all these restrictions on free people and free enterprise. It's invigorating."

- - -

The Washington Post's Antonio Olivo contributed to this report.
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With the landmark Supreme Court case that codified the legal right to abortion in the United States in jeopardy of being overturned, advocates say Connecticut could become a haven for those in need of critical care.

As Saturday marked the 49-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the future of the law remains in limbo and more than 20 states could ban or significantly limit access to abortions if its overturned.

However, abortion access in Connecticut would not be affected. Since 1990, state law has protected a persons right to choose, but abortions are prohibited after the fetus is viable, or around 23 weeks, unless the mothers life or health are at risk.

Dr. Nancy Stanwood, who treats surgical abortion patients with Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said if Roe v. Wade is overturned, it could provide an opportunity for Connecticut to help some of its neighbors.

There will be states not too far away from us where people wont be able to get the care that they need, and this is an opportunity for us to step up, Stanwood said.

Stanwood said her colleagues in the South have already experienced a glimpse of a future without Roe v. Wade.

Texas recently implemented a law that bans abortions after a medical professional can detect cardiac activity, which is usually around six weeks. Since the law went into effect last year, Stanwood said her colleagues in neighboring states like Oklahoma have seen a significant increase in volume of patients from Texas.

Connecticut could be in a position to be a haven state for access to critical abortion care, Stanwood said.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in December regarding a lawsuit filed by Jackson Womens Health Organization, the lone licensed abortion facility in Mississippi, after the state passed a law in 2018 that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, according to the Associated Press.

During the arguments, six conservative justices indicated they would uphold the Mississippi law, which could overturn Roe v. Wade and the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The court will most likely not decide the outcome until June, the Associated Press reported.

This may be the last anniversary of Roe v. Wade, said Amanda Skinner, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

We are at a crisis point in our country, Skinner said. It is astonishing to me that we are finding ourselves five decades later contemplating a United States where people who can conceive no longer have full agency over their bodies.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, 21 states have laws in place to ban or significantly reduce access to abortions, including Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group and nonprofit in favor of abortion rights.

We are on the precipice of a world where 36 million women and many more people  people who are non-binary, transgender men, anybody who can become pregnant  might find themselves without access to safe, legal abortion in their communities, Skinner said.

For the past four years, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England has performed 36,170 abortions in Connecticut. About 65 percent of those were conducted with medication, while the remaining were surgical abortions, according to data provided by the agency.

This branch of Planned Parenthood has 15 clinics in the area  14 in Connecticut and one in Rhode Island. From June 2020 to July 2021, abortions accounted for about 7 percent of the agencys services in Connecticut, or more than 9,000 medicated and surgical abortions.

About 35 percent of Planned Parenthoods services were for contraceptive care, making up more than 44,000 appointments in Connecticut. Sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment also comprised 35 percent of the agencys services in Connecticut.

Planned Parenthood also provides primary care, preventative care, cancer screenings, pregnancy testing, biopsies, gender affirming hormone care and HIV prevention services in Connecticut.

On the eve of Roe v. Wades 49th anniversary, thousands of anti-abortion protesters rallied in front of the nations capital and marched to the Supreme Court Friday. The Associated Press reported the annual rally seemed more like a victory celebration this year.

The Archdiocese of Hartfords Respect Life Ministry typically sends a group to the march, but was unable to this year due to the surging COVID-19 cases.

We remain diligent in our prayer and are inspired today by the many marchers who each year remind us of the importance of fighting for the beauty and dignity of life, the Archdiocese wrote on its Facebook page Friday.

Skinner said she would like to see Connecticut become a beacon of hope for other states that may not have access to abortion care in the future.

Abortion rights advocates are also pushing to expand access across Connecticut by allowing more health care providers to perform the surgical procedure. State law only allows physicians to conduct surgical abortions.

For other states to know what it can really look like for people to have full agency over their lives and their bodies and their ability to plan their families, Skinner said.

What we now know is that we can no longer rely on the federal courts to protect our rights, Skinner said. The next steps are really about the work on the ground, the work in our communities and the work to enshrine the tenets of Roe into law state by state.
Milton, PA (17847)

Today

Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 68F. SSE winds shifting to W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 48F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
New York's dwindling force of Park Police will be bolstered next year, state Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said Friday.

In a memorandum released by his office, Kulleseid announced that Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed state budget includes money for a new Park Police Academy class this fall, with the hiring of its graduates in the spring of 2023.

A State Parks spokesman said it's "fair to say" that the policy on the future of the Park Police has changed since Hochul replaced Andrew M. Cuomo as governor five months ago.

The union representing Park Police officers, the Police Benevolent Association of New York State, had accused Cuomo of attempting to make the Park Police disappear by merging them into the State Police.

Neither the current nor newly hired members of the Park Police will become state troopers, although coordination between State Police and Park Police will continue, State Parks said.

A bill to formally merge the agencies never escaped committee in the State Legislature.

"I am pleased that while staffing and operations across the entire agency have been challenging over the past few years, the governors proposed executive budget gives us relief, including in the ranks of the Park Police," Kulleseid wrote in his memo.

Union president Manny Vilar expressed the union's "sincere appreciation to Gov. Hochul for her leadership in revitalizing the State Park Police after years of neglect by the Cuomo administration."

He also hailed "the renewed spirit of civility and cooperation that are proving to be the hallmarks of the Hochul administration."

The union contends that 72 officers left the Park Police since Cuomo ordered the State Police takeover of the agency in December 2019, and none of them were replaced. Vilar said it would be "meaningful and substantive" if Hochul formally rescinded the 2019 Cuomo police memo.

Cuomo's 2019 park police memo actually was signed by Kelly Cummings, Cuomo's director of state operations and infrastructure.

Besides planning an academy class, Kellseid promised "immediate efforts to build up and stabilize the Park Police force and improve the recruitment and retention of Park Police officers," assuming the final budget includes the funding Hochul wants.

State Parks and the union differ on exactly how much Park Police strength has fallen since Cuomo's 2019 directive.

But both sides agree that the state used to have many more Park Police officers than it does now.

The current number is about 190, a drop of 24% since 2019, according to the state. The union's figures claim a 51% decrease.

Local Park Police officers said the drop in manpower reduces the chances that patrols can prevent suicides at Niagara Falls and at the Genesee River gorge in Letchworth State Park.

The union blames the attrition on pay that lags behind other police agencies; a policy that makes Park Police work 25 years to earn full pensions, while most other police agencies require only 20 years; and a ban on transfers from one park region to another.

Park Police officers traditionally start their careers downstate, but many Western New York natives were formerly allowed to transfer to the Niagara or Genesee regions after a few years.

Halting transfers led to a spate of resignations by Park Police officers joining local departments near their hometowns, union leaders told The Buffalo News earlier this month.

"Even now, active discussions are underway to address recruitment and retention challenges, particularly in downstate regions," Kulleseid wrote in his memo.

He also said new vehicles are awaiting delivery, and "additional equipment requests including utility terrain vehicles, drones, etc. will be advanced. In addition, over the course of the next year we will continue to work with State Police to develop and implement a longer term public safety strategy for our parks and sites."

Kulleseid's memo "represents the first of many steps needed to secure the future of the New York State Park Police, diversify its ranks, and most importantly provide for the safety of our states parklands," Vilar said.

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By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry Yasamal district police department has seized over 25.1 kg of drugs and psychotropic substances, Azertag reported on January 21.

The police officers detained eight suspected drug traffickers after receiving a tip from the ministry's drug enforcement department.

Namig Hasanov, a Baku resident, was apprehended with 25 kilograms and 151 grams of heroin and marijuana as a result of the operational measures. The suspect admitted obtaining the drugs for resale.

Fuad Alizade, Elvin Mustafayev, Khayal Huseynzade, Elnur Heydarov, Vahid Shirinzade, Huseyn Mammadov, and Tayyib Almyashev, Azerbaijani citizens suspected of drug trafficking in Yasamal district, were detained during another operation. The detainees admitted to being involved in drug sales.

An investigation has been launched into each case.

Police officers continue to conduct operations in Yasamal district to detain drug traffickers and other members of the drug network.
As a boy, Carter Revard lived on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma, attended a one-room school and spent summers playing with cousins on a horseless ranch during the Depression.

Through a mix of skill and perhaps luck, he won a quiz show, which helped set him on a path to university degrees, including study in Oxford, England, and a professorship at Washington University. There, although trained in medieval literature, the poet and professor introduced classes about Native American culture and literature in the 1970s.

Carter Curtis Revard died Jan. 3, 2022, of renal cancer in his University City home. He was 90.

He was an amazing and incredible person and a great scholar, said Carol Diaz-Granado, a research associate in anthropology at Washington University. He will be missed.

She and her husband, Jim Duncan, who is also Osage, have written books about Native American petroglyphs, sometimes consulting Revard. They traveled with him to powwows and private events. He was a great friend to many Osages, Duncan said.

Revard was by most accounts the most significant American Indian poet from Oklahoma, according to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

He was born, along with a twin sister, on March 25, 1931, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, to McGuire Revard, identified as mixed-blood Osage, and Thelma Louise Camp, who was white. In essays, Revard has written that he never remembered seeing his father, but he was indeed born on the rez even if he more resembled the Scotch-Irish side of his family.

His mother soon married an Osage man, Addison Jump, whose relatives had headrights and shared in the oil profits from the reservation land. They lived on 80 acres of prairie with a modern home, but oil money disappeared during the Depression.

Cousins, aunts and uncles visited often during those lean years, staying with the family. Those were hardscrabble days, Revards cousin Dwain Camp, who is Ponca, said from his home in Oklahoma.

He remembers his cousin (nicknamed Mike) as hardworking and tenacious, who earned money taking care of racing greyhounds before walking miles to the one-room Buck Creek Valley school. He had a drive that was singular, Camp said, and was a genuine good guy and gentleman.

After eighth grade, Revard graduated from Bartlesville College High School. His twin, Maxine, insisted on promoting him for a radio quiz competition, and his third-place showing provided a scholarship to the University of Tulsa. Hed promised his grandfather hed attend college, becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree.

After graduation in 1952, Revard was given his Osage name, Nompehwahthe (Fear-Inspiring), by his Osage grandmother, Josephine Jump. He also received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Merton College at Oxford University, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were faculty members. He then earned his doctorate in medieval literature at Yale University, where he met his future wife, Stella Hill Purce, a Milton scholar.

Revard came to Washington University in 1961. He published research into medieval literature, and his expertise in linguistics led him to collaborate briefly on government efforts to put the English lexicon into computers in 1967.

Carter is best known as a medievalist for his work on a manuscript that contains the collection of lyrics in Middle English, Anglo-French and Latin known as the Harley Lyrics, said Ruth Evans, a professor of English at St. Louis University. The Harley Lyrics refer to a manuscript in the British Library dated about 1340. Evans remembers Revard in 2018 giving a riveting poetry reading at a gathering of the New Chaucer Society in Toronto.

His interests and knowledge went far beyond Old and Middle English hed studied, encompassing everything from Shakespeare and Milton to contemporary writing.

Revards own poems included some with an unusual mix of Anglo-Saxon form with American Indian themes: His Birch Canoe at one point hung in the London Underground subway system.

When Revard started teaching classes of American Indian writers, he influenced people like Michael Castro, who would become a close friend and the first poet laureate of St. Louis. Castro died in 2018.

Liam Otten, a Washington University spokesperson, remembers taking a seminar in the 1990s with Revard. We read Chaucer and Boccaccio alongside Native American myths and contemporary novels, Otten said by email. It was a wide-ranging syllabus but in Professor Revards hands felt seamless and even empowering. Listening to him draw connections across different times and different cultures, you realized that literature isnt just a series of great books, but a conversation one can actually join.

Revard had many interests, said his son Lawrence, a lecturer in English at Washington University.

He believes Revards usual focus on both medieval and Native American culture makes sense in that both were collective and local.

He points also to his fathers long interest in multicultural literature, welcoming other voices and sharing ideas for research. He wasnt invested in showing off.

Revard officially retired from teaching in 1997 but remained active and aided students, his son said. Revard participated in the River Styx reading series, was Osage poet laureate and held positions with the American Indian Center of Mid-America.

Throughout his life, Revard continued to offer financial aid to relatives and others. That generosity nearly cost him his home when he put it up as collateral for bond for Howard Mechanic, a student who had been arrested during a campus protest in 1970 in reaction to the Kent State shootings.

Mechanic was not accused of setting fire to the ROTC building at Washington University but was sentenced to a hefty five years after supposedly chucking a cherry bomb during the protest. (No one was hurt, and the one witness waffled; Mechanic always denied the act).

After absconding on his bail, Mechanic went into hiding. But others, including William Danforth, Revard said, raised $10,000 to pay the bail. (Mechanic was found 28 years later living in Arizona; President Bill Clinton pardoned him in 2001.)

Lawrence Revard doesnt remember his father actively protesting or marching but says he was supportive of people who were dissidents or who resisted oppression. When cousins rallied at the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973, Carter Revard went up to see them, Dwain Camp remembers.

Dwains brother, Carter Camp, was the protests spokesperson and a prominent member of the American Indian Movement.

Revard was loyal in his support, Dwain Camp remembers, and provided refuge for protesters who wanted to lie low for a bit.

Revard included personal essays and memoirs in his books Family Matters, Tribal Affairs (1998) and Winning the Dustbowl (2001). His collections of poetry include Ponca War Dancers (1980), An Eagle Nation (1993) and How the Songs Come Down (2005).

He was preceded in death by his wife, Stella, in 2014. He is survived by brothers Louis Jump of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Addison Jump Jr. of Brazil; a sister, Josephine Jump of Bartlesville; and his children, Stephen of Plain City, Ohio, Geoffrey of Bradenton, Florida, Vanessa Roman of St. Louis and Lawrence Revard of St. Louis.

Due to the pandemic, memorial services will be held in the summer.

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FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Booster shots are keeping the Omicron variant from landing millions of Americans in hospitals, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics across the country, three new government studies show.

In one study, published Friday in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a third dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines was 90% effective at preventing hospitalization, and at least 82% effective in preventing a trip to the emergency room or urgent care. The study included a three-week period when the Omicron variant took over the United States.

"The good news is that for people who received a third booster dose, the effectiveness of three doses is very high and protects against moderately severe and severe disease," study author Mark Thompson, told the Washington Post. "This is among the first data that really shows the actual level of protection in the United States."

A second study led by CDC epidemiologist Amelia Johnson and also published Friday in the MMWR found that booster shots also protected Americans, particularly those over 50, from COVID-related deaths.

Meanwhile, a third report published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among Americans tested for COVID-19 in December 2021, three doses of an mRNA vaccine offered greater protection against cases of symptomatic COVID-19 infection than being fully vaccinated (with two doses) or unvaccinated did.

"These findings suggest that receipt of three doses of [an] mRNA vaccine, relative to being unvaccinated and to receipt of two doses, was associated with protection against both the Omicron and Delta variants," wrote researchers led by Emma Accorsi, of the CDC's COVID-19 Response Team.

Experts welcomed the new reports.

"Data from other countries have also shown significant benefit of getting the booster, but this is really showing it in the U.S.," Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, told The New York Times. "These numbers should be very convincing."

"We should be celebrating this," Eric Topol, a molecular medicine professor at Scripps Research, told the Post. While vaccines and booster shots are "not holding up against Omicron infections, they are holding up the wall against severe disease  and that's phenomenal," he said. "A booster is essential for preventing severe disease, hospitalization and deaths."

Still, less than 40% of Americans have gotten booster shots, according to the latest CDC data.

The three studies released Friday follow the CDC's posting of other new data on Thursday that showed the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19 among older Americans is far higher for those who are unvaccinated than for those who are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot.

The differences were stark: In December, unvaccinated people 50 and older were 17 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who had completed the initial immunization series, but hadn't yet received a booster, according to statistics published Thursday on the CDC's website.

Among those aged 50 to 64, unvaccinated people were 44 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated and had a booster shot, the data showed.

The risk difference was even greater among seniors. Among Americans over 65, the chances of hospitalization for COVID-19 was 49 times higher for those who were unvaccinated than for those with full vaccination and a booster.

The findings suggest that booster shots provide older Americans with a significant added level of protection. The CDC now recommends booster shots for everyone aged 12 and older, to be given five months after getting two doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, or two months after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

What remains to be seen is whether the power of the booster shots will last, Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University, told the Times.

"We just have to recognize that all these estimates of Omicron third-dose protection are going to be people who are pretty recently boosted," she said. "We do wonder [about] the durability of boosters themselves."

More information

Visit John Hopkins for more on COVID booster shots.

SOURCES: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jan. 21, 2022; Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 21, 2022; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website; Jan. 20, 2022; Washington Post; The New York Times

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
David Eisenhower, a security guard at St. Mary's Hospital in East St. Louis, was standing on the hospital parking lot when the skies turned red before the time for sunrise.

"It was like a flare," he said. "There was a massive red that lit up the whole sky like broad daylight." It was then that the concussion from the explosion staggered him. He could hear glass breaking. Eisenhower said he imagined that what had happened was like a nuclear blast.

The emergency rooms of both East St. Louis hospitals were clogged with persons waiting for treatment. Daniel Hicks, administrator of Christian Welfare Hospital, said that most of the patients came from their homes.

Service employees who are striking at Christian Welfare laid down their picket signs. They were standing and talking and watching the special hospital emergency team work with the injured.

"It looked like a sunrise at first then after 30 seconds, flames," said Ron Taylor, 6532 Alder Avenue, Berkeley. He is one of the service employees ""and was driving across the bridge at East St. Louis to take up his strike duties when the blast rolled out in flame and sound at about 6:20 a.m.
CLAYTON  St. Louis County prosecutors on Friday refiled a felony terrorist threat charge against a man who dressed as the Batman villain the Joker and, officials said, threatened to kill people along the Delmar Loop.

The move restarts a case against Jeremy J. Garnier, 50, of University City, a day after St. Louis County Associate Circuit Judge Amanda McNelley dismissed the case because prosecutors couldn't produce a witness for a grand jury.

Garnier is being held on $75,000 cash bail and has been ordered to stay more than 1,000 feet from the Galleria and Blueberry Hill restaurant and bar on Delmar Boulevard.

Garnier was accused of dressing up the evening of March 2, 2020, as the Joker, entering Blueberry Hill and uttering threats of violence via the Facebook Live app. Police responded to the scene in response to a call for an active shooter. Garnier was not armed.

The livestream also showed him driving in his car, smoking a pipe and going to the St. Louis Galleria, where hes stopped by security and asked to leave.

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Bill McClellan Bill McClellan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Bill McClellan 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

Several years ago, I got a call from a friend who worked in the Missouri Department of Corrections. He told me that a young female inmate  a female offender, in DOC jargon  had just earned an extremely high score on her GED test. At the time, inmates without a high school diploma were required to take a GED course.

The womans score was higher than that of Christopher Santillan, my friend said, and Santillans score had been very high.

Santillan, a former student at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, had been accepted to Stanford before being arrested and then convicted of murdering his friend, Vinay Singh. So Santillans high score was not surprising.

The young woman who had beaten his score came from rural Missouri. She had gone to prison on drug and forgery convictions. Forgery is a common charge for young women. Their boyfriends commit burglaries, and if the haul includes checkbooks, the girlfriends, who can more easily make themselves presentable, are given the task of trying to cash the checks.

I filed the appropriate request to interview the young woman. I received an email from the prison. The offender has declined the interview.

I thought about her recently when I wrote about Guido Weiss, a Washington University mathematician who died on Christmas. He spoke six languages fluently. He had been studying chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago until he became ill, and while he was hospitalized, he read  for pleasure  a calculus book and became enamored of mathematics.

He was clearly a 1-percenter.

Usually, when we talk about the 1 percent, we are referring to wealth. But what about intelligence? Extremely smart people are harder to identify than their wealthy counterparts  Forbes magazine does not publish a list of the countrys smartest people  but they are more important to our future. We need them if we are going to successfully compete with other countries.

They could be anywhere. The Wright brothers had a bicycle business in Dayton, Ohio. Just think about that. Wilbur had finished high school. Orville had not. You could have gone into their shop in 1903 and chatted with them. That does not mean you would have recognized them as brilliant. Intelligence does not always show itself.

My father-in-law, Douglas Donahue, was a nuclear physicist. His laboratory in Tucson was one of three labs in the world given the privilege of carbon-dating the Shroud of Turin. The other labs were in Zurich and Oxford, England. The lab in Oxford was run by Sir Teddy Hall, a renowned scientist who had exposed the Piltdown Man fossil as a fraud and not the Missing Link. Hall was a distinguished man, even in a crowd of distinguished men.

In preparation for the dating of the shroud, my father-in-law visited the lab in Oxford. He and Sir Teddy hit it off. They went for a drive in the countryside in Sir Teddys new car. Suddenly, the car lost power and stopped. Its brand new! Sir Teddy complained. My father-in-law looked at the dashboard and saw the fuel gauge was on empty. We might be out of gas, he suggested. No, no, said Sir Teddy, and he pointed to the temperature gauge. Were half full.

So you cant always tell.

Some people think that Ivy League schools can tell. These people worry that the Ivy League schools have gone from catering to the wealthy to catering to the super intelligent. That is supposed to be bad because it stratifies society. If the super-smart kids all go to Ivy League schools, they are likely to marry each other, and then their kids will be super-super-smart, and before you know it, we will have an intellectual caste system. It would be better for society if the Ivy League went back to catering to the wealthy.

At least that is an argument put forth by conservative writer Charles Murray, author of Coming Apart: The State of White America and co-author of The Bell Curve. Murray spoke at Lindenwood University in 2018. Because some of his ideas are controversial, the school decided to have a moderator pose questions rather than take questions from the audience. I was the moderator. I didnt agree with most of Murrays ideas, but I will say this for him  he had only one requirement when it came to selecting a place for dinner. It had to have a full bar.

By the way, Murray went to Harvard and MIT.

There does seem be some sense to his argument. Money is transitory. Inherited fortunes tend to dissipate. What is it they say about businesses lasting three generations? Smarts, on the other hand, can be long-lasting, and therefore more injurious to a society that values economic mobility.

And to be sure, at the very top of the intellectual heap, the elites tend to marry each other. Bill and Hillary Clinton met at Yale Law School. Josh Hawley met his wife Erin at Yale Law School. Smart, driven, ambitious people get together at elite institutions.

And talk about a caste system. Eight of nine Supreme Court Justices went to Yale or Harvard law schools.

So should we worry about the super-smart kids getting together at Ivy League schools and raising a bunch of brainiacs?

I am a liberal, and I am not so worried about the tyranny of the intelligent. The elites dont scare me.

Plus, I see little evidence that intelligence passes on so readily from generation to generation. A little bit, sure, but if intelligence were such a genetic thing, wouldnt the smartest people in the world be named Michelangelo or Euclides or Shakespeare?

Speaking of Shakespeare, how did he happen? His dad was a glove-maker. His descendants are unknown.

Thats the thing about these 1-percenters. They can bubble up anywhere at any time.

By the way, I doubt there is much overlap between the smartest people and the richest people. That is just a guess. I have little first-hand experience with either. The newspaper business does not attract the wealthiest nor the smartest. Pretty darned smart, we like to think, but not elite. There are, of course, exceptions. For years, I sat next to Eliot Porter, who was clearly a 1-percenter. When the newspaper banned smoking in the newsroom, I would have to go to the smoking lounge to chat with Eliot. (He was a pipe-smoker.) One time I walked into the closet-like smoking room and Eliot had a chart on the table. He would look out the window and then write something down on his chart. What are you doing? I asked. Plotting true north, he said.

He was a Harvard man.

But think of the ones we dont discover. Think of all that wasted potential.

Like the woman who did so well on the GED test. I like to think she made a thoughtful choice in declining an interview. Maybe she wanted to do her time  it was not a long sentence, as I recall  and then get a new start. I like to think shes married now, living quietly and happily. Perhaps she has a couple of kids. Maybe theyre 1-percenters.

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KIRKWOOD  Three suspects are being sought who threatened a man with "long guns" and a handgun before stealing his vehicle early Tuesday, police said.

Kirkwood officers responded around 4 a.m. to the 11200 block of Manchester Road, where a man told them he had been robbed of his 2015 Ford Fusion at gunpoint, but not injured.

The man told police he drove to work and had parked his car when he noticed a vehicle that had been circling the parking lot. As the man neared the edge of the lot, three men got out of the vehicle carrying long guns and a handgun and robbed the man of his belongings, including his keys.

The man then ran to his workplace and called authorities, police said.

The stolen vehicle is a 2015 ivory- or cream-color Ford Fusion with Missouri license plate JC5-Z5Y, police said.

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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Friday began filing dozens of lawsuits against school systems across Missouri over their pandemic masking rules.

The suits, filed against St. Louis-area districts including Affton, Brentwood, Clayton, Fort Zumwalt, Fox, Francis Howell, Hazelwood, Ladue, Parkway, Pattonville, Maplewood Richmond Heights, St. Charles, St. Louis Public Schools, and Webster Groves, come as the state is battling a wave of coronavirus infections, straining health systems.

The lawsuits, copies of which were tweeted out by Schmitts office throughout the day Friday, were filed in the name of parents in most cases, ranging from one named parent in several districts to 20 in the Rockwood School District.

In lawsuits against several districts, no parents were listed.

School systems have reported waves of absences among students, teachers and other staff in recent weeks, forcing administrators to scramble to fill vacancies and some individual schools to go back to virtual schooling.

Pattonville made masks optional effective Jan. 3 unless an individual schools positivity rate reaches 2% of teachers and staff. All schools quickly reached that threshold. The positivity rates at six schools there have since declined.

Paul Ziegler, CEO of EducationPlus, a nonprofit representing 60 St. Louis-area school districts, in a statement called the lawsuits a distraction to school leaders trying to keep schools open and students safe.

Ziegler said the policies implemented by the districts were developed after many months of analyzing community transmission data and taking into consideration the capacity issues at area hospitals. The districts also consulted with infectious disease doctors from Washington University, St. Louis University and Childrens Hospital, Ziegler said.

These lawsuits are a waste of taxpayer dollars as the Attorney General is using public funds to sue public schools who will be required to use taxpayer dollars to defend their policies, Ziegler said.

Spokespersons for several districts declined to comment.

The lawsuits argue that districts dont have the power to issue mask mandates, adding the General Assembly did not give school districts the authority to condition in-person attendance on compliance with an arbitrary mask mandate.

School districts and the Missouri School Boards Association rejected that claim last month, citing state statutes that they say allow them to do so.

Ziegler echoed that on Friday, citing Missouri statutes that require school boards to address the transmission of communicable diseases in schools and maintain a safe school environment.

I dont see how he is going to be successful, said Cindy Ormsby, a lawyer who represents multiple school districts, in an interview Friday about Schmitts suits.

Ormsby sent a letter on behalf of the Hazelwood School District to Schmitt last month, saying he had no authority to issue a cease and desist letter. Ormsbys letter also cites state statutes and a 1909 Missouri Supreme Court decision that said school boards had the right to pass rules to address the possibility of a smallpox epidemic.

Schmitt, who is running for the U.S. Senate, had sent the letters to school districts and health officials, telling them to end all COVID-19 health orders and citing a Cole County judges ruling calling local health orders invalid.

He also called for parents to report districts with mask rules to his office.

Schmitts lawsuits say the theory that mask rules help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 have no empirical or rational basis and reject basic principles of sound public health decision-making, medical science, and statistical analysis.

Medical studies have repeatedly found otherwise, however, and health officials have recommended masks as one of the ways to slow the spread of the pandemic.

Asked for Schmitts suggestion for a replacement for mask mandates or other pandemic control measures in schools, spokesman Chris Nuelle said in an email that the lawsuits are about returning the decision back to the parents. Parents and families should be able to decide whether or not to send their child to school in a mask or vaccinate their children. Weve heard from quite a few parents who simply want to gather the information and make a decision for themselves.

Chuck Hatfield, a Jefferson City attorney and former chief of staff in the attorney generals office, called the lawsuits uncharted territory. He questioned Schmitts standing to file the suits when no parents are listed on the lawsuit.

Hatfield also asked whether it is appropriate for the attorney general to sue a bunch of local governments.

Thats not what attorney generals historically have done, Hatfield said.

Blythe Bernhard of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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ST. LOUIS  City police on Friday rearrested a man accused of domestic assault who was released from the citys main jail 17 days earlier, allegedly because he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Evita Caldwell, a police spokeswoman, said in an email that the man, 36, was arrested by city police officers with the assistance of St. Louis County police.

Caldwell said he was in custody but didnt say where. She also didnt say where and when he was arrested.

I am unable to provide any further comment as this is an ongoing criminal matter, she said in the email.

Jane Dueker, an attorney for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, has alleged that the man was let go Jan. 4 even though city prosecutors had sent word that they were preparing criminal charges against him and would ask that no bail be allowed.

Dueker, in media interviews and on social media, said the release after just three hours was part of a recent policy of the administration of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, which oversees both the jail and the police department.

A criminal complaint was issued Jan. 4 by Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardners office after his release, Dueker said. A judge followed up the next day with an order barring the man from being released on bond, but at that point, he no longer was being held.

The judges order said he was a potential danger to the victim, the community or another person.

According to a probable cause statement submitted by the police officer handling the case, the female victim said the man pushed her down and started to strike her in the face. Then he grabbed a pot of hot soup and threw it on her, resulting in burns and missing skin.

The incident occurred on Jan. 4, the same day the man was originally arrested, in the 1400 block of North 19th Street.

Jones administration officials havent commented on the case, nor said whether there had been any policy change in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus at the jail, as Dueker contended.

The police department in a statement Wednesday said health status and the seriousness of a crime are among various factors determining whether people remain in custody at the jail.

Also on Wednesday, the citys corrections commissioner said in a statement that her agency does accept some COVID-positive detainees and isolates them, working with hospitals, police and the city sheriffs department to determine the best course of action on a case-by-case basis.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Both Democrats and Republicans criticized a proposed congressional map this week, and for the Jefferson County lawmaker who drew up the plan, thats not necessarily a bad thing.

Its a good compromise. I think both sides are unhappy, state Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, said Thursday of his map, which will likely result in the status quo of six Republicans and two Democrats from Missouri in the U.S. House.

Shaul, who shepherded the proposal through the state House on a relatively narrow 86-67 vote, said one of his friends doesnt love this map, but he thinks its a fair map. And thats people on both sides of the aisle. And is that not what the compromise should be?

Thats what were missing in politics today, Shaul said. Lets just do whats right for the state of Missouri.

But as Shaul tries to lock in agreement on his 6-2 map, opponents are digging in. At least one high-profile Republican with no direct role in the process is emerging to pressure GOP lawmakers into passing a 7-1 map that eliminates the Democratic district of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City.

Making a cameo in the debate is former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in 2018 amid investigations surrounding his extramarital affair and campaign finance activities.

Greitens is pressing the issue as he campaigns for U.S. Senate. Hard-line conservatives are framing the debate as a fight against Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Sending two Democrats to Washington instead of one will only aid her effort to hold onto the speakers gavel, the hard-liners argue.

Some weak, woke RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) in Jeff City have betrayed every America First patriot in Missouri and in America, Greitens tweeted on Thursday. They are trying to give Democrats extra seats in the US Congress.

We must send 7 Republicans and 1 Democrat to Washington! he tweeted at Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, who fired back, saying Greitens could have had an actual role in this process as Governor, but he quit on the people of Missouri. Missouri needs fighters...not quitters!

Senate infighting

The former governor has continued his campaign offline.

He called me and asked about a 7-1 map, said Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis. I said I would do everything in my power as a senator to get a map that sends fewer Nancy Pelosi allies to Congress.

Kelli Jones, spokeswoman for current Gov. Mike Parson, did not respond to a request for comment on the former governors redistricting push. Parson will decide whether to sign or veto any congressional map that makes it out of the Legislature.

Republicans such as Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, have argued Shauls 6-2 map is actually a 5-3 map because U.S. Rep. Ann Wagners 2nd Congressional District in the St. Louis suburbs wasnt drawn Republican enough.

The disagreement among Republicans has led to a war of words between some hard-line conservatives and state Senate GOP leadership, a continuation of a long-running feud between the two factions.

Eigel on Twitter accused Rowden of lying about the redistricting process.

Rowden has said the map passed out of the House would protect strong rural voices and that it is a conservative map.

Fanning Kansas City voters out across multiple congressional districts is a greater risk to GOP representation in Washington than a 6-2 map that gives two districts to Democrats, Rowden said.

I have way more concerns that a 7-1 map would be a 5-3 map, he said.

I think our 6-2 map is solid, is stable, Rowden said. I think theres really no scenario in which Ann Wagner or any other decent candidate loses the 2nd District in the next decade.

But Eigel said Wagners 2nd District would be very competitive and that he expects a Democrat to win it by the middle of the decade.

At Thursdays news conference, Rowden said that for anyone to say that if we vote for this map were voting for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House is just insane.

He continued, The Republicans are going to be in the majority after the next election.

There are people who are saying things for obviously very selfish reasons, he said.

Rowden wouldnt say whom he was referring to, but Eigel, in an interview, responded to the GOP leader.

When he says ... there are folks out there that are pushing a (7-1) map for political and selfish reasons, I take that as an insult to every single Republican in the state of Missouri that just want to see more Republicans in Congress fighting against Joe Biden, Eigel said.

A fair map?

Sean Nicholson, director of Fair Maps Missouri, said Republicans were debating among themselves how much to gerrymander the states congressional districts.

In a state where President Joe Biden won 41% of the vote in 2020, many Democrats say they should be allotted three of the states eight seats or that they should at least have a better shot at Wagners 2nd District.

I think its an indication of how far gone things are that the argument is do we want a gerrymander or a super-gerrymander? Nicholson said. This is not a map that would come out of a nonpartisan process.

Democrats withheld their support for the 6-2 map that advanced out of the House this week, as well as an emergency clause that would allow the plan to take effect upon Gov. Mike Parsons signature, in time for the Aug. 2 primaries.

To place an emergency clause on a bill requires two-thirds majorities in both chambers, which would require at least some Democratic support. The GOP doesnt currently hold a two-thirds majority in the House.

Democrats might change their vote in the future, if, as expected, the Senate makes changes to the House map and sends it back to the lower chamber for another vote.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said members of her caucus were concerned the situation didnt constitute a real emergency, that Democrats werent adequately included in the process and that Republicans continue to push bills that Democrats consider detrimental to voters rights.

Theres a possibility that if all of these things are discussed and were able to have real dialogue around all of these pieces of concern for us that you can see some of us switch, Quade said.

Asked if she was worried she was overplaying the Democrats hand, she said, I dont feel like this is a playing of a hand.

If they think I am, I dont really care, Quade said. We have a job to do, and just because this is complicated and hard doesnt mean were not going to try.

Shaul, the top House Republican in charge of redistricting, said hes tried to keep redistricting in its own box when asked about the Democrats concerns in regard to other legislation.

Theyre bringing politics into it, Shaul said.

Redistricting should remain in its own box, not be persuaded by other issues, and I think at the end of the day both bodies will vote on redistricting bills as a stand-alone bill with no other strings attached, he said.

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FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS  A new St. Louis-area initiative for Planned Parenthood will help out-of-state women access abortion care at an Illinois clinic  including paying for travel costs.

On Friday, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region announced a regional logistics center that will be based at its Fairview Heights clinic. The center will use private money to help pay hotel, child care and travel costs for patients coming to the clinic from other states. Staff will also help patients connect with community organizations providing similar assistance and resources.

This center is a first of its kind within the Planned Parenthood Federation, and Im incredibly proud its here in Illinois, said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who attended the Zoom call on Friday. The announcement coincided with the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortions nationwide.

As a ribbon was cut for the site in Fairview Heights and attendees clapped over Zoom, thousands of anti-abortion activists gathered in Washington, D.C., to walk in the March for Life, an annual protest going back decades. Marchers this year expressed hope that this would be the last time they would gather, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe when it rules on the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks.

Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said the logistics center had been under development for two years  prior to another restrictive law passed last year in Texas, which generally bans abortions after six weeks.

We are prepared to scale up the operations of the regional logistics center should the Supreme Court reverse protections under Roe, or restrict them even more, Rodriguez said. Every year, Planned Parenthood of St. Louis continues to see a rising trend of out-of-state patients traveling for abortion care. After the Texas law passed, out-of-state patient visits increased by 40%, she said.

During Pritzkers remarks, he noted that there might not be a 50th anniversary for Roe v. Wade. Every state that borders Illinois is making moves to ban or restrict abortion, he said. Illinois should become a refuge for reproductive rights, he said.

In contrast, Missouris Republican governor, Mike Parson, signed legislation in May banning abortions starting in the eighth week of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies but not for cases of rape or incest.

A Missouri lawmaker said last month she would like to see a Texas-style law on Missouris books, outlawing abortions once cardiac activity is detected in an embryo. Typically, this occurs around six weeks, often before a woman knows she is pregnant.

Iowa tried a heartbeat bill three years ago that a judge declared unconstitutional. Also three years ago, a federal judge rejected an effort by Kentucky lawmakers to ban the procedure after 15 weeks.

Lawmakers who oppose abortion in Indiana said Friday theyll wait to see what the Supreme Court decides on the Mississippi law before going forward with more restrictive bills.

With reproductive rights under attack, its never been more vital for the state of Illinois to ensure access to reproductive services, Pritzker said.

The Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion provider in Granite City, is a partner with Planned Parenthood on the local effort. The regional logistics center is funded by a combination of philanthropic and private dollars. No donors wanted to be publicly identified, said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of St. Louis.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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On Jan. 15, 2022, coastal areas across California were placed under a tsunami warning. Gado via Getty Images

On Jan. 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano in Tonga erupted, sending a tsunami racing across the Pacific Ocean in all directions.

As word of the eruption spread, government agencies on surrounding islands and in places as far away as New Zealand, Japan and even the U.S. West Coast issued tsunami warnings. Only about 12 hours after the initial eruption, tsunami waves a few feet tall hit California shorelines  more than 5,000 miles away from the eruption.

Im a physical oceanographer who studies waves and turbulent mixing in the ocean. Tsunamis are one of my favorite topics to teach my students because the physics of how they move through oceans is so simple and elegant.

Waves that are a few feet tall hitting a beach in California might not sound like the destructive waves the term calls to mind, nor what you see in footage of tragic tsunamis from the past. But tsunamis are not normal waves, no matter the size. So how are tsunamis different from other ocean waves? What generates them? How do they travel so fast? And why are they so destructive?

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, it launched ash into the atmosphere, created a powerful shock wave and displaced a huge amount of water, generating a tsunami that raced across the ocean. Japan Meteorological Agency via WikimediaCommons, CC BY

Deep displacement

Most waves are generated by wind as it blows over the oceans surface, transferring energy to and displacing the water. This process creates the waves you see at the beach every day.

Tsunamis are created by an entirely different mechanism. When an underwater earthquake, volcanic eruption or landslide displaces a large amount of water, that energy has to go somewhere  so it generates a series of waves. Unlike wind-driven waves where the energy is confined to the upper layer of the ocean, the energy in a series of tsunami waves extends throughout the entire depth of the ocean. Additionally, a lot more water is displaced than in a wind-driven wave.

Imagine the difference in the waves that are created if you were to blow on the surface of a swimming pool compared to the waves that are created when someone jumps in with a big cannonball dive. The cannonball dive displaces a lot more water than blowing on the surface, so it creates a much bigger set of waves.

Earthquakes can easily move huge amounts of water and cause dangerous tsunamis. Same with large undersea landslides. In the case of the Tonga tsunami, the massive explosion of the volcano displaced the water. Some scientists are speculating that the eruption also caused an undersea landslide that contributed to the large amount of displaced water. Future research will help confirm whether this is true or not.

Tsunami waves travel fast

No matter the cause of a tsunami, after the water is displaced, waves propagate outward in all directions  similarly to when a stone is thrown into a serene pond.

Because the energy in tsunami waves reaches all the way to the bottom of the ocean, the depth of the sea floor is the primary factor that determines how fast they move. Calculating the speed of a tsunami is actually quite simple. You just multiply the depth of the ocean  13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on average  by gravity and take the square root. Doing this, you get an average speed of about 440 miles per hour (700 kilometers per hour). This is much faster than the speed of typical waves, which can range from about 10 to 30 mph (15 to 50 kph).

This equation is what oceanographers use to estimate when a tsunami will reach faraway shores. The tsunami on Jan. 15 hit Santa Cruz, California, 12 hours and 12 minutes after the initial eruption in Tonga. Santa Cruz is 5,280 miles (8,528 kilometers) from Tonga, which means that the tsunami traveled at 433 mph (697 kph)  nearly identical to the speed estimate calculated using the oceans average depth.

Many tsunamis, including the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, move inland and can flood areas far from the coast. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse via WikimediaCommons

Destruction on land

Tsunamis are rare compared to ubiquitous wind-driven waves, but they are often much more destructive. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people. More than 20,000 lost their lives in the 2011 Japan tsunami.

What makes tsunamis so much more destructive than normal waves?

In the open ocean, tsunami waves can be small and may even be undetectable by a boat at the surface. But as the tsunami approaches land, the ocean gets progressively shallower and all the wave energy that extended thousands of feet to the bottom of the deep ocean gets compressed. The displaced water needs to go somewhere. The only place to go is up, so the waves get taller and taller as they approach shore.

When tsunamis get to shore, they often do not crest and break like a typical ocean wave. Instead, they are more like a large wall of water that can inundate land near the coast. It is as if sea level were to suddenly rise by a few feet or more. This can cause flooding and very strong currents that can easily sweep people, cars and buildings away.

Luckily, tsunamis are rare and not nearly as much of a surprise as they once were. There is now an extensive array of bottom pressure sensors, called DART buoys, that can sense a tsunami wave and allow government agencies to send warnings prior to the arrival of the tsunami.

If you live near a coast  especially on the Pacific Ocean where the vast majority of tsunamis occur  be sure to know your tsunami escape route for getting to higher ground, and listen to tsunami warnings if you receive one.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano severed the main communication cable that connects the people of Tonga to the rest of the world. While the science of tsunamis can be fascinating, these are serious natural disasters. Only a few deaths have been reported so far from Tonga, but many people are missing and the true extent of the damage from the tsunami is still unknown.

___

Sally Warner has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

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___
In 1806, an update to Senate rules inadvertently removed any mechanism for ending floor debate in order to vote on legislation. Decades later, some clever senators figured out how to utilize this snafu: If they just kept talking, they could indefinitely prevent a vote on a bill, even if a majority of the Senate wanted to pass it. The filibuster was born.

It was used sparingly at first, because it was physically challenging  to prevent a vote, you had to talk nonstop, hour after hour. But some senators wielded it effectively. Sen. Jimmy Stewart, for example (who technically wasnt a real senator, but a Hollywood version of one) employed it in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to valiantly stave off corrupt legislation. In the real world, it was employed less valiantly by people like Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who, during the Civil Rights era, filibustered to prevent Black people from being treated like, well, people.

In keeping with this storied (if accidental, anti-democratic and Jim Crow-coddling) tradition, the Senate last week failed to pass crucial voting-rights legislation. Not because the majority of the Senate was opposed  it wouldve passed on a straight vote  but because the filibuster allows the minority to prevent the vote from even taking place.

Getting rid of the filibuster wasnt an option because all Senate Republicans and two moderate Democrats (Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona) have vowed to protect it as if its some kind of hallowed institution, instead of the tragic-comic clerical screwup that it actually is.

They have succumbed to their own mythology. Passing Senate bills by a simple majority has never happened in the history of our country, Manchin said last week. This is an interesting historical analysis, made more so by the fact that not a word of it is true. The Constitution makes no mention of the filibuster. It established the Senate as a majoritarian body, just like the House, and it operated that way early on. Turns out its not just Republicans who engage in big lies.

The talking filibuster that pretend-Sen. Stewart and racist Sen. Thurmond used to thwart the majority was updated again in the 1970s. The Senate, exhausted from all that talking, decreed that the minority no longer had to keep talking to stonewall the majority, but could do it by just threatening to talk, and then going back to their offices. Thus was anti-democracy obstructionism married to plain old laziness.

Later, as the filibuster kept grinding Senate business to a halt, the party in charge found ways around it. When the Democrats were in charge during the Obama era, they declared that the filibuster cant be used to stall presidential appointments. Republicans upped the ante when they were next in charge, and declared that the filibuster would not apply to Supreme Court nominees.

Heres one way to tell if a given procedural rule in an institution is reasonable: Watch and see if exceptions to the rule have to keep being carved out in order to allow the institution to function.

As if to highlight the inherent absurdity of the filibuster, suggestions last week on how to reform it included a push to return to the talking filibuster, which Manchin himself endorsed. The idea is that members of the Senate (the worlds greatest deliberative body, remember) could more legitimately settle the nations big philosophical and legal debates if only there was a test of physical stamina involved. Its like trial by combat from Game of Thrones, but with talking instead of battle axes.

To which I would ask, why stop at talking? Here are some suggestions for other filibuster reforms.

The hopping filibuster: Senators shall be required to not only continue talking in order to hold the floor, but also to hop repeatedly. Like a bunny. Furthermore, any filibustering senator who utters the phrase America is at a crossroads must, from that moment forward, hop on one foot.

The arm-wrestling filibuster: The filibustering senator of the minority party shall go mano a mano (or woman-o, depending) against a senator chosen by the majority leader. The Senate parliamentarian, consulting Roberts Rules of Order, shall ensure that both parties elbows remain firmly planted on the desktop. (Sen. Sinema would have a particular advantage under this system. Have you seen those guns?)

The hotdog-eating-contest filibuster: Just what it sounds like. This would put Democrats at a distinct disadvantage, their caucus presumably containing more vegetarians, but that could be balanced out with the addition of the break-dancing filibuster.

The karaoke filibuster: Any fool can talk. This reform would require the filibustering senator to sing. With heart  anyone who just mumbles the lyrics shall be ruled out of order.

The breath-holding filibuster: Like the toddlers whose behavior they so frequently emulate, filibustering senators shall be required to hold their breath until bipartisan compromise can be reached, or until they pass out, whichever comes first. By unanimous consent of both parties, resuscitation of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shall be optional.

Alternatively, they could just adopt the original constitutional intent of how the Senate was supposed to operate, and decide each question based on whichever side gets the most votes.

Or is that too absurd?

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Regarding Hearing on bills to ban critical race theory, adopt parents bill of rights draws record response (Jan. 12): This legislation would have a chilling effect on learning. However, the fundamental problem with these types of bills is their exclusionary intent.

The proposed ban on any curriculum deemed divisive and unpatriotic, because it identifies people or entities as systematically biased or oppressed, is clearly written from one perspective to the neglect of all others. Thats as divisive as one can get. That perspective, of course, is white male.

The lawmakers crafting this legislation may do so with their white male constituency in mind, allowing them to intimidate school boards with lawsuits if they feel their beliefs are threatened. But state laws apply to all. A white parent may consider lessons on Jim Crow laws divisive, but African American parents might sue if a subject they consider relevant to their childs education is being censored. A father demanding that pay-inequity and sexual-harassment curricula be eliminated would be offset by a mother who feels those issues are imperative.

Parental energy would be better spent teaching children that theyre responsible for their own character, not the sins of past generations or the transgressions of their peers. Censorship is divisive and unpatriotic. Trust our schools to present unvarnished instruction at an age-appropriate level and our students to comprehend its relevance without assigning guilt.

John McDonald  Ferguson
Regarding the editorial Kings quest for a better America is as relevant as ever in todays big issues (Jan. 16): William Shakespeare wrote, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Saint Paul said about the false disciples of his time, For even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. There are many false admirers of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Blacks and whites tend to ignore his main message, instead choosing to quote selective passages.

President Ronald Reagan, in opposing affirmative action, said, We are committed to a society in which all men and women have equal opportunities to succeed, and so we oppose the use of quotas. We want a color-blind society. A society, that in the words of Dr. King, judges people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Like Reagan, many (including Donald Trump) quote that same line from King. Conservatives present Kings vision as though its already accomplished and must be preserved by keeping control and privilege without changing.

If we are to achieve a real equality, the U.S. will have to adopt a modified form of socialism, King wrote in 1965 while held in a Selma, Alabama, jail cell. He was no individualist.

His false followers must quit twisting the meaning of his words. King knew that the ideal situation of his dreams can only come about through generations of massive changes in order to repair the damage done by generations of injustice.

Rev. John Vogler  St. Louis
Even before we left for Iceland, wed seen the photos and the videos of the wild, erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano, with its blazing red rivers of dangerous molten lava streaming down the mountain. Weve got to see that when we go, we thought, even though it looked daunting and vaguely terrifying.

Who knew that visiting an active volcano would be so easy? Civilized, even.

For starters, this volcano is conveniently located, only a 45-minute or so drive from the capital Reykjavik (and just minutes away from Icelands No. 1 tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon). You could conceivably hike the volcano in the morning and luxuriate in the geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon in the afternoon. The volcanos easy accessibility is, no doubt, one reason its so popular.

Beyond that, though, a helpful website, visitreykjanes.is/en, actually provides a map of the parking lots and trails as well as a link to a live webcam at the crater. (That way, you can spare yourself the roughly 6-mile round trip hike to the crater if its not actively spewing lava or if its too foggy to see anything.)

About mid-morning on our second day in Iceland, we pulled into an almost full parking lot. This being a modern, technologically advanced country, we had to pay for parking online. (Good thing we had a hot spot with us!) We also took note of the portable toilets. No hikers would apparently be answering those calls of nature in nature. Wed scoped out the website in advance and opted for trail C to a lava field. But how would we find C? No problem. Signs identified the trails and guided us to the connector to C. Easy peasy.

And then we were gob-smacked as we came around a mountain and saw the black tip of a steaming lava field covering what seemed to be an entire valley. It was immense  and it didnt take much to imagine molten lava scorching everything in its way.

We followed a trail alongside the lava field, occasionally feeling the heat. Some people walked obliviously on the lava itself  at least until a loudspeaker pierced the air. A man wearing a safety vest warned everyone of the dangers, and that was enough to send everyone scampering off the field. And enough to make us remember that Mother Nature is the one with the upper hand.

One of our other must-sees was Landmannalaugar in the southern highlands, known for its geothermal features and its multicolored mountains of rhyolite, a volcanic rock. Its a a difficult place to get to. Twelve-hour tours leave mostly from Reykjavik, but the drive itself takes three or four hours one way. Not very appealing. We were in Vik, and the road from there had some rough spots, including water crossings, and we didnt want to risk our rental car.

I was lucky to find a guide in Vik who would take us in his nicely souped-up bus with humongous tires, which he inflated and deflated as needed. We drove through lava fields covered with velvety moss, stopping for waterfalls and whatever views struck our fancy. Ingo knew all the scenic spots and made sure we saw them.

Landmannalaugar itself is a hikers paradise, with multiday trails and overnight huts. We got a taste of its wonders on the Laugahraun Loop, a short hike through a lava field and past steaming vents. As if the scene werent enchanting enough, we were awed by a rainbow arching across the red, green and rust mountains.

There is virtually nowhere in Iceland where the fire of volcanoes hasnt left its mark. In fact, most of our vacation involved volcanos. We climbed the Eldfell crater in the Westman Islands and the Saxholl crater on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula; we wandered among bizarre rock formations in the Dimmuborgir lava fields around Lake Myvatn and Thingvellir National Park along the Golden Circle; we ogled the Londrangar rock towers off the Snaefellsnes Peninsula; we marveled at the phenomenal basalt columns created by cooling lava at the cave at Reynisfjara beach and along the coastline around Arnastapi; and in otherworldly Hverir, we were surrounded by steaming vents, boiling mud pots and smoking fumaroles, suffused in the smell of sulphur.

The tip of the iceberg

It was a rare sunny day  the Norse god Freyr must have been smiling on us  when we boarded our zodiac for an hours cruise of Jokulsarlon, a glacial lagoon dotted with icebergs. The day seemed warm, but that might have been because we wore heavy flotation suits (and life vests).

It was also a perfect day for the seals basking in the warm sun while stretched out on a cool iceberg. Our guide knew just how close he could get without the seals diving into the water. The seals were definitely ready for their close-up, and cameras in hand, we obliged.

As we neared the icy glacial wall, we heard a loud, crackling sound and saw slices of glacier crashing down into the lagoon, shooting up water and revealing a sheet of pale blue ice. It was magnificent  and we were just far enough away not to be rocked and rolled by the wave action. Amazing as it may sound, the rest of the cruise, sailing alongside some seriously big icebergs, seemed almost anti-climactic.

After the boat ride, we walked across the highway to Diamond Beach, a dramatic black sand beach littered with sparkling chunks of icebergs. We walked along the beach, looking for the perfect shot, but somehow I could never quite capture the glittering quality of the jewel-like ice.

Jokulsarlon is extremely popular, one of the highlights of any trip to Iceland. But about 20 minutes away is less-visited Fjallsarlon. What a contrast! Fjallsarlon lagoon is definitely smaller, and the icebergs not nearly as big. But we had it to ourselves, so we actually felt like we were in the wilderness.

A few days before, wed been even more up close and personal with a glacier when we hiked across a part of Myrdalsjokull to an ice cave in Mount Katla  in the pouring rain. At times, we felt like we were in a black-and-white movie: The sky, rocks and rivulets were gray; the glacier white streaked with black volcanic ash. Our guide used a pick axe to carve steps in the ice, making it easier to navigate the terrain. Of course, the crampons also provided security.

The ice cave itself was small but enchanting. We each got a chance to walk in and explore, take pictures and have our pictures taken, and just generally soak up the magic.

Speaking of the power of water, a glacial river is said to have created Fjadrargljufur Canyon, which proved to be one of our favorite places. A 1.2 mile path winds along the top of the canyon to its end, marked not surprisingly by a gushing waterfall. Erosion sculpted the canyons walls into fanciful, otherworldly shapes, exotic enough to have had Game of Thrones dragons soar through. (Oh, and Justin Bieber used it in his Ill Show You video.)

One side benefit of all these glaciers (plus the rain) is the astounding number of waterfalls. But it isnt just the sheer number that is so impressive. Its the waterfalls astonishing beauty and variety. (Tip to visitors: Even if its sunny, rain pants are great for visiting waterfalls, especially the major ones where mist and spray can be overwhelming.)

Of course, we saw the major ones on the most heavily traveled tourist circuit: Gullfoss off the Golden Circle where we were drenched by rain, spray and mist; Seljalandsfoss, where we could walk behind the waterfall; Skogafoss where one thoughtless couple spent almost 20 minutes taking selfies, preventing anyone else from getting a clear shot of the thundering falls. (Incidentally, a staircase next to the falls leads to an observation deck with great views of the surrounding countryside but not necessarily the falls.)

Id long wanted to visit Dettifoss, one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. (It was in the opening of the movie Prometheus.) It was hard to get a complete view, but we felt and heard its power in its deafening sound, palpable vibration and deluge of spray. About a kilometers walk away is Selfoss, a lovely horseshoe shaped series of waterfalls, which we liked better. (We visited the west sides of these falls, which has a better  i.e., paved  road, bigger parking lot and facilities than the east side access.)

The highlight of our time in the Westfjords was the Dynjandi waterfall, actually six tiered waterfalls with Dynjandi at the top. A short but rocky and sometimes slippery trail, with a series of observation decks, leads up the side, allowing views of the individual falls.

One of the most iconic images of Iceland is Kirkjufell mountain with a waterfall flowing in front. But, as we discovered, youll never see that image while driving because the mountain is on one side of the road, the waterfall on the other. In fact, we almost didnt stop at the waterfall because it looked so puny in comparison to the others wed seen. But when we passed a busy, almost full parking lot, we got a sneaking suspicion that it might be something worth seeing. Still, it was only when we crossed a bridge and walked down the steps next to the waterfall that we had that aha moment. Oh, OK, thats the view. Click. Got it.
How Effective Are Hybrid Events?

Learn more about hybrid event streaming at Streaming Media East 2022.

Read the complete transcript of this clip:

Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen: I don't think hybrid events are going away, because there's all sorts of business and other motivations for them. But do they actually work, Alex? I know you have some thoughts on this.

Alex Lindsay: Well, they largely work for the in-room audience. We've had the opportunity to spend have all kinds of budgets from everything from $5,000 to $500,000 for a hybrid event over the last decade, and we've really got to all these permutations of how to build it and how to make it work. And what I will say is that it is extremely challenging to have a hybrid event work for the online audience. That can be the livestream doesn't work. Putting cameras in the back does not work for the online audience. When I say it doesn't work, we're measuring average view time. Average view time is all that matters. When we look at these things, how long did someone stay when they got there?

Marketing can fix the number of people that are there, but our job as event producers is to keep them in the room. And if you look at if you look at hybrid events, you're talking sometimes in small, low minutes. For your all-day event, you might see an average view time of 10 minutes or 15 minutes. People just leave because they feel like they're outside of it.

Fundamentally, the problem is that when you put one person in the room, you are fighting a million years of evolution. The speaker is going to look at that person. They're gonna play to that person. They're gonna play to that audience. Essentially, they're gonna put the online audience in the kiddie table--that kiddie table that we used to sit at at Thanksgiving. That's where we all sit.

Now, people are not gonna complain. They're not gonna send you emails, but they just don't feel like they're connected. And that is a devastating thing to do to your event. And it's a devastating thing to do to your audience because you don't see it. You don't see people being upset. They just don't wanna come back the next time or they don't come back the next day. That's what we see for instance, in a lot of two or three days of hybrid events. You see a drop-off in attendance that is generally between 60 and 80% because people just stop coming. They think they're gonna watch the VOD later, but they won't. Part of that is the whole function, the whole structure of events.

I think also what didn't really work before was watching all those slide decks with tons of text and everything else. We really just came for the coffee and cookies. And so the reality is that they haven't been that great before and now it's just really clear.

So I think that it's really, really challenging to have hybrid events work. Personally, I think that they're the transitionary format that we're gonna use until we figure out how to really take advantage of digital events. I think that physical events will continue to exist, but I think that hybrid events are something that event teams and event companies are desperate to hang onto because they're trying to stay relevant. But I don't think that they have legs to last for very, for very long because they just don't pencil out most of the time. And if you actually look at that data, it becomes very challenging.

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Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 20, 2022) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan"), is pleased to provide an update on its research into CBD loaded liposomes using Innocan's LPT platform. Innocan's core goal is to develop a technology that combines the advantages of two well-known drug and delivery system to create a novel drug product that can be used for vast array of diseases.





Figure 1:Professor Chezy Barenholz, head of the Membrane and Liposome Research Department at The Hebrew University & Iris Bincovich Innocan Pharma's CEO



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/110858_622146c2a4b4c88d_002full.jpg

Background - The Importance of CBD and Liposomes

CBD is becoming a key component in the fields of medical and pharmaceutical technology1. In the recent months, there have been several major transactions in the CBD pharmaceutical field, such as the acquisition of GW Pharmaceutical by Jazz Pharmaceutical for roughly $7B2.

The therapeutic benefits of CBD are well known, and CBD users have reported major relief in several diseases3. Innocan considers CBD to be a very promising substance that will have a positive influence on the treatment of several illness in the future.

Liposomes have been used in medicine for quite some time. "Doxil" for example, is a highly effective and very successful cancer drug that was CO-developed by Innocan's chief scientist Prof. Chezy Barenholz at the Hebrew University. Much like Innocan's LPT platform, Doxil is also based on the loading of a drug into liposomes, resulting in better efficacy4.

The Problem Facing CBD Treatments

Despite the major advancements in the field, CBD treatments are facing a major roadblock. CBD breaks down very quickly in the body and shows low and variable oral bioavailability and thus reduce CBD therapeutic effects for treating diseases in which CBD has the potential to be therapeutically effective such as pain, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis epilepsy and many other diseases.

Innocan's Unique Solution

By administering CBD encapsulated in liposomes (the LPT platform), Innocan seeks to construct long-lasting significant levels of CBD in the body, which Innocan believes will create a far more effective and continuous therapeutic effects.

In 2021, Innocan carried out a series experiments of its LPT platform on animals. These experiments have demonstrated initial positive results, validating the viability of Innocan's plan to make CBD available to humans and animals for an extended period. The Company's latest study showed that CBD encapsulated in liposomes can be detected in sufficient quantities for up to 6 weeks following a single administration, whereas CBD administered either orally or parenterally had rapid degraded after just a few hours.

Iris Bincovich, Innocan Pharma's CEO, commented, "We are excited about our ability to encapsulate CBD molecules in liposomes. The encapsulation process is a difficult task, and we are pleased with the initial results. The ability to create prolonged release of the CBD, while keeping therapeutic levels in the tissue/blood may open up the LPT technology for uses in a wide variety of clinical indications."

Current and Near Future Outlook

Iris Bincovich, Innocan Pharma's CEO, commented, "We are very encouraged by the remarkably positive study results that we obtained in 2021. To that end, we are working hard not only to complete our data that we have been collecting over the last 12 months, but also to give it greater breadth by targeting indications that we have not yet had on our agenda. We have set a goal of conducting as many studies in this field as possible in 2022, which we expect to publish in as soon as we have been granted patent protection for our technology by the authorities."

Multiple Paths to Commercialization

These groundbreaking initial results, which to Innocan's knowledge, have not been achieved by anyone else, have encouraged the Company to proceed with increased staffing and establishing its own facility to ensure rapid progress. Innocan believes that such moves are essential for the future as the Company plans to commence human trials as soon as possible. Innocan is now working to ensure the upscaling of capabilities that will allow the Company to manufacture CBD-loaded liposomes in larger quantities, representing an additional step towards commercial production.

Importantly, while Innocan's research was initially aimed at the use of the LPT platform in humans, a new aspect has recently emerged in terms of its applications for veterinary medicine. Iris Bincovich added, "In our experiments with dogs, we noticed initial promising results in the treatment of various diseases. We plan to pursue a path of commercialization for the veterinary market. The "global veterinary medicine market size was estimated at USD $29.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% from 2021 to 2028" (Published in GVR Grand View Research on Jan 2021). While we will be required to conduct a full veterinary regulatory process, including larger animal studies, these regulations are thought to be similar to the regulations applicable to humans. Therefore, there is potential that they will offer a faster track to commercialization. Innocan believes these studies will assist in, and accelerate, the development of human drug-products. Anyone who has ever tried providing a cat or dog with medical treatment knows how difficult it can often be. A one-month long-lasting medication, possible by the LPT platform, would be a major innovation for both animals and humans."

In parallel to the establishment of a lab and the progress with the LPT program, InnoCan is conducting animal studies related to several aspects of the LPT which may later provide supportive data when moving to human clinical trial preparations.

Innocan's relationship with The Hebrew University

Innocan Israel, has entered into the Research and License Agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with respect to the design, preparation, characterization and evaluation of CBD (or other cannabinoids) loaded liposomes. The research and development initiative is led by Professor Chezy Barenholz, head of the Membrane and Liposome Research Department at The Hebrew University, which is the inventor of over fifty-five patent families, two of which underlie Doxil, an FDA-approved drug for breast cancer treatment. This unique liposome platform technology may have a wide range of applications, such as epilepsy, pain relief, inflammation and central nervous system disorders. A patent was filed covering this technology on October 7, 2019.

About Innocan

Innocan Pharma is a pharmaceutical tech company that focuses on the development of several drug delivery platforms containing CBD. Innocan Pharma and Ramot at Tel Aviv University are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the COVID-19 Corona Virus using CBD. CBD-loaded exosomes hold the potential to help in the recovery of infected lung cells. This product, which is expected to be administered by inhalation, will be tested against a variety of lung infections.

Innocan Pharma signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a CBD drug delivery platform based on a unique-controlled release liposome to be administered by injection. Innocan Israel plans, together with Professor Barenholz, to test the liposome platform on several potential conditions. Innocan Israel is also working on a dermal product that integrates CBD with other pharmaceutical ingredients as well as the development and sale of CBD-integrated pharmaceuticals, including, but not limited to, topical treatments for the relief of psoriasis symptoms as well as the treatment of muscle pain and rheumatic pain. The founders and officers of Innocan Israel each have commercially successful track records in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in Israel and globally.

For further information, please contact:

For Innocan Pharma Corporation:

Iris Bincovich, CEO

+972-54-3012842

[email protected]

Lytham Partners, LLC

Ben Shamsian CPA | Vice President

Direct: 646-829-9701; Cell: 516-652-9004

[email protected]

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding the success of its research activities, collaborations, the potential for treatment of indications in dogs using the Company's LPT technology, further research of treatments towards other conditions, the treatment of other conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals and the timing for market entry, is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in the nature of product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning the timing of launch of product distribution. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward-looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

https://www.forbes.com/health/body/cbd-oil-benefits/; https://www.epidiolex.com/about-epidiolex Payments received by other companies or developers may not reflect the future payments that the Company may receive. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC6043845/ There is no assurance that InnoCan's LPT platform will receive the same degree of success received by Doxil.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/110858
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (NYSE: CAE) (TSX: CAE)  CAE's President and Chief Executive Officer, Marc Parent, was honored yesterday with the Living Legends of Aviation's highest award, the Industry Leader of the Year Award. Living Legends of Aviation is one of the most prestigious aviation recognition events in the world, hosted by John Travolta and held in Beverly Hills, California.

"I am truly honoured to be recognized by the Living Legends of Aviation and join men and women who have made significant contributions to our industry," said Marc Parent. "My professional journey has been enormously fulfilling. At a time when we need to encourage young people to pursue a career in aviation, especially as pilots, I hope the stories of today's aviation Legends inspire the next generation to take to the skies and become the Legends of tomorrow."

Throughout his career, Marc has helped shape the aerospace industry in Canada and around the world. His contribution was recognized in 2020 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada - one of the country's highest honours - and in 2021 when he was inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. Under his leadership, CAE has become a global leader in training pilots and crew members, a symbol of excellence globally, with a noble purpose to make flying safer.

For the video profile about Marc Parent, presented during the award ceremony, click here. For Marc Parent's complete biography, click here.

Marc joined CAE in 2005 and became President and CEO in 2009. He led the company's growth beyond simulation products to become the largest provider of civil aviation training services and a global leader in training and mission support solutions for defense & security forces, and healthcare sectors. Through its broad global network of more than 60 training locations, CAE serves all sectors of aviation, including the world's airlines, business and helicopter operators, and defense forces. Parent is a firm believer in good corporate citizenship. During the pandemic, CAE manufactured much-needed ventilators and administered 33,000 injections at its corporate vaccination centre. He also led CAE to become carbon neutral as of September 2020  the first Canadian aerospace company to achieve this goal.

Today, Marc Parent is heading a corporate transformation, positioning CAE as a high-tech leader, bringing the digital and physical worlds closer together through technology. With nine acquisitions since March 2020, CAE has significantly increased its capabilities and expanded its offering.

Marc Parent's passion for aviation was sparked as a young boy. At just 17, he earned his pilot's licence, two years before his driver's permit. Parent graduated from Mechanical Engineering at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in 1984, and joined Canadair as an engineer on the Challenger and Canadair Regional Jet programs. He rose through the ranks, and assumed responsibility for all Bombardier aircraft development programs. In the early 2000s, he ran Bombardier's U.S. Operations, including the Learjet manufacturing facility, and was then appointed Vice President and General Manager of the Challenger and CRJ aircraft programs.

About Living Legends of AviationThe "Living Legends of Aviation" are a group of 100 remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation. The Legends are aviation entrepreneurs, innovators, astronauts, industry leaders, record breakers, pilots that have become celebrities and celebrities that have become pilots. They gather each year to celebrate individual accomplishments and advancements during aviation's 2nd hundred years. The event is produced by Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, an organization that educates and sparks children's interest in aviation.

About CAECAE is a high technology company, at the leading edge of digital immersion, providing solutions to make the world a safer place. Backed by a record of more than 70 years of industry firsts, we continue to reimagine the customer experience and revolutionize training and operational support solutions in civil aviation, defense and security, and healthcare. We are the partner of choice to customers worldwide who operate in complex, high-stakes and largely regulated environments, where successful outcomes are critical. As testament to our customers' ongoing needs for our solutions, over 60 percent of CAE's revenue is recurring in nature. We have the broadest global presence in our industry, with more than 11,000 employees, 180 sites, and training locations in over 35 countries. www.cae.com

Follow us on Twitter: CAE_IncFacebook: www.facebook.com/cae.incLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cae Hashtags: #CAE

Note to EditorsHigh-resolution photos of the Living Legends event are available for download at www.cae.com/multimedia-centre

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caes-ceo-marc-parent-honored-with-the-prestigious-living-legends-of-aviations-industry-leader-of-the-year-award-301466152.html

SOURCE CAE INC.
(Tribune News Service)  Three Fort Bragg soldiers who were camping with another soldier whose partial remains washed up along Cape Lookout National Seashore in 2020 are facing court martial on drug use and other charges.

Spc. Alex R. Becerra, Pvt. Annamarie L. Cochell and Pfc. Samad A. Landrum, along with four others, were camping on the remote North Carolina island with Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez, 21, when Roman-Martinez was reported missing May 22, 2020.

His severed head washed ashore six days later. His body has never been recovered.

Roman-Martinez, Becerra, Landrum and Cochell were assigned to the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

According to charge sheets, Becerra, Cochell and Landrum are each charged with making a false official statement, disobeying a lawful order and using LSD, a hallucinogenic drug.

Becerra, who made the 911 to report Roman-Martinez missing, was arraigned Jan. 13 on additional charges of conspiracy, two counts of disobeying a lawful command and another count of making a false statement, according to court records.

According to the charge sheet, Becerra allegedly:

 Made a false statement to officials by omitting the presence of another individual when Becerra said he and two others left the island at 3 a.m. May 22, 2020, to board a ferry in Davis, North Carolina,

 Made a false statement when he failed to admit another individual joined the group on the camping trip,

 Denied drugs were involved in the trip.

Becerra and Cochell are each also charged with disobeying a lawful order for having contact with soldiers they were ordered to stay away from.

Becerras trial is scheduled for May 31 to June 3.

The charge sheets allege Landrum and Cochell conspired with others whose names were redacted to make a false statement when they also reportedly didnt include the name of the fourth individual who was with them on the ferry trip.

Landrum also allegedly denied drugs were involved in the trip, the document states, and in another instance he omitted the presence of an individual when he told investigators that on the night Roman-Martinez went missing, one soldier was sleeping, another was fishing and another was watching the fishing soldier.

Landrums trial is scheduled for March 21 to March 24. Cochells trial is scheduled for April 25 to April 28.

Roman-Martinezs homicide case remains open but was moved to cold case status, a spokeswoman for the Army Criminal Investigation Division said in November. No one has been charged with his death.

Lt. Col. Brett Lea, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, said the CID is continuing to offer its $50,000 reward for information that resolves the investigation.

These charges are unrelated to the death of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez, which remains unsolved, Lea said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Army special agents at 910-396-8777 or the Military Police Desk at 910-396-1179.

They can also anonymously submit information at www.cid.army.mil/report-a-crime.html .

rriley@fayobserver.com

(c)2021 The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.)

Visit The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) at www.fayobserver.com
PHULWAL, India  As Sikka Khan tells it, he was struck by tragedy, but also fortune, in 1947.

He was a 6-month-old orphan, the son of Muslim laborers caught in the chaos of India's partition. Sadiq, his 10-year old brother, barely fled to Pakistan alive. His father died trying. His mother took her own life, leaving Sikka alone in this village. But he survived: The Singhs, a local family of landowning Sikhs, took Sikka in, fed him, and raised him.

In the ensuing years and decades, Sikka begged local Muslims migrating to Pakistan to look for his brother. Others helped him write letters to Delhi newspapers and later, on the Internet, to search for Sadiq. He never heard back, until fate struck a second time, on May 4, 2019.

Sikka was tending to animals in the Singh family courtyard when Davinder, the grandson of the man who took him in, rushed home to announce that Sadiq may have been found.

A farmhand who never owned a phone, Sikka recalled he didn't understand the chain of people or the 21st century wizardry - a village leader in Pakistan, a YouTube channel, a doctor in Canada - that would put him face-to-face one day this month with the brother he lost in 1947. As he sat under a jujube tree, peering into Davinder's smartphone, he didn't even know if it would really be Sadiq, he recalled.

But then the screen lit up with the face of an 83-year-old man, and Sikka knew.

"I tried to look for you," Sikka said.

___

In the summer of 1947, the British, who were departing India, drew a new border to divide the former colony, prompting as many as 20 million people to begin a desperate migration. Muslims scrambled toward newly formed Pakistan, while Hindu and Sikh refugees poured into India. As many as 2 million people died, historians say, as Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs turned on each other in waves of killing, rape and kidnapping, leaving behind fractured families with missing women and orphaned children.

Even those who were not touched by violence found themselves forging new lives, unmoored from their old families, belongings and even identities.

In 1956, India and Pakistan stopped efforts to reunify families across the tense border, and the two governments have tightly controlled visas, making physical reunions - when families manage to remain in touch - nearly impossible.

But over the past decade, a younger generation has taken a renewed interest in the documentation of the partition, often relying on technology. In 2009, a California physicist created the 1947 Partition Archive, an online oral history project. In 2018, University of Oxford students created Project Daastan, which uses 360-degree cameras to create virtual-reality reproductions of the villages and homes that survivors left behind in another country. On YouTube, several volunteer groups have cropped up with a sole purpose: uniting long-lost families.

In the past, relatives and friend sought each other through newspaper ads, word of mouth, or by posting notes on pilgrimage sites that both Indians and Pakistanis can visit - when diplomatic relations permit. "Today, social media makes connecting people much easier," said Nasir Dhillon, 37, a Pakistani real estate agent who founded a YouTube channel, Punjabi Lehar, in 2013 with a Sikh partner.

The channel has helped reunite about 200 families, Dhillon estimates. "When we put out a video, things happen," he said.

None of these tools existed when Sikka was a young man. Growing up in Phulwal, he barely knew his own story and pieced it together from villagers: His mother had brought him to Phulwal to visit her family just as the partition erupted, severing them from his father, who died, and his brother, who left for Pakistan. According to Sikka and local residents, Sikka's despondent mother hanged herself. Her relatives fled Phulwal, leaving Sikka with a destitute uncle, who gave the child away.

Then, Paag Singh stepped in.

Paag sent Sikka, a member of the gujjar laborer caste, to work his fields and take care of his cows and goats. It was hard, dirty work. "I was miserable, crying all the time," Sikka said. "But Paag Singh protected me with a ferocity."

Sikka settled into the rhythms of farming life, and the Singh family. He played with Paag's son, Darshan, on his lap until Darshan grew up. He watched Darshan marry an energetic woman named Paramjit and have a son of his own, Davinder.

Paag had offered to arrange a marriage for Sikka, too, with one of his distant cousins, a Muslim girl. But Sikka said no. By that point, the Singhs had "made me a man," Sikka said, "but it was hard to imagine starting another family."

By day, Sikka worked hard harvesting wheat and pearl millet and feeding animals. By night, he shared a bedroom with Davinder. The unspoken rules in the house remain today, said Paramjit.

"If I eat two peanuts, he eats two peanuts," she said. "If Davinder drinks a cup of milk, he drinks a cup of milk."

As elsewhere in India, caste and religion impose an enduring, often exploitative structure over rural Punjabi society, said Anupama Uppal, a labor economist at Punjabi University. But the relationships between landowners and laborers can also be nuanced, said Jagsir Singh, a doctor born in Phulwal. "You till the land together, eat meals together," he said. "It's hard to understand for people not from here."

Sikka always yearned for the family he never knew. As a child, he begged Muslim families departing for Pakistan to look for Sadiq. He asked others to help him write letters to distant family, put ads in newspapers and in his later years, even post on Davinder's Facebook.

No reply ever came. "He would say, 'I have nobody in this world,'" said Razia Begum, the wife of a distant nephew who lives in Phulwal.

And so for decades, the story of the Muslim gujjar living with the Sikh family hung over the village of 3,000. "Everybody pointed to him with pity," Jagsir said. "He was the one left behind."

___

Jagsir Singh was in Vancouver visiting his daughter in May 2019 when his sister-in-law's husband, an avid watcher of Punjabi Lehar, sent him a link to the YouTube channel.

The video began with an old man in a white turban telling his interviewer, Nasir Dhillon, that his infant brother went with his mother to Phulwal village in 1947, never to be heard from again. Sadiq's father was killed in a confrontation with Indian soldiers near Ludhiana, Sadiq said, while he joined a refugee caravan. Walking to Pakistan, he encountered "dead bodies all around me," he said.

"If you can see me, please talk to me," Sadiq said into the camera, at Sikka. "Who knows if I might die without meeting you?"

Jagsir immediately wondered, "Could this be our man?"

He forwarded the link to family back in Phulwal, who relayed the news to Davinder. Then Jagsir called Dhillon, and the YouTuber explained that he was introduced to Sadiq, a farmer living outside Faisalabad, Pakistan, through Mohammad Ishraq, a young village leader who figured YouTube was Sadiq's best hope. By about 1 p.m. the next day, Dhillon's team was sitting next to Sadiq in Faisalabad, dialing Davinder's Indian WhatsApp number.

Seventy-two years of questions poured out from Sadiq. He didn't know what happened to their mother, or that Sikka no longer went by his childhood nickname, Habib. He asked if Sikka ever managed to marry, if he ever bought any land.

"I tried to look for you," Sikka said.

"You tried to find me?" Sadiq asked.

Sikka nodded. "I wrote letters," he said. "I tried so much, but I could never find an address."

After the first day, the brothers would ask Davinder and Ishraq to set up calls whenever they felt like speaking, which, on some days, was more than once.

They would talk about Sadiq's six children and his grandchildren. Sikka would tell Sadiq what crops he grew, what Phulwal looked like. Sadiq would recount how he also searched for Sikka. He once traveled 160 miles to ask a relative from India if he had any word of Sikka, he said. He once made a pilgrimage to ask a Sufi holy man whether he would find his brother.

"He told me you are alive, so I must keep trying," Sadiq recalled.

Within days, the brothers' friends and families began to prepare passports, hoping to apply for visas so the two could meet. But politics stood in the way. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck, and borders clamped shut.

Visas have been nearly impossible to obtain in recent years as bilateral relations plummeted, with the Indian government particularly reluctant to approve them, said Urvashi Butalia, a New Delhi-based author of "The Other Side of Silence," a collection of partition stories.

Time and again, survivors say they want to go back, just once, "to say goodbye to people, things, relationships," Butalia said. "Without that, there's a deep sense of lacking closure."

___

There was one last option for Sikka and Sadiq: They could meet at the Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free passage established in 2019 that lets Indians visit a Sikh holy site, the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, about three miles inside Pakistan.

As covid receded, they set a date: Jan. 10.

In Phulwal, the Singhs had arranged for news of the reunion to be broadcast over the village loudspeakers. The family rented a bus, and about 30 of them - plus Sikka - piled in, laden with 50,000 rupees, or $700, worth of gifts.

In Faisalabad, Sadiq's entourage, with his entire family, was even bigger. Ishraq, the village leader, counted 70 people bundling boxes of clothes and delicacies into their own bus.

It was a perfect, clear afternoon when the two sides finally approached each other at the Kartarpur gurdwara, beneath its gleaming domes of white and gold.

In a video clip that's since gone viral in India and Pakistan, Sadiq rushes into Sikka's arms and wails, as Sikka soothes him. "We are alive, so we could be together again," Sikka said.

The Indians and Pakistanis engulfed each other in hearty, Punjabi-style welcomes - big hugs all around, recalled Paramjit. Sadiq introduced his children and grandchildren one by one. "I didn't have anyone, so I presented them," Sikka said, referring to the Singhs.

Sikka gave Sadiq a gift of turbans. Paramjit gave Sadiq's wife Basri a luxurious salwar kameez and handed envelopes stuffed with money to Sadiq's grandchildren. Sadiq, leading the Pakistani delegation, offered a garland of flowers to Darshan. He placed his hands on Paramjit's forehead and gave her bolts of fine cloth.

They spent three hours together before Pakistani soldiers closed the site before sundown. The brothers had to be separated, said Dhillon, who filmed the reunion. "Sadiq wouldn't let him go."

Since the meeting, the brothers have kept up their video calls every day. They're pushing to get visas to visit each other. A senior aide in the Pakistani prime minister's office reached out and promised he would help, according to Sadiq, who is urging Sikka to move to Pakistan.

"I want to make up for all the years we lost," Sadiq said, "to spend the rest of my life, whatever joys and sorrows, with him."

In India, Sikka said he's also desperate to visit Pakistan. But move there? He said he's not sure. After searching for a lifetime, he finally found Sadiq, and maybe more than a brother.

"I tell him I want him to come to India," Sikka said.

He was back in the Singh family courtyard, surrounded by Darshan, Paramjit, Davinder and Davinder's young kids. Cold wind rustled through the jujube tree. Davinder went to fetch Sikka's shawl.

"I recognize everybody in this village," he said. "They're family, too."
NAGASAKI, Japan  For decades after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Nobuko Oka kept silent, traumatized by the horrors of that day. She finally decided to speak up in her 80s in a mission to educate future generations and propel a movement for a world without nuclear weapons.
MEXICO CITY  Two Canadians were fatally shot and another was wounded at a hotel in Playa del Carmen on Friday afternoon, the latest attack at Mexican beach resorts that have been rattled by organized crime violence.

The secretary of security in Quintana Roo state, Lucio Hernandez Gutierrez, said in a tweet that the violence erupted after an "argument between hotel guests." He said he had been informed by Canadian authorities that both victims had criminal records. The shooting occurred at the Hotel Xcaret, an all-inclusive resort near an eco-park popular with tourists that features snorkeling, swimming with dolphins and nature activities.

In another tweet, the security chief appealed for information about a gunman shown in a photo wearing a light gray sweatshirt and sweatpants firing a pistol in what appeared to be the leafy patio of the hotel.

Video apparently shot at the hotel and spread on social media showed bodies on the floor of an open-air restaurant. "He's still breathing!" some unidentified guests exclaim.

The three Canadians were wounded in the assault and rushed to a hospital, the official said. Two of them subsequently died, authorities said. The state attorney general's office said the first individual to perish had previously faced criminal charges, including drug trafficking and use of a false ID. The second Canadian who was killed also had a criminal past, the office said in a tweet. The victims were not identified.

Security forces descended on the area and began searching for the suspect, authorities said.

The shooting followed a flurry of other violent incidents in recent months in beach resorts in Cancun and along the coastal strip stretching south from that city. In December, gunmen on water scooters charged a Cancun beach in an apparent assassination attempt, firing their weapons and then taking off. No one was wounded. In November, shooting broke out at a hotel in Puerto Morelos, sending tourists ducking for cover in hallways. Two apparent cartel members were killed.

A month earlier, a German and Indian tourist were slain by gunmen in Tulum, apparently caught in the crossfire.

Several organized crime groups compete to supply drugs to tourists in the resort area, triggering violent confrontations. Foreigners on holiday are rarely the targets. But Mexico's government - which counts on tourism for nearly 9% of GDP - was so unnerved by the recent attacks that it sent more than 1,000 soldiers and police to patrol popular beaches, nightclubs and bars.
Its frustrating. More than two days after a gigantic snowstorm swallowed Buffalo  and the rest of Western New York  some streets remained impassable. City residents couldnt predictably get where they wanted to go when they wanted to go there.

But, as aggravating as it was, it was also about normal. Thats not a criticism of City Hall or plowing operations. Its simply an acknowledgement of the facts that accompany more than a foot-and-a-half of snow that falls in less than 24 hours on a city where many streets are narrow and obstructed by parked cars.

In the computer age of instant gratification, humans become accustomed to immediate results: Hit the button and get what you want. What is more, as hardy residents of the American snow belt, Buffalonians like to show the world how well they deal with storms such as this.

But Mother Nature doesnt much care about gratification expectations or Buffalos pride. She has her own ways. This was a time for patience, not for protests.

So, lets start with this: Thanks to the snowplow drivers who worked diligently to clear clogged streets and to municipal officials who oversaw the effort. Like the amount of time it takes to file your taxes or last nights supper, it probably could have been better. But under the circumstances, it was a solid effort, keeping in mind that, unlike many lake-effect storms, this was an airborne tsunami that enveloped the entire city.

Consider some numbers provided by Michael DeGeorge, spokesman for Mayor Byron W. Brown. This years snow removal plan, adopted by the Common Council, calls for plows to make at least one pass on all residential streets within 24 hours after a snowfall of 10 inches.

Mondays storm dropped more than double that amount in some sections of Buffalo. So, it counts as at least a satisfactory response that in less than 48 hours, 95% of residential streets had at least one pass by a plow, many of them more. Some share of them had, in fact, been plowed within 24 hours. And, said DeGeorge, most of those that didnt were obstructed by cars. Thats life in the big city.

Heres what else happens, at least in this big city: Neighbors help each other, shoveling their sidewalks, checking on their welfare, doing what they can. Its the generous flip side of the Buffalo psyche, the yin to our yang. One offers a helping hand, welcomes strangers and accepts challenges with equanimity, while the other resists change, thrives on conflict and takes pleasure in complaining.

In the case of snow removal after a big storm, frustration is both normal and predictable. If someone needed medical care, it was harder to obtain. A large family packed in a small house might start climbing the walls. If food started running low, new provisions were harder to come by. Deliveries, including the mail, were delayed. Yes, there were challenges, but the citys response was about on par with other storms.

But thats what being from Buffalo is should equip us all to manage and, of course, many people did. Our yin was fully active, even if our yang made a lot of noise. Thats just how it is. Yang likes the clamor.

Still, as DeGeorge observed, its a balancing act. Should the city have imposed a driving ban? Some streets might have been cleared a little sooner, but main streets were in good shape pretty quickly. And, as we know from the mask and vaccine resisters, some portion of the population would object to the infringement on their freedom to cause havoc.

More helpful might be for the city to look into new equipment that could better handle narrow streets clogged with cars. Thats an expense, of course, and it would have to be balanced against the likely frequency of their need and what else those dollars could accomplish.

The thing is we know how to do this. We learned it in January 1985, when a worse storm dropped three feet of snow. That prompted the citys acting streets commissioner  a guy named Jimmy Griffin  to offer this advice: Stay inside. Grab a six-pack.

Many surely did. Some, no doubt, complained.

  

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
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After losing her son to Covid-19 last year, 79-year-old Tomasa Valdez was desperate to get vaccinated. But on the remote Philippine island of San Salvador, where she lives, there were no shots to be had.

Getting to the mainland, where vaccines were available, meant a boat ride that was arduous at her age and expensive given Valdez's meager income from drying sea grass which she sells for less than 100 pesos ($1.95) a sack. Help only arrived in December 2021 -- 10 months after the Philippines began its national Covid vaccination program and about a year after Western nations like the U.S. and U.K. started theirs.

Even then, health workers had to travel via a wooden motorized boat, ferrying heavy vaccine storage equipment across the choppy South China Sea. "Vaccines really have to be brought closer to the people, not the other way around," said Noel Bueno, the doctor who inoculated Valdez.

While lack of supply was the biggest threat initially to the vaccination programs of developing nations, now it's logistics.

Places like the Philippines are now struggling to get shots into the arms of their citizens, millions of whom live on distant archipelagos or far-flung mountain tops, under-served by roads, transport and basic infrastructure. Developed countries are getting to the point where they are choosing to live with Covid and treat it as endemic, their hospital systems insulated by higher vaccination rates. But logistical issues continue to bedevil the rollouts of poorer countries, becoming one of the world's biggest public health challenges as the pandemic enters into its third year.

The Philippines has one of Asia's lowest vaccination rates, with only about half of its population receiving two shots, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Its limited and costly testing apparatus, fragmented tracing program and fragile health system have made it hard to stamp out outbreaks despite several economically devastating lockdowns. In recent days, the country has posted record daily case increases, potentially due to the spread of the ultra-contagious omicron strain.

The hurdles that developing nations face in widening the reach of their inoculation programs -- which can extend beyond logistics to issues of vaccine hesitancy and social media rumors - are likely to stymie global efforts to contain the virus. New strains can proliferate in under-vaccinated populations and lengthen the pandemic as the emergence and spread of the delta and omicron variants in India and Africa have shown.

Developing nations face a "combination of challenges in hard infrastructure in the form of trucks, freezers but also soft infrastructure in the form of logistics staff, vaccine administrators, and adequate planning," said Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow at the Washington and London-based Center for Global Development, who specializes in supply chains. "But these are all surmountable barriers and we have managed to overcome them for the Ebola vaccine, and many other outbreak vaccines."

While the U.S. government and international agencies have begun efforts to support developing countries, more high-income countries need to step in, he said. "Remote regions have poorer health-care infrastructure in terms of oxygen, ICU beds so if someone does get severe Covid the ability to treat them is weaker," Yadav said. "From that standpoint it becomes important to reach remote areas early."

To help address these logistical woes, the U.S., through its Agency for International Development, pledged $315 million for mobile vaccination sites for hard-to-reach rural areas, and to invest in cold-storage facilities.

For much of last year, developing nations faced difficulty getting access to the most effective vaccines, which were initially hoarded by Western countries for their own use. The Philippines first relied on shots from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd., which have been shown to be less potent than the mRNA shots being used in the U.S., particularly against the omicron variant.

But in recent months, many of its supply problems have eased and the Philippines now has a stockpile of shots. More mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are now being administered in the Southeast Asian country, particularly to young people. But its logistical challenges have lingered.

Other low- and middle-income nations are grappling with challenges of their own. In Asia, India is pushing to get shots to its vast, impoverished countryside, while Indonesia's vaccine drive is hampered by the difficulty of reaching people spread across its thousands of islands.

In sub-Saharan Africa, poor trade and transport infrastructure could destroy vaccines, and further derail the region's already slow shot rollout, the African Development Bank's chief research economist Eugene Bempong Nyantakyi and Professor Jonathan Munemo from Salisbury University in Maryland have said. Only around 8% of Africans were fully vaccinated as of late last year.

"No journey is more critical to determining the fate of a pandemic than the distance a vaccine must travel from the production line to a person's arm," the researchers said in a report published on the International Monetary Fund's website late last year. "In sub-Saharan Africa, the last mile of this important race is all-important."

Nations from Asia to Africa are attempting to get creative and stretch their limited budgets to bring vaccines to isolated areas. The government in Ghana partnered with a startup to use drones to ferry tens of thousands of Pfizer-BioNTech shots to its remote countryside.

In Malawi, where less than 5% of the population is fully vaccinated, health workers drive vans from UNICEF to bring shots to remote rural areas.

Back in the Philippines, local officials in the central city of Tacloban are now dangling 100-peso transportation fares for those from remote areas who have to travel to get vaccinated, Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin said over the phone. The country is also pushing to expand vaccine coverage to boost a fragile economic recovery, with plans to set up more vaccination sites in pharmacies. It will also deploy more government personnel to its distant southern islands.

Despite delays, residents from isolated areas like sea-grass merchant Valdez are thankful for these efforts.

"I can finally walk along the shore to collect sea grass, without having to worry about getting very sick from Covid," she said, smiling as she finally held her vaccine card, more than two months after her son's death.

- - -

Bloomberg's Cecilia Yap contributed to this report.
Ukraine is counting on the support of the United States and other Western nations to ward off a potential renewed invasion by Russia, which has massed some 100,000 troops near the former Soviet republics borders. Moscow also recently moved forces into Belarus, Ukraines Kremlin-aligned neighbor, in what it is portraying  to widespread Western skepticism  as a regular exercise.

Kyiv is not a NATO member and does not benefit from the organizations mutual defense pact, but it has received significant assistance in bolstering its defensive capabilities since Russia annexed its Crimea region in 2014.

U.S. and European officials have also been engaged in diplomatic efforts to diffuse tensions with Moscow, though there is impasse over Russias demand that Ukraine and other former Soviet states be barred from joining the Western military alliance.

As the troop buildup continues, heres what President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have placed on the line.

U.K. personnel

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Parliament Monday that a small number of U.K. personnel would join an existing British operation to build up Ukrainian military capacity. Light, anti-armor, defensive weapon systems will also be supplied, he said, adding that they were no threat to Russia.

Canada military training

Canada also has a military training program with Ukraine, and Ottawa recently sent a small contingent of special forces to assist Kyiv, according to Canadian media. The Department of National Defence declined to comment on potential troop deployments, citing operational sensitivity.

Baltic countries weapons

The Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also gotten the green light from the Biden administration to send U.S.-made weapons, such as Stinger air defense systems and Javelins, to Ukraine, the countriess defense ministers said Friday.

Turkey TB2 drone

Turkey, which has a sizable defense manufacturing industry, has previously sold Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ukraine. The weapon has been used to strike Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

More warplanes and warships

The Netherlands and Spain have also respectively deployed warplanes and warships to the region to support NATO.
(Tribune News Service)  The U.K. is advising against nonessential travel to Ukraine, the Foreign Office announced, and British nationals in the country were advised to register their presence.

The move puts the U.K. in line with other nations in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, including Australia, Canada and the U.S.

"The situation in Kyiv and other areas outside Donetsk and Luhansk is generally calm. However, events in Ukraine are fast moving. There is continuing uncertainty about Russian intentions," the Foreign Office said in Saturday's advisory.

The agency previously advised against all travel to Donetsk oblast, Luhansk oblast and Crimea.

Bloomberg News reported Friday that the Biden administration is weighing whether to evacuate family members of diplomats stationed in Ukraine, and that officials at the U.K. foreign office have been told to be ready to move into "crisis mode" at very short notice.

The U.S. and the U.K. ramped up their warnings over a potential invasion as Russia has amassed more than 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine's borders even as talks with the Kremlin continue. Moscow has shown no signs of de-escalation. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it intends to invade Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have been in conflict since Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that ousted the pro-Moscow president by seizing Crimea. Russia also backed separatists in eastern Ukraine by sending personnel and weapons, helping stoke a conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people.

___

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Visit bloomberg.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
More than 100 people were killed or wounded Friday when the Saudi-led coalition bombed a prison operated by Yemen's Houthi fighters in their northern stronghold of Saada, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, days after an attack on Abu Dhabi led to an escalation in the war.

The Houthi rebels' media center said 80 people were killed, but Saudi Arabia denied such an attack took place.

The search for survivors, still buried under the rubble, is ongoing, Basheer Omar, an ICRC spokesperson in Yemen, told Bloomberg. Casualties are being moved to two hospitals supported by the ICRC, he said.

The Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, intensified its airstrikes against Houthi targets after the Iranian-backed group targeted Abu Dhabi with missiles and drones Monday.

The coalition didn't target the prison, Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency SPA reported, citing the defense ministry's spokesman. Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV put the overall toll of the attack at 140.

On Thursday, the Houthis said four civilians were killed and 17 others wounded in an airstrike on a telecommunications office building in the Red Sea port city of Hodiedah, which led to a complete Internet blackout in the country.

Houthi spokesman and chief peace negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam vowed to respond.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the airstrikes on Saada and Hodiedah in a statement and called for "prompt, effective and transparent investigations into these incidents to ensure accountability."

Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the Yemen war in 2015, after the Houthis captured swathes of the country. It has so far failed to restore the internationally-recognized government while contributing to a war blamed for one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

___

2022 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  Elated cheers interrupted speeches, young people declared themselves inspired and longtime antiabortion activists said their work was finally paying off as thousands who gathered for the March for Life 2022 Friday exuded a new kind of hope.

Protesters on the National Mall huddled close to one another as temperatures hovered around 20 degrees. But the annual event, in its 49th year, was upbeat, a reflection of what some attendees said was confidence that the Supreme Court this year may overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide  and prompted the creation of the march.

"One day at the Smithsonian there will be a display of the pro-life movement ending abortion," Melanie Frei, 66, of Tomah, Wis., said as she stood on the Mall between various museums. "We ended slavery, we ended segregation, and now we'll end abortion."

Katie Gooding, a 19-year-old sophomore at Liberty University, held a sign that declared her a "pro-life lawyer fighting to practice in a post-Roe nation."

Gooding, who is a prelaw student, said she was inspired by the abortion ban passed in Texas, which has outlawed almost all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy since September. "That case is the reason I'm going into law."

Gooding said she had started attending antiabortion protests at age 16 and never imagined that Roe might fall so soon. "I'm very hopeful."

The event for the most part had its usual mild, family-friendly vibe  a sharp contrast to the angry, confrontational antiabortion activism increasingly on display, including late last year when the Supreme Court heard Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The case is reviewing the constitutionality of a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks and could determine the future of Roe. With a 6-to-3 conservative majority, the court has signaled its willingness to weaken or even overturn the 1973 precedent.

At one point during the start of the march, police formed a barrier around about 40 people.

The group, which held a banner proclaiming that "Strong families make strong nations," was the Patriot Front, a white supremacist organization. Its leader, Thomas Ryan Rousseau, led chants of "Reclaim America," and counterprotesters supporting abortion rights yelled at the group to go home.

The Patriot Front also joined a March for Life event in Chicago earlier this month and marched on the National Mall last month.

Asked Friday about the group's appearance, a March for Life spokesperson said in a statement that the "March for Life promotes the beauty, dignity, and worth of every human life by working to end the violence of abortion. We condemn any organization that seeks to exclude a person or group of people based on the color of their skin or any other characteristic."

Also in the crowd during the pre-march rally was a small group from the nativist organization America First.

The march takes place each year on or around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade's decision. It also comes as the Supreme Court considers the Mississippi law.

The justices initially allowed a Texas law prohibiting abortions after about six weeks to stand while a legal challenge worked its way through the courts. In December, the justices said the case could continue only against Texas licensing officials who oversee nurses, physicians and pharmacists  while again leaving the law in effect.

Both the Mississippi and Texas laws prohibit abortions well before the point of viability  when a fetus could survive outside the womb, usually about 24 weeks. Roe guaranteed a person's right to an abortion up to viability.

If Roe is overturned, abortion will become illegal in 12 states, with more than a dozen others likely to ban or significantly restrict the procedure soon after.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told The Washington Post this week that her group has been readying for this moment.

"Roe being reversed really is only the beginning, and that's what we've been preparing for," Hawkins said. "Having this army for this ground game of this fight that will go state by state."

Some protesters on Friday said they were particularly worried about abortion in the form of medication and the potential for abortion pills to be delivered illegally through the mail.

In past years, abortion rights groups have largely avoided the March for Life, said Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice. But this year, with Roe vulnerable, Manson said the antiabortion activists "need to be answered."

The group Thursday projected abortion rights messages on the side of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic church in the United States and one of the most prominent Catholic landmarks in Washington. One read: "Pro choice Catholics, you are not alone."

"The people coming to this march are coming in very triumphant and very emboldened, with no regard for how this will affect women, how this will affect the poor, how this will affect people of color," Manson said. "So we have to speak back to them this year."

As usual, the crowd at the March for Life skewed young, with many students from Catholic high schools and colleges wearing their school gear and carrying signs and banners with antiabortion slogans. Catholic clergy are also very visible every year, and speakers usually include religious perspectives in their talks. Evangelical groups in recent years also began attending and holding side events during the week.

At an early morning "Mass for Life" Friday at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown D.C., a message was read from Pope Francis: "Only when the sacredness of the human person is respected and their rights recognized can the many forms of social injustice be overcome."

Abortion foes in recent years have aimed to highlight more secular, science-based arguments - in 2018, the march's theme was "Pro-life is pro-science." However, the religious aspect of the movement remains very prominent "because of the current influence of White evangelicals and Catholics and because the right-to-life movement has also thrown itself into related conflicts about religious liberty in the context of birth control, same-sex marriage, and so on," abortion movement historian Mary Ziegler said in an email.

"What is striking is that emphasizing faith - something that once was used against the antiabortion movement - is now something many in the movement embrace," she wrote.

The role of religion in the movement has been heightened again by the presence in the White House of President Biden, a Catholic who supports abortion rights. Some bishops have attacked Biden's argument that his faith leads him to respect others' choices and consciences, and they say he is a dangerous model of a public Catholic.

Emma Gladd, 16, said she doesn't agree with Biden's views on abortion.

"If he's Catholic, he should fight for all lives," said Gladd, who wore a Donald Trump beanie with an American flag design and the former president's slogan: Keep America Great. "He just doesn't support a lot of the things that we support."

She was at the march with others from her school in Augusta, Ga. Being antiabortion is an important part of being Catholic, she said. Students pray about it at school, talk with their friends in their antiabortion club and fundraise to help women with unplanned pregnancies opt against abortion.

"It's amazing to see so many other people who are so hopeful," Gladd said of the big crowd. Her friend, Caroline Jackson, 17, agreed. "It's good to know you're not alone."
Sometimes, Malik Faisal Akram stood out, in unsettling ways. Back home in Blackburn, in England's industrial north, he was the guy who was banned from the local courthouse after he threatened officials there. In his short stay in Texas, Akram stuck in the minds of people - at a mosque where he became aggressive when he was told he couldn't stay overnight and at a Starbucks when workers noticed him as the disheveled customer who sat for half an hour, constantly looking around as he nursed his cappuccinos.

But along his 4,600-mile journey from Britain to the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue where Akram would hold four hostages for 11 hours before being killed by law enforcement officers last Sunday, the 44-year-old terrorist also managed impressive stealth, entering the United States without a hitch, eluding notice in New York for several days, and wandering around Dallas and its suburbs for two weeks without attracting much attention.

Nearly a week after Akram terrorized the rabbi and three members of Congregation Beth Israel, investigators are still examining where he slept, how he moved around and with whom he associated during his 18 days in the United States.

He evidently knew some people: After he arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 29, Akram bought a cellphone and made calls to someone at a New York number, according to investigators. After Akram landed in Dallas around New Year's Day, he met up with a man who took him to a center for homeless people, walked him inside and embraced him before saying farewell.

The FBI said Friday that it has learned many details about Akram's movements and contacts, although key questions remain outstanding, such as how he obtained the gun he brandished at Beth Israel. As recently as late this week, FBI agents were still knocking on doors at motels and checking footage from surveillance cameras in an effort to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

"This was both a hate crime and an act of terrorism . . . rooted in antisemitism," the FBI's special agent in charge of its Dallas office, Matthew DeSarno, said Friday, adding that the investigation will continue.

What is known is that Akram began the trip he knew would end in his death at home in Blackburn, a heavily Muslim town filled with Pakistani and Indian immigrants - including Akram's parents.

Akram grew up in a religiously conservative neighborhood. His father, Malik, founded a small mosque, one of more than 40 Muslim houses of worship in the town of 120,000 people.

Akram had struggled with mental illness, according to his younger brother, Gulbar, who declined to elaborate.

In 2001, days after the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans, took down the World Trade Center and opened a flaming gash in the Pentagon, Akram was banned from court buildings in Blackburn after he told a court usher that he wished he had been on one of the planes used as weapons of war on Sept. 11. The ban was the first issued by the Blackburn court in 25 years.

It wasn't Akram's first brush with the law. He had been sent a warning letter several months earlier after he was accused of abusing and threatening staffers at the Northgate courthouse, according to local news reports.

A letter from Deputy Justice Clerk Peter Wells informed Akram of the ban, saying that "Once again you were threatening and abusive towards court staff . . . This caused a great deal of distress to an individual who was simply doing his job and should not be subjected to your foul abuse."

"I'm innocent," Akram told the Lancashire Telegraph at the time. "People at the court have just got it in for me because they don't like me."

Akram was convicted of theft and harassment in 2012, according to a letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to FBI and Homeland Security officials seeking details on the investigation.

MI5, Britain's counterintelligence and security agency, investigated Akram and put him on a watch list in 2020 as a "subject of interest." But the authorities concluded that he did not pose any imminent threat of terrorism.

Akram's family had no idea that Faisal, as he was known, planned to leave the country, Gulbar said, leaving him to wonder: "He's known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?"

___

Akram arrived at JFK Airport in New York on Dec. 29, drawing no special attention as he cleared the immigration and customs area. He wasn't known to U.S. intelligence or law enforcement, DeSarno said Friday, and a federal government official confirmed that Akram had not previously visited the United States.

As a British citizen, Akram entered the country under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows people from 40 countries to visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, according to Homeland Security officials.

A Homeland Security official who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation said Akram was vetted as any other traveler would be under that program, with his name run "through several federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies' databases . . . No derogatory information associated with this individual was found prior to his travel to the United States or upon his arrival."

If U.S. authorities knew of Akram's arrest record, his case would have been evaluated to determine "whether an individual should be permitted to enter the United States based on the nature of the arrest," the official said.

The New York address Akram gave immigration authorities was that of the Queens Hotel, a tidy little place on Queens Boulevard about 10 miles from the airport. The hotel is often the first property to pop up on a Google search for "Hotel in Queens," or "Queens Hotel." A room goes for about $80, though it would have been more during Christmas week.

But the hotel has no record of a guest with Akram's name staying there on Dec. 29 or 30, said Ann Lin, who works at the hotel's front desk. Lin didn't recognize Akram's photograph beyond a vague sense that he looked like "many guests with a beard like that who stay here," she said.

Staffers at two nearby mosques and another hotel said they did not recognize a photo of Akram.

Soon after he got to New York, Akram bought a cellphone with a New York area code and made several calls to another local number, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The authorities have identified that person, who does not appear to have participated in Akram's plan, the official said.

By tracing data from Akram's phone and computer, American and British investigators have cobbled together an outline of his movements and online searches as he searched for a target, officials said.

Akram believed that Jews hold enormous political power and could achieve the release of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani who is a convicted terrorist in a federal facility in Fort Worth. She is serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. With that apparently in mind, Akram used his new phone to search for names of U.S. rabbis, officials said.

He focused on Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at Manhattan's Central Synagogue, one of the country's largest Reform Jewish congregations. Investigators believe Akram saw Buchdahl mentioned on online lists of influential rabbis and decided she had the political prowess to get Siddiqui released.

During the hostage standoff in Texas, Akram would demand that Beth Israel's rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, get Buchdahl on the phone.

"He mentioned her by name, because he knew that she played guitar. . . . He thought that she was the most influential rabbi," Cytron-Walker said Thursday in an online forum hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.

It's not clear where Akram stayed in New York or what else he did there, but during the hostage situation, he claimed he had planted explosives in Manhattan and Brooklyn "potentially in and around synagogues, and that he had associates in New York," according to Mitch Silber, director of a community security initiative at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Investigators have concluded that those claims were baseless, officials said.

___

By New Year's Day, Akram had flown to Dallas. He showed up that evening at the Islamic Center of Irving, just south of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and 13 miles from Congregation Beth Israel.

During evening prayer, sometime between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Akram arrived at the mosque and soon became aggressive, said Khalid Hamideh, a lawyer and spokesman for the Islamic Center.

After joining in the final prayer, Akram asked a security guard whether he could stay overnight in the mosque. The guard summoned a staff member, who told Akram that no one could sleep there because of city and mosque regulations, Hamideh said.

Akram shattered the solemn quiet of the room, angrily addressing the staffer, Hamideh said.

"You will be judged by God for not helping a fellow Muslim," Akram said loudly. "I'm from a good family."

The lawyer said Akram accused the staff member of "not helping out a fellow brother in the faith."

Hamideh said Akram was carrying a backpack large enough to hold a weapon.

"God knows if he already had acquired the gun," Hamideh said.

Akram was not searched, Hamideh said: "We don't search anybody. Maybe we'll start."

Video from the mosque's surveillance cameras revealed that Akram left that evening but returned the next morning, Jan. 2, at about 6 a.m. for morning prayers.

"His whole attitude changed," Hamideh said. "He was humble. You can see him praying. He's low-keyed, peaceful. When he was praying, he was praying alone," to the side of the small prayer group.

After sunrise, sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., the mosque's 80 surveillance cameras followed Akram as he walked out of the prayer room and into a hallway, where he put on his shoes and left, walking alone toward a busy four-lane road.

Over the next few days, Akram returned to the mosque at least once, possibly twice, wearing the same clothes he had on during his first visit, Hamideh said.

Akram - now "calm, cool, collected," according to the lawyer - sought out the staff member he had confronted earlier and "apologized for his behavior on the previous night," Hamideh said, "and asked for permission just to use the sanctuary to conduct his prayer."

Akram sat in on a halaqa, a session devoted to study of Koranic texts.

"His visits after the first visit were all very nice, formal, professional, low key," Hamideh said.

By the evening of Jan. 2, Akram had made his way 17 miles to the east, to a homeless shelter in a scruffy industrial zone just across Interstate 30 from downtown Dallas.

At 10:01 p.m., Akram was escorted into the intake unit of the OurCalling shelter by an unidentified man who had driven him there, according to Wayne Walker, the facility's chief executive.

The man - heavyset, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black beanie - embraced Akram, patting him on the back several times before walking away, according to surveillance video shown to The Washington Post. The video has been turned over to the FBI.

"We have no idea who that person is," said Patrick Palmer, chief advancement officer at the shelter, part of a Christian ministry for the homeless.

Akram and the man who accompanied him appeared to be familiar with each other, talking in the parking lot on their way in, Walker said.

Other than that, though, among the 191 people who went into the shelter on a frigid night when the Dallas temperature fell to 18 degrees, "there was nothing that stood out about" Akram, said Ed Johnson, the shelter's programs director, who checked Akram in.

Inside, Akram took a rapid test for the coronavirus and answered routine intake questions: Was he a veteran? Did he have insurance? Any income?

Akram allowed staff to take his photo and provided his real name, Walker said.

Akram did not answer a question about where he had come from, Walker said. People who stay at the shelter are not searched.

Akram "identified himself as living on the streets," Palmer said, and was given a spot on the floor where he could sleep.

He left OurCalling at about 8 a.m., after getting a to-go breakfast. Akram did not return for lunch, Palmer said, and executives at OurCalling didn't see Akram again until his name emerged in media reports about the Beth Israel incident.

It's not clear where Akram spent his days or nights through most of the first week of the new year. At a Super 8 motel half a mile from the Irving mosque, FBI agents paid a visit Thursday, asking whether Akram had stayed there, according to a desk clerk. The clerk told The Post that Akram's name does not appear in the $57-a-night motel's computer system.

Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 13, Akram turned up on three nights at Union Gospel Mission Dallas, a homeless shelter, according to its chief executive, Bruce Butler.

"We were a way station for him," he said. "He was very quiet. He was in and out."

Akram left the mission for the last time on the morning of Jan. 13, two days before he showed up at Beth Israel, according to Gospel Mission records.

During his time in and around Dallas, Akram searched on his phone for gun shops and pawnshops in the area, law enforcement officials said.

But authorities traced the handgun he brandished at Beth Israel, concluding that he bought it on the street, not at a business. The gun's last legal sale was recorded in early 2020. Later that year, it was reported stolen from a hotel room, officials said.

While Akram was in Texas, his web searches fixated on Siddiqui, who is imprisoned at a medical unit of a federal prison in Fort Worth following a July incident in which another inmate attacked her, burning her face with "scalding hot liquid," according to a lawsuit filed on Siddiqui's behalf.

Akram also searched for the names of rabbis he believed to be politically influential - and for a synagogue close to where Siddiqui is being held, leading him to focus on Beth Israel, DeSarno said.

___

On Friday, Jan. 14, Akram wandered around Colleyville, a suburb of 26,000 people just west of DFW airport. He spent 16 hours somewhere in the synagogue's area, "walking around with what I have in my bag, and with my ammo," he told police negotiators during the early hours of the standoff, according to a live stream of the Sabbath service that aired on Facebook Live.

On Saturday morning, before going to Beth Israel, Akram visited a Starbucks less than a mile away. Two baristas noticed the tall, disheveled man wearing a puffy black jacket and carrying a blue backpack.

After ordering, Akram asked a barista for the time. It was 8:43 a.m., she recalled.

Akram stood out in part because of his strong accent, which one barista said she had trouble understanding as he ordered a tall cappuccino, and because he proceeded to sit at a corner table for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, staring at his phone and frequently looking around him.

He ordered a second cappuccino; when he finished it, he hurried out.

He arrived by bicycle at Congregation Beth Israel, a sand-colored building set well back from the road, officials said Friday. It's a four-minute ride from the Starbucks to the temple, which sits on a street of large houses, near the local middle school and Baptist and Catholic churches.

The 10 a.m. Sabbath service was about to begin, with only four congregants attending in person; most worshipers would watch online as a precaution against the coronavirus. That evening, Beth Israel members were scheduled to gather for Trivia Night.

Akram knocked on the synagogue's locked glass door.

"He was looking for a place to warm up," Jeffrey Cohen, the congregation's vice president and one of the hostages, told MSNBC. "And we invited him in, the rabbi gave him a cup of tea, he let him sit in the back."

Cohen greeted the man.

"He was quite jovial, he was friendly," he said. "He was on the phone, so I let him go onto the phone."

The service began. More than half an hour in, the rabbi began the Amidah, the core of the prayer service, recited while facing Jerusalem.

"And then we heard - or I heard, excuse me - that unmistakable click of a semiautomatic being loaded," Cohen said.

Akram started yelling.

Eleven terrifying hours would follow.

Along the way, Akram spoke on the phone to his brother Gulbar, who urged him to release the hostages, serve time in prison and return to his family. Akram shouted that he intended to die.

"I'm going to go toe-to-toe with [police], and they can shoot me dead," he said. "I'm coming home in a body bag."

Down the block, a Colleyville police officer banged on the door of a neighbor's house.

"You guys got a car?" the officer asked. "OK, go ahead and get in it and head out of here. We got a situation next door."

Through long hours of negotiation, Akram was at times calm and conversational, at times angry and erratic, according to two hostages. Finally, the FBI's DeSarno said Friday, "the situation had gone from bad to significantly worse" as Akram realized that his demand for Siddiqui's release would not be met. When Akram had a glass of juice in his hand, the rabbi saw his moment, threw a chair at his captor and urged the other hostages out the door.

Seconds after the hostages ran to safety, police moved in. After a big bang and two spurts of gunfire, Akram was dead.

An autopsy report released Friday said he died at 9:22 p.m. of "multiple gunshot wounds."

___

Douglas reported from Colleyville; Zapotosky and Fisher from Washington. The Washington Post's William Booth in Blackburn, England; Jack Wright in New York and Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Souad Mekhennet, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report.
The deterioration of the mostly vacant Commodore Perry Homes presents a clear and present danger to the neighborhood, just off the I-190s Louisiana Street exit. A federal audit released this month documented the blight. It also raises the question: When is the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority going to take action?

The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a 40-page audit that documented unsafe conditions since at least 2013 at the complex.

The BMHA did not adequately address urgent, ongoing health and safety issues with the vacant development, the auditors wrote.

The audit was requested by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, who has been calling attention to the deteriorating conditions at the complex for several years. Higgins, in a phone conversation with The News last week, said inaction by the BMHA is inexcusable.

Bulldozing the vacant buildings seems an obvious solution. Gillian Brown, executive director of the BMHA, told a radio interviewer in 2020 that demolition hasnt happened because of money.

Demolishing that many units and that many buildings is a very expensive proposition, Brown said on WBEN. We have no plans to do anything immediately with the vacant buildings at Perry except to do what we need to do to be as responsible as we possibly can in terms of safeguarding the site.

Keeping them safe isnt going well. The federal auditors wrote that the 25 buildings covering seven blocks continue to deteriorate and present urgent ongoing health and safety concerns for the surrounding residents and local community, including the potential for increased crime.

Higgins thinks there are alternatives to demolition.

I have wanted the Municipal Housing Authority to sponsor an open house where the buildings were made accessible to potential developers or not-for-profits, he said. And they could go in and assess the viability of a rehab. And if a rehab is not possible, a demolition and rebuild. Its pretty simple. ... Anything is an improvement over doing nothing.

Some tenants still live in the high-rise tower at Perry. Higgins says that 12 two-story buildings, featuring 172 units, are potentially salvageable for reuse because of their brick construction.

The BMHAs Brown told The News that inspectors visit the Perry properties twice a week and make needed repairs, and that the agency was preparing a safety plan to submit to the local HUD office. He also said that a Pennsylvania developer, Pennrose LLC, is proposing to develop the Perry site into private homes and modern public housing. Brown had noted Pennroses intentions in media stories back in November 2020, but little has changed on the ground.

The housing complex sits on Perry Street in the Michigan Avenue-South Park Avenue area. It is less than a mile from Canalside, and close to the burgeoning Old First Ward. The property is too valuable to sit dormant, too dangerous to ignore. And affordable housing in the city is in great demand.

Higgins sees a role for Mayor Byron W. Brown in applying some pressure to the BMHA.

Given things the mayors said over the past few weeks about focusing in on neighborhoods, heres a great place to start, Higgins said. To create something new and viable and exciting, that is a net new add to downtown Buffalo, would probably be a very positive development. And it would potentially expand the citys property tax base.

Gillian Brown cited the public discussions about building the Buffalo Bills new stadium on South Park Avenue as a reason for inaction. That would have required massive changes to the neighborhood and its infrastructure, with federal or state money covering much of the cost. The South Park idea was popular among some Buffalo developers and a large segment of the population but was never in the plans of the Bills owners, Terry and Kim Pegula. That option is off the table.

Whether razing it or fixing it, Gillian Brown and the BMHA need to do something about this downtown hazard.

  

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
A Texas man was arrested Friday and charged with threatening election and other government officials in Georgia, in the first case brought by a Justice Department task force formed to combat such threats, authorities said.

In an indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Chad Christopher Stark, 54, posted a message on Craigslist on Jan. 5, 2021, saying it was "time to kill" an official, whose name is not included in the court documents.

"Georgia Patriots it's time for us to take back our state from these Lawless treasonous traitors. It's time to invoke our Second Amendment right it's time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A]. Then we work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges," Stark wrote, according to the indictment.

Georgia officials, in particular, were targeted by hostile messages after they refused to back President Donald Trump's bogus claims of election fraud. Trump called Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, R, the "enemy of the people" after the election went against him, and he urged Raffensperger in a phone call to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat.

On that call, Trump took aim at Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, and a low-level election worker who herself was subjected to a wave of threats. Trump called that worker "a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler."

Georgia, though, was hardly an anomaly. Election officials across the country have warned about an ongoing barrage of criticism and personal attacks - many of them fueled by Trump repeatedly raising unfounded doubts about the 2020 election. Some election workers and officials have left their posts in fear. A study by the Brennan Center released in June found that 1 in 3 election officials feel unsafe because of their jobs.

Kenneth Polite Jr., head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said the election threats task force has received more than 850 referrals of potentially harassing and offensive statements, resulting in dozens of open investigations or efforts to mitigate danger. "During the 2020 election cycle, and the events that followed, these unsung heroes came under unprecedented verbal attack for doing nothing more than their jobs," Polite said.

Some election workers and observers have worried the Justice Department has not been moving aggressively enough to prosecute those making the threats, noting that - until Friday - the task force that was launched on June 25 had not brought a single case.

"There is an impression that bad actors are not being held accountable, and they can use threats to try to intimidate election officials," Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, D, said in an interview before Stark's arrest.

"I do appreciate them launching the task force, but I do think there's a lot of work to do," she said.

In a statement Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed the department would "hold accountable those who violate federal law by using violence or threatening violence to target election workers fulfilling their public duties."

Polite said developing cases often requires months of work, as investigators gather evidence, interview witnesses and consider possible First Amendment legal issues.

John Keller, principal deputy chief of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, said in a statement that threats against election workers had "historically been handled primarily as a state or local matter, usually without significant federal involvement."

"This is changing rapidly in response to the surge in threats nationwide since the last election cycle," he said.

Legal observers say the focus is necessary because of the magnitude of the problem.

"It's bigger than any one individual threat against one election official because the combined atmosphere of threats across the country to election officials is undermining democracy," said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law School and a former Justice Department national security official, who also was interviewed before Stark's arrest.

The indictment alleges Stark, of Leander, Texas, referenced three government officials, the names of whom prosecutors obscured in the charging documents. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information, said Raffensperger and Kemp were among those allegedly targeted.

Stark posted his message as thousands of Trump supporters were traveling to Washington to protest the 2020 election results, wrongly convinced that Trump had won. A day later, on Jan. 6, some of those protesters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers were formally tallying Biden's win.

"It's our duty as American Patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force we can no longer wait on the corrupt law enforcement in the corrupt courts. If we want our country back we have to exterminate these people," Stark allegedly wrote.

"One good loyal Patriot deer hunter in camo and a rifle can send a very clear message to these corrupt governors.. milita [sic] up Georgia it's time to spill blood . . . we need to pay a visit to [Official C] and her family as well and put a bullet her behind the ears," the indictment quotes the message as saying.

In a statement issued Friday, Raffensperger said: "I strongly condemn threats against election workers and those who volunteer in elections. These are the people who make our democracy work."

He also took aim at comments President Joe Biden made at a Wednesday news conference suggesting that the legitimacy of future elections could be tied to voting rights legislation for which Biden has pushed. The White House press secretary later insisted Biden "was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election."

"Given President Biden's statement Wednesday casting doubt on the legitimacy of our upcoming elections, we need to support our local election officials and volunteers now more than ever," Raffensperger said in the statement.

A lawyer appointed to represent Stark on Friday did not return an email seeking comment.

In a recent interview, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, D, said the barrage of hostile messages is especially vexing because staff must review them all for imminent danger.

"It's really impacting the work of our entire office," Hobbs said. "We feel like we have to go through them and listen to them to see if there's anything reportable or actionable."

Hobbs said she has increased security around her home as the number of troubling messages has grown, adding locks and cameras. She now uses a private security firm for public appearances. The threats, she said, seemed to tick up around a Republican-commissioned review of nearly 2.1 million ballots, which ultimately confirmed Biden's win in Maricopa County, and also around Trump's visits to the state.

Keller said federal agents and prosecutors across the country had been designated to help collect and analyze threats to election workers, most of which come through emails, texts, calls and commentary on social media.

McCord said what constitutes a real threat, as opposed to mere alarming message, can vary based on the case law or jury instructions in a certain jurisdiction as well as the attitudes of judges and prosecutors.

"If there are cases with bad facts that make bad law, that impacts the way your jury instructions are," McCord said. "There are jurisdictions where the prosecutors are going to be much more demanding - or picky - about what cases they will bring, and what cases they won't."

The Justice Department has lost cases before, even with vile, seemingly violent messages at issue. In 2011, for example, a federal appeals court threw out the conviction of a man who had seemed to threaten then-President Barack Obama, writing on an online message board "Re: Obama fk the [expletive], he will have a 50 cal in the head soon" and "shoot the [expletive]."

The majority of judges determined that one of the statements was "predictive" and the other "exhortatory," and that there was not sufficient evidence to conclude the man "intended his statements to be taken as threats." The Justice Department ultimately abandoned the case.

- - -

The Washington Post's Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
Virginia's new Republican attorney general announced Friday night that the state was withdrawing from a legal brief defending a woman's access to abortion, arguing that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision should be overturned.

Jason Miyares said Virginia would no longer be part of a friend-of-the-court brief before the Supreme Court against Mississippi's restrictive ban on abortion after 15 weeks.

The move marks a major change on abortion policy in Virginia, at a time when antiabortion advocates say they have more momentum than ever for the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe decision.

Virginia's previous attorney general, Democrat Mark Herring, was a vocal supporter of abortion rights and signed onto the brief opposing Mississippi's law with 23 other attorneys general last year. He signed similar briefs against abortion bans in Texas and South Carolina.

But in November, Virginia elected Republican leaders - Gov. Glenn Younkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome E. Sears and Miyares - who oppose nearly all abortion access.

Though the issue was not a focal point of the election, Democrats have expressed fear that the new administration will move quickly to roll back abortion rights in the state.

Less than a week after taking office, Miyares's letter signaled that he believes in doing just that. Declaring that Roe was "wrongly decided," he withdrew Virginia's support for the position that Mississippi's near-total abortion ban is unconstitutional. The issue, the letter argued, should be left up to the states.

Nationally, Miyares's move will have little impact on the Supreme Court case, since Virginia is not a party in the lawsuit. The Supreme Court has the discretion to use friend-of-the-court briefs or ignore them in arriving at its decisions.

But on the state level, the action could be the first of many to change the landscape on abortion rights in the Commonwealth. The attorney general's decision came the same day Youngkin tweeted his support for those rallying against abortion at the "March for Life" in Washington D.C.

"The Governor fully supports the AG's decision to remove Virginia from the brief," Rebecca Glover, Youngkin's communications chief, wrote in an email Saturday.

Abortion rights advocates anticipated acts like these from Youngkin and Miyares. Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said they are still "horrifying" to watch.

"This is a clear assault on freedom, liberty and bodily autonomy," Keene said. "They do not care about the harm they will inflict on hundreds of thousands of families in this state, especially rural, lower-income, young and people of color who already have a hard time accessing the health care they need."

While Keene was seething after reading the attorney general's letter, antiabortion groups were rejoicing.

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, said she is confident that the Commonwealth has "turned a corner."

"There is just tremendous energy, excitement and optimism around the issue of human life in this moment in Virginia," Cobb said. "We now have office holders that respect the sanctity of human life and are acting from that respect."

Both sides of the abortion debate are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on the Mississippi case, known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The case centers on the constitutionality of a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The questions asked by the justices during oral arguments, and the court's current 6-to-3 conservative majority, have led many to believe the 49-year-old landmark decision is likely to be weakened or overturned this June.

If Roe is overturned, abortion will become illegal in 12 states. More than a dozen others could quickly ban or significantly restrict abortion access soon after.

In Virginia, attention could return to the changes made to abortion laws in 2020, which repealed mandates that required an ultrasound and 24-hour waiting period, ensured abortion clinics do not have to meet hospital-level building codes and allowed nurse practitioners to perform procedures.

In the letter from Miyares to the court, Virginia Solicitor General Andrew N. Ferguson argued that Roe v. Wade and another significant decision upholding access to abortion are unconstitutional. Abortion, he wrote, is "one of the most hotly contested political questions of our day," and should be left to the people, rather than the court, to "resolve these questions for themselves."

"Virginia is now of the view that that Constitution is silent on the question of abortion, and that it is therefore up to the people in the several [s]tates to determine the legal status and regulatory treatment of abortion," Ferguson wrote.

Miyares's move on the friend-of-the-court brief comes two days after he reversed course on another legal effort by Herring, pulling Virginia out of a coalition of states seeking to defend the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants.

Miyares, who took office Saturday, was part of a conservative wave that swept Republicans into the top three offices in the state. He promised in a recent interview with Fox News that there was a "new sheriff in town."
Stillwater, OK (74074)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. High near 65F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 59F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
The Ministry of Health is reporting 43 new community cases on Saturday, and 41 new cases identified at the border.

Of the 43 new community cases, 19 are in Auckland, four in Waikato, six in Lakes, six in Hawkes Bay and eight in Nelson Marlborough. There are eight people in hospital and none in ICU or HDU.

More than 58,000 vaccine doses were given on Friday including more than 42,000 boosters.

Two more District Health Board regions have reached significant milestones with Lakes DHB hitting 90 per cent double doses and Hutt Valley hitting 95 per cent double dosed.

We are continuing to encourage as many people as are eligible to get their booster shots and paediatric vaccinations, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

Yesterday 42,319 boosters were given and 12,388 vaccinations to 5-11 year olds.

Together with first and second doses, a total of 58,481 vaccinations were given yesterday.

New Zealands vaccine rollout remains our key defence against all variants of Covid-19, including Omicron and we want to continue to thank everyone who got their first, second or booster shot yesterday, and thanks too to all the 5-11 years who went along for their first dose.

To book a paediatric vaccine, you can:

Book an appointment through Book My Vaccine

See a list of all sites offering child vaccinations including walk-ins.

Make a whanau group booking by calling the Healthline number 0800 28 29 26

Use Healthpoint to find out of your local doctor or pharmacy can immunise local children.

Palmerston North Omicron case update

There have been 76 contacts identified to date linked to the Palmerston North Omicron case. All but two have been contacted and 66 have returned a negative result. Further test results will be reported Sunday.

Worker at Auckland Airport confirmed Omicron case

Today the Ministry of Health is confirming the possible Omicron case reported yesterday is now confirmed as the Omicron variant.

As announced yesterday the case was being treated as an Omicron case prior to this being confirmed, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. The case has been potentially linked to returnees in Rotorua and Auckland through whole genome sequencing. This information will assist investigations to determine the source of infection.

There have been 32 contacts identified, around half have been contacted and tested.

As reported yesterday there has been one positive result reported in a household member and 16 other contacts have returned a negative result.

Our objective for all possible Omicron cases is to stamp out the infection and prevent any onward transmission.

Healthline reminder

Public health staff are continuing to focus on identifying people who were at the Ara-Tai Cafe Half Moon Bay in Eastern Auckland. Of the 78 contacts identified and linked to the cafe, 48 have returned a negative result.

This location of interest is high risk and people who were at Half Moon Bays Ara-Tai Cafe from 12.30 to 2pm on Tuesday (18 January) are urged to isolate and get tested immediately, and to test again on Sunday, January 23.

Anyone who visited the cafe during this time and hasnt already done so, should also contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453 to register at this location or register online.

Its a timely reminder to all potential close contacts of a case to either call Healthline or register their location of interest online on the Ministry of Health locations of Interest page and follow advice from a health professional, as this is advice is specific to an individual and the exposure event.

Nelson Tasman cases now linked to five flights

Five flights have now been linked to the nine cases in the Nelson Tasman region reported yesterday and are listed today as locations of interest.

An Air New Zealand crew member on the same Auckland to Nelson flight as the nine cases has now tested positive. This flight and four other flights the crew member worked on during their possible infectious period, prior to their testing positive, are now also listed as locations of interest.

The five flights are:

Flight NZ 5083 from Auckland to Nelson at 5.20 pm on 16 January

Flight NZ 5080 from Nelson to Auckland at 4 pm on 19 January

Flight NZ 5077 from Auckland to Nelson at 2pm on 19 January

Flight NZ 5049 from Auckland to New Plymouth at 7.50 pm on 19 January

Flight NZ 5042 from New Plymouth to Auckland at 1.50 pm on 20 January

Air New Zealand report their crew member is fully vaccinated, and the positive case was found after the crew member felt unwell and was tested on top of the regular surveillance testing.

The flights are now listed as Locations of Interest on the Ministrys website and advice to those on the flights is provided there. All those on the flights are in the process of being contacted and provided with advice.

Whole genome sequencing for the Nelson Tasman cases and the Air New Zealand crew member are expected later today.

The nine Nelson Tasman cases are all from one household.

Eight of these cases were notified yesterday after the Ministrys reporting deadline and are today being added to the official tally. There are no additional new cases to report in the region today.

Case interviews continue with genome sequencing expected later today to identify the variant. Public health officials continue to investigate recent travel to Auckland as the source of their infections.

Locations of interest will be added to the Ministrys webpage where contacts at exposure events cannot be identified.

Anyone who was on these flights and who has not yet been contacted should get tested and isolate at home.

Public health officials report a strong response to testing yesterday afternoon and are expecting further demand over the weekend.

Testing sites are operating in Nelson and Motueka today and over the weekend. For details of all dedicated testing sites including general practices, visit Healthpoint or the DHB Facebook page.

Todays cases

The Ministry of Health is reporting new community cases in Auckland, Waikato, Lakes, Hawkes Bay, and the Nelson Tasman region.

Regional updates

We are continuing to ask anyone in New Zealand with symptoms  no matter how mild  to get tested, even if youre vaccinated, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. Please stay at home until you return a negative test result.

Testing and vaccination centre locations nationwide can be found on the Healthpoint website.

Please also continue to check for any updated Locations of Interest and appropriate health advice, updated regularly on the Ministrys website.

Auckland

There are 19 new cases to report in Auckland.

Health and welfare providers are now supporting 725 people in the region to isolate at home, including 158 cases.

Waikato

There are four new cases in Waikato to report today. All are in Hamilton and linked to previous cases

Public Health, primary care and manaaki providers in the region are supporting 22 cases to isolate at home.

Lakes

Today the Ministry is reporting six new cases in the Lakes DHB region - all are in the Rotorua area.

All six cases are linked to previously reported cases. All cases are isolating at home or in managed accommodation.

Hawkes Bay

Today the Ministry is reporting six cases in Hawkes Bay, including one which that was initially announced in yesterdays statement. The five new cases are all linked to existing cases.

As investigations continue, more locations of interest may be added to the Ministrys website.

Covid-19 vaccine update

Vaccines administered to date (percentage of eligible people): 3,995,126 first doses (95%); 3,908,835 second doses (93%); 36,426 third primary doses; 946,449 booster doses

Vaccines administered yesterday: 1,125 first doses; 2,170 second doses; 478 third primary doses and 42,319 booster doses.

Maori (percentage of eligible people): 508,850 first doses (89%); 479,946 second doses (84%).

Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people): 275,469 first doses (96%); 266,716 second doses (93%).

Vaccination rates by DHB with active cases (percentage of eligible people)

Northland DHB: First doses (89%); second doses (86%)

Auckland Metro DHBs: First doses (97%); second doses (95%)

Waikato DHB: First doses (94%); second doses (92%)

Bay of Plenty DHB: First doses (94%); second doses (91%)

Lakes DHB: First doses (93%); second doses (90%)

MidCentral DHB: First doses (96%); second doses (94%)

Hawkes Bay DHB: First doses (96%); second doses (93%)

Wairarapa DHB: First doses (96%); second doses (94%)

Capital and Coast DHB: First doses (98%); second doses (97%)

Hutt Valley DHB: First doses (96%); second doses (95%)

Nelson Marlborough: First doses (96%); second doses (94%)

Canterbury DHB: First doses (99%); second doses (97%)

Hospitalisations

Cases in hospital: 8; North Shore: 4; Auckland: 3; Middlemore: 1.

Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region wards only): Unvaccinated or not eligible (0 cases / 0%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (1 case / 13%); fully vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (7 cases / 87%); unknown (0 cases / 0%).

Average age of current hospitalisations: 63

Cases in ICU or HDU: Zero

Cases

Seven day rolling average of community cases: 25

Seven day rolling average of border cases: 41

Number of new community cases: 43

Number of new cases identified at the border: 41

Location of new community cases: Auckland (19), Waikato (4), Lakes (6), *Hawkes Bay (6), *Nelson Marlborough (8)

Number of community cases (total): 11,466 (in current community outbreak)

Cases epidemiologically linked (total): 8,715

Number of active cases (total): 478 (cases identified in the past 21 days and not yet classified as recovered)

Confirmed cases (total): 15,104

Contacts

Number of active contacts being managed (total): 4,879

Percentage who has received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements): 78%

Percentage who has returned at least one result: 78%

Tests

Number of tests total (last 24 hours): 14,337

Tests rolling average (last 7 days): 13,388

Auckland tests total (last 24 hours): 7,546

Wastewater

No unexpected results.

NZ COVID Tracer

Poster scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday: 2,617,194

Manual diary entries in the 24 hours to midday: 41,385

My Vaccine Pass

My vaccine pass downloads total: 4,873,140

My vaccine pass downloads (last 24 hours): 13,762

New cases identified at the border
The gaping hole in the Great Northern elevator exposed much more than its interior steel bins. It exposed how Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) made little if any attempt to secure, preserve and protect this designated local landmark. They requested a number of demolition permits since acquiring the property and an emergency demo permit, in December, when Mother Nature exposed what deplorable stewards they have been for more than two decades.

The windstorm also exposed the continued ignorance of the Brown administrations policy of ask and you shall receive when it comes to issuing demolition permits. This latest one comes less than two years after the mayors office issued a permit to Sinatra and Company for the demolition of the historic Flemish Revival house at 184 West Utica St. Apparently, this administration has not yet realized that these historic properties are part of every Western New Yorkers heritage and that big companies, overzealous developers, and a solitary judge, lacking preservation experience, should not be the ones controlling Western New Yorks built environment. While their contributions may influence City Hall, the outcry of the people living in this area should not be ignored  particularly when there are proposed reuse plans and perspective interested buyers.

As such, Tim Tielman and company, Preservation Buffalo Niagara (PBN), other nonprofit organizations and concerned citizens who made an effort to preserve this historically unique grain elevator should be commended. ADM should not want to forever be remembered as the company who demolished the oldest, historic grain elevator in North America and the Brown administration as the entity for facilitating this travesty

This does not bode well for the future. We have four more years of this same mentality to contend with. Now is the time to plan for future baseless demolition permits that are sure to follow. Now would also be a good time to ensure that every demo permit have a rescind clause as an addendum.

Marla Bujnicki

Buffalo
The Public Health warning issued on December 30 2021 for Lake Ngaroto, has now been escalated to extreme risk.

The public are advised not to use the lake for any recreational activities.

The warning is due to a highly significant rise in cyanobacteria and E. coli levels. The cyanobacteria currently in the lake produces toxins which are extremely harmful and may cause serious illnesses or death.

"It is strongly advised to not undertake any recreational use of the lake whereby skin contact or ingestion of the water may occur," says a Waikato DHB Public Health Unit spokesperson. "Recreation uses to avoid include kayaking, fishing, boating, swimming, or physical activities around the lake.

Dog owners should prevent their dogs from drinking or swimming in the water, as dogs are particularly sensitive to cyanobacteria and its related toxins.

"If you have used Lake Ngaroto recently and have symptoms which include things as a rash, skin and eye irritation; allergy symptoms such as hayfever and asthma; or possibly stomach upsets including diarrhoea and vomiting, then please seek medical attention such as contacting your GP. Please note, these symptoms may not appear until some time after contact with the affected water."

Waikato DHBs Public Health Unit would like to be informed about health problems that develop after exposure to any of the Waikato lakes. Health advice is also available from the Public Health Unit on (07) 838 2569.

Up-to-date information on cyanobacterial cell counts is available from local councils, Waikato Regional Council or by visiting the Land Air Water Aotearoa (LAWA) website at https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/waikato-region/
A buddy system and how to properly isolate at home are part of a major Government campaign to prepare people for a community outbreak of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19.

In one of the strongest messages to the public that Omicron is on our doorstep the Government on Saturday produced a checklist of what people need to do, in case they are stuck at home.

The campaign bluntly states: More people will be exposed to Covid-19 when Omicron is in the community.

Above all, people are urged to get their vaccine booster shots, if enough time has passed since the second dose.

The government will implement the red alert level if Omricon becomes widespread in the community.

So, what should people do to practically prepare?

Make a plan

Create a checklist of emergency contacts, care and support plans for any dependents, and how you will let people know youre isolating.

You could also add household instructions and some names of people who can help make isolation easier, for food drop-offs and other necessities.

Dealing with symptoms

The Ministry of Health suggests having a wellness kit at home, which can include: nasal sprays, lozenges, paracetamol, ibuprofen, cough mixtures, as well as any prescription medicines.

Other products to keep on hand include extra masks, gloves, tissues, hand sanitiser, rubbish bags, and other cleaning products.

Buddy system

The ministry suggests setting up a buddy system if you have to end up self-isolating. That would become helpful if you need food or other necessities dropped off outside your house. It could be a neighbour or a friend.

Other support

People who need financial support can contact the Covid-19 welfare line, 0800 512 337. More information can be found at covid19.govt.nz/financia-support

For support with anxiety, distress or mental wellbeing you can call or test 1737 to talk free to a trained counsellor.
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I love lake trout.

There, I said it. I love numerous species of fish, but lake trout is one that doesnt get the respect it deserves. An indigenous species to the Great Lakes, lake trout might not fight like a Pacific salmon; have the taste of a walleye or perch; hit the bright color spectrum of a brook, brown or rainbow trout; or have the mystique of a musky, but I love to catch them nonetheless.

I love to catch them in the spring, and the Niagara Bar is one of the top fishing holes for these fork-tailed wonders  on light line in shallow water. A former state record laker  weighing in at 39 pounds, 15 ounces  was caught in the shadow of Fort Niagara in May in the 1990s. My most memorable experience was on a cold Jan. 1 some 30 years ago when I fished with two buddies for 2 hours in front of the green can and we reeled in 42 lake trout  all released to fight another day. But thats another story.

I love to catch them in the fall, too, and the last couple of years the focus has been on Lake Erie. Yes, Lake Erie has a great lake trout fishery, too. My first experience was a warm November day in 2020 out of Erie, Pa., with Capt. Pete Alex of the Vision Quest and he schooled me on how good the lake trout fishing can be in this shallowest of the Great Lakes. It was crazy good. His best day was more than 100 fish, caught and released.

Lake trout were once a dominant predator in the Eastern Basin of Lake Erie. However, the combination of commercial fishing, eutrophication and invasive species expansions led to a total extirpation by 1965. As a result, rehabilitation efforts began in 1969 and were formalized in 1985 with a Lake Trout Task Group. It eventually led to Lake Trout, A Strategic Plan for the Rehabilitation of Lake Trout in Lake Erie that was a guide for biologists and lake managers to follow from 2008 to 2020.

Earlier this month, a new Lake Erie Lake Trout Management Plan was released by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission that will serve as a map for managers and biologists through 2030. The emphasis on lake trout is continuing to ride the wave of excitement when Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit (of the states Department of Environmental Conservation) personnel discovered the first documented natural reproduction of these fish in decades, last May off Chautauqua County.

Dr. Jason Robinson, Lake Erie Unit leader for DEC, said the new rehabilitation plan has two components. The first is maintaining or expanding the adult population. The second is increasing our understanding of early life history, meaning, searching for eggs, fry and wild juveniles.

The previous lake trout plan focused on determining the best genetic strains and stocking locations to build and maintain an adult population, which has been quite successful, Robinson said. The current adult population is as abundant as it has ever been since rehabilitation efforts began in 1982. It is extremely important to maintain a high, stable level of adults so that we can begin to work on component 2 of the new plan  detection of early life stages.

The early life history portion of the plan will be the most challenging because we are just learning where lake trout are spawning, where they are having the most success, and how best to assess eggs, fry, and juveniles.

James Markham, Cold Water Senior Aquatic Biologist with the Lake Erie Unit, reflected on the new lake trout stocking schedule in the current plan. The target stocking numbers are 200,000 yearlings for the southern shore of Lake Erie (which includes New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio) and 80,000 yearlings in Province of Ontario waters. All the lake trout in U.S. waters come from Allegany National Hatchery in Warren, Pa.

We are now moving to a three-year rotational stocking cycle to try to increase survival of our stocked fish and maintain adult abundance, Markham said. For example, in New York, we will receive 0, 80,000 and 120,000 yearlings over the next three years. The success of this strategy will be evaluated over the course of the new plan and adjusted as needed.

All stocked lake trout are coded wire tagged and have their adipose fin removed using a tagging trailer.

By doing this we can tell what strain a fish is, and when and where it was stocked, Markham said. If a lake trout lacks these tags, there is a possibility it is a wild fish.

Markham said analysis of tagging data indicates that about 1 in every 200 adults might be wild in New York waters. The DEC is trying to confirm the analysis using otolith chemistry.

The strain of fish that is stocked is also important. Currently, Seneca Lake and Lake Champlain strains have proved to be best in terms of survival and lower sea lamprey wounding rates. Developing a native Lake Erie strain is unlikely at this point, although at least one inland lake in Pennsylvania might have received a native Lake Erie strain prior to its elimination from the lake. Investigations to confirm this are underway. However, Markham said it might not be the best strain for rehabilitation.

The lake is a much different system than it was 100 years ago, he said. The original strain was extirpated in part because it couldnt survive the changing conditions and did not evolve with sea lampreys present.

Sea lampreys are one of the obstacles that lake trout must overcome, but the adult sea lamprey index for the lake has been below the target index for two years now. Markham said this has not happened in Erie since the beginning of the control program coordinated through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada lamprey control staff. Lake Erie streams are on a three-year treatment rotation, and this schedule appears to be doing a good job keeping the numbers in check for now.

Cormorants do not appear to be a problem because agencies stock the fish offshore, away from the birds. Even the large number of predator fish in the lake such as walleye, bass, and perch do not appear to be an issue.

It is difficult to fully understand the extent of all the obstacles that are potentially inhibiting the establishment of wild lake trout in Lake Erie, Robinson said. Native species like walleye, perch, and smallmouth bass, might not be one of the major obstacles to lake trout rehabilitation since lake trout reproduced and thrived with all these species present in the past.

Invasive species like smelt and round goby, on the other hand, were not present and may certainly be an obstacle. And there are other obstacles such as degradation of existing spawning habitat, largely by zebra and quagga mussels, that may be the biggest of all.

Robinson said there are reasons to be optimistic.

Recent success in other lakes after many years of effort, such as Lake Champlain, gives us hope that we will one day be able to create a self-sustaining lake trout population in Lake Erie, he said. One thing that is certain about Lake Erie is that it is always changing. It is important that have a robust and active rehabilitation program in place to take advantage of potentially advantageous conditions as they evolve.

You can find a copy of the final plan at glfc.org. In the meantime, give lake trout a little more respect.
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No matter how many files and folders you store in pCloud, all of your data will be at your fingertips. Regardless of how you use your space in the cloud - via web, desktop or mobile - your files are truly easy to manage.

Search

A search field is available at the top part of the pCloud web interface and the mobile applications. Simply enter the name of the file or folder you are looking for, and it will be found in an instant.

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You can filter your files by their file format. The pCloud filters are the quick search icons in the left-hand side menu (for web and mobile): Documents, Images, Audio, Video and Archives. Clicking on them opens a list of your filtered files.

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Quickly share large files with friends and family, even if they don't have a pCloud account. Anyone with access to the link will be able to view and download the shared files from any browser. These links are dynamic, so they will always show the latest version of the files. For extra security, you can protect your shared link with a password or set an expiration date.

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To guarantee your files' safety, pCloud uses TLS/SSL encryption, applied when information is transferred from your device to the pCloud servers. At pCloud data security is our top priority and we do our best to apply first class safety measures. With pCloud, your files are stored on at least three server locations in a highly secure data storage area. Optionally, you can subscribe for pCloud Crypto and have your most important files encrypted and password protected. We provide the so called client-side encryption, which, unlike server-side encryption, means that no one, except you will, have the keys for file decryption.

pCloud Crypto is the simplest and most secure way to encrypt data.

With pCloud's unique client-side encryption functionality users' files are safely hidden from any unauthorized access. pCloud Crypto lets users protect their confidential files with high-end security, making it as easy as placing a file in a folder. pCloud's security application encrypts data on user's computer, and uploads only the encrypted version to the servers. Files never leave user's device, so there is no way that anyone receives sensitive information in a plain version. We apply zero-knowledge privacy, meaning that encryption keys are not uploaded or stored on our servers, and we are incapable of viewing user files. The encryption key (Crypto Pass) is only available to the one who creates it, i.e. the user.

We are different than other security-led cloud storage providers.

pCloud is the first cloud storage provider to offer both encrypted and non-encrypted folders in the same account. Although at first thought it is the most natural approach to just encrypt everything, the downside is that when servers do not understand the data, they cannot help you work with your files. You can't expect server support for generating thumbnail previews of images, transcoding of media files so they are playable in the cloud, creating and extracting archives, and similar operations that cloud users need. That is why, with pCloud, you can choose which files to encrypt and lock, and which ones to store in their natural state and apply file operations on.

pCloud makes the best of both worlds.

We did our encryption in the most user-friendly way - encrypted files will be visible and usable in your storage only when you enter your encryption password (Crypto Pass) and unlock them. Otherwise, as soon as you click the Lock button they are no longer accessible locally by anyone else. You are the only one who holds the key. Even we, as a service provider, do not have access to your encrypted files. This is in contrast to embedding encryption in so called "Sync" clients that would still upload encrypted data to servers but would keep data in plain text on user's computer so anybody who has access to the computer would see it (e.g. when you lose your laptop). pCloud Crypto does not have such a vulnerability.

The strictly technical aspects.

We use industry standard 4096-bit RSA for users' private keys and 256-bit AES for per-file and per-folder keys. We do data authentication in a different way compared to most competitors. Authentication is the process of verifying that you decrypted the right data. Many experts consider it a mandatory part of encryption.

Authentication is done by calculating cryptographic hash of the data during encryption and decryption, and comparing the results. There are two popular approaches to that: one is to calculate the checksum of the whole file, another is to calculate checksums of small blocks in the file. The downside of the first approach is that you need to have the whole file in order to authenticate it, which may not be the case. Partial file modifications are also problematic in this case and might also require access to the full file. The second approach is vulnerable to several types of attacks. Most likely, the service provider may construct a version of the file that never really existed by combining different small blocks in different ways.

In pCloud Crypto we solve this problem by using a tree of hashes (also called Merkle tree, similar to what Bitcoin is using as a central part in its protocol).

What's New:
The NASA Swift Observatory, which is designed to hunt for gamma-ray radiation bursts and study their link to black holes, has suffered from multiple glitches and is now in safe mode.

Engadget reports that the spacecraft possibly suffered a so-called "reaction wheel failure," which caused its scientific instruments to go into safe mode. As a result, the observatory remains inactive with all science observations suspended, as confirmed by the NASA Universe Twitter account:

The Swift Observatorys science instruments went into safe mode after a possible reaction wheel failure. Pointed science observations are temporarily suspended while the team investigates the issue. The instruments and other 5 wheels remain in good health. https://t.co/6rYTyu6yTg pic.twitter.com/tCkLU7jdSA  NASA Universe (@NASAUniverse) January 20, 2022

This is also likely the first-ever time that the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has experienced a technical failure in its history. It first began operations back in 2005. But while its scientific instruments are out of commission for the moment, the rest of the spacecraft reportedly remains in working order.

Space.com details the reaction wheel failure, and how it has affected the observatory as a whole. Apparently, these reaction wheels (six of them on the spacecraft) allow the observatory to point itself in the direction of gamma-ray bursts, so it can observe them.

One of the six reaction wheels had a problem and caused the scientific instruments to go into safe mode. As of this moment, the mission team is working on determining what caused the reaction wheel to fail.

They're also looking to bring the science instruments back online, even if there are only five wheels operational, as per the original Space.com report.

This news comes after another NASA space exploration mission, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, has completed its initial phase. For now, the Swift observatory remains offline until progress can be made in terms of bringing it back in full working order.

Read Also: NASA 'Waste to Base' Challenge: Sustainable Waste Management Ideas For Mars Mission Now Open | Here's Everything You Need to Know

What Is The NASA Swift Observatory?

Swift might not be as well-known as Webb these days, but it was actually instrumental in bringing forth the first-ever direct image of a black hole, which made headlines back in 2019.

Its contribution was critical to the feat, because of its ability to detect gamma-ray bursts. These bursts, also called GRBs, mostly come from beams of intense radiation produced by a star with high levels of mass turning into a black hole, neutron star, or quark star.

The Swift Observatory was specifically designed to study the connection between GRBs and black holes, as per NASA. Understanding the link is critical to planning space exploration missions, as well as knowing how these events literally shape the entire universe.

To detect these GRBs, Swift uses an array of three telescopes. These instruments work in tandem to allow for quick identification of a GRB. By quick, we mean it only takes 20 to 75 seconds for the spacecraft to turn itself and face the direction of the burst, so it can observe it.

But while it is initially intended to only observe GRBs, Swift is now being used to detect other things like solar flares and even hard-to-find stars. Losing the spacecraft will not exactly be a huge blow to humanity's space exploration efforts, but keeping it running will be of massive help to Earth's astronomers.

Related Article: NASA Reveals They Are Facing Astronaut Shortage Ahead of Crewed Moon Mission

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Written by RJ Pierce

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Kevin Dietsch

After the FBI raided Rep. Henry Cuellars home and campaign office on Wednesday, the big and yet-to-be answered question was a simple one: Why?

A source familiar with the investigation told ABC that it was connected to a sprawling investigation into Azerbaijan and a group of American businessmen, but details about any wrongdoing have been scant. Cuellars connections with Azerbaijan, however, are extensive.

And notably, theres one government trip to Azerbaijan in 2013, as The Intercept first reported Friday night, that has already resulted in a campaign donor pleading guilty to lying to Congress five years later.

While Cuellar wasnt on that particular trip, one of his staffers was. And just four months earlier, Cueller and his wife, Imelda, embarked on a junket to Turkey and Azerbaijan to see the sights, meet top leaders, and promote economic and geopolitical cooperation between the countries and the United States, according to congressional disclosures.

FBI Seizes Computer in Unexplained Search of Rep. Henry Cuellars Home

While in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, they met with the president of the country and, after lunch, headed to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic for a briefing. Then it was on to parliament to meet with other dignitaries.

The tab for the nine-day jaunt$26,145.26was picked up by Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, a Houston-based non-profit that aimed to facilitate this cultural exchange, and approved by the congressional Ethics Committee, according to public records.

After the trip, the head of that organization, a U.S. citizen named Kemal Oksuz, helped fund a second trip four months later. Cuellar was not on that second trip, but a larger delegation10 congressional colleagueswere. Instead, Cuellar met with the Azerbaijan ambassador in D.C., according to a press release from his office.

Two years later, Oksuz contributed $2,000 to the Cuellar campaign, Federal Election Commission records show. Hed previously donated $1,500, six months before Cuellars trip.

Story continues

But that second trip gave rise to a criminal indictment against Oksuz. It turned out that his group had not paid for it, but had funneled the funds$750,000from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, a government-owned entity.

Indicted GOP Congressman Says the Feds Got Him on TapeTwice

He then lied to the House Ethics Committee to cover up the fact, and in 2018, Oksuz pleaded guilty to federal charges for those lies. The Ethics Committee later cleared the members who participated in the second trip of any wrongdoing, saying the lawmakers acted in good faith and that the Ethics Committee never conclusively established the true source of the funds for the trip.

But Cuellars trip appears to have left an impression. One month later, he took to the House floor and praised Azerbaijantaking particular care to extoll the countrys oil industry.

Heres something Azeris have in common with Texans: they are a rich oil producing nation, Cuellar said. As we do in Texas, Azeris have a long history with oil. Today, they supply the pipeline that moves Caspian oil to the west, via Turkey, without running the oil supply through Russia or Iran. That greatly increases the security of the pipeline.

In that 2013 floor speech, Cuellar also noted that Azeris have an interesting way of investing their oil profits in future generations, noting infrastructure projects and overseas scholarships.

Cuellar, curiously, went on to take up an interest in academic exchange programs between the U.S. and Azerbaijanand worked with Oksuz to do it. In 2015, Cuellar announced an exchange partnership between Texas A&M and one of the organizations Oksuz had used to disguise money from SOCAR, the government-owned oil company.

Cuellar has taken an abiding interest in Azerbaijan. He is co-chair of the Azerbaijan Caucus, and has provided a strong voice for the countrys national security, economic, and cultural interests. He signed a letter as recently as last April advocating for aid for the country after a deadly conflict with neighboring Armenia; the letter was distributed by a lobbyist at DC firm BGR.

As for the aforementioned overseas scholarships, Cuellar has also regularly joined the Azerbaijan ambassador at educational functions, including at a local San Antonio university. And just last year the president of tiny Laredo College, in Cuellars hometown, boasted in an open letter that he had met with multiple international dignitaries during a recent trip to Azerbaijan.

He was selected and sponsored by the Azerbaijan government to obtain an energy certificate, the letter read, adding that the progressive initiatives LC is known for will enhance our plans for an incredible energy program to benefit our students. The school president was pictured alongside the Mexican Ambassador to Azerbaijan, along with the vice president of SOCAR.

Perhaps even closer to home, Cuellar also scored a semester exchange in Azerbaijan for one of his 2020 interns.

Another Cuellar intern: Kemal Oksuzs son, who was hired in 2019, six months after his father pleaded guilty.

Cuellars congressional office did not return a request for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A mother from Enfield, Connecticut, sued Meta and Snapchat in federal court after her 11-year old daughter killed herself last year. The child developed an extreme addiction to Snapchat and Instagram.

Mother Sues Social Media Companies

The girl's mother, Tammy Rodriguez, filed the lawsuit against the two companies in a federal court in San Francisco on Jan. 21.

Rodriguez claims that her daughter, Selena Rodriguez, became addicted to the two social media apps. She tried to limit her daughter's access to the said apps, but her daughter ran away from home when she did so.

Rodriguez took her daughter to a therapist, who told her that she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media as Selena. The news about the lawsuit was first reported by Bloomberg.

Rodriguez is being represented in the case by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a law firm based in Seattle, Washington.

Also Read: 5 Ways Social Media Benefits a Person's Mental Health

The firm says it works to hold social media companies legally accountable for their harm to users, especially the vulnerable ones like underage children.

Massive tech companies, including Instagram's parent company Meta and Snapchat, have recently come under fire over claims that they failed to stem their platforms' dangerous effect on children.

The shares of both Snap and Meta were down in morning trading on Wall Street. A spokesperson for Snap told The New York Post that they are devastated to hear of Selena's passing, but they can't comment on the specifics of active litigation.

The spokesperson added that they work closely with several mental health organizations to give in-app tools and resources for Snapchatters as part of their ongoing work to keep their community safe.

In November, Meta responded to allegations that it disregarded its own engineers' warnings over the dangers of its products and their effects on youngsters by saying that they continue to build new features to help users who might be dealing with body image issues or negative social comparisons.

In 2017, a 14-year-old girl from England, Molly Russell, committed suicide after going on Instagram and being pushed into the app's rabbit hole with depressive content, according to the victim's parents.

In 2021, researchers at Brigham Young University found that severe usage of social media platforms placed teenagers at increased risk of suicide, especially girls.

Social Media's Role in Self-Harm

A parental social media watchdog app, Bark, reported a 25% increase in suicide alerts and self-harm among teenagers, mostly between the ages of 12 and 18.

According to Fox, the app alerts parents when it detects potential issues in their children's app activities and text messages.

The app analyzed more than 3.4 million messages across emails, social media platforms, and texts in 2021 as the pandemic forced millions of children across the United States to spend hours online every day.

Titania Jordan, the chief parent officer of Bark, said that they saw a great need for transparency around data, especially regarding children and harmful content.

Around 43% of young teenagers and almost 75% of teenagers were involved in situations or conversations involving self-harm or suicides.

A study shows that spending 3 hours a day on social media can already have a negative effect on your mental health.

Experts recommend that users need to have a social media break in order to improve their mental health.

Related Article: Big Tech And Declining Mental Health: Should They Be Held Liable?

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Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA captured a new mid-level solar flare that burst out of the Sun's limb. The international space agency was able to record the space event using its Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

The solar flare appeared on Wednesday, Jan. 20. The solar flare peaked at exactly 1:01 a.m. EST. NASA released the video on its official Twitter account.

"The Sun emitted a significant solar flare early this morning, peaking at 1:01 a.m. ET. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as M5.5," said the space agency via its official tweet.

NASA Captures New Solar Flare

The latest solar flare footage of NASA attracted a lot of space fans. Based on the released video, the solar flare appeared on the sun's right side.

Also Read: New Solar Flare Warning Now Issued as More Sun Particles Charge Towards Earth-Causing Polar Geomagnetic Disturbance

Although the activity on the sun's surface is quite tiny when compared to its size, you can still see the bright light emitted by the flare.

Because of the solar flare's magnificent display, NASA's footage generated more than 9,800 likes and 1,500 retweets. Meanwhile, the international space union clarified that the latest sun activity's harmful radiation didn't pass through Earth's atmosphere.

The Sun emitted a significant solar flare early this morning, peaking at 1:01 a.m. ET. NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as M5.5.https://t.co/9RsMR5suI3 pic.twitter.com/zK9mADK47H  NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 20, 2022

Besides, Space.Com explained that it was just an M5.5 class, which is less powerful than the X-class flares. Although it wasn't really serious, it can still cause radio blackouts in the planet's polar regions.

If you want to see the actual captured footage, you can click this link.

Why SWPC Issued a Warning

Newsweek reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a warning when the latest solar flare happened.

The weather agency claimed that the sun's activity this January posed biological risks to the astronauts, especially those who are stationed in high-altitude orbits.

Aside from them, the energetic particles emitted by the solar flare also alerted the agency since they could have impacted the satellite systems orbiting the Earth.

In other news, SpaceX closed the U.S. Air Force deal, which costs $102 million. Meanwhile, NASA's Ingenuity flight is now delayed because of dust storms.

For more news updates about solar flares and other space events in the solar system, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: New Solar Flare Could Create Bright Aurora Lights! But, Satellites, Power Grid Might be Disrupted

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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Tesla's Xinjian expansion is now being criticized by some U.S. lawmakers. Two subcommittees in the House of Representatives ways and Means are claiming that Elon Musk's move is actually a misguided one since it empowers the Chinese government.

The U.S. representatives that are questioning the giant automaker are Earl Blumenauer and Bill Pascrell J. Right now, these two officials are urging Tesla to release a statement by Feb. 2.

They want to company to clarify that it is not really contributing or financially benefiting from the forced labor activities in the Xinjian region, where Uyghur detection camps are located.

Tesla's Xinjian Expansion Criticized

According to Forbes' latest report, Blumenauer and Pascrell are both asking Tesla about its financial relationships with other companies located in the Xinjiang region.

Also Read: Tesla FSD Beta Rumors: Crash Every 36 Mins. Says O'Dowd? User Demonstrates Safe Driving, Elon Musk Reacts

They said that this information is needed so that they can confirm if the electric vehicle manufacturer complies with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a new law that prevents the majority of the imports from reaching the area.

This latest issue between Tesla and the U.S. lawmakers began after the tech firm announced that it will open a showroom in Xinjian. The decision of Tesla was criticized since it was made even though the Chinese region is facing multiple EU and U.S. sanctions connected to Uyghur exploitations.

"American business cannot further empower the gross human rights violations of the CCP," said the two U.S. representatives in the letter sent to Elon Musk.

Tesla's Current Status in China

With the innovations released by Tesla in China, it seems like the giant EV manufacturer's business in the Asian country is improving like never before.

The automaker even released a Twitter advertisement showing how its services are there for Chinese Tesla owners. Because of this, many people flocked to the comment section to share their opinions.

Always here always with every Tesla owner. Tesla Service pic.twitter.com/oMv2T6gMEh  Tesla Greater China (@teslacn) January 17, 2022

One of the Twitter users even said that Tesla's ties with China will end badly. But, other people rebutted the individual, saying that Chinese products are also used by many people.

In other news, Tesla FSD was also criticized by a New York Times ad. Meanwhile, a new Tesla Model Y was spotted in Texas Gigafactory.

For more news updates about Tesla and other giant automakers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Elon Musk: Tesla Robots Could Help AI Surpass Human Intelligence | Making AGI Possible?

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Tesla's Gigafactories are bringing many finished products early this year as Giga Texas aims to deliver a new batch of Model Y electric vehicles in the first quarter. The cars will be manufactured from the ground up in Tesla's Gigafactory will bring a few units these early months. On the other hand, the Giga Berlin finally completed its commissioned graffiti art on the walls of the newly built factory.

Tesla Gigafactory Texas: Model Y Production for First Quarter

Electrek spotted a few units of the Tesla Model Y, something that indicates on the new teams from the Gigafactory for new cars to bring to the public. The vehicle is known to bring the entry-level goodness of Tesla cars that of the company's lineup, showcasing a family car that can seat as much as seven to the clean energy.

The Model Y stocks are piling up from Giga Texas, which builds up inventory for the vehicles, and the report said that it would have sufficient reserves come March or the end of the first quarter. For now, the cars are yet to deliver as the clean energy company is piling up the electric SUV to be ready once stocks are enough for distribution.

Read Also: Elon Musk: Tesla Robots Could Help AI Surpass Human Intelligence | Making AGI Possible?

Tesla Gigafactory Berlin: New Graffiti Art on its Walls

On a separate note, the Gigafactory Berlin shows signs that it is near completion, mainly as the selected artists and commission do its graffiti art. The official Twitter account of Tesla shows the completion and progress of the Gigaberlin, and this might indicate that the Tesla company is ready for its first European plant.

Graffiti art at Giga Berlin pic.twitter.com/aOj4kZNcbU  Tesla (@Tesla) January 21, 2022

Tesla and the Gigafactories

Tesla's Gigafactories are not yet expanding, according to the tech CEO of the company, Elon Musk, as there would be no Giga Russia despite the many speculations from the public. There are only a total of three gigafactories built from the ground-up, with Giga Texas, Giga China, and Giga Berlin being those that come from scratch.

There are no locations from the company for a fourth Gigafactory location.

Early this year, there have been reports regarding the Giga Berlin postponing its launch as it is not ready for its showcase and welcoming the public inside its halls. Moreover, this delay of the Giga Berlin may also indicate that Tesla is not yet ready to produce vehicles from within the halls of the factory, something that needs more time to launch.

Tesla's Gigafactories aim to bring the best of the company to showcase the vehicles and solar power technology in the present world. The clean energy company's Gigafactories will bring some of the most anticipated cars like the Cybertruck and other offers of the company.

Nevertheless, it needs to have the best of the best, like Giga Texas, before it launches onto the higher tiers of Tesla cars.

Related Article: Tesla FSD Beta Rumors: Crash Every 36 Mins. Says O'Dowd? User Demonstrates Safe Driving, Elon Musk Reacts

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An atomic model of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus  each ball is an atom. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia/N+1)
On Jan. 14, 170 refugees from Afghanistan arrived in Edmonton. (Submitted by Catholic Social Services - image credit)

Dozens of refugees are ready to begin a new chapter of their lives in Edmonton.

Earlier this month, 170 refugees from Afghanistan landed in the city. The group fled Afghanistan last summer after the Taliban took over the country following the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the collapse of the Afghan government.

The newcomers to Edmonton are people who have worked for decades documenting human rights abuses and war crimes, said Hellay Naikyar, settlement counsellor with Catholic Social Services.

"It has been a long wait, of course, for them to come," she said. Naikyar arrived in Canada herself as a refugee from Afghanistan in the 2000s.

Submitted by Hellay Naikyar

Upon arrival, the newcomers went into a 14-day quarantine for COVID-19, which is expected to end this weekend.

"The majority of them are well-educated and speak English," said Naikyar, who is helping the group resettle.

It can be difficult to leave everything behind and start again in a new country, said Naikyar.

"I just put myself in their shoes."

Naikyar now works for the same organization that helped her resettle in Canada.

"I received an enormous amount of support and help from the staff," she said on CBC Edmonton AM.

"I'm grateful for that and I'm happy to pass that on."

The Taliban

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, before the U.S. toppled the regime in 2001. During Taliban rule, women were largely excluded from public life and even from attending school. Television, movies and music were banned and the country followed a strict interpretation of Sharia law, including public executions for people found guilty of murder or adultery and amputations for people convicted of stealing.

After four decades of conflict, natural disasters, poverty and food insecurity, Afghans make up one of the world's largest refugee populations at more than 2.6 million worldwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency. The vast majority of whichapproximately 90 percentare in Iran and Pakistan.

Story continues

Between January and September, 2021, more than 600,000 people have fled Afghanistan due to increasing violence, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

While it's hard resettling into a new country, it's helpful for the newcomers to have someone who knows what it's like to to start a new life in Canada.

"They are excited to see someone who can speak the language," said Naikyar.

"I can see in their faces their appreciation."

Canadian government committed last year to bringing 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. As of Jan. 18, 7,140 have arrived in the country since last August. Of those, more than 300 are in Edmonton.

After quarantine, Catholic Social Services will help the 170 refugees with temporary accommodation, language assessments, arrange health care and enrol the kids in school.
The above updated map shows high-priority hot bed sites in Mountain Village, which is part of the comprehensive plan amendment process. (Courtesy image)
Two of the nine in-person legislators visible in this screenshot of KET coverage of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee Thursday were wearing masks. At least one member participated remotely.
Ada, OK (74820)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 72F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 61F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Jeremy Dotson had one wish for his 42nd birthday: to get his beloved rescue pup on the cover of Acadiana Animal Aid's 2022 calendar.

Dotson asked his friends and family to make donations to the nonprofit during the September contest in lieu of birthday gifts to ensure his adopted chihuahua, Jimmy, was the top dog.

Jimmy led the pack for days, outpacing a bunny named Beignet, a pig named Percy, a cat named Cleo and a dog named Mr. Potato Head.

In the end, however, Jimmy finished the contest in third place. Dotson didn't mind though. He was able to raise $1,200 for Acadiana Animal Aid, and his sweet pup would still have a spot in the calendar.

Dotson has been a foster parent for Acadiana Animal Aid for about two years. He's cared for about 30 animals and has only had three "foster fails"  meaning he adopted the dogs instead of rehoming them.

Jimmy was his first foster fail. Joni, a chihuahua-terrier mix, was his second. Dotson adopted her a few months before the contest after Jimmy fell in love with Joni.

In October, just after the contest, Joni managed to escape from Dotson's fenced-in yard while playing with Jimmy. Dotson tried to catch Joni, but his pup was hit by a vehicle on Simcoe Street as he called out to her. Dotson scooped her up, thinking she was just in shock but would recover with veterinary care.

Joni died a few minutes later in his arms.

+4 A mural, some bundt cakes and help for unwanted pets: How Acadiana folks are doing good When Home Bank gave Brandon Journet $250 as part of the Lafayette Do Good project, he immediately thought of two things: The devastation that 

"When we found out that his dog, Joni, was unexpectedly killed, it was devastating to all of us," said Jeanine Foucher, executive director of Acadiana Animal Aid. "As animal lovers and owners, we've all known how it feels."

Foucher immediately reached out to the winner of the contest to see if she'd be willing to donate the coveted cover to Dotson's pups.

Melanie Landry, who volunteers for the nonprofit and serves on the board of directors, immediately agreed.

"The point of the contest is to raise the money, not to get my dog's picture on the cover," Landry said. "Besides that, now I get 30 days to see my dog and not just one day when I first open the calendar."

Top stories in Acadiana in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Landry raised about $4,000 for the nonprofit organization through the contest.

+22 A kitten treehouse? Here's how a Lafayette family got creative to foster homeless pets There are six tiny kittens in a Lafayette tree that aren't awaiting firefighter rescue. Instead, their shrill meows are asking for a different

Bo, Landry's 15-year-old chihuahua, is featured for the month of September. Lola, her 11-year-old chihuahua and Franki, her 10-year-old Boston terrier-pug mix, will share the spotlight for December.

Dotson got a call the day after Joni's untimely death with the news that he would now have the cover.

"I felt love from my people," Dotson said. "It felt like everyone was supporting me. It was very eye-opening. They made such a big difference in my life, and I also made a difference in theirs."

Jimmy and Joni, Dotson's first two foster fails, will share the cover of the 2022 calendar.

"It's not just about him losing a pet," Foucher said. "It's about who he is to AAA. He does so much inwardly and outwardly for us. Nonprofits cannot exist without people like Jeremy."

Dotson's third foster fail happened just before Christmas.

Dotson couldn't understand why it was taking so long for someone to adopt a Pitbull mix named Gladys he'd been fostering. As he prepared to bring the snuggly, affectionate pup to an adoption event on Dec. 18, Dotson realized something.

"She was already home," Dotson said. "She was not what I thought I wanted but she is what I needed."

Acadiana Animal Aid's 2022 calendar features local adopted cats, dogs and other pets. The project raised about $12,000 for Acadiana Animal Aid.

A limited number of calendars are still available for $30 at Acadiana Animal Aid or $35 to be shipped outside of the region. Email info@acadianaanimalaid.org to place an order or learn more.
A 65-year-old St. Helena Parish man was found dead Friday in a wooded area near his home 11 days after he was reported missing, according to the local sheriff.

Authorities said Steven Virgil Callison was last seen at his home on Hall and Lindsey Road on Jan. 9, and he was reported missing the next day. His body was found a little before 11 a.m. Friday.

After high-speed chase leads to crash, 3 suspects booked in St. Helena Parish killing Three suspects in a December killing in St. Helena Parish were arrested Monday  two of them after taking deputies on a high-speed chase that 

Hall and Lindsey Road lies in a rural and secluded part of the parish to the northwest of Greensburg. The search for Callison included rescue dogs, a helicopter and deputies on foot, according to a media release from the sheriff's office.

"This is not the news we were praying for," Sheriff Nat Williams said in a statement. "We remained hopeful."

The authorities said Callison had a medical condition and didn't have certain unspecified medical equipment with him at the time he went missing.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Strip club feud in St. Helena: Venue reopens as 'event space,' gets shut down for lacking permits A feud between a strip club owner and authorities that simmered for years in a rural pocket of Louisiana's capital region has once again reach

He is the second person to go missing from Hall and Lindsey Road, a short thoroughfare between La. 10 and La. 43, in just under a year.

The St. Helena Parish Sheriff's office announced last December that it would double a cash incentive it had offered for information about the disappearance of Keith Madison to $4,000.

The 5-foot-7, 179-pound White man was last seen at his home on Hall and Lindsey Road in February of last year.
Aptim, a global engineering and environmental consulting firm, is relocating its headquarters from the former Shaw Group building on Essen Lane to the Water Campus just south of downtown Baton Rouge.

The company expects to move into the Water Campus location at 1200 Brickyard Lane by the fall, according to a news release.

Aptim will take up 17,133 square feet at the building, spread out across the second and third floors, said George Bonvillain of Elifin Realty. Bonvillain and Will Chadwick at Elifin represented the Water Campus in the deal.

Opened in 2017, the Water Campus sits on 35 acres along the Mississippi River and is home to a number of coastal research institutions, most notably the LSU Center for River Studies and the Water Institute of the Gulf. Aptim's space will be near the LSU center.

Aptim representatives did not respond with a request for comment on the number of employees moving to the Water Campus space.

Aptim provides consulting services related to critical infrastructure, data management, environmental, resilience, sustainability and energy.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

We are excited to be moving to a corporate headquarters that offers our people a beautiful and state-of-the-art facility to collaborate and innovate, that strengthens the relationship with our home city and state, and that connects our headquarters to the river and the levee, Mark Fallon, Aptim chairman and CEO, said in a statement. This location speaks directly to Aptims purpose and leadership in resilience and sustainability."

Bill Sanders with Beau Box Commercial Real Estate represented the former Shaw building, located at 4171 Essen Lane and formally known as XI United.

Aptim downsized its offices in the Essen Lane building in 2019. The company's roots trace back to Shaw, which sold to CB&I in 2013. CB&I later merged with McDermott and had already sold off a division that became Aptim ahead of the merger.

Aptim reduces its office footprint in Baton Rouge at CB&I Plaza off Essen Lane Aptim Corp., a services company with specialists in sectors ranging from engineering to program management and a vestige of a once larger comp

Sanders said the Essen Lane structure has been marketed as a multi-tenant building for occupants of all sizes. Other tenants are still occupying it and activity is vibrant there.
A 16-year-old suspected car thief who escaped from three different juvenile facilities in as many months was believed to be back in either the Baton Rouge or Pointe Coupee Parish areas Friday, the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff's Office said.

Now identified by the department as Damarion Simmons, authorities say the teen broke out of a detention facility alongside 16-year-old Brenden Hebert in St. Martin Parish around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

According to Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux, the two teens allegedly stole three pistols and a white Chevrolet Colorado in St. Martinville before driving to New Roads to part ways.

Hebert was caught at a gas station on U.S. 61 Friday morning after state troopers found him inside the stolen vehicle, police said.

Authorities believe Simmons may now be near his hometown of New Roads or in the greater Baton Rouge area.

A 16-year-old has escaped 3 different Louisiana jails in 3 months. The sheriff is fed up. A 16-year-old from Pointe Coupee Parish who is accused of breaking into dozens of cars has escaped from three different juvenile facilities in

Thibodeaux cautioned residents that Simmons may be armed, but emphasized that the teen does not have a history of violence. He said he's worried about Simmons' safety, and added he's also concerned about what might happen in an encounter between the youth and a member of the public.

"This is a dangerous situation. Very dangerous. People on Facebook are saying, 'Well, if they come in my yard, I'm killing them,' and you can't do that," he said. "This is becoming a very bad, volatile situation."

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Before his escape on January 19, Simmons previously broke out of the Acadiana Center for Youth with another person on Dec. 11 and the Bridge City Juvenile Detention Center with three others on Nov. 21.

During his last escape, Thibodeaux estimated Simmons broke into up to 30 cars before he was apprehended in New Roads Jan. 8.

Beth Touchet-Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice, said a preliminary investigation found that human error played a role in Wednesday's escape.

Once a full investigation is complete, appropriate disciplinary action "up to, and including termination" will be taken, she said.

The Pointe Coupee Sheriff's Office is offering a $500 reward for any information leading to Simmons' capture.

Thibodeaux, who expressed his frustration at the fact that he and his deputies are now searching for the teen a third time, called the situation "embarrassing" for the state's juvenile justice system.

"The time and the effort and the money that we put forth  to catch this guy, and I don't think he's made it two weeks," he said Thursday.

He later added: "Our entire state and legislators need to really pay attention to what's going on."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a stock disclosure that she sold up to $15,000 worth of Activision stock on January 18.

Microsoft's announced plans to acquire video-game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion on the same day.

Activision's stock soared that day, and Greene reported at least $200 in capital gains from the sale.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a stock disclosure indicating she sold up to $15,000 worth of Activision Blizzard stock on January 18  the day news broke of plans for the video game company to be purchased by Microsoft.

Greene reported at least $200 in capital gains on the sale on the disclosure form, which she filed with Thursday with the Clerk of the House of Representatives. It was not immediately clear how much Greene  a freshman Republican from Georgia and one of Congress' most polarizing members  pocketed from the sale, as lawmakers are not required to state the exact dollar figure for their capital gains.

A stock trade disclosure from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia. US House of Representatives

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced plans to acquire video-game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. If the deal is greenlit, it will be the largest-ever deal in the tech industry. On the same day, Activision's price soared.

Greene ranks among Congress' most active stock traders. She was the first member of Congress to invest in Donald Trump's social media company, TRUTH social, and has had no problem investing in companies that espouse social views that clash with her own, such as those on Black Lives Matter.

Related video: Financial experts share advice on how to invest during the pandemic

Greene has also invested in the stock of three COVID-19 vaccine makers  Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca  despite boasting about being unvaccinated against COVID-19.

Greene's office could not be reached for immediate comment on the recent sale of Activision Blizzard stock. In September, Greene told Insider, "I have an independent investment advisor that has full discretionary authority on my accounts. I do not direct any trades."

Story continues

Greene's stock sale comes in the background of Insider's new investigative reporting project, "Conflicted Congress," which chronicled the myriad ways members of the US House and Senate have eviscerated their own ethical standards, avoided consequences, and blinded Americans to the many moments when lawmakers' personal finances clash with their public duties.

The project identified 54 members of Congress who've failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act. There is no indication that Greene violated the STOCK Act by making this trade, which Greene disclosed two days after making it  well within a deadline of 30- to 45-days, depending on the kind of trade.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who in December said lawmakers should be allowed to trade individual stocks, reversed course this month, saying she was now open to a stock trading ban for lawmakers.

"If members want to do that, I'm okay with that," Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

Microsoft was the No. 2 most popular stock among members of Congress, according to an Insider analysis of congressional financial records. As part of Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project, Greene received a "solid" rating on the strength of her disclosing her various stock trades on time.

Only 10 members of Congress have placed their assets in a "qualified blind trust"  a formal, congressionally approved financial vehicle independently managed by a trustee and designed to prevent conflicts of interest. Greene is not among them.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The rabbi father-in-law of accused child sex abuser Malka Leifer has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child and a teenager in Israel.

Baruch Pinchas Leifer, an influential and highly regarded rabbi who led the small Chust Hasidic sect, was arrested this week over historical sexual assault allegations, which he denies.

Malka Leifer (right) appears in a court in Israel in 2018. Credit:AP

One of the rabbis alleged victims, a family member, claims the rabbi sexually assaulted her several times when she was 12, while a man alleges the rabbi committed sexual offences against him when he was 18.

Two victims advocates close to the case verified Ms Leifers relationship to the rabbi: Magen for Jewish Communities Shana Aaronson, the executive director of the Israel-based advocacy organisation for sexual abuse victims; and, VoiCSAs Manny Waks, the chief executive of that organisation, which combats child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.
There were 20 deaths in Victoria announced on Saturday of people aged in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and a total of 1791 since the pandemic began. While patients are generally not as sick as those previously infected with the Delta variant, doctors say some are more frail and complicated to treat. Hospital doctors say they have now seen three distinct large waves of COVID-19 patients in Victoria, beginning with the second wave in 2020 which resulted in the deaths of more than 600 aged care residents. The Delta wave of 2021 was marked by younger unvaccinated patients, including pregnant women, falling severely unwell. In the current wave, Dr Singh described an older group with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, usually not requiring ICU treatment. They may have had one or two vaccine doses but not their booster, and underlying lung disease, diabetes and other conditions that make them more susceptible to falling very ill.

Theres also another big cohort of frail older people admitted because they are no longer able to remain at home because the illness has made them harder to care for, or their carer is sick. Its a marked contrast to Delta wave, when the median age of COVID-19 patients hospitalised at the Royal Melbourne was 46 years at one point, and the typical patient was a younger and unvaccinated person who was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. While Dr Singh said it was a relief not to be seeing as many very unwell patients who needed longer hospital stays, the new wave of patients had more complex needs. As was the case earlier in the Delta wave, she is seeing patients who were booked in to have their next vaccine, but got COVID-19 before their appointment. Patients who have received a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine represent less than 4 per cent of current hospital admissions up to Saturday, according to Health Department data. Its a significant statistic since almost 30 per cent of adult Victorians have now received a booster, and those that become eligible first are more likely to have conditions putting them at higher risk from COVID-19.

Loading Its a trend reflected in UK studies, which have found three doses of COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalisation with the disease by more than 80 per cent compared to those that are not vaccinated. Two doses are also protective against hospitalisation, with rates 65 per cent lower compared to those who were unvaccinated. Meanwhile, recent analysis of Victorian ICU data showed unvaccinated patients made up between 22.2 to 37.2 per cent of admissions, despite less than 6 per cent of the adult population being unvaccinated. Dr Stephen Parnis said the vast majority of patients he was seeing in the emergency department were well enough to be managed at home. He estimated he was admitting roughly one in four COVID-19 patients presenting at the ED. I see a number of people who have worries about all sorts of symptoms that have the potential to be serious  things like chest pain  but when you go into it, it all turns out to be relatively mild and certainly non-sinister.

Loading The number of people with COVID-19 who are being treated largely due to another illness, injury and condition, is thought to be at rates higher than previous waves because of the sheer number of people with COVID-19 in the community. However, Royal Melbourne Hospital chief medical officer Cate Kelly said in many cases it was impossible to rule out the virus as a contributor to peoples illness.  If you have heart failure and you have COVID-19 you might come in with exacerbation of heart failure, Dr Kelly said. Theres a group clearly sick with COVID, [another] clearly incidental with COVID-19 and have no symptoms and theres this group in the middle who are a bit of a mixed bag.
Melbournes so-called freedom protesters have vowed to maintain the rage against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, causing mass disruption in the city and targeting the Australian Open.

Demonstrators returned to Victorias State Parliament, a familiar stomping ground, about midday on Saturday for what was dubbed the sixth worldwide rally for freedom, as similar rallies went ahead in other capital cities across Australia.

The demonstrators forced trams to a halt. Credit:Nine News

Among the sea of flags and signs outside Parliament were campaigners dressed in yellow for the United Australia Party. Its leader, Craig Kelly, addressed protesters in Sydney on Saturday.

The Melbourne protesters, of which Victoria Police estimated there were about 1500, forced trams to a halt as they marched through the CBD, chanting mantras, no vaccine passports, no more mandates, save our children, and calling for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to be sacked.
Yet, the couple are torn, knowing that many of their childrens classmates wont have had a jab by January 31, the first day of school, and will be at greater risk of infection. Dr Citroni  an intensive care specialist  has no faith in politicians assurances that our days of remote learning are done. There is no substitute for face-to-face learning, but its going to spread like wildfire as soon as they get back, so I anticipate there will be further lockdowns and home-schooling, he said. The Andrews government has been adamant that remote learning is not in the plan for term one, whatever disruption the rampant Omicron variant creates. Education Minister James Merlino said this week that Victoria  the state where students missed as many as 170 days of face-to-face learning, more than any other  supports national cabinet principles that schools will be the first to open and the last to close in 2022.

The days of system-wide remote learning in line with lockdowns  no one is talking about that, he said this week. We want our students back in classrooms, face-to-face with their teachers, with their peers. Victorian Education Minister James Merlino says remote learning is not on the cards for term one. Credit:Jason South The end of remote learning in Victoria was celebrated as all students returned to classrooms in mid-October last year, but the return to face-to-face learning also ushered in a new period of chaos in term four. Six per cent of schools were forced to shut temporarily to manage COVID-19 outbreaks as case numbers surged into thousands a day, particularly among unvaccinated primary school students. Many more stayed open, but with entire classrooms or even year levels in isolation, leading them to adopt a clunky hybrid model of in-class and remote learning.

Victoria also experienced a statewide shortage of casual relief teachers in term four, as cases of the Delta variant rose in the community, putting thousands of staff out of action. Ironically, the Andrews governments tutor learning initiative has also drained the state of its usual pool of relief teachers, with several thousand hired to help students catch up on lost literacy and numeracy. As school leaders warn of a potential teacher shortage in term one, they are also managing a workforce that feels vulnerable and in many cases resentful of the expectation they will head back into classrooms. Already, teacher unions have rejected nationally approved plans to exempt school staff from seven-day isolation rules when deemed a close contact of a positive case.

Robert Kelly, a STEM teacher and learning specialist at a government school in Melbourne, said teachers were being used as COVID fodder in the drive to ensure that schools stay open. About 30 students and several teachers at his school contracted the virus in term four last year, forcing the school to scrape by with a skeleton staff. It was exhausting, he said. He fears term one will be worse. We all have great respect and admiration for our health care professionals, but at least they have PPE gear and the training to understand what theyre dealing with, Mr Kelly said. As for teachers, they have masks and thats it. Thats their defence against COVID in a classroom of 25-plus students.

Despite the reservations of many working teachers, the Andrews government is betting on enticing inactive and retired teachers and school support staff back into the classroom to fill the gaps when active staff must isolate. Another part of its plan will involve a surveillance testing program, with students taking rapid antigen tests at home. Paediatrician Fiona Russell said it was essential that unwell children did not attend if the new strategy is to work. Its absolutely critical that anyone with symptoms shouldnt be coming and [should] assume theyve got COVID, she said.

If the rapid antigen testing [kits] arent available on the first day of school, then it really has to be a symptom-based thing. Professor Russells Murdoch Childrens Research Institute has long called for a national plan on minimising COVID-19 infections and closures. She said schools had been an after-thought during the pandemic and any call to delay the start of term one was unfair to children whose past two years had been so disrupted. Vaccines are one part of it, testing is another bit, ventilation, all those other things, workforce planning  it all needs to be resolved, she said. These are all mitigation measures. It is going to be bumpy. There will be lots of infections, theres no doubt about that. We will not have zero-COVID schools, thats for sure, and schools will contribute to community transmission. But so does every other place that has infections as well.

Victorias acting chief health officer Ben Cowie recently said infections among primary school-aged children had fallen from more than 30 per cent in term 4 to less than 5 per cent during school holidays. Loading Professor Russell said infections would increase across all age groups after school holidays end. But she said a single dose was still highly protective for primary school-aged children and the chance of hospitalisation among that age group was extremely low, based on New York data. Local data is also reassuring: of the more than 1700 people who have died with COVID-19 in Victoria, only one was aged under 10 and one other aged between 10 and 19, heath data shows.

Deakin University associate professor in epidemiology Hassan Vally said many of the initial fears epidemiologists, including himself, held about COVID-19 and children had not eventuated and that even though much is unknown about the Omicron variant, no parent should feel frightened for their children going back to school, regardless of their vaccination status. People are going to be exposed to the virus and develop symptoms, but the epidemiology is really clear, even with the Omicron variant, that children largely escape serious consequences, Associate Professor Vally said. Its a sentiment Dana Supramaniam is pleased to hear as her children, Hari, 11 and Sakthi, 7, look ahead to another year at Glen Waverley Primary in Melbournes east, even if she will send them off with a heavy heart. She knows her children will benefit from being at school and among friends. But she expects to see case numbers in schools rise again and cant help but worry that her children could get sick, despite them having just received their first jabs. Despite her mixed feelings, Ms Supramaniam is putting her trust in the advice of health experts. After two years of being cocooned at home, she knows her children are yearning to return to living a full life.
GM Investing in $154 Million In Western New York and $6.5 Billion In Michigan EV Plant





General Motors (NYSE:GM) is expected to announce plans next Tuesday to spend $6.5B in two new electric vehicle and battery factories in Michigan, creating as many as 4,000 jobs, the Associated Press reports.

In addition to GM's planned partnership with LG Energy to build a $2.5B battery plant in Lansing, AP reports GM plans to spend $4B by designating an existing plant in Orion Township as its third electric vehicle factory, along with plants in Detroit-Hamtramck and Spring Hill, Tenn.

Electric motor stator module built at GM Lockport Components plant will help power future Ultium Platform-based electric truck and SUV products

Investment another example of GM bringing U.S. workforce along on journey to all-electric future

LOCKPORT, N.Y.  General Motors announced today plans to invest nearly $154 million in its Western New York Lockport Components plant. The investment will be used to renovate the facility and purchase and install new machinery and equipment used in the production of the stator module, a key component in an electric motor. Electric motors will be used in a variety of GMs future Ultium Platform-based electric trucks and SUVs. Facility renovations will begin immediately.

As Lockport Components prepares for electric motor component production, the facility will continue to build a variety of components that support GM's current truck and SUV production. Lockport Components currently produces radiators, condensers, heater cores, evaporators, HVAC modules, oil coolers and other components used in a variety of GM trucks. GM currently estimates Lockport Components will add approximately 230 positions between 2023 and 2026. Actual staffing plans will be finalized closer to the start of production as the facility transitions to support EV motor component production.

GMs investment in Lockport Components reaffirms our commitment to manufacturing in Western New York and our confidence in this team. They will build a crucial module in our electric motor assembly for our future electric trucks and SUVs," said Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability. "This is an excellent example of how we are bringing our workforce along on the journey to an all-electric future while we scale our EV production capacity and maintain a flow of parts for our current vehicles."

Lockport Components was founded in 1910 as the Harrison Radiator Company for the purpose of designing, manufacturing, and selling automotive radiators and components. With more than 1,500 employees, the site is focused on continuous improvement through a joint team process between UAW Local 686, Local 55 and plant management.

General Motors is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which will power everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, can be found at https://www.gm.com.
Vietnam Airlines resumes regular flights to Europe from Jan 24, to Russia from Jan 29

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines on January 21 announced its plan to resume regular flights between Vietnam and Russia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.













Vietnam Airlines aircraft (Photo: VNA)

Accordingly, the first flights will depart right next week, from January 24. The final operation plan will depend on the approval by authorities and be updated by Vietnam Airlines to passengers in case of any changes.



The carrier plans to resume regular flights between Hanoi and Moscow with one flight a week, with the first scheduled to depart on January 29. From February 8, flights from Hanoi to Moscow will depart every Friday and vice versa on Saturday.



For the remaining destinations in Europe, on January 24, Vietnam Airlines plans to make the first regular flight from Hanoi to London, which will transit through Paris and then be back to Hanoi.



On January 27, the airline will continue to operate the first regular flight between Hanoi and Frankfurt.



From February 8, the flight schedule to the UK, France and Germany will be fixed on two routes. The flights on the first route depart every Tuesday from Hanoi to London, via Frankfurt and back to Hanoi, while those on the second depart every Thursday from Hanoi to Paris, via Frankfurt and back to Hanoi.



The national flag carrier also advises passengers to find out information and make sure to meet immigration regulations at their destination such as medical declaration, COVID-19 testing, vaccination or recovery status./
By Vugar Khalilov

A military training session for reservists is underway in accordance with the 2022 training plan approved by Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov, the Defence Ministry has reported.

The main purpose of the session, which involves a group of reservists, is to improve their combat and military skills, experience, as well as get acquainted with modern weapons and military equipment in the Azerbaijan army, and learn their rules of operation, the ministry said.

Following registration and physical inspection at the assembly point's headquarters, the reservists taking part in the training were given military uniforms and other equipment.

It was noted that a cultural event was organized for the participants and martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, were commemorated.

The event's participants emphasized the significance of Azerbaijan's historic victory over Armenia in the 44-day war in 2020.

The speakers underscored that the training session will improve reservists' combat and moral-psychological readiness.

The training session was noted to improve reservists' combat and moral-psychological readiness. The training session will last until January 29.

It should be noted that under the military service law, Azerbaijani citizens are eligible to participate in the 10-day training sessions.

Azerbaijan holds drills on a regular basis to improve the combat readiness of its military personnel.

The drills also aim to improve servicemen's interaction and combat coordination during operations, as well as to improve commanders' military decision-making and unit management skills.




Scott Blankes career was based in science and fact, but when he published his first book he went an entirely different direction, bringing readers to the magical, fantastical world of Oz.

Blanke, a retired otolaryngology specialist at Mayo Clinic Health System, has long had an obsession with literature, fondly recalling nightly story sessions with his dad, a tradition he carried on with his own children and grandchildren. The Wizard of Oz series sparked his sense of adventure, and after writing a murder mystery that didnt take off, he turned to the style he knew and loved.

In total, 14 Oz books were written by L. Frank Baum before Ruth Plumly Thompson and other authors took over to complete the Famous Forty series of 40 books. Blanke owns many of them, including a first edition of The Wizard of Oz with the yellow cover. He discovered it on a bookshelf at a hospital where he was doing rotations, and was told the well worn book was about to be thrown out. He rescued the treasure, kicking off his collection which also includes dozens of non-canonical versions of Oz books.

Fully immersed in his passion for Oz, Blanke is a member of several Wizard of Oz-centered Facebook groups. And as part of the La Crosse Area Writers Guild and the Mississippi Valley Writers Guild, he has honed his writing skills over the years. After trying and failing to complete a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge, he buckled down two years ago to begin Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz, and found the words flowed swiftly. The book was published in late December by Black Rose Writing.

The book tells the backstory of the Wizard, Oscar Diggs, back when he was a normal American con-man.

(Baum) glossed over quickly how the Wizard got to Oz...I felt that was something that was really important to the world, to the story, says Blanke, who strove to answer some of the questions he himself had after reading Baums series.

In Blankes book, Diggs and his friend and shill, Chang Wang Woe, are called to serve as balloonists for the Union Army during the Civil War. During battle, their leaking hydrogen balloon is simultaneously struck by a cannon ball and lightning, and this transports the two men to the magical land of Oz, the books description reads.

The pair discover the good witch in Oz, who shows them true magic, and when Woe disappears after a dragon fight, Diggs works to rescue him while finding his way in Oz. Not until the end of Blankes version does Dorothy appear.

The book, Blanke says, is designed for mature readers, with a blend of humor, adult content, violence and excitement. He has already started on a follow-up.

Having a book published, Blanke says, was never the primary goal  rather, he wanted to pen something that people could access and enjoy.

I wanted to tell my story, so to speak, says Blanke, who found amazing support and feedback from local writing groups.

Blanke encourages others to put their thoughts on paper, noting he was in his mid-60s before he put his first fictional novel out into the world.

Theres always enough time and theres always enough inclination, Blanke says. The one piece of advice I would give is get support  writing groups are amazing.

Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz, is available for purchase online on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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A Maricopa County Sheriff's vehicle blocks a road miles from a wildfire in the Tonto National Forest, as the fire has grown to more than 12,400 acres with zero containment Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Carefree, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A business-minded Milwaukee attorney with no higher education administration experience will lead the University of Wisconsin System as its next president.

Jay Rothman, 62, got the unanimous nod in a closed-door Board of Regents meeting Friday, ending a search process that began in 2019, included a failed search in 2020 and sparked the interim presidency of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Rothman said he is drawn to the job because his term as CEO and chair of Foley & Lardner, an international law firm based in Milwaukee, is ending soon and he isnt eligible for reelection.

Jay is a servant leader who has chosen to dedicate the remainder of his outstanding career to our students, our faculty and staff, and our taxpayers, Regents Vice President and search committee chair Karen Walsh said in a statement. He has the leadership and executive management skills our university system needs. He understands organizations. He builds consensus. He believes in the profound value of higher education.

Rothman said in a statement that he was humbled by the opportunity and intends to lead by listening first. He emerged as the top choice in a search that yielded 43 other applicants, including finalist Jim Schmidt, 57, who has worked in higher education for most of his life and spent the past nine years as UW-Eau Claire chancellor.

Rothman will take over for Thompson, who plans to resign March 18, on June 1 and earn a $550,000 annual salary. In between the two dates, former Regent Mike Falbo will serve as interim president. The UW-Parkside graduate served 11 years on the board, including two terms as president, and served on the search committee that led to Rothmans hire.

Business background

Hiring Rothman, who graduated from Marquette University and Harvard Law School, marks a departure from the type of person the Regents have historically tapped for the top job.

The last three permanent UW presidents were insiders elevated from within the System. Most earned at least one degree from a public institution. And all of the past presidents, with the exception of Thompson, came into the job with substantial academic experience.

Among the qualities and experience Regents asked for in their job description was an understanding of the unique attributes of higher education and the current opportunities and challenges facing public higher education.

But the board also wanted at least 10 years of experience in a significant senior executive position, a proven track record in strategic planning of a large and complex organization and demonstrated financial acumen.

Experts say Rothmans hire fits a broader national trend of boards turning to people with backgrounds outside of higher education to run colleges or systems.

There is an argument to be made that its a good thing to have someone with experience running a business to lead a multibillion dollar enterprise, but running a higher education system is different in many ways than running a business, said Robert Kelchen, a higher education professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Rothmans experience with the states business community and relationships he has with state and local leaders will be a tremendous asset.

Jay will bring a fresh perspective to higher education, she said in a statement.

Rothman highlighted his business experience in a 24-minute, eight-question interview last week with news outlets. He called the System the states crown jewel, suggested meeting lawmakers in their districts and vowed to continually share the Systems value with the public.

Rothman spoke in broad general terms about the problems facing the System, whereas Schmidt gave more detailed solutions to what he believes needs fixing. Rothman also drew connections between his firms non-hierarchical structure and how campuses run on a system of shared governance, a decision-making process that requires consultation with faculty, students and staff.

Wisconsin roots

A lifelong Wisconsinite save for the stint in law school, Rothman was raised on a small farm outside Wausau. Both of his parents attended UW-Stevens Point. His mom is now a retired school teacher, and his dad is a dentist. Rothman has two adult children, one of whom is a UW-Madison graduate.

Rothman brings a background in business law, with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, corporate disclosures and governance matters. He joined Foley & Lardner in 1986 and has led the firms more than 1,100 lawyers and 1,000 staff since 2011.

Childrens Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy worked with Rothman when he served on the hospitals board from 2014 to 2018. She said he sought out differing opinions, listened and pressed on after making hard calls.

What I appreciated most about Jay as board member was that his leadership always started with mission: how can we better serve the kids of Wisconsin? Troy said in a statement. Before anything else, that was the question that drove his counsel and his decision-making.

Other statements from those who have worked with Rothman praised his intellect, integrity and work ethic.

Federal and state campaign finance records show Rothman has donated to politicians from both parties, including at least $10,000 to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over the past two years, though the majority has flowed to Republicans.

A spokesperson for Evers did not immediately respond to an email and voicemail seeking reaction to Rothmans hire. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, was unavailable to comment Friday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, tweeted congratulations.

I look forward to working with him and seeing the new perspective he will bring to the UW system, he wrote.

Rothman will inherit many of the challenges his predecessor faced: demographic challenges, COVID-19, fewer state dollars sent to support campuses and a sometimes strained relationship with the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Thompsons tenure began in the summer of 2020 following a failed search where the sole finalist, Jim Johnsen, withdrew amid criticism about the process itself and concern about his record leading the University of Alaska System.

The Regents second try has attracted fewer complaints, though multiple faculty groups this week objected to the lack of a public forum. Its a common step in searches where students and staff can meet the candidates and ask them questions.

UW-Milwaukee professor Nick Fleisher, who leads the Wisconsin conference of the American Association of University Professors, reiterated those concerns again on Friday.

No public interview. Never worked in higher ed. Announced on a Friday afternoon. Not a good look for the Regents, he tweeted. I think we have to reserve judgment on Rothman until we get a chance to know more about him. The process at the end here has ensured that we know very little.

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(CNN) -- Champagne houses are celebrating after sales and exports set new records last year even as pandemic lockdowns forced many bars and restaurants to close.

Comite Champagne, a trade association representing more than 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, said Wednesday that France exported a record 180 million bottles of bubbly in 2021, an increase of 38% over the previous year.

Global sales of champagne also hit a record 5.5 billion ($6.2 billion).

Comite Champagne said that total shipments rose 32% over the previous year to 322 million bottles as people found reasons to celebrate at home.

"With tourism and the staging of events still reduced due to the health crisis, there is room to believe that home consumption has taken up the slack," the trade group said in a statement.

"Consumers have chosen to entertain themselves at home, compensating for the generally gloomy mood with new moments of conviviality and sharing," it added.

Detailed export data has not yet been released, but in 2020, the United Kingdom and the United States were the top foreign markets for champagne.

Champagne drinking popped back up to its pre-pandemic levels last year in France, with shipments increasing 25% to reach nearly 142 million bottles.

Maxime Toubart, co-president of Comite Champagne, said the rebound was a "welcome surprise" after a difficult 2020.

The name Champagne is exclusively reserved for wines harvested and produced by 16,200 growers on 34,300 hectares northeast of Paris.

The region was hit by severe frosts last spring, which damaged crops across France's wine growing regions. The frost affected about 80% of vineyards in those areas, according to the European Committee of Wine Companies.

This story was first published on CNN.com "The world bought more champagne than ever last year".
UNION SPRINGS - Leonard L. Beers, 90, formerly of Norwich and Otego, passed away Jan. 18, 2022. A memorial graveside service will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, May 6, in Evergreen Cemetery in Otego. Arrangements are with Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home, Oneonta.
Forest City, NC (28043)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 84F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 57F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
3 Countries Investigate Morocco Attacker Who Killed Tourist

RABAT, MoroccoA Moroccan judge on Thursday ordered a man suspected of fatally stabbing a French woman and injuring a Belgian visitor to undergo psychiatric evaluation, as authorities in three countries opened probes into the suspects possible links to terrorism.

A 78-year-old French woman was killed in a knife attack in a market in the southern Moroccan town of Tiznit on Jan. 15, the French interior ministry said in a statement.

The suspect, a 31-year-old man, was arrested later that day in the city of Agadir, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Tiznit, police said. Before he was apprehended, police said he struck again, attacking people with a knife in a cafe located on Agadirs coastal strip, and injuring a Belgian woman. She was taken to a local hospital for multiple stabbing wounds.

The suspect has no criminal record, Moroccan police said. They added that last year he allegedly received treatment in the psychiatric ward of the Hassan I Hospital in Tiznit. An investigating judge in the capital, Rabat, ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the man. He was placed in the Razi mental facility in Sale, near Rabat.

Moroccos public prosecution assigned the case to the police anti-terror squad, to investigate possible terrorist motives.

In Paris, the French anti-terror prosecutor announced Wednesday an investigation into a murder in connection with a terrorist intent after a French tourist was killed in southern Morocco.

And the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutors office said Thursday it will investigate the case for a possible terrorist link in the attempted murder of a Belgian tourist in Morocco.

In 2018, two Scandinavian women were found beheaded in the Atlas Mountains near Marrakech in an operation carried out by supporters of the ISIS terrorist group. A Moroccan court in 2019 sentenced to death three men convicted of the attack.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21)  The country's vaccine expert panel head cautions the public against voluntarily exposing themselves to COVID-19 to get natural immunity.

In an interview Friday, Dr. Nina Gloriani affirmed any individual who contracted the virus will gain natural immunity once they recover.

But she stressed deliberately exposing oneself to the coronavirus is not recommended as infections could lead to a severe form of the disease  or even death.

"Mabuti kung ang breakthrough infection ninyo ay mild hanggang moderate siguro; magkakaroon kayo ng boosting immunity. Pero kung magiging severe 'yun, hindi 'yun maganda," Gloriani said.

[Translation: It would be fine if your breakthrough infection is only mild to moderate; you will have a boosted immunity. But if it is severe, it won't be good.]

"That natural immunity will happen naturally; hindi tayo magpapa-expose (we should not deliberately expose ourselves)," she added.

Gloriani also acknowledged that having hybrid immunity  or both natural and vaccine immunities  will help provide stronger protection against COVID-19. However, she said this was no reason for vaccinated individuals to be complacent.

"I don't think the doctors will say na magpa-expose kayo para magkaroon kayo ng natural immunity. Hindi po gano'n... kasi hindi natin alam ang magiging resulta sa inyo," Gloriani said.

[Translation: I don't think doctors will tell you to expose yourselves to the virus to get natural immunity. That's not how it should work because we don't know how it will affect you.]

"'Wag nating pabayaan 'yung complacency... Hindi tama 'yung exposure na pinilit. It will not work po," she added.

[Translation: We should not be complacent. Forced exposure to the virus is not right. It will not work.]

Gloriani made the warning after a study from the United States showed during the Delta surge last year, people who survived a previous infection had lower case rates than those who were vaccinated alone.

The research, however, was conducted before the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant and the rollout of booster shots. It did not factor the time from vaccination and potential waning immunity into the analysis  and the possible effect of additional doses. It also pointed out that vaccination was still the safest way to be protected.

Gloriani reminded the public not to pick specific COVID-19 vaccine brands and delay their vaccination  especially with the possible emergence of more infectious variants.

The Philippines has so far detected 535 Omicron cases, including two fatalities.
Australia Says No to 16-Year-Old Forklift Drivers as Remedy to COVID-19 Supply Chain Pain

SYDNEYAustralia has ruled out letting teenagers as young as 16 drive forklift trucks to tackle a shortage of workers in COVID-19-hit supply chains, as it scrambles to scoop up millions of home testing kits needed to keep businesses functioning.

A sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks has seen hundreds of thousands of workers benched by illness or the need to isolate, leading states to quickly lower the isolation requirement to seven days.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison had floated a proposal to lower the minimum age of forklift drivers from 18 to 16, seeking solutions for a shortage of workers now hobbling the economy. Earlier this week he scrapped visa fees for foreign backpackers and students wanting to work and study in Australia.

But most States consider forklift operation to be high-risk work which requires a license available only to 18s and over, and after a meeting with State premiers on Thursday, Morrison said the proposal had proved a non-starter.

We had a good discussion today and it is not something that we believe, collectively, we should be pursuing at this time, Morrison told a media conference.

The National Cabinet did agree to consider recognizing New Zealand licenses for truck drivers to meet a shortage in that sector.

Morrisons Liberal-National coalition government is seeking ways to loosen regulations in Australias transport and food sectors to ease supply chain and workforce disruptions that have led to empty supermarket shelves.

The problem has been exacerbated by a widespread shortage of rapid antigen tests (RATs), limiting the ability of workers to test themselves, which has become a hot button issue for voters ahead of an election expected by May.

Australias Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) on Thursday provisionally approved Novavax Inc.s COVID-19 vaccine, and two oral treatments for vulnerable patients.
Australia Adds Blue Carbon to Credit System

More farmers, businesses, and industries will now be able to claim and cash-in Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU)a financial instrument awarded to those who reduce their carbon dioxide emissionswith the inclusion of mangroves and tidal marshes to the carbon offset scheme.

One carbon credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide stored or avoided. These can be sold to the federal government under its $4.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), or auctioned off to companies that want to reduce their emissions on paper by offsetting their own emissions with the purchased carbon credits.

Projects that conserve plant life, which in turn absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are one type that are rewarded with carbon credits. A key note of the update was the inclusion of mangroves and tidal marshes to allow the storage of blue carbon.

Aside from reducing emissions and financially benefiting landholders, communities, and businesses, it is expected the blue carbon incentives will also improve water quality and protect coastal wetlands.

Murray River at Younghusband in South Australia. (Keith Clarkson/Pixabay)

ACCUs will now also be eligible for projects that extract biomethanea substitute for natural gasproduced by the refinement of waste gases and agricultural methods.

Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor lauded the mechanism as a method to help reduce emissions, with $2.2 billion already committed across Australia of which many are in regional or rural areas.

The ERF has already delivered more than 100 million tonnes of abatement and these new methods will bring on even more projects and abatement, Taylor said.

Chief Executive Shahana McKenzie of biogas industry peak body BioEnergy Australia welcomed the new system.

The new method will allow the capture of biomethane from facilities such as waste water treatment plants and other high methane producing activity and  it can now be injected into the gas network and for that to be recognised, McKenzie said.

Capturing methane that would otherwise be going into the atmosphereits a significant difference in terms of the reduction of that methane being used for energy activities rather than it being emitted, around 20 times.

Currently, projects eligible for ACCUs are wide ranging, spanning from providing beef cattle with nitrate supplements to upgrading inefficient heating and air conditioning systems.

Carbon Credit Controversy

Australias carbon credits and the expanded measures have been criticised by environmental groups over concerns they may in some occasions be ineffective in reducing emissions.

The Australian government has granted land owners carbon credits to avoid chopping down forests on their land. This is because once trees are cut down, their carbon content leaks into the atmosphere.

In fact, Australia relies heavily on forest and vegetation practisesknown as land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF)which contributes to more than 80 percent of the nations emissions reduction alone.

A plot of yearly greenhouse gas emissions between 2002 and 2020 for: Australias total; and land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF). (Daniel Khmelev / The Epoch Times)

One farmer was given around one million carbon credits for preserving 23,000 acres of forest at the ACCU price of $16, at the time worth around $16 million. ACCUs have since skyrocketed to around $55 a piece.

But a September 2021 report by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Australia Institute accused the federal government of buying $26.3 million in ACCUs off of farmers who werent planning on clearing their vegetation anyway.

ACF climate change campaigner Suzanne Harter has said the ACCU system, which now includes blue carbon, would only be beneficial if the conservation of mangroves and tidal marshes came as a result of direct effort.

Provided the new methods meet strong integrity requirements including assurance that they are additional to what would have happened anyway, the new methods provide new incentives and opportunities for investing in measures that will allow for the creation of ACCUs, Harter told The Epoch Times.

The new blue carbon method provides a useful incentive to protect and restore carbon-rich seagrass meadows, mangroves, and other habitats that store carbon naturally in the landscape and also provide a range of critical habitat and ecosystem services.

However, Harter said she believed directly reducing emissions should take precedence over a heavy reliance on carbon offsetting through carbon credits.

Buying offsets for climate emissions should never take precedence above avoiding emissions altogether, she said.

Committing to rapidly transition from coal and gas to renewable energy or strongly supporting a transition to clean transport would have a much more significant impact on emissions than adding new methods to create ACCUs.
Ukrainian soldiers stand on a check-point close to the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels, Mariupol, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Andriy Dubchak/AP Photo)

Baltic Nations Send US-Made Weapons to Ukraine Amid Russian Threat

Baltic nations Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are sending U.S.-made weapons to Ukraine to boost military support amid a threat of a Russian invasion.

It comes as Russia has sent an estimated 100,000 troops with tanks and other heavy weapons to its borders with Ukraines northeast, but denies it is planning an attack.

The defense ministers of the three nations in a statement confirmed they have received approval from the United States to send the weapons, which include Javelin anti-armor missiles from Estonia, and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and adjacent equipment from Lithuana and Latvia.

In light of Russias increase in military pressure in and around Ukraine, the Baltic States have decided to answer Ukrainian needs and to provide additional defence related assistance. This aid will further enhance Ukraines capability to defend its territory and population in case of a possible Russian aggression, the defence ministers of the three nations said in a joint statement.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and their Allies are working together expeditiously to hand over the security assistance to Ukraine. We sincerely hope that Ukraine will face no need to use this equipment and call on Russian Federation to seize its aggressive and irresponsible behavior, they added.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

The Baltic states will send Stinger and Javelin systems, as well as various individual equipment to help Ukraine to strengthen its defences, Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia, Artis Pabriks, said on Twitter. I strongly urge Russia to de-escalate situation at the border with Ukraine and respect its sovereignty.

Under export control regulations, countries must obtain approval from the State Department before transferring any weapons they received from the United States to third parties.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the approval to allow Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Britain to provide U.S.-made equipment from their inventories to Ukraine, but gave no details on which weapons would be sent.

The United States and its allies and partners are standing together to expedite security assistance to Ukraine. We are in close touch with our Ukrainian partners and our NATO Allies and are creatively utilizing all available security cooperation tools to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression, the spokesperson said.

Russian troops seized and annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Shortly after, Russia began supporting separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine; the ongoing war has killed over 13,000 people since April 2014.

Impending Invasion?

Russias recent amassing of troops and weapons near Ukraines borders is believed by the West to be preparation for a war to prevent Ukraine from joining the NATO Western security alliance.

Russian officials recently demanded written guarantees that NATO will give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, but member countries have refused to make such promises.

Several NATO member countries have, in recent days and weeks, signaled support in defense of Ukraine. It comes as Russian troops began arriving in Belarus on Jan. 18 for military drills near the Ukraine border, scheduled for February.

The U.S. intelligence findings, which were declassified and shared with U.S. allies before being made public, estimate that a military invasion could begin between mid-January and mid-February.

The new U.S. intelligence was unveiled after a series of talks between Russia and the United States and its Western allies this week in Europe aimed at heading off the escalating crisis made little progress.

The United States has sent the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group to participate in a naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announced Friday.

Kirby told reporters that the 12-day maritime exercise Neptune Strike 22 will demonstrate NATOs ability to integrate the high-end maritime strike capabilities of an aircraft carrier strike group to support the deterrence and defense of the alliance.

Although he said the drills are not in response to the recent Russian military buildup and has been long-planned since 2020, the naval exercise was not listed on NATOs website alongside other exercises for the year. Kirby noted, however, that the recent tensions at the Russia-Ukraine border were considered when deciding whether to press on with the exercise.

On Jan. 19, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a possible plan to deploy its troops to Romania as part of NATO operations. The following day, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis welcomed Macrons announcement.

I warmly welcome President Emmanuel Macrons announcement on Frances readiness to participate in NATOs forward military presence in Romania, Iohannis wrote on Twitter. The Romania-France strategic partnership will thus be reinforced on the Eastern flank, in the Black Sea region.

Denmark announced Jan. 18 it will send four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania to police the airspace above the Baltic nations, as well as a frigate with 160 soldiers in the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has sent 2,000 anti-tank missile launchers in the airlifts to Ukraine, alongside 30 elite troops to provide training.

Spain announced on Jan. 20 it has sent warships to bolster NATOs naval forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the government is also considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria.

Canada on Jan. 21 offered Ukraine a $120 million dollar loan and was also considering to send over some arms to help Ukraine equip a new branch of its military.

Separately, Germany has refused to issue permits to allow Estonia to export German-origin military weapons to Ukraine, reported the Wall Street Journal on Friday. German officials attribute the blockage to a longstanding policy over arms exports to tense regions, according to the outlet.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on "An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors" in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Big Tech Bill Approved by Senate Panel Despite Lobbyists Opposition

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 20 voted 166 to advance legislation that would bar tech giants such as Amazon.com from giving preferential treatment on platforms they own to their products and services, in defiance of powerful Silicon Valley lobbyists and pleas from top executives such as Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act passed the committee with bipartisan support and will now go to the Senate floor to face a vote.

Its an amended version of legislation cosponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which was expanded to include popular apps such as TikTok and specified that app companies may not share data with firms that the U.S. government considers to be national security risks.

As dominant digital platformssome of the biggest companies our world has ever seenincreasingly give preference to their own products and services, we must put policies in place to ensure small businesses and entrepreneurs still have the opportunity to succeed in the digital marketplace, Klobuchar said in a statement.

The European Union, last year, accused Apple of illegally penalizing music streamers with its App Store rules following a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019.

In November, the EUs top court denied an appeal from Google to overturn a $2.8 billion antitrust fine it received for favoring its own shopping service in search results over competitors.

Big tech has been under pressure in Congress for years over allegations that they have abused their monopoly over the internet. While many bills in the past have been put forward to rein the tech firms in, none have yet become law.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who voted for the measure, said at the hearing that he spoke with Cook, who expressed significant concerns about the bill.

Klobuchar said that she also had spoken with both Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

I had discussions with them and I made my case and I listened to them. They are most likely never going to like this bill, Klobuchar said, who added that while she is open to changes, the Senate panel was not going to put a bill forward that does nothing.

Another proposal, which was held over, would bar companies such as Amazon or Apple from requiring third-party app providers to only use their in-house payment systems. It also prohibits the Big Tech companies from penalizing apps that attempt to offer different prices through alternative app stores or payment systems.

Amazon, Meta, Google, and Apple officials deny that the companies abuse their dominant market positions. They claim that government intervention in the market through legislation would hurt consumers and small businesses that rely on their platforms.

The Senate bill includes measures that hamper our ability to offer security by default on our platforms, exposing people to phishing attacks, malware and spammy content, Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer at Google and its parent Alphabet, said in a blog post.

And it still includes provisions that could prevent us from providing consumers and businesses useful, free services.

In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee obtained by The Associated Press, Apple said that the separate bill on third-party apps would cause real harm to American consumers privacy and security.

These bills will reward those who have been irresponsible with users data and empower bad actors who would target consumers with malware, ransomware, and scams, Apple said.

Versions of the two bills are sitting in the House of Representatives.
Felix Dima, 13, from Newcastle receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Excelsior Academy in Newcastle upon Tyne, England on Sept. 22, 2021. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

California Bill Would Let Children Get COVID-19 Jab Without Parental Approval

California Democrat lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow children to be administered with COVID-19 vaccines without parental consent.

Senate Bill 866, also known as the Teens Choose Vaccines Act, has been introduced by state Senators Scott Wiener and Richard Pan, who intended to add a new section to the California Family Code.

A minor 12 years of age or older may consent to a vaccine that is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and meets the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACIP) [sic] without the consent of the parent or guardian of the minor, read the proposal.

The bill doesnt mention COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, but refers to human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B vaccines instead.

However, Wiener said COVID-19 vaccination for children is an apparent goal of the bill.

With the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread availability of highly effective and safe vaccines to treat serious COVID-19 illness, its more important than ever that young adults be able to access vaccines, he said in a statement.

Current California law requires parental consent for children ages 12 to 17 to be vaccinated unless the vaccine specifically targets a sexually transmitted disease.

Besides Wiener and Pan, the bill has eight coauthors, including seven assembly members and one senator.

Its unclear how widely the bill was received in the state legislature, controlled by the Democratic Party in both the upper and lower house in The Golden State.

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon refused to comment on the bill, saying the bill hasnt yet reached the Assembly floor.

The Epoch Times reached out to California Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg for comment.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky speaks during a hearing in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone ages 5 years and older get a COVID-19 vaccine, saying vaccines are safe for children and teens. The agency also recommended children 12 years and older get a Pfizer-BioNTech booster.

However, some prominent epidemiologists have reservations about vaccinating children.

Dr. Peter McCullough, a leading cardiologist and epidemiologist, said that healthy children should not be given the COVID-19 vaccine because the percentage of those children that die from the virus is minuscule, but the adverse effects from the vaccines in that age group are of great concern.

Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist and immunologist who has contributed significantly to the technology of mRNA vaccines, shares the same viewpoint.

Theres a good chance that if your child takes the vaccine, they wont be damaged, they wont show clinical symptoms[but] they may have subclinical damage, Malone told EpochTVs American Thought Leaders program in an interview. But the question is, do you want to take that chance with your child? Because if you draw the short straw and your child was damaged, most of these things, if not all of them, are irreversible. There is no way to fix it.
Chevron, Total Exit Burma Over Deteriorating Human Rights

PARISTotal Energies and Chevron, two of the worlds largest energy companies, said Friday they were exiting Burma (also known as Myanmar), citing rampant human rights abuses and deteriorating rule of law since the countrys military overthrew the elected government in February.

The announcement came just a day after the French company called for international sanctions targeting the oil and gas sector, which remains one of the military governments primary sources of funding. It also comes a month after an Associated Press story on the growing push for oil and gas sanctions on both companies and on the resistance from the United States and France.

Total and Chevron had come under increasing pressure over their role in running the offshore Yadana gas field, along with the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and Thailands PTT Exploration & Production. Total has a majority stake in the venture and runs its daily operations, while MOGE collects revenues on behalf of the government.

Total said it expected its departure to be finalized within six months. Chevon gave no timeframe for what it described as a planned and orderly transition that will lead to an exit from the country.

The situation of rule of law and human rights in Myanmar has clearly deteriorated over months and despite the civil disobedience movements, the junta has kept power and our analysis is that its unfortunately for the long term, Total said.

Since the takeover, the military has cracked down brutally against dissent, abducting young men and boys, killing health care workers, and torturing prisoners.

A former Total employee in Burma who has campaigned against the companys ties to the military government said she was shocked but pleased by the decision, though she acknowledged that it would be difficult to find work elsewhere.

For the employees who still work for Total, its bad news even if they oppose the dictatorship or fight against the military. But for me as an ordinary person and not as an employee, I will say it is great news, she told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisal from the government.

Total said it would withdraw without financial compensation and hand over its interests to the other stakeholders.

About 50 percent of Burmas foreign currency comes from natural gas revenues, with MOGE expected to earn $1.5 billion from offshore and pipeline projects in 2021-2022, according to a Burmese government forecast. Prior rounds of U.S. and European sanctions against the Burmese military have excluded oil and gas. The Yadana field supplies gas to Burma and neighboring Thailand.

In a statement released shortly after Totals announcement, Chevron said it too was planning to leave in light of circumstances. The company has condemned the human rights abuses and said it would comply with any international sanctions.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the decisions.

The next step is to ensure that gas revenues dont continue to fund those atrocities, said Ken Roth, executive director of the organization.

PTT Exploration & Production, the Thai company, said it was examining its options, prioritizing the energy security of Thailand and Myanmar and preventing impacts on energy demand to the livelihood of people in both countries.

The Yadana field is expected to be exhausted in the next several years and was nearing the end of its operations. The two companies had earlier halted dividend payments for the Burma project. But that decision had a limited impact on any revenue going to MOGE or the military-controlled government.

By Lori Hinnant
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrive for the welcome banquet for leaders attending the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 26, 2019. (Nicolas Asfouri/Pool/Getty Images)

Chinas Cooperation With Russia Puts Future Nuclear Arms Control in Doubt

Chinese regime's nuclear arsenal is rapidly growing

News Analysis

Since the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Unionand later the United States and Russiahave worked to both limit the overall number of nuclear weapons as well as the type of nuclear weapons each side had deployed. Progress was steady, although often characterized as one of two steps forward and one step back.

U.S. concerns over Russias compliance with past arms control agreements, Chinas plans to substantially expand its nuclear arsenal, the developing quasi-military alliance between Russia and China, and the development of hypersonic missile technology now threaten to potentially upend past agreements and will make negotiating future nuclear arms control treaties far more difficult.

USSovietRussian Nuclear Arms Control Agreements

Between 1972 and 2011, the United States negotiated eight nuclear arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and, after 1989, with Russia. SALT I and START I limited the number of nuclear warhead delivery vehicles each side could deploy.

SALT I also limited the number of anti-ballistic missiles each side could have, although the United States withdrew from the ABM treaty in 2002. While the proposed SALT II treaty was never ratified, both sides have generally lived within its terms.

Starting with START I and continuing with START II, the United States and the Soviet Union also moved to limit the number of warheads each side possessed. The maximum number of warheads was progressively reduced to 6,000, then to between 3,000 and 3,500 in Start II. The proposed START III agreement was anticipated to bring the number of deployed warheads down to between 2,000 and 2,500, but negotiations never occurred.

The SORT (Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty) and New START agreements, negotiated by the Bush and Obama administrations, respectively, were intended to further reduce the number of strategic delivery systems to 700 vehicles and to reduce the number of warheads to 1,550. On Feb. 3, 2021, the Biden administration agreed to extend the New START treaty for an additional five years, until Feb. 5, 2026.

In 1987, the two countries agreed to eliminate all ground-launched, nuclear-armed, intermediate-range ballistic and cruise missiles (INF Treaty), with ranges from 300 to 3,300 miles. In addition to the United States and Russia, the former Soviet states of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were also parties to the INF agreement.

The Trump administration terminated U.S. participation in the INF Treaty on Feb. 2, 2019, and formally withdrew on Aug. 2, 2019, based on charges of Russian noncompliance, including cheating, as well as concerns about the buildup of Chinese intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

Specifically, critics charged that the 9M729 (NATO designation SSC-X-8 Screwdriver) ground-launched, intermediate-range cruise missile, which Russia began testing in 2014 and deploying in 2018, has a range of 300 to 3,400 miles. The missile could carry either conventional or nuclear warheads. Since then, Moscow has announced that its developing a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile, designated the 9M730 Burevestnik (Russian for Petrel), of virtually unlimited range.

In July 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to conduct a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). The practice of commissioning NPRs began with the Clinton administration and has continued under subsequent presidents. The review takes approximately a year to carry out and is chaired by the secretary of defense. The result of the Biden administrations NPR is expected shortly. In the interim, Team Biden has come under increasing pressure to forswear first use of nuclear weapons and to redouble efforts with Russia to further reduce nuclear arms.

China didnt participate in the nuclear arms control negotiations conducted by the United States with the Soviet Union and later Russia. According to a report by the Federation of American Scientists, until about 10 years ago, it was estimated that China had around 200 to 250 nuclear warheads; of which 75 to 100 were on intercontinental-range ballistic missiles, half of which could reach the United States and the balance in short-range ballistic missiles slated for use as theater nuclear weapons. These missiles would primarily be deployed against targets in the Pacific and Asian regions and in particular against U.S. Naval forces in the Western Pacific, especially in the South and East China seas.

When the Trump administration withdrew from the INF Treaty, it made clear that any further treaties limiting theater nuclear weapons would have to include China as well. China, in turn, declared that it had no interest in participating in such negotiations.

Chinas Growing Nuclear Arsenal and Hypersonic Weapons

Over the past several years, there has been mounting evidence that Beijing is orchestrating a significant expansion of Chinas nuclear arsenal. In 2021, satellite imagery revealed that China was constructing approximately 250 new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos in three new locations: 229 new silos in Yumen and Hami in northwestern China and another 29 new silos at Hanggin Banner in Inner Mongolia.

Chinas DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the latest Pentagon estimates, China probably has about 100 ICBMs, some of which are capable of carrying multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs). The existing ICBM force is both silo-based and mobile. According to Pentagon sources, China could double its ICBM force by 2025 and could have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

Even more concerning, are recent Chinese tests of a hypersonic glide weapon. In July 2022, China put a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider into orbit that subsequently reentered the atmosphere traveling at a speed of five times the speed of soundapproximately 3,800 miles per hourand was able to maneuver on its way to its designated target. Russia has tested a similar reentry vehicle, the Avangard. The U.S. program is still in its testing phase and is designed for conventional warheads.

Their name notwithstanding, hypersonic glide vehicles dont travel significantly faster than a conventional ICBM. The threat they pose is that theyre far more maneuverable and better able to evade ballistic missile defense systems. Essentially, they combine the speed of ballistic missiles with the maneuverability of cruise missiles.

By first going into low earth orbit and reentering the atmosphere, hypersonic gliders could attack from any trajectory. Most U.S. ballistic missile defense systems assume that a missile attack on the United States would come from the north, over the North Pole, and are oriented accordingly.

RussiaChina Military Cooperation

Russia and China havent signed a formal defense alliance, and theyre unlikely to do so. Nonetheless, their foreign and military policies are demonstrating a growing degree of coordination and cooperation.

In 2018, China participated in Russias annual defense exercise. In 2019, they carried out joint bomber patrols near Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Later that year, their two navies held joint drills in the Sea of Japan. Since then, the pace of joint military exercises has continued to increase.

In August 2021, for example, Russian and Chinese troops conducted joint exercises in Ningxia, China, under a joint RussianChinese command and control structure. The exercise involved more than 13,000 troops, thousands of vehicles, and hundreds of aircraft and mobile artillery. In October 2021, the two countries carried out joint naval drills of Russias Pacific coastline.

Russia has been Beijings chief armament supplier. Since 2014, China has purchased Russias latest S-400 anti-aircraft defense system. China has also ordered Russian-made SU-35 (NATO designation Flanker-E) air defense fighters.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia is assisting China with an anti-missile early warning system and that the two countries are collaborating on an advanced submarine design.

In turn, China has become Russias primary supplier of advanced computer chips, following the imposition of economic sanctions on Moscow for its seizure of Crimea. In October 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced, after years of careful neutrality on the topic, that Taiwan was part of China.

Space has become another area of burgeoning cooperationsome of it with military ramificationsbetween Russia and China. In 2019, China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, announced that they would coordinate the lunar missions of Change and Luna-Resurs-1.

Russias space technology is increasingly obsolete, and Moscow has been turning to Beijing for assistance in its modernization. The two countries are jointly working together to develop new heavy rocket technology. Theyre also cooperating in the development of anti-satellite weapons, even though such weapons threaten each others satellite networks.

A Long March 3B rocket carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, Sichuan Province, China, on June 23, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chinese BeiDou and Russian Glonass are highly complementary and together form a system with 59 satellites capable of competing with the U.S. Global Position System (GPS).

There are plenty of points of contention between Moscow and Beijing. Russia is a major arms supplier to both India and Vietnam, two countries that are increasingly at odds with China. Beijings efforts to expand its influence in Central Asia and to draw those countries into its economic orbit run counter to Moscows political and economic objectives in the region. Nonetheless, the United States cant discount the possibility that Russian military moves in the Baltic republics or Ukraine could be coordinated by comparable Chinese actions in the South China Sea or against Taiwan.

The Future of Arms Control Agreements

The evolution of hypersonic reentry vehicles will erode the capabilities of anti-missile defense systems at a time when the breadth of the nuclear arsenal faced by the United States is greater than it has been in a generation.

Although Beijing and Moscow arent formally allied to one another, theyre both trying to increase their leverage against the United States by emphasizing their willingness to cooperate militarily and to support each other politically and economically. It isnt clear if this cooperation will rise to the level of coordinating military actions, but it very well could.

From the standpoint of nuclear arms control, Washington will increasingly have to weigh the dilemma that nuclear parity with Russia and China would put it at a distinct disadvantage if those two countries were to act in tandem, however unlikely that scenario may appear to be at the moment.

Neither Russia nor China is likely to accept an agreement that gives the United States parity against their combined nuclear forces. Likewise, the United States wont abandon the goal of nuclear parity, which has been the foundation of its prior nuclear arms control agreements, by allowing Russia and China to collectively have a nuclear force greater than that of the United States. Under these conditions, its hard to see how further progress in reducing nuclear arms is possible.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Residents of Manhattan Chinatown gathered in front of the homeless shelter at 91 East Broadway to mourn the deaths of two Chinese randomly attacked and killed by homeless suspects, and oppose the city governments plan to build a new homeless shelter in central Chinatown. (Hannah Cai/The Epoch Times)

Chinese in New York Mourn the Death of Subway Push Victim

NEW YORKHundreds of people from the Chinatown neighborhood in Manhattan, New York, gathered in front of the homeless shelter at 91 East Broadway to mourn the deaths of two Chinese who were randomly attacked and killed by homeless suspects.

Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was killed last Saturday when Simon Martial, a homeless man, pushed her onto the subway tracks. In another incident, 61-year-old Yao Pan Ma was beaten while picking up garbage in East Harlem on the evening of April 23, 2021. He later died of serious injuries. Footage from surveillance cameras showed that the attacker kicked him on the head repeatedly at least six times after he was knocked down to the ground.

In addition to two large photos of the victims, a blank photo frame was prominently displayed at the rally.

We put a frame here to symbolize that the next victim could be anyone, Jacky Wong, a member of the rally organizer Concerned Citizens of East Broadway Association Inc, said at the event. The Chinese have never been so worried and fearful. We have no choice but to take to the streets to protest.

According to New York police, anti-Asian hate crimes surged 361 percent in NYC in 2021, and some of the crimes involved mentally distressed attackers.

The mentally distressed individuals need help like compassion. But the government failed to create a real solution to address the homelessness and mental health crisis in New York City, he said.

Wong said that Chinatown is a senior town, and many elderly residents here have families who live outside of Manhattan.

During the pandemic, many seniors are afraid of going out of their neighborhood because they didnt want to get harassed. Now they dont even feel safe in their own neighborhood, he said.

Our risk is very real. The city cannot continue to turn a blind eye on the life-threatening risk our seniors are facing, he said. We have a very humble request. We are asking all the policymakers, including our mayor  to tell us how we can live. We just dont want to die.

Victims: The Fearful Scene Still Vivid in Mind

Very different from the Times Square memorial on Wednesday, where politicians played the main role, Thursdays event featured three victims of violent attacks.

Fan Sui Yam, 55, recalled that at around 8 a.m. on June 7, 2021, she was attacked by a homeless African American woman at the exit of the City Hall subway.

She started punching me so hard in the stomach, said racial words, and ran in the other direction. She is about 5 feet 9, about 200 pounds, and very strong. I was scared and overwhelmed, Fan said. I dont speak English, so I dont dare to call the police, feeling loneliness, I went home with pain, nowhere to complain.

She still had a severe stomach ache on the third day, and could not go to work on the fourth and fifth day after the incident.

I was thinking if I was older I might not survive, she said. Im now afraid of taking the subway and bus, Im living in fear.

She said she wanted to tell the new mayor, Eric Adams, that the Chinatown community is living in fear.

Do something. Help us fight the Asian hate crime. Asian lives matter, she said.

Local resident Chen Kaiming, whose father was beaten by a homeless man two years ago, also spoke at the vigil.

Chens father was sitting on a bench on East Broadway, a block from the rally site. A homeless man passed by and wanted to sit on the bench. Chens father politely made room for him. However, a few minutes after the homeless man sat down, he suddenly got up and punched the elder Chen in the face without any provocation.

The vicious attack knocked my father unconscious, and his lower bone of his left eye was fractured and his entire face was covered in blood. Fortunately, a police officer called an ambulance, which brought my dad to the hospital for emergency treatment, Chen Kaiming said.

At the time of the attack, my father was 86 years old, and it was the most fearful and painful day in his life. From that day on, he lived in constant fear of being attacked every time he goes on to the street, so much so that he could not personally be here today to share his story.

The third victim pointed out that the high crime rate is not only a neighborhood safety problem, but will also hurt Chinatowns economy.

Opposition to More Homeless Shelters

Yu Jinshan, chairman of the Chung Hwa Institute, criticized the city government for continuously building homeless shelters in Chinatown.

We already had five shelters, he said. The Department of Homeless Services is bringing danger to the neighborhood.

I am very angry. Im sad because we lost Michelle and Mr. Ma  They offend nobody, Yu said. He said that the city government did not take care of the people who have mentally issues and allowed them to wander around.

You are not serving homeless people. You are not serving our people. You are serving nobody, he said at the event.

Yating Chu, president of PLACE NYC, an education advocacy group, said she was tired of elected officials coming to these events.

The policies that I hear that they support are not ones that are going to make us safer in the city. Thats the problem, she told The Epoch Times.

We can have you here giving us thoughts and prayers, but the reality is, you support policies that are putting our community in danger, she said. Building another homeless shelter here in Chinatown, in front of where we are standing, its another assault to the injury to our community, she said.

Chu urged the officials to keep the mentally ill off the streets.

I live around here. These are the streets that I walk around when Im doing my grocery shopping. I really dont want to be encountering unstable people that need to be off the streets. And Im asking our elected officials to really have a plan, help these people, help keep our streets safe, and get them off the streets, she said.

Former Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa attended the memorial, wearing his signature Guardian Angels beret.

They are attacking Asians. You know why? That is jealousy, envious of their success., he told The Epoch Times. They [Asians] are doing well in school, doing well in business. We saw this happen to Jews before, its happening to Asians now, he said.

We should learn from history. If we dont stop it now. Itll just get worse and worse, he said.

Other than Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, no other elected officials were present at the rally.
Having an attitude of gratitude can help an individual, especially younger individuals and those early in their careers, to maximize their potential.

There was a cartoon in a national magazine several years ago that depicted a man with a clipboard talking to two parents of a child sitting at a desk who had apparently just completed a test. The man with the clipboard said: I have some good news and I have some bad news. Your sons test shows he is very intelligent, but it also indicates he will not learn to write thank-you notes and, therefore, he wont amount to much. Theres wisdom in that cartoon.

Every day we have opportunities to thank people who assist us or have assisted us in the past. The list is endless: relatives, teachers, neighbors, peers, superiors, and others. But, for a number of reasons, the majority of people fail to do that.

There was a report in 2021 that documented the percentage of people who wrote a personal note of congratulations and/or thank you. Thirty-one percent of the people wrote a thank-you note this past year. Another 16 percent said they had written one in the past 1 to 5 years. Thirty-seven percent said it had been five years or more since they had written such a note and 15 percent said they had never written a note of thanks or congratulations. One of the reasons writing thank-you notes separates you from the majority of others is because the majority of people dont take the time and effort to do it.

What is often overlooked is that thank-you notes are a powerful tool. A bestselling book by John Kralik, 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life, chronicles the success of one man who discovered the power of thank-you notes. At age 53, Kralik was at the nadir of his fortunes and living in a small apartment, where he froze in the winter and baked in the summer. He had problems too numerous to recount. During a walk on New Years Day, he was struck by the belief his life might become at least tolerable if, instead of focusing on what he didnt have, he could find a way to be grateful for what he had. He thought writing thank-you notes might be the best way to express his gratitude for what he did have. He set a goal of writing one a day for 365 days. It turned his life around and surprising benefits came his way.

Most people have stories about people who wrote them thank-you notes. I share one of mine:

Years ago, I gave a presentation to a large group of high school students. I didnt expect any thanks and didnt get any. Two days later, a young lady came to my office with a loaf of bread she had baked with a ribbon tied around it and a thank-you note. Kind of hokey? Perhaps, but if she ever wants me to open doors for her, Im not only going to open them, Im going to kick them down. It shouldnt come as a surprise she was valedictorian of her class and is now a very successful nurse practitioner.

One last comment: Never confuse kindness with weakness. Indeed, it is just the opposite. Insecure, self-centered people are often those who fail to be kind to others on a daily basis. Well-written thank-you notes inspire others.

Terence Moore, Michigan

Retired president of MidMichigan Health System; author of Lessons in Leadership and Career Survival

_______

Seek Gods Approval, Not Mans

Begin early to ignore the temptation to look at other people for approval. So much of our worlds activities are centered around pleasing people around us. The desire for fame, to be the first to do something, to spend time and money on our appearance, such as approved wardrobe and hairstyles, to say the cool jargon, to get a prestigious job, to know the right peoplethe list goes on and on of the ways we cater to other humans. Many of us are only realizing this as we get old. How much better to begin early to look solely for Gods approval, in light of the eternity spent with him.

Claudia Shick, Idaho

___________

So youre preparing to get married and you want to create the happiest family you can. Here are a few hints to help you strive to that end:

Its important for a successful family to have a fathers discipline and a mothers loving attention working as a team with their eyes on the prize of guiding their childrens souls to heaven.

Introduce spirituality to your children from birth and teach them to pray daily. When they approach the dating age, speak to them about Gods real purpose (procreation) for his gift of intimacy.

Your example of having courted a potential spouse who had the same spiritual beliefs as you, illustrates that you and your spouse have committed to keeping the wedding vows, til death do us part, which will help them endure through lifes struggles. (If there is no spiritual commitment, chances of divorce are greater, adding to the multitude of broken families and broken souls.)

Teach sons to treat girls with respect even if the girls dont require it.

Teach daughters to respect themselves and a potential spouse by not putting themselves in provocative situations.

If you disagree with your children, say so and dont support a sinful action or lifestyle. If they continue in it, give them consequences for their actions and abide by them, e.g., dont give them free room and board, free computer or telephone, or car access. You may think they will love you less, but in the end, they will respect you for your resolve, especially when they accept your advice and become successful.

Ascertain whats going on in government and discuss it with older children. Point out to them that it is not good to elect politicians swayed by those who support the taking of innocent life in abortion and deviant unnatural behavior, because those elected leaders will determine who lives and who dies and what is normal behavior even though it is deviant.

Protect, at all costs, your family. Dont yield to nonsensical comments made on liberal mainstream media. They are not experts on wholesome family life; neither are politicians who seek power and wealth, or Hollywood spokespersons who seek fame and wealth. Examine their lives: drugs, multiple marriages and divorce and suicide. Think about it. Would you trust them to be good role models for your family?

Feed your kids good stuff. Give them hearty helpings of faith-filled and inspirational articles to read. Today, children are dining on the internet, sports, movies, games, and social media, most of which abounds with physical gratification and filters out anything to do with soul searching.

Best of luck and may God bless you in your new venture.

Rosmary Grisafe, California

__________

As a subscriber to The Epoch Times, I read with interest your published letters from readers offering their advice or experiences to the younger generation. Following is an incident that happened to me that may be of interest to your readers.

My cousin died.

Allan was my age of 77 when his heart gave out. He lived with his wife and daughter in Las Vegas and I was living in Palm Springs when I got the news. We werent that close, but for some reason, I felt I should attend his funeral. It was a small graveside service, 10 people in a secluded place in the cemetery. I was standing in the back of the small group of mourners when I noticed his daughter standing with her head down. She was having problems with her mother at that time, so she was standing alone. While I am not overtly religious, I felt a force at my back moving me toward her, which I did. Then while standing next to her, I felt that force, once again, moving my arm around her. At that moment, it became clear to me why I drove 500 miles to be at my cousins funeral.

Steve Lurie, Illinois

______________________

What advice would you like to give to the younger generations?

We call on all of our readers to share the timeless values that define right and wrong, and pass the torch, if you will, through your wisdom and hard-earned experience. We feel that the passing down of this wisdom has diminished over time, and that only with a strong moral foundation can future generations thrive.

Send your advice, along with your full name, state, and contact information to NextGeneration@epochtimes.com or mail it to: Next Generation, The Epoch Times, 229 W. 28th St., Floor 7, New York, NY 10001
Defeat the Mandates March and Rally in Washington to Take Place on Jan. 23

A large rally and march against vaccine mandates is set to take place in Washington on Jan. 23.

It will be livestreamed by The Epoch Times, starting at 11:30 a.m.

The event has gained little attention from the media, as many of the featured speakers have diverging views from the established narrative from pharmaceutical industries, big tech companies, and some government agencies.

Americans of every class and color. Democrats and Republicans. Vaccinated and unvaccinated. United we stand. In peace we march, reads their official webpage.

The protestors plan to meet at the Washington Monument at 10:30 a.m.

One of the featured speakers, Kevin Jenkins, is the CEO of Urban Global Health Alliance.

Heres whats happening. The modern-day civil rights movement is a medical freedom movement, Jenkins told The Epoch Times. We are now fighting to save humanity. Were now not just fighting just to save our race. Were now fighting to save the species.

Earlier this month on the Joe Rogan podcast, Dr. Robert Malone spoke about the march:

This is not about being anti-vaccines, its about being anti-mandates, and our hope is that we bring people together. People from every walk of life, every party, every religion, every ethnic background, Democrat, Republican, vaccinated, unvaccinatedthe thing that we can agree on is personal liberty and the right of people to make their own choice, and thats what this rally is about, its to resist these mandates of the vaccine. Whether you believe in it or dont believe in itI hope that you believe in the integrity and freedom of your fellow man and woman to make their own bodily choices.

Malone is a key contributor, and some call him the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology. He has been heavily censored and attacked for having differing views on the pandemic and the potential dangers of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines.

Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, in Washington on Aug. 30, 2021. (The Epoch Times)

The event will be part of a worldwide rally for freedom that will also take place in Australia, as well as in different countries in Europe.

Our objective is to end the vaccine mandates and also: no vaccine passports, no vaccination for healthy children, no to censorship, no to limits on reasonable debate and [no to] propaganda that were constantly bombarded with, Malone further declared. We believe in the power of natural immunity, we believe and insist on informed consent, and we insist in allowing doctors and patients making decisions without interference together.

Dr. Peter McCullough is also a featured speaker. He announced the march, calling it an American homecoming.

Sunday gives us the opportunity to recapture the dream, Jenkins further noted. What was Martin Luther King really talking about? He was talking about unifying America. He was getting us to understand that love is paramount to fighting any tyranny of our time. And I believe that the spirit of this march is to capture what he was really saying, because I believe Martin Luther Kings words have been so bastardized, and so weakened, that people dont really understand what he was saying to America.

Angela Stanton King (L) and Kevin Jenkins (R) host a meeting directed at black communities to inform them about body sovereignty in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 2, 2021. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times)

It was about saving the world, saving the planet, saving our children. What he was doing was way beyond civil rights. He was talking about saving the planet. I want people to understand this.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King (19291968) addresses crowds during the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, where he gave his I have a dream speech, in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. (Central Press/Getty Images)

Dr. Pierre Kory, president and chief medical officer of Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, intends, by participating in the march along with members of his organization, to spread hope to millions of people by reinforcing the truth that COVID-19 is a highly preventable and treatable illness, he told The Epoch Times.

Our government and medical authorities have a single-minded approach to treating COVID-19 using costly, experimental treatments that are not working. Their refusal to examine the vast amount of data on various proven treatment protocols is unacceptable. State and local authorities are scaring, intimidating, and even prohibiting health care professionals from using treatments that we know work. This level of malicious behavior by many of our government officials has caused countless lives to be lost.

Dr. Pierre Kory (C) speaks to members of the House Freedom Caucus about the efficacy of ivermectin against COVID-19 at the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington on Sept. 27, 2021. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

We are marching to take back our country from the policies that favor profit over people and to stop the corruption that has infected our health care system, Kory added. The vaccine mandates are just one sign of this corruption. Never have we seen the willful denial and dismissal of natural immunity. The propaganda and censorship used to prevent critical thinking during this pandemic are oppressive and unprecedented. The suppression and demonization of science and information have caused a large portion of the population to believe that vaccination is the only way to protect themselves. This is not a pandemic of the unvaccinated. It is a pandemic of the untreated.

Stephanie de Garay is the mother of a 13-year-old who suffered severe side effects after getting the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

I hope that by Maddie and I attending the event and sharing her story will give people true informed consent, that this will stop any type of mandate, that those that are injured receive the treatment they deserve and that people understand how someone becomes labeled anti-vax,' de Garay told The Epoch Times.

I have always trusted what the CDC, FDA, and NIH recommended. I never had a reason not to. Our family has gotten all the recommended vaccines every year, including the flu shots, and never had an adverse reaction. My husband and I even gave consent for our three kids to enroll in the Pfizer COVID vaccine trial for 1215-year-olds. My daughter did not fair well, she had a severe systemic adverse reaction less than 24 hours after her second dose that was minimized as functional abdominal pain. Instead of treating her for these injuries she was gaslighted and is still suffering today, de Garay said.

Screenshot of Stephanie de Garay and her daughter Maddie de Garay sharing how Maddie was injured from a COVID-19 vaccine at Sen. Ron Johnsons press event on June 28, 2021. (Rumble/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

She was a healthy, happy, and active 12 year old before this. She never had a severe adverse reaction to any other vaccine, the flu shot, or the first dose of the COVID vaccine. Its been a year, she is in a wheelchair and relies on an NG tube for nutrition. She is in constant pain and cant feel below her pubic bone. Her body is attacking itself, it isnt working anymore and she continues to get worse.

She stepped up to help end this pandemic and in return, her government and conventional medicine failed and abandoned her. What is happening with these trials is corrupt and needs to be investigated. The mandates are causing more people to get injured. And those that are injured cannot get treatment.

The event organizers have publicly condemned any individuals who would use the March as an opportunity to further their own agendas of extremism, intolerance, and violence.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22) The Department of Health (DOH) said it is still too early to say whether Metro Manila can deescalate to Alert Level 2 next month.

I think its too early to declare and to say to people that we will shift or deescalate to Alert Level 2, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a Laging Handa briefing on Saturday.

Kahit po sa tingin natin bumabagal na po ang pagdami ng kaso, bumaba na ang numero araw-araw, pero alalahanin po natin na mayroon pa rin po tayong mga kababayan na hindi na po nagpapa-test," she also said. "Mayroon din tayong mga kababayan na nag-a-antigen test na hindi po naire-report sa DOH.

[Translation: Even though we think the cases are slowing down and the numbers are going down every day, we have to remember that there are people who dont get tested. There are people who undergo antigen tests but do not get reported to the DOH.]

The Alert Level 3 classification in the capital region has been extended until Jan. 31.

Vergeire said officials are closely monitoring the COVID-19 trends, but she maintained earlier projections that case peak may happen by the end of the month or by the middle of February.

Coronavirus infections nationwide jumped to 3,387,524 after the DOH listed 30,552 fresh cases on Saturday.
LIVE: Defeat the Mandates March in Washington

This Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, NTD and The Epoch Times will livestream the Defeat the Mandates March, which will begin at 11 a.m. ET from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

At 12:30 p.m. ET, a wide range of featured guests will be waiting. Recording artists, prominent doctors, journalists, pro-athletes, actors, and premier thought leaders will give a series of inspiring talks and musical performances.

At noon, along the march route from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, brief remarks by the StopVaxPassports.org Task Force co-chairs will be followed by prayer led by Save the Persecuted Christians.

Where to Watch at 11 a.m. ET on Jan. 23

You can watch the livestream on this page and also on the following websites:

TheEpochTimes.com/live

NTD.com
The U.S. Department of Justice is seen in Washington, on June 11, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

DOJ Arrests Texas Man for Allegedly Threatening to Kill Georgia Election Officials

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday it arrested and charged a Texas man over allegedly sending death threats to election-related government officials in Georgia.

Chad Christopher Stark, a 54-year-old man from Leander, was arrested by the FBI and has been charged with one count of communicating interstate threats, the federal agency said in a statement. This is the first known criminal case brought by the DOJs Election Threats Task Force, which launched in July 2021.

Stark posted a message entitled: Georgia Patriots its time to kill on the advertisements website Craigslist, according to the indictment. The post included at least three unidentified Georgian election officials.

Its time to kill [Official A] the Chinese agent$10,000, the message stated. Its time to invoke our Second Amendment right its time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A].

Then we work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges, it went on to say, concluding that after terminating Official Bits time to pay a visit to [Official C] and her family as well and put a bullet her [sic] behind the ears, the indictment quoted him as saying.

Its not immediately clear who the government officials were that the DOJs indictment says Stark identified as treasonous traitors, making them his targets.

Stark also appears to be particularly frustrated about the Democratic Party-sponsored street militia, Black Lives Matter, and Antifa, saying the violent militia groups are responsible for much destruction in the United States, accusing authorities of just [standing] down and watch as they destroyed cities and killed citizens.

Lets be very clear to our local law enforcement who have stood down and watch BLM [and] Antifa destroy our country and kill our citizens, yet youll step up to stop Patriot supporters youll enforce face mask and youll close American businesses??? The indictment quoted Stark as saying.

The suspect was scheduled to make his initial appearance on Friday at the federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Hightower.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Starks arrest confirms the agencys pursuit of justice commitment against those who choose to threaten violence against anyone participating in our elections.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 24, 2020. (Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images)

Election workers striving to protect our right to a fair and democratic process deserve nothing less than the utmost safety and assurance they can accomplish their roles without interference, Wray said.

The matter is one of dozens of such cases under federal investigation, said Kenneth A. Polite Jr., the assistant attorney general for the departments criminal division. Federal officials have declined to elaborate on Polites statement about dozens of open investigations into election threats.

The latest indictment by the task force is only the second known federal charge for threatening election workers since the 2020 vote. In December 2020, federal prosecutors charged a New Hampshire woman with threatening a Michigan official.

The task forces indictment of Stark sends a critical message that threatening an election official or worker will be treated as a threat to our democracy, said Matt Masterson, a Republican who ran election security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security between 2018 to 2020.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Gabrielle Petito, 22, poses for a photo with Brian Laundrie in this undated handout photo. (North Port/Florida Police/Handout via Reuters)

FBI: Boyfriend Admitted in Notebook to Killing Gabby Petito

The boyfriend of deceased traveler Gabby Petito had admitted in a notebook to killing her, according to the FBI.

It marks the first time the FBI has placed the blame squarely on Brian Laundrie, Petitos boyfriend and fiance, also deceased. He was the prime suspect in her death.

The FBI in Denver also announced in a statement Friday that Laundrie had sent text messages to intentionally deceive people by telling them Petito was still alive after she had died in late August.

All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case, FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in the statement. The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.

Petitos body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in a remote area near Wyomings Grand Teton National Park. A coroner later confirmed that strangulation was her cause of death, which occurred about three weeks before her body was found.

Gabrielle Gabby Petito. (Courtesy of FBI Denver via AP)

Specifically, Petito died of blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation, according to a coroner.

The 22-year-olds parents had reported her missing on Sept. 11, while she and Laundrie were on a cross-country trip together.

Laundrie, 23, had returned home alone in early September in the Ford van the couple took on their trip. He was named the only person of interest in Petitos death. Soon after his return, he went missing. His body was found in a Florida swamp in October. He was found by medical examiners to have shot himself.

Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in an undated photo. (Facebook selfie)

A revolver, a backpack, and the notebook were found near his body in the swamp.

The FBI did not expand on what Laundrie had written in the notebook and in the texts he had sent to mislead. According to the statement, the texts were sent between Laundries and Petitos phones.

The timing and content of these messages are indicative of Mr. Laundrie attempting to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression that Ms. Petito was still alive, the FBI said.

The couple had been documenting their trip on Instagram prior to their deaths. On Aug. 12, they were stopped by police in Moab, Utah. Police were responding to a 911 call where dispatchers were told a man was slapping the girl before they entered the vehicle.

At the traffic stop, Laundrie told officers he had gotten into a little squabble with Petito. He also admitted pushing Petito. He told police that Petito hit him after he pushed her, and that he suffered an injury near his eye.

In this screenshot from a police camera video, Brian Laundrie talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van he was traveling in with his girlfriend, Gabrielle Gabby Petito, near the entrance to Arches National Park, Utah, on Aug. 12, 2021. (The Moab Police Department)

In this screenshot from a police camera video, Gabrielle Gabby Petito talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van she was traveling in with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, near the entrance to Arches National Park, Utah, on Aug. 12, 2021. (The Moab Police Department via AP)

Meanwhile, Petito, who was crying, told officers that she had been fighting with Laundrie over personal issues and they were fighting all morning. She said Laundrie had locked her out of the van. She also said the injuries she suffered were from an altercation that she said she started.

At the time, Laundrie said he had been drinking while Petito said she had not been drinking.

The police officers separated the couple and let Petito drive the van away. A police officer took Laundrie to a motel.

A review of the traffic stop concluded that police officers made unintentional mistakes by having classified the incident as an assault instead of as a domestic violence situation, since the couple were living together and were engaged.

The review was conducted by Capt. Brandon Ratcliffe of the Price City Police Department.

Ratcliffe said officers had probable cause for an arrest and should have arrested Petito on a charge of assault.

While there were indications Laundrie assaulted his fiancee, her statements make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate a charge against Brian as it relates to this incident, Ratcliffe said.

Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
PG | 1h 42m | Computer-animated, Musical Fantasy, Comedy | November 24, 2021

Billed as the 60th feature from Disney Animation Studios, Encanto is a pseudo-fairy tale about a family with supernormal abilities.

Many people say Disney is currently all bad. Some say Disneys always been bad. Spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner said something to the effect that Disney animators would have enormous karma to pay in their next lives due to making animals look stupid. Who knows? Disney does have the occasional good product, like Petes Dragon, but heres what I can say for sure: while both Pixars Coco (2017) and Disneys Encanto both shamelessly pander exclusively to the Latino community, Coco was enchanting, but Encanto (which means enchanting) is nowhere near as good.

The Madrigal family, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Where Does It Take Place, What Happens?

Now, Im actually a believer in the concept of other time-spaces and alternative dimensions. Its been said that certain stories filtrate into our dimension from other dimensions, like Star Wars, and Lord Of The Rings. You might think, oh sure, there was a land called Middle Earth that had a place called Mordor with a 20-foot giant spider running around eating goblinssurrrre. That happened.

I get it. But movies like Contact, Avatar, The Matrix, and a slew of movies by now have expanded our ways of thinking about separate realities. All of which is to say that while Encanto might also appear to be other worldly, it comes off more as a hodgepodge of cobbled-together concepts, half-baked ideas, unoriginal, recycled fantasy effects, and has nothing to do with other dimensions but is most likely a representative of Magical Realism, which is inherently devoid of any kind of spiritual sustenance. Its got few of the underlying laws, logic, and wisdom that applies to true fairy tales, myths, and legends. More on this later.



Mirabel Madrigal (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) and children of a magical village located in Colombia or possibly another dimension, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Short, curly-haired, bespectacled wee protagonist Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) is a tween-age member of the Madrigal family of Colombia. While all her relatives have supernormal abilities, she does not. She feels like the black sheep and the loser, especially in regards to her fabulous silky-haired sister Isabella (voiced by Diane Guerrero) who can make brilliantly colored flowers appear out of thin air, and her oldest sister Luisa (voiced by Jessica Darrow), looking like a former communist-bloc eastern-European steroidal female Olympian weightlifter, carrying four donkeys around at a time (why do donkeys need to be carried?).

Mirabels big sister Luisa Madrigal (voiced by Jessica Darrow) carrying donkeys as  a workout? And Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Another character has supernormally sensitive hearing; theres a shape-shifter, Mirabels mom can heal people through cooking, and yet another sister has a small cloud of weather over her head that changes according to her mood.

Sister Pepa (voiced by Carolina Gaitan) is not in a particularly good mood, as her personal weather system indicates, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

How did this magical state of affairs come to pass? Although the time period isnt specific, it appears to stem from the Thousand Days War, a conflict begun in 1899 and the cause of many Colombians fleeing their homes to survive a political genocide. So, many years ago, when Mirabels grandmother Alma (Maria Cecilia Botero) was a young lass with three babies, she and her husband were forced to flee their home by some shadowy soldiers. Her husband was executed.

However, at the moment of his death, a magical candle appeared out of nowhere, disintegrating the soldiers, and giving us a scene of creation, where jungle cliffs soar upwards, enclosing a lush valley: sort of a Colombian Shangri-La. Also, a grand casaa sentient casa (with stairways that fold into slides so you dont have to walk down them) also comes into existence, magically.

Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) is served good Colombian coffee by her magical casa, which tips up tiles to facilitate such services, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

The now grey-haired, stern matriarch Alma Madrigal and her children live in this magic valley and casa, and when each family member reaches the proper age (around 5 years old) they receive a blessing: Every member of the family gets a singular magical power. And they receive it from touching the doorknob of a door at the top of the main stairway. If it starts glowing, youre in luck. If youre Mirabel, nothing happens and you live in shame for the rest of your natural born days.

Abuela Alma (voiced by Maria Cecilia Botero), the grand matriarch of the village of Encanto, welcomes guests to observe the bestowing of a new superpower, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

La familia Madrigal, over time, populated a happy village over which they reign, effectively making them a royal family blessed with an apparently unearned privilege. However, unlike the other, numerous, cartoon royal families of Disney, the Madrigals appear to have no sense of noblesse obligethey merely do a lot of feasting, celebrating, and Latin dancing. Therefore, one does not grow particularly fond of them, and this would be one example of how Encanto misses the true fairy tale boatnobility status is earned and/or deserved in real fairy tales, and those who come by undeserved situations will end up paying later. This is the universes law of no loss, no gain.



So when little Mirabel discovers a rapidly expanding system of cracks in the magical casa, a harbinger to the end to the familys magical lifestyle, you have to ask yourself what exactly is at stake here and why do I care that a family of supernormal, entitled royals might become ordinary people?

(LR) Camilo (voiced by Rhenzy Feliz), Luisa (voiced by Jessica Darrow), Mirabels mom Julieta (voiced by Angie Cepeda), Isabella (voiced by Diane Guerrero), Dolores (voiced by Adassa), and Mirabels dad Agustin (voiced by Wilmer Valderrama), in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

The Most Un-special Is the Most Special

Mirabel, with no powers, is of course the heroine who saves the day. But does she go on a heros journey to find herself? A true heros journey to find ones true power (often represented by gold in fairy tales) requires danger, loss, suffering and sacrifice. Mirabel basically just snoops around the casa, discovering clues about whats ailing the casa. Shes never really in any danger; mostly its finally getting hold of the familys long-lost pariah Uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), who disappeared after all his supernormally generated pre-cognitive bad-luck prophecies started coming true and vexing the rest of the family. Theres a whole musical number about We dont talk about Bruno. Brunos been hiding in the casas attic, walls, and crawl-spaces with the rats for decades. Thats very uncompassionate for a family of supernormal royals.

Its eventually revealed that everyones suffering from, among other things, not feeling worthy enough due to grandmas overbearing personality, outsized expectations, withholding of affection and compliments, and tendency to shame. This would effectively make her the storys villainess, but she isnt really, which is yet another source of the overall rudderlessness and lack of adherence to the laws of fairy tales, which is that there must be evil, and evil must be overcome. Mirabels superpower would appear to be that of family shrink. She facilitates some family therapy. And there was much rejoicing. And hugging. And Latin dancing. Annnnnnd. scene. Thats it? Yup.

Influences

Im personally not a fan of the modern Broadway pop-music-influenced showtune. Im not a fan of showtunes, period, but if they must exist, I prefer the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein era; the modern ones usually sync up with hip-hop-influenced dance numbers, which I feel have far too many dance moves that are sexually suggestive (call me old-fashioned, I dont care), and it bothers me when, say, 8-year-old girls and boys move their bodies in this fashion.

Big sister Luisa Madrigal (voiced by Jessica Darrow) sings a song while little sister Mirabel marvels at her magical muscles, in Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Allow me a tangent: I used to play drums. I appreciate funky music; I follow many bassists and drummers on Instagram. Theres something called bass face. Its when music is so funky and dance-compelling that the bassists face contorts automatically. With adults its humorous. But if you want to see why all post-medieval music is considered the devils music, take a look at the facial contortions of child-prodigy electric bass-players. Its not funny, its a mild form of demonic possession.

And so Im not for the modern Disney song-and-dance numbers for children. Most people dont even notice this stuff. Somebody needs to declare war on Hollywoods war (conscious or unintended) on kids innocence. And so I suggest your kids miss Encanto.

Movie poster for Encanto. (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Encanto

Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, Maria Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Carolina Gaitan, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama

Running Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG

Release Date: Nov. 24, 2021

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Former Arkansas Professor Pleads Guilty to Lying About China Patents

A former professor at the University of Arkansas pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to one count of making a false statement to the FBI about patents for his inventions in China.

Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 64, of Fayetteville, had 24 patents filed in China under his name or Chinese birth name, listing him as one of the co-inventors, according to court documents (pdf).

Despite a university requirement to disclose all inventions and patents, the Malaysian-born former professor, who is an American citizen, didnt disclose them. When questioned by the FBI whether his name would be listed as the inventor of numerous patents in China, he denied being the inventor.

Yeah, I am not the inventor. I dont even know what that is, he told FBI special agent Jonathan Willett.

Under University of Arkansas policy, it would own all inventions created by those subject to the policy.

Separately, Ang also didnt disclose to the universityon conflict of interest disclosure formsthat he had received numerous talent awards from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Department of Justice (DOJ) noted.

Ang entered a guilty plea to a single count in a superseding indictment, which charged him with making a materially false and fictitious statement and representation to an FBI special agent, the department announced.

His sentencing is expected in about four months. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. However, the plea agreement also states that if the court seeks to sentence Ang to less than a year and a day in federal prison, hell have the right to withdraw from the plea agreement.

Separately, Ang was arrested in May 2020 on wire fraud charges over his alleged ties to the Chinese regime. Ang, who had joined the University of Arkansas in 1998, was the director of the universitys High Density Electronics Center at the time of his arrest. He was suspended without pay shortly after his arrest and fired less than two months later.

The DOJ said at the time of his arrest that Ang concealed he had received money and benefits from China and was closely associated with various companies based in China during the same time he was receiving grants from various United States Government agencies, including NASA.

In July, he was indicted by a federal grand jury, and pleaded not guilty. He faces a total of 55 counts of wire fraud and two counts of passport fraud. A jury trial over these charges is scheduled to begin on Feb. 7.

Angs case is listed under the China Initiative, which was begun by the DOJ during the Trump administration in November 2018. The initiative seeks to prosecute cases of economic espionage and trade secret theft backed by the CCP against the United States.

About 80 percent of all economic espionage prosecutions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice allege conduct that would benefit the Chinese state, and there is at least some nexus to China in around 60 percent of all trade secret theft cases, according to the department.
Thomas Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Donald Trump, addresses a gathering of Pennsylvania county sheriffs, law enforcement, and lawmakers in Berks County, Pa., on Jan. 20, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times)

Former ICE Head: Throngs of Illegal Immigrants Allowed in US for Political Power

'This is about political power in the future'

WEST HAMBURG, Pa.Despite a historically high number of people coming across the United States border in 2021, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had a historically low number of arrests and removals.

Thats on purpose, according to Thomas Homan, former acting director of ICE under President Donald Trump. Homan worked under six presidents but says this one is different.

President Biden is the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and intentionally unsecured the border, he said during a conversation on Jan. 20 in Pennsylvania, about the local effects of unchecked immigration beyond border towns.

The event, attended by about eight Pennsylvania county sheriffs and some state and local lawmakers, was hosted by Berks County Sheriff Eric Weaknecht, the Patriot Caucus, and Berks County Patriots, a well-established Republican club that typically draws several hundred people to its monthly meetings. Homan also spoke at a meeting of the Berks County Patriots later that night.

Under President Trump, immigration was down 83 percent. We were at a 40 year low for immigration, Homan said.

He called Trump the greatest president he ever worked for, and said accusations that his border policies were inhumane are absurd because encouraging immigrants to enter the U.S. illegally leads to ugly human rights crimes.

Homan said 31 percent of the women who make the journey to the United States are sexually assaulted, while children die and criminal cartels make billions of dollars.

When illegal immigration is down by 83 percent, how many women arent being raped? How many pounds of fentanyl are not coming across the border? he said.

Yet the Biden administration has taken steps that attract more people to enter illegally, and at the same time, decapitated ICE, by ending the Remain in Mexico plan and weakening enforcement.

Being in the country illegally is no longer enough of a reason to be arrested and deported. They have to be convicted of an aggravated felony, Homan said. If youre an MS-13 gang member and you get arrested in New York City today for raping an 8-year-old child, if youre able to post bond, ICE cant touch you. Even though you are illegally in the United States, even though youve been arrested for raping a child, even though you may have a final order from immigration saying you must leave the country, ICE cant touch you.

What is the motivation for lax immigration enforcement?

They want these people to stay, Homan said. Why? Biden overturned Trumps objection to counting illegal immigrants in the census. Millions of new people will be counted in the next census in sanctuary cities, which will result in more seats in the House for the Democrats, which leaves your electoral college in their perpetual power. Theres no other reason.  This is about political power in the future.

Even if the border wall were completed, we would still have immigration, Homan said. The wall was never expected to fully stop illegal immigration. It was to slow it and to encourage more legal entrance.

He said people outside of border towns should be concerned because 97 percent of people who cross the southwest border dont stay in Arizona and Texasthey go all throughout the country.

Sex trafficking of women and children is at an all-time high right now because the border is unprotected, so trafficking organizations work with the criminal cartels. That is happening not only at the southern border, but in this community, too, Homan said.

He noted that people with the intention to commit terrorist acts can more easily walk through the southern border than fly in.

Planes full of unaccompanied minors seen landing in airports and dropping children off at waiting buses headed to unspecified destinations often have been part of a criminal enterprise, he said.

They say they release them to a sponsor or relatives, but about 75 percent of the unaccompanied minors are released to parents who are here illegally, Homan said. Parents up here contact a criminal organization and say they want their child up here. They pay $9,000 to 10,000 to smuggle them to the border.

Then the Biden administration gives them a plane ticket. You, the taxpayer, are going to deliver them to the very people who conspired to smuggle them here, which is a felony, he said.

The Biden administration is completing a felony; they are completing the final act. The U.S. government is completing a criminal conspiracy.

Some children go to nonprofit organizations receiving government funding, which reunite children with their parents, also in the United States illegally.

When Homan led ICE, DNA tests were conducted to help determine whether children were traveling with their parents or were being trafficked. The Biden administration is focused on quickly releasing people from border-holding areas, so border officials dont have time for things like DNA tests. Quickly moving people into the country also means no more problematic public relations photos like the squalid conditions seen in September showing Haitian immigrants under a Texas bridge.

Homan said that if Trump comes back and wants him on the team, he will come back.

Ive already got a list of who Im going fire, he said. Were going to fix it. But will we be able to repair all the damage thats been done? No. There are too many people here illegally who will never leave.
The BNP Paribas logo is seen at a branch in Paris on Feb. 4, 2020. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Frances BNP Paribas Postpones Return to Office for US Staff

NEW YORKBNP Paribas is pushing back its return-to-office date for U.S. employees by nearly a month to the second week of February due to the Omicron variant, an executive at Frances largest bank told Reuters.

Wall Street firms were among the first to encourage staff to return to offices, but a winter wave of COVID-19 infections driven by Omicron has forced many to rethink their plans and review their vaccination policies.

With what happened with Omicron, we wanted to go back into a more conservative mode. So we only have people in the office if theres a business critical need for them to be in, said Kevin Abraszek, head of HR change and transformation at BNP Paribas in New York.

Initially, we said that we would have continued that policy through mid-January. But we most recently extended that through to Feb. 7, he said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recently delayed its return-to-office date from Jan. 18 to Feb. 1.

Citigroup said this month U.S. employees who had not been vaccinated against COVID by Jan. 14 would be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they were granted an exemption and accommodation.

BNP Paribas, which employs nearly 14,000 people in the United States, will expect U.S. employees to work at least one day a week in the office once they return, similar to its policy late last year before Omicron struck.

A bank spokesperson said the return to office policy applied only for investment banking employees, not for employees of BNP Paribas U.S. retail arm, Bank of the West.

Abraszek said vaccination against COVID was a requirement to be in the office, but the bank was allowing employees who have not been vaccinated to continue working from home.

I think were going to continue to look at that decision and that policy in the early part of this year, he said.

The bank plans to bring capacity back up to 50 percent gradually once employees start to return, said Abraszek.

We were generally skewing around 25 percent to 30 percent late last year, he said. Well probably reach that level and then our hope is that over the course of the spring, and certainly into the summer, that we will get closer to that 50 percent.

By Davide Barbuscia
A gate of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre is photographed in Dabancheng, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, on Sept. 4, 2018. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

French Parliament Passes Motion Condemning CCP Genocide Against Uyghurs

PARISFrances parliament passed an opposition-led motion asking the government to condemn the Chinese regime for crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghur Muslim minority and to take foreign policy measures to make this stop.

The non-binding motion, led by the Socialist party and supported by several other opposition parties, was adopted with 169 votes for and one vote against.

Coming ahead of the start of the Winter Olympics in China, the motion also asked the government to protect Uyghur residents in France against any intimidation or harassment by the Chinese communist regime.

Activists and U.N. rights experts say at least 1 million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of using torture, forced labor, and sterilizations.

The United States, Australia, and Britain are among Western nations that have said they will not send officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics in order to send the CCP a message over its human rights record.
The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Google Launches Fresh Appeal to Overturn $2.8 Billion Fine at Top EU Court

Google is filing an appeal at the European Unions top court against an earlier decision to uphold a $2.8 billion (2.47 billion euros) antitrust fine, a spokesperson for the Alphabet unit said late on Thursday, the companys second bid to overturn the penalty.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined the worlds most popular internet search engine in 2017 over the use of its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.

The case was the first of three decisions that have seen Google rack up $9.35 billion (8.25 billion euros) in EU antitrust fines in the last decade.

In November, the EUs General Court largely dismissed Googles challenge against the fine, saying the European Commission correctly found the companys practices harmed competition.

The judges in Luxembourg rejected the companys argument that the presence of merchant platforms showed there was strong competition.

After careful consideration, we have decided to appeal the General Courts decision because we feel there are areas that require legal clarification from the European Court of Justice, the Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Irrespective of the appeal, we continue to invest in our remedy, which has been working successfully for several years, and will continue to work constructively with the European Commission.

The courts support in November could also strengthen Vestagers hand in her investigations into Amazon, Apple, and Facebook.
Attending school on Zoom and quarantining from family and friends has children struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, but, surprisingly, having kids at home may help adults feel less distressed, researchers report.

Adults in households with children have fewer mental health problems than adults living without kids, a new study shows. Child carebeyond the effect of larger household sizemay actually reduce depression during pandemic social isolation.

In other words, parents/caregivers may be struggling, but not more so than everyone else, said lead author Shawna Lee, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and director of the Parenting in Context Research Lab.

Lee and colleagues say they believe its possible that caring for children may provide increased social connections or an increased sense of purpose, both of which may contribute to improved mental health. These questions, while not specifically addressed in the current study, may need to be explored in future research.

The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, used data from mid-2020 that included answers to health questions about the respondents anxiety and depression. Adults aged 18 to 64 were included in the sample of nearly 600,000 respondents.

During the 12-week study, about 35 percent of the respondents reported having anxiety, while 24 percent felt depressed. These rates were much higher than pre-pandemic levels. While women were more likely to feel anxious than men, the household-with-children status had no effect on anxiety.

Male caregivers may be vulnerable to pandemic worries such as employment loss, which health care professionals should monitor, the researchers say. The researchers also found that adults who were not married and had low household income were more at risk for anxiety and depression.

This article was originally published by the University of Michigan. Republished via Futurity.org under Creative Commons License 4.0.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  Vice President Leni Robredo expressed confidence an "independent" presidential aspirant like her can win the elections.

"There's always a first time. Yung sa akin, tingin ko nga, baka fresh start ito para sa bansa natin na yung uupo na presidente ay hindi nanggaling sa isang partido. Pero presidenteng bukas sa kahit anong partido," Robredo said during GMA's The Jessica Soho Presidential Interviews on Saturday.

[Translation: My candidacy, I think, could be a fresh start for our country where we will see a sitting president who does not belong to any political party. We need a president who is open to any political party.]

Though running as an independent, Robredo remains as chairperson of the Liberal Party.

"By running independent, we hope to convey the message that we are open to everyone, even those not belonging to the party," the Vice President said.

She added that she has always been open to communicating with rival political parties and candidates after every election.

Robredo is running with Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan as her vice presidential bet and 11 senatorial hopefuls.
A resident receives food at the entrance of a residental area closed off and restricted due to an outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Anyang in China's central Henan province on January 12, 2022. - China OUT (Photo by AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Henan Official Warns of Isolation, Detention for Those Coming Home for Chinese New Year

'The mentality and logic behind the language is blunt totalitarianism,' says lawyer

A recent video from an official in Chinas Henan Province has sparked outrage from Chinese netizens while a Chinese lawyer has condemned the lawlessness and heartlessness from communist party officials.

On Jan. 20, County Mayor Dong Hong announced his pandemic containment policy online for those planning to return home for the Chinese New Year holiday. He said they will be subject to isolation and then detention.

He said, Anyone who tries to return from a medium or high-risk area will first be quarantined and then detained, regardless of having proof of vaccination or a negative nucleic acid test in [the last] 48 hours.

A Chinese lawyer surnamed Chou (pseudonym) in Henan told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that in facing the pandemic, the official could have been more sympathetic toward people anticipating the annual family reunion, a tradition in China since ancient times.

Relevant reports on the officials remarks quickly became popular on the Chinese search engine Weibo.

One Chinese netizen responded, Previously, if you feel homesick, you just get a train ticket which takes you home. But now if you go back to your hometown out of nostalgia, you face first isolation and then detention.

Another netizen posted, Hard to get things done at the civil service, hard to get medical care, hard to register at a school  even hard to go home for the holidays. The farthest distance in the world is a home you cant return to.

Chou told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that this video has viral in the Chinese community both inside and outside China because its simply outrageous and anti-human.

He said, This lawless administration has no boundary, as exemplified by its one-child policy in the 90s that was publicized by the regime with its slogan; A river of blood is worth more than one extra birth.

To party officials, the leaders order surpasses any law; they have no respect for law or sense of law, he said.

Chou used an example of one online banner to fight the pandemic that read, Break your legs if you go out, knock out your teeth if you talk back.

He said, The mentality and logic behind the language is blunt totalitarianism that speaks no law, no humanity, or the slightest civilization.

Chou added that from the central to provincial governments, city and district, the partys rules to fight the pandemic are becoming even stricter. Chou said the local official is abusing his power because detention is a punishment for criminals and no one has the right to detain anyone who hasnt broken any law.

Mayor Dong responded to the online criticism saying that the video did not show the whole story. He claimed his remarks such as those who refuse to cooperate and returning home with ill-intentions had been deleted from the video, according to Chinese media.

After his explanation, many asked what is returning home with ill-intention?

Chinas Growing Restrictions

Chinese netizens shared a document on the policy for returnees health management during the Chinese New Year. It said that the department demands those who return home with an itinerary card with an asterisk be quarantined at their own expense for 14 days.

The itinerary card is a mobile app that shows the travels of an individual as tracked by China telecommunications big data system.

An asterisk in the upper right corner on the mobile phone screen was previously used to indicate that an individual had visited a city with medium-risk or high-risk areas. It did not mean that the user has actually visited those areas, according to Chinese media.

Chinas COVID-19 QR code systemthat is green, yellow, or redindicates a users health status. A green code allows the holder to move about unrestricted; a yellow code requires the user to stay home for seven days; a red means a two-week quarantine.

The mayors document now also mandates returnees from medium and high-risk areas to follow a seven-day centralized quarantine + seven-day isolation and observation at home + seven-day health monitoring at home, with a total of seven PCR tests during the 21 day monitoring period.
A man walks on the collapsed roof of a detention center hit by air strikes, in Saada, Yemen, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Naif Rahma/Reuters)

Houthis, Aid Group: Death Toll From Prison Airstrike at 82

CAIROThe death toll from a Saudi-led coalition airstrike that hit a prison run by Yemens Houthi rebels climbed to at least 82 detainees, the rebels and an aid group said Saturday. Internet access in the Arab worlds poorest country remained largely down.

The airstrike in northern Saada province Friday was part of an intense air and ground offensive that marked an escalation in Yemens yearslong civil war. The conflict pits the internationally recognized government, aided by the Saudi-led coalition, against the Iranian-backed rebels.

The escalation comes after the Houthis claimed a drone and missile attack that struck inside the United Arab Emirates capital earlier in the week. It also comes as government forces, aided by UAE-backed troops and airstrikes from the coalition, have reclaimed the entire province of Shabwa from the Houthis and pressured them in the central province of Marib. Houthis there have for a year attempted to take control of its provincial capital.

Ahmed Mahat, head of Doctors Without Borders, a charity mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press they counted at least 82 dead and more than 265 wounded in the airstrike.

The Houthis media office said rescuers were still searching for survivors and bodies in the rubble of the prison site in the province of Saada on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki alleged the Houthis hadnt reported the site as needing protection from airstrikes to the U.N. or the International Committee of the Red Cross. He claimed the Houthis failure to do so represented the militias usual deceptive approach in the conflict.

The Houthis used the prison complex to hold detained migrants, mostly Africans attempting to cross through the war-torn country into Saudi Arabia, according to the humanitarian organization Save the Children.

But Mahat, of Doctors Without Borders, said the airstrike hit a different part of the facility housing other types of detainees. The migrants there are safe, he said.

The Saada attack followed another Saudi-led coalition airstrike Friday at the Red Sea port city of Hodeida hit a telecommunications center key to Yemens connection to the internet. Access to the internet has remained largely down for more than 24 hours in the country, advocacy group NetBlocks.org said Saturday.

The Saada air attack, one of the deadliest of the war, was not the first to hit a Houthi-run prison. In September 2019, an airstrike hit a detention center the southwestern Dhamar province, killing more than 100 people and wounding dozens.

Rights groups have previously documented that the Houthis use civilian detainees as human shields by placing them in detention centers next to military barracks under constant threat of airstrikes.

The Houthis have used child soldiers and indiscriminately laid land mines across the country. They also launched cross-border attacks using ballistic missiles and explosives-laden drones on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The latest escalation of fighting in Yemen was the most intense since the 2018 battle for Hodeida and comes after a year of U.S. and U.N. diplomatic efforts failed to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.

The rebels have repeatedly pushed back against U.N. and U.S. calls to halt the offensive on oil-rich Marib province. The Houthis have been trying for a year to take Marib to complete their control of the northern half of Yemen. That would likely give them an upper hand in any future negotiations.

The coalition has pulled the stops out to prevent a collapse in Marib and to shift the conflict towards a military equilibrium, said Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group.

The conflict in the Arab worlds poorest country began in 2014, when the Houthis took the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition, backed at the time by the United States, entered the war months later to try to restore the government to power.

The conflict has since become a regional proxy war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and fighters. The war also created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical care shortages and pushing the country to the brink of famine.
Irish Police Investigate After 2 Men Allegedly Brought Dead Body to Post Office to Claim Pension

Police are investigating the allegation that the body of an elderly man was brought to a post office in Southeast Ireland on Friday for his pension.

A Garda (Irish Police) spokesperson confirmed the investigation and said a post-mortem will be conducted.

The deceased, identified in local newspapers as Peadar Doyle as in his 60s or 70s, was seen propped up by two men who brought him into Hoseysa corner shop with a post office insidein Carlow town.

According to the Daily Star, one of the men went to the post office earlier, at around 11:30 a.m., to claim the weekly pension, only to be told the pensioner himself needed to be present. He then returned with two men, one of whom appeared to be propped up.

The Irish Mirror reported that one of the men told a staff member that the elderly man was ok and that they were going to bring him down to the hospital when they got the money.

Police were reportedly alerted about an unconscious man being carried into a post office, where the police and an ambulance discovered the man was dead.

A Garda spokesperson said officers are investigating all the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of an elderly male in the Carlow area on Friday morning.

The services of the Garda Technical Bureau and the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested, the spokesperson said.

A post-mortem will be conducted by the Office of the State Pathologist, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.

No further information was released by the police.

Carlow Mayor Ken Murnane said the local community is absolutely shocked by the reports.

The whole town is in shock that anyone could actually think of doing something like that, its unbelievable, he told the PA news agency.

Its just mind-boggling that anyone could happen to do something like that, it beggars belief. Its like a Hitchcock movie.

PA contributed to this report.
Israel, One of Most Vaccinated Countries in the World, Sets New COVID-19 Case Record

The Israeli Ministry of Health announced this week that more than 72,000 people tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the largest rise in infections since the start of the pandemic.

Total active cases in the country rose to nearly 400,000 people, of whom 533 are currently hospitalized in critical condition, according to a Jan. 19 statement posted by the countrys health ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned this month that CCP virus cases are expected to increase rapidly amid the spread of the Omicron variant, as he presented government data that indicates two to four million Israelis are predicted to be infected with COVID-19 during the current outbreak.

Information presented at a cabinet meeting indicates that in Israel, overall 24 million citizens will be infected in the current wave, Bennetts statement reads.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks during a press conference at the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem, on Jan. 2, 2022. (Emil Salman/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel, which has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world with already nearly half of its citizens having received three shots, is leading the world in new daily cases per capita, according to Jan. 20 data.

Eran Segal, a biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, verified this data, explaining that after comparing the numbers of each countrys seven-day running average, Israel is at the top, The Times of Israel reported.

The countrys health ministry announced last week it started administering second boosters to the most vulnerable group of people and already 500,000 people have received the fourth shot. In total, nearly 73 percent of Israelis have received at least one dose while roughly 66 percent are fully vaccinated, according to government data.

Israel was among the first countries to roll out vaccines a year ago and began widely offering third doses last summer in a bid to contain the Delta variant. Authorities have said they hope the fourth shot will blunt a wave of infections driven by Omicron.

A woman receives a second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot in Netanya, Israel on Jan. 5, 2022. (Ammar Awad)

An Israeli researcher said on Jan. 17 a second booster dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine does induce antibodies, but likely not at a level high enough to protect recipients against infection from Omicron. Much of Israels COVID-19 vaccination program uses the Pfizer jab.

Two weeks after administering the fourth vaccine, we see a good increase in the antibodies, higher than after the third dose, but not high enough against Omicron, lead researcher Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay told reporters in an online briefing.

Omicron has proven better at evading antibodies induced by COVID-19 vaccines than earlier strains and has infected millions of vaccinated people around the world in recent weeks, sparking a renewed effort to get people boosted.

On Tuesday, Bennett again encouraged Israelis to get jabbed. The leader promoted earlier preliminary results from a Sheba Medical Center study that showed a high level of antibodies a week after workers received the fourth dose, touting a five-fold increase in the number of antibodies in the recipient of the vaccine.

The early data indeed indicated that the booster restored some of the lost protection against infection, but that the protection again dropped after just a few weeks. Similar results have come in for the second booster, according to preliminary results from the Sheba study, which have not yet been published.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Its Time to Put the Pandemic Era Behind Us

Commentary

Are we finally at the end of the pandemic? Could it possibly be that the COVID-induced madness that has done more harm than good for the last 19 months is finally receding? There are some glimmers of hope.

The British government announced this week that come Jan. 27, it will end mandatory face coverings and vaccination passports. The government cited the fact that the Omicron wave has already peaked, and more people are boosted against what is now deemed an endemic virus.

On Jan. 20, the Ontario government announced a plan to gradually end COVID restrictions. We can be confident that the worst is behind us, Doug Ford said. The plan, to go in effect on Jan. 31, will increase gathering limits and allow restaurants, cinemas, and malls to operate once again at 50 percent capacity. Around March 14, all limits on gatherings will be lifted, although proof of vaccination will still be required. Though there is no clarity on when mask mandates and vaccine passports will end, the plan to phase out other measures is certainly a step in the right directionif the government sticks to it. And if they do, its possible other provinces will follow suit.

That would be the right direction to go in, given that the appetite among Canadians for further lockdown measures has been quickly dwindling over the last several months.

Polling last year by Ipsos showed that support for lockdown measures had dropped from 70 percent in July to 56 percent in December. A December poll by Maru Public Opinion indicated that Canadians are ready to live with COVID, with a majority of respondents saying they werent changing their habits much to avoid infection and were still going about their daily activities.

One reason support for lockdown measures is fading could be due in part to the measures long-term side effects.

One depressing example is the increase in overdose deaths during the pandemic, hitting record highs. The Saskatchewan Coroners Service reported earlier this month that 464 people died of overdoses in 2021, up from the previous record-setting number of 327 in 2020. The British Columbia Coroners Service reports that 1,782 people died of an overdose in the first 10 months of 2021, while 1,765 died in 2020. In Ontario, the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table reported in September 2021 that opioid overdoses had increased by 60 percent since the beginning of the pandemic.

Along with this are the mental health effects on youth that school closures have had. In July 2021, SickKids released research showing how dire the situation is and how long-lasting the effects of the COVID-19 period might be. During the second wave, for example, over half of the 758 children and 70 percent of teens surveyed attested to developing symptoms of clinical depression. Sources of increased anxiety and depression among youth, the research found, included the lack of extracurricular activities and other support services that kept them stimulated and on the right track in terms of their development.

With these problems only continuing to fester, and given the mildness of Omicron, it is time to shift the focus to recovering from the fallout caused by COVID-19 and the restrictions, and finally move beyond the pandemic phase.

There are obstacles to be overcome of course, such as the hyper-politicization of the pandemic and the cynical usage of the crisis by those in elite positions. As the months have dragged on, it has become ever more clear that many of the decisions have been informed almost entirely by political calculations instead of being directed by the data. This accounts for why so many of the knee-jerk, inconsistent measures amounted to little more than theatre.

Fearmongering by the media also has to stop.

As for the continued doomsday predictions from public health experts who have enjoyed their time in the spotlight, elected officials need to finally call time on them and move quickly toward putting this era behind us.

Canadians are ready to move on.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., vice-presidential candidate and son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, reacts as confetti rains during his "miting-de-avance" in Manila, Philippines, on May 5, 2016. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)

More Than 300 Twitter Accounts Suspended for Promoting Philippines Presidential Front Runner

Twitter on Friday suspended over 300 accounts linked to Philippines presidential election candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jrs support network, following an investigative report by local media alleging that Marcos-related accounts and hashtags were dominating the platform.

Veteran politician Marcos, 64, popularly known as Bongbong, is the son of the late dictator overthrown in a 1986 people power revolution. The former senator has reportedly emerged as the lead candidate ahead of the May vote.

Rappler claimed in its report that Marcos supporters attempted to dominate Twitter by creating accounts and hashtags that were pushing pro-Marcos propaganda and attacking his critics. Some of the hashtags became trending within hours, it said.

Twitter said that it reviewed the accounts and hashtags mentioned in Rapplers report and found that over 300 accounts were in violation of its policies against spam and platform manipulation.

The majority of these accounts had been removed before the report came out as part of its routine actions, Twitter said, adding that its investigations are still ongoing.

We remain vigilant about identifying and eliminating suspected information campaigns targeting election conversations, a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Twitter clarified that sharing political content or rallying people to do so via hashtags is not against its policies, unless the accounts involved were inauthentic, automated, or paid for. But it saw no clear evidence of that in this case.

We are committed to working with all relevant governments, including [the Philippine Commission on Elections], and civil society stakeholders as well as domain specialists and subject matter experts tackling the complex challenges to free and open elections, the spokesperson added.

The politicians spokesperson, Vic Rodriguez, applauded Twitter for keeping a close watch against platform manipulation and spam, but said there was no certainty that all the suspended accounts belonged to Marcoss support network.

While it is true that there could have been hundreds of Twitter accounts that were suspended, there is no certainty that all of them belong to the supporters of Bongbong Marcos, Rodriguez said in a statement released by Pilipino Mirror.

In fact, the information from a Twitter spokesperson did not even mention any account in Marcos network, nor the exact number of accounts, that were suspended.

This isnt the first time Twitter has taken down accounts in the Philippines. In April 2020, Twitter suspended hundreds of accounts defending Philippines President Rodrigo Dutertes response to the coronavirus pandemic for violating its policies against platform manipulation and spamming.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Archivist of the United States David Ferriero speaks during an event in Washington on Nov. 17, 2021. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for National Archives Foundation)

National Archives Gives Trump White House Records to Jan. 6 Committee

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has handed records from the Trump administrations time in office to the House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

The archives provided the Select Committee with all the records at issue in the litigation, a NARA spokesperson told news outlets on Friday.

A spokesperson for the panel didnt respond to a request for comment.

The first documents reached the panel the same day the Supreme Court rejected former President Donald Trumps attempt to block the National Archives from giving the committee the records.

Our work goes forward to uncover all the facts about the violence of January 6th and its causes. We will not be deterred in our effort to get answers, make legislative recommendations to strengthen our democracy, and help ensure nothing like that day ever happens again, the panel said in a recent statement.

Justices upheld lower court rulings that found Trump and his lawyers had provided no basis for overriding the judgment of President Joe Biden, who waived executive privilege for the records the Democrat-dominated panel sought.

Ordinarily, the records would be kept confidential for years after a presidents departure from office in order to encourage full and frank advice to current and future Presidents, lawyers representing NARA said in a previous filing.

Because of Bidens action, the archives had urged the court not to block the transfer of the files to the panel, which is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the Capitol breach.

The panels request to NARA asked for records related to the events and aftermath of Jan. 6, strategies by the White House to impede the counting of electoral votes, information on planning for rallies before and on Jan. 6, information that Trump received before and after the breach concerning the outcome of the 2020 election, and options considered concerning the certification of the electoral vote and the transfer of power, which ultimately took place on Jan. 20.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks at the Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jenny Jing/The Epoch Times)

The initial set of records identified by NARA workers responding to the request included daily presidential diaries, call logs, drafts of speeches, and handwritten notes.

Democrats said this week that reviewing the documents would play a crucial part in understanding the events leading up to Jan. 6.

Those are important because were trying to piece together what the president was doing in the 187 minutes when he may have been in the study off of the Oval [Office], watching the attack on the Capitol, and what his demeanor was like. Why didnt he go into the press room and call off these individuals? Why didnt he tell them not to do this? Those are some questions that we have, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a member of the panel, said on CNN.

Trump told people in a speech about two miles from the Capitol shortly before the building was breached that they should march to the building and peacefully make their voices heard.

Trump put out multiple posts on Twitter while the Capitol was being breached, including one saying Vice President Mike Pence didnt have the courage to reject some electoral votes.

Pence had announced in the morning he didnt think he had the authority to do that.

Several hours after the breach, Trump spoke out, urging people to head home and reiterating his call for peace.

The House impeached Trump for allegedly inciting the Capitol attack but the Senate acquitted him after he left office.
NYPD officers are seen at the scene of shooting in Harlem, N.Y., on Jan. 21, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)

NYPD Officer Killed in Harlem Shooting, Another Officer Severely Injured

A New York City police officer is dead and another officer is severely injured after a shooting on Friday night while the officers were answering a call about an argument between a woman and her son.

The officer was identified as Jason Rivera, 22, who joined the force in November 2020. The other officer who has been severely wounded is 27-year-old Wilbert Mora, who has been with the NYPD for four years.

Countless officers lined this hallway after carrying him in and grieve for their brother while praying with everything they have for the other officer, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters at a Harlem hospital. I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. Were mourning, and were angry.

According to authorities, Rivera, Mora, and a third officer arrived at a six-story apartment building on 135th street responding to a call from a woman who needed help with her son. The son was identified by police as 47-year-old Lashawn J. McNeil.

NYPD officers are seen at the scene of the shooting in Harlem, in N.Y., on Jan. 21, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)

Police secure the scene outside a six story residential building, left, where two NYPD officers where shot responding to a domestic disturbance call in Harlem, N.Y., on Jan. 21, 2022. (Jennifer Peltz/AP Photo)

The officers spoke with the woman and another son, then Rivera and Mora entered the street-level apartment, down a narrow hallway about 30-feet (9-meters) long.

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said McNeil swung open a bedroom door and shot at the officers, striking them. He then tried to flee while the third officer who had stayed with McNeils mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, Essig said.

McNeil was later hospitalized and is in critical condition, according to NYPD spokesperson Lt. John Grimpel, correcting earlier reports that he had died.

Tonight, we mourn the loss of a hero officera son, husband, and friend. Only 22 years old, Police Officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the line of duty, the NYPD announced on Twitter. We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice.

NYPD officers at Harlem Hospital after an officer was killed and another gravely injured in Harlem, N.Y., on Jan. 21, 2022. (Jennifer Peltz/AP Photo)

McNeil was previously on probation for a 2003 drug conviction in New York City and had other out-of-state arrests. Essig said McNeil was arrested in Pennsylvania in 2002 for assaulting a police officer.

Police said the gun used in Friday nights shooting had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017. The gun was a .45-caliber Glock with a high-capacity magazine that could hold up to 40 extra rounds.

Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, called on the federal government to take more action to confiscate stolen guns like the one used by McNeil late Friday.

There are no gun manufacturers in New York City, he said. We dont make guns here. How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they still find their way into New York City, in the hands of people who are killers?

Since Adams came into office three weeks ago, the NYPD has reinstated a plainclothes anti-crime unit aimed at getting guns off the streets.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Karen and Mike Malherbe pose for a photo at their home in Stanwell Park, NSW, Australia, on Jan. 21, 2022. (AAP Image/Melanie Russell)

On the Brink of Tears: WA Border Backflip Strands Aussie Couple

Karen and Mike Malherbe expected to move to Western Australia (WA) next month and reunite with their family for the first time in three years. But meeting their grandchild now seems to be on hold for the foreseeable future.

The couple had already sold their home in Illawarra, New South Wales (NSW), and bought a new one near Busselton in WA.

But after the WA government on Thursday announced that it had backflipped on reopening the state border on Feb. 5, after promising not to, the pair were shattered.

The Malherbes have to be out of their house in a week, but said they still have no idea when they will be able to move into their new one in WA.

I just really dont understand why were being basically banned from entering a state of our own country, Malherbe added. Im so upset that I didnt sleep all night long. Im on the brink of tears still.

As a fresh reopening date for the western state has not been set, thousands of people separated from their loved ones were left in limbo, while West Australians faced being trapped indefinitely within their own.

WA Premier Mark McGowan speaks during an announcement in Perth, Australia, on Dec. 13, 2021. (Richard Wainwright/AAP Image)

WA Premier Mark McGowan promised last month only an unforeseen emergency, such as the emergence of a more dangerous strain or a realisation that Omicron was more severe than expected, could push back the reopening date.

This week he insisted his position had not changed but argued opening up was reckless and irresponsible amid rising Omicron cases and could devastate many industries, despite WA having 82 active cases.

Ive been contacted by many people very happy with the announcement weve made  because it gives them the opportunity to get vaccinated, he said on Friday.

The premier said he would like to see the states double-dose vaccination rate reach 90 percent before easing border controls. As of Jan. 22 it is 89.2 percent.

The Malherbes have decided to take a van and head south and west and hope for the best.

A state government spokesperson did not confirm whether the couple would be eligible for a travel exemption, the AAP reported.

Exemptions will only be granted to returning West Australians, a small class of approved travellers like members of the parliament, and those entering the border on compassionate groundsfor funerals or to see dying relatives. Travellers need to be double-vaccinated and will face 14 days in quarantine.

Directions for the new border settings need to be drawn up as they are tailored to the new border arrangements, and will be finalised soon, the spokespersons statement read.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday the border backflip is a decision that the Western Australian government themselves have taken and one for them to explain.

On the same day, Flight Centre announced it would consider a constitutional challenge against WAs border closures, while Qantas stated it would cancel thousands of domestic flights into Perth through to the end of April.

The rest of the country is focused on getting through this but WA is still playing for time, despite people doing the right thing and getting vaccinated, Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said.

The question is what it will take for them to open.

AAP contributed to this report.
Guy Davies, an inspector of the Florida Division of Plant Industry, shows an orange that is showing signs of 'citrus greening' that is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid that carries the bacterium causing disease, 'citrus greening' or huanglongbing, from tree to tree in Fort Pierce, Fla., on May 13, 2013. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Orange Juice Prices Surge Amid Nationwide Orange Shortage

Prices for orange juice are surging amid a nationwide shortage of oranges; it is likely that the United States will see its worst domestic orange harvest season since World War II, according to new predictions from the Department of Agriculture.

The shortage is attributable to a low yield in Florida, which is responsible for the majority of orange crops in the United States. This year, Florida is expected to produce 44.5 million standard 90-pound boxes of orangesthree percent lower than the yields predicted in December.

In addition to the ongoing supply chain disruptions and labor shortages which have caused scarcity of many familiar resources, this years dismal orange harvest is attributable to a plague of citrus greening, a disease spread by insects that makes orange crops inedible.

While crop plagues are nothing new, the situation in Florida may be due to a lack of genetic diversity in the states orange crops. Though orange farmers and scientists have attempted to engineer new breeds to withstand contamination, they find themselves in a race against time, with citrus greening becoming more prevalent in recent years.

This years measly orange harvest is not the first incident where genetic disease has dispossessed consumers of familiar fruits. In the former half of the 20th century, the most popular variety of banana was the Gros-Michel, a smaller and sweeter breed than the bananas familiar today. However, in the 1950s, the Gros-Michel was devastated by Panama Disease, a fungal infection that annihilated banana crops worldwide.

The devastation of the Gros-Michel gave rise to the Cavendish banana breed, which accounts for about 95 percent of all bananas sold in the United States. However, the Cavendish variety is incapable of sexual reproduction and can only multiply through cloning, leading to a distinct lack of genetic diversity among current banana crops. This genetic homogeneity makes the crop susceptible to disease, and this vulnerability may result in the Cavendish banana meeting the same fate as the Gros-Michel.

This seasons outbreak may be a foreboding sign for the future of orange crops in the United States. Citrus greening first arrived at American orchards in 2005, and has become increasingly prevalent since then, jeopardizing the Florida orange industry. While this years shortage will likely be ameliorated by surplus crops from abroad, the future of domestic orange farming remains uncertain as poor genetic diversity and bacterial infection threaten to undermine the entire industry.
(CNN) -- Actor Alec Baldwin is being sued for defamation and negligence by the family of a fallen Marine after comments he made about one family member's presence outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a suit filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Wyoming.

The sisters and widow of Lance Corporal Rylee J. McCollum, who died on August 26, 2021, during the suicide bomber attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, are asking for $25 million plus legal fees after suffering severe distress following Baldwin's comments, according to the court filing.

After McCollum's death, a GoFundMe account was started for his widow Jiennah McCollum "and her soon-to-be-born daughter," the suit says. Baldwin heard about the GoFundMe account and sent a check of $5,000 to the Marine's sister, Roice McCollum, for Jiennah and her child as what he called "a tribute to a fallen soldier," according to the suit.

On January 3, Roice "posted a photo of a crowd of demonstrators at the Washington Monument on her Instagram page in anticipation of the January 6, 2022, one-year anniversary of her attendance at the Washington, DC demonstration," the suit said.

On January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump gathered outside the US Capitol to protest Congress certifying the results of the 2020 election. Many rioters pushed aside barricades and law enforcement officers to breach the building, storming some of the most hallowed chambers of American democracy and setting off shock waves of violence and division across the country. The consequences of that day continue to reverberate.

When Baldwin saw Roice's post ahead of the one-year anniversary, he began to message her on Instagram, according to the lawsuit.

"When I sent the $ for your late brother, out of real respect for his service to this country, I didn't know you were a January 6th rioter," Baldwin said, according to the suit.

Roice "was never detained, arrested, charged with or convicted of any crime associated with her attendance at the January 6, 2021, event in Washington, DC," the lawsuit said.

She responded to Baldwin, according to the suit, that, "Protesting is perfectly legal in the country and I've already had my sit down with the FBI. Thanks, have a nice day!"

Baldwin responded, the lawsuit says, with, "I don't think so. Your activities resulted in the unlawful destruction of government property, the death of a law enforcement officer, an assault on the certification of the presidential election. I reposted your photo. Good luck."

CNN has reached out to Baldwin's attorney for comment.

Approximately 20 minutes after Baldwin posted Roice's "Instagram feed," she "began to get hostile, aggressive, hateful messages from Baldwin's followers," the suit alleges.

Baldwin's Instagram post that he later deleted said, "Lots of Trumpsters chiming in here with the current cry that the attack on the Capitol was a protest, (a more peaceful form of which got a lot of other protestors imprisoned) and an exercise in democracy. That's bullsh*t."

His post continued and said, "I did some research. I found, on IG, that this woman [Roice McCollum] is the brother (sic) of one of the men who was killed," in Kabul Afghanistan.

"I offered to send her sister-in-law [Jiennah McCollum] some $ as a tribute to her late brother, his widow and their child. Which I did. As a tribute to a fallen soldier. Then I find this. Truth is stranger than fiction," his post added.

The suit says Baldwin, "unequivocally understood that by forwarding Roice's Instagram feed to 2.4 million like-minded followers and posting his commentary would result in the onslaught of threats and hatred that it did."

Hours after Baldwin's post, Lance's other sister, Cheyenne, and his widow, Jiennah, began receiving "hateful messages and even death threats," according to the suit.

"Neither Cheyenne nor Jiennah" were in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, the suit added.

Jiennah received a message Thursday calling her a "racist" according to one of the family's attorneys, Dennis Postiglione. Jiennah is Black, Postiglione said in a phone call.

"I gratefully supported the gofundme campaign while simultaneously not knowing the woman I approached is an insurrectionist. I think that's...remarkable," Baldwin said, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says that Baldwin is "keenly aware" of the weight of his fame and notoriety. The family is asking for a trial by jury, according to the suit. In addition to negligence and defamation, they are also suing Baldwin for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"[R]egardless of a person's politics, what Baldwin did here should never be allowed to stand. He is one of the most recognizable people in the country and has a social media following five times the population of the State of Wyoming. He abused that platform willingly and put the McCollum's through hell at a time when they had just begun to cope with Rylee's death," Postiglione said in a news release.

This is not the only legal battle Baldwin is embroiled in.

Last month, the actor turned over his cell phone to law enforcement officials as part of their investigation into the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust," CNN has previously reported. He is also being sued by crew member Serge Svetnoy for negligence.

Baldwin had previously said he would "never point a gun at anyone and then pull the trigger," during an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos in December. According to court documents, Baldwin said he believed the gun did not have live rounds in it. His attorney has said Baldwin is cooperating with authorities in the investigation of the fatal shooting.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Alec Baldwin sued by family of fallen Marine for $25 million for defamation and other allegations".
Special address by Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia with Brge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum at the Davos Agenda 2022, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Screenshot by The Epoch Times)

Pandemic Not a Cover to Establish Funky State-Centred Economy: Aussie PM to World Economic Forum

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told global business leaders that his government did not view the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to create a more state-centred economy but instead had backed a more sustainable business-led recovery.

In a speech to the Davos Agenda 2022 virtual summit hosted by the World Economic Forum, Morrison laid out Australias way through the global fallout from the pandemic and its approach to supporting economic recovery and resilience over the next decade.

We did not see a government-centered recovery sustaining into the future, he said on Jan. 21. There was certainly a role for government, but the role for the government was to ensure that we would have a sustainable business-led recovery.

We knew we were dealing with a public health crisis, albeit one with profound economic and social consequences.

We never saw it as cover for some sort of funky experiment to transform our economic system. We havent seen this as some long-term invitation for the return ofor the establishment ofsome state-centered economy, Morrison said.

This market-oriented approach had served Australia well for decades, he noted, adding that prior to the COVID-recession, the country had not been in a recession for 28 and a half years.

Five Forces Shaping the World

The prime minister also outlined what he saw as the five major forces shaping political, economic, and technological changes in a post-pandemic world.

These include an acceleration of a digital economy that saw the need to align the digital and physical worlds. Secondly, he said there was a heightened demand for skills and research talent, more adaptable workplaces, and closer collaboration between researchers and the business world.

Meanwhile, a sharper geopolitical competition has emerged. Morrison said this was most notably playing out in the Indo-Pacific with China, though he did not name the country.

Chinas aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, sailing with other ships holds a live combat drill in the East China Sea, on April 23, 2018, a show of force by Beijings burgeoning navy in disputed waters that have riled neighbors. (AFP via Getty Images)

We live in what is an increasingly fragmented and contested world, particularly here in the Indo-Pacific, which has become the worlds strategic center of gravity, Morrison said.

The challenges we face are many. There are tensions over territorial claims. There is rapid military modernisation. Theres foreign interference appearing in nations right across the Indo-Pacific and here in Australia.

Theres malicious cyber threats and attacks that are taking place; disinformation, economic coercion. This is a highly contested space where were seeing much gray zone tactics being employed throughout the region intended to seek to coerce and intimidate.

Meeting these challenges demands cooperation and common purpose amongst those who believe in a world order that favours freedom and the rule of law, that has been the basis for the worlds prosperity since the Second World War, he said.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier leaves Portsmouth Naval Base on the south coast of England on May 1, 2021. The carrier will take part in exercises off Scotland before heading to the Indo-Pacific region for her first operational deployment. (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

The fourth force he outlined were the pressures on the global supply chain and open trade caused by an era of hyper globalisation that have seen governments and companies having to reassess their rules and their assumptions.

The last force was the drive to decarbonise the global economy while maintaining affordable and reliable energy for customers and businesses.

Morrison called on world leaders to pursue fast economic recovery, reminiscent of what played out in the 80s and the 90s, and not the prolonged, sluggish recovery that followed the GFC in the 2010s.

This was vital, he said, because the pandemic had accentuate[d] new divides between countries and industries that have suffered moresuch as tourism, travel, and business eventsand those that had been able to insulate from the worst impactssuch as logistics, health, and IT.

A fast recovery must be our shared economic mission. A recovery thats about creating jobs, building wealth, and prosperity, and that narrows the divides in our communities. Because shared prosperity is always the foundation for a strong and stable democracy and global security, he said.
The room reaches a maximum capacity of 154 at the Frederick County school board meeting in Winchester, Va., on Jan. 20, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

School Mask Mandate U-Turns in Conservative Virginia County Highlight Controversy

Masking in school has become a heated issue across Virginia since Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order on his first day in office, making the masks optional. Subsequently, all Virginia school boards must decide before Mondaywhen the effective order takes effectto follow or disregard the order.

Frederick County, the northernmost point of Virginia, has divided neighbors. All school districts in northern Virginia have decided to keep the mask mandate. However, nearby Spotsylvania and Culpeper school systems have made masks optional.

The issue is even more emotional for many Frederick County residents because of a U-turn in August. On Aug. 10, the board voted 43 to lift the mask mandate. However, two days later, former Gov. Ralph Northam announced a public health emergency order that required masks in school settings, and the school board followed it.

A lot has happened between August and now. Since then, conservatives have gained a seat on the school board, and a conservative member became the chair in the new year. A new conservative governor, who got 69 percent of the votes from the county, has also taken office.

Some parents were hopeful when they read Superintendent David Sovines email on Jan. 18. The email informed them that the mask mandate was still in place until Jan. 24, adding, although the Governors order makes wearing masks optional for students, the school division is strongly encouraging students to continue to wear masks.

Yet, Thursday night, they were dealt another U-turn. The school board voted 43 to keep the mask mandate and have the superintendent continue to review COVID data and the need for face-covering requirements.

During public comments, several parents said they were surprised by the need for a special school board meeting on mask mandates.

Prior to the beginning of the school year, this very school board gave the parents an option to either send their child to school with a mask or not. Two days later, our former governor mandated we send the children to school in masks; we had no choice but to follow those orders, said one mother.

Why is it different now? Why? The governor says exactly what this school board planned to do last year. And now we are fighting for this to happen, she added.

Terence Sears, husband of the new Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Sears and a Frederick County resident, speaks at the school board meeting in Winchester, Va., on Jan. 20, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Terence Sears, husband of the new Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Sears and a county resident, also joined the podium. As an advocate for these parents and parents across the state, let them make the choice for their children and their families, he pleaded to the board.

Do not force it down our throat with mandates. These are not laws. Its a mandate. So, you were fine with the mandate of Northam? Okay, [you] didnt question it, feeling like lemmings. But, now, as President Obama said, elections have consequences, added Sears.

Both sidesfor and against the mask mandatehad strong opinions; the audience in the room frequently applauded and cheered during speeches.

Many people showed up; the room had reached the maximum capacity of 154 before the meeting, so administrators opened the auditorium of James Wood Middle School across the street for additional attendees. Although chair Brandon Monk cut the public comments after about 25 speakers, the meeting went beyond 11 p.m.

Teachers Pull the Weight

About ten speakers supported keeping the mask mandate. Most of them were teachers. They asked the board to keep the mask mandate to keep in-person learning.

Shaniqua Williams, president of the Frederick County Education Association (FCEA), told the board, Youve received hundreds of emails; your vote tonight should not be based on your personal opinions and beliefs.

She added, If you make mask-wearing an option, you have just increased the stress tenfold, referring to the current stress of dealing with a rise in COVID infections in schools and a shortage of staffers and substitute teachers. FCEA is the local teachers union.

At the meeting, Superintendent David Sovine also recommended keeping the mask mandate over concerns of an increase in isolation and quarantine for students and staff, staffing shortages, and challenges with contact tracing.

The school board also invited Dr. Jeffrey Feit, population health and community health officer of Valley Health, which owns multiple hospitals and medical centers in the Top of Virginia region, to provide his opinion.

The decision to allow choice in masking in school is a decision for all to be exposed, said Feit. He advised against mask choice but said it might be good to delay the decision for four to six weeks, partly to wait out the current Omicron surge and compare the results in the Virginia counties that kept the mask mandate and those who didnt.

(LR) Frederick County school board members Ellen White, Linda Martin, Bradley Comstock, Brandon Monk, Brian Hester, Miles Adkins, Superintendent David Sovine, and Clerk of the Board Steve Edwards before the school board meeting in Winchester, Va., on Jan. 20, 2022. School board member Michael Lake participates remotely. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Tension Rising

Before public comment, the board held a closed session to consult legal counsel on the matter of the school mask mandate.

Listen, if you want to be sued, all you have to do is ask, said one mother to the board members. She added if the board voted to disregard the governors order, she would bring forward a lawsuit.

School board chair Brandon Monk mentioned that the board received over 300 online comments about masks. In addition, a teacher delivered 166 signatures supporting the mask mandate to the board before she spoke during public comment. Monk also said that he had over 500 related emails in his inbox.

Monk mentioned that teachers and staffers in the school system who wanted masks optional often requested to remain anonymous. That, to me, suggests a culture that is negative in our school systemthe way our staff cant feel comfortable sharing their input, he said.

Newly elected member of the County Board of Supervisors Josh Ludwig told The Epoch Times that the situation was difficult. It seemed that the school board would be sued no matter which way it voted, he added.

On Jan. 18, a group of 13 parents in Chesapeake Public Schools sued Gov. Youngkin in the Supreme Court of Virginia, arguing that the executive order violated state law. Two days later, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Tonight, we asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to protect the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children, Miyares said. Governor Youngkin had every power to issue the executive order, and with our filing, we again affirm that parents matter.

Thursday night, the school board of Chesapeake, an independent city in Virginia, voted 71 to remove the mask requirements.

State Laws

When school boards decide to keep the mask mandate, they often cite the Virginia state law Senate Bill 1303 or Chapter 456 (pdf), a law former Virginia Gov. Northam enacted in March 2021. The Chesapeake parents lawsuit also cited the same law.

Senate Bill 1303, due to expire on Aug. 1, says that school boards must offer in-person instruction in a manner that adheres to mitigation strategies to curb the transmission of COVID-19 as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

State Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, a Republican and author of the Senate bill, issued a statement this week: SB1303 has been used against our children and against its intent this school year to advance an agenda. SB1303 does not mandate the use of masks in school because the CDC does not mandate masks.

Public health law professor Lawrence Gostin at Georgetown University told The Epoch Times, CDC doesnt mandate masks because it has no power to do so. Instead, states have that power.

Masks are highly effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, unless they pose undue burdens, virtually all public health professionals recommend masking, including mandating masks, he added.

On Friday, Youngkin announced updated mask guidelines for parents, educators, and schools.

I have said all along that we are going to stand up for parents. Executive Order 2 is not about pro-masks versus anti-mask, its about empowering parents, Youngkin said.
Scientific Ghostwriting Factories Booming in China

An official Chinese state media outlet recently revealed how illegal paper mills in China are operating to get fake manuscripts published, including in top international journals.

In China, a very high metric for publishing academic papers is required for individuals to get promoted in certain professions or academic fields; but for many people, this indicator is almost out of reach. Thus, a gray industry of scientific ghostwriters has evolved offering a one-stop service where submissions and publications are done in the name of the client.

By typing in keywords on Chinese search engines, you can easily find a large number of essay factories.

A reporter from Xinhua Viewpoint, a column of official media Xinhua, posing as a cardiovascular and cerebrovascular physician contacted numerous paper factories and was told that all levels of dissertation could be written and published for him as long as the delivery time was not too short, according to Xinhua in a Jan. 11 report.

A customer service agent described the process of producing a domestic periodical essay. A factory first sends a provisional journal for the clients verification, then asks for a fee of 1,600 yuan ($250) for writing and publishing an essay in the latest issue of the said journal. If both sides agree, the client pays a deposit of 600 yuan ($95) for the manuscript to be published, then makes the final payment after receiving an essay acceptance notification. The company later sends an electronic version of the final edition, followed by a sample issue in the mail.

The reporter paid the deposit and then received messages about three writing approaches as he requested. After selecting one approach, the paper factory sent him an essay within two days, saying it was written by their professional staff and could be revised as required.

When asked how to publish an essay in international journals of Scientific Citation Index (SCI), an internationally recognized search system of scientific and technical literature, one factorys customer service agent replied that the client needed to provide basic information such as name, occupation, and research direction to match an appropriate journal, while another one directly selected for him a SCI Zone 3 journal. SCI has four zones, and Zone 1 has the highest academic value. If the client pays a 50 percent deposit, the company will immediately arrange a ghostwriter and send the manuscript to the client when it is completed. He pays the remaining amount when he is satisfied with the final revision. Publication of the article can be also arranged.

At another paper mill, after the reporter expressed an urgent need to publish in a top international medical journal, the agent recommended a basically finished English-language essay on orthopedic neck research and delivered a portion of it for review, at a cost of 37,500 yuan ($5,900) for both writing and submitting for publication.

The manuscript was written by our professional teams teacher to meet a previous invitation from the editor of a top journal and would be confirmed for publication in a month at the earliest, the customer service agent said.

Liu Qingyu (a pseudonym) used to work for a ghostwriting company and almost became a formal working writer. He told Xinhua Viewpoint that those involved in the production of medical papers have a certain competence that can ensure the quality of the writing, have a systematic medical education background, are even Doctors of Medicine, and have worked in biotechnology companies; yet some of them are not fully aware that they are in a thesis ghostwriting factory before they join.

In some instances, buying and selling research results might be more profitable than doing the research itself.

Liu also said that essays produced by this kind of factory are actually not very good, the factory just works hard to grasp the preferences of the major journals, and then chooses the research areas that are easiest to apply the formula to and produce articles on a mass scale.

According to the reporters investigation, with paper factories submitting a large number of manuscripts regularly, their relationship with some journals become close, and there are paper producers who became co-reviewers for some journals. Some paper factories directly pay off the journal editors so that their writings can be published without obstruction.

Shen Yang, Professor of Tsinghua University in Beijing, said in 2010 that the sale of papers and the proliferation of fake academic journals have spawned an illegal industry in China, which a research team from Wuhan University found had a production value of 1 billion yuan ($160 million) in 2009, a conservative estimate according to State-run Yangtze River Daily.

Chinas Falsified Papers Published in International Journals

Independent writer Zhuge Mingyang told The Epoch Times, There are many types of academic fraud, but thesis factories are probably the highest-knowledge-content type of academic fraud. This kind of unethical practice has been a common phenomenon in China under the ruling Communist Party for a long time.

This picture, taken on March 17, 2010, in Paris, shows the internet homepage of the US scientific magazine Nature. (Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images)

According to statistics by Nature, one of the worlds most authoritative academic journals, the total number of papers listed by major journals that likely came from paper factories exceeded 1,300 by March 2021. At least 370 papers retracted since January 2020 have been linked to paper mills.

These results have undoubtedly had a huge impact on Chinas academic reputation.

Jana Christopher of the Center for Biochemistry at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and others have raised concerns over disturbing frauds since early 2018. After research, the European Federation of Biochemical Societies Letters (FEBS Letters), of which Christopher is editor, published on June 27, 2021, eight characteristics of fraudulent papers.

Such manuscripts have a similar textual or organizational structure as other papers. There is a similarity in the composition of the diagrams, annotation styles, graphics, and tables of other papers. They have a formulaic title structure; many manuscripts by different authors came from the same computer. The authors use commercial rather than academic e-mail addresses, and the researcher identification numbers of the authors are missing or blank. The reference list contains papers that are not clearly related. There are unusually short review times and positive results when using author-recommended reviewers.

Elisabeth Bik, a former expert at Stanford University, tweeted in February 2020 that more than 400 articles from various authors and institutions appear to have come from the same paper mill and that these articles were written by people in well-known hospitals that are mainly in China.
Slandered and Abused: Teacher Told to Stay Home After Questioning Age-Appropriateness of Gender-Transition Books in School Libraries

A teacher with an Ontario school board says she was bullied and slandered after she was ejected from a board meeting for raising questions about the age-appropriateness of some books in elementary school libraries that deal with gender transition.

Board members have taken to radio, television, social media to grossly misrepresent my remarks. I feel bullied, slandered, and abused, Carolyn Burjoski, a teacher with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), said in a video posted on Twitter on Jan. 21.

My response to the events that transpired this week regarding my presentation to the school board. You can read more about the story here:https://t.co/VdLwhejXGZ#WRDSB #wrdsbmtg pic.twitter.com/Y5cX3684zX  Carolyn Burjoski (@carolynburjoski) January 21, 2022

Burjoski, a teacher with more than 20 years experience, says she was told by human resources (HR) that shes assigned to home pending a formal investigation, following her remarks at a Jan. 17 WRDSB meeting held online. She said HR also banned her from contacting her colleagues and students.

During the Jan. 17 meeting, Burjoski read excerpts from a book titled Rick, by Alex Gina, in which the main character Rick questions his sexuality because hes not thinking about naked girls, and later declares an asexual identity after joining the schools rainbow club.

While reading this book I was thinking maybe Rick doesnt have sexual feelings yet because he is a child, Burjoski said.

It concerns me that it leaves young boys wondering if there is something wrong with them if they arent thinking about naked girls all the time. What message does this send to girls in Grade 3 or 4? she said. They are children. Let them grow up in their own time and stop pressuring them to be sexual so soon.

WRDSB chair Scott Piatkowski interrupted Burjoskis talk at this point, warning her against making comments that he said would violate Ontarios Human Rights Code.

Burjoski continued to cite another book, The Other Boy by MG Hennessy, in which a 12-year-old named Shane Woods undergoes gender transition.

Burjoski said the book makes very serious medical interventions seem like an easy cure for emotional and social distress, and that it does not take into account how Shane may feel later in life about being infertile.

Piatkowski interjected again, this time removing her from the virtual meeting.

Ontario Human Rights Code includes gender identity as a grounds for discrimination and Im concerned your comments violate that so Im ending your presentation, he said.

Piatkowski later said on Twitter that he made a ruling. Trustees upheld that ruling. I stand by it.

He said in an interview with CTV that Burjoskis comments were frankly transphobic.

Reacting to the issue, NDP MPP Laura Mae Lindo, who represents Kitchener Centre, said on Twitter, Im not sorry that someone who opened the door to transphobic comments was stopped from keeping that door open.

The WRDSB usually posts video recordings of its meetings on YouTube, but didnt post the recording of the Jan. 17 meeting. In a statement issued on Jan. 20, the school board said its decision to withhold the video was due to concerns about the potential violations of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the harm that could affect our students, staff, and communities in Waterloo Region.

Burjoski says the school board removed the video of the meeting so people are not able to hear what I actually said. She adds that that she has promoted human rights all her life, and is not questioning trans-persons right to exist.

This isnt just about me, its about all of us. Cancel culture needs to stop, she said in her video. We need to recover our ability to listen to each other and to speak with one another with open minds. Respectful dialogue is the core of democracy.

Some school board trustees, including Mike Ramsay, came to Burjoskis defence.

Its wrong on so many fronts, and Im quite disturbed and Im concerned, Ramsay told CTV, referring to how the school board treated Burjoski.

Fellow trustee Cindy Watson said she had the impression that the teacher was speaking about age appropriateness, according to Cambridge Today.

A spokesperson for the WRDSB told The Epoch Times that the board doesnt have any comments in response to Burjoskis video.

Editors note: This article was updated to add a response from WRDSB.
Parents and students gather in protest of the school district's policy at the Placentia Yorba Linda Unified School District offices in Placentia, Calif., on Jan. 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Southern California Parents Fight Against Mask Mandates for Kids in Schools

Southern California parents are fighting back against school COVID-19 rules, including mask mandates, quarantining and testing, filing lawsuits claiming that children are being harmed and their civil rights are being violated.

Two years after the pandemic beganand after schools statewide were closed for around 18 months, California schools are still enforcing various measures to contain the virus.

And a growing number of parents have had enough.

Irvine Parent Tiffany Craft said she escorted her second-grade daughter to her Cypress Village Elementary school classroom on Jan. 14 unmasked in an act of civil disobedience.

The move came after district spokeswoman Raianna Chavez told Craft that she and her daughter could face arrest for violating the mandate.

[E]lecting to violate the required mask mandate would mean significant legal, financial, and liability risks not to mention both civil and criminal liability/charges, Chavez wrote to Craft in a Jan. 10 email.

A student adjusts her facemask at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020, where pre-kindergarten to Second Grade students in need of special services returned to the classroom today for in-person instruction. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Since then, an attorney for the Craft family demanded the school abandon the mask mandate or face personal civil rights violation lawsuits.

Ultimately, Crafts daughter was not allowed to enter the classroom despite the mother explaining that wearing a mask had a detrimental impact on her childs health and wellbeing by affecting her learning, hearing, and concentration.

Craft is now working with The Gavel Project, a non-profit civil rights firm, which plans to file suit against the district in the coming weeks.

Her daughter engaged in active peaceful civil disobedience by exercising her free speech rights to refuse to wear an article of clothing, and she was disciplined for it by the Irvine Unified School District, barred from entering class and was thereby suspended from having an education, Ryan Heath, founder of The Gavel Project, told The Epoch Times.

Heath asserted the school girls rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution and backed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Any citizen  has the absolute right to refuse to comply with COVID-19 mandates generally, because the act of refusal is an act of free speech, Heath said. Its the same thing as burning an American flag in the park or refusing to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Also, this week, on Jan. 18, some Placentia-Yorba Linda School District parents and other supporters protested its mask mandates at the districts headquarters.

I just hope and pray that parents continue to get involved. And I hope that they do whats best for their kids, said Linda Cone, a retired veteran teacher from another district, during the protest. I think it would be better for kids to sit home and read a book than to be in one of these classrooms. And if enough of them do that, maybe things will change.

Jocelyn Brodowski, a parent of two in the district, said she felt administrators have been coercing her 14-year-old daughter, who does not want to wear a mask, she said, but has concerns about hurting her teachers feelings.

Its all about coercion, coercing the kids. [My daughter] doesnt want to make her teacher feel uncomfortable. Shes sensitive to not hurting her teachers feelings, so shes a kind person, Brodowski said. But that doesnt mean she shouldnt be able to have medical freedom.

Parents and students gather in protest of the school districts policy at the Placentia Yorba Linda Unified School District offices in Placentia, Calif., on Jan. 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

During the Jan. 19 protest, parents chanted: We will not comply! We will not comply!, 2, 4, 6, 8, End the Mask Mandate!, and Lions, not sheep!

The following evening, some had hoped to provide public comment at the districts school board meeting but were unable to after board president Carrie Buck abruptly ended the meeting within the first five minutes because some parents refused to wear masks.

This is the second time Buck has done this. On Jan. 11, she ended a meeting minutes after it started amid a mesh-mask debate.

At the center of that issue is a sixth grader at Travis Ranch School in Yorba Linda who, for reasons of comfort, wanted to wear a mesh mask instead of a cloth or surgical variety.

Within a few days, the student was approached by the schools vice-principal who ordered him to change his mask and presented his parents with alternative schooling options.

I declined it, mother Maggie Uvalle previously told The Epoch Times. They [school officials] say if he comes to school in that mask one more time he will not be enrolled.

Her son has not been in school for about two weeks already, she told The Epoch Times on Jan. 21, and the mesh mask dispute is now at issue in a lawsuit against the district.

Students and parents arrive masked for the first day of the school year at Grant Elementary School in Los Angeles, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

School boards across the state are violating student rights by imposing the masks, none of which have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, according to Ian Jameson, founder of Los Angeles Leftists for Choice and Unity, a group of people who lean left politically yet are against COVID-19 related mandates.

Americans are guaranteed by law the right to refuse the use of all [emergency use] medical products. Therefore, all school districts not just in Orange County but in the United States are violating federal law by mandating students to use these [emergency use] masks, Jameson told The Epoch Times.

According to Jameson, there are voluminously documented adverse health consequences regarding masks and children, including headaches, shortness of breath, and anxiety, to name a few that make the mandating of these dangerous and useless medical devices a form of child abuse.

I and Los Angeles Leftists for Choice and Unity will continue to fight alongside Republicans and Americans from all ideological orientations to stop the abuse of California children, Jameson told The Epoch Times via email.

Another group of parents, which has grown to nearly 500 members who call themselves South Bay Parents Push Back, filed their own lawsuit on Jan. 19 against local health agencies and school districts regarding mask mandate, quarantining guidance, and COVID-19 testing.

In this lawsuit, the defendants named include the California and Los Angeles County departments of public health, the California Department of Education, as well as the superintendents of and school districts in Redondo Beach, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified.

The lawsuit was initiated because after almost two years of trying to work with the districts, share our consents and complaints, and getting nowhere, we decided our only chance at fighting back would be through the courts, said founder of the group Summer Bailey, a parent of a senior who attends a high school in the Torrance Unified School District.

In that lawsuit, parents are demanding that their childrens life be allowed to return to normal.

The schools are abusing, harassing, and discriminating against children over guidance from the California Department of Health, said Tracy Henderson, the parents attorney, in the suit. Thats only a recommendation. What the parents want is the court to make the abuse, discrimination, and harassment stop.

In the complaint, the petitioners claim that the implementation of COVID-19 guidelines by the school districts has caused serious physical and emotional damage to Californias students.
State Department Condemns Beijing for Imprisoning 11 Falun Gong Practitioners Weeks Before Olympics

US calls on Chinese regime to immediately end its depraved abuse and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners

The U.S. State Department on Jan. 21 condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for sentencing 11 Falun Gong practitioners to prison terms of as long as eight years for exercising their religious beliefs.

The sentences were handed down on Jan. 14, just weeks ahead of the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The State Department is calling on Beijing to immediately end its depraved abuse and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, release those imprisoned due to their beliefs, and address the whereabouts of missing practitioners, a department official told The Epoch Times in an email.

Since 1999, the Communist Party of China has sought to eradicate Falun Gong, a spiritual practice originating in China, and its peaceful practitioners and human rights defenders who have fought for their right to practice their beliefs, the official said.

Falun Gong practitioner Xu Na in China in this undated photo. Xu was sentenced to eight years in prison for her religious beliefs. (The Epoch Times)

At the beginning of the regimes persecution in 1999, an estimated 70 million to 100 million Chinese people were practicing Falun Gongwhich is based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and toleranceand the Communist Party deemed its popularity a threat.

Extensive evidence shows the PRC government continues to repress and abuse this community to this day, the official said, citing reports of torture and the Beijing courts heavy-handed sentencing.

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners face detention, harassment, and reported torture and abuse each year for simply  peacefully [practicing] their beliefs.

Practitioners who are arrested often are held in detention without trial for extended periods of time, denied proper legal representation, and punished on spurious and fabricated charges.

In the case of the 11 practitioners, 15 months in detention passed before they got a hearing last October, and at least one lawyer lost his license for taking their case.

Xu Na in China, in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

A Beijing court claimed that their crime was sabotaging law and order, both for exercising their spiritual beliefs and for sharing photos and information with The Epoch Times.

The 11 were detained in July 2020, after the regime discovered that, as citizen journalists, they had photographed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the early stages and shared those images with The Epoch Times.

The Chinese Communist Party is relentless in its campaign against religious minorities, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times.

This latest attack on Falun Gong members who were trying to provide information about the pandemic is only the latest evidence of their gross attacks and even more reason to cut ties and stop supporting this evil regime.

Most Visible Time Possible

The sentencing, weeks before the Feb. 4 opening of the Winter Games, is a moment that calls for moral clarity, said Rev. Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner for the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom.

Lets be crystal clear whats happening here: The CCP is rounding up people right before the Olympic Games, he told The Epoch Times. Democrats and Republicans, and allies of the United States, need to draw their line in the sand. This also applies to all those businesses whove been waving their social justice flags: They now face a test.

Yu Zhou and Xu Na in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

The practitioner facing the heftiest prison term is 53-year-old Xu Na, a still-life painter from Beijing, who also was fined 20,000 yuan ($3,160).

She has survived two prior imprisonments for her beliefs and suffered various forms of torture inflicted by policeincluding one method in which her legs were pulled apart to 180 degrees. Three inmates then sat on her legs and back and continually applied pressure to create excruciating pain.

Xus husband, folk musician Yu Zhou, died at the hands of the police in the run-up to the Beijing Summer Games 14 years ago.

Arrested during an Olympic check in January 2008, Yu died of torture two weeks after being taken into custody.

Levi Browde, executive director at the Falun Dafa Information Center, criticized how the CCP has completely decimated this family.

This brazen sentence is handed down as a message to the world, Browde told The Epoch Times. Think about it: The CCP chose to sentence Xu at the most visible time possiblethree weeks before the Olympics start as all eyes are trained on Beijing.

Its as if the CCP is intentionally flaunting to the world that it will imprison Falun Gong practitioners at will, and theres no one to stop them. We cant let that be true.
Supreme Court Agrees to Consider If States Can Prosecute Non-Indians for Crimes on Indian Land

The Supreme Court announced on Jan. 21 that it would consider whether its 2020 decision expanding tribal authority in Oklahoma should cancel a non-Indian mans conviction for abusing his part-Indian stepchild.

The high court will consider whether states may prosecute non-Indians for crimes against Indians on Indian reservations but specifically refused to reconsider its 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which stripped Oklahoma courts of the ability to hear criminal cases against Native Americans for crimes taking place on Indian lands.

The case, an appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, is Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, court file 21-429. The Jan. 21 order (pdf) was unsigned and didnt provide reasons for the decision to hear the case, in accordance with the high courts usual practice.

In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled 54 on July 9, 2020, that most of eastern Oklahoma and some of the central part of the state is Indian country because it hosted Indian reservations. This meant prosecution of Native Americans on these lands may only be pursued in tribal courts or in federal courts under a federal statute called the Major Crimes Act. Another court clarified that the reservations belonged to the so-called Five Civilized TribesCherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by four liberal justices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Ginsburg died Sept. 18, 2020, and was replaced weeks later by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Four conservative justicesChief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomasdissented from the majority decision.

Some critics of the McGirt decision speculate that the case might be decided differently if it were reheard now that Barrett has replaced Ginsburg.

But the Supreme Court didnt agree in its Jan. 21 order to rehear the McGirt case. The court agreed to consider only one of the two questions posed by the state in its petition (pdf), specifically whether a State has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country.

The court indicated it would not consider the second question, which was Whether McGirt v. Oklahoma  should be overruled.

In Oklahomas petition, the state criticized the 2020 ruling, writing, No recent decision of this Court has had a more immediate and destabilizing effect on life in an American State than McGirt v. Oklahoma.

The courts holding that a large area of Oklahoma, which at one time was within the boundaries of the Creek Nation, qualifies as Indian country for purposes of the Major Crimes Act, the petition stated.

That decision deprived the State of authority to prosecute Indians who commit serious crimes there, and the Oklahoma state courts have since held that McGirt compels the same conclusion with respect to the remainder of the Five Tribes in Oklahoma.

This meant almost 2 million Oklahoma residentsthe vast majority of whom are not Native Americansuddenly live in Indian country for purposes of federal criminal jurisdiction.

As Roberts predicted in his dissent, the results of this abrupt shift in sovereignty have been calamitous and are worsening by the day. The McGirt decision now drives thousands of crime victims to seek justice from federal and tribal prosecutors whose offices never before handled those demands, the petition states.

Numerous crimes are going uninvestigated and unprosecuted, endangering public safety. Federal district courts in Oklahoma are completely overwhelmed.

The effects have spilled into the civil realm as well, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue and calling into question the States regulatory authority over myriad issues within its own borders.

The petition says McGirt raises two exceptionally important questions  that cry out for the Courts immediate attention.

The respondent, Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta was convicted of severely neglecting his 5-year-old stepdaughter, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, according to the petition. An Oklahoma jury sentenced him to 35 years after the child, who is legally blind and has cerebral palsy, was rushed to a Tulsa emergency room in 2015.

The stepdaughter was admitted in critical condition; she was dehydrated, emaciated, and covered in lice and excrement, and she weighed only nineteen pounds. Investigators who visited respondents home later discovered that her crib was filled with bedbugs and cockroaches and contained a single, dry sippy cup, the top of which was chewed through.

Castro-Huerta admitted to the authorities that he knew the child required five bottles of nutritional supplement a day, but he had given her between only twelve and eighteen bottles the previous month.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the mans conviction, finding the crime had occurred in Indian country. The appeals court also held that the McGirt decision extends beyond the confines of the Major Crimes Act to all crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.

That holding was erroneous, and it greatly exacerbates the ongoing criminal justice crisis in Oklahoma, according to the states petition.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the respondents counsel of record in the Supreme Court case, Zachary C. Schauf of the law firm Jenner and Block in the nations capital, but didnt receive a reply as of press time.
Dozens of friends, co-workers, and Hancock Park residents held a vigil for Brianna Kupfer, a 24-year-old UCLA graduate student, outside of a furniture store in Los Angeles, on Jan. 20, 2022. She was fatally stabbed on Jan. 13, 2022, in the furniture store, where she was working. (The Epoch Times)

Suspect in Stabbing Death of UCLA Grad Student Charged With Murder

LOS ANGELESA homeless man suspected of fatally stabbing a 24-year-old UCLA grad student inside a Hancock Park furniture store was charged on Jan. 21 with murder.

Shawn Laval Smith, 31, is accused of the Jan. 13 killing of Brianna Kupfer, who was attacked while working alone inside the Croft House boutique furniture store in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue.

The murder charge against Smith includes an allegation that he used a knife in the commission of the crime.

Smith appeared briefly in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday afternoon, but his arraignment was postponed until Feb. 17. He remains jailed in lieu of a bail of more than $2 million.

Smith was arrested Wednesday in Pasadena following a weeklong manhunt fueled by $250,000 in reward money.

Los Angeles police Lt. John Radke said Kupfer was working alone inside the store around 1:30 p.m. when she was killed.

She sent a text to a friend letting her know that there was someone inside the location that was giving her a bad vibe, Radke said. Regrettably, that person did not see the text immediately.

Her body was found in the store by a customer about 15 minutes after the text was sent. Radke said the attack appeared to be completely random and unprovoked.

Smith was seen on surveillance video walking away from the store through a rear alley. Surveillance cameras also caught him casually shopping about 30 minutes later at a nearby 7-Eleven store. He was also spotted shopping at other stores before and after the killing, police said.

On Thursday, dozens of people gathered for a vigil outside Croft Housecelebrating Kupfers life and decrying the senselessness of her death.

Bri was the brightest part of anyones day who got to interact with her, said Alex Segal, a co-owner of the Croft House furniture store. She was smart and capable and intelligent. Kind and friendly and just an incredibly driven person.

Dozens of friends, co-workers, and Hancock Park residents held a vigil for Brianna Kupfer, a 24-year-old UCLA graduate student, outside of a furniture store in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

Segal said the community is asking why is this happening, but said I dont know that there  will ever be a sufficient answer to that question.

But you look around at all the people who have shown up for her today. You can see the semblance of how we put this back together, he said.

Smith has an extensive criminal history dating back more than a decade, with more than a dozen arrests in three states.

According to Fox 11, Smith had nearly a dozen arrests between 2010 and 2019 in Charleston, South Carolina, including a pending case for allegedly discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. His other arrests included allegations of trespassing, disorderly conduct, littering, marijuana possession, and unlawful entry.

Smith was also suspected in a rash of bicycle thefts in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Fox 11. He also allegedly assaulted a police officer in San Mateo, California.

Smith was arrested in Los Angeles County in October of 2020 on an unspecified misdemeanor charge, according to jail records.

Some people gathered at the vigil questioned why Smith was not in custody, given his extensive criminal background.

This guy should have been in jail, one man told the crowd.

A woman who lives near the store told ABC7 she was driving home from work last week when a friend sent her a text message alerting her to the police activity near her house.

I said, What? Again? Whats going on here?' she said. Enough is enough. Were tired of it. We want our community back.

During the vigil, signs were posted in front of the store. One read Protect our kids not criminals, while another stated, Fund our LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department].

Just the senseless act, attendee Sharone Alperin told ABC7. This could have been me. This could have been any one of my friends. It just has to stop. I mean, its just unbelievable to believe that this beautiful child was at work one day and shes not here anymore.
The Tesla logo is displayed on the hood of a Tesla car in Corte Madera, Calif., on May 20, 2019. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Tesla Workers Death at Fremont Factory Being Probed: Report

A state agency that oversees workplace health and safety is investigating the death of a production associate at Tesla Inc.s facility in Fremont, California, Fox-owned KTVU reported on Thursday.

A production associate, who has not been identified, collapsed and died early Wednesday morning while working on the powertrain line in Fremont.

Cal-Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking into the incident and gathering more information to determine the work-relatedness of this event and whether to conduct an inspection, as per the report.

The incident took place around 6.30 a.m. PT, when at least three Fremont police cars and one fire truck were seen at the plant.

This latest incident follows the death of an employee who was allegedly killed last month by a co-worker in the Tesla factorys parking lot.

By Rachit Vats

 2021 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
LAPD officers search for a suspect in Los Angeles on May 7, 2018. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Thousands of Los Angeles Law Enforcement Officers Off-Duty Due to COVID-19 Surge

More than 2,000 law enforcement personnel in Los Angeles County are either ill or quarantining at home due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, according to Los Angeles County officials.

Drake Madison, an officer with Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), told The Epoch Times that as of Jan. 20, there were 1,134 out of approximately 12,200 employees who had tested positive and were quarantining at home. This figure has increased by over 40 percent since Jan 11.

The total number of officers who were out due to COVID-19 was 89 during the week ending on Christmas, according to LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

In the past two years, LAPD has lost a number of officers from complications of COVID-19, including Becky Strong, Valentin Martinez, Dexter De Los Santos, Phil Sudario, Sgt. Fred Cueto, and Sgt. Anthony White.

In addition to city law enforcement, the sheriffs department also has been heavily impacted by the significant surge in COVID-19 cases.

As of Jan. 20, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department had a total of 891 police officers in quarantine out of 18,000 employees. Among the quarantined personnel, 632 were sworn officers.

The positivity rate has also seen a rise among vaccinated personnel in LASD. On Jan. 15, approximately 45 percent of the employees who tested positive were vaccinated.

In its custody division, there were a total of 127 individual in custody who had tested positive are symptomatic, while 505 were asymptomatic.

A recent report shows on-duty deaths of law enforcement officers across the country for any cause, including COVID-19, were up approximately 55 percent in 2021.

There were 458 total law enforcement officers in the United States killed on-duty, and 301 of those deaths were counted as from COVID-19 since the officers contracted the virus while on-duty, according to the report (pdf) compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).

It has been reported to NLEOMF that these officers have died due to direct exposure to the virus during the commission of their official duties, the report reads.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  Miss World has announced its top 40 finalists, with the Philippines' Tracy Maureen Perez securing a spot to win the crown in the pageant finale in March.

Perez is among the 15 "fast track winners," the pageant organization said in a Facebook post.

In December, the Cebuana beauty made it to the top five of Miss World's Beauty with a Purpose challenge for her advocacy that aims to empower single parents.

The organization will also finance her project, Perez earlier said.

She also secured a spot in the Top 30 for winning the second round of the Head to Head challenge.

If the 28-year-old Perez wins, she would bring the country's second Miss World crown after Megan Young in 2013.

The Miss World coronation night will be held on March 16, 2022, at the Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in Puerto Rico.
TSA Confirms It Is Letting Illegal Immigrants Use Arrest Warrants as ID to Fly

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has acknowledged it has allowed illegal immigrants to present arrest warrants as identification to get on airplanes, but defended it as a longstanding practice.

When illegal immigrants and other non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals do not otherwise have acceptable forms of ID for presentation at security checkpoints, TSA may also accept certain DHS-issued forms, including ICE Form I-200 (Warrant for Arrest of an Alien), a TSA spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times in an email.

The TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The form in question states that probable cause was found to indicate an immigrant is illegally in the country and directs immigration officers to remove them.

After being presented with a DHS form, the TSA says agents confirm the identity of each individual by verifying information found on the forms using data from Customs and Border Protection, another DHS agency.

The practice was first reported by the Daily Caller.

The TSA spokesperson, though, defended the policy, noting that its been in place since shortly after TSA was created in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Still, the policy drew criticism this week, including from Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas).

President [Joe] Biden is putting millions of Americans at risk by allowing known criminals and potential terrorists to fly on U.S. airlines. A criminal alien shouldnt be allowed to board a plane after presenting a warrant for their arrest. They should be detained and brought before a judge, Gooden, who said he went to the U.S.Mexico border and witnessed illegal immigrants boarding planes without proper identification, said on Fox & Friends this week.

Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an email that the policy is an affront to American citizens, and greatly jeopardizes our national security.

In no way, shape, or form would an American citizen be allowed to board a U.S. flight simply by flashing an arrest warrant. If anything, that would cause immediate concern for law enforcement officials. This unconscionable move by the Biden administration aids and abets criminal behavior. Rather than facilitate illegal immigration deep into the interior, the administration should look to deter it as more than 2 million individuals attempted to enter the country unlawfully during its first year in officean all-time record, he added.

Under Biden, the United States set records for the most illegal immigrant apprehensions at the U.S.Mexico border for both a fiscal year and a calendar year.

Biden, a Democrat, and top officials in his administration have dramatically altered or ended key Trump-era policies since taking office, including stopping construction of the border wall and curtailing the use of health emergency powers to expel illegal aliens.

Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately described TSAs policy. The agency is continuing to allow illegal immigrants to present I-200 forms. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
UK Universities Minister Says Unsatisfied Students Should Apply for Refunds

The UKs Universities Minister Michelle Donelan has encouraged students to apply for refunds on courses if they are unsatisfied.

Donelan said students should absolutely apply for refunds, adding: They are consumers, at the end of the day. Theyre paying a substantial amount of money thats an investment in their own lives. They deserve that appeal right.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Donelan said there had been tens of thousands of refunds issued to students by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator during the pandemic.

She also criticised high vice-chancellor salaries, mickey mouse courses, and universities that have not returned to face-to-face learning.

I have had to really say to vice-chancellors, you need to ensure that you are delivering on what you promised to students because, as the prime minister outlined, weve got to learn to live with this virus now.

Weve got to get back to pre-pandemic life. Risk assessments cant be used as an excuse not to host face-to-face teaching. Students have been leading the way in the [vaccination] stats.

Donelan said she would not defend some vice-chancellor salaries, which she called eye-watering and staggering, and said drop-out rates for some courses were as high as 40 percent.

Universities try to entice pupils to the front door and say thats social mobility. Actually, that doesnt help anybody, she said.
Unseemly: NPR Refuses to Correct Story After Supreme Court Deems It False

National Public Radio (NPR) is refusing to correct a story that has been challenged by a trio of Supreme Court justices, triggering a flood of criticism.

Citing anonymous sources, reporter Nina Totenberg said Chief Justice John Roberts had recently asked the other justices to mask up because Justice Sonia Sotomayor had expressed concerns for her safety amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. Totenberg said that because Justice Neil Gorsuch refused the requestGorsuch hasnt worn a mask on the bench recentlySotomayor started attending oral arguments from her chambers.

In rare public statements made a day later, all three justices responded to the report.

Sotomayor and Gorsuch said Sotomayor didnt ask Gorsuch to wear a mask.

While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends, the two justices said in a joint statement.

Even worse for NPR, which is partially funded by taxpayer money, Roberts said in a separate statement that I did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other Justice to wear a mask on the bench.

Despite the direct challenges to the story, NPR hasnt issued a correction.

The chief justice issued a statement saying he did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench. The NPR report said the chief justices ask to the justices had come in some form. NPR stands by its reporting, Totenberg wrote in a follow-up story.

Ask and request are synonyms that mean essentially the same thing. The only change to the initial piece was the addition of a hyperlink to the follow-up story.

An NPR spokesman told The Epoch Times via email that the outlet continues to stand by Nina Totenbergs reporting.

Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University, said the decision not to correct the story means that NPR is calling the justices liars, which, frankly, comes off as unseemly.

The justices have made a public statement and, if NPR wants to dispute it, they need to do more to provide context and even identify their source. The general public knows NPR is a largely agenda-driven news outlet, and they will lose in a credibility contest with Supreme Court justices, McCall said.

Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photograph at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images)

The NPR spokesman and Totenberg declined to answer or didnt respond to several sets of questions, including whether any other NPR employees verified the sources cited by Totenberg, who was previously fired from the National Observer for plagiarism.

While Totenberg said Roberts had asked other justices to wear masks in her story, during an appearance on NPRs All Things Considered, prior to the justices statements, she said Roberts had suggested that the other justices don face coverings.

NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride said the different descriptions mean the story merits a clarification, but not a correction.

After talking to Totenberg and reading all justices statements, I believe her reporting was solid, but her word choice was misleading, McBride wrote.

In the absence of a clarification, NPR risks losing credibility with audience members who see the plainly worded statement from Roberts and are forced to go back to NPRs story and reconcile the nuances of the verb asked when in fact, its not a nuanced word, McBride said.

Readers and listeners have apparently contacted the media outlet expressing concern over the issue.

In order for the story to be true as NPR first reported, Roberts wouldve had to have asked in some form, but he said he didnt, full stop, one said.

Joe Concha, a media critic at The Hill, wrote on Twitter that NPR couldnt have handled this any worse, linking to McBrides piece.

The Society of Professional Journalists stated that ethical journalism should be accurate and fair and recommended that reporters largely stick to sources that are clearly identified. Reporters should also respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity, and fairness, the group said, noting that mistakes should be acknowledged and corrected promptly and corrections and clarifications should be explained carefully and clearly.

Totenberg later spoke to the Daily Beast, criticizing McBride for the column.

She can write any [expletive] thing she wants, whether or not I think its true. Shes not clarifying anything! Totenberg said. I havent even looked at it, and I dont care to look at it because I report to the news division, she does not report to the news division.

Responding to Justice Robertss direct challenge to her reporting, she claimed that I did not say that he requested that people do anything, but in some form did.
A vial of Gilead Sciences' remdesivir in Belgium in a file image. (Dirk Vaem/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)

US Regulators Clear Remdesivir for COVID-19 Outpatient Use

Some nonhospitalized patients seeking treatment for COVID-19 can now use the antiviral remdesivir after U.S. drug regulators on Jan. 21 expanded approval of the drug.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the expansion was supported by a study run by Gilead Sciences, which developed remdesivir, showing the drug cut the risk of hospitalization by 87 percent among people who tested positive for COVID-19.

No other research was cited by the FDA.

The study was done before the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus became dominant in the United States, although the National Institutes of Health-convened COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel said recently (pdf) the drug is expected to be active against the Omicron strain.

The panel recommended remdesivir be made an option for nonhospitalized patients alongside the already-available monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline.

Monoclonal antibodies require a one-time intravenous infusion, versus IV administration across three straight days for remdesivir.

Dr. David Boulware, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Minnesota who studies COVID-19 treatments, said in a social media post that the Gilead study was small562 people were enrolled, about half of whom received a placeboand that a follow-up randomized controlled study would likely find a lower effectiveness against hospitalization.

Remdesivir also didnt reduce the viral load in patients, unlike COVID-19 pills from Pfizer and Merck, two other treatment options, he noted.

The FDAs move means individuals 12 or older who weigh at least 88 pounds, have tested positive for COVID-19, are not hospitalized, and are deemed at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19 can now get the drug, which was previously restricted to hospitalized patients.

The FDA also authorized the drug for children younger than 12 who weigh at least 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) and meet the same criteria.

Todays actions provide adults and pediatric patients, with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of severe COVID-19, with a treatment option they could receive outside of a traditional inpatient hospital setting, including at skilled nursing facilities, home healthcare settings and outpatient facilities such as infusion centers, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

The expanded clearance provides FDA imprimatur on what is already happening to fill in the supply limitations of other therapeutics. So, it is a good thing, Dr. David Wohl, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Wohl, who has received funding from Gilead, has studied remdesivir and found it helped prevent death.

Additional studies have also shown remdesivir is also effective in the early stages of COVID-19 infection, in addition to helping patients who are hospitalized with the disease, Gilead CEO Daniel ODay said in a statement.

On the other hand, some research on remdesivir, the earliest drug approved against COVID-19 in the United States, has found mixed results. For instance, a study published in The Lancet last year found no clinical benefit among severely ill patients who were admitted to hospitals.

Additionally, several studies have concluded kidney disorders are one of the side effects from the drug, and remdesivirs label (pdf) states that kidney problems were observed in testing on animals.

People who are planning to get the medication, also known as Veklury, should tell their health care provider if they have kidney or liver problems before receiving it, according to the label.
A passenger wearing a mask, amid the health threat of novel coronavirus, arrives on a direct flight from China at Chicago's O'Hare airport in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 24, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters)

US Suspends 44 US Flights by Chinese Carriers After China Action

WASHINGTONThe U.S. government said on Friday it would suspend 44 China-bound flights from the United States by four Chinese carriers in response to the Chinese governments decision to suspend some U.S. carrier flights over COVID-19 concerns.

The suspensions will begin on Jan. 30 with Xiamen Airlines scheduled Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight and run through March 29, the Transportation Department said.

The decision will cut some flights by Xiamen, Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines.

Since Dec. 31, Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines, and 14 Delta Air Lines flights, after some passengers tested positive for COVID-19. As recently as Tuesday, the Transportation Department said the Chinese government had announced new U.S. flight cancelations.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing the three U.S. carriers affected by Chinas move along with others, said it supported Washingtons action to ensure the fair treatment of U.S. airlines in the Chinese market.

The Transportation Department said France and Germany have taken similar action against Chinas COVID-19 actions. It said Chinas suspension of the 44 flights are adverse to the public interest and warrant proportionate remedial action. It added that Chinas unilateral actions against the named U.S. carriers are inconsistent with a bilateral agreement.

China has also suspended numerous U.S. flights by Chinese carriers after passengers later tested positive.

The department said it was prepared to revisit its action if China revised its policies to bring about the necessary improved situation for U.S. carriers. It warned that if China cancels more flights, we reserve the right to take additional action.

China has all but shut its borders to travelers, cutting total international flights to just 200 a week, or 2 percent of pre-pandemic levels, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in September.

The number of U.S. flights being scrapped has surged since December, as infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus soared to record highs in the United States.

Beijing and Washington have sparred over air services since the start of the pandemic. In August, the U.S. Transportation Department limited four flights from Chinese carriers to 40 percent passenger capacity for four weeks after Beijing imposed identical limits on four United Airlines flights.

Before the recent cancelations, three U.S. airlines and four Chinese carriers were operating about 20 flights a week between the countries, well below the figure of more than 100 per week before the pandemic.

By David Shepardson
Jason Miyares is sworn in as Virginias 48th Attorney General, in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Virginia Asks Court to Toss Lawsuit Challenging Ban of School Mask Mandates

Virginias new attorney general has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against Gov. Glenn Youngkins executive order banning school mask mandates.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, who, like Youngkin, is a Republican, told the Virginia Supreme Court that the parents who sued lack standing and didnt adequately state their case.

The Court should dismiss the petition for three independent reasons, Miyares said in a filing (pdf).

First, petitioners lack standing because they have failed to identify any cognizable injury of any kind, or to explain how any such injury is particularized to them. Second, the petition seeks relief that is unavailable in this Courts original jurisdiction, as neither mandamus nor prohibition is a substitute for the injunctive relief petitioners seek from this Court. Finally, even if the petitioners had standing and their petition were procedurally proper, this Court should reject their claim on the merits because they have failed to identify a clear right  to the relief sought.'

The parents cited a state law, which took effect last year, that ordered school districts to offer in-person learning.

The law states: For the purposes of this act, each school board shall (i) adopt, implement, and, when appropriate, update specific parameters for the provision of in-person instruction and (ii) provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].

The suit states that because the federal agency currently recommends universal masking in schools, Youngkins order, which enables parents to decide whether their children wear masks or not, is in direct conflict with the law.

Miyares disagreed, telling the court that the measure directs schools to follow CDC guidelines.

Neither it nor these guidelines impose a mask mandate,' he said.

And even if the CDC issued something other than recommendations, Senate Bill 1303 would not require rigid adherence to every CDC promulgation; instead, the bill explicitly provides that in-person instruction should be provided in a manner which adheres to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies provided by the CDC for childcare and education programs.

Miyares said the request to the court was aimed at protecting the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children, adding, Governor Youngkin had every power to issue the executive order and with our filing, we again affirm that parents matter.
World Economic Forum to Hold 2022 Annual Meeting in Davos in May

ZURICHThe World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its 2022 annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos from May 2226, the Geneva-based group said on Friday.

The WEF had in December postponed the event for the business and political elite a month before it was due to take place, citing the difficulties of holding such an in-person conference amid the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

After all the virtual meetings taking place in the last two years, leaders from politics, business, and civil society have to convene finally in person again, WEF founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab said in a statement.

We need to establish the atmosphere of trust that is truly needed to accelerate collaborative action and to address the multiple challenges we face.

Topics on the agenda will include the pandemic recovery, tackling climate change, building a better future for work, accelerating stakeholder capitalism, and harnessing the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, it said.

The WEF will coordinate closely with the Swiss government on the public health situation, it said, adding the meeting would take place as long as conditions were in place to guarantee the health and safety of participants and the host community.
(CNN)  At least 70 people were killed and more than 130 injured when an airstrike hit a detention center in Yemen on Friday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said, as the Saudi-led coalition continued to ramp up its deadly offensive on rebels in the war-torn nation.

Another airstrike early Friday hit a telecommunications building in the strategic port city of Hodeidah, causing a nationwide internet blackout, according to NetBlocks, an organization that tracks network disruptions. At least three children were killed in that attack, Save the Children said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said the internet blackout, which was still ongoing as of Friday evening, would affect aid delivery.

The Iran-back Houthi rebels, who control much of Yemen, blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the strikes. CNN has reached out to the coalition for comment.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched an offensive in 2015 to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government, after it was ousted by the Houthis. The coalition has intensified its attacks in the wake of a Houthi missile and drone strike in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi earlier this week.

The Houthi-run media outlet Al Masirah showed graphic video of people under rubble in the aftermath of Friday's detention center strike in the northern Yemeni city of Sa'ada. The Red Cross said it had sent emergency medical supplies to two hospitals that had received a "very high" number of casualties.

"From what I hear from my colleague in Sa'ada there are many bodies still at the scene of the airstrike, many missing people," said Ahmad Mahat, head of the MSF mission in Yemen. "It is impossible to know how many people have been killed. It seems to have been a horrific act of violence."

An MSF-supported hospital in Sa'ada has been overwhelmed by an influx of wounded people and cannot receive more, Mahat said. Two other hospitals in the city have also received large numbers of casualties, according to MSF.

International aid groups have been struggling to gather details about the strike because of the internet blackout, multiple aid workers told CNN.

The Saudi-led coalition did not comment on the the strikes on the telecommunications building or the detention center, but said Friday that it had hit the port of Hodeidah, taking down "one of the [Houthis'] dens of maritime piracy and organized crime."

The coalition also said it attacked "military targets" in the capital Sanaa on Friday, claiming to have conducted the operation "in response to the threat of hostile attacks," Saudi state-owned SPA said.

"The ICRC is deeply concerned about the intensification of hostilities over recent days, including attacks against cities across Yemen, in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates, and deplores the human toll this escalation has caused," the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Airstrikes kill 70 people and knock out internet in Yemen"
Christian Hospital of St. Louis was selected by the Pandemic Task Force as a priority facility to receive federal assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a team of 44 health care professionals, including doctors and registered nurses, will begin arriving at the hospital on Jan. 26.

HHS indicated it could deploy resources to only one local hospital after the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force submitted requests last week for federal aid to support 11 facilities in the region.

In addition to the impact from overwhelming numbers of COVID patients, providing resources to underserved communities was a critical factor in the decision to choose Christian, located in North County, as the facility to receive this aid. The hope is that by adding resources to North County that other facilities will benefit as well.

"All of our staff throughout Christian Hospital have shown dedication and commitment to excellent patient care as we continue together in our mission for health and safety," Rick Stevens, president of Christian Hospital, said in a statement. "This aid serves as a beacon of hope for us as we continue to serve our community during this unprecedented time."

It was noted in the request that the current COVID-19 surge is the most challenging disaster ever faced by the health care systems in the St. Louis region, which have weathered this storm over the past two years together; however, its now necessary to request assistance from the federal government, the task force said in a press release.

"With every day, we break records in admissions and hospitalizations," Dr. Alex Garza, SSM Health chief community health officer at and co-lead of the Pandemic Task Force, said in a statement. "There is no single healthcare system that has not been impacted by this surge in patients with the entire region facing dire situations. Our hope is that our federal partners swiftly deploy resources to help our depleted and demoralized workforce."

Officials from multiple federal agencies met this week with Christian, BJC and Pandemic Task Force leadership to begin planning for the arrival of the medical team, which will be stationed at Christian for about 30 days. The doctors' and nurses specialties and departments for deployment have yet to be determined.
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(CNN)  At least seven fighters from the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces were killed when ISIS attempted to break thousands of its fighters out of a Syrian prison on Thursday, an attack underlining concerns the terror group could be quietly resurging.

The assault on the Ghweran prison, located in the northeastern city of Hasakah began Thursday when a car bomb exploded outside the facility, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Kurdish-led SDF is the dominant military force in the region and a key US partner in the fight against ISIS.

ISIS fighters then snuck into the area and struck local forces guarding the prison, while the militants inside burned blankets and plastic items inside dormitories "in an attempt to create chaos," the SDF said. It is not clear if the actions were coordinated or if the inmates simply saw an opportunity to sow confusion at an opportune moment.

The SDF said Thursday it "thwarted" the attempted jailbreak; however, small clashes were still reported in the area Friday. ISIS said in a statement Friday it was launching a "large-scale" attack to liberate the entire prison. The head of the SDF said later Friday they had fended off the attack with the support of airstrikes from the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria fighting ISIS.

Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby confirmed the airstrikes during a press briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.

"On whatever support the Coalition has been given to the SDF as they have dealt with this and continue to deal with this prison break, I can tell you that we have provided some air strikes to support them as they deal with this particular prison break," Kirby said.

Farhad Shami, head of SDF Media Center told CNN Friday SDF forces killed 28 ISIS militants in the clashes. At least 89 inmates managed to escape, but have since be recaptured, the SDF said in a statement. Several militants involved in the assault were thought to be hiding out in civilian homes near the prison, forcing authorities to put up a security checkpoint, it said.

Some 11,000 to 12,000 ISIS fighters are held in prisons and detention camps in northern Syria run by the SDF. While this is not the first such prison break attempt  several escaped in 2020 by ripping off doors and using them to destroy a wall  concerns are mounting that the timing and audacity of the attack are indicative of the terror group's renewed strength.

ISIS also claimed responsibility for an ambush on an Iraqi military post near Baghdad on Friday in which 11 soldiers were killed.

"Certainly, the attempts to revive terrorism in the region cannot be underestimated," Iraq President Barham Salih said in a tweet Friday.

'Break down the fences'

At the height of its power in 2014 and 2015, ISIS governed a self-styled caliphate which stretched over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. Further abroad, ISIS was linked to massive terror attacks, including a truck bomb killed almost 300 people in Baghdad in 2016, just months after gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the Bataclan and other locations in Paris. Other atrocities were allegedly inspired by ISIS, such as truck attacks in Berlin and Nice, France.

The terror group was eventually driven out of power, but many warned militants could continue to operate from the shadows.

In 2019, Iraq's then-head of military intelligence, Lt. Gen. Saad al-Allaq, warned such prison breaks were being planned. He said a new ISIS mission the terror group codenamed "Break Down the Fences" intended to storm jails where their followers were being held and try to rebuild its structures from there.

In recent months, Iraq security forces have warned ISIS will continue trying to regroup to stage such deadly attacks, while some senior commanders have warned sleeper cells are continuing staging deadly attacks in the region.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered an increase to security on the Iraqi-Syrian border following the prison attack on Friday. Hussein Allawi, an adviser al-Kadhimi, said Iraqi security forces still need to develop their intelligence effort to be able to repel such coordinated attacks by various terrorist groups.

"We need to develop the intelligence effort of the Iraqi armed forces through technical and sensing equipment, thermal cameras, and modern fortified towers," Allawi told CNN.

Allawi also said the Iraqi armed forces need to continue cooperating with the US-led coalition in Iraq which, since 2021, is no longer engaged in combat missions.

The coalition is now focused on training and assistance, but its presence remains controversial. The Iraqi government is under tremendous pressure from powerful Iran-backed Shia militias to end the presence of US troops in Iraq.

The prison attack serves as a sharp reminder about the challenges of combating Sunni extremists like ISIS and the readiness of Iraqi security forces to repel terror attacks.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Deadly ISIS prison break attempt fuels fears of the group's resurgence"
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said on Friday that candidates vying for any electoral position in 2023 must declare their bank statements.

Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, represented by a National Commissioner, Kunle Ajayi, stated this in Abuja during a policy roundtable conference on political campaign finance.

Ajayi noted that the Commission would set up monitoring committees like Central Bank of Nigeria, DSS, EFCC, the ICPC, (commercial) banks and other law enforcement agencies to monitor the expenditure of candidates during the campaign period.

He said: As long as we have not notified anybody that the race to the 2023 general election has started, we are not unaware of what anybody is doing. We follow the law strictly.

We have not officially declared notice for the 2023 general election, but when we do declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the Central Bank of Nigeria, DSS, EFCC, the ICPC, (commercial) banks and other law enforcement agencies. We have that plan already.

Every candidate must be made to declare his bank asset. That is where they draw out their money, so we will make them present their statement of account right from the onset.

We will make it mandatory for them to turn in their bank statement so that if they say they are doing billboards and the account remains the same, then there is a problem.

We are going to establish finance monitoring teams and they will be among the electorate but they (politicians and political parties) wont know.

We are going to do it in a way that the influence of money will be reduced because we want to make the electoral field a level playing ground for both rich and poor candidates and electorates. Everybody will go on an equal economic level so that you wont influence the voting pattern.
That Nigeria has had successful coups and counter coups, fair and near fair elections to the office of president is not an inadmissible fact. Again, one truth that can not be dismissed is that by each successful coup or election, the strength of nationalism drops dashingly. The hopes and enthusiasm raised in mind by citizens plummets with each victory declared. At the risk of sounding sectional or tribal, the victory of an Hausa or Yoruba contestant to the office of president in 2023 will continue to dampen the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians in Nigeria. If a departure from a usual method to solving a problem is a flicker of hope to getting new result, the realization by all Nigerian citizens that we no longer deserve an Hausa president or a Yoruba president but a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.

With good political party decisions, the presidency has reached four of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Among them, two (North East and South East) are still thirsty of power. If the post result of fair play is an absence of agitations leading to tensions, it is deserving for South East and North East of Nigeria to benefit from the same political party decisions which encouraged South West, North Central, North West, and South-South to power.

Nigeria is a marriage of the Northern and Southern protectorates which has been fractured into six political zones. There has been this party constitutional understanding which has it that presidential powers shall be exchanged between the North and South. This arrangement has, since the return to democratic rule in 1999, seen power dangle between the two poles such that by 2023, it should swing to the South to produce a candidate to the office of the president of Nigeria. Being the turn of the South, equity demands that the South East (which is the only zone among the three zones of the South to produce the president) produce the president in 2023 while power returns to the North East by 2031.

Nigeria will definitely not seize to exist if we do the rightful thing as such. The worst will only befall us if we continue to neck deep in selfishness, tribalism and power drunkenness. The Nigeria political elites are not bereft of the knowledge of the right things that will put this country in the right direction but little will one doubt that a good number of them are desperate to have themselves and their croniess call the tunes at the expense of peace and unity of the entire country.

Which among a triplet will be filled with joy if it is not treated and given opportunities as given to its other triun? South East has been patient enough and shouldn't blame harshly for measures adopted to call the attention of all and sundry to her political ordeal.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has come all out to contravene its constitutional principle of rotating power between the North and South. All Progressive Congress (APC) should take the line of legacy thereby shifting power to the South, even microzone it to the southeast. While PDP is desperate and willing to sacrifice the South that has given her true loyalty since 1999, APC should realize that the South will go for the hand that sings the carrots.

Presidency tilting in the direction of the South at this time is convenient as the South East will present a ready contender who is ripe prepared to lead the country as a president for all zones. Orji Uzor Kalu is a season Nigerian politician whose beyond political life crisscrosses the length and breadth of Nigeria and has won great followership and loyalty among the high and low of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. He started and has been leading a political social and religious life as a pan Nigerian.

It has become evident that the lingering demand of South Eastern Nigeria is an opportunity to preside over the affairs of the country as president. Since their hopes have been raped by PDP which they gave all against odds, they will not let this opportunity slip their fingers. With a virulent contender as the candidate of APC, more South Eastern and Southern states will flip from PDP because this is the first time a ruling party is giving South East to go-ahead to produce a president.

Izuoma Ibe Writes from FCT, Abuja, Nigeria via [email protected]
Free trading under the auspices of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) officially started in January 2021. One year later, several aspects of the trade pact are being successfully implemented as negotiations are ongoing in other areas. In part one of this interview with Kingsley Ighobor, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat Mr. Wamkele Mene discusses progress, ongoing negotiations and provides a sneak peek of what to expect in 2022. These are excerpts.

Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General AfCFTA Secretariat.

What is your assessment of the journey so far since the beginning of free trading in January 2021, and what are your top three accomplishments?

The African Heads of State declared that we start trading under the rules of the AfCFTA on the 1st of January 2021. And since then, we've reached several important milestones.

First, the number of countries that ratified the agreement increased. We now have 39 state parties to the agreement. This makes it the fastest instrument to be ratified in the African Union. It demonstrates the seriousness and commitment that our Heads of State have for market integration.

Second, we have reached about 87.8 per cent agreement on the rules of origin, which is a very high consensus threshold. There are close to 8,000 products under the World Customs Organisation's Harmonized System of rules of origin and tariffs, and we have reached agreements on more than 80 per cent of those products.



Message to traders on tariff book.

Going forward, for products where we have agreements, people will be able to trade with certainty and predictability based on the rules of origin that apply. This is important for industrialization and the certainty and predictability of the market.

Another important milestone is that we have operationalized the Protocol on Dispute Settlement. We are in the process of negotiating rules for appointing members of the appellate body of the dispute-settlement body. This sends a signal that Africa is ready to be bound by the rules of trade law, which will boost intra-African trade and investment.

So, we've made progress, but of course, much remains to be done.

What key challenges have you encountered?

The biggest challenge is that we have 55 countries on the African continent with differentials in levels of economic development and differentials in levels of industrial capacity. Some countries are ready from an industrial capacity point of view to export immediately under AfCFTA rules and some countries will need more time.

Also, we have an annex on trade facilitation, on transit, and on harmonized customs procedures rules. But when it comes to enforcement capacity of the harmonized rules, countries are at different levels of readiness.

So, we must keep working to build the capacity of our customs authorities so that they can enforce the rules of origin.

But what do you say to a trader in Accra who wants to export goods to Cote dIvoire and still encounters considerable tariff and non-tariff barriers?

In February 2022, we will publish what we call the AfCFTA tariff book, which will include rules of origin and the customs procedures that apply to products. Traders will be able to identify in that tariff book their specific products, know what rules of origin apply to each product and associated tariffs.



Rules of origin.

You may ask why it wasn't done earlier. That's because negotiations were still ongoing. Now that we have reached agreements on over 87 per cent of tariff lines, I think that we are in a good position to start trading based on what we have agreed on.

I would also say that no trade agreement is ever concluded and implemented at the same time. Typically, trade agreements are negotiated in phases and implemented in phases. And so, this [AfCFTA] will not be any different from trade agreements around the world. Trade agreements are very complex, very technical, and have far-reaching obligations for countries that negotiate them. Countries tend to take a lot of time to deliberate on the implications and the obligations that they are undertaking. So, I'm not particularly worried. On the contrary, I think that we have a lot to celebrate.

On the rules of origin, you do not have to wait until you reach 100 per cent agreement on all the products ?

No, because that can take even longer. The Heads of State were very clear: start trading based on the progress that you have achieved. And we intend to do that with the publication of the AfCFTA tariff book early in 2022.

What about e-commerce and intellectual property rights? How are negotiations going?

We have started the preliminary process, the technical working groups are convening, the meetings, the negotiating sessions are going on. Phase Two negotiations comprise competition policy, investment protection and intellectual property rights. Of course, COVID-19 has been a barrier. We are meeting virtually, where possible, but we have a clear directive to conclude the negotiations on Phase Two, including the rules that are required for intellectual property rights, by the end of 2022. This is very important as we've seen with the pandemic in digital tradewe've seen the importance of e-commerce and of having rules that govern trading on digital platforms.



We have a lot to celebrate.

How much impact has the pandemic had on your operations as a Secretariat and the implementation of the AfCFTA in a broader sense?

The pandemic has had a very severe impact on the operations of the Secretariat. I was elected at the start of the pandemic, and I spent the first seven-and-a-half months of my tenure in a lockdown situation. We were not able to do much. Some 42 countries in Africa were in a full or partial lockdown. But we kept pushing, and we are making progress.

There are two lessons that we should draw: the first lesson is, the pandemic has underscored the importance of Africa accelerating industrial development, self-sufficiency and the establishment of regional value chains across the continent. We are not saying that we need to disconnect from global value chains, but we need to accelerate our self-sufficiency so when there are these border restrictions, when there are export restrictions on germ-killing products, on masks, on personal protection equipment required to fight a pandemic, that we are self-sufficient.

The second lesson would be to make sure that the rules on intellectual property rights serve Africa's industrial development and Africa's public health imperatives; that the legal framework of the AfCFTA, of the intellectual property rights, supports the capacity to produce vaccines without patent violations and enables Africa to establish its generic drug industry without the constraints presented by intellectual property rights.

What is the status of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a platform that should facilitate free trading?

We will launch the PAPSS on the 13th of January 2022 in Accra, Ghana. We have been working with Afreximbank to establish the PAPSS, and we started with a pilot in six countries in West Africa. Afreximbank is providing liquidity for the settlements and the technology. We're providing the legal framework for the platform that will be legally tied and anchored in the AfCFTA.



Lessons from the pandemic.

We are very excited about the potential that this payment system has. We have over 42 currencies in Africa. The cost of currency convertibility annually is estimated to be about $5 billion. We want to reduce and eventually eliminate that cost because it constrains our SMEs' competitiveness and makes trade costly and inaccessible to many SMEs and young entrepreneurs.

Do you mean from January 2022 traders will be able to use that platform?

That is correct. At Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat, we want to make sure that from January 2022, African countries that intend to switch to the platform can do so. We want to start in earnest trading in local currencies.

Recently, the AfCFTA Secretariat and UNDP released The Futures Report 2021, which identifies value chains that African entrepreneurs can take advantage of. Is it not too early to canvass these value chains, given that free trading is not necessarily in full swing?

I don't think it's too early to start looking at those value chains, because if you are a trader or an exporter, or an economic operator, it can take a year or two to establish supply chains into new markets.

As you know, we hosted, along with the Afreximbank, the Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban [South Africa] in November 2021 and one of the objectives of the trade fair was to facilitate the process of traders in Africa establishing supply chain networks and business connectivity so that with a tariff book in front of them for a particular market, they would already have the right networks to start trading.

So, we are very excited about the collaboration with the UNDP. We identified about 10 value chains in the report for our young entrepreneurs and SMEs run by women. The success stories from the surveys carried out leading to the launch of the report are very encouraging.

The next step is to match the young entrepreneurs, the SMEs, with investment opportunities in new markets. Early in 2022, we will host a summit where we will be doing that. We will identify certain value chains and say, here's an SME run by a young woman or a young entrepreneur, we want investors to help, to invest in the value chain, and to create export opportunities.
Free counselling for foreign retirees

BANGKOK: Thailand is stepping up its assistance for foreign retirees and their Thai spouses by providing free counselling on inheritance and other legal issues under international laws.

immigrationdeath

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 22 January 2022, 08:44AM

A man takes a stroll in Benchasiri Park on Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok. Photo: Bangkok Post / file

This support is being carried out by the Office of International Peoples Rights Protection, which falls under the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), reports the Bangkok Post.

The kingdom has become a popular destination for foreign retirees to spend the rest of their days, where they can enjoy its advanced healthcare system, low cost of living, good weather and culture.

In cases where the foreign retiree tends to marry a Thai spouse, they can face problems including inheritance issues when they divorce or if their spouse dies.

To deal with such matters, Charkrawan Saengkhae, executive director of the aforementioned office, said the OAG is now providing a free counselling service.

Apart from inheritance issues, they can consult about matters related to their childrens nationality, conscription for male offspring, and domestic violence.

As a basic rule, Mr Charkrawan said all healthy males with Thai citizenship who reside in Thailand are required to report to a conscription officer when they reach age 20.

Most Thais dont realise that our regulations prohibit children who are born in the kingdom from holding multiple citizenships. The Nationality Act states that when they turn 20, they must decide whether to keep their Thai citizenship or not, Artra Khunthongjan of OAG said, adding foreign spouses are more likely to take their adopted children or stepchildren back to their home country before reaching this age.

Many foreigners have asked the Consular Affairs Department for help in numerous cases. We have also provided assistance in the event of deaths or road accidents, and also transferred cases to their country of origin, Mr Artra added.

Pol Capt Tippiroon Suwannakul of the OAG referred to a 2019 case when the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service asked the office to search for a tourist who had gone missing on Koh Samui, as his wife also had inheritance issues to deal with. The office asked a local court to grant her the rights she needed to resolve this, she said.

We dont provide help to Thais who live in other countries, but we do for foreigners in Thailand in accordance with international human rights laws and related human rights conventions, Pol Capt Tippiroon said.
Phuket Immigration extends visas for tourists stuck in Hotel Isolation

PHUKET: Phuket Immigration Chief Col Thanet Sukchai is having officers visit hotels to ensure that tourists are not caught out by their permits to stay in Thailand expiring while they are observing the mandatory 10-day Hotel Isolation after testing positive for COIVD-19.

COVID-19Coronavirustourismimmigration

By The Phuket News

Saturday 22 January 2022, 10:00AM

Branded as proactive action on visa extensions for tourists, the move is being promoted as a convenience that builds trust and takes care of tourists.

In the overall picture at the moment, Omicron is still spreading abroad quite high, and some of the tourists who travel to Thailand may be carriers, Col Thanet said.

But Phuket has a screening system that checks tourists on Day 0 at the airport. If they test negative, the visitors can travel as usual in the Sandbox system [allowed to leave their hotel rooms but not allowed to leave Phuket], he added.

But during the second [COVID] test on Day 5 or Day 6 [of their stay] many tourists are testing positive. Col Thanet noted.

Therefore, they have to be brought under the treatment process according to public health measures, either in Hotel Quarantine or High Risk Contact quarantine. But during the quarantine period, the tourist visa period may be nearing its expiration and the tourists are unable to travel [to the Phuket Immirgation Office] to extend the visa by themselves.

Therefore, Phuket Immigration is proactive in providing visa extension services, which is convenient for tourists by coordinating with accommodation operators where tourists have been detained for a period of one week, he said.

This takes care of tourists who are infected and staying under the health system at more than 200 hotels, and includes explaining and clarifying [the measures] to tourists who do not understand the overall picture, he added.
Scream like the days of old

For a generation of cinema fans Scream was the film that got them hooked on horror. At a time when the slasher horror was starting to go through a bit of a resurgence the original Scream film stood out from the rest because of the fact director Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Kevin Williamson (I Know What You Did Last Summer) used the film to almost mock the tropes of what made a slasher film a slasher film.



By David Griffiths

Saturday 22 January 2022, 11:00AM

Old Ghostface is back. Image: IMDB

But the film wasnt a parody, oh no Craven and Williamson did something that cinema had never seen before. They exposed popular horror tropes but still made this a film with an original story and characters likable enough for horror fans to fall in love with.

Somewhere down the line though Scream films started to take themselves way too seriously. That wit that saw the original film almost have a go at the genre it rested nicely in was gone, but thankfully now with Scream (2022) it feels like directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (Ready or Not) and Tyler Gillett (Devils Due) have had enough of the rot and once again we have a Scream film with a contained story that is also self-aware of where it sits within modern-day horror.

This time around the murders seem to be occurring around Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera  In The Heights) who hastily makes a trip back to Woodsboro after her sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega  Iron Man 3), is attacked by the brand-new Ghostface killer.

Urged on by Taras friends and her boyfriend, Richie (Jack Quaid  Rampage), Sam decides that the only way they can get to the bottom of who Ghostface is is to bring in those who have been there in the past, starting with the now-retired Dewey Riley (David Arquette  Never Been Kissed). At first Dewey doesnt want to get involved, but once he realises just how serious things are he is straight on the phone to warn his ex-wife Gale (Courtney Cox  Friends) and original victim Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell  Wild Things) that Ghostface is on the run again.

It is almost an impossible task to review Scream 5, because on one hand the plot and premise of the film is paper thin, but to be honest on the other hand it is also one hell of a smart ride. Screenwriters James Vanderbilt (Independence Day: Resurrection) and Guy Busick (Read or Not) bring back the magic of the original film by taking a fair swipe at the tropes that we have come to expect with re-boots or re-quels as they are becoming known. They also have a fair bit to say about the so-called intelligent horror films that seem to have replaced good old slasher films in cinemas.

In a way Scream (2022) does exactly what the original Scream did. It not only makes a statement about horror today but its characters almost parody what you would expect to see in a re-boot, but at the same time the film has a plot that is completely contained within the film. The great thing about that is that while the film is very self-aware of itself and at times the characters speak like they know they are characters in a film nothing trips up the plot and once again we have a Scream film that is a fun whodunit.

Also to the credit of the screenwriters, the film also ties in the characters from the past remarkably well. Unlike other franchises that have tried to bring old-school characters back into new releases, the screenwriters have kept the characters true to what we have known them to be in the past and they are there to move the story along. not just to get the actors names in the credits.

Acting-wise, many of the cast step up and deliver exactly what they need to do for such a film. Jasmin Savoy Brown (For The People) steals the show as the horror-film-obsessed Mindy while returning veteran David Arquette puts in one of the most emotionally driven performances ever seen in the Scream franchise. Its certainly a surprise to see such a performance in a stock-standard slasher but Arquette is certainly up to the task.

Scream (2022) is a reminder of just how fun cinema can be. Does it make a statement about the world today? No. Does it make a statement about the horror films that we are watching now? Hell, yes! The film is full of likable characters, has a witty script and is fun enough to have you guessing who is the killer and whose pulse will stop next.

Scream (2022) is currently screening in Phuket and is rated 18.

4/5 Stars

David Griffiths has been working as a film and music reviewer for over 20 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. You can follow him at www.facebook.com/subcultureentertainmentaus
Telecomms commission discusses 5G coverage in Phuket

PHUKET: Officials from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) were in Phuket yesterday (Jan 21) to monitor, evaluate and discuss the state of telecommunications across the island, with a specific focus on 5 infrastructure and connectivity.

CoronavirusCOVID-19technology

By The Phuket News

Saturday 22 January 2022, 11:51AM

Colonel Dr. Peerawat Promkladpanao from the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the NBTC led a team at the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa and met with local representatives from public and private sector entitites to hear their opinions on the state of telecommunications island-wide.

The principle issues that were covered during the meeting included 5G coverage and connectivity, with the possibility of a 5G testing centre being discussed. Additionally, the accelerated deployment of underground communication cables, the implementation and organisation of communication cables on power poles and the allocation and auction of 700 MHZ, 2600 MHZ and 26 GHZ spectrums were raised.

Col. Peerawat said that his teams inspection revealed that 5G signal coverage in Phuket 5G is about 80-90% although there are certain areas where connectivity is weak or non-existant such as those that may be blocked by mountains. He added that 5G connectivity in most provinces nationwide is strong and reliable.

Almost all networks can use the 5G service, but there may be some problems in certain provinces, he said.

Where the signal is weak in certain areas may be down to the fact that 5G network coverage rights were auctioned to selected mobile providers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing problems in the subsequent two year period has meant installation problems.

In situations like this where 5G signals and connectivity are disrupted or non-existant the NBTC has pledged to have the relevant mobile operators expedite the process to ensure signal coverage is expanded as per conditions specified in any relevant contracts, Col. Peerawat stated.

He added that another major issue is that of telecommunication lines including a move to have more moved underground, something that is being addressed by the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with the NBTC to ensure that all mobile operators can provide reliable communication lines and connectivity.

Many provinces including Phuket have already begun to bury communication cables underground, Col. Peerawat stated.

The information covered in the discussion will be summarised into a report and analysed by Thammasat University to reflect the performance of NBCT and to establish guidelines for the work to be carried out moving forward.

Yesterdays meeting came after it was recently revealed that Phuket internet connections have been straining from an increase of as much as 25% in internet usage following the work from home mandate being issued.

Internet connection speeds across Phuket have slowed noticeably over recent weeks, with dropped connections and very slow loading times for web pages. An increase in those working from home, remote workers, home-schooling and an increase in tourist numbers to the island have been the dominant factors behind this.

When contacted by The Phuket News, a representative of the Phuket National Telecom office noted that slower connection speeds were most common during the peak hours between 7pm and 9pm on the cheaper packages provided by internet providers but made no mention of connection speeds affecting businesses during the daytime.
Turtle lays first eggs of the year at Ao Sane Beach

PHUKET: Officals have confirmed that a green sea turtle laid over 100 eggs late last night (Jan 21) at Ao Sane beach in the south of the island.

animalswildlifemarinetourismCoronavirusCOVID-19

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Saturday 22 January 2022, 04:19PM

Officlas keep watch over the turtle and her nest. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos confirmed it is the first time a turtle has laid her eggs on Phuket shores this year.

The turtle had come ashore around 11pm on Thursday and was spotted by a witness, Mr Wichai Phonrob, who alerted officials from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

The officials soon found the turtle who had crawled further up the beach away from the water to dig a pit in the sand to lay her eggs.

Officials confirmed she started laying her eggs around 9:23pm last night, concluding the spawning process around 12:28am this morning. Once she had concluded laying the eggs, the mother turtle returned to the ocean although officials did manage to safely take her measurements before she disappeared, confirming a body length of 1.2 metres, a body width of 75cm and a body weight of 100 kilogrammes.

After checking the nest, officials confirmed that there was a total of 125 fertile eggs which were since reloacted to a local research centre for incubation and to afford a greater probability of survival.

Mayor Solos was delighted with the news and successful outcome, posting clips of the incident on social media which many residents shared and commented positively on.

He added that the general condition and health of the environment and natural resources had drastically improved in the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic with a significant cut in tourist numbers and associated pollution levels.

There were numerous cases of turtles returning to Phukets shores in the past 18 months to lay their eggs. Eight hatchlings from the first olive ridley turtle nest known to be laid on Mai Khao Beach in 20 years hatched and were released to the sea last April and the case of a supermum turtle last February who had laid four separate nests delighted Marine wildlife officers.

There were many other instances during the period where tourism slowed as COVID allowed wildlife a much needed breather.

Their nesting has improved in the last two years thanks to the absence of tourists, noise and light pollution, Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, director of the Phuket Marine Biological Center, told AFP last month.

We had never seen such a number in 20 years.
Cancellation of visa regime between Azerbaijan and Serbia was discussed at a meeting of Azerbaijani Parliaments committee on international relations and inter-parliamentary relations on Jan. 21, Trend reports referring to the parliament.

The cancellation issue has been reflected in the bill On approval of the agreement on the mutual cancellation of visa requirements for holders of foreign passports between Azerbaijani and Serbian governments.

Following the discussions, the bill was recommended for consideration at the plenary session.
(CNN)  Picture a not-too-distant future when you can book that summer trip to Italy or you don't have to remember to take off your mask for graduation photos. After the past 25 months, forgetting the pandemic for even a little while may sound like a fantasy  after all, the coronavirus has gotten our hopes up before.

But infectious disease experts say there just may be an end in sight. Maybe.

Well, let's say it's not outside the realm of possibility for 2022.

"I think if we do it right, we're going to have a 2022 in which Covid doesn't dominate our lives so much," said Dr. Tom Frieden, who was director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama and is now the CEO and president of Resolve to Save Lives.

What the next part of the pandemic looks like and when it will get there are what Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at Stanford Medicine, and experts at federal agencies, academic colleagues and local public health leaders spent the holidays trying to figure out.

There was a general consensus among the experts about what happens next: "We really don't know exactly," Maldonado said.

There are disease models and lessons from pandemics past, but the way the highly infectious Omicron variant popped up meant the scientists' proverbial crystal ball got a little hazy.

"None of us really anticipated Omicron," Maldonado said. "Well, there were hints, but we did not expect it to happen exactly the way it did."

Omicron has done a lot. More than a quarter of the COVID-19 pandemic's total cases in the United States have been reported in the past month, during the Omicron surge, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As of Thursday, cases dropped at least 10% compared with last week in 14 states, but 26 states saw cases rise at least 10%, according to Johns Hopkins data.

The wave seems to have peaked in some areas where the Omicron variant first hit in the US, like Boston and New York. But it's still raging out of control in other parts of the country.

In Georgia, for instance, medical leaders in metro Atlanta said hospitals remain overwhelmed. With so many staff out sick, the National Guard now fills in the health care gaps in states like Minnesota. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the "tremendous" amount of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths has resulted in "as much as we've ever had in the state of Louisiana."

Infectious disease experts, however, see hope in what has happened in South Africa.

"South Africa's kind of our canary in the coal mine because they were able to pick up the Omicron variant first," Maldonado said.

South African scientists first spotted the variant in November. Cases there peaked and fell off quickly. They did the same in the UK. And that's what experts think will happen everywhere.

"I anticipate in the short run  being the next six weeks, four to six weeks  that it's still going to be pretty rough," said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert in infectious diseases and vaccinology and clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health. "It will be about the middle of February before we start to really see that things are getting better."

If this spike flames out quickly, many experts think, there could be a "quiet period."

Swartzberg believes March through spring or into summer will be like last year, with a continued decline in the number of cases. "There will be a sense of optimism, and then we will be able to do more things in our lives," Swartzberg said. "I think May or June is going to really look up for us. I'm quite optimistic."

Part of his optimism stems from the fact that there will be a much larger immune population, between the increasing number of people who are vaccinated and boosted, and those who've caught COVID-19 during the Omicron surge.

"Generally speaking, the level of immunity in our population is going to be much higher than it was going into the Omicron pandemic, and that's going to help us not only with Omicron and Delta, if they're still circulating, but it will also help us with any new variants," Swartzberg said. "To what degree will depend on the availability of medicines to intervene."

That's because the coronavirus will probably never go away completely.

"I fully anticipate another version of the virus to come back," Maldonado said. "Those are the scenarios that really bring uncertainty to what comes next."

The next variant

The next variant could be equally or even more transmissible than Omicron. It could give people more severe symptoms  or no symptoms at all.

"It's not at all clear what comes next," said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He said the virus could mutate gradually, like what happened with the Alpha and Beta variants. Or it could make a really large jump, like with Delta and Omicron. "What's next? It's a crapshoot."

The H1N1 flu virus, for example, was a novel virus when it started one of the worst pandemics in history in 1918  it infected one-third of the world's population and killed 50 million of them.

That pandemic eventually ended, but the virus is still with us today.

"That was the great-great-grandparent of all the H1N1 viruses we see every year," Maldonado said. "They've had many mutations since then, but it is from the same strain. So it's possible that this virus will do a similar thing."

The US still loses an average of about 35,000 people a year with the flu, according to the CDC. "And we go on with our lives," Swartzberg said. "I don't think it will ever go back to what it was, exactly."

Maldonado says "that's the best-case scenario."

With this flu-like scenario, the world needs to focus on protecting those vulnerable to severe disease, on making sure they get vaccinated and have access to monoclonal antibodies and antivirals, Maldonado said. Vaccine companies would need to make variant-specific vaccines so people can get a Covid-19 shot every year. The country also has to make testing better.

"The oral drugs and the monoclonals are no good unless you know you're Covid-positive," Swartzberg said.

The in-between scenarios would be if there aren't enough antivirals or monoclonals to treat the people who get sick, or if vaccine manufacturers can't make variant-specific vaccines fast enough.

The worst-case scenario is if a variant escapes the protection of vaccines and treatments.

"I think that's less likely to happen," Maldonado said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes that scenario doesn't come to pass. "I can't give you a statistic what the chance of that happen, but we have to be prepared for it.

"So we hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

'Choose Your Own Adventure' out of the pandemic

The US already has the tools to limit new variants and end the pandemic quickly, Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos says.

"I don't think we need any more scientific breakthroughs, we know how to stop severe Covid: vaccines," said Galiatsatos, an assistant professor of medicine and expert in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Face masks and testing also help.

Galiatsatos does hundreds of talks each year with community groups to encourage more people to get vaccinated. He thinks scientist will have to continue this outreach.

"We have the weapons to transform Covid into nothing but a bad cold," Galiatsatos said. "We have the science. All people will need is access to the interventions, and we need to regain trust."

Only about a quarter of the US population is fully vaccinated and boosted, according to the CDC. The more people who are unvaccinated, the more end up in the hospital. The more cases, the more opportunity for dangerous new variants.

"That's why it's like a 'Choose Your Own Adventure,' " Galiatsatos said. "And I am choosing the kind that puts us in a better frame of mind that we reach people and get more people vaccinated and can end this pandemic and learn to adapt to this."

This story was first published on CNN.com "After the Omicron wave, here's what experts say could come next in 2022"
THE SHORTHORN is accepting applications

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In recent months, several drugs have shown promise in the treatment of COVID-19 outpatients to reduce the risk of serious complications. Although vaccines are effective in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, they remain inaccessible in many parts of the world and are shunned by a proportion of the population.

Furthermore, breakthrough infections are possible with newer variants. It is therefore urgent to integrate effective and affordable drugs into the therapeutic arsenal to reduce the risk of hospitalization and, ultimately, save lives. Doctors now face a difficult decision: how do they choose between the different drugs that have been tested in clinical trials since the beginning of the pandemic?

To get a clearer picture of the options available, researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) compiled the results of clinical trials of all ambulatory therapies to date and assessed their effectiveness and cost per hospitalization avoided. For each treatment, they determined the number of patients who would need to be treated to avoid one hospitalization and the associated cost of the drugs. Their findings are now published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

According to their study results, for an estimated 5 per cent risk of hospitalization in the general population, the most effective drug is nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (known as Paxlovid and developed by Pfizer), with one hospitalization averted per 24 patients treated, at a cost of $12,720. The least effective is colchicine, with one hospitalization averted per 87 patients treated. The least expensive, however, is fluvoxamine, a common antidepressant, with a cost per hospitalization averted of $1,122 for 80 patients treated, and the most expensive, casirivimab/imdevimab, with a cost per hospitalization averted of $60,900 for 29 patients treated, and with the caveat that this drug is no longer effective against the Omicron variant.

Remdesivir (developed by Gilead) and sotrovimab (a monoclonal antibody compound developed by GlaxoSmithKline) each cost about $52,000, with 28 and 25 patients respectively needing to be treated to avoid one admission. Finally, the study suggests that 50 patients would need to be treated with molnupiravir (developed by Merck) to avoid hospitalization, at a cost of $35,000.

Available drugs, whether repurposed or new, differ in efficacy, toxicity, cost and complexity of administration. We felt it was important to conduct this study to facilitate comparative decision-making regarding treatment choice, stated the study's senior author, Dr. Emily McDonald, a scientist in the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the RI-MUHC and an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University.

Drugs that we can prescribe to prevent hospitalization and that cost less than an average COVID-19 hospitalization, estimated at $21,752, include nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, fluvoxamine, inhaled corticosteroids and colchicine, adds lead study author Dr. Todd C. Lee, a scientist in the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the RI-MUHC and an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. Anti-spike monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir are much more expensive, and in addition to only being available in relatively limited quantities, they are more complex to obtain and administer. In some countries without access to these more expensive treatments, the choice is between supportive care and affordable repurposed drugs to treat COVID-19, such as fluvoxamine and inhaled corticosteroids.

Increased benefits in at-risk populations

The researchers point out that the higher the individual risk of COVID-19 worsening, whether due to age or other factors related to the patient's initial health status, the greater the absolute benefit of the drugs and the lower the cost.

Essentially, at the right price or if prescribed to a high enough risk individual, most drugs on this list have the potential to be cost-saving to the system as a whole. Accurate country specific models for prediction of hospitalization risk will be essential in contextualizing and maximizing the benefits of any therapy, write the authors of the study.

The study Outpatient Therapies for COVID-19: How do we choose? was conducted by Todd C. Lee, Andrew M. Morris, Steven A. Grover, Srinivas Murthy and Emily G. McDonald.

 RI-MUHC

 AB
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy with occasional light rain throughout the day. High 14C. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 4C. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Zen Buddhist monk leader Thich Nhat Hanh prays during a three-day requiem for the souls of Vietnam War victims in April 2007 in Hanoi.
EDWARDSVILLE  Madison County has filed a lawsuit to stop the state from dividing the Third Judicial Circuit into four subcircuits.

Madison County States Attorney Tom Haine on Saturday announced he has filed a lawsuit to halt the enforcement of the recently-enacted House Bill 3138 splitting the circuit, which includes Madison and Bond counties, into four subcircuits.

The suit seeks a temporary restraining order "barring defendants from taking any steps to enforce or institute" the new law until the court can consider the county's request for preliminary injunction.

The county was joined in the lawsuit by Christina Wiley of Bethalto, a pro se plaintiff (a person not represented by a licensed attorney). The suit was filed in Sangamon County; a hearing on the issue could be scheduled as early as next week.

Defendants include Gov. J.B. Prtizker, Illinois Supreme Court Clerk Cynthia Grant and the Illinois State Board of Elections, which includes Tonya Genovese

This subcircuit law has serious Constitutional issues, and is being rushed forward in a reckless way, Haine said.

We are arguing that a pause is warranted here to let clearer heads prevail," he said. "With this pause, our upcoming 2022 judicial elections can be held county-wide, as they have always been, while the courts closely review this very dubious new subcircuit scheme.

On Jan. 13, following a special Madison County Board meeting on the new subcircuits, Haine indicated the lawsuit was imminent. The board voted 21-2, with five absent, at that meeting to condemn the state law signed Jan. 7 by Pritzker that divides the Third Judicial Circuit into four subcircuits.

The bill, amended and passed within hours on Jan. 5 by both houses of the General Assembly, required candidates for one of the new Madison County subcircuits to begin circulating nominating petitions on Thursday, Jan. 13.

Current judges Amy Sholar and Christopher Threlkeld, both Republicans, had previously announced they would seek retention in the November election that originally included the entire circuit. Because of the new law, within a week both established new residencies inside the newly created Subcircuit 1, a heavily Democratic region, so they could seek to continue their positions.

The suit states the act's "ambiguity and inconsistency place an undue burden on Madison County to interpret and successfully implement new subcircuits for the 2022 elections."

The suit argues Madison County "will sustain substantial, irreparable harm by forcing the application of an unconstitutional law suddenly drafted and immediately applied here (but not other places in Illinois) without adequate review which will risk confusion and defects in the upcoming 2022 judicial election.

The suit also states the act is unconstitutional, ambiguous, and poorly-drafted and required to be implemented immediately with no time for a cleanup, clarification, or judicial review. The acts ambiguity and inconsistency place an undue burden on Madison County to interpret and successfully implement new subcircuits for the 2022 elections.

Wiley, in her filing, asks that implementation of the new law be stayed "until the many confusions" in the law are clarified.

"...All of the voters of Madison County should be able to vote to select their judicial candidates as they always have," her suit states. It notes that Madison County is the only county required to immediately implement subcircuits where they formerly did not exist.

State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Fosterburg, who voted against the bill, said Democrats in the General Assembly rushed the legislation through in the only day lawmakers have met during this session.

"The actual bill was filed at around 11:15 a.m. on Jan 5," she said in her district report that appeared Saturday in The Telegraph. "There was a brief hearing on the bill which began at around 1 p.m. that day.

"Later in the evening, a House bill was amended in the Senate, to pass this new map in the Senate," she said. "Then it passed the House, strictly on partisan lines, at around 10:30 p.m. that night. The governor quickly signed the bill on Jan. 7."

The new law created four judicial subcircuits effective immediately. The circuit has nine judges. Madison County's subcircuit change would begin with the June primary and November elections in Subcircuit 1  a strongly Democrat area. Ensuing elections would depend on vacancies and their subcircuits, meaning some Madison County residents may not get to vote for a judicial post for many years.

The suit states that the licensed Madison County attorneys in Subcircuits 2 and 3 will not be able to file candidacy petitions or appear on the ballot, and be elected to a subcircuit judicial vacancy, until at least 2024 "but more than likely 2026 or beyond."

The suit also states that Madison County's Geographic Information System site contains an initial representation of the boundaries of Subcircuit 1, but it "does not have proper resolution," nor does it correspond to the precincts and census blocks listed in the law. Instead, it uses information from the Democrats Redistricting Committees' Google map.

The suit states the county will have to create new ballots for the June primary and November election because the current ones are based on old precincts. It states a complete redrafting, reformatting and reprocessing of voter registration cards will be necessary because of the law.

The law also created new subcircuits in the Seventh Judicial Circuit which includes Morgan, Sangamon, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin and Scott counties. Those changes, however, do not take effect until 2024.

Madison County Republicans claim dividing the Third Judicial Circuit disenfranchises two-thirds of its voters in the next judicial election. They said Chief Circuit Judge William Mudge, a Democrat, was not consulted about the subcircuits.

The bill originally dealt with court security and was introduced in the House in February 2021 by state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville. It was originally sponsored in the Senate by state Sen. Rachelle Crowe, D-Glen Carbon.

Stuart and state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, voted for the legislation while Elik and state Reps. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville; Charles Meier, R-Okawville; and Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, voted no on the bill. Crowe voted yes on the bill, as did state Sens. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, and Chris Belt, D-Swansea. Voting no were state Sens. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, and Steve McClure, R-Springfield.
EDWARDSVILLE  Not many ninth-graders can say they have published a book, but Mariam Quaizar has written a story that is an inspiration to young Muslim Americans.

Donut Day in Ramadan, a childrens book written by Quaizar, a freshman at Edwardsville High School, tells the story of Zehra, a Muslim American girl in middle school.

It is Ramadan and Zehra is fasting the entire month, but Zehra has a major dilemma.

Donut Day is coming up and Zehra is faced with the ultimate choice  should she fast or should she eat donuts with her friends?

The story, which is set in Glen Carbon and Edwardsville, is based on real-life events.

This started as an extra-credit opportunity in my seventh-grade language arts class with Ms. (Cynthia) Hoxsey at Lincoln Middle School, Quaizar said. After I submitted it, my story was picked for the Illinois statewide Young Authors Conference.

I wanted to write a story about something that I had been through and it wasnt actually about donuts, but it was something along the lines of missing out. Since the book has been published, so many other Muslim kids have told me they can really relate to the difficulty of explaining fasting to their friends.

As noted on the books back cover, Dont Day in Ramadan is about Zehra navigating her friendships and her faith.

Zehra has a major dilemma and its important to understand why its a dilemma, Quaizar said. No matter what she does, its going to feel like shes missing out on something important. People around her may not understand what shes going through and thats what really motivated me to write this book.

Quaizar added that she was encouraged by parents, Dr. Huzaifa Quaizar and Saba Fatima (an associate professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), to write about her experiences and turn them into a childrens book.

They motivated me so much and I dont know what I would have done if they didnt do that, Quaizar said.

A family friend, Zahra Alebooyeh, did the illustrations for Donut Day in Ramadan.

Shes a friend of my moms sister and shes an artist, and she agreed to illustrate the book for me, Quaizar said. It was nice to have someone who was connected to my family be able to do that.

Once Quaizar started turning her story into book form, she went through a long editing and revising process before she completed the final draft.

I started about a month in advance before the deadline was due, and through that one month, I had many revisions, Quaizar said. When writing this book, because its based on real events, you have to make sure that the wording is proper, so nobody misunderstands something.

Donut Day is Ramadan available online through Amazon at Donut Day in Ramadan - Kindle edition by Quaizar, Mariam, Alebooyeh, Zahra. Children Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. The cost is $7.99 on Kindle or $9.99 on paperback.

Early online reaction to the book has been positive, with three readers giving it a five-star review:

This story is fun, well written, and informative. It is relatable not only to Muslims, but also anyone who feels they are different from everyone else in their own way. Would highly recommend this to readers of all ages and backgrounds.

The story is well thought of and relatable for kids. The story from children's perspective and follows their experience of living in the west. I would highly recommend this book to all Muslim children.

A wonderful book for Muslim children growing up in western countries.

Quaizar, meanwhile, noted that the book includes some phrases in Arabic or in Urdu. Urdu is the official national language of Pakistan and has 70 million native speakers.

In the back of the book, there is a glossary of some of the language terms that are used in Muslim households in reference to fasting, in both Arabic and Urdu. It explains all of those things in a little more detail," Quaizar said.

Ramadan, for example, is the name of the Islamic month when Muslims fast, and while its origins may lie in Arabic language, it is a term used by all Muslims. So many of the terms in the book are Arabic, but theyre basic terms that every Muslim knows and uses."

Having the book set in Glen Carbon and Edwardsville is especially meaningful to Quaizar, who was born in New York and lived briefly in Kentucky before calling Edwardsville her home.

My husbands family is from New York and I am originally from Pakistan,. said Saba Fatima, Quaizar's mother.

In addition to the five-star reader reviews on Amazon, Quaizar is equally pleased with the reception the book has gotten on a local level.

It makes me happy that a lot of people, Muslim kids especially, can relate to this, Quaizar said. I think its a big accomplishment for me in general. This book makes me want to write a second book about my experiences.

In addition to her writing talents, Quaizar is also an athlete and competed for the EHS girls cross country team last fall. She had hoped to go out for the girls track and field team this spring, but a hip injury will prevent her from running.

Hopefully, when I recover from this, Ill do cross country again next fall, Quaizar said. I love to read, and I just found out that I rank first out of 608 freshmen in my grade (academically), which is really surprising for me.

I also do martial arts. Im a brown belt now and Ill be testing for a black belt soon.

If Quaizar does write a second book, she will have no shortage of inspiration.

A lot of Muslim kids go through things because they feel different, Quaizar said. During cross country season, there was an experience that I want to write about. I hope that my first book inspires a lot of Muslim kids to speak out about their experiences as well.
(CNN)  A United Airlines flight bound for Tel Aviv turned around mid-flight Thursday evening due to unruly passenger behavior.

It's the second US flight in two days that has returned to its departure point because of poor behavior.

United flight 90 departed for Tel Aviv from Newark Liberty International Airport and returned to Newark nearly three hours later "due to disruptive passengers on board," United Airlines said in a statement. "Law enforcement officials met the aircraft upon landing."

The Port Authority Police Department responded to the incident. "No charges by PAPD were issued, no further incident or reported injuries," a spokesperson from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told CNN.

The flight, which was operating on a Boeing 787-10 with 123 customers and a crew of 11 on board, was canceled.

"Our team at New York/Newark have provided our customers with meal vouchers and hotel accommodation and have made arrangements for customers to complete their journeys," United said.

Flight tracking site FlightAware shows that the flight departed Newark at 11:03 p.m. Thursday and returned two hours and 46 minutes later at 1:49 a.m. Friday.

FlightAware's flight map shows that the aircraft turned around near the US/Canada border separating Maine and New Brunswick.

The turnaround came a day after a London-bound flight returned to Miami because a passenger refused to comply with the federal mask requirement.

Law enforcement met that flight in Miami, and "the passenger was then dealt with administratively by American Airlines staff," according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.

There have already been 151 unruly passenger reports logged this year, according to Federal Aviation Administration data through January 18. Of those, 92 were mask-related incidents. The agency's tracking site shows that 32 investigations have been initiated so far this year and 4 enforcement action cases have been initiated.

In January of last year, the FAA announced a "zero tolerance" policy for unruly passenger behavior that skips warnings or counseling and goes directly to penalties, which can include heavy fines and jail time.

It is unclear whether the passengers involved in the incident on United Airlines flight 90 on Thursday will face enforcement action from the FAA.

The FAA has civil authority to propose fines up to $37,000 per violation for unruly passenger cases. The agency does not have the authority for criminal prosecution.

The agency referred at least 37 cases for which it had initiated enforcement action to the FBI for criminal prosecution review last year.

Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening and closing, inspiration for future adventures and other travel developments.

This story was first published on CNN.com "United Airlines flight to Tel Aviv turns around due to 'disruptive passengers'"
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS  Hoping to make abortion care more accessible, a facility near St. Louis is set to be the first of its kind in providing financial assistance for travel-related costs.

A Regional Logistics Center was opened Friday in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights. Using private funds, the center will pay for travel and lodging arrangements and connect patients to resources and support organizations in all 50 states.

Together, we are breaking down the silos anti-abortion politicians have created, and proving that  with innovation and determination  we can secure a future with abortion access, Yamelsie Rodriguez, president of St. Louis Planned Parenthood, said during an opening event Friday.

Rodriguez said the RLC will be operated by Planned Parenthood and the Granite City-based Hope Clinic for Women in response to more restrictive abortion laws in other states and to the lack of access for women in rural areas.

Planned Parenthood and Hope Clinic have been planning for the center since 2019, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act which guarantees that reproductive health, including abortion, is a fundamental right in Illinois.

The idea that were protecting those rights with the Reproductive Health Act in the state is vital, Pritzker said Friday.

Since a soft opening in December, the center has provided 138 rides and flights and housed dozens of women in need of overnight stays.

Rodriguez is projecting an additional 14,000 women from conservative states are likely to travel to the region for abortion care if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide, is overturned.

With reproductive rights under attack across the United States, its never been more vital for the state of Illinois to ensure access to reproductive services, Pritzker said. Lets be loud and clear  abortion restrictions endanger women.

Saturday is the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Abortion access in conservative states such as Missouri, Texas and Arkansas has become more restrictive in recent years, leading women to travel in search of reproductive health care services.

The hardest part is knowing that these hurdles have been systematically manufactured by anti-abortion politicians whose goals are to ban abortion, said Kawanna Shannon, director of Patient Access for RLC. Access to abortion doesnt have to be like this.

Rodriguez said Planned Parenthood of St. Louis has seen steady annual increases in out-of-state patients traveling for abortion care.

Since a Texas abortion ban took effect in September 2021, Rodriguez said, more than $73,000 in financial assistance has helped more than 800 women travel to the southern Illinois facility. There has been a 40 percent increase in patient visits, she said.

This law just had a rippling effect that is causing all patients, even in states where abortion is still legal and available, to travel outside of their home state in order to find appointments, Rodriguez said.

There is no income or distance requirement to access RLC services. Patients must schedule an appointment with Reproductive Health Services or Hope Clinic for Women before contacting the RLC for logistical support.
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ORLANDO  Sometimes to honor someone, a person only needs on penny.

Jedd Price, of Florida, has been doing that  and then some.

Born in Alton and raised in Troy, Price is on a journey to place 100,000 pennies at the grave sites of veterans across the country. He said the idea came after he returned to Illinois in 2020 for Memorial Day. While visiting, he noticed that his grandfather's gravestone was dirty. He had come back a year later to clean it and had asked over Facebook if anyone had family in Florida where they would like to have the same done. But he received no responses.

"I thought, 'Well, I'll go honor 1,000 veterans on Memorial Day just as a way to honor a bunch of them instead of just one by cleaning it," Price said.

Throughout the rest of 2021, Price has placed pennies in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois and every national cemetery in Florida.

Price will be back in the Riverbend on Saturday, Jan. 29 to lay the last five of his pennies. Two are for his step-grandfathers, two are for his biological grandfathers, and one for his great-grandfather. He plans to visit visit Carrolton, Greenfield, Highland and Fairview Heights, .

Price said that, when he started his project, there was some struggle to get enough pennies because of coin shortages. This did not deter Price, who instead termed the challenge an "honor shortage."

"There's a love for veterans, but there's not a lot of active ways to kind of show respect," Price said. "I'm just trying to do something a little more tangible."

Price said that, since he started his journey he has received support from many people. His place of work, Auto Pay Plus, has helped him gather 41,000 pennies for his mission.

He's also met a lot of people, recalling in particular one widow of a veteran.

"Before leaving, she made a beeline for me with the biggest smile on her face and said, 'Keep doing what you're doing  and here's every last penny in my van.'"

Price said that, once he completes his 100,000-penny goal he plans to take up continue another project, though he is not sure what that will be.
A claim made at a Midland (MI) Public Schools board meeting was sharply refuted by the districts superintendent Thursday.

In a message sent out to the Michigan school's community by Superintendent Michael Sharrow, he denied that litter boxes were kept in bathrooms for student furries. This rumor was spread after a clip was spread from a Dec. 20 Board of Education meeting where a resident made this claim.

There is no truth whatsoever to this false statement/accusation! There have never been litter boxes within MPS schools, Sharrow said. It is such a source of disappointment that I felt the necessity to communicate this message to you.

At the meeting, Midland resident Lisa Kawiecki Hansen said she heard about the litter boxes from kids, and they were for kids who identified as cats. She added that she was really disturbed by this and that she will continue to investigate.

According to Merriam-Webster, a "furry" is a person who dresses up in a costume resembling anthropomorphic animals. Furries will design costumes of, make art of, and role-play as their characters, and do not identify as animals like Hansen claimed.

In this divisive/contentious world in which we currently find ourselves, I ask that if you hear wild accusations that dont sound like something in which your Midland Public Schools Board of Education, Administration, District would be part, take a moment to send an MPSConnect message to me, Sharrow said. Midland Public Schools' main emphasis was, is and always will be to educate our communitys children with excellence, integrity and respect.
John Badman

ALTON  One person was injured in a Friday morning accident in Alton.

Alton Fire Department paramedics took the driver of a Chevrolet Impala to an area hospital just before 9 a.m. Friday following an accident on Illinois 143 at the intersection with the Cpl. Chris Belchik Memorial Expressway in Alton.
ALTON  One person was hurt in a Friday evening accident in Alton.

At about 5 p.m. Friday, Alton police and firefighters were called to East Broadway where a Pontiac sedan ended up standing almost upright after it crashed at Allen Street.

The car went over a concrete retaining wall near the end of Allen Street.

The two occupants of the vehicle were able to escape out a rear window; one of the occupants was transported to a local hospital.

No other vehicles appeared to have been involved in the accident. Police were investigating the accident Friday evening.
SPRINGFIELD  Police chiefs and sheriffs told a panel of state lawmakers Friday that they need more resources and support from the public and the General Assembly to combat a rising rate of violent crime in Illinois. Some said they dont feel they are getting that now, especially in light of recently-enacted criminal justice reforms.

There are members in policing that believe that the community should have nothing to say about what we do in our profession, Hazel Crest Police Chief Mitchell Davis said. Conversely, there are members in the community that want nothing to do with police officers of any kind. All sides are entitled to feel the way that they feel. But until we are able to work together in spite of our differences, we will never fully reach our potential in equitably addressing the concerns of public safety and violence in all communities.

Davis spoke during a hearing of the House Public Safety and Violence Prevention Task Force, a group that House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Hillside, formed in September to develop a collaborative approach to the violence crisis.

Welch formed the task force as Chicago and many other cities were experiencing their most violent year in decades. Chicago alone had some 800 murders during the year, the most in the past quarter century.

The panel is co-chaired by Reps. LaShawn K. Ford and Frances Ann Hurley, both Chicago Democrats.

The increase in violent crime has come just after the General Assembly enacted a sweeping criminal justice reform package known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act that included, among other things, the scheduled elimination of cash bail in Illinois beginning next year.

When that law takes effect Jan. 1, 2023, courts will still be able to detain people they believe pose a risk to public safety, but those who are not detained will be released on conditions other than posting bond.

Ford was the chief House sponsor of that bill, which passed during a lame duck session in January 2021. It was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and it came about, in part, in response to a large number of police shootings of unarmed Black people, including the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the disproportionately large number of Blacks and Hispanics being held in jail awaiting trial because they could not afford the price of bail.

But it has come to be seen in some circles as part of a larger anti-law enforcement movement, and Republicans in the General Assembly have called for its repeal.

Lemont Police Chief Marc Maton said public criticism of policing in general has led to officers being less willing to take aggressive actions to stop crime.

Our cops aren't laying down, he said. They see the media, proposed legislation and community commentary, and they think that this is the role that's expected of them, and that the community wants a less aggressive approach to policing and is asking for this model of policing.

Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow said his department has been losing officers who get trained in Illinois but later move to work in other states that they perceive to be more supportive of law enforcement.

I've lost three officers to the state of Indiana in the last year, who are going to a state that they think is more supportive, he said. I recently had an officer who's talking about  accepting a job in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the same reason, because they believe that the state is more police friendly, more supportive of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said he believes the elimination of cash bail next year will only worsen the problem of violent crime.

Cashless bail has already proven in other states to not work and has increased violent crimes in those states to record numbers and made those states more violent and less safe, which is what we're trying to avoid, he said. Cashless bail will also increase interaction with police, something that I think the community wants to avoid.

But Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, said she believes people have misinterpreted what the elimination of cash bail is really about.

We are removing money as the factor of if we're going to detain somebody or not, she said. And with our current system  and this happens, unfortunately  people can buy their way out of jail pretrial, because somebody is making a decision that, you know, it'll cost them whatever $30,000 to get out.

Ford tried to dispel the idea that the SAFE-T Act was meant to be an anti-law enforcement measure or that he, personally, was anti-law enforcement.

Let me just say that I want to thank law enforcement for the things that you do every day to make our streets safer and to work with the communities, he said. I know that it is law enforcement that runs into the line of fire. If I'm in trouble, I'm calling the police. And we want to do everything to make sure that the police are strong, and make sure that the police are well educated as it relates to serving the people.
ALTON  Each week award-winning photographer John Badman of The Telegraph captures images of the Riverbend.

Here is a sampling of his photographs from this week. They also appear in the weekend issue of The Telegraph.
Columbus is considering public/private partnerships to help keep costs down for new single-family homes.

"The lack of housing is our biggest barrier to economic growth right now," Columbus City Administrator Tara Vasicek said.

Some of the top barriers to housing? Land prices and infrastructure costs.

Land and infrastructure costs are part of why Columbus has seen so more new units in the form of apartment complexes: An apartment building can house more people with less investment. But Vasicek said the unfulfilled desire in Columbus is for single-family homes for seniors and families.

"The city and our partners in the community, such as the Chamber, have talked for some time about putting together a development where we partner with local companies...and try and find a way to get lots on the market for more affordable prices," Vasicek said.

The idea would be that only reasonably-priced housing could be built on those lots. Vasicek said the city typically stays away from being the developer like that, but it's difficult to find developers willing to fund the high land and infrastructure costs.

"They wrap it into the price of the home, which escalates the (cost of the) house even further," Vasicek said.

The city has used rural workforce housing funds from the state to help subsidize housing development costs, but the need is still huge.

"We have over $3 million available (in rural workforce housing funds) for developers to build workforce housing and...there are good projects in the pipe, but even then there aren't a lot of...single-family detached homes," Vasicek said.

Rural workforce housing funds are also not a magic bullet.

"If you're building single family houses with (rural workforce housing funds), they have to be below $285,000 a unit. Being able to build that $285,000 unit is getting more and more difficult," Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce President Dawson Brunswick said. "The price of lumber has gone up, the price of concrete has gone up -- the price of everything has gone up. I know the (Nebraska) Department of Economic Development has already increased that number once. ... We can ask them to change it to $325,000, but is workforce housing really affordable at $325,000?"

NeighborWorks Northeast Nebraska CEO Roger Nadrchal said public involvement in housing development is becoming more common, and Brunswick said there was discussion at a recent housing committee meeting about other communities where public/private partnerships have helped keep lot costs low.

"Hastings and Norfolk are the two examples we discussed in the meeting. (They) have been able to keep lot costs below $12,000 for the builders to then keep the actual build itself affordable," Brunswick said.

Vasicek said finding a solution for Columbus will require creativity and outside-the-box thinking. Nadrchal suggested a combination approach as one possibility.

"If there's some way we could use some funds to help offset the cost of the land...(then) the builder or developer could access some of the rural workforce housing funds to use for the construction of the units," Nadrchal said.

Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net.

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EDWARDSVILLE  Zoning requests and appointments to various boards and commissions were among actions taken by the Madison County Board at Wednesdays meeting.

Five zoning requests including several rezonings were OKd.

That includes a request by Extreme Rush Blends LLC on behalf of Moniger Excavating Co. Inc., asking for the rezoning of one acre at 5955 Illinois 140, Moro, to B-3 Highway Business District from PD Planned Development District to operate a health services center at the site.

Other rezoning requests approved include owners Ryan and Amy Luckett seeking to rezone a dual-zoned lot from A Agricultural District and B-2 general Business District to R-1 Single Family Residential District at 6432 Karr Lane, Edwardsville. A separate request, by Ronald and Kenna Ellinger to rezone a 2.78-acre dual-zoned lot from B-2 General Business District to R-1 Single Family. Both requests were made to allow for a new subdivision plat.

A request by Rachel Crow to rezone .37-acre tract of land at 12385 State Road to R-2 Single Family Residential from B-1 Limited Business District and a request by Kim Pamatot, owner of Madison County Sand LLC, for a special use permit to operate a sand dredging operation along Keller Lane, Collinsville, were also approved.

In other Building and Zoning matters, the board also approved a resolution to allow demolition of unsafe buildings at 424 N. Cottage Avenue, Cottage Hills; 3633 Edwardsville Road, Edwardsville; and 2450 13th Street, Cottage Hills; approved a resolution to renew a floodplain management consulting contract with the Belleville-based Heartland Conservancy for up to $60,000 and a resolution providing the annual grant to the Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District for $39,000.

The board also approved a number of appointments by Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler.

Appointments included James Trucano to a new 3-year term with the Canteen Creek Drainage & Levee District; Anthony Robert to fill the remaining 3-year term of the late Nick Mason on the Wood River Drainage and Levee District; Frank Dunn to fill the remaining term of Christopher Otto on the Glen Carbon Fire Protection District; Nick Petrillo and Laurie Moore-Skinner to new 4-year terms with the Madison County Health Board; Highland Mayor Kevin B. Hemann to replace Hamel Mayor Larry Bloemker on the Southern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission; and Sharon Sherrill to a new 2-year term on the Madison County Zoning Board of Appeals.

The board chairman is responsible for appointments to approximately 70 boards and commissions.

In other business, the board:

 Approved a medical services contract with Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. for the Madison County Detention Home, at a cost of$43,661.27.

 Approved a contract for $329,888 with Depew & Owen Builders Inc., of Centralia, to replace a single-span bridge carrying Brandt Road across a tributary of Silver Creek.

 Approved a contract with Volkert Inc. of Collinsville for preliminary engineering services for a bridge replacement on Possum Hill Road over Sherry Creek, for $100,000.

 Approved the purchase of two 2022 Ford Super Duty Pickup Trucks for the countys Facilities Department through the state bidding system for $93,340.
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Cumberland, MD (21502)

Today

Becoming partly cloudy after some morning rain. High around 75F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

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Some clouds. Low 52F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday saw a flurry of activity on the local news scene with the announcement of a murder in Columbus over the past weekend.

A Jan. 17 press release from the Columbus Police Department (CPD) indicated that 28-year-old Michael J. Keener was arrested Jan. 16 on charges of first degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony in the death of 77-year-old Larry Houdek.

According to the release, officers made contact with a man identified as Keener who had fallen outside of 1308 Eighth St. in Columbus. Keener reportedly told officers that he killed a person at another location, the release stated. Keener took officers to that second location  the 200 block of 16th Avenue  where officers found a deceased man, Houdek, at 268 16th Ave. in Columbus. Officers allegedly found items belonging to Houdek on Keener, according to the release.

The charges against Keener had yet to be filed in Platte County Court as of the end of the day Friday. CPD Capt. Douglas Molczyk said while Keener has been arrested, police are still investigating.

According to Molczyk, the last homicide  a murder-suicide incident  in Columbus took place in 2016.

According to an April 4, 2016, article published by the World-Herald News Service, the bodies of two Columbus residents had been found April 2, 2016. Columbus Police responded to the scene at approximately 4 p.m. that day, and the two individuals  a man and a woman who were both in their 60s  were found with fatal gunshot wounds. It was reported at that time that police were investigating the possibility of a suicide pact.

More recently but outside of Columbus city limits, then 62-year-old Bryce Kummer was arrested on murder charges following the shooting death of his 90-year-old mother in October 2020.

According to an Oct. 10, 2020, Columbus Telegram article, the Platte County Sheriffs Office responded to a residence near Monroe at approximately 7:06 p.m. on Oct. 1. Kummer had told dispatch that he had shot two people and would be waiting for law enforcement, the Telegram reported. Kummer had also allegedly injured an adult man.

Kummer had been facing a variety of felonies, including first-degree murder and attempted murder. In January 2021, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services announced that Kummer died while in custody.

Molczyk noted that Columbus remains a safe community.

We have some of the lowest crime rates in the state of Nebraska, Molczyk said. So I don't think people have to be overly concerned about their safety. We still want people to make sure their doors are locked and their cars are locked and don't give thieves an opportunity to break into their property.

Keener appears to have a criminal history  mostly misdemeanors  but, according to a 2011 Telegram article, he was convicted of burglary and attempting to sell stolen guns. A search warrant filed in Platte County Court on Jan. 18, 2022, sought a blood sample and other evidence from Keener due to police believing he may have been under the influence of controlled substances and other matters relating to the investigation.

When asked if drugs are a problem in Columbus, Molczyk noted the prevalence of drugs, no matter the location. The CPD is part of a drug task force, and theres a law enforcement officer assigned specifically to drug issues.

We don't have as big a problem as some other areas in the state. But drugs are a problem everywhere, he said.

Hannah Schrodt is the news editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at hannah.schrodt@lee.net.

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Barre, VT (05641)

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Periods of rain. High 53F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

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Submitted photoThe TCC jazz band will play as part of the Arts for the Community of Thomas University on Sunday at 4 p.m. The performance will take place at the Thomasville Center for the Arts.
Princeton, KY (42445)

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Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High near 70F. Winds light and variable..

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Mostly cloudy skies. Low 56F. Winds light and variable.
Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 76F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
The Daytona 500 is NASCARs premier event, attracting millions of viewers each year.

Thousands of famous drivers have made their livelihood based on their performance on the Daytona Speedway.

Jonathan Williams, a sophomore at Bellevue West High School, got a taste of the Daytona experience when he raced his Margay kart on the Daytona Speedway.

Williams experience was during KartWeek, an event organized by the World Karting Association.

Williams said KartWeek consists of a week where racers go down and race at several big tracks around the nation. For example, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Daytona.

Williams interest in the sport of karting began about two years ago near the start of the pandemic.

I had been watching Formula One and NASCAR and really getting into it, Williams said.

In his kart, Williams reached a top speed of 74.7 miles per hour and drove around 30-40 miles per hour for the corner sections at Daytona.

Williams said he raced roughly 98 drivers at the same time while at Daytona, with there being several different classes of karts at the event.

Williams raced in the Ignite Senior Margay category and placed fourth.

The trip from Bellevue to Florida was a long one. Williams and his father chose to drive down to the iconic speedway.

When I got there, it was like a dream come true, he said. We went under the little bridge under the track to get into the infield, and then you look up and you see the banking and it was like a dream come true knowing that I was going to race on the actual track.

Williams has eyes on eventually making it big on the racing scene.

Obviously, you got to start small. As of now, it is a little side hobby, but I really am getting into it and, like, meeting a lot of good drivers that go all around the nation and compete in the biggest events, he said.

Williams is registered for next years Daytona event and said he looks forward to it.

Melissa Fish-Williams, Williams mother, said it was exciting for her son to race on a track where so many famous racers have been on.

I actually had to stay home in Nebraska with his brothers, but my husband got to go down to that, I mean, just thinking about it, its such a huge experience, she said.

In kart racing season, Williams races his Margay kart for on-road racing and a LO206 cage kart for dirt racing.

Williams will race on dirt with his LO206 kart at the Sunset Speedway on Thursdays from May to August.

Williams plans to travel with his Margay kart to Charlotte in March and Indiana in May, among several other locations.

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Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 77F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
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Five local mosques and Islamic centers formed a consortium in summer to help Afghan refugees as they arrive in the Capital Region..

The Islamic Center of the Capital District and the Al-Hidaya center, both in Colonie, Masjid As-Salaam in Albany, Masjid Nabawi in Schenectady and Al-Arqam Center in Clifton Park banded together to help "the brothers and sisters who need our help the most right now." A member of each mosque is on the committee, which sought donations and volunteers and sprang into action to help. They have been working both independently and with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Albany.

The committee has raised funds to provide temporary housing to families and to cover their rent. The USCRI pays apartment rent for three months.

Al-Hidaya Center of Latham has taken the lead on the settlement project with Uzma Popal of Latham helming a donation center and thrift shop on Route 2. It stocks clothing, household goods, some furniture and baby items.

Popal said 10 new refugee families came to the thrift shop to pick up items. "They had no place to stay. USCRI put them up in a hotel for a couple of days," Popal said. The USCRI is looking for temporary housing for incoming refugees, "even if people can can open their houses for a week, it will be a huge help," she said.

"We need volunteers to sort donations, which keep piling up, thanks to generous donors," said Popal. The donation center is currently open limited hours two days a week.

The refugees began coming into the Capital Region in September and the influx snowballed with the withdrawal of U.S. troops and airlifting of Afghans. Popal said 304 refugees have arrived in the area since September.

Refugees arrive at short notice, sometimes only two to four days, leaving host families and organizers scrambling to arrange housing, clothing, food, baby items and more.

"Recently a refugee who had arrived here four months ago needed $100 toward rent," said Popal. The committee was able to help and hopes to have enough funds to help out others in similar situations.

Area residents of many faiths have come forward to help. "Our friend Barbara Dworkin, community activist from Niskayuna, has been collecting furniture. She has rounded up volunteer drivers and pickup trucks and has delivered the items to the donation center or directly to apartments. She will also get volunteers to fundraise," said Popal.

Families are not all coming in together, said Popal. "One family member may be in the area but the rest of the family may be in process. The ones who just came have nothing in place. We have been able to provide food and basic necessities."

Someone follows up to see how the families are settling in. Mentors have signed up to help for one or two years.

Language can be a barrier for incoming refugees. "Our volunteers speak Urdu and Farsi and can help them" navigate the process and fill out forms, Popal said.

Amirah ElTahir of Albany is a refugee committee member. Originally from Sudan, she has three grown children.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

A representative from the As-Salaam Mosque in Albany, ElTahir said about 100 refugees have received social service packages. "Some are still being put up in hotels. Volunteers are cooking two meals a day for them. We deliver that to Al-Hidayah and a volunteer driver delivers the meals to the hotel where the refugees are staying."

Another group doesn't have social services so volunteers deliver groceries to them, she said. The community provides money for items, including chicken or beef from halal meat shops.

Other families have been given apartments. "We need volunteers to take them to the doctor for appointments. They got COVID-19 vaccines in Texas before being sent here," said ElTahir, who said most of the refugees are in Albany and Watervliet.

"The first wave of people arriving four or five years ago was from Afghan villages, many of whom did not know even their own language. The new arrivals are from cities and are mostly educated people. Many know English. They are ready to work but they don't have legal status yet. Cleaning hotels, whatever jobs they get, they are ready to take," said ElTahir.

There are a lot of children. Many are not yet enrolled in school because they don't have immunization papers. "We are thinking of having teachers teach the children at their homes. But they have to get into an apartment first." Some children are enrolled in Islamic studies in As-Salam, said ElTahir.

"There are so many of them. I worry people will get tired of helping them," said ElTahir.
On July 2, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. stood behind President Lyndon Johnson as the Texan signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although not the first civil rights bill passed by Congress, it was the most comprehensive.

King called the laws passage a great moment  something like the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Johnson recognized Kings contributions to the law by gifting him a pen used to sign the historic legislation.

A year later, as Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, King again joined him.

But by 1967, the two most famous men in America were no longer speaking. They would not meet again before King fell to an assassins bullet on April 4, 1968.

King was foremost a minister who pastored to a local church throughout his career, even while he was doing national civil rights work. And he became concerned that his political ally Johnson was making a grave moral mistake in Vietnam. Johnson quickly escalated American troop presence in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 in 1965. And by 1968, more than a half a million troops were stationed in the Southeast Asian nation.

King called on the United States to be born again and undergo a radical revolution of values.

King preached nonviolent direct action for years, and his team organized massive protest movements in the cities of Albany, Ga., and Selma and Birmingham in Alabama. But by 1967, Kings religious vision for nonviolence went beyond nonviolent street protest to include abolishing what he called the triple evils crippling America society: racism, poverty and militarism. He believed these forces were contrary to Gods will.

He came to believe, as he said in 1967, that racism, economic exploitation and war were crippling Americas ability to create a community defined by love and nonviolence. And on April 4, 1967, he publicly rebuked the presidents war policy in Vietnam at Riverside Presbyterian Church in New York City in a speech titled Beyond Vietnam.

I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam, he told those gathered in the majestic cathedral. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam.

King was initially optimistic about Johnsons Great Society programs for job growth, job training and economic development. But by 1967 the Great Society appeared to be a casualty of the mounting costs of the war in Vietnam. I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such, King said in his speech.

King saw the grinding poverty facing Black people at home as inseparable from the war overseas. As he noted, If our nation can spend $35 billion a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and $20 billion to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put Gods children on their own two feet right here on earth.

As urban revolts in the late 1960s rocked the nation, King pleaded with people to remain nonviolent.

But they ask  and rightly so  what about Vietnam? King said in that 1967 speech. They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today  my own government.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

By 1967, Kings vision of justice was one of flourishing for all people, not only civil rights for African Americans. King was criticized for expanding his vision beyond Black Americans. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People issued a statement that opposed merging the civil rights and peace movements.

But in his 1967 Beyond Vietnam speech, King called for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class, and nation. Such love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. He noted this unifying principle in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.

King never sought nor gained elected office, because he wanted to maintain a moral voice and be free to challenge policies he believed to be unjust.

But the cost for Kings speaking out was high: By the time of his assassination, Kings national approval rating was at an all-time low.

Declassified files show how FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover targeted King, focusing on alleged extramarital affairs. Hoover had a tape of King allegedly having sex with other women sent those to his wife, Coretta Scott King, with a letter indicating King should kill himself because of his moral transgressions.

Nonviolence is a radical concept of love that demands we embrace those we know and those we dont, to acknowledge, as King said, that all life is interrelated, that somehow were caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny.

Anthony Siracusa is University of Colorado-Boulder's Inclusive Culture and Initiatives senior director. This appears via the Associated Press partnership with The Conversation.
ALBANY  Gov. Kathy Hochul's executive budget proposal falls short of adequately addressing a dire child care and after-school landscape in New York, advocates say.

Hochuls $216 billion spending plan includes $1.4 billion in child care subsidies.

It also provides $100 million in grants over a two-year period for high needs school districts to address learning loss and mental health through after-school and summer programs. Districts will be required to match these state grants with their federal pandemic relief funds.

While the investment is a "good start," the allocations are insufficient to jump start an industry that is critical to working parents and the state's post-pandemic comeback, said Christie Balka, vice president of policy at All Our Kin, a child care advocacy organization.

All progress is good progress, and 400,000 families will greatly benefit from child care subsidies proposed in the governors plan. Still, 2019 data shows at least 750,000 children would be left out next year alone," Balka said in a statement. "Until quality child care is available to all, New Yorkers will continue to feel the impact as the state struggles to make an economic comeback from the pandemic."

The pandemic has devastated New York's troubled child care sector. About 1,500 providers closed between April 2020 and last February, according to data from the Schuyler Center, a research and advocacy group focused on family issues.

The state is riddled with child care deserts, including in the Capital Region. On average, 33 children compete for each regulated child care slot in the region, according to a recent analysis from Brightside Up, a local child care resource. Many local facilities have waitlists for up to a year long.

Early child care fees have skyrocketed  in some cases, day care in New York costs more than tuition at a state college  while caretakers that staff day care facilities are underpaid.

The proposed budget also fails to address an after-school crisis that was festering prior to the pandemic, advocates say. The governor's budget plan keeps funding flat for various afterschool and extended-day youth programs for the fiscal year 2023.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

More than 1.6 million students are in need of after-school programs in New York, especially in underserved communities. But the states per-student reimbursement rate is less than the actual cost of care, leaving after-school providers underfunded and caregivers underpaid, according to the New York State Network for Youth Success.

In the absence of direct stimulus funding, after-school programs were stretched to their limits to meet the needs of students and families during the pandemic, according to Kelly Sturgis, the network's chief executive officer.

Families are counting on the governor to help address the severe shortage of after-school care, Sturgis said. "Immediate funding is needed to ensure that children are safe and supervised in the hours when school is out but many parents are still at work.

Advocates are asking for bridge funding of $169 million to begin to align the per-student rate with the "true" base cost of care and minimum wage increases for one year.
As case counts of COVID-19 escalate among its buildings, the Carlisle Area School District is working with a pharmacy to schedule as soon as possible a community vaccination clinic.

The goal is to host a clinic on a school campus from 4 to 7 p.m. on a weekday and again on a Saturday morning, acting Superintendent Patricia Sanker said during a school board meeting Thursday.

The district will publicize the clinic when dates are finalized, she said. We will have the pharmacy come back in three weeks when the second round of shots is due.

Sanker said participation is voluntary.

Anyone in the community can attend, she said. Parents can bring their children in and, if parents have not been vaccinated, they are welcome to the shots. If someone hasnt had their booster and still needs to get it, you will be able to access it on campus.

This is a proactive move to try and get our numbers down, Sanker said. We cant believe we are getting numbers like this. Were hoping our parents take us up on this offer and bring your children in for vaccination. We have not reached our peak [of COVID cases] in this area. We have proof of that.

Statistics

Director of Operations Eric Sands presented an overview of COVID-19 statistics. As of Thursday, there have been 635 positive cases among students and staff attending district schools.

Broken down by month, there were 98 cases in September, 65 cases in October, 68 cases in November, 144 cases in December and 256 cases so far in January, with seven days of instruction left in the month.

The district reported 262 total cases during the entire 2020-21 school year when the bulk of the instruction was by a hybrid model of two days in the classroom and three days at home over the internet.

As coordinator of the districts pandemic response, Sands has tracked the day-to-day cumulative case count since Aug. 16, when teachers returned to school for in-service professional development.

By Sept, 30, Carlisle had 100 cases. By Nov. 10, that number doubled to 200. Less than a month later, on Dec. 20, Carlisle had 300 cases. From there, the case count has escalated dramatically.

By Jan. 4, the day after students returned from holiday break, the count had reached 400 cases. A week later, on Jan. 11, it was 500 cases. Three days later, on Jan. 14, the district reached 600 positive COVID-19 cases.

Since the start of the school year, Carlisle has been forced to temporarily close nine classrooms to in-person instruction due to the rate of positive cases. The affected students were shifted from in-person to virtual instruction for at least one school day.

Four of the nine closures have taken place in January at Hamilton Elementary School with three closures involving kindergarten classrooms and one-first grade class. There were two closures in December involving kindergarten classes at Crestview Elementary School and one closure in December involving a third-grade class at North Dickinson Elementary School. LeTort Elementary School had two classroom closures  a kindergarten class in mid-October and a first-grade class in early November.

On Jan. 13, the district sent out a message to staff members and families advising them of the Jan.14 closure of four elementary school buildings  Bellaire, Mooreland, Mount Holly Springs and North Dickinson.

The Carlisle Area School District has experienced a significant surge in active COVID cases, the advisory reads. The percentage of positive cases moved four elementary schools over the 5% threshold for closure as designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Instead of in-person instruction, the four schools conducted an asynchronous (non-Zoom) learning day similar to a snow day held on Jan. 7. The intent was to reconvene in-person instruction at the four buildings on Jan. 18.

Masks

Universal masking will continue to be a requirement in Carlisle area schools. The district could make masks optional if the positivity rate among students and staff drops to a consistent pattern of 2% or less, Sands said. Our case counts are reflective of what is happening in the community.

The district will continue to rely on guidance from state agencies and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sands said. The CDC and [state Department of Health] still recommends that all individuals wear masks indoors in public in an area of substantial or high community transmission.

With an infection rate of about 1,255 cases per 100,000 residents, the Carlisle area falls well within the threshold for requiring universal masking, Sands said.

On Thursday, Sands received a message from the Cumberland County Department of Public Safety advising district administrators that case numbers from holiday gatherings will continue to surge for the next two to three weeks. I hope not, but thats what the experts are telling us, Sands said.

Additionally, all age groups are appearing in the health care system for in-patient treatment, Sands said. Hospitals in the region are reported at or above capacity. Tests are becoming short in supply. We need to work together, support one another and maintain hope and resiliency to get through this.

Email Joseph Cress at jcress@cumberlink.com.

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ALBANY - Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed legislation to allow voting by absentee ballot due to the pandemic through 2022, allowing voters to request an absentee ballot where there is a risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 that may cause illness to the voter or other members of the public.

The legislation first became law in July 2020, and expired Dec. 31.

Hochul's 2022 State of the State recommends proposals to strengthen voting rights protections, including a state-level voting rights act to protect against voter suppression, improving language access for voters, lowering the voter registration deadline from 25 days to 10 days before Election Day, and requiring polling locations on college campuses.



Amsterdam attorney seeks judge's seat

FONDA - Attorney Kris Singh of Amsterdam has launched his campaign for Montgomery County surrogate court judge to succeed Guy Tomlinson, who will reach the mandatory age of retirement this year.

Singh said his over 26 years of experience in private practice and the court system makes him ideally suited for the judgeship, which handles guardianships, adoptions and estate matters.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Among his community service efforts, he is currently president of the Sarah J. Sanford Home for Elderly Women, vice president of the Montgomery County Bar Association, a member of the Amsterdam Free Library Board of Trustees and was the former president of the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation.
NORTH CREEK  The dormant 30-mile stretch of railroad tracks between this resort community and the old mining settlement of Tahawus may soon see freight trains once again, now that the tracks are set to be auctioned in March.

Theres already been one bid for the tracks  from Revolution Rail, which for the past several years has operated a rail-biking attraction in which tourists ride along the tracks in specially built carts with pedals.

Revolution Rail has offered an initial $700,000 bid for the rail line, which was recently approved by a federal bankruptcy court that is handling the liquidation of assets from the now-bankrupt Saratoga and North Creek rail line and its parent company, the former San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad,

To best the $700,000 bid, competitors would have to offer at least $750,000 and Revolution Rail could then offer a higher bid.

All of the sudden after a couple of years of dormancy, all of this has come alive, said William Brandt, the trustee for the railroads bankruptcy proceedings. His job is to sell off the assets, including the tracks, with proceeds going to the creditors.

The auction is scheduled for March 3 in Denver, and bids are due by Feb. 23.

Brandt said there are three additional bidders so far. While he couldnt name them, he said one is a freight carrier, another is a large local landowner and the other is an environmental organization.



Under Revolution Rails plan, it would work with SMS Rail, a New Jersey-based short line railroad operator. SMS would provide freight service for the Mitchell Stone Products gravel pit in Tahawus, which is near Newcomb, and for the Barton garnet mines near North Creek.

Brandt said freight service would consist of one train at night through North Creek, allowing Revolution Rail to continue its popular rail biking operation, in which customers pedal about 6 miles on the tracks running beside the Hudson River.

They could clearly and easily work around any minimal freight service, said Brandt.

Interest in bidding for the tracks has been growing but it got an added boost in November when the federal government made it clear that it would be looking within the U.S. borders for strategic metals and minerals used in high-tech military devices.

In addition to gravel, the Mitchell mine at Tahawus also contains titanium, once the main substance taken from there. Tahawus started life as a 19th-century iron mine but titanium alloy was also extracted from the 1940s until the 1980s when it closed.

Due to its combination of strength and light weight, titanium is used in the building of military aircraft and warships.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

In fact, the tracks were built in the 1940s during World War II and the mine operated throughout the Cold War.

But with worries that China now controls much of the worlds strategic metals, U.S. policymakers are calling for more domestic sources.

Whats old is new again. They want to on-shore these minerals for national security, Brandt said.

The North Creek-to-Tahawus stretch has been the source of some controversy with some groups calling for the tracks to be torn out in order to make way for a biking-hiking-ski touring-snowmobile trail.

Late last year, the Open Space Institute submitted a $1.5 million "non-binding proposal'' for the tracks.

But the bankruptcy judge ruled against any plans that might tear out the tracks. The court noted that demand for titanium, and other factors, could necessitate the need for future rail service. The judge noted that the federal Surface Transportation Board, which will have to approve the deal, is hesitant to see railroad tracks removed.

There is simply too much civic support locally in Essex County and the town of Newcomb to keep the jobs and the railroad alive, said Brandt.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
Last year was the worst since 1973 for abortion rights and access. On this 49th anniversary of the decision in Roe v. Wade, and the third anniversary of New Yorks passage of the Reproductive Health Act, which modernized the states abortion laws, this country is under siege from a vocal minority determined to limit your reproductive health and rights.

In 2022, the landscape on abortion in this country is poised to radically change. In states like Texas and Mississippi, unconstitutional and unconscionable restrictions have made their way to the Supreme Court, where our reproductive health, rights and freedoms could have the clock rolled back 50 years. Lets be clear  these bans and restrictions on abortion and reproductive health care are deeply rooted in misogyny, white supremacy and political control.

Despite the onslaught of attacks, poll after poll continues to show that more than seven in 10 Americans support legal abortion. But if Roe falls, 26 states could move to ban abortion, creating an untenable and grossly inequitable gradient of care availability across the United States. The result? Thirty-six million individuals  nearly half of whom are of reproductive age  could lose access to health care. New York, along with states like California and Illinois, are becoming access states  where individuals seek health care when it is inaccessible in their own state.

A right means nothing without meaningful access. Even in New York, a state that legalized abortion in 1970 (three years before Roe v. Wade), comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care can be out of reach. Barriers like affordability, lack of transportation, availability of child care, time off from work and provider availability can limit individuals abilities to control their reproductive health.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has outlined several proposals designed to break down some of these barriers, such as advancing equality in our state constitution, strengthening insurance coverage for abortion, and investing in the providers who are critical to making the right to sexual and reproductive health care a reality. Funding for providers of reproductive health services has failed to increase in the last decade, despite the rising costs of delivering this vital health care. If New York providers are to meet the needs of patients today and prepare for the increased needs of tomorrow that have come with the unraveling of abortion rights around the country, state leaders must act.

Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter.

New York has a proud legacy of protecting and advancing reproductive health and rights that our current state leaders must build upon. The Reproductive Health Act leveled our state law with Roe, but it was not a finish line. New Yorks Legislature must meet the urgency of this moment and advance measures to protect and expand reproductive health and rights - and it must happen this legislative session.

Georgana Hanson of Saratoga Springs is interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts.
DANVILLE, Pa.  Residents of a Pennsylvania county were warned Saturday not to approach a monkey that was missing after a crash involving a pickup that was towing a trailer taking about 100 of the animals to a lab.

State troopers urged people not to look for or capture the cynomolgus monkey following the Friday afternoon crash on a state highway near an Interstate 80 exit in Montour County.

Anyone who sees or locates the monkey is asked not to approach, attempt to catch, or come in contact with the monkey. Please call 911 immediately," troopers tweeted.

Several monkeys escaped after the collision between the pickup and a dump truck, but as of Saturday morning only one remained unaccounted for, officials said. The Pennsylvania Game Commission and other agencies searched for it amid frigid weather.

The truck had been on its way to a lab, Trooper Andrea Pelachick told The Daily Item newspaper of Sunbury.

The location of the lab and the type of research for which the monkeys were destined werent clear, but cynomolgus monkeys are often used in medical studies. A paper posted on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information referred to them as the most widely used primate in preclinical toxicology studies.

Trooper Laura Lesher said state police secured the scene for the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The condition and whereabouts of the remaining monkeys werent clear Saturday.

The condition of the motorists also wasnt clear, nor was it clear whether any citations were issued.

A crash witness, Michelle Fallon, told the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg that she spoke with the pickup driver and a passenger after the crash. The driver appeared to be disoriented, and the passenger thought he might have injured his legs, she said.

Crates littered the road Friday as troopers searched for monkeys, rifles in hand. Valley Township firefighters used thermal imaging to try to locate the animals, and a helicopter also assisted, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.

The pickup was heading west on I-80 when it got off at the Danville exit and then immediately tried to get back on, driving across the other lane, the newspaper reported.

Fallon told the Press Enterprise that she was behind the pickup when it was hit on the passenger side by the dump truck, tearing off the front panel of the trailer and sending more than a dozen crates tumbling out.

She and another motorist who stopped to help were standing near the scene when the other driver said he thought he saw a cat run across the road, Fallon said.

Fallon peeked into a crate and saw a small monkey looking back at her, she told the newspaper.

Theyre monkeys, she told the other motorist.

Posted Friday on Cumberlink:

DANVILLE  A truck carrying about 100 monkeys was involved in a crash Friday in Pennsylvania, state police said as authorities searched for at least three of the monkeys that appeared to have escaped the vehicle.

The truck carrying the animals crashed with a dump truck in the afternoon in Montour County, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick told the Daily Item.

The truck had been on its way to a lab, Pelachick said.

Authorities have asked residents who might see the monkeys to call state police at 570-524-2662.

It was unclear if any people or animals were injured in the crash.

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HARRISBURG  The Pennsylvania Senate approved a bill to require state agencies to notify victims of a data breach within a week.

Lawmakers approved Senate Bill 696, sponsored by Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, on a vote of 32-17 to require any state agency, county, school district or municipality that experiences a data breach to send notice to affected victims within seven business days of discovery.

The bill, passed Wednesday in the Senate, was amended in the Senate Communications and Technology Committee to include third-party vendors working with state and local agencies, a move inspired by a state contractor who exposed the personal information of as many as 72,000 residents as part of work on COVID-19 contract tracing.

Insight Global was awarded $23 million for the work with the Department of Health in 2020 and news investigations later revealed the company repeatedly exposed records that included names, COVID-19 diagnoses, gender, sexual orientation, phone numbers and email addresses.

Information security is an endless battle. Accomplished hackers are smart, and they are sophisticated when it comes to technology. They enjoy the challenge of matching wits with the technicians charged with providing IT security for government, corporations and financial institutions, Laughlin said. Thats what makes Senate Bill 696 so important. We can only hope that the hard work of the states IT professionals will be effective in protecting our systems, but we must be ready to immediately respond in the event of a breach.

Laughlin and Sen. Kirstin Phillips-Hill, R-York, pointed to a more recent breach exposed by the media of the states unemployment system in which hackers are diverting money from claimants accounts as evidence of the urgent need for SB 696.

The bill requires state agencies and contractors to notify victims of a data breach within seven days, and notification shall be provided concurrently to the Office of Attorney General. A state agency contractor would be required to notify the chief information officer of the state agency within seven business days, and to notify the Office of Administration within three business days.

The bill would task state agencies with amending existing contracts to include the requirements, if possible, and to include the provisions in future contracts.

Counties, schools and municipalities would be required to notify victims within a week and the proper district attorney within three days. SB 696 allows notification through email for situations in which hackers gain information that can be used to access an online account. The bill would require state employees and contractors to encrypt personal information, and would task the Office of Administration with developing and maintaining a policy for encryption, transmission and storage of personal information.

We have seen time and time again that victims of state data breaches are the last to find out that their personal information has been compromised, Phillips-Hill said. If your sensitive information is stolen from a state agency or any local governmental entity, you should not find out in the press. This legislation puts in place proper protocols so victims and law enforcement officials are informed of a data breach.

Sen. John Kane, D-Chester, said Democrats are opposing the bill as it currently stands because it still needs additional amendments to make it workable for the Office of Administration and the Department of General Services.

I want to thank Sens. Phillip-Hill and Laughlin for agreeing to work with the House on these amendments, he said. If amendments are made in the House, I look forward to supporting the bill on concurrence.
I noted earlier this week that the opposition was attempting to make an issue of Russian donations to the Conservative Party in Monday's parliamentary debate on foreign political interference.

Labour attempted this previously in the wake of the Skripal affair, but with the party's Atlanticist right in the ascendant, Boris Johnson weakened and a crisis in Ukraine, it may get more traction than it did four years ago.

Thursday's decision by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to reject the Aquind cross-channel electricity interconnector could be one sign of this.
A Kansas City protest group doesn't seem to have much respect for their political opposition or the fundamental laws of the American economy.

Even better, they're not afraid to proudly proclaim their contempt for the status quo.

This week the extremely vocal group shouted down tax credits and earned a bit of money redirected toward a worthless city program that never really helped anyone.



In the aftermath, they've turned their ire toward white liberals . . . Whatever THAT means nowadays.

Here's a passage the group is highlighting via social media . . .

"Some suggestions for woke, white, neoliberal KC Chamber, Twitter: The West Wing is readily available for streaming. You can kick rocks in that fan fiction, while those of us living here in actual reality listen to the solutions of our brothers and sisters closest to the problem . . ."



Fun fact . . .

Without the help of benefactors who are ALSO members of The Chamber, this group wouldn't exist. So a great deal of this week's tax incentive controversy is just a bit of theatricality by way of shadow puppets.

However . . .

Here's an official statement discouraging any critical questions about KCMO throwing away millions on "fair housing" with very discouraging results . . .



That's kinda rough but so many people chasing tax credits for fun, power & profit probably deserve a bit of pointed criticism.

All of this reminds us of similar chatter from that schlocky "White Fragility" book. The author earns about a million bucks a year for her guilt trip agenda and propagating the spurious idea that racially charged progressive politics aren't also abhorrent.



HOWEVER . . .

TKC supports KC Tenants giving developers a tough time and we congratulate them on their victory. Sadly, throwing the tax money saved down a "fair housing" rat hole ALSO doesn't serve taxpayers, the electorate or residents who desperately need somewhere to live.

There's a disconnect in this conversation which mistakenly believes that local government can solve a problem that they've only worsened with every interaction.



The sordid topic of "fair housing" has been a nightmare in Kansas City for more than a generation. Not so long ago the housing authority emerged from receivership and now threats, protest and racially charged politics dictate the local political agenda . . . Most reasonable people can see that this is also a recipe for disaster.



Developing . . .
Like it or not, don't underestimate the optics and importance of this pandemic power play . . .

The Guv using the Kansas National Guard on the plague solidifies her role as a leader and her constituents aren't going to be able to criticize the troops without taking heat for it.

It's a low key power move that might be politely ignored but threatens to pave her way to reelection if unchecked or unanswered by her opponents . . . Hint: As of this writing, they're letting it slide . . .

"Acting KDHE Secretary Janet Stanek said. "With the increased demand for COVID-19 tests, the support from the Kansas National Guard will help provide the manpower to ensure that free and timely testing is available to Kansans."Since Wednesday, Kansas reported 20,806 new cases of COVID-19, 29 new deaths and 92 new hospitalizations, according to the release."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
Lawsuits are the hotness for Friday on the topic of dress codes and pandemic policy.



The best passage from this midday report . . .



On Friday, he tweeted that he's "filing dozens of lawsuits against school districts that continue to force the masking of school kids." A spokesperson for his office said he plans to file at least 35 by the end of the day.



In the lawsuits, Schmitt says that school districts do not have the authority to impose public health orders for students. He adds that face masks create a barrier to education that outweighs benefits.



Schmitt argues the General Assembly did not grant school districts authority to "condition in-person attendance on compliance with an arbitrary mask mandate."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

Missouri AG sues more KC-area school districts over mask mandates by: Juan Cisneros Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing Kansas City-area school districts over mask mandates in their buildings. Schmitt, a candidate for the U.S.

Missouri AG sues several area school districts, including KCMO, Liberty and Park Hill, over mask mandates Following through on his threats, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt began filing lawsuits against a number of school districts across the state currently using mask mandates.Several of those districts are in the Kansas City area. Schmitt, who is running for Missouri's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, says a recent Cole County Circuit Court order in Robinson vs.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sues 10 Kansas City-area school districts over mask mandates KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has sued the Park Hill, Liberty, Kansas City, North Kansas City, Raytown, Independence, Center, Warrensburg, Hickman Mills and Lee's Summit school districts over their mask mandates. In the lawsuits , Schmitt argues the districts do not have the authority to impose public health orders for their students.

Developing . . .
An area man serving life without parole for the 2017 murder of a Reynolds County couple died this week, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC).

A DOC press release states that at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, offender David Young, 72, of Ironton, confined at Potosi Correctional Center, was pronounced dead at Washington County Memorial Hospital.

Young had been serving multiple sentences since being received into the DOC system on Nov. 9, 2018.

Young's longest-running sentences were life without parole. The man received his sentences after a jury convicted him in September on two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action, first-degree assault, and first-degree burglary.

Additionally, Young had been serving 15 years for three counts of financial exploitation of the elderly in Pulaski County, four years for leaving the scene of an accident, and another four years for passing a bad check in St. Francois County.

The DOC press release states that an autopsy would soon be conducted.

Young was charged with the murders of James and Janet Nance that occurred on Oct. 18, 2017. The Reynolds County couple sustained gunshot wounds to their heads at their rural home, along with an elderly woman who reportedly survived.

Timothy Callahan, 49, of Potosi, was also charged with the murders. He pleaded guilty in October 2018 to the same charges filed against Young and received sentences of life in prison without parole as well.

According to court documents, on Oct. 18, 2017, Young and Callahan went to the Nance couple's home, located on Highway 106 about five miles outside of Ellington, to rob James Nance.

While the robbery was in progress, Nance's wife and her friend arrived home, at which time the couple and the woman were all shot in the head at about 4 p.m.

Janet Nance, 72, died the day of the shooting after being airlifted to a St. Louis hospital. James Nance, 86, died a few days later from his injuries, on Oct. 21, 2017.

The second female shooting victim, age 73, was able to speak early to investigators about what happened despite her serious injuries. The prosecutor at the time said the woman provided investigators with information that helped law enforcement track down the suspects, as well as what happened at the crime scene.

According to the Reynolds County Sheriff's Office, the three victims were shot "execution-style," and the surviving female victim was shot twice in the head during the robbery attempt. The sheriff said the robbery only netted the killers a couple of thousand dollars.

According to investigators, two witnesses saw a blue car matching the description of the escape vehicle leaving the Nance home. It was seen turning onto Route F and traveling north. Later that evening, a blue 1998 Pontiac Sunfire was towed near the Dent County town of Boss. Court documents say the vehicle was owned and operated by Young.

Witnesses reported that they saw Young traveling with a man identified as Callahan the next day. One witness stated that Young had said Callahan shot three people in the back of the head and had to shoot one person twice because they "wouldn't die."

Court documents indicated that Young was at the home when the shooting occurred.

Investigators found the Pontiac Sunfire on Oct. 21, 2017, at Young's last known address in the 1300 block of Trap Rock Road in Ironton. Officers interviewed Young's girlfriend, who also lived at the home. The woman told investigators that the last time she had seen Young was on Oct. 19, 2017, and that he was scheduled to appear on Oct. 20, 2017, in Gasconade County Court on a felony charge of financial exploitation of an elderly or disabled person.

According to that probable cause statement, Young attempted to get a St. Francois County couple to pay him $4,800 to repair a barn that the insurance company said should have cost around $1,300. Because Young did not appear in court on the charges, he had an outstanding felony warrant for his arrest with nationwide extradition.

On Oct. 26, 2017, investigators learned that Young and Callahan were staying at the Red Cedar Lodge in Bonne Terre. Officers spoke with the motel's staff and reviewed surveillance video that confirmed both suspects had stayed at the hotel and checked out in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2017. Surveillance video from the motel showed that Young and Callahan were traveling in a U-Haul rented by Callahan in Poplar Bluff due to be returned the day before in St. Louis.

Police say the U-Haul was returned Oct. 27, 2017, to a dealer near Cincinnati, Ohio. Young's daughter, who lived in the Cincinnati area, confirmed that Young and Callahan were staying at a motel in Deerfield Township, Ohio.

On the morning of Oct. 28, 2017  at the request of the Missouri State Highway Patrol  the Warren County Ohio Tactical Team executed a search warrant at the Best Western Mason Inn where both Callahan and Young were located. Young was arrested on the outstanding arrest warrant, and Callahan was held as a person of interest in the Nance murders and the assault.

In an Oct. 29, 2017 interview with Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators and the Reynolds County Sheriff's Office, it is reported that Callahan admitted that he and Young had traveled to the Nance home on Oct. 18, 2017, for the purpose of committing a robbery.

According to court records, Callahan told investigators that he and Young  armed with a .22 caliber revolver and a 9mm handgun  drove Young's Pontiac Sunfire to the home where they subsequently stole cash from James Nance.

Callahan stated that he then shot James Nance, Janet Nance, and the third victim in the back of the head with the .22 caliber revolver, after which he and Young fled the scene.

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com

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A few lines of text from Politico.com sparked a wave of Missouri speculation . . .

Apparently the Prez Trump endorsement could decide the political contest in Missouri given a crowded field for a US Senate set and given that none of the candidates really have any kind of popular support.

Meanwhile . . .

We consider how disgraced Guv Eric Greitens threw away his billionaire backing . . .

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
Meanwhile, most denizens our rough blog community will blame the root of all evil on their political opposition.

Here at TKC we think that free will has a lot to do with human suffering and any left over doubts can be evaded by way of good old fashioned guilt & self-loathing.

Here's a more nuanced perspective from a local resource on faith & morals . . .

The fact is, religions have struggled from the beginning to explain the source of evil in the world. Indeed, one of the most difficult issues in theology is called the old theodicy question, which goes something like this: If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil and suffering in the world.

I sometimes refer to that question as the open wound of religion because, at least this side of an afterlife, there is no exhaustive, satisfactory answer for it.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

What the hell are people of faith to make of Satan? I'm sometimes intrigued by how often Satan shows up in the news. This recent example came from Moline, Ill., one of the Illinois-Iowa "Quad Cities." The law and school district policies there allow groups to rent meeting space in public...

You decide . . .
Brevard, NC (28712)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the morning. High 81F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 53F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Two of Del. Sally Hudsons bills aimed at lowering the punishment for simple drug possession and making recovery easier were tabled Friday by a House of Delegates courts subcommittee, likely ending their progress this session.

Amongst the legislation introduced this session by Hudson, a Charlottesville Democrat, are three bills targeting criminal drug possession charges. They range from a small, specific issue of drug residue-related charges to a more broad proposed change in how felony possession charges are handled.

The meatiest of the bills, HB 612, sought to end felony prosecution for simple possession of narcotics to eliminate jail sentences of more than a year for possessing a small amount of controlled substances for personal use, Hudson said.

Simple possession means the kind of quantities that could be used personally. This is not about distribution or drug dealers, she said. Because a felony prosecution could mean a sentence of up to 10 years, what this does is dial down the maximum penalty that someone could get for simple possession of drugs is a misdemeanor, which is a maximum jail sentence of the year.

Under current law, a person caught with the possession of schedule I or schedule II controlled substances  which include cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine  can be sentenced up to 10 years in prison.

Possession of items with drug residue on them can also lead to felony charges, which Hudson sought to address with HB 619. The bill would change law so that mere residue of any substance that is not in a usable quantity or a countable dosage unit would not result in a criminal prosecution.

Hudson said the issue is non-partisan. She noted similar legislation has passed in more conservative states than Virginia, including Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Despite Hudsons perception of the bill as a non-partisan issue, House Republicans voted to table both HB 612 and 619 during the subcommittee hearing. Del. Vivian E. Watts, D-Annandale, voted not to table HB 619, but joined the Republican majority in voting to table HB 612.

Although a tabled bill may be brought up again by a committee during a General Assembly session, it is extremely rare. Tabling legislation is typically perceived as a quieter way of voting down a bill.

Various people spoke in favor of the bills Friday, including Marijuana Justice Executive Director Chelsea Higgs Wise and Nathan Mitchell of the Virginia Recovery Advocacy Project. Most of the speakers highlighted the potential for the bills to create a better path forward for people struggling with addiction and the potential for the legislation to save the courts money which could be redirected into treatment programs, such as drug courts.

Although the bills received support from some commonwealths attorneys, Lori DiGiosia, chief-deputy Commonwealths Attorney for Stafford County, spoke against them.

Speaking on HB 619, DiGiosia said that she didnt understand how there could be a difference between residue and possession, arguing that having possessed and used a drug is not better or different than possessing it but not having used it.

She pointed to alternative options available to prosecutors, including drug courts, which allow charged individuals to receive treatment in lieu of jail time and often involve the reduction or removal of charges.

The elements that [a drug was] knowingly and intentionally possessed still have to be proven by the Commonwealth. We have authority to do many different alternatives and, despite current rhetoric, prosecutors are not looking to try and convict people with felonies for possession and for being addicts, DiGiosia said. We are trying a lot of different alternative dispositions as a whole and I would suggest that Virginia prosecutors are progressive in trying to make sure that were not causing people to end up with a felony.

Drug overdoses are a problem in every part of Virginia, including very deep red spots, and I think that just how little political consideration these proposals got is just one more reminder of just how far Virginia is behind the times when it comes to more humane justice reform, Hudson said. This was not about trying to turn Virginia into California; this was about trying to help Virginia catch up with the rest of the South in how were confronting our drug problems.

The last of Hudsons drug possession-related bills, HB 618, is still up for consideration. HB 618 seeks to end felony possession as a barrier crime for employment opportunities. Given Fridays hearing, Hudson said she is not optimistic but hopes her colleagues will consider the adverse impacts the felony possession charge has on someones economic opportunities and recovery.

Locally, Albemarle County Commonwealths Attorney Jim Hingeley and his office have been working to avoid felony possession charges for several months. A supporter of Hudsons HB 612, Hingeley said it is important for prosecutors to consider the best response to protecting both people who are at risk of using illegal drugs and the community.

We have people dying from overdoses, we have an ongoing opioid crisis and its all getting worse, Hingeley said. So ultimately the question for me is whether the work were doing prosecuting people for drug possession felonies helping us solve the problem, and Ive come to the conclusion that it isnt.

Hingeley said lesser charges offer similar treatment and alternative options but have less severe impacts.

By changing the prosecution from a felony to a misdemeanor you are making virtually no difference in the time served in practice but all the difference in removing the penalty of a felony conviction itself, he said.

Over the last several months, Hingeley said his office has been offering defendants one of three options involving misdemeanor charges.

One is to seek substance abuse screening and treatment with the charge being dismissed if they follow through with treatment. The second, aimed at recreational users, requires defendants to stop using drugs and be tested for six months prior to a case dismissal.

The third option is for those suffering addiction and not wanting treatment. They can enter a guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge, Hingeley said, which is the same endpoint met by those who opt for the first two options but dont succeed.

This is not a mini drug court. Were offering people who are using drugs or addicted to drugs, an opportunity to connect with services, he said. If theyre motivated to connect the services, we offer them an incentive: do it, make progress and the charge is dismissed.

So far about a dozen defendants have been impacted by the policy, Hingeley said.

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Mark Bennett has reported and analyzed news from the Wabash Valley and beyond since Larry Bird wore Sycamore blue. That role with the Tribune-Star has taken him from Rome to Alaska and many points in between, but Terre Haute suits him best.

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How a little rumor shared over tea led to a run on Denton's banks

Courtesy photo Dentons oldest financial institution was the Exchange National Bank, site of present-day Wells Fargo Bank, seen in this undated photo. The bank closed after idle gossip led to a run on the bank. Courtesy photo Dentons oldest financial institution was the Exchange National Bank, site of present-day Wells Fargo Bank, seen in this undated photo. The bank closed after idle gossip led to a run on the bank.

Denton County farmers, especially those who grew cotton, enjoyed their most lucrative year in 1920.

Dentons four banks located on the northeast corner of Dentons Square financed and shared farmers economic success. By 1927, Denton bank assets decreased from nearly $3 million to $2,545,963. Lower cotton, wheat and corn values meant Denton County had 4,000 farms, instead of 5,000.

No one seemed to notice that the economy was on shaky feet.

As banks closed across the country, Sangers First State Bank closed in 1920. Aubreys Farmers & Merchants Bank consolidated with First Guarantee Bank.

In August 1928, a Denton Record-Chronicle headline proclaimed First National Bank in Hands of Examiner, Doors Opened Wednesday. But No Deposits Received, or Checks Cashed. Bank President H.F. Schweer told the paper: This was a great tragedy in my life. I am filled with sorrow at the banks suspension of business.

Schweer was charged with embezzling $3,717 (worth $60,616 today). He posted a $2,500 bond in lieu of formal arrest. Schweers son, bank cashier L.H., was arrested and jailed in Denton while he awaited a federal marshal to take him to Sherman.

The trial was held quickly at Schweers request. In October, L.H. was given an 18-month sentence because of his fathers uncontested guilty plea. H.F., who was 70 years old, received a four-year suspended sentence, probably due to his age. The First National Bank closed; most depositors received only a small percentage of their funds.

Dentons oldest financial institution was the Exchange National Bank, site of present-day Wells Fargo Bank. At a ladies tea party on Oct. 13, 1928, the wife of one of the bank officers remarked that there were many problems at the bank and that a federal bank examiner had temporarily closed the bank.

The rumor was like a match that ignited a Denton bank run. Depositors were already on edge because of the First National Bank embezzlement. A bank run happens when most depositors show up to withdraw money. A solvent bank forced to quickly liquidate assets can become insolvent.

Across the street, W.C. Orr was the president of Dentons First State Bank, the present-day site of Free Play Arcade on the northeast corner of Dentons Square. On Oct. 13, Orr sent a message to his son, who was a student at Denton High School, to drive to Fort Worth and pick up a package from Fort Worth National Bank President Raymond Gee. W.C. Jr. returned with a large newspaper-wrapped package containing tightly bound stacks of one-dollar bills.

As depositors came in to see if there was a run on the First State Bank, Orr calmly greeted them, chatted and shook their hands. Large stacks of bills prominently placed in the tellers window reassured anxious customers. Most left; a few withdrew money only to redeposit it. First State Banks calm approach fended off a run.

Although the Exchange National Bank was solvent, it never attempted to reorganize. The bank closed after paying every depositor 100% of their accounts.

The closure of two of Dentons four banks signaled a weakening economy. By January of 1929, the editor of Sangers Courier-Gazette noted recent bank failures in Texas have caused some uneasiness with depositors close to home. Half of the nations banks eventually closed.

Farmers responded to financial uncertainty by diversifying crops, replacing cotton with wheat and corn. Livestock and poultry became more important. Farmers took out fewer mortgages and put more money in savings.

Business leaders were less intuitive than farmers. Throughout 1929, Texas business leaders continued to believe prosperity was just around the corner. On Jan. 1, 1929, the Dallas Morning News headline read Conditions Ripe for Good Times, Practically All Agree. The stock market crashed on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929. Two days later, the News downplayed Black Tuesday with a headline reading Local Loss in Market Light, Bankers Say.

No one anticipated the years of struggle that lay ahead as America entered the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world.

Research for this article came from Shawn Pages 2016 UNT Masters Thesis.
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Well the full results are in for the Trinity Masters Open Waters Swim Meet and there's a new
The defense ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have said in a joint statement that their countries have received approval from the United States to transfer U.S.-made weapons to Ukraine.

That's according to the Estonian broadcaster ERR, Ukrinform reports.

Estonian Minister of Defense Kalle Laanet, Latvian Minister of Defense Artis Pabriks and Lithuanian Minister of Defense Arvydas Anusauskas issued a press statement in support of Ukraine on Friday, January 21.

"Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are uniting to support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia's ongoing aggression. The Baltic states will continue to support Ukraine not only diplomatically and politically, but will also contribute to strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities," the statement said.

According to the document, Estonia will transfer Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine, while Latvia and Lithuania will deliver Stinger missiles.

"Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are working with their allies to quickly provide security assistance to Ukraine. We sincerely hope that Ukraine will not need to use these weapons, and we urge Russia to stop its aggressive and irresponsible behavior," the ministers said.

Laanet said that Ukraine is currently at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia.

"We have to be clear: the war in Ukraine is ongoing. And it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor. Today [] we have all the necessary approvals from the United States to send the weapons. With these weapons, we show that we support [Ukraine] not only with words. The allies are united, but there is always a need for those who show initiative," he said.

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Austria supports Ukraine's initiative of Crimea Platform as evidenced by the upcoming participation of Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in the inaugural summit in Kyiv on August 23.

"Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will represent Austria at the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in Kyiv on August 23, 2021," the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria told an Ukrinform correspondent.

Commenting on Austria's stance on the Crimea Platform, the diplomatic mission said that "Austria welcomes Ukraine's initiative to bring together the international community to keep the issue of the unacceptable illegal annexation of Crimea and its consequences on the international agenda."

"Respect for international law and respect for territorial integrity is the cornerstone of the European security order. Therefore, Austria condemns the illegal annexation and militarization of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation and supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders," the Ministry said.

The Crimea Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to step up the efficiency of international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, increase international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupation regime, and achieve the main goal: to de-occupy Crimea and restore Ukraines sovereignty over the peninsula.

The Platform is to operate at several levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, inter-parliamentary cooperation, expert network.

The activity of the Crimea Platform will be officially launched at the inaugural summit in Kyiv on August 23, 2021.

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By Trend

The tasks announced by Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov at a governmental meeting on January 18 are based on six main principles, in particular, in the field of provision with main foodstuffs, including grain, the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers told Trend.

According to the message, these are the main principles of the food safety strategy.

The main principle is that the priority is on the local production.

The second main principle, which follows from the first one, is that the government is pursuing a policy of subsidizing production, rather than import. The third principle is the liberalization of prices for main foodstuffs, which is an important incentive for businessmen.

According to the message, it is also necessary, firstly, to prevent price gouging, and, secondly, to ensure the margin for businessmen. The fight against unfair competition will also be intensified.

The principle of issuing subsidies based on results is aimed at increasing transparency in the field of subsidizing and stimulating the production of many more products, the Cabinet of Ministers said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes he will succeed in putting the presidents of Ukraine and Russia at the negotiation table as soon as possible and thus promote a peaceful settlement of tensions arising from the threat of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The Turkish leader addressed the issue at a joint press conference with President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele, Ukrinform;s own correspondent reports.

"We hope to Putin and Zelensky will hold a face-to-face meeting as soon as possible. We attach great importance to both Mr Putin's visit to Turkey and my visit to Ukraine. I will pay a visit to Ukraine early next month," the Turkish leader said.

Erdogan also stressed Turkey's desire for peace in the region.

"We do not consider the current developments between Russia and Ukraine to be the right thing. The atmosphere of war in the region saddens us as a nation that has good relations with both sides. We want peace in the region, the situation must not deteriorate," Erdogan said.

As Ukrinform reported, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier invited Ukrainian and Russian presidents, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, to meet in Turkey to discuss differences and resolve the existing issues. Erdogan has repeatedly stated that Turkey is ready to take part in resolving the crisis in and around eastern Ukraine as a mediator, as the country has good relations with both nations and hopes for a peaceful settlement.

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Warsaw is looking into providing military assistance to Kyiv. The issue is being discussed in Vistula, Poland, by the presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Volodymyr Zelensky and Andrzej Duda.

This was announced on TVP.INFO by the head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Pawe Soloch, Ukrinform reports with reference to Wnp.pl.

"Both Presidents are talking about this," Soloch said when asked if Poland intended to provide military support to Ukraine in the face of Russia's military aggression.

According to the top security official, during the talks of the two presidents, "the possibilities of supporting Ukraine will also be discussed in material terms, not only in the context of political support."

Soloch added that, before meeting with Zelensky, Duda had discussed assistance to Ukraine with the Polish government officials, including the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, the Interior Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry.

Talks between Presidents Zelensky and Duda are taking place in the Vistula in southern Poland on Thursday and Friday. The top agenda of talks is the regional security situation.

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As Ukraine marks Unity Day on January 22, President Volodymyr Zelensky laid flowers at the monument to the outstanding statesman, President of the Ukrainian People's Republic Mykhailo Hrushevsky.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak also participated in the flower-laying ceremony, according to the presidential press service.

"On January 22, 1919, a solemn event on Sofiyska Square in Kyiv brought together tens of thousands of Ukrainians. The proclamation of the Unification Act is an important page in the history of statehood, and now, in more than a century, we understand that the unity of Ukraine is not only about history, it is about our present and future," Zelensky said in his address.

He stressed that the unity of the Ukrainian people is needed so that the history of a modern independent Ukraine is never interrupted again.

"This is the basis of our success, the key to a strong and independent state and the restoration of its territorial integrity. This is a fundamental value for us. Let us fulfil our duty to future generations  let us preserve the independence and unity of Ukraine," Zelensky said.

Ukraine marks Unity Day on January 22. This holiday is celebrated annually on the day when the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) signed the Unification Act in 1919.

Photo credit: President's Office

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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has described the remarks by German Navy Commander Kay-Achim Schonbach that Ukraine has lost temporarily occupied Crimea as categorically unacceptable and demanded that they be publicly refuted.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"The Crimean peninsula can be lost only in the imagination of the German vice admiral. Crimea will certainly return [to Ukraine] thanks to the persistent efforts of Ukraine and its partners who will show their determination in countering the aggressor state. In this regard, we need clarification from the German government on how the words of the Navy commander correlate with Germany's consistent support the Crimea Platform," Nikolenko said.

He added that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was "especially surprised to hear Mr. Schonbach's sentiments about the need to resume dialogue with Russia." In this context, Nikolenko stressed that this statement comes at a time when the number of victims of Russian aggression has already exceeded 14,000, more than 100,000 Russian troops had been deployed along the Ukrainian border, people continue to die from Russian bullets in the Donbas, and Crimea has become a human rights ghetto.

Nikolenko also drew attention to the fact that in Germany, Russian special services are destroying political opponents, conducting disinformation campaigns and trying to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

"Even an attempt by the German Navy commander to understand Putin must have its moral, political and security limits. In this case, these limits have been grossly violated. We demand that the German government publicly refute statements by the Navy commander, which undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and undermine efforts to de-escalate the security situation in Europe," Nikolenko said.

Schonbach said at a conference of the Indian Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses that Ukraine had lost Crimea and that the peninsula would never return to Ukraine. He also believes that Russia is an important country with which it is necessary to maintain dialogue.

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Ukraine marks Unity Day on January 22, the day when the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) signed the Unification Act in 1919.

The holiday was officially established in 1999, taking into account the great political and historical significance of the unification of the UPR and WUPR for the formation of the united Ukrainian state.

The Unification Act crowned the unity aspirations of Ukrainians at least since the middle of the 19th century. This was a fundamental event for Ukrainian statehood.

On August 24, 1991, the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was adopted at an extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was supported by Ukrainians at a nationwide referendum on December 1, 1991. This event became the starting point in the history of modern Ukrainian statehood. However, historians rightly point out that Ukraine's state independence was actually restored on August 24, 1991.

On January 22, 1918, the Universal of the Central Rada proclaimed the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic. A year later, on January 22, 1919, the Act of Unification of Ukrainian lands into united Ukraine was declared on Sofiyska Square in Kyiv. UPR and WUPR, established after the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, formed the united Ukrainian state.

However, the unification of Ukraine was purely symbolic. A few weeks after the proclamation of the Unification Act, the Bolsheviks seized Kyiv, the Poles later occupied Eastern Galicia, and Czechoslovakia took control of Transcarpathia.

The first celebration of unity took place on January 22, 1939, in Carpatho-Ukraine (the town of Khust), then the autonomous region within the Second Czechoslovak Republic. On that day, 30,000 people arrived in the capital of Carpatho-Ukraine from all parts of the region to hold a manifestation under blue and yellow flags and recall the events of 20 years ago.

A vivid example of unity, the Ukrainian people's commitment to freedom was a human chain formed by the patriotic forces on January 21, 1990, to mark the 71st anniversary of the proclamation of the Unification Act. Millions of Ukrainians were holding hands from Kyiv to Lviv, celebrating Unity Day.

Since then, Ukraine has seen human chains on a number of occasions, symbolizing the unity of the Ukrainian people. Unity Day is now celebrated at the state level every year.

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Cameroonian refugee Issa Hassane, 25, earns money repairing mobile phones at a reception site in Oundouma, Chad.  UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

When violence erupted in his hometown of Kidam in northern Cameroon at the end of last year, Vahindi Martin Assingas only thought was to get his family to safety. Like thousands of others fleeing deadly intercommunal clashes in the countrys Far North region, Martin and his family sought refuge in neighboring Chad.

Having spent the past few weeks living with his wife and eight children at a reception site in Oundouma, a town near the border with Cameroon, Martins attention is turning to how he can provide for his family.

In Cameroon, I was a forest guard. This allowed me to support my family and contribute to the development of my village. I was [also] part of the village development committee, he said.

For him, relying on aid indefinitely is not an option. I need a water pump and a piece of land to be able to farm and earn a decent living.

On 5 December 2021, clashes broke out between herders, farmers and fishermen in the village of Ouloumsa in northern Cameroon, following a dispute over water resources that have become more scarce as a result of the climate crisis. Fighting quickly spread to neighboring villages before reaching the main commercial hub of Kousseri, leaving 44 dead, 111 injured and razing 112 villages to the ground.

See also: Dwindling rains in northern Cameroon spark conflict and displacement

In total the violence has displaced more than 100,000 people both inside Cameroon and across the border into Chad, where so far UNHCR has registered nearly 36,000 Cameroonian refugees in 31 districts. Women and children account for around 90 per cent of these registered refugees.

In recent weeks UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has ramped up its operations to help those affected. Together with the authorities and other humanitarian partners, the agency is providing vital assistance to Cameroonian refugees and internally displaced people who urgently need food, shelter, blankets, mats and hygiene kits.

Most of the recently arrived refugees were taken by surprise by the violence and fled without belongings or documents. While many have been taken in and generously assisted by local host communities, there is a growing desire among many refugees to find jobs or other ways of supporting themselves.

Back in Cameroon, widowed mother of five Khadidja Herre always managed to meet the needs of her family and pay for the schooling of two of her children with her fish-selling business.

Without any work since her arrival in Chad, she says the days have dragged and her family has suffered. "I haven't done anything since I've been here and my children no longer go to school," she said.

Unwilling to consider an immediate return to Cameroon due to the security situation, she is keen to replicate her former enterprise here in Chad while waiting for calm to return.

Resuming my business will allow me to live with dignity through my own work. I could also make sure my children go back to school.

Issa learned to repair phones for other refugees and locals after practicing on his own mobile.  UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Widowed mother of five Khadidja Herre wants to earn a living to send her children to school.  UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Vahindi Martin Assinga fled violence in his hometown Kidam in northern Cameroon, where he worked as a forest guard.  UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Some Cameroonian refugees have already found inventive ways to earn enough to meet their basic needs.

Originally from Kousseri on Cameroons border with Chad, Issa Hassane, 25, used to earn his living selling second-hand clothes and firewood that he collected.

Since his arrival in Chad, he has switched to repairing mobile phones  a skill he learned by practicing on his own phone, which enables him to earn between 1,000 and 1,500 CFA francs (US$1.7-2.6) each day.

I repair phones of all brands. My clients include both other refugees and Chadians, he explained.

While some such as Issa have found ways to support themselves, many thousands more remain dependent on humanitarian support. In response, UNHCR on Friday appealed for an additional US$59.6 million to meet the urgent needs of Cameroonian refugees and internally displaced people over the next six months.

donate
Students return to campus to attend in-person classes for the first time since spring 2020 at Cal State L.A. on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Colorado's rollout of free KN95 and surgical-grade masks got off to a bumpy start Wednesday, with many residents going to handout sites only to be told that their public library or community center wasn't handing out masks.

Other communities ran out of masks a few hours after they began distributing them.

The governor's office announced on Tuesday that the masks would be available for free at libraries, fire stations, recreation centers, VFWs, YMCAs and community centers.

The state delivered 82,500 KN95s and 226,000 surgical-grade masks to distribution points on Tuesday, and shipped "hundreds of thousands" more on Wednesday, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The state initially listed Denver Public Library as a distribution site where residents could get free masks. But on Wednesday, library officials said they were not handing out facial coverings.

"The Denver Public Library and its branches do not have any KN95 masks for public distribution," Erika Martinez, the library's spokeswoman, said in an email. "We ordered masks from the state for our staff and we did receive that shipment."

As of Wednesday afternoon, the library system was removed from the state's list of distribution sites. But others like the Jefferson County Public Library remained on the list despite not distributing masks to the public on Wednesday.

The state released a list of locations on Tuesday, but updated it on Wednesday to lessen confusion, according to Denver Gazette news partner 9News.

"We updated our website this morning because people were not looking at the list of distribution sites to find participating locations and were calling and visiting sites that did not yet have masks. We want to avoid any additional confusion," the state health department told the TV station. "Only the sites listed on this site are currently distributing masks. We are adding fire stations, YMCAs, VFWs and more as we ship the masks."

While confusion reigned at some distribution sites, others like the Aguilar Public Library, Akron Public Library and Alamosa Public Library received their shipments and were handing them out to the public.

Akron Public Library received 500 KN95s, said Heidi Hobson, the library system's director. Aguilar Public Library received two boxes of KN95s and other surgical-grade masks, said Lillian Clark, who is in charge of that library system.

"We've already had a good turnout for our community size," said Hobson.

Edwin A. Bemis Public Library in Littleton had an influx of residents looking for masks on Wednesday. The high-interest paired with receiving about half the number of masks the library system requested led to it running out in the early afternoon, said Kristi Moran, a business support associate at the library.

"There was a whole lot of interest and we were fully out by 2 p.m.," Moran said.

Security Public Library in Colorado Springs also ran out of masks on Wednesday morning, according to a news release.

While many library systems began distributing the free masks on Wednesday, some like Aurora and Jefferson County public libraries refrained. Both will begin distributing the masks on Thursday, officials said.

Jefferson County Public Library received 2,500 masks from the state. Kim McGrigg, a spokeswoman for the library, said employees spent all of Wednesday delivering them to each of the library's 10 branches.

Similarly, Aurora Public Library received around 4,000 masks from the state and will begin handing them out at its six locations during regular business hours on Thursday, said Midori Clark, Aurora's director of library and cultural services.

The mask rollout comes days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced cloth masks are not as effective against COVID-19.

"We are on a mission to help Coloradans keep themselves safe, and free medical grade masks are far more effective in preventing infection than cloth masks," Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. "By making free medical grade masks available at libraries across our state and soon for home delivery, we are giving Coloradans a powerful tool to avoid infection."

Health officials have reiterated throughout the pandemic and in recent days that the two most effective tools Coloradans can use to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are masks and vaccinations.

The state health department encourages all residents to have masks readily available to use in public when asked, though Colorado does not have a statewide mask mandate.
Medics transfer a patient on a stretcher from an ambulance outside of Emergency at Coral Gables Hospital where Coronavirus patients are treated in Coral Gables near Miami, on August 16, 2021. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
Gov. Jared Polis talks to members of the media in his office during a press conference following his State of the State 2022 address at the State Capitol Building on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Gazette)
PortauPrince, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) :More than six months after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by a hit squad of mercenaries, there have been a flurry of arrests of suspects in different countries, but the motive for the crime and its sponsors remain unknown.

And the investigation in Port-au-Prince itself seems to have stalled, illustrating serious dysfunction in the judicial system of the impoverished Caribbean country.

- Investigation in Florida - Moise was shot dead in his private residence in Port-au-Prince on the night of July 6-7, 2021, apparently by a commando made up of Colombians. Since the beginning of 2022, the US Justice Department has charged two men in Miami for their alleged role in this assassination.

One of them is Colombian national Mario Palacios, who is suspected of being one of five armed men who entered the room where the leader was killed.

He was arrested on January 3 in Panama, during a stopover on a flight from Jamaica.

The other was Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian-Chilean citizen, was appeared in a court in Miami on Thurday after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. According to a document on file with the FBI, Jaar admitted during an interview in December to having provided weapons and ammunition to the group of Colombians.

"The United States has a mechanism to prosecute people who have participated in conspiracies on US territory even if these conspiracies have been hatched for crimes committed outside US soil: it's a good thing," said Marie-Rosy Auguste Ducena, a lawyer within the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights of Haiti.

The Colombian mercenaries were recruited by the CTU security firm based in Miami, and several meetings between the suspects took place in Florida before the deadly attack.

Philippe Larochelle, lawyer for Joverlein Moise, the son of the slain president, said he remained cautious in the face of these charges.

"In what form will they have to answer for their actions in the United States, that remains to be seen," said the Montreal-based lawyer. "We are in the early stages." - Magistrate under fire - It only took a few hours for Haitian police to arrest the 20 former Colombian soldiers and two Haitian-American citizens who were allegedly members of the commando that assassinated the 53-year-old president.

Locked up in prison in the Haitian capital, these Colombians have not yet been questioned by the examining magistrate.

The decision of magistrate Garry Orelien to release, at the start of this month, four Haitian police officers suspected of complicity has also caused confusion, with Ducena going as far as accusing the magistrate of "indulging in acts of corruption." An extradition request made by the Haitian authorities for a suspect arrested in Turkey in November has not yet had any results. It is unclear whether such a move has been made against John Joel Joseph, a former opposition senator arrested last week in Jamaica for his alleged role in the president's assassination.

- Unanswered questions - Although Moise was unpopular and widely accused of authoritarian excesses, his assassination shocked the entire nation, and many questions remain unanswered.

Following is an incomplete list: How was the armed commando able to get into the presidential residence without meeting any resistance from the specialized units responsible for the head of state's security? What role did Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a 63-year-old Haitian based in Florida and currently in prison, play after arriving in the country in June with the Colombian nationals? Where is the former judge at the Court of Appeals, Wendelle Coq Thelot, who is suspected of being part of the plot and who is the subject of a manhunt? Why would the current Prime Minister Ariel Henry have spoken by telephone, the very day of the attack, with Joseph Felix Badio, one of the main suspects? When a prosecutor sought his indictment, Henry called the move a diversion, before firing him and appointing a new attorney general.

"Who paid for the assassination to be carried out? This is the aspect that should have been investigated by the judicial police," said Ducena.

"The main officials and sponsors are still in the shadows", said Larochelle, who believes that a special tribunal, like the one set up after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, is "the only viable alternative" for his client, who only asks "to know who are the people responsible for his father's death."
Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2022 ) :The US army has confirmed the presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group in Mali, which the African nation's government has denied amid increasingly strained relations with the West.

"Wagner is in Mali," General Stephen Townsend, the head of US Africa Command, said in an interview with Voice of America, "They are there, we think, numbering several hundred now." "They're deploying there, supported by the Russian military, Russian Air Force airplanes are delivering them," he said, directly tying the Wagner group to the Kremlin, a link that Moscow denies.

"The world can see this happening," Townsend said. "It's a great concern to us." French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week accused Wagner's mercenaries of "supporting" Mali's ruling junta under the pretense of fighting jihadists. He also slammed Russia for allegedly lying about the status of the Wagner group.

"When we asked our Russian colleagues about Wagner, they said they don't know anything (about it)," he said.

"When it comes to mercenaries who are Russian veterans, who have Russian weapons, who are transported by Russian planes, it would be surprising if the Russian authorities did not know about it," Le Drian said.

"We are living in a lie."The junta seized power in Mali in a 2020 coup. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in December agreed to sanction Bamako after the junta proposed staying in power for up to five years before staging elections -- despite international demands to respect a promise to hold the vote in February.

The European Union may soon follow suit, at the instigation of France, which has accused the junta of using Wagner's services, something Bamako denies.
Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday once again called upon the international community to provide immediate humanitarian relief to the millions of Afghans who were facing an imminent starvation

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday once again called upon the international community to provide immediate humanitarian relief to the millions of Afghans who were facing an imminent starvation.

In a tweet, the prime minister also reminded that providing immediate relief to the impoverished Afghanistan was also obligatory under unanimously adopted UN Principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

"There is an urgency for the international community, as well as their obligation under the unanimously adopted UN principle of Responsibility To Protect (R2P), to provide immediate humanitarian relief to millions of Afghans on the brink of starvation," the prime minister posted on Twitter, a popular social media platform.

The prime minister also tagged a news story published in the Guardian daily, UK, carrying excerpts from an article written by former British premier Gordon Brown to UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, calling on her to help convene a donor conference to raise $4.5bn (3.3bn) for Afghanistan.

Brown, in his article, had warned that more than 23 million people were at risk of starvation if aid did not materialize.

The former UK prime minister said: "We are witnessing a shameful but also self-defeating failure to prevent famine", adding that the UK should urgently take a lead in resuming the delivery of aid dramatically halted after Taliban announced their government.

The UN agencies had launched a call for $4.5bn in aid for 2022, its biggest ever international appeal. The US responded with a donation of $308m, to be channeled through independent humanitarian organisations.

Brown said that was not enough. "The 35-country, American-led coalition that ruled Afghanistan for 20 years under the banner of helping the Afghan people has still put up only a quarter of the money that would allow UN humanitarians to stop children dying this winter."Brown further wrote that he had written to Truss and to the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, to ask them to host an international donor conference "in January or at the latest in February" to break the impasse.

"The devastation the world was warned about months ago is no longer a distant prospect," Brown said, adding, the UN's humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths, Brown wrote, "forecasts that if we do not act, 97% of Afghans will soon be living below the poverty line".
The wait may be over for Lebanons M1 Group, which had offered at least six months ago to buy Telenors Myanmar unit but had been forced to hang on while the government searched for a local buyer.

In the event it looks like M1 Group will partner with a Myanmar firm, allowing Telenor to leave the country. Telenor said in July it was selling its operations in Myanmar to M1 for $105 million, though its not clear whether this is still the sum involved.

Reuters cites sources who say that the new venture will be called Atom. However, Reuters also reports a Telenor spokesperson as saying that it is waiting for a response to its application for regulatory approval of the sale.

Military leaders late last year rejected plans for a sale solely to M1. Thus what appears to be the approved buyer is a partnership between M1 Group and Myanmar's Shwe Byain Phyu Group, whose interests include gem mining and petrol stations. It has been reported that Shwe Byain Phyu Group will be the majority shareholder of the former Telenor operation.

Telenors exit has come as little surprise. The new rulers of Myanmar have put pressure on a number of telecoms companies to install surveillance technology, an order Telenor clearly felt it was unable to comply with. That said, according to Reuters, Telenor has said its handover to a new buyer would include all assets, including call data records, in accordance with licence obligations.

So what happens now? There are concerns that the new owners of the former Telenor Myanmar might not be as uncomfortable about supporting the junta's plans to increase surveillance of the population as Telenor was. Shwe Byain Phyu is said to have existing links to the Myanmar military, not least through an indirect stake, via its chairman, in operator Mytel, which is part-owned by a military-linked company.

It is also not clear how the other operators in the country will respond. However, they include state-backed MPT as well as Mytel. The fourth operator is Qatar's Ooredoo.
Lawmakers exchanged blows in the Honduran Congress Friday as a dispute among members of president-elect Xiomara Castro's party turned violent

Tegucigalpa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) :Lawmakers exchanged blows in the Honduran Congress Friday as a dispute among members of president-elect Xiomara Castro's party turned violent.

Legislators from her leftist Libre party protested after 20 rebel members proposed Jorge Calix, one of their cohorts, as provisional congress president.

Castro loyalists claimed this violated a pact with Libre's coalition partner.

Amid cries of "traitors" and "Xiomara!", angry Libre legislators forced their way to the podium while Calix was being sworn in, causing him to flee under a hail of punches and much pushing and shoving.

It was the first sitting of the 128-member Congress since elections last November.

Following an emergency party meeting later on Friday, the president-elect announced that the 20 members had been expelled from Libre, calling them "traitors" and "corrupt".

The crisis began late Thursday when Castro called her party's 50 legislators to a meeting to ask them to support Luis Redondo of the Savior Party of Honduras (PSH) as congress president.

The 20 rebel members did not attend.

On Friday, Libre leader Gilberto Rios told AFP that the 20 are backed by groups that wish to stop Castro's promised anti-corruption campaign, including people in "organized crime" and "drug trafficking." Castro won elections on November 28 to become Honduras' first woman president and end 12 years of National Party rule.

She won as part of an alliance between Libre and the PSH, to which the presidency of Congress was promised.

Castro accused the dissidents of "betraying the constitutional agreement" and "making alliances with representatives of organized crime, corruption and drug trafficking."Her husband Manuel Zelaya, a former president who was deposed in a 2009 coup supported by the military, business elites and the political right, is a senior Libre party official.

Castro is to be sworn in on January 27 along with other senior officials, including the congress president, at a ceremony attended by international guests including US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Hundreds of Malaysians rallied in the capital Saturday, demanding the country's powerful anti-graft chief resign over a stock trading controversy where he owned millions of shares

Kuala Lumpur, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) :Hundreds of Malaysians rallied in the capital Saturday, demanding the country's powerful anti-graft chief resign over a stock trading controversy where he owned millions of shares.

Wearing masks and shouting "reject corruption", the mostly black-clad crowd of about two hundred called for immediate action against Azam Baki, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission's (MACC) top official.

Protests in the Southeast Asian nation have been rare since the beginning of the pandemic due to virus curbs and fears of infection.

But public anger over corruption has previously led to mass demonstrations and election upsets, with the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal contributing to the longest-governing coalition's downfall in 2018.

Azam, a key investigator into the former regime's looting of the 1MDB state fund, has been under scrutiny for weeks over allegations of improper proxy trading after he admitted to letting his brother use his account.

Azam has denied any wrongdoing, while Malaysia's securities regulator said this week that he had control of his account at the time of the trades, clearing him.

But that has not appeased the public.

"We have come because we cannot allow the practice of corruption to continue," Mohamad Zawawi Ishak, 29, told AFP as a crowd massed in front of a city train station at about 11:00 am (0800 GMT).

"In the fight against corruption, whoever is corrupt, we have to fight." Sivaranjani Manickam, 41, said the government was encouraging more corruption by not punishing Azam.

"Anger is making us come out to the streets today to protest," she said.

Police closed several major roads city-wide as dozens of officers, including some in riot gear, tailed the crowd before rally-goers dispersed peacefully less than two hours later.

A MACC veteran of over 36 years, Azam was appointed head of the anti-graft department in 2020 in the midst of efforts to claw back pilfered funds.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2022) The US-led Coalition provided the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) airstrike support during a prison break by the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) in city of Hasakah, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.

"We have provided some airstrikes to support them (SDF) as they deal with this particular prison break," Kirby said during a press briefing.

Kirby said he has no details on the number of airstrikes conducted or targets damaged in the operation.

Fighting continues around the vicinity of the prison in Hasakah some 24 hours after the rebellion started, according to media reports.

Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Representative in the United States Bassam Saker told Sputnik earlier in the day that authorities Hasaka in northeast Syria have imposed a curfew as they search for Islamic State militants behind the attack on the Ghweran prison.

On Thursday, Islamic State terrorists attacked a Kurdish-managed Ghweran prison when a car bomb hit the entrance of the facility and caused another blast nearby. The attack was conducted to enable prisoners to escape from the facility.

Saker said while it is still unknown whether any prisoners managed to escape, the prison now is under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces. He also confirmed that one SDF member died and seven were injured in the attack.

The armed conflict in Syria has been going on since 2011. In late 2017, the authorities declared that the Islamic State was defeated in Syria and Iraq, but counterterrorism operations are still ongoing.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Two out of three Sherpa brothers have proudly returned home after becoming the first Nepalis to reach the South Pole, part of their mission to achieve the hallowed Explorers' Grand Slam

Kathmandu, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) :Two out of three Sherpa brothers have proudly returned home after becoming the first Nepalis to reach the South Pole, part of their mission to achieve the hallowed Explorers' Grand Slam.

This holy grail of adventuring involves climbing the highest peaks in the seven continents -- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya -- and reaching both poles.

"We saw flags of many countries, but the flag of our country was not there," Chhang Dawa Sherpa said after returning from Antarctica where they also ticked off the 4,892-metre (16,050-feet) Mt. Vinson.

"We felt very happy to add Nepal's flag there," he told AFP on Friday.

Sherpa and his elder sibling Mingma -- due back in Nepal in the coming weeks -- already hold the record for the first siblings to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world.

Their little brother, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, holds the crown as the youngest person, at 19, to climb Everest without using supplementary oxygen.

For the Explorers' Grand Slam the siblings still have to climb another five peaks and reach the North Pole, but they are confident they can complete it within a year.

The brothers run the aptly named Seven Summits Treks in Kathmandu, the largest expedition organiser in Nepal, taking hundreds of climbers up Himalayan peaks every year.

Nepali guides -- usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest -- are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas for bearing huge risks to carry equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.

Long under the shadow as supporters of foreign climbers, Nepali mountaineers are slowly being recognised in their own right.

Last year, a team of Nepali climbers made the first winter assent of K2, the world's second-highest peak -- the notoriously challenging 8,611-metre (28,251-feet) "savage mountain" of Pakistan -- shining a much-deserved spotlight on their own climbing prowess.

burs-pm/stu/je
(UroToday.com) The 2022 EAU Section of Oncological Urology (ESOU) Annual Meeting included a session on urothelial cancer and a presentation by Dr. Alberto Breda discussing the utilization of en bloc resection in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). En bloc resection of bladder tumors has been hypothesized to lead to better pathological specimens, shorter operative and catheterization times, shorter hospital stays, less complications (ie. perforation), and better oncological outcomes:

Recently, the International Collaborative Consensus Statement on en-bloc resection of bladder tumor underlined the lack of high-quality prospective studies precluding the achievement of solid conclusion for en-bloc resection. Additionally, this statement concluded that a randomized clinical trial was necessary to confirm feasibility of en-bloc resection and resolve the controversy regarding the quality of the specimen compared to a TURBT specimen.1

Dr. Breda and his group subsequently designed a non-inferiority randomized clinical trial comparing TURBT and en-bloc resection of bladder tumor in terms of pathological diagnosis, surgical, and oncological outcomes. Interim results were previously presented at the EAU 2021 annual meeting and the final analysis is now under peer review. This study is a prospective, randomized trial enrolling patients diagnosed with bladder cancer and undergoing endoscopic intervention. Inclusion criteria were tumor size of <3 cm, and 3 lesions, and no sign of muscle invasion and/or ureteral involvement. The primary outcome is bladder cancer staging, and secondary outcomes include T1 substaging (microstaging systems T1a/b/c), intraoperative complications, rate of adjuvant treatment, postoperative complications, and oncologic outcomes. Overall, 300 subjects were included in the study with 1:1.5 treatment allocation for en-bloc resection of bladder tumor. An up to date flow diagram is as follows:

With regards to surgical outcomes, there was no difference in surgery duration (median, TURBT 30 min vs en-bloc resection 30 min, p = 0.129), obturator nerve reflex (TURBT 6.5% vs en-bloc resection 10.7%, p = 0.245), depth of resection (perforation: TURBT 14.8% vs 19% en-bloc resection, p=0.905), Clavien-Dindo complications (p = 0.535), catheter days (median TURBT 2 days vs en-bloc resection 2 days, p = 0.236), and hospitalization (median TURBT 2 days vs en-bloc resection 2 days, p = 0.629).

With regards to histological outcome, en bloc resection is non-inferior to TURBT in both detrusor muscle presence and staging of bladder cancer, with improvement in subtyping T1 disease for en-bloc resection:

After a median follow-up of 15 months (IQR 7-28), the 3 month recurrence rate for TURBT is 0% and for en bloc resection is 0.7% (p = 1.0), whereas the overall recurrence rate for TURBT is 17.6% and for en bloc resection is 12.9% (p = 0.3). As follows is the results based on type of energy used, including monopolar, bipolar, and Thulium laser:

Importantly, being a resident performing the case was not an independent predictor of perforation (vs attending urologist: B-coefficient 0.108 (-0.100-0.317, p = 0.308).

Dr. Breda concluded his presentation discussing the utility of en bloc resection for bladder tumors with the following take-home messages:

En bloc resection is non-inferior to TURBT for retrieving deep muscle and in bladder cancer staging, apart from the differentiation between T1 substaging

The intraoperative, postoperative, and oncological outcomes are comparable between the two techniques

Difference energies are available and each energy has its advantages and disadvantages leading to different indications in different settings

Residents are learning, and supervised residents are not dangerous to the patient



Presented by: Alberto Breda, MD, Head of Uro-Oncological Unit and Surgical Kidney Transplantation Team, Fundacio Puigvert, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Written by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, @zklaassen_md on Twitter during the 2022 EAU Section of Oncological Urology (ESOU) Hybrid Annual Meeting, Madrid, Spain, Fri, Jan 21  Sun, Jan 23, 2022.



References:
(UroToday.com) The 2022 EAU Section of Oncological Urology (ESOU) Annual Meeting included a session on localized prostate cancer and a state-of-the-art lecture by Dr. Daniel Spratt discussing molecular advances in risk stratification of localized disease. Dr. Spratt notes that treatment decisions at their core are dominated by risk stratification, with the earliest risk stratification dating back to 1929 with the League of Nations World Health Organization developing the four-stage system for cervical cancer. Fast forward to the 1950s when Gleason grade grouping was added for prostate cancer, as well as the UICC publishing the first T, N, M staging classification. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the AJCC published editions 1 through 5, and the NCCN published their first prostate cancer guideline. Over the last two decades, we have seen the DAmico risk stratification, AJCC 6th, and 7th edition, and the Zumsteg/Spratt (MSKCC) risk groups emerge, with many nomograms and multivariable models (ie. CAPRA) published along the way. More recently (2016 onwards), there has been the publication of the AJCC 8th edition, the Spratt clinical genomic risk groups, and STAR-CAP for risk stratification.



However, Dr. Spratt cautions to not confuse motion with progress. Many clinicians still rely on a 60-year-old grading system (with modifications not specifically for prognostication), serum PSA (with its many limitations), and digital rectal examination (with prostate MRI only ~60% sensitive for T3 disease). Work from Dr. Spratts group presented at ASTRO 2021 looked at the prognostic and predictive performance of routine clinicopathologic variables enrolled on randomized phase III trials. The trials used for this individual patient data meta-analysis in terms of prognostic performance included RTOG 0126, RTOG 9910, RTOG 9408, RTOG 9413, RTOG 9202, EORTC 22991, EORTC 22863, EORTC 22961, Ottawa 0101, and DART 01/05 for a total of 10,535 patients. Using Gleason score, PSA, T-stage, and NCCN risk group, c-indices for biochemical recurrence and overall survival ranged from 0.52-0.60, slightly better than a coin-flip (0.50). Furthermore, looking at prognostic performance based on the Fine and Grey regression model and a random forest model, the c-indices for distant metastases were decent (~0.70) and modest at best for metastasis free survival and overall survival (both ~0.60):

Importantly, none of these models were developed/trained with the intent of optimal prognostication or prediction of treatment response. Dr. Spratt notes that in 2022 many scientists and clinicians still think of Gleason score as a clinical outcome. Thus, you cant learn anything new until you are open enough to forget everything you think you know.

There is an objective versus subjective characterization of cancer: the cancer genotype being objective versus the cancer phenotype being subjective and error-prone, as highlighted in the following figure:

As such, there is a need to capture the vast molecular heterogeneity of prostate cancer, however not all gene expression tests appear to be equal. Dr. Spratt notes that for Oncotype, there is only one prospective trial in the active surveillance population, which was borderline significant on multivariable analysis for predicting adverse pathology.1 For Prolaris, there are no prospective trials in radically treated patients, but there is a recent large retrospective study showing a c-index for CCP of only 0.52.2 With regards to Decipher, this has been validated in multiple randomized clinical trials and prospective registries to prognosticate biochemical recurrence, metastasis free survival, and overall survival.3 In this systematic review of the evidence for the Decipher genomic classifier, Dr. Spratt notes that at the time of publication, there were 42 studies comprising more than 30,000 patients, in several disease states (localized prostate cancer, after radical prostatectomy, nmCRPC, and mHSPC). In addition to the endpoint of metastasis being evaluated (n=26 studies), other endpoints were also assessed, including adverse pathology (n=6), biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy (n=3), biochemical recurrence after radiotherapy (n=4), prostate cancer specific mortality (n=5), overall survival (n=3), and change in management (n=5).

Dr. Spratt then discussed the creation of the clinical-genomic risk groups. In his groups seminal work published in 2018,4 the aim of their study was to develop a novel clinical-genomic risk grouping system that can readily be incorporated into treatment guidelines for localized prostate cancer. Over a median follow-up of 8 years for patients in the training cohort, 10-year distant metastasis rates for NCCN low, favorable-intermediate, unfavorable-intermediate, and high-risk were 7.3%, 9.2%, 38.0%, and 39.5%, respectively. In contrast, the three-tier clinical-genomic risk groups had 10-year distant metastasis rates of 3.5%, 29.4%, and 54.6%, for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk, respectively, which were consistent in the validation cohort. C-indices for the clinical-genomic risk grouping system (0.84; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.93) were improved over NCCN (0.73; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.86) and CAPRA (0.74; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.84):

As such, a new NCCN clinical genomic model reclassifies 67% of patients:

44% of favorable-intermediate to low risk

41% of unfavorable intermediate to high risk

63% of high risk to very high risk

Furthermore, results for the Decipher genomic classifier have been analyzed in numerous randomized trials, in the localized, biochemically recurrent, and advanced disease states, with the most recent work from Dr. Spratts group scheduled to be presented at GU ASCO 2022. Published in 2021 in JAMA Oncology,5 Feng et al validated the Decipher genomic classifier in patients with recurrent prostate cancer using data from the NRG/RTOG 9601 randomized clinical trial. On multivariable analysis, the genomic classifier was independently associated with distant metastasis (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.05-1.32; p = 0.006), prostate cancer specific mortality (HR 1.39, 95% CI, 1.20-1.63; p < 0.001), and overall survival (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.06-1.29; p = 0.002) after adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, Gleason score, T stage, margin status, entry PSA, and treatment arm.

This extensive work using the Decipher genomic classifier has led to numerous phase III biomarker trials, including NRG GU1934 (GUIDANCE) and NRG GU009 (PREDICT-RT):

Dr. Spratt suggests that over the next several years, artificial intelligence for histology and radiology will continue changing the landscape of the objective vs subjective characterization of cancer.

Dr. Spratt concluded his presentation of molecular advances in risk stratification of localized prostate cancer with the following conclusions:

Nearly all treatment decisions in prostate cancer are based on prognosis

Current standard of care risk stratification tools have unacceptable performance, which inherently over- and under treat the vast majority of patients. We have improved models (ie. STAR-CAP), but these are still rarely used

Gene expression tests have proven to be superior in prognostication, however not all have equal data to support clinical use, and there are challenges in global adoption

A digital pathology and MRI-based approach may provide more cost-effective solutions

Presented by: Daniel E. Spratt, MD, Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, Vincent K. Smith Professor, Case Western University, Cleveland, OH

Written by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc  Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, @zklaassen_md on Twitter during the 2022 EAU Section of Oncological Urology (ESOU) Hybrid Annual Meeting, Madrid, Spain, Fri, Jan 21  Sun, Jan 23, 2022.





References:
An interview with Rev. Mari Valjakka, pastor of Sami at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, highlights the reality of Europes only indigenous people and their unique and precious contribution to humanitys effort to care for Creation.

By Benedetta Capelli & Linda Bordoni

On the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Pope Francis met with a delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. He encouraged them to renew their enthusiasm for following Christ and thanked them for their engagement and work with indigenous peoples and for their commitment to care for our common home.

Rev. Mari Valjakka, pastor of Sami at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and moderator of the WCC Indigenous Peoples Reference Group was part of the delegation. She belongs to the Skolt Sami community, an indigenous people with a unique culture and history. A people that has also suffered discrimination and injustice.

During the audience, Pope Francis specifically referred to the Sami, the only indigenous people living in the European Union, with a population of about 75 thousand whose livelihoods depend mainly on reindeer herding and fishing. He invited them to work for the healing of memory, pursuing the "sincere search for truth."

Pope Francis receives the delegation from the Lutheran Church in Finland

In an interview with Vatican News Benedetta Capelli, Rev. Valjakka speaks about the connection she feels with the Pope and about the ecumenical journey in Finland where Catholics are a minority and where a path of renewal and reconciliation with the indigenous people is being set in motion.

The duty to listen

I think the protection of Creation is central to the mission of the Church, as human beings we were created in the image of God and as the image of God we are called to care for creation, Rev. Valjakka says.

She explains that about eighty percent of the planet's biodiversity is to be found in areas populated by indigenous peoples, these peoples have really been custodians of their lands, so they have a centuries-old tradition with respect to that.

She notes they have so much wisdom to share but very often their voice is not heard, not listened to.

In my opinion, the mission should start from the margins, from the peripheries with the indigenous peoples, with those who are discriminated against. As Christians we have a duty to listen to these voices that are often not heard - or even silenced - because they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, she says.

The Reverend Mari Valjakka in Finland

She speaks of how she reacted when she heard Pope Francis' call to government leaders to defend the Amazon rainforest, and protect all the indigenous groups that live in the area: I was really struck because I see that what happens in the Amazon does not simply stay in the Amazon, what happens in the region where I live, the Arctic region, does not simply stay there. We are all facing a climate crisis but indigenous peoples are facing it in the trenches, on the front line.

Rev. Valjakka notes that her own region, the Arctic, is warming up much faster than anywhere else on the planet.

So when I hear the Pope touch on these essential issues it gives me so much hope because I think the Gospel needs to be spread, and by spreading it can have a beneficial impact. We have a task to pray and also ask the Lord to show us how these indigenous peoples can communicate their wisdom to others and we need to pray that those in power, those who are world leaders, can be touched so the future can be better than yesterday, she says.

As regards the reality of the Sami people and her own commitment, as a woman of faith, to defend the rights of minorities, Rev. Valjakka reveals that her people have a long history of marginalization in Finland, and the history of relations between the Sami people and the local church has not always been without problems.

A woman and a member of a minority

There has been an attempt to assimilate us into the dominant culture, there was a time when we could not use our own language or even show signs of our culture, she says.

However, she continues, now we have begun a process called truth and reconciliation. It is a time when Sami people can tell their experiences, what they have suffered and start a path of reconciliation.

She expects it to be a long and hard process but says she hopes it will provide the chance to understand each other better.

The fact that I am a woman and that I come from a minority group within the Sami minority itself means that I find myself, I won't say every day but maybe every second of the day, fighting against windmills. But being here, having the opportunity to meet Pope Francis, and also being able to talk and exchange views with Catholics who work within Finland and who are also in contact with minority groups, gives me the feeling that maybe these windmills are not so strong, so powerful, she says.

The Reverand Mari Valjakka in the Vatican

Ecumenical relations

Finally, Rev. Valjakka expresses her opinion that relations between the various Christian denominations are very good in Finland.

At the same time, however, she says those relations can be further strengthened and can be opened up to other religions as well, a particularly poignant need as we hopefully leave behind the pandemic.
A lack of funds has forced the World Food Programme to reduce assistance to eight million people in need in Yemen.

By Nathan Morley

A lack of funds has forced the World Food Programme to reduce assistance to eight million people in need in Yemen.

The situation in Yemen continues to be increasingly bleak. From next month, affected families will get barely half the daily minimum ration from the UN agency, opening the possibility of millions slipping into famine conditions.



With food stocks dangerously low, the WFP says more severe reductions would soon be unavoidable. Compounding matters, malnutrition treatment and food supplies for children may also be scaled down.



The country has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in 2015. Fighting has reportedly left more than 120,000 people dead and left the economy on the brink, leaving about 16 million people affected by inadequate food consumption.

Sudan

Meanwhile, to the west in Sudan, pro-democracy activists continue to accuse the military of stealing the revolution that led to Omar al-Bashir being ousted two years ago.



Coup leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has defended October's military takeover. He maintains the army acted to prevent a civil war because political groups had been inciting civilians against security forces.



Two people were reportedly killed during a protest last weekend when thousands marched in Khartoum to condemn the coup.

Syria

To the north in Syria, new figures show the on-going conflict has killed 3,746 people this year - the lowest annual death toll so far, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.



The conflict has left close to 500,000 people dead and spurred the largest displacement of people since World War II.
ASHLEY DANIELS is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Daniels can be contacted at Adanie6@ilstu.edu. Follow Daniels on Twitter at @RTV_Ash210

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
ISABEL BRAICO is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Braico can be contacted at icbraic@ilstu.edu. Follow Braico on Twitter at @IsabelBraico

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
On Jan. 21, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva to discuss the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow is said to have deployed around 100,000 soldiers to the Ukrainian borders.

Russia denies that it intends to invade Ukraine. However, it has issued a list of demands that must be met by the United States, which includes guaranteeing that Ukraine will never become a member of NATO. The U.S. position is that the decision on whether to join NATO or not solely lies with Ukraine and the organizations member states.

Prior to the talks, both individuals had commented that they do not expect any breakthroughs to occur. After the meeting, it was clear that they had failed to arrive at a resolution. According to Blinken, the meeting allowed Lavrov to have a better understanding of Washingtons position on the issue and vice versa. Thats precisely why we met, he stated.

I made clear to Minister Lavrov that there are certain issues and fundamental principles that the United States and our partners and allies are committed to defend That includes those that would impede the sovereign right of the Ukrainian people to write their own future. There is no trade space there. None, Blinken said.

The Secretary of State pointed out that Russia has two choices in front of it  Moscow can either choose the path of diplomacy that will lead to peace and security or it can choose a path that will only result in conflict, severe consequences, and international condemnation. Washington and its allies in Europe are ready to meet Russia no matter which path Moscow chooses, Blinken added.

Weve been clear  if any Russian military forces move across Ukraines border, thats a renewed invasion. It will be met with swift, severe, and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies, Blinken said. Lavrov called on the U.S. to respond to Moscows list of demands which it says is necessary to ensure its security and stability of the region. Until the Kremlin receives a written response from Washington regarding its demands, Moscow wont know if talks are on the right track, he said.

A day prior to his meeting with Lavrov, Blinken had met with ministers from Germany, France, and the UK on Jan. 20. Earlier, Blinken traveled to Ukraine in a bid to show Washingtons support for the country and its fundamental right to exist as an independent nation. During this visit, he accused Moscow of systematically seeking to weaken the democratic institutions of Ukraine by interfering in elections and spreading disinformation.

The Ukrainian people chose a democratic and European path in 1991. They took to the Maidan to defend that choice in 2013, and unfortunately ever since you have faced relentless aggression from Moscow [Russia is trying] to challenge some very basic principles that undergird the entire international system and are necessary for trying to keep peace and security  principles like one nation cant simply change the borders of another by force, Blinken stated.

Meanwhile, the first shipment of assistance to Ukraine from the United States arrived in Kiev on Jan. 22. The $200 million security support package includes ammunition and other things necessary for soldiers to defend their borders.This shipment includes close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine The shipment  and $2.7 billion USD since 2014  demonstrates U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev said in a Jan. 22 tweet
With Ukraine facing the threat of a potential Russian invasion at any time, Estonia, an ally of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), wants to provide Ukraine with military support.

However, Germany is blocking Estonia from doing so since the weapons it wants to send to Ukraine are of German origin. Berlins blockade comes due to the countrys policy against exporting arms to tense regions.

The principle governing arms exports is always the samewhether they come directly from Germany or from third countriesand no permission has been issued at this stage It is not possible to estimate the outcome of the process at this moment, a German government official told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). An Estonian official told the media outlet that his country hopes to soon get approval from Germany.

Estonias military contribution to Ukraine might not be too significant and is unlikely to cause any massive change in the Ukraine-Russian military conflict should it occur. However, by not allowing Estonia to export arms, Germanys action might be interpreted by Russia as an indication of a rift among the EU members. Allowing Estonia to transfer arms will also pave the way for other nations holding German-made weapons to transfer them as well.

I can understand the wish to support Ukraine, and thats exactly what we are doing already We have to do everything to de-escalate. Currently, arms deliveries would not be helpful in this respect, there is agreement on this in the German government, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told a local paper.

Some have criticized the German governments stand on the matter, insisting that arms export of some kind is essential for defensive purposes. According to Henning Otte, who sits on the Bundestags defense committee, Germany should not reject Ukraines request for a defensive weapon, the deprivation of which might lead to the country being invaded by Russia. However, the term defensive is subjective. Some of the defensive weapons can be used offensively as well.

Talking about exporting weapons can turn out to be politically dangerous, something that complicates honest discussion on the issue. For instance, when Robert Habeck from the Greens party supported sending defensive weapons to Ukraine last year, he ended up getting so severely criticized that Habeck later claimed he was only talking about demining equipment.

Though Germany is refusing to allow the export of German-origin arms to Ukraine at present, Kyiv is a customer of German defense equipment. In 2020 and during the first six months of 2021, Germany approved 97 military exports to Ukraine worth 5.2 million euros ($5.8 million.)

Meanwhile, the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have confirmed that they will be sending U.S.-made Stinger and Javelin missiles to the Ukraine. In light of Russias increase in military pressure in and around Ukraine, the Baltic States have decided to answer Ukrainian needs and to provide additional defense-related assistance This aid will further enhance Ukraines capability to defend its territory and population in case of a possible Russian aggression, the countries said in a statement.

In a recent speech during the Davos Agenda virtual event, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that staying silent is not a sensible option after several years of rising tensions. He insisted that European borders must not be moved by force. With regard to the talks taking place between the United States, NATO, Europe, and Russia, Scholz believes its too early to assess whether such efforts might help in de-escalating tensions.

The German Chancellor stated that his countrys perspective in the talks was about our commitment to Ukraines territorial integrity, and about a key principle of our common European peace order, that borders must not be moved by force, that right makes might and not the other way around [The Russian side is] aware of our determination I hope they realize the gains of cooperation outweigh the price of further confrontation.
Music Time in Africa is VOAs longest running English language program. Since 1965, this award-winning program has featured pan African music that spans all genres and generations. Ethnomusicologist and Host Heather Maxwell keeps you up to date on whats happening in African music with exclusive interviews, cultural information, and of course, great music -- including rare recordings from the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday he authorized the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, a move that comes amid Ukraines rising tensions with neighboring Russia.

I expedited and authorized, and we fully endorse transfers of defensive equipment @NATO Allies Estonia Latvia Lithuania are providing to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to defend itself against Russias unprovoked and irresponsible aggression, Blinken said in a post on Twitter.

Blinken also thanked the former Soviet republics and NATO members, for their longstanding support to Ukraine.

Blinkens announced approval of the arms shipments came one day after the U.S. and Russia appeared to make little progress in the increasingly high-stakes standoff over Ukraine, each side leaving the latest round of high-level talks Friday promising only to keep talking.

U.S. President Joe Biden focused on Ukraine Saturday. In a statement the White House said, President Biden met with his national security team in person and virtually at Camp David to discuss continued Russian aggressive actions toward Ukraine. President Biden was briefed on the current state of Russian military operations on Ukraines borders and discussed both our ongoing efforts to de-escalate the situation with diplomacy and our range of deterrence measures that are being coordinated closely with our Allies and partners, including ongoing deliveries of security assistance to Ukraine. President Biden again affirmed that should Russia further invade Ukraine, the United States will impose swift and severe consequences on Russia with our Allies and partners.

CNN and Fox News were reporting Saturday that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv asked the State Department for authorization to allow all nonessential staff and their families to leave.

A source close to the Ukrainian government told VOA that they had heard from their American contacts that evacuation for families and nonessential personnel is indeed being considered. According to the source, the evacuation plan was relayed by the Americans to the Ukrainian government on Friday.

A senior State Department official later told VOA that no order has come down, when asked if families of U.S. Embassy personnel in Ukraine have been ordered to begin evacuating as soon as Monday.

A State Department spokesperson also told VOA in an email that no such order was given by the agency and We have nothing to announce at this time.

We conduct rigorous contingency planning, as we always do, in the event the security situation deteriorates, the spokesperson added. We are already at a Level Four travel advisory for Ukraine for COVID and have advised that U.S. citizens should be aware of reports that Russia is planning for significant military action against Ukraine.

The spokesperson said if U.S. diplomats and their families must be evacuated, American citizens should not anticipate that there will be U.S. government-sponsored evacuations, and noted commercial flights to leave Ukraine are currently available.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about an hour and a half in Geneva, with both officials refusing to budge on core demands.

Blinken, in particular, described the impasse in stark terms.

If any of Russias military forces move across the Ukrainian border, thats a renewed invasion. It will be met with a swift, severe and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies, Blinken told reporters after the meeting.

The West is demanding that Russia pull its troops and weapons away from the Ukraine border while Moscow is pushing for NATO to curtail its operations in eastern and central Europe and insisting that the Western military alliance reject Ukraines membership bid.

Blinken said the U.S. and its allies are prepared to address Russias concerns, though not without conditions.

The United States, our allies and partners are prepared to pursue possible means of addressing them in a spirit of reciprocity, which means simply put that Russia must also address our concerns, Blinken said.

There are several steps we can take, all of us, Russia included, to increase transparency, to reduce risks, to advance arms control, to build trust, Blinken added.

News reports say U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is expected to meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for talks in Moscow, although no date has been given.

U.S. officials say Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, including in Belarus and in occupied Crimea. Blinken warned earlier this month that Moscow could mobilize twice that number on very short order."

They have a significant force posture there and that hasn't decreased. In fact, it has continued to increase. And we remain concerned about that, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Despite such concerns from the U.S. and its allies, Lavrov on Friday sought to paint Ukraine as the aggressor.

No one is hiding the fact that weapons are being handed over to Ukraine, that hundreds of military instructors are flocking to Ukraine right now, Lavrov said.

Still, the Russian foreign minister called the talks constructive and useful.

Lavrov also said talks would continue over the Kremlins security demands and that both Russia and the U.S. had committed to put their concerns in writing for further discussion.

Both Lavrov and Blinken said there is a possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Biden could talk, if both sides believe it might be helpful.

However, some of Russias renewed demands drew a sharper response from U.S. allies and partners, including NATO.

NATO will not renounce our ability to protect and defend each other, including with the presence of troops in the eastern part of the alliance, spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement Friday, rejecting demands that NATO pull troops from Bulgaria and Romania.

We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defense, she said.

The U.S. also sought to reassure allies, including Kyiv.

Blinken reaffirmed the United States unwavering support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity in a phone call Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the State Department said.

Amid the tensions and ongoing political maneuvering, the head of the United Nations appealed for calm.

It is clear that my message is that there should not be any military intervention in this context, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. I hope that this, of course, will not happen in the present circumstances. I am convinced it will not happen and I strongly hope to be right.

VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching and VOA Russian service correspondent Mykhailo Komadovsky contributed to this report. Some material came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Lawmakers exchanged blows in the Honduran Congress on Friday as a dispute among members of president-elect Xiomara Castro's party turned violent.

Legislators from her leftist Libre party protested after 20 rebel members proposed Jorge Calix, one of their cohorts, as provisional congress president.

The Castro loyalists claimed this violated a pact with Libre's coalition partner.

Amid cries of "Traitors!" and "Xiomara!" angry Libre legislators forced their way to the podium while Calix was being sworn in, causing him to flee under a hail of punches and much pushing and shoving.

It was the first sitting of the 128-member Congress since it was elected in November.

The crisis started late Thursday when Castro called her party's 50 legislators to a meeting to ask them to support Luis Redondo of the Salvador party of Honduras (PSH) as congress president.

The 20 rebel members did not attend.

On Friday, Libre leader Gilberto Rios told AFP that the 20 are backed by groups that wish to stop Castro's promised anti-corruption campaign, including people in "organized crime" and "drug trafficking."

Castro won elections on Nov. 28 to become Honduras's first woman president and end 12 years of National Party rule.

She won in an alliance between Libre and the PSH, to which the presidency of Congress was promised.

Castro accused the dissidents of "betraying the constitutional agreement" and "making alliances with representatives of organized crime, corruption and drug trafficking."

Senior Libre party member Manuel Zelaya, Castro's husband and a former president ousted in a coup in 2009, tweeted that those who "betrayed" the agreement would be expelled.

Castro is to be sworn in Jan. 27 along with other senior officials, including the congress president, at a ceremony attended by international guests including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kurdish militiamen allied with the U.S. continue to battle Islamic State militants Saturday for control of a prison and surrounding areas of the northeastern Syrian town of Hasakah. Arab media reports that U.S. tanks and helicopters have arrived in the area to help Kurdish forces after IS took control of the prison and several adjacent neighborhoods Thursday. Dozens of Islamic State militants and Kurdish militiamen have been killed in the fighting.

Kurdish fighters from the U.S.-backed QSD militia traded arms fire Saturday with Islamic State militants, who continue to control the Goren Prison in the northeastern Syrian town of Hasakah and several districts near the prison. At least several dozen Kurdish militiamen and more than 50 Islamic state militants reportedly were killed.

Arab media showed video of U.S. tanks and armored personnel carriers arriving in the area surrounding the prison to help Kurdish forces in the fight to recapture the prison and adjacent neighborhoods.

Syrian government TV showed video of dozens of civilians fleeing their homes in areas surrounding the prison that IS prisoners had infiltrated. Part of Hasakah is under the control of Kurdish militia forces and another part of the city remains under Syrian government control.

Ramy Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Arab media that "U.S. Apache helicopters have destroyed a former government trade school building in which IS militants were hiding, killing at least five of them."

Abdel Rahman also accused the Syrian government of using the Islamic State prison breakout to try and expand its control over parts of Hasakah.

Tribal leaders in the region held a short press conference captured on amateur video in which they accused "[neighboring] Turkey of trying to use the Islamic State group to foment a conflict among ethnic and tribal groups in the north of Syria and in neighboring Iraq.

Islamic State militants also attacked an Iraqi Army outpost in Diyala province early Friday, killing 11 government soldiers. Families of the victims accused IS of killing the soldiers while they were asleep and disabling cameras in the area.

Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, tells VOA the prison breakout and battle for control of part of Hasakah is a crisis that has been brewing for a long time.

He says several thousand Islamic State prisoners were being held in an old government technical school that normally holds just a thousand people and that the Hasakah prison, as well as the more well-known al-Hol prison, have been breeding grounds for Islamic extremism. The current crisis, he argues, was just waiting to happen.

Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV broadcast a 2020 interview with an Islamic State prisoner in a Kurdish-run prison, claiming he intended to break out of the prison and that other Islamic State group members would "not allow their prisoners to remain jailed indefinitely."

One Syrian tribal leader asserted that the Kurdish militia that controls the prisons had "released many Islamic State prisoners," whom he claimed have "gone back to the areas they once controlled to try and stir up trouble."

Arab media accused several countries active inside Syria and Iraq of responsibility for supporting the Islamic State resurgence, but Khattar Abou Diab emphasizes "it is impossible to prove any of the accusations."
Experts say the Biden administration faces limited options for dealing with North Korea unless it drastically changes its course as Pyongyang considers the resumption of nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest, said, The only way out of a crisis would be for [President] Joe Biden to give an address on North Korea and lay out a more coherent policy [other] than, Lets talk. 

He continued, Biden would have to lay out a vision for what a new relationship with North Korea could look like, but more importantly, what the DPRK would get in a potential deal, or at least what both sides would be bartering over in talks. The DPRK refers to North Koreas official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Earlier this week, regime leader Kim Jong Un suggested the possibility of ending a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that North Korea imposed in 2018 when Pyongyang was engaged in talks with Washington.

Kim, gathered with officials at the regimes Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers Party on Wednesday, said the country will examine the issue of restarting all temporally-suspended activities, according to a statement released by state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday.

Kim made a similar announcement in 2019, stating he was no longer bound by the moratorium, but did nothing.

Experts, however, think this time North Korea is likely to restart nuclear and ICBM tests.

Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the announcement appears a clear indication that [Pyongyang] is gearing up for ICBM and/or nuclear tests.

Limited options

Evans Revere, a former State Department official who has extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said, The Biden administration has little choice but to make clear to North Korea that there would be severe consequences if Pyongyang resumes nuclear and long-range ballistic missile testing.

The U.S. responded to North Koreas recent threat of resuming the tests by stating it is committed to dialogue with North Korea while at the same time calling for international sanctions on the regime. Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have remained deadlocked since October 2019.

A spokesperson for the White Houses National Security Council told VOAs Korean Service on Thursday that the U.S. remains prepared to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy without preconditions to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The same day, at a U.N. Security Council closed-door meeting, the U.S. proposed that international sanctions be placed on North Koreans whom the U.S. unilaterally sanctioned last week for assisting in development of the countrys weapons program. The proposal is being held up by China and Russia.

Experts think the dual measures of pursuing dialogue and calling for U.N. sanctions have run their course and mean little to North Korea.

North Korea has largely ignored the U.S. offer to talk as it ratcheted up tension by testing two rounds of what it called hypersonic missiles on January 5 and 11 and two rounds of short-range ballistic missiles on January 14 and 17.

Time to change course

Revere said there is little prospect for a diplomatic dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang as Pyongyang has no interest in such a discussion on denuclearization.

Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, said the resumption of North Koreas border crossings with China this week would render U.S. efforts to place U.N. sanctions on the regime ineffective.

After virtually sealing the border in January 2020 to contain the spread of COVID-19, Pyongyangs freight trains have made multiple trips to Dandong, China, since Sunday, apparently transporting goods into North Korea amid shortages of food and other supplies.

Gause said as the North Koreans build up their cross-border relationship, it does alleviate some of the economic pressure that they would have to face if there are additional sanctions.

At the same time, China and Russia are unlikely to support U.N. sanctions on North Korea because, according to Gause, their relationship with the U.S. right now is in a very adversarial state, in terms of the great power competition.

Hyeongjoo Park contributed to this report.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has removed two popular Kurdish Facebook pages accused of spreading misinformation that helped convince thousands of Kurds to mass along the border of Belarus and Poland late last year.

The two accounts, one from a Kurdish lawmaker with 143,000 followers and another belonging to a Kurdish journalist with nearly 270,000 followers, were spreading misinformation that falsely claimed Kurds who went to the Belarus-Poland border would be allowed into the European Union.

There was no such immigration plan. Instead, frustrated crowds clashed with border guards and thousands were later deported.

The false posts were among many seen by Kurds who traveled to the border area and were interviewed by VOA.

"We followed the crowd towards the Polish borders after rumors on Facebook. It resulted in nothing more than adversity for this destitute people," said Hersh Saeed Ahmad, a Kurdish migrant in Belarus.



But the accounts on Facebook continued to publish widely read posts until earlier this month when VOA contacted Meta asking if the pages were violating the company's policies.

"Meta has decided both pages violated our policies for misinformation under Violence & Incitement Community Standards, and both have been taken down," a spokesperson from the company told VOA in an email.

The episode illustrates how the social media network continues to struggle to police even well-known spreaders of misinformation who are involved in high-profile news events, especially when misinformation is being published in languages other than English.

Spreading misinformation

The Belarus-EU border crisis began last July and worsened by November, when thousands of migrants from the Middle East, North Africa and Iraqi Kurdistan, attempted to cross into the EU from Belarus.

In mid-November, violence broke out at the Polish border when security forces used tear gas and water cannons to prevent migrants from breaking the border fencing. Polish police at the time reported several injuries in their ranks from migrants throwing stones at them.



At the time, Facebook told news outlets that it was working to shut down information about human trafficking in the region.

But two prominent Kurdish Facebook pages continued to traffic in misinformation about the situation at the border until earlier this month.

Sirwan Baban, a member of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, and Ranj Pshdary, a Kurdish journalist based in Greece, used their pages on Facebook to tell their followers in early November that the EU and Germany had decided to open their borders to let in migrants stranded on a Belarus-Poland border point.



It was a claim denied by EU officials at the time, but thousands of migrants, mostly Kurds, still stormed the Polish border fence and clashed with police.

VOA interviews with officials in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Kurdish migrants in Belarus confirmed that misinformation on Facebook, including from Baban and Pshdary, helped to lure thousands of people towards the Polish border.

Hersh Saeed Ahmad, a 36-year-old Kurd from Sulaimani province, is among those migrants who, after reading posts on social media, took his wife and 4-year-old child to the Polish border in November.

"Our situation after the storming turned from bad to worse," he said. "Our admission by Germany was nothing more than lies and rumors on Facebook."

Another migrant, Bahadin Muhsin Qadir, said they were told the Polish security at the border had announced through loudspeakers that they will be transferred through buses to Germany.

The standoff at the border during extreme weather conditions left more than a dozen people dead, according to human rights activists, who say the total number is likely higher but hard to confirm due to restricted access to the area.

Ari Jalal, the head of Kurdish foundation Lutka for Refugees and Migrants, told VOA that his group registered two deaths among the Kurds at the border. He said about 4,000 migrants have since returned to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with about 1,100 people remaining in Belarus camps.

"In addition to bodily and material damage, the Kurdish migrants are also psychologically broken down completely," said Jalal, while expressing his frustration at "how gullible Kurdish youth can be manipulated by livestream videos on social media."

Facebook's efforts

Working with independent experts, Meta says it works to detect and remove harmful false claims that could contribute to the risk of imminent violence or physical harm  such as claims in Arabic and Kurdish that either the Polish border is open to migrants or Germany is sending buses for the migrants to the border.

In November, The New York Times reported that an account belonging to a Kurdish-German influencer widely known online as Karwan Rawanduzy was disabled on Facebook for frequently promoting bogus stories that fueled the crisis.

In early December, Meta released a threat report saying it removed 38 Facebook accounts, five groups and four Instagram accounts linked to the Belarusian KGB that were inflaming the migrant crisis. It also reported taking down 31 Facebook accounts, four groups, two Facebook events and four Instagram accounts that originated in Poland and targeted Belarus and Iraq.

Despite those high-profile takedowns, the social media giant missed other far-reaching pages that were still being used to mislead migrants.

False claim of open border

In the case of Sirwan Baban, a lawmaker, and Ranj Pshdary, who calls himself a journalist, both with thousands of followers, Facebook for months served as their main medium to encourage migrants to amass at the Polish border.

Pshdary, 32, from Iraqi Kurdistan's Qaladza town, has gained recognition in Kurdish media for his role in covering the Belarus crisis. On November 13, he went live on Facebook to tell migrants "the great news" that the EU was going to open its doors to let them in. In the video, viewed and shared by thousands, people claiming to be migrants in Belarus or their relatives, joined Pshdary's call in encouraging the migrants to prepare to cross into Poland "in the next couple of days."

"The Polish border will be opened to migrant on November 15 and the migrants will be sent to Germany via buses," Pshdary said.

Three days later, thousands of migrants, mostly Kurds, headed from a Belarus forest to the Polish border, anticipating a crossing into Poland. They clashed with the Polish police, but no migrants crossed over.

Pshdary, in another live Facebook video titled "I confess that we failed," admitted he had intentionally misled people.

"I don't want to conceal from you that I was the organizer of the crowd. On Friday, [Nov. 12, 2021], I met with the representatives of the migrants... Seeing that the Belarus police were torturing a lot of young migrants, there was no option but to encourage those people to cut the barbed wire fence so that those young people can be seen as perpetrators and violated against [by the Polish security]."

Pshdary said in his Facebook Live he believed that falsely saying the border was open would have created a spectacle with women, children and older migrants out in the cold, thus embarrassing EU politicians and forcing them to open their doors on a humanitarian basis.

When reached by VOA, Pshdary insisted that his plan was "good intentioned" and aimed at helping the migrants who desperately reached out to him for a way out.

Lawmaker resigns from diaspora committee

Lawmaker Sirwan Baban, who served as a member of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament's diaspora committee at the time of the crisis, gave similar false hopes to migrants on Facebook and on TV.

On November 8, he appeared in a live interview with the Kurdish media network Rudaw, which was streamed live on Facebook with 755,000 views, claiming he had access to a "proclamation" from the EU: "It says the migrant situation in Belarus has escalated and become tragedy and a global issue. Therefore, the European Union has met tonight, telling Poland, 'Let Belarus continue its dictatorship. You open your borders and allow the migrants in. Once in Poland, we will distribute them among other European countries.'"

In an interview with VOA, Baban denied coordinating his false information about border openings with Pshdary, claiming that he had received reliable information that the EU's refugee committee and some German officials had made a "recommendation" to let in the migrants. However, he declined to share the source of his information with VOA.

"This issue is portrayed this way in Kurdistan only to implicate me," he added.

In addition to using his Facebook page, Baban also went live on several Facebook groups and other social media pages to promote the story which  at the time  was also denied by Kurdish Foreign Relations officer Safin Dizayee in an interview with VOA Kurdish Service.

Among videos Baban posted of alleged migrants celebrating and thanking him for his efforts to influence EU officials is a young girl introducing herself as Saya and saying, "Mr. Sirwan Baban, the parliamentarian, thank you very much for such a great news  I will see you in Germany."

The Kurdistan Regional Parliament's diaspora committee in an urgent statement on November 11 accused Baban of spreading misinformation "that pushes the youth into harm's way."

The head of the committee, Rebwar Babkai, told VOA that Baban has since been forced to resign from the committee due to his role in spreading the misinformation.

"I hope this is a lesson to all of us holding a public position to feel the responsibility of our jobs," Babkai said, adding it was unclear if his region's government was going to take further action against Baban.

Limits of Facebook's enforcement?

Some social media observers say Facebook's failure to detect those pages after months of misinformation shows "a gap" that needs to be filled particularly in non-English content.

"I think Facebook needs to do more when it comes to content in local languages," said Dlshad Othman, a Kurdish cybersecurity expert based in Washington.

Othman said the social media company has improved over the years in moderating content in major Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic, often at the expense of languages for smaller populations like the Kurds. A Facebook representative declined to answer VOA questions about how many Kurdish-literate moderators the company employs.

Moustafa Ayad is the executive director for Africa, Middle East and Asia at the UK-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a research group that monitors online extremism and disinformation. He told VOA that while Facebook's technical advances such as the development of artificial intelligence have been helpful in countering disinformation, the company needs to do more.

"I believe all of these issues can be fixed with effective moderation in those languages," he said. "It is not only just language skills but also an understanding of what is happening in those countries in a geopolitical and social level."

Facebook says it works with law enforcement, academics, non-profit organizations and others to detect and remove harmful false claims, ads, posts, pages and groups about people smuggling over international borders, and did so during the crisis in Belarus. It uses technology, human review and "reports from our users and trusted partners to detect and remove such content," said a Meta spokesperson in an email to VOA.

"We remove this content as soon as we become aware of it regardless of who posts the content," the spokesperson said.



While their pages were removed, the journalist and lawmaker still have a presence on Facebook.

As of January 19, Pshdary, the journalist, has a personal account with 3,600 followers.

The lawmaker Baban's personal account has over 15,000 followers. On a recent post, he invites viewers to like his new page created on January 22.


Germany's navy chief stepped down on Saturday after drawing criticism for saying Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved respect and that Kyiv would never win back annexed Crimea from Moscow.

"I have asked Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht to relieve me from my duties with immediate effect," Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach said in a statement. "The minister has accepted my request."

Schoenbach made the remarks to a think-tank discussion in India on Friday, and video was published on social media. The comments came at a sensitive time as Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's borders.

Diplomatic efforts are focused on preventing an escalation. Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine.

Speaking in India

In New Delhi, Schoenbach, speaking in English, said Putin seeks to be treated as an equal by the West.

"What he (Putin) really wants is respect," Schoenbach said.

"And my God, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost.  It is easy to give him the respect he really demands, and probably also deserves," Schoenbach said, calling Russia an old and important country.

Schoenbach conceded Russia's actions in Ukraine needed to be addressed. But he added that "the Crimea Peninsula is gone, it will never come back, this is a fact," contradicting the joint Western position that Moscow's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 cannot be accepted and must be reversed.

Before Schoenbach's resignation, the defense ministry publicly criticized his remarks, saying they did not reflect Germany's position in either content or wording.

Schoenbach apologized for his comments.

"My rash remarks in India  are increasingly putting a strain on my office," he said. "I consider this step (the resignation) necessary to avert further damage to the German navy, the German forces, and, in particular, the Federal Republic of Germany."

Ukraine rejects comments

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had called on Germany to publicly reject the navy chief's comments. Schoenbach's comments could impair Western efforts to de-escalate the situation, Ukraine said in a statement.

"Ukraine is grateful to Germany for the support it has already provided since 2014, as well as for the diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. But Germany's current statements are disappointing and run counter to that support and effort," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said separately in tweet.
Haiti's allies must act immediately to help tackle a spike in violence that is worsening a precarious humanitarian situation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

The international community also needs to address deep governance problems that are fueling a political and security crisis in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, he told a group of foreign ministers during a day of virtual talks to discuss the crisis.

Canada, which hosted the meeting, announced C$50.4 million ($40 million) in aid to Haiti for health services, security and infrastructure. A senior U.S. State Department official also said the United Nations was organizing a donor conference for February at which the United States could provide "significant additional resources" beyond what it has already given.

Gangs have extended their control over territory in Haiti since the assassination in July of President Jovenel Moise. One gang coalition in October created a nationwide fuel shortage by blocking access to storage terminals, and kidnappings are rife.

"In order to address Haiti's humanitarian needs, we must also address the challenging security situation. The increase in violence is only worsening the already precarious humanitarian situation," Trudeau said.

"This will require immediate action to mitigate violence. ... We must also address the deep governance problems that are fueling the current political and security crisis. That includes taking action against corruption."

A rise in kidnappings, added to worsening economic conditions, has prompted a growing number of Haitians to seek better opportunities in other countries.

The number of asylum applications in Mexico nearly doubled in 2021 from two years earlier, with most applications from Haitian and Honduran migrants.

Ottawa said the meeting included representatives of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States.
Thousands gathered in Istanbul this week to demand full justice for high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed 15 years ago.

Placards reading We are all Hrant, We are all Armenian and For Hrant, For Justice were waved as the crowd gathered outside the building where a teenage gunman in 2007 shot Dink.

Candles and red carnations were placed next to a commemorative plaque, and Turkish and Armenian songs played in the background. The facade of the building, which was once home to Dinks media outlet, was covered with a large poster of the journalist and the words: 15 missing years.

"The beautiful thing is that after 15 years, so many people do not forget Hrant Dink and the message he gave, Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told VOA.

Peace advocate

As the founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was a leading advocate for peace between the Turkish and Armenian communities.

But his writing and speeches on Armenian identity and calls for reconciliation made him a target of nationalists in Turkey.

He was prosecuted several times during his journalism career, including a lawsuit in 2005 in which Dink was convicted of publicly insulting and degrading Turkishness.

At the time of his death, Dink was awaiting trial as part of a lawsuit over his use of the word genocide to describe attacks in 1915 that Armenia says left 1.5 million dead.

The U.S. and some other countries recognize it as a genocide. Turkey acknowledges killings during the Ottoman Empire but denies any genocide.

In early January, special envoys from Turkey and Armenia met in Moscow to try to normalize an otherwise strained relationship.

Search for justice

In 2011, Ogun Samast was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison by a juvenile court on charges including premeditated murder for shooting Dink.

Since then, 76 other suspects accused of involvement in Dinks killing have been tried. In March 2021, a court in Istanbul sentenced several former high-ranking public and police officers to life in prison for convictions on several charges, including premeditated murder and violating the constitution.

The Turkish government believes a network linked to Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack and that those involved have been brought to justice. The U.S.-based Gulen, whom Turkey also accuses of being behind a failed attempted coup, denies the accusations.

Omer Celik, spokesperson for the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), paid tribute to Dink on Twitter, saying: Hrant defended brotherhood in this country and resisted those who tried to bring hostility to this country from outside.

Dinks family and colleagues, however, believe a wider network was involved in the killing and do not believe everyone has been brought to justice. Lawyers for the family appealed the March 2021 court decision and asked for further investigation.

Impunity still persists, said RSFs Onderoglu, who followed the trial closely. The Hrant Dink case is not out of our agenda, even if it is out of the hands of the court.

We will continue our struggle until the end, until those who targeted Hrant Dink, those who incited them, and the structures that killed him are brought to justice, he added.

15 missing years

In a column published the day he died, Dink said he felt dovelike disquiet because of the death threats and legal cases he faced.

Doves live their lives in the hearts of cities, amid the crowds and human bustle. Yes, they live a little uneasily, a little apprehensively  but they live freely too, Dink wrote.

Images of doves were projected onto the building facade a night before the commemoration.

The memorial shows Dinks lasting impact on the Turkish-Armenian community, even on those who were too young at the time to understand what was happening.

Sila Pakyuz, 20, a Turkish-Armenian university student, told VOA she came to the commemoration with her non-Armenian friends.

"Hrant was shot when we came out of kindergarten. I am an Armenian from Turkey, and I was unaware that I was the other in Turkey. I was only a child who spoke Armenian, Pakyuz said.

When I got home, my grandmother was crying, Hrant was killed. As I got older, I understood what it means to be an Armenian in Turkey. I was living in a bubble,'' she said.

At the memorial, Dinks widow, Rakel, addressed the crowd, speaking about the detention of lawyers, journalists and Kurdish politicians in Turkey.

Let us not dash any hopes, Rakel Dink said. The voice of indignation, rebellion and objection that roared up right from here as we buried you has never kept silent, and it shall never remain silent.

This story originated in VOAs Turkish Service.
"In the face of a bleak winter of a political purge  we refuse to remain silent." These words greet readers of Flow HK, a news magazine with a self-styled mission to fill the news void of Hong Kong's depleted media scene.

Launched in January last year amid concerns about the possible effect Hong Kong's new national security law might have on the media, Flow HK has headquarters in Taiwan and a team of 10 publishing content online and via a quarterly print edition.

"So many things cannot be discussed and deliberated (in Hong Kong); so many things are so sensitive that people in Hong Kong cannot discuss, and that is why our magazines have 100% press freedom. We have 100% freedom of speech; we allow any form of discussion," said chief editor Sunny Cheung.

Flow HK takes on political topics such as pro-democracy activism overseas and discussions about boycotts of legislative council elections in December, subjects that have become sensitive since the national security law was enforced.

Cheung, 25, is a pro-democracy activist who ran in a Legislative Council election and spoke to the U.S. Congress about the crackdown on activism in Hong Kong.

He left the city in August 2020 because of an outstanding arrest warrant. Now in Washington, Cheung told VOA he believes he is facing several charges but didn't go into further detail.

Reporting at the time said Cheung had been due to stand trial for allegedly taking part in an unauthorized vigil.

When it came to deciding on a base for Flow HK  made up of journalists and writers from Hong Kong Taiwan was the preferred place because of its similar culture, Cheung said.

But, he added, the "deteriorating environment" in Hong Kong was also a factor.

It is vital that media continue to monitor the government, Cheung said. "We operate (in Taiwan) and hope to maintain our daily Hong Kong diaspora there." Cheung believes more media will look to operate outside the city to avoid the risk of legal action.

Media outlet closures

In the past year, at least four news outlets have been forced to close, including the pro-democracy Apple Daily and Stand News, both of which shuttered after authorities launched legal investigations against staff.

"Without Apple Daily, without Stand News, without Citizen News, there is very limited authentic pro-democracy news that can be read by people on a daily basis," Cheung said.

The risks for pro-democracy media in the city are becoming untenable, said Keith Richburg, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong.

"Anything with a pro-democracy stance is going to be taken out," Richburg told VOA. Speaking metaphorically, he added, "They're doing drive-by shootings against anybody who takes a stance that's pro-democracy or anything against the so-called 'patriots' of Hong Kong."

"I think it's inevitable you're going to see a lot more reporting done about Hong Kong from outside of Hong Kong just because the restrictions are too great and the risks are too great."

Some established news outlets have already started to move staff out.

The New York Times reported in 2020 that it was shifting some staff to Seoul, South Korea. In a memo, senior managers cited visa and work permit issues and said the national security law had created "uncertainty about what the new rules will mean to our operation and our journalism."

In a similar move, local media outlet Initium Media announced in August it had relocated its headquarters to Singapore.

Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam has dismissed concerns that media freedom is in decline in the city.

At a press briefing earlier this month, Lam said she "strongly refute(s) allegations" that the closure of media outlets was "related to the implementation of the national security law."

New ventures emerging

Some staff from shuttered outlets are banding together to start new ventures.

Commons Hong Kong, an online news platform based in Britain and Taiwan, started in October. It has a team of eight, including journalists who worked at Apple Daily.

The Chinese-language site covers news from Hong Kong and international reporting. Stories this week included a report on kung fu master and film producer Checkley Sin Kwok-Lam, who announced a plan to run for the city's chief executive, and updates on a cull of hamsters because of a coronavirus outbreak.

The website's editor in chief, who goes by the pseudonym "J," is based in Taiwan. He told VOA that reporting freely outside of Hong Kong is an advantage.

"We're trying to find many foreign Hong Kongers in the U.K. and Taiwan for some profile interviews; we're trying to find some interesting stories from them. We're also writing some international news for Hong Kongers as well," J said, adding that he had seen a gap in the amount of available news from Hong Kong.

"Normal journalism doesn't work anymore in Hong Kong. You can be arrested or jailed for saying something the government doesn't like," he added.

So far, Commons Hong Kong has made a good start. Its reach on social media in the past 28 days rose to over 900,000, and it has 7,382 Facebook followers.

In her briefing this month, Lam said that since June 2020, Hong Kong had seen an increase in local and foreign media outlets registered in the city.

Richburg disputed that figure, saying the requirement that foreign media register with the government started only after Hong Kong authorities switched the press guidelines in September 2020.

"For any of those foreign media in town, they were already here, so they just decided to go register with the government and information department. That doesn't mean they just moved to Hong Kong."

VOA contacted Hong Kong's Inland Revenue Department for a list of registered media, but the request was denied under the Business Registration Ordinance.

A government fact sheet from November states that citizens are well informed and the media industry "enjoys complete freedom of expression" with 94 daily papers, including 61 in Chinese and 13 in English.

While outlets such as Flow HK and Commons Hong Kong are trying to keep independent news and debate available, it can be a struggle.

Covering Hong Kong overseas isn't easy, Cheung said. "There will be limitations. After all, we don't have our own journalists and correspondents in Hong Kong."
Indias health ministry reported 337,704 new COVID-19 cases Saturday. Public health officials have warned that Indias tallies are likely undercounted.

Ireland lifts most of its COVID restrictions Saturday, as the country prepares to celebrate St. Patricks Day in March, for the first time in two years.

Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said, Spring is coming, and I dont know if I have ever looked forward to a St. Patricks Day celebration as much as this one.

A face mask mandate, however, currently remains in effect.

Anti-vaccine activists are set to rally Sunday in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. The anti-vaccine propaganda has taken hold among various American groups, including politicians, school officials, professional athletes and health care workers. Public health officials say about 20% of U.S. adults are unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, former Polish President Lech Walesa has announced that he has contracted COVID-19, even though he has been fully vaccinated.

After this lesson, I will not part ways with a mask, he posted on Facebook.

The omicron variant in Japan has resulted in a record-high COVID case count in the capital. On Saturday, Tokyo reported 11,227 new daily infections, the highest daily total in four consecutive days.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Saturday that it has recorded 346.5 million global COVID cases and 5.6 million global COVID deaths. Almost 10 billion vaccines have been administered worldwide.
The United States and Russia appeared to make little progress in the increasingly high-stakes standoff over Ukraine, each side leaving the latest round of high-level talks Friday promising only to keep talking.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about an hour and a half in Geneva, with both officials refusing to budge on core demands.

Blinken, in particular, described the impasse in stark terms.

If any of Russias military forces move across the Ukrainian border, thats a renewed invasion. It will be met with a swift, severe and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies, Blinken told reporters after the meeting.

The West is demanding that Russia pull its troops and weapons away from the Ukraine border while Moscow is pushing for NATO to curtail its operations in eastern and central Europe and insisting that the Western military alliance reject Ukraines membership bid.

Blinken said the U.S. and its allies are prepared to address Russias concerns, though not without conditions.

The United States, our allies and partners are prepared to pursue possible means of addressing them in a spirit of reciprocity, which means, simply put, that Russia must also address our concerns, Blinken said.

There are several steps we can take, all of us, Russia included, to increase transparency, to reduce risks, to advance arms control, to build trust, Blinken added.

U.S. officials say Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, including in Belarus and in occupied Crimea. Blinken warned earlier this month that Moscow could mobilize twice that number on very short order."

They have a significant force posture there and that hasn't decreased. In fact, it has continued to increase. And we remain concerned about that, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Despite such concerns from the U.S. and its allies, Lavrov on Friday sought to paint Ukraine as the aggressor.

No one is hiding the fact that weapons are being handed over to Ukraine; that hundreds of military instructors are flocking to Ukraine right now, Lavrov said.

Still, the Russian foreign minister called the talks constructive and useful.

Lavrov also said talks would continue over the Kremlins security demands and that both Russia and the U.S. had committed to put their concerns in writing for further discussion.

Both Lavrov and Blinken said there is a possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden could talk, if both sides feel it might be helpful.

However, some of Russias renewed demands drew a sharper response from U.S. allies and partners, including NATO.

NATO will not renounce our ability to protect and defend each other, including with the presence of troops in the eastern part of the alliance, spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement Friday, rejecting demands that NATO pull troops from Bulgaria and Romania.

We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defense, she said.

The U.S. also sought to reassure allies, including Kyiv.

Blinken reaffirmed the United States unwavering support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity in a phone call Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the State Department said.

Amid the tensions and political maneuvering, the head of the United Nations appealed for calm.

It is clear that my message is that there should not be any military intervention in this context, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. I hope that this, of course, will not happen in the present circumstances. I am convinced it will not happen and I strongly hope to be right.

VOA's Margaret Besheer and Wayne Lee contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Short of an all-out invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin could take less dramatic action in Ukraine that would vastly complicate a U.S. and allied response. He might carry out what President Joe Biden called a "minor incursion"  perhaps a cyberattack  leaving the U.S. and Europe divided on the type and severity of economic sanctions to impose on Moscow and ways to increase support for Kyiv.

Biden drew widespread criticism for saying Wednesday that retaliating for Russian aggression in Ukraine would depend on the details. "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do," he said.



Biden and top administration officials worked Thursday to clean up his comments. Biden stressed that if "any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion" and it would be met with a "severe and coordinated economic response."

But even if the "minor incursion" remark was seen as a gaffe, it touched on a potentially problematic issue: While the U.S. and allies agree on a strong response to a Russian invasion, it's unclear how they would respond to Russian aggression that falls short of that, such as a cyberattack or boosted support for pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was among those expressing concern about Biden's "minor incursion" remark.

"We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones," he tweeted.

'Deeply troubling'

Complaints came quickly that Biden had made clear to Putin where and how to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies, by using only a portion of the large military force he has assembled near Ukraine's borders to take limited action. Russian officials have said they have no intention of invading Ukraine, but the deployment of a large combat force along its borders, estimated at 100,000 troops, has raised fears of a crippling land war.

"Deeply troubling and dangerous," Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and a crucial ally of Democrats on some issues, tweeted about Biden's remark.

"A green light for Putin," said Republican Representative Mike Garcia of California, one of many to use that phrase.

Among the possibilities for limited Russian military action: Putin could move much of the Russian ground force away from the border but further bolster the separatists who control the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. That conflict has killed more than 14,000 people in nearly eight years of fighting.

Biden noted Thursday that "Russia has a long history of using measures other than overt military action to carry out aggression  paramilitary tactics, so-called gray zone attacks and actions by Russian soldiers not wearing Russian uniforms."

European allies have largely been united with the United States in demanding that Putin not move farther into Ukrainian territory and promising a tough response if he does. But the allies appear not to have united on what political and financial penalties to enact, or even what would trigger a response.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "any kind of incursion into Ukraine on any scale whatever" would be a disaster for Russia and for the world, but he didn't specify a Western response. Likewise, his defense minister, Ben Wallace, told Parliament, "There is a package of international sanctions ready to go that will make sure that the Russian government is punished if it crosses the line," but he didn't define that line, other than warning against "any destabilizing action" by Russia in Ukraine.

Asked Thursday about Biden's comment on a "minor incursion," a French diplomat insisted it didn't prompt any rethinking of the "European consensus" that any new attack on Ukrainian sovereignty would have "massive and severe consequences." But the diplomat, commenting after meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he conferred with European counterparts on the Ukraine crisis, wouldn't elaborate on those consequences or what would constitute such an attack.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his government's take.

Putin faced limited international consequences after he seized control of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backed the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. His central demand to the West is that NATO provide a guarantee that Ukraine never be allowed to join the alliance  a demand that Washington and its allies have roundly rejected.

Sanctions come with risks

Biden on Wednesday noted that coordinating a sanctions strategy is further complicated by the fact that penalties aimed at crippling Russian banking would also have a negative effect on the economies of the United States and Europe.

"And so, I got to make sure everybody is on the same page as we move along," he said.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the leaders of a bipartisan congressional delegation that visited Ukraine last weekend, said she had seen no signs of a rift with the Europeans over how far Russia would have to go to trigger a response.

In an analysis of the Ukraine crisis, Seth Jones, a political scientist, and Philip Wasielewski, a former CIA paramilitary officer, cited several possible scenarios short of an all-out Russian invasion. This could include Putin sending conventional troops into the Donbass breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as "peacekeepers" and refusing to withdraw them until peace talks end successfully, they wrote in their analysis last week for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"All other options bring major international sanctions and economic hardship and would be counterproductive to the goal of weakening NATO or decoupling the United States from its commitments to European security," they wrote.

Among those other options: seizing Ukrainian territory as far west as the Dnieper River, which runs south through Kyiv to the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula. Putin might seek to use this as a bargaining chip or incorporate this territory fully into the Russian Federation, Jones and Wasielewski wrote.
A proposal to overhaul New Mexico's social studies standards has stirred debate over how race should be taught in schools, with thousands of parents and teachers weighing in on changes that would dramatically increase instruction related to racial and social identity beginning in kindergarten.

The revisions in the state are ambitious. New Mexico officials say they hope their standards can be a model for the country of social studies teaching that is culturally responsive, as student populations grow increasingly diverse.

As elsewhere, the move toward more open discussion of race has prompted angry rebukes, with some critics blasting it as racist or Marxist. But the responses also provide a window into how others are wrestling with how and when race should be taught to children beyond the polarizing debates over material branded as "critical race theory."



The responses have not broken down along racial lines, with Indigenous and Latino parents among those expressing concern in one of the country's least racially segregated states. While debates elsewhere have centered on the teaching of enslavement of Black people, some discussions in New Mexico, which is 49% Hispanic and 11% Native American, have focused on the legacy of Spanish conquistadors.

"We refuse to be categorized as victims or oppressors," wrote Michael Franco, a retired Hispanic air traffic controller in Albuquerque who said the standards appeared aimed at categorizing children by race and ethnicity and undercutting the narrative of the American Dream.

The New Mexico Public Education Department's proposed standards are aimed at making civics, history, and geography more inclusive of the state's population so that students feel at home in the curriculum and prepared for a diverse society, according to public statements.

"Our out-of-date standards leave New Mexico students with an incomplete understanding of the complex, multicultural world they live in," Public Education Secretary Designate Kurt Steinhaus said. "It's our duty to provide them with a complete education based on known facts. That's what these proposed standards will do."



The plan calls for students to learn about different "identity groups" in kindergarten and "unequal power relations" in later grades. One part of the draft standards would require high school students to "assess how social policies and economic forces offer privilege or systemic inequity" for opportunities for members of identity groups. In a first for the state, ethnic studies and the history of the LGBT rights movement also would be introduced into the curriculum.

An Albuquerque pastor, Rev. Sylvia Miller-Mutia, welcomed the change in her written comment, arguing children see race early, and that learning about it in school can dismantle stereotypes early. When her eldest child was 3, she said that her Filipino dad wasn't American because he has dark skin, while her mother was American because she has light skin.

"Already, a cultural script that said to be American is to be light-skinned had somehow seeped into my preschooler's consciousness," Miller-Mutia said in an interview.

Many Democratic-run states across the country are looking to diversify those cultural scripts, while Republican-run ones are putting up guardrails against possible changes. California was among the first states last year to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement. Texas passed a law requiring teachers to present multiple perspectives on all issues and one Indiana lawmaker proposed that teachers be required to take a "neutral" position.

The education department in New Mexico is reviewing over 1,300 letters on the proposed standards along with dozens of comments from an online forum in November. The standards were written with input from 64 people around the state, mostly social studies teachers, and are to be published next spring with revisions.



Among the authors was Wendy Leighton, a Santa Fe middle school history teacher. As a leader of the revisions for the history section of the standards, she said the goal was to take marginalized groups like indigenous, LGBTQ and other people "that are often not in textbooks or pushed to the side and making them kind of more closer to the center."

Identity was the center of a class she taught in December, where students learning about the Salem witch trials identified which groups were at the center of power  clergy, men  and which were on the margins  women, servants.

"What's a marginalized group in America today?" she asked the class.

State Republicans have argued that parents should teach their children sensitive topics like race and that there are bigger priorities in a state that ranks toward the bottom in academic achievement.

"The focus that I feel is urgent is math, reading and writing. Not social studies standards," said state Rep. Rebecca Dow, one of six candidates for the Republican nomination for governor next year, hoping to unseat Democratic incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Some parents who wrote public comments said they would rather homeschool their children than have them learn under the proposed standards.

"Struggle and adversity have never been limited to one specific race or ethnicity. Neither has privilege," wrote Lucas Tieme, a father of five public school students, who are white.

Tieme, a bus driver for Rio Rancho public schools, said his wife was homeschooled so they'd be ready to take their kids out of school if it came to that.

Some parents who support the changes generally are skeptical of introducing race for the youngest students.

Sheldon Pickering, 41, has two adopted children who are Black, and has seen casual racism against his kids escalate as they reach adolescence in Farmington, near the southeast corner of Utah and the eastern part of the Navajo Nation. He has had "the talk" with his Black son, instructing him how to interact with police. But Pickering, who is white, worries about schools introducing too much too soon.

"If we start too early, we rob kids of this rare time in their life that they have just to be kids," said Pickering, a cleaning business owner. "They just get to be these amazing little kids and enjoy life without preconceived notions, without context."
Convicted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik spends his days in a spacious three-room cell, playing video games, exercising, watching TV and taking university-level courses in mathematics and business.

Halfway through a 21-year sentence and seeking early release, Breivik, 42, is being treated in a way that might seem shocking to people outside Norway, where he killed eight in an Oslo bombing in 2011, and then stalked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teens, at a summer camp.

But here  no matter how wicked the crime  convicts benefit from a criminal justice system that is designed to offer prisoners some of the comforts and opportunities of life on the outside.

Still, Breivik's extreme case is testing the limits of Norway's commitment to tolerance and rehabilitation.

"We have never had anyone in Norway who has been responsible for this level of violence before. And there has been debate here about whether part of the justice system should be changed for someone like him," said Erik Kursetgjerde, who survived the slaughter on Utoya island as an 18-year-old. However, he advises a slow approach that does not bend to Breivik's desire to subvert the system.

Nazi salute

During a three-day parole hearing this week that was broadcast to journalists, Breivik renounced violence, but also flashed a Nazi salute and espoused white supremacy, echoing ideas in a manifesto he released at the time of his killing spree. The outburst was familiar to Norwegians who had watched him deliver rambling diatribes during his partially televised criminal trial.

"Obviously this has been extremely trying for survivors, the bereaved and Norwegian society as a whole," said Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, professor of law at the University of Oslo, adding that there is debate in Norway over whether parole regulations should be overhauled in a bid to prevent this type of grandstanding.

In 2016, Breivik successfully sued the Norwegian government for human rights abuses, complaining about his isolation from other prisoners, frequent strip searches and the fact that he was often handcuffed during the early part of his incarceration. He also complained about the quality of the prison food, having to eat with plastic utensils and not being able to communicate with sympathizers.

While Breivik's human rights case was ultimately overturned by a higher court, the episode showed just how far the Norwegian criminal justice system could bend in favor of prisoners' rights and living conditions.

"His conditions according to Norwegian standards are excellent," said his prison psychiatrist, Randi Rosenqvist. She testified at the parole hearing that Breivik is still a public threat.

Even after Breivik's outbursts at this week's parole hearing, Norwegian authorities show no sign of wavering from treating him like any other inmate at Skien prison.

'Deprivation of liberty'

"In a Nordic prison sentence, the main punishment is deprivation of liberty. All the Nordic countries have systems based on a lenient and humane criminal policy that starts from the mutual understanding that punishment should not be any stricter than necessary," said Johan Boucht, a professor from the University of Oslo Department of Public and International Law, who has also worked in Sweden and Finland. "The second aspect is rehabilitation, and the principle that it is better in the long run to rehabilitate the inmate than create a factory for criminals."

Until about 50 years ago, Norway's justice system focused on punishment. But in the late 1960s there was a backlash to the harsh conditions of prisons, leading to criminal justice reforms that emphasized kinder treatment and rehabilitation.

Norwegian sentencing and prison conditions are sharply at odds with those of other European countries such as France, where the worst criminals can face life imprisonment, with the possibility of an appeal only after 22 years.

Relatively few French defendants get the longest sentence, but among those facing it are Salah Abdeslam, who is the only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that attacked Paris in November 2015. Abdeslam has complained bitterly about his conditions in the Fleury-Merogis prison, where he is under 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement, the furniture is fixed to the floor of his tiny cell and he can exercise for one hour daily.

Breivik's comparatively lenient treatment inside prison does not mean he'll get out anytime soon, or even in 2032, when his sentence ends.

While the maximum prison sentence in Norway is 21 years, the law was amended in 2002 so that, in rare cases, sentences can be extended indefinitely in five-year increments if someone is still considered a danger to the public.

Let him prove he's reformed, lawyer urges

Breivik's lawyer, ystein Storrvik, said in his closing arguments at the parole hearing that Breivik should be released to prove that he is reformed and no longer a threat to society. It's not possible, while he is in total isolation, to prove that, the lawyer said.

But Breivik's behavior during this week's parole hearing was proof enough to some that he should never again see freedom.

Kristine Roeyneland, who leads a group for the families of Breivik's victims and survivors, said his comfortable prison conditions and ability to spread extremist views through publicized parole hearings are reprehensible.

Whatever the outcome of Breivik's request for early parole, which will be decided by a three-judge panel in coming weeks, some take an enlightened view of the Norwegian government's apparent commitment to treat him like any other prisoner.

"People might be afraid that he's using the law as a stage," said Sandvik, the law professor. "But you can also say that, you know, he is being used by the law. He's a megaphone for the rule of law."
The rapidly spreading omicron variant is testing the ability of U.S. authorities to keep tens of thousands of migrants healthy at crowded detention centers, where COVID-19 prevention measures were virtually nonexistent at the beginning of the pandemic but have since improved.

More than 2,540 people tested positive for COVID-19 Friday in the Immigration and Customs Enforcements 198 immigration detention centers nationwide, according to ICE data, an increase of more than 792% from 285 cases reported on January 3.

The surge comes amid a nationwide increase in infections because of the more transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Even so, ICE officials say they have come a long way since 2020 with COVID-19 protection for migrants in their custody.

In terms of improvement, the agency is more communicative than they were before. But honestly, we are still seeing apprehensions and detentions in the same way that we saw at the beginning of the pandemic.  There's more procedures put in place [such as] request releases, which wasn't the case before, said Elena Noureddine, who heads the detention program at PAIR, a Boston-based nonprofit that provides free legal representation for asylum-seekers and detained immigrants.

2020 to 2022

In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, ICE would not say whether detainees were being tested for COVID-19. There were few if any opportunities for social distancing, no masks were given to detainees, and vaccines were yet to be available.

At that time, an ICE spokesperson said there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among those held in its network of detention centers, for-profit prisons and county jails. Confirmation of COVID-19 infections was challenging, with testing in its infancy.

In January 2022, an ICE official told VOA that the agency is now testing all migrants for COVID-19 during the intake screening process. After testing, they are housed separately from the general population for 14 days and monitored for symptoms. Those with symptoms are isolated and given the appropriate medical care to manage the disease, ICE said, in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

New arrivals who have negative test results and remain symptom-free can join the general detained population after the 14-day intake period, ICE told VOA via email.

Staff and detainees are required to wear masks even after vaccinations, per ICE pandemic response rules.

As for vaccines, 48,246 detainees had each received at least one dose of vaccine as of January 5, according to the agencys spokesperson, and 671 had received boosters. ICE has offered vaccines to migrants since July, when 27,670 migrants were in detention, and boosters since November, when 21,462 were in detention.

At-risk releases

Since the pandemic began, the American Civil Liberties Union has been working to make sure detained immigrants are protected from COVID-19, according to Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLUs National Prison Project.

We filed lawsuits arguing for the release of people  especially those who are medically vulnerable to COVID-19  to be released from detention so that they could actually be in their homes and have safe social distancing, she added.

The University of California-Davis estimated in March 2021 that 42.5% of ICE-detained immigrants had at least one chronic medical condition and that 95.6% had access to a stable home.

Cho told VOA that thousands of people who were medically vulnerable to COVID-19 were released from detention to family members in the U.S. as a result of ACLU litigation. VOA requested more specific numbers on medically vulnerable migrant releases but hasnt heard back.

As of late December, an estimated 5,200 medically vulnerable immigrants remained in detention, according to reporting by CBS News. ICE told VOA it continues to evaluate its detained population  to determine whether continued detention is appropriate.

Problems remain

Cho of the National Prison Project said that the government has acted during the pandemic to protect detainees from COVID-19 infections, but that work remains.

People report having difficulty getting masks, getting tested for COVID-19. They report difficulty with getting vaccines.  They are describing conditions where people, especially those medically vulnerable, don't feel safe. They're describing conditions where in some detention facilities they get one disposable mask a week to wear the entire week, Cho said.

In most cases, an ICE official told VOA, each migrant receives a vaccine in custody. But the average stay in ICE custody was 37 days during fiscal 2021, meaning most migrants were no longer in custody to receive their second shots.

The ICE spokesperson told VOA that the agency encourages migrants to be vaccinated and boosted. But in July, Axios reported that three in 10 detainees declined the COVID-19 vaccine when asked to sign consent forms.

Noureddine of Boston-based PAIR said part of the explanation of the skepticism among detainees is a fear that the government is asking them to sign documents as a way to get them deported.

Ive had clients call me saying, I was presented with a document. I think it was about the vaccine. I'm not sure. [Then] I check with ICE and they told me it was to get the vaccine, but there was a lot of confusion, she added.
Three hundred and forty kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, lies the city of Poltava.

At its heart is a semi-circular square with a cast-iron column and nearly two dozen eighteenth-century Swedish cannons captured in the 1709 Battle of Poltava, a decisive encounter in the Great Northern War, waged between Russia's Peter the Great and Sweden's Charles XII for supremacy in eastern Europe.

Russia's tsar won.

Nearly four centuries later, the Ukrainian town located on a bank of the Vorskla River could soon find itself making history again. That is if Russia's Vladimir Putin decides to mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and orders Russian forces to drive deep into the country, as some Western leaders fear he might.

Poltava lies across the route to Kyiv and may become a factor if Putin opts to punch out from the Russian-controlled oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, and has other forces cross the border near Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, said Robert Fry, a former commandant general of Britain's Royal Marines.

It was at Poltava in 1709 that "Peter made the first step towards the sobriquet 'Great'  a path the Russian president may have ambitions to follow," the retired British general noted in a military assessment for The Article, a British commentary site.



Fry, though, suspects Putin will be in no hurry to forgo the advantages he has in continuing with hybrid warfare, extracting the Western concessions he has demanded and not courting the dangers of a full-scale invasion with the risks of having to pacify Europe's second-largest country and counter a likely Ukrainian insurgency.

"The dexterity with which Russia manipulates the threat of escalation has become one of the defining characteristics of its military/diplomatic playbook and it is yards ahead of the West in this respect. If the mortgage was at stake, I would put it on a ferment of sub-threshold activity backed up by lots of conventional military posturing, stopping short of live conflict," he wrote.

Russian officials say they have no plans to attack Ukraine once again, and armed forces chief Valery Gerasimov has denounced reports of a planned invasion as a lie. NATO's secretary general has warned the risk of conflict is real and U.S. President Joe Biden this week said his guess is Russia will move in, either with an invasion or a more limited assault.

But what any "move in" might entail is unclear and many Russia watchers suspect Putin has not made up his mind. Ukrainian leaders say it is unhelpful to distinguish between a full-bore invasion and a more limited land grab in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, perhaps with Russia seizing Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Odessa on the Black Sea.

"Speaking of minor and full incursions or full invasion, you cannot be half-aggressive," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Whatever Putin decides to do, he has the forces in place for a major attack and could quickly ramp up his forces for a deeper assault on Ukraine, say Western officials. Russia began massing troops along the borders with Ukraine last year and by December around 100,000 had been deployed, according to U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.





Artillery, advanced weapons systems and armor have also been deployed, and so, too, have field hospitals and the logistics needed to support tactical battle groups.

Western military officials estimate Russia would need around 175,000 troops to mount a huge assault and some Ukrainian intelligence officials suggest that number may have been reached. Their U.S. counterparts say the force numbers are still below 175,000. But Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said Thursday that Putin had "plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice."

Midweek the Kremlin was reported to have moved some forces within 30 kilometers of Ukraine's border in Belarus. The Kremlin says the forces are taking part in joint military drills with their Belarusian allies, but that places a sizable Russian force just 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital. It is large enough to cut off the bulk of Ukraine's land forces, which are stationed along the frontlines in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.

The Russian military has overwhelming superiority over Ukraine's armed forces. Ukraine has around 209,000 troops on active service compared to Russia's 900,000; and Ukraine's reserve forces number 900,000, while Russia has 2 million.





Ukraine's annual military expenditure is $4.3 billion, while Russia's spending is $43.2 billion. Russia has 2,840 tanks compared to Ukraine's 858; and 4,648 artillery pieces compared to 1,818. The massive advantage continues when it comes to combat aircraft  1,160 compared to 125. All the figures come from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British-based research organization that publishes an annual report on the composition of global military forces.

If the Kremlin does decide to attack, the operation at its most limited would likely be a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and seized Donetsk and Luhansk, using mainly armed proxies. "Russian forces could expand the fighting in Donbass to draw Ukraine into a conventional conflict," warned Neil Melvin of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense policy group in London.

Others assess Putin's ambitions may be bigger.

"Putin has begun exploring coercive options beyond the annexation of Crimea and occupation of the Donbass, neither of which has given him what he wants," according to Michael Kimmage and Liana Fix of the German Marshall Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

Their assessment: "Perhaps war is the course Putin has already chosen. If so, it cannot be a minor war. A minimal objective would be to topple the Ukrainian government  not necessarily through overt military force  and to install a puppet leader. A more ambitious objective would be to divide the country in two, with the line between Russia and a rump Ukrainian state one of Putin's choosing. The most expansive goal would be to conquer Ukraine entirely and then either to occupy it or to demand that its independence be negotiated on Putin's terms."
By all odds, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu should not be alive to tell his story.

Five times, this Somali journalist-turned-government spokesperson has been nearby when a suicide bomber set off explosives. The most recent incident occurred Jan. 16, when a bomber targeted him in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

As I was trying to move, a man, allegedly the suicide bomber, ran towards my vehicle near the Makka al-Mukarama Hotel, he told me earlier this week. He grabbed the back side of my vehicle and blew himself up. I became unconscious and later woke up in a hospital bed in Mogadishu with my nose covered with life-supporting oxygen [equipment].

He talked to me by phone from a hospital in Turkey, where he was airlifted 24 hours after the explosion.

Militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. Moalimuu said his leg is broken and he has shrapnel wounds on his hand and shoulder.

But he said he is optimistic he will recover from the attack. He has healed several times before.

A close, lucky colleague

Moalimuu spent years working for the BBC, reporting on the all-too-frequent terrorist attacks and suicide bombings that have killed thousands of innocent people in Somalias capital, Mogadishu.

As a former BBC reporter in Mogadishu myself, I was Moalimuus colleague, roommate and a close friend. Together we covered bomb and mortar attacks and witnessed colleagues die, including BBC producer Kate Peyton, who died after being shot in the back outside a hotel in Mogadishu by a suspected Islamist gunman in 2006.

I personally survived an attack on a Banadir University graduation ceremony at the Shamo Hotel in 2009 that killed 25 people.

Moalimuu is known as a man of resilience by his colleagues in the media. Earlier this month, I saw that resilience and the danger when I visited Mogadishu for the first time in 11 years.

On Jan. 3, I was riding with him in the same vehicle that days later was targeted by the suicide bomber. After living 11 peaceful years in the U.S., I could see the danger and risks surrounding his life as we moved through Mogadishu streets and government checkpoints, which are often the target for terrorist attacks. But to my surprise he looked coolly calculating and daring.

At some point that day, I remember being suspicious about a teenage boy holding a black backpack and walking toward our vehicle. I feared he could be a suicide bomber. As he got closer, I froze and Moalimuu kept looking at him, but fortunately the young boy passed.

From his bed in Turkey, Moalimuu remembered the boy.

That young boy we suspected the other day could be the suicide bomber, who targeted me. Sometimes, it is mind-boggling. Why would someone you do not know, who does not know you, want to kill you and himself? he asked.

He also said living and working in Mogadishu can be exhausting.

I sometimes get tired of observing around, he said. Innocent people, schoolchildren and mothers are walking on the streets and terrorists are hiding among them. You do not know who is going to kill you where and when.

Most of the time, I have been going through my days unaware, not thinking of our mortality, he said. I cope by focusing on the things more directly in front of me as a journalist before and as a politician.

Five-time survivor

Moalimuus first close brush with death came in June 2013. He was driving past a United Nations compound in Mogadishu when an al-Shabab suicide bomber blew up his car outside.

I remember the remains of a suicide bomber landed on my car, smashing the windscreen, he said, adding that the event left him shocked but uninjured.

The second attack he survived was in August 2016, when al-Shabab fighters stormed a Lido Beach restaurant where he was sitting. He was wounded in the attack, which turned into a siege that lasted for hours.

I survived by lying in my own blood, pretending to be dead, he recalled. One of my friends, who was sitting with me, was already dead and his body was right in front of me.

The incident left scars on his face and, of course, mental trauma.

It took me months to recover from that attack, he said.

He was injured again on Feb. 28, 2019, when al-Shabab launched a bomb-and-shooting attack at Maka al-Mukarama Hotel, killing at least 10 people.

And finally, he survived an al-Shabab attack on the beachside Elite Hotel on Aug. 17, 2020. At least 12 people were killed in that incident, along with five militants, according to police.

From that attack, he emerged unscathed.

To the extent that I know him, Moalimuu is a hardworking, charismatic, sympathetic, humble and very friendly person.

But this time, his last words in our conversation over the phone showed his anger toward terrorists.

Terrorism is a devastating tactic and is almost impossible to defend against, he said. But there is one thing I am sure of  they cannot decide when a person is to die, and the proof is the magnitude of the suicide attack that targeted my vehicle and the injuries I sustained. Thanks to Allah.

Why did he stay?

A decade ago, I got a job at the VOA office in Washington, D.C., and decided to leave Mogadishu, in part because I feared for my life and that of my family.

Moalimuu had similar opportunities to live a peaceful life abroad. He turned them down, driven by his determination to tell the world what was happening in the Horn of Africa.

"If all of us run away, the criminals killing and tormenting my people will have triumphed. The world will not know the heinous crimes which are being committed," Moalimuu told me 10 years ago. Ive kept that quote in a diary.

In our phone conversation, he added another reason why he stays: He could not leave loved ones in Somalia.

You know when you have a family that depends on you and children that need you, it is hard to decide to leave them behind, he said.

Moalimuu recently transitioned to a new job, as a government spokesperson for the office of Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble. He is considering a run for a seat in parliament, although Somali elections remain indefinitely delayed because of disputes between rival political factions.

Despite his injuries, despite the possibility that the next terrorist attack will break his sorely tested luck, he is still willing to continue to work for the betterment of Somalia.

Nothing will never discourage me to serve for my country and people, he told me over the phone. My goal is to make a difference in the governing and legislation system, which I could not do as a journalist.

He has no illusions about the threats he faces.

In Somalia, he said, it does not matter whether you are ordinary civilian, journalist or politician. You are always in danger.
Sudan's second most powerful leader met with Ethiopia's defense minister Saturday on a rare visit to Addis Ababa by an official from Khartoum, which comes amid border tensions, officials said.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Hemeti, who is number two in Sudan's ruling council, will be in Ethiopia for two days to meet "several Ethiopian officials," Sudan's state news agency SUNA reported.

He was met at Addis Ababa airport by Ethiopian Defense Minister Abraham Belay, a statement from Sudan's ruling council said. He also was welcomed by senior officials from Ethiopia' government and intelligence services, it added.

Daglo is head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a much feared and powerful paramilitary unit that is accused of atrocities in the western region of Darfur.

Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa deteriorated due to a territorial conflict over the disputed Al-Fashaqa border region, where Ethiopian farmers cultivate fertile land claimed by Sudan.

There have been sporadic deadly clashes between the two sides in recent years.

Al-Fashaqa also borders Ethiopia's troubled Tigray region, and tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees have crossed into Sudan fleeing fighting.

In November, Sudan's armed forces said six soldiers were killed in an attack by armed groups and militias linked to the Ethiopian military, a report denied by Addis Ababa, who blamed rebels from Tigray.

Sudan, along with Egypt, also is locked in a bitter dispute over Ethiopia's mega-dam on the Blue Nile.

The two downstream countries, dependent on the river for most of their water, see Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam as an existential threat.

Both Khartoum and Addis Ababa are mired in crises.

Sudan has been rocked by weeks of mass demonstrations since an October 25 military takeover that derailed the country's fragile transition to civilian rule, with at least 73 anti-coup protesters killed in a bloody crackdown.

Ethiopia still seeks to end a conflict that broke out in November 2020 following months of mounting rancor between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the former ruling party of the northernmost Tigray region, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The fighting has displaced millions, and according to U.N. estimates, has driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.
The United Nations Refugee Agency says thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopias embattled northern Tigray province are living under life-threatening conditions because they have no access to humanitarian aid.

U.N. refugee staff members say they were shocked by what they saw when they visited the Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps for Eritrean refugees in southern Tigray for the first time in three weeks. Intense fighting and security concerns have prevented them from going there until now.

Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman for UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, says the team found refugees scared and struggling to get enough to eat. He says they lacked medicine and had little or no access to clean water.

Refugees told UNHCR of increasing preventable deathsmore than 20 over the last six weekslinked to the overall decline in conditions and in particular the lack of medicine and health services," Cheshirkov said. "The clinics in the camps have been essentially closed since early January, when they finally completely ran out of medicine.

Conditions in Tigray have seriously deteriorated since the Ethiopian military incursion into the province in November 2020. The civil conflict since has spread to other regions in northern Ethiopia. An effective blockade has prevented humanitarian aid, including fuel, from reaching the area since mid-December.

Cheshirkov says extreme hunger is rising because supplies cannot be moved into the region. He says food is running out in the two camps and refugees have been selling their clothes and few belongings to get food.

If food, medicine, fuel, and other supplies cannot be immediately brought in, and if we continue to be unable to relocate refugees out of harms way to where we can provide them with life-saving assistance, more refugees will die," Cheshirkov said.

The UNHCR says it wants to relocate the more than 25,000 Eritrean refugees remaining in the two camps to a new site provided by the Ethiopian government in the neighboring Amhara region. The agency is calling on all parties for a cease-fire and guarantees of safe passage to allow the operation to go ahead.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva amid high tensions over Russian troops and equipment massed along Ukraine's borders. Blinken told reporters the diplomatic process would continue while warning of a swift and united response if Moscow invaded Ukraine. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
The U.S. government said Friday it would suspend 44 China-bound flights from the United States by four Chinese carriers in response to the Chinese government's decision to suspend some U.S. carrier flights over COVID-19 concerns.

The suspensions will begin Jan. 30 with Xiamen Airlines scheduled Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight and run through March 29, the Transportation Department said.

The decision will cut some flights by Xiamen, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

Since Dec. 31, Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines and 14 Delta Air Lines flights, after some passengers tested positive for COVID-19.

As recently as Tuesday, the Transportation Department said the Chinese government had announced new U.S. flight cancellations.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Friday the policy for international passenger flights entering China has "been applied equally to Chinese and foreign airlines in a fair, open and transparent way."

He called the U.S. move "very unreasonable" and added, "We urge the U.S. side to stop disrupting and restricting the normal passenger flights" by Chinese airlines.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing the three U.S. carriers affected by China's move, along with others, said it supported Washington's action "to ensure the fair treatment of U.S. airlines in the Chinese market."

The Transportation Department said France and Germany have taken similar action against Chinas COVID-19 actions. It said China's suspensions of the flights "are adverse to the public interest and warrant proportionate remedial action." It added that China's "unilateral actions against the named U.S. carriers are inconsistent" with a bilateral agreement.

China has also suspended numerous U.S. flights by Chinese carriers after passengers later tested positive.

The department said it was prepared to revisit its action if China revised its "policies to bring about the necessary improved situation for U.S. carriers." It warned that if China cancels more flights, "we reserve the right to take additional action."

China has all but shut its borders to travelers, cutting total international flights to just 200 a week, or 2% of pre-pandemic levels, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in September.

The number of U.S. flights being scrapped has surged since December, as infections caused by the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus soared to record highs in the United States.

Beijing and Washington have sparred over air services since the start of the pandemic. In August, the U.S. Transportation Department limited four flights from Chinese carriers to 40% passenger capacity for four weeks after Beijing imposed identical limits on four United Airlines flights.

Before the recent cancellations, three U.S. airlines and four Chinese carriers were operating about 20 flights a week between the countries, well below the figure of more than 100 per week before the pandemic.
Residents living near Karshi-Khanabad harbor fond memories of the American soldiers who served at the Uzbek air base widely known as K2 between 2001 and 2005, describing the period as one of their happiest times. But for many of the Americans, lingering affection for the residents is outweighed by persistent debilitating ailments that they attribute to toxic and radioactive waste at the base.

"The American period was a wonderful time," said Oysaot Toparova, a resident now in her late 70s who served for many years as a politician in the adjacent village of Khanabad. "U.S. military visiting our schools, meeting the community, we loved it. I think Uzbekistan and the U.S. got the best out of that cooperation."

Mark Jackson, board chairman of the Stronghold Freedom Foundation, which represents retired and active American military personnel, also describes "wonderful memories of Uzbekistan." He says he interacted with locals daily, went to homes, enjoyed tea and meals, and traveled across the country. He is still fascinated with its history and culture.

But, he told VOA, his time at K2 has left him with another legacy, one of relentless illness and pain that he blames on environmental hazards left over from the Soviet era in Uzbekistan, a connection he has found frustratingly difficult to substantiate.

"I cannot provide you with hard facts," he said in an interview. "The facts I have are my body and the tombstones. We were ignored for 20 years until we made enough noise to force Washington to acknowledge that people went to a place that the government itself admitted in 2001 and 2004 was environmentally degraded and polluted."

The membership of his organization includes "some profoundly ill people," Jackson said.

"Wars are fought with bullets and bombs. This is a very slow-moving bullet, moving through my body. I'll give myself an injection in the belly every day for the next two years, because I have the bones of an 80-year-old woman, on top of a dying thyroid and a gastrointestinal tract that mimics that of an 80-year-old man."

Recently revealed U.S. documents confirm that the Pentagon suspected K2 could have hazardous chemicals left over from its days as a Soviet military facility. Now, Johns Hopkins University is conducting an 18-month long longitudinal epidemiological study among K2 veterans, following on an executive order by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

'Nothing of concern'

But during a recent visit to Khanabad by VOA, residents said they were perplexed by the American complaints. They noted that thousands of Uzbek air force members and civilian workers still work at the site, and about 10,000 people live nearby.

"We live next to the base," said Dostmurod Odayev, a community leader in his 60s who describes K2 as an integral part of life in the region. "Our people work there. We have military residents serving there. I've never heard of anyone getting sick because of environmental issues or radiation at K2."

Zoyir Mirzayev, who until last month governed the Kashkadarya region, which includes the air base, told VOA that local authorities had not found evidence that would back up Jackson's complaints.

"We are aware of these American claims," he said. "We looked at environmental and health data but found nothing of concern and don't believe K2 has radiation or deadly chemicals."

Odayev pointed out that the area around the base is prime farmland, and families were wrapping up the harvest beneath the constant roar of aircraft when VOA visited. While access to the base was not permitted, there was no visible evidence of a toxic environment amid the scent of fresh roses blooming in winter and livestock enjoying the surrounding pastures.

Ovul Nazarov, 61, said "they seemed to enjoy their time in Uzbekistan, so these claims sound strange to us," he said.

Quvvat Khidirov, another retired Uzbek officer, with nearly 30 years of service at K2, also does not understand "American complaints."

"I worked in a really old building at K2 for more than two decades. If the site were toxic with all those chemicals we've been hearing about from American colleagues, I should know many sick people here, but I don't. I'm in good health myself."

Misqol Polvonova, 62, calls herself a K2 neighbor. She raised six children across the street from the base. "We used to watch American jets flying low. You know, we spend a lot of time outside. We sleep in the open air all summer. All my children are healthy. I have 15 grandkids."

Such accounts do not convince Jackson, who doubts that Uzbeks can speak freely about an issue as sensitive as hazardous waste at a strategic military facility. His group has set up a private Facebook page where Uzbeks are invited to share their experiences and connect with American K2 veterans.

"Maybe they know somebody who died of a very strange cancer or brain disorder, or maybe they have chronic gastrointestinal issues or some of their other organs are failing, or they have anemia. And these have just become part of life, as they're part of mine," he said.

Jackson argued that without the results of the ongoing longitudinal study as well as testing of air and soil, an objective review of historical records, and permission for scientists to report without interference, Uzbekistan has no credibility.

He said the point is not to bring shame upon Uzbeks. "The shame belongs to the Soviets who destroyed the environment, dumping petroleum products and radiation and asbestos into the soil."

US government's response

Since Jackson's movement started, some things have changed. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has surveyed military exposures on K2, outlining potential threats including jet fuel, which "may have occurred as a result of a leaking Soviet-era underground jet fuel distribution system," and volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and dust.

The VA also mentions depleted uranium, noting that "Soviet missiles were destroyed there, contaminating some areas of surface dirt with low-level, radioactive, depleted uranium." Asbestos and lead are listed as having been present at K2 structures while Americans were there.

Stronghold Freedom Foundation highlights that 15,000-16,000 military personnel were deployed to K2, with about 1,300 service members present at any time. The group argues, based on its findings, findings that at least 75% of those deployed only to Uzbekistan have developed serious illnesses.

Yet veterans complain of "endless paperwork" required to get proper treatment. They want recognition that their illnesses are connected to their service in K2.

U.S. Representative Mark Green, a K2 veteran and Republican from Tennessee, co-sponsored a bipartisan bill in February 2020 directing the U.S. secretary of defense to recognize K2 veterans' "severe and deadly service-connected illnesses."

That and other legislative efforts in 2021 did not move forward, but the veterans still hope for congressional action. They note that their cause has support from lawmakers as ideologically opposed as Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

Gillibrand and Rubio "could not be farther apart politically yet stood together on K2. They know what's right," Jackson said.

One of the biggest gains for K2 veterans has been a House Oversight committee decision to declassify about 400 pages of information on the base.

"This will never be about money, but if money comes from recognition for the few that deserve it, so be it," Jackson said.

"Every single person who knows anything about Capitol Hill told us it was too expensive," said Jackson, who spoke at hearings and engaged lawmakers. His response: "If you build two less F-35s, we'll be good."

Jackson also said his grandfather served as a colonel in the Korean War and his father was a Vietnam veteran.

"I remember their complaints about how the government treated them.  We've been in armed conflict with somebody since before we were a country. But we consistently forget the people who fought those wars."
The head of the U.S. Africa Command says security threats are growing across the continent. In his first on-camera interview since taking command two years ago, Gen. Stephen Townsend spoke with VOA about his increasing concerns, including the spread of violent extremist groups
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Alyssa Milano in Brazen. Photo: Sergei Bachlakov/Netflix

With the end-of-year cutoff for awards consideration now in our rearview, Netflix is taking January to cool off and unload some under-the-radar titles that wont require press junkets and For Your Consideration campaigns. The must-see selection presses some hot buttons with a carnal setup as French as can be, but this months lineup is its own miniature world tour, including a social-issue drama from Indonesia, a Polish gangster epic that plays like pickled Scorsese, and a finely wrought Spanish nightmare. All this, plus a special surprise for fans of Alyssa Milano and/or psychosexual intrigue! Beat back the post-holiday late-winter doldrums with one of the newest Netflix original films, appraised in full below:

Essential Streaming

Dear Mother

Vive la France, the only country where the following premise could stand a chance of getting off the ground: The listless Jean-Louis (Laurent Lafitte, who also directed this adaptation of a play) is surprised to find that his heart has stopped and left him in a suspended state of half-death, the only cure for which turns out to be laying eyes on his mothers pudenda. An Oedipal yukfest ensues as he tries to loophole himself out of this predicament by snapping a Polaroid of the privates in question, its cringe comedy pushed into the realm of genuinely discomforting taboo. Lafittes sense of humor has one foot in the sophomoric and one foot in the sophisticated (the films French title is LOrigine du Monde, as in Gustave Courbets 19th-century portrait of a faceless womans vulva, and opens with an interlude among the cosmos), a bracing combination utterly alien to the American cinematic comedy tradition. If for nothing else than the shock of novelty, its a worthy diversion.

Also Showing

Four to Dinner

After a few cocktails, a dinner partys worth of 30-somethings engage in a little thought experiment. To finally settle the dispute over whether soul mates actually exist, a married couple (Flavio Furno and Marta Gastini) pairs up their single friends in hypothetical scenarios, some of which see their love taking wing and some of which dont. The idea is that the perfect match depends just as much on where were at in life as some inherent person-to-person compatibility  less Mister Right, more Mister Right Now  which seems broadly correct, even if its not all that revelatory. The point might be better made if director Alessio Maria Federici and writer Martino Coli didnt drop it right on our heads, with an intro announcing heres the thesis of our film! and an outro that echoes it with and thats the thesis of our film! That unimaginative straightforward quality extends to the set-ups as well, to the extent that even the segments where everything lines up feel somewhat strained.

The Wasteland

Were somewhere in the 1800s, and one family  tough-loving father Salvador (Roberto Alamo), tenderer mother Lucia (Inma Cuesta), and their puffball of a son, Diego (Asier Flores)  has put down stakes in the most sublimely eerie corner of rural Spain available. From the unsettling dolls made by Mommy to the minimalist scarecrows studding their farmland like executions at Golgotha, bad vibes abound, and threaten to swallow up fragile Diego when Dad goes off to find the family of the guy who just committed suicide on their front step. Its another one of those deals where a familys dysfunction transmutes itself into monster form, which in this portentous instance isnt quite as thrilling as a monster without one foot in metaphorical abstraction. Actually, its about trauma has become something of a punch line in the world of horror as of late, and the privileging of subtext over the actual text here does a good job of explaining why.

Brazen

Deadly Illusions, the not-technically-a-Netflick licensed by the service last year in which Kristin Davis played a paperback mystery writer solving a real-life murder plot, reportedly did monster numbers; of course it was only a matter of time until the studio made their own in-house. Another actress known for her TV work around the turn of the millennium (this time its Alyssa Milano of Charmed fame) lands in a similar predicament, drawing on her instincts as a scribe of page-turners to suss out who stabbed her sister to death. This all belongs in the realm of the trashtastic, but director Monika Mitchell lacks the sense of irony required to find the funny in this overheated tangle of illicit secrets, leaving tedium in the vacant space. In this rather milquetoast take on a genre that thrives on the outre, we miss out on the kinky thrills that both embrace and rise above the disreputable. Though Mitchells plot revolves around the clandestine doings of a cam girl, theres nothing here that feels forbidden.

Photocopier

A college girl (Shenina Syawalita Cinnamon) goes out, gets too wasted, and discovers the unremembered events of the evening in horror on her phone the morning after. Its a commonplace occurrence, but in the censorious culture of Indonesia, an indelicate, inebriated selfie is all it takes to get booted from your school and family. Our gal Sur puts her feelings of violation to one side so she can play sleuth and figure out how she lost control, discovering some unsavory scheming from her classmates in the process. (Pretty much the same deal as Pippa Biancos Share, though the production timeline suggests that thats coincidence rather than algorithmic jiggery-pokery behind the scenes.) The judgmental local context gives this film an added sense of stakes, and its frank addressing of sexual assault doubles as a critique of the nations status quo depicted here. If only the dialogue wasnt so starkly functional, and more well-versed in the fumbling inarticulateness of young people, this couldve been a plausible, valuable dissection of a social epidemic.

This Is Not a Comedy

The American indie circuit has given us plenty of sensitive, deadpan dramedies about stand-up comedians hiding their neuroses and arrested development behind a crying-clown facade, and this Mexican equivalent doesnt bring much distinction to the act. Sad-sack funnyman Gabriel Nuncio (playing a fictionalized version of himself, in addition to co-directing and co-writing) faces a litany of mini-crises common to his type: Hes trying to sell a movie script that nobody considers marketable enough to produce, hes striking up a thing with a surprisingly played-straight iteration of the manic pixie dream girl (Cassandra Ciangherotti), a friend wants him to donate his sperm. Those familiar with the Mexican comedy scene may get more out of its fly-on-the-wall infiltration of the clique  several noted comics pop up as themselves  but the touchy-feelier side of its midlife coming-of-age schtick is stale.

How I Fell in Love With a Gangster

Its the grand conundrum of the gangster movie: Hungry young directors who grew up in thrall of their coolness want to make their own, but nothings un-cooler than rehashing the greatest hits of previous generations. That Maciej Kawulskis addition to this crowded underworld comes to us from Poland seems promisingly unique, until its clear that hes just manufacturing a knockoff of the brand-name stuff from the States. The true-life tale of Nikodem Nikos Skotarczak (Tomasz Wolosok), from penny-ante boyhood scams to the top of the criminal heap, could have been inscribed from that of Henry Hill or Frank Lucas or any number of the headstrong, ruthless crooks who came before them. The one-night stands with faceless women, the sharp injections of stylized violence, the rise-and-fall structure  its all a tune we know too well, even if its been re-scored by banging Eastern European club music.
A genuine Made in Italy love story, Baci Perugina marks 100 years with a special limited edition chocolate.

Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana celebrates one century of Baci Perugina by designing a limited edition set of packaging for the hazelnut-centred chocolates.

The Perugina chocolate confectionary company, based in the central Italian city of Perugia, is marking the milestone by launching a special edition of 'Dolce Vita' Baci, "dressed" by Dolce & Gabbana.

The new recipe, released ahead of Valentine's Day, has a lemon-flavoured centre and is coated by white chocolate with a hint of vanilla.

Dolce & Gabbana teams up with Baci Perugina to celebrate a Made in Italy success story

History of Baci Perugina

The story behind the much-loved Baci begins in 1922 with fashion designer and entrepreneur Luisa Spagnoli who came up an innovative idea for a new recipe of chocolates.

Spagnoli devised a combination of chopped hazelnuts and melted chocolate to create a creamy filling, topped with a whole toasted hazelnut, and encased in dark chocolate.

The irregular shape reminded Spagnoli of the knuckles of a fist, leading to the chocolate's rough-sounding original name, "Cazzotto", meaning "punch" in Italian.

This didn't sound right to Giovanni Buitoni, the young manager and son of Perugina co-founder Francesco, who softened the name to "Baci", reasoning that people would prefer a kiss to a punch.

Buitoni and Spagnoli - who was 14 years his senior and was married to one of his father's partners - were secret lovers.

Subsequently the Perugina art director Federico Seneca had the idea of inserting romantic phrases inside the foil-wrapped chocolates.

According to legend, the love notes idea was inspired by the secret handwritten messages, hidden in chocolates, exchanged between Buitoni and Spagnoli.

Seneca then devised the blue and silver box depicting the couple kissing under the stars, inspired by the painting The Kiss by Italian artist Francesco Hayez.

The Dolce Vita limited edition of Baci Perugina

The combination of the recipe, name and packaging proved a winning formula and Baci became immensely popular, with Perugina boasting in a 1927 advert: In just five years, Perugina has sold 100 million Baci.

A century since the creation of the classic chocolates, the Perugina company, now owned by Nestle, says that 1,500 Baci are made every minute, exported to 55 countries around the world, with half a billion "kisses" sold each year.
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It would be a brave soul indeed who shows up at the farm for a days work in a Tesla Cybertruck.(1)Besides the shattering blow to credibility, how would one charge it? A big topic at a recent hearing of the House Agriculture Committee on electric vehicles was the risk of becoming stranded in some bucolic byway for want of a plug. Its a valid concern, albeit one with a touch of deja vu about it that should guide the solution.

There is no question range anxiety is a bigger deal outside cities. Even though 95% of the U.S. fits the technical definition of being rural, fewer than 1 in 5 of us live there. And like much else, EV chargers tend to get built where the people are because theyre the ones doing the driving.

Vehicle electrification has long faced a chicken-and-egg problem: Chargers are not getting built ahead of people buying EVs, and people are not buying EVs because of a lack of chargers. That goes double in rural areas, which combine longer distances with a smaller (and gradually declining) population, which tends not to encourage investment in new infrastructure of any sort. In general, the more rural the state, the fewer public chargers it has and the lower its rate of EV ownership. It doesnt help that rural states also tend to have more restrictive dealership laws that hold back EV startups in terms of sales (see this).

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Drivers in rural areas also tend to travel longer distances, about 10 miles extra a day compared with urban drivers, on average.(4) There are wide ranges around those averages, of course; in a detailed assessment of Oregons infrastructure requirements for electrifying transportation, published last summer, one survey respondent said 90 miles of daily driving in rural areas was not uncommon.

Rural drivers also skew more heavily toward trucks and SUVs, for which there are few electrified models. They are also expensive and house bigger batteries, which take longer to charge. Even with a fast charger, drivers may wait half an hour to top up, which is fine if theyre in a busy urban facility but may feel less safe in a remote spot late at night. And while those wide open spaces mean more single-family homes, upgrades to handle charging vehicles at home  or farm equipment  must encompass a more widely spread grid.

Against this, EVs carry substantial benefits. As with urban areas, they cut particulate pollution and slash carbon emissions. While climate change impacts all areas, if unevenly, extreme weather events and structural changes to conditions such as soil composition and water flows will tend to hit agricultural areas especially hard, even as they generally have fewer resources to cope.(2)

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Coming electrified versions of the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado will expand the range of suitable models (as will, perhaps, the Cybertruck for the more avant-garde). With ranges of hundreds of miles, even those longer rural daily drives dont pose an insurmountable problem. With fewer moving parts and powered from a socket, they also promise less maintenance and lower, more stable fuel costs than vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel. And as Chris Nelder, host of the Energy Transition Show podcast and a lead author of that Oregon study points out, the superior torque of electric motors makes them well-suited to farm work, promising greater efficiency than internal combustion engines operating at low RPMs.

The result is a market where the need for investment in electric infrastructure is inversely correlated to its attractiveness to investors. But guess what? Rural America has been here before.

Only 10% of farms were connected to the grid in 1930. For investor-owned utilities, it didnt pay to run lines across long distances to serve a few customers, certainly not relative to the dense networks in cities. For society, though, it made sense on a number of fronts, including economics, to boost the productivity and well-being of rural communities by giving them access to electricity. Sound familiar?

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Legislation in 1936 established the Rural Electrification Administration as a government agency and authorized it to provide low-cost loans to electrify isolated areas. Rural cooperatives sprung up to take advantage and bypass skeptical or outright obstructive utilities. By the end of World War II, 40% of farms had power. By 1960, they had virtually caught up with the cities at almost 100% electrification.

There are many parallels with todays EV challenge, most notably long distances and low population density deterring private investment in infrastructure and making drivers reluctant to make the switch.

This is where public funding can kick-start a cycle of investment in rural chargers and purchase of EVs. One of the most important aspects of the REA was that it lent money not just to build out the grid for supply but also for farmers to buy appliances and thereby generate demand for electricity. Similarly, stalled Build Back Better legislation would channel money toward not just chargers and grid upgrades but also subsidies for vehicles. Theres a reason rural Vermont and Maine stand out on that chart above in terms of EV purchases compared with, say, West Virginia, where subsidies are scarce. In helping to build critical mass, this would help reduce the cost of EVs and associated infrastructure over time, thereby reducing the need for subsidies everywhere. The original push to electrify rural areas helped cut the average cost-per-mile of laying rural lines by more than half by the end of the 1930s.(3)

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There are potential benefits for rural areas beyond those related to the environment. An upgraded grid would be a backbone not just for charging but new businesses as well as a source of jobs in its own right. Moreover, for those rural towns seeking reinvention through tourism, charging vehicles can itself be a means of making them a destination. The extra time it takes to charge up compared with refilling with gasoline means charging EVs is something that happens while the driver does something else: shopping, eating or whatever.

Similar to rural electrification, todays calls to encourage EVs face objections about the heavy hand of government, the expense and the difficulty.

The former argument is laughable, given that it took federal loans to help American farms tap into the prerequisite of modern life  access to electricity. Its hard to be taken seriously as a libertarian when youre charging your smartphone with juice supplied on a regulated network built with New Deal money. As an aside, my favorite line from that committee hearing came from a panelist who promoted the benefits of ethanol while warning against the government picking winners. Corn-based ethanol! Outside of a North Korean election, it is tough to think of a winner that is picked more vigorously.

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Costs, meanwhile, must be measured against the costs of letting climate change rip across the heartland. Besides the acute costs for those living there, imagine what it would mean for everything from crop insurance to food prices.

As for the supposedly insurmountable difficulty of rewiring the countryside for EVs, that is perhaps the most curious reasoning of all. Consider: In 1935, the U.S. economy was one-twentieth the size of todays, in real terms. That U.S. of the mid-20th century constructed a continental electricity network that still stands as one of the most impressive, complex and valuable engineered systems on the planet. Yet it is somehow deemed beyond the capabilities of todays America, vastly richer and more technologically advanced, to upgrade and expand that grid to meet 21st century needs. That is nonsense. Its just a policy choice.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

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 Car Dealership Laws Dont Fit the Electric Age: Liam Denning

 Harley Hits Stock Throttle With EV Spinoff: Brooke Sutherland

 Ford Bites Apple for a Taste of Tesla: Liam Denning

(1) Assuming the Cybertruck shows up at all, that is.

(2) Rural drivers travel 33.5 miles a day on average compared with 23 miles for their urban counterparts, according to the last National Household Travel Survey.

(3) See Chapter 10of the 2018 National Climate Assessment for an overview of how climate change will affect agriculture and rural communities.

(4) Source: Electrifying Rural America, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 2020.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journals Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times Lex column. He was also an investment banker.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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When I was going through the confirmation process in 2006 to be commander of U.S. Southern Command  in charge of all joint military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean  I was often asked about the Monroe Doctrine. Issued in 1823 by President James Monroe, it warned European nations against further colonization in the Americas, and was expanded by subsequent administrations to essentially establish an exclusive sphere of influence for the U.S. across the Western Hemisphere.

While Secretary of State John Kerry publicly declared that the the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over in a speech at the Organization of American States in 2013, it was subsequently invoked by President Donald Trumps administration regarding Russian and Iranian influence in propping up the Venezuelan regime. Most analysts feel that some version of the doctrine is still viable in terms of U.S. regional diplomacy, and I agree, but it should be considered in a more multilateral way  through the mechanism of the Organization of American States, not as a unilateral tool of American policy.

Last week, as part of his saber-rattling over Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened increased military deployments to the Americas, mentioning Venezuela and Cuba. How should the U.S. respond?

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Lets take a deep breath. This is probably not going to turn into another Cuban Missile Crisis.

This wouldnt be the first time we would see Russians in the Caribbean or Latin America. Over past decades, the Soviet Union and then Russia deployed ships, aircraft, military trainers, intelligence officers, communication teams and cyberwarfare experts to not only Venezuela and Cuba, but to Nicaragua as well. While they have not had large, permanent contingents, there is really nothing new in the idea of rotational deployments, which is what Putin seemed to be threatening.

In addition, the impact of conventional Russian forces would be negligible in terms of regional politics. Operationally, the threat of such forces being used against the U.S., or even its close allies in the region, is essentially zero. They might be employed for suppression of internal dissent. But at the moment the authoritarian leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua seem to have repression of the population under control, so high-end Russian military units arent going to change anything.

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When I led Southern Command, I had tens of thousands of troops and plenty of ships and planes at my disposal  vastly outpacing anything foreign rivals could throw at the Americas. Today, U.S. Southern Command, from its headquarters in Miami, is closely monitoring Russian force levels and does not feel insecure, believe me. When I asked one recent head of the command about the potential for increased Russian deployments, he said it was bluster from Putin, not militarily important, and that it would be expensive for the Russians to maintain such deployments, so let him waste the resources.

However, there is one very serious consideration worth pointing out: a permanent deployment of Russian medium-range nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, something the Kremlin has done in the heart of Europe in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave sitting between Lithuania and Poland.

Given the reduction in warning time compared to intercontinental missiles, and the proximity of very important targets  U.S. energy refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, military bases in the southern states, big cities like Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans and Galveston  placement of cruise missiles would have a major destabilizing effect. Such a move by Putin would probably demand an escalation of forces in Europe and additional U.S. cruise missiles in North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries.

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None of this should cause the U.S. any hesitation in its continued support of Ukraine. If Putin makes good on his threatened invasion, the U.S. and its allies should respond by sharing with the Ukrainians additional defensive but lethal weapons (especially antitank and handheld anti-air missiles); defensive and offensive cyber-capabilities; top-grade intelligence; and electronic jammers to direct against Russian battlefield communications. This aid should be combined with massive new economic sanctions (against the broad Russian economy, the oil and gas sector in particular, and the overseas accounts of Putins oligarch cronies) and additional U.S. ground-troop deployments (but not nuclear systems) closer to Russia within NATO borders.

If Russia really decides to deploy significant troops in the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. military shouldnt overreact. Providing additional surveillance resources to Southern Command is a good place to start, including unmanned aerial assets and intelligence-collection warships. Working with partners and friends in the OAS, Colombia in particular, to share intelligence and conduct regional military exercises makes sense.

Absent a significant nuclear deployment, we should largely shrug off Putins threat to become a pirate of the Caribbean. He cant really afford it, and what forces he could deploy wouldnt alter the military balance in the Americas.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO, and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also chair of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation and vice chairman of Global Affairs at the Carlyle Group. His latest book is 2034: A Novel of the Next World War.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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With the rapid spread of the omicron variant, mask mandates have once again returned to many gyms, along with this dilemma: Should gym goers wear a N95 or KN95 mask, which offer more protection than a cloth mask but can be uncomfortable? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe N95s and KN95s as offering the most protection  as long as they are not counterfeit  but stop short of suggesting people abandon fabric masks entirely, believing that wearing any mask is better than not wearing any one at all.

I dont want to tell anyone not to wear an N95 to exercise, says Melanie McNeal, physical and occupational therapy manager in the Baylor College of Medicines orthopedic surgery department. Bring it. Wear it. But have another one in your bag, so when one gets sweaty or uncomfortable, you can replace it with one thats fresh and clean.

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As the pandemic enters its third year, guidance on how to safely exercise, especially indoors, keeps changing along with the virus. Michele Maxson, 42, uses different masks for different workouts.

When Im exercising in close contact with people, I wear an N95 for protection, says Maxson, a Maryland public school math teacher living temporarily in Tokyo. If the workout provides social distancing, or I am running outdoors, I stick to cloth for comfort. I have a double fabric one and bring more than one if it gets too wet. Neither is optimal, but these are the sacrifices we need to make right now to stay both safe  and fit  in a covid world.

It often seems like the perfect exercise mask just doesnt exist  at least not yet.

The fabric masks get wet from perspiration. Sometimes they fall off if they are not snug, Maxson says. KN95 masks stay on better but get super sweaty quickly and make it tough to breathe. Sometimes masks get sucked in when I inhale deeply, which makes my brain think that Im limiting my oxygen intake.

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McNeal cites several studies, however, that raise issues about N95 respirators and urges athletes to be aware of them. While effective at blocking the virus, they can make breathing difficult, according to a 2011 study by researchers in Singapore who measured nasal airflow and found that wearing an N95 restricted the amount of air expelled in a single breath, and also reduced the amount of filtered clean air taken in by the mask wearer. And a2020 study by German scientists found that people wearing N95s felt as if their body temperature was increasing, although this was not the case.

The increase in body temperature was more of a perception and not actually a fact, McNeal says. As we know, though, perception is reality.

If athletes are nervous about infection, and still want to wear an N95, they should, McNeal says, as long as they know about the potential problems.

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They are more restrictive with breathing, she says. Also, when you are exercising, they can cause you to feel as if your body temperature is rising, as if overheating. If you arent used to exercise and this happens, take a quick break, take some deep breaths to calm your heart rate and let that feeling of being overheated pass until you feel comfortable resuming.

Athletes often must choose between a mask thats safer vs. one thats made of a more comfortable material, McNeal says. Athletes should consider the environment they are working out in as well as the type and intensity of a workout when making this decision.

Most people dont need a mask when exercising outside, unless there are other people nearby, she says.

Mike Sheldon, 72, of Westfield, Mass., an avid outdoor runner, hangs a surgical mask under his chin when he goes out and pulls it up if he sees someone approaching. It fogs up my glasses in cold weather, he says. On the plus side, it keeps my face warm.

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When indoors, masks made of multiple layers of a moisture-wicking material, such as polyester, are the most comfortable, McNeal says.

The fit is important, and the material is important, she says. You dont want material that will disintegrate when it gets wet. If you are doing cardio or CrossFit, where you are sweating profusely and your heart rate is going up, an N95 wont be comfortable. If you are doing bicep curls  a lightweight workout  and not sweating profusely, an N95 should be fine.

Bob Metzger, 70, a retired software developer who lives in Lakeville, Minn., learned this the hard way after open heart valve repair last May. His post-op rehab involved nearly three dozen one-hour cardio sessions of fast-paced walking on an indoor treadmill  mask required. He wore a face covering made of cotton, a fabric notorious for retaining moisture. My mask would typically be soaked when I was done, Metzger says. By the time my cool down was complete, it felt clammy and icky.

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Hes switching to an N95. But he remains attached to that cotton mask, made by his wife and featuring a cute ladybug design. He plans to wear it over the N95, if only just for the smiles I get from people when they see it, he says.

Josiah Hester, assistant professor of computer engineering at Northwestern University  who recently led a team that invented a FaceBit, a quarter-sized sensor that attaches to a mask and measures respiration and heart rates much like a Fitbit  predicts that masks, like other consumer products, will evolve over time to meet individuals lifestyle needs, including exercise.

We may start to see custom-designed masks and new materials that are more tuned to the requirements of exercising, for example, more breathable and less bulky KN95s, oversized air pockets, more conformable to your face, lighter, and less likely to move around with strenuous activity, sweat and rain resistant, he says. Im sure this will be an explosion of products in the next few years. With [covid] becoming endemic, and two years of practice in the habit of wearing masks, I think for sure that we will have to adjust how we do everything from eating to exercise because of this new reality.

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I got a hurried voice mail from my pharmacist in Wisconsin the day before Thanksgiving letting me know my insurance was refusing to cover my insulin. I had enough of the hormone that keeps me alive to last 17 days. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In my 10 years living with Type 1 diabetes, Ive never really struggled to access insulin. In my job reporting on the people left behind by our countrys absurdly complex health-care system, Ive written about how insulins steep cost leads to deadly rationing and about patients protesting to bring those prices down. For the most part, however, Ive been spared from the problems I cover.

Maybe thats why I waited over a week to call my new pharmacy in St. Louis, where I recently moved for this job with Kaiser Health News.

Id been waiting since September for an appointment with an endocrinologist in St. Louis; the doctors office couldnt get me in until Dec. 23 and wouldnt handle my prescriptions before then.

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A pharmacist in St. Louis said my new employer-provided insurance wouldnt cover insulin without something called a prior authorization. Ive written about these, too. Theyre essentially requirements that a physician get approval from an insurance company before prescribing a treatment.

Doctors hate them. The American Medical Association has a website outlining proposed changes to the practice, while the insurance industry defends it as protecting patient safety and saving money. It feels like a lot of paperwork to confirm something we already know: Without insulin, I will die.

I knew right away the prior authorization would be a problem. Since it was a Saturday, my best option was to call my old endocrinologists practice that Monday morning and beg his staff members to fill out forms for their now former patient.

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I had enough insulin to last eight days.

But late that afternoon, I got an automated message from the pharmacy about an insurance issue.

After spending 45 minutes on hold the next morning, I finally got through to the pharmacist, who said my insurer was still waiting for a completed prior authorization form from my physician. I called the doctors office to give a nudge.

Five days worth of insulin left.

The price of my prescription without insurance was $339 per vial of insulin, and I use about two vials per month. Normally, I pay a $25 co-pay. Without the prior authorization, however, Im exposed to the list price of insulin, as is anyone with diabetes who lacks insurance, even if they live in one of the states with co-pay caps intended to rein in costs.

I called the pharmacy again that Thursday at 7:30 p.m., figuring itd be less busy. I got right through to the pharmacist, who told me my insurer was still waiting on the prior authorization form. Friday morning, the diabetes nurse at my doctors office said shed check on it and call me back.

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Id be out of insulin the next day.

By this time, I was live tweeting my attempt to refill my prescription and started to get the kind of messages that are familiar to anyone in whats known as the diabetes online community.

People in Missouri offered me their surplus insulin. Some suggested I go to Walmart for $25 insulin, an older type I have no idea how to safely use.

My new plan was to use one of the programs that insulin manufacturers started recently to help people get cheaper insulin. The same day, House Democrats on the Oversight and Reform Committee released a report deriding these types of assistance programs as tools to garner positive public relations, increase sales, and raise revenue.

But before I tried that option, I heard back from the nurse who had called the pharmacy (she had spent 25 minutes on hold) and learned that my new insurance wouldnt cover the brand of insulin I was using. The pharmacist was checking on a different brand.

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Soon the pharmacist called: My insurance would cover the other brand. But the pharmacy might not have enough to fill my order. She said I should call a different branch of the chain. The first location I called was also out but pointed me to another one that had it.

With 12 hours worth of insulin left, I walked out of that third store with my medicine in hand.

It took 17 days and 20 phone calls. But I know Im lucky. My insurance really is exceptional, recent events aside. My boss insisted that being alive was part of my job as I spent hours on the phone during the workday. And my job is to be persistent as I puzzle through the labyrinth of U.S. health care.

The time wasted by me, the pharmacists, the nurses and probably some insurance functionaries is astounding and probably both a cause and a symptom of the high cost of medical care. The problem is also much bigger than that.

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Insulin is the single most important resource in my life, and this is what I had to do to get it. But I know not everyone has my good fortune. Ive interviewed the loved ones of people with Type 1 diabetes who could not get insulin, and its not hard to imagine how my story could have ended just as tragically.

On Dec. 23, I finally saw my new doctor, who sent in a new prescription. That night, I got a message that my insurer was waiting on a prior authorization.

I had 17 days worth of insulin left.

 Kaiser Health News

Kaiser Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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In fall 2020, my 94-year-old father was discharged from a hospital with orders for hospice. I didnt know what to expect. Although over three months, his appetite had diminished along with the strength in his legs, I avoided researching end-of-life care. It turns out Im not alone. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight People stay away from discussing hospice because they feel like it means theyre giving up and cant do anything further, says Diana R. Kerwin, chief of geriatrics at Texas Health Dallas Presbyterian and president of Kerwin Medical Center.

Hospice services were introduced in the United States in 1974. The goal of hospice is to keep someone as comfortable as possible when theyve decided to stop seeking further medical treatment. With hospice, a team of health-care professionals  including a physician, a nurse, a social worker and a spiritual care provider  work together to minimize patients pain and focus on their needs.

Unfortunately, the confusion and misconceptions surrounding hospice can keep a family from seeking the service for a loved one and cause them to suffer needlessly. Knowing what to expect and when to begin hospice can help alleviate the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding end-of-life care, experts say.

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Everyone in this country is entitled to hospice, says Dawn Gross, attending physician of Palliative Care Service at the University of California at San Francisco, and medical director of ANX Hospice.

To be eligible, she says, two physicians must agree that the person has a prognosis of six months or less to live, should the illness run its natural course without intervention. That does not mean the person must die within those six months.

In 2018, 1.55 million Medicare beneficiaries in the United States used hospice. But according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, each year, nearly 1 million individuals who may be eligible for hospice die without using it.

According to a 2018 study in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, a significant cause of low overall hospice utilization and intractably low median lengths of stay, reflective of late admissions, can be attributed to difficult and variable prognoses for most of the leading causes of death among Medicare beneficiaries.

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So, when should a patient or their family talk to their physician about starting hospice care?

You should think about hospice when your daily quality of life is significantly impaired and when the treatments are not going to change the outcome, Kerwin says. That includes a persons ability to stand up and walk around, eat, feed themselves, get up and go to the bathroom, communicate, and recognize others.

Hospice falls under the umbrella of palliative care, but some people confuse the two. Gross says hospice focuses on maximizing the patients quality of life using all treatments necessary to relieve the symptoms of a terminal illness, including physical (such as pain, nausea and shortness of breath), psychosocial (anxiety, depression and insomnia) and spiritual (existential suffering, which need not be connected with a religious belief). On the other hand, palliative care is designed to support quality of life at the same time a person is receiving cure-focused/disease-modifying treatments.

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Gross emphasizes that hospice-care professionals do not move into a persons home. If someone has worsening symptoms that are out of control, a licensed vocational nurse, a registered nurse or a home health aide could stay for eight-hour shifts until the patient is once again comfortable.

The hospice benefit covers all care provided by hospice, she says. This includes medications that are treating symptoms as well as equipment intended to improve quality of life, such as an adjustable hospital bed, bedside table, an oxygen compressor, and all hospice team member visits.

During my fathers time in hospice care, nurses stopped by my parents home twice a day and were available by phone to answer questions. But I was responsible for administering medication  morphine and a small amount of Ativan to relieve anxiety  and ensuring that my father was comfortable in between visits.

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Payment options for hospice care include Medicare and Medicare Advantage, Medicaid (benefits vary by state), Tricare (which provides health benefits for active military personnel and retirees and their dependents), and CHAMPVA (Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs). Most private insurance obtained through employers or state exchanges also pays for hospice care.

Its important to know what your private insurance covers related to hospice costs, says Amy Tucci, president and chief executive of Hospice Foundation of America, Some policies will cover all hospice-related expenses, while others may cover much less.

Tucci says that for those without insurance, hospice providers will often work with families and may charge on a sliding scale according to what the family can afford, or they may use charity funds if available to reduce out-of-pocket expenses.

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My father, Joseph Kanarek, a retired pediatrician, couldnt wait to come home from the hospital. Without the help of hospice services, we would not have been able to provide care at home, where he was surrounded by family.

While 71 percent of patients prefer to be at home receiving hospice services, not everyone has family or friends available to tend to them, according to a 2016 survey. A nursing home, a hospital with a floor dedicated to hospice and palliative care, or a hospice facility are all options for receiving hospice care. Custodial care such as housekeeping or private caregiving, which hospice team members would not provide, is not covered by the hospice benefit.

Before deciding on a particular agency, shop around, says BJ Miller, a physician, co-founder of Mettle Health and co-author of A Beginners Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. Hospice is a service like any business; there are different qualities. So if you live in a place where there are multiple hospice agencies available to you, interview them.

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Hospice is a two-way street; people can come and go as needed. Miller explains that sometimes people sign onto the service, feel better and are discharged from hospice. If patients do not like it and decide to try a new treatment thats coming online, with the stroke of a pen, they can sign off legally, he says. This process is called revoking hospice care.

Its an administrative burden, but its no big deal, he says. Then your old insurance will kick in.

Predicting the exact day of death can be challenging, but there are a few indications of when the end is near.

Well see people have very distinct changes in the pattern of breathing, Gross says. They take pauses, or what is medically referred to as apnea, in their breathing. They seem to be holding their breath, leaving those at the bedside wondering whether they are going to take another breath.

As the 2019 study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found, hospice services are underused, especially among those with non-cancer illnesses. As more people learn about the benefits of hospice, they may be less hesitant to request the service.

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Hospice is not something to be afraid of, Kerwin says. Its taking steps to be sure yourself and your loved one is provided comfort and compassionate care as well as support at the end of lifes journey.

Less than four months after my father passed away, I helped my sister-in-law give her dying father morphine and other medication throughout the night. Instead of feeling anxious, as I did when I was in her role during my fathers final hours, I felt a sense of calm.

This time, I knew what to expect.

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Troops, tanks, missiles and warships are on the move. Russian forces, slowly but surely, are surrounding Ukraine on three sides. The picture on the ground suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is about to launch a massive, multi-front offensive into a neighboring nation that for eight years has been slipping from his grasp into the hands of the West.

But the former KGB lieutenant colonel  who has spent his career refining tactics to keep his adversaries off balance and exploit their differences  retains a plethora of options short of starting a full-blown, mass-casualty war that would put his own economy and soldiers at risk.

President Biden alluded to those possibilities during a recent news conference. Biden made, and later corrected, a gaffe suggesting that a minor incursion would be more permissible, but he revealed an uncomfortable truth at the same time: The United States and its NATO allies have agreed to inflict a devastating economic blow on Russia if Moscow invades Ukraine, but actions short of war  such as cyberattacks or sabotage  could divide allies over how aggressively to respond.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to walk back that admission after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, underscoring that actions apart from a military invasion, including cyberattacks or paramilitary activity, will also be met with a decisive, calibrated, and again, united response.

Blinken noted that Russia is hatching plans for subversive activity that may not look like a traditional invasion.

Weve seen plans to undertake a variety of destabilizing actions, some of them short of the overt use of force, to destabilize Ukraine, to topple the government, a variety of things, Blinken said.

His comments came after the Biden administration, without going into detail, warned that U.S. intelligence had obtained information about a group of saboteurs, trained in urban warfare and explosives, that Russia sent into east Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned four current and former Ukrainian officials whom Washington said had been acting with Russian intelligence to lay the groundwork for creating a new, Russian-controlled government in Ukraine.

Since early December, U.S. intelligence agencies have warned that Russia was planning a massive military invasion of Ukraine. Heres why Moscow would do that. (Video: Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

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The result is an increased focus on what some military analysts call the gray zone, the nebulous space between war and peace where a country can take measures  ranging from election meddling and cyber-hacks to assassinations and arms-length coups detat  to shape the fate of another nation without the costs of military warfare.

The Kremlin has a long track record of such activity dating back to the Cold War, and more recently including the hack and release of emails from top Democratic Party officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, an operation that U.S. authorities attributed to Russian military intelligence.

Even if Putin decides to launch a formal military assault on Ukraine, it is far from clear that the Russian leader would opt, at the outset, for a mass ground offensive that would entail occupying large Ukrainian cities or marching on Kyiv.

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Because Ukraine has limited air defenses, Russia would probably secure early dominance in the air, which would allow its forces to carry out decapitating strikes in Kyiv and across the country, potentially forcing the government to capitulate to the Kremlins demands even before any tanks rolled across the border.

I think Russia has left itself many flexible or scalable military options and can pursue a spectrum of activities, said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corp. who focuses on Russia. For example, they can gradually increase the pressure starting with cyberattacks, increase harassment along the lines of contact, all the way up to a large-scale multi-domain operation using air, missile and ground attacks.

Massicot said Russia could reduce its combat exposure and minimize casualties by leading with airstrikes, standoff precision munitions or even long-range artillery fire, all of which could be launched from afar and still have a significant impact on Ukraine.

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The buildup Putin has engineered along the border would amplify any actions Russia decided to take short of an invasion by keeping the threat of a full-scale ground war looming in the background.

Some analysts argue that Moscow has no intention of invading but is escalating tensions to persuade Washington to accept its core demand that Ukraine be barred from NATO.

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that for Moscow, the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO is like the 1962 Cuban missile crisis on steroids because of the risk that missiles could be deployed there in the future. He dismissed the idea of a Russian invasion.

This minor incursion, major incursion is all part of Western fears and fantasies and has no relevance to the thinking in the Kremlin or the plans of the General Staff of Russias armed forces, Trenin said.

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The idea behind Russias moves, in my view, is not to wage war against Ukraine but to use a demonstration of military power to bring the United States to the negotiating table to discuss security issues in Europe, including those related to Ukraine, Trenin added.

Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent Russian foreign policy analyst and a member of the Russian International Affairs Council, said the Kremlins goal was to redraw the European security balance between NATO and Russia and sweep away Euro-Atlantic institutions as the basis of European security, because from Russias point of view its not working.

He said the goal is too ambitious to be achieved through routine diplomacy, hence Russias escalation of military pressure.

For Moscow, threatening Ukraine is not enough to achieve the concessions it wants from the United States, Lukyanov said, suggesting that Moscow might do something provocative away from Ukraine. It might mean that the Western fixation on Ukraine might be not entirely correct, and in order to increase tension and step up the escalation process, actions might be taken somewhere else.

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Putin has said he will take military-technical actions if NATO does not accept his demands. Some analysts believe that could include placing more aggressive weapons in locations that directly threaten the United States and NATO allies.

Military analyst Rob Lee, of the war studies department at Kings College London, believes that a Russian military operation against Ukraine is more likely than not, in part because of the unprecedented scale of the Russian military buildup underway around the country.

It looks like theyve deployed units from every military district, including the Northern Fleet, to near Ukraine. Thats unprecedented, Lee said. Theyre moving equipment from not far from the border of North Korea all the way to Belarus. Theyre doing a ton of things that are not standard. What theyre doing is not something theyve done before, so were in uncharted waters.

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He said Moscow wants to prevent Ukraine from ever becoming a threat, so its most likely approach is an overwhelming attack to destroy Ukraines military, inflict casualties and swiftly force President Volodymyr Zelensky to accede to Kremlin demands, without necessarily trying to occupy territory. Anything less than a formidable air attack would be unlikely to achieve Russias goals, Lee added.

Russia could also take the opportunity to seize a small piece of territory of strategic importance  for example, the coastline along the Sea of Azov, which would provide a land bridge from mainland Russia to Crimea (which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014), or a swath of territory farther into Ukraine that holds a canal that once supplied Crimea with water.

Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said that beyond the issue of NATO membership, Russias goals could include changing the government in Kyiv or causing it to fall apart. He said a shock and awe air campaign could be a way for Russia to achieve multiple ends without getting involved in a costly, open-ended occupation.

Weiss said, There is a really serious threat that this is about being able to accomplish regime change without a ground war, because the current government in Kyiv looks very unstable at a moment of national peril.

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Laundrie admitted to killing Petito, FBI says Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The boyfriend of slain cross-country traveler Gabby Petito admitted to killing her in a notebook discovered near his body in a Florida swamp, the FBI announced Friday. It was the first time authorities squarely pinned the blame for Petitos death on Brian Laundrie, though he was the prime suspect all along.

Investigators meanwhile announced that Laundrie, 23, had sent text messages to intentionally deceive people that Petito, 22, was still alive after he beat and strangled her in late August, according to a statement released by the FBI in Denver.

All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case, said Michael Schneider, the FBI Denver Division special agent in charge. The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.

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Petitos body was found Sept. 19 at a campground near Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming. A coroner determined shed died about three weeks earlier of blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.

Laundrie returned home to Florida in early September but went missing soon after. In October, his parents found an item belonging to him in a nature preserve near their house.

Further searching turned up Laundries remains, a revolver, backpack and the notebook. Medical examiners determined Laundrie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 Associated Press

Degrees revoked for Giuliani and Flynn

The University of Rhode Island is revoking honorary degrees bestowed upon two once-prominent advisers to former president Donald Trump: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

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The universitys board of trustees voted Friday to revoke the degrees following internal deliberations that included a recommendation by URI President Marc Parlange.

He said in a statement that Flynn and Giuliani no longer represent the values and standards they demonstrated when they first received the honors.

As a civic institution, URI has the privilege and responsibility to sustain and preserve American democracy by inspiring and modeling good citizenship, Parlange said. Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity.

Giuliani, who served as one of Trumps top legal advisers, was awarded the Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa in 2003 based on his leadership in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to URI.

Flynn, who briefly served as Trumps national security adviser before resigning following reports he misled Trump officials about his contacts with Russia, was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2014. The Rhode Island native is a 1981 URI graduate.

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A spokesperson for Giuliani didnt respond to an email seeking comment, but Flynns family released a lengthy and strongly worded statement ahead of Fridays vote in which it dismissed it as cowardly and corrupt.

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Florida manatees fed lettuce in pilot program: Manatees at risk of starvation because native sea grass is dying due to water pollution have for the first time started eating lettuce under an experimental feeding program, Florida wildlife officials said Friday. The test facility on the east coast's Indian River Lagoon had its first takers of romaine lettuce Thursday, leading more manatees to join in, said Ron Mezich, chief of the effort's provisioning branch at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The program is adding cabbage and a second type of lettuce to entice the manatees, also known as sea cows. All of these are common foods given to manatees at rehabilitation facilities.

 Associated Press

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Sometimes, Malik Faisal Akram stood out, in unsettling ways. Back home in Blackburn, in Englands industrial north, he was the guy who was banned from the local courthouse after he threatened officials there. In his short stay in Texas, Akram stuck in the minds of people  at a mosque where he became aggressive when he was told he couldnt stay overnight and at a Starbucks when workers noticed him as the disheveled customer who sat for half an hour, constantly looking around as he nursed his cappuccinos.

But along his 4,600-mile journey from Britain to the Colleyville, Tex., synagogue where Akram would hold four hostages for 11 hours before being killed by law enforcement officers last Saturday, the 44-year-old terrorist also managed impressive stealth, entering the United States without a hitch, eluding notice in New York for several days, and wandering around Dallas and its suburbs for two weeks without attracting much attention.

Nearly a week after Akram terrorized the rabbi and three members of Congregation Beth Israel, investigators are still examining where he slept, how he moved around and with whom he associated during his 18 days in the United States.

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He evidently knew some people: After he arrived at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 29, Akram bought a cellphone and made calls to someone at a New York number, according to investigators. After Akram landed in Dallas around New Years Day, he met up with a man who took him to a center for homeless people, walked him inside and embraced him before saying farewell.

The FBI said Friday that it has learned many details about Akrams movements and contacts, although key questions remain outstanding, such as how he obtained the gun he brandished at Beth Israel. As recently as late this week, FBI agents were still knocking on doors at motels and checking footage from surveillance cameras in an effort to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

This was both a hate crime and an act of terrorism  rooted in antisemitism, the FBIs special agent in charge of its Dallas office, Matthew DeSarno, said Friday, adding that the investigation will continue.

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What is known is that Akram began the trip he knew would end in his death at home in Blackburn, a heavily Muslim town filled with Pakistani and Indian immigrants  including Akrams parents.

Akram grew up in a religiously conservative neighborhood. His father, Malik, founded a small mosque, one of more than 40 Muslim houses of worship in the town of 120,000 people.

Akram had struggled with mental illness, according to his younger brother, Gulbar, who declined to elaborate.

In 2001, days after the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans, took down the World Trade Center and opened a flaming gash in the Pentagon, Akram was banned from court buildings in Blackburn after he told a court usher that he wished he had been on one of the planes used as weapons of war on Sept. 11. The ban was the first issued by the Blackburn court in 25 years.

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It wasnt Akrams first brush with the law. He had been sent a warning letter several months earlier after he was accused of abusing and threatening staffers at the Northgate courthouse, according to local news reports.

A letter from Deputy Justice Clerk Peter Wells informed Akram of the ban, saying that Once again you were threatening and abusive towards court staff  This caused a great deal of distress to an individual who was simply doing his job and should not be subjected to your foul abuse.

Im innocent, Akram told the Lancashire Telegraph at the time. People at the court have just got it in for me because they dont like me.

Akram was convicted of theft and harassment in 2012, according to a letter from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to FBI and Homeland Security officials seeking details on the investigation.

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MI5, Britains counterintelligence and security agency, investigated Akram and put him on a watch list in 2020 as a subject of interest. But the authorities concluded that he did not pose any imminent threat of terrorism.

Akrams family had no idea that Faisal, as he was known, planned to leave the country, Gulbar said, leaving him to wonder: Hes known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?

Akram arrived at JFK Airport in New York on Dec. 29, drawing no special attention as he cleared the immigration and customs area. He wasnt known to U.S. intelligence or law enforcement, DeSarno said Friday, and a federal government official confirmed that Akram had not previously visited the United States.

As a British citizen, Akram entered the country under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows people from 40 countries to visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, according to Homeland Security officials.

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A Homeland Security official who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation said Akram was vetted as any other traveler would be under that program, with his name run through several federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies databases  No derogatory information associated with this individual was found prior to his travel to the United States or upon his arrival.

If U.S. authorities knew of Akrams arrest record, his case would have been evaluated to determine whether an individual should be permitted to enter the United States based on the nature of the arrest, the official said.

The New York address Akram gave immigration authorities was that of the Queens Hotel, a tidy little place on Queens Boulevard about 10 miles from the airport. The hotel is often the first property to pop up on a Google search for Hotel in Queens, or Queens Hotel. A room goes for about $80, though it would have been more during Christmas week.

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But the hotel has no record of a guest with Akrams name staying there on Dec. 29 or 30, said Ann Lin, who works at the hotels front desk. Lin didnt recognize Akrams photograph beyond a vague sense that he looked like many guests with a beard like that who stay here, she said.

Staffers at two nearby mosques and another hotel said they did not recognize a photo of Akram.

Soon after he got to New York, Akram bought a cellphone with a New York area code and made several calls to another local number, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The authorities have identified that person, who does not appear to have participated in Akrams plan, the official said.

By tracing data from Akrams phone and computer, American and British investigators have cobbled together an outline of his movements and online searches as he searched for a target, officials said.

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Akram believed that Jews hold enormous political power and could achieve the release of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani who is a convicted terrorist in a federal facility in Fort Worth. She is serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. With that apparently in mind, Akram used his new phone to search for names of U.S. rabbis, officials said.

He focused on Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at Manhattans Central Synagogue, one of the countrys largest Reform Jewish congregations. Investigators believe Akram saw Buchdahl mentioned on online lists of influential rabbis and decided she had the political prowess to get Siddiqui released.

During the hostage standoff in Texas, Akram would demand that Beth Israels rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, get Buchdahl on the phone.

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He mentioned her by name, because he knew that she played guitar.  He thought that she was the most influential rabbi, Cytron-Walker said Thursday in an online forum hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.

Its not clear where Akram stayed in New York or what else he did there, but during the hostage situation, he claimed he had planted explosives in Manhattan and Brooklyn potentially in and around synagogues, and that he had associates in New York, according to Mitch Silber, director of a community security initiative at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Investigators have concluded that those claims were baseless, officials said.

By New Years Day, Akram had flown to Dallas. He showed up that evening at the Islamic Center of Irving, just south of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and 13 miles from Congregation Beth Israel.

During evening prayer, sometime between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Akram arrived at the mosque and soon became aggressive, said Khalid Hamideh, a lawyer and spokesman for the Islamic Center.

After joining in the final prayer, Akram asked a security guard whether he could stay overnight in the mosque. The guard summoned a staff member, who told Akram that no one could sleep there because of city and mosque regulations, Hamideh said.

Akram shattered the solemn quiet of the room, angrily addressing the staffer, Hamideh said.

You will be judged by God for not helping a fellow Muslim, Akram said loudly. Im from a good family.

The lawyer said Akram accused the staff member of not helping out a fellow brother in the faith.

Hamideh said Akram was carrying a backpack large enough to hold a weapon.

God knows if he already had acquired the gun, Hamideh said.

Akram was not searched, Hamideh said: We dont search anybody. Maybe well start.

Video from the mosques surveillance cameras revealed that Akram left that evening but returned the next morning, Jan. 2, at about 6 a.m. for morning prayers.

His whole attitude changed, Hamideh said. He was humble. You can see him praying. Hes low-keyed, peaceful. When he was praying, he was praying alone, to the side of the small prayer group.

Akram  now calm, cool, collected, according to the lawyer  sought out the staff member he had confronted earlier and apologized for his behavior on the previous night, Hamideh said, and asked for permission just to use the sanctuary to conduct his prayer.

After sunrise, sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., the mosques 80 surveillance cameras followed Akram as he walked out of the prayer room and into a hallway, where he put on his shoes and left, walking alone toward a busy four-lane road.

Over the next few days, Akram returned to the mosque at least once, possibly twice, wearing the same clothes he had on during his first visit, Hamideh said.

Akram sat in on a halaqa, a session devoted to study of Koranic texts.

His visits after the first visit were all very nice, formal, professional, low key, Hamideh said.

By the evening of Jan. 2, Akram had made his way 17 miles to the east, to a homeless shelter in a scruffy industrial zone just across Interstate 30 from downtown Dallas.

At 10:01 p.m., Akram was escorted into the intake unit of the OurCalling shelter by an unidentified man who had driven him there, according to Wayne Walker, the facilitys chief executive.

The man  heavyset, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black beanie  embraced Akram, patting him on the back several times before walking away, according to surveillance video shown to The Washington Post. The video has been turned over to the FBI.

We have no idea who that person is, said Patrick Palmer, chief advancement officer at the shelter, part of a Christian ministry for the homeless.

Akram and the man who accompanied him appeared to be familiar with each other, talking in the parking lot on their way in, Walker said.

Other than that, though, among the 191 people who went into the shelter on a frigid night when the Dallas temperature fell to 18 degrees, there was nothing that stood out about Akram, said Ed Johnson, the shelters programs director, who checked Akram in.

Inside, Akram took a rapid test for the coronavirus and answered routine intake questions: Was he a veteran? Did he have insurance? Any income?

Akram allowed staff to take his photo and provided his real name, Walker said.

Akram did not answer a question about where he had come from, Walker said. People who stay at the shelter are not searched.

Akram identified himself as living on the streets, Palmer said, and was given a spot on the floor where he could sleep.

He left OurCalling at about 8 a.m., after getting a to-go breakfast. Akram did not return for lunch, Palmer said, and executives at OurCalling didnt see Akram again until his name emerged in media reports about the Beth Israel incident.

Its not clear where Akram spent his days or nights through most of the first week of the new year. At a Super 8 motel half a mile from the Irving mosque, FBI agents paid a visit Thursday, asking whether Akram had stayed there, according to a desk clerk. The clerk told The Post that Akrams name does not appear in the $57-a-night motels computer system.

Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 13, Akram turned up on three nights at Union Gospel Mission Dallas, a homeless shelter, according to its chief executive, Bruce Butler.

We were a way station for him, he said. He was very quiet. He was in and out.

Akram left the mission for the last time on the morning of Jan. 13, two days before he showed up at Beth Israel, according to Gospel Mission records.

During his time in and around Dallas, Akram searched on his phone for gun shops and pawnshops in the area, law enforcement officials said.

But authorities traced the handgun he brandished at Beth Israel, concluding that he bought it on the street, not at a business. The guns last legal sale was recorded in early 2020. Later that year, it was reported stolen from a hotel room, officials said.

While Akram was in Texas, his web searches fixated on Siddiqui, who is imprisoned at a medical unit of a federal prison in Fort Worth following a July incident in which another inmate attacked her, burning her face with scalding hot liquid, according to a lawsuit filed on Siddiquis behalf.

Akram also searched for the names of rabbis he believed to be politically influential  and for a synagogue close to where Siddiqui is being held, leading him to focus on Beth Israel, DeSarno said.

On Friday, Jan. 14, Akram wandered around Colleyville, a suburb of 26,000 people just west of DFW airport. He spent 16 hours somewhere in the synagogues area, walking around with what I have in my bag, and with my ammo, he told police negotiators during the early hours of the standoff, according to a live stream of the Sabbath service that aired on Facebook Live.

On Saturday morning, before going to Beth Israel, Akram visited a Starbucks less than a mile away. Two baristas noticed the tall, disheveled man wearing a puffy black jacket and carrying a blue backpack.

After ordering, Akram asked a barista for the time. It was 8:43 a.m., she recalled.

Akram stood out in part because of his strong accent, which one barista said she had trouble understanding as he ordered a tall cappuccino, and because he proceeded to sit at a corner table for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, staring at his phone and frequently looking around him.

He ordered a second cappuccino; when he finished it, he hurried out.

He arrived by bicycle at Congregation Beth Israel, a sand-colored building set well back from the road, officials said Friday. Its a four-minute ride from the Starbucks to the temple, which sits on a street of large houses, near the local middle school and Baptist and Catholic churches.

The 10 a.m. Sabbath service was about to begin, with only four congregants attending in person; most worshipers would watch online as a precaution against the coronavirus. That evening, Beth Israel members were scheduled to gather for Trivia Night.

Akram knocked on the synagogues locked glass door.

He was looking for a place to warm up, Jeffrey Cohen, the congregations vice president and one of the hostages, told MSNBC. And we invited him in, the rabbi gave him a cup of tea, he let him sit in the back.

Cohen greeted the man.

He was quite jovial, he was friendly, he said. He was on the phone, so I let him go onto the phone.

The service began. More than half an hour in, the rabbi began the Amidah, the core of the prayer service, recited while facing Jerusalem.

And then we heard  or I heard, excuse me  that unmistakable click of a semiautomatic being loaded, Cohen said.

Akram started yelling.

Along the way, Akram spoke on the phone to his brother Gulbar, who urged him to release the hostages, serve time in prison and return to his family. Akram shouted that he intended to die.

Im going to go toe-to-toe with [police], and they can shoot me dead, he said. Im coming home in a body bag.

Down the block, a Colleyville police officer banged on the door of a neighbors house.

You guys got a car? the officer asked. Okay, go ahead and get in it and head out of here. We got a situation next door.

Through long hours of negotiation, Akram was at times calm and conversational, at times angry and erratic, according to two hostages. Finally, the FBIs DeSarno said Friday, the situation had gone from bad to significantly worse as Akram realized that his demand for Siddiquis release would not be met. When Akram had a glass of juice in his hand, the rabbi saw his moment, threw a chair at his captor and urged the other hostages out the door.

Seconds after the hostages ran to safety, police moved in. After a big bang and two spurts of gunfire, Akram was dead.

An autopsy report released Friday said he died at 9:22 p.m. of multiple gunshot wounds.

Douglas reported from Colleyville; Zapotosky and Fisher from Washington. William Booth in Blackburn, England; Jack Wright in New York and Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Souad Mekhennet, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report.

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Exelx, a leading company in the field of development and research in battery inspection and maintenance technologies, showcased its latest technologies and solutions for extending used battery lifetime at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week as part of the Innovate initiative, organized by Masdar City,

Exelx is a startup company that has been conducting research and studies to develop new technology over a period of five years in the electric energy storage sector, both in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and in Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

It also provides services for inspecting and maintaining batteries of all kinds, including hybrid and electric vehicles, telecommunication towers, electric hoists, and storage batteries for renewable energy systems.

On the three-day exhibition, CEO Ghassan Alasad said: "We are proud of the unique solutions and technologies offered by our company at the global level, thanks to the efforts of our Jordanian and Arab engineers who contributed to the development of this technology in collaboration with our partners in Japan."

The new technology will benefit the local and global markets that we intend to Enter in the near future," Alasad said.

Dr. Ali Al-Zyoud, Head of Engineering Research and Development, took part in a specialized panel discussion on innovation in clean energy, during which he built upon the companys role in bringing new technology to increase the battery life through new technologies that were developed by joint Japanese and Jordanian efforts to achieve environmental and economic sustainability for battery end users.-TradeArabia News Service
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The Supreme Court will consider limiting a controversial 2020 decision that greatly expanded the amount of Indian land in Oklahoma and disrupted criminal prosecutions in the area, the justices announced Friday. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The court declined the states request to overturn its decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which sided with tribal leaders in finding that a large portion of land in the eastern part of the state qualifies as an Indian reservation

But the justices said they will consider a more limited question: Whether a State has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country.

It would have been unusual for the court to accept a direct challenge of a precedent so fresh. But the McGirt decision was 5 to 4, with conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joining the courts four liberals to form a majority.

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Since then, liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been replaced by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, making a different outcome at least a possibility.

And Oklahoma said in its petition to the high court that the decision has produced something just short of chaos.

No recent decision of this Court has had a more immediate and destabilizing effect on life in an American State than McGirt v. Oklahoma, the state wrote.

The court held in McGirt that part of the state once within the boundaries of the Creek Nation qualifies as Indian country for the purposes of prosecuting major crimes.

Since then, state courts have reached the same conclusion regarding the remainder of the Five Tribes in Oklahoma, meaning almost 2 million Oklahoma residentsthe vast majority of whom are not Native Americansuddenly live in Indian country for purposes of federal criminal jurisdiction, the state wrote.

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The state contends tribal and federal law enforcement is overwhelmed with the new responsibility, forcing victims to go through second trials or forgoing some prosecutions. The reality is that the McGirt decision has hamstrung law enforcement in half of the state, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said in a statement.

Tribal leaders say the states response has bordered on hysteria and ignores the efforts made to conform with the Supreme Courts decision.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the court was right to reject a blatantly political request to overturn its McGirt decision.

Now that Governor Stitts fight against tribal sovereignty has once again come up short, we hope he will consider joining tribes, rather than undermining our efforts, so we can focus on what is best for our tribal nations and all Oklahomans, Hoskin said.

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The case at the Supreme Court involves Victor Castro-Huerta, who was convicted in state court of neglecting his 5-year-old stepdaughter, a tribal member who has cerebral palsy and is legally blind. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his conviction because the crime occurred in what is now considered tribal lands.

But a court filing from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation said the case actually is an example of how the system works since McGirt. Castro-Huerta has been re-convicted in federal court and is awaiting sentencing, it said.

The case is Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta and will be argued in April.

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Prospective buyers at an open house in Star, Idaho, in June 2021. (Kyle Green for The Post)

As the Fed raises interest rates, experts say there are some signs the market is responding. But theres a long way to go.
Cellist Bonnie Ott played at Tuesdays meeting of the Chipola Regional Arts Association (CRAA). She was accompanied by pianist Frances Stone. The two performed a variety of secular and sacred pieces, from composers including Bach and Vivaldi.

Ott began studying cello at the age of nine with Henrik Schwarzenberger, a Hungarian immigrant, and attended Brevard Music Camp in North Carolina as a teenager. She continued her studies at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.

Marrying a military man at the age of 19, Ott says, cello took a back seat to military life with husband Bob, and to being a mom. Throughout various military tours she played in the Charlottesville, VA and Belton, Texas community orchestras and in Ansbach, Germany.

For the past 11 years she and a Celtic harp player have played together for various weddings, civic groups, churches, and nursing homes.

The Otts have lived in Marianna for the past year, where Bob serves as rector of St. Lukes Episcopal Church.

Piano accompanist Frances Stone received her Bachelor and masters degrees in music education from Florida State University, was a member of music education honor society, Pi Kappa Lambda and as a graduate student was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, a university wide honor society.

Stone taught public school music in Jackson County for 35 years, served as rehearsal accompanist for Chipola College musicals, taught piano privately, has served as a church musician since 1960, and presently serves as organist and choir director at St. Lukes Episcopal Church, Marianna.

All meetings of the Chipola Regional Arts Association are open to the public. The Chipola Regional Arts Association under the auspices of the Chipola College Foundation is now in its 32nd year of helping promote and strengthen the arts throughout the Chipola College five-county district.

Major projects include offering mini grants to teachers in the arts, scholarships in the arts to Chipola College, supporting the colleges Artist Series, Show Choir and Theatre programs, and offering childrens programming in the arts which brings artists either into the schools or brings the children to an artists performance.

For more information contact CRAA President Joan Stadsklev at stadsklev@embarqmail.com.
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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The last time consumers were this pessimistic about the economy, the Soviet Union had just collapsed, acid-wash jeans were in, and Shane Warne was making his Test debut. Needless to say, things are grim. On Tuesday, monthly consumer confidence figures revealed a 7.6 per cent plunge in the closely watched statistics, clocking in at the lowest level for January since 1992, a month when shoppers are usually buoyed post-Christmas and looking forward to the year ahead. Now high streets and malls are eerily quiet. Its reflective of the wearied state COVID-19 and the Omicron variant has left the countrys businesses in, most notably the $360 billion retail sector, which has only recently recovered from last years harsh lockdowns. It was an unprecedented situation, where millions of Australians were bound to their homes and thousands of stores were forced to shut their doors, left to rely on online sales and government support to keep the lights on. Shaver Shop CEO Cameron Fox says theres no question the public are being far more cautious. But for some retailers, such drastic measures would be a welcome alternative to the current shadow lockdown conditions plaguing the country, as soaring case numbers  rather than government edict  keep shoppers at home and wallets tightly shut, with no end in sight. The irony is, we thought it was pretty challenging through the lockdowns, but at least there were very clear deadlines and that narrative the government was providing around reopening dates, says Cameron Fox, chief executive of ASX-listed grooming retailer Shaver Shop. Right now its a sort of pseudo lockdown scenario that were in, where there isnt an official lockdown, but theres no question the majority of the public are being a little bit more cautious.

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Loading While businesses have become used to dealing with new challenges throughout the past three years of the pandemic, the recent Omicron outbreak has introduced unprecedented disruption through almost every facet of the retail ecosystem. Labour is in short supply as workers are forced to isolate because of the virus, leaving shops without attendants and warehouses without shelf-stackers. Fresh produce has been left to rot as supply chains grind to a halt, and exports have dried up due to exorbitant international shipping costs. Shelves at major supermarket operators Coles and Woolworths are bare, yet again, and Perth conglomerate Wesfarmers has recorded a 10 per cent slide in sales at its Kmart and Target stores as the pandemic scares away shoppers and disrupts deliveries. Even the countrys largest and most well-resourced corporations are struggling to keep things steady. Team member absenteeism associated with the COVID-19 Omicron variant has placed additional pressure on distribution centres and stores in some states, necessitating a reduction of trading hours in some stores and impacting supply chain productivity and stock availability, Wesfarmers said earlier this week. We cant keep going like this For many, desperate times have started to call for equally desperate measures. Ravinder Singh, who owns about a dozen Sehaj Indian Food and Sweets restaurants in NSW, said a shortage of professional chefs and a lack of overseas workers was forcing him to close venues.

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Three of his restaurants are shut and he is contemplating closing a fourth after revenue from his businesses plunged 40 per cent. Staff are getting infected with COVID and nobody is coming to work, he says. I had to sell one of my properties to help pay bills. Ravinder Singh has had to close restaurants because of staff shortages. Credit:Renee Nowytarger I wish it would get better ASAP otherwise we will go broke. We have been struggling for the last two years. We are a small business, and we cant keep going like this. Singhs combined turnover is above $5 million and therefore disqualifies him from seeking rent relief from his landlords under the terms of the governments recently extended mandatory code of conduct for commercial tenants. Both NSW and Victoria have extended the mandatory code until the end of March in a bid to ease pressure on small businesses. The code requires property owners to negotiate rent relief agreements with eligible tenants in financial distress as a result of COVID-19. I wish it would get better ASAP otherwise we will go broke. Ravinder Singh, restaurant owner The aid isnt a moment too soon, according to tenant representative, Michael Amler from Verimark, who says Omicron is having a devastating effect on retailers. Retailers are petrified at the moment. Christmas wasnt great, but January is a disaster, he says.

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Landlords and retailers are struggling as shoppers keep away from malls. Credit:Getty Images Foot traffic and visits to retailers in large shopping malls are down because people are terrified of catching the virus. The biggest shopping centres are being hit hardest. People are tending to go to smaller centres because they feel safer there, he says. All the small businesses I talk to say its far worse than COVID was the first time around because it is so widespread. Compounding the impact of the current Omicron outbreak are indications that the countrys retailers may have had a slower-than-expected Christmas, with bubbling fears about the virus subduing spending over the key shopping period. Data from national credit reporting agency CreditorWatch shows that trading activity dropped to its lowest ever level through December, with trade receivables down a massive 45 per cent on the year prior. Paul Zahra from the Australian Retailers Association... Its looking like months of pain. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Paul Zahra, the chief of the Australian Retailers Association, doesnt believe things were quite that grim over Christmas, telling The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald he is expecting Decembers retail trade numbers to hold up.

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But we are bracing for the worst when Januarys numbers are released, he says. Weve never seen the pandemic impact the sector on this scale, and for the first time retailers are having to navigate these challenges with reduced levels of government support. And the issue is, when does it end? Everyones watching the case numbers, hoping they come down, but what drives retail spending? Its looking like months of pain. Online slows Even online retail, which has been the last bastion of support for many merchants over the past few years, has started to slow in the face of the virus. According to 6one5 Retail consultant Bill Rooney, the retail malaise has even spread to eBay, Australias top ecommerce site. Loading Unlike during COVID-related lockdowns earlier in the pandemic, search traffic on eBay fell between 8 and 10 per cent from July and December last year, he says. It is a good indicator of where the market is at, Rooney says. Similarly, data from National Australia Bank shows that online trade has gradually been declining since the end of NSW and Victorias lockdowns, representing 12.5 per cent of all retail spending in November, down from near 15 per cent in September.

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BIOGRAPHY

The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky, a Crime and its Punishment

Kevin Birmingham

Allen Lane, $55

Some years ago, I asked the historian Manning Clark to sign a copy of the first volume of his memoirs, The Puzzles of Childhood. He inscribed a line from The Brothers Karamazov that the sceptical Ivan utters to his devout brother Alyosha. I want to be there when everyone suddenly understands what it has all been for. It is a line Clark loved. He quoted it often.

It is curious that a historian and memoirist should have been so invested in a question that neither history nor memory can resolve, the question of existential purpose. Dostoevsky believed that history can only be understood from a vantage point outside history. Those who love Dostoevsky must inevitably confront this paradox. It is the reason why re-reading his work takes you deeper without necessarily making anything more simple. Unlike Tolstoy, Dostoevsky was not a reformer. He did not develop the invigorating sense of history for which Tolstoy is justly famous. If Tolstoy climbed mountains to take in the sweeping plains, Dostoevsky explored caves to find the darkest places.

It is difficult to think of a spiritual novelist to compare to Dostoevsky. That does not make him cheerful company. He never flatters human beings whom he defined as the ungrateful biped. It has been said that Tolstoy worshipped the Christ of the beatitudes while Dostoevsky was absorbed by the figure of Christ on the cross.
Not all of Western Australia is outraged by Thursday nights border announcement from Premier Mark McGowan, with social services voicing relief on behalf of the disadvantaged.

Anglicare WA chief executive Mark Glasson said the decision protected the most vulnerable people in the state.

The emergency relief hotline set up to help with WAs pandemic response is already taking more than 100 calls a day. Credit:Anglicare WA

Similar to the states health system, our social services across Western Australia are already under pressure, with demand for assistance returning to levels seen at the start of the pandemic, Mr Glasson said.

They would not have coped with a further surge in demand.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the border situation in WA was deeply concerning. February 5 was supposedly locked in to give certainty, he said. Tens of thousands of people booked travel on that basis and we brought a lot of our people back to work on that basis. Removing that certainty with no new timeline for when the border will reopen is a real blow not just for travel but for Australia as a whole. The rest of the country is focused on getting through this but WA is still playing for time, despite people doing the right thing and getting vaccinated.

Tourism Council WAs Evan Hall said there would be a massive loss for businesses which had put their trust in a February 5 opening date. Im well aware of individuals who have lost their home or retirement savings by trying to stay open to take bookings for business from 5 February onwards, he said. Now they will have to refund deposits with money they dont have. There will be many business closing and making the decision to close.

Mr Hall said there was a need for a genuine compensation scheme for businesses that had been caught out by the scrapping of the opening date. Wed certainly like the government to cover all of the deposits we need to refund, he said. The wastage of supplies, all the time and money spent on tough recruitmen,t who can no longer come to WA to help in peak season. WA Premier Mark McGowan hit back saying the states tourism sector was currently the strongest in the nation. He said WA was better off staying closed off, claiming tourism was in freefall in the eastern states.

People arent holidaying, travel spend has gone through the floor, he said. In NSW weekly spending to January 10 was down 24 per cent according to the ANZ credit card analysis, he said. Spending in South Australia is down 5.7 per cent, Queensland down 6.1 per cent, Tasmania down 7.7 per cent. In WA ... its up 18.9 per cent. WAs spend, retail, hospitality, tourism and everything else has gone up significantly. Youve got to look at the alternatives and I think the tourism industry broadly understands this.

The Premier said if WA opened up now it could be devastating with massive numbers of people not going to work. Mr Hall challenged the stance from Mr McGowan, however, saying businesses no longer had certainty and confidence to invest. Having a date and taking it away is worse than never having a date at all, he said. If there is a new date ... I dont think people will have the confidence to see it through to make the investment. There are still plenty of West Australians stuck outside the state struggling to make it back in even though Mr McGowan said it would take a more compassionate approach from February 5 in letting residents back in.
Those families are the ones who have made the sacrifices to keep COVID out. The missed funerals, the moments lost with dying parents, the growing of small grandchildren have all been foregone by those in other places. McGowan seems to be a love-to-hate figure in Sydney, especially in tabloid media, but the attacks just boost his popularity with voters at home. He has had the parochial backing of Kerry Stokes The West Australian newspaper, though even it turned on him after Thursdays late-night performance. 658 days and hes STILL not ready, was the front page screamer with a subhead: McGowans abject failure of leadership. Business leaders have to date been supine, not daring to take on a politician who has cast himself as protector and West Australian-in-chief, repelling Clive Palmer and the knockers from the east (ironic given McGowan grew up in NSW and was educated in Queensland).

The national unemployment figures for December (before Omicron took hold) showed unemployment at a very healthy 4.2 per cent. WAs figure was a red-hot 3.4 per cent, a mark not recorded since before the 2008 global financial crisis. Why would you risk that? The dominant mining sector gave him cover to reopen as late as Thursday morning, despite warnings of production disruption from iron ore giants BHP and Rio Tinto, with influential Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive Paul Everingham saying the best time to open was now. Masks and social distancing have been forgotten in Perth. Credit:Getty As late as Wednesday night the plan was to proceed with February 5. But sources say the WA Health Department presented alarming new figures about Omicron on Thursday morning at a meeting of the state disaster council, which was all the Premier needed to change course. They have been contested by those who have followed the data and saw McGowan put the most fearful spin possible on them on Thursday night. At the same press conference, he claimed the WA hospital system was strong and ready, but it was a declaration worthy of the Iraqi information minister Comical Ali. Everyone knows its untrue, as the medical unions warned with increasing hysteria as the reopening date approached. Ambulance ramping, a canary in the coal mine for system capacity pressures, has exploded on the McGowan governments watch from the mid to high hundreds of hours each month when it took office in 2017 to a record of over 6500 hours last August.

This was the criticism heard most often on the airwaves yesterday. Youve had two years. What have you been doing? Loading The Premier will have lost some skin over the way he has handled this. Having imposed heavy handed vaccination mandates covering 75 per cent of the workforce and, more recently, to attend venues like pubs, cafes, restaurants, stadiums and even bottle shops, he has got the vaccination rate above a once unthinkable 95 per cent for first doses in the over 12s. He now shifts the goalposts to insist on more than 80 per cent third dose coverage before the border comes down, with all further details pending. Many of the jabbed have asked: Why did I bother?

Ive been away from my home city for a month, for three weeks in my wifes hometown of Pensacola, Florida with our two small boys visiting her parents for the first time in two-and-half years. Loading We took the punt that February 5 would stick, a calculation that will now earn us two weeks of home isolation on our return. In terms of social behaviour, the pandemic is basically finished in Western Australia  the populace has moved on. Two years into the pandemic most West Australians have no first-hand experience of COVID-19, and they are not particularly interested in acquainting themselves with it.
Every fine nerve fibre in my body became inflamed, Professor Carey said. It was excruciating. I was in acute care for quite a while. The academic is still recovering months later and remains in lockdown as Omicron infections surge and is anxious to see Novavax approved as a booster to give her full protection so life can get a bit more liveable. I havent come across a single person who is waiting for Novavax, just because they want it, Professor Carey said. Everyone who Ive spoken to has had a reaction to the other ones, or theyve been told from the start that they shouldnt have them. Emma*, a Melbourne woman who was hospitalised with an allergic reaction to her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, said she had been staying largely isolated at home and could not wait to get her second dose, for which she will receive Novavax.

Many of us have been desperately waiting to get access to these vaccinations, she said. Loading We are so, so happy to be able to get another shot after not being able to take what was available, on the advice of medical professionals. The Therapeutic Goods Administration reports weekly on the rare, but potentially serious adverse events that occur from COVID-19 vaccination. Its latest report said 101,795 adverse events had been reported by January 16, out of more than 46 million doses administered  a rate of 2.2 reports for every 1000 doses. But the TGA says the majority of those adverse events are not serious.

Federal health minister Greg Hunt on Thursday said his office had been approached by many unvaccinated Australians indicating that they were seeking access to Novavax, even though the already approved Pfizer vaccine was appropriate to vaccinate the entire population. Emma, who works in health and describes herself as a pro-vaxxer, has allergies but was not concerned about side effects when she went for her first jab. She ended up in the emergency room after she developed a severe rash, nausea, swelling and dangerously high blood pressure. With a family history of anaphylaxis, doctors advised that her second dose was likely to prompt a reaction about three times stronger than the one that put her in hospital, an outcome she feared could mean she would not make it out on the other side. The specialist at the hospital made it clear that it was an allergic reaction to something in the shot, not the vaccine itself, she said.

Emma said she did not want to perpetuate anti-vaccination views, but decided to speak out after reading commentary suggesting that hundreds of thousands of Australians believed to be waiting for Novavax were vaccine-hesitant. I believe in the science, she said. You dont want one single person getting a seed of doubt about the importance of protecting themselves and their families. Associate Professor Griffin, who is the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services, said only time would tell whether Novavax was actually safer than Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca. At face value, you would say that it looks like Novavax does have fewer adverse events than those other vaccines, but we have to remember those other vaccines have been given in extraordinary numbers now, so the denominator is very large, Prof Griffin said.

So, even very rare, adverse events have been reported with those vaccines, and the Novavax vaccine hasnt been used in those numbers ... It certainly is a very safe and highly effective vaccine. But I think its too early to say that its safer or better at this stage. Loading University of Queensland Associate Professor Tom Aechtner, an expert on attitudes to vaccination, said some Australians were worried about the fact that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine were the first of their kind approved for human use, while the protein-based Novavax was more of a traditional vaccine. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price said she would not recommend patients delay getting vaccinated until Novavax is available, but that once approved it would be particularly beneficial for those who have contraindications to other COVID-19 vaccines, including serious reactions to previous doses. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that people get vaccinated against COVID-19, Dr Price said.
If the thought of using a slice of bologna as a moisturizing face mask was tempting, you're out of luck  for now.

Oscar Mayer's bologna-inspired face mask sold out less than a day after its release on Amazon. Kraft Heinz blamed the shortage on "unexpected incredibly high demand" and said in a statement that the product would be restocked "over the coming days." It's the number one new release in Amazon's beauty and personal care section.

The new product isn't actually a slimy piece of meat. Rather, Kraft Heinz partnered with Seoul Mamas, a Korean skin care company, to create a "hydrating and restoring hydrogel" mask that promotes skin elasticity, improves hydration and moisture retention. (Oddly, those are not among the typical side benefits associated with ingesting the sodium-filled deli meat.)

But the tan-colored masks are not actually edible. There's a large warning on the packaging that says "do not eat bologna masks."

The $5 skin care product was created as a "playful spin on the often serious 'New Year, New You' trope with its meaty take on the self-care space," Kraft Heinz said in a press release. It's also an homage to those oddball kids in school who would bite out eyes and a mouth on a bologna slice and put it on their face.

The nearly 140-year-old brand commonly uses off beat advertising and stunts to bring attention to its packaged products (see: the Wienermobile). In 2019, Kraft wrote down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands by $15 billion because consumers have shifted their preferences away from processed foods.

Judging by the popularity of the face masks, perhaps a pivot into the growing wellness sector is in its future.

***
TSA confirms it allows illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants as ID in airports
Weatherford, TX (76086)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 81F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 67F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
With more than four decades in television news, Reginald Jones and Wayne May have worked a lot of stories and seen a lot of changes.

Jones has been with WTVY News in Dothan for 24 years, while May has 35 years with the station. At the end of January, however, the two will retire and bid farewell to television news.

Jones said hell miss the friendships and newsroom camaraderie and mentoring young journalists, which he said has been a privilege.

Despite industry changes and challenges, Jones and May said at its heart journalism is still the same  tell the truth and tell it fairly. In the end, May said that is what he will miss most.

I always got a lot of satisfaction at the end of the day knowing that if we did our jobs right, we found out everything that was important on that day, and we told people about it, May said. We tried to be as truthful and fair about it as possible and let them make up their own minds about it. That was one of the best things about the job. It was all about the truth.

HistoryA native of Union Springs, Wayne May started in broadcast news in the summer of 1978, working for public television in Montgomery. He worked for Dothans WDHN followed by a stint at WMBB in Panama City. He returned to Dothan to do public relations for National Healthcare, an experience that was never quite the right fit for May.

I quickly found out that its easier to tell the truth than somebody elses version of the truth, May said.

When the health care management company fell on hard times, May made his return to news on Jan. 31, 1987, with WTVY. He spent years as a reporter and became the stations assignment manager in 2004. Other than some reporting during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, May has not been on-air since.

It never ceases to amaze me, I still go out and even though Ive got a mask on and a beard now, I still get Didnt you used to be on the news? I still get it, May said. It just amazes me that some peoples memories are so good.

For Reginald Jones, a life in news reporting started in his home town of Albany, Georgia, at WALB-TV. He started there a few months before graduating college and remained at the station in Albany for about four years before moving to Atlanta and taking a crack at public relations.

He got back in journalism in 1989 with the NBC affiliate WOWL in Florence, Alabama, before he moved on to WMGT in Macon, Georgia. He was with the station in 1992 when ownership decided to shut down the stations news operation.

Jones got a job in Huntsville at WAAY-TV. He was lured to Dothan in 1997 and became an executive producer and took over the 5 oclock anchor desk. His plan was to stay in Dothan two years.

Im still working on it, Jones said.

He stayed in Dothan because of his work preaching with a local church. God, it seemed, had more in mind for Jones in the Wiregrass. Jones is still preaching at the church today.

My plan was to come and stay two years  that was not his plan, Jones said. So, its always best to go with his plan.

Upon their retirements, Jones plans to keep preaching at South Park Church of Christ and devote more time to his ministry, while May plans to spend more time with his 10 grandchildren, ages 1 to 11.

Changes

There have been a lot of changes in the news industry during their time in journalism.

News reporters are now multimedia reporters, May said, and people have a tendency to put too much credence in what they see on social media, fueling the spread of misinformation on all sorts of topics and events. Like it or not, there is a bias in national news outlets on both sides of the political spectrum, May said.

I think it can be very confusing as a viewer or a listener or a reader to try to determine what the truth is, May said.

Jones said he thinks the quality of journalism has diminished over the years. Theres so much speculation and innuendo on social media, he said, that theres a lot of cynicism in peoples appetite for information and their belief in what is put out by news organizations. And people dont want to invest time in doing research and checking the legitimacy of a source  they want information right away, making information from a Facebook post that much more appealing.

It makes our job a little more difficult, I think, because you have so many competing voices out there, Jones said.

That one story

There have been deadly tornadoes and too many other news stories to count, but both Jones and May said when it comes to Wiregrass news stories, one stands out.

In 2013, the Midland City bunker hostage situation attracted national and international attention, drawing media outlets from all over to Midland City.

Events unfolded after Jimmy Lee Dykes boarded a Dale County school bus, killed driver Charles Poland Jr., abducted a 5-year-old boy, and took the boy into an underground bunker. The hostage crisis lasted seven days  Jan. 29 to Feb. 4  before law enforcement agents raided the bunker, killed Dykes, and rescued the child.

The hostage crisis was that one story that stuck with both Jones and May.

That was probably the most impactful as far as emotionally, Jones said. It was just emotionally draining A lot of times we cover these stories that are tragic and they can work on us emotionally sometimes, and just to think what that little boy might have gone through in that bunker for those days.

Peggy Ussery is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at aussery@dothaneagle.com or 334-712-7963. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com.

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Waterbury Police Department / Contributed Photo

WATERBURY  Police found a Waterbury man in possession of loaded firearms and drugs in an apartment with a child while executing a search warrant Thursday evening.

The search warrant was executed by the Waterbury Police Departments Gang Task Force and Street Crimes Unit at an apartment on Main Street around 6:15 p.m. Thursday.
Today

Rain ending this morning. Remaining cloudy through the afternoon with some late day peeks of sunshine.

Tonight

Turning out partly cloudy.

Tomorrow

Pleasant with times of clouds and sun.
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Joseph Newkirk is a local writer and photographer whose work has been widely published as a contributor to literary magazines, as a correspondent for Catholic Times, and for the past 23 years as a writer for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. He is a member of the reorganized Quincy Bicycle Club and has logged more than 10,000 miles on bicycles in his life.

The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County is preserving the Governor John Wood Mansion, the History Museum on the Square, the 1835 Log Cabin, the Livery, the Lincoln Gallery displays, and a collection of artifacts and documents that tell the story of who we are. This award-winning column is written by members of the Society. For more information visit hsqac.org or email info@hsqac.org.
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The Dalai Lama paid tribute to Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh Saturday, praising his dedication to building peace.

In his condolence message shared on Thich Nhat Hanhs official Twitter account, he called the Vietnamese Buddhist monk "my friend and spiritual brother."

"In his peaceful opposition to the Vietnam war, his support for Martin Luther King and most of all his dedication to sharing with others not only how mindfulness and compassion contribute to inner peace, how also how individuals cultivating peace of mind contributes to genuine world peace, the Venerable lived a truly meaningful life," he wrote.

"I have no doubt the best way we can pay tribute to him is to continue his work to promote peace in the world," he added.

Thich Nhat Hanh died Saturday at Tu Hieu Temple in his birthplace Hue in central Vietnam, aged 95.

The Zen Master, considered the second most influential Buddhist leader in the world after the Dalai Lama, studied and practiced Zen Buddhism from 1942.

He became a monk at the age of 23 after studying Buddhism for seven years.

He left Vietnam in 1966 and has lived in Plum Village in southern France for decades, traveling regularly throughout North America and Europe to give lectures on mindfulness and peace.

Tribute has been pouring in from across the world following his death.

AFP called him the "Buddhist monk who brought mindfulness to West", the New York Times called him "a monk of global influence" while CNN called him a "peace activist and leading voice in opposition to the Vietnam War."
Solutions Architect (Microsoft 365), Vienna, Austria

Organization: IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency

Country: World

City: Vienna

Office: IAEA Vienna, Austria

Grade: P-3

Closing date: Monday, 7 February 2022

Solutions Architect (Microsoft 365)(P3)

( 2021/0595 (014364) )

Organization: MTIT-Enterprise Software Services Unit

Primary Location: Austria-Vienna-Vienna-IAEA Headquarters

Job Posting: 2022-01-17, 3:21:56 PM

Contract Type : Fixed Term

Regular

Probation Period : 1 Year

This is a re-opening of the vacancy. Candidates who already applied do not need to re-submit an application.

Organizational Setting

The Division of Information Technology provides support to the IAEA in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), including information systems for technical programmes and management. It is responsible for planning, developing and implementing an ICT strategy, for setting and enforcing common ICT standards throughout the Secretariat and for managing central ICT services. The IAEAs ICT infrastructure comprises hardware and software platforms, and cloud and externally-hosted services. The Division has implemented an IT service management model based on ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and Prince2 (Projects in a Controlled Environment) best practices.The Business Solutions Section provides information systems development and support services to IAEA programme areas and to the IAEA as a whole.The Enterprise Software Services Unit (ESSU) provides enterprise software architecture services that serve as foundations for the implementation of management and programmatic solutions.

Main Purpose

The Solutions Architect (Microsoft 365) is a technical specialist and a client liaison who provides advice and support for computerised solutions aimed at improving business processes and systems to meet organisational needs and applies technical knowledge to design, build and implement effective Microsoft 365 based information systems.

Role

The Solutions Architect (Microsoft 365) plays several roles in the Section: (1) solution designer, liaising with internal clients , defining challenges, and devising solutions.

(2) project manager, initiating, planning, executing, and controlling agreed work.

(3) software engineer, performing relevant software engineering disciplines either as a project leader or a member of a team.

(4) solution architect, providing architectural and implementing Microsoft 365-based solutions.

(5) a specialist in the Section, taking part in various activities as required, such as quality assurance, continuous process improvement and providing Microsoft 365 expertise across the organisation.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Reviews and determines client and business needs; and develops sustainable solutions to meet needs/challenges. c43VVUo Dh7qKS

Plans, designs, and implements Microsoft 365 based solutions based on the needs analysis.

Leads the assigned software projects by applying effective project management skills/tools to ensure deliverable and outputs are achieved within the expected quality and timeline.

Provides advice and guidance across the organisation on the Microsoft 365 platform.

Be responsible for the operation, maintenance, trouble-shooting and other technical support for existing software systems.

Competencies and Expertise

Core Competencies

Name Definition

Communication

Communicates orally and in writing in a clear, concise and impartial manner. Takes time to listen to and understand the perspectives of others and proposes solutions.

Achieving Results

Takes initiative in defining realistic outputs and clarifying roles, responsibilities and expected results in the context of the Department/Divisions programme. Evaluates his/her results realistically, drawing conclusions from lessons learned.

Teamwork

Actively contributes to achieving team results. Supports team decisions.

Planning and Organizing

Plans and organizes his/her own work in support of achieving the team or Sections priorities. Takes into account potential changes and proposes contingency plans.

Functional Competencies

Name Definition

Client orientation

Helps clients to analyse their needs. Seeks to understand service needs from the clients perspective and ensure that the clients standards are met.

Commitment to continuous process improvement

Plans and executes activities in the context of quality and risk management and identifies opportunities for process, system and structural improvement, as well as improving current practices. Analyses processes and procedures, and proposes improvements.

Technical/scientific credibility

Ensures that work is in compliance with internationally accepted professional standards and scientific methods. Provides scientifically/technically accepted information that is credible and reliable.

Required Expertise

Function Name Expertise Description

Information Technology

Information Security

Experience in architecture and development with Microsoft 365.

Information Technology

Software Development

Strong knowledge of secure coding techniques and information security.

Asset Expertise

Function Name Expertise Description

Information Technology

Project Management

Experience in the use of established formal methods and a disciplined approach to software engineering as well as Lean/agile methodologies such as SCRUM and DevOps is desired;

Information Technology

Software Engineering

Experience in managing software development projects using a recognized Project Management methodology such as PMP or Prince2.

Qualifications, Experience and Language skills

University Degree in Software Engineering or a related field (such as information management, electronic engineering, or computer science).

Internationally recognized certification of Information Security is desirable.

A minimum of five years of relevant experience in Microsoft-based software development, at least 3 of which must be implementing SharePoint solutions. Experience with Data Engineering and processing, such as SQL, Analytics/SSAS, ETLs Azure Data Services as well as experience with Azure and Azure Cognitive Services. Strong customer relationship skills and ability to lead customers successfully through scoping, statement of work development, gathering requirements and provide solutions.

Excellent oral and written command of English. Knowledge of other official IAEA languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is an asset.

Remuneration

The IAEA offers an attractive remuneration package including a tax-free annual net base salary starting at US $62120 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance), a variable post adjustment which currently amounts to US $ 27581*, dependency benefits, rental subsidy, education grant, relocation and repatriation expenses; 6 weeks annual vacation, home leave, pension plan and health insurance

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applications from qualified women and candidates from developing countries are encouraged

Applicants should be aware that IAEA staff members are international civil servants and may not accept instructions from any other authority. The IAEA is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. As part of the United Nations common system, the IAEA subscribes to the following core ethical standards (or values): Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for diversity. Staff members may be assigned to any location. The IAEA retains the discretion not to make any appointment to this vacancy, to make an appointment at a lower grade or with a different contract type, or to make an appointment with a modified job description or for shorter duration than indicated above. Testing may be part of the recruitment process

Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1642527820316
Winchester, VA (22601)

Today

Cloudy and damp with rain this morning...then becoming partly cloudy. High around 75F. SSW winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 51F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
A family in Thanh Hoa's Thieu Phu Commune has their gate locked by authorities for hosting people coming from outside the province, January 14, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Lam Son

The Ministry of Health on Saturday asked provinces and cities not to impose medical quarantine measures on people who return to their hometowns to celebrate Tet.

The move came as Vietnam boasts one of the world's highest vaccine coverage rates after 95.6 percent of people aged 18 and above got fully vaccinated and 18.6 percent received a booster shot.

The ministry said if people show symptoms of Covid such as fever, cough, difficulty in breathing, they must limit contact and travel and immediately notify local health authorities for sample collection and testing.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday ordered provinces and cities not to apply pandemic prevention measures contrary to the government's strategy of living safely with the pandemic.

Over the past weeks, a series of localities have imposed different quarantine and testing measures on those returning home for Tet.

Earlier this month, Thanh Hoa Town in the eponymous central province called on people not to return for Tet if not necessary out of Covid-19 fears.

Then, around 30 houses in Thieu Phu Commune in the province had their gates locked by authorities for hosting people returning from high coronavirus risk areas.

Vietnamese will have a nine-day break for Tet, or Lunar New Year, the country's biggest holiday, starting from Jan. 29.

The holiday often sees millions of migrant workers from major cities and industrial hubs return to their homes for family reunions.
Nominative determinism refers to those instances when a persons surname seemingly matches what they do for a living. Prime examples include a meteorologist who goes by Amy Freeze, an ornithologist named Carla Dove and a urologist specializing in vasectomies who answers to Dr. Richard Chopp, or, ahem, Dick Chopp, for short.

Nominative determinism refers to those instances when a persons surname seemingly matches what they do for a living. Prime examples include a meteorologist who goes by Amy Freeze, an ornithologist named Carla Dove and a urologist specializing in vasectomies who answers to Dr. Richard Chopp, or, ahem, Dick Chopp, for short.

We only mention this because Fred Foster, the 67-year-old founder of Fred Mitts, a home-based venture that turns out hand-sewn mitts largely made out of upcycled material, has grown used to people mistakenly assuming his last name is Mitts and then openly wondering if thats why he went into the hand-covering game in the first place.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Fred Mitts turns out hand-sewn mitts largely made out of upcycled material.

Heres the thing; before he officially launched Fred Mitts in 2016, Foster was on the receiving end of comments such as, "Oh, we just love our Fred mitts," or, "I really need another pair of Fred mitts," from people hed made specimens for previously. When he and his wife Bev agreed he needed a moniker for his then-fledgling operation, Fred Mitts, sans an apostrophe-S, was the first thing that popped into their heads, he says, seated next to Bev in the kitchen of their neat-as-a-pin Westwood abode.

"People always seem disappointed to learn my last name is actually Foster, so much so that I dont even bother correcting them any longer," he continues, stroking a long, grey beard that would give even Grizzly Adams a run for his hirsute money.

"I mean, if they want me to be Fred Mitts, thats fine by me; especially if theyre buying what Im selling."

Foster, who grew up in St. James, caught on at Monarch Wear, a clothing manufacturer that specialized in denim wear, after leaving high school in the early 1970s. Describing himself back then as a "grunt," he says his primary task at the Ellice Avenue plant was to fetch material for those responsible for the cutting and sewing.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Theres a story behind many of the materials used for Fred Mitts hand-sewn products.

"This was when leather pants were just coming into vogue ("Yeah, for about five minutes," Bev snaps) and I guess I fell in love with the smell of leather, probably from having to schlep hundreds of yards of it back and forth, day in and day out," he explains.

Skip ahead some 25 years; in the late 90s, Foster, a professional plumber, was a year or so into a new position as a job foreman at a Manitoba correctional facility. He found the role highly stressful, and would often return home at night looking for something, anything to take his mind off work. What he needed was a diversion of some sort, Bev would tell him. One day, while leafing through a copy of the City of Winnipeg Leisure Guide, he hit on what that might be.

The St. James Civic Centre, close to where they live, was offering an introductory course on mitt making. Semi-comfortable with a needle and thread, he signed up for the sessions  it turned out to be him and nine women, he says with a wink  and, a little over a month later, he was proudly sporting a pair of mitts that, while not overly fashionable, were definitely functional.

He continued to hone his craft by crafting mitts for his parents, his two daughters, Bevs son, their grandchildren, neighbours  anybody who wanted a pair, pretty much. Problem was, despite the fact he was utilizing second-hand resources for the bulk of his wares  from the get-go, he and Bev routinely haunted thrift stores, on the look-out for leather jackets and fur coats he could convert into mitts  it was still a somewhat expensive hobby, given he refused to accept even a penny for his creations.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS After hearing those who were enjoying wearing Freds handiwork say things like, Oh, we just love our Fred mitts, the Fosters knew they had a name for their home-based venture.

In 2016, almost 20 years after that first pair of mitts, Bev noticed that there was going to be a farmers market in Elie, where her son lives. She shared the news with Fred and, after convincing him his handiwork was definitely worth charging for, he agreed to rent a table there for the princely sum of $5.

Let us guess: his creations were an instant hit, everybody in attendance wanted a pair and the couple drove home with wads of cash stuffed in their wallets? Err, not so much.

"The market was held in July and its not like too many people were shopping for winter gear," Bev says, laughing uproariously. "We didnt sell a single pair, and spent most of our time pointing people looking for corn, beets, carrots, etc., in the right direction."

Undaunted, the couple signed up for a second market, again in Elie, a bit closer to the holiday season. What a difference a few months and a dip in temperature makes. Fred Mitts was an unqualified success that December, and by the time the following Christmas rolled around, Foster had become a bit of a familiar face at pop-up sales in and around the city.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS After working at Winnipegs Monarch Wear in the 1970s, Foster was semi-comfortable with a needle and thread, so in the late 90s he enrolled in a mitt-making course as a stress-relieving pastime.

"Here, let me give you a quick tour," he says, leading a visitor downstairs, where the bulk of his stock is kept. Throwing on a fur hat  yes, he makes those, too  he holds out a pair of mitts fashioned out of a vintage raccoon coat, the fur of which he brushed the "heck out of" to make it appear brand new.

"Theres a funny story behind these ones," he continues, reaching for a different pair, black in colour. "Somebody I know had a bearskin rug in their basement except their dog wouldnt leave it alone  he was constantly barking at it  so they gave it to me, to see if there was anything I could do with it."

Next he points to a pair of white leather mitts with matching tassels, revealing the material were staring at came from a set of repurposed couch cushions. Furthermore, there are currently five oversized, plastic bags in his garage-of-a-workspace, each filled to the brim with leather scraps, gifts from a furniture plant manager who didnt have the heart to chuck the discarded pieces out, and reached out to ask if he was interested in taking them off his hands, free of charge. Was the fellow kidding? Hed be there in 20 minutes, came the reply.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Manitoba Museum recently purchased a half-dozen pairs of mitts to sell in the gift shop, and Fred's also shipped a few to Australia at the request of a nephew.

The last sale the Fosters attended was in February 2020, a few weeks before COVID-19 turned the world on its head. Citing their age, Fred says he and Bev are choosing to lay low until things return to "semi-normal," not that hes parked his needle these last 22 months  far from it. (Bev chuckles, noting she offered to lend him a hand last summer by firing up her sewing machine and assisting with liners, only to be told that would be cheating, and that they couldnt honestly label their mitts as hand-stitched if they started cutting corners.)

"Ive basically used this downtime to build up stock," he says, noting a representative from the Manitoba Museum recently purchased a half-dozen pairs of mitts to sell in the gift shop, and that hes also shipped a few to Australia at the request of a nephew who told him he they would come in handy, no pun intended, when he and his buddies go fishing in the mountains.

Also, interested parties are able to contact the couple through their Facebook page.

"It is a bit tricky because every pair is one-of-a-kind, and you pretty much have to try them on, to see if theyre right for you or not," she says. "But yes, curbside pickup is something weve tried to make work, given the current situation with COVID."

One more thing; if you do run into the Fosters at a sale somewhere down the road, dont be insulted if you compliment Fred on his expert workmanship, and he silently nods in response.

"Im deaf as a post, and I dont always wear my hearing aids because of the ambient noise," he says. "So I tend to let Bev do most of the talking, while I just sit there."

"You mean, sit there looking good," Bev says with a smile.

"Yeah," he grins back. "Thats what I meant to say."

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca

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The dining room was set with fine china, gleaming silverware and crystal glasses. A lush bouquet bloomed at the centre of the table, while a canary chirped merrily in a nearby cage.

The dining room was set with fine china, gleaming silverware and crystal glasses. A lush bouquet bloomed at the centre of the table, while a canary chirped merrily in a nearby cage.

Ingredients for the afternoons feast were chilling in the kitchens electric refrigerator and a wealth of cookware was poised for action next to the state-of-the-art range.

Click to Expand This is the first story in our Homemade series, which will look at the Free Presss history through its food content, while also sharing modern recipes and food stories from Winnipeg. These features will be compiled into a community cookbook, alongside recipes submitted by local residents. Learn more and share a recipe at Homemade.

Mrs. Madeline Day was ready to entertain and soon, her guests would arrive. All 4,100 of them.

On April 2, 1935, droves of local women flocked to the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium to hear Day lecture on the proper way to roll a pie crust and the virtues of washing with Lux brand soap.

The inaugural Free Press Cooking and Homemaking School lasted three days and was one of the largest conventions held at the Vaughn Street auditorium  now home to the Archives of Manitoba  in the three years since its opening.

Young fiancees, housewives and grandmothers lined the block and one "white-haired little woman, whom you felt would be a born cook and possess a most delightful home," arrived two hours early to snag a seat in the front row, according to an account from the day.

Admission was 10 cents and the events were so popular the newspaper issued a formal apology to the hundreds who were turned away at the door. Day, the Free Presss new cooking columnist, was the main attraction.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Women wait to see home economist Madeline Day and the Free Press model kitchen in 1935.

Billed as a domestic sciences expert, she hosted two cooking demonstrations daily from a stage made to look like a model home.

The first workshop opened, naturally, with a group singalong, followed by a whirlwind presentation of 10 inventive and economical recipes, including a banana meatloaf (which is exactly what it sounds like), a lima bean casserole, a royal salad and a pineapple coffee cake.

As a lecturer, Day, 43, was warm, matronly and engaging. She wore a crisp white frock with her brown hair done up in fingerwaves. The audience hung on every word, scribbling frantically in notebooks as their demonstrator flitted about the stage mixing ingredients and dispensing valuable cooking tips.

Winnipeg Free Press Archives Madeline Days public face as a homemaker extraordinaire hid a personal life that was far from domestic bliss.

While making the aforementioned meatloaf, students were advised to do away with their forks, as the dish, according to Day, could only be mixed properly by hand.

An optional spoonful of Marmite added extra flavour and "nourishment" to the recipe and Keens mustard powder, interestingly, could be used as a kitchen seasoning as well as dissolved in bathwater to ward off colds.

An audible gasp rippled through the auditorium when Day unveiled the finished loaf, filled with diced banana, topped with bacon and browned to perfection. The dish was served with baked canned pears filled with cream cheese and garnished with maraschino cherries and mint jelly.

Mrs. Madeline Days Banana Meatloaf Beef, veal and pork meatloaf is topped with bananas and applesauce and served with a pear garnish. click to read more Ingredients 1 1/2 lbs Ground beef

1/4 lb Ground veal

1/4 lb Ground pork

4 strips Bacon

1 cup Celery, diced fine

2 Eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups Cracker crumbs

3 Bananas, finely diced

1 tbsp Lemon juice

1/2 cup Apple sauce

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Mustard (powder)

1/4 tsp pepper Method Mix ground meats, celery and one cup cracker crumbs. Add seasonings and eggs, slightly beaten. Pack half of this mixture into a greased loaf pan. Cover with diced bananas, apple sauce, lemon juice and remaining 1/2 cup of cracker crumbs. Press in the remaining meat mixture. Lay bacon strips across the top and bake in a moderate 375 F oven until done  about 1 1/4 hours. Pear garnish Place canned pear halves cut side up in a baking dish; add a small amount of syrup from the can. Fill pear cavities with cream cheese and bake about 15 to 20 minuets. Garnish with mint jelly and maraschino cherries and serve with meatloaf. Notes: Mrs. Day reccommends making a ditch in the meat around the edge of the baking dish before transferring to the oven. This will allow the juices to pool. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving in order for the juices to be absorbed back into the loaf. Close

It was a special-occasion dish that embodied several of the home-cooking trends of the 1930s, when the Great Depression loomed large over Canadian households.

"There was a lot of pressure on women to sort of pick up the slack and find ways to take care of the family, even when budgets were tighter," says Rebecca Beausaert, an adjunct professor of history at the University of Guelph. "So they had to become pretty inventive with their dishes and do a lot of substituting."

Canned and pre-packaged ingredients melded with scratch cooking, and store-bought bread was a staple for those unwilling to risk the cost of ruining homemade dough. Electric appliances were becoming the norm and food nutrition was top-of-mind.

At the same time, women were encouraged to think of homemaking as a profession as well as an academic pursuit.

"Women were to remain domestic, in the home, and to be good cooks, good mothers, good wives and good nurturers," Beausaert says. "So these figures existed that women were supposed to look up to and mimic to help keep society stable  and in the 1930s that would have been even more important in the midst of so much economic and social upheaval."

These figures existed that women were supposed to look up to and mimic to help keep society stable  and in the 1930s that would have been even more important in the midst of so much economic and social upheaval." oriRebecca Beausaert

For nearly a decade, Mrs. Madeline Day was that figure for Winnipeg women.

From 1935 to 1939, she published a regular column in the Winnipeg Free Press and invited housewives to weekly seminars at her test kitchen on the fourth floor of the papers former Carlton Street headquarters. The annual cooking school was her signature event.

Days first visit to the city, however, happened in 1933 during a similar conference hosted by the Winnipeg Tribune.

At the time, she was a travelling lecturer with the DeBoth Homemakers School  an institution founded in New York and Chicago by American home economist Jessie Marie DeBoth, whose goal was to elevate home cooking through science and dramatization.

DeBoth also appears to have been something of a feminist. In a cookbook published in 1929, she writes about the importance of so-called "womens work" and notes that the U.S. census had finally conceded to listing housewives as homemakers instead of as unemployed. "This is real progress," she wrote.

A Winnipeg Free Press article dated March 14, 1936.

If DeBoth didnt invent the public cooking-school format, she certainly popularized it. The events spread like wildfire through the States and into Canada, spurred on by the marketing opportunity they presented.

She partnered with local newspapers  which would promote the affairs through a flurry of articles and ads targeted to female readers  and peppered her cooking lessons with testimonials about specific products.

The schools would always conclude with a fashion show hosted by a local dress shop, as well as a generous prize giveaway sponsored by a department store.

Attendees were promised modern recipes to make life easier and husbands happier. Advertisers were given a captive audience.

"In the early 20th century, a lot of companies started to recognize the importance of the female consumer," Beausaert says. "Women are still largely the ones shopping for their families, shopping for food, shopping for furnishings, so I think a lot of companies saw that they were a bit of an untapped market."

It was the same story in Winnipeg. Prior to her local residency, Day spent years hosting DeBoth-branded cooking schools in places such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Honolulu and Saskatoon. She seems to have co-opted the marketing methods when she started her own school in Canada and the Winnipeg Free Press was more than happy to jump on the trend.

Days writing often landed in the womens section of the paper, next to personal columns and advertisements for flour, appliances, vitamins and makeup. More often, her face and name were used to endorse said advertisements.

At the Free Press Cooking and Homemaking School, the stage was set with furniture, china, silverware and crystal from Birks-Dingwalls and the electric kitchen equipment was supplied by Winnipeg Hydro. Even the live canary was sponsored by a company called Brocks Bird Seed and Treat.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Madeline Day works in the kitchen located on the fourth floor of the Free Press building on Carlton Street.

In todays world, Day would be a social media influencer  someone selling an idealized version of reality along with all the gizmos and gadgets required for self-actualization. She was simultaneously relatable and aspirational.

Reality, however, couldnt have been further from the truth.

Day was born in rural Illinois and grew up in a suburb of Chicago. Based on genealogical records, she was the oldest of three siblings and left home in her early 20s to attend university at La Sorbonne in Paris.

Its unclear what she studied, but letters home to her parents  written in tight, illegible cursive  mention Italian language classes, and a blurb in the Chicago Tribune notes that she graduated with honours.

Mrs. Madeline Days inaugural Free Press column

How she became a rising star in the homemaking world and ended up in Winnipeg is equally muddy.

Theres no record of her attending culinary school or working as a home economist before joining DeBoths, although she did have an uncle, John R. Thompson, who became a prominent Chicago restaurateur after starting a chain of "one-arm" self-service cafeterias (so-named for the school desk-style tables customers ate at).

Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Day returned stateside around the start of the First World War and married her husband, Robert Day, in 1916, giving birth to her only daughter, Rosemary, a year later in Montana.

The marriage was an unhappy and potentially abusive one, according to Days grandchildren, and the couple divorced some time after 1930. Madeline never remarried, but she kept her ex-husbands name and the missus honorific.

She returned to Chicago and left her daughter in the care of her parents while travelling the continent as a DeBoth lecturer.

"Rosemary was raised by her grandparents, essentially," Days granddaughter Nancy OBrien says over the phone from her home in Florida.

Day died before OBrien and her sister, Ann Bradley, were born. As a result, the women know little about their maternal grandmother.

Winnipeg Free Press Archives What makes the lima beans supreme? Why, catsup, of course.

"I didnt know about any of the particulars, other than that she had a cooking school and that her daughter loved her very much and missed her," OBrien says. "They would correspond and every once in a while she came back to Chicago to visit her daughter."

"She just idolized her mother," Bradley says of Rosemary. "She didnt like her grandmother, who she was living with, so her mom was kind of that romantic hero who would come visit."

Until the Free Press reached out over Facebook, the sisters had no idea their grandmother was a highly regarded homemaking and cooking instructor with a loyal following north of the border.

"Gosh, she was divorced, she didnt raise her daughter and then shes teaching these classes about being a good wife and a homemaker," Bradley says. "I thought that was interesting, at least. Im not really sure how she qualified for that."

"Gosh, she was divorced, she didnt raise her daughter and then shes teaching these classes about being a good wife and a homemaker." Ann Bradley

Still, even at a distance, Days daughter seems to have inherited her knack for cooking. Rosemary, who died in 2013 at the age of 96, was a proud home cook who specialized in standard Midwestern cuisine and exchanged recipes with friends. On one occasion, she even had a recipe published in the local newspaper, the Kansas City Star.

"She was a good cook and so I think she was flattered that they wanted to use one of hers," says Bradley, adding that she cant recall what the dish was. The clipping has been lost to time, buried somewhere in the family records.

After Winnipeg, Day took her cooking school to British Columbia and published in the Vancouver Sun. She returned to Illinois after being diagnosed with cancer and died in 1945 at the age of 54.

"Its endless the amount of things you can learn about history beyond just the recipes." Rebecca Beausaert

Days real life may not have been as prim and shiny as the one she presented to the world, but her work offers a rare account of domestic life in North America during the 1930s. Her printed responses to reader questions highlight the concerns of the day and her recipes capture the tastes and trends of a generation.

"In addition to certain original creations," Day said, when asked from where she draws culinary inspiration, "many of my best recipes have been given to me by women who attend my cooking schools elsewhere. During and after each school, I receive numerous suggestions for new dishes, many women suggesting their own favourites."

Prof. Beausaret from the University of Guelph specializes in food history and leads a project documenting and digitizing the schools large cookbook collection. She tells students that "cookbooks are textbooks in disguise."

"The ingredients, the imagery in the cookbooks, how theyre constructed, whos contributing, tell us so much about politics and economics and gender, race, ethnicity, religion, immigration, health and wellness," she says. "Its endless the amount of things you can learn about history beyond just the recipes."

As is the case with the life and legacy of Mrs. Madeline Day, food is just the entry point. Whats happening beyond the kitchen is often more interesting.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca | Twitter: @evawasney
LIMA, Peru (AP)  Peru declared an environmental emergency on Thursday after announcing that 21 beaches on the Pacific coast were contaminated by an oil spill at a refinery run by Spain-based Repsol, following surging waves caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga.

A worker, dressed in a protective suit, cleans Conchitas Beach contaminated by an oil spill, in Ancon, Peru, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. The oil spill on the Peruvian coast was caused by the waves from an eruption of an undersea volcano in the South Pacific nation of Tonga. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

LIMA, Peru (AP)  Peru declared an environmental emergency on Thursday after announcing that 21 beaches on the Pacific coast were contaminated by an oil spill at a refinery run by Spain-based Repsol, following surging waves caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

President Pedro Castillo said a committee will be formed to propose ways of dealing with the crisis, in keeping with national policies aimed at protecting the environment.

Prime Minister Mirtha Vasquez said Repsol has promised to deliver a cleaning schedule, to incorporate local fishermen in the cleanup on beaches and to deliver food baskets to affected families.

Vasquez said the United Nations will provide a team of experts to help Peru deal with the oil spill. People are barred for now from going to the 21 polluted beaches because of health concerns.

Peruvian authorities say an Italian-flagged ship spilled 6,000 barrels in the Pacific on Saturday in front of the La Pampilla refinery. In recent days, environmental activists have collected oil-stained or dead seabirds.

Repsol said Peruvian authorities had not provided a tsunami warning and that the ship was continuing to unload oil to the refinery when the waves hit.

Two women in Peru drowned after being swept away by strong waves following the Tonga eruption.
LISBON, Portugal (AP)  Portugals government is under fire over its plans to let people infected with COVID-19 cast their ballots at polling stations in an upcoming election, as officials struggle to square the right to vote with the duty to protect public health.

FILE - A young woman wearing a face mask looks at her phone on a subway train in Lisbon, Jan. 6, 2022. With one of Europe's highest vaccination rates and its most pandemic-battered economies, the Spanish government is laying the groundwork to approach the virus in much the same way countries deal with flu or measles. Similar steps are under consideration in Portugal and the United Kingdom, whose government says that the omicron wave has peaked. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

LISBON, Portugal (AP)  Portugals government is under fire over its plans to let people infected with COVID-19 cast their ballots at polling stations in an upcoming election, as officials struggle to square the right to vote with the duty to protect public health.

Eligible voters who are infected and confined at home  as many as 600,000 people on the day of the Jan. 30 election, officials estimate  are to be allowed to vote in person as an exceptional measure, the government announced Thursday.

However, it recommends that they vote only in a 6 p.m.-7 p.m. time slot, when polling stations are traditionally less busy, Justice and Interior Minister Francisca Van Dunem said after a Cabinet meeting.

A man wearing a face mask walks past election campaign billboards in Lisbon, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Portugal's government is under fire over its preparations for people infected with COVID-19 to vote in an upcoming snap election, as officials struggle to square the constitutional right to vote with a duty of care for public health. Eligible voters who are infected and confined at home - as many as 600,000 people on the day of the Jan. 30 election, officials estimate - are to be allowed to go to polling stations as an exceptional measure, the government announced Thursday. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

She said that it is not operationally practical to establish separate corridors and booths in polling stations for infected people.

She said she trusted in the historically exemplary behavior of the Portuguese to ensure voting goes safely and smoothly.

Portugal on Thursday officially reported more than 56,000 new daily cases of COVID-19  a new record amid a recent surge blamed on the omicron variant.

Mask use is mandatory in indoor public areas, and the General Directorate for Health issued a recommendation that infected people should wear either surgical masks or FFP2 masks  but not cloth masks  in polling stations. Furthermore, they should get there either on foot or by car, avoiding public transport.

The National Association of Public Health Doctors expressed astonishment at the measures, saying they represented a failure of planning for the election, which was foreseen two months ago.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The government decision sets an avoidable precedent, by permitting infected people to leave confinement, and will make it harder for health authorities to persuade infected people to stay at home, the association said in a statement.

It said it would recommend that doctors refuse any medical liability related to the government's measures.

Though the number of infected people has surged in Portugal, pressure on the public health system has remained manageable, authorities say. On Wednesday, there were just over 2,000 people in hospital and 152 in intensive care.

The health ministry says 89% of the population of 10.3 million is fully vaccinated, one of the highest rates in the world.

___

Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
PARIS (AP)  Hermes led the pack on Saturdays installment of Paris Fashion Week as its veteran menswear designer, Veronique Nichanian, delivered an atypical glam rock twist to her luxuriant wares.

PARIS (AP)  Hermes led the pack on Saturdays installment of Paris Fashion Week as its veteran menswear designer, Veronique Nichanian, delivered an atypical glam rock twist to her luxuriant wares.

There was no far-flung concept, gimmick or muse, unlike in most Paris shows, because none was needed. Nichanian - whos been at the helm of this family-run business for an incredible 34 years - is an expert at letting the clothes do the talking.

Meanwhile, an off-kilter fun fare greeted guests at the Loewe show. They trod through sand and walked under 4,000 multicolored satin ribbons of different lengths -- a site-specific artwork -- to find their seats.

Minimalism is emerging as one of the key themes of this entire fall-winter season. Here are some highlights of menswear 2022 displays:

LOEWES SURREAL UNIVERSE

Disconcerting music evoked a sort of dangerous playground as the clothes started getting displayed on Loewe's sandy runway. Nothing is as it seems, the house said of the bewitching display.

Jonathan Anderson, the Spanish heritage brands designer, said he wanted to disrupt the normal and everyday with this surreal universe.

He gave staple fall-winter items a twist, blowing up a pair of dark, round-toe boots, for example, to almost clown-like proportions.

A white T-shirt and black shorts became abstract works of art with huge circular hoops inserted at the hems to create the illusion that the model had been diagonally cut through his center.

A minimalist and oversized coffee-colored coat looked sober enough from the front. But when the model turned, the garment had a twin circular motif in the middle that resembled a shiny posterior and inspired guests to snap their cameras.

HERMES' STYLE

Nichanian let her hair down at her Left Bank show for Hermes, infusing the typically high fashion designs with a subtle yet distinct 1980s kick.

Sheeny gunmetal leather riding boots accessorized zipper-filled loose bomber jackets. High waists on pleated wool pants cut a contrast with retro bucket hats that sloped down.

The contradictions in style represented what the house said was Nichanians heartfelt desire for oxymorons and sophistication.

Hermes has become a byword for simple, unpretentious luxury. With panache, the veteran menswear designer proved the adage accurate in this classy and masculine showing.

The collection featured a bolder color palette flecked with browns, bronzes, and what the house poetically termed peppers, pewter, coniferous and lettuce green (and) frost blue.

LGN GETS NOSTALGIC FOR CLUBBING

French writer Charles Baudelaire was the creative starting point for up-and-coming French designer Louis Gabriel Nouchi, who launched his brand LGN five years ago after first getting noticed by the Hyeres fashion and photography festival.

Minimalism is key in understanding the aesthetic of this trendy brand, which just opened a boutique in the hipster rue Oberkampf area in Paris.

Nouchi said he aimed to have a modern reflection on Baudelaires book Artificial Paradises, which examines 19th century hedonism and drugtakings effects on the body. The designer used it to explore nostalgia for nightclubs have been closed in France during the pandemic.

The LGN collection featured lots of exposed skin, shades, leotards and loose shirts and tops that seemed to drip down the models like sweat. More literally, at one point there were real fake sweat stains created on one sweatshirt.

Colors were dark and restrained - often monochrome - and broken up only by the odd flame-colored flash of foulard print. Handlebar mustaches on a near-naked model with slashed white underwear evoked the heady narcotic heights of a drug-fueled festival.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

AURALEE IS HUGGABLE

Light, bright, luminous, was a rather unusual fall-winter mantra for Auralee.

Yet the Tokyo-based brand imagining a sun peeking out from snowy skies -- rather than channeling autumn in mood or color palette -- made for a nice seasonal change, especially amid the low, gray Paris sky.

The pastel grays and browns, dark vanilla and celestial blues that blossomed down the Auralee runway were among the most beautiful hues seen all week. The colors were used in tonal harmony on well-executed outfits that had a great, pared-down simplicity.

The Japanese house, founded in 2015 by Ryota Iwai, is known for using premium materials from all over the world. The ones used in the collection displayed Saturday gave garments a really luxurious feel. Myriad tweeds mixed with wool silk alpaca herringbone, wool cashmere organic cotton, hairy mohair knit and textured baby camel melton.

It was one of the seasons most huggable displays.
TORONTO - Kinross Gold Corp. says it didn't own or operate the truck involved in a deadly explosion in Ghana Thursday that was carrying supplies to the company's mine.

TORONTO - Kinross Gold Corp. says it didn't own or operate the truck involved in a deadly explosion in Ghana Thursday that was carrying supplies to the company's mine.

At least 17 people were killed when the truck, laden with explosives destined for Kinross's Chirano gold mine, blew up after colliding with a motorcycle in western Ghana.

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Local officials say the explosion sent 57 people to health centres and caused massive damage to the village of Apiate.

Kinross spokesman Louie Diaz says the company extends its deepest condolences to all those affected by the tragic incident, adding it is providing support to the response efforts and relief items to those affected.

He says the truck involved was under the supervision of MaxamCorp Holding, S.L., a Spanish-based explosives company with operations across the globe.

Maxam did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:K)
The city of Selkirk is building up an enviable portfolio of potential green industry developments with the announcement this week of an agreement with a Quebec company to build a small hydrogen fuel production facility.

The city of Selkirk is building up an enviable portfolio of potential green industry developments with the announcement this week of an agreement with a Quebec company to build a small hydrogen fuel production facility.

It comes just over one month after news that Canadian Premier Sands Inc. is working towards investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Selkirk to build North Americas first solar glass manufacturing facility.

The proponents of the two enterprises  both of them small companies  must first raise the capital needed to do the projects, but both have a solid grasp of their respective markets and would be addressing an increasing demand, made more acute as the climate change crisis becomes more real with each passing day.

Charbone Corp., out of Brossard, Que. signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Selkirk that could potentially see them make use of a de-commissioned waste-water treatment plant site in Selkirk for its hydrogen facility.

Charbone is in the middle of a transaction with a couple of other companies that will see it listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The company is also days away from starting construction of a similar plant to the one being proposed in Selkirk in Sorel-Tracy, Que., about half way between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres.

Charbone would produce so-called green hydrogen using renewable hydroelectricity and water as the main inputs.

The market for hydrogen fuel is expected to continue to grow as hydrogen fuel cell technology becomes more commercially viable.

Dave Gagnon, CEO of Charbone Corp., said the initial market Charbone would address would be industrial clients who currently use hydrogen fuel that is produced through the gasification of coal or that uses natural gas as the feedstock, both of which obviously leave a much greater carbon footprint.

Gagnon said the first phase would require about $7 million investment, and could be mobilized quite quickly.

Tim Feduniw, Selkirks director of sustainable economic development, said both projects align with the citys vision for the future as Manitobas green energy hub.

We are building a sustainability policy platform in Selkirk, he said. We also have a climate change adaptation strategy that is embedded in all the decision making process and in the budget.

Charbones plans start out small but can grow as demand increases.

As for Canadian Premier Sands (CPS), its solar glass plan is large to being with. No specific location has been determined but it would require many acres.

CPS has a sand quarry near Seymourville, Man, that was originally intended to mine the sand there to sell to the oil fracing industry. But as the quarry was in development the fracing industry has become less attractive for several reasons and CPS has pivoted to a manufacturing model that would require only 10 per cent of the volume of quarried sand than if it were selling to the fracing industry.

There has been community opposition to the development of the sand quarry but the new plan would mean far fewer truck traffic, one of the major concerns by those opposed to the project.

Glenn Leroux, CEO of Calgary-based CPS said the sand in Seymourville is particularly suitable to produce the glass panels used in solar panels.

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Currently all the solar glass used in much of the world is manufactured in Asia, mostly in China. Leroux said North American solar panel companies are very enthusiastic about the possibility of North American production.

He said he hopes to have financing lined up by the third quarter this year. The plant would take close to two years to construct and it would be able to be in commercial production by 2025.

Leroux said agents are being lined up to raise the capital required and discussions are also underway with potential strategic partners including solar panel manufactures who are keen to secure a supply of glass that does not require trans-Pacific shipping.

In the past, some might have thought this was aspirational, Leroux said. It is not aspirational anymore.

Feduniw said provincial authorities from the departments of environment and infrastructure are engaged in both projects.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
A new pilot project aims to help unsheltered Winnipeggers warm up safely and prevent deadly blazes.

A new pilot project aims to help unsheltered Winnipeggers warm up safely and prevent deadly blazes.

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service will provide 15 burning barrels to agencies that serve residents experiencing homelessness. The agencies will place the barrels, which can then contain warming fires, at encampments located on city-owned land.

Main Street Project is expected to obtain the first few early next week.

"The primary (goal) is to reduce the risk of fire spread and keep (fires) in a specific area with enough separation from (the) shelters so that we dont see (the) risk of injury and death in those areas, which we did see in 2021," said Scott Wilkinson, a WFPS assistant chief.

In February 2021, one person at an encampment on Higgins Avenue was killed after an aerosol can exploded in a fire. In 2020, WFPS were called to address 181 fire reports at encampments, though Wilkinson notes most were relatively contained and not significant.

Just "a handful" had spread unintentionally to cause property damage and/or put people at risk, he said.

Encampment fires injured two people in 2020, prior to the fatal incident last year, showing a need to add new safety measures, said Wilkinson.

"We know that fires are going to be maintained at encampments for warming purposes and we want to support our vulnerable populations during these cold winter months."

WFPS hopes making the 200-litre steel barrels available will prevent vulnerable folks from turning to riskier sources of warmth (such as candles, propane heaters and campfires inside tents) to cope with frigid winter weather.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, head of councils protection and community services committee, welcomed the effort to prevent last years encampment tragedy from being repeated.

"(This will offer) alternatives to open-air fires, ensuring that they are contained, ensuring that sparks are reduced and that they are warming and that the people who need warming barrels are as protected as possible," Rollins said Friday.

"(Its) extending municipal services (to people), regardless of whether or not (they) have a home address."

The Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry councillor expects some may question if making encampments more comfortable could make residents less likely to seek indoor shelter spaces. But Rollins said the top concern must be to protect the lives of vulnerable Winnipeggers.

"People are in encampments for various reasons, including that there isnt (sufficient) space in low-barrier shelters Im more concerned about people freezing in -40 C weather and people (causing explosions) because they have an unstable fire source," she said.

Officials at End Homelessness Winnipeg said social agencies were consulted about the idea, and welcome it as one step to reduce the risks of living in an encampment.

"Safer fires are clearly not a solution to our citys crisis of unsheltered homelessness; but in current circumstances, they can help to better protect peoples belongings and lives, which is welcomed by all," Kris Clemens, EHW communications and community relations manager, said in an emailed statement.

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In addition to helping combat the cold, its also important to note warming fires can provide other physical and cultural benefits to encampment residents who are Indigenous, added EHW chief executive officer Jason Whitford.

"Fire is central to many Indigenous ceremonies and lifestyles, it offers qualities; warmth, protection, healing, cooking, lighting for our unsheltered relatives with limited places to seek warmth and refuge Too often, we see harm (frostbite), loss of life and deteriorating health from exposure to cold and extreme weather," he said in the statement.

Wilkinson said the barrels will be in place until spring, when city crews will collect them. If the items are found to make encampments safer and attract positive feedback from the community, he said they will be redistributed next winter.

It cost the city about $1,000 to purchase the barrels.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
Baffled immigration experts are at a loss to explain why a group of 11 people made a disastrous attempt to cross into the United States on foot in brutal weather overnight Wednesday, an ultimately tragic decision that killed a family of four.

Baffled immigration experts are at a loss to explain why a group of 11 people made a disastrous attempt to cross into the United States on foot in brutal weather overnight Wednesday, an ultimately tragic decision that killed a family of four.

RCMP officers found the frozen bodies of a man, woman, teenage boy and an infant just steps from the border, about 10 kilometres east of Emerson on Wednesday afternoon.

FACEBOOK Steven Shand has been charged with human smuggling.

Seven others in the group  all of whom were undocumented and from India  crossed into the U.S. but were apprehended by law-enforcement officers less than a kilometre from the international line. Five were on foot and two were stopped in a rented van; the driver, 47-year-old Deltona, Fla., resident Steven Shand, has been charged with human smuggling and is in custody in Grand Forks, N.D.

The temperature plunged to -35 C in wind-whipped whiteout conditions in the deep snow drift-blanketed farmers fields along the provinces southern edge overnight Wednesday. One of the survivors reported having been on foot in the perilous conditions for more than 11 hours. Two adults were rushed to hospital with significant cold-related injuries; one was later airlifted to a St. Paul hospital.

Court documents filed Wednesday in support of Shands arrest allege one of the people spent a significant amount of money to come to Canada with a fraudulent student visa, with plans to go to an uncles home in Chicago.

Winnipeg lawyer and immigration consultant Ken Zaifman said he has never heard of Indian migrants attempting to cross illegally from Manitoba into the United States, although illegal border crossings  the vast majority of which are destined for Canada  generally, are not unusual.

No one from India was either expelled or apprehended in the Grand Forks, N.D., sector in 2020, where the group crossed, the latest available U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows.

Zaifman, who has practised immigration law in Manitoba for more than 30 years, speculated there were likely other people involved in the smuggling operation.

"This is an organized scheme," he said Friday. "If theyre getting status for people as a student, then theyre saying: Look, this is the way to get you into the U.S. Then its organized in a pretty sophisticated level and theres probably a Canadian connection here in the mix."

The identities of the four victims had not been confirmed as of Friday, RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said. The RCMP declined to comment on the scale of the smuggling operation, where it is based or whether it involves foreign nationals obtaining fraudulent documents to enter and live in Canada.

Zaifman said would-be immigrants are sometimes misinformed  and rely on people who are just in it for the money.

"What would possess a family to take a young child in a field in 30 below, unless someone told them there will be someone right across the border in a truck, so its really like a 20-minute walk, or half-hour walk? Someone had to tell them where to go. Its shocking, (but) not totally surprising that people are susceptible."

This is an organized scheme. If theyre getting status for people as a student, then theyre saying: Look, this is the way to get you into the U.S. Then its organized in a pretty sophisticated level and theres probably a Canadian connection here in the mix.  Ken Zaifman

He called it human smuggling at its worst.

"Theyre in the middle of a field  where do they go? Do they go back? Do they go to the town? They dont even know where the town is, the middle of the night," he said.

U.S. agents affidavit provides details of winter horror near border MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Snowy fields near the Canada/U.S. border about 10km east of Emerson near where two adults, one teenager, and one infant were found deceased in the area. Posted: 7:43 PM Jan. 21, 2022 A 15-passenger van stranded in a snow-filled ditch would have stuck out as odd to winter-hardy Minnesotans living along the Canada-U.S. border. All too familiar with stories of illegal crossings, alarm bells were likely ringing when a snow-removal operator who came to the drivers aid spotted the vehicles three occupants and Missouri licence plates. Read Full Story

"Its no different than what people have done putting people on boats (to get to Europe). They put them on boats and off they go and if the boat sinks, the boat sinks, and if the boat makes it, it makes it  the same attitude."

Sameer Gupta, a Winnipeg immigration consultant, agreed the situation was, indeed, strange.

"Never this is the first time Im hearing this kind of news, people going to the U.S. from Canada," he said.

And immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke was shocked to learn the group was travelling from Canada into the U.S., something he has never encountered during his career.

"This case is extremely unusual," Clarke said. "The facts of this case are quite different from the normal types of circumstances that weve seen, and I hope that they do a proper investigation to see if this isnt just one case among many.

"If there is something systemic or if there is a larger organized group behind this, I would really worry."

Although the identities of the family members and other members of the group have not been reported, there have been suggestions all 11 were from Gujarat, a western state in India.

There are few people from that region in Manitoba.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES "This case is extremely unusual," said immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke.

"I spoke with a colleague in my firm  her family is from Punjab and we dont have a large Gujarat population in Manitoba, its a pretty small community," Clarke said.

"What she told me was that if they had sought members of the Indian community in Manitoba, anyone wouldve told them not to (attempt a border-crossing). And so it seems like there was something else going on here, which is quite curious."

The community has been "devastated" by the incident, India Association of Manitoba president Ramandeep Grewal told the Free Press.

"This is a damn tragedy," Grewal said. "Personally, Im having a hard time sleeping since I heard this news, I have little kids at home. We are always told that you cant expose yourself for these many minutes or more than these many minutes in these Prairie winters, and no matter what you have, when youre outside in harsh winters, the winter is not going to forgive you."

This is a damn tragedy. Personally, Im having a hard time sleeping since I heard this news, I have little kids at home.  Ramandeep Grewal

The organization is currently in contact with other community groups in Manitoba and the Consulate General of India in hopes of identifying the deceased so they can notify their next of kin. Thus far, theyve had no luck.

"Who knows if they had any relationships in Winnipeg, or in Manitoba at all? If its a part of a bigger, co-ordinated criminal syndicate working across the borders, maybe people are scared at this point to come forward."

The situation is bizarre to Grewal, too, who said he hasnt seen a single case of a person claiming refugee status making it to Manitoba in recent years.

The India Association of Manitoba will eventually hold some sort of vigil or remembrance ceremony, he said.

 with files from Chris Kitching

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera

Reporter Erik Pindera reports for the city desk, with a particular focus on crime and justice. Read full biography
A judge has found a Winnipeg man not criminally responsible for killing a woman while in the grip of a delusion she was possessed by a demon.

A judge has found a Winnipeg man not criminally responsible for killing a woman while in the grip of a delusion she was possessed by a demon.

Kodey Trudeau was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Jan 10, 2020, after he beat and choked housemate Reagan Gross to death in the kitchen of his St. Vital neighbourhood home.

Gross, 49, had moved into the house just a couple of months prior.

Trudeau freely admitted killing Gross and, in a police interview a short time later, told investigators she had been "infected" by a demon that meant him harm.

A medical team tasked with assessing Trudeau concluded he was suffering from a "brief psychotic disorder" at the time of the slaying, and did not know what he was doing was wrong.

"This case is not a typical criminal case and the only issue for me to decide is if Kodey Trudeau is criminally responsible for his actions," Queens Bench Justice Ken Champagne said Friday.

"In my view, the evidence is clear," Champagne said. "Kodey Trudeau was suffering from a brief psychotic disorder when he committed this horrible crime."

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Eric Johnson said he found no evidence Trudeau was feigning illness to escape responsibility.

Johnson said Trudeau continued to believe Gross had been possessed by a demon months later, when he was no longer suffering psychotic episodes.

"The belief that a demon was there was a very important factor in effecting his understanding of the situation at the time," Johnson said.

Lawyers for both the Crown and defence recommended Champagne find Trudeau not criminally responsible for the killing.

"It was clear from the outset to police and myself that this was not a normal situation," said Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft. "It was clear Mr. Trudeau was behaving in a way during his police interview and during a 911 call that was not typical of what we see in many other homicide investigations."

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Court heard a full psychiatric assessment of Trudeau was delayed several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making a more precise diagnosis difficult.

"That being said its clear that the assessment team conducted a thorough, lengthy and detailed review of the file," Vanderhooft said.

Several of Gross family members and friends attended court Friday.

"She didnt deserve this, thats all I want to say," said a man who identified himself as Gross brother.

Trudeaus case now becomes the responsibility of the Manitoba Criminal Review Board, who will decide whether he can be safely released from custody or requires further time in a psychiatric facility. The board is required to set a hearing within the next 90 days.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Thay receives nuns, monks and followers at Tu Hieu on Lunar New Years Day in 2019, the first time in 40 years he celebrated Tet (Lunar New Year) at the pagoda.

Born in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh became a monk at the age of 23 after studying Buddhism for seven years. He left the country in 1966 and lived in Plum village in southern France for decades, traveling regularly across North America and Europe to give lectures on mindfulness and peace.
If Premier Heather Stefansons first major cabinet shuffle were a movie, what movie would it be?

If Premier Heather Stefansons first major cabinet shuffle were a movie, what movie would it be?

Based on the preponderance of confounding moves she made, you could go with Dazed and Confused.

Then again, considering how this shuffle did little more than relocate deck chairs on a quickly sinking Good Ship Tory, Titanic might work.

However, when you look at the consequences of the shuffle on party and caucus solidarity, another film comes to mind.

Welcome to the Hunger Games, Manitoba Tory-style.

The cabinet shuffle was the cannon shot that started this version of the Hunger Games, sending Tory cabinet ministers and MLAs scrambling to get their hands on the commodities necessary for political survival. Increasingly, they will be pitted against each other until the 2023 election comes around.

Ralph Eichler was a supporter of Stefansons leadership bid and had given no indication he was ready to go. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

It didnt have to turn out this way.

Stefanson, no doubt, intended the reorganization to be her first real opportunity to refresh the party brand and regain some tactical advantages to boost her re-election chances.

It was none of that; really more of a triumph in mixed messages and betrayed confidences that will, in all likelihood, fracture any sense of party unity.

The confounding strategy starts with the premiers surprising decision to drop veterans Ralph Eichler (agriculture) and Cathy Cox (sport, culture and heritage), both of whom were on the high side of the cabinet performance median.

There have been rumours Cox may not run again in 2023, and that may have been enough to trigger her departure, despite a profile as a solid and reliable minister.

On the other hand, party sources said Eichler  arguably the most influential rural minister in the government  had given no indication he was ready to cash in his chips, and was gobsmacked that he was jettisoned.

Although he was among the closest allies of former premier Brian Pallister, Eichler was also a strong supporter of Stefansons leadership bid who rolled up his sleeves and provided ground-level support to her ultimately successful campaign. Sources confirmed he had no inkling he was going to be dropped.

Why was Scott Fielding moved to natural resources from the finance portfolio? (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Equally inexplicable was Stefansons decision to demote Scott Fielding to natural resources from the coveted finance portfolio, where he served admirably, despite drawing a bad fiscal hand over the past two years.

Fielding considered running for the leadership last fall, but stood down at Stefansons request. Unless he served notice he will not be a candidate in 2023, removing him from finance at this delicate stage of the pandemic is a rash and unproductive move. And no way to reward him for abandoning his leadership ambitions.

Or how about the astounding decision to let Alan Lagimodiere continue as minister of Indigenous reconciliation and northern relations?

Lagimodiere had a disastrous debut last year when, only minutes after he was sworn in, he defended the residential school system, sparking widespread condemnation from the Indigenous community. Stefanson could have replaced him with Eileen Clarke, his predecessor, who resigned the Indigenous affairs portfolio in protest over Pallisters incendiary comments about European settlers several days earlier. Clarke returned to cabinet, but in another role.

Stefanson claimed Lagimodiere had redeemed himself by meeting with, and learning from, Indigenous leaders. Rather than forgiving Lagimodiere on behalf of Indigenous people, Stefanson should have found another minister to fill the role so that she, as premier, could find some redemption with Indigenous leaders.

The only decision that makes sense was leaving Audrey Gordon in health.

It is true the governments credibility on pandemic matters has not improved with Gordon in the portfolio. But its unfair to pin public disdain for this governments tragic, hands-off approach to tackling the Omicron wave on Gordon alone. It doesnt appear she is the solution the governments pandemic response woes, but neither is she the main problem.

Leaving Audrey Gordon as health minister makes sense. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Gordon has been, in general, more credible than past health ministers. And that includes Stefanson, who was an unmitigated disaster when she held the portfolio last year during the third wave when resources were overwhelmed and dozens of critical-care patients had to be airlifted out of province. The whole suggestion that a new face in health could have changed the publics perception of the Tories pandemic response is naive and wishful thinking.

By design, cabinet shuffles create more losers than winners. Still, when a first minister makes moves that do not lead to clear strategic or political advantages, it can erode internal support for both the leader and the governing party.

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When Pallister stepped down, he left an elected caucus that had become despondent because of his lone-wolf leadership style; he did not seek input from others, and let it be known that ministers and MLAs would be better seen and not heard. Ultimately, that approach convinced the caucus to rise up and push him out.

With her clumsy cabinet moves, Stefanson is exposing the fault lines left from the Pallister years, no doubt prompting members of her caucus  at least, those sticking around to run in 2023  to focus more on getting re-elected themselves, and less about forming government. Thats where the Hunger Games come in.

It should be noted that there is one important difference between this edition of the Hunger Games and the cinematic version.

In the film version, the last competitor standing is considered the winner.

In politics, the last politician standing in a governing party is leader of the official Opposition.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com
Sometime during the Second World War, young Hetty Walker crouched under a dining table with a kitchen pot covering her head. Her parents and sisters clustered around her in the same position, clutching each other and quivering against a barrage of thunderous roars.

Sometime during the Second World War, young Hetty Walker crouched under a dining table with a kitchen pot covering her head. Her parents and sisters clustered around her in the same position, clutching each other and quivering against a barrage of thunderous roars.

Bombs were falling on their home city of Tilburg, Netherlands.

Walker would recount this story, and many others, to friends and family throughout her life. The experience shaped who she was, as it did for many who lived through the war.

Walker died of ovarian cancer Oct. 23, 2021, at 85.

She was born Nov. 21, 1935, into a time of fortitude, practicality and accountability. Historians would later dub her generation the traditionalists.

Walker embodied those characteristics, eldest daughter Dawn Walker says.

Her mother was an ambitious, compassionate and levelheaded woman whose unwavering work ethic and commitment to civic responsibility carried her through a storied life, Dawn says.

She lived in three countries, dedicated decades to public service, and led a Prairie city through the Flood of the Century.

Walker came to Canada with her parents and three sisters, lived in lumber camps as a young bride, and started a bait-and-tackle business before moving to Pembina, N.D., in 1970.

I certainly couldnt keep up with her, Dawn says, laughing at her mothers tenacity.

Hetty Walker was born Nov. 21, 1935. (Supplied)

By all accounts, Walker was small but mighty; a lean woman with surprising strength and a penchant for practical jokes.

(When we first met), she was out in front of her building, and she had bubble wrap spread across her driveway, and she was jumping up and down popping the bubbles on it, friend Debbie Weigel said. It was hilarious.

The pair worked together at Pembina Parcel Service, a business Walker founded and ran from her home.

Roughly 11 kilometres separates Pembina from the Manitoba community of Emerson. The border crossing is open 24 hours a day, and it is a popular stop for Manitobans to fill their gas tanks and buy duty-free items.

In 1985, a Canadian friend asked Walker if he could order a package to her home and later cross the border to pick it up; she agreed, word spread and soon more people began requesting the service.

My husband and I came home to visit, and we walked in the porch of the house (it) was full of packages, Dawn said. (We) said, Why dont we help you clean out the garage and the shop and set it up in there?

And so a business was born.

Walker ran it by the honour system in those days. She would leave an envelope on every parcel, asking recipients to deposit $5 in payment when they came for the goods.

The business grew. Parcels of all shapes and sizes began pouring in, including an astounding amount of car tires, Dawn said.

I guess tires in Canada must be very expensive because boy, she got the tires, she said. She would get her thighs under these tires, and she would just lift them like you wouldnt believe.

It was years before Walker could convince her mother to modernize the business and update her prices. Walkers husband, Dean Leas, used his IT background to create a database to track her customers, and Hetty updated her fee to $10 for larger parcels.

Walker came to Canada with her parents and three sisters and lived in lumber camps as a young bride. (Supplied)

Hettys simple favour blossomed into a booming parcel service with more than 13,000 customers. By the time she retired in 2012, she was receiving more than 200 packages a day, Walker said.

Her friendly demeanour and dedication to customer service made the business a success. People wanted their packages, yes, but they also just wanted to see Hetty. Years after her retirement, customers still stopped by the house to visit, Weigel said.

She used to always make a joke about how when she started the business, her first year she doubled her clientele Id say, Oh, you went up to two? and she would say, Yes, I did, Weigel said. I always hoped that I would have half the energy that woman had.

Her efforts inspired an entire cottage industry. At least seven businesses have replicated her model in Pembina, and there are numerous others in neighbouring border communities, Weigel said.

Life was not always kind or easy for Hetty, but Dawn Walker and Weigel agree she faced adversity with composure.

A fine example is when Hetty stared down the Flood of the Century. It was April of 1997 when she patrolled Pembinas concrete levee and earthen dikes, searching for leaks.

Unprecedented snowfall and soaring temperatures had caused the Red River to swell and surge. Floodwaters threatened to spill from its banks and swallow the community whole.

Some 125 km south, much of Grand Forks was already underwater. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cautioned the people of Pembina against hope, urging them to evacuate their modest border town.

Meteorologists at the time predicted floodwaters would crest at around 58 feet, enough to overcome Pembinas 57-foot concrete dike.

Hetty and a core group of residents and officials stood defiant.

As the story goes, there were about six of them, and they were just about ready to turn off the lights. They just said, No. Were not going to do that, said Charles Hart, a longtime local and Fort Pembina Historical Society member.

Throughout her public service career, Hetty maintained her business and served on countless community groups, initiatives, and projects. (Supplied)

Not to be deterred, the flood defenders enlisted the help of a local construction company to fortify the dike with sandbags and plywood.

The future of that little town was at stake, Hart said. They worked all night and built the dike up. Hetty was part of that inner core. It was not only her, but it was the city fathers, and she was one of them.

The reinforced wall, now four feet higher, held against the tide  sparing Pembinas homes from the waters of the rushing Red.

Hetty was an integral part of not only saving the town but ensuring its future, Hart added.

At the time of the flood, Hetty had already dedicated more than a decade of service to Pembina, serving on city council from 1984 until 1990 when she took over as mayor. She held office until the year 2000. In 2002, she became a Pembina County commissioner, relieving her husband Charles Walker, who formerly held the position. Hetty remained a commissioner until the end of her life.

When she was mayor, they paved the streets, and built a new water plant, and did sewer repair; many, many things that she was involved in improving the community, Hart said.

Her sense of civic pride and critical eye made her well suited for public office, Dawn said.

My mom liked to process information, and then as she processed, she could make a decision. She didnt ever like to jump to a conclusion or jump to a decision, she said.

Throughout her public service career, Hetty maintained her business and served on countless community groups, initiatives, and projects. Her efforts earned her dozens of accolades and awards.

The North Dakota American Auxiliary Legion once named her the Woman of the Year, and the Red River Basin Commission gave her the Water Management Leadership award in 2016.

Husband Charles Walker, sisters Mabel Koch and Yvonne Silver, and parents Jan and Mabel Koch predeceased her. She is survived by sister Paulien Bainbridge, daughters Karen Walker, Laurie Shulz, Dawn Walker, Shelly Bjerk, and son John, as well as seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

I would like people to remember what a kind, generous and talented woman she was as well as having a strong work ethic and civic pride. She loved her children and made many sacrifices for us as well. Teaching us the importance of pursuing our dreams and instilling her work ethic in us. I couldnt have asked for a better mom, Dawn said.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
A 15-passenger van stranded in a snow-filled ditch would have stuck out as odd to winter-hardy Minnesotans living along the Canada-U.S. border.

A 15-passenger van stranded in a snow-filled ditch would have stuck out as odd to winter-hardy Minnesotans living along the Canada-U.S. border.

All too familiar with stories of illegal crossings, alarm bells were likely ringing when a snow-removal operator who came to the drivers aid spotted the vehicles three occupants and Missouri licence plates.

FACEBOOK Steve Shand of Deltona, Fla.

Wednesday mornings chance encounter on a treacherous rural road northeast of St. Vincent, Minn., set off a chain of events that led to the tragic discovery of four frozen bodies on the Manitoba side of the border hours later.

The Indian family  a man, woman, teenage boy and infant  died in a field 10 kilometres east of Emerson as they attempted, in the dark, to trudge through fields of deep snow drifts over the border in -35C blizzard conditions.

One of the survivors, a woman, nearly died after being rescued, and will now likely have part of her hand amputated due to frostbite. Authorities were told the group had been walking for hours.

The RCMP were working to confirm the victims identities Friday. Floridian Steven Shand, arrested behind the wheel of the van with two of the survivors, is in custody in Grand Forks, facing human-smuggling charges.

Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are investigating what is believed to be a wider smuggling operation involved in earlier crossings in the same area.

A 10-page affidavit obtained by the Free Press offers a timeline and harrowing portrait of the fateful journey, along with details of some of the planning that allegedly went into it.

As the 11 undocumented Indian nationals made final preparations on the Canadian side of the border, Shand, 47, allegedly picked up the white van at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Monday. It was due to be returned Thursday.

From there, he embarked on a 650-kilometre drive north to the border, where he was expecting to collect the migrants who had illegally crossed into the U.S., according to the affidavit written by Homeland Security Investigations special agent John Stanley.

Along the way, Shand allegedly stopped at a Walmart in Fargo to buy bottled water, juice and snacks for the group he was due to meet.

On Tuesday night, the group arrived at a drop-off spot in Manitoba. One of the survivors, named as V.D. in the document, told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent the spot was about a kilometre north of the border.

The group battled unforgiving, blinding conditions, including high winds and an extreme wind chill, as they walked through deep snow drifts in wide-open fields. The four family members became separated from the others.

While the two adults and two children suffered horrific deaths, the seven others entered Minnesota and pressed on in the early morning hours Wednesday, looking for the white van they expected to take them deeper into the U.S.

Two, identified in the affidavit as S.P. and Y.P., were picked up by Shand, wrote Stanley.

But things went further awry when the van veered off a road in a rural area not far from the border.

(Shand) was driving through blowing snow and snow drifts, Stanley wrote. The weather was severe at the time, with high winds, blowing snow and temperatures well below zero (Fahrenheit).

The driver of a snow-removal truck alerted U.S. border patrol after he pulled the vehicle out of a ditch about 11 kilometres northeast of St. Vincent on Wednesday morning, the affidavit stated.

The man told a CBP agent he saw two passengers he believed were of Indian or Pakistani origin, and Shand, the driver, claimed he was on his way to visit friends in Winnipeg.

Ronald Gatheridge, who has a snow-removal business in nearby Humboldt, Minn., didnt know the identity of the driver, but said it isnt normal to see a vehicle in a ditch in the sparsely-populated area.

Most people here know how to drive in these conditions, he told the Free Press Friday. Its usually the people who arent familiar with the area.

CBP agent Christopher Oliver stopped Shands rental van at about 8:30 a.m. on Minnesota Highway 75, between the Pembina, N.D., and Lancaster, Minn., border stations, according to the court document.

As Shand, S.P. and Y.P. were taken to the CBP station in Pembina, agents found five other Indian nationals nearby, about a half-kilometre south of the border.

They were walking in the direction of where Shand and the others were arrested, Stanley wrote.

All five were suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.

One of them, a woman, stopped breathing several times, was airlifted to a hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and will likely lose part of her hand, according to Stanley and the CBP.

The remaining migrants, including a man who was briefly hospitalized for frostbite, were in CBP custody for processing.

After being taken to the Pembina border station Wednesday morning, one of the migrants, named only as V.D., said they had been walking for more than 11 hours. He was carrying a backpack containing diapers, childrens clothes, toys and medication.

Thats when U.S. agents learned the family was missing.

Members of the RCMP integrated border enforcement team were alerted just before 9:30 a.m. A grid search east of Emerson came to a tragic conclusion when the four bodies were found at about 1:30 p.m., roughly a dozen metres north of the boundary.

Five of the survivors were wearing identical winter clothing  jackets with fur-trimmed hoods, gloves and balaclavas that were all new and in black  and insulated rubber boots.

Shand was allegedly carrying gloves and a balaclava that matched.

The two other migrants also had winter clothes that looked new.

All seven speak Gujarati, a language native to the state of Gujarat, which is on Indias northwest coast and borders Pakistan. Most had limited or no English, according to Stanley.

In an interview, one of the migrants allegedly said he had paid a significant amount of money to enter Canada from India under a fraudulently obtained visa.

He did not intend to study and, after crossing illegally into the U.S. on foot, he expected to be picked up and driven to his uncles home in Chicago, Stanley wrote.

Agents claim they also found evidence suggesting Shand was involved an illegal crossing just days earlier

An Alamo rental agreement for a full-size passenger van, dated Jan. 10, was found inside the Enterprise van Shand was driving, Stanley wrote.

The Alamo van was due to be returned Jan. 13.

Agents also found a receipt dated Jan. 11 for a room at the La Quinta by Wyndham hotel in Grand Forks.

Shand, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Jamaica, refused to speak to investigators after he was arrested, Stanley wrote.

Shand was charged with human smuggling. He is due to return to court Monday.

The investigation into the death of the four individuals in Canada is ongoing along with an investigation into a larger human smuggling operation of which Shand is suspected of being a part, Stanley wrote.

Shand is from the Florida city of Deltona, which sits on a lake about 40 kilometres north of Orlando. It is 3,000 kilometres from the desolate spot where he was arrested.

Three previous human-smuggling incidents have taken place northeast of St. Vincent recently, wrote Stanley, who is based in Pembina.

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On Jan. 12, border patrol agent Kevin Backes found boot prints from three people who had walked into the U.S. from Canada.

Based on the tread, they were the same brand of boots worn by five of the seven Indian nationals apprehended Wednesday.

A man who lives east of Emerson previously told the Free Press the RCMP had stopped by his rural property after tracks were found in the area last week.

Two other incidents likely took place on Dec. 12 and Dec. 22. In the first one, the RCMP found a backpack at a suspected drop-off point. It contained a price tag in Indias currency, the rupee.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
Residents on Hill Street in the Norwood neighbourhood of Winnipeg have the blues: they havent received any mail for a week.

Residents on Hill Street in the Norwood neighbourhood of Winnipeg have the blues: they havent received any mail for a week.

Jim Llewellyn said he normally receives something daily, even bills or advertising flyers, but his mailbox has been empty for days.

Melissa Tait / Winnipeg Free Press Files Residents on Hill Street in the Norwood neighbourhood of Winnipeg havent received any mail for a week.

Ive checked with neighbours, and they say theyve had nothing this week either, he said Friday.

Usually, we get our mail between 1:30 to 2 (p.m.) in the summer time, but not this winter. Since Christmas, it has been hit and miss. Sometimes, Ive seen it as late at 7:30 p.m. You dont know when it is going to come.

Llewellyn, himself a retired postal carrier who delivered mail through all weather conditions for more than two decades, said even if there are people off sick with COVID-19 the mail should still come.

I think it means theyre not covering the walks of others. When a guy needed to get off early, they would ask if we could take a street or two, and we would. I dont know what is happening now.

Phil Legault, a Canada Post spokesman, said an internal check reported the street should have received mail.

Residents may have missed a day or two, but not a week, said Legault. If this isnt the case for some residents, we asked them to contact customer service so we can look into specific reasons.

Legault said local deliveries have been tough lately thanks to both pandemic-related absenteeism and snowstorms.

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This time of year, weather can pose a challenge, and weve seen that recently, which is why we issue service alerts, he said. Our employees can also be slowed by snowy or ice sidewalks, walks and stairs as they try to deliver safely.

In addition, we have been experiencing staffing issues across the country due to the impact of Omicron (variant of the novel coronavirus).

However, Matthew Aitken, president of the local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said mail might have been missed on the street because it and the area are well-known by postal staff.

The route Hill Street is on is particularly arduous and therefore less likely to be chosen by letter carriers who have volunteered to do some overtime delivery, said Aitken. The union attempts to work with the employer to make all routes relatively equal in workload  this doesnt always happen.

When our ranks are so depleted due to sickness, and not all mail goes out for delivery in a day, dollars to donuts the stuff that doesnt get delivered is going to be on a route with a reputation for being long or otherwise challenging.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Winona, MN (55987)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 42F. Winds light and variable.
To Thi Tung Linh at a police station in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for allegedly killing her father, January 21, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Hac Minh

A 21-year-old woman has been arrested in the southern province of Ba Ria  Vung Tau for allegedly poisoning her father to death and hiding his body.

Local police said that To Thi Tung Linh is being investigated for murder.

On January 18, the house where Linh lived with her father on Nguyen Huu Tho Street in Vung Tau Town caught fire.

Linh rushed to her grandfather, who lives nearby, calling for help.

Firefighters put out the fire, but could not find her 54-year-old father Tong Hong Diep.

Early next morning, Linh reported to the police that a strange man had broken into her house, assaulted her and told her: "I have killed your father for revenge." He then set the house on fire and left, she said

When police searched the house, they found Diep's body under a layer of bricks and cement at the back.

As Linh's statements were not clear or convincing, the police took her to their office for questioning. She admitted then that she had poisoned her father with cyanide and hidden his body.

She told the police that she had murdered her father over some disagreements.
DANVILLE, Pa. (AP)  The last of the escaped monkeys from the crash of a truck towing a trailer load of 100 of the animals was accounted for by late Saturday, a day after the pickup collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway, authorities said.

Several monkeys had escaped following Fridays collision, Pennsylvania State Police said. But only one had remained unaccounted for as of Saturday morning, prompting the Pennsylvania Game Commission and other agencies to launch a search for it amid frigid weather.

Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email Saturday evening that all 100 of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys had since been accounted for. Three were dead after being euthanized.

The email did not elaborate on why the three were euthanized or how all came to be accounted for. But Nordlund said those euthanized were done so humanely according to American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines.

The shipment of monkeys was en route to a CDC-approved quarantine facility after arriving Friday morning at New Yorks Kennedy Airport from Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation, police said. The Atlanta-based CDC said the agency was providing technical assistance to state police in Pennsylvania.

The collision occured Friday on a state highway near an Interstate 80 exit in Pennsylvanias Montour County, Trooper Andrea Pelachick told The Daily Item newspaper of Sunbury.

The location of the quarantine facility and the type of research for which the monkeys were apparently destined werent clear, but cynomolgus monkeys are often used in medical studies. A 2015 paper posted on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information referred to them as the most widely used primate in preclinical toxicology studies.

Earlier, police had earlier urged people not to look for or capture any monkey, with troopers tweeting: Anyone who sees or locates the monkey is asked not to approach, attempt to catch, or come in contact with the monkey. Please call 911 immediately.

Trooper Lauren Lesher had said the concern was due to it not being a domesticated animal and them being in an unknown territory. It is hard to say how they would react to a human approaching them.

Lesher said state police secured the scene for the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the CDC.

The condition of the motorists involved in the crash wasnt clear, nor was it immediately known whether any citations were issued.

A crash witness, Michelle Fallon, told the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg that she spoke with the pickup driver and a passenger after the crash. The driver appeared to be disoriented, and the passenger thought he might have injured his legs, she said.

Crates littered the road Friday as troopers searched for monkeys, rifles in hand. Valley Township firefighters used thermal imaging to try to locate the animals, and a helicopter also assisted, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.

The pickup was heading west on I-80 when it got off at the Danville exit and then immediately tried to get back on, driving across the other lane, the newspaper reported.

Fallon told the Press Enterprise that she was behind the pickup when it was hit on the passenger side by the dump truck, tearing off the front panel of the trailer and sending more than a dozen crates tumbling out.

She and another motorist who stopped to help were standing near the scene when the other driver said he thought he saw a cat run across the road, Fallon said.

Fallon peeked into a crate and saw a small monkey looking back at her, she told the newspaper.

Theyre monkeys, she told the other motorist.
A Dane County Circuit Court judge Friday ordered former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans office to provide the court with documents responsive to a records request regarding his 2020 election review by Jan. 31.

That order will only stand if the court has personal jurisdiction over the case, which the judge will review at a hearing Jan. 27.

If the court does have personal jurisdiction  a question resting on whether Gableman was properly served  Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington will then review if the documents can be legally disclosed to the public, and whether the benefit of releasing the records to the public would outweigh the cost. He will issue that decision March 8.

American Oversight looks forward to vindicating the rights of Wisconsin citizens to see the documents of the Office of Special Counsel as Wisconsins public records law clearly allows, American Oversight senior advisor Melanie Sloan said after the hearing Friday.

Also Friday, lawyers for Gableman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, went back and forth on whether Gableman had a new contract with the Assembly.

Early in the hearing, Gableman attorney James Bopp told Remington that a contract between his client and Vos existed, then said it did not. Later, Vos attorney said he saw a contract signed by Vos but not Gableman, which Remington said was problematic. Gablemans last contract expired Dec. 31, and Vos has said Gablemans review is likely to go into February.

Remingtons private review of the documents American Oversight requested is, in part, in response to Gablemans request that the documents should not be released because the public policy favoring disclosure is outweighed by an even stronger public interest favoring nondisclosure.

Throughout the hearing and in court filings, Gablemans attorneys said the documents, if released, could get into the hands of people who would deride Gablemans election review and compromise the strategy of the review.

Gablemans attorneys also raised in a brief that the Assembly determined that the proper manner of investigation was to keep Investigation records confidential, which Remington pushed back on, saying whether the investigation is proper is not his concern.

The only question before the court, Remington said, is whether the petitioners are entitled to the documents that theyve requested under the public records law.

Liberal watchdog American Oversight asked for the documents in several separate requests last year.

Before the hearing Friday, Remington rejected a motion by Vos to quash an order to provide public records sought by American Oversight or show cause to avoid disclosure.

The hearing comes after a Dane County Circuit Court order directing Gablemans office to produce records sought by American Oversight or show cause to withhold the records.

The lawsuit is one of three filed by American Oversight seeking records related to the GOP-ordered probe into how the 2020 election was conducted.

Vos has allocated $676,000 in taxpayer money for the one-party review, which is focused on some of the procedures voters and clerks relied on in casting and processing ballots. Vos has said the review is now expected to carry over into February and could cost more, though he has not said when the review might be finished or what additional expenses might accrue.

A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Similarly, reviews of the election by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found no evidence of widespread fraud, but did lead to recommendations on how elections can be improved.

An analysis by The Associated Press found only 31 potential cases of voter fraud in Wisconsins 2020 election, which represents less than 0.15% of Bidens margin of victory. In 26 of the 31 cases, prosecutors declined to bring charges after conducting a review.
A business-minded Milwaukee attorney with no higher education administration experience will lead the University of Wisconsin System as its next president.

Jay Rothman, 62, got the unanimous nod in a closed-door Board of Regents meeting Friday, ending a search process that began in 2019, included a failed search in 2020 and sparked the interim presidency of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Rothman said he is drawn to the job because his term as CEO and chair of Foley & Lardner, an international law firm based in Milwaukee, is ending soon and he isnt eligible for reelection.

Jay is a servant leader who has chosen to dedicate the remainder of his outstanding career to our students, our faculty and staff, and our taxpayers, Regents Vice President and search committee chair Karen Walsh said in a statement. He has the leadership and executive management skills our university system needs. He understands organizations. He builds consensus. He believes in the profound value of higher education.

Rothman said in a statement that he was humbled by the opportunity and intends to lead by listening first. He emerged as the top choice in a search that yielded 43 other applicants, including finalist Jim Schmidt, 57, who has worked in higher education for most of his life and spent the past nine years as UW-Eau Claire chancellor.

Rothman will take over for Thompson, who plans to resign March 18, on June 1 and earn a $550,000 annual salary. In between the two dates, former Regent Mike Falbo will serve as interim president. The UW-Parkside graduate served 11 years on the board, including two terms as president, and served on the search committee that led to Rothmans hire.

Business background

Hiring Rothman, who graduated from Marquette University and Harvard Law School, marks a departure from the type of person the Regents have historically tapped for the top job.

The last three permanent UW presidents were insiders elevated from within the System. Most earned at least one degree from a public institution. And all of the past presidents, with the exception of Thompson, came into the job with substantial academic experience.

Among the qualities and experience Regents asked for in their job description was an understanding of the unique attributes of higher education and the current opportunities and challenges facing public higher education.

But the board also wanted at least 10 years of experience in a significant senior executive position, a proven track record in strategic planning of a large and complex organization and demonstrated financial acumen.

Experts say Rothmans hire fits a broader national trend of boards turning to people with backgrounds outside of higher education to run colleges or systems.

There is an argument to be made that its a good thing to have someone with experience running a business to lead a multibillion dollar enterprise, but running a higher education system is different in many ways than running a business, said Robert Kelchen, a higher education professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Rothmans experience with the states business community and relationships he has with state and local leaders will be a tremendous asset.

Jay will bring a fresh perspective to higher education, she said in a statement.

Rothman highlighted his business experience in a 24-minute, eight-question interview last week with news outlets. He called the System the states crown jewel, suggested meeting lawmakers in their districts and vowed to continually share the Systems value with the public.

Rothman spoke in broad general terms about the problems facing the System, whereas Schmidt gave more detailed solutions to what he believes needs fixing. Rothman also drew connections between his firms non-hierarchical structure and how campuses run on a system of shared governance, a decision-making process that requires consultation with faculty, students and staff.

Wisconsin roots

A lifelong Wisconsinite save for the stint in law school, Rothman was raised on a small farm outside Wausau. Both of his parents attended UW-Stevens Point. His mom is now a retired school teacher, and his dad is a dentist. Rothman has two adult children, one of whom is a UW-Madison graduate.

Rothman brings a background in business law, with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, corporate disclosures and governance matters. He joined Foley & Lardner in 1986 and has led the firms more than 1,100 lawyers and 1,000 staff since 2011.

Childrens Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy worked with Rothman when he served on the hospitals board from 2014 to 2018. She said he sought out differing opinions, listened and pressed on after making hard calls.

What I appreciated most about Jay as board member was that his leadership always started with mission: how can we better serve the kids of Wisconsin? Troy said in a statement. Before anything else, that was the question that drove his counsel and his decision-making.

Other statements from those who have worked with Rothman praised his intellect, integrity and work ethic.

Federal and state campaign finance records show Rothman has donated to politicians from both parties, including at least $10,000 to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over the past two years, though the majority has flowed to Republicans.

A spokesperson for Evers did not immediately respond to an email and voicemail seeking reaction to Rothmans hire. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, was unavailable to comment Friday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, tweeted congratulations.

I look forward to working with him and seeing the new perspective he will bring to the UW system, he wrote.

Rothman will inherit many of the challenges his predecessor faced: demographic challenges, COVID-19, fewer state dollars sent to support campuses and a sometimes strained relationship with the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Thompsons tenure began in the summer of 2020 following a failed search where the sole finalist, Jim Johnsen, withdrew amid criticism about the process itself and concern about his record leading the University of Alaska System.

The Regents second try has attracted fewer complaints, though multiple faculty groups this week objected to the lack of a public forum. Its a common step in searches where students and staff can meet the candidates and ask them questions.

UW-Milwaukee professor Nick Fleisher, who leads the Wisconsin conference of the American Association of University Professors, reiterated those concerns again on Friday.

No public interview. Never worked in higher ed. Announced on a Friday afternoon. Not a good look for the Regents, he tweeted. I think we have to reserve judgment on Rothman until we get a chance to know more about him. The process at the end here has ensured that we know very little.
An image from surveillance video shows the funeral home van that was stolen in February 2021.
Air ambulance lands after RTC by Ruabon

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jan 22nd, 2022

Update: The roads have since reopened, no further detail has been released.

The air ambulance left the incident at 4PM and returned to base.

Original information below.

The Wales Air Ambulance has landed to assist after a Road Traffic Collision.

The B5605 between the A539 Roundabout and Plas Madoc has been closed.

Police ask, Please find alternative routes. Thank you.

We have been told Newhall Road is closed, and the Rhosymedre turn from the Aldi roundabout is also closed  with two incidents locally.

More shortly.
North Wales Police mourn death of much loved former policewoman

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jan 22nd, 2022

The longest living former policewoman in north Wales has died at the age of 85.

Mrs Kathleen Mary Murray (nee Elson), from Hawarden, was known for her forthrightness and her professionalism during her time in the force.

The widow of the late Inspector Leonard Murray, her collar number was PW 5, having joined the former Flintshire Constabulary in the late 1950s.

Her funeral took place on Tuesday, 18 January, who was until her death, the longest living former Policewoman in North Wales.

Policewomen had their own department and PW was the term that was used until it was replaced by WPC.

It was whilst Kath and Len were both serving in Rhyl as constables that Kath and Len met and fell in love.

During her service, Kath was known for her forthrightness and her professionalism.

Kath and Len were married in September 1961 and were blessed with two children.

Under the police regulations of that era, this meant she had to resign from her role, but Kath committed herself to supporting Len as he moved stations and progressed through the ranks.

Kath passed away peacefully at home in Hawarden on the 17th. December 2021 four years after her husband Len.

North Wales Police has thanked Paul Davies, Vice Chairman of N.A.R.P.O. Flintshire branch for his help and information.
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The United States, the UK, the European Union, France, and others condemned the recent hijacking of a merchant ship by the Houthis.
In the wake of the AUKUS pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States reached last September, the British and Australian foreign and defence ministers held talks in Sydney yesterday to further strengthen military ties directed primarily against China, and also Russia.

The AUKUS agreement, which includes equipping Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, is part of the US-led military build-up throughout the Indo-Pacific as Washington intensifies its aggressive confrontation with China diplomatically, economically and strategically.

At a joint press conference, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss declared that the two countries were modernising our partnership for a new age to confront the reality ... that threats are rising across the world. As well as lashing out at Russia for threatening Ukraine and Iran over its nuclear program, Truss accused China of using its economic muscle against Australia and other allies like Lithuania.

(Left to right) British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, and Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton [Source: Marise Payne Facebook]

Truss told reporters that Australia and Britain were completely united in our response. Were standing shoulder to shoulder in defence of freedom and democracy, and were determined to face down these growing threats.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne trotted out the same propaganda line to justify the military build-up by the two countries in league with the US. Australia and Britain were natural partners, she said, to counter the influence of malign authoritarianism and maintain the international order.

For all the unsubstantiated allegations of Russian and Chinese threats and aggression, Australian and British imperialism have been two of the closest partners in crime of the US over the past three decades. London and Canberra have backed the illegal US-led invasions and interventions in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia to the hilt politically and militarily. These have resulted in the destruction of whole societiesin Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan.

Now Britain and Australia are preparing to join the US in confronting two nuclear-armed powers, China and Russia, raising the prospect of a catastrophic war. None of this is about defending democracy, which is under sustained attack in all three countries. Rather, the AUKUS pact is seeking to maintain the US global hegemony on which Australia and Britain have both relied since the end of World War II, but which is being undermined by the economic rise of China in particular.

The escalation of the British military presence in the Indo-Pacifica region half way around the world from the United Kingdomis especially significant. Following World War II and its declining global influence, Britain withdrew from East of the Suez from 1966, pulling its military out of major bases in Aden (now part of Yemen) and Singapore. It has not consistently sent warships to the Indo-Pacific since the closure of its small base in Hong Kong in 1997 when the colony was returned to China.

Last March the British government adopted a so-called Indo-Pacific Tilt, as part of its 2021 Integrated Review, and in September signed up to the AUKUS agreement. The British navy dispatched the Queen Elizabeth II aircraft carrier and its strike group of warships to the Indo-Pacific where it engaged in various exercises, including provocative joint drills in the South China Sea with Dutch and Singaporean naval vessels in October.

Speaking to the press yesterday, Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton explained that no agreement had been reached as yet on basing British warships in Australia. However, it could be something that we discuss at an appropriate time in the future. I think what you will see is a greater regularity in visits, training, in people being embedded and certainly greater cooperation in exercises.

Britain has already dispatched two of its newest warshipsthe offshore patrol vessels, HMS Spey and HMS Tamarto the Asian region on a long-term basis as part of re-establishing a persistent Indo-Pacific presence. While not permanently based in Australia, the two British naval vessels will rely heavily on Australian naval infrastructure for port visits, resupply and maintenance.

The two countries also agreed to strengthen military coordination and planning by embedding a liaison officer from Britains Permanent Joint Headquarters within Australias Headquarters Joint Operations Command.

Australia and Britain are part of the top-level Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, led by the US, which also includes New Zealand and Canada. The ministerial meeting yesterday strengthened collaboration on cyber security, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities.

Truss used a speech to the Sydney-based think tank, the Lowy Institute, to issue strident warnings about the threat of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine and its dire consequences. In reality, the US and its allies have manufactured the present crisis over Ukraine through the military encroachment of NATO forces into Eastern Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

At yesterdays press conference, Payne joined the international anti-Russia chorus, declaring we will work closely with Ukraine in the coming days and weeks in terms of challenges that they are dealing with. She indicated that Australia would look favourably on any formal request from the Ukraine for assistance on cyber-security.

Asked yesterday about the talks in Sydney, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian branded the AUKUS agreement as a typical military bloc and the decision to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines as a breach of the international Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. He pointed to the hypocrisy of the US, Britain and Australia hyping the China threat while collaborating in a military build-up in the region.

The provision of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia underscores the aggressive character of the AUKUS agreement. The attack submarines have nothing to do with the defence of Australian waters but are designed to operate at great distances for lengthy periods of time. Their purpose is to operate in concert with British and American nuclear submarines off the Chinese coast, either as part of a naval blockade or a full-scale war.

Last September, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared that Australia had no intention of creating a domestic nuclear industry or arming the nuclear-powered submarines with nuclear missiles. As geo-political tensions continue to rise, such pledges are meaningless.

Australias deep integration into US war planning has placed the Australian population on the front-line of a US-led conflict with China that has the potential to rapidly escalate into a nuclear war.
On Friday, Politico published the draft of an executive order drawn up for Donald Trump, dated December 16, 2020, which authorized Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to deploy the National Guard to seize voting machines across the country.

The order was a brief for the military to overturn the election of Joe Biden and impose a military dictatorship headed by the defeated incumbent, Trump. It would have given the Pentagon 60 days to submit its analysis of supposed election fraud to the director of national intelligence and a special council to draw up criminal and civil charges against Trumps political opponents, who would undoubtedly have been arrested and likely killed en masse.

Trump supporters scaling the wall of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 [Credit: Flickr.com/Blink Ofanaye]

The unsigned order, part of a vast, multi-faceted plot that culminated in the fascist coup attempt of January 6, 2021, cites several of Trumps baseless election conspiracy theories to justify the disenfranchisement of 81 million Biden voters.

The document is part of a trove of more than 700 documents Trump sought unsuccessfully to conceal. They were turned over to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack by the National Archives following an 8-1 Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday rejecting Trumps blanket assertion of executive privilege.

Repeating the lies found in a slide show turned over to the House committee last month by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the executive order would have granted Miller, a career Special Forces killer for US imperialism, the power to seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention.

The order would have provided a pseudo-legal pretext for Trump to remain in power well past the January 20, 2021 inauguration date for President-elect Biden.

The publication of the explosive document has thus far been generally downplayed in the capitalist media, with no major television networks prominently reporting its publication on their Friday evening news broadcasts.

The order itself is titled:

PRESIDENTIAL FINDINGS TO PRESERVE COLLECT AND ANALYZE NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION REGARDING THE 2020 GENERAL ELECTION.

After listing constitutional provisions, prior executive orders and National Security Presidential Memoranda that supposedly legitimized the overthrow of the presidential election, won by a wide margin by Biden, the order cites the first of many fascist conspiracy theories:

I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find that the forensic report of the Antrim County, Michigan voting machines, released December 13, 2020, and other evidence submitted to me in support of this order, provide probable cause sufficient to require action under authorities cited above because of evidence of international and foreign interference in the November 3, 2020, election.

While Antrim County did record a tabulation error the night of the election, due to a late addition to the ballot not being properly calibrated in the software, it was corrected within three days and had no bearing on the outcome in Michigan, which Biden won by 300,000 votes. The county, where only 16,000 votes were cast, was awarded to Trump. Multiple recounts and reports, including a June 2021 analysis by Michigan Republicans of the 2020 statewide vote, have affirmed that the election was fair.

The order then cites supposed inherent errors in Dominion Voting Systems and related companies that have the same flaws, and were subject to foreign interference in the 2020 election in the United States.

The document has the deranged stench of Trump coup lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell, both of whom were subpoenaed by the House committee earlier this week.

They were appointed by Trump following his electoral defeat on November 3, 2020 to lead the legal side of his plot to overturn the election. The lawyers, in concert with Trump, Republican politicians, far-right media and fascist paramilitaries, operated out of a command center at the Willard International Hotel in Washington D.C. The Willard war room served as a rats nest of fascist intrigue, second only to the White House itself.

The executive order draft goes on to cite evidence of crashes and impermissible updates that allegedly caused a significant percentage of votes to be wrongly allocated. It calls for the defense secretary not only to seize the voting machines, but also to provide an initial assessment of operations to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, then headed by John Ratcliffe, a far-right Trump loyalist and former representative from Texas.

The final point in the three-page document states:

The appointment of a Special Counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected and provided all resources necessary to carry out her duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution (emphasis added).

The use of the her pronoun corroborates earlier reporting by CNN and the New York Times that coup lawyer Powell was lobbying Trump at the White House to appoint her as a special counsel to oversee the seizure of voting machines.

In a December 19, 2020 article, the Times reported that Trump discussed naming Sidney Powell... to be a special counsel overseeing an investigation of voter fraud. The report stated that Giuliani joined the discussion by phone, while Ms. Powell and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn were at the White House for a meeting that became raucous and involved people shouting at each other at times

In a December 18, 2020 appearance on the far-right Newsmax network with Greg Kelly, Flynn, who was briefly Trumps national security adviser, claimed that due to voter fraud Trump could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these voting machines.

Flynn continued: He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.

While Michael Flynn was calling for the military to rerun the election at gunpoint, less than three weeks later his brother, Gen. Charles Flynn, would play a pivotal role in delaying the deployment of National Guard troops to the Capitol for more than three hours while it was under siege by fascist paramilitaries. The leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, along with 10 other members of his militia, were charged by the Department of Justice with seditious conspiracy last week.

The same day Flynn called for martial law to rerun the election, Giuliani called the second-in-command at the Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, and inquired whether DHS could seize voting machines, according to the New York Times.

Further revelations on the pseudo-legal machinations of Giuliani and Powell were made in recent reporting by the Washington Post and CNN. Citing three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme, CNN reported that Giuliani personally led a seven-state effort to pressure state lawmakers and Republican Party officials to submit illegitimate slates of pro-Trump electors to the National Archives. The idea was to have the pro-Trump slates of electors already filed and ready to be imposed in key swing states won by Biden.

Fake slates were submitted by Trump loyalists in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

In a recording obtained by CNN, Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, boasted not only of her role as a fake elector, but of her close coordination with the Trump campaign.

We fought to seat the electors, she said at a public event last week, according to CNN. The Trump campaign asked us to do that.

Meshawn and her husband, Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock, have been ardent supporters of Trumps big lie. The pair was involved in the January 6 attack, helping to organize bus transportation for Trumps foot soldiers.

The Maddocks also are deeply implicated in the assassination plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, which was exposed by the FBI and Michigan prosecutors in early October, 2020. As detailed by World Socialist Web Site writer Eric London, Matt Maddock has held multiple fundraisers and meetings at the Huron Valley Guns store. In addition to employing Paul Edward Bellar, an ex-Army soldier who has been indicted in the plot against Whitmer, the store has been the recipient of thousands of dollars in government contracts for the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The day after the fascist plot against Whitmer was revealed, the WSWS wrote:

Trumps plan for election day is no longer a matter of conjecture. In battleground states that support Biden, Trump will falsely proclaim himself the victim of election fraud, deploy violent groups to intimidate voters, seize statehouses and eliminate political opponents. Armed supporters will declare the vote invalid or compel state legislatures to certify pro-Trump slates of electors. Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures and will therefore be the central target of this plot.

January 6, 2021 was a fascist coup that came within minutes of achieving its objectives. The storming and occupation of the Capitol by Trump loyalists was not a random act of violence, or an inconsequential tour visit that has been blown out of proportion. It was the culmination of a definite political strategy orchestrated by Trump and carried out by his supporters throughout the Republican Party and US government.

Despite ongoing revelations implicating Trump, his lawyers and Republican politicians throughout the country, not one of the principal architects and schemers has been arrested. Over a year after Trump and the Republicans tried to prevent Biden from assuming the office of president, the life-long Democratic politician expressed shock in his press conference Wednesday night that this party of fascists and insurrectionists would block his voting rights and limited social welfare bills.

As David North warned the day after Trumps failed coup: The events of January 6, 2021 must be taken as a warning. The working class must elaborate a political strategy and plan of action to defeat future efforts to impose a dictatorship.

The fight to secure democratic rights cannot be left to the Democrats, a party of Wall Street and the CIA. The Democrats would sooner capitulate to their fascistic Republican friends than chance exposing the terminal rot that has infected the entire capitalist state.

The only social force capable of defeating the ruling class turn toward dictatorship and eliminating the fascist threat is the American and international working class, mobilized and united on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program.
COVID-19 screening in Fiji [Credit: FBC News Fiji @FBC_News, Twitter]

Fijis third wave of COVID-19 cases, which began in early December, has continued to rage over the past month. After initially holding off COVID-19 in 2020 due to strict border controls, the country has now registered a total of 60,509 cases and a death toll of 752, most since mid-2021. Fijis population is about 900,000.

Following an outbreak last April, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama resisted calls for a national lockdown, saying it would destroy the economy. After peaking in August, case numbers dropped through September before escalating again in December, with 1,524 cases recorded between 20 December and January 2.

The Health Ministry reported the entry of the Omicron variant into the community on January 4, apparently from two cases in managed quarantine. Positive samples sent to Melbourne for genomic sequencing confirmed community transmission of both the Omicron and Delta variants.

Health Secretary James Fong has admitted there are another 655 COVID-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted the virus. These are not being classified as COVID-19 deaths.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported last week that there is no end in sight for the Pacific nation, as infections continue to spike. From January 7-20, there were 4,860 new cases reported, including 724 on January 19.

The current wave has coincided with the reckless decision by the government to open the countrys borders to international travel on December 1. The move was in line with the clamour from big business and political elites internationally for the global population to live with the virus. In the Pacific, this agenda has been propelled by demands to restore the devastated tourism industry, deemed essential to the economies of island businesses.

According to Tourism Fiji, there were 75,000 international bookings for hotels and resorts until the end of January, mostly from Australia, New Zealand and the USall countries experiencing outbreaks of both Delta and (except for NZ at this stage) Omicron. During December, some 300 international visitors reportedly arrived with COVID-19, which was only subsequently discovered, and they were isolated within segmented parts of their hotels.

On December 30, with case numbers rapidly rising, Fong told the Fiji Times that plans to amend curfew hours and close international borders were still under discussion. However, he flatly declared, if a variant was transmissible enough, the use of stringent border and community measures could only delay the inevitable entry and spread of current and future variants of the virus, i.e., claiming the use of basic protective measures is essentially useless.

Questioned further by the Fiji Times on January 14, Fong denied that the increase in Omicron cases could solely be attributed to the reopening of the border. He said the Omicron variant was already in Fiji, before the ministry recorded the first two cases. The day it was reported, it was already in many of our travel partner countries, he said, adding; Nobody knew it was there. We only got aware of it after we started opening. Fong did not say where it could have originated.

The purpose of the official obfuscation is to avoid shutting the borders to international tourists. Fong said the border quarantine measures were only focused on avoiding a variant coming into Fiji that the rest of the world has not yet known about. He did not want Fiji to experience all the initial punitive measures that they do against countries where a case is initially identified.

The government is pursuing the murderous let it rip policy, adopted by capitalist governments internationally, against its own people. With more than 92 percent of adults double-vaccinated, Fong falsely declared that this, plus infection-induced immunity from a large number of people previously infected, would help to lower the number of people that develop severe disease.

As elsewhere, public health measures are being cut back. The isolation period for COVID-19 positive persons has been reduced from 10 days to seven. You may stop isolating if seven days have passed since the start of symptoms or since the positive test (for asymptomatic cases), Fong declared. Close contacts are not required to isolate unless they develop symptoms.

On January 4 schools reopened early for Years 8 to 13 to make up the so-called education gap from closures during the last term of 2021. Parents were told to send their children to school unless they were not feeling well. Education Minister Premila Kumar said students were expected to comply with the inadequate COVID-safe measures, including the wearing of masks.

One parent, Savinesh Karan, told the Fiji Times on January 15 that his Year 10 child tested positive for COVID-19 after attending school for two days, then spread it to other members of the household. We believe that he got it from school, either while he was coming home in the van or from the people in school, Karan said, adding that it was much safer for students to stay at home.

Education Minister Kumar has repeated the mantra being trotted out everywhere to enforce irresponsible school re-openings. We know that face-to-face learning is vital for the academic achievement, mental and physical health, and overall well-being of our students, she said, without explaining how the rampant spread of Omicron will benefit childrens health.

On January 14, the first flight into Kiribati in almost two years brought 36 COVID-19 cases from Fiji to the tiny central Pacific nation, which had been virtually untouched by the virus. A security officer involved in handling the cases also tested positive for the virus. The flight carrying 54 passengers was chartered by a fundamentalist church. Kiribati had opened its international borders on January 10 after being shut since March 2020. The country previously recorded only two COVID-19 cases, from a returning ship in May 2021.

A curfew order was put in place for Kiribatis population of 119,000 as well as mandatory mask wearing and bans on social gatherings of more than 10 people. The New Zealand website Stuff reported that residents were frustrated at the slow communication from the Kiribati government as well as the decision to open the border when Fiji was battling a third wave of COVID-19.
The federal charges against Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen were dropped by the Justice Department on Thursday, after the US government admitted that it could no longer meet its burden of proof at trial.

Dr. Gang Chen [Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology]

US District Judge Patti Saris dismissed the case against Chen, a naturalized US citizen since 2000 and highly respected professor of nanoscience at MIT, after federal prosecutors dropped charges that he failed to disclose Chinese affiliations in grant proposals to US funding agencies and failed to report the existence of a foreign bank account.

Dr. Chen had been one of the most high-profile scientists in the US charged under the China Initiative program, an anti-China witch-hunting operation that was launched by the Justice Department in 2018 during the Trump administration with the professed aim of stopping Chinese economic and scientific espionage.

In a statement to the press, Chen said, While I am relieved that my ordeal is over, I am mindful that this terribly misguided China Initiative continues to bring unwarranted fear to the academic community and other scientists still face charges.

Without apologizing to Dr. Chen or acknowledging the prosecution as a travesty of justice, the new US attorney in Boston, Rachael S. Rollins, said, We understand that our charging decisions deeply impact peoples lives. As United States attorney, I will always encourage the prosecutors in our office to engage in this type of rigorous and continued review at every stage of a proceeding. Todays dismissal is a result of that process and is in the interests of justice.

There are approximately 20 academics and researchers who have been charged under the China Initiative over the past three years. Several convictions have been rendered by US courts on trumped-up charges such as the guilty verdict of Harvard University chemistry and biology professor Charles Lieber on December 21, 2021. The court did not convict the 62-year-old Lieber on any charges related to aiding the Peoples Republic of China but on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities and four other counts related to tax and bank filings.

Additionally, the China Initiative is in a shambles with many of the cases dismissed for lack of evidence and, instead, the program is increasingly seen as an anti-China campaign against scientists based on their ethnic origin. As the New York Times reported on Thursday, The prosecutions have come under criticism for singling out scientists based on their ethnicity, and for overreach, blurring the line between disclosure violations and more serious crimes like espionage. Critics in academia say it has instilled a pervasive atmosphere of fear among scientists of Chinese descent.

Last September, the first of these cases to go to trial, against University of Tennessee professor of engineering Anming Hu, resulted in an acquittal when the judge ruled that the government had not proven intentional fraud. According to the Times, seven other cases against researchers have also been dismissed.

Professor Chen was arrested on January 14, 2021, during the final week of the Trump White House. At that time, the World Socialist Web Site reported that the Justice Department falsely claimed he was in direct collaboration with the Peoples Republic of China in exchange for financial compensation. The charges also stated that he functioned as an overseas expert for the government in Beijing and received approximately $29 million in funding from the Chinese Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech).

As was pointed out in a letter from MIT faculty members who were outraged by the charges against Dr. Chen, the claims made by the US government were completely bogus since the activity that he was being criminally charged for were part of the routine practice of academic researchers. Meanwhile, the $29 million that the professor supposedly received from China was in fact funding that was awarded to MIT. The letter said, Singling him and his research group out as the sole recipient is simply wrong. The partnership with SUSTech was approved and overseen by MIT at the highest levels.

Dr. Chen had pleaded not guilty to the charges, was released on bond and remained on paid leave at MIT. Even though he faced up to 25 years in prison and a half-million dollars in fines, the professor had said he was looking forward to vigorously defending himself. At the time of his arrest, he was 56 years old and was considered one of the most accomplished and published researchers in the fields of physics and materials science.

The fact that it has taken the Biden administrations Justice Department more than a year to dismiss the case against Dr. Chen is an outrage, given the preposterous nature of the charges against him. This fact speaks to the correspondence between the politics of the Democrats and Republicans on US government policy toward China. Within the political establishment and ruling elite there is a broad-based constituency for using anti-Chinese hysteria within the US as part of its international political strategy. This is proven by the fact that the Biden White House has not shut down the China Initiative.

It is a fact that the Trump administration did not have to do very much to move forward with its prosecutorial offensive based on extreme American nationalism and xenophobia given that the Obama White House had initiated a pivot to Asia policy within which economic and military aggression was directed toward China.

The delay in dropping the charges against Dr. Chen indicates that there are some within the Biden Justice Department who wanted to press forward with his prosecution. While the anti-Chinese campaign has been whipped up over the past two years with false claims regarding the origin of the coronavirusthe Wuhan Lab lie has supporters from the far-right to the nominally liberal wings of American politicsthe Biden administration has been weighing its options for utilizing the Chinese Initiative prosecutions for its own international political objectives.

However, as indicated by the opposition within the MIT faculty to the treatment of Gang Chen, the US public will not be so easily manipulated. Dr. Chens lawyer, Robert Fisher, said that witnesses came forward and told the government how badly they misunderstood the details surrounding scientific and academic collaboration, and without them this case would likely still be ongoing.
Are you a King Soopers worker? Contact the World Socialist Web Site today to discuss your reaction to the shutdown of the strike and the way forward for grocery workers.

In a flagrant sellout, The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 7 abruptly announced a tentative agreement with King Soopers early Friday morning, and shut down a 10 day strike by 8,000 workers in the Denver, Colorado area. Strikers were instructed to take down their pickets and to contact their store managers to be put back on the work schedule. Workers will have seven days to report back to work.

King Soopers workers on the picket line [Source: Twitter/@MorePerfectUS]

In a blatantly anti-democratic procedure, King Soopers workers were instructed to shut down the pickets begin returning to work before they have seen even a single word of the deal, and before the union had even announced a timetable for a vote. Indications are now that the vote will take place throughout the day on Monday, but workers will not have the opportunity to review the contract before the ratification meetings.

Many workers voiced concern and suspicion on social media about the deal. No, it doesnt sound right at all, said one worker. We should still be striking until we get to vote on the contract. Im sorry I dont trust [UFCW 7 President Kim Cordova] right now. And I dont trust the company. Another said, Ill go back when the contract is officially voted on and ratified. I dont trust corporations or union bosses. I trust my comrade workers only!

The vote is being conducted in a way which is clearly designed not to convince workers to support the deal but to intimidate them and present it as a fait accompli. Even the vote itself is designed to suppress voter turnout; two meetings are scheduled to take place at a hotel near the Denver airport more than an hour away from the city center by public transit, and those who have returned to work will have to request unpaid time off from management in order to attend the meeting.

In a frequently asked questions flyer posted on its Facebook page, UFCW Local 7 described the voting procedure as little more than a formality. Your vote is critical, the union disingenuously claimed, and we need you to come to hear the details and have your voice heard. In order for the agreement to take effect members will need to ratify the agreement. There was no indication of what, if anything, would happen if workers voted down the contract; instead, the memberships vote is presented as critical only insofar as they vote to ratify the contract.

Workers should reject this deal, as a matter of principle, by the widest possible margin, and not accept any deal unless they have been given a copy of the full contract and at least one week to study it. Moreover, they must demand the immediate resumption of the strike until all of their demands have been met.

So, theres no later meetings for it? I know a lot of people who wont be able to make it, one worker declared. I already told my manager Id be back, I cant just tell her I changed my mind [and] Im not coming back until Tuesday. Thats kind of messed up when we were supposed to call our store managers to get back on the schedule, so I did.

One worker who spoke to the WSWS said, Were waiting for details to come out about the new contract, then well be able to vote on it. Were all a bit suspicious.

Another said, This does not sound right. we have not voted. If we stop striking before we vote we lose traction with our loyal customers. I really think this is going to confuse the public thinking its OK to shop at [King Soopers] again, before we even have an official contract.

The shutdown of the King Soopers strike is only the latest in a string of sellouts by the pro-corporate trade unions. Only one week ago, the Chicago Teachers union shut down a city-wide job action at public schools, using virtually identical methods. The CTU worked out a deal behind the backs of teachers to send them back into schools, only to force them to vote on the deal after the fact and schools had already been reopened. To cover his tracks, CTU President Jesse Sharkey claimed that teachers were powerless in the face of intransigence by the citys Democratic administration. This was proven to be a lie only days later by a growing wave of student and teacher sickouts across the country and around the world demanding the closure of schools.

While no details of the King Soopers deal have been made public, the circumstances behind the announcement can only indicate it is a sellout which accepts virtually all of managements main demands. Press reports only hours before the deal was announced suggested that negotiators were still far apart from a deal. King Soopers president also reportedly behaved provocatively, spending only a few minutes at the bargaining table. Moreover, the company had just obtained a court injunction limiting pickets, a clear sign that it was not in the mood to negotiate but intended to smash the strike.

If King Soopers management is playing hardball, it is because of the strength of the strike, not its weakness. The grocery store chain has been unable to hire sufficient numbers of scabs and has been compelled to bring in managers from out of state in a bid to keep their stores operating. Moreover, the strike received enormous support from workers in surrounding communities, who refused to cross the picket line to shop, causing sales at the chain to collapse.

But the most important indication of the potential support for the strike came at the end of the week when the wave of student walkouts reached metropolitan Denver, when students at several schools participated in demonstrations to end in-person learning. The campaign to close schools is part of a growing international movement within the working class to oppose the subordination of public health policies to private profit and the reopening of schools in order to force parents back to work.

This groundswell of support and potential support came in spite of attempts by the UFCW to limit and isolate the strike. It called off the strike in Colorado Springs without explanation shortly before it was scheduled to begin, and also unilaterally extended a contract at Safeway stores which had been due to expire this month. Safeway workers in Denver report having to work 14 hours a day in order to keep up with increased demand from customers refusing to shop at King Soopers. One worker, criticizing this move, said on social media, King [Soopers] went on strike leaving Safeway employees who are under the same union standing dealing with the madness. Their contracts are up as well and you don't hear nearly as much about them.

Particularly over the course of the last year, an unmistakable pattern has opened up, in which the trade unions have responded to a growing wave of resistance by workers not by yielding to popular pressure but by acting more openly and treacherously to sabotage their struggles. This was the case at strikes last year at Volvo Trucks, John Deere and Kelloggs, as well as potential strikes which were called off at the last minute at Kaiser Permanente and in the film industry. The reason for this is because the unions long ago ceased to function as workers organizations, and are pro-corporate bureaucracies controlling billions of dollars in assets which work hand in glove with management to enforce concessions.

As for the UFCW, it has played a critical role in keeping food processing plants open throughout the pandemic even during mass infection. Local 7s inaction in the summer of 2020 in the face of a major outbreak at the nearby JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado cost six workers their lives, until workers took eventually took matters into their own hands and staged wildcat walkouts to shut down the plant. At a pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, the UFCW responded to mass absenteeism during a major outbreak by working with management to create a perfect attendance bonus, even as the latter were privately taking bets on how many worker would become infected. It has also worked to sabotage one struggle after another at Kroger stores throughout the country, including Arkansas and Houston.

The way forward in this struggle is through workers taking matters into their own hands. Workers must move now to organize rank-and-file committees to oppose the shutdown of the strike, demand adequate time to study the contract and appeal for the broadest possible support from workers across the area and the country in their battle against not only management but the UFCW.

The World Socialist Web Site, which has helped workers across the world form such committees at factories, schools and other workplaces, stands ready to assist King Soopers workers. To contact us to begin building a rank-and-file committee, fill out the form below.
Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are essential for a modern industrial sector that meets global standards, noted UAEs Minister of State for Advanced Technology, Sarah Al Amiri.

There are numerous companies across several sectors that have transformed their business with the use of artificial intelligence, blockchain and other digital technologies. The Champions 4.0 Network, 12 national and multinational companies that are leading in the development and adoption of advanced technology, will be showcasing the successful uses of fourth-generation technologies in industry, and advising on their integration, she said at a panel discussion that took place on Industry 4.0 at the Swedish Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai.

With the world entering a transformative era of digitalisation brought about by Industry 4.0, collaboration with industry-leading partners like Ericsson is paramount to ensuring the successful accelerated deployment of 4.0 technology in the UAE, she said pointing to Ericssons Champions 4.0 Network collaboration with the UAEs Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT).

Panelists included Tomas Eneroth, Swedens Minister for Infrastructure and Fadi Pharaon, President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa. The panel focused on UAEs strategic initiatives such as Operation 300bn and Net Zero 2050, with Al Amiri sharing the various policies in place to realise these ambitions.

Digitalisations impact on UAEs ICT and transportation infrastructure was also highlighted, with Eneroth sharing the catalysts for a more digitalised and sustainable transport sector.

Eneroth said: A private sector with a strong commitment to digital and green innovation and good cooperation between industry and politics has been crucial for making Sweden a world-leading climate nation. By spreading positive examples and exporting green innovation, we can reduce global emissions while creating new jobs.

Pharaon said: At Ericsson we have a vision of a world where limitless connectivity improves lives, redefines business and pioneers a sustainable future. We aspire to make this vision a reality across the world by reaching new connectivity milestones globally and here in the UAE.

We look forward to continuing this journey, strengthening collaboration with our customers and partners in the industry to realise Industry 4.0 in the UAE, leveraging the power of new technologies such as 5G, IoT and the cloud to transform every sector and paving the way for an intelligent, sustainable, and connected future for the UAE.

The panel discussion was followed by a workshop led by Ericssons global and regional experts in which they highlighted global findings on enterprise digitalisation maturity, Ericssons private 5G networks, and 5G-enhanced manufacturing in UAE.-- TradeArabia News Service
Are you an autoworker facing COVID outbreaks or other serious problems at your plant Contact the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter at autoworkers@wsws.org.

At least 200 workers are out due to COVID at Fords Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky, a worker has informed the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter. In order to protect his identity, his name and certain features of his job have been altered in the interview below.

Louisville Assembly Plant produces the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC crossover SUV models, and is one of the largest industrial employers in Kentucky, with 4,722 hourly workers represented by United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 862. Louisville is a major regional industrial center, and also hosts Fords Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP), with 8,620 hourly workers as well as the UPS Worldport air freight hub.

The ongoing spread of the Omicron variant in the US, a result of the homicidal government policies of allowing the virus to spread unchecked, has produced a catastrophe in the state. Kentucky, with a population of 4.5 million, recently reached the grim milestone of over one million total cases, with 12,687 deaths. On Friday, 15,864 new cases and 28 deaths were recorded in the state.

The virus has had a major impact on the auto plants, which are known hot spots for the transmission of COVID-19, along with schools and other workplaces. Infections and deaths among auto workers continue to climb. Meanwhile, the UAW works hand-in-hand with the corporations to keep the plants operational and cover up the true extent of the spread. The WSWS reported on the death of Caleb Mateo Dye, a 32-year-old worker at Fords Chicago Assembly Plant, who lost his life after a lengthy battle against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Workers assemble Ford trucks at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, KY [Credit: AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley]

I heard it from a supervisor that I had asked [that 200 people were out], Daniel, a 20-year veteran of the company, said. One day, we had to shut one line down, and the other line, where myself and others work, had to go to different areas because they had people out with COVID. They even had at least 50 people from KTP come over to our plant because we were so short.

When asked about the number of deaths, Daniel stated, As of last month, there were maybe 15 people who passed, but I never found out what they died from.

Referring to the plants safety protocols and procedures, Daniel commented, In the beginning, our team leaders would go around every morning a half-hour before work with alcohol spray and wipes, and they would wipe our whole area down, our tools, and so on. Then Ford said, Well, were spending too much money for these team leaders to come in and clean your area. Instead, they told us that we have the choice to come in on our own time to clean.

I come in 20 minutes early with my own bottle of spray and disinfectant wipes, and I just wipe down the whole area because I dont know who was using my computer or tools, and I dont want to take the chance of them being contaminated. He added, They say they supply the [cleaning] bottles, but each time you try to find a bottle, its always empty, and when I go to my supervisor and ask for cleaning supplies, they tell me to go to my team leader, who then tells me to go back to my supervisor.

As far as general safety is concerned, it isnt a factor until somebody gets hurt, and then theyll address it. The bathrooms are filthy. Every day were having to talk to a supervisor about overflowing toilets, or that theres no soap in the dispensers.

Its gotten worse since the pandemic began, because a lot of the custodial workers are out with the virus, or were exposed to it.

In response to the decades of betrayals carried out by the trade unions, and their transformation into corporatist syndicates whose primary purpose is to suppress opposition within the working class, the WSWS has been appealing to workers to begin forming independent rank-and-file committees.

I agree, because talking to the union is a dead-end, said Daniel. They just throw their hands up. You have people catching COVID and nothing is being done as a safety measure to keep any more people from catching it.

For example, a coworker who works next to me was suddenly off for a week, and I found out he caught the virus. I wasnt even informed. When I talked to my committee representative, they said that they took all the safety measures, checked his area, checked who he sat and ate lunch with and said they were all okay.

So, I think a separate committee or a safety group should be formed outside of the union to follow up to make sure theres better protocols for the workers. Ford doesnt care, and the union isnt backing up the workers.
The Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees invite all educators, parents and students in the South to attend and share their experiences at our meeting this Sunday, January 23, 3:00p.m. CT, titled Pause in-person learning! Stop the spread of COVID! To register, click here.

Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana [Wikimedia Commons]

COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout Louisiana schools following the winter break, while the state as a whole has seen record infections in January. On Tuesday, the state surpassed 1 million total infections, meaning that roughly one in five residents has contracted the virus.

Indicating the danger of allowing the highly infectious and vaccine-evading Omicron variant to spread, double-vaccinated people accounted for 43 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the state between January 6 and 12.

K-12 schools across the state recorded 8,735 cases among students and 1,719 among staff the week of January 10, representing 21 and 25 percent of all cases since August 9, respectively. In the East Baton Rouge Parish school district alone, there were 1,105 reported cases last week.

Since the start of the new year, multiple schools in the district have had to switch to virtual learning following outbreaks and severe staff shortages. The dangerous and untenable situation led 750 teachers in the district to participate in a one-day sickout last week. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to a middle school teacher who participated and requested anonymity to prevent retaliation.

WSWS: The district tried to downplay the impact of the sickout. Can you comment on this?

Teacher: The district was very careful in how it worded the statements about the sickout. In one article, the administration is quoted as saying that 750 is a normal amount of absences for the last two weeks. I was surprised they admitted that. Thats a tremendous amount of absences and just supports what were sayingthat there are so many teachers out that the schools cant function.

I know of a lot of teachers who wanted to participate, but theyve already used up their sick days because of COVID. The district gives very few COVID sick days, and teachers are using them up like candy, either because they or their family members get COVID. Its a bad situation for educators.

What is the mood of teachers?

Teachers are angry. Even the apolitical teachers who usually dont want to get involved are angry at this point. On a typical day, I go in and at 6:40 Im already in the classroom with children even though my contract hours dont start until 6:50. Theres nowhere else to put them. I have other students in my classroom because their teachers have COVID. Instead of getting a planning period or lunch break, I get another class. There are no breaks for us right now. We are all angry and tired.

How is the situation impacting your students?

Our kids see whats happening. They understand that the people in charge are not doing whats in their best interest, and they talk about this all the time. I teach middle school, and they watch the news. They realize how hard it is on the teachers too. A student asked me, But when do you get a break? You dont get a lunch break?

The kids are also talking about the student walkouts. They said, We wish we could do that, but as middle schoolers, theyre not old enough. If they could, they would. Theyre ready and mad. They feel unsafe. Theyre tired of watching classmates get pulled out one by one. The amount of trauma they have been subjected to in the last two years makes us as educators question all of our morals right now. Being in-person, teachers are forced to be in a position where were putting the students in danger.

The most shocking thing is that now if you catch COVID, you go home for five days, then you come back whether youre still positive or not. There are teachers at school who still have COVID but had to come back after five days. They are questioning whether they want to quit, because they feel wrong exposing their students.

How have the first two weeks since winter break been?

Insane. Every single day, between 50 and 100 kids were sent home, and teachers were going home too. The school only has 700 students. Every day, wed be in class, and theyd announce on the intercom a list of students to be sent to the office with their belongings. Because were not doing virtual or hybrid, the students who quarantine miss school for five days.

It was the same with teachers. Every day another one went home after testing positive. When that happens, they split the class up, because we dont have any subs. There was a day when I had a class of 25, but 10 were out, so I began with 15 students. Then five teachers were out, and I got 5 kids from each class. So I had 40 kids in my room. I only have seats for 30, so 10 of those kids sat on the floor. This happened on multiple days.

What do you think of the media and politicians citing mental health and learning loss as justification for keeping students in-person?

In the beginning [March 2020], when the district wanted us to go virtual, a lot of us were concerned about it because we know which kids suffer from depression and what isolation can do to them. We asked that the school board consider alternative ways of checking in with the kids. We have the resources to check in either through meal delivery or something else.

I dont understand why they didnt do more to make virtual better for everybody. It didnt have to function the way that it did. But then they wanted us in-person and back to work. From our standpoint, our district purposely sabotaged virtual. They didnt give us any training. Then when we requested to go back to virtual because it was dangerous, they said we didnt do a good job with it and blamed us.

Nobody wants to be virtual long-term, but what were saying is that we cant teach the students if they are dead or if we are dead. With the amount of people sick in schools, were not teaching them anyway. Theyre not getting an education.

How has being forced to go back in-person affected the students?

A lot of students seem different. I noticed that many are complaining about sleep anxiety or insomnia. They come to school exhausted. I think its a combination of being afraid to catch COVID and also the stress of the situation. They feed off our emotions. When we are high stressed, they are too. They see their parents stressed as well, and theyre watching kids test positive and wondering if they are next. Also, theres an expectation from the adults around them to just continue to function like everything is normal when its not.

What is the state of case reporting and contact tracing in the district?

I think the district is downplaying the number of cases and that the numbers reported arent accurate. Testing here is optional. We have students who dont get tested at all and others who get tested every week. There are also so many cases that its difficult to keep up with contact tracing. An administrator told me, We can't keep up with this. Its too much.

Has the district made plans to switch to virtual during the surge?

The superintendent stated he absolutely wont go virtual. We have to have a certain amount of staff who are COVID-positive in order to shut down. Theres no notice when that happens. If we go virtual, we find out the day before at the end of the day. Parents have to shuffle to find coverage with no notice.

What have you heard from the parents? Are any of them keeping their kids out of school?

I have parents who keep the children home for a few days when cases get so high. They are struggling, though, because the kids only have so many days theyre allowed to be out before CPS [Child Protection Services] gets involved. Some kids are being pulled out of the district and sent to home school or private school, anything that will allow them to be in a smaller setting.

The district and media have gone out of the way to pit teachers and parents against each other. They try to blame the parents concerns on teachers, and its not right. I sympathize with the parents. I talk to them. Their situation is impossible, and our situation as teachers is impossible too.

The teacher shared the following public Facebook post written by an East Baton Rouge parent:

My son just called me to come pick him up because he did not feel safe at school. 9 teachers were out on actual COVID quarantine, not the sickout. The remaining teachers were forced to absorb all of the students. He was crammed into a single classroom with so many students that there werent enough desks for everyone. It was the teachers scheduled planning period but there was no room for a break today. The lack of staff at the school made the regular lunch schedule chaos so they decided to eat in the classroom. In a crowded room so full that some kids had to sit on the floor, masks started coming off and my son decided that he needed to get out of there. This is the kind of situation that our teachers are facing every day. [Baton Rouge Superintendent] Narcisse would like you to believe that everything is fine, but the truth couldnt be farther from that. The Omicron variant is tearing through our schools causing unmanageable and dangerous staffing shortages and putting the remaining students & teachers at risk while furthering spread. Yet it seems like the only plan that the Superintendent has is to ride it out. This is why some teachers decided to take direct action today. Not because theyre selfish, because they are at a breaking point. The whole system is at a breaking point and the Sup. has buried his head in the sand.

Can you comment on the role of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association?

Our local union, the LEA (Louisiana Education Association) called the sickout, but we received no support from the national union (the National Education Association). We also have the Louisiana Federation of Teachers in Baton Rouge, but they refused to support the sickout.

Thank you for your time.
The Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees invite all educators, parents and students in the South to attend and share their experiences at our meeting this Sunday, 3 p.m. CT, titled Pause in-person learning! Stop the spread of COVID! To register, click here.

On Tuesday, North Carolina surpassed the grim milestone of 20,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began just over two years ago. The number of daily new infections has repeatedly broken all-time records this month, with an all-time high of 44,833 cases reached on January 13. By comparison, the highest number of cases recorded during last winters surge was 12,079 on February 2, 2021.

This worsening crisis is not simply a medical event, but the outcome of the criminal policies pursued by both corporate-controlled parties, which have subordinated public health to the demands of the ruling class.

The North Carolina state government and Democratic Governor Roy Cooper have followed the lead of the Biden administration in abandoning all remaining safeguards against the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. One of the principal aims of the Biden administration and state governments controlled by both parties has been to fully reopen schools to allow parents to return to work, ensuring the production of an endless stream of profit for the large corporations and their wealthy shareholders.

The current situation in North Carolinas schools is nothing short of catastrophic. At least twenty schools in the state have already been forced to close due to staff shortages this month as case numbers reach all-time highs.

In response to the shortage of teachers, Governor Cooper has encouraged other state employees with no teaching experience to act as substitutes, as has taken place in Michigan and other states. Under a temporary policy, any state employee who passes a background check can use paid volunteer days to teach, drive school buses or work in the cafeteria.

Under a law passed this summer, only individual schoolsnot entire districtscan go virtual. Senate Bill 654, titled K12 Covid-19 Provisions, allows schools to switch temporarily to virtual instruction only when it becomes literally impossible for them to function due to staff and student absences. In this regard, it is similar to the deal of death struck between Chicago Public Schools and the pseudo-left Chicago Teachers Unions (CTU), which only allows for individual school closures when the campus test positivity rate among staff surpasses 30 percent.

The North Carolina law requires an immediate return to in-person instruction as soon as personnel is available or the required quarantines are complete. The law also limits the percentage of the student body that can be enrolled remotely to 10 percent, leaving open what is supposed to happen if an even larger percentage of schools are unable to function due to absences.

As is happening across the US, North Carolina politicians have cynically insisted that in-person education is in the best interests of students. Democratic Senator Joyce Waddell, a member of the Education/Higher Education Committee, recently insisted that kids need to be in classrooms and that many students are not doing well through Zoom and at home. Waddell claimed that focusing on mitigating efforts like masking, social distancing and vaccines will keep students safe, disregarding the fact that there is no consistent policy of enforcing even the most meager mitigation efforts in the state.

With the dramatically increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, the virtual elimination of meaningful quarantines and the near total lack of adequate ventilation and filtration systems, such claims about student safety are lacking in all substance.

Before Christmas, Governor Cooper rejected all restrictions that could have slowed or stopped the spread of Omicron, limply insisting that with every vaccine dose, we get closer to turning the tide of sickness and death brought on by this pandemic. With regard to schools, Governor Cooper has also insisted that the responsible thing to do for parents is to get their child vaccinated, despite the fact that the vaccine-only approach already had disastrous consequences in the fall.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has acknowledged the limited effectiveness of the vaccines in protecting against infection, pointing out that even with highly effective vaccines, the number of post-vaccination cases is expected to rise as virus transmission goes up and as more people are vaccinated.

In the week ending January 1, a total of 5,838,242 North Carolinians were vaccinated against COVID-19. NCDHHS has most recently reported a total of 261,364 breakthrough infections of COVID-19 in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.

Despite the rollout of the vaccine and its approval for ages five and older, the vaccination rate for school-aged children remains under 80 percent, with only 63 percent of children aged 517 considered fully vaccinated, that is, having received two doses of vaccine. Children under five remain ineligible for any vaccine.

As of January 13, 2022 the North Carolina COVID-19 Dashboard stated that there have been 2,292 cases in the child care setting and 4 deaths. This is doubtless a vast undercount given the scarce availability of testing, particularly in pediatric cases. Moreover, these numbers have not been updated in at least a week.

Along with the rise in pediatric cases, there has been a corresponding rise in pediatric hospital admissions. For example, at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, six children are currently undergoing treatment, the highest number since the pandemic began.

Medical Officer Dr. Bill Hathaway of Mission Hospital recently told the press, Its not a big number but paying attention to trends like New York and Health Care Agencies across the country where theres an increase means something. He added, the thought of Omicron being mild doesnt touch on the potential for patients suffering serious complications.

The crushing reality is that hospitals lack space and, in this context, opening schools is nothing short of homicidal. There are currently 4,689 COVID-19 patients in hospitals throughout the state. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services Protect Public Data Hub, 82.77 percent of ICU beds are in use in North Carolina and 79.02 percent of inpatient beds are in use. These high admittance rates are carried on the backs of medical professional teams who are subject to inadequate protection, patient-to-staff ratios, and overall support.

According to the UNC Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy, the demand for nurses exceeds the supply by over 1,000, with the trend only moving forward to higher demand and a lower supply of nurses.

In September 2021, a survey was sent out by the North Carolina Nurses Association which showed severe workforce frustration, with many nurses agreeing with the statement, the current spike in cases could have been prevented. Many agreed that their facilities are understaffed and their mental and emotional wellbeing is being impacted by the rise in cases.

In the first week of January, 830 employees of Duke Health missed work after getting infected, equaling about two percent of its workforce. UNC health facilities listed more than 950 employees as absent due to COVID-19 infection or exposure requiring isolation. Shortages have been so bad that the North Carolina Emergency Medical System has to ask FEMA for ambulance strike teams due to ongoing staffing shortages and increases in service calls.

North Carolina Health News published a report in December 2021 by the COVID Collaborative study that estimated 3,626 children have lost caregivers in North Carolina. Caregivers include parents, custodial grandparents, or grandparents who live in the same household as the children.

Primary responsibility for this situation rests with the Biden administration, which has deepened and intensified the unscientific and antisocial policies of the Trump administration. Their top priority has been to keep workplaces open to ensure the steady stream of profits into the coffers of the corporations and the super rich. Workers and students must take the initiative to fight for their health and lives.

In order to stop the pandemic, there must be an immediate closure of all schools and nonessential workplaces with full income protection for affected workers, combined with widespread testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine of infected and exposed people, the provision of high quality N95 or better masks, and more.

Only the international working class can put an end to the pandemic. All workers who with to take up this struggle, contact the World Socialist Web Site today to share the situation at your school or workplace and help to build the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) today.
The West Coast Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees invite all educators, parents and students across the West Coast to attend and share their experiences at our meeting this Sunday, January 23,12:00 noon PT. To register, click here.

On Friday morning, an estimated 500 students and teachers from Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) participated in an online Zoom meeting organized by students to discuss their strike and COVID-19 safety concerns in the district.

Representing the widespread opposition to unsafe schools, students and teachers in all grade levels were in attendance from kindergarten to 12th grade. Some students and teachers attended individually, as well as entire classrooms, with teachers projecting the meeting during regular instruction.

Skyline High School [Credit: Oakland Unified School District, ousd.org]

The meeting opened with remarks by students on the strike and their demands. Over 9,000 students and staff engaged in sickout action on January 7, which led to a petition initiated by students demanding KN95 masks for all students, weekly PCR testing, and safe outdoor seating for lunches. Since Tuesday, hundreds of students have been on strike and are presently emphasizing the need for schools to go remote as their initial demands have not been fully met.

Student organizers spoke on the implications of catching COVID-19, including infecting loved ones, Long COVID and the evolution of further variants of concern.

The meeting showed an immense level of support for the students on strike and opposition to the present policies in the schools under which the district and local officials, as well as the unions, have made sure to keep open amid the ongoing Omicron surge. Dozens of students and speakers expressed support for the students and described the reality of unsafe conditions on their campuses.

One sixth grader said, My friend and his entire family all got COVID, which actually was quite worrying. I was concerned him or one of his other family members, like his grandma, could actually have died from COVID. But thankfully they did not. There are mass amounts of students that have been out in multiple classes.

Ive seen so many of my friends just not come to school for weeks because the plan by the district as a whole for how you are going to make sure COVID doesnt spread has been poor, to say the least, including the lack of masks until now. And I am hoping that the district and school can make a better plan to combat COVID and enforce it.

One high school student said, Our principal is telling us that only one student or staff member has contracted COVID-19 even though we personally know over three people who have gotten it. So he is basically just lying to us, and its uncomfortable.

Mario, a junior at Fremont High School, said, Schools havent been providing safety. They only provided us with one mask, and thats not good enough. And they have holes in the bottom and thats not good enough. You guys want us to be safe, I feel like we should have better equipment. The teachers can only do so much, and they are really helpful, but I feel like the district and school board has to come and help us also.

The district needs to be more strict about this COVID stuff, he stressed. Thats our health at the end of the day. People are dying because of this, and that is not OK. You all dont want kids dying. That sucks. Losing your loved ones. I lost a loved one from it, I had it badly and almost died so I know what it feels like to have it.  Our voices need to be heard. This is ridiculous. Its getting out of hand.  We need to be safer and come together and beat this.

An entire class at United For Success Academy Middle School was also on the call, taught by teacher Jazmine, whom the WSWS recently interviewed. One of her students said, Im glad we did have the strike, and we should show the people in OUSD that we are not joking around and that we do need serious precautions for COVID. Even if we are not vulnerable ourselves, at home we have people that are at high risk. Like my sister, its very stressful to be at home with her because I dont want to get her sick because she has a lung problem, cystic fibrosis. And its a mess, and I dont want anyone else to go through that, and I really think we need to have higher precautions.

During the discussion, Gabriel Black, an educator and reporter for the WSWS, expressed support for the strike and made an appeal for students to break out of the isolation within the district and fight to unite their struggle with other students, teachers and workers across the US and internationally against the homicidal herd immunity policies being implemented in the schools and workplaces.

He stated, We do not accept that we should die to keep jobs going and the stock market working, he said. This is going to require a serious fight which is not just in Oakland, but also in Chicago, LA and elsewhere. We are fighting for a general strike of teachers and students to make schools safe and shut schools down until they can be made safe.

Interviews with Oakland students

The WSWS also spoke with Oakland students this week on their safety concerns and the growing support for their strike.

Daisha, a junior at Oakland School for the Arts, an OUSD charter school, described the lack of safety at her site. Recent teacher shortages at her school forced it to close all last week, with students and staff returning to classes Tuesday.

She noted, Just before the school closures and due to the number of teachers out sick, all the sixth graders had to be in the same room, which is entirely unsafe, especially since many of them arent even eligible to be vaccinated. Our school building is quite small and does not allow for much social distancing. We eat indoors. High school students are allowed to eat off campus, but middle schoolers have to eat on campus.

In response to the present policies to keep schools and workplaces open despite the mass amount of infection, death and long-term illness, Daisha said, We are in the middle of a pandemic, but the government is trying to convince us that we are not. Its ridiculous, quite honestly. It really highlights how capitalistic this country is.

Daisha gave her support for the striking Oakland students, saying, I think that what they are doing is incredibly important, and the students who are a part of the strike are doing a great job. We know that money is tied directly to our daily attendance. I think students making a disturbance like this is what is needed to make actual change.

Cassidy, also a student at Oakland School for the Arts, also described the unsafe conditions at the school. Despite being fully vaccinated and boosted, she contracted COVID-19 during the first week that schools reopened from winter break.

She said, The hallways are packed and not COVID-safe. We have been issued KN95s, but there are not enough for everyone. The administration has asked parents to buy and donate masks to the schools. Also, the KN95s we got dont fit very well, which makes them not very helpful if they dont fit, right? We have irregular testing, and it is not mandatory.

There are classrooms at our school with no windows, and we have our arts classes there. Many of us are in these classrooms for hours at a time during the day. Also, Im a musician, and we practice in these small, soundproof practice rooms with around four people at a time. We practice for hours. The wind instruments have also been brought back out which is even more dangerous.

Since winter break, we have had so many absences. It feels like we are back in March 2020, when schools were about to close and go online because so many people were out, except we arent, they are keeping schools open.

In response to the fact that local, state and federal politicians are intent on downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 and keeping schools open, Cassidy replied, Its not as much of a surprise to me anymore. Most politicians have money in mind rather than people. They have been totally exposed; there is no facade anymore.

The pandemic doesnt need to be normalized. And in fact, its really ableist to say that the reason people are ending up in the hospital now with COVID is because they already had comorbidities. They deserve to live just as much as anyone. Its terrible. Its because they [the government] only value people who are able to go to work and only when they can be productive citizens of society. It shows the capitalistic tendencies of the system, and we need a complete change.

Cassidy stated emphatically, Im fully in support of the students striking and really hope something gets done. This needs to spread further statewide and elsewhere.

In response to the WSWS call for an independent fight by workers and youth to carry out a globally coordinated strategy to eliminate COVID-19 and stop the pandemic, Cassidy said, Whats taking place now is unacceptable. We are not going to get anywhere without trying to get the best outcome. The fact that other countries have done it shows it can be done.

We urge students and teachers in Oakland and beyond to join the emergency meeting of the West Coast Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees this Sunday to organize an immediate pause in in-person learning and expand the fight to end the pandemic. Register here.
Students walking out of Winnipeg's Kelvin High School on Monday, Jan. 17 to protest the lack of COVID-19 safety measures. (Striking Students/Reddit)

Opposition among educators, school support staff and students to the ruling elites reckless drive to resume in-person learning continues to grow following Mondays walkout by hundreds of high school students in Winnipeg and across Manitoba. Schools in British Columbia and Ontario have been hit by protests in recent day as teachers invoke their right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions.

Five teachers at Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto began a work refusal Wednesday, declaring that they were protesting poor ventilation and packed corridors with mask-less students during lunchtime.

The protesting teachers made clear that they saw their action as impacting all education staff and students. This is the situation in high schools all across the province, one protesting teacher told the TorontoStar. Were no different. There are lots of high schools with well over 1,000 students who are eating in cafeterias, hallways and stairwells every day. Its exacerbated by the fact that we have combined schools (in one building) so theres really absolutely no cohorting.

In Peel Region, a drama teacher filed a work refusal Wednesday, citing inadequate mask-wearing and a lack of rapid antigen tests. I would like to see a genuine assessment of student safety, Mary Fraser-Hamilton told Global News, and that means reinstating track-and-trace, reinstating access to PCR testing, freer access to rapid testing.

Teachers at an elementary school in Armstrong in the BC Interior have also initiated a work-refusal, refusing to go to work due to the low level of mask-wearing in the building. Since the school was forced to close on January 14, at least three members of staff have tested positive for COVID-19.

The work refusal process involves assigning an inspector from the provincial Ministry of Labour or workplace safety board and a trade union representative to examine the issue. The process is rigged in favour of the government and employers, as shown by the fact, noted by the Star, that since the pandemic began not a single teacher work-refusal in Ontario has been upheld. The teacher unionswhich have enforced the back-to-school policy throughout the pandemics successive waveshave touted the work-refusal process as a means to isolate teachers opposed to school reopenings, encouraging them to file individual grievances, while blocking all efforts by educators to take collective action through walkouts and strikes.

The growth of anger and opposition is being driven by the ruling elites utter indifference to a dramatic acceleration of hospitalizations and deaths. Canadas Public Heath Agency reported Friday morning that there had been 212 COVID deaths nationwide in the previous 24 hours, the fourth-highest daily total since the pandemic began. In Quebec, during the past week the daily mortality rate has been 7.3 per million inhabitants, more than the 5.9 per million currently being recorded in the US, where over 2,000 people are dying from the virus daily.

Hospitalizations and deaths are so high that the official figures, which were always undercounts, have increasingly lost track with reality. Ontario, for example, reported 75 deaths on Thursday, but noted that the figure included late notifications from the previous 19 days. This begs the question of how many COVID-19 deaths are now going unreported.

Due to shortages of tests and staff and pressure from governments to promote learning to the live with the virus, public health authorities have abandoned any attempt to measure the number of new COVID infections, with only the very ill and frontline health care workers who have been in contact with COVID-stricken patients being encouraged to get PCR tests.

Now, governments and their paymasters in the financial elite are similarly seeking ways to conceal the scale of death produced by their profits before life policy. In Ontario, public health officials are reportedly considering a proposal to distinguish in future between so-called causal and incidental COVID-19 deaths.

One of the key objectives of such accounting tricks is to cover up the devastating toll the Omicron variant is having on children. Over the past week alone, there were reports of three child deaths: a 4-year-old girl in Montreal, a 5-year-old in Ontario, and a child aged between 5 and 9 in Calgary. These tragic fatalities give the lie to the claim, incessantly promoted by the corporate media and politicians, that children are not at serious risk from the virus.

The demand to keep schools open under these conditions is nothing short of criminal. The principal concern of the ruling elite, its political parties, and their lackeys in the trade union bureaucracy, is that children must be confined to warehouse-like schools so that their parents are freed from childcare obligations and can go to work generating profits for big business.

Students, teachers and health care professionals have taken to social media to oppose the ruling elites lying claim that schools are the safest place for students, and that in-person learning is necessary to protect students mental health. Dr. Tyler Black, an expert in emergency child and adolescent psychiatry, wrote on Twitter, Its about safety... saving lives is the most trauma-supported thing we can do for kids [N]ow is a world moment to both PROTECT and NOURISH their well-being. There is NO reason to require in-school education to accomplish those things.

Kaden, a high school student also commented on Twitter, Stop saying students need to be back in schools for our Mental health. None of you were advocating for our mental health until it helped push your Anti-lockdown & Anti-vaxx agenda.

In a subsequent interview with the World Socialist Web Site, Kaden documented the dangerous conditions at his school, which prompted him to criticize the reopening plans. My school has a capacity of over 1000 students, he said. Theres not enough hall way space to ensure physical distancing between classes. Cases are at an all-time high and we havent reached the peak, we know about this because of expert projections. Schools are a high risk setting.

Asked about the issue of student mental health, Kaden answered, The best mental health support we can get is to know our environment is safe. The supports that are essential are not the supports were getting. The mental health of students is not safe in an unsafe environment.

Turning to how he thinks the pandemic should be combatted, Kaden commented, I believe Zero COVID is the best response. Its the only response. Otherwise there will be a teacher shortage and theyll have to close anyways, and we wont receive a quality education. It will create a completely unsustainable system.

The Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee (CERSC) is seeking to build a mass movement of educators, support staff, students, and parents to fight for a global COVID-19 elimination strategy. The CERSC calls for the immediate closure of schools for in-person learning, the shutdown of all nonessential production, and full wages paid to all workers by the pandemic profiteers until infections are reduced to zero. Society must be reorganized to prioritize the protection of human life, not the accumulation of disgusting levels of wealth and profits.

The CERSC will hold its next public meeting on Sunday, January 23, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. We encourage everyone who is interested to register today to attend by emailing the CERSC at cersc.csppb@gmail.com or visiting our Twitter or Facebook accounts.
With the international surge of Omicron, capitalist governments around the world have increasingly dispensed with any pretense of seeking to contain the deadly virus, or even mitigate its worst effects. More and more, their openly stated policy is to allow massive infection for the foreseeable future, meaning continuous global waves of illness and death unprecedented outside of wartime.

Traffic marshals direct vehicles at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 8, 2022 [Credit: AP Photo/Mark Baker, File]

The shift in the world situation finds one of its sharpest expressions in those countries that previously implemented public health measures to successfully suppress transmission, but have since adopted the live with the virus program.

Australia is a case in point. In the first two years of the pandemic, to last December 15, there were just 235,000 total infections. In the five-and-a-half weeks since, there have been 1.9 million confirmed cases, in a country with a population of 25 million.

To the end of July last year, i.e., roughly the first 18 months of the COVID crisis, total infections stood at 32,000. Now, official daily cases are twice or three times that number, fluctuating between 70,000 and 100,000. With unchecked transmission, epidemiologists warn that real case numbers could be several times higher.

The virus is rampant in the largest states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, with government officials declaring that everybody likely has COVID or will be exposed to it. The change, however, is starkest in those states that previously had little or no transmission. Queensland, for instance, with a population of five million, recorded just over 2,000 cases in the entire pandemic to mid-December, and seven deaths. In the last six weeks, it has registered more than 300,000 infections and 88 fatalities.

The mounting death toll is a national phenomenon, refuting government claims that Omicron is mild and that serious illness and death have been decoupled from infection. In the first three weeks of this year, there have been more than 800 deaths, compared with 2,200 in the previous two years, but doctors are warning that these tragedies are just a foretaste of what is to come.

Like their counterparts internationally, Australias national and state governments present the toll as inevitable and Omicrons rampant spread as almost an act of God, over which they have no control. The aim is to cover up the fact that the current calamity is the result of their dismantling of basic public health measures so as to create the conditions for unfettered corporate profit-making.

In Australia, the efficacy of public health measures is not a theoretical question. The low number of infections and fatalities in the first two years of the pandemic, compared with the catastrophes in Europe, the US and elsewhere, was the result of testing, contact tracing, isolation and lockdown measures that enjoyed mass popular support.

Australian governments did not implement these policies out of a benevolent concern for public health. In the earliest stages of the pandemic, they rejected a scientifically based program of striving to eliminate the virus, on the grounds that it would be too costly. Under intense pressure from the working class, however, especially key sections such as health staff and teachers, they adopted a policy of strong suppression amid outbreaks.

While they were undertaken by governments grudgingly, belatedly and with a host of pro-business exemptions, the suppression and lockdown measures repeatedly succeeded in quashing outbreaks of the virus. Despite it not being their stated aim, these policies eliminated transmission at least once in every Australian jurisdiction, in some cases for extended periods.

Mid-last year, the corporate elite and its political representatives, who had long bridled against the populations addiction to lockdowns, seized on the emergence of Delta to claim that the previous policies were no longer viable. In July and August, all of the countrys governments, Labor and Liberal-National, adopted a strategy of permanently ending safety restrictions, based on arbitrary vaccination targets.

The governments ignored the warnings of epidemiologists that inoculation, as critical as it is, cannot end the pandemic alone. They were taking business, not health advice, summed up by a letter from 80 of the worlds largest corporations, featured by the Financial Times, declaring that Australia must open up.

With this reopening already underway, the Australian ruling elite responded to the emergence of Omicron with glee. Less than a week after the new variant was identified in a South African lab, Australias chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, like the firefighter turned arsonist, declared that the mass spread of Omicron would be his number one Christmas present.

As the new variant was already circulating in the community, the NSW government held a Freedom Day on December 15, encouraging mass attendance at nightclubs and other super-spreading events and ending all restrictions, even indoor mask-wearing. Victorias Labor government adopted similar policies, while the states and territories with zero COVID opened their borders, literally welcoming Omicron in.

The governments claims that this would usher in a new era of freedom and a return to normal stand exposed as the lying justifications for a massive social crime against the population. The testing system, dominated by private companies given vast government subsidies, broke down within weeks. The hospitals are in their worst crisis in 100 years. Patients with cancer and life-threatening heart conditions are already being told that their treatment is indefinitely postponed.

The fight against the pandemic is ever more directly assuming the form of a class struggle.

The desperate warnings of health workers about the collapse of the hospital system are dismissed as alarmist. Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared last week that such is workplace transmission that 10 percent of the entire national workforce could be furloughed at any one time. The official response is to force workers who have been exposed to the virus and could be infected to remain on the job.

Remote learning, Morrison warned, would add another five percent absenteeism to the workforce, so the schools must be reopened at the end of this month and early next month to ensure that parents are in their dangerous workplaces. Already, NSW and Victoria are assembling a replacement workforce, composed of university students and vulnerable retired educators, in anticipation that thousands of teachers will be struck down by illness.

There is mass opposition, expressed in widespread hostility to the schools reopening and the first stirrings of industrial action. Governments and business chiefs are bemoaning the attempts of ordinary people to institute a shadow lockdown by isolating as much as they can.

The surge has shown that the fight against the pandemic requires a struggle against the entire political establishment, including the trade unions, which are doing everything they can to keep workers on the job and to suppress opposition. Rank-and-file committees must be established at all workplaces to fight for the measures required to end transmission, including the immediate closure of non-essential industry, with full compensation for affected workers and small businesspeople, and online learning.

The developments in Australia have international significance, demonstrating that the period of capitalist governments pursuing a middle course of mitigation is over. New Zealand, one of the few capitalist countries to have adopted an elimination strategy, has abandoned it, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declaring that the spread of Omicron is inevitable, even before the new variant enters the community. The highly successful zero COVID policy in China is relentlessly denounced and vilified by the worlds governments and the corporate media.

The Australian experiences underscore the fact that the pandemic cannot be ended in one country; that vaccination alone is insufficient to end transmission; and that the public health measures previously implemented and now abandoned are decisive.

Above all, they demonstrate that the fight for the elimination of the virus requires an international movement of the working class, armed with scientific and political knowledge. The necessary public health measures, including the shutdown of non-essential industry, are blocked on the grounds that they would impact on corporate profit. That only makes the case that capitalism must be abolished, the major banks and corporations placed under public ownership, and society reorganised along socialist lines to meet social needs.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, stands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, in Geneva, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Against the backdrop of Fridays meeting in Geneva between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the US and NATO have been continuing to rapidly build up their military forces along and near Russias borders. While Blinken described yesterdays conversation as frank and substantive and Lavrov said there was an agreement to have a reasonable dialogue, the White House and the trans-Atlantic alliance continue to take one provocative step after another.

This week, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace declared that London is increasing its support for the Ukrainian military by funneling more defensive weapons to Kiev. In addition to providing the government with 2,000 highly advanced anti-tank missiles, it is dispatching 30 elite troops as trainers. According to Sky News, witnesses have noticed a dramatic uptick in surveillance flights over the region by British aircraft since Monday of this week.

Britain is also currently in the process of making a $1.6 billion loan to Ukraine to update its navy and help it build a port in Berdyansk, which sits on the Sea of Azov, a body of water that Moscow considers its domain and whose entry-exit waterwaythe Straits of Kerchis controlled by Russia.

The United States has now authorized the Baltic countries to send Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine and approved another $200 million in military aid for the country, on top of last years $450 million. Given that any possible invasion by Russia would take the form of ground forces, the provision of air defenses to Kiev would seem to have little purpose beyond staging some sort of provocation that would draw a Russian incursion or be put to future use in transforming Ukraine, as retired four-star Navy admiral James Stavridis and Senator Mitt Romney recently proposed, into the next Afghanistan.

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, is pushing the passage of the Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022, which would impose crippling sanctions on the Russian banking sector and senior military and government officials, prohibit transactions on Russias primary and secondary sovereign debt, authorize sanctions on Russias extractive industries as well as on providers of specialized financial messaging services (e.g., SWIFT), call upon the Departments of Defense and State to expedite transfer of defense articles to bolster Ukraines defense capabilities, and authorize $500 million in supplemental emergency security assistance to Ukraine.

In an interview on MSNBC on Friday, Menendez, in comments directed at Putin himself, said that if Russia invades Ukraine, not only will you and the Russian economy face devastating sanctions but you are going to face a much more fortified Ukraine such that if you send Russias sons into battle expect the casualties of war will send many back to Russia in body bags. To make such a promise to the Russian people is extraordinary. Nazi Germany put 27 million of them in body bags.

Meanwhile, Spain, Denmark, and Canada have all declared their solidarity with Kiev. Following a meeting with Blinken on Tuesday, the government in Madrid dispatched warships, including a minesweeper and a frigate, to the Black Sea and fighter jets to Bulgaria. There they will be joined by Dutch aircraft, with Amsterdam announcing it is sending F-35s to the Black Sea nation.

Canada, which since 2020 has had special forces on the ground in Ukraine training their counterparts, has now sent additional troops, stated it is considering sending military materiel, and promised a $120 million economic aid package. Denmark has sent a frigate into the Baltic, and France is dispatching forces to Romania.

In Ukraine itself, the war hysteria flows unimpeded. The press secretary to Ukraines president claimed Friday that Russia may intend to march its troops all the way to Kharkiv, a major city in the countrys north and about 340 kilometers west of the breakaway pro-Russian republics in the east. Doing so would entail occupying a large portion of the country. The purpose of this accusation, for which no evidence was presented, is to whip Ukraines nationalists into a frenzy and its population, at least as much as it can, into a state of terror. Much of Ukraine is ethnically Russian, speaks Russian as its first language, and/or identifies with the Russian culture and people. These kinds of remarks can lay the groundwork for an ethnic bloodbath inside Ukraine, whose military is under the control of open fascists.

Last week, the US made clear that it is prepared, at any minute, to turn Ukraine into a war zone. Claiming that it had evidence that the Kremlin was preparing to launch a false flag operation in Ukraine to justify a Russian invasion, the White Housethe grandmaster of false flagscan now argue that any attack on, for instance, Russian citizens in Ukraine, is the work of Russia itself and that the US and NATO must respond.

The Russian government is answering the escalating threat by deploying 140 additional warships to the Black Sea, along with 10,000 troops, and another 1,000 pieces of military equipment. It is also sending amphibious watercraft to the Baltic. Over the course of this month and next, Russias navy is conducting exercises across all zones, including all oceans that touch Russia and those seas of major global significance, such as the Mediterranean, the Northern seas, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Northeastern Atlantic, and the Pacific. Battalion tactical groups in Russias Southern Military District are actively training.

Russias Duma, the countrys parliament, is in the process of issuing a formal appeal to President Putin to recognize Donbass and Luhanskthe breakaway regions in Ukraines eastas independent republics. It also wants the Kremlin leader to announce that Russia will take measures to defend Russian citizens in this region.

Coming out of the Friday discussion between the two representatives, Blinken stated that the US would provide a written response next week to Russias demands, which include a guarantee that Ukraine not be admitted to NATO, NATO troops and equipment be pulled back, and massive, anti-Russian NATO military exercises be halted.

As the US has so far indicated that it will agree to none of this, whatever letter is delivered to Moscow next week may well reject all of the Kremlins demands and instead contain a list of ultimatums to which Russia cannot agree. Washington and Brussels have repeatedly insisted that Moscow move its military forces away from the Ukrainian border and not invade Ukraine. But inasmuch as the Kremlin has continually said it has no intention of invading Ukraine, it is impossible to appease the US and NATO on this point. And were Moscow to concede that Washington and Brussels have the right to dictate where Russia locates troops inside its own country, the Kremlin would effectively be abdicating sovereignty over its own territory.

Beleaguered by a never-ending pandemic that is killing millions worldwide to which the Western governments are responding by lifting practically all public health measures, the reckless and mad dash to war with Russia over Ukraine has no base of popular support in the United States.

A just-released poll by the Convention of States Action in partnership with the Trafalgar Group found that in the US just 15.3 percent of likely general election voters believed the U.S. should provide troops as boots on the ground in the event of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, according to Newsweek. One third said that only diplomacy should be used to intervene.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has announced plans to block schools and local areas continuing to implement mask mandates.

The government-ordered requirement for masks to be worn in secondary school classrooms, as a measure against the spread of COVID, was ended Thursday. Mask-wearing in indoor communal areas in primary and secondary schools and universities and colleges will end next Thursday.

Zahawi has now written a letter to MPs explaining that any headteachers who choose to maintain this most basic of defences against the pandemic will be contacted by the Department for Education (DfE) to explain themselves.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi at a session of the COP26 Climate Change Conference 2021. Glasgow, Scottish Event Campus, Scotland. November 5, 2021 (Credit: IAEA Imagebank/FlickR)

The letter warns, I met with directors of public health yesterday and we agreed that in the event of extraordinary outbreaks of Covid in localised areas, they will share their plans with me where they are recommending reintroducing face coverings in tightly-focused geographical zones, so that we can assess evidence and data to ensure any extra measures are proportionate.

It remains to be seen how the DfE will deal with those schools deemed to be taking disproportionate action. But Zahawis intervention is the latest in a series of vicious threats levelled against schools and parents for resisting the governments policy of mass infection.

In December 2020, then education secretary Gavin Williamson threatened schools with legal action for trying to close a few days early at the end of term, amid a massive surge of cases among schoolchildren.

Throughout this year, threats of fines and even prison have been made against parents who have chosen to keep their children out of school due to the dangers posed by COVID-19.

This most recent act of intimidation comes in response to a wave of opposition among public health officials and school workers against the governments scrapping mask requirements. The Telegraph reported with outrage yesterday morning that over 100 schools had written to parents indicating their intention to maintain the use of face coverings in the classroom for a period.

Schools North East, a network of 1,150 schools, said 80 percent would be keeping masks in place. Case rates in the region are at 1,410 per 100,000. Most schools have more than 10 percent of staff and students absent for COVID-related reasons and a quarter have more than one in five staff off work.

In London, councils have taken similar action, drawing attention to dangerously low levels of vaccination in some communities. The capitals 1.4 million children under 12, like the rest across the country, have not even been given the opportunity to be vaccinated. Infections among this primary school age group are at record levels according to data from the UK Health Security Agency1,936 cases per 100,000 five to nine-year-olds in the week to 16 January, up 41 percent on the previous week.

Opposition to the governments criminal policy finds no organised expression through the trade unions. The National Education Union (NEU) has said only, The danger is we lift restrictions too quickly before the effects of returning to school are clear. This will result in more education disruption.

Neither it nor the other education unions have even raised the possibility of action to protect school workers, children and their families. The NEU simply shrugs its shoulders and writes, This disruption is at the door of the Government who should have got ventilation and filtration solutions in place before Omicron.

They do not mention the danger to their members at all, only education disruptionmore honestly, disruption to the governments plans to use educators as child minders in schools transformed into COVID incubators, freeing parents to produce profits for the corporations.

School workers are seething at the unions complicity with the government, so that joint general secretary of the NEU Kevin Courtney cannot speak on any public platform without being subjected to a torrent of denunciations.

Screenshot of Kevin Courtney speaking at a Zero Covid Coalition online meeting to oppose "education disruption"

On the day the government announced the end of mask-wearing, Courtney tweeted, Just talking with a parent; her son is in year 11 and had 6 lessons today. 5 were taken by supply staff. The level of disruption in education and for exam classes must not be ignored.

The responses were almost unanimously hostile. One teacher answered, What about the fact that your members are regularly close contacts? This is not a mild disease. Many fellow, fully vaccinated educators are reporting feeling very unwell. Illnesses preventable & 100% due to there being no mitigations in primaries.

Another wrote, Wouldnt have happened if unions had been strong to protect staff, sadly you accepted we will all get infected and we have, 6 weeks on & still cant breathe properly.

Dozens asked, wheres the actual action from the union, what exactly are you going to do about it, what are the unions doing to protect education, teachers and pupils, will you be questioning the removal of masks in schools how many of your union members have died of covid, you are happy to take our money every months but what for and where the hell are the unions there members are being made sick and disabled in unsafe working environments?

NEU members felt left high and dry, with staff infected in droves and both staff and pupils dropping like flies. One caught covid at the start of Xmas break and over 4 weeks later I still havent been able to return to work as it has made me so sick.

Commenters demanded, Do something about it then and Ballot us!, with one person pointing out that while France are striking , in the UK, There has been no voice, no ballot.

Several referred to the complicit union and Complicit Kev, described as one of them. One person added, The unions, as usual, have failed us.

The next day Courtney posted, Just talking to an NEU exec member. She says at her primary school 13 staff off with Covid - case rates in school 1 in 7 people are positivestaff in tears as they are so stressed. I am just hoping it gets better here soon. This is profound disruption to education & learning.

Another flood of responses asked why the union was doing nothing and demanded action, with one commenting on the NEUs endless correspondence with the government, Youve written enough letters to sink a ship. Referring to the situation described by Courtney, a commenter insisted, Its not a safe work environment for teaching staff and children alike. Shut the school down.

School workers have been thrown to the wolves, wrote one person, whose point was proved by other responses. I got Covid in Nov20 in school, like several of my primary pupils. Long Covid for me, no support from union during phased return plus rigidity of sickness policy so no job now, wrote a teacher. Another, Dismissed for ill heath today after catching covid in school. Its disgusting nothing has been learnt in 22 months. My union representation says teachers arent concerned so they havent acted.

Condemning this terrible harm done to educators, others wrote, You can see children and teachers being physically harmed, what are you doing to help them?, It is not disruptive, it is cruel and horrid that public sector workers are treated in this way, children are being hospitalised every day pathetic, a teaching union that does nothing to protect staff.

The same sentiment is being expressed across the world, in the strikes and protests of educators, pupils and students in France, the United States, Canada, Austria and Greece.

Workers and young people internationally confront the same issuethe unions are an instrument for enforcing the ruling classs policy of mass infection, living with the virus and endemic COVID-19. While the likes of the NEU remain in the saddle, high levels of COVID infections, sickness and death will remain a reality. If a movement for an end to the pandemic is to take shape, it must be built independently of these hostile organisations.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Parties have helped to build a global network of rank-and-file committees through which the working class can organise this struggle. We call on all school workers in the UK to contact and join the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee today.
State commemorations and public memorials to war criminals, mass murderers, anti-Semites and Nazi collaborators such as Symon Petliura, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. The integration of fascist militias into the official armed forces and the networking and military training of neo-Nazis from all over the world under the protective hand of the state. Mafia-like struggles for state power between a handful of oligarchs and a corrupt judiciary and authorities. Screaming social inequality with an average monthly income of 412 euros (April 2021). These are the most salient features of Ukrainian democracy, for which the US and its European NATO allies are risking war against the nuclear power Russia.

Armored vehicles of the Azov regiment in Mariupol [Credit: Wanderer777/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia]

Now, as ever, it is up to Ukrainians and no one else to decide their own future and the future of this country, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday during a visit to Kiev. The Ukrainian people chose a democratic and European path in 1991. They took to the Maidan to defend that choice in 2013. And unfortunately, ever since, youve faced relentless aggression from Moscow. Russia invaded territory in the Crimea, ginned up a conflict in eastern Ukraine, and has systematically sought to undermine and divide Ukraines democracy. Similar expressions are coming from the capitals of Europe.

Every single word of his statement is a lie.

It was not the Ukrainian people who decided in 1991 to dissolve the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was an integral part, but three Stalinist officials: Boris Yeltsin (Russia), Stanislav Shushkevich (Belarus) and Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine). They met while hunting on December 7 at a dacha where, after considerable consumption of vodka, they decided without any public discussion to dissolve the state that had emerged from the October Revolution of 1917.

There followed a decade of savage privatisation in which former Communist Party functionaries and their youth organisations looted socialised property and smashed up the highly developed education and health systems.

Rule of the oligarchs

The oligarchs who made it rich in the aftermath still dominate Ukraines political life today. They control the economy and the media, buy up judges and MPs and maintain their own parties and militias.

Even the European Union, which has been supporting its strategic partner Ukraine with funds and advisers for more than two decades, concludes: Oligarchs, high-ranking civil servants and corrupt prosecutors and judges are still dividing up the state among themselves, billions are disappearing abroad; Ukraine, with few exceptions, has made as little progress in building a constitutional state as it has in the fight against corruption. This is how the Suddeutsche Zeitung summarises the special report of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on Fighting Grand Corruption in Ukraine from September last year.

The Ukrainian oligarchs change their political orientation and their international alliances as required.

For example, the richest man in the country, Rinat Akhmetov (estimated wealth by Forbes: $7.6 billion), was long considered pro-Russian. Among other things, he controlled the Donetsk Basins coal and steel industry, which has since been largely destroyed, and was for a time a deputy of the Party of Regions of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in 2014. This did not prevent him from continuing to increase his fortune even after Yanukovychs fall.

The fourth richest Ukrainian, Ihor Kolomoyskyi ($1.8 billion), is considered a promoter and mastermind of the current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who won the 2019 presidential election on an anti-corruption ticket. Kolomoyskyi stands accused in the US and other countries of looting a bank he owns of more than five billion euros in the biggest financial fraud of the 21st century. The Pandora Papers have since revealed that apparently Zelensky also profited from this fraud. He and his entourage own several shell companies in international tax havens, into which funds in the tens of millions have flowed.

Petro Poroshenko, the seventh richest Ukrainian with $1.6 billion, was the countrys president from 2014 to 2019. He made his fortune exporting sweets to Russia, was a minister for a time under President Yanukovych, and then turned ultranationalist and darling of the West. Now he stands accused of treason. He is alleged to have made lucrative deals with the separatists in eastern Ukraine while fueling the civil war against them as president. Poroshenko denies this and accuses Zelensky of wanting to get rid of a political opponent.

Nationalism always served the oligarchs as a means to an end. They have fomented national conflicts and promoted fascist currents to divert attention from social tensions and to divide the working class, which was politically disoriented after decades of Stalinist repression and falsification of history. This had been the case since the dissolution of the Soviet Union but took on new dimensions after the Maidan coup of 2014. Since then, the far-right nationalists and fascists have been systematically integrated into the state apparatus.

The Maidan coup

Contrary to what Blinken claims, the events on the Maidan were not a choice for democracy, but a right-wing coup. The elected president, Yanukovych, who had been manoeuvring between Russia and the Western powers, was hounded out of office with the help of fascist militias and with the open support of Washington and Berlin and replaced by Poroshenko.

Victoria Nuland, then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and now number three in the US State Department, personally paraded on the Maidan to cheer on the protests against Yanukovych. She publicly boasted that the US had invested five billion dollars in regime change in Ukraine.

Germanys social democratic president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then still foreign minister, also travelled to Kiev to negotiate Yanukovychs replacement with the opposition parties and Yanukovych himself. He worked directly with Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the fascist Svoboda party. Svoboda, which had little influence except in some areas of western Ukraine, stands in the tradition of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with the Nazis in World War II and was involved in mass murders. It maintains relations with the neo-Nazi German National Party (NP), among others.

The ink on Steinmeier's agreement was barely dry when Right Sector, a neo-fascist militia, seized the centre of Kiev and drove Yanukovych, who feared for his life, to flee.

Since then, such fascist militias have been an integral part of the countrys political life. They terrorize political opponents and keep the war going against the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. For example, on May 2, 2014, over 40 opponents of the new regime were killed in the Odessa Trade Union House when fascists set fire to the building and prevented the victims from leaving.

The Azov Regiment

A key role among the 80 or so far-right militias built and equipped to fight the eastern Ukrainian separatists is played by the Azov Regiment. Founded by Andriy Biletsky, who was freed from prison during the events on the Maidan, where he was serving a sentence for murder, the Azov Regiment has never made a secret of its admiration for the Nazis. Biletsky professed his support for the crusade of the white nations of the world against the Semitic-led subhumans. The Azov Regiment's symbolswolfs hook and black sunwere used by Hitler's SS in World War II.

Nevertheless, the militia was financed and equipped by the state and oligarchs. President Poroshenko praised them at an awards ceremony in 2014, declaring, These are our best warriors. Biletsky was celebrated on TV talk shows and elected to parliament in 2014. Eventually, the militia was officially integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces, where it forms its own regiment.

That status came with an arsenal that no other far-right militia in the world could claim, including crates of explosives and battle gear for up to 1,000 troops, reports the US magazine Time, which published an extensive report on the fascist militia a year ago.

Azov is far more than a militia. It has its own political party; two publishing houses; summer camps for children; and a vigilante force known as the National Militia, which patrols the streets of Ukrainian cities alongside the police. Its military wing has at least two training bases and a vast arsenal of weapons, from drones and armoured vehicles to artillery pieces.

The state sponsorship of fascist militias has made Ukraine a centre for military training and political networking by neo-Nazis from around the world. Time quotes security expert and former FBI agent Ali Soufan as estimating that more than 17,000 foreign fighters have come to Ukraine over the past six years from 50 countries. Forty US congressmen and women asked the US State Department to classify Azov as a foreign terrorist organisation, but were rebuffed.

The National Corps party, Azovs political wing, claims to have around 10,000 members and maintains intensive relations with fascist and neo-Nazi organisations around the worldincluding Die Rechte, The Third Path and the Identitarians in Germany, CasaPound in Italy and Groupe Union Defense in France.

The National Corps chief ideologue and international secretary is 34-year-old Olena Semenyaka. A study by George Washington University calls her the First Lady of Ukrainian Nationalism. Semenyaka studied philosophy, focusing on the models of the new rightJulius Evola, Alain de Benoist, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Junger, Carl Schmitt, Armin Mohler and others. Originally a supporter of Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin, she now advocates a pan-European alliance of ethno-states, much like the Identitarians and Steve Bannon, fascist and adviser of former US President Donald Trump.

At the beginning of last year, she got a six-month job as a researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. The university only withdrew her contract when a storm of outrage arose on social media after a photo of Semenyaka with a swastika flag and a Hitler salute had gone viral.

Fascism and war

The prominent role played by neo-Nazis and fascists in the Ukrainian state is no secret. No intelligence briefing is needed to spot them, a quick Google search is enough. The politicians and journalists who are hell-bent on risking war against Russia for Ukraine know what they are advocating. They have created the brown swamp themselves to build a bulwark against Russia and against the European working class.

The US has been supplying the Ukrainian armed forces and militias with weapons and trainers for years, knowing full well that fascist militias benefit from this. When US President Barack Obama signed legislation to this effect in 2015, it explicitly did not exclude financial and military support for the Azov Regiment, although this had been widely expected.

The New York Times has several times published richly illustrated reports on the arming and military instruction of civilians being trained for guerrilla warfare.

Civilian defence is not unfamiliar in Ukraine; volunteer brigades formed the backbone of the country's force in the east in 2014, the first year of the war against Russian separatists, when the Ukrainian military was in shambles, reads a report from December 26, 2021. This effort is now being formalized into units of the newly formed Territorial Defense Forces, a part of the military. The training is carried out by both the state army and private paramilitary groups like the Ukrainian Legion.

It is obvious that a right-wing civil war army is being formed, which can also be used against opposition members or striking workers in their own country. Despite thisor precisely because of itthe call for arms deliveries to Ukraine is also growing louder in Germany and Europe. The German Greens in particular, who now have Annalena Baerbock as Foreign Minister, have been advocating this for a long time.

The preparations for war against Russia and the build-up of fascist militias are two sides of the same development. The capitalist system is in a hopeless crisis. Social inequality is at an all-time high. While more than 5.6 million have died of COVID-19 worldwide and hundreds of millions lost their income, the tops of society have enriched themselves enormously. This is also the case in Ukraine. According to Forbes, the wealth of the 100 richest Ukrainians grew by 42 percent in one year to $44.5 billion.

The ruling class everywhere is expecting a social explosion and is responding as it did in the first half of the 20th century with fascism and war. Only an international movement of the working class, fighting for the overthrow of capitalism and the building of a socialist society, rejecting any form of nationalism, can stop such a catastrophe.
University of Oregon (UO) graduate workers, students and community members held a rally outside of Johnson Hall on Tuesday in support of the graduate student union to demand measures to protect students and staff from COVID-19.

University of Oregon [Wikimedia Commons]

The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) graduate student union has issued 18 demands for a safer UO which are divided into four categories: increasing remote instruction options, improving in-person protections against COVID-19, providing transparent public data about positive COVID-19 cases and allowing workers and students to participate in decision-making.

The GTFF demands include that UO move all courses to remote learning until Lane County cases decrease to CDC-defined low transmission levels, which is 50 cases per 100,000 people. The GTFF also wants the option for teachers and students to use remote learning if they feel unsafe resuming in-person instruction. Graduate teachers are also calling for the elimination of a requirement that instruction be simultaneously given in-person and via live broadcast such as Zoom.

Tali Bitton, GTFFs vice president for organizing, said that teaching simultaneously in person and via broadcast is difficult for graduate teachers because they havent received training or resources for doing so. He said, In the end, its not really fair to the students.

This walkout comes as students and teachers globally are staging walkouts in protest of unsafe pandemic practices on their campuses. On the same day as the UO walkout, several students walked out of Grant High School in Portland, Oregon, telling KATU News that their campus is overcrowded and mask mandates are not being followed or enforced.

Calliope Ruskin, a student at GHS, said, We need to be able to access our classrooms safely, and there is no way for me to be able to social distance from other people. My mom is immunocompromised, there is no way to protect myself at school. GHS students echo GTFFs demands when they are calling for mandatory N95 or KN95 masks for everyone and for more COVID-19 testing.

Students at Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington, walked out last Friday calling for similar increased safety measures such as remote learning, N95 masks for all, weekly testing, contact tracing, vaccines and boosters and daily updates to the districts COVID-19 dashboard. FHS has the highest infection rate in its district according to the Seattle Public Schools COVID-19 Dashboard, which is surely undercounted due to overwhelmed testing sites throughout the city.

A student at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, north of Seattle, spoke with the World Socialist Web Site. At school, weve had children test positive in the library. Its unfair quite honestly. When we look at the chart for COVID cases in our county, weve had up to 3 times more COVID cases compared to the initial outbreak when we went into lockdown. The numbers are growing, and our measly precautions are not preventing sickness. Human life should be above all.

Students across the US, in cities like Chicago and Boston, have joined the movement for the closure of unsafe schools and other safety measures for protection against COVID-19. There is broad support for these actions as the Omicron variant rips through schools and workplaces nearly unhindered.

The Biden Administrations herd immunity policy is a policy of mass infection and death that is provoking widespread militancy of teachers and students across the US. The Democratic Party has wholly embraced this policy of social murder, relying on token gestures and vaccines to cover for the consequences of their actions.

In December, Oregon Governor Kate Brown released a statement saying, As Oregon prepares for what could be our worst surge in hospitalizations during this pandemic, I know that this is not the beginning of the new year any of us had hoped for. Time and again over the last two years, Oregonians have proven that we will stand with each other in our most difficult times. Your actions have saved lives, and it is because we have worked together to keep each other safe that Oregon still has some of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the nation. Please, do your part againget vaccinated, get your booster shot, and wear a mask.

This call for personal responsibility by Governor Brown belies that fact that her administration is forcing schools and workplaces to remain open and operate in person during this worst surge in hospitalizations. Despite claims of the lowest infection rates in the country, Oregons hospitals are so overwhelmed that Governor Brown made the decision to activate the Oregon National Guard to assist understaffed hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Schools are being forced to return to in-person learning under dangerous conditions precisely to allow students parents to be forced back to their workplaces to continue generating profits for corporations and Wall Street despite high risks to workers health and lives.

These walkouts are part of a broad struggle against the unsafe reopening of schools and businesses that is being carried out by students, parents and educators across the US in places like New York City, Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Portland, Baton Rouge and more.

The IYSSE and the WSWS ask all students, teachers and educators to join the growing movement for the protection of their lives against the dangerous Omicron variant of COVID-19 by resisting the unsafe opening of schools in the US and internationally.
ELKO  More than 400 active cases of COVID-19 were reported in Elko County on Friday.

The total of 435 cases is up from 237 last Friday. Hospitalizations are up from two to six over the same time period. Most of the cases are believed to be the omicron variant.

Deaths remained at 127.

Elko Countys test positivity rate increased from 15% a week ago to more than 20% Friday. The rate had been around 5% at the start of the month.

All counties in Nevada except Lander are now flagged for test positivity rates above the states 8% threshold. All counties except Eureka are flagged for high case rates.

The Elko County Health Board is working to get more rapid test kits in order to keep up with new cases. Some of the PCR tests are taking longer than the five-day quarantine period to receive results, Dr. Bryce Putnam said this week.

Cases in Southern Nevada and Washoe County have strained hospitals to the point that Gov. Steve Sisolak this week announced that up to 250 nursing students would be enlisted as medical providers.

Friday marked the two-year anniversary since the first coronavirus case was publicly confirmed by the CDC in the United States.

Last weekend Elko County topped 10,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

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With COVID infections, hospitalisation and deaths soaring across the rest of the country, Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan called a media conference last Thursday to abandon his state Labor Party governments previous policy of reopening the states borders on February 5.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan [Credit: ABC News]

The decision indicates the rising social and class tensions, and deepening political crisis, being produced by the COVID disaster that has been let loose nationally by Australias governments, both Labor and Liberal-National.

McGowan declared: A lot of people say we should be living with COVID. Well, there are 752 people in the eastern states no longer living with COVID. (That was a reference to the number of Australian COVID deaths so far in 2022, which is now nearly 900). You should ask their families whether we should deliberately infect large numbers of West Australians.

McGowans use of the word deliberate is accurate. After nearly two years of limited, yet largely successful, safety measures, Australian governments have let the pandemic rip, solely for the sake of corporate profit.

His announcement was furiously denounced by most of the corporate elite and capitalist media for allegedly damaging the supposed economic recovery. But it was met with some relief by the states health workers, teachers and working people generally, who have been alarmed by the terrible scenes in the eastern states and territories.

Until now, Western Australia (WA) has remained one of the few jurisdictions in the world, alongside China, with relatively low and suppressed COVID-19 infections, although the McGowan governments policy has never been to eliminate the virus, just to try to keep mitigating its impact.

With the states borders closed, the 2.7 million people of Western Australia have largely avoided the mass infections, hospital breakdowns and record numbers of lives lost that have overtaken the rest of the country since December, when every other government nationally scrapped virtually all safety restrictions.

By diverging, at least for now, from this reopening of the economy imposed last year by the bipartisan National Cabinet, McGowans government has shown its fear of the fury and disgust that would erupt in the working class in response to similar conditions, as is developing nationally.

McGowan set no new date for lifting the international and interstate border controls. He suggested waiting until 80 or 90 percent of the eligible population had been able to get a third booster vaccination, while admitting that this would not fully protect the population. He said advice from the governments chief health officer was that this level of vaccination would increase Omicron protection from 4 percent to 64 percent.

WA has many remote and indigenous communities, scattered across one-third of the Australian landmass. It has some of the lowest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vaccination rates, with just 43 percent aged 16 and over double-vaccinated.

The decision to delay the February 5 deadline, which had been agreed by the National Cabinet, was made knowing that the states public hospitalswhich have the lowest number of beds per capita in the countrywould be rapidly overwhelmed.

Modelling suggested that if entry and quarantine rules were scrapped, the highly-infectious Omicron variant could peak at as high as 60,000 cases a day in the state, which yesterday had less than 100 active reported cases, and only 1,348 cases throughout the pandemic.

WAs hospital system is at breaking point, even without a single COVID-19 patient. Ambulance rampingthe length of time ambulances wait to discharge a patient outside a hospitalreached 52,000 hours in WA in 2021, more than double the number of hours in 2020. When the McGowan government took office five years ago, the ramping figures were five times lower and even then were labelled a crisis.

The human cost of years of public hospital funding cuts in WA, by both Labor and Liberal-National governments, was highlighted last April by the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath in the Perth Childrens Hospital emergency department. She waited more than two hours to receive treatment, despite multiple pleas for help from her parents.

The number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds per capita is 30 percent below the national average, which itself is inadequate. Booming iron ore and other mining exports produced a $5.8 billion budget surplus for the Labor government last year, but it has continued to starve the hospitals of the necessary funding and staffing.

Much of the corporate media responded to McGowans move with outrage, both for blatant profit reasons and for concern that the WA move would highlight the criminal nature of the let it rip program inflicted by every other government. Qantas and other travel and tourism businesses claimed they would lose nearly $500 million in coming months as a result.

Todays headline in the Murdoch medias Australian declared: WA border backflip to hurt nation, CEOs warn. It cited Business Council of Australia president Tim Reed who literally insisted that people had to live with the virus in order to uphold our reputation as a good place to invest and create jobs.

The virus is here to stay and the longer restrictions stay in place the bigger the damage to the economy and to peoples mental health and wellbeing, Reed said.

Such pretense for mental health and wellbeing is a fraud. For working people, the aged, the medically vulnerable and schoolchildren and their families, living with the virus is having serious and traumatising impacts on their health and already-parlous financial position, while the super-rich elite has doubled its wealth during the pandemic.

One factor in McGowans announcement was the support of key sections of business, particularly the mining giants and related companies that dominate WAs economy. They have continued their lucrative operations without any COVID-related disruptions throughout the pandemic. Among those defending the decision were Michael Chaney, chairman of the Wesfarmers retail conglomerate, and property developer Nigel Satterley, one of Labors high-profile donors.

Acute political nervousness was reflected in media commentary that the WA stance would be another blow to the crisis-wracked federal Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose polling ratings have dropped dramatically since the Omicron wave was let loose in December. Australian columnist Peter Van Onselen noted: WA residents have watched on as states like South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland went from COVID-free places to COVID-riddled communities.

Equally revealing was the reaction of federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese. He said he respected and supported the WA decision. Yet Labor has fully backed the corporate reopening drive, including the National Cabinet deadlines for dismantling all safety, border and quarantine measures. Labors leaders are well aware of the popular hostility to the live with the virus disaster, in which they are totally complicit.

Only last March, Labor won a landslide victory in the WA state election by posturing as a defender of the population against COVID and an opponent of the Morrison government, which was already then demanding the opening of the states borders. Morrisons Liberals were reduced to a rump of just two MPs in the states 59-member lower house of parliament.

This was not just a WA phenomenon. Labor earlier won elections in Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, as well as New Zealand, by similarly posturing as standing firm for public safety.

If such results were replicated in the looming federal election, Morrisons government would be decimated, despite the lack of working-class support for Labors pro-business policies and record.

But no reliance can be placed in McGowans, or any other Labor government. Together with the trade unions, they have worked systematically to prevent eruptions of working-class opposition.

As the Socialist Equality Party explained in its recent open letter to workers in Australia: Urgent action must be prepared, including strikes and shutdowns to close non-essential workplaces and to prevent children and teachers being forced into schools that will function as incubators of mass illness and death.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers and locations in Indiana... White River at Edwardsport and Elliston. Wabash River at Montezuma. .Multiple rounds of rain over the last few days, including today, will lead to minor flooding along lower portions of the White River and upper portions on the Wabash River. Additional rainfall later this week should keep portions of the White and Wabash above flood stage through Saturday. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov/ind. This statement will be updated within the next 12 to 24 hours. && ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT TO SUNDAY EVENING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Montezuma. * WHEN...From late tonight to Sunday evening. * IMPACTS...At 18.0 feet, Montezuma agricultural levee is overtopped. Fourteen hundred acres of low bottomlands flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:45 AM EDT Tuesday the stage was 9.1 feet. - Forecast...The river will oscillate around flood stage with a maximum value of 16.4 feet early Saturday morning. - Flood stage is 14.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
On the January 6 Capitol riot anniversary, righteous indignation was expressed at the disgraceful behavior of a mob of Donald Trump supporters invading the building in which Congress was meeting to certify the election of President Joe Biden.

Democrats keep saying January 6 must never happen again, but their main goal seems to be to use the memory of that day against Republicans in 2022. And, too many Republicans minimize what happened.

The riot was a disgrace. Members of both parties should join now in a bipartisan fix to the law that encouraged Trump supporters to think Congress could overturn the 2020 election.

That effort resulted from ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act of 1887. It purports to allow a majority of Congress to disqualify a states electors after the Electoral College has voted.

The Electoral Count Act was an attempt to sort out the mess following the contested Hayes-Tilden election in 1876, but its muddled, vague language and outdated provisions has made it open to abuse.

The Constitution is clear that state legislatures have the power to certify electoral votes, according to the popular vote in each state. Congress has one job  count the electoral votes that have been cast by any state as authorized under state law.

Congress certification of presidential election results should be a technicality, but President Trump misled supporters into believing Vice President Mike Pence and Congress could overturn Bidens victory. That resulted in the Jan. 6 march on the Capitol.

The challenge failed only after an unprecedented eight GOP senators and 139 representatives voted to sustain one or both objections to Arizonas and Pennsylvanias electoral votes. Pence correctly understood his limited constitutional role and heroically resisted Trumps pressure to intervene.

January 6 was the most significant abuse of the Electoral Count Act to date, but its part of a growing trend. Starting with George W. Bushs victory in the 2000 presidential election, Democrats contested election results after every Republican win.

In January 2001, a handful of House Democrats objected to counting Floridas electoral votes, characterizing them as fraudulent.

In January 2005, in the wake of Bushs re-election, Democrats were more aggressive. California Senator Barbara Boxer joined an Ohio House Democrat to object to that states electoral votes, even though Bush won Ohio by more than 118,000 votes.

That effort failed, but 31 House Democrats and Ms. Boxer in the Senate voted to reject Ohios electoral votes.

In January 2017, after Donald Trumps victory, Democrats once again challenged the election outcome. Democrats cited the confirmed and illegal activities engaged in by the government of Russia. Objections were made against the votes in at least nine states.

To his credit, Vice President Joe Biden rejected each objection on procedural grounds, stating that there is no debate and its over.

New statutory language needs to clarify that once legal challenges are over and the Electoral College votes, Congress cant change the outcome. Disputes in the states would be settled in the states with the judiciary as the best forum for resolution.

Fixing the Electoral Count Act is urgently needed to avoid a constitutional crisis. In these polarized times, both parties could use the law in the future as an excuse to overturn an election in the House and Senate. Now is the time to act  before the 2024 election.

Electoral Count Act reform is gaining bipartisan support from a broad coalition of lawmakers, ranging from Congress most conservative members to leading House Democrats.

An expanding bipartisan group of 12 Senate members are working together to rewrite the law, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) reports.

Most agree on two core changes: raising the threshold for objection beyond a single senator and representative, and clarifying the vice presidents role as merely ceremonial.

Election reform begins with fixing the flawed 1887 Electoral Count Act.

Jim Hartmans email address is lawdocman1@aol.com.

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40% of US population up to date on covid-19 vaccination - CNN

According to a CNN analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions data on vaccinations in the US, around 40% of the countrys population can be considered up to date on vaccination against covid-19.

CNN offers the following explanation of up to date, provided by the US top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, in an interview with the media outlet last week: If I was not vaccinated at all and I got vaccinated tomorrow, two weeks to a month from now, I would be at my optimal degree of protection, and that would be fully vaccinated'. However, five months later, if I wanted to be up to date, to be optimally vaccinated, Id want to get the booster.

Those who are up to date therefore include: people who have had their full initial vaccine dose plus a booster; people who have had the first of two initial vaccine doses and arent eligible for their second dose yet; people aged 12 and over who have had their full initial vaccine dose but arent yet eligible for a booster; children aged five to 11 who have had their full initial dose but cant be boosted as this hasnt been authorised for their age group.

These groups add up to a total of 130 million people, CNN says, per CDC data.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has travelled to Europe this week in response to a burgeoning conflict on the Russia-Ukraine border. Blinkens hastily arranged trip comes as Russian troops continue to gather at the border in what has been construed as an aggressive show of strength from President Vladimir Putin.

Blinken has had meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Secretary Dmytro Kuleba and assured both that the United States would support Ukraine in the face of an invasion from neighbouring power Russia.

However officials involved in the talks are still unsure of exactly what Russia hopes to gain from the move, and how far Putin is willing to go to achieve his goals. Speaking about the situation from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Blinken told reporters: Its not clear what Russias central demand is.

Speaking to the New York Times, Russian foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov reiterated that sentiment, saying: The expert opinion that I can authoritatively declare is: Who the heck knows?

Why would Russia want to invade Ukraine?

The complicated history of Russian statehood and the politics of Eastern Europe will forever colour relations between Russia and Ukraine. The collapse of the Soviet Union saw numerous nations emerge from the ashes of the Eastern Bloc and Ukraine was the most populous area to split from Moscow.

As such the two nations share deep cultural ties and a 1,200-mile border. But despite the shared past Ukraine has slowly shifted more toward the West in recent years, becoming more integrated with the US and its allies. There is even some suggestion that Ukraine may one day join NATO, the alliance formed by Western powers in the aftermath of the Second World War to mediate the growing prominence of Soviet forces.

As Putin continues to amass troops at the Ukrainian border Russian officials have repeatedly denied that it is anything more than a military exercise. However the state has also released a list of demands to the West, which includes a pledge to not admit Ukraine to NATO and to remove NATO troops from Eastern Europe.

With this in mind Russias movement on the Ukrainian border can be seen as an attempt to redress a shifting dynamic in Europe that could see Russia lose a historic ally. However it remains to be seen if Putin is willing to follow through with a physical attack on Ukrainian soil.

Will an invasion of Ukraine happen?

President Biden made headlines this week when answering a question at a news conference to mark the end of his first year in office. The President was asked if he though Putin would launch an offensive in Ukraine, to which he replied: My guess is he will move in, he has to do something.

This stark admission of the severity of the situation in the East did little to dispel fears but Biden insisted that Russia will be held accountable if any action is taken, warning that Putin has never have seen sanctions like the ones I promised will be imposed.

However Biden then appeared to admit that the US may opt against a major intervention with Russia in some instances: "It depends on what it does. Its one thing if its a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do.

This uncertain tone is characteristic of the very fluid situation in Ukraine, where neither side is apparently sure of how far the other will go to protect its interests. What is clear is the degree of importance that a Russian invasion into Ukraine could have on global geo-politics.

According to Biden, an offensive over the Ukrainian border would be the most consequential thing that has happened in the world since World War II.
At the event (Photo: qdnd.vn)



On the occasion of the upcoming Lunar New Year Festival, Kim Hen wished the armed forces, departments, agencies, officers, soldiers and people of the province good health and prosperity.



He informed that the number of COVID-19 cases in Cambodia has reduced considerably, with about 20-30 new infections each day.



Permanent Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Ho Thi Cam Dao said last year, the provinces gross regional domestic product (GRDP) still grew by 1.18 percent despite severe impacts caused by the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections.



With over 30 percent of its population being Khmer ethnic people, the province has always paid attention to economic development and cultural identity preservation, she said, adding that support has also been given to religious activities and housing construction for poor and near-poor Khmer households./.
President Joe Biden has ramped up his rhetoric to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine as Russia sends troops along its neighbours border.

Mr Biden initially said: Its one thing if its a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and what to not do, etcetera, before he later clarified that if any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion, which would be met with severe economic response.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovheld talks in Geneva. Similarly, Bloomberg News reported the United States might have family members of diplomats working in the Ukrainian embassy leave.

Mr Blinken said in Geneva that there might be a summit between Mr Biden and Mr Putin.

If it proves useful and productive for the two presidents to meet, to talk, to engage, to try to carry things forward, I think we're fully prepared to do that, he told reporters.

But Mr Biden and other military leaders have not been specific on what their response would be other than just saying there would be a severe economic response.

Similarly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the House to pass legislation that would authorise robust sanctions against Russian government officials as well as financial institutions and transactions.

Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defence policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said that the United States has a number of options ranging from diplomatic to military to economic punishment. The United States could, for example send military advisers and weapons to Ukraine or use diplomatic efforts, such as moving to expel Russia from the Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for violating the organizations charters. Similarly, the United States could bring motions against Russia in the United Nations Security Council.

Story continues

Ms Schake said the United States could also station Nato troops on Russias border, support claims against Russias territories in the far east region or reveal what it knows about Mr Putins personal wealth.

Unclear whether it will prevent a Russian attack on Ukraine, but it will at least drive up the price, she told The Independent. Itll be humiliating for Russia to back off deploying more than 100K troops and making outrageous demands for Western concessions.

Ms Schake said that it is not surprising that Russia would test American resolve after the exit from Afghanistan led to the nation falling to the Taliban. But at the same time, she said that so far, the US and Nato allies have done a good job of holding together and refusing to be a party to Russias schemes to recreate a sphere of influence.

Similarly, the bill being deliberated in the House would increase foreign military financing as well as International Military Education and Training (IMET) financing for Ukraine. The bill would also use soft power such as funding for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
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The proposal that cartel kingpin Omar Navarro lays out for Marty Byrde in Ozark season 4 is straightforward. Jason Batemans Byrde  a brilliant accountant from Chicago whos committed any number of misdeeds on behalf of the cartel now, across four seasons of the hit Netflix series  has one more job to do. You will use your influence, Navarro somewhat ominously tells Byrde and his wife, Wendy, played by Laura Linney. I will walk away from my business. I will be free of the threat of arrest or assassination. And to move freely to the United States.

Do this, and you are free of your obligation to me.

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Ozark season 4 trailer

"Your greatest threat will always come from the inside" Ozark Season 4 Part 1 premieres January 21 pic.twitter.com/w5B6eqbgoj  Netflix (@netflix) January 6, 2022

Those are more or less the magic words that Martys been dying to hear. In fact, hes wanted to for the entirety of this blood-soaked, drug-filled, high-stakes series, where the action can shift from a casino floor to the foreboding Missouri Ozarks to cartel land in Mexico quicker than Ruth Langmore can fire off one of her biting, expletive-laden quips. Somehow, after all this time, Marty has managed to sufficiently launder enough money to stay in Navarros good graces; avoid the clutches of the FBI; successfully open a casino, which is now ground zero for the money laundering; and keep the locals like the wild-eyed Darlene Snell from spoiling the whole thing.

Story continues

But somehow, even before the start of this season, we already have an idea about the ending, dont we? That this is not a story likely to get a happy Hollywood conclusion.

And now, this deal with the devil.

There is some good news, at least  for fans, not so much the characters tangled up in this story. The shows fourth and final season got super-sized, compared to the 10 episodes in each of the previous three seasons. There are 14 episodes in Ozark season 4, albeit spread over two 7-episode halves.

Dont get yourself killed

Jason Bateman as Martin Marty Byrde, and Alfonso Herrera as Javi in Ozark season four on Netflix. Image source: Steve Dietl/Netflix

The first of those two halves  Ozark season 4, part 1  debuted on Netflix on Friday, January 21. And in terms of the early reaction, the new episodes are absolutely crushing it right now. With both fans and critics.

Season 4, part 1, currently has an impressive 94% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Thats based on 17 reviews so far, like this one from The AV Club: Ozark returns to prove its worth in the genre by remaining a riveting and satisfying crime drama to its bitter (almost) end.

As of the time of this writing, meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes users have given Ozark season 4, part 1, a perfect 100% score. And right now, I have a feeling that by the time its all said and done? Something Jacob Snell said during an earlier season of Ozark, about man being unable to tame that which God wants to remain wild, will turn out to have been more prophetic than anyone realized at the time.

Umm does anyone want to talk about what happened in that opening scene of Ozark season 4.  A-bomb (@Abomb_1017) January 21, 2022

Happy Ozark Day to those who celebrate pic.twitter.com/m02gQkT1Mp  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 21, 2022

Sorry, I cant hang out this weekend, season 4 of Ozark comes out  Samantha Jane (@Sammiee13) January 19, 2022

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
A family photo of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her daughter Erica, who were murdered in 1984 (Courtesy of Sharon Wright Weeks)

At this point, roughly speaking, about one US state a year decides to end the penalty. So which state is mostly likely to be next in 2022? The answer might surprise you.

Most coastal and liberal-leaning states have already outlawed the practice by law or executive moratorium, leaving 24 states, mostly in the South and Mountain West, with active execution chambers. In 2021, against all odds, Virginia became the first state in the South to ban it , a watershed moment given the states past as a site of racial violence and prolific executions and lynchings .

Perhaps just as unlikely, Utah could be 2022s next big death penalty headline. It would a dramatic political moment in a deep red state so conservative it went for Donald Trump by more than 20 per cent in 202. Nonetheless, an unprecedented coalition of bipartisan legislators and business leaders have been pushing for years in the state to end executions. On Tuesday, Utahs legislative session began, and lawmakers took up the bill, HB 147 , which would replace executions with tough life sentences.

It one was familys story that changed the momentum of the death penalty in the state.In 2016, when it became clear that her mother was about to pass away, Sharon Wright Weeks drove from her home in St George, Utah, to Twin Falls, Idaho, for a final visit on Valentines Day. They were able to spend a meaningful day together, and Sharon held her mothers hand as she took her final breath, but this moment was soon disturbed.

Within 30 seconds the thought popped into my mind that my mother did not see justice for her daughter and granddaughters murder, Ms Weeks, 53, told The Independent in December. I was so angry, at myself, for allowing that to come in and dirty the beautiful experience that I was having. Its just at that point that I thought this death penalty process eclipses everything in your life.

A young Brenda Wright holding her younger sister Sharon (Courtesy of Sharon Wright Weeks)

In July 1984, when Ms Weeks was just 15, her sister Brenda Wright Lafferty and Brendas 15-month-old daughter Erica were brutally murdered by Brendas brothers-in-law Ron and Dan Lafferty. Dan Lafferty was sentenced to life in prison, while Ron was given a death sentence. More than 30 years after the original crime, the legal process, and the pain Sharon and her family were feeling, still wasnt over.

Story continues

Ron Lafferty had multiple trials at the state level, plus seemingly interminable appeals and competency hearings. With each new development, the media returned to the gruesome particulars of the murder , taking a macabre delight in covering the front page with photos and details about the men who had irreversibly harmed her family.

It never goes away. Its always there. It just comes into your mind. You have no control over it, Ms Weeks said. The vast majority of people have no idea what victims families are going through, going through this appellate process. Its absolutely horrendous, and its mean.

She saw the hard work that prosecutors and jurors alike were putting into trying to convict (and re-convict) her sisters killer, but Ms Weeks reached the point where she felt that the system prevented even their best intentions of justice from being anything but a big fat lie. The system seemed to her committed neither to execution, nor to speedy justice, nor to the wellbeing of the families caught in the middle. It simply ground on towards meaninglessness.

In 2019, Ron Lafferty died of natural causes at age 78, after 34 years in prison, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the country. By then, he was a sick old man, and Sharon wasnt even sure she wanted to see him executed anymore.

It would have been devastating to me, to have the government wheel a man in a wheelchair and shoot him. That would have devastated me, she said. That would have complicated and compounded an already healed portion of my loss.

Brenda and Erica Laffertys grave (Courtesy of Sharon Wright Weeks)

Her struggle for immediate justice may be over, but Sharon Wright Weeks is now fighting for a bigger kind of change. Her persistent advocacy, alongside Utah legislators, activists, and prosecutors, may mean Utah is the latest to outlaw the death penalty altogether. And against all odds, it looks like they have a decent chance of success, a watershed development that would mean the US officially has more states which have outlawed or halted capital punishment than those which still use it.

After her mothers death, Ms Weeks arranged a meeting with her state representative V Lowry Snow, a conservative former prosecutor. Rep Snow credits this meeting with changing his mind about capital punishment, and hes now one of the sponsors of HB 147, which would replace the death penalty with a 45-year life sentence.

She expressed to me the trauma her family had been through, not just in terms of his two trials but the promise, the representation that was made by the state that he should be put to death, and now we were at 33, 34 years later, and it still hadnt occurred, he said. In between, every time there was anything that happened in terms of him exercising his appellate rights or rehearing rights, or the second trial that the family had to go through, they had to relive again the tragic loss of her sister as well as her sisters infant daughter.

Utah state representative V Lowry Snow (Courtesy of Utah House of Representatives)

The more he thought about the death penalty, the more the punishment unsettled him. As a pro-life legislator, he couldnt abide by a punishment where the government intentionally kills. As a representative who had previously worked on other criminal justice policies, he couldnt bear the well-documented innocence epidemic on death row.

The reality is, of our system, in our state, in other states, its not a perfect system, he added. But when we impose a death sentence, it is a perfect sentence. Theres nothing that is left after a persons life is taken. Its final. There is no way to correct that.

He wasnt the only one getting behind the effort to outlaw the death penalty in Utah. State senator Dan McCay, another conservative, signed on to sponsor the repeal and replace bill in the upper house, joining advocacy groups ranging from the Utah ACLU to the libertarian think tank the Libertas Institute, which have both spent years pushing to end capital punishment.

Utah only has seven people on death row, and it hasnt executed anyone since 2010. Despite barely carrying out executions, Utah has still has spent millions on death penalty prosecutions in that time. The ballooning costs of capital punishment are just one of the many reasons conservatives in the state are rallying behind ending executions, according to Libertas Institute president Connor Boyack.

The death penalty is a very interesting policy. People come at it from so many different angles, he told The Independent. The people who oppose capital punishment have a diverse range of reasons that led them to that, for conservatives in particular.

For some, executions are the ultimate kind of big government overreach, and one fraught with error.

Many conservatives like myself are conceptually OK with capital punishment from a religious or moral or ethical angle, its just that we distrust the government to do that effectively and not kill innocent people along the way, he added.Business leaders in the state and beyond have also taken notice.

As I have learned more about the death penalty, I have become convinced that its disregard for the value of human life, its potential to execute innocents, its stark racial disparity and its exorbitant cost mean that it has no place in a modern society, said Jared Smith, cofounder of Qualtrics, one of the states highest profile tech companies.

He, along with more than 240 other business leaders, has signed onto the Responsible Business Initiative for Justices campaign to end the death penalty. Other notable signatories like Virgin founder Richard Branson have decried capital punishment in Utah.

Utah has a historic opportunity to do away with a deeply flawed and inhumane form of punishment, Mr Brandon said in a statement released Tuesday. By speaking up against the death penalty, business leaders join a broad movement that also includes a growing number of prosecutors and victims families. They know first-hand that the death penalty fails to deliver justice. Its time to end it for good.

Most astoundingly, even county officials and the head prosecutor in Utah County, the states most conservative region, have come out against capital punishment, which the Utah ACLUs Marina Lowe believes is a first in recent state political history.

I think this is quite remarkable, she said. There has been this sort of groundswell of interest.

Recent polling from the Deseret News indicates that this feeling has spread beyond just the statehouse, with Utahns now split about 50-50 on the death penalty, after decades of unchanging supermajority support.

Compared to other states with high-profile conversations about the death penalty going on, such as Oklahoma, discussion of the frequent racism of capital punishment hasnt been at the forefront in Utah, which has a mostly white population.

Because of the composition of our population, its probably less of a bullet point than it might be in other states, Ms Lowe said.

At this point, many of the states which retain executions are in the South and have large Black populations, as well as a troubled history of using executions as a form of explicit racist violence. Utah has its own dark chapters of Ku Klux Klan terror and lynching , but the political dynamics here have provided a striking example of how places with very different politics can arrive at similar conclusions for totally different reasons.

That isnt to say death penalty repeal is a done deal in the state. More and more people may be opposed to capital punishment in Utah, but 51 per cent of Utahns still support it. Repeal efforts failed in the legislature in 2016 and 2018.

GOP Representative Paul Ray is one of the legislators opposing the new repeal effort. He oversaw a 2015 bill that re-authorised the use of the firing squad as an execution method in the state as a backup, and remains an ardent supporter of capital punishment.

Weve shot it down like three times now You know, they say you cant beat a dead horse but apparently you can, he told the Desert News recently. There are certain crimes that are so heinous you should have to sacrifice your life.

Still, many in and outside Utah feel that there has never been more momentum and support to outlaw the death penalty, with recent examples like Virginias 2021 abolition bill proving that reining in capital punishment has become a truly bipartisan issue.

A death penalty protestor in Virginia (Getty Images)

In my conversations with Republicans and conservatives, there is this fervour and this desire to see our criminal justice reformed, to reimagine what justice looks like, said Demetrius Minor, national manager at Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Conservatives and Republicans are taking the lead in the arena of criminal justice reform like Ive never seen before.

Regardless of what Utah decides about the death penalty, Sharon Wright Weeks is hoping sharing her story will change the state. After this push, shes done campaigning, she said. Its taken an emotional toll, and it has caused friends who are victims of violent crime and support executions to cease speaking with her.

I feel like I have done my part in assisting my counterparts, my people in this state, she said. I have assisted in sharing with them my experience that I can no longer share after this. It has become heavy for me.

Its a weight that, if she and her allies are successful, other families in Utah will never have to carry again.

The Independent and the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) have launched a joint campaign calling for an end to the death penalty in the US. The RBIJ has attracted more than 150 well-known signatories to their Business Leaders Declaration Against the Death Penalty - with The Independent as the latest on the list. We join high-profile executives like Ariana Huffington, Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg, and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson as part of this initiative and are making a pledge to highlight the injustices of the death penalty in our coverage.
James shifts nervously from one foot to the other, sweat glistening on his forehead and his muscles tense. A smiling intern approaches with a flag pin intent on thanking him for his military service whether he likes it or not. Thats when he bolts for the door. I take off after him; theres no way Im letting him tear onto the highway with his nervous system flashing red. Visions of a high-speed collision flash in my mind as I jog through the parking lot trying to catch him.

Earlier that morning, I noticed James standing apart from the milling crowd gathered for a workshop on terminally ill veterans who have combat-related psychological challenges like post-traumatic stress disorder, moral injury and complicated bereavement. With his straight back and hair cut in the style of a Marine, James was a stark contrast to the business card-exchanging group of social workers and psychologists with whom Id been chatting.

I had gone over and struck up a conversation. Hed told me he worked for a street program focused on helping veterans struggling with drugs, homelessness and issues like depression, suicidal thoughts and PTSD.

Hed recently applied to graduate schools with a vision of becoming a psychologist. I want to be there for my Iraq War brothers and sisters, hed said. We were all betrayed, every one of us. Moral injury and PTSD, thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Betrayed by who? Id asked.

Politicians, military brass, the majority of people in this country who dont give a shit what really happened to me and my buddies and who dont want to hear about it. Hed stared into my eyes as though expecting me to be uncomfortable with his candor.

Ive heard that from lots of vets, Id said, nodding. Not just the ones who fought in Iraq; going way back.

Thats the dirty little secret about war, hed said, extending his hand. Its always an act of betrayal.

Later, wed grabbed seats together at a table with three others. The trainer started with moral injury  what it is, what it looks like, why it matters. He played poignant excerpts from recorded interviews of veterans talking about the psychologically and spiritually painful impact of witnessing or committing actions that violated their sense of morality or that had shattered their trust in those theyd relied on to act in their best interest.

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The trouble had started after lunch when the trainer asked attendees who were veterans to raise their hands. A half-dozen or so complied, but James hesitated. Id given him a nod and whispered, You dont have to do this if you dont want to.

He gave a forced smile and raised his hand. Then the trainer asked the veterans to stand and announced that an intern would be making rounds with a box of flag pins.

James had quickly sized up the well-intentioned ritual coming his way. The trainer would speak directly to each veteran, asking them what branch theyd been in and where they had been stationed. Then he would thank each of them for their service while the intern pinned a flag to their shirt and the audience clapped.

Sweating profusely, James had scanned the room looking for the nearest exit and anything or anyone that might get in his way. Thats when hed bolted.

James, I call out as he unlocks a beat-up Ford Mustang. He doesnt respond as he flings the door open and fumbles with the seatbelt, his hands shaking. I step between the open door and the cars frame. I know its tricky, maybe even dangerous, getting in his space when hes feeling threatened, but Im determined to help him settle before he revs the engine.

Five minutes, I say holding up five fingers. Just give me five, James. After that you can forget you ever met me.

His respirations are rapid. I take a deep breath, trying to cue him to do the same. He taps the steering wheel rapidly with one of his fists as though thinking, then motions to the passenger seat. Clocks ticking, he says.

I sit in the passenger seat, leaving the door open. We stare ahead avoiding eye contact. I wait for him to speak.

Service, he finally says. They have no idea.

He lowers his head.

They call what happened over there service? Do they think we were serving fucking French fries? What I saw, what I did. What my buddies did. What we had done to us. It wasnt any kind of service. It was pure hell and Im still living it. Now they want to pat me on the head and jab me with a cheap flag pin?

Youre right, I respond. They have no idea.

They dont want to know, he shoots back. They want us all to shut the hell up and go along so they dont have to take any responsibility themselves. Didnt I tell you we were all betrayed? It never stops.

'What I saw, what I did. What my buddies did. What we had done to us. It wasnt any kind of service. It was pure hell and Im still living it. Now they want to pat me on the head and jab me with a cheap flag pin?'

He gives me a sad look. I watched friends get their guts blown out. You ever seen bodies of women and kids splattered across the ground knowing you and your buddies are the ones who did it?

I shake my head silently.

He grips his steering wheel so tightly the sinews in his forearms look like tightened cables.

Service, he says with acid sarcasm.

His face softens and tears well in his eyes. How can they start in with the flag pins without even asking me what my experience was? Its like theyre trying to push a lie down my throat.

What lie? I ask.

He looks up as though searching for words. That whatever we do is some kind of service to humanity. That we never commit atrocities and cover them up; that were always helping the weak and protecting democracy. I found out fast we were killing and getting killed for money and power.

Whats it like having people thanking you for your service everywhere you go, James?

He shakes his head as though I wouldnt understand. I remain silent, giving him time to either respond or switch the subject.

You know what its like? he finally says. You might think this is an exaggeration but you asked. Its an act of violence.

Help me understand that one, I say.

Imagine youre hurting like hell and all you want to do is tell your friends and family what happened, hoping theyll understand, hoping maybe theyll tell you theyre sorry about what you had to go through and reassure you that youre not some kind of monster. But all they do is pretend what you did was great and parrot a bunch of lame horse shit about being a hero. Its like youre being choked to death from the inside and you look to others for help and they just smile and look away.

Psychological and emotional violence, I say.

He nods.

I look at the clock and mention that its been five minutes.

You kept your part of the deal, James. Ive got time if you want to talk more but I want to keep my end. Its your call.

His hands are steady now and his breathing is normal. Thanks for coming after me. Im good now.

He reaches out his hand. He squeezes mine tight and says, Thanks for not thanking me for my service when we met.

I nod.

As he drives off I think about the hundreds of terminally ill combat veterans Ive worked with as their hospice social worker. Most were, as combat veteran Tim OBrien puts it, carrying stuff. Stuff many  maybe most  civilians wouldnt understand. Thats probably why so many of these veterans had locked it up inside and hidden it from view.

Long days in a hospital bed, though, have ways of dredging stuff up. Its normal for patients approaching death to look back on their lives and take stock. When youre looking back on a life that includes the cataclysmic violence and horrific loss and grief of war, this life review process can be psychologically and spiritually complex  even painful.

Many of the combat veterans Ive known had spent decades trying not to think or talk (at least not with civilians) about what theyd seen and done. Many suppressed undigested grief for friends whod been killed or struggled silently with survival guilt, anger or feeling unsafe in the world. Some struggled with explosive tempers, anxiety or depression related to the scars of war; others with emotional numbness, alcohol and/or drug addictions, or feeling disconnected from others.

Some had polished up a handful of well-rehearsed war stories sanitized of blood, gore or moral ambiguity, which theyd offered family and friends so as not to upset them. Others simply kept quiet. But as death approaches, it can claw up stories and memories that have been suppressed.

These memories can be fragmented and poignant with details of wars horror  the smell of burning bodies, the eyes of a dead buddy gazing up at the sky, the numb immersion day after day after day in violence, killing and death. Sometimes they are laced with moral pain and shame  the killing of civilians, lifeless bodies of the enemy being desecrated in the rage of a battles aftermath.

When youre looking back on a life that includes the cataclysmic violence and horrific loss and grief of war, this life review process can be psychologically and spiritually complex  even painful.

As I walk back to the training, I think about a B-17 pilot who participated in bombing raids during World War II intended to incinerate German cities. The point had been to kill every man, woman and child  every dog and flea unlucky enough to be on the ground. Hed done his duty and returned from war assured that hed helped save the world from fascism.

But humans, despite misguided notions about war being part of the human condition, are not wired to kill each other however just the cause may seem. As an old man, he was haunted by the belief that he was a mass murderer. He was convinced he was going to go to hell after he died and there hed feel the kind of fiery torture he believed hed inflicted on others.

Like James, he had winced at reflexive expressions of thanks for his service. The message he heard was: We believe that you were performing a service, standing up for freedom, protecting the weak, saving democracy. Youre a hero. Thats our story and we dont want to hear your story if it makes us uncomfortable or challenges us in any way.

He didnt want someone elses story shoved down his throat; he wanted someone with whom it was safe to tell his own without being judged or rejected. He wanted to unpack some of what hed been carrying and find compassion for the 20-year-old young man hed been when thrust into the bloody savagery of war. He wanted to begin to heal before he died.

As someone who works with dying veterans, Ive learned to never automatically thank them for their service. I realize many are justifiably proud of their time in the military, of friendships forged, courage shown and service given. I know that most appreciate expressions of thanks and that these expressions are often genuine and heartfelt on the part of those offering them. But I would rather disappoint those who expect me to join the chorus of thanks than close the door on a single veteran like James who needs someone who wont flinch or look away if they choose to share what they have been carrying.

Refusing to lead with the culturally sanctioned chant Thank you for your service sends the message to veterans like James that Im not pushing a story that denies their experience. Its safe to talk. I can be trusted to listen without judging.

Those veterans who have noticed and asked about my lack of obedience to the social custom of using the euphemism service have generally understood and appreciated my reasons once we discussed them. Several shared things with me during those conversations they would not otherwise have shared. Things they, too, had been carrying.

But theres another reason I never give automatic thanks or use the word service.

Its an easy out for the rest of us. It lets civilians like me off the hook when it comes to taking any responsibility for what we have allowed political and military leaders to do in our name. It allows us to wash our hands of any culpability for how they, and we, have used our troops.

Thats part of what I think James meant when he said all wars are acts of betrayal. Calling the sum of actions taken in war service is a convenient way for the rest of us to deny what our warriors have been asked to do. It makes it easy for us to turn away from or to deny the burning anguish, grief and regret many carry. Insidiously, it also allows us to avoid asking awkward questions: Were we really justified in using violence to kill so many other human beings? Why are we so desperate to idealize those who have done the bloody, heartbreaking work of war? Who profits  politically or financially  from all this division and violence? What are we so damned afraid of?

Theres another reason I never give automatic thanks or use the word service. Its an easy out for the rest of us. It lets civilians like me off the hook when it comes to taking any responsibility for what we have allowed political and military leaders to do in our name. It allows us to wash our hands of any culpability for how they, and we, have used our troops.

The service euphemism has become so prevalent that it is now part of a cultural trance state that shuts down honest conversations about these and other questions. Automatically thanking a veteran for his or her service can inadvertently telegraph to those whose experiences fly in the face of our well-rehearsed storyline that we dont want to hear what really happened  that we dont care about what they might be carrying. This not only reinforces our collective conceit that our own hands are clean, it ensures that we will not have to carry anything ourselves.

Euphemism piles upon euphemism. Hiding the slaughter of war behind the innocuous word service allows us to call the children James saw killed collateral damage. Calling bombs smart bombs and calling it precision bombing when we unleash them on others allows us to conceal those children from our awareness as well as the pangs of grief in those left behind. It even allows some of us to vilify those Americans who dare dissent or protest the dropping of bombs as unpatriotic or un-American.

When American troops are killed, we are protected, as though we are children, from any images of their charred and mangled corpses. Once more we are slathered in reassuring euphemisms. Our fallen heroes and their brave sacrifice are lauded by a ratings-obsessed media and politicians vowing revenge on an enemy also in thrall to the delusion that they are providing a service by killing young American men and women.

If we really want to honor the ultimate sacrifice our soldiers have made, if we really want to ensure that they have not died in vain, we need to stop lying about war by hiding behind socially enforced rituals, platitudes and euphemisms. If we really want to help those who have survived and carry the wounds of war, we need to stop hiding from and denying wars cruel brutality. We must make sure it is safe for veterans who have been in the military during a time of war  regardless of whether they were directly exposed to combat  to speak for themselves and to speak the truth. And we need to listen to all of them, not just the ones whose stories make us feel good about ourselves.

Note: Names and some details have been slightly altered to protect the privacy of the individuals discussed in this essay.

Scott Janssen is a hospice social worker and writer. He has written extensively about providing trauma-informed care for patients who are terminally ill and has spoken nationally about ways to better support veterans who are nearing the end of their lives. His work has appeared in dozens of publications including Social Work Today, Psychotherapy Networker, American Journal of Nursing, Readers Digest and The Washington Post. His novel Light Keepers is a visionary adventure about the transformational power of kindness and love when the world appears lost in anger, conflict and fear.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

More From HuffPost Personal...
This upcoming weekend the Sooners will host a plethora of talented athletes from across multiple recruiting classes. The incoming 2022 class still needs to be buttoned up while the Sooners host members of the 2023 and 2024 classes in the coming weeks. Brent Venables and his staff have their first major recruiting weekend together and will look to close out some recruitments or position themselves nicely for others.

With so much talent in town, the Sooners will be busy this weekend hosting and showing these recruits what Norman and Oklahoma Football is all about. If they do it right, they can put themselves in a prime position to land talent across multiple classes.

Here are the 2022 names that the Sooners will be hosting:

2022 CB commit Gentry Williams

Gentry Williams is the No. 1 player in the state of Oklahoma and has been for multiple years now. He committed to the Sooners in October and has remained committed despite the coaching change. Hell be taking another official visit this weekend which is only possible since the Sooners had a head coaching change.

Jay Valai, the Sooners new cornerbacks coach, will have his opportunity to close the deal on Williams, who wanted to wait and get acquainted with his new position coach before signing. Venables and Valai will look to put the finishing touches on the talented in-state star and keep the big talents of Oklahoma in-state.

2022 DT Ahmad Moten and 2022 Edge R Mason Thomas

Ahmad Moten and R Mason Thomas are teammates from the Fort Lauderdale area of Florida at Cardinal Gibbons High School. Both players hold offers from the Sooners. Thomas is committed to Iowa State, while Moten is uncommitted but is being recruited by UNC, Miami, and Iowa State.

Thomas is being recruited by defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis, one of Venables first hires when he became head coach. Chavis has been presumably working for a few months on Thomas and likely has his best opportunity to make his last best impression on the talented edge defender.

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On the flip side, his teammate, and friend, Ahmad Moten, will likely be shown the ropes by defensive tackles coach Todd Bates. Bates will be looking to do his part to secure another interior defensive lineman as the Sooners continue to reshape and restructure the foundation of their defense.

Being that both are teammates, a successful visit could lead to one being able to sway the other into joining the Crimson & Cream.

2022 CB signee Jayden Rowe

Jayden Rowe is the only signee that will be in attendance this weekend, but the Sooners will love having him on campus. With Rowe signed and getting to visit the school with a full staff and other 2022 signees in attendance, they could use the time to get a peek at what its like with Brent Venables running the ship. The additional benefit to having Rowe already on board is it gives the coaching staff more time to spend with guys who are still on the fence.

Unlike some of his other 2022 classmates, Rowe will be a Summer enrollee, but this weekend should give him a good look at Norman and what to expect from Brent Venables and the new defensive staff. Hes got a massive amount of potential and could be a weapon for Venables and the defensive staff to use while as a Sooner.

2022 DL Gracen Halton

Gracen Halton is yet another defensive line prospect the Sooners will have on campus this week. Halton is listed as an edge by 247Sports, but with his size and frame, he could slide inside and play on the interior.

The Oregon commit is a California kid but is taking an official visit to Oklahoma as national signing day approaches. With the full defensive staff likely in the building, look for the Sooners to apply the pressure and see if they can get Halton to think a little bit harder about where he chooses to play his college football.

Just checking in with #Sooners 22 DL Target Gracen Halton (@GracenHalton1) to reconfirm his upcoming official visit to Norman (Jan. 21st) and he said Yessir! Gotta make sure all the #BoomerSooner fans know Im gonna be out there  Charlie (@CharlieS_TFB) January 18, 2022

2022 ATH Jamarrien Burt

Jamarrien Burt represents a very new recruit into the fold late for the Sooners. Burt was not on the radar of the previous coaching staff, but with Venables and companys recruiting focus shifting to the southeast, theyre making a late play for the 2022 Athletes services. Despite the late offer, Burt immediately decided to come and take an official to visit the Sooners.

Burt was a two-way player for his high school in Ocala, Florida, and could go on either side of the ball in college. Utah, Indiana, and Missouri seem like the most significant competition here.

2023 LB Anthony Hill

Linebacker Anthony Hill is a consensus top 50 recruit in the country and will be in Norman this weekend. He can play on or off the ball and is physically imposing for someone who hasnt even graduated high school yet. Before Venables hiring, the Sooners were in touch as Lincoln Riley and his staff made several appearances in Denton, Texas, to visit the talented player. Venables has recruited and coached some elite linebackers and will be doing everything possible to give the Sooners a shot here.

Another tip in the Sooners favor is that a current Sooners player is from the same high school as Hill, Billy Bowman. Hopefully, with Bowman on campus and Venables there, the Sooners can use all hands on deck to show Hill what Oklahoma can offer. Texas and Texas A&M are the Sooners biggest threats here.

2023 DL David Hicks

David Hicks joins Anthony Hill as a premier Texas product in Norman for this weekends visits. Like Hill, Hicks is one of the five-best recruits in the state of Texas per 247Sports. David Hicks is a consensus top 10 recruit and will force the Sooners into a heavy recruiting battle with the biggest brands in college football like Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, and Texas.

Clemson was in a great spot for Hicks during the season last year. Why is that significant? The lead recruiter for Hicks was Todd Bates who is now the defensive tackles coach at Oklahoma.

Bates and Hicks have a relationship and with Oklahomas proximity to Texas, one has to think that makes the Sooners an appealing opportunity for Hicks to consider.

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This year may not have brought an immediate end to the coronavirus pandemic, but it brought a renewed sense of hope when it comes to traveling. And many Americans are taking advantage of that feeling, looking ahead, and planning their next vacations.

The options for those who want to add another stamp to their passport have steadily grown since the world was first put on hold last year  albeit often with more paperwork, testing, and pre-planning required. Now, foreign national air travelers to the United States will be required to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status and a negative test prior to boarding an airplane to the United States. The United States' new international air travel policy, replaces the existing country-by-country restrictions, putting in place a consistent approach worldwide.

Those who fly back to the United States will also be required to show a negative test before boarding a flight home. To provide even greater peace of mind to travelers, many airlines and airports have started offering on-site rapid COVID-19 tests.

Below is a list of countries currently accepting American travelers along with each destination's travel protocol and their advisory level determined by the State Department. Countries that are accepting American travelers but require visitors to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival are also listed separately.

Albania

Albania

GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a face mask, walks in Tirana's main square.

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. citizens are allowed to enter Albania without showing any test results or being required to quarantine, according to the U.S. Embassy in Albania.

Albania requires anyone 11 years old or older wear masks in public, both indoors and outdoors. Restaurants and cafes in the country are open, with an 12 a.m to 6 p.m. nightly curfew.

Anguilla

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

The Caribbean island is open to pre-approved tourists from certain countries, requiring them to apply in advance and submit a negative COVID-19 PCR test within three to five days before arriving.

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Visitors also have to prove they have health insurance to cover potential medical expenses related to treatment of the virus and remain in an approved location for at least 10 days.

Antigua and Barbuda

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Visitors to Antigua and Barbuda over the age of 12 are required to arrive with a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test from within seven days of their flight, according to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS.

Argentina

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Eligible travelers must have received a completed vaccination at least 14 days before coming and must show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of entering the country.

Travelers will also have to fill out an "Affidavit of Migration" and show proof they have insurance that covers COVID-19.

Armenia

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Americans can enter Armenia by air and must either arrive with a negative PCR COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before arrival or get tested upon arrival at the airport, according to the U.S. Embassy in Armenia.

Face masks in public places are required in Armenia and those who do not comply could face a fine.

Aerial view of a resort-lined beach in Aruba

Courtesy of Aruba Tourism Authority

Aruba

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers who do head to Aruba must show proof of a negative molecular COVID-19 test taken within two days of their departure as well as complete an online Embarkation/Disembarkation card and purchase Aruba Visitors Insurance, according to the Aruba Tourism Authority.

Bahamas

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers to the Bahamas can skip the islands' mandatory quarantine if they test negative for COVID-19 within three days before their departure, along with applying for a Bahamas Health Travel Visa after their test. Unvaccinated travelers will then have to take a second, rapid antigen test on day 5 of their visit.

Visitors are then required to opt-in to mandatory COVID-19 health insurance when applying for their Health Travel Visa.

The Bahamas requires everyone to wear masks in public indoors.

Barbados

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Barbados requires travelers to show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within three days of their arrival to enter, or a rapid PCR test within one day of travel, according to the Barbados tourism website. Fully-vaccinated travelers then have to take a second rapid PCR test at the airport upon arrival and quarantine until their results are available. Unvaccinated travelers must quarantine for at least five days before taking a second PCR test. Upon return to the United States outbound travelers will be required to pay $100 USD per test.

Travelers must complete an immigration form and download the BIMSafe app, which public health teams will use to check-in. Travelers must also monitor their temperature for seven days after arrival.

Mask wearing is required in public spaces.

Barbados is also welcoming visitors to move to the island for a year for the ultimate remote work experience.

Bahrain

Level 4: Do Not Travel

The government has resumed issuing visas upon arrival for eligible nationalities  including the U.S.  and requires passengers to be tested upon arrival for COVID-19 at their own expense, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain. Passengers who test negative are not required to quarantine. Children under six are exempt from testing on arrival.

Travelers who remain in Bahrain for 10 days or longer will be retested on the 10th day.

Belarus

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. travelers to Belarus are allowed to enter the country without any COVID-19 restrictions in place, according to the U.S. Embassy in Belarus.

Travelers should expect to undergo temperature checks at the airport.

Belize

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Visitors to Belize should book with a hotel that complies with their nine-point initiative, entitled the Tourism Gold Standard Recognition Program, in which the approved hotels  listed on their tourism site  have implemented health and safety standards including online check-in and check-out and mandatory mask-wearing in public spaces.

Travelers have the option to take a COVID-19 PCR test within 96 hours of departure or a rapid antigen test within 48 hours of departure.

Fully vaccinated travelers who can prove it has been two weeks since their final shot are exempt from the testing requirements.

Stonehole Bay in Bermuda

Bermuda Tourism Authority Stonehole Bay in Bermuda

Bermuda

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers to Bermuda must apply for a Bermuda COVID-19 Travel Authorization one to three days before departure, which must be submitted 24 hours before travel. The authorization requires a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken no more than five days before arrival. Travelers who do not take a COVID-19 test before arrival will have to quarantine for 8 days. They will be required to wear a quarantine bracelet, for which they'll be charged $300.

Vaccinated travelers must also submit a Travel Authorization application before departure and quarantine until they receive their results of a COVID-19 test taken upon arrival. Following a negative test result, vaccinated travelers will not have to quarantine but must test on days 4, 8, and 14 of their trip.

Bolivia

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

The Bolivian Government requires travelers to arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 10 days if coming from a country in North America, Europe, or Asia, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia. Passengers should also expect to undergo temperature checks.

Face masks are required to be worn in public places.

Botswana

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. travelers can enter the country if they have a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of their departure for Botswana, according to the U.S. Embassy in Botswana. U.S. citizens who do not meet testing requirements will have to quarantine for 14 days.

Brazil

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Foreign visitors are required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to boarding a flight to the country. Travelers will also have to fill out a Traveler's Health Declaration online. Children under 12 years old who are accompanied and all children under 2 are exempt from testing.

Bonaire

Level 4: Do Not travel

Vaccinated Americans can travel to Bonaire via Curacao and must arrive with a negative antigen test taken 24 hours prior to arrival or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 48 hours of their arrival. Unvaccinated tourists must present a negative PCR test within 48 hours of arrival, according to the government. Travelers must also complete an online health declaration form 72 hours to 48 hours before departure. There is no longer a requirement for a test after 5 days on the island, or a self test upon arrival.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. citizens can travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina as long as they present a negative COVID-19 PCR test no older than 48 hours from their arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Restaurants, cafes, and most businesses are open in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a nightly curfew remains in place. Masks are required in public places.

Cambodia

Photo by TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images Cambodia

Cambodia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Cambodia no longer requires fully vaccinated visitors to quarantine. Travelers may enter with a negative COVID-19 test taken 72 hours prior to entry and proof of a full vaccination.

Cambodia is one of the most inoculated countries in Southeast Asia with approximately 90% of the population vaccinated.

Canada

Level 4: Do Not Travel

To enter Canada, American travelers must be fully vaccinated for at least two weeks. Vaccinated tourists must test negative for COVID-19 before traveling (via PCR test), carry paper copies of their vaccination records, and upload their documents to the ArriveCAN app or website.

Chile

Level 3: Exercise Increased Caution

Chile requires travelers to show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of boarding their flight, according to the U.S. Embassy in Chile. Travelers must also complete an online "Affidavit of Travelers" and show proof they have health insurance that covers COVID-19 while there. Visitors must also fill out a mobility pass, which reduces their mandatory quarantine period to five days (it's seven days without the pass).

Colombia

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

U.S. citizens are allowed to enter Colombia and must complete the Migracion Colombia's Check-Mig immigration form and show a negative PCR test from no more than 96 hours before departure, according to the U.S. Embassy in Colombia. Quarantine is not required, but travelers may be greeted with other protocols upon arrival.

Limited international flights have resumed to several of the country's busiest airports, including Bogota, Cartagena, and Medellin, but the country's water and land borders remain closed.

Costa Rica

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Costa Rica is welcoming visitors from all U.S. states. Travelers must complete an online Health Pass form within 48 hours of boarding a flight and show proof of travel insurance that covers medical expenses and accommodation in case they are forced to quarantine.

This follows the country's reopening for international visitors from several other countries in August, including from Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Croatia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

People who travel from an EU or EEA country and travelers from certain other countries, including the U.S., Australia, and Japan, can enter Croatia, according to the Croatian Ministry of Interior.

Those who are coming from a country on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's green list do not need to provide a negative test, while those coming from countries not on the green list must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours.

Curacao

Courtesy of Curacao Tourism Board

Curacao

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Americans can visit if they show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test no more than 72 hours before departure, and fill out an online immigration card and Passenger Locator Card within 48 hours of their departure, according to the Curacao Tourist Board. Travelers must also have medical insurance to cover them if they become ill with the virus while visiting.

The island, which asks people to wear face masks if they cannot be at least 6 feet apart, has also introduced a "Dushi Stay" app  dushi meaning "sweet" in Papiamentu  to help visitors keep track of everything from entry requirements to which restaurants, attractions, and beaches are open.

Czech Republic

Level 4: Do Not Travel

American travelers are welcome back to the Czech Republic, but must present a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of arrival. Visitors must also complete a Passenger Locator Form.

Masks are required at airports, shops, all public transportation (including on platforms and stops), post offices, and taxis or rideshares. There are no curfew or quarantine measures in place in the Czech Republic.

Democratic Republic Of The Congo

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers must also register online before departure and will be tested again at the airport once they arrive at their own expense  about $45  self quarantining until they receive a negative result (usually within 24 hours). Travelers will also have to get re-tested within three days of their plans to leave the country.

In addition to COVID-19 measures, travelers must show a World Health Organization card with proof of a yellow fever vaccination.

Denmark

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Vaccinated travelers will be exempt from pre-arrival testing and quarantine protocols upon arrival. Denmark will only accept EMA-approved vaccines and requires travelers to wait two weeks from the last shot of their vaccination course before entering the country. Children who are not vaccinated but traveling with a parent, and women who are unvaccinated because they are pregnant or breastfeeding, can still visit Denmark but will have to take a COVID-19 test prior to entry.

Djibouti

Level 2: Reconsider Travel

U.S. travelers can enter Djibouti with proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of boarding a flight to the country and not more than 120 hours before arriving, according to the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti. Upon arrival, passengers will be tested again with a saliva test, which costs about $30. If a large percentage of a flight tests positive with the saliva test, the government may require a follow-up nasal swab test.

Dominica

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers from high-risk countries (which includes the U.S.) must show a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken 24 to 72 hours before arrival and submit an online health questionnaire at least 24 hours prior to arrival.

Upon arrival, travelers will also have to undergo a rapid test. If it is negative, travelers will be taken to either a "Safe in Nature" certified property or a quarantine location for at least five days. On the fifth day, travelers will be re-tested and can be medically cleared if that result is negative.

Beach in Dominican Republic, Caribbean

VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Dominican Republic

Level 3: Reconsider travel

As part of the Dominican Republic's "Responsible Tourism Recovery Plan," visitors are no longer required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the country. Additionally, mass testing will not be performed at the airport upon arrival, but will instead be done at random. Travelers must fill out a Traveler's Health Affidavit online before traveling to the DR.

Ecuador

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers to Ecuador are allowed to skip the mandatory quarantine if they show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than 10 days before arrival and exhibit no symptoms, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Ecuador.

The Galapagos has its own restrictions, including requiring travelers to show a negative PCR test taken no more than 96 hours before arrival to the islands.

Egypt

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. tourists must secure a visa to visit Egypt, according to the State Department. Travelers must show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken no more than 96 hours prior to their flight, according to the U.S. Embassy in Egypt. Travelers must have a paper copy of the results as digital results will not be accepted.

Tourists must also show proof of health insurance upon arrival. Visitors who do go to Egypt will notice health and safety protocols at hotels, including electronic check-in, temperature checks, and sanitization of luggage, according to the country's tourism site.

El Salvador

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Americans are allowed to enter El Salvador, and required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of boarding a flight, according to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.

Finland

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Finland has reopened to all vaccinated travelers. Additionally, the country will allow unvaccinated visitors from low-risk countries to enter without having to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. At this time, American travelers will be required to show proof of vaccination.

France

Level 4: Do Not Travel

France reopened to certain vaccinated travelers in June, including Americans. Currently, travelers from the UK are banned from entry (there are exceptions for extreme circumstances). The regulations are based on how your country is doing with COVID-19. The U.S. is considered an Amber country.

Vaccinated travelers from countries with an intermediate level of risk (currently, the U.S. falls under this category) must take a PCR test (and get a negative test result) no more than 72 hours before arriving.

French Polynesia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

To enter French Polynesia, you must be able to prove that you are vaccinated or have a COVID-19 immunity. Prior to entering French Polynesia, you'll have to upload proof of your vaccination to ETIS.pf  which is also where you'd upload a serological test that shows you're positive for COVID-19 antibodies.

Travelers who do not have a vaccination or antibodies will still have to quarantine for 10 days, and anyone who comes to French Polynesia may have to test upon arrival and on the fourth day of their stay (which costs $50).

Germany

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Germany started welcoming American travelers who are fully vaccinated into the country as of June 2021. Travelers must be able to prove they've completed a European Medicines Agency-accepted vaccination course, that they've recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months, or that they've tested negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of travel.

Ghana

Level 2: Exercise Increase Caution

Travelers must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test no more than 72 hours before departure, according to the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. Travelers must then undergo a second test upon arrival at the airport, which costs $150 per person.Face coverings are required in public in Ghana.

Greece

Level 4: Do Not Travel

American travelers are welcome in Greece. According to the U.S. Embassy, vaccinated travelers can enter the country without showing a negative COVID-19 test.

However, unvaccinated travelers must present a PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to entry into Greece. All travelers coming into Greece must fill out a Passenger Locator Form completed by 11:59 p.m. on the night before their arrival into the country. Once the PLF is completed, the Greek government will send the traveler a QR code that must be shown to the customs agents when entering Greece.

Grenada

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers heading to Grenada must be fully vaccinated and are also required to provide proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of traveling to the island, according to Grenada's Ministry of Health. Previously, Grenada required visitors to quarantine and apply for a travel authentication certificate, neither of which are currently required.

Guatemala

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Guatemala requires travelers aged 10 and over to show a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test conducted within 96 hours before their departure, according to the U.S. Embassy. Travelers must also fill out an online immigration pre-check form.

Travelers to Guatemala will also be required to complete a Health Pass online before arriving.

Masks are required in public spaces in the country.

Haiti

Level 4: Do Not Travel

All travelers coming into Haiti must show a negative PCR test for COVID-19 taken no more than 72 hours prior to boarding your flight to Haiti. There is no curfew in place, nor are foreign travelers required to quarantine upon arrival. Not only are commercial flights to Haiti operating, but their land border with the Dominican Republic is open as well.

Honduras

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers can enter Honduras if they possess a negative COVID-19 test, according to the U.S. Embassy in Honduras.

The nightly curfew is no longer in place, however, if out after 10pm travelers are required to carry their COVID-19 vaccination card documenting proof of vaccination.

The opening and operation of bars, nightclubs, concerts, and community fairs remains prohibited.

Iceland

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Iceland is accepting travelers from the U.S. and countries outside the Schengen zone. As of now, they are welcoming only travelers with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (which includes Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, or Johnson & Johnson). Travelers who are fully vaccinated will not have to quarantine upon arrival.

Ireland

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Ireland no longer requires vaccinated passengers to present a negative COVID-19 test. Unvaccinated travelers must still present a negative PCR test taken with 72 hours of arrival

Ireland plans to follow the "emergency brake" plan the EU is following as COVID-19 variants spread. If the EU pulls the "emergency brake" on Ireland because of COVID-19 outbreaks, they will advise travelers of new restrictions.

Israel

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Israel has announced they will begin to open their borders to travelers of all countries. Travelers must be fully vaccinated to enter, and travelers must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours upon entry. Travelers will then be required to take a test upon arrival in Israel and quarantine until they have a test result, according to the tourism ministry.

Italy

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Italy announced in late June 2021 that vaccinated travelers coming from the U.S. will not have to quarantine upon entry to Italy.

For vaccinated or unvaccinated U.S. travelers, "COVID-free flights" into the country are still an option  run by Delta currently depart from New York City and Atlanta. Travelers on these flights are required to get tested before departure and again on arrival, regardless of their vaccination status, but are exempt from quarantine.

Jamaica

Valery SharifulinTASS via Getty Images

Jamaica

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Jamaica requires arriving passengers to show either a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test from a certified lab taken within 72 hours of boarding a flight, according to the country's tourism board. Children under 12 years old are exempt. Travelers must also apply to come to Jamaica seven days before their projected arrival date.

Related: I Traveled to Jamaica During COVID-19  Here's What It Was Really Like

Kenya

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers from the U.S. are allowed to enter Kenya as long as they present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 96 hours of travel, don't have a temperature above 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and don't have symptoms of the virus, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.Travelers need to digitally verify their tests through the Trusted Travel (TT) Initiative. Travelers who leave Kenya must also get a second negative PCR test and verify it through the same system.

Kosovo

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

U.S. citizens must provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before arriving to enter Kosovo, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo. If they don't have a test, they are required to self-isolate for seven days.

A nightly curfew is in place.

Liberia

Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution

Foreign travelers can now enter Liberia without quarantining upon arrival, as long as they present a negative PCR COVID-19 test. Travelers need a negative test for COVID-19 regardless of their vaccination status.

Lebanon

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. travelers to Lebanon must arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR no more than 96 hours old, according to the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Visitors will have to take another PCR test at the airport and quarantine for up to 72 hours at a designated hotel until they receive a negative result. Fully vaccinated travelers and travelers who have proof that they've recently recovered from COVID-19 are exempt from these testing and quarantine requirements. A nightly curfew has been implemented throughout Lebanon.

The Maldives

Philipp Herder/picture alliance via Getty Images The Maldives

Maldives

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Americans looking to take advantage of the luxury of overwater bungalows need to look no further than the Maldives. Visitors must show a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 96 hours of their departure, according to the Ministry of Tourism. There is no required quarantine upon arrival for tourists who show a negative COVID-19 test.

Malta

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Malta is open to vaccinated travelers as of July 19, 2021. Malta was the first European Union country to reach herd immunity. Americans must upload their vaccination information to a CDC-verified app to enter Malta.

Mexico

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Mexico is open to tourists arriving by air from the U.S. Travelers do not have to show proof of a vaccine or a negative PCR test for COVID-19 to enter Mexico.

Montenegro

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Visitors to Montenegro are required to show either a negative COVID-19 test or a positive antibody test from within 72 hours of arrival in the country, according to the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro.

Face masks are required in all public areas in the country and a nightly curfew has been enacted.

Menara Pavilion and Gardens, Marrakesh reflections on the water

Peerakit Jirachetthakun/Getty Images

Morocco

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Foreign nationals from countries that Morocco deems safe (and on their "List A"), including the U.S., are allowed to enter Morocco with either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test for COVID-19 taken no more than 48 hours prior to arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Morocco. Those coming from countries on Morocco's designated "List B" will likely need a negative PCR test whether or not they are vaccinated. A nationwide curfew is in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Morocco.

Namibia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers to Namibia from the U.S. must show a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy in Namibia.

Himalayan Mount Everest

PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty The Himalayan Mount Everest and other mounts ranges are pictured from Namche Bazar in the Everest region, some 140 kms northeast of Kathmandu

Nepal

Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution

Nepal has reopened for some visitors, but they have to be going to climb the country's impressive peaks. Those who meet that requirement must obtain a visa in advance, arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of travel, and already have a hotel booking in order to quarantine for at least seven days in the country (before being required to take a second coronavirus test on their fifth day at their own expense), according to the Nepal Tourism Board.

Travelers also have to have insurance that would cover at least $5,000 per person in case they contract COVID-19.

Netherlands

Level 4: Do Not Travel

The Dutch country closed all non-essential shops like restaurants and museums and will keep them shuttered through Jan. 14.

The Netherlands welcomes American travelers for nonessential reasons if they are fully vaccinated, but considers the country a "very high-risk area," according to the government. As of September, all American travelers, including vaccinated ones, must show proof of a negative test to enter (either a PCR test taken within 48 hours of departure or a rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of departure).

Nicaragua

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Nicaragua allows travelers from the U.S. to come as long as they have a negative COVID-19 test in hand, according to the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua. U.S. travelers are not required to quarantine upon arrival.

North Macedonia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. travelers to North Macedonia must present proof of vaccination, show they've recovered from COVID-19 in the last 45 days, or present a negative PCR test for COVID-19 taken within 72 hours of travel, according to the U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia.

The country's Skopje International Airport requires passengers to disinfect their hands and wear a mask inside the terminal. In North Macedonia, indoor bars and restaurants, and gyms were allowed to reopen in June.

Pakistan

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers to Pakistan from the U.S. must provide contact information through the country's PassTrack mobile app or online, undergo a health screening, and provide proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test from within 72 hours of traveling, according to the Government of Pakistan.

At the airport, arriving passengers will be required to line up six feet apart and undergo a thermo-screening by thermo-guns and/or thermo-scanners, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Pakistan.

Amador Causeway in Panama

Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images

Panama

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers who are vaccinated can enter Panama without having to test before arrival. However, unvaccinated travelers must present negative COVID-19 test results taken within 48 hours of their arrival. Travelers must also complete an electronic affidavit, agreeing to comply with the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 measures in Panama.

Face masks are required in all public spaces in Panama and electronic payments at shops and restaurants are preferred to reduce person-to-person contact.

Peru

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Americans can enter Peru as long as they have either a negative COVID-19 PCR, negative antigen test, or medical certificate of epidemiological discharge from within 72 hours of departure and do not have any COVID-19 symptoms, according to the U.S. Embassy in Peru. Children under 12 years old can show a certificate of health from a doctor in lieu of a negative test.

Portugal

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Portugal reopened to American travelers as of June 15, 2021. Americans must show proof of a negative PCR test for COVID-19 taken within 72 hours of their departure  or an antigen test taken 24 hours before their trip. Other destinations within Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira) may require additional testing, even for travelers already in the country, so you may need to test multiple times if you're traveling to the islands or to various Portuguese destinations.

The Portuguese government will review the COVID-19 and American tourism situation every two weeks and determine whether to continue moving forward on this reopening trajectory.

Qatar

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Qatar is now welcoming fully vaccinated U.S. travelers and will not require them to quarantine upon arrival. However, fully vaccinated Americans still have to take a PCR test for COVID-19 prior to their arrival and apply for entry on the country's 'Ehteraz' website at least 12 hours before landing.

Rawanda

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Travelers are allowed to go to Rwanda, but must present proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before their flight, according to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda. Upon arrival, visitors must undergo a second test at Kigali International Airport, which costs $60, and wait 24 hours for the results in a designated hotel. All travelers must also fill out a Passenger Locator Form with passport information, travel details, and hotel confirmations prior to arrival.While many visitors to Rwanda are required to quarantine for at least seven days in a hotel and undergo a second round of testing, international tourists who are scheduled to visit a national park are exempt from the seven-day quarantine period, according to Visit Rwanda, . To skip the quarantine, travelers will have to show proof of their visit upon arrival. Additionally, international tourists must schedule their visit to a national park within 72 hours of receiving a negative test result.When travelers are ready to leave the country, they must test negative for the virus once again before their scheduled departure.

Singapore

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Singapore opened to vaccinated travelers only, as of mid-October 2021, allowing tourists to visit without quarantining. Passengers can apply for entry under the Vaccinated Travel Lane program. Currently, however the program only accepts U.S. travelers who have a SMART Health Card or other approved digital COVID-19 vaccination records.

Spain

Level 4: Do Not Travel



Spain's borders are reopen to Americans and other travelers, regardless of their citizenship or country of origin, as of June 7. Those who are not vaccinated will be able enter Spain with a negative PCR test, provided their country has a low risk of COVID-19 (as defined by the Spanish government). However, since reopening, Spain has implemented restrictions and curfews throughout the country amid the rise of the Delta variant.

St. Barts

Level 3: Reconsider Travel



When France opened their borders on June 9 to vaccinated foreign travelers, St. Barts opened with the European nation. While vaccinated travelers are now welcome, they must still come equipped with a negative PCR test for COVID-19, taken within 48 hours of travelers' arrivals.

St. Kitts and Nevis

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers to St. Kitts and Nevis must submit a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test 72 hours before arrival and fill out an entry form online, according to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS. Visitors must also download the SKN COVID-19 contact tracing app.

Travelers must "Travel in Place" at an approved hotel for three days upon arrival to St. Kitts and Nevis. Vaccinated travelers can be tested on day four (at their own expense) and can stop their quarantine on receiving a negative result.

Pigeon Beach, Saint Lucia

DANIEL SLIM/Getty

St. Lucia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Travelers to St. Lucia are required to obtain a negative COVID-19 test within five days before their arrival and complete a Pre-Arrival Travel Registration Form, according to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS. Unvaccinated travelers must then have a confirmed reservation at a COVID-19 certified accommodation for their stay. After 14 days, unvaccinated travelers can partake in activities outside of their hotel and explore the island. Vaccinated travelers are not required to quarantine and have access to the entire island upon arrival, though they are still subject to local nightly curfews.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Visitors to St. Vincent and the Grenadines have to complete a pre-arrival form, which can be accessed online, according to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados. Travelers from the U.S. also need to show a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of arrival  and they may get re-tested upon arrival.

Travelers will then need to complete a 14-day mandatory quarantine in a Tourism Authority/Ministry of Health, Wellness, and the Environment-approved hotel. Visitors must have a fully paid reservation in advance. Visitors will then be re-tested again between days four and seven of their quarantine.

Sint Maarten

Level 4: Do Not Travel

U.S. travelers heading to Sint Maarten have to fill out an online immigration card prior to travel, according to the U.S. Consulate General in Curacao. Travelers must also present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 120 hours of arrival.

Senegal

Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions

Travelers to Senegal are allowed to enter as long as they show a negative COVID-19 PCR test within five days before arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy in Senegal. Airlines will check tests before boarding. Children under two years old are exempt.

Senegal requires masks be worn in public and private places, while restaurants, markets, and private beaches have been allowed to reopen.

Serbia

Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images Serbia

Serbia

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Serbia requires visitors to show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR or rapid antigen test taken within 48 hours of arrival, according to the U.S. Embassy in Serbia. Children under 12 with a guardian are exempt.

In Serbia, masks are required in all indoor locations as well as outdoors when physical distancing is not possible, and there is a ban on public gatherings for more than five people.

Seychelles

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Seychelles has opened its borders to vaccinated visitors from all countries. However, visitors who are not inoculated will be allowed to visit with a negative PCR test taken 72 hours prior to departure with no quarantine requirement.

South Africa

Level 4: Do Not Travel

South Africa is reopened to all international travel with testing requirements in place. Travelers need to show a negative COVID-19 test no older than 72 hours from the time of their departure, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in South Africa, as well as install the COVID Alert South Africa mobile app.

Switzerland

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Switzerland has been welcoming vaccinated American and Canadian travelers since summer 2021. The country had previously opened to travelers from the Schengen area and select other countries. Americans and Canadians who have not yet completed their vaccination course can also enter Switzerland, but must show a negative PCR test for COVID-19 taken 72 hours before travel. Alternately, travelers who have recently had COVID-19 and recovered can show proof to gain entry to Switzerland.

Sri Lanka

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Sri Lanka is open to U.S. travelers  but they are required to take a COVID-19 test prior to entry. Vaccinated travelers must then quarantine in a government-mandated hotel for one to two days while awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test taken upon arrival. Travelers who are not vaccinated must quarantine at the government-approved hotel for a full two weeks.

Tanzania

Level 4: Do Not Travel

The suspension on international flights to Tanzania has been lifted, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, and travelers are expected to fill out a Health Surveillance Form on the plane.

Thailand

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Thailand is now accepting fully vaccinated travelers who have spent a minimum of 21 days in a country that has been designated "low risk." Travelers coming from one of these countries, including the United States, Canada and the U.K. are not required to quarantine. Unvaccinated and travelers coming from unapproved countries or territories may be subject to a 7-10 day government quarantine in one of Thailand's "blue" destinations: including Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai before traveling elsewhere in the country.

Turkey

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Turkey requires all international passengers 6 years old and older to arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of their flight, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Turkey. Travelers need to show the test to the airline during check-in.

Visitors are not required to quarantine upon arrival. A nightly curfew has been implemented, but foreign tourists are exempt.

Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos

Courtesy of Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos

Turks and Caicos

Level 4: Do Not Travel

In order to visit the stunning isles of Turks and Caicos, travelers must be vaccinated, test negative for COVID-19 via PCR test within three days of travel, have insurance that covers COVID-19 costs, and complete paperwork including a health screening questionnaire and a certificate complying with privacy regulations.

Ukraine

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Ukraine considers the U.S. a country with a high incidence of COVID-19, and requires citizens to either self-quarantine, take a COVID-19 test upon arrival to the international airports and quarantine until they get the results, or arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test from within 72 hours of travel, according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

U.S. citizens visiting Ukraine must also show they have medical insurance to cover any COVID-19-related expenses. It is mandatory to wear masks in indoor public places, according to the embassy.

United Arab Emirates

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Visitors to the UAE are allowed to enter as long as they show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 96 hours, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in the United Arab Emirates.

Visitors are also required to have medical travel insurance that covers COVID-19, according to the Dubai Corporation of Tourism & Commerce Marketing. The airport will also implement thermal temperature screenings that travelers may be subject to.

Uganda

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Uganda has reopened its borders and national parks to international travelers able to produce evidence of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 120 hours of their departure, according to the U.S. Embassy in Uganda. Visitors to Uganda will also have to pass health screenings including temperature checks.Passengers will again need to test negative for COVID-19 within 120 hours of their departure from Uganda. Uganda is requiring all travelers to wear masks while traveling through its airport or visiting its 10 national parks.

United Kingdom

Level 4: Do Not Travel

Vaccinated travelers no longer have to quarantine when entering the UK, and vaccinated travelers can now skip getting tested before entering the country. Further, the test on the second day of your visit to the UK is no longer mandatory. Pubs and restaurants are fully reopen in the UK.

Zambia

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Tourists must arrive with a negative COVID-19 test taken within seven days of travel, according to the U.S. Embassy in Zambia.

Those flying into Zambia will also be required to fill out traveler health questionnaires and random testing could be performed at the airport. Wearing masks in Zambia is mandatory, according to the country's tourism agency.

Zimbabwe

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Zimbabwe has reopened its borders for game drives and more, requiring visitors to arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test from 48 hours of their departure, according to the U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe. Travelers should also expect to be subject to temperature checks, and masks are mandatory, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority noted. A nightly curfew is in effect.

No matter the destination, Travel + Leisure GO can turn your vacation dreams into reality. With nearly endless reservation options to fly or stay, book your next getaway  near or far  at Travel + Leisure GO.

Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram.
New York City lost a police officer in the line of duty Friday night when he was fatally shot and his partner was wounded as they responded to a tense domestic violence call at a Manhattan apartment, officials and law enforcement sources said.

The gunman who fired was critically wounded but was still being treated early Saturday, law enforcement sources said.

Killed was Officer Jason Rivera, 22, said police sources. The officer still fighting for his life at Harlem Hospital early Saturday was Wilbert Mora, 27, the sources said.

Rivera, Mora and another officer who has not been identified responded to a 911 shortly before 6:30 p.m. and quickly found themselves in a dangerous situation involving a mother and her son fighting in an apartment on W. 135th St. near Malcolm X Blvd. in Harlem, sources said.

Shots began flying at almost the moment they hit the door of the first-floor apartment. Sources said body cam video captured the chaotic shootout.

They went into the building and it jumped off, said neighbor Garrett Fowler, 62. There were two guys being brought out of the building on stretchers. They werent moving at all.

The wounded cops were rushed to nearby Harlem Hospital, where Rivera was pronounced dead.

Rivera had been on the job since November, 2020. Mora has been on the job for four years, officials said.

The suspect, Lashawn McNeil of Allentown, Pa., was also shot and wounded in the melee, police said. A source said he did not live in the apartment.

The third officer was at the chaotic scene, but was not wounded or injured, officials said.

Officers were called to the same apartment for a domestic violence call in August, sources said.

Mayor Adams, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and top police brass rushed to Harlem Hospital and were briefed on the shooting. Adams is a former police captain who as a cop responded to dangerous domestic incidents.

More than 100 officers surrounded the new mayor in the hospital lobby as he updated reporters on the shooting. Also on hand was Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.

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It is our city against the killers, Adams said. This was not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York. It was an attack on children and families of this city.

The new police commissioner struck an angry tone.

I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring, Sewell said. The pain their families are feeling is not something any one can put into words. They were listening to a mother who called needing help for her son. Our department is hurting. Our city is hurting. It is beyond comprehension. "

Relatives of one of the officers were escorted into the hospital hours after the shooting.

According to Chief of Detectives James Essig, the 911 caller asking for help to deal with her son did not mention any injuries or any weapons. The three officers who responded to the call met with the woman in front of the one-bedroom apartment, talking first with her and one of her sons.

Upon entering the apartment, the officers were met by that female caller and her son, Essig said. After a brief conversation, the officers are informed that her other son, whom she was disputing with, was in the back bedroom.

When Rivera and Mora split off to approach the womans other sons, shots were fired, Essig said.

This hallway is very tight and narrow, Essig said. The door swings open and numerous shots were fired, striking both officers.

Essig said McNeil, 47, still armed and dangerous, tried to flee the apartment  but crossed paths with the third officer, who shot him in the right arm and head.

A Glock 45 handgun with a high-capacity magazine that holds up to 40 rounds was recovered at the scene, Essig said. He said the weapon was stolen in Baltimore in 2017.

Essig said McNeil had a criminal history that included a gun charge in North Carolina, an assault on a police officer in Pennsylvania, and a felony narcotics charge in New York City. Essig said he was on probation.

Tributes poured in from across the region. Gov. Hochul said she was touched by the officers death.

My heart is with Harlem, the officers and their families, and @NYPDnews after tonights tragic shooting, Hochul tweeted. My team is ready to support @NYCMayor in any way necessary.

All of New York state is in mourning tonight, state Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. As we await the facts, my office may assert jurisdiction in this matter. We pray for the safety of our police and our communities.

The deadly clash marked the third police shooting in just one week, following the Thursday morning wounding of a detective during a Staten Island drug raid and a cop grazed Tuesday while scuffling with a teen gunman in the Bronx.

Rivera and Mora are the fourth and fifth members of the NYPD shot so far in the new year, which began on a bad note when Officer Keith Wagenhauser was hit with bullet fragments on New Years Day while he was catching a nap in his car between shifts outside the 25th Precinct in East Harlem.

On Thursday, narcotics Detective Dominick Libretti was shot on Staten Island while executing a drug warrant.

Libretti, while bleeding badly from a wound to his leg, protected his brothers in blue from harm by holding his ballistic shield in place as ex-con Nelson Pizarro squeezed off at least a dozen bullets at them from inside his second-floor bedroom at the end of a long hallway, police said.

On Tuesday, Officer Kaseem Pennant was shot and wounded trying to arrest a 16-year-old Crips gang member armed with a stolen gun outside a Bronx apartment building.

Sewell said Rivera was killed because he did what we asked him to do.

Sewell and Adams declined to take questions from reporters.

Were not going to answer your questions, Sewell said. We hope our prayers are answered.

With Graham Rayman and Thomas Tracy
Medical workers collect a sample for COVID-19 testing in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/VNA)



According to the ministry, the cases could double every two to three days, and could reach 10,000 to 15,000, or even more, per day.



It said to better protect local patients and healthcare workers, particularly settings with vulnerable persons, in-person visits to all hospital wards and residential care homes will be suspended for a period of four weeks, from 24 January to 20 February 2022.



Meanwhile, the permissible group size for social gatherings in the upcoming Lunar New Year remains at five persons. Correspondingly, the maximum number of unique visitors per household will remain at five persons per day.



To maximise its protection against Omicron, Singapore will extend the booster vaccination programme to individuals aged 12 to 17.



Earlier, the nation announced that from 14 February, persons aged 18 years and above will be considered fully vaccinated only for 270 days after the last dose of their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines. Thereafter, to retain their fully vaccinated status, they need to receive a booster dose./.
Clinton, IL First National Bank and Trust Company announced the bank is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

As part of the 150th anniversary celebration, the bank has some exciting initiatives planned which will kick off this month along with client appreciation events later this summer. For more information, visit firstnbtc.com or facebook.com/firstnbtc/.

First National Bank and Trust Company was granted its original charter on January 20, 1872, under the name of the DeWitt County National Bank, and was the first nationally chartered bank in DeWitt County. They continue to operate under that original charter today.

The bank was founded with the capital investment of $50,000 provided by Col. Thomas Snell, J. Thorton Snell and William R. Carle, who became the first president.

As time went on, the bank opened a savings department in connection with the existing commercial department. It also underwent its first remodeling, adding a new feature to banking, safe deposit boxes. By the 1920s, all banks were required to be chartered by the state of federal government. It was during this period that in 1925, DeWitt County National Bank assumed the assets of the Peoples Bank of Clinton.

In 1929, the bank survived a widespread panic that ensued with the crash of the stock market and the Great Depression, under the leadership of bank president Richard Snell. In 1936, Thomas Snell Dinsmore, a grandson of one of the original founders, became president. Just two years later, the bank assumed the assets of the Farmer's and Merchant's Bank of Wapella, IL.

The bank continued to expand throughout the remainder of the 20th Century. In 1948, the bank continued to mirror the growth and modernization of the nation, doubling in size, adding four teller windows, a night depository, two additional vaults and 500 safe deposit boxes. In 1969, there was extensive remodeling and a drive-up facility was built and opened in three years later.

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In 1974, the bank's name was changed from DeWitt County National Bank to First National Bank and Trust Company to reflect the addition of the trust department. The trust department handles trusts, durable powers of attorney, land and insurance trusts and estates  very similar today.

First National Bank and Trust Company was granted its original charter on January 20, 1872, under the name of the DeWitt County National Bank, and was the first nationally chartered bank in DeWitt County.

The First National Bank and Trust Company celebrated its 125th year of serving DeWitt county in 1997 and added online banking to provide greater client access to their account information in a secure online environment in 2000.

The bank moved locations from 400 S. Side Square to its current location on Kelli Court in 2007.

First National Bank and Trust Company was acquired by TS Banking Group in 2017, a multi-charter bank holding company group, with $1.5 billion in banking and fiduciary assets across Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado and California. The TS Banking Group is headquartered in Treynor, Iowa, which is located in the Omaha, Neb., MSA.

First National Bank and Trust Company acquired State Bank of Arcadia, Wis., from B&E Investments on October 1, 2021 with $210 million in assets. This addition to the company has enhanced the banks financial strength, competitive positioning and talented employee base.

More: Olympia Middle School to perform the play 'Robin Hood'

Today, First National Bank and Trust Company serves two states, Illinois and Wisconsin, has five locations, employs close to 50 local people and has $400 million in assets.

First National Bank and Trust Company offers a full line of products and services to meet the financial needs of consumers and businesses. The bank is also committed to providing the most advanced, secure and user-friendly bank technology, along with a knowledgeable team and innovative tools to offer the combined comfort of personalized service from their local bank.

As a community bank, First National Bank and Trust Company is an integral part of both the local community and economy. First National Bank is dedicated to community reinvestment and gives 10% of its net income back to the community. Additionally, the bank is committed to teaching financial literacy, hosting educational events and partners with local organizations and nonprofits.

President Josh Shofner commented, Although much has changed in 150 years, I am proud to say First National Bank and Trust Company has remained committed to the same mission and core values that were instated upon our founding. We are a community bank that is dedicated to investing in the people, businesses and organizations who make our communities a better place to live. We are strong, secure, and excited to continue our legacy for another 150 years.

This article originally appeared on Lincoln Courier: Clinton banks turns 150 years old
It's been 17 years since Donald and Melania Trump married at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, with Hillary and Bill Clinton, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and Kathie Lee Gifford in attendance. ("It was quick but beautiful and perfect," Simon Cowell, another guest, told PEOPLE at the time. "I give it a nine.")

A lot has changed for the Trumps since their Jan. 22, 2005, nuptials, as the reality TV host-turned-former president and former first lady mark their wedding anniversary on Saturday with a low-profile weekend at home in Florida, sources say.

It's at their Mar-a-Lago Club that they have built much of their post-White House lives, even as President Trump continues to dash off baseless claims of election fraud and play kingmaker in Republican politics, where he is still widely popular.

The family is also the subject of various investigations, though they deny wrongdoing and say they're being targeted.

"Both are very happy to be in Palm Beach," a social source says of the Trumps. "Mar-a-Lago is their home and they could not be happier about that," this source says. "They do not miss New York."

"Donald plays golf regularly with political guys who fly down as well as with social friends from his club, and Melania keeps busy with her family, the spa at Mar-a-Lago and her own business and philanthropic interests," the source says.

Another source close to them says that "they will be spending the weekend at their home" and that the former first lady, 51, who largely avoided the public in the first year after leaving Washington, D.C., "is working on some exciting projects."

Among them: an auction of NFTs, art and clothing as well as more work with children. ("A portion of the proceeds will support children from the foster care community," Mrs. Trump's office has said of the auction.)

"Melania has her own fashionable interests and wants to do something with them to make money," another source tells PEOPLE, adding, "While Melania is a quiet and low-key person, she definitely has her own attitude and does pretty much what she wants  even if others don't get it."

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RELATED: Ron DeSantis Claims 'Fabricated Media Narrative' of Tension with Trump, Says He's Focused on Re-Election

Former President Donald Trump and Melania Trump disembark from their final flight on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla Trump, West Palm Beach, United States - 20 Jan 2021

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/Shutterstock From left: Melania and Donald Trump arrive in Florida on Jan. 20, 2021.

For the past few months the former first couple have been enjoying their lives at Mar-a-Lago. They often see friends for dinner at the club  and are expected to dine together for their anniversary  but mostly do their own thing and spend little time together.

"Melania appears vibrant, happy and confident, and seems to have found her own interests away from the spotlight," the social source says.

She and the former president, 75, have a livable relationship and get along as well as can be expected for two such different personalities at different stages of their lives.

"She makes an appearance with Donald for certain dinners, but spends much of her time with her own family," the source says. "This is a way of life for her and she likes it, especially in Palm Beach."

RELATED: Donald Trump Bashes 'Gutless' Politicians Who Won't Confirm Whether They've Had COVID Booster

The couple have renovated and expanded their living quarters at Mar-a-Lago so there is enough room for each to be comfortable.

Mrs. Trump keeps largely to herself in the seclusion of the private club; her "inner circle consists mainly of her sister and her parents," a source says. She is also very involved with 15-year-old son Barron's private schooling nearby.

As one source says: "She knows what Donald wants from her, but the rest of her life is dictated by her own interests. Each has come to respect what the other wants and needs."

U.S. President Donald Trump

Michael Kovac/WireImage Donald Trump

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Other matters also hang in the air: A source says that, although President Trump hasn't been charged with a crime, he is worried about a court filing from New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The document, recently made public, lists some of the evidence investigators have gathered claiming the Trump Organization used "fraudulent or misleading valuations of its assets while seeking loans and tax savings." (A Trump spokeswoman says James is politically motivated.)

"Don't think he is not worried because he is," a political source tells PEOPLE.

"Publicly, he claims his innocence, but he is hard at work with his lawyers to use every possible device to kill this and discredit the investigation," the source says. "That is his specialty. He wants it to go away."
FALL RIVER  Its been challenging to fill the city administrators position, but Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved Mayor Paul Coogans latest candidate for the second-most-powerful job in Fall River government.

Seth Thomas Aitken, who joined the citys law team in May as assistant corporation counsel, will now be given a two-year contract as city administrator with a salary of $130,000.

Before the vote, city councilor and fellow attorney Brad Kilby said hes known Aitken for several years and said the new city administrators strength is his communication ability.

Your success is the citys success, said returning city councilor Joseph Camara to Aitken before the rare 9-0 vote.

City Council Vice Chairwoman Michelle Dionne said hiring Aitken shows that Fall River can hire people for appropriate positions and thank him for wanting to work with us.

Seth Thomas Aitken has been hired as Fall River's new city administrator.

More: 'He knows everyone in the city': Tim McCoy hired as interim Fall River city administrator

The last city administrator was Cathy Ann Viveiros, who served under three mayors: Will Flanagan, Sam Sutter and Jasiel Correia II.

Viveiros resigned in November 2019 after she unsuccessfully launched a write-in campaign against Coogan, an election in which he handily won against Viveiros and Correia, who was awaiting trial on federal corruption and fraud indictments.

Last May, longtime city resident Tim McCoy started his new job as acting city administrator on leave from his job at the Fall River Housing Authority until October.

Help wanted: Another key position in Fall River opens up as director of finance Mary Sahady departs

At least three of Coogans candidates for the job removed themselves before the Council took up the appointments.

Last week, Aitken said hed met with each city councilor pending this weeks vote to discuss any of their concerns.

From the ROTC to Army engineer

After earning a bachelor's degree in industrial design from Syracuse University where he was involved with the ROTC program, Aitken served with as an Army engineer for eight years, where he said he received intensive leadership training.

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Aitken said he passed the Massachusetts bar in 2009 then went on to serve with the Bristol County District Attorney's office under Sam Sutter for 2  years.

He then went on to manage his familys law firm in Worcester and currently does legal work out of New Bedford.

New business: Ready for summer? This new Swansea ice vending machine business is.

Certainly, understandably the question that frequently came up was about the budget. In terms of management and leadership, the legal background. I think they were all comfortable there, said Aitken. Obviously the never-ending saga of how do we fund the work of the city is real.

While the city is working on replacing former CFO Mary Sahady, Aitken said there are very good people still on the financial team.

Coogan has enlisted help to craft the 2023 budget from Edward Iacoponi, who worked with former mayor Will Flanagans administration, including former city administrator and current city councilor Shawn Cadime.

Aitkin said that Iacoponi has a deep understanding, and historical knowledge, of the citys finances.

Its a team approach. So thats probably the focus I will have, said Aitken.

Coogan last week expressed his confidence in Aitken.

Hes got a good work ethic, hes a fast learner and has good analytical skills, said Coogan. Where he might not have some specific areas that former city administrators have had, I think he more than makes up for it.

A Swansea resident for the past 20 years, Aitken lives with his wife and three children.

Jo C. Goode may be reached at jgoode@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today!

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River names Seth Thomas Aitken as city administrator
Torrential rainfall triggered deadly flooding in Madagascar's capital city of Antananarivo during the middle of last week, leaving streets underwater, homes inundated and thousands of residents displaced. AccuWeather forecasters say Moderate Tropical Storm Ana is to blame for the deluge.

At least 10 deaths have been attributed to flooding, and over 12,000 people have been left homeless, according to The Associated Press (AP). Local officials said at least 2,400 residences in Antananarivo were flooded following rounds of heavy rainfall, and low-lying portions of the city are in "deep water."

Even higher-elevation areas in the city were not left unscathed, as at least six houses collapsed due to the rainfall, according to the AP.

Given the hilly nature of the city, officials warn that oversaturated ground may give way, leading to an increased risk for landslides.

"We are appealing to the inhabitants of Antananarivo and the surrounding municipalities to leave areas at high risk of landslides, places where trees are at risk of falling and houses are at risk of collapsing," Gen. Elack Andriankaja, director-general of the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management, said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

For the northern and central portions of the country, forecasters say a general 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100 mm) of rain fell at midweek.

In Antananarivo itself, totals climbed even higher. The city's reporting station recorded a whopping 5.88 inches (149 mm) of rain in just 48 hours. Typically, the city records just under 5.3 inches (135 mm) of rain for the entire month of January, meaning in just two days, the city received over a month's worth of rain.

A drastic influx of deep, tropical moisture from the Indian Ocean fed these drenching storms, according to forecasters. Unfortunately for residents, even more torrential rain arrived over the weekend as a tropical depression struck the country.

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This satellite image shows a tropical depression moving into Madagascar on Saturday, January 22, 2022. (RAMMB/CIRA)

The strike from the tropical depression can further worsen what is already a desperate situation for some residents. With how saturated the soil in the area already is, it will not take much additional rain to trigger potentially major flooding problems.

On Saturday, in just 24 hours widespread rainfall amounts of 2-4 inches (50-100 mm) deluged portions of northern and central Madagascar, with even more extreme amounts in the highest elevations.

As AccuWeather forecasters correctly predicted, slightly less rain fell in Antananarivo itself. The city recorded a total of 1.62 inches (41 mm) of rain on Saturday. Even if the city did not record another drop of rain for the rest of the month of January, Antananarivo would end the month with 260% of its average rainfall.

Rainfall is expected to persist across portions of northern and central Madagascar early this week as a newly-formed tropical storm called Ana churns just west of the country.

Ana became a moderate tropical storm (equivalent to a tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) on Monday in the Mozambique Channel.

Shortly after Ana's formation, the storm made landfall in northern Mozambique. Ana will continue to bring torrential rainfall and the potential for flooding early this week to the area, even as it loses wind intensity over land.

For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones let it fly on Friday, and he didnt hold much back. During the course of one radio interview, Jones hinted that he may still decide to make some coaching changes, criticized one of his highest-paid players for not performing up to expectations, scoffed at the notion that his billion-dollar stadium needs curtains, and railed on the Dallas staff for being too content to save all their problem-solving efforts for the offseason. All this, while the organization is reportedly already losing its first assistant to another club.

Elsewhere, Randy Gregory goes under the knife, Amari Cooper says hed prefer to stay in Dallas, and Mike McCarthy vows hes not moving back to playcalling, no matter what happens with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. The teams official staff writers are ranking the 22 free agents in order of importance to the roster, mock draft season brings us several new names to consider, and a TikTok influencer says he used stolen credentials to infiltrate Dak Prescotts press conference after Sundays loss. Oh, and Troy Aikman just compared the 2021 Cowboys to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Heres your News and Notes.

Panthers expected to hire Cowboys consultant Ben McAdoo as new OC, report says :: Dallas Morning News

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NFL insider Ian Rapoport says the Carolina Panthers will be making the Cowboys consultant and longtime Mike McCarthy colleague their new offensive coordinator. McAdoo was the Giants OC before being hired as their head coach in 2016. He was fired there late in his second season; 2021 was his first in Dallas, where he did advance scouting of future Cowboys opponents.

Jerry Jones weighs coaches, players as Cowboys move forward: 'We deserve better' :: Cowboys Wire

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Mike McCarthy may not be as safe as previously thought. The frustrated Cowboys owner told a radio audience, Ive got a lot to think about regarding these coaches, following the teams playoff loss. Jones also vented about issues that went unaddressed during the year: I dont want to wait until were sitting here with no season left. He then criticized wideout Amari Cooper for too many dropped balls. You throw to people that are covered all the time in the NFL. You have to.

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Would McCarthy call plays if Moore leaves? :: The Mothership

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Kellen Moore could get an offer he cant refuse. But if he does, dont expect McCarthy to fall back into a playcalling role in Dallas, like the one he had for most of his Green Bay tenure. I dont think thats the best way to run an offense, McCarthy said during his season-ending press conference Monday. Youre always evolving your offense. That process, if Kellen is here or not, that wont change. Were always going to build the offense around the success of the quarterback. Thats the whole philosophy.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wont add shades to stadium windows to combat glare, saying that's '10,000 on my list of things to worry about' :: USA Today

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The Cowboys owner railed against the notion that something needs to be done about the sunlight that was blinding players during Sundays late-afternoon game. It goes both ways, Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. Both teams had a chance to get in the sun. Both teams had a chance to get out of the sun. Relative to the elements that I see other people play in, its nothing.

Breaking: Cowboys' Randy Gregory to undergo knee surgery :: Cowboys Wire

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Gregory was slated to go under the knife on Friday to surgically repair his left knee. He was bothered by the injury for most of the season. He is scheduled to be a free agent come March and will likely be a name at the top of the list for the Cowboys front office to make a decision on.

Rank'em: Is Gregory the No. 1 free agent priority? :: The Mothership

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With 21 Cowboys having expiring contracts, not all will be returning. The teams staff writers ranked them all in order of importance to the team when it comes to getting a new deal done. Leighton Vander Esch, Cedrick Wilson, Bryan Anger, and Damontae Kazee all make the Top 10. Michael Gallup and Dalton Schultz did, too, but you might be surprised at how high Jayron Kearse is ranked. Randy Gregory, though, should be the clubs top free agent priority.

Cowboys' Amari Cooper wants to remain with the club in 2022 :: Cowboys Wire

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After a rollercoaster year, the former first-round pick said he hopes to stay in Dallas. I dont make those decisions, Cooper said. I honestly dont know, but hopefully. The team could save $16 million if they trade or release Cooper; a restructured deal that keeps him, though, might still help the front office save over $12 million.

Cowboys address offensive line, safety with first two picks in Dane Bruglers mock draft :: The Athletic

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The Cowboys may not have to look far to find their next offensive lineman, according to Dane Bruglers new mock draft. Texas A&Ms Kenyon Green makes a nice first-round pick to potentially replace Connor Williams at left guard, but played three other positions on the line this season for the Aggies. In the second round, Brugler likes Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker, who nabbed five picks and had 14 pass breakups in 34 college games.

Daniel Jeremiah 2022 NFL mock draft 1.0: Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis among 3 QBs taken in Round 1 :: NFL.com

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Daniel Jeremiah has Dallas going defense with the 24th pick. He says Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean is undersized, but one of his favorite players in the 2022 class. He could be a steal for the Cowboys, allowing them to use Micah Parsons more on the edge as a pass rusher.

Cowboys should wish upon a star Alabama's Evan Neal finds way to them :: Cowboys WIre

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Offensive line has become an area of need for Dallas once again, at least if they wish to make a return to their place as one of the leagues most dominant position groups. The Alabama tackle will likely be long gone by the time the Cowboys pick 24th, but if hes not, the freakish mover with excellent footwork could eventually be the type of talent to replace an aging Tyron Smith.

Troy Aikman compares Cowboys to Jets, Jaguars in ultimate disgrace :: Fansided

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There are 24 NFL teams who will be watching divisional weekend from the sofa. Some of them are pretty good teams. But if youre not in the dance, it doesnt really matter who is the best of the rest, according to the three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback. If you dont do anything in the postseason, then youre really, at the end of the day, no different than the Jacksonville Jaguars or the New York Jets that didnt get in, Aikman said, via 96.7 The Ticket. Ouch.

TikTok influencer crashed Dak Prescott press conference, asked some decent questions :: Awful Announcing

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The influencer known as finessefave claims to have sneaked into Sundays game at AT&T Stadium, along with two others, by disguising themselves as media workers. They posted videos online of themselves apparently in restricted stadium tunnels, near the players parking lot, and inside the media room. There, he even managed to ask Dak Prescott two questions during his postgame press conference.

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NFL star Aaron Rodgers has hit out at Joe Biden after the US president said he wanted the Green Bay Packers to get vaccinated.

Mr Biden made the remark to a Packers fan as he toured an area of Kentucky devastated by tornadoes and told the fan, Tell that quarterback hes gotta get the vaccine.

Rodgers, a friend of podcast host Joe Rogan, caught Covid in November after falsely implying that he had been vaccinated and claimed the NFL had a two-class system for vaccinated and unvaccinated players.

Now he has blasted the president in a new interview with ESPN.

When the president of the United States says, This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, its because him and his constituents, which, I dont know how there are any if you watch any of his attempts at public speaking, but I guess he got 81 million votes, said Rodgers.

But when you say stuff like that, and then you have the CDC, which, how do you even trust them, but then they come out and talk about 75 per cent of the COVID deaths have at least four comorbidities.

And you still have this fake White House set saying that this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated, thats not helping the conversation.

After testing positive for Covid, Rodgers said he has an allergy to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna and that he did not want to take the Johnson & Johnson shot.

He also said he had consulted with Rogan on the best way to prevent himself getting sick.

Rodgers was widely criticised when he said he had taken Z-Pak, prednisolone and ivermectin, none of which are recommended treatments for Covid-19.

Rodgers, who is a favourite to win the NFL MVP award, will take on the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs this weekend.
Lawmakers aiming to make it harder for the state to collect vaccination records of Granite Staters cite a 2018 amendment to the state constitution that affirmed the inherent right of a person to live free from governmental intrusion in private and personal information.

Requiring permission to add someone to the vaccine registry via an opt-in process rather than allowing them to opt out, they say, protects that right.

Heres what they dont say and maybe dont know.

Dover Fire & Rescue prepare for helping Strafford County Public Health Network staff administer COVID vaccines to residents of Central Towers.

Opting-in and opting-out

The co-author of that constitutional amendment, former state Rep. Neal Kurk of Weare, fought those same opt-in efforts in 2015 because he believed the registrys public health value depended on including as many people as possible.

It seemed to me that the number of individuals who wouldnt care whether their names and information were in there was larger than those who would be concerned about privacy and wanted to opt out, Kurk said in a recent interview. I felt the public interest was better served with that balance.

Kurks support has waned since then  not because he feels differently about the public health and privacy balance but because he feels the Department of Health and Human Services has made it far too difficult to opt out. The form to do so requires the signature of a health care provider.

And he understands, too, the objections to a registry at all, fueled by unrelenting pressure from peers, the government, and the media to get vaccinated. But he sees a compromise: Keep the registry opt-out and make opting out as simple as checking a box, he said.

Kurk expects hell share those thoughts when House Bill 1606, which seeks to make the registry opt-in, gets a hearing. (A similar effort last failed, 14-7, in a House committee but never made it to the floor.)

Gov. Chris Sununu has said he would support making the registry opt-in. Asked about this position last week, Sununu elaborated.

Opt-out is the best way to do it, he said. But if the choice is between an opt-in model and no registry, Ill take the opt-in model because its so important to register. So, Id be supportive if that was just basically the choice of last resort.

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Sununu said he agreed that any change to the current model would risk public health. Were not doing a registry because its a nice exercise, he said. Were doing a registry because theres public health benefits. And the benefits increase the more people that are actually part of the registry.

Long time coming

Former governor Jeanne Shaheen signed legislation permitting the state to create a vaccine registry nearly 20 years ago. New Hampshire was the last state to have one when Health and Human Services finally had the money, technology, and rules in place to launch it  just as the pandemic hit.

Like all registries, it has two primary purposes, both related to protecting Granite Staters health. Having a record of vaccinations in one place, rather than in medical records across several practices, makes it easier to ensure a persons vaccinations are up to date and avoid repeating a vaccination.

The information collected includes not just a persons name, address, and the vaccine they received, but also details like the vaccines lot number and even which arm they got it in. In a pandemic or outbreak, that information helps public health officials to cross-check hot spots with vaccination rates. And if a particular lot of a vaccine is raising concerns, the state can contact those whove gotten it.

The immunization information system is really designed as a safety mechanism, said Tricia Tilley, director of the Division of Public Health Services at Health and Human Services.

Until the registry went live, there were few legislative efforts to shape it.

The most significant was House Bill 283, co-sponsored by Kurk in 2015. As introduced, it sought to keep the child vaccine registry opt-out but make the one for adults opt-in, a process shown to decrease participation. (Only Texas and Montana have made their registries opt-in.) Along the way, though, Kurk co-sponsored an amendment to keep the registry opt-out for everyone.

According to minutes of a committee hearing at the time, Kurk argued the original bill was extremely strong in terms of privacy protections. However the large amount of privacy could end up being detrimental to public health.

It continued, Rep. Kurk believes that we should place the burden on those who value their privacy over public health to opt out, the minutes said. He believes concerns about freedom are adequately covered under language in this bill.

The pandemic has challenged the states new registry in two significant ways.

Health and Human Services has simultaneously had to oversee a statewide vaccination effort during a major health crisis while teaching hundreds of providers how to log new and prior vaccination records and comply with requirements they explain to every patient their ability to opt out.

Were building the system right at the Super Bowl, Tilley said.

And that effort has collided with increased skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccine and intense distrust of the state and federal government. Although the state does not provide information from the state registry to the federal government, privacy concerns are common. (Health and Human Services is seeking to use nearly $84,000 in federal pandemic money to study what information is being collected for the registry and what privacy controls are in place to protect it.)

Rethinking the registry

The skepticism and anger has inspired not only the opt-in legislation but three other bills related to the registry.

House Bill 1487 would remove the requirement that a doctor sign the opt-out form. House Bill 1488 would prohibit the discrimination of anyone who chooses not to participate in the registry. And House Bill 1608 is a response to Sununus emergency order temporarily prohibiting anyone from opting out of the registry. It would require Health and Human Services to make at least three attempts to contact everyone who received a COVID-19 vaccine and wasnt allowed to opt out.

Republican Rep. Melissa Blasek of Londonderry, executive director of Rebuild NH, which opposes all government safety protocols, co-sponsored three of the bills.

The reality is, for all these years we have not had a registry and we have not had any health crisis because of it, she said. And she sees a conflict with Kurks 2018 constitutional amendment because she doesnt trust that people are told they dont have to participate in the registry.

They are collecting information on you, and are not necessarily informed of that, she said. Im big on informed consent. This generally violates informed consent if people are not aware.

Her argument is not unlike the one Rep. Tim Lang, a Sanborton Republican who sponsored the opt-in legislation this year and last, will make.

My intent is to make it clear, to let people know their data is being tracked, he said. There is no explicit conversation that occurs around the registry between a provider and a patient. He too pointed to the constitutional amendment, which won 81 percent of the vote.

The will of voters was so clear, I wanted this bill to mirror that, he said. You have to agree to let the government track your data.

This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH vaccine registry clash shows pit between privacy and public health
Madison Redman looks at her tiara in a mirror with volunteer Sherri Padgham before Redman walks the red carpet during the 2018 Oklahoma City "Night to Shine" prom experience co-sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation and the event site Putnam City Baptist Church. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

It's time for the "Return of the Super Heroes."

Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain America have been invited but individuals with special needs will be the real-life super heroes at Putnam City Baptist Church's OKC Prom 2022.

The VIP participants will get to mingle with comic book super hero characters that inspire them at the in-person prom experience set for 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at the church, 11401 N Rockwell.

"Our participants are coming back, the real heroes," said Robert Miller, a Putnam City Baptist member who serves as prom coordinator.

He said the event will feature many of the same special activities that have been offered over the years as part of the "Night to Shine" prom events held at the church.

However, he said it important to note that this year's in-person event is not being held in partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation's international "Night to Shine" program, which will be virtual.

The Tim Tebow Foundation started the "Night to Shine" proms in cooperation with churches around the world. Details about the foundation's plans for a 2022 virtual experiencer were included on the nonprofit's website.

"Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Night to Shine 2022 will be a world wide Shine-Thru Parade and Virtual Celebration," the foundation said in a statement. "Though this year will look a little different, nothing can keep Faith, Hope and Love from shining on bright as ever."

Tiffany Pinkston and John Henning dance during the 2017 "Night to Shine" at Putnam City Baptist Church.

Last year, Putnam City Baptist and several other Oklahoma churches participated in the foundation's first virtual prom experience, offered online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID and schools: Special education families struggle with closures

Miller said the church decided to host its own in-person event this year, hoping that the predictions of a late-January peak in COVID-19 cases hold true and that virus cases will be on the decrease by the time of the prom in mid-February.

Story continues

"These kids, they need a prom, that's why we're going to hold ours live," he said.

Super heroes welcome

The Tim Tebow Foundation created the prom-night gathering for individuals ages 14 and older with special needs. The foundation partners with churches around the world to host the prom experiences on Valentine's weekend as celebrations of Gods love for the VIP guests.

Miller served as "Night to Shine" Oklahoma coordinator since Putnam City Baptist began hosting the special proms in partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation in 2016.

Like the previous Night to Shine events, OKC Prom will have volunteers serving as buddies for each VIP participant to help ensure they have the best prom experience. Miller said there will be room for 200 VIP participants and their volunteer buddies. He said the church has had hundreds more participants in the past but decided to lower the registration limit this. The church also has additional square footage due to a new addition so participants should have plenty of room to enjoy the evening without it being overcrowded.

Traci McLearen walks the red carpet during the 2018 Oklahoma City "Night to Shine" prom experience at Putnam City Baptist Church.

A parent prom for participants' parents and caregivers will be held at Putnam City North High School this year. In previous years, the parents' event has been held at an Oklahoma City Senior Health and Wellness Center adjacent to the church but Miller said work is being done to that building.

Chick-Fil-A will provide meals for the prom experience while Qdoba is set to provide for for the parent prom. Miller said prom participants will be able to visit with the Thunder Girls and local celebrities. A DJ will be in charge of music for dancing and participants will be able to enjoy karaoke and limousine rides.

Beyond the classroom: Deer Creek special education focuses on life after high school

Miller, known as the "Prom Guy," said the church will partner with the Tim Tebow Foundation next year if the organization collaborates for for live prom experiences.

Shine on

Although Putnam City Baptist is hosting its own in-person prom event, several Oklahoma churches are participating in this year's Tim Tebow Foundation's Shine-Thru Parade and Virtual Celebration.

These include Crossings Edmond in the Oklahoma City metro area.

Kari Holder, the church's nursery and early childhood pastor, said this will be the third time Crossings Edmond has hosted "Night to Shine." She said the church is hosting a drive-thru "Shine-Thru" event in the parking lot of the church, 1500 Covell Road. VIP participants will be able to visit several stations to receive items to enjoy the Night to Shine Shine-Thru Parade and Virtual Celebration at home on Feb. 12.

"This is a way for them to experience a little bit of the fun prom experience from the comfort of their own car," Holder said.

OKC Prom

When: 6 p.m. Feb. 11.

Where: Putnam City Baptist Church, 11401 N Rockwell.

Cost: Free.

Information: To register as a participant or buddy, go https://pcbc.tv/prom/; also check out https://www.facebook.com/NightToShineOKC/.

Crossings Edmond Shine-Thru

When: Drive-thru event is Feb. 10. Virtual "Night to Shine" will be Feb. 12.

Where: Crossings Edmond, 1500 W Covell Road, Edmond.

Cost: Free.

Information/registration: www.crossings.church/shine.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Special-needs individuals can be real-life superheroes at OKC Prom 2022
When Pawtucket police arrested Nicholas Alahverdian in 2010 for domestic assault of a woman he was living with, they noted in their report his tattoos: a bar code on his left bicep, a bird wing on his right.

On Friday in a Scottish courtroom, with Alahverdian sitting nearby in a wheelchair and denying he was the international fugitive who had faked his death in Rhode Island in 2020, a prosecutor said police and staff at a Glasgow hospital had identified Alahverdian through photographs of his tattoos.

At the hearing in Edinburgh, in which Alahverdian, 34, had his bail revoked, the prosecutor Jennifer Johnston told Sheriff Alistair Noble that Alahverdian also had scarring on one arm which is believed to have come from the attempted removal of tattoos.

More: Pawtucket police reports detail allegations by women against Nick Alahverdian

Nicholas Alahverdian, pictured in 2011.

Authorities believe Alahverdian faked his death to avoid prosecution for financial fraud in Ohio and a rape charge in Utah.

According to the Edinburgh Courts Press Services, which covered Fridays bail hearing, Johnston referred to Alahverdian as Rossi, the surname he used prior to taking his fathers name about a decade ago.

In arguing that he posed a significant flight risk, the prosecutor said Alahverdian had used as many as 16 aliases, including the name Arthur Knight when he was admitted last month to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for urgent treatment for COVID-19.

More: A woman in Ohio met Nick Alahverdian for lunch. Then he sexually assaulted her.

Health care workers placed him on a ventilator, and he was expected to remain in the hospital for several weeks, Johnston said.

But once authorities arrested him at the hospital on Dec. 13 on a charge of rape out of Utah, Mr. Rossi made efforts to leave the hospital, Johnston said.

He called a private ambulance company and offered them 100 pounds (about $135) to take him away, and also tried to arrange for a supply of oxygen. The efforts were made prior to Alahverdians Dec. 23 arraignment, she said.

Story continues

Investigators had also found that Alahverdian had an Irish drivers license in the name of Nicholas Brown, as well as a marriage certificate in that name.

More: Six things to know about Nicholas Alahverdian, the RI man who apparently faked his death

Alahverdian, who is wanted in Ohio on charges he scammed his former foster father  allegedly running up some $200,000 in debts from credits cards he took out in his name  was initially granted bail last month.

But when he missed a court hearing Thursday, authorities rearrested him. Video of the arrest from the Scottish Sun showed officers struggling to get Alahverdian and his wheelchair down a ramp set up over his apartment steps and into a van.

Alahverdian, 34, was once a familiar presence at the Rhode Island State House, where he presented himself as a survivor of Rhode Islands broken child welfare system.

The Department of Children, Youth and Families, he testified before lawmakers, used a system of night-to-night and out-of-state placement of foster children like himself that left them vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse.

He touted his DCYF advocacy to reporters in January 2020 when he spread the false story that he was dying of cancer and deserving of immediate coverage.

Weeks later, on Feb. 29, the Office of Nicholas Alahverdian and a woman claiming to be his wife announced his death  with appeals that reporters and state politicians pay online tributes to the warrior of reform and attend upcoming memorial services.

It was all a hoax.

Before COVID revealed him, Alahverdian had been living in the residential section of Glasgow known as the Woodlands, popular with young professionals and college students.

The Times of London reported Friday that Alahverdian posed as a dapper university professor partial to bow ties and who spoke with a cut-glass English accent.

He's now being held in a Scottish prison pending a preliminary extradition hearing next month.

Email Tom Mooney at tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Scottish prosecutor: Tattoos gave away RI fugitive Nick Alahverdian
Ukraine has received the first part of U.S. military aid, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said on Twitter.

The first shipment of assistance recently directed by President Joe Biden to Ukraine arrived in Kyiv tonight.

As noted, this shipment includes close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine.

"The donation, which includes close to 200,000 pounds of lethal security assistance, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine, demonstrates the United States' strong commitment to Ukraine's sovereign right to self-defense," the embassy said.

The diplomatic mission also said that in 2021 the United States provided more than $650 million in security to Ukraine, including this assistance package, and over $2.7 billion in security in general since 2014.

"The United States will continue providing such assistance to support Ukraine's Armed Forces in their ongoing effort to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression," the embassy said.

In addition, the department said that, as President Biden told President Vladimir Putin, "should Russia further invade Ukraine, the United States will provide additional defensive material to Ukraine above and beyond that already provided," the embassy said.
Face coverings were one of the first protections offered against the spread of COVID-19, and they remain an important tool for reducing community spread when combined with vaccines, tests and social distancing. Heres the latest on mask policies and supply in the Yakima Valley.
A Yakama Nation Tribal Police officer and a Yakima County sheriff's deputy sit outside the Wolf Den smoke shop Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. The Wapato store was robbed that morning.
While there are no state-mandated closures or restrictions due to the recent surge in omicron variant COVID-19 cases, several Yakima Valley bu
To the editor -- I would first like to thank President Biden and Gov. Inslee. They have taken on two of the most difficult tasks currently facing mankind: the immediate threat of COVID and the long-term threat of climate change.

Lets lend them a hand by getting boosted, masking up, taking COVID precautions, decreasing our carbon footprint, and contacting your senators and congresspersons to ask them to put a price on carbon. Climate scientists and economists agree it is an essential step to a better climate forecast.

I would also like to thank all those front-line workers who have made us proud to be Americans. Few imagined the extent to which your work would be putting you and your families at increased risk of illness and death. You stood tall, putting aside your fears, standing up to apathy, belligerence, and violence from our fellow citizens. Whether you think of yourselves that way or not, you are heroes.

Thank you.

ERIC HOHMAN

Yakima
To the editor -- Lets finally end this outdated exercise of changing our clocks twice a year. State Sen. Jim Honeyford has introduced Senate Bill 5511 to keep our clocks set to Standard Time.

In case you are wondering, Standard Time is when 12 oclock noon aligns with the sun being directly overhead. States currently have the authority to permanently stay on Standard Time. Some may prefer Daylight Saving Time, but we can only change to permanent Daylight Saving Time if Congress gives their approval. For that, we will be waiting a long, long, long time.

I dont know about you, but I need my beauty sleep, so lets get this done! Contact your Washington state legislators and ask them to pass Senate Bill 5511.

MARTY MILLER

Yakima
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that during a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, she confirmed Brussels' readiness to support Kyiv financially and strengthen cooperation in the energy sector.

"I just talked to President Zelensky... We discussed the current security situation. The EU is ready to provide further financial support to Ukraine and to reinforce our energy partnership," she said on Twitter.

As reported, the sides also discussed preparations for holding an international energy business forum in Ukraine, which was agreed upon in November, and coordinated steps aimed at integrating the unified energy system of Ukraine into the European ENTSO-E network.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands a public refutation by the German government of the statements made by Chief of the German Naval Forces Kay-Achim Schonbach regarding Crimea, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko has said.

"We demand a public refutation of the statements of the commander of the Navy by the German government, which hang the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and undermine efforts to de-escalate the security situation in Europe," Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Saturday.

He said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry considers the statements of German Navy Chief Schonbach to be categorically unacceptable.

"The Crimean peninsula can only be lost in the imagination of the German vice admiral. Crimea will certainly return due to the persistent efforts of Ukraine and its partners, who will show determination in countering the aggressor state. In this regard, it requires clarification from the German government how the words of the Navy chief correlate with Germany's consistent support for the Crimea platform," Nikolenko said.

The spokesperson said the Foreign Ministry was especially surprised to hear Mr. Schonbach's sentiments about the need to resume dialogue with Russia at a time when the number of victims of Russian aggression has already exceeded 14,000 and more than 100,000 Russian army lined up along the Ukrainian state border, people continue to die in Donbas from Russian bullets, and Crimea has become a human rights ghetto and an aircraft carrier armed to the teeth, posing a threat to the entire Black Sea region.

"On the territory of Germany itself, Russian special services destroy political opponents, conduct disinformation campaigns and try to interfere in internal affairs. Even an attempt to understand [Vladimir] Putin by the commander of the German Navy must have its moral, political and security limits. In this case, these limits are grossly violated," Nikolenko said.

Earlier, German Naval Forces Chief Schonbach said "the Crimean peninsula is lost and it will never return."
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
The Hero Xpulse 200 4V is an affordable adventure bike available in the country. After the first batch of bookings was sold out, bookings were closed two months later. According to Hero MotoCorp, it will focus on deliveries before taking orders for its next batch. The company had set a deadline of 45 days for the delivery of its first batch.

A Rs 10,000 advance payment is required to book the motorcycle at Hero's eSHOP. After the first batch sold out, the company temporarily closed bookings for the Xpulse 200 4V. In addition to reopening bookings, the company has increased the bike's price by Rs 2,000 to Rs 1.30 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

This latest price hike has not resulted in any new updates for Xpulse 200 4V. The reason is likely to be an increase in production costs. In December of last year, Hero MotoCorp increased the prices of most of its two-wheelers.

Read also: Yamaha Motorcycles India launches 2022 FZS-25 in two new colours, prices start at Rs 1.39 lakh

Prices were to change on January 4, 2022. Depending on the variant and model, the price would rise up to Rs 2k. Various other two-wheeler manufacturers raised their prices in January 2022. The list includes Yamaha, Royal Enfield and Kawasaki.

Xpulse 200 4V variants feature 4-valve engines as opposed to the 2-valve, OHC setup in standard Xpulse 200. Among the benefits of a 4-valve setup is improved performance. The engine gets more air, which ensures a better combustion of fuel. Power is increased, but emissions are also reduced with a 4-valve setup.

There is a 199.6cc, oil cooled motor powering the Hero Xpulse 200 4V and producing 19.1 horsepower and 17.35 Nm of torque. It comes with a 5-speed transmission. The diamond-type frame on the Xpulse 200 4V is equipped with telescopic front forks and mono-shock rear suspension. This bike has a 21-inch front wheel and an 18-inch rear wheel. Petal discs with a diameter of 276 mm and 220 mm perform braking duties at the front and back, respectively.

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The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) told the civil aviation security agency, BCAS, that all the passengers of domestic flights should only be allowed bags within the cabin. These rules should be applied to all passengers because of the problem passengers face carrying extra luggage in the aircraft cabin.

Citing congestion issues at pre-embarkation security checkpoints at airports due to passengers carrying 2-3 handpieces of baggage, the CISF has asked the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) to ensure all stakeholders and airlines enforce the one-bag rule. The rule provides for certain exemptions, including lady's bags.

In its communication to BCAS Director-General Nasir Kamal on January 19, the CISF said carrying more than one bag to the screening point leads to increased clearance time delays and congestion in pre-embarkation security check (PESC) point, and inconvenience to passengers.

"As per BCAS AVSCEC circular 06/2000 and 11/2000, no passengers should be permitted to carry more than one handbag other than those items already listed in the circular, including lady's bag."

Read also: Pakistani pilot refuses to fly plane mid-journey after duty hours

Adding to it, the CISF said, "However, it has often been seen that passengers on average carry 2-3 bags to the screening point. This has led to increased clearance time as well as delays, congestion in PESC point and inconvenience to passengers."

It further said, "All airlines and airport operators may be instructed to take steps to implement one handbag rule meticulously on the ground to ease out the congestion and other security concerns."

The CISF, in the communication to BACS, also said all airlines be made "responsible" and depute staff to guide passengers and verify their handbag status, among others, before allowing passengers for the pre-embarkation check.

Also, all airlines must be directed suitably to inform passengers and display "one handbag rule" on their tickets/ boarding passes conspicuously, it stated.

For airports, the CISF wants the operators to be instructed to place hoardings/ banners and standees, displaying the content of the one handbag rule near the check-in counters and vantage locations before SHA (security hold are) at the airports, according to the communication.

With inputs from PTI

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New Delhi: Elon Musk-run brain-machine interface company Neuralink is preparing to launch clinical trials that will implant brain chips in humans. According to dailymail.co.uk, the firm is hiring a clinical trial director, which says the right candidate will "work closely with some of the most innovative doctors and top engineers, as well as working with Neuralink`s first Clinical Trial participants".

"As the clinical trial director, you will work closely with some of the most innovative doctors and top engineers, as well as working with Neuralink`s first clinical trial participants," the advert for the role in Fremont, California, says.

"You will lead and help build the team responsible for enabling Neuralink`s clinical research activities and developing the regulatory interactions that come with a fast-paced and ever-evolving environment."

Since launching publicly in 2017, Neuralink has demoed its brain implant in pigs and monkeys.

The main aim of the project is to provide a direct connection between a brain and a computer to overcome the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), using a "sewing machine-like" device to stitch threads to an implanted brain chip.

Musk recently said that Neuralink's brain chip technology would allow people to stream music into their brains effortlessly.

Musk confirmed the feature recently over an exchange with a Twitter user who asked: "If we implement Neuralink - can we listen to music directly from our chips? Great feature."

Musk replied with a simple, "yes".

He has also confirmed that the chip would be able to control hormone levels, which would have the potential to help with anxiety relief, among other things. Also Read: Micromax In Note 2 smartphone to launch next week: Check specs, price, features

Musk has often criticized the over-reliance on AI and the potential danger it poses. He recently claimed that AI will be "vastly smarter" than any human and would overtake us by 2025. Also Read: US government employees to earn at least Rs 1100 per hour with minimum wage hike

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The fad has caught up with social media, and people all over are going nuts over this new thing, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared today as National Startup Day. Given the countless businesses that spring up every now and then, it was long overdue. After all, selecting a special day for their celebration wouldn't be a terrible gesture to boost their spirits even more.

The declaration of a National Startup Day by Hon'ble Prime Minister Modiji is a great honour for entrepreneurs. Prime Ministers constant support for startups, which has resulted in a surge in creativity, jobs, investment, and ground-breaking solutions to everyday challenges. This will encourage more people to start businesses in India that benefit the rest of the world. It will usher in a golden age of entrepreneurship.

One such example is Akshay Hallur, a modern visionary and young entrepreneur, who carved out a unique place for himself by defying all cliches.

Akshay Hallur, a native of Shimoga, Karnataka, is the founder of BloggingX, AkshayHallur.com, and InfoSparkle, among other web businesses.

Akshay, who was born on June 21, 1995, revolutionised the digital world with his outstanding work as a blogger, digital marketer, YouTuber, and trainer.

He began his career as a hobby blogger because he was curious in "who the hell makes material on the internet."

After failing with several blogs, he launched GoBloggingTips (now BloggingX) and began earning $15,000 per month.

"Being a content producer motivates me," he answered when asked what motivates him. It's a tremendously satisfying feeling to know that I'm making a meaningful contribution to the world while still getting to pursue my passion."

Few people in the world are given the opportunity to express their creativity. In that way, he considers himself extremely fortunate to be able to do what he enjoys every day.




Every day many exhibitions and events have organised that present the outstanding work of art. The main aim of the event or exhibition is to grab the attention of the attendees. Let us understand the science of events, it includes a series of speaker sessions, conferences, trade shows, moto expos and VIP experiences. There is a further diversification of the events, that is corporate, private and charity.

What are Corporate and Recreational Events?

As the name suggests, it is a business event where the end focal point is on the customers and the corporate affairs whereas the recreational events are more enjoyable events where the charity and philanthropy events are organised. Many key things are organised such as meetings, seminars and conferences.

There is a separate entity that is known as meeting and incentive, that covers each aspect of the travellers programme. When we speak about incentive travel, it is an important subset of MICE, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. These are programmes that are provided when the employee has attained a certain amount of sales or achieved the target. Usually a perk for the amazing performance of the employee. The events planned in the group help to raise morale and the loyalty of the employee towards the company. It is considered as the major criteria in the team building activity and to raise the productivity of the employees. These travel programmes are employee-centric and aim to reach the mind of others. Many events are organised in this wake, that is meetings, conferences and exhibitions, which is empowering to build the diverse business segment. These types of events help to know more about the business and also enable me to interact with other people of the same domain.

No doubt, the events industry has been gaining popularity due to these sorts of events as these events help in pushing growth, interact and assist in promoting business ideas. Previously these events are held in person, nowadays smaller gatherings and virtual gatherings are organised for the interaction groups.

In this context, Rajiv Balani, founder of Wassup Dubai is an expert in online promotion in Dubai and specialises in the promotion of commercial, corporate, interactive seminars and real estate exhibitions. Rajiv along with his team of experts provides the multi-facet branding strategy of awareness campaigns and public relations campaigns that will enhance the sales of the client.

However, if we take the series of events, many hybrid sorts of events have emerged and conquered the current market.
New Delhi: The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has sought 'One India One Tourism' approach, which is inclusive of 'One Tax Structure,' in the forthcoming Union Budget to revive the pandemic-hit domestic travel, tourism and hospitality industry.

Besides, the Association has sought bringing Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) under the ambit of GST to make air travel more viable for all stakeholders as well as extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

There are several aspects which can be expected in the upcoming Budget to support the entire sector of 'travel tourism and hospitality,' which will help in making this sector revive and survive, TAAI, which is headed by Jyoti Mayal, said in a statement on Saturday.

?For this, it is extremely important for both the central and state governments to work in tandem to facilitate this sector and support it to be included in the concurrent list to get Industry status to make it more structured, the Association said.

TAAI said the government should strive to increase the disposable income of the middle classes to spur that discretionary spending.

According to the travel agents body, concrete steps should be taken to improve cash flows and reduce the working capital burden on startups, existing MSMEs and SMEs along with access to easy credit, reducing income tax rate and GST rate, abolishment of tax collected at source (TCS) and wage support with ease of business.

Besides, strengthening MSMEs, creating a fund of funds scheme for technology adoption for use in industry 4.0, reviving the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) for technology upgradation are the other steps TAAI is expecting in the forthcoming Union Budget, it said.

To revive this struggling sector, we need 'One India One Tourism' approach inclusive of 'One Tax Structure, TAAI said in the statement, adding that, important points to be considered are e-visa fees waiver for all tourist visas for 2022-2023, to support inbound revival export status for tourism export earnings.

It has also sought double expenditure allocation for the tourism ministry to enable intensive global reach-out to support the inbound revival as well as domestic income tax travel credit for Indian citizens and Indian companies to support domestic retail and domestic MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions)pick-up.

The Association is also looking at a global bidding fund in the Union Budget 2022-23 to enable bidding support to Indian MICE companies to bring global MICE events to India, as per TAAI.

Lastly and most vital is a structured mechanism to secure travel agents' payments to ensure security for travel agents and operators' survival, it said.

TAAI added that travel agents' payments to principals are unsecured credit and there is need to ensure that some form of mechanisms, whether escrow or guarantee or underwriting based mechanisms, are in place for securing travel agents money.

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New Delhi: Beginning a journey at a young age is never an easy task. Hurdles, barriers, troubles, and hardships all come together, except for those who are fortunate enough to have people come to their aid, handing them every possible solution on a silver platter. However, for those who are not lucky enough to embark on their journeys, all they can do is gather the courage to write a future for themselves. This is undoubtedly true for Pavan Reddy Appakonda, a young and dynamic entrepreneur, software engineer, and investor.

Pavan said I applaud you if you are a young entrepreneur or start-up. Creating a firm is definitely one of the most challenging things I've attempted. I quit my job a few years ago to pursue my entrepreneurial goals and have learned a lot along the road. In this article, I'll share some financial lessons I've learned while beginning my own business, hoping that you don't make the same financial mistakes that many new entrepreneurs do.

Maintain Individual Financial Objectives

It is critical to developing a habit of saving and investing consistently to achieve your personal financial goals. These goals could include purchasing a car or a house, saving for a wedding or your children's education, and so on. You may not have a consistent income during the early phases of your firm or freelance work, but that shouldn't stop you from investing your money whenever it becomes available to you.

My view is that it is acceptable to begin modest, with as little as 5000 rupees each month; the goal is to maintain momentum so that you may progressively grow this amount over time and establish a corpus sufficient to meet your financial goals.

Be prepared for the unexpected.

It's impossible to predict what will bring down a new business. Still, it might be anything like a critical member of staff may be required to leave for an extended period, or your most significant client may lose interest in working with you.

Because of this, you must contemplate what you would do if something went awry before you begin. It doesn't matter if it's a financial backup or anything; being ready will help your firm survive.

Maintain a record of all transactions.

Nothing is more frustrating than a business with no idea where its money comes from or where it is going. By establishing the infrastructure necessary to record transactions, you may quickly defend yourself if someone attempts to claim they do not owe you money or that you did not pay them.

Create and Maintain a Budget

It is prudent to establish a budget and, more importantly, to adhere to it. Separate accounts for the company and personal expenses can assist you in this endeavour. You won't accurately estimate how much money your firm brings in or how much it requires surviving if your personal and business spending is mixed.

Be Careful With Loans

You should avoid falling into the debt trap and only take out loans that are absolutely necessary for the operation of your business; avoid taking out loans that don't directly or indirectly increase your revenue. Corona has already taught us the value of living a thrifty and debt-free existence.

Control Taxes

Entrepreneurs must intelligently manage their taxes. Numerous measures exist to assist enterprises and freelancers in submitting income taxes and saving money on taxes. Being aware of these provisions and fully utilising them within the confines of the law can go a long way toward achieving success.

Future Planning

Retirement planning is a critical component of financial health. Because entrepreneurs would not have access to a pension, saving for retirement becomes even more critical.

Financial Self-Control

It is vital to living life to the fullest extent possible, but this must be done with discipline. While being responsible with money is usually a good idea, this does not exclude an entrepreneur from spending. Entrepreneurs must live a life of financial discipline.

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New Delhi: Setting up of 1 crore public wifi hotspots across the country by this year as envisaged under the present telecom policy has the potential to create 2-3 crore job opportunities, a senior government official said on Saturday.

Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman while speaking at Broadband India Forum (BIF) event called upon wifi equipment makers to lower the cost of their products for the expansion of Prime Minister's Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) scheme which aims to set up wifi hotspots across the country.

"Given by conservative estimate of each hotspot enabling 2-3 direct and indirect employment opportunities, the creation of 10 million hotspots as per the NDCP (National Digital Communications Policy) target by 2022 would potentially generate 20-30 million job opportunity in the small and medium scale sectors," Rajaraman said.

Public wifi hotspots have immense potential to act as catalysts for rural economy and as a means of rural livelihood besides propelling socio-economic growth by providing employment opportunities for millions of small local and village entrepreneurs.

"Sprawling manufacturing units will be needed to produce millions of access points for PM WANI which is the core of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission and would lead to therefore more job creation," Rajaraman said.

According to the PM-WANI portal, over 56,000 wifi hotspots have been deployed across the country till date. Rajaraman said that he wants more entrepreneurs to join PM-WANI programme facilitated by C-DoT.

"We also want local communities to join PM-WANI scheme wholeheartedly. We will be happy to facilitate existing entrepreneurs in local neighborhoods especially local cable operators, internet service providers, tourism operators etc to come forward and help proliferate WANI access points across the country," he said.

BIF announced the launch of BIF Connectivity Accelerator Programme in partnership with Meta (formerly Facebook) to enable entrepreneurs and startups build innovative connectivity solutions and support the public wifi ecosystem.

"This (BIF Connectivity Accelerator) virtual programme will give startups the opportunity to partner with BIF to help develop relevant use cases and help scale their businesses. We appeal to all stakeholders to come together and join hands with us to expeditiously and effectively implement this national mission," BIF president TV Ramachandran said.

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To promote electric vehicles and make the facilities easily accessible, the Delhi government has now made 377 charging stations covering 170 locations. This move might signify a step toward promoting more environmentally friendly means of transportation.

The Delhi government has launched its first electric bus and signed an agreement with the CESL to install charging and battery swapping stations for two, three and four-wheeler electric vehicles at cluster bus depots of its Transport Department. Each charging and battery swapping facility will be installed at 14 locations. Each will include six charging points, three of which will be for two and three-wheelers, while three points will be meant for four-wheelers.

To encourage commuters to switch to electric vehicles, the Delhi Government launched a dedicated one-stop website to promote and adopt Electric Vehicles in the city. Through this website, the AAP Government aims to provide the ultimate user-friendly experience to the public and give all helpful information making it easier for the users to purchase an Electric vehicle.

Read also: Yamaha EMF electric scooter launched with swappable battery

"The Website is developed as a distinctive modern website to provide all the required information to the potential EV consumer and make it interactive to suit the needs and aspirations of the consumer by being responsive for mobile devices and intuitive to easily find information to visitors" the Delhi government said in a statement.

The website's main features will give information on charging stations like their location, type of charger needed, and charging points. "As the Charging stations are growing each day in Delhi, the website will provide real-time updated numbers to the users," it said.

Besides, it will inform about the EV calculator. This function provides the visitor with an estimate of the fuel savings on his choice of electric vehicle in comparison to an equivalent conventional vehicle while enabling the consumers to make a rational choice and identify the cost reduction that an EV can provide considering the maintenance and operation cost of an EV is far lesser than that of a conventional vehicle. Under the EV research, the portal will help buyers get information about all registered EV models without running from pillar to post.

Academicians and EV enthusiasts who wish to explore more about the Delhi EV Ecosystem can log in to study the sales and uptake of EVs in Delhi in real-time. The EV Dashboard continuously updates the information on the total sales of EVs in Delhi. Along with featuring the recent notifications circulars that the Delhi Government will issue, the website will gather feedback and register any grievances or requests from various stakeholders impacted by the Policy.

With inputs from IANS

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Etihad Credit Insurance, the UAE Federal export credit company, has signed an agreement with Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) to boost investments in green energy with focus on hydrogen production projects and trade relations.



The signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was witnessed by Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, and Moon Sung Wook, Korea Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, and took place at the UAE-Korea Business Roundtable on Hydrogen Partnership.



The event was chaired by Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea and jointly organised by the Federation of UAE Chamber of Commerce and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).



Apart from the strategic cooperation agreement between ECI and K-SURE, the event also witnessed the signing of two more agreements between UAE and Korea, highlighting the importance of corporation between government agencies to foster energy transition efforts to reverse climate change.



On the sidelines of the forum, Massimo Falcioni, CEO of ECI said that export finance has a crucial role to play in the transition to a carbon-free society in the world.



The joint efforts by export credit agencies, corporates and financial sector need to be the drivers to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. ECA-backed projects help secure sustainability in a wider sense to include social issues like access to clean energy and water as well as urban development. ECAs cover helps the financial sector provide the necessary liquidity to finance the transition by sharing the risk and provide long-term funding, he said.



Under the agreement between ECI and K-SURE, both state agencies will work together to facilitate adequate support for various collaborative projects, especially on strategic sectors such as hydrogen economy, renewable energy, and electric vehicles through a wide range of trade credit insurance solutions.



They will also join forces to support the exporters operating in diverse industries to enter the global market without worrying about payment delays arising from commercial or non-commercial risks. The partnership will also focus on providing assistance in recovering claims of each entity through close cooperation and coordinated actions.



Falcioni highlighted the strong bilateral trade relationship between the UAE and South Korea and the sustainable growth this agreement can create for the business communities in each country.



We will fully support furtherly the energy cooperation between our UAE country and Korea into the hydrogen sector, a core energy resource in the age of carbon neutrality, by offering UAE and Korean companies guarantees to reduce the cost of funding in medium long term projects development into the production and distribution of both blue and green hydrogen, Falcioni added.



This agreement between the export credit agencies of the UAE and South Korea will serve as a catalyst in enhancing the competitive edge of export and business communities in the respective countries. Moreover, the crucial aspect of this pact lies in its greater focus on reinforcing initiatives that aim to reduce carbon emission, reflecting the UAEs national drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.



Inho Lee, Chairman and President of K-SURE, said: Our coordinated efforts and insurance solutions will eliminate many potential risks our traders and businesses face in a volatile marketplace, which has become more prone to instability due to the pandemic fallouts. It will also strengthen our collaborative ongoing and future sustainability projects, proving to the world how cooperation between nations is indispensable to alleviate the grave ecological concerns of our times.



The UAE is Koreas largest trading partner in the Arab world, with bilateral trade exchange valued at $9.4 billion (AED34.5 billion) in 2020. Non-oil trade between the countries in the first half of 2021 rose to $2.1 billion (AED7.7 billion). In recent years, they turned special attention to strategically important national industries, such as renewable and nuclear energy, hydrocarbons, healthcare and logistics.



Major collaborative projects between the two countries include the $20 billion Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi, with construction led by Korea Electric Power Corporation in a consortium that also includes Hyundai, Samsung, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction.



Earlier this year, UAEs sovereign wealth funds Mubadala became part of a consortium that acquired a majority stake in Korean cosmetic pharmaceutical company Hugel for $1.5 billion. In 2020, Koreas NH Investment & Securities joined a group of asset management and sovereign wealth funds to invest $20.7 billion in Abu Dhabi National Oil Companys midstream assets.  TradeArabia News Service
The U.S. administration has informed Congress of its intention to provide Ukraine with five Mi-17 helicopters, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki has said.

"On January 19, the Department notified Congress of its intent to deliver five Mi-17 helicopters currently held in DoD inventories to Ukraine under the Excess Defense Articles program," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said, citing Psaki.
New Delhi: Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong'o has starred in critically acclaimed films such as '12 Years A Slave' and 'Us', giving audiences stellar performances each time. Her latest release 'The 355' is no less as it has gripped fans when it released theatrically in the US on January 7 and in India on January 21.

Lupita explained that the female-led espionage thriller is a breakthrough film, filling in the gap of women-centric spy films in the Hollywood industry. In the edge-of-the-seat thriller, Lupita plays an advanced technology specialist Khadijah.

Prepping for her role was quite tough, she told a news portal, as she had to acquaint herself to scientific and numeric concepts and language which, she felt, her 'brain is not wired for it."

Talking about her role, she told WION, "It required a lot of physical training and a lot of brainy things. I would say, I was smart for all periods of shooting this film and I have very quickly and conveniently forgotten it all (laughs hysterically). My brain isn't wired for scientific information of that kind, numeric information or whatever you call it. My brain is not wired for it. It was definitely the hardest challenge to learn the stuff, feel confident about the meaning of the stuff, to put an emotional attachment to the stuff that Khadija was talking about, fighting for and manipulating."

Lupita also revealed what it was that attracted her to the unique role and film. In the same interview, she expressed, "The fact that Jessica Chastain had identified a gap in the espionage thriller genre, she called me and she said can you think of any movies in that genre with females at the helm? I couldn't think of any and so she went about creating a story that gives women a chance to be at the forefront of the espionage game. We know that there have been female spies for the longest of times, that's where the title is from. The first American female spy was referred to as 355, that was her code. So this is a homage to that  to all the women who risked their lives in that industry to make the world a safer place I suppose."

The action-thriller is directed by Simon Kinberg and stars Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong'o. The film revolves around a group of international spies working together on a mission to stop a terror plot and save the world.
New Delhi: A group of Naxals allegedly set 11 tractors and two JCB machines engaged in road construction work in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on fire, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place at Irapnagar village in Bhamragadh tehsil around 2 pm on Friday, during which they also torched one Poclain machine, a senior police official said.

"Around 40 to 50 Naxals were involved in the incident. They are Dalam and militia members," he said.

The burnt vehicles and other machinery belonged to different contractors involved in the road construction work, he added.

According to the official, police have registered an offence and launched a probe.

Naxal kill police informer in Chattisgarh

In a separate incident, Naxals allegedly killed a 45-year-old police informer and torched three vehicles engaged in road construction work in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district, police said on Saturday.

In a separate incident, Naxals torched three vehicles engaged in road construction work at Cherkanti Patelpara village under Bijapur police station limits on Friday, the official said.

The ultras set fire to a truck, a JCB machine and another heavy vehicle, which were being used in the construction work under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to launch the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday (January 22, 2022) via Video Conferencing at 1 pm.

"Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri @AmitShah will launch the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in Jammu & Kashmir via VC. Date: 22nd January 2022 Time: 01:00 PM," Home Minister's Office tweeted.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri @AmitShah will launch the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in Jammu & Kashmir via VC.

Date: 22nd January 2022

Time: 01:00 PM pic.twitter.com/RLkGMXWuFT   , HMO India (@HMOIndia) January 21, 2022

Amit Shah will release the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir today, a move which will make Jammu and Kashmir the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha will also address the event.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) along with Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development in association with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad is organising this event.

Additionally, the District Good Governance Index of J&K was prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcements made in the "Behtar e-Hukumat - Kashmir Aelamia" resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices held in Srinagar.

The exercise on the formulation of the District Good Governance Index was set in motion in July 2021 which has now been completed and Jammu and Kashmir will become the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index.

The District Good Governance Index of the government of Jammu and Kashmir represents a major administrative reform in benchmarking good governance at the district level and a significant step for timely collation and publication of statistics at the state/district level.

The District Good Governance Index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chief Secretary Government of Jammu and Kashmir Arun Kumar Mehta and V. Srinivas, Secretary DARPG, Government of India will also be addressing the event. The event will also be attended by senior officials of the government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Secretaries of Planning and Secretaries of Administrative Reforms of all state and UT governments and District Collectors of non-election bound states have also been invited to participate in the event by video conferencing.

During the event, a presentation on the formulation of the district Good Governance Index will be made by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad.

This will be followed by district presentations by selected 12 District Development Commissioners, who will be showcasing achievements of various sectors.

Thereafter, a panel discussion will be held on DGGI- A Way Forward for futuristic 2.0 version of DGGI for measuring and benchmarking performance and improvement of Districts in the future as well.

(With ANI inputs)

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Chandigarh: Dismissing Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi`s denial of involvement in illegal sand mining as a `lie, Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Saturday (January 22) said that as a chief minister, he had received specific inputs that Channi had a share in the mafia, along with several other Congress leaders and MLAs in the state.

"From top to bottom, right up to the level of senior ministers, many people were involved, as I had told Sonia Gandhi while I was the chief minister (of Punjab). She asked me what action I was taking in the matter, and I told her I will have to start from the top. The one and only mistake I made during my entire tenure was that I did not take any action then, out of my sense of loyalty to the Congress, since I did not get a go-ahead from Sonia Gandhi," Amarinder Singh said.

In an interview to a TV channel, Amarinder Singh spoke in detail about Channi`s `Me Too` case, which he said was not pursued by the woman in question as she accepted the then minister`s apology.

"Had she wanted to pursue the case, I would have taken action against Channi," he said, adding that his only role in the matter was to ask Channi to apologise to the woman officer, which he did and the apology was duly accepted by the woman.

The former chief minister, who made it clear he will contest once again from his home constituency of Patiala in the upcoming Assembly polls, ruled out any challenge from the Congress or any of the other parties in the fray, saying none of the CM faces or prospective CM candidates have the mental acumen to think of Punjab`s future.

"How can a man who claims to actually talk to God an hour each in the morning and evening be stable," asked Amarinder Singh, taking a veiled dig at Punjab Congress chief to Navjot Singh Sidhu.

"The PPCC president can go around hugging Pakistan`s Imran Khan and General Bajwa as much as he likes, but that is not going to bring peace, nor will people tolerate such things when our soldiers are being killed at the border every day," he said, adding that since 2017, Punjab alone had lost as many as 83 soldiers in Pak firing.

As for AAP`s CM nominee Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief labelled him as an `out-and-out comedian` whom Punjab definitely did not need.

The people of Punjab will not be fooled by AAP`s and Arvind Kejriwal`s antics, just as they were not befooled back in 2017, he said, rejecting some poll surveys putting the party ahead in Punjab.

Amarinder Singh further said the Badals and their Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are also not suitable for the state.

The former chief minister ruled out any post-poll tie-up with either the Congress or the AAP, saying the PLC has a clear alliance with the BJP and the SAD (Sanyukt), which will definitely win the elections.

The three parties are working on a common minimum programme for the state, which will secure Punjab and its people`s future, he said, adding that the CM face of the alliance is yet to be decided.

The former CM denied any paucity of good people in the PLC, saying the problem is not of people, of which the party has plenty, but of seats, since, as the senior party, the BJP naturally wants and expects more.

Hoping that the Election Commission would soon relax the Covid restrictions, Amarinder Singh said he will go to each of the 117 constituencies to take his message to the people and seek votes on the basis of his own achievements as chief minister as well as the Narendra Modi government`s accomplishments at the national level.

The only real Punjab model is that of the state`s future, said Amarinder Singh, taking a dig at the models being propagated by Sidhu and Channi, whom he dismissed as incapable of thinking for Punjab.

Even the much-touted Delhi model of AAP is a farce as Kejriwal simply uses cross-subsidy to give to the poor what he takes from the traders by taxing them, Amarinder Singh claimed.



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New Delhi: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Friday said that his party has written to Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan recommending President's rule in the state to prevent further deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor.

"We have written to the Governor to recommend the President`s rule in Bihar in order to stop more deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor," said Chirag Paswan.

                       Lok Janshakti Party (@LJP4India) January 19, 2022

His remarks came after five people lost their lives and many were taken ill after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in Bihar`s Saran district on Thursday.

The incident took place in villages under Amnour and Maker police station limits on Thursday.

Five people are confirmed to be dead while several others are admitted to a hospital. Police have launched an investigation into the matter.

He further slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying that he is raising issues like Pegasus, caste census, and population control bill as he wants to be a contender for the Prime Minister`s post by joining the Opposition."

CM Nitish Kumar intentionally raises issues like Pegasus, caste census, population control bill and special status to Bihar on which BJP`s stand is already clear. He probably wants to be a contender for PM`s post by joining the Opposition," he added.

A week ago, 11 people had died in the Nalanda hooch tragedy in Bihar.

This is noteworthy that there has been a total ban on any type of liquor in Bihar since April 2016.

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New Delhi: Anita Bose Pfaff, the daughter of great freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, accused Congress of not giving her father his due respect.

"There was a section of Congress that wronged Neta Ji. Gandhi favoured Nehru because he could not have managed my father he was a rebel," said Bose.

Bose also spoke about Neta Ji's iconic statute to be installed by the Indian government at India Gate. Calling it a wonderful gesture, Pfaff said she was pleasantly surprised to know about her fathers statue.

Bose also said that a committee was formed last year before the West Bengal elections to gain mileage on the issue but nothing happened and thus, the announcement came as a surprise to her family.

Addressing the politics being played by Indian parties on Netajis name, Anita Bose while talking to Zee Media said that the countrys politicians have exploited the legacy of her father, who gave his life for the freedom of this country.

About Indias present communal politics and religious divide, Bose said that her father was a staunch believer of Hindu ideologies but could have never killed or hurt someone in the name of religion.

Neta Ji was a devout Hindu but he couldn't have killed people in the name of religion like something that we have seen since partition, Bose said.

Bose also addressed how the facts about Netajis life and freedom struggle are being distorted for political gains, Bose clarified that her father met Germanys dictator Hitler twice but only for the sake of Indias freedom because he wanted to garner global support against the British rule.

Neta Ji did meet Hitler because all he cared was for Indian freedom but it didn't mean he endorsed fascism, she added.

India will celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Neta Ji Subhas Chandra Bose on Sunday (January 23). On the occasion, PM Narendra Modi will unveil a hologram statue of the freedom fighter at New Delhis Indi Gate.

The hologram sculpture will be a temporary arrangement in the place of a statue that will be installed at the same venue soon.

Hailed as Indias second-highest statue, the upcoming sculpture will be 28 feet high and 6 feet wide.

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New Delhi: The business fraternity in the national capital on Friday (January 21, 2022) expressed disappointment over the DDMA's decision to keep in place the weekend curfew and odd-even rule for shops.

Functionaries of the Chamber of Traders Industry (CTI) said they will stage protests across Delhi if the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) does not revise its decision in the next two to three days.

CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal in a statement said Delhi's 20 lakh traders are deeply disappointed by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's decision. The lieutenant governor heads DDMA, the highest decision-making body on COVID-19-related issues.

We request DDMA chairman LG Anil Baijal to remove the odd-even and weekend curfew keeping in mind the livelihood of 20 lakh traders and their 40 lakh employees. If there is no relief in the next two-three days, the CTI will agitate with traders from all over Delhi, Goyal stated.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi government had proposed lifting the weekend curfew and ending the odd-even scheme for opening shops. But, the lieutenant governor directed that the status quo be maintained until the situation improves.

His office, however, approved the government's proposal to allow private firms to function with 50 per cent of staff.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), too, urged Baijal to reconsider his decision.

CAIT national secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said trade has declined by about 60 per cent in the last 20 days due to the restrictions.

The trade of Delhi is facing an acute financial crisis for the last two years. The odd-even system, which has proved an utter failure in Delhi, and the weekend lockdown should be lifted, Khandelwal said.

Federation of Sadar Bazar Traders Associations vice chairman Paramjit Singh Pamma said traders are unhappy over the DDMA decision.

Due to the odd-even and weekend curfew, our businesses have been affected. When markets of the neighbouring cities are open, there is no point in keeping them shut in Delhi. We urge the LG to reconsider his decision, Pamma said.

Similar concerns were echoed by Kamla Nagar Traders Association president Nitin Gupta.

He said the traders are dismayed over the DDMA's move.

Traders are not allowed to do business but politicians can carry out rallies. We cannot pay salaries by doing business two days a week. There is no restriction on street vendors, which are the actual crowd pullers in markets, Gupta said.

Sarojini Nagar Mini Market Traders Association chief Ashok Randhawa said that the business community was suffering because of the politics between the Delhi government and the LG.

The Delhi government, too, said it was unfortunate that the lieutenant governor turned down the traders' demand.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said traders were suffering due to the wrong policies of the city government and the DDMA on COVID-19.

The LG and the city government should review their policies (on COVID-19), Gupta said in a statement.

New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) vice-chairman Satish Upadhyay wrote to Baijal to review the odd-even policy for certain businesses.

Upadhyay mentioned in his letter that metro and buses are operating with full capacity and as per the latest report of Delhi government, the numbers of cases are also reducing day by day. Upadhyay requested to the L-G to kindly review the rule of odd-even for shops for smooth lives of traders, the NDMC statement read.

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New Delhi: Four Indian nationals, including an infant, have frozen to death on the Canadian side of the border with the United States in an apparent human smuggling operation, several media reports claimed on Friday (January 21, 2022).

The four were from the same family and a part of a larger group trying to enter the US by walking across snow-covered fields in a remote region during blizzard-like conditions. They died about 10 km east of Emerson, a small farming community.

A local official informed there was no shelter at all in the area.

Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has expressed shock and has asked ambassadors in the two countries to urgently respond to the situation.

Indian envoy to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu described it as an unfortunate and tragic incident.

"We are in touch with US authorities on their ongoing investigation. A consular team from @IndiainChicago is travelling today to Minnesota to coordinate and provide any assistance required," he tweeted.

An unfortunate and tragic incident. We are in touch with US authorities on their ongoing investigation. A consular team from @IndiainChicago is travelling today to Minnesota to coordinate and provide any assistance required https://t.co/syyA59EoB2  Taranjit Singh Sandhu (@SandhuTaranjitS) January 21, 2022

India's High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria described the incident as a "grave tragedy".

"An Indian consular team is travelling today from @IndiainToronto to Manitoba to coordinate and help. We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events," he said.

'Absolutely mind-blowing story', says Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed that it was an absolutely mind-blowing story and said that his country is doing all it can to stop people smuggling across the US border.

"It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. It`s so tragic to see a family die like that, victims of human traffickers ... and of people who took advantage of their desire to build a better life," Trudeau told a news conference.

"This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner," he added.

Canada, Trudeau said, was working very closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people "taking unacceptable risks."

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) on Friday (January 21) shared the names of its star campaigner who will be campaigning for upcoming Goa Assembly polls.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, MP Abhishek Banerjee, Luizinho Faleiro, Nafisa Ali Sodhi, Leander Paes are some of the 30 declared star campaigners for TMC for Goa Assembly polls 2022.

The Trinamool was not in the fray in Goa in 2017 elections, but had put up 20 candidates in the 2012 elections and managed to poll 1.81 per cent of the total valid votes cast. Congress recently has rejected Trinamool's offer for an alliance for forthcoming assembly polls in Goa.

All the 40 constituencies of Goa will go to the polls on February 14 in a single phase.
Srinagar: Reacting to the good governance claim made by the government, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) has termed the claim as hollow and misleading.

The Party also questioned Home Minister Amit Shah's claim of restoring Statehood to J&K and said how long the issue will be put on the backburner aiming to divert the attention from the real issues.

The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Ghulam Ahmad Mir has expressed surprise over the good governance claim in J&K while terming it as hollow and misleading.

Mir said J&K has suffered immensely on every front, which is indicative of the unutilized allocation of developmental funds in J&K.

JKPCC President regretted that J&K has surrendered almost 50 % of the developmental funds, which could not be spent due to the delayed decision and wrong policies on account of the so-called development in J&K.

Quoting the statement of Chief Secretary calling it an exercise to make the administration more innovative etc, Mir said but there was a huge disconnect between the bureaucracy and the common people, which remains a hard fact, besides the contradiction to be witnessed within the system, as a result, such promises and claims have failed to instil confidence among the people in J&K, who have lost faith in the present dispensation.

Congress Party strongly contests the claims of good governance and understands that it was a tool to hide the failed policies and the losses caused to J&K post it's downgrading, JKPCC President said.

Ghulam Ahmad Mir also expressed deep concern over the delay in the delimitation process and said that people, as well as political parties in J&K, believe that the process is being delayed and said Government must give a timeline as to when the process of delimitation is completed?

It was also astonishing to observe that on the one hand Govt claims to have normalized the situation and on the other hand it makes another claim in the same breath that statehood will be restored after the situation was back to normal, which is indicative of contradiction within the system, PCC President added and said Govt of India must clear its position and tell the people as to when the Statehood will be restored to people of J&K.

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Meeting of advisors to Normandy Four leaders scheduled for Jan 26

A meeting of political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four is scheduled for January 26, Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has said.

"Advisors to the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia will meet on January 26," Yermak told Interfax-Ukraine.

The place of the meeting is not specified.
New Delhi: Senior Congress MP P Chidambaram on Saturday (January 22) refused to comment on TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee's remark that the grand old party leader should resign if BJP returns to power in Goa.

Speaking to ANI, the former Congress minister said, I don't enter in verbal exchanges with general secretaries of other parties. I'm a very modest Congress worker.

I don't enter in verbal exchanges with general secretaries of other parties. I'm a very modest Congress worker: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram when asked about TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee's remark 'Congress misleading people, Chidambaram should take blame if BJP wins Goa' pic.twitter.com/IZwN7hr5dF  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2022

Earlier on Thursday, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had said that if the Congress fails to wrest power from the BJP in Goa, the Congress' state in-charge P Chidambaram should take the onus and resign. He said the TMC had reached out to Chidambaram with a formal offer for pre-poll alliance, but nothing happened.

A day after Banerjees comments, AITC National Vice-President Pavan Varma alleged that Chidambaram had lied about not being given a concrete proposal for an alliance in Goa.

"I had gone to meet Chidambaram at his house in Delhi on December 24 at 1:30 pm," said Varma. "I went with the proposal that given the situation in Goa, and with the focus on removing the divisive BJP from the state, we must unite. I sat with him for one hour with a concrete plan, but he failed to respond. Both Chidambaram and Rahul Gandhi failed to rise above their narrow politics and vision even for the sake of Goans," he added.

Hitting out at TMC on Friday, Congress called it "an untrustworthy ally", which is trying to grow at its expense.

Congress is already in a pre-poll alliance with GFP in Goa. Goa is witnessing a multi-cornered battle with the entry of TMC and aggressive campaigning by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

(With agency inputs)

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Srinagar: A terrorist associate of proscribed outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday (January 22).

Awantipora Police along with Army 55 RR and CRPF 185 Bn arrested one JeM terrorist associate from the Awantipora area of South Kashmir.

The Police said he was involved in providing shelter, support, logistics and assisting terrorists in their ferry from one place to another besides aiding in transporting arms/ammunition of terrorists, as well as passing sensitive information regarding movement of Police and other Security forces to the terrorists of proscribed outfit JeM.

The arrested terror associate has been identified as Umer Farooq Bhat of Renzipora Awantipora. Incriminating material including hand grenades has been recovered from the arrested terror associate.

Police expect he may give some more information about the active terrorist operating in the area for whom he was working.

This month at least one dozen terrorist associates have been arrested by the security forces. Forces believe that if active terrorist associates are arrested it makes terrorists movement and operation difficult.

ALSO READ: JeM terrorist apprehended in Pulwama with arms and ammunition

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Lakhimpur Kheri: An SIT probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Friday filed a charge sheet against four people in connection with the lynching of two BJP workers and a car driver.

Two FIRs were registered after the incident in October last year. In the first FIR, Union minister Ajay Mishra's son and around 15 to 20 people have been accused of mowing down four farmers and a journalist during a protest over the visit of UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The second FIR was lodged by one Sumit Jaiswal against unidentified people, alleging that they lynched two BJP workers and a driver during the violence on October 3.

Senior Prosecuting Officer (SPO) SP Yadav said, "On Friday, police filed a chargesheet in FIR No. 220/2021 against four accused in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mona Singh."

The police filed chargesheet against four accused, identified as Vichitra Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh, he said.

"Final reports in respect of three persons Ranjeet Singh, Sonu, alias Kanwaljeet Singh, and Avtar Singh have been submitted under Section 169 of the CrPC and their release orders are being issued," he said.

Yadav said among the four against whom the charge sheet has been filed, Sections 109, 114, 426, 436 and 506 of the IPC have been invoked against Vichitra Singh while Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 302, 323, 325, 427, 436 and 504 have been invoked against Gurvinder Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh.

The violence in Tikunia village of Lakhimpur Kheri had claimed eight lives, including four farmers, a journalist, two BJP workers and a driver.

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New Delhi: The Indian Navy's tableau will depict the 1946 naval uprising, which contributed to the country's independence movement, and its marching contingent would be led by a woman officer at this year's Republic Day parade.

The tableau will also show the navy's theme of 'Combat Ready, Credible and Cohesive'.

"The naval contingent comprises 96 men, three platoon commanders and one contingent commander," the navy said in a statement.

It will be led by Lieutenant Commander Aanchal Sharma, who is an observer officer posted at the Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 314, it mentioned.

Sharma, who was commissioned in June 2016, said that the enthusiasm and energy of the contingent is unparalleled and it is indeed an honour to be leading it at the Republic Day parade.

As the nation is celebrating 75 years of independence as 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', the navy's contribution to the Indian freedom struggle will have a special mention in the tableau, the statement said.

Lieutenant Mayank Bhagour said the forward part of the tableau depicts "the naval uprising of 1946, an event which contributed in India's struggle for independence".

The rear section of the tableau illustrates the 'Make in India' initiatives of the Indian Navy, particularly for the period 1983 to 2021, he mentioned.

The model of indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant with Light Combat Aircraft in air takes the centre stage, Bhagour said.

These will be flanked by models of the indigenous missile corvette Kora, destroyer Visakhapatnam, frigate Shivalik on left and P-75 submarine Kalvari, frigate Godavari and destroyer Delhi on the right, he noted.

Frames on the lower section of the trailer will depict indigenous construction of naval platforms, Bhagour said.

The Indian Navy's statement said that its 72-men band at the parade will be led by Vincent Johnson, Master Chief Petty Officer Musician and Hon Sub Lieutenant.

This would be the 18th time he would be participating in a Republic Day Parde, it added. He would lead the naval band as a drum major, the statement mentioned.

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Kashmir: A joint team of Kupwara Police and Army 160 TA here has apprehended one OGW namely, Fareed Ahmad Chowhan resident of Reshwari Awoora aged 33 yrs of Zurhama, Kupwara.

Police said Fareed was moving in suspicious circumstances in the area when local people surrounded him and informed the police about it late last evening.

Acting on the tip of local police along with a team of TA 160 battalion apprehended Fareed who was subjected to personal search.

During his personal search, a Chinese Pistol was recovered from his possession. He has been taken into custody and a case under relevant provisions of law has been registered against him at PS Trehgam and investigation taken up.



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New Delhi: On the occasion of freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Boses 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the hologram statue of Netaji on January 23.

The prime minister took to Twitter to make the announcement that an iconic statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose will be installed at the helm of India Gate to honour the memory of Indias great freedom fighter and his supreme sacrifice for the nations independence.

At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate. This would be a symbol of Indias indebtedness to him, PM Modi tweeted.

At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate. This would be a symbol of Indias indebtedness to him. pic.twitter.com/dafCbxFclK  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2022

Modi further announced that till the time the actual statue is prepared, a hologram representation of the leader will be placed at the spot.

Till the grand statue of Netaji Bose is completed, a hologram statue of his would be present at the same place. I will unveil the hologram statue on 23rd January, Netajis birth anniversary, tweeted Modi.

The hologram statue

The hologram statue will be powered by a 30,000 lumens 4K projector and an invisible, high gain, 90 per cent transparent holographic screen has been erected in such a way so that it is not visible to visitors, the PMO statement said.

The 3D image of Bose will be projected on it to create the effect of a hologram.

During the programme on January 23, Modi will also confer the 'Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskars', for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the investiture ceremony.

Venue of the hologram statue

The hologram statue will be placed in the canopy and will replace the Amar Jawan Jyoti, which was merged with the eternal flame of the National War Memorial Torch on Friday.

The granite statue will be installed under a canopy, which used to have a statue of King George V that was removed in 1968.

Subhash Chandra Boses final sculpture

The proposed grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to be installed at India Gate in the national capital will be 28 feet high and 6 feet wide made of granite stone, Director General of the National Modern Art Gallery, New Delhi, Adwaita Gadanayak said.

According to Gadnayak, the statue will be seen easily from Raisina Hills. The stone used for the sculpture will be of jade black and will be brought from Telangana. The design of the statue has been prepared by the ministry of culture, he said.

Most of the opposition parties, including the TMC, welcomed the decision, but the Mamata Banerjee-headed party also alleged that the announcement was aimed at countering criticism after the rejection of West Bengal's tableau themed on the nationalist leader for the Republic Day parade snowballed into a major row.

This year, the CPWDs Republic Day parade will also be on the theme of Subhas Chandra Bose.

Last year, the Central government had declared January 23 as Parakram Diwas and a Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Museum has also been set up at Red Fort New Delhi.

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Chandigarh: The Punjab Police Friday recovered a grenade launcher with two compatible grenades, 3.79 kg RDX, nine detonators and two sets of timer devices from Gurdaspur, thwarting a possible terror attack around the Republic Day, a senior official said.

Border Range Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohinish Chawla said the 40-mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) that was recovered during the day could cover up to 150 meters and could be detrimental to the VVIP security, according to an official statement.

The recovery was made on the disclosure of Malkeet Singh, a resident of village Gazikot in Gurdaspur who was arrested Thursday by the Gurdaspur Police based on a tip-off in a terror module and conspiracy case, he said.

Punjab Police seize grenade launcher, #RDX to avert terror attack near #RepublicDay; 1 arrested. Recovers 40mm *UBGL with two 40 mm compatible grenades, 3.79 Kg #RDX, 9 electrical detonators and 2 sets of timer devices for IEDs from Gurdaspur, tells #IGBorderRange pic.twitter.com/Yc6xoPJ09C  Punjab Police India (@PunjabPoliceInd) January 21, 2022

"Thwarting a possible terrorist attack around the Republic Day, the Punjab Police have recovered 40mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) with two 40 mm compatible grenades, 3.79 Kg RDX, nine electrical detonators and two sets of timer devices for IEDs from Gurdaspur," Chawla was quoted as saying in a statement.

The consignment of explosives was sent from across the border by Pakistan-based International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) chief Lakhbir Singh Rode, he added.

During November-December 2021, the Gurdaspur Police had busted two terrorist modules controlled by the ISI of Pakistan and arrested four members of the modules, besides recovering around 1 kg RDX, six hand grenades, one tiffin box IED, three electrical detonators and two pistols.

SSP Gurdaspur Nanak Singh said the role of Malkeet Singh in the retrieval and delivery of firearms/explosive consignments intended for the ISYF terror module, busted recently by the SBS Nagar Police, was revealed during the investigation.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022, which is shaping up to be a neck to neck competition between key political parties, Aam Admi Partys chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann visited Punjabs famous Shri Ram Tirath Mandir and Golden Temple in Amritsar on Saturday (January 22).

Aam Aadmi Party CM candidate in Punjab Bhagwant Mann visits Shri Ram Tirath Mandir and Golden Temple in Amritsar pic.twitter.com/BP72b4YqwU  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2022

The leader also challenged Congress Charanjit Singh Channi to face him in his poll constituency Dhuri for assembly elections and asked the Punjab CM to issue an official statement on the recent ED raids at the residence of his relatives.

If Channi Sahab wants to contest against me, I invite him to Dhuri. He must give a statement on illegal property papers worth Rs56 cr found in his name. Capt Amarinder Singh also agreed that Channi Ji was involved in illegal sand mining, ANI quoted Mann as saying.

If Channi Sahab wants to contest against me, I invite him to Dhuri. He must give a statement on illegal property papers worth Rs56 cr found in his name. Capt Amarinder Singh also agreed that Channi Ji was involved in illegal sand mining: Bhagwant Mann, AAP CM candidate in Punjab pic.twitter.com/L4VZVswwCP  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2022

AAP, which has launched a power-packed campaign in Punjab has been levelling corruption accusations against Channi and the Congress regime for quite some time.

Earlier, AAPs Raghav Chaddha raided a sand mine in Punjab and alleged Channis involvement in the scam, an allegation Channi consistently denied.

Dismissing Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi`s denial of involvement in illegal sand mining as a `lie, Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Saturday also said that as a chief minister, he had received specific inputs that Channi had a share in the mafia, along with several other Congress leaders and MLAs in the state.

About the raids, the ED on Wednesday had said it seized cash amounting to over Rs 10 crore, including about Rs 8 crore from a relative of Channi, during raids conducted in connection with an anti-money laundering investigation against illegal sand-mining operations in the poll-bound state.

Ever since the raids, AAP has been targeting Channi and his party for taking part in corruption and called him a dishonest man.

Channi threatened to file a defamation case against AAPs Arvind Kejriwal for his remarks.

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New Delhi: One of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymns "Abide With Me" has been dropped from this year's Beating Retreat ceremony on January 29, according to a brochure released by the Indian Army on Saturday.

"Abide With Me", written by Scottish Anglican poet and hymnologist Henry Francis Lyte in 1847, has been part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950.

The Centre had in 2020 also planned to drop "Abide With Me" from the Beating Retreat ceremony but had later retained it after a huge uproar.

The brochure released by the Indian Army on Saturday listed 26 tunes that will be played at this year's ceremony at Vijay Chowk.

For this year's ceremony, the hymn has been replaced by the popular patriotic song 'Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon', which was written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the supreme sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers during the 1962 Indo-China war.

The move to drop the hymn from this year's ceremony came days after the Centre's decision to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at the India Gate with the eternal flame of the National War Memorial (NWM). The merger took place during a brief ceremony on Friday.

While some military officials defended the decision to merge the flame, several opposition parties, including the Congress accused the BJP-ruled Centre of "removing history.

Reacting strongly, Congress in charge of Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura, Ajoy Kumar, on Saturday tweeted "new India, No Amar Jyothi, no Abide With Me during the Beating Retreat. Sicko's BJP."

This year's Beating Retreat ceremony will conclude with 'Sare Jahan Se Acha', the brochure stated.

The 26 tunes that will be played at this year's ceremony include 'Hey Kanchha', 'Channa Bilauri', 'Jai Janam Bhumi', 'Nritya Sarita', 'Vijay Josh', 'Kesaria Banna', 'Veer Siachen', 'Hathroi', 'Vijay Ghosh', 'Ladaakoo', 'Swadeshi', 'Amar Chattan', 'Golden Arrows' and 'Swarn Jayanti', according to the brochure.

'Veer Sainik', 'Fanfare by Buglers, 'INS India', 'Yashasvee', 'Jai Bharati', 'Kerala', 'Siki A Mole', 'Hind Ki Sena', 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja', 'Drummers Call' besides 'Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon' are also part of the tunes that will be played on the evening of January 29, the brochure noted.

The ceremony will see the participation of 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers.

Beating Retreat is a centuries-old military tradition dating from the days when troops disengaged from the battle at sunset, it mentioned. As soon as the buglers sounded the retreat, the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield, it added.

Beating Retreat marks the end of nearly week-long festivities of Republic Day, which used to begin on January 24. But this year, the celebrations will begin on January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Ahead of Bose's 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Friday announced that a grand statue of the iconic freedom fighter will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of India's "indebtedness" to him.

Till the statue, made of granite, is completed, a hologram statue of his would be present at the same place, he said, adding that he will unveil the hologram statue on January 23.

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New Delhi: In view of Republic Day, the historic Red Fort will remain closed for people for five days from January 22-26 due to security reasons, police said on Wednesday.

The Delhi Police took to Twitter to inform the citizens.

"In view of Republic Day, the Red Fort shall remain closed for public and general visitors from January 22, 2022 to January 26, 2022, due to security reasons," it tweeted.

In view of Republic Day, the Red Fort shall remain closed for public and general visitors from January 22, 2022 to January 26, 2022, due to security reasons.#DelhiPolice#RepublicDay2022@CPDelhi @ASIGoI  Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) January 19, 2022

There is a three-layered security system in place for the Republic Day celebration and the force is always alert and undertakes anti-terror measures especially ahead of any event of national importance, the Delhi Police said.

Citing the recent security breach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convoy in Punjab, the Delhi Police officers said that the force is extra vigilant to ensure no such incident happens in the national capital.

The Republic Day celebrations will now begin every year from January 23 instead of January 24 to include the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Subash Chandra Bose.

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On Tuesday, January 25, at 14.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference entitled "Political aggression of Russia in ORDLO." Presentation of two analytical reports titled "Elections in the occupation" and "Spread of Russia's ideology in ORDLO." Participants include lawyer, director of the Eastern Human Rights Group Vira Yastrebova; human rights activist, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security Pavlo Lysiansky; journalist, writer, author of a number of books on the history of Ukraine Maksym Butchenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of places in the press center is limited, the presence of a PCR test or a certificate of vaccination is required. Details at: (099) 910 7231 (Kseniya).
Chennai: The Legal Rights Protection Forum(LRPF) has sought disciplinary action against Tamil Nadu Police Officer Ravali Priya, in connection with the alleged forced religious conversion, suicide case. In a letter to Indias Home Secretary, the forum has stated that District Superintendent of Police, Thanjavur, Ravali Priya, IPS misled the investigation process in the forced religious conversion, mental and physical harassment and abetment to suicide of a minor girl. This complaint letter references the video statement of the deceased minor girl and the complaint letter filed by her parents.

@lawinforce writes to Home Ministry, seeking probe into allegd criminal conduct of Thanjavur, SP & act against the IPS offcr for failing to record FIR in minor girl suicide case over allgd Religious conversion, ill-treatment Transfer of IPS officer requested till probe is done https://t.co/qvqzNZNRpn pic.twitter.com/psvtgdzqii  Sidharth.M.P (@sdhrthmp) January 21, 2022

The case pertains to a 17-year-old girl who was pursuing her 12th grade at the Sacred Heart School in Tamil Nadus Thanjavur district. As per the complaint filed by LRPF, the victim had allegedly attempted to end her life after being forced by school authorities to convert to Christianity. It also mentions that the said Sacred Heart Hr. Sec School had been illegally converting children into Christianity and was imposing corporal punishments on those who resisted.

It added that this was causing mental agony to students and driving them to extreme steps. The victim was forced to convert into Christianity and when she refused the same, she was refused permission to return home from hostel. She was made to clean toilets and wash dishes reads the complaint. It also adds that the child tried to end her life owing to the atrocities inflicted upon her(following which, she eventually succumbed).

Following our complaint, @NCPCR_ issued notice to DGP-TamilNadu to take immediately necessary action in the matter of suicide committed by minor Hindu girl due to pressure mounted by Sacred Heart Hr. Sec. School, Tirukattupalli in order to convert her to Christianity. (1/n) https://t.co/YTw7EMfHaf pic.twitter.com/A0jr5AgTrC  Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) January 20, 2022

As per a video of the victim shared by LRPF, the victim is heard saying In front of me also they asked my parents about converting me to Christianity, so that she would make me study. She would also keep scolding me and not let me stay there. Later, when asked who she was referring to, the victim is heard sayingSister Rachael Mary.

In the same video, when asked if she was tortured because she refused to convert to Christianity, the victim is heard saying it could be possible. However, Zee Media could not independently verify the authenticity of the said video.

Following LRPFs complaint to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR), the latter had issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police to act on the case and share a report within seven days. Late Wednesday night, as the investigation was still underway, Ravali Priya, IPS,Superintendent of Police, Thanjavur, had flatly denied the religious conversion angle, during a press conference.

According to her, the said juvenile girl had consumed poisonous material on 9th January. 15th January night we got information from her parents, immediately Police took a video and recorded the statement and filed a case under sections of Juvenile Justice Act.

"The judicial Magistrate of Thanjavur has also taken the dying declaration of the girl, based on a Doctor certifying her mental and health condition. In the first information given by the parents, Police video statement or the Judicial Magistrate - one accused was being made out and Police has secured and remanded that individual. The case is under investigation," she added. She also made a mention about having received another petition from the victims parents.

However, LRPF says, The parents of the deceased girl, in their complaint clearly mentioned that their daughter was forced to convert her religion to Christianity and stated that sister Ms. Rocklin Mary and warden harassed her in this regard. It clearly appears that investigation of the case is being misled in order to hide the religious conversion angle which appears to the main reason behind the suicide of the girl, as mentioned by herself in the video before her death. However, the SP maintained that the girl had to be certified medically and mentally fit for that said confession video (that was circulated on social media) to be considered. The Police officer also said that action would be taken against those who shot that video.

In this regard, the LRPF complaint letter seeks a Home Ministry inquiry into the alleged criminal conduct of the Superintendent of Police, Thanjavur District and suitable legal and disciplinary action against her. We request your office to act against the District SP, Thanjavur under 166 A(c) of the Indian Penal Code for failure to record FIR in relation to this case. It is also prayed to your good office may consider directing the Tamil Nadu Government to transfer Ms.Ravali Priya, IPS from Thanjavur until the investigation, in this case, is completed "read the complaint letter to the Indian Home Ministry.

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New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan moved the Supreme Court of India to seek interim bail in several cases to take part in the upcoming high-mileage Uttar Pradesh Elections, ANI reported.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan moves Supreme Court seeking interim bail to campaign in upcoming #UttarPradeshElections Azam Khan continues to be lodged in the Sitapur jail (in UP) with many cases registered against him. (File photo) pic.twitter.com/cTP5WxXPFi  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2022

In his plea, the Rampur MP has sought the release on bail to campaign for his party in the upcoming elections.

Khan, who has been the former cabinet minister of Uttar Pradesh is lodged in the Sitapur jail in more than 100 cases. As per media reports, the leader has been given bail in most cases.

The SP leader also alleged that the state is deliberately delaying prosecution in his cases to keep him away from participating in the assembly elections campaign.

Azam Khans son Abdullah Azam Khan was released from the Sitapur Jail only last week. He was detained in various cases including the case of providing a fake birth certificate, an allegation he was convicted for.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which is shaping up to be a high-octane race for the throne, will go to the polls in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

From Samajwadi Party, chief Akhilesh Yadav is the chief minister face and key campaigner in the state.

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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be travelling to western Uttar Pradesh for the first time since the announcement of assembly polls in the state. He will hold a door-to-door campaign, meet party workers and interact with intellectuals during his visit to Shamli and Meerut districts of this region which is crucial for BJP's prospects in the polls.

The Home Minister will embark on a door-to-door campaign in Kairana on Saturday (January 22, 2022) afternoon.

The constituency had seen an exodus of Hindu families in 2016 and their return later after huge efforts. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, eldest daughter of late Hukum Singh who had won the seat several times.

The Home Minister will hold a closed-door meeting in Shamli with party leaders from Shamli and Baghpat.

He will hold a meeting with intellectuals in Meerut on Saturday evening to conclude his engagements for the day.

The polls in western Uttar Pradesh are crucial for BJP as it involves about 108 seats and the party had done well in the previous assembly election. The party had won 83 seats in the region in 2017 and the party leadership is confident of repeating the performance.

The BJP swept Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections winning 78 out of 80 seats. It won over 300 seats in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and 62 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Amit Shah was the party chief.

Amit Shah is known to have good understanding of caste dynamics in the state and knows key workers personally across constituencies in the crucial state. State BJP leaders are hoping that his campaigning and organisation skills will again help the party register an impressive victory.

Elections to 403 member Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held in seven phases. The first phase of polls will be held in parts of Western Uttar Pradesh on February 10.

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New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will fight the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections in alliance with Babu Singh Kushwahas Jan Adhikar Party and Bharat Mukti Morcha, party supremo Asaduddin Owaisi said on Saturday (January 22).

Owaisi said if the alliance is elected to power in the state, there will be 2 Chief ministers and 3 Deputy CMs. "If the alliance comes to power there will be 2 Chief Ministers, one from OBC community and another from Dalit community. There would be 3 Deputy Chief Ministers including from Muslim community," ANI quoted the AIMIM chief as saying.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi announces his alliance in Uttar Pradesh with Babu Singh Kushwaha & Bharat Mukti Morcha "If the alliance comes to power there will be 2 CMs, one from OBC community & another from Dalit community. 3 Dy CMs incl from Muslim community,"he said#uppolls pic.twitter.com/fu2rVgaN0S  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 22, 2022

Babu Singh Kushwaha asserted that the multi-party alliance has not been formed under compulsion. "We worked for Dalit, backward and minority community for a long time," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, AIMIM had released the third list of seven candidates for UP polls. So far, the AIMIM, which will be will be contesting around 80 seats, has declared 25 candidates.

Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will take place in seven phases starting February 10. The voting in UP will be held on: February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday (January 22) extended the closure of all educational institutions, including schools, till January 30 in view of the rising Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.

According to an order issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the educational institutions in the state will remain closed and online classes will continue, PTI reported.

On January 16, the UP government had closed all schools and colleges till January 23, 2022. The government had directed schools to organise vaccination camps for students between the age group of 15 and 18. Students have been allowed to visit their schools to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Among other measures, the UP government has also imposed night curfew from 10 pm to 6 pm to keep a check on the transmission of Covid-19 infection.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh on Friday reported 16,142 fresh infections and 22 deaths, which took the state's caseload to 19,16,616, a government statement said. As many as 23,022 people have succumbed to the Covid-19 infection so far, as per official data.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: As the daily Covid-19 cases decline in the national capital, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has allowed private offices to function with 50 percent staff.

DDMA issued fresh Covid-19 guidelines for the capital on Friday and said that the weekend curfew and other restrictions, including the odd-even rule for opening shops in city markets will continue.

The order issued by the DDMA said it has been observed that as the number of COVID-19 cases and positivity rate are witnessing a decline, some prohibitions or restrictions may be revised in areas outside containment zones.

"Therefore, all private offices shall be allowed to function with up to 50 percent of attendance with immediate effect in the NCT of Delhi (outside of containment zones)," the DDMA order said. However, the authority added that private offices are advised to follow the practice of work from home as far as possible and ensure social distancing.

"It is also clarified that night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am everyday and weekend curfew from 10 pm of Friday till 5 am of subsequent Monday, on the movement of individuals in NCT of Delhi, shall also remain in force in the territory of NCT of Delhi, till further order," the DDMA order stated.

In the order, DDMA clarified that other prohibited and restricted activities, which include an odd-even rule for opening shops, no dining services in restaurants, etc, shall remain unchanged and will be in force till further order.

Here's what's allowed and what's not in Delhi this weekend:

- Restaurants and bars will remain closed across Delhi. Online delivery is permitted by the government.

- All educational institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities, will remain closed till further orders.

- Metro services and public transport buses will operate with full seating capacity during the curfew but no standing commuters will be allowed.

- Markets will be closed during the weekend curfew barring those dealing in essential goods and services like groceries, vegetables, and fruits, medicines, milk among others.

- Shops in markets and malls are allowed to run on an odd-even basis between 10 am and 8 pm.

- DDMA has allowed the Private offices to function at 50% capacity as opposed to the 100% work-from-home that was in place till now. However, the offices must be situated outside containment zones.

- Cinemas, theatres, spas, and gyms will continue to be shut.

Earlier on Friday morning, the Delhi government proposed lifting the weekend curfew and ending the odd-even scheme for opening shops in view of the coronavirus situation but Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal directed that the status quo be maintained on the restrictions till the situation is better. The LG office, however, approved the government's proposal to allow private offices to function with 50 percent staff.

Meanwhile, Delhi logged 10,756 fresh Covid cases and 38 more fatalities due to the infection on Friday, while the positivity rate declined to 18.04 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department. As many as 434 people have succumbed to the disease in January so far.

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New Delhi: At least six people were killed and several others were wounded in a massive fire that erupted in a multistorey building near Bhatia Hospital in Tardeo area of Mumbai on Saturday (January 22, 2022) morning.

Later in the afternoon, the Maharashtra government announced that it will bear the cost of medical treatment for the injured and will provide ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of those who perished in the fire.

Government will give an ex gratia amount of Rs 5 lakhs to the families of victims who lost their lives in the fire incident at the Kamala building in Mumbai's Tardeo area, said Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Govt will give 5L compensation to families of those citizens who lost their lives in this unfortunate fire.

There were reports about 2 hospitals refusing treatment, however both hospitals informed me that they have admitted & treated some of those injured in this fire.  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) January 22, 2022

Aaditya Thackeray visited the Kamala Building fire site in Mumbai to check the ground situation. He also said he is monitoring the firefighting and rescue operations that are underway.

"In touch with the authorities regarding the fire outbreak at the Kamala building in Tardeo. The fire brigade and the police are on site. Rescue and cooling operations are underway," Aaditya Thackeray said in a tweet.

In touch with the authorities regarding the fire outbreak at the Kamala building in Tardeo. The fire brigade and the police are on site. Rescue and cooling operations are underway.  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) January 22, 2022

Five people died due to their injuries at Nair Hospital, one died at Kasturba Hospital, sources told Zee Media.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) has designated it as a Level-3 (major) fire. The authorities informed that a total of 13 fire engines were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.

The fire was noticed at the top part of the 20-storied Kamla Building at around 7.30 a.m. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar assured that the mishap will be thoroughly investigated. "The fire incident that occurred at the Kamala building in Mumbai's Tardeo area will be investigated. Our guardian minister of Mumbai Suburban Aaditya Thackeray and Mumbai City guardian minister Aslam Shaikh will look into it," said Pawar.

Additionally, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condoled with the families of those who died in a fire in Mumbai. He wished for a speedy recovery to the injured and urged party workers to provide assistance to the affected.

"The tragic news of fire in a Mumbai high rise is disturbing. My condolences to the family of those who've lost their lives. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. I appeal to Congress workers to be of every possible assistance," Gandhi said in a Facebook post.

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal also expressed grief over the loss of lives in the incident. The accident in the building of Tardeo, Mumbai is very sad. I express my deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident. Praying to God to give speedy recovery to the injured, he tweeted.

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New Delhi: Six people have died after a massive fire broke out in a 20-storey Kamala building near Bhatia hospital in Tardeo area of Mumbai on Saturday (January 22, 2022) morning.

BMC informed that the injured have been shifted to a hospital. The civic body also said that there are five ambulances present at the spot.

Five people died due to their injuries at Nair Hospital, one died at Kasturba Hospital, sources told Zee Media.

The authorities informed that a total of 13 fire engines were rushed to the spot to douse the fire. The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) rushed with fire tenders as the flames quickly spread to the two upper floors sparking panic among the building residents.

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar was also present at the spot and told the media that no other person is stuck in the building. "Six old age people needed oxygen support system and have been shifted to the hospital. Fire flame is under control but smoke is huge. All people have been rescued," said Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

Six old age people needed oxygen support system and have been shifted to the hospital. Fire flame is under control but smoke is huge. All people have been rescued: Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar pic.twitter.com/PFzDDsDTyW  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2022

The fire was noticed at the top part of the 20-storied Kamla Building at around 7.30 a.m. Further details are awaited.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condoled with the families of those who died in a fire in Mumbai. He wished a speedy recovery to the injured and urged party workers to provide assistance to the affected.

"The tragic news of fire in a Mumbai high rise is disturbing. My condolences to the family of those who've lost their lives. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. I appeal to Congress workers to be of every possible assistance," Gandhi said in a Facebook post.

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal also expressed grief over the loss of lives in the incident. The accident in the building of Tardeo, Mumbai is very sad. I express my deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident. Praying to God to give speedy recovery to the injured, he tweeted.

 Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) January 22, 2022

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New Delhi: Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger was involved in a multi-car crash on Friday, leaving one person injured.

"There was a four-vehicle traffic accident on Sunset and Allenford at 4:35 p.m. One vehicle on top of another..one female was transported to a local hospital with an abrasion," Los Angeles Police Department Officer Drake Madison told Fox News Digital.

Apparently, the former governor of California was inside of a Yukon that hit a red Toyota Prius, causing the SUV's airbags to deploy. Several pictures from the scene went viral on the internet. The images show a number of cars with severe damage.

Schwarzenegger was also pictured at the scene, appearing to be unharmed.

The actor's representative informed the outlet that Schwarzenegger is "okay" and is extremely concerned about the injured woman.
Mumbai: Wowing fans with drop-dead gorgeous pictures of herself, Deepika Padukone set the internet ablaze with her "red hot chilli pepper" look for the promotion of her upcoming film `Gehraiyaan.`

Deepika hopped to her Instagram handle to share a few pictures and a reel video to showcase her look for the film promotions.

Decked up in a red latex plunging neckline dress, the `Piku` star looked stunning.

The actor dusted off the look with a pair of textured red coloured stilettos heels.

Skipping the jewellery, the diva grabbed the eyeballs with her dewy makeup look consisting of a bold plum-red lip shade. She kept her statement bob-cut wavy hair loose.

The `Padmavat` actor captioned the reel video as "Wannabe Red Hot Chilli Pepper..."

The alluring post accumulated more than one million likes and thousands of comments within a few minutes of being shared.

For the unversed, promotions of the upcoming Shakun Batra directorial romantic movie have been going on in full swing since the makers dropped the film`s trailer on January 20.

The much-awaited movie looks beneath the surface of complex modern relationships, adulting, letting go and taking control of ones` life path.

Apart from Deepika, the film stars Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Dhairya Karwa in the lead along with Naseeruddin Shah and Rajat Kapur in pivotal roles.

Jointly produced by Dharma Productions, Viacom18 and Shakun Batra`s Jouska Films, the Amazon Original movie will have its OTT world premiere across more than 240 countries and territories on February 11, 2022.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi attended on Monday a celebration of Eid El-Fitr with the families of Egyptian Armed Forces and police personnel killed or injured in the countrys battle against terrorism.
Los Angeles: Hollywood star Idris Elba is still in contention to be the next James Bond. Having long been touted to be the first black 007, the 'Luther' actor is confirmed to be "part of the conversation" for the new iteration of the famous British spy.

It's producer Barbara Broccoli herself who spilled the possibility of Elba joining the franchise, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"Well, we know Idris, we're friends with him, and he's a magnificent actor," she told Deadline.

"And, you know, it's been part of the conversation, but it's always difficult to have the conversation when you have someone in the seat."

Broccoli, however, noted that they're in no rush to name Daniel Craig's replacement.

She shared: "I think we have decided that until 'No Time to Die' has had its run and Daniel has been able to, well, we've all been able to savour, reap the benefits of Daniel's wonderful tenure, we're not gonna think about, or talk about anybody else."

'No Time to Die', which is billed as Craig's swan song in his role as 007, went on to become the second-highest grossing movie of the pandemic with $774 million worldwide after a long delay due to the Covid pandemic.

Despite the apparent struggle of the movie industry to convince audiences to return to theaters, Broccoli said she and other studio executives kept their faith in the irreplaceable attraction of cinemas.

"We believe in the power of the theatrical release and the cinema, and that's what we've always done, and that's what 'Bond' has always done, and we cannot agree to go PVOD, not only just for the health of our brand and our movie but we can't do that to the cinema industry," Broccoli said about having "No Time to Die" stick to its theatrical release.

"We can't do it to the exhibitors."
New Delhi: Neetu Kapoor remembered her husband and late actor Rishi Kapoor on their wedding anniversary which is celebrated today i.e on Jan 22 (Saturday).

Sharing happy pictures on her social media she wrote, In remembrance with a heart emoji.

The candid pictures were taken on the sets of The Kapil Sharma Show when the duo appeared together for an episode on the most-popular comedy show.

Their fans showered their love for the couple and also cherished their beautiful memory. Neetus daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni also reacted on the post.

Riddhima also wished her parents on their anniversary via Instagram Stories. Riddhima shared a picture of Neetu with her arms around Rishi and added a heart emoji.

For the unversed, Rishi and Neetu got married in 1980. The duo is proud parents of two kids  Riddhima and Ranbir Kapoor.

While their son Ranbir made his career in showbiz, it was her sister Riddhima who stayed away from the glitz and glamour world and is a successful fashion and jewellery designer. She is married to businessman Bharat Sahni in New Delhi and the couple has a daughter named Samara Sahni.

Rishi battled Leukaemia (blood cancer) for two years before breathing his last at HN Reliance hospital in Mumbai on April 30, 2020. The actor par excellence underwent treatment for it in New York for a year.

On the workfront, Neetu will be next seen sharing screen space with Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani in `Jug Jugg Jeeyo.`
New Delhi: Actor Varun Dhawan, on Saturday, made everyone emotional with his post for his driver Manoj Sahu, who passed away a few days ago.

Taking to Instagram Story, Varun shared a photograph, in which he is sitting on a beach and on the sand, he has made a heart and inside it, he has written, "Manoj Bhai MISS U SO MUCH."

Varun's image has been doing the rounds on the internet.

Reacting to the particular gesture, a fan commented, "Beautiful. Manoj bhai must be smiling after seeing this from heaven."

"You won my heart with this post. God give you strength," another one wrote.

Manoj passed away on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack. Reports suggested that Manoj drove Varun to Mehboob Studio for an ad shoot and later complained of chest pain.

He was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital immediately by the actor's team, where he was declared dead. He was working with Varun for 26 years.
New Delhi: In what could be good news for lakhs of central government employees and pensioners under the 7th Pay Commission, the Indian government could soon discuss the issue of dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) arrears.

For the unversed, the Finance Ministry had stopped the DA hike in May 2020 till 30 June 2021 to offset the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the government has restored the DA and DR hike, central government employees are now expecting the government to soon release the pending arrears.

Currently, there are about 48 lakh central employees and about 60 lakh pensioners, who are waiting for a decision on DA arrears.

According to Shiv Gopal Mishra, Secretary (Staff Side) of the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM), the council has put forward the request for a one-time settlement of DA arrears.

The National Council of JCM, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and Finance Ministry had recently held talks on DA arrears. But no substantial decision was taken place in the meet.

According to media reports, the central government could discuss the issue as early as this month. The issue could soon be discussed with the Cabinet Secretary. Also, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also heard the matter, it is reportedly expected that he could also make a decision on pending arrears.

If the Central government gives a one-time settlement for pending DA and DR, employees and pensioners could receive lakhs of rupees directly in their bank accounts. Also Read: Elon Musk's startup Neuralink nears human trials for chip implant in brain

Currently, the DA to central government employees is paid at a 31 per cent rate. However, the employees are now hoping for another increase in their salary with the recent changes. Also Read: LIC Aadhaar Shila Policy: Women investors can invest little to get lakhs of rupees on maturity, check how

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New Delhi: Aadhaar Card has become one of the crucial documents required for availing services offered by private and government agencies. However, for availing a few services, especially the ones offered digitally, cardholders should get their Aadhaar card linked phone numbers updated.

So, if you have changed your number, you should update the phone number linked to your Aadhaar Card. Otherwise, you could face trouble.

For instance, most banking apps require online verification of Aadhaar details via OTP. If you wont the access to Aadhaar Card linked phone number, you wont be able to verify the details. Therefore, its recommended to keep your Aadhaar card details updated.

For the unversed, the Aadhaar card is a 12 digit unique identity number provided to cardholders. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues Aadhaar Card in India. The statutory body also handles the updates related to Aadhaar Card.

Heres how to update mobile Number on Aadhaar

Step 1: Visit your nearby Aadhaar Enrolment Centre after taking an online appointment from the official UIDAI website at https://uidai.gov.in/. You can directly visit the online booking portal directly at https://appointments.uidai.gov.in/bookappointment.aspx. On the landing page, select the location and proceed to Book an Appointment at UIDAI run Aadhaar Seva Kendra.

Step 2: Take the Aadhaar Update/Correction form and fill out the details.

Step 3: Share the form with the Aadhaar executive at the Aadhaar Enrolment Centre.

Step 4: Pay for the service.

Step 5: The officer will share an acknowledgement slip with the URN.

Step 6: You can use the URN to check the status. Also Read: Budget 2022: Entrepreneurs seek more opportunities for women, focus on menstrual hygiene

Step 7: The mobile number will get updated in the Aadhaar database within 3 months. Also Read: Bitcoin Crash: Cryptocurrency market suffers Rs 74 lakh crore loss

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New Delhi: In India, millions trust the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India when it comes to saving for their future. From time and again, LIC introduces secured policies that offer impressive returns. In one such policy named LIC Aadhaar Shila, women investors can invest a little to get lakhs of rupees at the time of maturity.

Only women investors with valid Aadhaar IDs can invest in the LIC Aadhaar Shila policy. The minimum age of entry in the policy is 8 years, while the maximum age of entry is capped at 55 years.

Besides impressive returns, investors can get multiple benefits from the policy. For instance, a woman investor can avail of insurance of a minimum of Rs 75 thousand and a maximum of Rs 3 lakh.

Investors can deposit either quarterly or half-yearly or yearly basis. You can invest for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years. For starters, you can invest Rs 10,959 annually or roughly about Rs 899 per month for 20 years to get Rs 3 lakh 97 thousand at the time of maturity.

You would have paid about Rs Rs 2 lakh 14 thousand as premiums and the rest will be interest benefits that you will receive at the time of maturity. However, you will also have to pay the capital gains tax on investment at a 4.5 per cent rate, according to a report by ZeeBiz.

In case of the unfortunate, the sum assured is paid to the nominee, which is usually a member of her household. Also, the premium paid under the Aadhaar Shila policy are exempted from tax under section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Also Read: Elon Musk's startup Neuralink nears human trials for chip implant in brain

One of the important terms of the Aadhaar Shila policy is that the age of the policyholder should not be more than 70 years at the time of maturity. Moreover, on maturity, the policyholder is paid with a lump sum amount. Also Read: US government employees to earn at least Rs 1100 per hour with minimum wage hike

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New Delhi: The Joe Biden-led US government has decided to hike the minimum wage for government to $15 (around Rs 1100) an hour. According to the latest guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the US federal agencies have been directed to raise the minimum wage for government employees to $15 an hour, Reuters reported.

"Raising pay rates across the federal government to a minimum of $15 per hour reflects our appreciation for the federal workforce and our values as a nation," Kiran Ahuja, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in the statement.

The decision will benefit about 70,000 federal employees. In a statement released on Friday, January 22, most of the federal employees work at either Departments of Defense or Agriculture or Veteran Affairs.

It is important to note that the move meets the promise of Bidens presidential campaign promise of supporting blue-collar workers a priority. He had said that strong unions and higher wages could resurrect America's middle class while helping bridge economic and racial inequities, according to a report by Reuters.

Biden had issued the executive order raising wages of federal contract workers to $15 an hour in 2021. Also Read: Micromax In Note 2 smartphone to launch next week: Check specs, price, features

Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management has ordered agencies to implement the new wage by January 30. The department said in its statement that the order excludes the US Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission. Also Read: LIC Policy: Pay a single premium and get Rs 12,000 every month, heres how

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New Delhi: A Zoom call invader streamed a 3D porn film starring Final Fantasy character Tifa Lockhart during a virtual Italian senate conference yesterday. The hentai went live alongside an introduction from Giorgio Parisi, one of last year's Nobel Laureates in Physics.

Senator Laura Mantovani of the Five Star Movement chaired the official government meeting, which brought together Italian legislators to debate the impact of data openness on political decisions. Someone hijacked the call about half an hour into the meeting and played the film for about 30 seconds before being thrown out.

The distressing segment of the official broadcast has been removed, however audio logs of the event may still be available on Twitter. The hijacker can be heard ranting in Italian about a "sex offender" as soon as the video starts playing. After then, there were a few whispers among the official members before they regained control.

"There's a person who has snuck in  I apologise," one of the event organisers remarked, according to Vice's translation. If the other director could please assist me in removing this individual." The Zoom call is then restarted, and the meeting can go normally.

The conference was live-streamed on Facebook and broadcast on Italy's Senato TV, which is a non-profit cable television network similar to C-SPAN. The invader was recognised as Alex Spence, who resumed his operations in the midst of the chaos by playing another video starring Xiangling from Genshin Impact.

There is currently no word on how they were able to listen in on the private call. However, according to Adnkronos, an Italian news agency, Mantovani would report the crime to the police, though prosecuting them can be tough in such circumstances because the vandal is usually from another nation.

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New Delhi: Google is reportedly working on its own in-house smartwatch and now a popular tipster has revealed that the tech giant might release it on May 26 this year. Popular tipster Jon Prosser took to Twitter to provide details of the Google Pixel Watch.

"Pixel Watch. I have heard that Google is planning on launching it on Thursday, May 26, over a year since we leaked it. This is the first time we have seen a set date on the device behind the scenes. Google is known for pushing back dates, but if they do, we will know," he said.

This timeline syncs with the Google I/O developer conference where Google announces a sleuth of hardware and software upgrades.

Pixel Watch is expected to debut with features that may not be initially available on other Wear OS watches. One such anticipated feature is the next-generation of Google Assistant.

There is also a possibility that Google might go with an Exynos-based Tensor chip for its upcoming smartwatch. Currently, Google Pixel 6 devices are using the Tensor GS 101 chipset, which is basically an Exynos processor with hardware enhancements.

AIn addition, the Watch will have basic fitness tracking features, including step counting and a heart rate monitor, with Google also reportedly working on debuting a Fitbit integration into Wear OS with the new watch when it launches. Also Read: 7th Pay Commission: Will govt employees get 18 months of DA arrears? Check latest update

Google was earlier expected to unveil its first smartwatch alongside the Pixel 6, but the launch was reportedly delayed. Also Read: LIC Aadhaar Shila Policy: Women investors can invest little to get lakhs of rupees on maturity, check how

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New Delhi: When it comes to foldable smartphones, Samsung, a South Korean electronics behemoth, is the market leader. Samsung has announced additional deals on its existing range in India, including the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. This comes as the company prepares to unveil the Samsung Galaxy S22 series. The deal includes a cashback of Rs 5000 when you use Samsung Finance+, as well as other benefits. Let's take a look at how you may get a discount of up to Rs 7,000 on the latest Samsung foldable cellphones.

On Samsung Finance+, buyers of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 will get a rebate of Rs 5,000 on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Additionally, they can save up to Rs 7,000 using any bank debit or credit card. Buyers of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 can get a bank cashback of Rs 7,000 or a Rs 10,000 upgrade bonus if they buy the phone separately. Furthermore, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 is available for Rs 1,999 if you want to buy one of the two Samsung foldable smartphones. Otherwise, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 will set you back Rs 11,999.

The offers on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 are only available on Samsung's official website and are only valid until January 31. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is priced at Rs 84,999 in India, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is priced at Rs 1,49,999. Both smartphones were first released in India in August of last year.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate on the outside, and a 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate on the interior that folds. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 CPU is combined with up to 12GB of RAM in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. A triple rear camera arrangement with three 12-megapixel sensors - a primary shooter, a 12-megapixel ultra wide angle shooter, and a thid telephoto lens - makes up the smartphone's camera setup. The outer display's front camera is a 10-megapixel shooter, while the inner display's camera is positioned beneath the display and has a 4-megapixel resolution.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, on the other hand, has a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display that folds in half and has a 120Hz refresh rate. The smartphone is equipped with a 1.9-inch AMOLED display on the outside. The Snapdragon 888 CPU is combined with 8GB of RAM in the Galaxy Z Flip 3. A main 12-megapixel wide angle lens and a secondary 12-megapixel wide angle lens are included in the smartphone's dual rear camera configuration. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a 3,300mAh battery.

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A draft opinion suggests the US Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalize abortion nationwide, according to a Politico report.
SAADA: Three children and more than 60 adults are reported to have been killed in air strikes in Yemen on Friday, Save the Children said, and a Reuters witness said several people including African migrants died in a raid in Houthi-held Saada province.

Rescue workers were still pulling bodies out of the rubble around midday following the dawn strike on the temporary detention centre in Saada in north Yemen, but it was not immediately clear how many people had been killed.

A Saudi-led military coalition that has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group since 2015 said the report would be fully investigated.

"We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are, using an internationally approved, independent process. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further," said coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Turki al-Malki.

The coalition has intensified air strikes on what it says are Houthi military targets after the group carried out an unprecedented assault on coalition member the United Arab Emirates on Monday and further missile and drones launches at Saudi cities.

A Save the Children statement said more than 60 adults were killed in air strikes in Yemen on Friday, adding three children were killed when missiles struck the western city of Hodeidah.

It called on parties to the conflict to protect children and their families from "the horror of the ongoing violence" and avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Houthi-run Al Masirah television channel said tens of people had been killed and injured in the strike in Saada. It showed footage of men trying to clear rubble using their hands to reach those trapped and of wounded at al-Jamhuri hospital.

MIGRANTS

Despite Yemen`s war, migrants from the Horn of Africa still go there en route to Saudi Arabia or wealthy Gulf states.

Yemen was experiencing a nationwide Internet outage on Friday with the exception of the southern city of Aden. Houthi media blamed it what it said was a coalition strike on a telecommunications facility in Hodeidah. Reuters could not immediately confirm the cause of the outage.

The Saudi-led alliance on Thursday reported operations against "Houthi military capabilities" in Hodeidah, ballistic missile launch platforms in Bayda province in central Yemen and military targets in Yemen`s Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the Houthi attack on the UAE and other sites in Saudi Arabia in a statement on Friday and "underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice."

The statement came after the council met behind closed-doors to discuss the Houthi attack on the UAE, which requested the discussion. The UAE joined the 15-member council this month for a two-year term.

When asked about the air strikes on Yemen on Friday, UAE U.N. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh told reporters: "The coalition undertake to abide by international law and proportionate response in all its military operations."

The conflict, in which the coalition intervened in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and pushed Yemen to the verge of famine.

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Geneva: Top US and Russian diplomats have agreed to keep talking in the standoff over Ukraine, even though their meeting produced no movement in the crisis that has seen Moscow mass tens of thousands of troops at the border and the West ramp up supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

With fears of an invasion of Ukraine running high and seemingly intractable demands, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about 90 minutes in Geneva on Friday (January 21, 2022) at what the American said was a "critical moment".

Expectations were low going in, and there was no breakthrough.

Blinken told Lavrov the US would give Russia written responses to Moscow's proposals next week and suggested the two would likely meet again shortly after that offering some hope that any invasion would be delayed for at least a few more days.

Blinken said the US and its allies remain resolute in rejecting Russia's most important demands, which were reiterated Friday. Moscow wants NATO to promise that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

Despite that, there was no indication the US responses would be any different from the flat-out rejections already expressed by Washington and its allies, clouding future diplomatic efforts.

"We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path to understanding each other's positions," Blinken said after the meeting.

Blinken said he also wanted to use the opportunity to share directly with Lavrov some "concrete ideas to address some of the concerns that you have raised, as well as the deep concerns that many of us have about Russia's actions." Blinken said Lavrov repeated Russia's insistence that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, but the US and its allies were not convinced.

"We're looking at what is visible to all, and it is deeds and actions and not words that make all the difference," he said, adding that Russia should remove its troops from the Ukrainian border if it wanted to prove its point.

Lavrov, meanwhile, called the talks "constructive and useful" but declined to characterize the US pledge.

"I can't say whether we are on the right track or not," he told reporters. "We will understand that when we receive the U.S. Written response to all of our proposals."

Blinken suggested there was no leeway on Russia's demands, saying firmly: "There is no trade space there: None." The US and its allies say Russian President Vladimir Putin knows the demands are nonstarters, adding that they're open to less-dramatic moves.

Blinken said the US would be open to a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden, if it would be "useful and productive." The two have met once in person in Geneva and have had several virtual conversations on Ukraine that have proven largely inconclusive.

An estimated 1,00,000 Russian troops have been sent to areas near Ukraine, and more were moving into the neighbourhood for training exercises with neighbouring Belarus.

Western allies were supplying weaponry and equipment to Ukraine. Britain sent anti-tank missiles earlier this week, while the defense ministers of the Baltic nations issued a statement saying they received US approval to send Stinger air defense missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to strengthen Kyiv's defenses.

"Today Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia," said Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet.

"Let's face it -- the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor."

The Pentagon said the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will participate in a NATO maritime exercise in the Mediterranean, which will continue through February 4- something that has been planned since 2020, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

He said officials considered whether to go ahead with the exercise, because of the ongoing tensions, and decided to move ahead.

Kirby said the exercise wasn't planned anticipating a Russian move on Ukraine and is "not designed against any of the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine."

On Thursday, Russia announced sweeping naval maneuvers through February, some apparently in the Black Sea.

The US and its allies scrambled to present a united front. Washington and its allies have repeatedly promised consequences such as biting economic sanctions against Russia though not military action if it invades.

Blinken repeated that on Friday, saying the US and its allies were committed to diplomacy but also committed "if that proves impossible, and Russia decides to pursue aggression against Ukraine, to a united, swift and severe response." Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to brief him on his talks this week and reaffirm US support for Kyiv's sovereignty and stress that no decisions would be made without his country's input, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

He also will brief the foreign ministers of Washington's European allies.

Ukraine is already beset by conflict. Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, part of a simmering but largely stalemated conflict that has killed 14,000. Putin faced limited international consequences for those moves, but the West says a new invasion would be different.

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Russia accused the West on Thursday of plotting "provocations'' in Ukraine even as it blames Moscow for planning aggressive military action in the neighbouring country.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that Ukrainian and Western claims of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine were a "cover for staging large-scale provocations of their own, including those of military character.''

"They may have extremely tragic consequences for the regional and global security,'' Zakharova said.

She pointed to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine by British military transport planes in recent days, claiming that Ukraine perceives Western military assistance as a "carte blanche for a military operation in Donbas.''

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. threat of a possible Russian cut off from the global banking system could encourage hawkish forces in Ukraine to use force to reclaim control of the rebel east. "It may implant false hopes in the hotheads of some representatives of the Ukrainian leadership who may decide to quietly restart a civil war in their country,'' Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Donbas, located in eastern Ukraine, is under the control of Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces for nearly eight years, a conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people.

Ukraine said earlier this week that it has taken the delivery of anti-tank missiles from the U.K. It has rejected Moscow's claims that it plans an offensive to reclaim control of separatist-held areas in the country's eastern industrial heartland.

Ukraine's government, the U.S. and its NATO allies have expressed intensifying concerns in recent weeks over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine.

The concentration of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has fueled Western fears that Moscow is poised to attack its neighbour. U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine and warned President Vladimir Putin that his country would pay a "dear price'' in lives lost and a possible cut off from the global banking system if it does.

Moscow has repeatedly denied having plans to launch an offensive. But it has sought a set of security guarantees from the West that would exclude NATO's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations and the deployment of alliance weapons there.

Washington and its allies firmly rejected Moscow's demands in security talks last weeks but kept the door open to possible further talks on arms control and confidence-building measures to reduce the potential for hostilities.

Amid the tensions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine Wednesday to reassure it of Western support. He travelled to Berlin on Thursday to meet with his British, French and German counterparts to discuss Ukraine and other security matters.

Blinken is set to deliver a speech on the Ukraine crisis later Thursday in the German capital before flying on to Geneva, where he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to arrive Thursday in Poland, a European Union member that has long supported Ukraine's efforts to move closer to the democratic Western world.

Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said in a Thursday morning radio interview that Poland is offering its political and diplomatic support to Ukraine, but he would not say whether military aid would be extended amid the Russian troop buildup.

"We are aware of how serious the situation is, hence our diplomatic activity,'' Przydacz said on Radio RMF FM from the southern Polish city of Wisla, where Zelenskyy will visit Poland's President Andrzej Duda through Friday.

The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out acts of sabotage there and blame them on Ukraine in a "false-flag operation'' to create a pretext for a possible invasion, the claim Russia has rejected as "total disinformation.''

In a move that further beefs up forces near Ukraine, Russia has sent an unspecified number of troops from the country's far east to its ally Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine, for major war games that run through Feb. 20. Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow could use Belarusian territory to launch a potential multi-pronged invasion.

Polish Defense Minister said that along with offering support for Ukraine, Poland is reinforcing its own military capabilities.

"A firm policy is the best argument to an aggressive Russian policy, which is not something new, and an appropriate reaction is important,'' Blaszczak said.

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More than 100 militants from the Islamic State group carried out a complex attack on Syria's largest prison holding suspected extremists, officials said Friday, as members of the group in Iraq stormed an army barracks, killing 11 soldiers as they slept.

The prison break in Syria is believed to be the largest since the militants lost the final sliver of the territory they held nearly three years ago. In recent months, IS sleeper cells have become more active in both countries, claiming attacks that killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.

In Iraq, IS gunmen attacked an army barracks in a mountainous area north of Baghdad early Friday, killing 11 soldiers as they slept, the Iraqi military and security officials said.

The officials said the attack occurred in the Al-Azim district, an open area north of the city of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said IS militants broke into the barracks at 3 a.m. local time and shot dead the soldiers, before fleeing.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to issue official statements. An Iraqi military statement said the dead included an officer with the rank of lieutenant and 10 soldiers.

The brazen attack more than 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, was one of the deadliest targeting the Iraqi military in recent months.

Spectacular prison breaks are a hallmark of militant attacks. IS militants launched multiple prison breaks during their surge in 2014 before swarming territory in Iraq and Syria.

In Syria, more than 100 IS fighters using heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives attacked the Gweiran Prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh where some 3,000 suspected IS militants are being held, according to a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Farhad Shami. He said seven U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters were killed and several others were wounded. At least 23 IS attackers were also among the dead, he said.

"This is the biggest attack not only in Syria but also in Iraq and the region,'' Shami said in reference to attacks carried out by IS since the militant groups were defeated in Syria in March 2019. "The prisoners include commanders and are among the most dangerous.''

The complex attack was mounted on Thursday evening and aimed to free fighters from the group incarcerated there. Syrian Kurdish-led forces who control the Gweiran Prison said prisoners inside the facility rioted simultaneously and tried to escape while a car bomb went off outside the prison and gunmen clashed with security forces.

The fighters were led by foreign militants, not Syrians, many of whom spoke in Iraqi dialect, Shami said.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, also known as SDF, said 89 militants who escaped were arrested. Another group of inmates staged a new escape attempt Friday, the SDF added.

The US-led coalition carried out an airstrike after reported casualties among the Syrian-led Kurdish forces late Thursday.

Shami said dozens of IS fighters had gathered earlier in a nearby neighbourhood and prepared for the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said at least 20 Kurdish security forces and prison guards were killed in the clashes, alongside six militants and five civilians. It described the attack as the most violent one committed by IS since its territorial defeat in 2019. The Observatory said the inmates are mostly in control of the prison, while Kurdish forces attempt to wrestle it back.

A journalist with the Kurdish-run news agency Hawar was seriously injured during coverage of the clashes, the agency said.

IS was largely defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria in 2019, although it remains active through sleeper cells in many areas. Militants from the Sunni Muslim extremist group still conduct operations, often targeting security forces, power stations and other infrastructure.

In October, IS militants armed with machine guns raided a predominantly Shiite village in Iraq's Diyala province, killing 11 civilians and wounding several others. Officials at the time said the attack occurred after the militants had kidnapped villagers and their demands for ransom were not met.

The officials said army reinforcements were sent to the village where Friday's attack occurred, and security forces deployed in surrounding areas. More details were not immediately available.

"We affirm that the blood of the heroic martyrs will not be in vain and that the response by our heroic army units will be very harsh,'' the Iraqi military statement said.

IS attacks have been on the rise in recent months in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria, where in 2014 the group set up a self-styled Islamic caliphate before being defeated by an international coalition.

The so-called caliphate, at its peak, covered a third of both Iraq and Syria. The ensuing war against them lasted several years, killed thousands, and left large parts of the two neighbouring countries in ruins. It also left U.S.-allied Kurdish authorities in control of eastern and northeastern Syria, with a small presence of several hundred American forces still deployed there.

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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Jan. 19, 2022, that he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine, and cautioned Russian president Vladimir Putin that he "will regret having done it," following months of building tension.

Russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine over the past several months.

In mid-January, Russia began moving troops into Belarus, a country bordering both Russia and Ukraine, in preparation for joint military exercises in February.

Putin has issued various security demands to the U.S. before he draws his military forces back. Putin's list includes a ban on Ukraine from entering NATO, and an agreement that NATO will remove troops and weapons across much of Eastern Europe.

There's precedent for taking the threat seriously: Putin already annexed the Crimea portion of Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine's layered history offers a window into the complex nation it is today - and why it is continuously under threat. As an Eastern Europe expert, I highlight five key points to keep in mind.

What Should We Know About Ukrainians' Relationship With Russia?

Ukraine gained independence 30 years ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union. It has since struggled to combat corruption and bridge deep internal divisions.

Ukraine's western region generally supported integration with Western Europe. The country's eastern side, meanwhile, favoured closer ties with Russia.

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine peaked in February 2014, when violent protesters ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in what is now known as the Revolution of Dignity.

Around the same time, Russia forcibly annexed Crimea. Ukraine was in a vulnerable position for self-defence, with a temporary government and unprepared military.

Putin immediately moved to strike in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The armed conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed over 14,000 people.

Unlike its response to Crimea, Russia continues to officially deny its involvement in the Donbas conflict.

What Do Ukrainians Want?

Russia's military aggression in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea have galvanized public support for Ukraine's Western leanings.

Ukraine's government has said it will apply for European Union membership in 2024, and also has ambitions to join NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who came to power in 2019, campaigned on a platform of anti-corruption, economic renewal and peace in the Donbas region.

In September 2021, 81% of Ukrainians said they have a negative attitude toward Putin, according to the Ukrainian news site RBC-Ukraine. Just 15% of surveyed Ukrainians reported a positive attitude toward the Russian leader.

Why Is Putin Threatening To Invade Ukraine?

Putin's decision to engage in a military buildup along Ukraine is connected to a sense of impunity. Putin also has experience dealing with Western politicians who champion Russian interests and become engaged with Russian companies once they leave office.

Western countries have imposed mostly symbolic sanctions against Russia over interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections and a huge cyberattack against about 18,000 people who work for companies and the U.S. government, among other transgressions.

Without repercussions, Putin has backed Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's brutal crackdown on mass protests in the capital city, Minsk. As of Jan. 21, 2022, 990 people in Belarus are considered political prisoners.

In several instances, Putin has seen that some leading Western politicians align with Russia. These alliances can prevent Western countries from forging a unified front to Putin.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, for example, advocated for strategic cooperation between Europe and Russia while he was in office. He later joined the Russian oil company Rosneft as chairman in 2017.

Other senior European politicians promoting a soft position toward Russia while in the office include former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl. Both joined the boards of Russian state-owned companies after leaving office.

What Is Putin's End Game?

Putin views Ukraine as part of Russia's "sphere of influence" - a territory, rather than an independent state. This sense of ownership has driven the Kremlin to try to block Ukraine from joining the EU and NATO.

In January 2021, Russia experienced one of its largest anti-government demonstrations in years. Tens of thousands of Russians protested in support of political opposition leader Alexei Navalny, following his detention in Russia. Navalny had recently returned from Germany, where he was treated for being poisoned by the Russian government.

Putin is also using Ukraine as leverage for Western powers to lift their sanctions. Currently, the U.S. has various political and financial sanctions in place against Russia, as well as potential allies and business partners to Russia.

A Russian attack on Ukraine could prompt more diplomatic conversations that could lead to concessions on these sanctions.

The costs to Russia of attacking Ukraine would significantly outweigh the benefits.

While a full-scale invasion of Ukraine is unlikely, Putin might renew fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Why Would The US Want To Get Involved In This Conflict?

With its annexation of Crimea and support for the Donbas conflict, Russia has violated the Budapest Memorandum Security Assurances for Ukraine, a 1994 agreement between the U.S., United Kingdom and Russia that aims to protect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for its commitment to give up its nuclear arsenal.

Putin's threats against Ukraine occur as he is moving Russian forces into Belarus, which also raises questions about the Kremlin's plans for invading other neighbouring countries.

Military support for Ukraine and political and economic sanctions are ways the U.S. can make clear to Moscow that there will be consequences for its encroachment on an independent country. The risk, otherwise, is that the Kremlin might undertake other military and political actions that would further threaten European security and stability.

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Cairos historic cemeteries are at risk of being demolished, but what is so important about such ancient grave yard?

It was a full house last Saturday, at the seminar and photo exhibition titled Contemporary Cemetery Architecture in Egypt, Value and Challenges. The event was organized by the safeguard of Cairo's historic cemeteries group that was launched a few months ago, in reaction to the government's plan to relocate some of Cairo's cemeteries as part of development of roads of the capital.

The government plan has been highly opposed in the media by the families of the cemeteries at stake as well as historians who believe that the cemeteries are part and parcel of Egypt's tangible and intangible heritage. Prior to the seminar, the safeguard of Cairo's historic cemeteries group launched an online petition addressing Egypt's President Abdel Fatah Al Sissi to intervene.

Held at Greater Cairo Public Library, the seminar was moderated by one of the organizers of the event professor Galila El-Kadi, an architect and head of research at the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) in Paris. El-Kadi is a co-author of Architecture for the Dead: Cairo's Medieval Necropolis





The cultural value





What the ancient Egyptians left us is tombs, and from such tombs we got to know our ancient history. So if every ruler demolished the cemeteries of the one before him, all of the ancient Egyptian history would not have existed, as if they never were, we would have known nothing about them," El-Kadi said, explaining the immense importance of Cairos Historic cemeteries. She added that they reflect a rich diverse plateau of architecture styles according to the culture and social class of the people that are buried there. And they all have a housh internal open yard. "The housh is built with stones in order to defy time and live" she added.

And because of all these values, the UNESCO put the cemeteries of Cairo in 1979 on the list of world heritage sites since it is already on the premises of Historic Cairo. The national organization for urban harmony when it was first established in 2002, focused on the cemeteries and started to register some of them as places of unique architectural style, she added, explaining that it is also protected by Egyptian laws. And despite all such laws, the cemeteries suffered negligence throughout the decades.

According to El-Kadi, since the first urban planning of greater Cairo in 1956, there has been no plan to regulate the relationship between the city of the dead and that of the living, except the 2050 plan that aims to demolish the city of the dead altogether. She recalled how the Fardous (heaven) axis last year cut through the mamluk cemeteries from east to west demolishing registered housh in the process.

Its a personal family heritage that grew to become human heritage, this is not mere burial grounds, concluded El-Kadi, noting that the new planned axis in the southern historic cemeteries, would demolish cemeteries of Egyptian cultural icons.

The general welfare is important and preserving heritage is also a general welfare, we can always cater for both, she concluded.

Historic Cemeteries, a timeline of Egypts capitals

According to antiquities professor Hossam Ismail at Ain shams university, the historic cemeteries of Cairo is more of a trail of establishment of modern Egypt from the time of Amr Ibn Al Aas till now.

Why Moqattam?

Choosing this area specifically, down the Moqattam Mountain, goes back to Amr Ibn Al Aas' negotiations for the handover of Egypt from the Byzantine ruler Al Moqawqes. The story goes that Al Moqawqes wanted to keep Al Moqattam Mountain because of its religious value but Amr Ibn Al Aas refused. It is said that when God picked a mountain upon which he shall reveal himself, all other mountains donated plants and flowers as tokens to the chosen mountain. Except for Al Moqattam, it donated all its greenery. So God rewarded the Moqattam by making it the burial ground of those who shall go to heaven, explained Ismail.

And from that time on, when Amr Ibn Al Aas built Egypts capital Al Fustat, he started burying in this area where a lot of Sahabis (disciples) are buried such as Oqba Ibn Amer.

By the reign of the Abbasids, when they built their new capital, The Askar, they extended their cemeeries to the Imam Al-Shafii and al Saida Nafisa area. By the reign of the mamluks the cemeteries reached Saida Eisha Square, and were named Qayed Bay Cemeteries, the eastern arafa or arafet al-Mamalik.

The origin of the Name Arafa

The name Arafa, added Ismail, is a synonym of cemeteries only in Cairo, for it is derived from Beni Qarafa, pronounced Arafa in slang Egyptian, one of the first Arab tribes that settled in Cairo during the rule of Amr ibn Alas and set their burial grounds there.

A symbol of continuous heritage

Through her talented lens and research skills, Alia Nassar, an architect and photographer, shared some outlines of her documentation project of Al Arafa.

Arafa is a symbol of continuous heritage, for Arafa has social values that extend from the ancient Egyptians till now, noted Nassar as she pointed out the similarities between both. House of eternity was literally a house and a place to live like their own houses. They wrote their names and titles like we do on our tombstones, for ancient Egyptians the name is part of the soul and erasing the name means he never existed.

Communication between the dead and the living









The concept of offerings in the form of food and beverages in Ancient Egypt was a way of communication with their dead. They also would bring them blue lotus flowers. They believed that the dead can protect them from any evil spirits, elaborated Nassar, noting that the food they get is eventually handed out to the poor, which is exactly what Egyptians nowadays do, when they come and visit their loved ones in the cemeteries. They would buy flowers, bring food to give out to the poor and spend the whole day there scattering flowers and happy memories of the diseased, she added.

Then after celebrating their diseased, they would break an olla (Pottery drinking pot) after this so that death does not come back, like we do when someone terrible finally leaves, as a gesture of good riddance, added Nassar.

And finally the ancient Egyptians used to write letters to their dead ones and we still do, like those letters addressing Sufi Imam Al Shafaii and the Walli they believed is living in Bab Zoweila,she concluded.

A History Book wide opened













I think that the cemeteries are a history book on the ground, you can learn and love your country from all the history of the people that preceded, explained Dr. Mostafa El-Sadek, a physician and one of the experts who documented the Historic Cemeteries of Cairo.

I believe that the tomb stone is the identity card of a person. You would find an emma (head turban) or tarboush (Fez) and braids for woman. Some would draw their medals of honors, here the flowers decorating the tombs are hand engraved on marbles that is highly unique and artistic given the fact that there was no machines back then to do this, just go and see how much we are going to lose if we demolish it, concluded El-Sadek.

An alternative route









We created an online map of Historic Cemeteries of Cairo on Google and anyone can add to it so we have a documentation with photographs and maps of the cemeteries of value, explained Tareq Al-Murry, historian, architect consultant and founder of the safeguard of Cairo's historic cemeteries group. Al Murry shared with the audience an alternative axis that could ease the traffic flow without demolishing the cemeteries. That was followed by a comprehensive strategy for Egypts public transportation proposed by young engineer Amr Essam.

Man interrupted!





My name is Hany al Fekki. I am the one who designed and implemented the fardous Axis and the Salah Salem axis and all the bridges of Heliopolis and Nasr City, explained the man in black who took the audience by surprise for he was not invited.

After briefly explaining that he will not touch any historic tombs, an argument followed between him and the panel because any tombs in Historic Cairo is by default regarded as historic and of great value and should not be demolished as per UNESCO 1979 and per national laws.

El Fekki explained that the plan of the new Salah Salem Axis and how the road will extend to Al Saida Eisha area, will take off Saida Eisha bridge, and cut into the slum area behind the Saida Eisha mosque.

The political leaders said that they want to make yards for Al Al Beit (Decedents of Prophet Mohammed) mosques like Al Hussiens yard, and this is what we started to do, noted El Fekki.

The audience argued that this axis will allow more cars next to the historic cemeteries which will cause a lot of turbulence and gas emissions that could eventually ruin the historic cemeteries that they drive pass them.

On asking him directly, will the cemeteries in general be affected with the new Salah Salem axis?

Yes and in the future, all of the cemeteries are going to be demolished, except for the historic ones, he told Ahram Online.

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Four people died after a boat carrying Europe-bound migrants on the Mediterranean Sea sank off Tunisia's coast, the Tunisian Defense Ministry said Friday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri said navy divers rescued 21 people on Thursday night and seven were still missing. The boat was heading to Italy, Zekri said.

Local media reported that a 10-year-old girl was among those who died.

Survivors told authorities that the boat had left the island of Kerkennah, near the port city of Sfax, carrying 32 Tunisians.

The U.N. has estimated that 20% of about 115,000 migrants who reached Europe by sea last year started the journey from Tunisia. Social unrest has gripped the North African country has for years as the economy worsened and unemployment reached 18%.

The central Mediterranean route, which runs from North Africa to southern Italy, is the busiest and deadliest migration route to Europe. People travel from Libya and Tunisia in crowded boats and at the mercy of the smugglers, they pay to get them across the sea.

About 60,000 people arrived in Italy by sea last year, and some 1,200 died or disappeared on the journey, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

On Wednesday, an amphibious unit of Tunisia's navy rescued 23 people from a sinking boat as they left Tunisia for Italy, according to the Tunisian Defense ministry. It said 13 of the passengers were from Mali and 10 were from the Ivory Coast.

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Damen, an international shipyard group, has signed its first contract with ballast water treatment systems producer Erma First for the worlds smallest ballast water treatment system.

Greek company Erma First will be supplying its oneTANK, which uses chemical injection methods to clean ships ballast water and therefore represents an important expansion of Damens ballast water treatment system portfolio.

The contract also marks a key milestone in the cooperation between Damen and the Greek maritime supply sector.

Damen Green Solutions has a broad selection of ballast water treatment systems in its range. These offer ship-owners various capacities and techniques in treating their ballast water. With the addition of the Erma First oneTANK, Damen can provide clients with a solution that is not only small, but also modular.

This modularity will be particularly important in Damens first project with Erma First, where the client was looking for a plug-and-play ballast water treatment product that could be placed on the deck of its vessel.

Our client needed a temporary ballast water treatment solution for quite an old vessel, explains Damen sales manager Rutger van Dam. Erma Firsts oneTANK is small enough to be housed in a twenty-foot container. This means that installation will be quite straightforward and, more importantly, at the end of the vessels operational life, the whole system can be removed and installed on another vessel.

The contract is important to Damen because it broadens the scope of ballast water treatment products that it can offer its clients. We have different systems available from various manufacturers. We know the pros and cons of all these systems; they have varying capacities and use different techniques: UV, filtration, electrolysis, and now chemical injection. Whatever the client requires, we have the knowledge and experience in house to offer exactly what our they are looking for.

To treat a vessels ballast water, the fully-certified Erma First oneTANK uses an 8.25% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite and 30% sodium thiosulfate solution, with both chemicals being neutralised after use. For owners working with workboats, superyachts and pontoons (smaller vessels) that are not dependent on frequent ballast operations, oneTANK is a great solution, continues Van Dam.

We are very happy to be working with Damen on this project. We will support their client with our extensive knowledge of ballast water treatment systems wherever we can, says Erma First Business Development Manager and president of HEMEXPO Eleni Polychronopoulou. Furthermore, I applaud Damen on their enthusiasm in building relationships with the Greek maritime industry. Such industrial participation is a key part of the modern shipbuilding industry. May this cooperation be a sign of things to come.

The fact that Erma First is a Greek company is another significant aspect about the contract. Throughout the world, Damen has been involved national ship building projects that have combined Damens own shipbuilding expertise with the capabilities of local industries and workforce.

We dont just build ships in our own yards  we can also help our clients build their vessels in the yard of their choice in collaboration with its local industry, says Damens Industrial Participation Manager, Marijke Winiarski. Contracts like this with Erma First are exemplary of Damens approach towards the involvement of local industries in our projects, paving the way for local companies to benefit from Damens international opportunities, whilst simultaneously helping Damen to develop new partnerships, such as this one with Erma First.-- TradeArabia News Service
The famous Stefano Ricci fashion house will celebrate its golden jubilee in Luxors Hatshepsut Temple at Deir El-Bahary, at end of March

Khaled El-Enany, Egypts Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said: Art is one of the key pillars of the Egyptian civilization. It gives us pleasure to welcome contemporary art and fashion trendsetters to promote their creative work against the backdrop of our exquisite historic sites.

Stefano Ricci, founder of the Italian luxury house, was quoted on social media: Twenty years ago I visited Ancient Thebes for the first time and I was so fascinated that I decided to dedicate a book to it: Luxor. One night, I daydreamed about creating something important in the presence of the architectural and artistic wonders. Today that dream is taking shape.

The houses decision to hold the jubilee in Luxor comes hot on the heels of the successful celebration held last November to mark the reopening of the long awaited Avenue of Sphinxes in the upper Egyptian city.

The program for the events is currently being kept under wraps.

I like to imagine a path linked to beauty, culture and dialogue that overcomes the distance between my Florence and Luxor. Anything more I could say would be superfluous, comments Stefano Ricci.

This fashion show will be another opportunity to highlight the diversity of Egypts tourist destinations and will attract the attention of the whole world to Egypt.

Stefano Ricci is a luxury fashion and lifestyle company for men clothing founded by the florentine designer Stefani Ricci. The brand is globally recognised as an expression of absolute quality in the sphere of luxury lifestyle brands and menswear.

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UN High level Climate Action Champion Nigel Topping discussed on Thursday the Suez Canal Economic Zones (SCZone) plans to turn the area into a hub for the green hydrogen industry with SCZone Chairman Yehia Zaki and a host of officials, the SCZone authority announced.

Topping was accompanied by UK Ambassador in Cairo Gareth Bayley during his visit to the SCZone headquarters in Ain Sokhna, where he met with representatives of leading shipping companies to discuss Egypts role in decarbonising the maritime transport.

He tackled the value of the Clydebank Declaration, the UK initiative on green shipping corridors worldwide which will be critical to global efforts to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. Egypt and the Suez Canal are at the centre of those efforts, he added.

Following his visit to the SCZone, Topping met reporters at the UK Embassy in Cairo before concluding his visit on Friday.

Topping said he held "fruitful" discussions in Egypt. The talks will contribute to developing the high-level green partnership between Egypt and the UK, the British Embassy in Cairo announced.

The green partnership supports the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Topping said.

"Egypt has a great status and a positive role in the issue of climate change, he stated, adding that Egypt is working on naming a climate change champion for COP27, scheduled for November in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Topping was in Egypt for a week to meet Egypts Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, and foreign ministry officials to discuss his role as a climate change champion and his expected work with Egypt's champion.

Topping also met a number of representatives from financial institutions, the Central Bank of Egypt, and development banks.

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Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry urged the Omani private sector and businessmen on Saturday to enhance their presence in the Egyptian market during a meeting with the Egypt-Oman joint business council in Muscat.

Shoukry urged the Omani private sector and businessmen to maximise their direct investments in Egypt and benefit from the giant developmental and economic projects that Egypt is carrying out, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Egyptian FM highlighted these projects role in securing diverse investment following Egypts economic reform and improved investment climate, the statement said.

Shoukry arrived in the Omani capital earlier today to head the Egyptian delegation participating in the 15th round of the Egyptian-Omani joint committee.

During the visit, the top Egyptian diplomat inaugurated the Arabi Specialised Hospital, a joint Egyptian-Omani investment project.

He also held a meeting with his Omani counterpart, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, ahead of the third round of the joint business council.

The joint business council was established in 2019 to enhance economic cooperation between the two countries.

During the session, Shoukry hailed the councils recent role in boosting joint investment and exploring the available cooperation opportunities between Egypt and Oman, the statement said.

The council seeks to enhance the economic and commercial relations between Egypt and Oman so that they reflect the two countries friendly relations and real capacities, Shoukry said.

The Egyptian FM voiced aspiration that the joint business council, which includes Egyptian and Omani economic figures, support the governmental efforts seeking to boost development between the two countries.

He also urged the councils figures to develop Egyptian-Omani economic cooperation and benefit from the will of the two countries political leaderships to maximise economic interests and enhance the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Shoukry hailed the regular holding of the joint business council since its establishment, saying this reflects the firm will of the two sides to expand Egyptian-Omani cooperation.

Qais Mohammad Al-Yousef, Omani minister of commerce, industry and investment promotion, attended the session.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Omans Sultan Haitham bin Tarik spoke via phone in July last year, where they underscored the need to enhance economic investment, and to increase trade between the two countries.

In December, Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea met with the Omani trade minister, where she affirmed that intensive meetings would be held in the near future between the two sides' officials and businessmen to enhance trade relations.

Trade exchange between the two countries has hit $500 million, Gamea said in a meeting with members of the Egyptian-Omani business council in September.

The Omani investments in Egypt amounted to $77.5 million, injected into 92 companies operating in the fields of industry, tourism, constructions, and agriculture, she added.

The Egyptian investments in Oman stood at $680 million, injected into 142 companies specialised in the fields of infrastructure, road projects, and real estate investment, she said.

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Egypt reported 1,533 new coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total infection toll up to 406,926 since the outbreak began in February 2020, the health ministry said.

The ministry also reported 29 new deaths in the past 24 hours nationwide, bringing the total fatalities nationwide to 22,289.

The statement added that 1,800 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 341,059.

Last Thursday, Egypt received a new shipment of more than 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Belgium and Germany via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program in cooperation with the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI).

Egypt has obtained a total of 132 million doses of various coronavirus vaccines so far, of which 36.6 million first doses and 24.1 million second doses have been administered, the acting health minister said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

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The Egyptian and Saudi armed forces concluded on Saturday the Tabuk 5 joint exercise, which had been conducted in Saudi Arabia over the previous days, Egypts Military Spokesman Gharib Abdel-Hafez said on Saturday.

Special forces, infantry and armoured forces from both sides participated in the exercise, the statement said.

The exercise comes within the framework of the Egyptian-Saudi armies plan to unify military concepts and exchange training expertise, the spokesman said.

The concluding phase included a military exercise to raid and clear a border village seized by terrorists, with participating forces conducting airborne and mechanised assaults on the target, according to the spokesman.

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Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced next Thursday, 27 January, a paid holiday for government employees to mark the anniversary of the 2011 Revolution and the national Police Day.

Madboulys decision includes employees in ministries, government institutions, public authorities, local administration units, public sector companies and public business sector companies.

Both holidays are celebrated each year on 25 January.

The anniversary of the January Revolution of 2011 marks the ousting of late President Hosni Mubarak.

Police Day commemorates resistance by Egyptian police to British occupation forces in Ismailia on the date in 1952.

This year, employees will take Thursday off instead of Tuesday, as per a decision by the premier in June 2020 to make Thursday a day off instead of any week-day holiday to "give citizens a chance to have a long weekend."

This does not apply on Eid Al-Fitr or Eid Al-Adha, which last for several days, or on Christmas.

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An earthquake 3.5 magnitude hit west of Suez city in northeastern Egypt on Saturday at 9:23pm with no damage or casualties reported so far, the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) said in a statement.

The earthquake, 6.2 kilometre deep, took place 50 kilometres west of the city.

Some residents of Cairo, which is less than 150 kilometres west of Suez, said they could feel gentle tremors.

On 11 January, an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hit the Eastern Mediterranean region and was felt by some citizens in some parts of Egypt, NRIAG said.

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Security forces fired tear gas at protesters barricading the streets and throwing rocks in Burkina Faso's capital on Saturday, as anger grows at the government's inability to stop jihadist attacks spreading across the country.

Several hundred people marched through downtown Ouagadougou chanting for President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to resign.

"The jihadists are hitting (the country), people are dying, others are fleeing their homes. . We want Roch and his government to resign because their handling of the country is not good. We will never support them,'' said protester Amidou Tiemtore.

Some people were also protesting in solidarity with neighbouring Mali, whose citizens are angry at the West African economic regional bloc, ECOWAS, which imposed sanctions on the country after the ruling junta delayed this year's elections.

Burkina Faso's protest comes amid an escalation in jihadist attacks linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State that has killed thousands and displaced 1.5 million people.

The violence shows no signs of abating. Nearly 12,000 people were displaced within two weeks in December, according to the U.N. Four French soldiers were also wounded during a joint operation with Burkina Faso's military, the first time French soldiers have been injured in the country since two were killed in 2019 during a hostage release operation, Pascal Ianni spokesman for the chief of defence for the French armed forces told The Associated Press.

France has some 5,000 troops in the region but until now has had minimal involvement in Burkina Faso compared with Niger or Mali.

This is the second government crackdown on protests since November and comes after the government shut down access to Facebook last week, citing security reasons, and after arresting 15 people for allegedly plotting a coup.

As tensions mount, the government is struggling to stem the jihadist violence. Last month the president fired his prime minister and replaced most of the cabinet. The government's national security arm is also said to be preparing to reopen negotiations with the jihadists, according to a military official and a former soldier who did not want to be identified. The last time the government negotiated secret cease-fire talks with the jihadists was around the 2020 presidential elections when the fighting subsided for several months.

But locals say it's too late for talks and that the country is being overrun by jihadists who control swaths of land, plant their flag and make people abide by Shariah law.

''They just come and are squeezing people (out of their homes) and there is no (government) strategy,'' said Ousmane Amirou Dicko, the Emir of Liptako. For the first time since the conflict, he said he no longer feels comfortable driving from the capital to his home in the Sahel.

Conflict analysts say the protests are playing right into the jihadists' hands and that the country needs to remain unified if it wants to succeed.

"The protests are a consequence of the pressure from the jihadists and it's exactly what they want,'' said Mahamoudou Savadogo, founder of Granada Consulting, a local conflict analysis and research company.

"The concern is that when the government is pressured it makes big political and strategic mistakes, and the country needs to remain united."

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Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) said its key subsidiary, Nawah, has signed an agreement with Cerap, a leading European nuclear services company, to provide technical services to support refuelling outages and online operations at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant.

Cerap has over 30 years of experience, operating in more than 8 countries. It is now partnering with its shareholder Endel, French leader in industrial maintenance and energy services, to offer a comprehensive range of specialized services to Nawah in the UAE.

The agreement was sealed at the 4th edition of E-Fusion (Emirati-French Industrial Supply Chain Initiative for Nuclear), held as part of the French Nuclear Energy Day at the French Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The event, which was co-hosted by The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and the French Nuclear Industry Group Gifen, witnessed the presence of energy experts from local and international nuclear industry companies and government officials.

The participants learned about the latest progress at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, the cornerstone of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program, located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi.

They also discussed the growing opportunities for collaboration between UAE and French organizations within the nuclear energy sector.

Committed to localizations with the Abu Dhabi subsidiary Nusam Limited created in 2021, Cerap and Endel are determined to share their expertise and support the development of the UAEs nuclear supply chain.

According to Enec, the Barakah plant is now more than 96 per cent complete and is generating clean electricity around the clock with zero carbon emissions.

Unit 1 became commercially operational in April 2021, and Unit 2 of the Plant was connected to the UAE grid in August 2021 and recently achieved 100 percent power for the first time as part of the power ascension testing, which happens prior to commercial operation of the Unit, anticipated in the coming months. Units 3 and 4 are in final stages of commissioning.-TradeArabia News Service
Sudan's second most powerful leader met with Ethiopia's defence minister Saturday on a rare visit to Addis Ababa by an official from Khartoum, that comes amid border tensions, officials said.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Hemeti, who is number two in Sudan's ruling council, will be in the capital for two days to meet "several Ethiopian officials", Sudan's state news agency SUNA and Ethiopia's Fana reported.

He was met at Addis Ababa airport by Ethiopian Defence Minister Abraham Belay, a statement from Sudan's ruling council said. He was also welcomed by senior officials from Ethiopia' government and intelligence services, it added.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted on Saturday to express his "appreciation for the deep historical bonds that bind our two people".

Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa deteriorated due to a territorial conflict over the disputed Al-Fashaqa border region, where Ethiopian farmers cultivate fertile land claimed by Sudan.

There have been sporadic deadly clashes between the two sides in recent years.

Al-Fashaqa also borders Ethiopia's troubled Tigray region, and tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees have crossed into Sudan fleeing fighting.

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Top US and Russian diplomats agreed Friday to keep talking in the standoff over Ukraine, even though their meeting produced no movement in the crisis that has seen Moscow mass tens of thousands of troops at the border and the West ramp up supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

With fears of an invasion of Ukraine running high and seemingly intractable demands, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for about 90 minutes in Geneva at what the Americans said was a "critical moment.''

Expectations were low going in, and there was no breakthrough.

Blinken told Lavrov the U.S. would give Russia written responses to Moscow's proposals next week and suggested the two would likely meet again shortly after that, offering some hope that any invasion would be delayed for at least a few more days.

Blinken said the U.S. and its allies remain resolute in rejecting Russia's most important demands, which were reiterated Friday. Moscow wants NATO to promise that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

Despite that, there was no indication the U.S. responses would be any different from the flat-out rejections already expressed by Washington and its allies, clouding future diplomatic efforts.

"We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clearer path to understanding each other's positions,'' Blinken said after the meeting.

Blinken said he also wanted to use the opportunity to share directly with Lavrov some "concrete ideas to address some of the concerns that you have raised, as well as the deep concerns that many of us have about Russia's actions.''

Blinken said Lavrov repeated Russia's insistence that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, but the U.S. and its allies were not convinced.

"We're looking at what is visible to all, and it is deeds and actions and not words that make all the difference,'' he said, adding that Russia should remove its troops from the Ukrainian border if it wanted to prove its point.

Lavrov, meanwhile, called the talks "constructive and useful'' but declined to characterize the U.S. pledge.

"I can't say whether we are on the right track or not,'' he told reporters. "We will understand that when we receive the U.S. written response to all of our proposals.''

Blinken suggested there was no leeway on Russia's demands, saying firmly: "There is no trade space there: None.''

The U.S. and its allies say Russian President Vladimir Putin knows the demands are nonstarters, adding that they're open to less-dramatic moves.

Blinken said the U.S. would be open to a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden if it would be "useful and productive.'' The two have met once in person in Geneva and have had several virtual conversations on Ukraine that have proven largely inconclusive.

An estimated 100,000 Russian troops have been sent to areas near Ukraine, and more were moving into the neighbourhood for training exercises with neighbouring Belarus.

Western allies were supplying weaponry and equipment to Ukraine. Britain sent anti-tank missiles earlier this week, while the defence ministers of the Baltic nations issued a statement saying they received U.S. approval to send Stinger air defence missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles to strengthen Kyiv's defences.

"Today Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia,'' said Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet. "Lets face it, the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor.''

The Pentagon said the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group will participate in a NATO maritime exercise in the Mediterranean, which will continue through Feb. 4, something that has been planned since 2020, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. He said officials considered whether to go ahead with the exercise, because of the ongoing tensions and decided to move ahead.

Kirby said the exercise wasn't planned to anticipate a Russian move on Ukraine and is "not designed against any of the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine.''

On Thursday, Russia had announced sweeping naval manoeuvres through February, some apparently in the Black Sea.

The U.S. and its allies scrambled to present a united front. Washington and its allies have repeatedly promised consequences such as biting economic sanctions against Russia, though not military action if it invades.

Blinken repeated that Friday, saying the U.S. and its allies were committed to diplomacy but also committed "if that proves impossible, and Russia decides to pursue aggression against Ukraine, to a united, swift and severe response."

After the meeting, Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to brief him on his talks this week and reaffirm U.S. support for Kyiv's sovereignty and stress that no decisions would be made without his country's input, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. He also will brief the foreign ministers of Washington's European allies.

Biden plans to spend the weekend huddling with his national security team at Camp David, press secretary Jen Psaki said.

In other diplomatic moves, President Sauli Niinisto of Finland said he spoke with Putin by phone on European security and Ukraine, saying it was "imperative to preserve peace in Europe,'' according to his office.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of NATO member Turkey, which touted its strong ties with Russia and Ukraine, renewed an offer to mediate between the two countries. Erdogan said he plans to visit Kyiv next month, adding that he would also hold talks with Putin.

Ukraine is already beset by conflict. Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, part of a simmering but largely stalemated conflict that has killed 14,000. Putin faced limited international consequences for those moves, but the West says a new invasion would be different.

Blinken met Ukraine's president in Kyiv and top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany in Berlin this week.

Blinken's effort to stress U.S. unity with its allies took an apparent hit Wednesday when Biden drew widespread criticism for saying retaliation for Russian aggression in Ukraine would depend on the details and that a "minor incursion'' could prompt discord among Western allies.

On Thursday, Biden sought to clarify his comments by cautioning that any Russian troop movements across Ukraine's border would constitute an invasion and that Moscow would "pay a heavy price'' for such an action.

"I've been absolutely clear with President Putin,'' Biden said. "He has no misunderstanding: Any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.''

Adding to its warnings, Washington stepped up sanctions Thursday by slapping new measures on four Ukrainian officials who Blinken said were at the centre of a Kremlin effort begun in 2020 to damage Kyiv's ability to "independently function.''

The United States and allies say countries like Ukraine are entitled to their own alliances as part of sovereign security measures, but Lavrov countered that Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have also agreed that no nation can ensure its security by undermining security of others.

In eastern Ukraine, a soldier stationed near the front line with Russia-backed separatists called Blinken's visit to Kyiv "very important for our country.'' The soldier, who identified himself only by his first name, Serhiy, in line with official rules, voiced hope that if Russia attacked, "we can count on our forces' and our allies' power."

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The Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will send US-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine in a move that Washington says it is fully endorsing amid Kyiv's escalating tensions with Russia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet posted on Saturday that Washington saluted the three NATO nations and former Soviet republics ``for their longstanding support to Ukraine''.

``I expedited and authorized and we fully endorse transfers of defensive equipment (at) NATO Allies Estonia Latvia Lithuania are providing to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to defend itself against Russia's unprovoked and irresponsible aggression,'' Blinken said in another tweet.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier this week described western arms supplies to Ukraine as extremely dangerous and said they ``do nothing to reduce tensions.''

Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops at the border with Ukraine, leading to fears of an invasion. The West has rejected Moscow's main demands, promises from NATO that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it will pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe.

A meeting Friday between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended with no breakthrough.

In a joint statement published late Friday, the defense ministers of the three Baltic states said they ``stand united in our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in face of continued Russian aggression.''

They said Estonia would provide Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank weapons while Latvia and Lithuania were sending Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other related equipment to bolster Kyiv's defensive military capabilities.

``Today Ukraine is at the forefront of separating Europe from the military conflict with Russia. Lets face it _ the war in Ukraine is ongoing and it is important to support Ukraine in every way we can so that they can resist the aggressor,'' Minister of Defense of Estonia Kalle Laanet said.

It wasn't immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would be sent to Ukraine.

In a separate development, Estonia is seeking Germany's approval to send Soviet-made howitzers, which once belonged to East Germany, to Ukraine. Estonia acquired the howitzers from non-NATO member Finland, which in turn had bought them from Germany's military surplus supply in the 1990s.

The German government said Friday that it was considering Estonia's request to pass the howitzers on to Ukraine but gave no timeline for a decision. Berlin said it planned to coordinate the issue with Finland, which has received a similar approval request from Estonia.

Some recent media reports suggested German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet has blocked Estonia's transfer of weapons to Kyiv, pointing to strains in the West's response to the Ukraine crisis.

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Three flights from Australia carrying food, water, medical supplies and telecommunications equipment landed in Tonga on Saturday, as the Pacific nation grapples with the aftermath of an underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Planes from other nations, including New Zealand and Japan, have also brought sorely needed aid to the Tongan people, said Zed Seselja, Australian minister for international development and the Pacific.

The first such aid arrived Thursday, after the main airport runway was cleared of ash spewed when the nearby Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted a week ago. The explosion also set off a Pacific-wide tsunami that smashed boats in New Zealand and caused an oil spill as far as Peru.

``Obviously it's a very, very difficult time for the people of Tonga. The feedback on the ground again I got today is many people displaced,'' Seselja told reporters in Canberra.

Cleanup efforts were going smoothly, with the Tongan government and military officials working together, he said.

Ships from the U.S. and Britain were on their way, he said. Also deployed was the HMAS Adelaide, an Australian navy ship, with helicopters on board as well as engineers and a 40-bed hospital. The ship can generate electricity and purify water.

A lack of clean water was a priority because supplies have been disrupted by layers of volcanic ash and salt water. Red Cross teams on the ground reported widespread stagnant pools of salt water that were dumped by the tsunami, polluting the clean drinking water sources of tens of thousands of people, said Katie Greenwood, the Pacific head for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Also Saturday, the Japanese government said a Self-Defense Forces C-130 aircraft arrived in Tonga with three tons of drinking water. That followed a Japanese military flight on Friday. Another plane is scheduled to depart Sunday, carrying equipment for the ash cleanup, the Defense Ministry said.

Seselja said one bit of good news was that casualties have been relatively limited, with three deaths confirmed so far.

Three of Tonga's smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves. The majority of Tongans live on the main island of Tongatapu, where about 50 homes were destroyed and coastlines strewn with debris.

UN humanitarian officials reported that about 84,000 people, 80% of Tonga's population, have been impacted by the eruption.

The tsunami severed the single fiber-optic cable that connects Tonga to the rest of the world, leaving many unable to connect with loved ones abroad. Since then, satellite communication have improved and Tonga's telecoms operator, Digicel, said it had been able to restore international call services to some areas.

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KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 11:07 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Demonstrations against Japan's tight border restrictions on nonresident foreigners implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have been staged in several countries, with people urging the Japanese government to reconsider the measures they have dubbed as lacking a scientific basis.

Protests initiated by "Stop Japan's Ban," a group launched on Twitter, began Tuesday, as foreign exchange students and business people barred from entering the country gathered at various locations such as in front of Japanese embassies in a string of countries including Mongolia, Poland, India and Malaysia.

The move came amid an anti-coronavirus entry ban that has been in place since Nov. 30, with Japan confirming its first case of the Omicron variant later that day. This month, the entry ban was further extended until the end of February.

More protests are in the works this month in countries such as Germany, Austria, Spain and Argentina, as well as in Tokyo in front of the Japanese prime minister's office in February, according to organizers.

Demonstrators claim most exchange students have had COVID-19 booster shots and would adhere to necessary anti-virus measures when in Japan, and urged the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to tell them clearly when all foreigners would be allowed to enter again.

Some participants in the demonstrations have also uploaded pictures of placards indicating how many days they had been stuck in limbo.

Jade Barry, one of the organizers, had planned to arrive in Japan in January this year to open a variety store and had completed PCR tests as well as vaccinations, but plans went awry due to the tighter border controls.

Barry in Illinois said limiting entries to a small fraction of the exchange students was a narrow-minded move and had no scientific basis.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 11:39 | All, World

At least ten countries have officially notified the United Nations that they will participate as observers at the first meeting of signatories to a treaty banning nuclear weapons slated for March in Vienna, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.

Japan, which relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for its security and is not one of the treaty's 86 signatory countries and regions, is facing growing calls to join the meeting as an observer as it is the only country to have experienced atomic bombings.

"We urge the government of Japan...to swiftly sign and ratify the treaty," the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations said in a statement released Saturday, the first anniversary of the treaty's entry into force.

The ten countries include Brazil, Finland and Indonesia. The number is expected to grow as Germany and Norway have expressed their intention to take part in the meeting as observers.

A total of 59 countries and regions have already ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which bans the development, possession, testing, and use of such arms. But no nuclear weapons states such as the United States and Russia have signed the treaty adopted in 2017.

Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombings in 1945, said Friday governments need to take concrete action to prompt nuclear weapons states to join the meeting.

Tensions are growing between states that possess nuclear weapons and signatories of the treaty, while treaty advocates such as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons have been calling for more countries to sign it.

The five recognized nuclear weapons states -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- said in a joint statement this month that nuclear arms races must be avoided.

"We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," they said, adding the role of such armaments should be limited to defensive purposes.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated "the only way to eliminate all nuclear risks is to eliminate all nuclear weapons."
KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 19:46 | Japan, World, All

A C-130 transport plane dispatched by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force carrying drinking water arrived in Tonga on Saturday after an undersea volcanic eruption and a tsunami hit the Pacific islands nation last weekend.

The plane left the Komaki air base in central Japan on Thursday with potable water prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government-linked aid agency. It landed at an Australian air base on Friday before taking off for Tonga on Saturday morning.

The ASDF is dispatching another C-130 loaded with drinking water and two C-2 transport aircraft to the tsunami-stricken country as part of Japan's relief effort.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force transport vessel Osumi is also expected to depart for Tonga to deliver high-pressure cleaners and handcarts to be used in the removal of volcanic ash.

Australia and New Zealand have also dispatched aircraft and transport ships loaded with aid for people affected by the disaster.

The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano on Jan. 15 sent tsunami waves across the Pacific, killing at least three people in Tonga and causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure there.

Water supplies in Tonga have been disrupted by volcanic ash and salt water, and securing access to safe drinking water is "a critical immediate priority," according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Meanwhile, the Tongan government said Friday that a total of 14 people were injured in the eruption and tsunami, releasing a relevant figure for the first time since the disaster struck.

It added that 84 percent of the about 107,000 people who live in the island nation are estimated to have been affected by falling ash and tsunami.

The government also said all three fatalities so far resulted from the tsunami.

While water remains the major request item, the government said water supplies have been tested, and that groundwater and clean rainwater is safe to drink.

Internet connection has also been disrupted in Tonga after the tsunami severed an undersea fiber-optic cable. The government said a New Zealand plane carrying equipment for re-establishing limited internet connection has arrived, and that a vessel was expected to arrive in the "next few days" to repair the cable.

Related coverage:

Int'l aid delivery begins in Tonga following eruption, tsunami

Japan to provide over $1 mil., supplies to tsunami-hit Tonga

Tonga journalist tells of chaotic evacuation after volcanic eruption
KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 22:48 | World, All

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been readmitted to a hospital and is being treated at an intensive care unit, but he is in stable condition, his daughter said Saturday.

The 96-year-old two-time prime minister, who had been discharged last week following surgery, was admitted to the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Marina Mahathir said.

"His condition is stable and he is responding well to treatment," she said in a statement.

Earlier, Mahathir's spokesman confirmed in a text message that he was being treated at the coronary care unit of the hospital.

Hordes of media personnel have descended on the hospital as speculation swirled about Mahathir's health status.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was among those who visited the elder statesman. He tweeted a photo of his meeting with Mahathir's wife and son.

This is the third time Mahathir has been hospitalized since December, when he spent a week at the hospital for a series of medical checks. He was discharged on Dec. 23.

He then was admitted to the same hospital on Jan. 7 and underwent an "elective medical procedure" the next day before being discharged on Jan. 13.

Mahathir was last seen in public on Dec. 12 when his latest memoir was published.

Mahathir has had many health scares in the past. He had his first heart bypass in 1989, and a second one in 2007.

After serving as prime minister for 22 years, Mahathir stepped down in 2003. He became prime minister for the second time at age 92 in 2018 after joining forces with the opposition and stunningly dethroning the long-ruling National Front coalition in a general election.

But his tenure lasted less than two years as his government collapsed due to political defections.

Related coverage:

Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad makes 2nd attempt to dislodge premier

Mahathir tested negative for coronavirus, still under quarantine
By Siti Rahil, KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 13:00 | World, All

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations may face a bigger challenge on Myanmar issues in 2022 as the group's semblance of unity may be tested under the leadership of Cambodia, the group's rotating chair for this year.

Political turmoil in Myanmar is continuing since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, and the junta has rejected ASEAN's appeal for ending the violence and the request of the group's special envoy to meet with all stakeholders in the conflict.

Two weeks after over 30 people were killed by the military in eastern Kayah State, where its clashes with an armed ethnic minority group are ongoing, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Myanmar and met the junta chief despite criticisms from opponents in the country and human rights groups.

In their joint statement issued on Jan. 7, the chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said he had extended a "cease-fire" with all armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar, originally set to expire at the end of February, through the end of this year.

Hun Sen's talks with Min Aung Hlaing were apparently aimed at paving the way to invite Myanmar's foreign minister to attend a Jan. 18-19 meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Cambodia after the group had excluded the minister and the junta chief from its meetings since October last year.

Following the talks, however, some member countries said they could not attend the meeting, causing Cambodia to postpone it indefinitely.

Although they gave different reasons for nonattendance, including the outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the cancellations seem to indicate frictions among ASEAN members over the initiative by Cambodia as an ASEAN source said it is due to disagreement over Cambodia's plan to invite Myanmar's foreign minister to the meeting.

After the announcement of the postponement, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong held online talks with Hun Sen on Jan. 14, stressing "the need for the ASEAN chair to engage all parties concerned, including the Tatmadaw and the National League for Democracy," referring to Myanmar military's name and the party of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which was ousted by the coup.

Lee pointed out that the military had proposed the cease-fire, but it was only with armed ethnic minority groups, stressing that the call for an end to violence adopted in a so-called five-point consensus of ASEAN referred primarily to violence against the junta's political opponents and civilian protesters.

ASEAN leaders, including the Myanmar junta chief, reached the consensus on Myanmar at a special summit in April 2021. The consensus also included the dispatch of the group's special envoy to meet with all the parties concerned in the turmoil.

Lee also noted that just days after Hun Sen's visit to Myanmar, the military attacked its political opponents in the country and imposed additional prison sentences on Suu Kyi.

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a network of Southeast Asian lawmakers, criticized the Cambodian leader's meeting with the junta chief as "a brazen and dangerous attempt to seize the initiative away from ASEAN's collective approach to the crisis in Myanmar."

"Their joint press statement announces a number of apparent breakthroughs in their talks, but no one should be fooled that any actual progress has been achieved" as the military has made no concessions and no dialogue for the cease-fire, the APHR said in a statement.

The military government had not accepted the request by ASEAN's special envoy of last year, Brunei's foreign minister, Erywan Yusof, for meeting officials of the NLD party and Suu Kyi, who have been detained since the coup.

Amid the noncooperation from the country in implementing the consensus, the 10-member grouping under Brunei's chairmanship last year has excluded the chief and ministers of the Myanmar junta from its meetings since October.

The exclusion was an unprecedented step that broke the group's tradition of noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries.

But Hun Sen in early December maintained that the leader and ministers of Myanmar should be allowed to attend ASEAN meetings, saying, "It's time to restrengthen ASEAN, from nine turning back to 10."

Opposing this, Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Jan. 5 said that unless significant progress is made on implementing the consensus, Myanmar should only be represented by nonpolitical people at ASEAN meetings.

Within ASEAN, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore have strong views on the issue of Myanmar's representation while other member countries are relatively flexible, Chheang Vannarith, a visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, wrote in an online publication of the Singapore-based think tank.

Some people support Hun Sen's idea as a means to keep the communication channels open and influence the military to take steps toward democracy.

Bilahari Kausikan, a retired permanent secretary of Singapore's Foreign Ministry, said, "Those who are negative about Hun Sen's visit should ask themselves what is the alternative?"

An ASEAN source said that the question now is when the group will hold the foreign ministers' meeting and if Myanmar's minister will be there.

Many member countries are also in a dilemma in dealing with Myanmar. They would prefer to avoid friction with the junta as they have strong business ties with Myanmar and are heavily invested in the country rich in natural resources and with many lucrative development projects.

This could be one of the main reasons ASEAN has not taken strong moves, such as sanctions, on Myanmar. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a trip to Southeast Asia in December that he is looking at more potential actions against the junta to press it to return to democracy.

Yet ASEAN has also been anxious to ensure that Myanmar's crisis does not hurt the group's relationship with the United States and Europe.

Regarding Cambodia, a diplomat of an ASEAN nation speaking on condition of anonymity said, "By himself, (we are) not sure Hun Sen can do much but if he times his moves with what China and Myanmar would do to serve Tatmadaw's interest, he would be hailed as a successful ASEAN chair," suggesting that the pro-China Cambodian leader could be a dark horse if he coordinates with China, which has close ties with Myanmar.

In the joint statement, Hun Sen said complete peace and national reconciliation cannot be achieved without agreement from all parties involved, citing Cambodia's lessons learned from the country's peace process from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

But Hun Sen himself is an authoritarian leader who has held power for 36 years and cracked down on opposition politicians at home.

It is also noted that when Cambodia chaired a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in 2012, it failed to produce a joint communique for the first time in the group's history due to disagreements over China's actions in disputed waters of the South China Sea.

If Myanmar remains intransigent on the consensus, Indonesia may exert stronger pressure on the junta when Jakarta takes over ASEAN's rotating chairmanship in 2023.

But until then, it is feared that the military may kill more Myanmar civilians.

Since the Feb. 1 coup, violent crackdowns by Myanmar's security forces have killed over 1,400 people as of Friday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group tracking killings in the country.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 22, 2022 - 21:57 | All, Coronavirus, Japan

Japan's confirmed daily coronavirus cases on Saturday topped 50,000, setting a new record for the fifth day in a row, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues to spread across the country quickly with more areas likely to be put under a quasi-state of emergency.

A majority of Japan's 47 prefectures hit a record high on Saturday, with Tokyo confirming 11,227 daily cases and surpassing its previous record of 9,699 logged Friday. Osaka Prefecture in western Japan trailed behind Tokyo with a fresh high of 7,375 cases.

Since the country confirmed its first case of Omicron on Nov. 30, the number of COVID-19 cases increased 100 times in three weeks, rising to 54,576 cases on Saturday from 534 logged on Jan. 1.

The nationwide tally eclipsed the previous record high of 49,854 reported on Friday.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike urged residents to be mindful of the transmissibility of the virus and vowed to make all efforts to curb its further spread.

With the infection count surging rapidly nationwide and fears over the strain on the medical system, the Japanese government has now placed 16 prefectures under the quasi-state of emergency.

Tokyo and 12 other prefectures were added on Friday, now allowing their governors to ask restaurants and bars to close early and stop or limit the serving of alcohol. Several more areas have officially sought or are preparing to seek similar requests.

Okayama Prefecture in western Japan said Saturday it has asked the central government to place it under such a measure, meaning 30 prefectures would be subject to a quasi-state of emergency.

Many areas have been struggling with what has become the country's sixth wave of infections and Japan's cumulative total of COVID-19 infections in the country recently exceeded 2 million.

Related coverage:

Japan's COVID-19 foreign entry ban spurs global demonstrations

Japan's daily COVID cases top 49,000, new record for 4th straight day

Japan to expand COVID quasi-emergency to 29 of 47 prefectures
As cooler temperatures attract more visitors to Abu Dhabi this winter season, the Department of Culture and Tourism  Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has released a comprehensive guide for vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors to ensure streamlined and stress-free travel into the UAE capital.

When planning a trip to Abu Dhabi, all inbound tourists are reminded first to check DCT Abu Dhabis destination website for the latest travel guidelines and necessary Covid-19 precautionary measures.

The site will reiterate that a booster (third) dose for any Covid-19 vaccine is not a requirement for entry into the emirate.

For those entering Abu Dhabi via the Dubai/Abu Dhabi Road entry point, DCT Abu Dhabi has assigned the far-right lane (Lane 1) as a dedicated tourist lane.

This lane also has a designated guests service office and officials to ensure seamless entry to the emirate and address any challenges.

Vaccinated tourists must present proof of their full (double) vaccination status via their home countrys official vaccination certificate through a mobile application or physical certificate and present a negative PCR test result obtained within the last 14 days, or a negative 48-hour PCR test obtained from tourists home country. Unvaccinated visitors can enter with a negative PCR test obtained within the last 96 hours.

A clear, concise summary of all traveller rules and regulations, for vaccinated and unvaccinated inbound visitors from both Green List and non-Green List countries, is below; Vaccinated or exempt from vaccination. Regional and International Inbound Tourists and Business Travellers flying into Abu Dhabi International Airport.

*First, check the UAE officially recognises your vaccine. Abu Dhabi accepts vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Prevention Society (MOHAP).

All quarantine procedures for all vaccinated travellers (and unvaccinated travellers from Green List countries) have been lifted, allowing seamless entry into Abu Dhabi. To check the Green List, please visit here.

*Travellers must download the Federal Authority of Identity and Citizenship (ICA UAE Smart) app or visit the ica.gov.ae website to complete the 'Register Arrivals Form' 48 hours before travel date. All travellers will need to validate their vaccination (or exemption) 48 hours before travel via these platforms.

They will be prompted to submit personal information, passport details, travel itinerary, address when in Abu Dhabi and a copy of their vaccine certificate. These will need to be approved before the traveller embarks on their journey. The average time for the Medical Committee to process applications is 48 hours.

*Be cleared to fly. Travellers must take a PCR test within 48 hours of their departure and fly only once a negative test result has been received.

*Travel to Abu Dhabi.

*PCR Testing on Arrival. Upon arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport, travellers will need to take another PCR test (only children under 12-years and individuals with official exemptions are exempt). This PCR test is readily available within the terminal and free of cost, with results received within 90 minutes. Travellers can depart the airport and wait in their accommodation for the results.

*Green List vs Non-Green List Countries. If the traveller comes from a Green List country, they will need to take another PCR test on Day 6. If from a non-Green List country, they will need to take another PCR test on Day 4 and Day 8. The day of arrival is Day 1.

These tests can be taken either at one of the city's testing centres or at their convenience in their hotel accommodation.

*Access to Abu Dhabi Attractions. To enter public attractions in Abu Dhabi, the majority of which allows access to vaccinated visitors only, visitors will need to present proof of their full (double) vaccination status via their home countrys official vaccination certificate or by their home country COVID response mobile application along with a negative PCR test result, obtained within the last 14 days.

For unvaccinated regional and international inbound tourists and business travellers, the rules for flying into Abu Dhabi International Airport include.

*Get clearance for flying - Travellers must take a PCR test within 48 hours of their departure and fly only once a negative test result has been received.

*Travellers must download the Federal Authority of Identity and Citizenship (ICA UAE Smart) app or visit the ica.gov.ae website to complete the 'Register Arrivals Form' 48 hours before travel date. They will be prompted to submit personal information, passport details, travel itinerary and address when in Abu Dhabi. These details will need to be approved before the traveller embarks on their journey. The average time for the Medical Committee to process applications is 48 hours.

*PCR Testing on Arrival. Upon arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport, travellers will need to take another PCR test (only children under 12-years and individuals with official exemptions are exempt). This PCR test is readily available within the terminal and free of cost. The results should be received within 90 minutes.

*Green List vs Non-Green List Countries and quarantine measures.

"If the unvaccinated traveller comes from a Green List country, they will need to take another PCR test on Day 6 and Day 9 (the day of arrival is Day 1). They will not be required to quarantine," said DCT Abu Dhabi officials.

"If the unvaccinated traveller comes from a non-Green List country, they will need to undergo quarantine measures. Once they receive the result from their arrival PCR test: -If negative, they can make their way to their accommodation and quarantine for 10-days," they stated.

-If positive, they will be fitted with a wristband to wear during their 10-day quarantine period.

-Both positive and negative travellers will need to take a second PCR test at a SEHA Prime Testing Facility on Day 9. If the traveller was previously positive and now shows a negative, they can remove their wristband.

Additionally, if the travellers have transited through a Green List country from a non-Green List country to Abu Dhabi but have spent less than ten days in the Green List location before arriving in Abu Dhabi, they must still complete the quarantine in Abu Dhabi. However, any time spent in the Green List country before arriving in Abu Dhabi will count towards the 10-day quarantine period.

*nvaccinated tourists will not have access to attractions, except for hotel accommodations, but not restaurants and facilities within hotels.

For regional and international inbound tourists and business travellers entering Abu Dhabi via Dubai or other emirates, the rules include:

*They will need to follow the same guidelines as the vaccinated and unvaccinated international travellers flying direct, plus a few additional on-ground measures, including: 1. Be cleared to fly.

Depending on departure country or airline, travellers may be required to take a PCR test within 48 hours of their departure, with a negative result mandatory. Travellers are advised to check official channels or airline requirements ahead of travel. Information on those required to take the test ahead of travelling can be found on the Emirates Airline COVID-19 Information Hub.

*Registeration and sharing personal information: Downloading the ICA UAE Smart app or visiting the website to complete their 'Register Arrivals Form' 48 hours before travel date.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 21, 2022 - 23:34 | All, Coronavirus, Japan

Japan is planning to expand the enforcement of a quasi-state of emergency to a total of 29 of the country's 47 prefectures, after Osaka and seven others requested Friday that the central government put them under such a measure in an effort to curb the further spread of coronavirus infections.

While the eight prefectures filed the request with the government so as to restrict the business of restaurants and bars, Japan's daily COVID-19 cases totaled 49,854, setting a new record for the fourth straight day.

As the rapid spread of infections raises concern about the strain on the medical system, a quasi-state of emergency was put in place Friday in Tokyo and 12 other prefectures for three weeks, allowing their governors to ask restaurants and bars to close early and stop or limit the serving of alcohol.

In addition to the eight prefectures -- Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Hokkaido, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Shizuoka -- that officially sought quasi-emergencies, five more prefectures including Fukuoka, Saga and Oita are preparing to make similar requests.

A quasi-state of emergency was in effect in 16 prefectures as of Friday, so if the central government approves the request or the planned request from 13 prefectures, a total of 29 prefectures will employ tighter anti-virus measures.

The government is arranging to make a decision as early as next Tuesday on any official requests it receives from prefectures, according to sources close to the matter.

Many areas have been struggling with what has become the country's sixth wave of infections, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Japan's cumulative total of COVID infections has exceeded 2 million.

The Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed 9,699 daily coronavirus cases Friday, eclipsing the previous record high of 8,638 logged the previous day, while the Osaka prefectural government said it also hit a fresh high of 6,254.

In Osaka, the ratio of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients reached 35.8 percent Thursday, surpassing the 35 percent threshold for requesting a quasi-emergency declaration.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters Friday that the capital would work as one with residents and businesses to "stop infections while not stopping society."

Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures have been under a fresh quasi-state of emergency since Jan. 9 following a spike in infections that local officials linked to nearby U.S. military bases whose personnel were previously exempt from being tested for the coronavirus before coming to Japan.

Yamaguchi Gov. Tsugumasa Muraoka told reporters Friday that he plans to request the central government extend the quasi-state of emergency in his prefecture past its planned end date of Jan. 31.

Related coverage:

Tokyo reports 9,699 coronavirus cases, new daily record

Japan approves Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11

Osaka, 2 more areas in western Japan to seek COVID quasi-emergency
New Delhi:

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath and briefed her on the situation in Maharashtra, said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. Both the leaders decided that representatives of their parties will meet in a few days to decide the future course of action.

Sharad Pawar met the Congress President today and briefed her on the situation in Maharashtra. It was decided that in a day or two, representatives from NCP & Congress will meet in Delhi to discuss the way forward, Surjewala said.

The NCP is in talks with its ally Congress for a possible alliance with the Shiv Sena, after the Sena's alliance with the BJP fell apart over the chief minister's post.

Ahead of his meeting with Gandhi, Pawar said all political parties seeking to stake a claim in forming the government in Maharashtra have to "choose their own paths".

"BJP-Shiv Sena fought together, we (NCP) and Congress fought together. They have to choose their path and we will do our politics," Pawar told reporters ahead of the start of the Winter Session of Parliament.

Maharashtra was placed under President's rule on November 12 after no party or alliance staked claim to form a government.

Pawar's meeting with the Congress chief comes a day after the NCP's core committee held a meeting in Pune and resolved that the current President's rule in Maharashtra should end and an "alternative government" should be formed.

The BJP-Sena saffron alliance had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly. The Congress and NCP, pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats respectively.
New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday termed "false and politically motivated" a BIS report which stated that drinking water in the national capital failed quality tests. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday released the second phase of the Bureau of Indian Standardisation (BIS) study which stated that Delhi along with Kolkata and Chennai failed in almost 10 out of 11 quality parameters of drinking water.

On Sunday, posters were seen in parts of Delhi bashing the AAP government for forcing people to drink "poisonous" water. Posting a picture of one such poster, Health Minister and Chandni Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan tweeted, "Arvind Kejriwal is giving poison to the people of Delhi in the name of free water supply. Delhi water was found to be the most poisonous in a survey of 20 cities. The AAP government is making tall claims of development but has failed to even provide safe drinking water to the people."

Replying to Vardhan's post, Kejriwal said, "Sir, you are a doctor. You know this report is false and politically motivated. A person like you should not become a part of such dirty politics," said Kejriwal, who is the chairman of the national capitals water utility, Delhi Jal Board.

In the first phase of its survey, the BIS had found all the 11 samples drawn from Delhi did not comply with the quality norm and the piped water was not safe for drinking purpose. Testing of water samples was conducted to check organoleptic and physical parameters and know the chemical and toxic substances and bacteriological quality besides virological and biological parameters.

Also Read | Unfair To Blame People Of Delhi For Pollution, Stubble Burning Main Cause: Kejriwal

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari blamed Kejriwal for the poor air and water quality in Delhi and asked him to refrain from doing politics on things which were vital for peoples life. The party also launched a hashtag #DillikaPaaniZahrila and asked Delhiites to send details of the water supply in their area by tagging the Delhi BJP.

Tiwari said party workers will stage protests across the city and collect water samples which will be handed over to Kejriwal. The AAP and BJP are indulging in a blame game over issues like drinking water, air pollution and regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the city which will go for assembly polls early next year.
New Delhi:

The standoff between the JNU students and the varsity officials intensified on Monday. The protests students began their march from university gates amid heavy police bandobast. Some reports say that as many as 1,200 policemen have been deployed in the area with the authorities imposing Section 144 as preventive measure. Meanwhile, Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam took to Twitter and said that, MHRD has appointed a high power committee for discussion with students and administration for peaceful resolution of all issues. The Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union (JNUSU) on Sunday had appealed to students of other universities to join its march to Parliament on Monday. The students' union will be marching from the JNU towards Parliament on Monday, when the Winter Session will commence.

#BREAKING | Ministry of HRD appoints high power committee for discussion with JNU students and administration for "peaceful resolution of all issues" pic.twitter.com/kglcT0t5E6  News Nation (@NewsNationTV) November 18, 2019

"At a time when fee hikes are rampant across the country, students have emerged as the first line of defence for inclusive education. We invite all students of Delhi, to join us as we march on foot from JNU to Parliament on the first day of the winter session of Parliament," the JNUSU said.

Meanwhile, JNU Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar issued a video message for protesting students. In a video message released on the varsity's website, he said he has been getting e-mails from worried parents and students about the situation in the university which is affecting academic activities. "If we still continue with the strike and cause academic loss, it is going to affect future of thousands of students. "From tomorrow, a new week will begin and I request the students to come back to the classes and resume your research activities. From December 12, the semester exams will start and if you do not attend classes, it will affect your future goals," Kumar said.

Last week, facing intense agitation for over two weeks, the JNU on Wednesday rolled back the hostel fee hike partially for BPL students not availing any scholarship, a move which failed to satisfy agitating students who dubbed it as an "eyewash", and decided to continue with the strike. The decision was taken at the varsity's 283rd Executive Council (EC) meeting, HRD Secretary R Subrahmanyam announced while asking the protesting students to resume classes. The EC meeting was shifted outside the campus at the last moment fearing trouble by agitators. On Monday, the students had gheraoed AICTE building, the venue for varsity's convocation, forcing Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to stay put for six hours.
New Delhi:

Amid Trump administrations opposition to the S-400 deal with Russia, India is likely to sign a mega defence deal with the US to purchase American defence equipment worth over USD 7.5 billion, in an apparant bid to balance out the military ties with Washington and Kremlin. According to a new agency ANI, citing government sources, India and the US are moving closer to seal the mega defence deal and a Letter of Request will soon be issued in this regard.

"All the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) are collating their requirement for the Sea Gaurdian armed drones which will us a strong capability in terms of high altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and also enhance our capabilities to carry surveillance," the sources said.

Since some of the requirements of the three wings of the armed forces would be different from each other, their collation would take a few months and a Letter of Request is expected to be issued to the Washington for the government-to-government deal by February and March next year, they said. The deal will cost India over USD 4.5 billion.

According to the people privy of the development, the Trump administration has approved the sale of armed drones to India and even offered to equip them with required missiles and other systems. The other major deal which is under the pipeline is the deal of 10 P-8I anti-submarine warfare and long-range surveillance aircraft which would be inducted into the Indian Navy. The deal is likely to cost USD 3 billion.

Also Read | S-400 Deal: To Avert US Sanctions, India Pays $850 Mn To Russia Via 'Special' System

The US has been opposing to Indias defence deals with Russia as Washington has imposed sanction against the Kremlin. India has recently paid the first instalment of $850 million to Russia as part of the S-400 deal. The payment was made via special arrangements in order to avert the US sanctions.

The S-400 Triumph Deal was inked between India and Russia in October last year. The Trump administration had objected to the deal and threatened sanction against India. However, New Delhi decided to go ahead with the deal and experts believe the defence deal with US is being signed by India to balance the military ties with the two warring countries.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated Sri Lankas President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa to congratulate him on his electoral win and invited him to visit India at his earliest convenience. According to Prime Ministers Office (PMO), the invitation has been accepted.

Rajapaksa stormed to victory in Sri Lankas presidential elections, the results of which came on Sunday.

PM Modi also expressed confidence that cultural, historical & civilisational ties between India & Sri Lanka will be further strengthened. PM Modi extended an invitation to Gotabaya Rajapaksa to visit India at his early convenience; invitation was accepted, PMO tweeted.

PM Narendra Modi telephoned the President-elect of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and congratulated him on his electoral victory in the Presidential elections held in Sri Lanka yesterday, the PMO said.

The Lankan leader thanked PM Modi for his good wishes and expressed his readiness to work with India very closely to ensure development and security, the Prime Ministers Office said in a series of tweets.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi took to Twitter to congratulate the Sri Lankan leader, saying he looks forward to further deepen relations between the two nations.

Congratulations @GotabayaR on your victory in the Presidential elections. I look forward to working closely with you for deepening the close and fraternal ties between our two countries and citizens, and for peace, prosperity as well as security in our region, PM Modi tweeted.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Fearing damage to the US President, a top US official restricted access to the summary of Donald Trumps Ukraine call that triggered an impeachment probe. White House Ukraine expert Timothy Morrison told House investigators he knew immediately how sensitive the call was when he heard Trump press Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US vice president Joe Biden. Leaving the National Security Council the day before testifying, Morrison said, I recommended... that we restrict access to the package.

Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry over claims that Trump pressured Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call to look into what the US leader said were corrupt business deals involving Biden.

Morrison broke with other witnesses who have spoken out against the call, telling House investigators he heard nothing wrong.

In your view there was nothing improper that occurred during the call? the Republicans lead counsel asked Morrison.

Correct, he replied.

On Friday, Donald Trump dubbed the impeachment proceedings against him as a "double standard never seen" in US history. This came after US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch deposed before the Congressional panel on the second day of impeachment hearings. A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country, Trump tweeted as Yovanovitch was grilled on president's interaction with Ukrainians.

Asserting that he has done no wrong, Trump released transcripts of his first phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his electoral victory.

Yovanovitch said she came to know how the president had denounced her in his July phone call with Zelenskyy. I would say when you go into a meeting with somebody and they ask, are you going to be leaving, that is concerning. So that probably -- I don't know exactly when that started happening -- but (it was) in that timeframe, the former US envoy to Ukraine said.

During the hearing, she said Trump's tweet about her diplomatic performance is very intimidating.

I can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating, she said when she was shown the presidential tweet.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A massive showdown ensued between the JNU students and the Delhi Police personnel as the protests intensified near the campus area on Monday. Students were seen breaking the police barricades. The agitating students were stopped near Ber Sarai. Many were seen being dragged away from the protests site. The students are demanding a complete rollback of the hostel fee hike. The varsity's students have been protesting for nearly three weeks against the draft hostel manual, which has provisions for hostel fee hike, dress code and curfew timings. According to the police, around ten companies have been deployed outside JNU. One company comprises 70 to 80 personnel.

Initially, the barricades outside JNU's gates were removed and the students were allowed to march. The police later stopped the march around 500 metres from the varsity's gates. Former JNU Students' Union president N Sai Balaji said, "Delhi Police stops JNU students peaceful march to parliamentarians! The Mhrd is fooling students by forming committee. Why didn't the committee suspend fee hike till dialogue is happening? We are demanding a rollback of the fee hike."

The protest march comes on the first day of the Parliament's Winter Session, which will end on December 13. Earlier, the HRD Ministry appointed a three-member committee to recommend ways to restore normal functioning of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Meanwhile, Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam took to Twitter and said that, MHRD has appointed a high power committee for discussion with students and administration for peaceful resolution of all issues. The Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union (JNUSU) on Sunday had appealed to students of other universities to join its march to Parliament on Monday. The students' union will be marching from the JNU towards Parliament on Monday, when the Winter Session will commence.
New Delhi:

In a fresh bid to supress the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, China on Saturday deployed its troops in the city for the first time since the unprecedented pro-democracy protests began in the former British colony more than five months ago over a proposed extradition law, with soldiers in plain clothes clearing the roadblocks. The Hong Kong administration, however, has distanced itself from the troop deployment, saying Beijing has sent the soldiers on its own without any request.

Soldiers from the Hong Kong Garrison of Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) -- the worlds largest militaryhave been deployed for the first time in more than five months of civil unrest in Hong Kong, as dozens marched from their Kowloon garrison to help clear roadblocks, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

It was also the first time in over a year that the PLA local garrison has been involved in the public community work. Reacting to the development, a spokesman for the government of the semi-autonomous city told the media: "it was a voluntary community activity by the PLA troops and Hong Kong government did not ask for help to clean-up barricades set up by protestors".

The spokesman said that the PLA garrison in Kowloon Tong initiated by themselves the clean-up and the Hong Kong government has not requested their help.

Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China in 1997 under the one country two systems formula granting semi-autonomous status. China earlier said that under Article 14 of the citys Garrison Law, and Basic Lawthe citys mini-constitution, the PLA must not interfere in local affairs but troops can be called out to help if requested by the local government.

Also Read | US President Donald Trump To Attend NATO Summit In London, Days Before UK Vote

Such a request has never been made since the city returned to the Chinese rule 22 years ago. Chinas Defence spokesman Col Wu Qian told the media in Beijing in July that troops of the PLA stationed at garrison in Hong Kong can be deployed if the local government requested under the article 14 of the garrison law.

In Beijing, state-run Global Times quoted officials as saying that there is no need to read too much into the clean-up efforts by the soldiers as such activities outside the camp only requires the permission of their commander instead of higher-level command.

Also, notably the soldiers did not wear uniforms and the barricades outside their camp indeed affected normal activities. And the efforts took place during their break on Saturday, the report said.

Such details show the Hong Kong PLA Garrison does not want to draw extra attention and wants to lower the sensitivity associated with their PLA Hong Kong Garrison identity, the sources said.

The efforts on Saturday cannot be interpreted as any hint of what the PLA Hong Kong Garrison will or will not do next, the report quoted officials as saying.

The soldiers, mostly in green T-shirts and black shorts, and carrying red buckets, ran out of the PLAs Kowloon Tong barracks at about 4 PM to clear obstacles on Renfrew Road, near Baptist Universitys campus, the report said.

A soldier said their action had nothing to do with the Hong Kong government. We initiated this! Stopping violence and ending chaos is our responsibility, he said, quoting a phrase coined by President Xi Jinping. Firefighters and police officers also joined the soldiers.

Earlier, Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu said the PLA could freely decide on whether to send soldiers to perform volunteer services outside military sites and the local government had no record of how many times this has happened.

In October last year, more than 400 soldiers were sent in batches to Hong Kongs country parks to help remove trees felled during Typhoon Mangkhut.

On Thursday, Xi broke his silence over Hong Kongs unprecedented pro-democracy protests threatening Chinas control over the former British colony, saying the most pressing task at present was to bring violence and chaos to an end and restore order.

Xi made the comments at the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia, Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Hong Kong is rocked by unprecedented pro-democracy protests for over five months and in the past few weeks they grew violent, bringing the international financial centre virtually to a grinding halt.

The protests which began over a proposed extradition law by the Hong Kong administration sparked fear of extradition of locals to the Chinese mainland for prosecution. It later turned into a major pro-democracy movement with demands to elect their local officials without the Chinese interference.

The protestors, mainly youth, are demanding pro-China Chief Executive Carrie Lams resignation, inquiry into police brutalities and universal franchise of one person one vote with freedom for all the locals to contest elections for the local legislature.

Xi said the continuous radical violent activities in Hong Kong seriously trampled the rule of law and the social order, seriously disturb Hong Kongs prosperity and stability, and seriously challenge the one country, two systems bottom line, the Xinhua report said.

We will continue to firmly support the chief executive in leading the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to govern in accordance with the law, firmly support the Hong Kong police in strictly enforcing the law, and firmly support the Hong Kong judicial bodies in severely punishing the violent criminals in accordance with the law, the Chinese President said.

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New Delhi:

Parliament's winter session will begin while Justice SA Bobde will be sworn-in as Chief Justice of India today. Here's a look at these and all other big stories of Monday, November 18.

Parliament May Witness Heated Debates On Citizenship Bill, Economic Slowdown

Amid uncertainties in Maharashtra, Parliament's Winter Session starting on Monday is expected to witness much heat as the Opposition looks to corner the Union government over issues like economic slowdown and situation in Kashmir. The Modi government, however, seeks to push through the contentious Citizenship (amendment) Bill, a key part of the BJP's ideological agenda.

READ MORE



Justice Bobde To Take Oath As 47th Chief Justice Of India Today

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde will be sworn-in as the 47th Chief Justice of India on Monday. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office of Chief Justice of India to Justice Bobde at 9.30 a.m, a statement reported. Justice Bobde, the second senior-most judge of the apex court was recommended by Outgoing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor on October 18. Justice Bobde will serve as CJI for around 18 months and retire on April 23, 2021.

READ MORE

JNUSU Protest March To Parliament Today

Protesting against hostel fee hike and other issues affecting higher education, the Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union (JNUSU) has appealed to students of other universities to join its march to Parliament on Monday. The students' union will be marching from the JNU towards Parliament on Monday, when the winter session will begin. It also appealed to students outside Delhi to organise agitations on November 18 to mark a National Day of Protest, "to safeguard education as a right, and oppose its transformation into a commodity". The police said they have made adequate security arrangements along the route of the march.

READ MORE

Congress MLA Tanveer Sait Attacked By Sharp Weapon At Mysore Event

Congress MLA Tanveer Sait was attacked by a youth using a sharp object during while attending a wedding ceremony in Mysore. Sait sustained injuries on neck. According to reports, the MLA was immediately rushed to a private hospital where he underwent a surgery. The attacker - a 24-year-old young man named Farhan - has been arrested.

READ MORE

Ayodhya Verdict: AIMPLB To File Review Petition Against Supreme Court Judgment

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday said that it has decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court over Ayodhya verdict. The decision came after a meeting of AIMPLB to deliberate on whether or not to seek a review of the Supreme Court's verdict on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit. In a unanimous verdict last week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.

READ MORE

ATP Finals: Stefanos Tsitsipas Defeats Dominic Thiem To Lift Title In London

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the youngest player since John McEnroe 41 years ago to win the ATP Finals on his tournament debut on Sunday. The 21-year-old Greek beat Dominic Thiem 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 7-6 (7-4) in two-and-a-half hours at the O2 Arena in London to lift the year-ending title. Tsitsipas also became the youngest winner of the tournament since Lleyton Hewitt, aged 20, won it in 2001.

READ MORE

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A 1906 map of Baltimore marks the property at 1103 N. Washington St. with bold letters: TOBACCO WAREHOUSE.

The roomy old brick complex stands alongside the Amtrak and MARC railroad embankment in East Baltimore and is clearly visible from passing passenger trains. A few steps away was the Biddle Street Station, long decommissioned by the once mighty Pennsylvania Railroad.

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The warehouse in the Middle East neighborhood has been purchased by a partnership of Cross Street Partners and BECS Investing. The structure sits in a spot that a decade ago might not have seen this $7.5 million investment.

The building clearly once had a relationship with the railroad, said Carla Hinson, development manager for Cross Street Partners. We are looking to begin renovation work this spring and wed like to create a hub for construction, engineering and architects here in East Baltimore.

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A 150-year-old historic tobacco warehouse located at 1103 N. Washington Street in the Middle East neighborhood of Baltimore has been acquired by Cross Street Partners and BECS Investing who are partnering on the redevelopment of the 23,000 square foot building. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

Upper Washington Street is a happening place nowadays. The renovated American Brewery is up Gay Street. The old Hoen Lithography plant, also being redeveloped by a team including Cross Street Partners, sitting across the railroad tracks and the Pump House campus at Wolfe Street are staging a nice recovery. Dozens of nearby rowhouses have been thoroughly renovated as well.

Old Baltimore buildings have stories to tell. This particular tobacco warehouse was the creation of a trio of German immigrant brothers, Charles, Louis and Frederick Becker. Louis was born aboard the steamer Louisa as she crossed the Atlantic bound for Baltimore. He attended the old St. James the Less School just a few blocks west of his warehouse.

The Becker Brothers were one of those amazing success stories. They arrived here as tobacco merchants and began making cigars in Baltimore and in Martinsburg, West Virginia, then branched into wholesaling leaf tobacco and operated out of what is now the Power Plant Live! section of the Inner Harbor.

They really struck it rich when then moved into the wholesale fruit trade and bought a large tract in the Shenandoah Valley. In addition to peaches, apricots, plums and apples, they discovered valuable mineral deposits there, The Sun reported. The Beckers shipped ore and limestone to Pittsburgh steel mills.

The Sun once described their orchard as one of the largest fruit farms this side of California.

Charles Becker, the brother who took the lead in the fruit business, also raised grapes and had hopes of somehow making sparkling wine. This did not happened and he settled for West Virginia brandy.

The brothers gave up on tobacco after the 1904 Baltimore Fire wiped out their main business operation on Exchange Place.

Charles Becker died in 1907, the last of the brothers, and is buried near his warehouse in Green Mount Cemetery.

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The warehouse the Beckers owned saw numerous subsequent owners and uses, including a stationary firm, furniture maker, mattress factory, and artist and maker studios.

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After a thorough renovation is completed, the Building Envelope Consultants and Scientists will be merging their operations into a corporate headquarters here. The commodious building also could house other tenants.

The project was awarded $1.75 million under the Maryland Historic Revitalization Tax Credit Program. Other local projects that got the tax credits include the Wilkins Rogers Mill (also known as the Doughnut Factory) near Ellicott City and the Eastern Health District/Huntington Williams Building at 620 N. Caroline St., not far from the tobacco warehouse.

It has been a continuous used warehouse since it was built in 1875, said Jeff Levy, who first started working at the warehouse in 1972, shortly after he left military service in the Navy.

I worked for Cadden Furniture and we refinished the desks for the City Council when City Hall was rebuilt when William Donald Schaefer was mayor, said Levy, who went on to purchase the structure in 1997 and sold it late last year.

Bill Struever, the rescuer of industrial Baltimore and a principal at Cross Street Partners, walked through the warehouse and came upon an unexpected treasure, a maple-floored roller rink on the third floor.

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Among the warehouses many uses, it once functioned as the Washington Roller Skate Rink.

Struever promises a skating party when the rehabilitation is completed.
New Delhi:

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has reached at 10 Janpath to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss government formation in Maharashtra. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had made the announcement regarding the meeting on Sunday evening after a meeting of the party's core committee at Pawar's residence.

Malik said that the core committee was of the view that the current President's rule in Maharashtra should end, and an "alternative government" should be formed.

The NCP is in talks with its ally Congress for a possible alliance with the Shiv Sena, after the Sena's alliance with the BJP fell apart over the chief minister's post.

Ahead of his meeting with Gandhi, Pawar said all political parties seeking to stake claim in forming the government in Maharashtra have to "choose their own paths".

"BJP-Shiv Sena fought together, we (NCP) and Congress fought together. They have to choose their path and we will do our politics," Pawar told reporters ahead of the start of the Winter Session of Parliament.

Maharashtra was placed under President's rule on November 12 after no party or alliance staked claim to form government.

Pawar's meeting with the Congress chief comes a day after the NCP's core committee held a meeting in Pune and resolved that the current President's rule in Maharashtra should end and an "alternative government" should be formed.

The BJP-Sena saffron alliance had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly. The Congress and NCP, pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats respectively.
New Delhi:

ISIS leader Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi was the most wanted terrorist in the world before his death in US special forces raid in October. However, according to Shia Waqf Board chief Wasim Rizvi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi is as dangerous as the slain ISIS leader. This is not first controversial figure Owaisi has been compared to in last few days. Just before Rizvi's comment, Union Minister Babul Supriyo has compared the AIMIM leader to controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

"There is no difference between Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi and Asaduddin Owaisi. Baghdadi had an army and arms and ammunition which he used to spread terror, Owaisi through his 'zabaan' (speeches) is creating terror through it. He is pushing the Muslims towards acts of terror and bloodshed. It is high time that there should be a ban on him and the Muslim Personal Law Board," Rizvi said to news agency ANI on Saturday.

Wasim Rizvi was talking in reference to the speeches made by the AIMIM leader after the Supreme Court verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute. Earlier on November 11, a complaint was filed against AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi for allegedly making inciting statements following the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute case. Following the pronouncement of the verdict, Owaisi said that the "Supreme Court is indeed supreme but not infallible".

"I am not satisfied with the verdict. We have full faith in the Constitution. We were fighting for our legal rights. We do not need five-acre land as a donation," he had said.

Later, in an interview to Outlook magazine, Asaduddin Owaisi said he will oppose anything that is against India's Constitution and pluralism. "For me, the Constitution is supreme and it gives me the right to disagree respectfully with any SC judgment. I will oppose anything that is against the Constitution," he said.

Asaduddin Owaisi said, "Our fight was not for a piece of land. It was to ensure that my legal rights are realised. The SC also categorically said that no temple was demolished to construct a mosque. I want my masjid back."

Rizvi also slammed the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) for its stance on the verdict. "This was a great decision by the Supreme Court, the likes of which I have not seen in my life. It satisfied all the parties but there are some parties like the Muslim Personal Law Board and Asaduddin Owaisi which are fuelling the orthodox mindset. There should be a ban on them too," Rizvi said.

On November 15, Rizvi had donated Rs 51,000 to the Shri Ram Janmabhumi Nyas in Ayodhya for the construction of the temple. The Supreme Court on November 9 directed the Central government to hand over the disputed site at Ayodhya for the construction of a temple and set up a trust for the same. The top court also directed the government to give a suitable plot of five acres to the Sunni Waqf Board for a new mosque.

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New Delhi:

The Winter Session of Parliament began on Monday with united Opposition slamming the Narendra Modi government over the absence of Srinagar MP and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who is under house arrest since the Centre removed special status of Jammu and Kashmir. As soon as the national anthem completed, Trinamool Congress MP raised his concern about Abdullahs whereabouts and told the Speaker that he was not present in the House. "Sir... Dr Farooq Abdullah yahe pe nahi hain (Sir, Dr Farooq Abdullah is not here)".

"Either instruct the government to release him or Home Minister should make a statement in the House," the MP added. To this, Speaker Om Birla asked him to first allow the oath-taking of new members. Soon, other Opposition MPs from the Congress and DMK moved to the well and started shouting "Free Farooq Abdullah" slogans. "I am ready to discuss all issues. Please go to your seats... This House is not for sloganeering but for debates and discussions," Speaker Birla said.

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed the Narendra Modi-led NDA government over the situation in Kashmir and the visit of far-right European MPs while Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and others were sent back from Srinagar airport. He demanded that the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister should be brought to the Parliament.

Also Read | 103 Days And Counting: For How Long Mainstream Kashmir Leaders Will Remain In Detention?

"It has been 108 days today since Farooq Abdullah-ji was detained. Yeh kya zulm ho raha hai (what kind of injustice is happening)? He should be brought to the Parliament. It is his constitutional right," the Congress leader demanded.

The Opposition parties have been demanding the release of three former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers, Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and PDPs Mehbooba Mufti. Mamata Banerjees party the Trinamool Congress also submitted an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha over Farooq Abdullah's release.

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New Delhi:

Around 30 police personnel and 15 students were injured during a march to Parliament protest led by JNUSU against a hostel fee hike in New Delhi on Monday, said the Delhi Police. The clashed broke out between the students and the police after the former were stopped from march to Parliament in which thousands of students participated from different universities across the national capital, paralysing traffic and bringing the city to a halt.

The students also clashed with the police outside Safdurjung tomb near Jor Bagh. While the students alleged that they were batoncharged by the police, top police officials denied having used any force.

They had joined the protest march called by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students against the recent fee hike against which an agitation has been going on for over three weeks.

There was heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel outside the main gate of JNU campus, even before the march commenced. Water canons and PCR vans were stationed outside.

Before the protest began, the HRD Ministry set up a three-member committee to recommend ways to restore normal functioning of the university and initiate dialogue with the students and administration. The protesters commenced the march around noon and broke the first set of barricades at the main gate of the campus and proceeded towards Baba Gangnath Marg where another set of barricades awaited them.

The police detained about 100 protestors, including JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh, Secretary Satish Chandra Yadav and former JNUSU president N Sai Balaji. The students then took at an alternative route through the Munirka village and came near the Munirka metro station.

They raised anti-government and anti-administration slogans and started marching towards RK Puram from where they reached Bhikaji Cama place and subsequently marched onto Ring Road causing traffic to come to a halt at many intersections. The students were ultimately stopped outside Safdarjung Tomb where, they alleged, the police batoncharged them, a charge denied by the police.

Meanwhile, the top brass of Delhi police tried to initiate a dialogue with them and urged them to not take law into their hands.

Traffic was also affected in some parts of Lutyens' Delhi as the students marched towards Parliament. Among other intersections, vehicles were moving at a snail's pace on Nelson Mandela Marg, Aurobindo Marg and Baba Gang Nath Marg.

The entry and exit points of three Delhi Metro stations near Parliament---Udyog Bhawan, Central Secretariat, Patel Chowk and Lok Kalyan Marg, were shut down temporarily and trains did not halt at Udyog Bhawan and Patel Chowk. The services resumed four hours later. Students took to Twitter to share pictures of the march and of the injuries they received allegedly in the lathicharge, as the hashtag "emergencyinJNU" trended on the microblogging site. The students camped outside the Safdarjung tomb for nearly four hours.

The detained students were released later in the evening and police escorted a delegation of four JNUSU members to HRD secretary. JNUSU members claimed that they met HRD Joint Secretary GC Hosur and handed over a memorandum of demands, including rollback of the fee hike and sacking the vice chancellor. However, there was no official word from the university about the meeting.

The remaining students were asked by police to leave the venue after the JNUSU delegation left for the meeting. The opposition also slammed the government over the issue. While the Congress claimed the present dispensation was "afraid" of any varsity which encouraged free flow of thought, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury also condemned the alleged police action against students, saying it was not the right way to deal with democratic protests. In a statement released by the Delhi Police, the department said they did not use force against the protesting JNU students.

"There was no use of water cannons, tear gas shells or lathicharge at any stage of the protest. Women staff was deployed in adequate numbers to deal with female protestors. Apart from 10 companies of CAPF, around 800 Delhi Police personnel were deployed to handle the protest and ensure maintenance of law and order," it said.

The JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) has also expressed concern over the current situation in the university campus.
New Delhi:

The Congress on Saturday released a list of six candidates for the upcoming by-elections to the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka. The names in the list are: Gajanan Balachandra Mangasuli from Athani, Bharamgouda Alagouda Kage from Kagwad, Lakhan Jarkiholi from Gokak, Venkatrao Ghorpade from Vijayanagar, Rizwan Arshad from Shivajinagar, and KB Chandrashekar from Krishnarajpet.

The list has been released after the BJP nominated 13 Congress and JDS MLAs, who were disqualified ahead of a trust vote, as its candidates for the assembly bypolls in Karnataka.

Wasnik in a release said, "Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of six candidates for the ensuing bypolls in Karnataka on December 5."

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had upheld the disqualification of the 17 MLAs in Karnataka by then Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, but paved the way for them to contest the bypolls.

The then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had resigned after losing trust vote, which paved way for BJP-led government in the state under B S Yediyurappa.

The BJP is yet to announce its candidates for the remaining two assembly seats where bypolls will be held in December.

Fifteen out of the 17 constituencies represented by these MLAs will be going for bypolls, while by-elections to Maski and RR Nagar constituencies have been withheld as separate cases with regard to them, are pending before the high court.

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New Delhi:

Ahead of Assembly elections, an internal rift has rocked the Jharkhand BJP after senior leader and state minister Saryu Roy on Sunday announced to contest the polls against Chief Minister Raghibar Das as an independent. Fumed about his name not featuring in the list of 72 candidates announced so far by the BJP, Roy has sent his resignation as a minister in Raghubar Das Cabinet to Governor Droupadi Murmu.

He said he will contest the elections from both Jamshedpur (East) and Jamshedpur (West) Assembly constituencies. Roy was the Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Minister in the Jharkhand Cabinet.

"I will file my nomination papers from both the Assembly constituencies tomorrow (Monday)," he said. Roys move comes in the wake of his name not finding a place in the first four lists of 72 candidates declared by the BJP for the 81-member Assembly in Jharkhand, which is going to polls in five phases between November 30 and December 20.

Also Read | BJP Snaps Ties With AJSU, To Contest Jharkhand Assembly Elections Alone

Asked if he was taking on his own party by deciding to contest against the chief minister, he said, "Let the BJP take action against me." The BJP has re-nominated Das from the Jamshedpur (East) seat, while it is yet to announce its candidate from Jamshedpur (West). The two seats will go to polls in the second phase on December 7 and the last date of filing papers is Monday.

To another query on whether contesting elections from two seats would be a tall order, Roy said, "Not at all. The geography of the city (Jamshedpur), its people and issues are the same. My supporters will campaign from my home constituency, while I will concentrate on Jamshedpur (East)."
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured at the all-party meeting that the government is ready to discuss all issues during the Parliaments winter session. Opposition strongly raised Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullahs detention and demanded that he be allowed to attend the House. At the meeting attended by 27 parties, Prime Minister Modi said most important job of the House is to discuss and debate, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.

The meeting was attended by Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot, Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and deputy leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma.

TMC leader Derek O Brien, LJP leader Chirag Paswan and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, Telugu Desam Party Jayadev Galla and V Vijaysai Reddy were among those present at the meeting.

PM Modi said, Government is ready to discuss all issues within the framework of rules and procedures of the Houses.

Opposition leaders raised the issue of Abdullahs detention and demanded that he be allowed to attend the session, but got no definite response from the government, sources said.

Farooq Abdullahs detention was raised at the all-party meet, National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi said, adding that the government is under constitutional obligation to ensure his participation in the Parliament session.

How can a parliamentarian be detained illegally He should be allowed to attend Parliament, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

The meeting was called by the government and moderated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Meghwal.

In the session beginning Monday, the government is set to push for the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key BJP plank which is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries.

The government has listed the bill in its items of business for the session, official sources said.

The government had introduced the bill in its previous tenure as well but could not push it through due to vehement protests by opposition parties, which criticised the bill as discriminatory on religious grounds.

The bill had lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.

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New Delhi:

Personalities across the political spectrum on Sunday paid tributes to Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray on his 7th death anniversary. Maharashtra caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in a tweet said, salutations to our inspirational source, Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray on his death anniversary.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said Bal Thackeray gave political voice to Marathi Manoos. "Bal Thackeray was a Marathi Manoo who raised the voice for Marathis pride and their self-esteem. He did politics with a social cause. He was a unique orator who got unending affection of his followers. We bow down to him on his death anniversary," Pawar tweeted in Marathi.

Born on January 23, 1926, in Pune, Thackeray had begun his professional career as a cartoonist with the English-language daily 'The Free Press Journal'.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and his wife Rashmi Thackeray pay tribute to #BalasahebThackeray on his death anniversary, today. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/rVlx64NEX5  ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2019

Thackeray was also the founder of the Marathi-language newspaper Saamana. He did not hold any official positions during his political career.

Thackeray breathed his last on November 17, 2012, after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 86.

Meanwhile, political stalemate continues in Maharashtra. The state was placed under President's rule on November 12 after no party or alliance staked claim to form government. The BJP and the Sena, which fought the October 21 polls in alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member assembly. The Congress and NCP, pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats.

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New Delhi:

At least seven people were killed and several others injured in a gas pipeline explosion at a house in the port city of Bangladesh on Sunday, a police official said. According to reports, the explosion took place on the ground floor of the five-storey building in Patharghata of Chattogram city at around 8.30 am. The explosion was so strong that some of the buildings wall collapsed. A shop just across from the building also got damaged in the blast and some pedestrians suffered injuries.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion. Injured people were immediately shifted to a hospital. Among the injured, one suffered burns while others were wounded by the wall collapse, a person was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The gas riser of the building was located beside the boundary wall at the bottom of the structure where the explosion occurred, police said.

Maybe there was a problem with the gas riser. The explosion might have been triggered by cooking activities in the morning or from a discarded cigarette butt, he was quoted as saying.

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New Delhi:

It seems that Facebook-owned WhatsApp is not having a good time. Recently, Facebook-owned WhatsApp accepted that the spyware was being used by Israel based company NSO Group to spy on government officials, journalists, activists, lawyers, and various countries globally, including India. Now, the messaging giant has confirmed that there is yet another vulnerability that allows hackers to take control of a users WhatsApp data and even the data on their phone. According to WhatsApp, a potential hacker can take control of your phone by sending you an infected video file, in the MP4 format.

Issuing an advisory, Facebook said, A stack-based buffer overflow could be triggered in WhatsApp by sending a specially crafted MP4 file to a WhatsApp user. The issue was present in parsing the elementary stream metadata of an MP4 file and could result in a DoS or RCE.

This affects Android versions prior to 2.19.274, iOS versions prior to 2.19.100, Enterprise Client versions prior to 2.25.3, Windows Phone versions before and including 2.18.368, Business for Android versions prior to 2.19.104, and Business for iOS versions prior to 2.19.100, said Facebook.

Why & how to save our phone from spyware attack:

Our phone do have precious pieces of information stored in it. A malware attack could result in a compromised phone, with the risk of malware being planted to either access data, do a remote takeover of your phone or computing device or even eavesdrop on conversations. A lot of users keep the auto-download option on for media files, and that just makes life easier for hackers.

In a bid to reduce the risk of your WhatsApp data getting compromised is to update the app on your Android phone or the Apple iPhone, from the Play Store or App Store respectively.

Also Read: Whatsapp Introduces Catalogs For Small Businesses

Turn off the auto-download option on for media files.
China's new generation carrier rocket Long March-8 ready for launch

Xinhua) 17:17, January 21, 2022

China's new medium-lift carrier rocket Long March-8 blasts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of southern China's island province of Hainan on Dec. 22, 2020. The rocket can carry a payload of at least 4.5 tonnes to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km. (Xinhua/Zhou Jiayi)

WENCHANG, Hainan, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its new generation carrier rocket Long March-8 Y2 between late February and early March from the southern island of Hainan, sources with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's leading rocket maker, said on Friday.

The rocket arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center Friday after a week of ocean transport. It will undergo final assembly and testing at the launch site. The scheduled Long March-8 mission will be China's first rocket launch this year.

A two-stage medium-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-8 is 50.3 meters long, with a takeoff weight of 356 tonnes. It uses liquid propellants with a 5-tonne capacity for sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

Designed for both land and sea launches, the rocket made its maiden flight on Dec. 22, 2020, at the Wenchang coastal launch site.

The rocket has filled the gap in China's launch capability to the sun-synchronous orbit and satisfied the needs of high-density launch missions for medium and low-orbit spacecraft.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
OCEAN CITY  A judge has dismissed Ocean City from a federal lawsuit over a beach umbrella getting caught in the wind and impaling a woman.

The lawsuit filed in June 2021 claimed that negligence on the part of the town and the rental company that owned the umbrella led to Jill Mendygrals injuries, The Daily Times reported.

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A judge granted a motion to dismiss the claim against Ocean City on Jan. 13 but extended the chance for the plaintiff to file an updated complaint with more details.

Facts shared in the judges opinion show that Mendygral, of Pennsylvania, was on the beach in 2018 when a wind advisory was in effect. An umbrella became dislodged from the sand and (flew) into the air, violently stabbing Plaintiff in her chest, according to the document.

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She was taken to a hospital for emergency surgery, and the lawsuit claimed she was left with severe and permanent injuries.

The lawsuit argued that Ocean City was aware of the risks related to open beach umbrellas amid heavy wind but didnt warn beachgoers.

A judge sided with the town, which said it was protected by governmental immunity and owed no duty of care to plaintiff under a provision that limits liability for landowners who make their property available for recreational use by the public.

While Ocean City cant be sued directly in this instance, the judges opinion says a claim can be brought against an individual worker because Mendygral alleges vicarious liability on the part of Ocean City for the acts of its employees.

The judge has given the plaintiff 21 days to amend the complaint by either naming an individual or John Doe defendant.
New Delhi: S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, spoke separately with his counterparts in Kuwait and Qatar on Saturday and discussed a range of issues, including Afghanistan.

The External Affairs Minister stated in a tweet that it was a pleasure to speak with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmed Nasser Mohammed Al-Sabah and discuss the bilateral relationship's progress.

"We have agreed to convene our Joint Commission as soon as possible. Additionally, regional issues ranging from West Asia and the Gulf to Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific were discussed "said Jaishankar. In another tweet, the External Affairs Minister stated that he had a positive conversation with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, which included an exchange of views on Afghanistan-related developments.

"Additionally, we discussed our bilateral, economic, and energy cooperation. We eagerly await the Joint Commission's meeting "said Jaishankar.

Tamil Nadu CM writes to EAM Jaishankar on fishermen release

Qatar signs an agreement to supply natural gas to Gaza's only power plant

Algeria's 4-year victory campaign comes to a halt
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced that it has submitted its Instrument of Ratification (IOR) for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.

According to the ministry release, the IOR was submitted to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretariat on January 17, with the agreement taking effect for Malaysia on March 18.

The Ministry statement read - that the RCEP would give Malaysia's economy a great boost and improve the global trading system, particularly in light of the pandemic, which has made international trade and collaboration more crucial than ever.

"It is worth noting that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a testament to efforts to improve not only the multilateral trading system, but also regional economic integration and the World Trade Organization's (WTO) development goal," it stated.

"The pandemic has highlighted the critical relevance of worldwide trade and cooperation, as well as regional supply chain interconnections. In this sense, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) would be a critical enabler for Malaysia in reviving local and international economic operations following the epidemic "It was also added.

According to the Ministry, Malaysia is likely to benefit the most from the RCEP agreement in terms of increased exports, with a projected $200 million rise as a result of tariff elimination and reduction for merchandise items, as well as the simplicity of goods export and import.

European Union sets up embassy in Kabul

Turkey ready to arbitrate between Russia,Ukraine for regional peace: Erdogan

Egypt imposes further travel restrictions amid Covid-19 outbreak
Recently John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary said that the US continues to seek full and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and believes diplomacy is the best approach to achieve this goal.

According to Yonhap News Agency, he also stressed the significance of properly executing UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions to prevent the North from further expanding its missile capabilities.

"Clearly, we don't want North Korea's missile program to continue to represent a threat to our South Korean partners or the area." So we continue to call on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to get down and talk about the path ahead," Kirby said at a press conference here on Friday. 

''In view of this, we haven't changed our views. We want the peninsula to be completely and verifiably de-nuclearized. We believe diplomacy is the greatest path to pursue in order to get there, and we're prepared to sit down with no strings attached," he continued.

North Korea suggested on Thursday that it may consider reviving "all temporarily-suspended operations," including nuclear and long-range missile tests. Since November 2017, Pyongyang has kept a self-imposed embargo on nuclear and long-range missile testing. North Korea made the announcement after launching four short-range missiles at the beginning of the year.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in returns after 3-nation trip

Philippine islands jolted by 6.5-magnitude earthquake; no tsunami alert issued

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum has been rescheduled, Check Details
" " St. Vincent performs on stage during the SKOOKUM Festival at Stanley Park on Sept. 8, 2018 in Vancouver, Canada. Andrew Chin/Getty Images

St. Vincent has taken on a sort of mythical status in the indie music world. Maybe it's because she was the first woman to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in two decades. Perhaps it's thanks to that superbly weird collaboration with the Talking Heads' David Byrne. Or maybe it's just that the woman formerly known as Anne Clark has a unique way of melding guitars and pianos with trumpets, flutes, saxophones and other instruments to create a mash up of electropop, shoegazing and jazz.

Whatever the reason, St. Vincent's indelible approach to music is likely to help shape artists for generations to come. Now, her turn at designing instruments may also make it easier for the next generation of women rockers to shred.

Advertisement

Clark recently partnered with the guitar makers at Ernie Ball Music Man to design her own signature six string. The plug-in electric guitar is meant to be an ergonomic alternative to popular instruments, especially for women. It features a lightweight African mahogany body and premium roasted maple neck with St. Vincent signature custom inlays with a rosewood, ebony or maple fretboard. The lighter body and higher neck make the guitar easier to play while sitting down or standing.

"There's room for a breast. Or two," St. Vincent said in a promo video for the guitar. That led many music fans to assume that the St. Vincent guitar was specifically designed for women. But St. Vincent has since made clear that this axe wasn't necessarily crafted just for the ladies. Jack White and Beck are among the artists who have strapped on the St. Vincent guitar for live performances.

Now That's Interesting The "Frying Pan" a 1932 aluminum steel lap guitar equipped with electromagnets to pick up string vibrations is widely considered the first electric guitar.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation - Beasley ProjectGlobal Credit Research - 21 Jan 2022New York, January 21, 2022 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation - Beasley Project and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review discussion held on 18 January 2022 in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.Key rating considerations are summarized below.Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC) Beasley Project's A1 rating reflects Beasley's strong financial performance due to the incremental revenues and cash flow it receives from the PJM capacity auction that complements the stable cash flow received from its seven participants that jointly have a mid-A weighted average credit quality. Over the past three years (2018-2020), Beasley's fixed obligation charge coverage (FOCC) ratio has averaged almost 4.0x, and liquidity restricted to the project continues to be robust at 1,851 days cash on hand in 2020. The legal framework includes a standard 25% step-up provision, which is still insufficient to cover a possible default by its largest participant, the city of Newark (Aa2), a remote risk that is mitigated by the city's strong credit quality.This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.The principal methodology used for this review was US Municipal Joint Action Agencies Methodology published in August 2020. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.This announcement applies only to EU rated, UK rated, EU endorsed and UK endorsed ratings. 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Boris Epshteyn, a strategic adviser for Donald Trumps 2020 presidential campaign, was pressed Friday about his role in efforts to legitimize alleged pro-Trump electors from states that Joe Biden won.

Is that something you ever worked on or would support, for example, in Michigan? MSNBC host Ari Melber asked him.

Yes, I was part of the process to make sure there were alternate electors for when, as we hoped, the challenges to the seated electors would be heard, and would be successful, Epshteyn replied, echoing his comments to The Washington Post, which revealed new details about the plot in a report Thursday.

Then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, it noted, oversaw the effort. This reportedly involved helping pro-Trump electors access state Capitol buildings, drafting language for phony electoral certificates to send to the federal government, and finding replacements for electors who didnt want to go along with the plot to subvert the will of the American people.

Throughout the interview with Melber, Epshteyn repeated false claims about election fraud, and cited the 1960 presidential election in Hawaii as a precedent for alternate electors even though those circumstances were different. Epshteyn also contended that everything he did was legal.

So, Ari, everything that was done was done legally by the Trump legal team according to the rules and under the leadership of Rudy Giuliani, he claimed.

Fraudulent election certificates were submitted to Congress and the National Archives by Republicans claiming to be pro-Trump electors in at least five states, Michigan among them. Last week, that states attorney general handed over her case to federal prosecutors, commenting, I think that youre talking about a conspiracy, really, to overthrow the United States government.

Epshteyn was among several Big Lie proponents subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday. He was also part of a command center at Washington, D.C.s Willard Hotel that aimed to prevent Congress from certifying Bidens election win on Jan. 6.

Story continues

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In the face of daily pandemic-induced upheavals, the notion of "business as usual" can often seem a quaint and distant notion to today's workforce. But even before we all got stuck in never-ending Zoom meetings, the logistics and transportation sectors (like much of America's economy) were already subtly shifting in the face of continuing advances in robotics, machine learning and autonomous navigation technologies.

In their new book, The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines, an interdisciplinary team of MIT researchers (leveraging insights gleaned from MIT's multi-year Task Force on the Work of the Future) exam the disconnect between improvements in technology and the benefits derived by workers from those advancements. It's not that America is rife with "low-skill workers" as New York's new mayor seems to believe, but rather that the nation is saturated with low-wage, low-quality positions  positions which are excluded from the ever-increasing perks and paychecks enjoyed by knowledge workers. The excerpt below examines the impact vehicular automation will have on rank and file employees, rather than the Musks of the world.

The Work of the Future by Autor, Mindell, Reynolds published by MIT Press

Excerpted from The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines by David Autor, David A. Mindell and Elisabeth B. Reynolds. Reprinted with permission from the MIT PRESS. Copyright 2022.

THE ROBOTS YOU CAN SEE: DRIVERLESS CARS, WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION, AND MANUFACTURING

Few sectors better illustrate the promises and fears of robotics than autonomous cars and trucks. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are essentially highspeed wheeled industrial robots powered by cutting-edge technologies of perception, machine learning, decision-making, regulation, and user interfaces. Their cultural and symbolic resonance has brought AVs to the forefront of excited press coverage about new technology and has sparked large investments of capital, making a potentially driverless future a focal point for hopes and fears of a new era of automation.

Story continues

The ability to transport goods and people across the landscape under computer control embodies a dream of twenty-first-century technology, and also the potential for massive social change and displacement. In a driverless future, accidents and fatalities could drop significantly. The time that people waste stuck in traffic could be recovered for work or leisure. Urban landscapes might change, requiring less parking and improving safety and efficiency for all. New models for the distribution of goods and services promise a world where people and objects move effortlessly through the physical world, much as bits move effortlessly through the internet.

As recently as a decade ago, it was common to dismiss the notion of driverless cars coming to roads in any form. Federally supported university research in robotics and autonomy had evolved for two generations and had just begun to yield advances in military robotics. Yet today, virtually every carmaker in the world, plus many startups, have engaged to redefine mobility. The implications for job disruption are massive. The auto industry itself accounts for just over 5 percent of all private sector jobs, according to one estimate. Millions more work as drivers and in the web of companies that service and maintain these vehicles.

Task Force members John J. Leonard and David A. Mindell have both participated in the development of these technologies and, with graduate student Erik L. Stayton, have studied their implications. Their research suggests that the grand visions of automation in mobility will not be fully realized in the space of a few years.15 The variability and complexity of real-world driving conditions require the ability to adapt to unexpected situations that current technologies have not yet mastered. The recent tragedies and scandals surrounding the death of 346 people in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes stemming from flawed software and the accidents involving self-driving car-testing programs on public roads have increased public and regulatory scrutiny, adding caution about how quickly these technologies will be widely dispersed. The software in driverless cars remains more complex and less deterministic than that in airliners; we still lack technology and techniques to certify it as safe. Some even argue that solving for generalized autonomous driving is tantamount to solving for AGI.

Analysis of the best available data suggests that the reshaping of mobility around autonomy will take more than a decade and will proceed in phases, beginning with systems limited to specific geographies such as urban or campus shuttles (such as the recent product announcement from Zoox, an American AV company). Trucking and delivery are also likely use cases for early adoption, and several leading developers are focusing on these applications both in a fully autonomous mode and as augmented, convoy systems led by human drivers. In late 2020, in a telling shift for the industry from robotaxis to logistics, Uber sold its driverless car unit, having spent billions of dollars with few results. The unit was bought by Amazon-backed Aurora to focus the technology on trucking. More automated systems will eventually spread as technological barriers are overcome, but current fears about a rapid elimination of driving jobs are not supported.

AVs, whether cars, trucks, or buses, combine the industrial heritage of Detroit and the millennial optimism and disruption of Silicon Valley with a DARPA-inspired military vision of unmanned weapons. Truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, auto mechanics, and insurance adjusters are but a few of the workers expected to be displaced or complemented. This transformation will come in conjunction with a shift toward full electric technology, which would also eliminate some jobs while creating others. Electric cars require fewer parts than conventional cars, for instance, and the shift to electric vehicles will reduce work supplying motors, transmissions, fuel injection systems, pollution control systems, and the like. This change too will create new demands, such as for large scale battery production (that said, the power-hungry sensors and computing of AVs will at least partially offset the efficiency gains of electric cars). AVs may well emerge as part of an evolving mobility ecosystem as a variety of innovations, including connected cars, new mobility business models, and innovations in urban transit, converge to reshape how we move people and goods from place to place.

TRANSPORTATION JOBS IN A DRIVERLESS WORLD

The narrative on AVs suggests the replacement of human drivers by AI-based software systems, themselves created by a few PhD computer scientists in a lab. This is, however, a simplistic reading of the technological transition currently under way, as MIT researchers discovered through their work in Detroit. It is true that AV development organizations tend to have a higher share of workers with advanced degrees compared to the traditional auto industry. Even so, implementation of AV systems requires efforts at all levels, from automation supervision by safety drivers to remote managing and dispatching to customer service and maintenance roles on the ground.

Take, for instance, a current job description for site supervisor at a major AV developer. The job responsibilities entail overseeing a team of safety drivers focused in particular on customer satisfaction and reporting feedback on mechanical and vehicle-related issues. The job offers a mid-range salary with benefits, does not require a two- or four-year degree, but does require at least one year of leadership experience and communication skills. Similarly, despite the highly sophisticated machine learning and computer vision algorithms, AV systems rely on technicians routinely calibrating and cleaning various sensors both on the vehicle and in the built environment. The job description for field autonomy technician to maintain AV systems provides a mid-range salary, does not require a four-year degree, and generally requires only background knowledge of vehicle repair and electronics. Some responsibilities are necessary for implementation  including inventorying and budgeting repair parts and hands-on physical workbut not engineering.

The scaling up of AV systems, when it happens, will create many more such jobs, and others devoted to ensuring safety and reliability. Simultaneously, an AV future will require explicit strategies to enable workers displaced from traditional driving roles to transition to secure employment.

A rapid emergence of AVs would be highly disruptive for workers since the US has more than three million commercial vehicle drivers. These drivers are often people with high school or lower education or immigrants with language barriers. Leonard, Mindell, and Stayton conclude that a slower adoption timeline will ease the impact on workers, enabling current drivers to retire and younger workers to get trained to fill newly created roles, such as monitoring mobile fleets. Again, realistic adoption timelines provide opportunities for shaping technology, adoption, and policy. A 2018 report by Task Force Research Advisory Board member Susan Helper and colleagues discusses a range of plausible scenarios and found the employment impact of AVs to be proportional to the time to widespread adoption. Immediate, sudden automation of the fleet would, of course, put millions out of work, whereas a thirty-year adoption timeline could be accommodated by retirements and generational change.

Meanwhile, car-and-truck makers already make vehicles that augment rather than replace drivers. These products include high-powered cruise control and warning systems frequently found on vehicles sold today. At some level, replacement-type driverless cars will be competing with augmentation-type computer-assisted human drivers. In aviation, this competition went on for decades before unmanned aircraft found their niches, while human-piloted aircraft became highly augmented by automation. When they did arrive, unmanned aircraft such as the US Air Forces Predator and Reaper vehicles required many more people to operate than traditional aircraft and offered completely novel capabilities, such as persistent, twenty-four-hour surveillance.

Based on the current state of knowledge, we estimate a slow shift toward systems that require no driver, even in trucking, one of the easier use cases, with limited use by 2030. Overall shifts in other modes, including passenger cars, are likely to be no faster.

Even when its achieved, a future of AVs will not be jobless. New business models, potentially entirely new industrial sectors, will be spurred by the technology. New roles and specialties will appear in expert, technical fields of engineering of AV systems and vehicle information technologies. Automation supervision or safety driver roles will be critical for levels of automation that will come before fully automated driving. Remote management or dispatcher, roles will bring drivers into control rooms and require new skills of interacting with automation. New customer service, field support technician, and maintenance roles will also appear. Perhaps most important, creative use of the technology will enable new businesses and services that are difficult to imagine today. When passenger cars displaced equestrian travel and the myriad occupations that supported it in the 1920s, the roadside motel and fast-food industries rose up to serve the motoring public. How will changes in mobility, for example, enable and shape changes in distribution and consumption?

Equally important are the implications of new technologies for how people get to work. As with other new technologies, introducing expensive new autonomous cars into existing mobility ecosystems will just perpetuate existing inequalities of access and opportunity if institutions that support workers dont evolve as well. In a sweeping study of work, inequality, and transit in the Detroit region, Task Force researchers noted that most workers building Model T and Model A Fords on the early assembly lines traveled to work on streetcars, using Detroits then highly developed system. In the century since, particularly in Detroit, but also in cities all across the country, public transit has been an essential service for many workers, but it has also been an instrument facilitating institutional racism, urban flight to job-rich suburbs, and inequality. Public discourse and political decisions favoring highway construction often denigrated and undermined mass transit, with racial undertones. As a result, Black people and other minorities are much more likely to lack access to personal vehicles.

Technology alone cannot remedy the mobility constraints that workers face, the study concludes, and will perpetuate existing inequities absent institutional change. As with other technologies, deploying new technologies in old systems of transportation will exacerbate their inequalities by shifting attention toward what is new and away from what is useful, practical, and needed. Innovating in institutions is as important as innovating in machines; recent decades have seen encouraging pilot programs, but more must be done to scale those pilots to broader use and ensure accountability to the communities they intend to serve. Transportation offers a unique site of political possibility.
Belgian-British teenage pilot Zara Rutherford, aboard her a Shark ultralight, holds certificates after landing back at the end of her solo round-the-world trip in her Belgian home town of Kortrijk

John Thys/Getty Images

A 19-year-old pilot has just become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo in an ultralight aircraft.

Zara Rutherford made history this week when she landed at Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium, completing her 32,300-mile journey around the world, CNN reported.

After five months, 41 countries, and several unexpected challenges, Rutherford completed her solo around-the-globe voyage and broke two different Guinness World Records.

A dual citizen of Belgium and the United Kingdom, Rutherford left for her mission on Aug. 18, 2021, believing that her journey around the globe would take about three months. But due to weather and visa issues along the way, her travel time increased by eight weeks for a total of 199 days.

Rutherford also faced issues in California and was forced to make an unscheduled landing due to wildfires in Seattle. She was also denied permission to fly over China, was delayed in both Russia and Alaska, and battled bad weather along the way.

"I would say the hardest part was definitely flying over Siberia  it was extremely cold. It was minus 35 degrees Celsius on the ground," Rutherford said during a press conference after landing she told CNN. "If the engine were to stall, I'd be hours away from rescue and I don't know how long I could have survived for."

Throughout her journey, Rutherford flew to destinations like Singapore, Egypt, and Costa Rica. But due to COVID-19 restrictions, she was unable to explore any of the destinations on land.

The teen also became the first Belgian to fly around the world solo and the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight aircraft.

To no one's surprise, both of Rutherford's parents are pilots. And although she began learning to fly when she was 14, she didn't earn her pilot's license until 2020. Rutherford is currently on a gap year and plans to attend university in September to study computer engineering.

The previous record for the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe solo was held by Shaesta Waiz, who set the record in 2017 when she was 30 years old.

Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure, currently based in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or at caileyrizzo.com.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has compared the Biden administrations vaccine mandates to medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany.

During an interview with anti-vaxxer Dr Robert Malone on Friday, Mr Carlson said, I thought that we had a kind of consensus.

I mean, after watching what the imperial Japanese army and the Nazis did in their medical experiments, I thought that American physicians agreed that compulsory medical care was unethical, it was immoral and it could never be imposed on anyone. When did we forget that? he added.

Apparently about a year ago, I think yesterday, was when we must have forgotten that, although Mr Biden prior to his election made clear statements that he wasnt going to force vaccination, Dr Malone said, referring to President Joe Bidens inauguration on 20 January 2021.

No, I dont think [vaccines] should be mandatory, Mr Biden said on 4 December 2020 after winning the election but before entering office. I wouldnt demand to be mandatory, but I would do everything in my power.

A federal judge in Texas struck down the administrations vaccine mandate for federal employees on Friday.

The White House has said that 98 per cent of federal employees have been vaccinated or are requesting a religious or medical exemption. The administration added that they were sure they had the legal authority to impose the mandate.

The US Supreme Court blocked a mandate earlier this month for larger businesses but allowed healthcare centres to impose mandates. Last month, a judge blocked a mandate for federal contractors.

Mr Carlson has pushed conspiracy theories about the effects of the vaccines and encouraged resistance to mandates, despite Fox News having one for its staff.

More than 864,000 people have died because of Covid-19 in the US. Government data shows that 75.4 per cent of those who are eligible have had at least one dose of the vaccine, with 63.3 per cent having had two doses, and 39.5 per cent having received a booster shot.

Story continues

Mr Carlsons comparison to the Nazis comes shortly after Fox contributor Lara Logan was dropped by the network after she compared Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

Thank you for bringing up the Nuremberg trials, Tucker, Dr Malone said on Friday, referring to the post-World War II trials of Nazi officials. They are crucial biomedical ethics matter. And this is frankly illegal and Im so glad that the courts are making it clear.

Its unfortunate that so many federal workers and so many members of our military had been forced to take these products while theyre still experimental, against their will, he added.

Social media users slammed Mr Carlson for his comments.

Comparing Nazi experiments on Jews during the Holocaust to getting life-saving vaccines during a global pandemic is peak despicable, filmmaker Jeremy Newberger tweeted. The comparison belittles the atrocities of the Holocaust and contributes to ignorant society. Tucker Carlson knows this. Its why he does it.

Yea, no. Ill check with my dad and ask him how he felt about getting a tattoo while his brother and parents were murdered, Terry Blumenstein wrote. Not the same. Not even close.

Tucker is vaccinated! Auschwitz prisoners did not choose to undergo Mengeles ghoulish experiments. Tucker usually raises my bile, but this is well beyond the pale for me whose father in law was an actual Auschwitz survivor. Shame is in short supply at Fox. They should find some, Jeff Leon added.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back Friday against the uproar over a comment he made about African American voters, calling the criticism directed his way outrageous.

McConnell had been accused of racism for saying that African American voters cast ballots at similar rates to Americans. The comment implied that Black voters are somehow not American and underscored the concerns of voting rights advocates that Republicans in state legislatures across the country are explicitly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters.

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Following a speech Friday at an annual conference in Louisville, the Republican leader said he misspoke Wednesday when he made the comment during a Washington news conference.

Ive never been accused of this sort of thing before, and its hurtful and offensive, he said. And I think some of the critics know its totally nonsense.

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McConnell on Wednesday had said that African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans. McConnell explained on Friday that he should have said the word all before Americans.

He also defended his record on race by noting that he attended the Rev. Martin Luther Kings March on Washington in 1963. He also said he helped organize a civil rights march at Kentuckys state Capitol and was present when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

When asked what he would say to those who had been offended by his words, McConnell said he would discuss his record relating to voting rights, and brought up his role as a mentor to Kentuckys Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is Black and one of many Republicans who came to the minority leaders defense this week.

I think he would confirm with you that I recruited him to run. Ive supported him, and Im proud of him, McConnell said. I have had African American speechwriters, schedulers, office managers over the years.

Charles Booker, a Kentucky Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, had been among many who had blasted the Republican earlier in the week. Booker, who is Black, did not back down from criticizing McConnell on Friday.

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Mitch McConnell wants you to know its fine for him to block Voting Rights because he has Black friends, tweeted Booker, who unsuccessfully ran for McConnells seat in 2020 and is challenging GOP Sen. Rand Paul this year.

McConnell tried to rebuff concerns among Democrats that GOP state lawmakers across the country are trying to disenfranchise minority voters by pointing to record-high turnout for all voters in the 2020 election.

Federal legislation like the kind he and other GOP lawmakers blocked on Wednesday also wasnt necessary, he said, because the Voting Rights Act was still law and concerns over specific state voting laws could be worked out through the court system.

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They co-opted Congressman Lewis name, stuck it on a bill that really was not related to the Voting Rights Act  in order to try to achieve a partisan advantage by federalizing election laws, McConnell said, referencing the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

The part of the bill named after Lewis, the late civil rights leader and Democratic congressman from Georgia, would have updated the Voting Rights Act and was a direct response to a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the laws oversight of states with a history of discriminating against Black and other minority voters.

___

Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Rating Action: Moody's affirms enhanced Aa2 on Vermont Municipal Bond Bank's (VT) Vermont State Colleges System bondsGlobal Credit Research - 21 Jan 2022New York, January 21, 2022 -- Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the enhanced Aa2 ratings on bonds issued by the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank (d/b/a Vermont Bond Bank (VBB)), VT's on behalf of the Vermont State Colleges System (VSCS). VSCS recorded $104 million of total debt outstanding as of June 30, 2021.RATINGS RATIONALEThe Aa2 enhanced rating incorporates the program-level Aa2 rating of the Vermont State Aid Intercept Program, which is notched off of the State of Vermont's general obligation rating, as well as financing-level attributes related to sufficiency of the financing structure. The Aa2 rating for the financing-level rating is the same as the Aa2 programmatic rating due to the debt service coverage of interceptable revenues in excess of 100%, sufficient timing of state aid payments relative to debt service payments, and more than adequate notice of shortfalls to the Vermont Bond Bank and state treasurer, to ensure timely state treasurer debt service transfers to the trustee. Should there be an insufficiency for debt service, the state treasurer would transfer appropriation amounts to cure the shortfall within 24 calendar days and no less than 8 calendar days before the applicable payment due date (September 23 for the October 1 debt service payment and March 24 for the April 1 debt service payment).FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATINGS- Upgrade of the state or programmatic intercept ratingFACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS- Downgrade of the state or programmatic intercept rating- Reduction in debt service coverage by interceptable funds- Observation that the program does not function as contemplatedLEGAL SECURITYThe Vermont State Colleges System Series 2017A and 2020A bonds, outstanding in the amount of approximately $92 million at fiscal end 2021, are special and direct obligations of the VBB. The VSCS bonds are secured under a separate resolution from the approximately $606 million in outstanding bonds secured by the bank's General Resolution municipal pool. There is a first lien on the VSCS bonds, VSCS bond payments, all other monies and securities in the funds, and accounts established under the general bond resolution. There is no required debt service reserve established for the Series 2017A or 2020A bonds. Under a loan agreement between VSCS and VBB, the system is required to make loan payments to the VBB one month in advance of debt service payments due to bondholders.Fiscal 2021 actual appropriations totaled $60.2 million, of which $59.1 was available as interceptable funds, and covered debt service on the Series 2017A and 2020A bonds by 13.4x. Fiscal 2022 appropriations are budgeted at $57.4 million, with the $35.3 million available as interceptable funds covering debt service by 5.3x.PROFILEThe Vermont Bond Bank is an instrumentality of the state created in 1969 to facilitate governmental unit borrowing at a lower cost. Nearly all of VBB's revenues comprise loan repayments from governmental unit borrowers, including the Vermont State Colleges.Vermont State Colleges System is a consortium of public colleges created in 1961 governed by a common board of trustees, a chancellor and Council of Presidents. Component include three 4-year residential colleges (Castleton University, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Technical College) and the Community College of Vermont. Beginning in 2020, VSCS is undergoing a transformation that will consolidate three of its four institutions into one single accredited entity by July 1, 2023. When fully transitioned over a multi-year period, VSCS will be comprised of Vermont State University and the CCV. Combined full time equivalent (FTE) enrollment across the system was 8,079 in fall 2021.METHODOLOGYThe principal methodology used in these ratings was State Aid Intercept Programs and Financings published in December 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1067422. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.REGULATORY DISCLOSURESFor further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. 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Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1288235.The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. 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Terry Shraders 66-year-old mother, who already has trouble breathing, went to a Richmond-area hospital last week when her condition worsened.

She had gotten her COVID-19 booster a few days earlier and thought she might be having a reaction. Instead, the Louisa County woman tested positive for COVID on top of having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The lung disease blocks airflow and her oxygen level had dipped to 87 percent when normal rates are usually in the high 90s.

Hospital workers told her they didnt have a bed available and sent her home with steroids and antibiotics, Shrader said. If her condition worsened, she was told to call an ambulance again and the hospital staff would treat her, although she might have to sleep in the hallway because no rooms were available, her son said.

He was a bit alarmed. His mother has had COPD flareups about once a year and typically is hospitalized immediately.

I was like, dang, if shes got all that, these people in the hospital who got admitted, they must really be bad off, said Shrader, a former Fredericksburg-area resident. He noted that his mother started to see some improvement the following day.

While COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations have dropped somewhat from previous sky-high rates, the experience of Shraders mother illustrates that medical facilities across Virginia continue to be overwhelmed.

In the three hospitals in the Rappahannock Area Health District, which covers Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford, about 200 people were being treated for COVID symptoms each day last week. Thats down from the pandemic high of 215 patients on Jan. 13.

But for Mary Washington Hospital, which has treated the majority of local virus patients since March 2020, the volumes are still huge, said Dr. M. Stephen Mandell Jr., senior medical director of Mary Washington Healthcare.

Our intensive care unit has not received relief and we are still seeing a percentage of these patients critically ill, he stated in an email. This is our greatest stress point currently.

To put the impact of the omicron surge in perspective, consider the number of patients on Thanksgiving Day, when the fast-spreading variant first made the news. There were 39 people in local hospitals then.

The number doubled by Christmas Eve and that number doubled again by the first week of January. Patient counts continued to rise through Jan. 13, then started to decline slightly.

But because Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital have had more sick people than they could accommodate, MWHC launched a Safe at Home program. COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms who are well enough to go home are set up with digital thermometers, oxygen tanks and tubes and a pulse oximeter that fits over the finger and measures the level of oxygen in the blood.

For seven days, registered nurses who operate the systems triage line call the patients, check their status and offer any support, Mandell said. Two virtual appointments with physicians are made during the week, then an in-person visit is scheduled at the two-week mark.

In the first week of the program, 13 patients with COVID-19 were being monitored at home, Mandell said. They were not included in daily counts of those hospitalized. None of the patients got worse and had to be admitted, the doctor said, adding that MWHC will continue with the program even after the surge abates.

Not only does it allow people to recover in the comfort of their homes, but it also lets a hospital use its most intensive resources on the sickest patients. Mandell stressed that no one with severe illness would be sent home.

The program doesnt limit patient care; it expands support for outpatient care, offering aggressive, early intervention that results in early recovery, Mandell said.

While health care workers at MWHC continue to face unusually high numbers of COVID patients, Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center has seen virus counts decline, said Dr. Jennea Correia, vice chair of the emergency medicine department.

Im hoping that weve peaked and that were continuing to come down, she said.

The Spotsylvania hospital doesnt disclose patient counts, but Correia said it reached its all-time pandemic peak in the first days of January, then numbers dropped the following week. Fewer people were coming to the ER for COVID tests, said Correia, an emergency room doctor.

She doubted the decline is due to the hospital posting on Facebook in no uncertain terms that its not a testing facility. Spotsylvania Regional, along with a statewide hospital organization, asked people with virus symptoms to please visit an urgent care or their primary care provider to be tested.

I think it may just be a decline in cases because the peak may be over or almost over, she said.

Local, state and national case counts for COVID-19 seem to be following a similar trend as hospitalizations. Numbers are falling, but theyre still at incredibly high levels.

In the local health district, an average of 532 people tested positive each day for the last week, according to Fridays state data. Thats compared with an average of 807 people a day the week before.

But once again, the numbers from Thanksgiving Daywhen there was an average of 83 new cases a day over a week-long periodindicate how high the numbers have soared.

April Achter put it another way. Shes the population health coordinator for the RappahannockRapidan Health District, which includes Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange and two other counties.

The United States is averaging more than 800,000 cases of COVID-19 and 1,900 deaths per day, she wrote in an update. These are staggering numbers and it can be easy to look at them in the abstract. But these numbers are people, our friends, our family, our loved ones.

She pointed out that a Boeing 747 holds about 400 passengers. Daily COVID-19 deaths are the equivalent of four 747s crashing each day with no survivors.

This is one of the most deadly diseases in history, Achter said. And that metric doesnt include other impacts to our society.

Even if local numbers are starting to drop somewhat, we are by no means out of the woods yet and we cannot become complacent, said Mary Chamberlin, public information officer for the Rappahannock Area Health District.

She stressed the ongoing importance of safety measures: vaccinations, booster shots and higher-grade masks such as N95 or KN95, along with social distancing, hand washing and staying home when sick.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies that offered evidence that people who had been vaccinatedand boostedhad the best protection against both delta and omicron variants. The studies were the first large ones in the United States to look at vaccine protection against omicron, according to the CDC, and the results mirrored similar studies in Germany, South Africa and the U.K.

While the CDC reported that the three shots offer the most protection, booster rates are low in Virginia. Across the state, about one-third of those fully vaccinated, ages 12 and older, have gotten a booster shot, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The rate is lower in the Rappahannock Area Health District. Of the 204,038 fully vaccinated people eligible for boosters, only 26 percent, or 81,016 local residents, have gotten them, according to state data.

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Stafford and Caroline public schools will continue to require students, staff and visitors to wear masks, despite Gov. Glenn Youngkins order allowing parents to opt their students out of the mandate.

The Stafford County School Board approved a motion Thursday night to continue maskingwith exceptions for those with certain health conditions, disabilities or individual education plans as were enumerated in the Aug. 1 health commissioners public health orderby a vote of 52, with newly seated members Alyssa Halstead and Maureen Siegmund voting no.

Caroline County Public Schools also announced Thursday that masks will still be required after Youngkins executive order goes into effect Monday.

CCPS will follow Virginia and federal laws and continue to implement layered mitigation strategies including masking for all students, staff and visitors inside school buildings and on CCPS buses/cars, school division officials communicated to staff and parents Thursday.

In Stafford, School Board Vice Chair Susan Randall proposed the motion to continue the mask requirement following a nearly two-hour closed session with the boards attorney. Randall said she supports continuing the mandate because she believes a state law requiring masks supersedes Youngkins executive order.

I am not in favor of [masking], but I have to uphold the law, so thats where my support ends, Randall said.

Board members Sarah Chase, Patricia Healy, Maya Guy and Elizabeth Warner also said they are upholding state law by continuing to require masking. Youngkins executive order allowing parents to opt out of any existing mask mandate is being challenged in the Virginia Supreme Court by a group of parents from Chesapeake, who contend that it is in direct conflict with existing state law.

I will be supporting this motion because I believe the law is what needs to be upheld here, Healy said. This case is before the Virginia Supreme Court and if the Supreme Court decides the executive order has precedence, this board will be back with another session. But until that time, I feel its my duty to enforce the law.

Siegmund and Halstead said they are not convinced that state law supersedes the executive order.

I did not come out of closed session with a clear belief that we would be violating state law by considering a parental opt out, Siegmund said. It requires further discussion.

Halstead said she does not believe the School Board has the authority to remove parental consent on any level or any basis.

It doesnt sit well with me and I wont support usurping the authority of parents, she said.

Youngkins executive order directs the state health commissioner to remove the August 2021 public health order that required masks in school settings with exceptions for certain health conditions or while exercising, eating or playing a musical instrument.

Staffords motion specifically includes those same exemptions, board members said. It also directs Superintendent Thomas Taylor to share with parents the process for applying allowable exemptions.

I hope parents take a look at the list of opportunities that may include something for their child, Randall said.

Stafford and Caroline join Fredericksburg City Public Schools in maintaining the mask mandate. The Spotsylvania School Board voted earlier this week to drop its mask mandate and King George County schools are allowing parents to opt their children out of wearing masks.

The Caroline school systems announcement said it considered state law as laid out in Senate Bill 1303; federal Department of Transportation regulation requiring masks on public transportation; the CDCs recommendation that all students, staff, teachers and visitors in K12 schools; and the rate of COVID-19 transmission in the county and school division.

The Virginia Department of Health dashboard for Caroline County as of Jan. 17 reported high community transmission of the virus, with 1,481 cases and a 44.6 percent positivity rate. The Caroline school system has had 137 positive cases and 247 quarantines among staff and students since the return from winter break and the snowstorm on Jan. 11.

The division said it recognizes the varied, individual perspectives associated with masking, but noted that it also must fulfill a legal responsibility to provide in-person instruction in the midst of a health pandemic.

While no single masking decision aligns with every persons desired outcome, we hope this information supports greater understanding as we continue to evaluate the impact of evolving pandemic guidance, the division statement said.

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Two things about the life and death of Pfc. Glenn Campbell have amazed his nephew, David Sims of Austin, Texas.

That a letter Campbell wrote in 1945 would seemingly fall out of the sky and land in Sims lap 77 years later has been almost as incredible as three generations of the same family caring for his uncles grave since 1946.

Growing up, Sims said his mother and grandmother didnt talk much about the loss of Campbell, probably because it was too painful for them. Sims tried to find out more as he got older, but never knew until this century that his uncles grave had been adopted by a family in the Netherlands.

In the early 2000s, his mother, Dortha, got a call out of the blue. A man in the Netherlands was seeking information about relatives of a soldier buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

Thinking it was a scam, she passed the info along to Sims, who decided to reach out to Robin Huijnen. Sims learned the Dutchman is the third generation of his family to voluntarily put flowers and flags on Campbells grave since the year after the war ended.

Sims asked his mother about it and was even more shocked when she pulled out a box of letters written in the late 40s between the Campbells and Huijnens.

Marie Huijnen, Robins grandmother, formally adopted the grave. A letter from the Civilian Committee Margraten to the Campbell family in July 1946 explained the arrangement.

There are absolutely no expenses, it stated about the grave, which would be maintained by the cemetery but regularly decorated by the volunteers. We want to show you our undying gratitude.

Marie Huijnen exchanged letters with Glenn Campbells mother, who was so grateful her son wasnt being forgotten that she sent the Huijnens various items they couldnt find overseas.

Sims thought the care packages sent in those days were just random items, but there was an effort called the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE, that arranged the packages. Americans were encouraged to spend $10which equates to about $143 todayand select from a variety of CARE packages.

The standard box included 7 pounds of flour, 3 pounds of meat, 2 pounds of shortening, sugar, whole milk powder, chocolate, fruit, egg powder and soap. There were others filled with sewing materials, nursery items or baby food.

At that time in Europe, it was just terrible, Sims said. You couldnt get anything. In some ways, those years after the war were as hard as during the war.

Sims mother and grandmother wrote to the Huijnens for a while, then the correspondencelike the letter between Campbell and Viola Grossoseemed to fall off the map. For about 50 years, there was no contact until Robin Huijnen talked to David Sims.

But even in the decades when the families didnt communicate, a Huijnen dutifully visited Campbells gravesite on holidays. The dedication amazed Sims, who later visited the Netherlands with his mother before her death in 2014 and met the caretakers of his uncles grave.

Its just hard to describe, the appreciation from the Dutch people and the French as well, everyone who was in occupied territory. It is incredible, Sims said. We cant even begin to know what it was like for them during the occupation.

Justin LeHew, a retired Marine who operates History Flight, a nonprofit that locates remains of servicemembers overseas and brings them home, has noted the same kind of dedication and gratitude in online genealogy sites.

Most of these people have open arms and they love the American soldier or Marine or whoever for what they did for them in the 1940s, he said.

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Facing a lawsuit just days into his term over his executive order making masks optional for schoolchildren, Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday night asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to dismiss the complaint.

The filing from the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares cited a state law that says parents have a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parents child.

Tonight, we asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to protect the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children," Miyares said in a statement. "Governor Youngkin had every power to issue the executive order and with our filing, we again affirm that parents matter."

Schools in Virginia have been requiring masks in order to comply with an Aug. 12 order from then-Gov. Ralph Northam's administration. Northam noted that a 2021 state law required schools to be open during the pandemic while complying "to the maximum extent practicable" with COVID mitigation guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, that guidance recommends masking.

Youngkin's executive order, which he issued Saturday shortly after he was sworn in, left school boards trying to figure out what to do. The Chesterfield School Board voted Thursday to continue requiring masks for children in schools. Down in Hampton Roads, the Chesapeake School Board voted on Thursday to remove the mask requirement, WAVY-TV reported.

A group of parents in Chesapeake filed the lawsuit against Youngkin, other state officials and local school officials, saying his order conflicts with the 2021 school-opening law.

The group of Chesapeake parents reference a 2016 Supreme Court of Virginia ruling - Howell v. McAuliffe - to make their argument.

In that case, then House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, and others filed suit against then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe over his executive action to restore the voting rights of convicted felons, arguing that McAuliffe's blanket restoration of rights was ignoring state law. In a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Court of Virginia found McAuliffe overstepped his authority, and the court struck down his executive order.

Kevin Martingayle, the attorney for the Chesapeake parents, says the group filed their lawsuit directly at the Supreme Court to save time and money and go to the final decision-maker as quickly as possible.

The Howell ruling "shows that its appropriate when youre asking for this type of relief to file the case directly in the Supreme Court of Virginia, because it clearly worked in that case in 2016, and the rules havent changed," Martingayle said.

Secondly, the Supreme Court made the point in that opinion that the job of a governor is to follow and enforce the laws, and not just the ones you agree with, but it includes the ones you disagree with. And the flipside is not only are you to enforce the laws as governor, but you do not have the power to suspend the law.

The General Assembly passed a law last year to require K-12 schools to be open, but required the schools to follow CDC guidance to prevent COVID spread.

The legislation was a compromise between Republicans and Democrats. And because there was no way to know exactly what COVID mitigation would be needed in the future, the law simply says schools should adhere to whatever the CDC recommends at the time, Martingayle said.

Im neither a doctor nor a scientist but I know how to read," he said. This was clearly a compromise and it was designed to strike a good balance between in-person education and safety, and I think it actually did that.

But the attorney general, in the Thursday filing, argued that the 2021 law that requires schools to follow CDC guidelines does not conflict with Youngkin's executive order and that neither that law nor the CDC guidelines require a "mask mandate."

"And even if the CDC issued something other than recommendations, Senate Bill 1303 would not require rigid adherence to every CDC promulgation; instead, the bill explicitly provides that in-person instruction should be provided in a manner which adheres 'to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies' provided by the CDC for childcare and education programs," the attorney general wrote in the filing.
Two First State Bank & Trust Company employee promotions were approved at the recent annual meeting of the First State Bank and Trust Co. Board of Directors.

Renen Sahr, CFP, CRPS, was promoted to Assistant Vice President  Investment Advisor for First State Financial Services and Esmeralda Hernandez to Assistant Vice President  Consumer Lender for First State Bank & Trust Company.

Sahr started at First State in 2016 and quickly joined the investment department. He has since earned his FINRA series 7 and 66 registrations as well as the Nebraska Life and Health Insurance Licenses. Most recently, Sahr earned the designation of Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Individuals must demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the diverse financial planning topics. These topics include investment planning, tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, insurance planning, financial management and education planning. The average student will study approximately 1,000 hours in preparation to sit for the comprehensive exam. After successfully passing the exam, Sahr also met the experience and ethics requirements.

Additionally, Sahr is an honors graduate of the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Fremont program and has served the Fremont Chamber of Commerce as a Diplomat and Chair of the Diplomat group. He graduated from Midland University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting. Sahr and his wife, Molly, reside in Fremont.

Hernandez joined First State in 2017 in the role of personal banker and was then promoted to personal banker/lender. She is bilingual and came to the bank with prior financial services experience. Hernandez is able to use her all-around banking knowledge to work with consumers and businesses on their lending needs. She is a graduate of the Kansas and Nebraska Banker Associations School of Lending Principles.

Hernandez is an honors graduate of the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Fremont program. She has been a Diplomat with the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Family Support Committee of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity and the Fremont Area Young Professionals Board. She graduated from Midland University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. Hernandez and her husband, Elias, reside in Fremont.

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After years of preparation and a move of location, Fremont's first brewery finally opened with its ribbon-cutting last week.

"It was overwhelmingly positive," co-owner Shawn Morrow said. "We've just kind of been embraced by everybody that's been waiting for this."

Five-0-Five Brewing Company at 349 N. Main St. is now open for business, serving beer and other drinks in the downtown Fremont location.

The brewery, owned and operated by Morrow and Tim Gesell, changed its original plan to open at the 505 Building, but kept the name within its title.

"Now, we're the 505 at 349," Morrow said. "That will probably be a T-shirt someday."

Morrow's journey to opening the brewery spans decades, beginning when he was hired by Empyrean Brewing Company as a seller man in 1998.

"I worked my way up to being a brewer and then decided that this was something I wanted to do," he said.

Morrow began home brewing at the time, studying the trade by attending the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago and an extension of the University of California, Davis, in Madison, Wisconsin.

"It was always the dream to open up my own brewery," Morrow said. "I tried in 2008, and the market crashed and we lost all of our financing, so I was like, 'Let's regroup, figure out a better time, a better place.'"

After 12 years with Empyrean, Morrow left the brewery to work in manufacturing at Lincoln Industries, where he met Gesell.

Morrow taught the basics of home brewing to Gesell, who went on to practice the craft on his own. Gesell gave some to his friend, Ryan Durant, the owner of the 505 Building.

Having been frequently asked by Morrow if he wanted to start a brewery with him, Gesell agreed to make the career jump in the spring of 2019 and the two began looking for a city that would house their business.

With Omaha and Lincoln "saturated" with breweries and even smaller communities like Alliance having them, Morrow said he focused on Fremont, which he was amazed didn't have one.

"I was told, 'Well, they had a brewery in the '20s, and then it went out of business during prohibition, and I was like, 'This is the right place,'" he said. "And my wife has family in town, so that was a plus."

Morrow and Gesell set their sights on the 505 Building and went before the Fremont City Council for funding in November 2019.

"Our vision is to be Fremonts brand, Nebraska's brewery," Gesell told the council. "That's really what we set out to do. We want to embrace the community."

The council unanimously approved providing $165,000 in Legislative Bill 840 funding for the project, which was set to run at the same time as the Lofts @ 505 in the building.

"But the hindering of construction and materials and everything that people can't get nowadays kind of stalled that, so we had to look for other places," Morrow said.

Although the brewery was set to open in late 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the project. Morrow said even with the change in location, he and Gesell wanted to stay in Fremont.

Eventually, the two discovered a new building two blocks south of the 505 Building that would house their future brewery.

"It's the perfect space," Morrow said. "Selfishly for me, it's better for me because I've got a direct route to the alley, I can get materials in and out and we've got all of these beautiful windows in here."

In summer of 2021, the remodeling process began at 349 N. Main St., which Morrow called a "hot mess," starting at Plan A and ending at Plan Z.

"This was not the original aesthetic, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out," he said. "Because we couldn't get booths, couldn't get tables, couldn't get chairs, couldn't get stainless steel, couldn't get sinks, couldn't get coolers, couldn't get anything that we needed."

Five-0-Five has a 10-barrel system in the backroom, which allows it to make 10 barrels, or 310 gallons, of beer at a time.

Other than beer, Morrow said Five-0-Five features a variety of house-mixed drinks and other alcoholic beverages from companies in Nebraska.

"The spirits are from Nebraska, they're from Brickway, our wine is from James Arthur, also in Nebraska, and obviously all of the beer that we're brewing is brewed here," he said.

Additionally, Five-0-Five has merchandise for sale, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, long-sleeved shirts, hats, socks, stickers, pint glasses, bottle openers and koozies featuring its logo, designed by Beth Greenquist.

Even prior to Five-0-Five's opening, Morrow's wife and taproom manager, Lori, handled its social media account, which had buzz from the Fremont community as to when it would open.

"Fremont's been very patient, and we appreciate it because we have not been very patient because we just wanted to get this going," she said.

Throughout the construction process, Shawn Morrow said he would have to keep the public updated on the timeline.

"We did pull a fast one by telling everybody starting almost six months ago, 'Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks,'" he said. "Well, two weeks turned into six months."

Finally on Jan. 13, Five-0-Five had its ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce, opening its doors to the Fremont community.

"It was way more than we expected, and we were way over capacity," Morrow said. "We just had tons of people in here."

Moving forward from the event, Morrow said Friday night was busy for the brewery as well.

"Even with the snowstorm, we saw people coming in and supporting us," he said. "And Saturday, that to me was a typical Saturday night where we had the entire place packed, and everybody just wanted to taste some handcrafted beer."

"And just a place to hang out," Lori Morrow added. "We had groups that stayed three and four hours on Saturday."

One aspect that was surprising to Shawn Morrow was the demographics of the crowd that Five-0-Five had.

"We had tables of college students next to millennials next to people in their 70s," he said. "So I was shocked."

Morrow said he was also surprised by Fremont's preferences, as he said a brewery can never expect what the palette of a community will be prior to opening.

"We just kind of threw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and said, 'We're just going to start with the lightest beer and we're going to brew all the way to the darkest beers and just kind of see what everybody likes,'" he said.

But Morrow said just about every type of beer he's brewed so far has been popular, even with the light lager selling the most.

"I knew that was going to happen, but I was really surprised with our porter, so we do have a porter on tap, and I was really excited for that," he said.

As it prepares for the weekends ahead, Morrow said Five-0-Five is trying to keep its pipelines full, with a new stout, sour beer and barrel-aged beers prepared.

"Just to make sure that everybody in Nebraska is represented, we did have Glacial Till on tap until we ran out the first night," he said. "And then we're featuring Keg Creek Brewing, their Marigold Apricot Wheat this month."

With Five-0-Five finally open, Morrow said it's taught him to make sure that he's hands-on for any project, from its inception to final nail.

"If I wasnt down here every single day making sure that everything is exactly the way I wanted it and it should be, then it wouldn't," he said. "So it was a full-time job just making sure this turned out exactly how we wanted it to turn out."

Lori Morrow thanked the Fremont community for holding on until Five-0-Five's opening.

"I think they know that it's not just businesses that are experiencing the slowdown in getting the things that you need, it's everybody," she said. "So they've been extremely gracious, and our opening weekend blew us away, just the amount of people that were excited to get in here and be a part of it."

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The Office of the Registrar at Northwest Missouri State University has announced students named to the academic or presidents honor rolls at the end of the 2021 fall semester.

To be included on the academic honor roll a student must carry a minimum of 12 credit hours and attain a grade-point average of 3.50 or above on a 4.00 scale. Students named to the presidents honor roll have attained a perfect 4.00 GPA for the semester.
Capt. Jamie Meyer knows firefighters love to fight fires.

But you know somebodys losing something, too, said Meyer, who recently retired from the Fremont Fire Department.

Meyer remembers the time a fire gutted a house.

He began taking pictures off a wall so firefighters wouldnt knock them down by accident.

I stacked them on what was left of the couch and the homeowner came in and started to cry, he said.

Meyer offered tender words.

Im sorry youve lost everything, he said.

The woman replied: No, youre saving my pictures.

That memory still touches Meyers heart.

Its those little moments that really make an impression on you, he said. You dont realize the good impact youre making on somebody by doing just little things like that.

He offers some advice:

Dont overlook the little things, because those can have some of the biggest impacts on people.

Meyer is well aware of the impact the Fremont Fire Department has had on local residents.

And how well local firefighters have been trained.

Meyer said firefighters went through a grain bin rescue class with an Oklahoma company prior to a grain bin extrication a few years ago.

They (the company) said we were one of the very few departments in the country that have done that type of recovery, he said.

Meyer said the department fights fires, handles car accidents, provides Emergency Medical Services with paramedics and does so much more.

Were also very technical in our training with auto extrication, scuba diving, ice rescue and high angle, confined space and trench rescue, Meyer said. Its a one-call-pretty-much-gets-it-all. These guys are trained to do some very technical things.

Overall, firefighters must have a multitude of skills and retain vast amounts of knowledge.

They must understand fire behavior, water patterns, building construction and the citys layout. They must be able to drive the mammoth trucks, cut a hole in a roof with a chain saw and not fall from a ladder and work in confined spaces. They cut cars apart and clean up gas spills.

In addition, they tend to the sick, the frightened, the severely injured and the intoxicated.

They deal with hazardous materials, heart-wrenching traffic accidents, long hours and loss. They know what it is to be surrounded by sobbing family members as they try to save a loved one.

Firefighters must think with their hearts  and on their feet.

You have to be extremely smart about this job, Meyer said. Its more than just putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.

Throughout his career, Meyer received a good deal of education and training.

He earned his associates degree in fire science from Southeast Community College in Lincoln in the early 1990s.

The fire department started its paramedic service for the City of Fremont in 1995. Meyer was among the first group of paramedics and would serve 26 years in that capacity.

In the mid-1990s, Meyer along with Jeff Schlautman and Dave Wordekemper, became medics for the Emergency Response Unit with local law enforcement personnel.

Meyer believes the men were some of the first in the state to train along with police for high risk calls and local medics still do so today.

Hes appreciated working with police and the bond its built between the departments.

Meyer taught a myriad of firefighter classes for whats now the training division of the State Fire Marshals Office from 1991-2016, and also taught at Nebraska Fire School in Grand Island.

He taught CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support at the local hospital in the 1990s.

Meyer believes his teaching helped keep him sharp on his firefighting skills.

He said firefighters train all the time for emergencies and when a situation arises, they fall back on that training.

And there are times, when a firefighter does something simple like take pictures off a wall for someone whos lost everything else.

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Founder idealism has always been a fairy tale

In his letter to the editor, Are we witnessing the death of democracy? (Jan. 16), Edwin Schneider laments that it is sad that I have lived this long [73 years] in a free and democratic nation to watch democracy being demolished from within. He is absolutely correct in identifying the destruction as being internal, but I would offer that the seeds of this disintegration were sowed in the country from the very first day.

We live in a pseudo-democracy. Votes are not equal. The Electoral College, enshrined in the Constitution, has carved this concept in stone with little to no likelihood of it being abolished. The Constitution also declared lofty and fantastical Enlightenment concepts of liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, which are, in truth, impossible to attain. Rights for women and Black people have been hard-fought and continue to this day to be battlegrounds. The idealism of the founders has always been a fairy tale; they never had the imagination to conceive how real human Americans could take, for example, a small bit of their ideas and turn the country into an arsenal of weapons.

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Some would call our democracy a failed experiment. I agree. The rich just get richer; the poor, poorer. Equal rights are still not automatic; they must be fought hard for. My vote is not equal to the vote of every other voting citizen.

The United States pseudo-democracy is being demolished from within, just as Mr. Schneider has lamented, but that destruction shouldnt surprise anyone. The seeds were there to begin with.

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N.L. Bruggman, Jarrettsville

Political system on life support

I was nearly moved to tears after reading Mr. Schneiders letter Are We Witnessing the Death of Democracy? Our political system in America is indeed on life support. Everyone wants to blame President Biden for the countrys woes, but he is only one man. Our Constitution was written with checks and balances to avoid any one body having too much power. The former president sought to destroy that. Its hard to stomach the continued propagation of the Big Lie, Republican officials deference and obvious fear of crossing the former president, the rights of women and minorities being minimized. The Democrats infighting constantly blocks President Bidens progressive agenda. Add to that a pandemic that has ripped this country apart, instead of bringing it together like polio epidemic of the 1950s.

These current events have me dreading the upcoming elections this year and in 2024.

Delane Morris, Edgewood

Dems and moderate Republicans need to wake up

Letter-writer Edwin Schneider bemoans the increasing threat to our democracy, saying it is being demolished from within (Are we witnessing the death of democracy?, Jan. 16). I share Mr. Schneiders concerns.

Whatever complaints harbored by those on the extreme right, who continue to insist on the Big Lie that President Biden is not the rightful occupant of the Oval Office, one fact cannot be disputed: They view their cause as a life-or-death struggle. This mindset was more than confirmed by the violence perpetrated on Jan. 6 one year ago.

As New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg recently wrote, The fact that speculation about civil war has moved from the crankish fringes into the mainstream is itself a sign of civic crisis, which reinforces the notion that characterizing the problem in terms of life and death is not just hyperbole.

Democrats and moderate Republicans (if any still exist) need to wake up. President Biden is our lawfully elected president, and the intractability of the extreme right in its belief to the contrary not only threatens our democracy but risks a level of civil unrest not seen since the Civil War.

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Howard Bluth, Baltimore

Democracy down the toilet

Bravo Mr. Edwin Schneider (Are we witnessing the death of Democracy, Jan. 16) You have expressed exactly how I feel. Like you, I served my country: a tour of duty in Vietnam, along with several years in Germany. Like you, I voted in every election since I turned 21, and not by party lines, but for whom I believed to be the better candidate. Now, at 72-years-old, I watch as the democratic country I knew and fought for goes down the toilet. What a shame we are leaving this mess to our children and grandchildren. Pray the perpetrator of the Big Lie and his supporters do not obtain office again.

Bob Eberwein, Middle River

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The city of Fremont and Dodge County are working on an interlocal agreement to create an inland port authority southeast of the city.

It took a lot of work and a lot of effort, and theres obviously a lot more to go, but this is the first step in a very long-term project for our community, Mayor Joey Spellerberg said. And its a very, very exciting time.

Spellerberg, Greater Fremont Development Council Executive Director Megan Skiles and Dodge County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Missel held a joint press briefing on the opportunity Friday.

With this, well be able to have a financing mechanism that allows for more infrastructure development within the area and get everything in place that we need to really be able to be a serious contender when projects come out, Skiles said.

The joint agreement will go before the Fremont City Council for approval this Tuesday before heading to the county board the next day.

On May 24, 2021, Gov. Pete Ricketts signed Legislative Bill 156 into law after its unanimous approval from the Nebraska Legislature.

With knowing that, we kind of started the process here in this area to lay the groundwork to get us to where we are today, Spellerberg said.

The Municipal Inland Port Authority Act, proposed by Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, would allow for up to five inland port authorities to be created in the state.

This is a competitive process, Spellerberg said. Only five are going to be given out in the state, and so obviously for us, we wanted to be able to get a head start and be able to do as much as we could to give us the best chance to be able to be awarded this designation by the state.

An inland port authority would allow for cities or municipalities to establish an entity dedicated to creating and governing a distribution and transportation hub with new and existing businesses.

As the bill went through the Urban Affairs Committee, Spellerberg testified in favor of the bill.

Fremont is in a great location for something like a port authority, he said. We were really founded by the railroad, so moving product in and out of this area in Fremont has been something thats been in our history since the founding of our community.

With Fremonts location in northeast Nebraska, Spellerberg said the city also has multiple major roads nearby.

Its a great spot to be able to have something like this as an opportunity for those looking to move product in and out, and also build their business and have commerce in our area, he said.

The port would act as a mechanism to help with economic development, which is something Skiles said Nebraska has needed to keep up with other states.

It really allows cities or municipalities to create almost a quasi-governmental entity that then can take on some of the burden of development that a city or county would normally take on, she said.

To receive a port, the applying city or county needs to have at least 20,000 residents. The area also has to be at least 300 acres, with Fremont looking at a space of 1,500 acres.

The port also needs a strategic advantage with location, including close proximity to a major system such as a highway, airport, interstate or rail line.

The area that we are looking at, its right next to 275 and then also has access to Union Pacific Railroad, Skiles said.

If passed by the city council and county board, the agreement will be filed before the city and county start an application with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

Although the exact date is not known, Skiles said shes anticipating the applications to become available sometime this spring, possibly in March or April.

We want to make sure that were in a good place and ready to respond when that application opens, she said.

Skiles said the selection process will focus on requirements and considerations, including economic feasibility, strategic location and the potential economic impact.

Part of the application process when it comes up will actually be to have an economic impact in hand, a study to show to them, she said. So that is something that the Greater Omaha chamber has been working with the Greater Fremont Development Council on, putting together this impact analysis.

If selected for a port authority, Skiles said the mayor will appoint a board to govern the district with approval from the city council and county board.

The board has certain powers, including planning and developing the infrastructure of the district, engaging in marketing and recruitment activities and issuing revenue bonds.

Once all of it is set up, the first port authority board will have kind of a big lift on them to create bylaws and figure out how this port authority here in Dodge County wants to structure itself and produce revenue in the future, Skiles said.

The port would require attorney fees for creating bylaws, as well as other costs for developing feasibility studies and a master plan.

This is something that will happen over probably the next two decades and take a couple of years to really get up and going, but it really lays great groundwork for strong work in the future, Skiles said.

Skiles said the port would be a great tool for recruiting new companies into the area or helping existing companies that are growing out of their current space.

With our strategic location too, were a great location for the population base and being able to move products really quickly with easy access to I-80 and I-29 less than an hour away as well, she said.

Fremonts proposed location will have its northern boundary on the Union Pacific rail line and the western boundary on Highway 275.

For the impact analysis, Skiles said having 12 projects over the next 10 years  five advanced manufacturing projects and seven warehouse distribution projects  would provide $872 million to the local economy and $1.1 billion to the states economy.

Additionally, the port would support around 3,500 jobs locally and an additional 4,500 jobs in the state.

Skiles said the potential of a port authority and its ability to solve supply chain issues already has the interest of those in the community.

Just with the nature of our work, we have seen quite a bit of interest in the region in general at this time with the issues that have been exposed over the last couple of years, she said.

As the application date comes closer, Missel said Fremont is an ideal candidate for a port authority.

I think by creating the district and having that set in a place that weve chosen, it really lines us up well for our growth in the future and gives us a greater say over it, he said. So its really exciting to see the opportunity come before us, jobs, growth, a stronger community.

A port authority would be able to make Fremont more accessible to the world economy, Spellerberg said.

Being able to have a site designated and the benefits that are there to be able to build out the infrastructure within the site, I think theres a lot of benefits that can go into having this be in our area, he said.

Preparing for the application process, Spellerberg said he didnt know of any other communities that have been as far along as Fremont and Dodge County have been.

A lot of folks have been involved and theres still a lot within this process, but its exciting today to be able to announce this and look at the plan moving forward, he said. So as mayor of the city of Fremont, I couldnt be more excited about the future.

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Seven Afghan civilians have been killed and nine injured in Herat city after a bomb attached to a packed minivan exploded.

Sabet Herawi, a Taliban intelligence official in Herat Province, told RFE/RL that the cause of the explosion on January 22 was a magnetic mine attached to the vehicle's fuel tank.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which is still being investigated and is believed to be the first such attack in the western province since the Taliban took power in mid-August.

The Islamic State group has claimed credit for similar attacks on civilians and Taliban leaders elsewhere in the country.

A least three people were taken to Herat district hospital, where a source said on condition of anonymity that four women were among those killed in the attack.

With reporting by AP
The Taliban has said it has a right to crack down on dissent and to jail protesters amid international concerns about the whereabouts of two women activists who were reportedly detained earlier this week in Kabul.

While denying that any women were being held, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on January 22 that the extremist group in power in Afghanistan had the right "to arrest and detain dissidents or those who break the law."

The comments came after the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called on the Taliban to provide information relating to the whereabouts of Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhel, who were reportedly taken from their homes as part of a roundup of participants in recent demonstrations for women's rights.

A video posted on social media showed Paryani pleading for help as she claimed Taliban militants had arrived at her front door on January 19.

Neither Paryani nor Ibrahimkhel, who was reportedly detained the same day, have been heard from since.

On January 21, Amnesty International urged the Taliban to investigate the abduction of a senior female prison official who has been missing for more than three months and to release her if she is in the militants' custody.

Human rights defenders accuse the Taliban, which returned to power in mid-August, of committing serious violations, particularly over the lack of rights of women to education, employment, and participation in political and social life.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa
As the state continues to experience what Childrens Hospital has called an emergency in childrens mental health, Ive been wondering why Colorado is so much worse than other states in quality and access of care, as well as rates of teen suicide and mental illness.

Were a fairly healthy, happy state by most measures. Why is mental health such a challenge for us?

Clearly the pandemic has exacerbated things for our children, especially as they have tried to cope with remote school and a wholesale collapse of their social supports.

But the whole country has been dealing with those setbacks, and Colorado is still generally worse than most other places.

Then I saw an op-ed written by the head of the Colorado Medical Society.

In 2000, Colorado bought a pig in a poke, our top medical official, Dr. Mark Johnson, wrote recently in the Colorado Sun. That was the year we legalized medical marijuana. We truly didnt know what we were getting. Can we finally admit it?

Dr. Johnson said there is no question that marijuana is one of the factors in the declining mental health of our kids. We are gambling with the health and future of our teens, he said bluntly.

As I speak with my colleagues in emergency medicine, physicians are seeing what some of them consider to be an epidemic of acute transient psychotic symptoms in their patients who use marijuana, particularly adolescents.

Research, too, has shown a dose-related increase in psychosis in adolescents using marijuana  meaning the more they use the worse the effects are  

This isnt some partisan think tank saying this. This is the states top doc.

Johnson recommended I talk to another Colorado doctor who has done extensive research on the subject, Ken Finn, editor of the book, Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-based Approach."

I asked Finn directly: Is the mental health emergency among children related to the liberalization of marijuana laws?

Absolutely, was his immediate answer. Marijuana is a piece of this puzzle, without a doubt.

There are several things contributing to the crisis, he said, including social media, and the pandemic has had a huge impact on mental health, but with that comes an increase in substance abuse, with depression and anxiety. Marijuana is the most prevalent substance found in completed teen suicide in our state.

Alcohol used to be the most prevalent substance found in 12- to 19-year-olds who completed suicide in our state. After 2012, when we voted to legalize, pot became the most prevalent.

The developing brain is so vulnerable to addiction, and vulnerable to multiple substances, Finn said.

The frontal cortex, which is the executive functioning of the brain, is the last thing to develop. That's the part of the brain that would make you make good choices. The first thing that evolves in the teenage brain is the thing that says 'This is going to be so much fun to go down I-25 at 80 mph.'"

There have been conflicting reports on whether more kids are using marijuana now than did before it was legalized. Overall, I dont think the youth rate of use has increased, admits Finn.

But those reports ignore some things. One is that kids now are using high-potency marijuana, Finn said. When pot was legalized, the state relied on studies conducted on pots effect on mental health that were conducted prior to the widespread access to high potency cannabis products available now.

A substantial body of more recent research on high-potency marijuana now supports a relationship between chronic marijuana use and an increased risk for suicide, while an emerging clinical literature suggests acute use can lead to the sudden development of suicidal urges in an important minority of subjects, according to research cited in Finns book.

In addition, the number of kids who said they used marijuana and got behind the wheel went from 9 percent before legalization to 32 percent in two years, according to the annual Healthy Kids Colorado survey. Kids who are using are actually becoming more dangerous drivers.

But why is no one talking about this?

They are in other states.

"Im speaking to legislators in South Dakota and Alabama this week about the downsides of legalization, Finn said. "One of the South Dakota legislators said, 'Thank you for the front row to the horror show.'

I was very grateful because my state legislators will never listen to anything I ever say. Ive called them, Ive emailed them, I never get return phone calls or emails. Never.

"Im helping these states kind of maneuver and I told them, 'You cannot claim ignorance,' Finn said. "Because in Colorado and Washington, Oregon and California, we didnt know there was going to be this increase in potency products, we didnt know about these marijuana-related driving fatalities, or kids going to the ER for accidental exposure and poisoning. You cant claim ignorance, because you are very well aware of whats happening."

When you measure profit and loss after 20 years of legalized marijuana in some form, you cant help but suffer buyers remorse. In 2018, we collected about $240 million in tax revenue, but hospitals lost about $500 million over a six-year period in the cost of marijuana-related ER visits, and marijuana-related traffic accidents cost the state another $136 million a year, Finn estimates. That means the state is only collecting about $21 million a year in added revenue, but if you factor in the increased costs of regulation and law enforcement that come with pot, that gain disappears pretty fast.

Its not a winner at the end of the day, said Finn. Its not making the state more money than it is costing the state. We know more now. And thats what I tell these other states."

At the end of the day, Finn and Johnson say this is not a partisan issue. This is a public health and safety issue, and education is the only answer since the genie is probably not going back into the bottle.

Politics, not science, has determined it is 'safe' to distribute to our kids, Johnson concluded. Lets make that clear.

Editor's note: Dr. Ken Finn clarified the time frame for his estimates on hospital costs after this story was published. This version of the story reflects those updated numbers.
Photo: U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON  The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request Thursday from abortion providers and funds to allow one of the challenges against SB 8 (Texas ban on abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy) to finally proceed in district court after months of delay since the law took effect on September 1. Earlier this week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case to the Supreme Court of Texas, preventing abortion providers from getting back to the district court and obtaining a declaration that this ban is unconstitutional.



On January 3, abortion providers  led by Whole Womans Health  asked the Supreme Court to order the Fifth Circuit to return the case to the district court immediately, where they stand a chance of blocking some government officials from enforcing the ban. Thursday, the Supreme Court denied that request, allowing the state of Texas to slow walk the case and prevent any form of relief against the ban.

In a blistering dissent, Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote, This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies. I will not stand by silently as a State continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee.

The case, Whole Womans Health v. Jackson, will remain at the Texas Supreme Court for now. The case has been dragged out for weeks already since the Supreme Court dismissed most of the case last month, and sent what was left back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Since September 1  when SB 8 first took effect after the Supreme Court initially refused to block it  Texans who are past the earliest stages of pregnancy have been unable to access abortion in the state. The impact has fallen hardest on marginalized communities, including people living on low incomes, and Black and Brown communities.

People who are unable to leave the state have been forced to continue their pregnancies. Those with resources are forced to flee the state for abortion care. Clinics in neighboring states reported huge upticks in Texas patients, resulting in weeks-long wait times for all patients. For instance, an Oklahoma clinic reported that two-thirds of the phone calls it received since SB 8 took effect were from Texas patients.

Todays order follows the 5-4 majority Supreme Court opinion from December 2021 which largely dismissed Whole Womans Health v. Jackson, ruling that abortion providers could not bring suit against classes of state judges and clerks or the state Attorney General. The court also ruled that a narrow portion of the case may proceed against the Texas Medical Board and other licensing authorities, but this would not prevent bounty-hunter lawsuits from being filed. In a separate ruling on the U.S. Department of Justices challenge to the law, the court denied the DOJs request to block the law and sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which already wiped out emergency relief to restore abortion access.

Several state court challenges seeking to declare SB 8 unconstitutional remain ongoing. In a case brought by Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas and others, a Texas state court judge held SB 8s private enforcement scheme unconstitutional. An appeal is pending over whether the affiliates claims should have been dismissed. In October, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit, Braid v. Stilley, on behalf of Dr. Alan Braid, a Texas doctor who provided abortion services in violation of the ban.

Since SB 8 took effect, the average one-way driving distance for Texans to reach an abortion clinic has increased from 17 miles to 247 miles  a 14-fold increase. In October, the Guttmacher Institute released startling new data showing how far people in each state will need to travel for abortion care if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

SB 8 bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy  before many people even know theyre pregnant  and creates a bounty-hunting scheme that encourages the general public to bring costly and harassing lawsuits against anyone who they believe has violated the ban.

Anyone who successfully sues an abortion provider, a health center worker, or any person who helps someone access an abortion after six weeks in Texas will be rewarded with at least $10,000, to be paid by the person sued. Lawsuits may be filed against a broad range of people, including: a physician who provides an abortion; a person who drives their friend to obtain an abortion; abortion funds providing financial assistance to patients; health center staff; and even a member of the clergy who assists an abortion patient.

The plaintiffs in Whole Womans Health v. Jackson are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Lawyering Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Morrison & Foerster LLP, and Austin attorney Christen Mason Hebert. The defendants included classes of state court trial judges and county clerks in Texas, the Texas Medical Board, the Texas Board of Nursing, the Texas Board of Pharmacy, the Texas attorney general, and the director of Right to Life East Texas.

Whole Womans Health v. Jackson is a part of the ACLUs Joan and Irwin Jacobs Supreme Court Docket.



Several of the plaintiffs and litigators delivered statements regarding the Supreme Court's Thursday ruling.

Statement from Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project: The majority of the Supreme Court turned its back yet again on the suffering of Texans. For months, countless Texans have been forced to carry pregnancies against their will, depriving them of the ability to make decisions about their body and future. Unfortunately, it wont stop there. Politicians are feeling emboldened to pass similarly cruel policies aimed at banning abortion entirely in other states through this bounty-hunter scheme, and they will ultimately push for a nationwide abortion ban. We wont stop fighting until we put an end to these laws that ban abortion and force people to be pregnant with the impact hitting the most marginalized communities the harshest.

Statement from Amy Hagstrom Miller, President and CEO of Whole Womans Health and Whole Womans Health Alliance: Make no mistake: Texans are still suffering every single day under this law. It breaks my heart every time our clinic staff are forced to deny pregnant people care and turn them away. This law is cruel and unconstitutional, and I am deeply disappointed that our judicial system has done very little to stop it.

Statement from Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights: Texans have been without abortion access for almost five months now, and there is no end in sight because the Supreme Court has done nothing to stop this unconstitutional ban. It is allowing the state of Texas to deprive people of a constitutional right. Seven other states have already introduced copycat bans now that the Court has let Texas get away with this ploy. Its time for the Senate to take action and pass the Womens Health Protection Act, which has already passed the House and has the Biden Administrations support.

Statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Once again the Supreme Court has betrayed the people of Texas, who have been callously stripped of their constitutional right to abortion for more than four months now. By enabling the states obvious ploy to delay any resolution to this case, this Court is complicit in the widespread harm to Texans who remain unable to make meaningful decisions about their own bodies. With no end in sight, people in Texas will continue to be forced to flee the state for essential health care  if they can  or to carry pregnancies against their will. That is inhumane. Planned Parenthood will continue to fight for our patients, and for all people in Texas, who deserve the dignity of being able to control their own lives and futures.

Statement from Rupali Sharma, Senior Counsel and Director at the Lawyering Project: Todays ruling means Texans will continue to be denied their fundamental rights. Texans who need an abortion and can cobble together the resources may be able to leave the state for care, but many will be forced to remain pregnant against their will. Thats unconscionable. We will continue to stand with our partners in Texas, including the abortion funds and practical support groups who are working day and night to end this human rights crisis.
In this file photo from Jan. 10, 2019, state Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Arvada, left, confers with state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, on the House floor before Colorado Gov.Jared Polis delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly in Denver. On Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, Titone announced that she'd decided against a run in the 7th Congressional District and endorsed Pettersen for the open seat.
When Lyndon McLeod texted photos of a flamethrower and asked her to leave New Orleans and join him in Denver, Amanda Knight wrote haha. Days later, on Dec. 29, 2020, his texts were more insistent. Its like nobody takes one word I say seriouslywhich I suppose I deserveFor we get what we deserve in life, eh? But it is strange to be completely serious and still have people think Im joking.

Thats when Knight decided to get law enforcement involved. I told them that he was wanting to buy flamethrowers to burn buildings in Denver. You have to understand they thought I was crazy. I told them (Denver police) and Shelby County (in Memphis, Tennessee) and they were so dismissive. It was like someone calling me on their lunch break and they were annoyed, said Knight.

"I told them that I felt like he was threatening. I felt like his energy, the way he changed, his mentality. I was like, he needs some help. Hes hurting," said Knight, 41.

Knight called Shelby County in Memphis because thats where she and 47 year old McLeod were roommates for a time in 2020. Denver police have confirmed that they then reached out to her on Jan. 4, 2021; but there was no report filed despite the fact that she was the second person in a two day period to alert Denver authorities about McLeods instability.

Attempts to contact the Shelby County investigator who took Knight's call were unsuccessful. Denver police say they called her on Jan. 4 regarding the gunman, but never wrote a report.

We did not create any records as a result of that conversation, Denver Department of Public Safety Records Administrator Andrea Webber wrote The Gazette in an email.

While the review of the January 2021 DPD investigation is underway, we do not have any additional information at this time," she wrote The Gazette.

A German man concerned about McLeod's intentions, Andre Thiele, also contacted authorities. He told The Gazette that he communicated with the FBI and Denver police on Jan. 3, about McLeods questionable behavior and sent a link to a trilogy of books he wrote in 2019 and 2020 called Sanction. Thiele wrote law enforcement in one document that While the book is not political in itself, it could be read as a far-right manifesto and a terrorist prophecy.

My goal was to motivate law enforcement professionals to take a close look on what I had discovered and make an educated decision, Thiele told The Gazette over in a social media message. I knew the facts were thin and circumstantial and that my prediction at that point in time was nothing but a hunch.

He said he wrote Denver Police over email and sent a letter to the FBI through the U.S. Embassy in Frankfurt and Berlin through the German version of the CIA, called the BND Bundesnachrichtendienst. He wrote that the Denver police are the only ones who contacted him. The Denver police told The Gazette that they looked into the tip but did not find enough evidence to file criminal charges.

This past Dec. 27, Thiele and Knights greatest fears became frighteningly true. That afternoon, McLeod calmly walked up to four businesses and a residential high rise and carried off a shooting rampage which mirrored the plot of his second book in a deadly real-life attack.

In the span of one hour, he drove a black van to eight stops including three tattoo parlors and a suburban hotel, killing five people and wounding two more, including a Lakewood police officer. McLeod died of a gunshot wound on the streets of Belmar shopping center that night. Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris was shot in the stomach and was released from the hospital Jan. 6. It is unclear whether she shot him or whether he shot himself.

In a press conference the next day, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen told reporters that McLeod was on law enforcements radar.

There were two previous investigations into this individuals actions. Neither of those investigations resulted in state or federal charges, said Pazen.

Though little is known about the gunman's whereabouts in the final two years of his life, he lived in Denver earlier.

The 9Wants to Know investigative team and Gazette partner 9NEWS reviewed a series of police responses to McLeods address in the years leading up to the shootings.

There were 11 calls to police from his home since 2012; four calls for domestic violence, one to report a suicidal person, several to answer alarms.

More information about these calls is unclear because police did not file reports on any of their interactions with McLeod or others at that address.

Knight first met McLeod online in the summer of 2019 after she read his Sanction trilogy and they eventually became roommates when he moved into her second home in Memphis in September 2020. They became close friends over the next three months. She last saw him when she dropped him off at the airport for a flight to Denver on Dec. 15, 2020. In the following weeks, they texted on and off.

The Dec. 29 text led to a fight, which caused a rift in the relationship. It was radio silence for a year and the next thing, we are seeing this on the news, said Knight from her New Orleans home. It was awful. Who in their right mind would do something like that? And thats why I tried a year ago to get him some help because I thought Hes really gonna do this.

On Dec. 30, three days after the shooters murderous rampage, Knight got a phone call from the Lakewood police. They had found items of hers in the van, which she says belonged to the gunman's girlfriend: Antibiotics, gifts and art which he made for her.

Two hours later, at 4:53 pm, the FBI was knocking on her door. They asked if she knew the murders were going to happen. I said I told you guys! And they said, Well next time this happens call the FBI not Denver and Im likeokay I dont think theres gonna be a next time.

When asked for comment, FBI spokesperson Amy Sampson responded, "As is always the case, the FBI is not able to comment about ongoing investigations. However, the FBI continues to work very collaboratively with both Lakewood and Denver Police Departments to identify why the subject chose to commit these senseless acts of violence."

Knight has a recurring nightmare. Shes calling 911, and its busy. I push the numbers and I cant get anyone to help me. I wanted to help my friend and I wanted to help these people. I tried.
Lieutenant Paul Ostroy faced what was left of the 2000 block of Anderson Drive and thought of the families who lived there before the Marshall Fire destroyed it.
Buffalo, WY (82834)

Today

Rain showers in the morning becoming more intermittent in the afternoon. High 54F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low near 40F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
The state is investigating after the Colorado Cattlemen's Association on Monday announced what would be the first kill of livestock by a pack of wolves in more than 70 years.
Since the launch of its new strategy for Central Asia in 2019, the European Union (EU) has further profiled itself in the region as a strong supporter of civil society. The EU-Central Asia Civil Society Forum that has been taking place annually since 2019 is the most visible testimony of the EUs reinvigorated commitment to support civil society across the region. However, despite its self-proclaimed aim to help boost societal resilience in Central Asia, the EUs neoliberal and Eurocentric approach to civil society remains ineffective and is ill-suited in a region like Central Asia, not least in a context of consolidated authoritarianism and the rise of conservative values. Instead, a locally-owned and locally-driven approach to civil society seems better suited to help empower civil society in its efforts to strengthen societal resilience.

BACKGROUND: In 2019, the EU launched its long-awaited new strategy for Central Asia. As part of the new strategy, the EU committed itself to strengthen its support to civil society in the region, and set up the annual EU-Central Asia Civil Society Forum. These steps are linked to the strategys key goal of boosting societal resilience across the region. The EU is far from a newcomer in the field of civil society support in Central Asia. Its engagement with civil society already goes back to the early 2000s, when the EU started cooperating with local non-state actors in the framework of its Institution-Building and Partnership Programme. However, despite the EUs long-standing support for civil society in Central Asia, the EUs approach has been subject to a wide range of critiques, together pointing to an overall assessment of low effectiveness. While most critiques target the stringent nature of the funding mechanisms and instruments for the EUs civil society support, more fundamentally, it is arguably the EUs Eurocentric and neo-liberal approach that hinders the effectiveness of its civil society support.

Since the launch of the EUs Global Strategy in 2016, the EU has come to conceptualize resilience as the ability of states and societies to reform, thus withstanding and recovering from internal and external crises. In what appears as a promising feature, the EU acknowledges that strengthening resilience in third countries involves granting the local societies more ownership given that positive change can only be home-grown. Yet, despite the aim of this new resilience paradigm to balance the universalist claim of EU foreign policy, in essence, the EUs understanding of and approach to resilience falls short of truly empowering the local and strengthening governance at a societal level from the bottom-up due to its continued neoliberal and Eurocentric fixation on EU norms-sharing through ready-made solutions. Indeed, in line with the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, which captures how a powerful actor operates to produce (governmentable) subjects, the EUs neo-liberal understanding of resilience appears to externalize European modes of governance to local communities, who are then expected to integrate these approaches in their local practices. In other words, the EU upholds an understanding of resilience as neo-liberal governance that boils down to building resilience outside-in, namely by providing external solutions to local problems for societal groups and communities in third countries, who are made into compliant subjects and consumers of European practices of good governance.

This neo-liberal fixation is also very clearly manifested in the EUs new Strategy for Central Asia and in how the EU engages with local societal actors, as well as in how it envisions the role of civil society in these countries. Just like in other regions, the EUs approach to civil society support and governance promotion in Central Asia is Eurocentric and neo-liberal in nature, as it proceeds in a very technocratic, almost managerial manner, whereby solutions created in Europe are externalized to local civil society actors, who are supposed to internalize these European practices. Moreover, the substance of its civil society support in Central Asia is not only embedded in the neoliberal paradigm of the state-civil society-market triangle, but also in the western ideological concept of liberal democracy. As such, it is not surprising to see that in its engagement with local societal actors, the EU shows a continued reliance on western-style organizations, since these have the professional systems and processes needed for accessing and managing EU funding and they better fit the EUs western understanding of civil society. Home-grown community-based groups, including Islamic organizations and other bodies representing traditional forms of self-governance, as well as less professionalized organizations still tend to be sidelined by the EU.

IMPLICATIONS: Clearly, in a regional context marked by consolidated authoritarianism and the rise of conservative values among large segments of society, including youth, such a neo-liberal and Eurocentric approach is ill-suited to help boost societal resilience. Therefore, if the EU is serious about strengthening societal resilience in Central Asia, then it would need to decenter its approach more radically and embrace a post-neoliberal approach to its engagement with these societies. This implies that the EU would have to accept the Central Asian societies for what they are. Among other things, the EU should advocate home-grown forms of self-organization and self-governance that embody an indigenous understanding of good life and good governance. The EU should support the ability of local societal actors to self-organize and draw on their local strength and knowledge of available resources. The EU needs to acknowledge that resilience-building cannot be molded externally and that instead it starts internally, from the communities, which draw on their existing resources and knowledge and their understanding of good life, with external assistance provided only as and when deemed necessary by the communities.

Much more than in Western societies, societies in Central Asia are collective in nature rather than individualistic. This also implies that solidarity among members of the community is much more embedded in local practices and customs than in Western societies. This has been illustrated very vividly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic has revealed the crucial role that civil society and community-based initiatives in Central Asian countries play in offering life-saving assistance where governments fall short. In Central Asia, state capacity is not always strong enough to cope with a crisis of such magnitude, and vital public services such as health care and social protection are deficient. In such contexts, societal resilience is crucial in order to stand up to a major crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has indeed revealed the importance of home-grown self-help, self-governance and self-organization that is based on in-depth knowledge of the available soft infrastructure. Grassroots civil society, which is close to the local communities, is best placed to know how to help the local communities.

CONCLUSIONS: If the EU truly wants to help boost societal resilience in Central Asia, then it should start accepting the Central Asian societies for what they are and decenter its Eurocentric, neoliberal approach to civil society support in favour of a more locally-owned and locally-driven approach. As has been illustrated by the Covid-19 pandemic, civil society plays a crucial role in Central Asia in areas where governments fall short and are not capable of coping with the implications of a crisis of such magnitude, such as social services and life-saving assistance. As crises like the Covid-19 pandemic are very likely to emerge again in the near future, societal resilience in Central Asia is set to become even more important in order for these countries to stand up to the implications of such devastating events.

In a region faced with consolidated authoritarianism and the revival of conservative values across society, the EUs Eurocentric, neoliberal approach to civil society support stands little chance of being effective. The recent outbreaks of domestic upheaval in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan further demonstrate this point. In both cases, protests against the ruling elites were not initiated by liberal-minded civil society groups, and instead involved a diffuse mass of largely uneducated people who represent the more conservative segments of society rather than the liberal-minded groups. Of course, this does not mean that the EU should abandon its support to the more liberal segments of society. Even if these segments are becoming increasingly marginal, they remain a prominent voice not only in opposing the rising conservatism, but also in trying to hold their governments accountable. However, in its attempts to help empower civil society, the EU needs to reconceptualize its neoliberal, outside-in understanding of resilience and should start acknowledging the importance of home-grown self-help, self-governance and self-organization that is based on in-depth knowledge of the available soft infrastructure. Therefore, the EU should start embracing a more locally-owned and locally-driven approach to civil society that supports the ability of local societal actors to self-organize and draw on their local strengths and knowledge of available resources and infrastructure.

AUTHORS BIO: Fabienne Bossuyt, PhD, is associate professor at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University (Belgium). She is also co-director of the Russia Platform of Ghent University. The views expressed here are those solely of the author. An extended version of the argument presented in this article will appear in the authors forthcoming contribution to Central Asian Survey.

Photo credit: Photo credit: EU Delegation to Kazakhstan.
Although she raised 13 times more money than her leading opponent last year, Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to run like shes 10 points behind.

Thats how Ive always run any race that Im in, Reynolds said when asked about her most recent campaign finance report showing she has $4.8 million cash on hand compared to Democrat Deidre DeJears $8,500.

Reynolds was elected Clarke County treasurer four times and served a term in the Iowa Senate before being elected lieutenant governor in 2011. She became governor when Gov. Terry Branstad resigned in May 2017 and was elected to a full term in 2018.

Reynolds hasnt officially announced shes running for re-election, but she has a campaign staff and is raising money and making campaign appearances.

However, during a Thursday visit to Van Meter, a wholesale electrical distributor in Cedar Rapids, she insisted that for the time being she is focused on the legislative agenda she laid out in her Condition of the State address earlier this month.

I think it continues the momentum that weve seen in Iowa over the last three to four years, she said. Were going to focus really hard on getting that agenda done and helping Iowans succeed, grow prosperity and opportunities across the entire state.

Reynolds touts her tax plan in Cedar Rapids visit CEDAR RAPIDS  Gov. Kim Reynolds seemed to have made a sale even before she earlier this month pitched her tax reduction plans among the leadership at employee-owned Van Meter equipment.

DeJear, a Des Moines businesswoman, says the state can do better if Iowans elect new leadership this fall.

Weve seen the politicization of so many issues in the last five years of this administration, and none of that has served the best interests of Iowans, she said.

However, DeJear acknowledged the money disadvantage she faces  the fuel that keeps us going, she said a fundraising appeal Thursday evening.

Defeating an incumbent is challenging because of how much money they are able to raise. Kim Reynolds has the entire MAGA GOP establishment backing her, DeJear said, a reference to former President Donald Trumps Make America Great Again campaign theme.

When she shifts her focus to the campaign, Reynolds believes she has a good story to take to voters.

Im proud of the progress that Iowans have made in the last several years  through a two-year pandemic, two derechos, floods, tornadoes. Through all of that, weve continued to be able to grow and expand, she said.

Iowa Gov. Reynolds sets fundraising records, campaign says DES MOINES  Gov. Kim Reynolds campaign arm announced it raised nearly $3.8 million in 2021 and finished the year with nearly $4.8 million in its account. The campaign said both would be state records: the former being the most raised in a year preceding an election, and the latter the most ever for a statewide campaign.

Its a testament to Iowans and our businesses, our small business owners, our educators, just everybody that has really come together over the last several years with everything that we faced, the governor said. Were coming out. Were in a really good position to continue to grow.

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Admissionado wrote:

JohnCena20 [/url]:



Hi again. Responding to your two questions separately:



Q: Is it reasonable for me to present my Canadian offer and ask USC for a faster decision (or even impact their decision, as I don't think I performed interview well at USC)?



A: No, it is no reasonable. I doubt you will have any success in getting an earlier decision from USC. They will not care that you were accepted to another program regardless of whether it's Canadian or American.



Q: Or even negotiate a better scholarship with USC (I have it from Canadian school)?



A: You might have success with this tactic. The best way to negotiate a scholarship is if you have at least one other offer in hand. You have nothing to lose by trying. At least you'll know where you stand with Marshall.

Thank you again for the answer. I think I will wait patiently for any decision then make any moves or negotiations afterwards.
On Friday, the health system was treating more than 60 people for the illness caused by the novel coronavirus across campuses in Danville and Martinsville, Dr. Sheranda Gunn-Nolan, market chief medical officer, told the Register & Bee.

Thats up from just shy of 50 patients last week.

A New York Times database  based on information from the Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 13  showed zero ICU beds available in Danville.

As we have shared before, hospital capacity is fluid and changes rapidly, Gunn-Nolan said Friday. Currently our ICUs continue to operate at or near the top of capacity.

The increase in patients forced Sovah Health to place a two-week pause on elective, non-emergent procedures. Officials have looked over the current situation and decided to continue that pause in Danville.

However, the Martinsville facility will resume elective outpatient procedures Monday, Gunn-Nolan said, but elective cases will still be on hold there.

COVID-19 cases in Danville and Pittsylvania County appeared to drop earlier this week at the same time a winter storm hit the state. Its likely the infections didnt stop, but the detection did since many testing sites and doctor's offices were closed.

The spike quickly rebounded.

By Friday, Danville and Pittsylvania County combined recorded 258 new reports of COVID-19. That brings the seven-day rolling average to about 200. By comparison, there were about 120 daily cases reported in the peak of last years surge.

Sundays winter storm and lingering impacts forced the Virginia Department of Health to cancel testing and vaccination events across the state, Brookie Crawford, a spokesperson for the health department, told the Register & Bee.

The weather is just one of the challenges health experts are enduring.

We continue to battle pandemic fatigue, she explained. Its still important for people to practice their mitigation methods and take precautions as necessary.

Dr. Scott Spillmann, director of the local health district, told the Register & Bee earlier this month hes noticed a drop in local residents wearing masks and staying distanced in stores and business.

Its not over yet, he said, noting people are treating the pandemic as if it is.

Last weeks storm likely limited residents ability to interact with others and in turn could possibly limit the spread of the virus. But a temporary pause to social situations isnt nearly as important as vaccinations in addition to practicing the three Ws: wash your hands, wear a mask and watch your distance, Crawford said.

Vaccinations

Theres no magic timeframe for when the omicron wave will subside locally. Just like any other surge, human behavior is the main factor in the outcome.

Thats why its important for people to get vaccinated and boosted when eligible, she explained. Vaccination remains a critical tool to prevent and counter the pandemic.

Its still possible to catch COVID-19 even if an individual is vaccinated and boosted, but the impacts are far less severe. Unvaccinated residents have a greater risk of hospitalization and death.

Vaccination figures for Danville and Pittsylvania County havent shifted upward in the omicron wave, according to the health department. Only about half of residents are fully vaccinated and about 20% have received a booster dose.

Children are the least vaccinated demographic in the region. Only about 6% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated in Danville and Pittsylvania County. In the next age group  12-15  only 31% have received the proper doses of shots.

The health department is redoubling efforts to reach people of all ages who still havent been vaccinated even amid the weather battle.

We are exploring additional partnerships with community organizations to help achieve this, Crawford explained.

A clinic planned Saturday at Schoolfield Elementary School was canceled over weather concerns, the health department announced Friday. Another one is planned from 9 to 11 a.m. Jan. 29 at Gibson Elementary School. Schoolfields next vaccine event is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Feb. 12.

These clinics provide first, second and booster doses for free. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments may be made at vase.vdh.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA.

Hospitals

The staffing struggle for Sovah Health  and most hospitals around the country  continues. Its worsened by people coming to the emergency room wanting a COVID-19 test or who are experiencing only a minor illness.

We would like to remind the public that if an individuals condition is less severe and not life-threatening, we recommend they consider seeking care and treatment at an urgent care clinic or their primary care providers office so ER staff can focus on the most critical needs, Gunn-Nolan told the Register & Bee.

The emergency room also isnt a testing site. Even with stressed testing system, residents should go to pharmacies and urgent care facilites to get a COVID-19 test instead of heading for the hopsital.

Its critical that we reserve our hospital emergency rooms and rescue squads for medical emergencies, so if youre seeking a COVID test and it is not an emergency, please utilize our community testing events or testing at one of our retail pharmacy partners, Crawford said.

The ultimate advice for people who have symptoms that arent life-threatening or have been exposed to COVID-19 is to simply stay home.

It will go a long way towards helping to limit exposure and stop the spread of the virus, Crawford said.

The strength and perseverance of health care workers still on the job entering a third pandemic year amazes Gunn-Nolan the most.

We are so grateful for our employees and physicians for their continued dedication to our patients, she said. We all have a role to play in ensuring that our community remains healthy and that everyone here has access to the care they need, and our staff is counting on the public to do their part.

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Editor's note: This story is part of the Lee Enterprises series "Grizzlies and Us." The project examines the many issues surrounding the uneasy coexistence of grizzly bears and humans in the Lower 48, which have come more into focus in recent years as the federally-protected animal pushes farther into human-occupied areas. The 10-part series, comprised of more than 20 stories, was produced by reporters and photojournalists across the Rocky Mountain West.

Montanans seem of two minds regarding grizzly bears in their midst.

A University of Montana survey completed this year found nine of 10 Montanans believe grizzly bears belong in the state, while just 3 percent thought grizzlies should not be anywhere in Montana.

Yet the same survey also found 83% of Montanans supported some level of grizzly bear hunting season.

We were extremely surprised at the strong, overwhelming public support for grizzly bears, said UM researcher Alex Metcalf, who co-authored the survey paid for by Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. To get 90% agreement on anything is rare. But 92% of Montanans say bears have a right to exist in Montana.

The strong support for a hunting season was equally surprising, Metcalf said. Only 16.7% felt grizzlies should never be hunted.

However, responses fragmented when asked more specific hunt-related questions. Just over a third of Montanans agreed that hunting would make grizzlies more wary of humans, while another third disputed that claim and 29% were undecided. About 61% said people should be allowed to hunt grizzlies as long as the bear population can withstand the pressure. But only 46% supported using grizzly hunting to reduce human-bear conflict, while 36% opposed the idea and 18% had no opinion.

This sort of makes sense in the context of other wild animal management we have in Montana, Metcalf said. We like to have wild animal populations and we manage them by hunting them. And the survey sees lots of agreement that hunting is a viable tool. If were going to do something other than that, we need to have that conversation.

For many, the lines are clear: Grizzlies should be available to hunt like any other charismatic western big game animal. In an interview with the Billings Gazette shortly before the 2017 delisting effort failed in court, now-Gov. Greg Gianforte said he was all for allowing a trophy hunt.

"Id be the first one putting in for a tag," Gianforte said in 2016. I did a grizzly hunt once up in Alaska. I didnt connect, but  I look forward to the day when we have a grizzly hunt in Montana.

Asked at the time if he though a grizzly hunting season would eventually arrive in Montana, Gianforte bet it would.

Again, this is part of bringing science back to the process," he said. "We need to conserve and preserve our wildlife. I think one of the best ways to do that is through scientifically set hunting quotas to keep them at sustainable levels. I think, when Montana issues a grizzly tag, theres going to be a lot of people applying, and I will be one of them."

That presents a biological challenge.

Studies in Alaska have shown that places with lots of grizzlies can sustain a lot of hunting for mature male bears, if the females and cubs are protected. But the evidence is inconclusive that hunting is effective at targeting problem bears or reducing conflicts.

At a December gathering of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Bear Specialist Group, bear biologists and game wardens from all over North America compared notes on the effectiveness of grizzly hunting. Chris Servheen, who led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly program for 35 years, supervised the session.

"Hunting bears teaches bears nothing, as death is not a learning experience," Servheen said. While some Montanans claim that grizzlies were more leery of humans before the end of legal grizzly hunting in 1993, that's more likely because there were actually very few grizzlies left to get into conflicts, he said. And the practice of sport hunting has little relationship with conflict-management, as it's extremely difficult for a private hunter to find and kill the specific bear that raided a chicken coop or other depredation. Furthermore, hunting tends to be extremely restricted for safety reasons in residential areas where food-attracted bears get into trouble.

And the total population of grizzlies in the Northern Rocky Mountains is a sliver of the 20,000 or more grizzlies in Alaska. The 1,000 or so grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem could quickly see a population crash after a few over-successful hunting seasons. The Cabinet-Yaak, with perhaps 50 grizzlies, cant stand to lose a bear.

Alaska continues to allow big-game hunting of grizzly bears, although neighboring British Columbia banned trophy grizzly hunts in 2017. Wildlife biologist Sterling Miller, whos worked in both Montana and Alaska, said his experience revealed a complicated relationship between hunter and hunted.

In Alaskan places where grizzlies were hunted, Miller said they showed extra wariness when humans were nearby. But historically, most successful grizzly hunting grounds were near national parks or other refuges, where bears got habituated to human presence and then fell to hunters just over the border.

You can hunt wildlife populations in a sustainable way, Miller said. But its more problematic for small or isolated populations like grizzlies. Theres less resilience in those small systems.

Hunting grizzlies also risks a public backlash that could have unintended consequences. A 2021 study published in Conservation Biology by Chris Darimont at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, warned that opposition to grizzly trophy hunts could hurt big-game hunting overall.

The killing of large carnivores for trophy and not food, conducted by few hunters, has potential to threaten the social license to hunt afforded to the larger group who hunt for food, Darimonts study found. Social license means the general public acceptance of an activity.

Only 2 percent of U.S. hunters pursue black bears. In places with more opportunity, such as the Rocky Mountain West, wolf and bear hunters made up about 18 percent of Montanas hunting community.

In 2018 court filings favoring delisting, Safari Club International argued hunting grizzlies should be allowed to reduce the threat big-game hunters seeking other species faced when in grizzly habitat. The second reason was that grizzlies were considered a high-value trophy for those who enjoyed hunting. If the population was large enough to endure some hunting take, it should be allowed, the SCI lawyers claimed.

Those are just code words playing to a narrow political base, looking for a way to rationalize killing a big predator, countered Kevin Van Tighem, a retired Canadian national parks superintendent and grizzly bear biologist. The number of bears is irrelevant. The question is: Can we achieve something useful for society by hunting?

Van Tighem said his experience managing Banff, Elk Island and other grizzly-frequenting Canadian parks showed that hunting bears tended to address human concerns more than species management.

"Far more people killed every year by mishandling of firearms, and I know how you (Americans) think about firearms," Van Tighem said. "Your problem isnt the bear. It s the fear."

This Julys grizzly mauling death of a bicycle camper in Ovando happened a few months after the Montana Legislature passed a collection of measures directing the state Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks to take a much more aggressive approach to predator control than it had in the past. Public policy in Wyoming and Idaho have also taken a harder stance toward grizzlies. Yet in Washington, D.C. the winds have shifted in the opposite direction.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost its latest bid to delist the grizzly bears of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) two years ago, and to date hasnt announced how it plans to go forward. A five-year status report on grizzly recovery released last March found that while the NCDE and GYE grizzly populations were biologically recovered, grizzly populations in four other recovery areas remained precarious or non-existent. As when they were first listed, human-caused mortality and habitat loss remain the top threats to grizzly survival. In sum, it recommended keeping grizzlies under the Endangered Species Act.

The GYE delisting effort was initiated under President Barack Obama, but collapsed under President Donald Trump. Trumps Interior Secretary David Bernhardt visited Montana and promised more federal effort to kill problem grizzlies. President Joe Bidens Interior Secretary Deb Haaland co-sponsored legislation to protect grizzlies in perpetuity when she was a Congresswoman from Arizona.

The two biggest recovery areas, the NCDE and GYE, both anchor around popular national parks. Millions of tourists come each year, supporting thousands of local businesses and employees. Many dream of seeing a bear, and they post their success on social media with videos that professional biologists used to spend entire careers hoping to see. In August, amateur videographers caught two grizzlies fighting over a bison carcass in the Yellowstone River and a sow grizzly digging a marmot out of its burrow in Glacier Park while its cubs watched. Grizzly 399 in Grand Teton National Park has her own series of bumper stickers, among other fan memorabilia.

The University of Montana survey also found Montanans supported trying mitigation tactics like carrying bear spray, following food storage guidelines and securing attractants from property. Each of those proposals drew at least 90% agreement.

More livestock-related tactics such as changing ranching practices or using carcass-removal programs drew more opposition, but still had at least two-thirds of Montanans in favor.

Wildlife managers and wildlife biologists have widely differing attitudes about the effectiveness of grizzly hunting to achieve desired goals. While big-game species such as deer and elk number in the tens of thousands across Montana, the state holds about 1,000 grizzlies. Grizzlies are the slowest-reproducing mammal in North America.

Theres overwhelming agreement that grizzly bears are a positive contribution to the economy of Montana, Metcalf said of the survey results. Theres also a great deal of support for encouraging conflict-reduction. Were trying to balance the costs of bears and the value of bears.
Editor's note: This story is part of the Lee Enterprises series "Grizzlies and Us." The project examines the many issues surrounding the uneasy coexistence of grizzly bears and humans in the Lower 48, which have come more into focus in recent years as the federally-protected animal pushes farther into human-occupied areas. The 10-part series, comprised of more than 20 stories, was produced by reporters and photojournalists across the Rocky Mountain West.

OVANDO - Which grizzly bear defined the summer of 2021?

Was it Monica, the aging sow on the northern edge of Glacier National Park who had to be killed by game wardens after she and her subadult cubs of the year went on garbage-raiding sprees at cabins along the North Fork of the Flathead River?

Or Felicia, an equally prolific female with cubs who became a traffic hazard on Togwotee Pass east of Grand Teton National Park, inspiring a posse of volunteer bear patrollers who tried to keep the peace between camera-slinging tourists and bears trying to make a living along a federal highway?

Or was it the unnamed 4-year-old male grizzly that killed a bike-camper in her tent in Ovando, roughly halfway between Glacier and Grand Teton, in the middle of whats fast become one of the most contentious Endangered Species Act debate in the nation?

The July 6 mauling death of Leah Davis Lokan, 65, made international headlines.

To say the incident happened in downtown Ovando overstates the size of the ranching center along Highway 200 thats grown equally popular with trout anglers and long-distance bike tourists. But looking at where Lokan pitched her tent, a dozen feet from the Brand Bar Museum, next door to the post office and across the main street from a grocery, cafe, and fly-fishing store, puts the attack squarely in the center of human habitat.

The details of the other two grizzlies, including the names Monica and Felicia, illustrate how humans have pushed the other way, into places grizzlies used to dominate. When Lewis and Clark made their Voyage of Discovery at the opening of the 19th century, an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears inhabited the Lower 48 States west of the 100th meridian  the longitudinal line running roughly from North Dakota to Texas.

A dozen decades later, the bear emblazoned on the flag of California was nearly extinct throughout its natural range. Systematic destruction of its habitat and numbers, by ranchers, farmers and government agents, removed the grizzly bear from virtually every place except the preserves of Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.

Remarkably, the grizzlys attractiveness to tourists spared it from National Park Service predator culls. An 1895 Yellowstone superintendents report mentions the bears had increased notably after the U.S. Army put out garbage to feed them, while other bounty hunters were eradicating the wolves, mountain lions and coyotes in the park.

When the grizzly bear became the eighth animal given protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, somewhat fewer than 600 individual bears remained between Canada and Mexico. Over the next 45 years, two numbers changed: Grizzly populations grew from 600 to an estimated 2,100 in the recovery zones of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. And humans in the same space expanded from 1.9 million to 3.4 million.

What didnt change was the size of the landscape. Put another way, people in the Rocky Mountain West went from 5.9 per square mile to 10.3 per square mile between 1975 and 2020. Grizzlies went from .002 to .006 per square mile.

Monica the North Fork grizzly was about 20 years old when Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks killed her and her three yearling cubs in early September. In her lifetime, annual visitation to Glacier National Parks Polebridge entrance went from 31,000 to 89,000, data shows.

While she often spent time near homes and was observed by residents, she did not cause conflicts that we knew about until the fall of 2018 when she had just two of her three yearlings with her, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear manager Tim Manley noted in a report to the North Fork Preservation Association. The initial reports we had were that the family group had ripped into a yurt, damaged two vehicles, got into unsecured garbage and had pushed on a trailer.

Wardens captured Monicas two yearlings, who were suspected of causing the most trouble, and killed them. She gave birth to three more cubs in 2020, but had no reported conflicts. Things stayed quiet until this summer.

Manley said in late August, Monica and her triplet yearlings got into trouble all over the Polebridge vicinity. They knocked over barbecues, broke into improperly closed bear-resistant trash cans, pulled garbage out of a horse trailer, broke windows out of a pickup topper to get food, damaged a car that didnt have any food, and tore the wall out of a camper trailer to get a big food reward.

The sow and all three of her yearlings were captured and killed.

I have said it many times before, killing bears is the worst part of my job, Manley told the homeowners. We try to avoid having to do it, but when bears become very food-conditioned and start causing property damage and breaking into vehicles, trailers and cabins, those bears are removed.

Outside Grand Teton, the opposite problem developed. People wouldnt leave Felicia alone.

Wildlife biologists call the bear by her number, 863, which means she was the 863rd bear to be caught and affixed with a telemetry collar in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. On social media, she became Felicia.

Either way, the female with cubs who likes to munch on grass and clover near Highway 26/287 in western Wyoming has become one of the most famous grizzly bears after fellow Grand Teton Bear 399. And her propensity to be near traffic  and apparent nonchalance about hordes of people gathering to take pictures  helped make her into a bit of a social media sensation. She also created a traffic hazard, according to Wyoming wildlife and law enforcement officials, not to mention the daily possibility that one of those photographers will inch just a little too close before everyone remembers too late that grizzly bears on the side of the road are still grizzly bears.

Were trying to alter the bears behavior but also trying to fix peoples behavior, and thats where the big challenge is, said Dan Thompson, large carnivore section supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. From a human psychological standpoint its been fascinating to be involved with.

Draw a line about 25 miles to the south and the human behavior aspect of the story changes.

Ranchers say theyre struggling against an increasing number of grizzlies preying on their cattle. Problem grizzlies must be managed, and often lethally removed. Their ranching livelihoods depend on it. Conservation groups are suing to stop those killings, and leasing in general. Grizzlies and cattle dont mix, they say, among other things.

At the same time, new homeowners are buying houses and property, often sight unseen, throughout the stretch of land bordering Yellowstone National Park on any side. The buffer has long been a place where grizzlies could wander with minimal impact, with its human residents long-ago trained in the art of keeping food away from bears. Wildlife managers worry the flood of new residents may not be so bear wise, and that conflicts will only increase.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Wyoming Highway Patrol and Forest Service tried placing flashing signs telling people not to stop on the side of the road. They threatened tickets to those standing in traffic, ignoring oncoming vehicles. Eventually, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to spend a couple of weeks hazing the female with cubs to make her leave the road and move further into the mountains.

Jack Bayles understands that some people behaved irresponsibly. Watchers started a live video stream from Togwotee Pass to alert anyone following them when she appeared. People from as far as Montana, Salt Lake City, Utah and Colorado came to the area, and some approached her and her cubs far too closely.

But the best reaction wasnt to shoot the bear with rubber bullets and bean bags, he said. Instead, Bayles said he believes officials should have managed the human side of the situation.

They have no problem when that section is a parking lot in the weekend in the winter and people are dragging trailers 90 mph down icy roads, Bayles said. Its not the land of many uses, just the land of uses we approve of.

Bayles is one of countless guides in the Yellowstone region and across bear country stretching from Jackson to Katmai National Park in Alaska that take people out to watch bears and other wildlife. He started his business in 2015 with his wife, Gina, and named it Team 399 after the regions other famous bear.

The accidental ambassador of her species, she is representative of a new age in human  wildlife relationships where coexistence and understanding are the new way, where a love of the wild is foremost in our hearts and minds, their website reads.

He wants to raise awareness for conservation issues. He wants to give back to the wild places and wild creatures that have given so much to us. He also knows that most people coming to Yellowstone or other areas with grizzly bears are there, at least in part, for the chance to see a grizzly bear.

Its the only place in the world where the common middle class person can see a grizzly bear in the wild, Bayles said. You could say over the course of our life, bear 399 is a billion-dollar bear to the Wyoming economy.

There is going to be conflict between bears and people, Thompson said. We will have to lethally remove grizzly bears for the greater good  theres the potential for humans to be injured and even killed, and thats the reality of it. The notion of a future of bears and humans together without conflict is very naive.

As far as the future? I dont think its going to get any easier.

In Ovando, the future holds a lot of work.

While complete details surrounding the death of Lokan await the release of a Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee Board of Review report, a big part of the small town was on the scene that night, trying to staunch the campers fatal wounds and wondering what had triggered the attack.

For many, it was a replay of The Night of the Grizzlies, the famous book chronicling the 1967 tragedy when two women in two separate campgrounds were attacked and killed by two separate grizzlies on the same night in Glacier National Park. At the time, resort managers in both Glacier and Yellowstone national parks deliberately left garbage out to attract grizzly bears for tourist viewing. Some Yellowstone hotels even set up bleachers to watch the evening show.

That food conditioning combined with growing popularity of backcountry camping put two 19-year-old hotel workers in the path of two predators in a place marketed and managed for recreation.

The grizzly that killed Loken had also raided a chicken coop nearby the same evening. Two nights later, a game warden staking out another chicken coop spotted it with night-vision goggles and shot it to death. The entire time, strings of long-distance bike riders kept pedaling into Ovando, often off-the-grid and bewildered by the swarm of armed agents, helicopters, culvert traps and law enforcement vehicles infesting their vacation itinerary.

This is one of those absolutely very rare and extremely unfortunate events, like a lightning strike, said Seth Wilson, the executive director of the Blackfoot Challenge, whose office sits about 75 feet from where Lokan was killed. This is not a time where we say Lets throw our hands up and go home, but Lets roll up our sleeves and see what we can do to improve our work.

The rural region south of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex where the Blackfoot Challenge works has endured many economic lurches, from the collapse of logging and mining to the rise of tourism and the ever-volatile agriculture sector. It also sits on the southern tip of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem  the most productive grizzly bear recovery area in the Lower 48 States with about 1,000 resident bears.

Ranchers who grew up rarely seeing a grizzly in their childhood now fear for their grandchildren when they visit favorite fishing spots or hunt pheasants in thickets. Ovando and nearby Lincoln both sit in the middle of major wildlife corridors, and bears as well as elk and deer and wolves make a constant presence. That means new costs and hassles in damaged fencing, plundered crops, harassed cows and frightened workers.

Among the most effective changes the Blackfoot Challenge has helped instill has been a carcass pickup program thats overwritten the old practice of boneyards  dumps for dead livestock on the far edge of a ranch. Those boneyards were regular feeding grounds for grizzlies and wolves. But as the numbers of both predators increased, Wilson said ranchers started to see that getting free meat off the menu discouraged big scavengers from hanging around herds.

On the human side, Ovando residents quickly raised several thousand dollars to upgrade protections for chicken coops, buy bear-resistant trash cans for landowners, create a stockpile of bear spray for residents to use and install four new food storage lockers for bike tourists moving along Highway 200. The plan is to first increase Ovandos bear-awareness, and then work with the visitors whose behaviors are harder to influence, Wilson said.

Weve come to expect some level of bear activity in these small towns, Wilson said. Were located in the middle of prime grizzly bear habitat.
RALEIGH  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether North Carolina environmental regulators approval of systems capturing gas from waste at four hog farms violated the civil rights of people living in Duplin and Sampson counties.

In March 2021, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality approved water quality permit modifications at four Eastern North Carolina hog farms. At three of the farms, a new waste pit would be dug and covered with an anaerobic digester, effectively a large tarp that is welded together at the seams. As methane and other gases waft from the lagoon, they are captured in the digester and sent to a nearby processing facility. The fourth farm requested a permit to cover an existing pit.

A complaint filed in September by the Southern Environmental Law Center alleged that DEQs approval of the permits contained inadequate protections for nearby communities, which were disproportionately made up of Black, Hispanic or impoverished people. By failing to protect those communities, SELC argued, DEQ was violating civil rights laws that require any agency receiving federal funding to provide equal protections for all people.

SELCs complaint was filed on behalf of the Duplin County Chapter of the N.C. NAACP and the N.C. Poor Peoples Campaign.

In a written statement, Blakely Hildebrand, an SELC attorney, said, We hope that DEQ can quickly correct its course and protect communities near industrial hog operations as it develops a new general permit for hog operations that produce biogas.

The EPAs External Civil Rights Compliance Office will investigate whether DEQs approvals discriminated against residents on the basis of race or national origin, whether DEQs public participation policy complies with civil rights laws and EPA nondiscrimination policies. In a letter to Hildebrand, Lilian Dorka, director of the EPAs office, made clear that moving forward with the investigation does not constitute a decision about the merits of the allegations.

Biogas is popular with pork producers, who argue that it cuts down on methane emissions from their waste pits while also turning the captured gas into a source of revenue for farmers. But nearby community members and environmental advocates argue that using waste pits to capture gases perpetuates a system where waste is stored in lagoons before being sprayed onto nearby fields, damaging air quality and with runoff impacting water quality.

The farms receiving permit modifications were among 19 operations set to provide methane to an Align RNG facility in Turkey, North Carolina, near the Sampson-Duplin county line. Align is a partnership between Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy, where Smithfield-owned farms will provide methane that Dominion will turn into natural gas for sale.

Sharon Martin, a DEQ spokeswoman, said in a written statement, We are reviewing the EPA letter. DEQ is committed to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all North Carolinians and we have given significant priority to compliance with Title VI requirements, particularly with regard to animal waste permitting.

Smithfield Foods declined to comment because it is not a party to the investigation.

In a written statement, Roy Lee Lindsey, CEO of the N.C. Pork Council, said, It is surprising that these four farms are now under attack for trying to make environmental improvements on their farms. We are confident that when the facts of this complaint are reviewed, the result will be the same and there will be no finding of discrimination.

A DEQ environmental justice analysis of the Duplin and Sampson county areas around the four farms found that they had higher proportions of Black, Hispanic and impoverished people than North Carolina state averages and that there were at least three other animal operations within a one-mile radius.

But, the complaint alleged, that environmental justice review was merely a paper exercise and did not result in meaningful permit modifications.

Permit modifications DEQ did require included quarterly nutrient and pathogen sampling at three of the four farms, while two of the four farms had to submit reports detailing how they would manage waste spray fields to lessen impacts on nearby properties.
GREENSBORO  Mark Menees jokingly refers to his new assignment as the Hammer, as some others have coined it.

The arch demon, the 72-year-old said of a nickname thats a play off of his new title  archdeacon of the Anglican Diocese of the Eastern United States, who makes sure canon, or traditional, laws are enforced.

Menees is someone focused on his faith but can also find humor in it as well  such as this moment when he references a deacon character in a popular book that justifies the jokes.

The deacon in it gets killed off and you feel he deserves it, he said of how the character was written.

The appointment also makes Menees, the rector of the St. Johns Anglican Church, the counselor to Bishop Chandler Holder Jones, the spiritual leader of the diocese, which as part of the conservative Anglican Province of America includes seven states, including Florida and South Carolina.

He is the person who must approve the ordination of all elders and pastors and serves to nurture them in a Zoom classroom and by visiting their parishes. One of the things that caught the eye of the bishop was just how well Menees had done with engaging online browsers during the pandemic who either showed up at the church when it reopened or continued to tune in. The mission of the church is to draw more people to the Christian faith.

Not only did people come back but we were actually surprised by the people watching on Facebook, said Tim Daughtry, a former vestry secretary. The feedback we got is that they wanted to hear more of Father Mark.

The pandemic has at times disrupted the work. Shortly after the July 2021 announcement of his new role, Menees contracted COVID-19 pneumonia and just in the past week finished four months of breathing treatments. Faith leaders say the most captivating biblical messages often include encounters with stumbling blocks and how to get around them. And Menees has quite a few that have given him perspective, such as his battle in 2009 with the H1N1 flu virus during that epidemic. He lost 60 pounds over 10 weeks.

We learn pretty quickly through these things the illusion of being in control, Menees said.

Building up a church

St. Johns, which started in a members home in 2003, is a church that is orthodox in celebrating the sacraments, such as communion, and also worships in ways in which the congregation participates. It was considered a mission church and not a full parish because of its size.

Menees, then working as the director of pastoral care in an assisted care community, was drawn to the church because of its traditions and teachings and later became its part-time pastor.

A University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University graduate, he had come to North Carolina in 1978 from Nashville, where much of his family has lived since the 1770s.

His lineage includes a sixth great-grandfather who was a delegate to the North Carolina congress that approved the U.S. Constitution.

Generations of his family also go back to an adjoining farm with future President Andrew Johnson.

At St. Johns he would find a small but devoted congregation that would move out of the members home and into a shared space with a Lutheran congregation on Friendly Avenue, who over time would disband and put their church on the market.

About the same time, the congregation at St. Johns was out looking at four or five other available properties so that they could have their own building. The members had even talked about building something from the ground up. But when they started really thinking about their options, they took another look at the Lutheran church now up for sale.

The 100-seat Friendly Avenue property was where they had already prayed together, read Scripture together and taken communion together for the last few years. At one time it was listed at $550,000. With about 30 members, the church was stepping out on its faith.

So the church made an offer.

The congregation was not the highest bidder, but the Lutheran congregation was very gracious to us, Menees said.

By 2017, the congregation had petitioned their bishop to be recognized as a parish church and Menees would serve as the first full-time rector.

COVID changes church

COVID-19 would officially rear its head around Lent 2020, and that led to stay-at-home orders and closed physical church doors for St. Johns as well.

I know that there are people who think that its a hoax or feel that its less virulent than it may actually be, Menees would later say. And some people may get it and have minuscule reaction to it, and the person next to them who is perfectly healthy ends up dying. If this is all a hoax the only problem with (all the precautions) is the aggravation. However, its not a hoax.

Initially, the congregation of about 80 members was just looking for ways of staying connected.

The younger members in the congregation suggested livestreaming the service on Facebook that May. And they did so using an iPhone.

It would be a first for St. Johns although some other congregations already had in-person and streaming services as part of their worship.

She came in and said, Father Mark, there were 159 people who checked in this morning, he remembers a conversation with one of the members. I said, Where are they on a Sunday? 

He instantly understood what was taking place as people behind their computer screens browsed the offerings.

They are out there, Menees said. I think as anxiety and fear hit us  and they hit all of us in different ways  I think what we are seeing is that people desperately need community and connectiveness. All of us need hope.

And I think in the face of questions and struggles, its not just answers. If people could give you answers to a tragedy  this is why it happened  that doesnt make it go away. That doesnt take the pain away.

By October 2020, as the church planned on reopening the physical building, the congregation had bought upgraded equipment to provide a higher quality virtual experience to the online audience and allow the congregation to broadcast on YouTube.

Inside the church, families were asked to sit together, with parishioners separated by a pew with all seats 6 feet apart, as suggested by state health guidelines. The offering plate wasnt passed, but placed on a stand for members to drop off donations as they came or went. Parishioners used masks while singing or chanting the liturgy.

Even the act of giving communion changed.

Menees now places the Host into the Precious Blood, places it on the lips of the communicant and then sterilizes his fingers between each person.

There would be no Sunday church school, fellowship hour or greeting line after Mass, but in good weather, they would hold the fellowship hour outside.

If I forget some of these practices, please remind me, he once told them. It is a different day for me as well as for all of you.

Taking on new role

In July 2021, Menees was formally asked to take the position of archdeacon.

Father Mark has been chosen for this ministry because he possesses unparalleled gifts for pastoral work and brings an abundance of wisdom, experience, and knowledge to the post, Jones, the bishop, said in a statement.

The two had served together on boards and committees, so Jones had seen him in other leadership roles. Menees had a clear understanding of what he was being asked to do.

Discipline is not a word we like very much in our culture, but theres no such thing as excellence without discipline, Menees said. Ask any good musician.

But really, the purpose of correction and discipline is reconciliation, healing, and promoting the well-being of the Church.

By August, Menees tested positive for COVID-19.

The lung-scarring COVID pneumonia.

Heavy doses of the steroid prednisone followed.

The fatigue from it is unreal, Menees said. It shuts you down.

He slept for 15 hours a day for the first two weeks.

He thinks he got it while conducting his mothers funeral in Tennessee that month.

He didnt have a mask on conducting the funeral in front of mostly family.

He did at the luncheon afterward as he greeted people.

My guess was someone was asymptomatic, he said.

He developed a sore throat almost right away.

I never had a sore throat like this, he thought to himself at the time. Never started coughing like this.

He quarantined at home  under the four wardens of wife, daughter and grandchildren.

The virus had taken his sense of taste and smell.

It would take months for Menees to be able to walk a full mile. Used to walking 5 miles a day before the pandemic, he is now back up to 2.

The doctor told me, If you hadnt had the vaccine you probably wouldnt survive,  Menees said, we wouldnt be sitting here talking.

As he grew stronger, he ended up having to sit in the pews while a retired bishop conducted services.

And he had to learn how to accept help.

We are accustomed to giving, Menees said of ministry. I really had to come to depend on some other people to do things I normally did myself.

He has now fully taken on the additional archdeacon duties, including making parish visits, even recently filling in at a church whose pastor died. With his wifes Parkinsons diagnosis, he might also wash his hands 50 times a day as part of his precautions because he doesnt want to bring the coronavirus home to her. And he knows that it is the new normal.

I think thats what a crisis does  I think it throws a roadblock in front of you but it shows you what really matters, Menees said. After several harsh ear infections, you discover that you will take that crushed up medicine in apple sauce after all. I think thats kind of a parable of where we are after this.

Menees only has to look at the Facebook views to see that the response to COVID-19 has helped strengthen his congregation as well.

The last years have been challenging and yet there are opportunities we probably would not have seen as clearly without going through this, he said.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 336-373-7049 and follow @nmclaughlinNR on Twitter.

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Forget the stereotypical images of macrame plant hangers and 1970s barefoot hippies. Hemp has come solidly into the 21st century with surprising range, versatility and renewed popularity.

One of the first companies licensed to grow industrial hemp in New York, Hudson Hemp got its start in 2017 shortly after hemp was legalized in the state.

We decided to go in this direction as hemp is a particularly specialized plant in carbon sequestering, which ties into our regenerative agricultural practices, says Hudson Hemp co-founder Melany Dobson, of the decision to go into the hemp business.

This year, we produced 10 acres of CBD-rich hemp to use in tinctures and salves currently featured on our website. We also partner with external companies to create products for their businesses.

Hemp in regenerative farming

Not only does regenerative farming work to reverse the effects of chemical pollution and decarbonization to improve topsoil health and fertility, it also helps reduce soil erosion and loss that can contribute to climate change.

Together with her sister, Freya, and brother, Ben, Dobson and the Hudson Hemp farm team focus on enriching and leaving the soil of their Old Mud Creek Farm and Stone House Farm properties better off than they found it. Born into a family that raised lettuce and tomatoes, Dobson only decided to follow in her fathers organic farming footsteps after a stint in Northern California opened her eyes to the possibilities the cannabis industry had to offer.

Regenerative farming aims to not only maintain the integrity of the environment, but enhance it with strategic crop rotation and nutrient sequestering, she explains. Organic farming may meet certain guidelines and regulations to achieve certification, but doesnt follow the same format of ecosystem balancing that allows for longevity in sustainable harvesting.

As adopters of the regenerative practice movement, the Dobsons transition began back in 2013 with a move toward diversifying and earning organic, non-GMO status for their farming operations. Hemp has helped them achieve these goals by producing a viable crop that supports biodiversity, sustainability and carbon sequestration  the ability to pull carbon dioxide out of the air and reintroduce it into the soil  through a natural, closed-loop farming system.

All about hemp

Although its receiving renewed attention in recent years, hemp has actually been around for millennia with historical mentions going back as far as 8000 B.C.

Hemp (cannabis sativa) is a type of plant that contains medicinal properties, Dobson describes. Hemp and cannabis are both the same species of plant, only differing in THC content. Cannabis contains higher than 0.3 percent THC content, whereas hemp contains less than said amount.

Cannabis was widely grown in the United States until the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 put the kibosh on the crop until 2018, when the U.S. Farm Bill federally legalized hemp production, ushering in a new generation of CBD growers and suppliers. The versatility of the crop is part of what makes hemp so appealing.

CBD has been known to help treat anxiety, minor aches and pains, Dobson notes. Hemp also provides strong, fibrous material that can be used in the production of food, fuel and fiber.

Hand-in-hand with Hudson Hemp growing operations, Dobson and her sister oversee the production and sales of Treaty, their line of plant extract-enhanced CBD tinctures in four formulas: Calm, Focus, Recover and Balance.

Hemp and marijuana: The same?

Many people mistakenly believe that hemp and marijuana are the same. Not the case, Dobson explains.

It has raised concerns of whether hemp can make someone high, she continues. This is untrue, as hemp and marijuana contain different chemical properties.

Its important to read CBD product labels closely because the regulation of CBD products currently varies by state, which can lead to discrepancies in quality and potency. Hudson Hemp insists on careful in-house analysis and third-party testing to assure high product integrity and standards.

The future of hemp farming

As the CBD industry continues to expand, industrial hemp presents an intriguing proposition for farmers wanting to diversify their crops and venture into new markets. Dobson hopes to continue blazing new trails for others to follow into the world of hemp and regenerative farming.

Now that cannabis has been legalized in multiple states, as well as being in the works for New York, this will provide new opportunities for hemp growers to produce both hemp and cannabis if they so choose, she says.
School Choice Week has an unexpected new supporter in North Carolina  Gov. Roy Cooper.

For the first time during his tenure, Cooper has issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 23-29 as North Carolina School Choice Week. The proclamation is a surprise, considering Coopers opposition to the states private school voucher program and his concerns about expansion of charter schools.

The NC Association for Public Charter Schools requested this proclamation and we honored that request, Jordan Monaghan, a spokesperson for Coopers office, said in an email. Over the past two years, educators at all levels have responded to unprecedented challenges with grace, flexibility and determination.

We must do more particularly to support our public schools and owe all educators our thanks and recognition.

Its a victory for school choice groups whove been promoting alternatives to traditional public schools.

Rhonda Dillingham, executive director of the N.C. Association for Public Charter Schools, said the group had asked Cooper, a Democrat, to issue a proclamation each year since he took office in 2017. The last proclamation had been issued in 2016 by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Its an olive branch that were happy about and hope that we can even take it further and see where it goes, Dillingham said in an interview.

The proclamation was so surprising that Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, wrote in a blog post that he thought it was a hoax at first.

The N.C. Association of Educators declined comment on the proclamation. NCAE has backed Cooper during his tenure and opposed charter schools and the voucher school program.

Public schools lose students as choice expands

National School Choice Week has been celebrated annually since 2011, with events across the nation. Its billed as an event to equally celebrate all types of school choice, including options in traditional public schools. But usually its celebrated more by charter schools, private schools and homeschooling parents.

The weeklong celebration comes at a time when enrollment in North Carolinas traditional public schools has continued to decline while enrollment continues to rise in charter schools, private schools and home schools.

It just goes to the trend that were seeing in the country and in North Carolina, Dillingham said. Parents are more supportive, citizens are more supportive of school choice than ever before.

Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow. But they are still considered to be public schools.

The Opportunity Scholarship program was expanded in the new state budget to provide $5,900 a year for low- to middle-income families to pay tuition costs to attend private schools.

Heather Koons, a spokesperson for Public Schools First N.C., said the most effective way to provide school choice is to fund high-quality public school systems. She said families should look at all their options in traditional public schools.

Public dollars need to stay in public schools, Koons said in an interview.

Dont damage public education

Critics have argued that charter schools and private school vouchers drain money from traditional public schools. Its a view that Cooper has historically backed.

While some charters are strong, we see troubling trends, such as a resegregation of the student population, or misuse of state funds without a way to make the wrongdoers reimburse taxpayers, according to a now-deleted post on Coopers campaign website. We need to manage the number of charter schools to ensure we dont damage public education, and we need to better measure charter schools so we can utilize good ideas in all schools.

Cooper has also tried to cut funding for the Opportunity Scholarship program in his budget proposals.

School vouchers are wrong, Cooper said at a September 2020 online forum during his reelection campaign against Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. They hurt our public schools.

In contrast, the proclamation signed by Cooper declares North Carolina is home to a multitude of high-quality public and nonpublic schools from which parents can choose for their children, in addition to families who educate their children in the home.

Educational variety not only helps to diversify our economy, but also enhances the vibrancy of our community, the proclamation continues.
On January 24 Uzbekistans President, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, delivered his third annual report to Parliament. This address marks an important step in Uzbekistans reform effort.

As he has done before, President Mirziyoyev emphatically stressed the need to replace old, ineffective structures and work methods with market-based management of the economy and democratic political practices. This time, however, he laid special emphasis on the urgent need to strengthen representative forms of governance at each level. To this end, he strongly urged members the newly elected Parliament to participate actively in the reform process. He pleased for them to act bold and decisively on their own, and not to wait for guidance from the executive branch

of government. Instead, he said that their positions should reflect the views and interests of their constituents.

In his effort to enhance the effectiveness of the national Parliament, President Mirziyoyev appears to be seeking a stable system based on checks and balances. He clearly realizes that the alternative  to construct a system based on a rigid "power vertical" would be counterproductive.

But the alternative is not possible if the country has only "a puppet Parliament." Instead, he envisions an independent Parliament or Oliy Majlis. His goal is to develop an independent Oliy Majlis that has the will and skills required to initiate and adopt laws based on the interests of citizens and the nation as a whole. Hence the call to enhance the status and authority

of parliamentarians. To this end, also, he sharply broke with tradition by proposing a law that will oblige ministers to respond personally to requests from members of parliament.
GREENSBORO  A Greensboro woman who lived more than 100 years has given more than $1 million for scholarships for Guilford County Schools graduates to attend Guilford College.

Kyle Farmbry, the colleges new president, announced the surprise gift on Friday.

According to a news release from the college, the $1.16 million gift will create an endowed scholarship fund to benefit district graduates who enroll starting this fall.

Debt-free college eliminates barriers to educational equity and economic equality, Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras said in the release. Guilford College is deeply committed to creating better communities and a better world, and this gift will have a lasting impact on the lives of our students.

Laura Peeples Tew died a little over a year ago, just before her 101st birthday, and donated the money as part of her estate.

That Ms. Tew was so touched by what we do makes a critical statement on who we are, Farmbry said in the release.

Tew, who had a secretarial degree from Kings College in Charlotte, was not a Guilford College alumna. And college leaders werent aware of Tew, or her plans for the donation, until they heard from her lawyer in December.

But Tew, who had lived on Horse Pen Creek Road for more than 50 years, was a longtime neighbor to the school and enjoyed visiting the campus and attending events there.

She talked about the college, the buildings, the trees all the time, Monte Bredal, Tews niece, told Guilford College Magazine in an article appearing in the magazines next issue.

Whenever she was lonely or feeling anxious she would head over to Guilford, Bredal said. I think being on campus made her feel better. It really was like a love story.

Contact Jessie Pounds at 336-373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.

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With just a few months left until North Carolinas U.S. Senate primary, two Republican candidates stepped up their attacks on a third endorsed by former President Donald Trump and steadily moving up in the polls.

Former Gov. Pat McCrory and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker of Greensboro each leveled sharp criticism of U.S. Rep. Ted Budd and the political action committee supporting him at the Moore County Republican Mens Club luncheon Thursday afternoon  a sign they may be growing concerned by his rise, though they say otherwise.

Budd spoke to attendees via video conference because he was in Washington, D.C., for votes, but did not mention other candidates in his speech. He mentioned his most important backer, the former president, only once, in the context of foreign affairs.

McCrory, by contrast, slammed the group backing Budd, which FEC reports show has spent more than $3.5 million in support of Budd and nearly $500,000 in opposition to McCrory. McCrory then called out to Walker from his small stage.

Aint that right, Mark? McCrory asked.

100 percent, Walker replied from the crowd.

McCrory, a former governor and former Charlotte mayor, has led the polls in recent months, according to internal polling from both McCrorys and Budds campaigns. McCrorys lead is shrinking and Budds is rising, however, according to those same polls.

Each candidate argues theyre the best candidate to beat presumptive Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley, who has somewhat of a headstart in fundraising for the general election because other high-profile Democratic candidates have dropped out of the race.

In this swing state, which candidate Republicans elect in the Senate primary could give the GOP an advantage  or disadvantage  in beating Beasley. Whoever wins will play a role in determining which party controls the U.S. Senate for the remaining two years of President Joe Bidens term, helping or hindering his agenda.

I dont want to move to Washington, McCrory said Thursday. Im doing it because the problem is Washington.







Club for Growths support of Budd

Walkers next steps

Walker, who has been running third in the polls and is considering running for U.S. House, also used part of his speech to go after Budd directly  for his vote on the farm bill, his response to a question about the 2020 election and his support from Club For Growth.

Club For Growth Action, a political action committee that backed Budd in his 2016 U.S. House race, has committed to spending $10 million to support Budds election to the Senate.

This is the voting card given to every member of the US Congress, Walker said, holding his up to show the crowd. Somebody spends $6 (million) or $7 million on you, who owns that voting card? Do you? Or those people that tell you?

Walker said he would announce his decision on staying in the Senate race or moving to a U.S. House race Monday. Trump said he would endorse Walker if he switched races, The News & Observer previously reported.

If Walker does that, Budd may have a better chance at beating McCrory, since some Trump supporters may be split on voting for Walker or Budd.The primary was originally set for March 8, but the state Supreme Court moved it to May 17. State lawmakers voted recently to push the primary to June 7, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper could veto the bill.
Cheyenne Stanley is used to multitasking. Until February, she was a manager at a 24-hour convenience store in Raleigh, where she ran the register, organized schedules, stocked the floor, cleaned bathrooms and dealt with customer complaints.

She worked while juggling child care for her newborn, Serenity Bragg, who was born in December, and her 10-year-old, Rachel Goodwin. Shed wake up at 3 in the morning to go to work, where she filled out paperwork under the fluorescent lights of the convenience store while it was still dark out. At six, shed come home to Knightdale to bring Rachel to school and Serenity to day care. Then shed drive back to work as the sun rose over the highway.

Stanleys multitasking has looked a bit different during the pandemic. In February, she left her job of five years at the convenience store to stay home with her children. Stanley wasnt the only one. Hundreds of thousands of women also left the labor force, according to figures cited by Politico. A MetLife survey of 2,000 working adults conducted in September found that 20% of women say theyve had to leave the paid labor force during the pandemic.

Many women, like Stanley, stopped working because of child care. As schools shifted to remote learning, families needed a parent to stay home to care for the children. More often than not, that parent was the mother. Functioning day cares had become scarce, and, without a vaccine for months, there was the added worry of children and staff getting sick.

I made really good money as a manager, but by the time I got done paying for child care, I was making less than Ive ever made, Stanley told The News & Observer earlier this year. And its always been that way. If you work a full-time job and you dont make at least $20 to $30 an hour, its pointless to have a day care.

With COVID-19 vaccines now available for adults and children aged 5 and older, many hoped life would return to normal  and that included women going back to work.

But as the pandemic continues and new variants emerge, including the most recent omicron variant, normal isnt quite here yet. Parents face new challenges before they can return to work, with child care continuing to be prohibitively unaffordable for many families.

In a survey conducted by the North Carolina Justice Center and released in February, 30% of women who werent working because of the pandemic reported child care as the main factor for their unemployment, compared to 4% of men.

Youre working your butt off to bring home very little, Stanley said. Youre pretty much working for child care.

Part of President Joe Bidens Build Back Better Act, which passed the House but is stalled, perhaps permanently, in the Senate, would include federal funding to address some of those child care concerns. That includes early childhood education for children under 6; providing child care expenses at licensed providers to families who meet income eligibility requirements; and raising wages for child care workers.

On Dec. 20, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper said if the Build Back Better Act isnt passed, the lack of access to affordable, quality child care will hurt families and employers. The act, which includes a provision capping child care costs at 7% of income for low- and middle-class families, has faced opposition from Republicans, including Sen. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem.

Its one of the issues now affecting people in the workforce, Cooper said at a news conference. And when you have working parents who are paying 25, 30% of their income on child care, that makes it hard for them. They need to get back to the table in Washington and negotiate something to try to help people with health care, prescription drug prices and particularly the child care.

A November report from Ready Nation, a bipartisan arm of the Council for a Strong America, supports Coopers statement, saying North Carolinas economic recovery from the pandemic will be hindered because of a lack of child care options for families.

The inability for some women to both work and make sure their children are cared for is a symptom of problems that have existed long before the pandemic  and, unless something changes, will continue to exist long after it.

Child care hasnt been working for a long time in the U.S., said Logan Harris, a policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center. As with so many things, COVID just revealed how fundamentally disinvested the system was, and how much it needs investment in order to be able to function for families.

Toll on working-class families

Vice President Kamala Harris has called the exodus of women from the workforce a national emergency, and experts warn that women remaining out of the workforce could have long-term effects on the economy.

The longer a person is out of the workforce, the harder it becomes to rejoin. And every year that a woman doesnt work, she not only loses that years wages, but also incurs losses in wage growth, benefits and retirement savings.

While nearly all families with children had to make difficult decisions during the pandemic about child care, for working-class families, the choice between traditional child care options and working was particularly stark. Remote work usually wasnt an option, and the price of child care often rivaled a parents salary.

Sara Fearrington, a single mother and Waffle House server who lives in Durham, has three school-aged children. Early on in the pandemic, her adult daughter, who has her own children, also lived with them. Fearrington worked mornings and her daughter worked evenings so that they could take turns watching the kids, then 10, 12, and 14, during remote schooling.

When Fearringtons older daughter moved out, she had to teach her children to care for themselves while she was away at work. She made a routine for them and called them during her work breaks.

Theyre never alone, Fearrington said. I have a great village, I have a lot of neighbors, my older children would check in. But I shouldnt have to sit here and teach my daughter how to cook eggs at 10 years old because I have to go to work. But there were no options. What could I do?

Stephanie Meyers Spalin, a mother of four who lives in Apex, quit her job at the beginning of the pandemic to stay home with her children while they did remote schooling. She couldnt afford to arrange for someone else to watch the kids  then aged 8, 11, 13 and 15. As an employee at a car dealership, she didnt have the option to work from home.

I quit because Im more of the primary caregiver than my husband, Spalin said. And I am more of the primary caregiver because  because he makes more money.

Still, her family relied on both of their incomes, and living on only one income was difficult.

Weve struggled for years, and wed finally gotten to a comfortable financial place when I was working, so leaving that was really hard, she said. We had to move apartments, and we had to go on food stamps because I wasnt making money.

After her kids returned to school in-person this fall, Spalin was able to start working again, but re-entering the workforce was harder than she expected. She couldnt find a job for months. She re-applied for her old job, but didnt hear back. Shes heard of other mothers who also struggled to get their old jobs back once they could start working again.

Despite many industries experiencing staffing shortages, the competition was fierce.

Right now everyone is applying for jobs, she said. Ive been a manager before, I know what to look for in applicants. I was turned down by multiple places before I got a job at Starbucks.

They dont tell you this, of course, but I know a lot of it was because of, What if schools shut down again, does she have to leave her job? she said. Im sure they look at that. I know I would.

Although she was eventually able to find a job, her family is still struggling to make ends meet because of the time she took off.

There are still so many families, including my own, where were struggling, she said. People want to say were going back to normal. No. Its not normal yet.

School is a lifeline

For many families, public schools, and the free child care it can provide, is a lifeline. With the loss of that lifeline, many mothers stayed home to fill the gap. One of the most dramatic cuts to the labor force happened in September 2020. Following schools announcements that they would continue with remote schooling for the foreseeable future, more than 865,000 women stopped working, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in September 2021, at the start of another school year, more than 300,000 women dropped out of the labor force  the largest decline since the previous September.

Those women who did work created their own support systems to care for their children, relying on friends and family, organizing babysitting rotations, or finding other makeshift solutions, including creating pods with other families who followed COVID-19 protocols.

For Stanley, arranging child care was always hard financially. But the pandemic  and especially the inconsistency of in-person school  made it nearly impossible.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Stanleys partner was away for weeks at a time for work. Stanley couldnt keep up as Rachels school switched between remote and in-person instruction, and it was hard to find an affordable day care for her newborn. Stanley ended up setting up cameras in her house to watch Rachel when she was alone during remote school. Sometimes, Serenity would spend the night in her mothers office at the convenience store.

When I came back from my maternity leave in January, the pandemic had reached a whole new level, Stanley said. Employees were dropping like flies. I was working 18 to 20 hours a day with an infant and a 10-year-old.

There were days when she was so tired while working that she would think to herself: Am I going to ever go home? Am I going to survive this?

Something had to change, so in February, she left her job.

She decided she would make a go at running her own business out of her home. She started a business called Chey by Design, which sells products like candles, soaps and T-shirts, and organizes arts and crafts events. The business allowed her to try to keep working while having the flexibility to stay home with her children.

Working and watching both her kids at the same time ended up being harder than she expected. She often stayed up until 2 a.m., completing orders after everyone else had gone to bed. With Rachel back at school, she was hoping to have more time during the day to focus on filling out orders and scheduling events.

But within the first week of the 2021 school year, someone in Rachels class got sick with COVID-19, and she had to stay home for two weeks. After that, Rachel got seasonal allergies, and she couldnt go to school because of her symptoms.

It felt like a repeat of last year. Rachel was in for two weeks, out for two weeks. Some of the assignments Rachel was getting werent working on her internet at home. Stanley didnt know what the following week would look like.

But this time, Stanley was home instead of working, so it was easier to keep up.

I think the best thing for us was me being at home with the kids, especially during the pandemic. I was fortunate enough to have a (partner) who was able to help, you know, pay the bills while I was at home, she said.

Theres a lot of people out there that didnt get that option.

Day care isnt a benefit

If school is a lifeline for those with school-aged children, for those with children younger than 5, lifelines are harder to come by.

The vast majority of jobs dont provide child care assistance as a benefit. At the end of October, the waiting list for child care subsidies in North Carolina was over 18,000 people long, according to Elizabeth Everette, an assistant director of the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education.

Alexandra Maria Landeros, who has a preschool-aged daughter, received child care assistance through the University of North Carolina, where her husband is a graduate student. Because of that assistance, she was able to keep working while her husband was in school. Landeros works as an operations director for Poder NC, a nonprofit Latino organization.

Without the assistance from UNC, she said, she likely wouldnt have been able to afford care for her daughter.

I would hear stories about people who made pods with the grandparents, and I would also hear of these families, like, putting together their own schools and hiring a nanny, Landeros said. People of higher socioeconomic backgrounds had the privilege to pursue that option. Life was very different for people who couldnt.

Mary Beck, who lives in Clayton, quit her job in 2011, when she and her husband decided that she would stay home with their two sons until their youngest entered kindergarten. They couldnt afford child care, and she wasnt able to work from home.

Because Beck made less than her husband, she was the one to stay home.

After their younger son entered kindergarten in 2019, Beck began looking for jobs, finding one at a Scholastic Book Fair warehouse in March 2020.

Three weeks later, her new employer had to make cuts because of the pandemic, and she was laid off.

If she wasnt laid off, Beck said she would have quit her job anyway, to watch her children, now 7 and 12, during remote schooling. Just as she stayed home when her children were younger, she knew she would be the one to stay home when they were home for virtual instruction.

Ultimately, I am the primary caregiver, because Im the mama and thats what moms do, Beck said. And I think thats something thats just sort of expected in our society. At least for all my friends, everyone that I know, all the women are the primary parent. Its just sort of an automatic thing for us.

Shortage of child care workers

The report from Ready Nation says a shortage of workers, largely due to low wages, leads to fewer children served and reduced hours at child care facilities.

The average hourly rate of a day care worker is $10 to $12 an hour, less than that of an average retail worker, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report from September. Child care workers are 95% women, and disproportionately women of color.

Investing in these policies may have a significant price tag now, but thats because weve failed to invest for so long, said Rasheed Malik, an associate director of research at the Center for American Progress. Right now, were making parents and child care workers pay the price for that. But by investing in this problem collectively, we would see gains for everyone.

Nina Jacobs, who runs a day care in Clayton called Academy of Angels, is one of them. Before the pandemic, Academy of Angels offered 24-hour care, catering to parents who worked jobs with irregular hours.

After the pandemic started, she cut back those hours, though she tried to accommodate the day cares parents, many of whom were essential workers. She opened earlier or stayed open later for parents who needed it, and she offered pay-what-you-can services to parents who couldnt afford tuition.

Shes had trouble hiring and retaining enough staff, and being flexible with parents meant that she worked late nights and early mornings for little pay. But shes determined to keep her center open.

Everything I do is for my students and my parents, Jacobs said.

It takes a village

As the school year continues, public officials continue to work to keep children safe. Though the COVID-19 vaccine is available for children 5 and older, vaccination rates among children in North Carolina remain relatively low compared to the rest of the population.

As of Friday, 24% of North Carolina children aged 5 to 11, or 212,354 children, had received at least one dose of the vaccine since it became available in early November, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Forty-seven percent of children ages 12 to 17 have had one shot, or over 377,236 people.

That means many school districts have implemented mask mandates, despite pushback from some parents.

Until more children are vaccinated, the possibility of people getting COVID-19 and prompting a class or school quarantine lingers.

For Stanley and Beck, theyve been forced to be nimble, cobbling together child care solutions for the range of school options they might face.

Once Beck got a new job, she coordinated with other working parents to arrange child care.

Luckily I have a village of friends who help out, and friends who have teenagers who drive and they help out, Beck said.

But these networks of child care can often feel flimsy, and they also depend on a certain level of security  having extended family nearby, for example, or trusted friends and neighbors.

I know that its been such a struggle for so many other families that dont have family in the area, Beck said.

In December, Stanley returned to work full-time. She returned to work not because child care options have improved, but because she has to  her family is saving to buy a house, she said, and they need two incomes again.

Stanley is back to working nearly 14-hour days while trying to piece together child care for her children. When she is at work, Rachel stays with her godmother. Serenity is attending a drop-in day care until an opening at a full-time day care opens for her.

While almost everything about the world from two years ago may seem different now, Stanleys child care situation  apart from the added uncertainty from the pandemic  is largely the same.

But before she decided to return to the workforce, Stanley and her friends relied on each other to care for their kids. On a fall afternoon, she kept an eye on her two children as well as her friends two kids. She hoped to tackle her list of tasks for the day: a meeting with Amazon, where she planned to start selling her products, and filling custom T-shirt and candle orders.

Serenity, her youngest, was exploring the living room floor, gravitating toward the couch to try to stand herself up against it. The older kids were watching a movie, sharing Capri-Suns and Cheez-Its.

By early evening, Stanleys friend came to pick up her two children. While collecting the diapers, toys, and extra clothes she packed for her kids, she talked about her upcoming schedule, wondering when shed need to go to work, when day care would be open, who would watch her kids.

Any day that you need something like today, thats fine, Stanley said. I completely get it. I did it for years, trust me. Working till one, two oclock in the morning was no fun with kids.

They just expect us to drop everything, her friend replied.

Oh yeah, they do, Stanley said. You know Im here for you if you need me.
A company that bleeds horseshoe crabs to make pharmaceutical testing products is seeking permission to expand its harvest territory along the S.C. coast, raising concerns from scientists and environmentalists who say that could further endanger a threatened migratory bird dependent on the crab and deprive the crab population of a place to recover.

On Oct. 15, a lobbyist for the Massachusetts-based biomedical company worth more than $16 billion, Charles River Laboratories, sent an email to two directors of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. Attached to it was a confidential proposal that sought an unprecedented biomedical research license to allow fishermen access to previously restricted harvesting locations under the states jurisdiction.

In exchange, the company would be willing to commit up to $500,000, the document revealed, though annual saltwater fishing licenses cost no more than $35. The information was obtained by The State through open records act requests and the proposal is reported here for the first time.

To provide suitable space for research and monitoring, the DNR currently prohibits horseshoe crab harvesting on five islands in the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, one of the largest undeveloped estuaries along the Atlantic coast. Fishermen are free to collect the crabs for Charles River from almost anywhere else within the nearly 100,000 acres of the reserve that extends from the bottom of Hunting Island to the Edisto River  and from wherever they want on other public beaches and marshes along the S.C. coast managed by DNR. A few additional locations are restricted because they are managed by federal agencies or fall under special contracts.

Since the summer, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster and his staff, leaders of the DNR and representatives from Charles River Laboratories, which makes a product from the crab blood that tests vaccines and medical devices for bacteria, have met multiple times to discuss the companys proposal. The last meeting was on Jan. 7, a spokesperson for the governors office said on Jan. 11.

That sounds like pay-to-play to me and I think thats highly problematic, said Catherine Wannamaker, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center who was part of the team that showed in a 2020 lawsuit that harvesters for Charles River had illegally collected crabs from the federally managed Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in Awendaw.

Were talking about a company that in the past refused to respect harvesting in a national wildlife refuge, said Wannamaker. They dont seem to have any respect for special spaces.

In August, after the lawyers urged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to shut down Cape Romain to commercial activity since continuing to allow it there could be a violation of multiple federal laws meant to protect wildlife, the agency temporarily closed the refuge to harvesters. That meant Charles River lost 20-25% of the crabs it usually collects a year from South Carolina, a total that can amount to up to 150,000 animals, company representatives have said.

But the products Charles River makes from the crabs are no longer the only tools available to keep medical equipment sterile. Two of the companys three other competitors along the East Coast now manufacture and sell synthetic alternatives to the crab test. The synthetics do the same job without a drop of blood, have been approved for use by the FDA and are currently being employed by American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, though most other drug companies still rely on the crab-derived products.

Blaik Keppler, the acting deputy director of the DNRs marine resources division, told a reporter that the agency does not have the authority to grant a biomedical research license like the one Charles River proposed since it is not established in the state code. Still, the DNR is continuing to evaluate the interest in protecting horseshoe crabs and the interest in their contribution towards public health and safety, she said.

A spokesperson for McMaster confirmed over email that the governor was interested in finding a long-term solution to the harvesting of horseshoe crabs in South Carolina that meets the demand of Charles River Laboratories and their life-saving LAL tests, all while protecting horseshoe crab populations and the delicate ecosystems theyre a part of.

While touring the companys Charleston facilities in August shortly before the commercial closure of Cape Romain, McMaster expressed a desire to protect nature but assist Charles River.

We want to do everything we can to onshore all of these critical operations, he told the Associated Press.

Charles River declined an interview with The State. Since the partnership had not yet been finalized, the company wouldnt comment on specifics about it, a spokesperson said.

But a decade before in a horseshoe crab conference in Hong Kong, Charles River had been vocal about its previous commitment to conserving spaces for horseshoe crabs in South Carolina. The slides a Charles River executive presented at the event touted the fact that to maintain a sustainable stock of crabs in the state, harvesting is prohibited in sensitive conservation easements in the ACE Basin. Similar protections are less common in China, where the company has also harvested horseshoe crabs to make pharmaceutical products. The Asian horseshoe crab species Charles River and other biomedical companies bled abroad is now endangered.

Even as officials deliberated Charles Rivers proposal that could remove sustainability protections the company once claimed to support, Charles River was spending more money to present itself in Charleston as an environmentally conscious partner.

Crab contradictions, on land and sea

Since the 2020 lawsuit showed harvesters had illegally taken horseshoe crabs from Cape Romain and The State reported Charles River had known about the poaching for years but had told the public otherwise, the biomedical company has been busy seeking to buy affiliations with conservation nonprofits.

It spent $5,000 to sponsor the Conservation Voters of South Carolinas Green Tie award for the first time and donated $25,000 again to the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. The Charles River logo and company talking points are currently displayed multiple times in signs and banners posted around the aquariums horseshoe crab exhibit. Then there was their pitch for a partnership to the Charleston Waterkeeper, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and restoring area waterways.

When meeting with some of the groups, company representatives havent always been transparent, documents show.

On Sept. 28, Charles River representatives, including a vice president of the company and the CEO of its public relations firm, sat down with the Coastal Conservation League, a nonprofit founded to preserve Lowcountry coastal communities and wildlife. A senior program director at the League, Emily Cedzo, took notes during the discussion and shared them with The State.

The Charles River reps said only 5% of their horseshoe crabs die after being bled, the notes show. And the fishermen that harvest the crabs for Charles River do so in compliance with the laws and with respect for the animals, the representatives added later. Whats more, the crab population was stable, they said.

Thats not what locals and some scientists have observed.

DNR research has shown 20% of female crabs die within two weeks of being bled by Charles River, not 5%. Other science has indicated the death rate from the biomedical harvest may be higher still, and that the process that has been shown to drain crabs of as much as half of their blood weakens the animals well after theyre bled.

And last year, in the spring of 2021, Capt. Meg Hoyle, a former DNR wildlife biologist who now leads tours around the ACE Basin, said she saw four fishermen collecting horseshoe crabs from above the low tide line of Morgan Island  one of the islands in the reserve that is off-limits to fishermen because of a special contract with the state. The island is known for being home to a colony of monkeys used for medical research by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and lately, as a target of criticism by politicians and animal rights activists.

Right where the signs were that said Do Not Enter, where the monkeys were, they hopped out of the boat, Hoyle recalled.

Charles River has paid the DNR more than $16 million to rent the land where the monkeys live. But the lease agreement, obtained in 2020 by The State through an open records act request, shows that the area is only allowed to be used for monkey care. Nobody other than people authorized to do that are allowed on the island without first obtaining written permission, according to the lease, and taking wildlife on the premises is prohibited.

The way that the fishermen were collecting the crabs was also not humane, the biologist recalled.Shes been seeing more dead crabs around the reserve than she ever has before, said Hoyle. Another former DNR employee said hes noticed that in places where he used to tag several hundred horseshoe crabs, hes now happy to see four or five.

Michael Kendrick, who leads the states horseshoe crab research at DNR, said that on the handful of beaches he checked last spring while the crabs were spawning, their numbers appeared normal.

Some bird scientists have reported something more worrisome.

We may be witnessing a collapse

Every spring, migratory shorebirds briefly pause their northward journeys to feast on some of the eggs the crabs leave behind after they spawn. But in the past two decades, most of the population of one of the species that migrates the farthest, the threatened red knot, has disappeared. So many have died that the bird now receives federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Since 2010, DNR biologists have been researching the birds to find out what they do after they land in the Lowcountry, a stop that marks roughly the halfway point in their annual flight from the bottom of South America to the top of the Arctic Circle. By attaching identifying bands, geolocators and small radio transmitters to the birds, the scientists have been able to follow their flights. That data has suggested two-thirds of the birds may fly directly to the Arctic after they refuel in South Carolina.

All of this information identifies South Carolina beaches as very important for red knot and other shorebirds survival, Felicia Sanders, a bird biologist for the DNR, has said.

The most nutrient-dense option the red knots can scavenge are horseshoe crab eggs. But the birds are picky  they usually only eat the eggs when there are mounds of them. From what Fletcher Smith observed last year, they havent been easily finding that kind of abundance in South Carolina anymore.

Smith is a biologist at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who works closely with S.C. scientists to track red knots. In 2019 and 2020, while working near Turtle and Tybee islands close to the border with Georgia, Smith said he saw harvesters for Charles River load up their boats with thousands of crabs from the few spots where masses of the animals were still spawning and shorebirds were stopping.

Then, in spring 2021, after two years of harvesting pressure, the crabs didnt return. Smith estimates he spotted just 5% of the birds he had observed before. Meanwhile, across the border in Georgia where the harvesters didnt go, spawning proceeded as it had in years prior, he recalled.

What Ive been seeing is probably not sustainable, Smith said. We may be witnessing a collapse.

I do hope that we can protect the few sites that are critical for red knots and all the other shorebirds that utilize crab eggs to get to the Arctic, he added.

A turning tide, in medicine and South Carolina

The pharmaceutical industry Charles River is a part of is changing. But the company has not changed with it at the same speed as its competitors.

While other biomedical companies have already launched their alternative testing products to the market, Charles River is still working on preparing its own synthetic. In the meantime, though the company has also used horseshoe crab blood from New Jersey to help make its products, representatives have said it needs more blood from South Carolina to keep up with global demand for crab-derived tests.

That has started to become more difficult as some local environmental groups have begun pushing back.

After Cape Romain closed to harvesters for the first time in decades last year, the Charleston Waterkeeper turned down Charles Rivers suggestion of a partnership.

Charles Rivers September meeting with the Coastal Conservation League did not win over that long-standing conservation group, either.

On Jan. 13, representing the League and nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, the Southern Environmental Law Center sued Charles River and the DNR in federal court for permitting harvesters to keep crabs in secretive holding ponds before delivering them to Charleston.

The practice allowed in no other state but South Carolina violates the Endangered Species Act, the groups alleged, since it further imperils red knot survival by depriving the birds of the ability to feed on the crabs eggs while the animals spawn in captivity. It also harms the crabs themselves, since thousands of them may die each year in the ponds, they said. And for the crabs that do survive the confinement, those animals may suffer more harm after theyre bled and released back into the ocean, research funded in part by the DNR has indicated.

In a provided statement, Charles River referred to the lawsuit as environmental extremism and repeated a version of the companys discredited claim that synthetic alternatives are generally inferior to its horseshoe crab-derived products.

Not far from some of the holding ponds and beside one of the islands currently prohibited to harvesters, on a sunny January morning in the ACE Basin, Capt. Hoyle was focused on something else. Gloved hands firm on the wheel of her skiff, she steered the boat to face a pair of dolphins emerging in the distance from a golden marsh as a pelican settled on the sea behind her. Downstream, a bald eagle rested at the tip of a sun-bleached tree.

For a moment, while some of the two animals whose fates would soon be decided by lawyers, lobbyists and lawmakers remained invisible  the crabs hidden deep underwater and the migratory shorebirds still a continent away  the ecosystem they belonged to seemed to show off all that remained at stake.
There's been much debate about alcohol and flying in the past few years, with some airlines banning booze onboard flights altogether.

However, a New Zealand wine company is taking things in a slightly different direction by launching the "world's first winery airline."

Invivo will begin operating a route from the North Island of Auckland to Queenstown, in the South Island later this year, with its debut flight taking off within the next few months.

Co-founders Tim Lightbourne and Robin Cameron have chartered a 34-seater Swedish-built Saab plane for the maiden journey of Invivo Air, proving "business class in every glass."

Maiden voyage

While the duration of the flight is around two hours, the entire experience will last 24-hours, with a visit to Invivo's Central Otago growers and a stay at The Hilton Queenstown included.

"Obviously, there will be some complimentary wines served on board, as well as some non-alcoholic drinks," says Lightbourne.

"There'll be a range of Invivo wines available and maybe Robin and I will be serving it to the guests on the flight. It should be a lot of fun."

Lightbourne and Cameron decided to launch Invivo Air in a bid to celebrate the reopening of Auckland's borders in December as well as promote domestic tourism in New Zealand.

The pair also want to support those working in Auckland's hospitality sector, which was hit badly during the 119-day lockdown put in place after a Covid-19 outbreak in the city.

Half of the seats on the maiden flight will be complimentary, with priority given to those hospitality and tourism staff in Auckland who've been impacted by the lockdown, as well as residents who've been unable to visit loved ones located in New Zealand's South Island due to the border closures.

"A lot of the restaurants have been shut in Auckland for all that time," explains Lightbourne. "So it's been pretty hard. We'd like to reward some of those hospitality staff with a flight down to Queenstown, which is one of our major tourism destinations."

Domestic tourism boost

He also hopes the flights will provide a boost to the hugely popular Queenstown, which drew around three million visitors a year pre-pandemic, with over 60% those from abroad.

However, the resort town, situated in New Zealand's Otago region, "has been doing it tough" due to the lack of international tourists, according to Lightbourne.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Invivo team have found the process of setting up an airline from scratch rather tricky to say the least.

"We've had to talk to some people in the industry about the goings on and the challenges and all that sort of stuff," admits Lightbourne.

"It's a trial for us. But the feedback has been positive. There have been thousands of people registering. We could have sold out the flight 100 times over."

While the debut flight is indeed a "trial," Lightbourne says the team plan to running regular flights on the Auckland to Queenstown route, and hope to add new destinations in the future.

"We have vineyards in Marlborough, which is also the South Island, " he adds. "And in the North Island, we have some in the Hawke's Bay region and Gisborne. We'd love to get some flights out that way later on this year, hopefully."

Founded in 2008, Invivo produces wine from New Zealand, while also working in partnership with growers around the world to make wine from the top producing regions, including the Prosecco region of Veneto, Italy.

The Invivo winery is based in Te Kauwhata, located in the Waikato region, just south of Auckland.

Celebrity passengers?

Invivo's various shareholders and collaborators include "And Just Like That..." star Sarah Jessica Parker and British TV presenter Graham Norton, and Lightbourne hints that we may see one of the stars onboard an Invivo Air flight at some point.

"Both Graham and Sarah Jessica are really keen to get to New Zealand," he adds. "So they could potentially be one of the official guests on a flight in the future for sure."

New Zealand has been hugely praised for its response to Covid-19, and cases have remained remarkably low due to its strict border restrictions and quarantine measures -- there have been just over 15,000 recorded infections in the destination to date.

However, the country has been effectively closed to the rest of the world for the entire pandemic, aside from a brief quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia that was halted in July 2021.

This has proved incredibly challenging for many, particularly businesses that rely on international tourism, as well as those who've been separated from family members.

"Everyone knows it's for the greater good," says Lightbourne. "But having said that, we're really keen to get back to normal and open up the borders to international travel. It's been nearly two years."

Invivo Air passengers are required to comply with all applicable rules and regulations, including showing a valid vaccine pass before boarding the flight.

Although 50% of the seats on the debut flight will be available to purchase, seat prices are yet to be determined.

___
Fedrasion the war-wounded in northern and eastern Syria, who flocked, last Wednesday, amid snow and freezing cold, to sit-in tent at the Semalka crossing, on its 107th day, condemned PDK's betrayal and its rejection of protesters demands to receive bodies of their sons from the People's Defense Forces who were martyred in Khalifan ambush set up by the KDP militants in August 202

In a related context, member of the war-wounded federation in northern and eastern Syria, Azzy Dalaho to ANHA, "The sit-in tent has entered its 107th day, and the PDK still refuses to hand over the bodies, despite its brutality towards the guerrilla forces, the Kurdistan Democratic Party resorted to closing the Faysh Khabur crossing. it stipulated that the protesters end their sit-in to open the crossing.

And she continued, "Despite all appeals, the Kurdistan Democratic Party did not respond to the protesters' demands, but rather closed the crossings," adding that "the practices of KDP are no less than the Turkish fascist state policy especially with the fourth anniversary of occupation of Afrin by the Turkish fascist and its mercenaries."

Noting that "the Turkish fascist state has dug up shrine of the martyrs, and at the same time, the Kurdistan Democratic Party refuses to hand over the bodies to their families, these actions are pursued by the Turkish fascist state and the Kurdistan Democratic Party as a psychological and physical war against the peoples of the region."

Regarding the Kurdistan Democratic Party's refusal to hand over the bodies of the martyrs, Azzy explained that "the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which claims Kurdishness, is pursuing a psychological war against the Kurdish people, and is fighting through an alliance with Turkish fascism and Turkish intelligence to eliminate its gains."

Azzy said, "The war-wounded federation went to participate in the sit-in tent three times in solidarity with the protesters," noting that despite the sit-in entering its 107th day, the Kurdistani did not explain, reason for its refusal to hand over the bodies.

We, the war-wounded in northern and eastern Syria, gave pieces of our bodies for freedom and dignity of our people, so we appeal to the people of Basur (southern Kurdistan) to stand up to the policy and betrayal of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, because its practices serve Turkish fascism, not the Kurdish people, what requires from people of Bashur is pressure on the Kurdistan Democratic Party to hand over bodies of the martyrs to their families.

In turn, member of the war-wounded federation, Ali Sher, said that their presence at Semalka crossing is to show solidarity with the sit-in and demand the bodies of the martyrs be handed over to their families.

Sher affirmed, "It became clear to everyone that the reasons for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's refusal to hand over the bodies either the bodies were tampered with, or handed over to the Turkish fascism, or they were cremated," continuing his speech by saying: "its refusal is a Turkish scheme to create fraternal fighting, and this is a disgrace and disgrace."

Sher stressed, "The Khalifan martyrs were martyred in defense of humanity, freedom and dignity of peoples, so we sit in this tent until receiving their bodies.

It is noteworthy that the Martyrs' Families Council in Al-Jazira region has called for a sit-in at Semalka crossing since October 5 last year, to receive the bodies, to join the sit-in tent various components of northern and eastern Syria on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Democratic Party responded to the sit-in by closing Faysh-Khabur and Al-Walid crossings since last December, and imposing a stifling siege on northern and eastern Syria.

A.K
After 50 years of family control, Watermark Cruises and Tours has been sold to an Annapolis couple.

Debbie Gosselin, longtime Watermark president, sold the business to Jake and Laura Iversen, Annapolis residents who were both born and raised in the area. The deal took effect Jan. 1. Gosselin declined to say how much the sale was for.

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Jake has got young energy that will take the company forward, Gosselin said. The timing was right for him and for me, and Im really excited about it. Were in our 50th year, and I just cant imagine anybody better to take it into the next phase.

Jake Iversen has been Watermarks general manager of vessel activities for five years. Gosselin said while there wasnt one reason in particular that led to her selling the family business, her relationship with Iversen made him an ideal person to take over.

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I couldnt be happier and more honored to take the helm at Watermark, Iversen said in a news release announcing the sale. Debbie and her father before her have built a strong, vibrant company. Watermarks biggest asset, though, is the Watermark team.

Laura Iversen is the former executive director for Start the Adventure in Reading, a literacy tutoring program. She resigned last year to assist in the acquisition of Watermark and the transition of ownership.

Jake Iversen earned a Merchant Mariner Credential from the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies, which permits him to be an officer of any size vessel. He worked in international shipping for several years before being lured by Gosselin to work at Watermark full-time.

He was at sea for more than 200 days a year, Laura Iversen said. He began driving Harbor Queen during his time home and fell in love with Watermark and the culture of the company. When Debbie asked him to come work at Watermark full-time, he left the shipping industry and started as GM so he could work closer to home.

Gosselin had controlled the company for 22 years after she purchased it in 1999 from her late father, C. Ed Hartman II, who cofounded Watermark Cruises in 1972. Hartman, an Annapolis attorney and business owner who shaped the citys modern-day maritime industry and cofounded the Annapolis Boat Shows, died Jan. 15 at the age of 95.

The company has grown from a single boat to a fleet of a dozen, including the iconic Harbor Queen tour boat with its white-and-red markings and thunderous horn. It services Annapolis and Baltimore with a variety of cruises to local sites including Annapolis Harbor, the Naval Academy, Baltimore Harbor, Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse and the popular Day on the Bay to St. Michaels.

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Gosselin met Jake Iversen when he was a teenager and now considers him family, she said.

She said she was most proud of the culture of the company and the shared passion to expose Annapolis to its many visitors.

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We invite hundreds of thousands of people to Annapolis and on our boats every year  its a significant part of the local economy  and he gets it, Gosselin said. Jake gets all the intricacies of the operation, and we have a great team in place to support him.

In retirement, Gosselin plans to travel with her husband and spend more time with her five grandchildren. She will continue to run Annapolis Landing Marina with her siblings.

The company will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a gala on April 21.

The new owners are taking a dont fix what isnt broken mentality to the popular cruise line.

As time goes, we may find ways to improve and innovate, but five months or five years from now, youll still see the same Watermark with the same culture at its heart, Jake Iverson said in the release. Watermarks tours and cruises connect visitors and locals alike to the history, culture and fun of Annapolis, Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.
An 80-year-old mural by a famed Montana artist is undergoing a brush up in time for a summer observance honoring the "Devils Brigade."

Work has started on rehabilitating the 25-feet-long by 8-feet-high mural by Irvin Shorty Shope in the historic Fort William Henry Harrison Service Club in the Work Project Administration Building at Fort Harrison.

This painting was contracted by the 1st Special Service Force and the 9th Corps, said Ray Read, director of the Montana Military Museum. The 1st Special Service Force, a group of American and Canadian soldiers nicknamed the Devils Brigade" or the "Black Devils," were an elite fighting force during World War II.

The mural is a tribute to the men and women serving at the post at the time and is one of three known to exist in the United States. The other two, by different artists, are in Pennsylvania and in Florida at WWII mobilization stations, Read said.

He tells the story, Read said of Shope. He tells it head-on for Montana and he tells it as he saw it.

The mural is part of Fort Harrison Historic District tours and is expected to be completed by this summer in recognition of the 80th anniversary of the 1st Special Service formation on July 5, 1942.

It is the result of a collaboration of the World War II units who formed and trained at Fort Harrison from 1941-1945.

The main artist was Shope, who was already famous as a commercial artist and painter at that time and was the major contributor to the mural depicting the activities at the fort. Other artists contributed to the mural, which probably was not completely done during the tenure of the 1st Special Service Force from April 1942- April 1943.

Helena artist Matt Egan is working on the 80-year-old mural, giving it what is believed to be its first cleaning since it was finished in 1943, Read said. Actual or comparable paint will be used to refinish repairs. The painting will then be protected by environmental controls and protective barriers.

Were finding things under the clutter, Read said, adding a couple of skiers on the mural can now be seen pushing powder.

He said there is no known written information on the painting but it is known that this mirrors the style seen in Shope paintings found around Helena such as at the state Capitol building and throughout Montana.

Two female soldiers are depicted in the center of the mural and most of the equipment and activities were from Fort Harrison during this time.

The mural was in danger as it was on the interior of an external wall of the Fort Harrison Service Club. The club was built from materials salvaged from the original state armory built in early 19th century Helena and destroyed in the 1935-1936 earthquakes.

Read said $18,000 was raised through private donations to have the mural worked on. He said Egan also donated much of his time.

"It was a community effort," Read said.

Master prints of the mural are available from the Montana Military Museum, whose displays follow the military in Montana from the arrival of the Lewis and Clark army expedition in 1805, through today.

Donations will go toward the rehabilitation of this mural. Any funds received over the projected costs will be used for upgraded protective measures.

For more information, call (406) 324-3550 or go to https://montanamilitarymuseum.org/.

Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.

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Crews on Friday started the process to relocate operations to 225 S. Main St. in Decatur, where the business will occupy the second and third floors. Vieweg Real Estate, the former occupant of that building, will move into the building at 601 E. William St., where the Herald & Review has been located since May 1976. Prior to that, the newspaper spent 81 years at the corner of North and Main streets.

We're excited about moving into the new building, and we're excited about giving our workers a modern space, said Central Illinois Editor Chris Coates.

Plans are to have the new offices up and running next week.

Local news editor Scott Perry said the current building "served us well over the years."

At one time, every newspaper function, from printing and distribution to classified, accounting, paste-up, archives and of course, reporting and editing, were under the roof of the building at 601 E. William St.

I think now, the space we're moving into is a reflection of the business that we still are. You'll be able to walk in, you'll be able to talk to the reporters, you'll be able to talk to editors, you'll still be able to handle your local transactions here," he said.

The history of what is now the Herald & Review started in 1872 with the Decatur Review, while the Herald began in 1879 as a weekly, becoming a daily the next year. Decatur had a total of four newspapers then, and the Rev. Alfred Wuensch, who founded the Review, hired Howard C. Schaub as a reporter. Schaub later became president, the first link to the families who would eventually own the paper as Lindsay-Schaub.

The Review constructed a building at 365 N. Main St. in 1895 and became an afternoon daily paper in 1899.

The John Lindsay family owned the Morning News, which merged with the Herald and took on the Herald's name.

The Herald and the Review merged in 1931 and moved to the Review building. The corporation became Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers Inc. in 1952, and Decatur Herald & Review in 1973, with members of both families serving in leadership positions.

Today the Herald & Review is owned by Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa.

The new building is just down Main Street from the publication's previous home. The new headquarters, at Wood Street, is the former location of Vieweg Real Estate, the company that listed the William Street building for the Herald & Review when it went on the market a year ago, said Tim Vieweg, designated managing broker.

No suitable location for the newspaper's new home was found in several months of looking, and Vieweg said he realized that the obvious answer had been right in front of him all along. He proposed a trade: Vieweg would move into the Herald & Review's William Street building, and the newspaper would move into his building. Not only would the move provide the newspaper with a central downtown, highly visible location on a major thoroughfare, but Vieweg could eventually consolidate its separate locations into one building with the extra space.

One of the most important things to (the newspaper) was if they sold it, they had to have a place to go, Vieweg said. I said I have a place that might work for you. It kind of sounds weird, but it's my office. But the only way I move out of my office is if I find another building that works well for me, so we viewed it and viewed some other ones as well.

Vieweg will provide a new sign for the front of the Herald & Review's new home identifying it as such, and is remodeling the interior of the William Street building for his needs. The building is also too large for him, so partitions will be put in to allow a tenant to share the space, though he can't identify that tenant as yet.

The conference room at the William Street building named and decorated in honor of longtime reporter and editor Bob Fallstrom, that employees call the Bob, will have a new home in the newspaper's new conference room, Coates said. Additionally, historic photos and other materials from the Herald & Review's vast archives were retained.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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Chris Coates Central Illinois Editor I'm a Metro Detroit native, graduate of Columbia College Chicago and father of three daughters. I came to Central Illinois in 2017. Follow Chris Coates 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

Editor's note: The Herald & Review is moving from 601 E. William St. to 225 S. Main St. in Decatur. This is one of a series of columns written by staffers sharing their memories of the building that has housed the news organization since 1976.

Support the future of local journalism in our community with a Herald & Review membership. Learn more here.

The green container is about the size of a shoebox.

Inside are photos of smiling people.

Birthdays.

Retirement parties.

Random images of everyday office life.

Its where I worked, too.

Were moving into two floors in a much more up-to-date workplace  one with new cubicles and windows that allow actual sunlight in.

When I started working in Decatur five years ago, I joked that the East William building was like a mammoth fortress  cinderblock, up on a hill, only one little window on the side.

Decatur is the sixth newsroom Ive worked in, and many have had the same cold architecture, like there was some catalogue of commanding, boxy buildings from which publishers could pick.

Still, it was ours.

A little faded.

Prone to ceiling leakages and fussy air conditioning.

And home to at least one groundhog under the deck.

But ours.

Our staff moved into the new headquarters on May 22-23, 1976, after inhabiting various buildings under various Herald and Review names over the years. A story about the handsome buff brick building said the whole project cost $4.7 million.

Going through our archives getting ready for the move, I found folders and boxes of photos and clips about the building and the staff. One columnist called it "The Miracle of 601 E. William St., the place where the newspaper magically came together practically from scratch every day.

And it really was magic.

The two-story press springing to life every night, shaking the walls. From there, headlines about new presidents, terrorist attacks and city council votes relayed far and wide, along with pages of birth announcements, obituaries and celebrations big and small destined for scrapbooks.

Of course, I dont need to tell you that technology means we no longer require a machine the size of a locomotive to deliver the news. Our audience reach in print, digital and mobile today would astound those who worked on William Street in 1976.

That footprint keeps growing and growing.

Weve evolved.

And so should our workplace.

Our new space at West Wood and South Main streets is bright and reflects our future, although the ink from William Street will always be with us.

Its a new chapter.

Stay tuned. 

READ MORE

Chris Coates is the Central Illinois editor. Follow him on Twitter at ByChrisCoates.

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy early then partly cloudy and windy later in the day. High near 90F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Journalist Michael Kinsley famously added a twist to American politics when he redefined a gaffe as when a politician tells the truth  some obvious truth he isnt supposed to say.

As the Rev. Neil Elliot of the Anglican Church of Canada discovered, this term also applies to religious leaders.

After seeing 2018 General Synod reports, the denominations research and statistics expert produced an analysis that included this: Projections from our data indicate that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040.

Reactions to his candor varied, to say the least.

I think of it very much like ... peoples responses to climate change, said Elliot, updating his earlier remarks in a video posted by Global News in Canada.

Signs of church climate change? In the early 1960s, Anglican parishes in Canada had nearly 1.4 million members. But that 2018 report found 357,123 members, with an average Sunday attendance of 97,421. The church had 1,997 new members that year, while holding 9,074 burials or funerals.

Canadas national statistics agency reported that 10.4% of all Canadians were Anglicans in 1996, but that number fell to 3.8% in 2019.

People have one of three reactions when faced with these kinds of numbers. The first is denial, said Elliot, counting the options on one hand. People are saying ... Its not happening. Then theres people who say, We can stop it. And then theres people who say, We can adapt.

The adapt language is much more rare, and Im only starting to hear it (in) the media in the last few months, said Elliot. Thats what Im trying to get us to do within the Anglican church. Its, How do we adapt to it? not, How do we stop it? or ... people burying their heads in the sand.

The decline is real and cannot be denied, he said. However, he is convinced this decline is going to bottom out, or change. That is, IF we are going to take the opportunity to reframe who we are. If we still say, No, were all about a prayer book that was written 400 years ago, then people are ... going to arrive at our doorsteps and go, Nah. I dont think so.

Various reports indicate, logically enough, that Anglicanism is not the only struggling faith tradition in Canada, a nation in which religious trends tend to emerge earlier than in the United States.

Membership in the United Church of Canada  created nearly a century ago by the merger of four mainline Protestant churches  peaked at 1.1 million in the 1960s. Official reports in 2018 showed 388,363 members, with 120,986 regularly attending services. Meanwhile, Roman Catholicism now represents 32% of Canadians over the age of 15, according to StatCan, down from 46.9% in 1996.

To the south, leaders in the U.S. Episcopal Church keep seeing similar trends. In official 2020 numbers, the denominations membership fell to around 1.57 million  down from 1.64 million a year earlier, and way down from the 3.4 million members claimed in the heady days of the 1960s. Average Sunday attendance in 2020  a year that included some pandemic numbers  fell to 458,179 from 518,411 a year earlier.

How low can things go? The denominations official 2020 spreadsheet indicated that, in the extreme case of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, the average Sunday attendance fell to 233 people out of a total diocesan membership of 908, spread over 21 parishes.

At this point, Episcopalians feel like they are living in the narthex between the church life they once knew and the realities seen in the world around them, noted Presiding Bishop Michael Currys address  via Zoom  to last falls House of Bishops meeting.

Were kind of back in our physical church buildings, but kind of not. Narthex. We wonder how many will return, he said. The remnant will always return. Narthex.

At this point, Curry said his priests and people can dream not of easy recovery, but of a new and re-formed church, not formed in the way of the world. ... No longer centered on empire or establishment, no longer fixated on the preservation of institutions, no longer propping up white supremacy or in collusion with anything that hurts or harms any child of God or Gods creation.

Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.
Sara has a comprehensive understanding of the grocery industry and Food City in particular, having worked in a number of store departments while in college. She is instrumental in streamlining our budgeting processes and is a key part of our financial modeling and decision-making. She is also a key member of our leadership team and mentors a young team of talented financial professionals. We are certainly proud of Sara and all that shes accomplished thus far in her relatively young career, Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer, said.
BRISTOL, Tenn.  In an effort to mitigate the effects of a surging wave of coronavirus infections from the omicron variant, Bristol Tennessee Schools will take the next three Mondays off.

Superintendent Annette Tudor gave an update on COVID case numbers and explained the reasons for their decision during a Bristol Tennessee School Board work session Thursday evening.

Year to date, we have 725 positive student cases, 476 were in the first semester. In 14 days in the second semester we have had 249 positive students. For teachers and all staff, weve got 155 total year to date, 78 first semester, 77 in the first 14 days of second semester, Tudor said. Thats why we are having a hard time keeping things going, keeping our classrooms open, scrambling, because weve had as many staff out up til today as we had last semester, and those are just positive and confirmed cases.

In order to take the coming Mondays off, the Bristol, Tennessee Schools board has tapped into their limited stockpile days. Tudor said, the school system is left with only five days of the 13 allocated to them. That places the schools in a complicated situation if another outbreak happens.

On the Bristol Tennessee Schools website, the school district said the schedule would allow the school system to maximize classroom coverage with part-time educational assistants and substitute teachers. The move will also provide additional time to disinfect the school buildings.

The Bristol, Tennessee School Board is not the only school system in the Tri-Cities to make the decision to use its stockpile days. The Kingsport School Board closed schools Tuesday due to staffing and illness issues related to COVID.

Across Tennessee, various school districts have had to close due to COVID-related complications or sought permission from the Tennessee Department of Education to pivot back to virtual classes temporarily.

Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Southwest Virginia needs access to shared solar.

Shared solar programs help low-income communities save money by allowing consumers to subscribe to cheaper solar energy generated in their communities.

These communities would also benefit from increased solar industry employment and energy security.

Southwest Virginia even has a program primed and ready to encourage shared solar development, the Brightfields Program.

Last year, the Virginia General Assembly passed Del. Terry Kilgores Brightfields Act to support solar energy development on sites such as abandoned mine lands, landfills, former industrial sites and decommissioned energy generation facilities in Southwest Virginia.

By encouraging solar installations on currently underused land, the Brightfields program would utilize these sites, known as brownfields, to create jobs, aid the statewide energy transition, and reduce the cost of electricity bills for families and businesses.

While utility-scale projects often occupy more than 1,000 acres, shared solar arrays can occupy as little as eight acres while providing cheaper energy for up to 120 homes. In Southwest Virginia, the Environmental Protection Agency has mapped more than 750 solar-suitable brownfields sites.

Of these, 275, including 252 abandoned coal mines, 12 landfills and 11 other polluted lands from Lee County to Roanoke, are too small for large utility-scale solar installations but big enough for shared community solar panel arrays.

Other parts of Virginia already benefit from shared solar, but Southwest Virginia has so far been left out. In 2020 the General Assembly passed a bill requiring Dominion Energy to provide shared solar power to its customers, but that legislation left out residents in Southwest Virginia who get their electricity from other utilities. Its time to let Southwest Virginia join the party.

If funded in 2022, the Brightfields program will play an important role in the energy and economic transition in Southwest Virginia. These promising opportunities for shared solar development cannot be achieved unless the legislature first expands the shared solar program.

In the upcoming General Assembly session, shared solar legislation will be introduced by Del. Tony Wilt and Sen. Emmett Hanger to expand shared solar programs. Southwest Virginians need Dels. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott and Israel OQuinn, R-Washington, and Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington, to support this opportunity for fair access to solar energy.

Shared solar and Brightfields funding will position Southwest Virginia as a hub for accessible, locally generated solar energy and support our economically transitioning communities.

Debra Horne is the mayor of Dungannon in Scott County
Virginia schools have a $25 billion problem  facilities in underfunded school districts that desperately need to be repaired or replaced.

Those waiting to hear how newly minted Gov. Glenn Youngkin plans to address this problem are still waiting. (Admittedly, its only been a few days.)

But as for the education initiatives he has proposed: Already, theres a lawsuit.

Youngkins executive order forbidding mask mandates in Virginia schools, part of a purported effort to put parents back in charge of their kids education, has inspired a group of parents in Chesapeake to mount a legal challenge claiming Youngkins order breaks state law.

So much for avoiding divisive concepts. While some school districts are rushing to make masks a matter of parents choice, encouraged by the governors implicit permission, others, such as Arlington and Richmond, have vowed to gird for battle to keep their mandates.

Intriguingly, the Roanoke County School Board, which jumped the gun in shedding school masking requirements on Jan. 4 and did a whoopsie-daisy retraction two days later, has adopted a wait-and-see approach, underscoring that Youngkins order does raise legal concerns.

The state law in question, signed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in March 2021, requires that Virginia school districts offer in-person classes under conditions that follow the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Those guidelines at present call for universal indoor masking for all students, staff and visitors to K-12 schools. Raising further concerns, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears dropped hints in a Fox News interview that school districts that defy the order might have state funding withheld. Youngkin has not denied this possibility.

Last year, as mask mandate debates roiled the Franklin County School Board, a Carilion doctor who treats COVID patients gave a presentation that didnt quite sync with either side. He cited studies showing that requiring masks for kids didnt have much effect on the spread of the virus, but requiring masks for the adults in the room definitely did.

Get vaccinated. Especially adults, he said.

This suggests there can be nuance to the mask debate  and such nuance gets steamrolled flat by a broad command to make mask-wearing in schools an every person for themselves decision.

Mask wearing shows consideration for the health of others, whatever the wearers actual risk might be. COVID-19 has killed more than 850,000 Americans, and policies mandating masks, however inconvenient, are meant to prevent more deaths. Even if one considers mask mandates to be government overreach, responding by overreaching in the opposite direction bodes ill, quite literally.

Speaking of overreach, lets circle back to that notion of avoiding divisive concepts. That language comes from another executive order, proclaiming an aim to restore excellence in education by ending the use of inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory.

We put critical race theory in quotes because that term has a very specific academic definition, but in the re-branded context used by conservative advocates, its more of an umbrella term for leftist political correctness gone wild.

Education officials at all levels have said critical race theory is not being taught in K-12 schools, but whats being taught is only part of Youngkins driving concern. The order gives a sense of what anti-CRT activists really have in mind, as it directs new Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow to scour all policies, programs, training, or curricula for signs of inherently divisive concepts and report back with an action plan for stamping them out. (Balow, a Republican, has spent the last seven years as Wyomings superintendent of public instruction, which in that state is an elected office.)

The order targets some specific documents and initiatives overseen by Balows predecessor, James Lane, among those a February 2019 memo in which Lane assembled a reading list for school division leaders considering how to handle discussions about racism. As an addendum to the memo, Lane wrote that the list is not a resource or directive for classroom teachers, nor does it reflect recommended or required student reading. The list includes White Fragility by bestselling author Robin DiAngelo, one of the texts most villainized by anti-CRT activists.

The addendum also contains Lanes fruitless protest, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not included in the Virginia Standards of Learning.  Nowhere in the standards is there a requirement for schools to teach critical race theory.

Youngkins order puts an end to the still-under-development Virginia Math Pathways Initiative, a program touted as a new method of teaching math that integrates the various disciplines in ways that appeal to a wider variety of students, but lambasted by mostly conservative critics who see it as a mechanism for eliminating advanced math courses in the name of achieving equity among student GPAs  the sort of thing Youngkin appears to have had in mind when he channeled George W. Bush in his first address to the General Assembly, lamenting the soft bigotry of low expectations. In past interviews, Lane insisted accelerated math curriculums werent going away, which didnt save the program from Youngkins ax.

It would be interesting to compare Youngkins order seeking to stamp out critical race theory with the actual bill introduced by freshman Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, made instantly internationally infamous as a result of a groan-worthy factual error included in the bills language.

The order continues Youngkins have-it-both-ways approach, underscoring that the teaching of history should incorporate the horrors of American slavery and segregation, and our countrys treatment of Native Americans and the heroic efforts of Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Theres a sort of cold comfort in seeing these unpleasant facets of American history theoretically exempted from the inherently divisive purge, but how will this pan out in practice for teachers, with institutionalized racism a potentially forbidden subject?

Despite claims that eliminating critical race theory will remove politics from the classroom, its Republicans and Republicans only making the call as to what constitutes an inherently divisive concept and marking these concepts for cancellation, i.e. censorship. You might as well call it curriculum gerrymandering.
Forecasts for a treacherous mix of snow and ice has put more than 20 million people under winter weather alerts from Texas to the Carolinas.

The double-whammy threat prompted the governors of North and South Carolina and Virginia to issue states of emergency. Overall, the alerts cover a wide swath that includes southern Texas, southern Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, western Florida, Virginia and the Carolinas.

Several school districts in the Carolinas decided to move to virtual learning on Friday and canceled activities in anticipation of the ice-snow storm, CNN affiliate WYFF reported. Some districts cited low temperatures and icy roads that could make traveling unsafe.

The ice storm warning for portions of the coastal Carolinas went into effect at midnight and is expected to remain in place through noon Saturday.

Widespread ice accumulation is expected in Wilmington, North Carolina, with some areas possibly seeing up to half an inch, according to CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

"Power outages are very likely in the ice storm warning areas," Shackelford said.

The region is also bracing for heavy snowfall this weekend. Warnings issued for parts of North Carolina and Virginia predict 1 to 4 inches of snow, with some areas seeing up to 6 inches. Wind gusts may also reach 40 mph.

In Charleston, South Carolina, the main threat is freezing rain with ice accumulations up to a light glaze, Shackelford said. For North Carolina, there could be slightly more snow, with totals potentially reaching 2 inches, and ice accumulation remaining a light glaze, he added.

For Texas, wind chill and winter storm warnings are in effect through Friday afternoon, Shackelford said.

Temperatures across parts of Texas were expected to plummet, from Wednesday's highs of 70s and 80s to below freezing Thursday night into Friday, with the chance of a wintry mix.

"Widespread temps in the 30s are now being observed across coastal counties, spreading westward. As temps continue to steadily drop through the night, freezing temps won't be reached until after 12AM," the National Weather Service office in Brownsville tweeted Thursday.

Because of icing, travel and power outages remain the biggest concerns.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper warned that southeastern counties could see widespread outages and treacherous roads.

"That's where a quarter-inch or more of ice is expected on trees and powerlines, and that's a recipe for power outages, unfortunately," Cooper said Thursday in a news conference as he encouraged people to stock up on groceries.

Cooper added that his National Guard has been activated, providing 114 soldiers with equipment including high clearance vehicles, trucks and ambulances.

The latest weather disturbance comes nearly a week after a snowstorm slammed the Southeast, leaving more than 130,000 people in the dark across the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland. Ice was also a major threat as hundreds of car crashes were reported.

In anticipation of hazardous roads, the South Carolina Department of Transportation said it's prepared to work around the clock to ensure drivers' safety. Still, the department urged people to stay off the roads.

***

Scenes from last week's winter storm in the Southeast:
Students in Anne Arundel County could learn virtually on inclement weather days in the future instead of having the day off, Superintendent George Arlotto told politicians Friday, a change that would eliminate the need to close schools completely on snow days.

So far this year the system has closed for inclement weather on five days. Three days are built into the school calendar, but the two days beyond that have caused school officials to extend the school year. The original last day of June 22 is now June 24 and will be pushed even later if more snow or inclement weather arrives.

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Speaking at a meeting with Anne Arundel members of the Maryland House of Delegates, Arlotto said the Maryland State Department of Education requires 180 days of in-person learning, so the system could not switch to virtual on snow days without permission.

Lora Rakowski, a spokesperson for the state education department, said on Jan. 14 that state Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury presented an option to superintendents that will allow them to go virtual on inclement weather days.

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Arlotto said now the system has to prepare and present a plan for how it will deliver virtual instruction on inclement weather days. Five schools in the county are currently in virtual instruction due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and Arlotto said that transition process will inform the systems plan for switching to remote learning on snow days.

The plan must call for a minimum of four hours of synchronous learning per day and must include accommodations for Individualized Education Plans.

The plan must be presented to the public and the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, which must approve it. Then the plan will need the approval of the state education department as well.

Ill work with our board president to put this on an upcoming agenda as soon as possible, Arlotto said.

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Feb. 2.

Rakowski said the state education department will review plans as expeditiously as possible. She said Allegany, Kent and Washington counties have been cleared to operate virtually on snow days, following inquiries made by those school systems to the state.

The ability to go to school virtually on days with bad weather will prevent the school year from moving deeper into the month of June, state Sen. Bryan Simonaire said Friday.

The issue was on his mind before Arlottos announcement, and he said he has drafted legislation that will allow districts around the state to have the option to operate virtually on inclement weather days.

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Many people dont want their children in school so late in June, Simonaire said. Instead of a day off sledding in the winter, kids can have a longer summer to crab, fish and swim, he said.

Its completely optional, another tool in the tool box for the school board, he said.

Simonaire said he plans to submit the bill next week.
I titled this column: I should have been a firefighter.

I did it as a joke, not against firefighters, but against what seems to be a battle against police by a small, but vocal number of people in this nation.

There is some jealousy in my words because firefighters, a respected and needed job, are always lifted up as heroes while the hundreds of thousands of good and decent men and women who work every day to protect a nation from lawlessness and disorder are often criticized, vilified and flatly abused.

There are constant calls to defund and reimagine policing. Thats fine, lets imagine what we as a country do want as protection against criminals and wrongdoers. What are we willing to tolerate in a civilized society?

In a nation of instant gratification and high expectations, people often call 911 for help. In those calls the police become the default solution to so many of societys problems. I often hear my job referred to as law enforcement. Thats become a misnomer because so many of the calls for service that police respond to arent about fighting crime. Theyre about community concerns.

Theres a homeless man in the alley near where I live. Call the police.

My neighborhood association has a rule against yard art, and there are pink, plastic flamingos next door. Call the police.

The fast food restaurant messed up my order. Call the police!

Some cities are trying to decide on possible alternatives to police response such as having mental health professionals respond to mental health crisis calls rather than an officer. That sounds rather good. Police often dont have the time to spend on long-term issues, and a uniformed person may not be the best to deal with a delusional, schizophrenic person.

Now, build a system to have someone respond quickly at 3 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning. Figure out what those responders need to do when the encounter turns violent. Whos going to transport a resisting person to a hospital when they become a danger? The mental health system in this nation has turned into a situation of passing the buck. Too often, that buck stops at the feet of a responding police officer.

Some elected officials are demanding a change in traffic stops, one of the most common encounters police have with the public. The easiest change is to change the law. If politicians dont want cops to enforce vehicle equipment and road violations, get rid of the law. That might not be the solution because then you have unsafe cars and roadways. It doesnt change behavior for the better, because the vast majority of traffic-related police/public encounters end just fine. Those drivers that already have nefarious intentions are going to cause problems no matter what ideas legislators have to improve things.

Some people try to come up with solutions by doing what they think is the exact opposite of what they believe is the problem. A college professor in California said they would never call the police. A defund police advocate and city council member in Georgia had their car stolen and said they will not prosecute the thief. My initial thoughts are, Well, fine. Less work for the police.

However, thats not the answer. That doesnt solve any problem. That adds to the degradation of society.

Some pundits throw up numbers and say things need to change. Statistics are a guide, but they dont give an explanation. The United States has the largest prison population per capita in the industrialized world. Stop the prison industry, are some calls. Do you want those convicted of a crime and sent to prison out and living next to you? Do away with bail, are cries for change. A huge number of individuals arrested are repeat offenders. Are you willing to increase those arrests even more without any societal protection?

So many news outlets  yes, I recognize that Im writing in a newspaper  try to point out the large numbers of police abuse cases. No. The police, as a profession, do well because the numbers are extremely higher of deadly force used against police than police using it against anyone.

We use great restraint in subduing suspects that are intent on harming us. The cases should be reviewed. Just because someone cries abuse doesnt automatically mean it was. The majority of claims against the police are false. The numbers are small because of the more than three-quarters of a million law enforcement officers in this nation, the few who do the wrong thing take away from the stories of the vast majority of great people in the job always doing the right thing.

Politicians do need to figure things out because fewer and fewer people want the undertaking of policing. I went to the police academy in the fall of 1992. Of the class of 29 that started, 26 graduated and were able to go to work in law enforcement agencies in the region. Twenty-five years later that same academy ran a recruit class of eight. We have to ask as a nation, if the job is worth doing, how do we need to get it done and whos going to do it?

I am now retired from policing but not removed from it. Its a part of my life that I will never be away from because it is a way of life. I will continue to support those in the profession, encourage those entering it, and explain the job to those that dont understand it.

Its not merely a job. Its more than a career. Its a noble profession. Its one of the most unique and meaningful positions anyone can hold.

Its hands-on. Its mental acuity. Its understanding law. Its using the certainty of technology and pursuing with reasonable objectiveness. Its performing first aid. Its a foot chase with a criminal. Its diplomacy, compassion, kindness and courage. Its being willing to crawl into an overturned automobile, break up a fistfight, or run towards the gun shots.

Its bravery and intelligence, to go into a situation not knowing if its a good guy or a bad guy. Maybe its an angry person, a confused person or a lost person. Maybe its somebody just trying to help or someone thats ready to kill rather than get caught breaking the law.

People say, Theres never anyone around when you need them, but there is one always there when there is a need. To protect and serve, police respond: tireless and prepared. Always wanting to see good happen when the majority of what we deal with is the worst of the nation.

We must often be discreet in our knowledge but never secret in our actions. We serve all society and answer to the public.

We are the servants, counselors, enforcers and protectors. We are the citizens. We are the people.

This is the police.

Scott Hildebrand is a retired Hickory police officer
On this episode of Utterly Moderate we are joined by editor-at-large of the Bulwark Bill Kristol and University of Baltimore law professor Kimberly Wehle. Both Kristol and Wehle help host Lawrence Eppard sort through a bizarre story about elector fraud in the 2020 presidential election as well as how to fix the Electoral Count Act.

Most Americans are probably aware that we use the Electoral College to elect presidents. When this happens, state government officials sign certificates of ascertainment which verify the states electors and who they voted for in the election. These are sent with documentation signed by the electors themselves to the National Archives who process them and then send them to Congress to count on January 6th.

According to documents obtained by an organization called American Oversight and covered by Politico, CNN, the Bulwark, and others, in the weeks after the 2020 election, Trump supporters sent fake election certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won five states that he actually lost: Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Some of the people involved were top GOP officials in the states in question.

The Bulwark has covered this extensively:

On January 15th Bill Kristol commented, The forged electoral certificates show coordination across. . . states. Those fake certificates were key to the plan of the Eastman memo and to the Jeffrey Clark DOJ draft letter to Georgia.

On January 16th Charlie Sykes wrote, Some perspective: If an average voter lied on their registration forms or forged an absentee ballot, they would face criminal charges and a world of legal hurt. But this case is far worse because the forged electoral certificates were coordinated, and part of a larger conspiracy to overturn the presidential election.

On January 17th Philip Rotner argued that, These phony certifications were not isolated, one-off events. They were highly coordinated. A single glance at the five phony certificates shows that they are nearly identical in format and text, right down to the fonts. The strong implication: Somebody somewhere was running this show.

One of the biggest problems with all of this has to do with the Electoral Count Act. A lot of political commentary right now is focused on voting rights, and for good reason. But the biggest immediate threat to our democracy seems to be loopholes in the Electoral Count Act.

As Philip Rotner notes, Nothing in either of the voting rights bills currently pending before Congress would inhibit partisan state officials, acting under color of law, from attempting to overturn popular elections in their states. Our guest today, Kimberly Wehle, noted last October that, There are massive holes in the Electoral Count Act. It is stunning that there is nothing requiring states to count the popular vote. Arizona is proposing legislation to ignore the popular vote and allow the state legislature to pick the electors. That is not democracy. If this is not addressed, state legislatures and/or Congress can steal the next election. The future of our republic is at stake. Writing in the Bulwark on January 17th Chris Truax noted that, Congress is free to reject any states electoral votes for any reason at all. All that is required is the votes in Congress and the political will to act.

Segment One: Bill Kristol

Bill Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University before going on to serve as chief of staff to Education Secretary William Bennett in the Reagan Administration and as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle in the George H. W. Bush administration. He would then go on to help found the well-known conservative political magazine the Weekly Standard. Today he is editor-at-large of the Bulwark and a regular guest on leading political commentary shows.

Segment Two: Kimberly Wehle

Kimberly Wehle is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and has written extensively about the issues that we discuss in this episode. Check out her academic work here and some of her pieces for a general audience here.

Articles Referenced in this Episode:
Yuki Tanaka is a Research Professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and a coordinator of Japan Focus. He is the author of Japan's Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II.



Mr. Tsuboi Sunao would appear to be an ordinary healthy elderly Japanese man except for the large patch of white skin that medical specialists call leucoderma on his forehead. He is a cheerful 79 year old, but over the past 60 years he has been critically ill four times, each time being told that he would not survive. He first fell ill immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima when he was unconscious for 40 days. He is presently suffering from prostate cancer. Despite his illness he has been and still is an active campaigner against nuclear arms and one of the best known hibakusha, or victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In December 2003 he went to Washington D.C., to protest against the permanent display of the "Enola Gay" in the new wing of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He was not against the actual display of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people by the end of 1945. Rather he was against the exhibition of this plane without any explanation of the consequences caused as a result of the attack that took so many civilian lives and left tens of thousands of others to suffer throughout their lives.



Mr. Tsuboi does not expect to be alive when Hiroshima City commemorates the 70th anniversary of the atomic attack in 2015. Indeed, it is almost certain that not only Mr. Tsuboi, but also most hibakusha will have passed away by then, as approximately 5000 hibakusha have died every year over the past ten years. Due to the rapidly diminishing number of hibakusha the "weathering of the Hiroshima experience" as it is called in Japan has become a serious concern for many citizens of this city in recent years. The number of children from various parts of Japan who visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Peace Park on school excursions has also decreased sharply in recent years so that "oblivion to the Hiroshima memory" is becoming a nation wide phenomenon.



In one corner of the Hiroshima Peace Park stands the statue of a young girl, Sadako, stretching her arms towards the sky. Sadako's story is well known throughout the world, as books in many languages have been published about this girl who died of leukemia at the age of 12 in 1955, ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima. While ill in hospital, Sadako folded more than one thousand cranes and still kept folding them until shortly before her death, in the belief that paper cranes would bring her good health and longevity As a result of her efforts, the paper crane became a symbol of peace in Japan. Since her death visiting school groups from all over Japan have placed thousands of strings of paper cranes around her statute in memory of her lost youth and the Hiroshima tragedy. Sadly, over the past few years, these paper cranes have been set on fire a number of times, probably by young people, "just for fun." To prevent such juvenile crime the city council built a small glass enclosure behind the statue in which to protect the paper cranes. Security cameras were also installed. Yet again, a few days before August 6, Hiroshima Day, in 2003, a university student from Kobe broke the glass and set fire to the cranes. When arrested he confessed that he did it out of frustration over the grim employment situation facing new university graduates. The incidents suggest that Sadako's sorrowful tale, and the plight of the living as well as dead atomic victims, has become irrelevant to many young people in Japan.



Today, Japan's experience as the only nation to encounter a nuclear holocaust also appears irrelevant to Japan's leading politicians including Prime Minister Koizumi. Until Mr. Koizumi became prime minister five years ago, it was an annual tradition for the prime minister to meet representatives of the hibakusha for about half an hour immediately after attending the commemoration ceremony in Peace Park on August 6. It was, of course, merely a token gesture for previous successive prime ministers to make a show of government concern for the health of hibakusha. Yet even this publicity gesture was cancelled, although Mr. Koizumi still reluctantly attends the ceremony. Some of his colleagues in the Liberal Democratic Party, including former Party Secretary General Abe Shinzo, think that Japan should develop nuclear arms for defense purposes against so-called "rogue nations" such as North Korea. Until a decade or so ago, there were still a few prominent conservative politicians who tenaciously objected to the nuclearization of Japan and to the dispatch of Japan's Self Defense Forces to overseas war zones. Today, such statesmen no longer exist within the LDP. Article 9 of Japan's post-war Constitution forbidding engagement in any form of armed conflict has so far been widely supported by the Japanese people, partly because of a strong desire not to repeat the nuclear holocaust. Recently, however, powerful voices both within the LDP as well as opposition parties have called for elimination of the pacifist clauses of the Constitution.



For many months now major Japanese anti-nuclear organizations and other grass-roots peace movement groups have been planning their own events scheduled for August 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet these planned events seem to offer few new ideas of how to tackle the problem of "oblivion to the Hiroshima memory" that pervades both the younger generation as well as the politicians. It is almost certain that events to commemorate the 60th anniversary will be the last chance for surviving hibakusha to appeal to the world to oppose the idea of genocide by weapons of mass destruction. I am sure that, in August 2005, they will receive much media attention from all over the world. However, the real question that the Japanese people should ask themselves is what they will do after the 60th anniversary in order to keep alive the Hiroshima memory and to utilize it to construct a peaceful world without the living voices of the hibakusha.



A Hiroshima A-Bomb victim, Ms. Kurihara Sadako, once wrote the following passage in one of her poems:



It was night in the basement of a broken building

Victims of the atomic bomb

Crowded into the candleless darkness

Filling the room to overflowing

The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death

The stuffiness of human sweat, the writhing moans

When, out of the darkness, came a wondrous voice

"Oh! The baby's coming!" it said

..........

And so, a new life was born

In the darkness of that living hell

..........

We shall give forth new life!

We shall bring forth new life!

Even to our death



What is urgently required for Japan's peace movement now is a powerful cry for new life to its own ideas of peace with new perspectives in order to confront the present world of military violence and terrorism.

______________

This article was first published by Japan Focus and is reprinted with permission.
Mr. Leonard is a freelance journalist specializing in controversial political commentary. His columns and interviews span the gamut from geopolitics to economics to religion. His column, Is That Right? can be found in New York University's Washington Square News: www.aaronleonard.net.

In 2008 Boston University historian Andrew Bacevich released, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. In the book he pulls no punches--presenting a stark assessment of the U.S. in the post-Cold War world. He questions the sustainability of the current U.S. economic model, challenges long-standing assumptions about America's historical place in the world, and speaks bluntly about the consequences of the failed war on terror. The following interview was conducted via telephone.

The opening chapter of your book is titled The Crisis of Profligacy. You frame the chapter in part by using a point from U.S. historian, Frederick Jackson Turner, that Not the constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources, made American democracy possible. You also highlight the fact that, By the end of WW2 the country possessed nearly two-thirds of the worlds gold reserves and more than half of its entire manufacturing capacity. The chapter presents a picture of a very wealthy country with avaricious tastes. Why does your book start this way?

My interpretation of our culture is one that suggests it is deeply unhealthy. Its unhealthy because of the way too many Americans have come to define freedom in terms of consumption and individual autonomy. I think that expresses itself in the economic arena in the insistence of having more, more, more...without paying due attention to whos going to pay the bills, what are the consequences for future generations.

You make a very stark statement early on that, Baghdad was not Berlin in 1945; it was Warsaw circa 1939. Could you elaborate on what you mean?

I think the architects of the Global War on Terror, did not think the war on terror was going to end in Baghdad. They thought that the war on terror was a way station, a preliminary objective and that having achieved success in Baghdad they expected they would be able to go on to liberate, or pacify, or dominate--depending on what term you want to use--the rest of the greater Middle East. So it was the start of something they imagined would be much bigger. However, because they didnt achieve the success in Iraq that they imagined, the grander project was nipped in the bud.

Theres a lot of well stated anger in your book. As I read this I began thinking these past eight years, the Bush years, have seen a stark erosion of confidence and sense of legitimacy by many, including the intelligentsia in this country. Do you think that true? And if so what do see as the implications?

I think theres been an erosion of confidence in our basic institutions because of a variety of things. One of those is the mishandling of the Iraq war. The perception that exists in some quarters, not all, is that lies were told about the purpose of the war. There are also the scandals that have occurred in places like Abu Ghraib and the larger issue of torture. I think compounding all that is the economic crisis and the fact that the economic crisis, to some degree at least, appears to have been propelled by recklessness and dishonesty in the the basic financial institutions of the country. I think some number of Americans find themselves in a situation today where they basically have to question, Who can we trust? and their answer is, not anybody.

You talk about Bush as thinking that history has a visible direction. You also cite Obama making statements about putting, hands on the arc of history. In contrast you say pretty unambiguously that Historys purpose remains inscrutable. Could you talk about that?

I think theres a very long tradition in our country, that is really part of this idea of American Exceptionalism, based on the notion that history does have an arc and to one degree or another the United States has a responsibility to move history along that arc, to get history to where it is supposed to go. In our political discourse, history is supposed to go toward freedom for all mankind. Freedom in this sense is assumed to be the American way of life; that our values, our notion of what it means to be free, our political system, are intended to prevail everywhere. This is such a staple of the way our politicians talk we almost dont even hear it any longer.

My own sense is that is all a bunch of malarkey. That the truth, to look at the actual events of history, is to suggest that it has no pattern. It has no direction, it has no purpose that we are able to discern and frankly, get used to it, thats the way it is going to be.

You make a searing criticism of the U.S. military establishment - -and single out Gen. Tommy Franks particularly. At one point you say, "A great army accomplishes its assigned mission. Since George W. Bush inaugurated his global war on terror, the armed forces of the United States have failed to meet that standard." How did you arrive at such a startling conclusion?

I dont think it is startling. We have been involved in Afghanistan for almost eight years now and nobody thinks its being won. Some people think its winnable, but many people do not. Thats hardly a manifestation of Mission Accomplished.

In Iraq you might say the picture is somewhat more ambiguous, but certainly the mission that was assigned to the U.S. Armed Forces was not to get involved in a war that was going to go on for as long as that war has gone on, for six years now. The mission was to overthrow the regime and bring order to Iraq. That is not what happened. That is not an attack on all the soldiers who have gone over to these to places, and done the very best that they can. I simply think we need to be realistic, and recognize what the outcome has been. The outcome in neither place has been a victory.

You say in the afterward of the paperback edition that, A world that once indulged Americas profligacy is no longer willing to do so...we dont have the money and we dont have the troops -- we cant make the world indulge our profligacy. Isnt that ominous for the future of the U.S.?

The notion back in the 1990s was that we were the worlds sole superpower. We were the indispensable nation. To overstate it a little bit, we could call the shots. That was wrong in the 1990s and it is even wronger today.

The implications are that we need to be more modest in acknowledging that the world is complex. That humanity is not headed in the direction that all people are going to live their lives the way we live our lives. Recognize that our power is quite limited. We have power. We have more than other countries, but it's not sufficient to fulfill the ambitions of American statesmen. We should husband our power. We should try and cope as best we can with the complexities of the world. We should abandon any notion that utopia is just around the corner, if well just try a little bit harder to make it into a reality.

About Andrew Bacevich

Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. Before joining the faculty of Boston University in 1998, he taught at West Point and at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Bacevich is the author of The Limits of Power: American Exceptionalism (2008). His previous books include American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U. S. Diplomacy (2002), The Imperial Tense: Problems and Prospects of American Empire (2003) (editor), The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005), and The Long War: A New History of US National Security Policy since World War II (2007) (editor). His essays and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of scholarly and general interest publications including The Wilson Quarterly, The National Interest, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Nation, The American Conservative, and The New Republic. His op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, among other newspapers.

In 2004, Dr. Bacevich was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He has also been a fellow of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Mr. Blight is professor of American History at Yale University, director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery and Abolition, and author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.

One hundred fifty years ago this week, John Brown, the radical abolitionist, walked out of the Charlestown, Virginia jail to a wagon containing his simple wooden coffin. He sat on the box as the wagon conveyed him a half mile to the edge of town for his appointment with the gallows. U. S. troops and Virginia militia guarded this most famous execution in American history, fearing attempts to rescue the leader of the shocking Harpers Ferry Raid. As Browns 59-year old body dangled in the cold breeze that morning with the starkly beautiful mountains as a backdrop, Americans all across the land contemplated the meanings of violence, slavery, and martyrdom as never before. And we have never managed to get John Brown  his deeds and his death  out of our consciousness.

Every discussion of the history of revolutionary violence or terrorism (choose your label) in American history begins with John Browns efforts to destroy slavery. Today, many have folded Browns story into a pleasing sense of the inevitability of the Civil War; Harpers Ferry is viewed as the ordained first shots of the nations tragic, but worthwhile, struggle to end slavery in a society as Brown so famously put it, purged with blood. Some admire Brown as Americas own righteous, Bible-quoting Spartacus somehow advancing our history, a redemptive hero who justifies our self-perception as a nation devoted to freedom and equality. Or, then as now, Brown can be dismissed as the midnight terrorist, the bloody agent of fanatical rage in the name of Gods designs. These extremes can keep us comfortable with our prejudices and our desires, but blind to the authentic fated tragedy in Browns acts.

Saintly hero or evil monster, John Brown on the gallows has inspired and haunted American poetry, painting, fiction, and historical interpretation. A living ghost in the national psyche, he will not go away, especially in our post 9/11 world of ubiquitous political and religious violence. John Brown should and does still trouble us; his soul may go marching on in the song that bears his name, but we should never let him or his story rest too easily in the narratives we tell ourselves. History should never come so cheap as to simply make us feel good about murder in the name of vengeance for slaveholding. Yet, few at the time of his execution could resist the fact that vengeance (Gods or mans) for more than two centuries of the destruction of the lives, the souls, the collective human future of millions of Africans and African Americans was a primal challenge in the struggle for the very existence of the experiment called the United States.

The raid on the federal arsenal in October and the famous trial that followed were sensational events. But the public hanging, conducted on southern soil by the state of Virginia, was far more important in the long run. If Brown had not been captured so readily, if a slave insurrection in Virginia had killed thousands and Brown himself had been merely shot on some country road and the body never found we would not be thinking about him today. It is all about the gallows. Brown said so himself in one of his many letters from jail while awaiting execution: I am worth now infinitely more to die than to live. And many of his admirers would say the same thing over the generations. Ralph Waldo Emerson gushed that Brown had made the gallows as glorious as the cross. By 1880, Frederick Douglass, to some extent a co-conspirator with the Old Hero, declared: I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave, John Brown could die for the slave. In 1928, the poet Stephen Vincent Benet tellingly captured Browns lasting meaning: He had no gift for life, no gift to bring/ Life but his body and a cutting edge, / But he knew how to die. And in Jacob Lawrences haunting series of paintings of John Brown done in the 1930s, nearly every one of the 22 images contain some variation of a cross, formal or twisted, made of rifles and spears, or of Browns body itself. Lawrences Brown on the cross was America on the cross. And no use of this most powerful image of western culture  crucifixion  should ever make us comfortable in our stories.

John Brown should confound and trouble us. Martyrs are made by history; people choose their martyrs just as we choose to define good and evil. And we will be forever making and unmaking John Brown as Americans face not only their own racial past, but the ever changing reputation of violence in the present. Indeed, as Robert Penn Warren, a fierce critic of Brown, nonetheless once said, it is the job of historians to pick the scabs from our fate. Love old John Brown or not, if we can do that with this subject we will learn a great deal about ourselves.
Mr. Schweikart is a professor of history at the University of Dayton and author of The Entrepreneurial Adventure: A History of American Business.

It is a good thing I am called a judge, because if I were a juror, regardless of how the judge ruled, I would engage in"jury nullification." On purely hypothetical grounds, I reject the entire concept of"war crimes" as being separate and distinct acts of violence, the same way I reject"hate crimes" as being different from acts.

But as to the specifics: Not only did Nobile fail to prove that the dropping of the bombs were not required by"military necessity," even the evidence he offered---the expected"lower" casualty rates of American soldiers, etc.---only CONFIRMED that in fact this was a military necessity. In my book, during a war, if saving a single one of my soldiers can be achieved by any means, I'll take it. That is the nature of war. Wars are not clean. In this context, though, the civilians who still supported the war; who took no steps to end the war (i.e., civil disobedience); who continued to make guns and planes---they indeed were hardly true"noncombatants."

But beyond that, the evidence now is so overwhelmingly on Truman's (and Radosh's) side that there is no question in my mind that the Allied estimates of expected casualty rates were WAY low, and that probably upwards of a million Japanese would have been killed too.

Finally, the portrayal of an Imperial Japan"trying to surrender, and we bombed them anyway," is lunacy. Surrendering is quite simple. You stop shooting and say,"we surrender." Instead, the Imperial leaders threatened to KILL anyone who even mentioned the word. Recently the revisionists have cloaked this in a"genuine" concern about"saving the Emperor." But they know better. The Japanese warlords were playing the same game in 1945 that they played at Pearl Harbor---striking the United States in hopes that we would just be lazy or stupid and go away. And they reaped the whirlwind for it.
The Cabarrus Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting for the new Lifeline Charlotte Centre on Friday, Jan. 21, at Gibson Mills in Concord. Members of the Cabarrus Chamber, other business owners throughout the community, and friends and family attended the event.

Lifeline is an international nonprofit that has a vision to spark lives on mission for God to everyone, everywhere. It comes alongside communities to assess and launch ministry initiatives, with field leaders overseeing the projects. This new facility at Gibson Mill will house a meal-packing station and a marketplace with fair-trade products from around the world.

I think this will be an opportunity for Lifeline to bring the community together in service and make an impact on people locally and globally who are suffering from food insecurity, said Hollie Gregory, the new Charlotte Centres director. We will be able to reach people, not just internationally, but we will be able to partner with the community in a better way.

Keith Dimbath from Indiana, vice president of mobilization for Lifeline Christian Mission, was present and explained his role. He oversees areas concerning mission trips and meal-packing centers, as well as container outfitting. Containers that are no longer being used for their original purpose can be repurposed for classrooms or churches on the mission field. Dimbath is also part of the Together Initiative which partners with classrooms in schools in other countries. He works with team leaders and desires to get people involved hands-on for missions.

You may never travel overseas, but you can be a part of mobilizing people for missions, Dimbath said. He and his wife, Christi, have been with Lifeline for over 12 years. Christi is the director for the mission trips overseas.

Two of the volunteers for Lifeline, Mark and Lisa Ramsey, were excited to be a part of the ribbon-cutting. They served at a meal-packing event at Crossroads Church on a Wednesday night in 2021 and met Gregory. Lisa said, God clearly brought us together. We think alike and do things alike. She and Mark were looking for something to become involved in during their pre-retirement years.

C3 Forest Products created the live-edge slab wood and metal sign at the main entrance for Lifelife and the metal signs inside the building for their marketplace and meal-packing area. Daniel Wayne, owner of C3, and his wife Jessica, became friends with Hollie and Charles Gregory at church. Their two sons, Austin and Jordan, started working with C3 in 2020. Daniel said, C3 is always looking for ways to contribute to local ministries. Jessica is also a volunteer for Lifeline.

George Jock Liles, one of the owners of Gibson Mill, attended the ceremony. He was involved with the leasing process for Lifeline and helped them to meet their budget. The building is one of the old Cannon Mills facilities and Liles along with two other partners, purchased the facility in 2004 for their business and office needs. They began to lease the extra spaces to other businesses including keyman suites that include 20 offices, Cabarrus Brewery, City Club, the Depot Antique Mall, a new Market and others.

Several volunteers suited up in hairnets and gloves to experience packing meals for Lifeline after the ceremony. The camaraderie and the music playing in the background set a tone for lots of fun serving together for a great cause. Lifeline is a great place to bring your family, church, group or friends to give back and learn more about missions.

If you have questions or if you would like to become involved, contact hollie.gregory@lifeline.org or go to Lifeline Charlotte Meal Packing for more information about disaster relief. Lifeline needs Spark Team Volunteers too. Email charlotte@lifeline.org to find out more.
MATTOON  Before the rise of social media, it took longer for important information or announcements to make its way to people.

Nowadays, with social media being adopted universally, the same information can move in an instant.

I think its a great tool for us and all law enforcement agencies because its been very helpful with informing the public with information that they need to know and it gives us the opportunity to reach more people in a short amount of time, said Coles County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Tyler Heleine. I definitely dont think we do it because we think we have to. We do it because its beneficial to the citizens of Coles County.

With everything from posts, images to videos, social media has become another instrument that law enforcement agencies use to engage with community members by sharing updates and receiving feedback on local concerns.

Heleine said the popularity of social media ultimately led the sheriffs office to start a Facebook page in 2015 and it has only allowed them to keep the public in the know as well as communicate with them through different posts or share posts from other law enforcement offices.

Although the idea of increased communication between law enforcement and community members came about during the 1980s with the push for community-oriented policing, Heleine said social media expands on this further with the ability to have a post be shared throughout the county, state, and even country.

We wouldnt be doing a service to the citizens of Coles County if we werent also positing other things about public safety, tips, and content of that nature, Heleine said. Our officers are doing the legwork to get the information and evidence but a lot of times these crimes are getting solved because someone from the community has been able to provide us with information that leads us there.

According to a 2016 law enforcement use of social media survey by the nonprofit Urban Institute and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 91 percent of agencies use social media to notify the public of safety concerns and 89 percent use the technology for community outreach and citizen engagement.

In terms of public relations, 86 percent of agencies use social media for reputation management and 56 percent have contacted companies like Facebook or Twitter to obtain information to use as evidence.

In addition to the sheriffs office, local agencies like Mattoon and Charleston Police Departments have been creating posts on Facebook and Twitter to dispel rumors or false information, warn the public of any hazards or inclement weather patterns and posting new job opportunities and highlight the good deeds of officers.

By the time I had started, modern police agencies had largely started going to the community using them as a resource in everything they do, whether its to help us in our investigation or to communicate info back to them, said Lt. Joel Shute with the Charleston Police Department. Around that same time, the iPhone had come out and everybody was using social media on their cell phone.

Shute, who started his police career in 2009, said the department simply followed suit and use their Facebook page as a hub relaying information not only from them but also other city municipalities including the Charleston Recreation and Public Works Departments.

Shute said they look at how other law enforcement agencies use their social media accounts to get better or newer ideas for posts. For example, they take some inspiration from how the Chicago Police Department publishes imagery to how interactive and informative posts can be from Illinois State Police Sgt. Tracy Lillard, a.k.a Trooper Tracy.

They also train in practical settings for general media relations by former or retired television anchors and newsroom managers to help get officers acquainted with the goals of the media and bridge the gap between the press.

I think typically in our culture it sort of seems like the press is on one side and the police are on the other. I dont think thats true and some of these classrooms do a great job at dispelling that myth, Shute said. In addition, it helps officers become more comfortable with sharing our experiences with the media with the common goal of informing our community.

Another way that law enforcement agencies use social media is by sharing footage and photos of alleged suspects involved in recent crimes or ongoing investigations to the public.

Chief Sam Gaines of the Mattoon Police Department said a lot of times they want people to get interested in their Facebook page with general posts like holidays greetings and open positions so that theres more traffic on posts with Coles County Crime Stoppers like surveillance stills, soliciting for tips on cases or updating the community on major cases.

Gaines said they monitor the inbox for private messages and do get messages informing them on past crimes or possible suspects but they also receive messages of crimes that happen overnight which he would rather see the public report by phone.

If youve got something in progress that needs immediate assistance, dont use the app, use the old-fashioned way and call the police because its not monitored 24/7, Gaines said. If youre just reporting on something thats generally going on, then its a great way.

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Stephen Kearny

Stephen Watts Kearny (Aug. 30, 1794-Oct. 31, 1848) was one of the foremost frontier officers of the United States Army. Kearney first made significant contributions to the Mexican-American War.

As the United States had acquired territory in what is now New Mexico, it was Kearny who established the law and government of the newly acquired land area.

Deciding on a military career, Stephen joined the New York militia in 1812. In the late 1820s after his career was established, Kearney met, and married Mary Radford. The couple had eleven children of whom six died in childhood.

In 1812 Kearny was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the War of 1812. In one of his first combat engagements, Kearny was taken prisoner and then spent several months in captivity before being paroled.

Following the war of 1812, Kearney decided to make the Army his career and quickly was promoted from lieutenant to captain and then to major. By 1833, he was a lieutenant colonel and assigned to the western frontier.

By 1819, the unit that Kearny commanded had explored the Yellowstone River in present day Montana and Wyoming. During his travels, he kept extensive journals, including his interactions with Native Americans.

By the early 1840s, when emigrants began traveling the Oregon Trail, Kearny often ordered his men to escort the travelers across the plains to avoid attack by the Native Americans.

Beginning with the Mexican-American War, Kearny was promoted to brigadier general. He took his command to the present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. This city had been held by the Mexican military, but with Kearnys nearly 2,500 men the Mexicans retreated without a fight. Kearny quickly established control in the city and appointed a governor and other leaders to maintain order.

Kearny made a big mistake as he entered Santa Fe. He marched to the plaza and took down the flag of the state of New Mexico, which he thought was the flag of Mexico. In its place he hoisted the stars and stripes. New Mexico had been a state with a democratically constituted government, which Kearny overthrew, installing in its place a military dictatorship.

The next year, in 1847, three men pressed the case for the restoration of New Mexicos statehood and its admission to the American Union. However, Kearny wanted the state admitted as a slave state. Thanks to Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln and John Fremont, the statehood was restored as a free state.

Due to all this upheaval, New Mexicos statehood and self-government were not restored until 1912. To this day, Lincoln, Taylor and Fremont are positively remembered in New Mexico.

Whereas, Kearney is scorned.

At the end of his career in the Army, Kearny was appointed governor of Veracruz, and later of Mexico City. While in Mexico, he contracted yellow fever. Returning to St. Louis, he died on Oct. 31, 1848 at the age of 54. He is buried at the National Historic Landmark in St. Louis.

On a personal basis: As a past member of the 44th New Mexico National Guard Band for a total of six years, I have been to Santa Fe many times. We performed for governmental inaugurations, parades, and meeting Mexican officials at the Santa Fe Airport. And yes, the Mexican National Anthem is a difficult piece of music to play.

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Q: Recently a lot of trees were planted along the fence line of Bermuda Run. Did the town do that? How many trees got planted and why did they chop down the previous ones?

L.R.

Answer: The trees that were taken down were Leyland Cypruses that were aging and growing into power lines, said Lee Rollins, the Bermuda Run town manager.

The Town of Bermuda Run received an encroachment agreement from the N.C. Department of Transportation to plant approximately 730 Nellie Stevens hollies on the south side of US 158 and along the fence line, Rollins said. In late summer of 2021, Duke Energy contracted to cut the tops of the Leylands out of the power lines.

This hastened the need to remove those trees and replace with the hollies which will not grow up into the power lines.

Q: What are the updated requirements for using Winston-Salem Transit Authoritys Trans-AID? Two of my neighbors take Trans-AID occasionally. They say the van service picks up young people who work at fast-food restaurants and other places and takes them home. This happens often. Can my grandson use Tran-AID? He works at McDonalds and could use a ride back and forth from work.

P.F.

Answer: Trans-AID is part of the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, and it provides transportation for various activities for people with disabilities. If your grandson has a disability, he may be eligible to use Trans-AID.

Tina Carson-Wilkins, the marketing and community engagement manager for the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, explained how Trans-AID works.

People who apply to use Trans-AID have to go through a two-part application process that includes an interview and assessment by WSTA staff.

Anyone using Trans-AID to get to/from work must fall under the following guidelines:

Must have a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which limits them from being able to use WSTAs fixed-route system

They must live and work within  of a mile of WSTAs fixed-route system

Their work travel hours must fall within the time of WSTAs normal operations

Once they have been qualified by WSTA personnel to use Trans-AID service, they are required to pay for use of the service.

While it may seem like there are multiple vehicles traveling outside of the fixed-route system, trips outside the service area do not occur often. There are some clients who live outside the service area that are transported daily.

These clients were certified to use the service prior to 2005. The federal law changed after 2005 and stipulates that trips outside the service are based on availability and are not guaranteed.

Some Trans-AID clients do use the service to go to work, i.e. McDonalds, Walmart, IFB Solutions (formerly Industries for the Blind), just to name a few. But they also use the service for medical appointments, shopping and recreational activities.

Anyone interested in applying to use WSTAs paratransit service, Trans-AID, is urged to apply. We encourage them to call 336-727-2000 to learn more about the application process.

Email: AskSAM@wsjournal.com Online: journalnow.com/asksam Write: Ask SAM, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101

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A Pennsylvania man charged with killing a woman in Mocksville is in custody in Miami after he was found just outside Everglades National Park, authorities said Friday.

Quincy Cheeks Hannah, 26, of York, Pa. is charged with murder in connection with the death of Suzanne Kauffman, the Davie County Sheriffs Office said.

Hannah was found in a vehicle that he drove from Mocksville, the sheriffs office said. The office is working Florida authorities to extradite Hannah and return him to Davie County.

Kauffman, 20, of Denver, Pa. was found dead Monday at the Mocksville Days Inn. Her body was in a room that had been rented by Hannah, the sheriffs office said.

Kauffman had visited North Carolina to attend a Bible camp in Iredell County, said Sheriff J.D. Hartman of Davie County. Investigators said she was missing from the camp.

The discovery of Kauffmans body came as deputies were attempting to locate her, along with missing cellphones that had been in her possession, the sheriffs office said.

The people trying to find Kauffman had called the missing phones and got an answer on one of them, the sheriffs office said. The person who answered told the searchers that they could pick up the phones at the Days Inn.

Deputies who went to the Days Inn learned that someone had found the phones spread out along the side of the road near a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and the Days Inn on Yadkinville Road. The same person also found the key to Kauffmans Acura.

Authorities found Kauffmans car in the rear parking area of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Deputies learned that Kauffman may have met Hannah.

The sheriffs office did not say how Kauffman died, and other details of the case were not available.

The State Bureau of Investigation and the Iredell County Sheriffs Office are working with the sheriffs office on the case.

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Antisemitism has been on the rise in the United States in recent years, with one in four American Jews being the target of antisemitism within the past year. People of faith are standing shoulder to shoulder with North Carolinas Jewish community, and we must continue to support our nations friend and closest ally, Israel. Our words and deeds are setting a powerful example to the nation, but there is much more to be done.

Following the horrific antisemitic attack at Wrightsville Beach earlier this year, I was proud to see North Carolinians come together in solidarity. We must now take a similar stand of solidarity alongside Israels Jewish community and in opposition to Unilever and its subsidiary, Ben & Jerrys.

Last summer, Ben & Jerrys  the once-beloved ice cream company  left a sour taste in the mouths of the American and North Carolinian public by refusing to continue its contract with the Israeli licensee unless the Israeli company stopped sales to certain Israelis, in violation of Israeli law. Of course, Ben & Jerrys knew full well its licensee could not agree to violate Israeli law. Ben & Jerrys actions were nothing more than a cowardly, antisemitic backdoor effort to boycott the Jewish state.

But North Carolina legislators are seeing through it. And they have something to say about it.

Sen. Thom Tillis recently joined a Senate letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler calling for Unilever to be held accountable for the lies and half-truths it told investors, including state pension funds, about Ben & Jerrys actions. Tillis principled stand speaks to our common hope that antisemitism never gets a pass.

Our state has demonstrated its pro-Israel values across party lines many times. In 2017, the North Carolina state legislature overwhelmingly passed and Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law legislation prohibiting our taxpayer funds from subsidizing antisemitisms modern incarnation by ensuring that state contractors werent engaged in a boycott of Israel and that our states pension funds divested from Israel boycotters. More than 30 other states have similar provisions. These laws serve as a deterrent against morally bankrupt activist companies and protect taxpayers from allowing bigots to prosper on the publics dime. They are powerful  but only if they are enforced.

It is distressing that we are failing to abide by state law today. Our state has not yet divested its pension funds from Unilever as so many other states have. In a press release, the office of North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell said that once Ben & Jerrys (Unilever) terminates its license with the distributor in Israel, then the Investment Management Division would review the status of the law and adjust its investments to fully comply with any statutory requirements. But the state has been as frozen as a pint of Chunky Monkey. Due to alleged technicalities regarding the licensees decision to end the sale of Ben & Jerrys ice cream, state pension funds still invest in Unilever.

This has to change. The Tarheel State is on the cusp of ceding the moral high ground in its failure to follow the lead of states like New York, which doesnt even have a statutory mandate to divest from Unilever, as well as Arizona, Texas, Illinois and New Jersey in divesting Unilever holdings. And with the potential of an SEC investigation into Unilever, our state is also taking a foolish risk in keeping our funds invested in the wayward conglomerate.

Now is not the time to be silent, but rather to rise in support of unbreakable friendships, common bonds, shared values and financial interests. Thank you, Tillis, for taking this stand. I encourage our other leaders to do the same.

Pastor J.B. Whitfield is the North Carolina state director of Christians United for Israel.
Workers in the U.S. just suffered a gut punch.

On Jan. 13, the six conservative justices of the U.S. Supreme Court blocked implementation of an emergency temporary standard issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The standard directed that employers with 100 or more workers must require their employees to either be vaccinated or else mask and undergo weekly testing at their own expense. It was not a vaccine mandate. It encouraged vaccination but allowed other options.

Even so, six justices turned their thumbs down. Congress, they said, hadnt authorized OSHA to issue such a sweeping rule. They also argued that since COVID-19 is a public health problem and not one limited to workplaces, its not in OSHAs bailiwick.

The courts three liberal justices vehemently dissented. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, they said, expressly calls for emergency temporary standards like this one. The enormity and seriousness of the problem justified taking this big step. And nothing in the act suggests that, if a hazard presents a grave danger that extends beyond the workplace, OSHA is powerless to take action. According to OSHA estimates, the proposed rule would have saved 6,500 lives and prevented 250,000 hospitalizations over the next six months.

The court majority did leave open the possibility that a new rule, narrowly tailored to workplaces with the greatest risk of COVID-19 transmission, might survive their scrutiny. But hours after the decision was handed down, President Joe Biden signaled that its now up to individual employers and the states to protect workers against a virus that has already killed some 850,000 people in the United States.

That doesnt bode well. The law creating OSHA was passed more than 50 years ago because many employers werent doing enough to protect their workers from injury and death on the job, and because states werent stepping into that breach. So Congress provided a federal right to safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women.

The law is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives and preventing countless injuries and illnesses. And yet, in the face of the greatest occupational health challenge this nation has ever faced, six justices effectively told OSHA to back off.

COVID-19 calls for a concerted national response; tossing worker safety back to the states is anything but. Worker advocates and unions have been pushing for a federal emergency rule since the pandemic began. When the Trump administration refused to act, some states  California, New Jersey and Virginia among them  issued mandatory safety standards of their own. Others did nothing.

In fact, after the Biden administration proposed the vaccine or testing rule, it was the states  specifically 26 red states  that sued to prevent its implementation, leading to the Supreme Courts action in mid-January.

But now its back to the states to tackle COVID-19 transmission in the workplace. Some may pass new rules, perhaps including vaccine mandates. Others will do nothing or, worse, even prevent employers from requiring vaccines or testing. Businesses will be left wondering what the rules are, or will be.

OSHA was created to set a floor on workplace safety in all 50 states, and the vaccine-or-test rule was designed to save lives consistent with that mandate. Six justices devised reasons to block that effort, and now each state will either address the workplace COVID threat  or not  as it sees fit.

Thats no way to honor our workers  or the will of Congress.

Michael Felsen of Jamaica Plain, Mass., retired in 2018 after a 39-year career as an attorney with the Department of Labor, serving from 2010-2018 as its New England Regional Solicitor. This column was produced for The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.
Most college students believe there's a mental health crisis on campuses throughout the nation. FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images

Nearly 70% of college students say they are experiencing emotional distress or anxiety related to the pandemic. Thats according to a January 2022 survey that also found nearly 9 out of every 10 college students believe U.S. colleges and universities are facing a mental health crisis.

Below are five articles from the archives of The Conversation that highlight tips for college students to take better care of their mental health.

1. Prioritize your mental health

When students do poorly in a class due to mental health issues, occasionally they might seek a medical exception that can withdraw them from the class instead of failing it. But students who get this exception often fail to seek the actual help they need to deal with the mental health issue that led them to do poorly in the first place.

Thats according to Nicholas Joyce, a psychologist at the University of South Florida.

In my experience, many students who get the medical exception return the next semester without addressing their mental health needs and end up failing more courses, writes Joyce.

Joyce recommends four ways college students can avoid having to seek a medical exception in the first place.

2. Seek campuses designed to boost your mood

When selecting a college to attend, students should look at whether the campus design benefits their mental health.

Green spaces on college campuses can alleviate stress. Rana Faure/Getty Images

Campus design affects the college experience, and students can choose a campus or change their existing routines to support their mental health, they write. Such consideration is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when new rules and norms have left many students more anxious and depressed than normal.

Read more: 5 things to look for on a college campus that benefit mental health

3. Make a wellness plan

Before students even set foot on campus, they should develop a wellness plan to help them avoid major emotional distress. Thats according to Sandra M. Chafouleas, professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, who details what every students wellness plan should include.

 personal wellness plans must be customized to meet each individual students own needs, she writes. And I believe that since it is unclear whether new college students will be on physical campuses this fall or learning online, these plans are more important than ever.

Read more: 5 things college students should include in a plan for their wellness

4. Avoid academic burnout

When college students suffer from burnout, it often leads them to experience feelings of isolation, low accomplishment and depression.

Ryan Korstange, assistant professor of university studies at Middle Tennessee State University, writes about five tips on how college students can avoid exhaustion.

[Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletters to understand the world. Sign up today.]

The most effective way of preventing burnout is being sure you know why youre in college to begin with, he writes. Build your internal motivation by identifying the skills you need to develop and the experiences you want to have while you are in college.

Read more: 5 tips for college students to avoid burnout

5. Spend time with a therapy dog

Research has shown that spending just 10 minutes with a therapy dog can reduce college students stress levels. Thats why Christine Kivlen, an assistant professor of occupational therapy at Wayne State University, recommends students seek out therapy dog programs on campus. Kivlen writes about the calming effects of spending time with a therapy dog.

Among other benefits, therapy dogs can help students achieve a stronger sense of belonging and better deal with being homesick and lonely, while also lessening their anxiety and stress.

Read more: Therapy dogs help students cope with the stress of college life

***

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Xi makes instruction on Party building studies

Xinhua) 10:04, January 22, 2022

President Xi Jinping has called on scholars to deepen their understanding of the rule of Party building in the new era and further contribute wisdom and strength to advancing related work.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instruction to a conference of the National Society for Party Building Studies, which was held in Beijing Friday.

Xi sent his congratulations to the conference and extended his sincere greetings to scholars studying Party building.

Recognizing the contributions the society has made in recent years to advancing Party building in the new era, Xi urged more efforts to adapt Marxism to China's conditions, step up research on the latest progress of Party building theories and strengthen the study of full and strict governance over the Party, among others.

Chen Xi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the CPC Central Committee's Organization Department, conveyed Xi's instruction at Friday's conference and called on the scholars to follow Xi's instruction and encouraged them to play a bigger role in advancing Party building in the new era.

(Web editor: Liu Ning, Bianji)
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP)  A student was shot at a Maryland high school Friday afternoon, prompting an hourslong lockdown, and authorities said a 17-year-old student at the school is in custody.

A news release from Montgomery County Police said security at Magruder High School in Rockville became aware of an incident inside a school bathroom at 12:53 p.m. A male student had been shot and 911 was called four minutes later, the news release said.

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The injured student was taken to a hospital, where he was in serious condition and undergoing surgery, police said.

A policeman stands near the scene at Col. Zadok Magruder High School where authorities say a student was shot and a suspect was in custody, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, in Rockville, Md. (Freddy Kunkle/The Washington Post via AP) (Freddy Kunkle/AP)

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones said that the suspect, a fellow student, was taken into custody about two hours after the school was locked down during a search of the building. The chief said the suspect was found with a handgun.

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Jones said it wasnt clear what led up to the shooting.

School officials said in the late afternoon that authorities had deemed the school safe and students would be dismissed. County records show the school has approximately 1,700 students. Earlier, television footage had shown numerous squad cars on the scene and officers entering the building.
Lincoln Pius X High School will resume its regular schedule next week after shifting to a half-day format to get ahead of surging COVID-19 cases among staff and students.

Officials at Lincoln's lone Catholic high school announced it would dismiss at noon from Jan. 13-21 as coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious omicron variant continued to rise among students and staff.

The half-day schedule alternated between the first four and the last four periods of the day, with classes lasting 10 minutes longer. Teachers still worked in the afternoons, helping students who were in quarantine or who recently returned to school catch up on missed work.

Tom Korta, chief administrative officer at Pius X, said officials would reevaluate the scheduling change this week and extend it if needed.

But case numbers have dropped this week  a shortened one for Pius X with no school on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

This week, just more than 20 students and three staff members tested positive. That's down from the 50 or so students and a handful of staff who reported positive tests last week.

Korta said the altered schedule would allow the school to get ahead of an expected peak in coronavirus cases later this month, while giving teachers and students a chance to catch up on missed work.

Meanwhile, at Lincoln Public Schools, students were off Friday  the first of three consecutive Fridays the district will not hold classes to allow teachers to make up planning time and help students who've missed school catch up on work.

As of Friday afternoon, 882 students and 133 staff had tested positive for COVID-19 this week, down from the 1,025 students and 224 staffers who returned positive tests last week.

Nearly 3,000 students and more than 500 staff members were in quarantine as of Friday, as well. Last week, nearly 3,500 students and 641 staff were in exclusion.

While there were no major closures at LPS because of staffing issues since LPS announced it would temporarily close school on Fridays, a handful of classrooms have gone remote.

They include:

* Independence Academy sites at The Bay, Zion Church and Moore Middle School.

* Two early-childhood classrooms at Campbell Elementary School.

* A life-skills program at Goodrich Middle School.

Those classrooms are all expected to return to in-person learning next week.

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @zach_hammack

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Seventeen employees of Nebraskas prison system more than doubled the size of their paychecks during the past fiscal year.

How? They made more in overtime pay than they did in base salary, according to data the state recently provided the Flatwater Free Press.

Some 145 employees of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services made at least half their base salary in overtime  part of spiraling overtime costs in the prison system that have cost taxpayers $48 million over the past three years.

The states highest overtime earner  a corrections caseworker named Donald Hiatt  made nearly double his salary in overtime between July 2020 and June 2021. He earned a base pay of $47,840, and an additional $97,400 in overtime pay.

Hiatts total annual pay: $145,240. He did not return Facebook messages and emails seeking comment.

The large individual overtime payments reflect an ongoing crisis faced by the states prisons, long overcrowded and now severely understaffed, according to state leaders and experts.

And while recent raises for prison staff offer some hope, Nebraskas most understaffed prisons have seen little relief in reducing the need for overtime hours, said Scott Frakes, director of the Corrections Department.

In the short term, overtime will cost taxpayers even more: Before the recent raises, it cost 15% more to pay overtime than it did to hire a new employee. The raises  which also supercharge overtime pay  boost that difference to about 55%, Frakes said.

It will always be more economical to find and hire and onboard new people, Frakes said. Thats been our emphasis all along, to reduce mandatory overtime to the bare minimum.

Overtime pay pads paychecks. It can also contribute to burnout, fatigue and high turnover rates among prison staff, say experts and former guards  especially because overtime work often becomes mandatory for essential prison employees.

Hiatt, for example, worked an average of 97 hours per week  his regular 40 and then 57 more in overtime  according to state prison officials. The next-highest overtime earners, Curtis Hurst and Bemnet Habtu, both corrections corporals, worked an average of 49 and 50 hours in overtime, respectively.

Frakes confirmed that, for some corrections employees, an 80-hour week is not unusual.

Youve got to be on your toes, be alert, said Mark Foxall, former director of the Douglas County Department of Corrections and now a faculty member at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Those things are challenging in an eight-hour shift, let alone a 16-hour shift. Are you as alert in hour 14 as you were in hour 1? How does that physical and mental fatigue accumulate over the course of several overtime shifts in a week?

Six months after the initial records request, the state in January disclosed the overtime pay earned by all state employees during the 2021 fiscal year. The Flatwater Free Press has added that data to a searchable state salary database.

The state spent $35.7 million on overtime during that period. Nearly half, $15.4 million, went to employees of a single department, the states prisons system.

The top five highest overtime earners in the state were all Corrections employees. Out of the top 20 highest earners, 15 worked in Corrections.

The Flatwater Free Press reached out to 10 of the top overtime earners in Corrections. None returned emails seeking comment.

Those top earners, who often work up to 80 hours a week, are most likely volunteering for the majority of those shifts, Frakes said.

The union contract grants staff members the right to work overtime without an upper limit, and seniority determines who can claim voluntary overtime shifts.

What we look for is performance, as opposed to straight hours, Frakes said. Are they able to perform at the level that we establish good performance? Are they staying awake and alert? If they're doing all those things, then there's no issue to address.

Mandatory overtime shifts, on the other hand, are assigned in order of reverse seniority. Recently, Frakes said, some prison guards have often been required to stay four more hours after their regular 12-hour shift.

The states two maximum-security prisons, the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution and at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln, rely heavily on overtime shifts to fill mandatory posts.

Some Corrections staff like the overtime, said Michael Chipman, president of the Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police 88, the union representing Corrections officers and other security staff. But even an excessive amount of voluntary overtime still causes burnout, he said.

Nebraska correctional officers described a continual sense of fatigue and worried about the impact of overtime on their well-being, according to a 2021 report by Doug Koebernick, inspector general of the Nebraska Correctional System.

Former employees told the Flatwater Free Press that the long hours took them away from their families, and brought on panic attacks and sleep loss.

Rapid turnover continues to be an issue for Nebraskas prison system. By the end of September, state Corrections had lost 330 prison guards over the course of 2021. The department projected that one out of every four prison employees would leave their job in 2021, according to its most recent quarterly report.

Corrections is not the most glamorous job. Its a challenging job, said Foxall, discussing high turnover in American prisons. Hiring problems predate the pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated problems.

The state hopes the recent raises announced for correctional officers will help recruit and retain staff, lowering the departments reliance on overtime to stay afloat. Within six weeks of the change, the department saw 630 applications for corporal positions, compared with 162 applications the five weeks prior.

The department has hired about 140 of those applicants, Frakes said.

But the new union contract will drive up overtime expenses as well  in addition to increasing hourly salaries, the contract boosted overtime pay from time-and-a-half to double.

Since the raises went into effect, droves of Corrections employees have volunteered for overtime or holiday shifts, Koebernick said.

Now, with the increase of people wanting to get overtime because of the pay, I think were going to see a significant change in the amount of money spent on overtime, Koebernick said. I think were going to get blown away.

That 100 Nebraska prison employees made more than half their base salary in overtime last year is a testament to the level of need, said Eric Thompson, director of the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It signals that theres a limited number of people qualified to do the essential  and often unpleasant  work of guarding inmates and managing their cases.

Rampant overtime is far from ideal. But its also currently necessary, said Dustin White, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

In the short run, you just have to find people, White said. Its essentially a bribe. Youre trying to figure out, how do I convince people to do this for now until I can figure out a better solution?

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

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After AltEn went into operation in January 2015, residents of Mead and the surrounding area started reported a wide range of health conditions doctors couldnt explain.

Those living close to the biofuel plant developed persistent coughs, watery eyes or bloody noses, while others living downwind experienced mouth sores and uncommon infections in their digestive systems.

Many assigned the changes in their well-being to AltEn, where unplanted corn and soybean seed coated with pesticides was turned into ethanol, leaving behind solid and wastewater byproducts contaminated with high concentrations of hazardous chemicals.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska and Creighton University have launched a 10-year study to examine the long-term effects on human health and the environment stemming from AltEns practices.

If research links the contamination stemming from AltEn to any negative health outcomes experienced by the people living near the plant, a bill introduced in the Legislature this year would grant individuals more time to sue the plant and the seed companies that supplied it.

The bill (LB694), sponsored by Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, extends the statute of limitations for Nebraskans who fall sick after an exposure to toxic chemicals from four years to 10 years.

It would also extend the time for the family of individuals whose illness or death is linked to exposure to seek compensation.

Blood said her bill  the first of a handful introduced this year in response to the environmental and health crisis at AltEn  was meant to address what she called a raw deal thrust upon Mead.

How long is too long before we pull the plug on these big companies making Nebraskans collateral damage? Blood asked the Legislature's Judiciary Committee on Friday, where the bill received a public hearing.

The neonicotinoids found in high concentrations in the wet distillers grain stockpiled at AltEn, as well as in the wastewater held for years in damaged lagoons, were designed to be persistent and highly mobile, Blood said.

Recent research has pegged their half-life  the time it takes for them to break down in the environment  at nearly four years, while some of the degraded products are believed to be more toxic than their parent compounds.

The ultimate health effects are far from understood, Blood said, but scientists suspect neonicotinoids could be linked to organ damage, reproductive issues and some cancers.

Janece Mollhoff, a nurse and retired Army colonel from Ashland, which is downstream from AltEn, told the Judiciary Committee that LB694 was not specifically about the village of Mead, a rogue ethanol plant or one specific chemical.

There are hundreds of thousands of artificial chemicals encompassing everything from fertilizers to flame suppressants that are easily available to consumers, Mollhoff said.

The rapid rate at which novel chemicals are being produced compared to the snails pace at which governments assess risks and monitor impacts leaves society largely flying blind to chemical threats, she said.

Extending the statute of limitations would give scientists  like those from NU and Creighton  more time to investigate the health outcomes created by exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals, Mollhoff added, and provide the individuals affected more time to seek damages.

Bloods bill was also backed by environmental groups such as the Nebraska Sierra Club and Bold Alliance, as well as by the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys, which said it provided more time for those who fall ill to seek recompense.

The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry testified in a neutral capacity, voicing concerns about language in the bill outlining how a doctor would connect exposure to a chemical to a health condition, as well as how the legislation could be misinterpreted.

The Judiciary Committee did not take any action on the bill Friday.

Blood said she planned to make LB694 her priority bill this year, which will help its chances of reaching the full Legislature for debate.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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PIERRE  Criminal investigators on Wednesday told South Dakota lawmakers that they didnt believe the states attorney general when he told them he never saw the body of the man he fatally struck on the night of the 2020 crash.

Investigators said they doubted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg's insistence, both in public and in law enforcement interviews, that he initially thought he hit an animal on Sept. 12, 2020, pointing to what they believed were two slips in Ravnsborg's account as he was being interviewed by law enforcement officers.

He said he saw him. The only other person out there was Joe Boever, North Dakota Special Agent Joe Arenz said, referring to a point in the Republican attorney general's interview where he said that as he was surveying the accident scene, he turned around and saw him."

So I know exactly where I turned around and saw him, Ravnsborg said during the recorded interview with investigators, before quickly correcting himself: I didnt see him. I did not see him.

A South Dakota House committee is weighing whether Ravnsborg should face impeachment charges for his conduct. He pleaded no contest to a pair of misdemeanors last year and has said he didn't realize he struck the man, 55-year-old Joseph Boever, until returning to the scene the next day.

The investigators determined that Ravnsborg would have walked right past Boevers body and the flashlight Boever had been carrying as he looked around the scene the night of the crash. The flashlight was still illuminated the next morning.

I believe he would have had to see him, North Dakota Special Agent Arnie Rummel told lawmakers.

The investigators, who were called in from out of state to avoid a conflict of interest, also testified that Ravnsborg said in the interview that he didn't see what he hit until impact. To detectives, that was another slip that became "a piece of evidence" leading them to doubt Ravnsborg's claims.

When the story changes, in my opinion, they are not being straightforward and telling the truth, Rummel said, referring to Ravnsborg initially telling them he had not been scrolling through his cellphone, then later acknowledging he had in the minutes before the crash.

As a House impeachment investigative committee has sifted through the crash investigation, some Republican lawmakers' inquiries have called into question the crash investigators. The committee spent hours Tuesday drilling into South Dakota officials and raising questions about the governor's involvement in the investigation.

Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Kristi Noem jumped into the impeachment investigation, slamming how fellow Republicans have so far focused on questioning crash investigators rather than Ravnsborgs conduct.

It grieves me that because of a political agenda, some legislators on the committee are attacking the integrity of our law enforcement officers, the Republican governor told The Associated Press, adding that it was an inappropriate and tragic turn of the committees attention.

The committee's investigation is happening amid an election-year split between the governor and a right wing of House Republicans.

Noem, who is seeking reelection this year while positioning for a potential White House bid in 2024, invoked support for law enforcement officers and the grief of a dead man's family as she pushed for some justice in the situation.

Noem has made it clear that she believes the misdemeanor charges were not enough, and wants him removed from office. She would also get to name the attorney general's replacement if he is removed. In addition to calling for his resignation and supporting the impeachment inquiry, she has used the public release of video of Ravnsborg being interviewed by investigators to pressure him to step down.

The attorney general has refused, and several political allies on the House investigative committee posed questions about the governor's role in the crash investigation.

Noem said she was not involved in the investigation but stayed informed at certain points when it was appropriate.

House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a Republican, questioned why North Dakotas Highway Patrol had not taken over the investigation given the political nature of the situation between the governor and attorney general. Other Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Steve Haugaard, who is challenging Noem in the GOP primary, delved into how Noem had used the investigative materials.

Gosch said the governor had been told not to intervene, interlude or try to influence in any way the impeachment investigation process, adding its our responsibility to do our job.

Noem suggested they should focus on Ravnsborg's conduct.

This process is just to determine if the attorney general should still be the attorney general. Thats the only question in front of them, Noem said. She said lawmakers should examine whether Ravnsborg still has the support of law enforcement officers.

Three of the state's largest law enforcement groups last year called for Ravnsborg to resign.

Although Ravnsborg has stayed mostly silent on the crash investigation and impeachment inquiry, he is positioning for a reelection bid despite a challenge for the Republican nomination from former Attorney General Marty Jackley. After his trial last year, Ravnsborg accused partisan opportunists of exploiting the situation.

Amid the political falling out with the governor, Ravnsborg has also pushed a pair of inquiries into whether Noem abused the powers of her office.

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RACINE  Mayor Cory Mason said the City of Racine continues to receive complaints periodically about violations of its order requiring people to wear face masks in public places indoors.

Rather than issue citations and seek penalties, he said, officials will continue to work on educating violators about the importance of wearing masks.

The mandate has been in place since September.

Much of the public reluctance to get vaccinated, wear masks and take other precautions is based on misinformation and misunderstanding, the mayor said during an online news conference Friday morning.

Mason noted that only about 53% of Racine residents are vaccinated. Among African-American residents specifically, the vaccination rate is even lower, around 30%.

"More than ever," he said, "we need everyone to do their part."

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said Friday he would not consider a similar face mask mandate in the rest of Racine County. The County Board has given no indication it wants to impose such a mandate either. But Delagrave said masks are mandatory inside county government buildings to control the spread of COVID.

Delagrave would not elaborate on his reasons for not seeking countywide protection.

"Racine County has always come together in crises," he said. "I know that we're going to come together."

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An 11-month investigation that began last February with a drug overdose ended in December with a significant amount of cocaine, personal property and other assets seized and several individuals facing both state and federal charges.

Seized were 106 pounds of cocaine that tested positive for fentanyl with an estimated street value of between $4 million and $6 million.

The path toward its discovery began at a location in the Village of Salem Lakes in February, according to a press release issued Friday afternoon by the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department.

Deputies on that call used Narcan to save the subjects life and, after that call, the Kenosha Drug Operations Group initiated an investigation to find the source of the narcotics.

That investigation led authorities to a large drug trafficking organization based in Pleasant Prairie, authorities said. Police believe the subjects were operating primarily in Wisconsin and Illinois, but also had ties throughout the United States and Mexico.

Along with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, KDOG deputies arrested several individuals last month.

Authorities also recovered more than $50,000 in stolen property during the investigation, along with $120,000 of personal assets they determined were used in the distribution of illicit narcotics.

Kenosha County Sheriffs Department Sgt. David Wright said Friday that both state and federal charges could be filed against those arrested. The investigation still is active.

The investigation continues the departments fight to curb drug overdose deaths, Wright said. Kenosha County had more than 40 fatal overdoses in 2021, primarily from fentanyl-laced narcotics.

We definitely have seen an uptick in fentanyl-related cases, Wright said. Thats primarily why our KDOG unit got involved with this. All of it pointed toward investigating this even more because of those. It was an extensive investigation. A lot of man hours were put into it.

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BURLINGTON  Two teenagers were involved in a one-vehicle crash in which their vehicle swerved off the roadway, struck two trees and was fully engulfed in flames Friday night.

According to a release from the Racine County Sheriffs Office, officers were dispatched at about 10 p.m. Friday to the 8600 block of Fish Hatchery Road in the Town of Burlington, just southeast of Bohner Lake, less than eight miles east of Lake Geneva and less than a mile north of the Racine County-Kenosha County border.

Upon deputies arrival, both occupants had been removed from the vehicle; the operator, a 16-year-old boy, and a 15-year-old male passenger are from the City of Burlington. Both were conscious but sustained life-threatening injuries, according to the RCSO.

The 16-year-old was taken by Flight For Life directly to Childrens Wisconsin Hospital in Wauwatosa. The 15-year-old was transported to Aurora Medical Center in Burlington, then by Flight For Life to Childrens.

Speed is believed to have been a factor in the accident, the RCSO said.

The crash remains under investigation.

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U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on Friday asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for a Justice Department investigation into 10 Republican electors who submitted false paperwork last year saying former President Donald Trump had won in the battleground state.

President Joe Biden carried Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes. The Republicans who met have defended the move, saying they were submitting the votes in case Trump's loss was overturned by the courts.

Pocan, D-Black Earth, said it was imperative for the Justice Department to act "to deter other officials who may seek to engage in election fraud." He urged Garland to act quickly "for Wisconsin, for the Department, and for the nation."

Earlier this week, an assistant Milwaukee County prosecutor responded to a year-old complaint filed by a liberal law firm based in Madison seeking an investigation. The letter to Law Forward attorney Jeffrey Mandell said it was up to state and federal authorities to decide whether to conduct such a probe.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, has not ruled out a state investigation and has also called on federal prosecutors to consider one.

Republicans in seven states  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  submitted paperwork to the U.S. Senate and National Archives saying they believe Trump actually won, even though he didn't. New Mexico and Pennsylvania Republicans added a caveat saying it was done in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors.

Michigan's and New Mexico's attorneys general have asked federal prosecutors to investigate the Republican officials' false filings.

Politico reported earlier this month the U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, also is investigating documents submitted by Republican electors in several states.

The Washington Post reported Thursday the effort was coordinated by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The Republican plan was to present Vice President Mike Pence with conflicting slates of electors so that he could throw the election to a House vote that would hand the election to Trump, something Pence refused to do.

In Wisconsin, Republicans who signed the paperwork include former chair of the state Republican Party Andrew Hitt; Robert Spindell, a Republican who sits on the state Elections Commission; 8th Congressional District GOP chair Kelly Ruh; 1st Congressional District GOP vice chair Carol Brunner; Dane County Republican Party chair Scott Grabins; La Crosse County Republican Party chair Bill Feehan; 5th Congressional District GOP chair Kathy Kiernan; 6th Congressional District GOP chair Darryl Carlson; 1st Congressional District GOP vice chair Pam Travis; and Mary Buestrin, vice chair of the Midwest region for the Republican National Convention.

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1. Yes. Raising the bar for future developments will boost the citys housing market.

2. Yes. It will help in newer areas, but more needs to be done to change Killeens image.

3. No. The new standards will just slow down homebuilding and drive away developers.

4.No. The ordinance will do little more than drive up the price of new homes in the city.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say what the effect will be until they have been in place for a while.

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Career paramedic and firefighter Robert A. Bobby Jones, 59, died Thursday due to complications from COVID-19, according to the Reese and Community Volunteer Fire Company in Westminster.

RVFC career Paramedic / Firefighter Robert "Bobby" Jones, Reese & Community Volunteer Fire Company (Courtesy Photo)

Officials said that Jones was exposed to and contracted COVID-19 while providing patient care, performing his duties serving Carroll County in December.

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After a hard fight and multiple complications, he succumbed to the virus, according to a statement on the Reese VFC website.

Carroll County Commissioner Stephen Wantz, R-Dist. 1, has known Jones since 1982 and served as a firefighter alongside him at several stations in the past.

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One thing Ill never forget about Bobby is his smile, Wantz said.

Jones death was the first line-of-duty death for Reese VFC, according to the fire company.

According to Kati Townsley, public information officer for Reese VFC, COVID-19 vaccinations and masks are encouraged but not required among fire company employees.

Jones joined the Woodlawn Volunteer Fire Company on Sept. 19, 1978, where he remained a member until his death. He entered the Baltimore County Fire Department Academy as a firefighter recruit on Feb. 28, 1982.

Wantz was in the 1982 Baltimore County Fire Department 65th recruit class with Jones.

Back in the day when you were in the same class, you got to know each other very quickly and you become bonded for the rest of your life, Wantz said. We worked together at a couple different stations and we retired the same year. ... One thing Ill never forget about Bobby is his smile.

Wantz said public safety and giving back to citizens was always on the top of Jones priority list.

He was a fine individual and will be missed in Carroll County. ... I cant even imagine how many folks hes touched throughout his career, Wantz said.

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The Carroll County Fire/EMS Department has lost a true legacy who provided many years of lifesaving experience to our citizens, Michael Robinson, director of Carroll County Department of Fire and EMS, said in a statement. The loss of Bobby has impact throughout the region, and he is well known for his dedication and passion to our profession not only in Carroll County but also in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.

Jones served Baltimore County as a paramedic/firefighter at various stations, calling Station 4D in Catonsville home until his retirement as a fire lieutenant on April 4, 2012.

Jones called the Reese and Community Volunteer Fire Company in Westminster his second home and family. He joined the staff of Reese as a paramedic in the late 1980s, working part-time until he became a full-time paramedic, firefighter and engineer in January 2007. Since that time, he served the community as a paramedic, firefighter, engineer and shift supervisor.

Jones also volunteered at Lansdowne Volunteer Fire Company from 2011-2013 and Cape St. Claire Volunteer Fire Company from January 2013 until his death. He was promoted on May 19, 2021 to fire lieutenant by the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. Additionally, he was a career-long member of IAFF Local 1311 (Baltimore County Professional Fire Fighters) and Local 5184 (Carroll County Professional Fire Fighters & Paramedics).

Jones is survived by his mother, father, four siblings, two stepdaughters, and two grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his wife.

Editors note: This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
KEARNEY  The Buckle is relocating to a new slot at Hilltop Mall.

The Buckles move from the east side of the mall to the west side follows a trend among mall retailers to carve smaller business spaces into big boxes. The new look focuses attention on the main entrance and increases visibility and brand awareness. In the case of The Buckle, the move also will place the denim destination and specialty retailer much closer to parking at Hilltop.

We are grateful for the opportunity to enhance the store experience for our guests in Kearney and the surrounding area, The Buckles President and CEO Dennis Nelson said about the move.

With the relocation, guests will enter the store directly from the malls west parking lot. An elevated, exterior storefront and visual presence highlight the stores signature design, according to a press release, which continued, inside, guests can enjoy a modern update to the brands overall aesthetic, featuring new design materials and operational systems.

Kasha Johnson, an 11-year veteran and manager of the Kearney store, on Thursday greeted the news enthusiastically.

Its so exciting to know I get a brand-new store. Its going to be super awesome, Johnson said.

The Buckles move is part of a reshuffling of merchants to attract a younger demographic to the mall. DP Management, which operates Hilltop, said the shuffle will reduce vacancies to just 3%.

The moves follow the announcement that Harbor Freight, a California-based hardware and tool company, soon will join the Hilltop lineup. Accommodating Harbor Freight required cooperation from existing tenants, government officials, and an adjoining shopping center owner, according to DPs announcement in late 2021.

Harbor Freight will occupy the space that previously was Sporting Edge, which now is on the north end of the mall neighboring J.C. Penney.

Exact Eye Care is in a temporary location, but will be near the south end of the mall, and, when the shuffling is complete, The Buckle will be near the center of the mall on the west side.

Like The Buckle, several businesses will be accessed via their own entries with brand names in clear view.

Johnson, The Buckles manager at the Kearney store, said shes excited to experience the new look and feel when The Buckles new space is ready to occupy. As we undergo a completely new build, incorporating high quality materials and updated designs, this is a store our community can be proud of.

The new space will add about 250 square feet to the sales floor. The new, exterior store location is projected to open mid- to late summer.
KEARNEY  With some day care centers closing as COVID-19 spirals here, staff members at the Two Rivers Public Health Department is urging parents to be calm, and to be grateful.

Its distressing to parents when centers close, but the centers are doing the very best thing they can do to protect their children, Susan Puckett, community health nurse at Two Rivers, said Friday at Two Rivers weekly community call.

Centers are taking real grief. Parents are threatening and berating them, and that is not fair. Take a breath. We have to make people running these programs make it as safe for everybody. The best thing we can do is to make sure to get as many people vaccinated as possible, she said.

In the past week, Two Rivers has confirmed 1,037 cases in its seven counties. Thats the highest number of COVID cases since the pandemic began March 20, 2020. Nearly all are the omicron variant, which arrived in Nebraska in late December.

The numbers of cases are so vast that its taxing our health care systems. When nursing homes start having cases, they have to close their doors, and thats distressing, Puckett added.

As cases soar, Brady Beecham, a Lexington physician and Two Rivers board member, said, Too many people are saying, Let me get COVID and get it over with, but thats a dicey strategy.

This is a moving target. There are so many different chapters of COVID. The omicron variant is characterized by huge case numbers. Its not as severe, but so many people are quarantined right now that our ability to be responsive is being limited, she said.

Get a vaccine. Even though omicron might be coming to the end, we dont know what will come next. We didnt think wed still be dealing with COVID at this point, but we are, so we must use the strategies we have, she said.

Hospitals filled

As of Tuesday, Nebraska has had 407,804 COVID-19 cases and 2,957 deaths since March 20, 2020. As of Dec. 31, Two Rivers has recorded 180 deaths. No numbers have been released since.

With COVID patients currently occupying nearly one-third of Two Rivers hospital beds, this affects patients coming to hospital for other things, Puckett said.

Hospital admissions have soared in the last 90 days. In the Two Rivers district  Buffalo, Dawson, Gosper, Franklin, Harlan, Kearney and Phelps counties  47 people, including three children, currently are hospitalized with COVID, making up 30% of hospitalized patients. Ten COVID patients occupy ICU beds, and 12 COVID patients are on ventilators.

As of Friday morning, CHI Health Good Samaritan had 25 COVID patients, a number not seen since late in 2020. Kearney Regional Medical Center had 14.

Hospital bed availability is next to nothing, Puckett said. That is complicated by reduced staffs in hospitals.

Statewide, 68 COVID patients enter hospitals every day, and 29 children were admitted to hospitals last week, Puckett said.

Risk dial

Two Rivers weekly risk dial is back up in the red severe range, the highest on the dial. It sat there for 14 weeks from mid-September until Dec. 23. It then dropped to the elevated range but kicked back up to the severe range Jan. 13.

Puckett said 40% of all COVID tests are positive this week, including 73 positive tests for staff members and residents in long-term facilities in the past week alone.

The current COVID surge is growing more rapidly than any previous outbreaks, and its being driven by people age 50 and under, Puckett said. The most positive tests are happening in the 20-50-year-old age group.

She also said that while childrens cases of COVID-19 are milder, numbers are higher than at any other time during the pandemic. She said some children are hospitalized for other reasons, but test positive for COVID in the hospital.

Anti-viral medication

U-Save Pharmacy at 3611 Second Ave. is the only site in Kearney that has molnupirabir, a new anti-viral given by prescription to patients who have been diagnosed with COVID. It can help lessen symptoms and keep them out of the hospital, said Eric Hamik, pharmacist/manager at U-Save.

Mulligan described molnupirabir as a pill, like Tamiflu, but so far, she said the region has only enough to prescribe to 80 people. Hospitals are getting allocations of monoclonal antibodies from the state every two weeks.

We want more medications, but that doesnt seem to be the case. Deliveries are slightly unpredictable, and not quite what we had hoped for, but as soon as we get more, we will distribute more, she said.

In addition:

 Puckett noted that as COVID-19 cases soar, many schools are again requiring masks. She said the CDC is getting testing supplies to schools, but only to those where masks are required.

 Americans now can order four free rapid antigen tests from the federal government (covidtests.gov). Results are available in 30 minutes.

 Check the CDC website (cdc.gov) for information about masks, travel guidelines and quarantine guidelines.

Learn about requirements for entering a different country and returning to the U.S. There are a lot of strange things, Puckett said. All countries have their own rules.

 Statewide, 67% of people age 12 and older have had at least one dose of the vaccine, while 61% of people are fully vaccinated. For those age 65 and up, 91% have been fully vaccinated statewide, but in Two Rivers, only 50% of the population is fully vaccinated.
The Daytona 500 is NASCARs premier event, attracting millions of viewers each year.

Thousands of famous drivers have made their livelihood based on their performance on the Daytona Speedway.

Jonathan Williams, a sophomore at Bellevue West High School, got a taste of the Daytona experience when he raced his Margay kart on the Daytona Speedway.

Williams experience was during KartWeek, an event organized by the World Karting Association.

Williams said KartWeek consists of a week where racers go down and race at several big tracks around the nation. For example, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Daytona.

Williams interest in the sport of karting began about two years ago near the start of the pandemic.

I had been watching Formula One and NASCAR and really getting into it, Williams said.

In his kart, Williams reached a top speed of 74.7 miles per hour and drove around 30-40 miles per hour for the corner sections at Daytona.

Williams said he raced roughly 98 drivers at the same time while at Daytona, with there being several different classes of karts at the event.

Williams raced in the Ignite Senior Margay category and placed fourth.

The trip from Bellevue to Florida was a long one. Williams and his father chose to drive down to the iconic speedway.

When I got there, it was like a dream come true, he said. We went under the little bridge under the track to get into the infield, and then you look up and you see the banking and it was like a dream come true knowing that I was going to race on the actual track.

Williams has eyes on eventually making it big on the racing scene.

Obviously, you got to start small. As of now, it is a little side hobby, but I really am getting into it and, like, meeting a lot of good drivers that go all around the nation and compete in the biggest events, he said.

Williams is registered for next years Daytona event and said he looks forward to it.

Melissa Fish-Williams, Williams mother, said it was exciting for her son to race on a track where so many famous racers have been on.

I actually had to stay home in Nebraska with his brothers, but my husband got to go down to that, I mean, just thinking about it, its such a huge experience, she said.

In kart racing season, Williams races his Margay kart for on-road racing and a LO206 cage kart for dirt racing.

Williams will race on dirt with his LO206 kart at the Sunset Speedway on Thursdays from May to August.

Williams plans to travel with his Margay kart to Charlotte in March and Indiana in May, among several other locations.
The United States military has executed a messy pullout from the 20-year war in Afghanistan, and its once-overpowering presence in Iraq has shriveled to a rump force of 2,500 non-combat troops.

It would seem the global war on terror, launched by President George W. Bush soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and fought in various ways under various names by three subsequent commanders in chief, has finally been swept into historys dustbin.

Not quite.

For the past six months, about 200 members of the Nebraska National Guard have been playing a pivotal role in what may be the largest remaining U.S. counterterrorism operation in the world.

Last summer the Lincoln-based 67th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade  a unit with a history traceable back to the Civil War  deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, in East Africa.

The Nebraska Guard troops make up the headquarters staff of the militarys Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a multinational operation that dates to 2002. The 67th Brigades commander, Col. Brian Medcalf, serves as chief of staff to Maj. Gen. William Zana, who leads the task force.

Djibouti is a small former French colony, in one of the worlds most strategic and troubled locations: on the Red Sea, the gateway to the Suez Canal  a critical chokepoint for trade between Europe and Asia.

Its kind of a crossroads between three continents, said Medcalf, who grew up near Elgin, Nebraska. This area is strategically located. Its important to America because of all the shipping channels to the Red Sea.

Camp Lemonnier is on the coast within 10 miles of Somalia, a failed state from which the al-Qaida-affiliated terror group al-Shabab has carried out attacks since the mid-2000s. U.S. Special Operations Forces have long fought al-Shabab in Somalia alongside indigenous forces, but President Donald Trump withdrew them a year ago during the final weeks of his administration.

Less than 100 miles away is Yemen, the site of a fierce and long-running proxy war between factions backed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. So are Ethiopia and Eritrea, where forces have battled over Eritrean sovereignty since long before its 1993 independence.

The Horn of Africa  thats a rough neighborhood, said Tyler White, director of the National Security Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Djibouti is one of those areas where we think we can make a difference.

It appears the U.S. is planning to stay awhile. It has expanded Camp Lemonnier, a former French Foreign Legion camp, from 88 to 500 acres, and spent more than $1 billion in improvements. In 2014, it signed a 10-year lease extension on Camp Lemonnier for $63 million a year, with an option for 10 additional years.

France, Italy, Japan and China all have established their own bases in Djibouti. Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to build one, too.

Djibouti makes a lot of sense, strategically, White said.

Though the task force has been fighting terrorism for nearly two decades, even some of the Nebraska soldiers now leading it knew little about the place until they received deployment orders early last year. They are scheduled to return home in the spring.

I was completely oblivious to what goes on here, said Maj. Luke Holland, 38, of Elkhorn, deputy director of the task forces Crisis Branch. When you get into the theater, you realize theres a lot more happening than people understand.

The task force was led by Marines in its earliest years, then by the Navy, and evolved into a mission staffed mostly by Army National Guard and Reserve units. The U.S. contingent includes about 2,000 troops as well as about 2,500 civilians at Camp Lemonnier.

The task forces emphasis has been on training and boosting partnerships with militaries in the region while building up infrastructure. At the same time, it has supported drone operations targeting al-Shabab leaders in Somalia and Navy efforts to quell an explosion of Somali piracy in the region a decade ago.

The threats in this area are numerous, said Austin Doctor, a researcher with the University of Nebraska at Omahas National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center (NCITE) who studies sub-Saharan Africa. Theyve evolved from these various obvious threats to just general instability.

Though the Horn of Africa mission has endured through four presidential administrations, its been called a symbol of the Biden approach to counterterrorism: a small number of troops operating over the horizon rather than the large occupying forces employed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Its not going to be a big, heavy presence, White said. In the Middle East, it was essentially an invasion. The nature of the engagement is different. Were not trying to support a government that we created.

Medcalf said his soldiers most critical work involves crisis planning with the embassies of the United States and close allies in East Africa. Who would respond, and how, in case of a coup attempt, riots or civil war?

These arent unfathomable scenarios  theyre troubles that have afflicted nearly every country in the region in recent years.

We are always prepared to respond, if asked, to any ambassador, Medcalf said. Thats our no-fail mission.

How does he know the task forces mission is succeeding? Because theyre not in the headlines.

The best part is that you havent heard of any issues. There havent been any major crises, he said.

Hollands job as deputy director of the Crisis Branch is to work with U.S. embassy personnel and draw up response plans. They game out crisis scenarios ahead of time and create plans for boosted security during difficult times.

In the event of crisis, we are the people who are on the ground, Holland said. We work long hours. At a moments notice, were prepared to respond.

He believes the many Guard members who come from smaller cities and towns are especially well-suited to the mission.

The work ethic and the camaraderie, the looking out for one another that you see in Nebraska, are really useful on this deployment, said Holland, who grew up in Axtell, population 732. Small-town Nebraskans are making an international impact here on the (African) continent.

Sgt. 1st Class David Wooten works with the militaries of other nations as the task forces foreign liaison officers coordinator. Every day, he talks with counterparts from other nations represented in Djibouti.

Wooten, 46, of Lincoln, joined the Marines in 1997 and later switched to the Nebraska Army National Guard. He and his wife, Misty, have 10 children. One of his sons, Spc. Micaiah Wooten, 21, is also deployed to Djibouti.

Thats earned them a bit of attention among U.S. allies in East Africa. The Italian commander invited them to join him for lunch. And the Spanish commander presented them with pool passes to the hotel where the Spanish soldiers are billeted.

A French officer taught David Wooten to play the ukulele.

Even though we all have cultural differences, he said, kindness is universal.

First Lt. Travis Prather is also a military liaison  in his case, with the Djiboutian armed forces.

The job has put him in a position to experience some things unfamiliar to a 25-year-old agriculture graduate from McKenzie, Tennessee, who now works at a feedlot in rural Stapleton, Nebraska.

Like eating camel meat at a restaurant in Djibouti. He said it was cut into strips and served grilled, like fajitas.

I was actually pleasantly surprised, Prather said.

He said he has been impressed with Djiboutians respect for elders in the community, and their resourcefulness in raising herds of camels and goats to support their families, even with few resources.

And he has learned to speak a little French  a language he skipped taking in school because he thought he would never use it.

Were guests, Prather said, and my job is to make sure we continue to be good guests.

The Djibouti soldiers he has worked with are mostly Muslim. Prayer, five times a day, is mandatory.

(Islam) is intrinsically tied in with everything they do, Prather said. They have to stop to pray, or we schedule meetings around prayer.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Rodehorsts job as a religious affairs non-commissioned officer has also required him to learn something about Islam, though his own background is Christian.

Were here to support anything, regardless of faith, said Rodehorst, whose civilian job is in information technology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

He discovered that Islam, which is practiced by 1.9 billion people worldwide, is as diverse as Christianity, which has 2.3 billion followers. He was surprised to meet and work with a French Muslim chaplain who is a woman.

Its a tapestry of countries, traditions, faiths, he said.

Maj. Mat Field is in charge of keeping the task forces communications running. He must maintain video, voice, data and email networks across an eight-country region as large as the Eastern Seaboard. Sometimes it means wiring up small camps in remote places.

This day and age, commanders have a need for data, Field said. We have to have lots of communication types.

In Djibouti, the climate is fierce and the geography forbidding  from desert to mountains, in a country the size of New Jersey.

Rainfall averages less than 5 inches per year. Summer daytime temperatures are well over 100 degrees from June into September. Oh, and its muggy, too.

Africa throws the whole gamut of natural and meteorological challenges at us on a daily basis, Field said.

The limited infrastructure in Djibouti poses a problem for Master Sgt. Lillie Chambers, who is the senior enlisted logistician for the task force. She is in charge of about 100 soldiers who must keep camps across the region supplied, by land and by air. The road network is poor.

The potholes, they could swallow you whole, she said.

Before Christmas, Chambers needed to ship a firetruck to a nearby country. It had to go by air, but the airfield was 30 minutes away.

Its just not as easy as loading it onto a flatbed and hauling it to its location, she said. You have to go through a landfill where you drive between piles of garbage. Some of them are burning. People are running through the piles, salvaging what they can.

Besides her logistics work, Chambers took part in a Defense Department initiative called Women, Peace and Security that brought together 45 female soldiers and police officers from seven countries at a symposium in September in Djibouti.

As women, (we) listen to one another and lean on one another, said Chambers, 37, who lives in Bennet, Nebraska. At the end of the day, were all humans. Were all fighting for the same reasons. We all love our countries.

The Nebraska Guard soldiers in Djibouti who previously deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan say this work is nothing like the active combat role they played back then.

This is completely different, said Rodehorst, the religious affairs sergeant, who deployed to Iraq 10 years ago. Thats what I like about the military. I would never in a million years have thought I would be doing this.

They like meeting people and helping people, in a place many of them knew almost nothing about before their boots hit the dusty ground.

This is the most meaningful job Ive ever had, the most impactful, Wooten said. This is a global impact. Its very cool to be part of.
Erin Case has put thousands of miles on her car as a manager at the Baltimore Abortion Fund, which supports those seeking the procedure by helping foot the cost and offering rides to and from the clinic.

Often, she drives women who, for privacy reasons, dont want to ask a friend or relative to take them. But on a recent day, her passenger was someone in town from Texas, among the many who leave that state for abortions because of a new law known as SB 8, which lets any individual sue those who perform the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy or even help a patient get to a clinic.

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Roughly half of the people the nonprofit Baltimore fund helps are already from out of state, and Case is among those who see the number rising as abortion faces its most serious legal threat in decades. Not only did the U.S. Supreme Court allow the Texas law to go forward last month, it is poised to rule this summer in a case from Mississippi that many say could overturn the courts landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Overturning Roe, which marked its 49th anniversary Saturday and established the constitutional right to abortion, would likely create a domino effect of perhaps 26 states banning or restricting it, by one projection. While observers say Maryland is among the states most protective of abortion rights and surely would not be one of those enacting a ban, it would feel ripple effects nonetheless.

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A lot of folks will be needing to travel. Weve already seen folks coming to Maryland from Texas because of SB 8, said Case, who has driven people who are from as far away as Washington state to Maryland providers.

Planned Parenthood of Maryland supporters, including state Sen. Jill Carter and Del. Nicole Williams, second and first from the right, hold signs Friday at a rally at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis, (Ulysses Munoz/Baltimore Sun)

Activists and legislators in Maryland are ramping up efforts for an anticipated greater demand for the procedure, which could strain existing capacities and resources.

Activists on both sides of the issue hosted events, as they do every year, to mark the Jan. 22, 1973, anniversary of Roe. Hovering over all was the prospect that this could be the last year with Roe as the law of the land.

Roes turning 49, said Kristie Hamrick, a spokeswoman for the Students for Life group. It may never turn 50.

In Maryland, as elsewhere, the fight is ongoing. Abortion rights became part of Maryland law in 1992 via a referendum that voters approved by a wide margin.

Proponents say they need to continue improving access and affordability, particularly given the national climate.

If Roe falls, Im horrified about what that means for abortion access in Maryland, said Lily Bolourian, executive director of Pro-Choice Maryland.

[ Redistricting, legalizing marijuana and climate at the top of the agenda as Maryland General Assembly returns ]

We always thought of abortion as settled law, said Del. Ariana Kelly, a Montgomery County Democrat. But theres a big difference: Just because you have a right, doesnt mean you can access it.

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Kelly said she plans to introduce a bill, perhaps in the coming week, that would allow nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform abortions. In Maryland and most other states, only doctors can do them.

The physician-only provision is outdated, Kelly said, at a time when nurse practitioners and others known collectively as advanced practice clinicians handle much of patient care. Additionally, physician-only laws were enacted before the advent of medication abortions, she said, and these clinicians generally are allowed to write prescriptions.

Del. Ariana Kelly speaks Friday at a Planned Parenthood of Maryland rally at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis. (Ulysses Munoz/Baltimore Sun)

Expanding who can perform abortions is among the measures that states have enacted as shifts in the control of governors mansions and state houses lead to new laws. In 2019, noting seven other states had similar laws, Maine Gov. Janet Mills proposed and ultimately signed legislation allowing advanced clinicians to perform abortions. In 2020, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat like Mills, reversed a series of abortion restrictions that had been previously enacted, and allowed nurse practitioners to perform abortions in during the first trimester of a pregnancy.

Groups like the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Public Health Association have called for the repeal of physician-only laws as a way of increasing access to the procedure.

Kellys bill would also require insurance companies in Maryland to cover abortions and eliminate deductibles for them.

Those opposed to abortion will fight the bill, promised Hamrick, who decried outsourcing the procedure to nonphysicians.

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Michele Hendrickson, a Sykesville resident who is director of strategic initiatives for Students for Life, said abortion opponents are gearing up to make sure women know there are resources out there to support them as they continue their pregnancies.

Theres a real pro-life energy in Maryland, she said. Even in a state that has protected abortion rights, Hendrickson said, we can still change hearts and minds.

As Republican President Donald Trump appointed conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his recent term, some Maryland Democrats suggested including a right to an abortion in the state constitution. That would give it greater protection than state laws that can be repealed or altered by the legislature. However, others felt Maryland had settled that abortion is legal, and the idea of enshrining abortion in the constitution has not advanced.

The Supreme Court cases have spawned other efforts across the country in the last year: Some states see an opportunity to enact abortion restrictions along the lines of what Texas and Mississippi have done. More liberal states, by contrast, are seeking to shore up protections to keep abortion accessible and affordable, said Elizabeth Nash, the lead state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports reproductive freedom.

Nash said the number of states that could ban abortion would place many women in a bind: Either continue an unwanted pregnancy or travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to another state. Travel requiring an overnight hotel stay, taking time off work or arranging for child care, she said, could put the procedure out of reach.

Each of these costs adds up, Nash said. And these costs may be insurmountable.

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That could make abortion something available only to those of a certain affluence, advocates fear.

This is an equity problem, said Karen Miller, a consultant for Planned Parenthood Maryland.

Already, she said, there are jurisdictions in Maryland where there are no clinics, something that could be helped by expanding who can perform abortions.

If you allow other medical professionals who already deal with miscarriages and prenatal [care], you increase the number of people who can perform abortions safely, Miller said.

Michele Hendrickson of Students for Life was emcee at a March for Life rally Feb. 4, 2021, at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

Groups like the Baltimore Abortion Fund were working to scale up their operations even before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month in the Mississippi case that poses a direct threat to Roe, Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. Also at stake is a case that followed Roe, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed that states cannot ban abortion before the point when a fetus cant survive outside the womb. That generally is around 24 weeks into a pregnancy, but Dobbs bans most abortions past 15 weeks.

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Maryland allows abortions after viability under certain circumstances, which advocates say is part of the reason it has become a destination for women from out of state. Some people dont discover, for example, fetal anomalies or develop health problems until past the point when their states allow abortion, activists said. Or, it takes time to arrange or gather money for the trip, pushing the procedure to later in the pregnancy, they said. In any event, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 1% of U.S. abortions are performed at or after 21 weeks of gestation.

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[ Despite lack of protection for abortion access in Maryland Constitution, advocates say state solid in protecting abortion rights ]

With the possibility of abortion becoming more restricted elsewhere in the country, advocates in Maryland want to be prepared.

The idea is to be proactive, said Lynn McCann, co-director of the fund.

The fund, supported by donations, provided about $250,000 last year to help people get abortions in Maryland clinics, with about half those assisted coming from out of state, she said. That is more than double the prior years $100,000 outlay, McCann said.

And this year, she said, Were intentionally doubling funding again.

The Baltimore fund is part of the National Network of Abortion Funds. It and other local funds in Washington, D.C.; Virginia and the Carolinas form a pilot program for the national networks Operation Scale Up that will increase staffing, resources, and collaboration.

The question for us has been access, not legality, McCann said. Our main reason for being is to remove barriers to access.
Predictive modeling indicates COVID cases are reaching their peak in Wisconsin, with the spike in infections expected to begin dropping by the end of the month.

According to Mayo Clinics Coronavirus Map tracking tool, in La Crosse County cases averaged 340 per day on Jan. 20, a number estimated to decrease to 266 per day by Feb. 2.

When we go up this high this fast, it doesnt hover around the peak. Its going to come down rapidly, Mayo Clinic data scientist Curtis Storlie said during a briefing Wednesday. But hitting the peak doesnt mean were behind this. People are still going to get infected on the way down.

Elevated infection rates continue to impact the state, with all counties at critically high levels for the two-week period ending Jan. 18. The states case burden was 4,198.1 per 100,000, with a 77% increase in trajectory. La Crosse County had a burden of 4,757.7 per 100,000 and growing trajectory.

The state as of Jan. 21 had a seven-day average of 17,586 new cases per day for a 26.1% positivity rate. A total of 10,755 deaths were confirmed as of Friday, including 147 in La Crosse County. Statewide, confirmed cases total 1,270,151, with 27,899 among La Crosse County residents.

Per DHS data, in December infections among the fully vaccinated were at a rate of 1,573.2 per 100,000, with hospitalizations 18.5 per 100,000 and deaths 3.6 per 100,000. For those unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, those rates were 4,746.4 per 100,000; 176.4 per 100,000; and 50.8 per 100,000, respectively.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 2,099 current COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Jan. 20, including 445 ICU patients. In the Western region, those numbers were 63 and seven, respectively.

For the two-week period ending Jan. 18, DHS reported no significant change in overall hospitalizations, including in Western Wisconsin. Statewide 77.4% of hospitals had their ICUS at peak capacity, and 27.7% of ventilators were in use.

In Wisconsin, 59% of residents were fully vaccinated as of Jan. 21, as were 64.6% of La Crosse County residents.

Dr. Conor Loftus of Mayo reminds individuals to be vaccinated and boosted if eligible and to mask and distance, noting widespread compliance with precautions would send us down much faster, with fewer cases on the way down. Thats important...the faster we can come down the better.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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As the fate of Wisconsins new maps still hangs in the balance of the courts, La Crosse area leaders and community members rallied on Friday to speak out against gerrymandering.

Holding green and yellow signs reading DONT GERRYMANDER WISCONSIN in single digit temperatures, about two dozen people huddled in Cameron Park near downtown La Crosse to collectively call for fair maps.

The fact that it is so dang cold really says a lot about the intensity of the belief in our state, in democracy, said state Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, who spoke at the rally.

It was a coordinated rally with over a dozen different locations around the state, according to RepresentUs, which co-organized the rallies with the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition.

Earlier this week the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments from several groups that have submitted map proposals, and a decision is expected in the coming weeks.

The court has already ruled that it will try to deviate from current maps as little as possible, which would align with the maps presented by the GOP-led Legislature. Democrats have characterized these maps as a continuation of those drawn 10 years ago that give the majority to Republicans in a state that is often purple in statewide elections.

Speaking at Fridays rally, state Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, made an example out of his own district, saying it was the most politically balanced state Senate district in Wisconsin.

I was elected in 2020 by sixth-tenths of a percent. Five hundred and eighty-two people out of close to 99,000 people that voted. Huge turnout, people got out, they were engaged, he said.

Pfaff said this made his campaign more engaged. It made us go to every single corner, nook and cranny in this state Senate district. Sit down at kitchen tables, to stand in dairy barns, in cheese plants, to be in diners, to listen, he said.

To want to bring out, have people engaged in their community, in their government, in the process  thats what we need, Pfaff said. We need more of that.

Doyle, who is also a La Crosse County supervisor and served on the countys redistricting committee, made similar arguments.

We all know the argument, Doyle said, adding that people understand the definition of gerrymandering. But he said that on top of unfairly benefiting one party, gerrymandering creates echo-chambers of Wisconsinites that only divides them more.

If Im in a Democratic-gerrymandered district, Im going to become more liberal, Im going to become more Democratic. If Im in a Republican-gerrymandered district, Im going to become more conservative or Republican, Doyle said. We dont even speak the same language and that is what makes our society much poorer.

Both Pfaff and Doyle voted in favor of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers map proposal and against Republicans proposal last year.

La Crosse Common Council member Rebecca Schwarz also spoke at the rally, advocating for community engagement in the redistricting process at all levels. Schwarz served on the citys redistricting committee that drew and approved new maps last fall.

Theres a deep need for community involvement and input in all of these proceedings at every level, Schwarz said. People all over Wisconsin have mobilized around this single tenet: People pick politicians and not the other way around.

Pastor Libby Howe of the La Crosse Area Synod ELCA also spoke at the rally, as well as Connor Glassen of RepresentUs.

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Last July, Micquel Jackson was thrilled to open his clothing store, a long held dream put on pause due to struggles with mental health, illiteracy and addiction. He opened the business intent on sending a message of love, acceptance, and community, but instead has found himself in receipt of the opposite, targeted several times for the color of his skin.

In the over six months since The Guy Girl Code Inc. opened, Jackson says he has experienced racism on a weekly basis, ranging from glares to comments to physical destruction of his property. The La Crosse Police Department has been contacted on more than one occasion following incidents at the store, located in Valley View Mall, and supporters have taken action on Jacksons behalf.

Members of Hope Restores, a local organization which works to empower the Black community, and local advocates have written local officials regarding the hate Jackson has been subjected to, calling on them to help him understand his legal options and to show their support following the most blatant act of racism at The Guy Girl Code Inc. thus far, which occurred last month. What happened, says Melanie Banks of Hope Restores, is an example of a modern day hate crime.

On Dec. 11, Jackson was working when a man and his teen and adult children entered The Guy Girl Code Inc. The man, Jackson says, waited until other customers had left before beginning his verbal harassment. After insulting the items displayed, the man grew more belligerent, referring to Jackson as a monkey and taunting him, offering bananas and sunflower seeds if he would close up shop and leave town.

My arm went numb, I was enraged, I was devastated, Jackson recalls.

According to the police report, filed Dec. 16, the man also made reference to firing off rubber bullets and calling the store an (expletive) show. The mans children, Jackson says, began pulling items off of hangers and yanking off tags. Jackson, upset and shaken, swore at the group and told them to leave.

Jackson believes there were political motivations behind the attack  Mandela Barnes, he notes, is running for Senate  and that the family sought out his store with the intent of provoking a response out of him which would reflect badly on him as a Black business owner.

Jackson took video on his phone following the incident, pointing out damage and explaining what had happened. A member of mall security confirmed to police that when he walked by the store he noticed Jackson was visibly upset and pacing around the store. Jackson spoke with the security employee about what had occurred and was informed to alert them if the customers return.

Per the police report, Further follow up is required in identifying the suspect(s) regarding this incident, questioning them and issuing a citation for disorderly conduct.

Mall manager Jeff Odom confirmed receipt of a phone message and email request for comment from the Tribune on Jan. 13. However, as of 4 p.m. press time Jan. 22 he had not offered a response to questions including whether there are mall policies on racism or harassment against store owners, if the mall is conducting an independent investigation, or if additional security has been provided for The Guy Girl Code Inc.

Followers of The Guy Girl Codes social media, and supporters of Jackson, believe they were able to track the suspects to a family in Iowa, one member of which wrote a negative review of the store and claimed her father said something about prices in a joking manner. Jackson responded to the review in a post, noting in part, You guys came in and verbally abused me, you ordered me around the store and then asked me, did I want bananas and mentally tortured me for 8-10 minutes. ... I was in fear for my life. ... It was a horrible experience.

In addition, Jackson wrote, Why cant we all just get along, its about to be 2022. We have to break this cycle. Im going to pray for you like I told you I would as I was escorting you out of the store yesterday. We educate the future in my store and racism, hate, disrespect and bullying will not be tolerated inside The Guy Girl Code.

Tashyra Jackson, Hope Restores co-founder and sister of Micquel, notes in the letter sent to local officials including Sen. Brad Pfaff and Rep. Steve Doyle that the incident left her brother shaken and frustrated  its a story I hear over and over. The community who walks through our door is living proof there is a need to stand strong against the racial discrimination in La Crosse.

Contacted by the Tribune, Pfaffs office stated, Senator Pfaff spoke with Mr. Jackson as he often does when a constituent reaches out with concerns.

Steve Doyle stated, As Tashyra Jackson requested, I spoke with a few lawyers at Johns, Flaherty and Collins after receiving the letter. A lawyer from my firm spoke to Tashyra Jackson at my request, and that conversation is ongoing.

While this is the probably the most aggravated and heightened incidence of this happening, this is not an isolated incident, Tashyra says.

The recurring instances of racial profiling have left Jackson with lasting trauma, he says. He has been open on The Guy Girl Code Inc.s Facebook page about his initial distrust of white men, fearing they enter his store to harass him. In several posts, Jackson notes he has passed judgment before recognizing the person was a kind individual.

God please forgive me for assuming ... every white man that walks in the store now (is racist), Jackson wrote in one post.

Jackson previously contacted police about a man allowing his service dog to repeatedly relieve itself in the store, and says he often sees parents discourage their children from going his store. He also describes an incident in which a woman  who entered in attack mode  indicated the stores name showed support for transgender people, which she took issue with. The name, she said, promotes gender confusion and suggesting alternates. She then inquired why Jackson had Black Lives Matter shirts, asking, Why dont white lives matter? and broaching the issue of class.

When Jackson informed her he was filming the encounter on his phone, her tone changed dramatically, he says, and she began offering praise.

The amount of privilege, and how that can be accompanied with ignorance  I cant imagine going into (another store) and suggesting (alternate) names, says Tashyra. In my experience, being a shopper if I go into a store and I dont like something I simply dont shop there. So we are witnessing something where they feel like its OK to come in and interrogate and antagonize. No other store is experiencing that. Suddenly its not OK for him to have made it as far as he has as a business owner, to be able to run his own store  thats the issue here. Why is this not happening anywhere else? He cant be there in peace.

The hate-fueled encounters go against everything Jackson wishes to promote  inclusivity, support, awareness  and he says, I dont know how to stop this stuff, but it has to get stopped. In my head Im programmed to believe it will never change.

Adds Jackson, Im actually thinking about shutting down shop and going to a bigger city. But why should I have to go to a bigger city? Ive been here 22 years and its home. I did this to make a difference in this community right here. I have a past but Ive been righting my wrongs. I paid all my dues to be there, to be an entrepreneur. I dont know what else to do. 

Banks says the persistent racism may discourage other Black individuals from opening establishments, and if Jackson were to close The Guy Girl Code Inc. it would be a detriment to the community  The store is so remarkable.

Banks praises the QRL codes throughout the store which shoppers can scan for resources and spark conversations, calling them progressive ways to educate people that Jackson wants to reach. It is outstanding. It would be a huge loss to have this man be so discouraged to not even continue what hes doing.

Jackson recently added a sign to The Guy Girl Code Inc.s window, stating, We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone! Racism, hate, bullying and ignorance will not be tolerated not matter who you are or who you think you are.

Tellingly, Jackson notes, no other store in the mall has needed such signage.

I feel embarrassed and ashamed I have to do that. Im the only store saying, Please dont be this way with me. Dont be this way with my space. Just give me a chance, Jackson says. Im just trying to make a living and make a difference at the same time. Its a whole different kind of humility when people got to walk past and read that and then look at me.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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Martin Medina, 39, grew up in poverty, surrounded by violence and drug activity.

At 14, his friend died from gun violence. Shortly after, his father was imprisoned and deported for selling drugs to support Medinas family. At 18, Medina was sent to prison himself for recklessly endangering safety, and again for attempted homicide a few years later.

School became an afterthought and survival became the focus, Medina said.

Not a single member of his family  including his extended family  had attended college, let alone obtained a degree. But on Friday, Medina changed that pattern, earning his associate degree as part of a growing Milwaukee Area Technical College program that offers college courses to prisoners.

This college program is one opportunity that many of us never thought was possible, Medina said in his speech during an online graduation ceremony Friday. It provided us the means to take one of the lowest points in our lives and turn it into a positive.

Medina was one of 25 Wisconsin prisoners who graduated with associate degrees in either arts or science, a major step toward rehabilitation that more and more inmates are taking each year, officials said. Fourteen of the men and women graduated with honors.

The ceremony was held online to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In-person visitation at Department of Corrections facilities was suspended last week amid a record surge in cases statewide driven by the omicron variant.

On Thursday, a total of 1,729 inmates were infected with COVID-19 across the departments 37 facilities, according to DOC data. The largest outbreak was at New Lisbon Correctional Institution, which had 534 cases on Thursday.

Graduation speakers gave addresses from different locations across Wisconsin via video conference. Graduates were streamed live as they received their diplomas at 11 prison facilities.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, one of the speakers, said formerly incarcerated individuals face many barriers, such as a lack of affordable housing or job opportunities. But having an education can help make that process easier.

Studies show that higher levels of education among former inmates increase employment rates and reduce recidivism. In one study, inmates who participated in educational programs in prison had a 43% lower chance of ending up back in prison compared to those who did not.

Not only are we helping people who are being housed by the DOC, but it helps our entire state as a whole, Barnes said. We are really trying to do the work of rehabilitation.

In spring 2017, just 13 students were part of the Milwaukee Area Technical College associate degree program, but by last spring, that number had grown to 192. DOC has partnered with the college to implement and expand the program, called the Second Chance Pell pilot program.

If this kind of exponential growth continues, I have no doubt that the tide will change by drastically reducing recidivism, Medina said.

Educational opportunities for prisoners in Wisconsin are expected to grow even more because of a federal law change that opens up financial aid to inmates, DOCs education director Ben Jones said.

The Second Chance Pell pilot program was launched in 2015, and allows some inmates to get Pell Grant funding for college programs as part of the pilot, the DOC said.

Prisoners had been banned from getting federal Pell Grants under a sweeping 1994 crime bill. The ban caused some prison education programs in Wisconsin to end, the DOC said. But in December 2020, Congress lifted that ban.

Given that all prisoners  not just those in the pilot  are now eligible for Pell Grants, Jones said the department is working on developing one or more additional educational programs, which are expected launch in fall of 2023.

DOC Secretary Kevin Carr said hes proud to be able to offer educational opportunities to inmates with the help of MATC and other colleges. Over the summer, Wisconsin prisoners graduated with bachelors degrees for the first time through another program.

I can sit here and talk about all the people, partnerships and resources it took to make this happen, but really at the end of the day, it came down to each of you setting a goal and making the commitment to earn your degree, Carr said. No matter the challenges you face in the future, nothing can take away that degree.

Medina said he and the other graduates fought through the struggles of our past and present  including, he said, living in an environment that strips away their voices and their dignity  to accomplish something that will help better their futures. He said it was no small feat.

To all the families and loved ones, thank you for all the support and motivation, Medina said. And to my mom specifically, I hope I finally make you proud.

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A Dane County Circuit Court judge Friday ordered former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans office to provide the court with documents responsive to a records request regarding his 2020 election review by Jan. 31.

That order will only stand if the court has personal jurisdiction over the case, which the judge will review at a hearing Jan. 27.

If the court does have personal jurisdiction  a question resting on whether Gableman was properly served  Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington will then review if the documents can be legally disclosed to the public, and whether the benefit of releasing the records to the public would outweigh the cost. He will issue that decision March 8.

American Oversight looks forward to vindicating the rights of Wisconsin citizens to see the documents of the Office of Special Counsel as Wisconsins public records law clearly allows, American Oversight senior advisor Melanie Sloan said after the hearing Friday.

Also Friday, lawyers for Gableman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, went back and forth on whether Gableman had a new contract with the Assembly.

Early in the hearing, Gableman attorney James Bopp told Remington that a contract between his client and Vos existed, then said it did not. Later, Vos attorney said he saw a contract signed by Vos but not Gableman, which Remington said was problematic. Gablemans last contract expired Dec. 31, and Vos has said Gablemans review is likely to go into February.

Remingtons private review of the documents American Oversight requested is, in part, in response to Gablemans request that the documents should not be released because the public policy favoring disclosure is outweighed by an even stronger public interest favoring nondisclosure.

Throughout the hearing and in court filings, Gablemans attorneys said the documents, if released, could get into the hands of people who would deride Gablemans election review and compromise the strategy of the review.

Gablemans attorneys also raised in a brief that the Assembly determined that the proper manner of investigation was to keep Investigation records confidential, which Remington pushed back on, saying whether the investigation is proper is not his concern.

The only question before the court, Remington said, is whether the petitioners are entitled to the documents that theyve requested under the public records law.

Liberal watchdog American Oversight asked for the documents in several separate requests last year.

Before the hearing Friday, Remington rejected a motion by Vos to quash an order to provide public records sought by American Oversight or show cause to avoid disclosure.

The hearing comes after a Dane County Circuit Court order directing Gablemans office to produce records sought by American Oversight or show cause to withhold the records.

The lawsuit is one of three filed by American Oversight seeking records related to the GOP-ordered probe into how the 2020 election was conducted.

Vos has allocated $676,000 in taxpayer money for the one-party review, which is focused on some of the procedures voters and clerks relied on in casting and processing ballots. Vos has said the review is now expected to carry over into February and could cost more, though he has not said when the review might be finished or what additional expenses might accrue.

A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Similarly, reviews of the election by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found no evidence of widespread fraud, but did lead to recommendations on how elections can be improved.

An analysis by The Associated Press found only 31 potential cases of voter fraud in Wisconsins 2020 election, which represents less than 0.15% of Bidens margin of victory. In 26 of the 31 cases, prosecutors declined to bring charges after conducting a review.

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Soaring COVID-19 infections in Pennsylvania have left state investigators unable to contact trace all positive cases, reflecting an evolving reality and a hampered public health response to the pandemic.

State investigators traced roughly 10% of the 32,676 COVID-19 infections between Dec. 10, 2021, and Jan. 9, according to state data provided to LNP | LancasterOnline. By comparison, about a third of the cases between early June and early July were investigated  or just 6,336.

Without contact from a public health professional, the more than 1.1million Pennsylvanians relying on the COVID Alert PA app will not receive accurate information on possible exposures. The app requires positive individuals to enter a code from investigators.

The surge in cases has also led investigators to focus on cases of particular concern  those associated with long-term care facilities, those among individuals younger than 18 or older than 65 as well as clusters.

Following a positive test result, public health professionals attempt to reach as many individuals as they can in order to find out where they went and who they came in contact with to inform of potential exposure, Maggi Barton, a Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesperson, said in an email.

Barton added, While case investigations and contact tracing are an important part of COVID-19 response, public health professionals are not able to contact everyone as cases average more than 25,000 cases per day.

Average daily COVID-19 infection numbers have exceeded more than 20,000 since Dec. 22, 2021, state data shows.

Pennsylvania has nearly 500 contact tracers across the state, 237 within the state health departments jurisdiction, which includes Lancaster County.

Contact tracing is universally considered a critical strategy for preventing further spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Even though more Pennsylvanians are getting vaccinated every day, case investigations and contact tracing remain critical in our COVID-19 response, then-Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said in July when releasing the departments monthly report on contact tracing.

State investigators for that report examined infections from June 10, 2021, through July 9, 2021, conducting 6,336 investigations, which represented roughly a third of positive cases.

The state health department does these investigations for counties, like Lancaster, that do not have a local health department.

The positivity rate in Lancaster from Jan. 7 through 13 hit 38.2%, indicating an exceedingly high transmission rate.

The World Health Organization recommends a rate of less than 5% to control spread.

Unfortunately, during extreme community spread, contact tracing becomes impossible due to widespread transmission of the disease, Ryan Coyle, WellSpan Health spokesperson, said in an email. We encourage anyone experiencing symptoms with a known exposure, to get tested as soon as possible.

The way contact tracing works is a public health professional contacts individuals with a positive COVID-19 test result to collect information and to provide guidance.

The state had been providing monthly updates on its contact tracing efforts, but those stopped in July.

The department did not have the bandwidth to continue the updates, Barton said.

The virus is going to become endemic

In the 30 days between Dec. 10, 2021 and Jan. 9, Pennsylvania had nearly 248,000 COVID-19 cases for which public health professionals did not investigate.

With so few reached by state investigators, much of the contact tracing effort falls on the public.

"Most healthcare organizations are short staffed and overwhelmed right now, so staffing to do contact tracing just isnt there," Jenni Black, chief quality and compliance officer at Union Community Care, said in an email.

Black added, When a person is aware that theyve been a close contact of someone who has COVID-19, theyre more likely to be cautious around high risk loved ones, and other folks in general.

Union Community, a federally qualified health care center, was among the first organizations in Lancaster County to conduct contact tracing using a Google map.

The county effort to trace contacts and possible COVID-19 exposures ended in May 2021.

Patients with a positive test result  if aware of known contacts  are encouraged to inform close friends, family and neighbors when they began feeling sick as well as the two days prior to symptoms.

At this stage of the pandemic contact tracing has a different role, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline.

Adalja added, It really should be focused on unusual events, super spreading situation, and not something done on every case. The virus is going to become endemic and public health measures have to reflect that reality.

All the public health officials with whom LNP | LancasterOnline spoke, repeated the same refrain: that being fully vaccinated with a booster dose remains the best defense against severe illness.

Now is not the time for our community to let its guard down; continue to wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, avoid large gatherings, and please get vaccinated and a booster if you qualify to protect yourself and your loved ones, Dr. Michael Ripchinski, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health chief clinical officer, said in an email.
At least three people were injured in a multi-vehicle crash Saturday morning along Lincoln Highway in Salisbury Township, according to Lancaster County-Wide Communications

The three-vehicle crash occurred along eastbound Route 30 near Brackbill Road, west of Gap, at 10:48 a.m.

The severity of the injuries was not immediately clear. A state police desk sergeant was unable to release additional information Saturday morning.

Route 30 was closed between Hoover Road and Newport Pike (Route 772), according to 511pa.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A is still pursuing a new location in Manheim Township despite a major zoning setback earlier this month, a spokesperson for the company told LNP | LancasterOnline.

Chick-fil-A is happy to share that we are still actively pursuing our first location in the Lititz area, an emailed statement said. We look forward to continuing to work through the approval process with Manheim Township and are excited by the prospect of joining this community.

The response from Chick-fil-A appears to leave open the possibility that the company could be exploring a new site for the restaurant. The statement did not mention 100 W. Airport Road specifically, or whether the company has a strategy for overcoming denials from the townships Zoning Hearing Board to allow a drive-thru facility at the site, which is located 3 miles south of Lititz.

Chick-fil-A could challenge the zoning denial in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas or ask the township commissioners to rezone the property with a designation that allows drive-thrus. As of Friday, the company had not filed in court.

A request to Manheim Townships Board of Commissioners and the township manager for comment was not returned Friday.

Earlier this month, representatives of Chick-fil-A presented to zoning officials early plans to build a new location off Lititz Pike that emphasizes drive-thru and pickup service, which has grown significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, Thornton said.

A development manager for Chick-fil-A, Brent Edmiston, said at a January zoning meeting that Chick-fil-A is looking to expand its market share and expects to add up to 200 new restaurants nationwide in the next 10 years.

The plan included a drive-thru operation that could handle up to 75 cars on the property at once.

This will be the largest site that I have in Pennsylvania, there will be no other site in Pennsylvania that will have that much cue within property limits, Edmiston said. Space for a third drive-thru lane would also be the first in the state, he said.

The restaurant building itself in the plans would be 5,000 square feet, a typical size for the chain.

According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Lititz Pike at Airport Road averages 20,400 vehicles a day.

A neighboring business at the business park where the property formerly used by Hosss Steak & Sea House, Ephrata National Bank, argued against the drive-thru plans at the township zoning hearing earlier this month. Chick-fil-A failed to address traffic concerns going in and out of 100 W. Airport Road, an attorney for the bank said.
Suzanna Kauffman knew the man who allegedly killed her earlier this week in North Carolina, according to a statement from her family.

Kauffman moved to Lancaster County from Georgia after she was referred to a counseling center after previous trauma in her life, her family said in a statement provided to LNP|LancasterOnline Friday night. At some point in September, she started secretly interacting with Quincy Cheeks Hannah, the York man arrested Friday in Florida for her death.

Hannah started to threaten her, family said, prompting Kauffman to change her number in December. Kauffman then made a trip back down to Georgia, with the hope of bringing her daughter Alanna to live with her in Pennsylvania.

Kauffman never made it, and police found her body in a Days Inn hotel room in Mocksville, N.C.

Hannah, 26, of Windsor Township, York County, was arrested just outside of Everglades National Park and was in police custody in Miami, Florida on Friday in connection with Kauffmans murder, according to an afternoon news release from J.D. Hartman, the sheriff of Davie County, North Carolina.

By the beginning of December, she realized that she needed help, the familys statement reads. She realized the need to break off any interaction with Mr. Hannah.

On Christmas Day, Kauffman began to fear for her life as she started receiving threats and pressure from Hannah. Kauffman then changed her phone number and sometime after made a trip make down to George so she could bring her daughter back to Pennsylvania. On her way south, she stopped in North Carolina to visit friends and spend time at a bible school in session at Harmon Christian Fellowship.

On the morning of Jan. 17, Kauffman told a friend of hers that she was going to go out for coffee with a friend and borrowed a car from her cousin, according to the statement. That car was used by other students to commute to the school that morning, and those students left their cell phones in the car.

Suzanna didnt return that evening, and her family and police were notified, according to the statement. The students called their phones they had left in the car, and they reached an unknown person in Mocksville. The person, according to the statement, had a handful of phones and a set of car keys tossed alongside the road.

Police investigated and were able to track the car Kauffman borrowed to a nearby parking lot  upon searching it, they found more evidence that led them to a nearby motel reservation Hannah made, according to the statement. When police checked the room, they found Kauffmans body.

The statement ends by saying the family will not release any other details until the case is resolved.

Countless haunting questions remain unanswered, the statement reads. Criminal investigation is ongoing and will likely continue for many more months into the future.
A York County man has been arrested in Florida, just days after authorities said he killed a Lancaster County woman, whose body was found early this week in a North Carolina hotel.

Quincy Cheeks Hannah, 26, of Windsor Township, York County, was arrested just outside of Everglades National Park and was in police custody in Miami Florida on Friday, according to an afternoon news release from J.D. Hartman, the sheriff of Davie County, North Carolina.

At that time, Davie County Sheriffs Office officials were working with Florida authorities to extradite Hannah back to North Carolina, authorities said.

Hannah has been charged in the murder of Suzanna Kauffman, 20, of West Cocalico Township, who was found dead Monday inside a Days Inn hotel room in Mocksville, North Carolina, which is in Davie County, authorities said. Investigators did not reveal Kauffmans cause of death or how long she had been dead before she was found in the hotel room.

The room had been rented in Hannahs name, sheriffs office officials have said.

Kauffman had been living for several months with her sister and her sisters husband in Lancaster County. She was in North Carolina to attend a church camp, according to investigators.

Kauffman had gone missing from the camp, authorities said.

Investigators said they were called about 9:50 p.m. Monday to the Days Inn on the 1500 block of Yadkinville Road, where they eventually found Kauffmans body.

Investigators said they believe Kauffman may have gone to meet Hannah.

The vehicle Kauffman had driven was found parked in a lot behind a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, investigators said. The vehicles key  along with a number of camp attendees missing phones, which were previously stored in the vehicle  was found alongside a nearby highway, authorities said.

Following the discovery of Kauffman's body, investigators announced that Hannah was wanted for murder and that they believed he fled the area in a light blue 2009 Toyota sedan. At the time, they said they thought he may be headed back to Pennsylvania.

Authorities announced Friday that he was found in the Toyota in Florida.

Hannah has a lengthy criminal past, court records show.

On Friday, one of Kauffmans relatives spoke over the phone, calling her death unexpected but asked for privacy, declining to comment. The relative said a family statement likely will be released soon.

An online fundraiser was set up to raise money to cover the cost of Kauffmans funeral, as well as family members related travel expenses. Attached to the fundraiser, there is a picture of Kauffman holding a young girl, and a description explains that any leftover money will be given to her daughter, Alanna.

By Friday evening, nearly $4,500 had already been raised toward a $15,000 goal set for the fundraiser, which lists Kauffmans first name as Suzanna, a departure from the sheriffs office release which calls her Suzanne.

Earlier this week, a church elder, Mark Troyer of Harmony Believers Fellowship in Statesville, North Carolina, said he knew Kauffman well, noting she was his wifes first cousin.

She was a very friendly, kind person, Troyer said, later calling her death a great shock.

Shell be greatly missed, he said.
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We present the first of two parts of the short story "The Law of Life," by Jack London. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.

Old Koskoosh listened greedily. Although his sight had failed, his hearing remained good. The slightest sound was recognized by a mind yet active behind the aged forehead. Ah! That was Sit-cum-ha shouting curses at the dogs as she beat them into the harnesses. Sit-cum-ha was his daughters daughter, but she was too busy to waste a thought upon her old grandfather, sitting alone there in the snow. Camp must be broken. The long trail waited while the short day refused to delay. Life called her, and the duties of life, not death. And he was very close to death now.

The thought frightened the old man for the moment. He stretched forth a shaking hand which wandered over the small pile of dried wood beside him. Reassured that it was indeed there, his hand returned to the shelter of his old, worn furs. He again began to listen. He heard the noise of the half-frozen animal skins being moved. He knew that even then the chiefs moose-skin tent was being packed. The chief was his son, leader of the tribesmen, and a mighty hunter. As the women worked, his voice rose, exclaiming at their slowness. Old Koskoosh strained his ears. It was the last time he would hear that voice. There went Geehows tent! And Tuskens! Seven, eight, nine; only the medicine mans could yet be standing. There! They were at work upon it now. He could hear the medicine man struggling loudly as he piled it on the sled. A child cried and a woman calmed it with gentle singing. Little Koo-tee, the old man thought. That child was always weeping, and it was sickly. It would die soon, perhaps, and they would burn a hole through the frozen ground and pile rocks above to keep the wolves away. And what difference would it make? A few years at best, and as many an empty stomach as a full one. And in the end, death waited, ever-hungry and hungriest of them all.

What was that? Oh, the men binding the sleds together and drawing tight the ropes. He listened, he who would listen no more. The whips whistled among the dogs. Hear them howl! How they hated the work and the trail through the snow! They had started! Sled after sled moved slowly away into the silent forest. They were gone. They had passed out of his life, and he faced the last bitter hour alone. No. The step of a moccasin broke the snows surface. A man stood beside him; upon his head a hand rested gently. His son was good to do this thing. He remembered other old men whose sons had not waited after the tribe had gone. But his son had. The old mans thoughts wandered away into the past, until the young mans voice returned him to the present.

It is well with you? he asked.

The old man answered, It is well.

There is wood beside you, the younger man continued, and the fire burns bright. The morning is gray, and the cold has lessened. It will snow presently. Even now it is snowing.

Yes, even now it is snowing.

The tribesmen hurry. Their loads are heavy and their stomachs empty with lack of feasting. The trail ahead is long and they travel fast. I go now. It is well?

It is well. I am as a last years leaf, hanging lightly on a branch. When the first wind blows, I fall. My voice has become like an old womans. My eyes no longer show me the way of my feet, and my feet are heavy, and I am tired. It is well.

He bowed his head in contentment until the last noise of the moccasin on the snow died away. He knew his son was beyond recall. Then his hand moved out from the furs to touch the wood. It alone stood between him and what lay beyond the death that opened before him. Now the measure of his life was a handful of sticks. One by one they would go to feed the fire, and just so, step by step, death would come closer to him. When the last stick had given all of its heat, the frost would begin to gather strength. First his feet would yield, then his hands; and the lack of feeling would travel, slowly, to his body. His head would fall forward upon his knees, and he would rest. It was easy. All men must die.

He did not murmur. It was the law of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth and close to the earth had he lived. Its law was not new to him. It was the law of all flesh. Nature was not kindly to the flesh. She had no concern for that single thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the race of man as a whole. He grasped this idea firmly. He saw its truth displayed everywhere. The awakening of life in a tree, the bursting greenness of its branches, the fall of the yellow leafin this alone was told the whole history. But one task nature did give the individual. Did he not perform it, he died. Did he perform it, it was all the samehe died. Nature did not care; there were plenty who would obey. It was only the need that this duty be obeyed, not the man who obeyed it, which lived and lived always. The tribe of Koskoosh was very old. The old men he had known when he was a boy had known old men before them. Therefore, it was true that the tribe lived, that it represented the obeying of all its members, whose final resting places were unremembered. They were not important; they were chapters in lifes story. They had passed away like clouds from a summer sky. He also would pass away. Nature did not care. To life she gave one task and one law. To continue the race was the task of life; its law was death. A young girl was a good creature to look upon, full-breasted and strong, with a lightness to her step and a shine in her eyes. But her task was yet before her. The light in her eyes brightened and her step quickened. She laughed with the young men, then she turned away. She passed on to them her own unrest. And she grew fairer and yet fairer to look upon. Finally, some hunter took her to his tent to cook and work for him and to become the mother of his children. And with the coming of her children her beauty left her. She dragged her legs and arms when she walked. Her eyes lost their brightness. Then only the little ones found joy in the old, lined face. Her task was done. In a little while, in the first famine or in the first long trail, she would be left, as he had been left, in the snow, with a little pile of wood. Such was the law.

He placed a stick carefully on the fire and returned to his thoughts. It was the same everywhere, with all things. The insects disappeared with the first frost. When age settled upon the rabbit it became slow and heavy and could no longer run faster than its enemies. Even the big bear grew old and blind, to be dragged down at last by a small group of barking sled dogs. He remembered how he had left his own father along the Klondike River one winter. It was the winter before the missionary came with his books and his box of medicines. Many times Koskoosh had recalled with pleasure the taste of those medicines. The one called painkiller was especially good. But now his mouth refused to moisten. He remembered that the missionary had become a worry to them. He brought no meat into the camp, and he ate much. The hunters did not like this. Then when they were near the Mayo, he became ill. And afterward, the dogs pushed the stones away and fought for his bones.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. What is the best way to treat people who are old and sick? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - The Law of Life, Part One Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

For Teachers

This lesson plan teaches the strategy Find and Apply Patterns to help students understand the story.

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Words in This Story

greedily  adv. in a way that shows a selfish desire to have more of something

harness(es)  n. a set of straps placed on an animal so it can pull something heavy

trail  n. a path through a forest or field

wander(ed)  v. to move around or go to different places usually without having a particular purpose or direction

pile  n. a group of things that are put one on top of another

reassure(ed)  v. to make someone feel less afraid, upset or doubtful

tent  n. a portable shelter that is used outdoors, is made of cloth and leather, and is held up with poles and ropes

strain(ed)  v. to try very hard to do or get something

medicine man  n. among North American Indians and some other peoples, a person believed to have magical powers of healing and of seeing into the future; a shaman

pile(d) - v. to put something in a pile

sled  n. a small vehicle that has a flat bottom or long, narrow strips of metal or wood on the bottom and that is used for moving over snow or ice

weep(ing)  v. to cry because you are very sad or are feeling some other strong emotion

bind(ing)  v. to tie or wrap something with a rope or string

bitter  adj. causing painful emotions

moccasin  n. a flat shoe that is made of soft leather and is similar to a shoe originally worn by some Native Americans

feasting  n. (gerund) the act of eating large amounts of food

branch  n. a part of a tree that grows out from the trunk

bow(ed)  v. to bend forward at the neck or waist as a formal way of greeting someone or showing respect

contentment  n. the state of being happy and satisfied

murmur  v. a quiet expression of an opinion or feeling

grasp(ed)  v. to understand something that is complicated or difficult

drag(ed)  v. to force yourself to move or to go to a place when you are tired, busy, etc.

famine  n. a situation in which many people do not have enough food to eat

rabbit  n. a small animal that usually lives in holes in the ground and has long ears, soft fur, and back legs that are longer than its front legs

bear  n. any one of a group of large and heavy animals that have thick hair and sharp claws and that can stand on two legs like a person

barking  n. (gerund) the act of making the short, loud sound a dog makes

missionary  n. a person who is sent to a foreign country to do religious work, such as to convince people to join a religion or to help people who are sick or poor

moisten  v. to become slightly wet
If not for Jane Does courage, former Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger, R-Lewiston,  a man who stands convicted of raping her and now faces spending the rest of his life in prison  would no doubt be on his way toward securing a second term representing this area in the Legislature.
Clay Center, KS (67432)

Today

Cloudy with occasional showers for the afternoon. High 56F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thundershowers following a period of rain early. Low near 50F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
The attorney for a defendant accused in the death and disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart has filed a motion to dismiss murder charges, citing a lack of probable cause from testimony and evidence presented at a 2021 preliminary hearing, according to court records.
A 22-year-old Santa Maria man was killed Wednesday following a single-vehicle rollover collision near the intersection of Bonita School and Bonita Lateral roads, west of Santa Maria, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Construction of a new kangaroo exhibit at the Santa Barbara Zoo is nearly complete and scheduled to officially open to the public on January 8 with a promise to transport guests Down Under, where they can also walk among the neighboring ...
Wade Modisette is a local husband and father that seeks the best and most appropriate entertainment for his family. A movie connoisseur in his own mind, he seeks to educate his friends and community on quality choices for their family. Find more reviews and information at wadereviewsstuff.wordpress.com.
After a year of undergoing treatments to fight off an aggressive form of breast cancer, Heather Mingay was scheduled to have her ovaries removed this month, in an attempt to help prevent the cancer from returning.

Mingay, 37, of Northbrook, told her manager at work shed be gone. She secured extra child care for her three kids. She mentally prepared.

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And then her doctors office called her about 2 weeks ago to cancel the surgery. The call came as hospitals across the state suspended elective procedures to help keep beds open, amid a nasty COVID-19 surge thats sent many people to hospitals, especially the unvaccinated.

I could cry right now, Mingay said, shortly after learning her procedure was postponed. Shes now cancer-free and wants to stay that way. This is not elective. Its not a choice, but I have to kind of sit on the sidelines right now, and the longer I sit on the sidelines, my risk goes up for recurrence.

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Heather Mingay with daughter Anna, 6, as Mingay celebrates her 37th birthday at their home in Northbrook on Jan. 20, 2022. Mingay was supposed to have surgery to remove her ovaries this month to help prevent a recurrence of breast cancer. But due to hospital surges as a result of an increase in COVID-19 related admissions, Mingay's surgery has been postponed. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Its no secret that the current wave of COVID-19 has sent case numbers soaring and filled hospitals across Illinois. But over the last couple of months, it has also made it difficult for people with problems that arent immediately life-threatening to get medical care.

Patients in need of certain non-emergency surgeries, such as Mingay, have seen those surgeries postponed. Though many of the delayed surgeries are called elective they are actually necessary, though not emergency, procedures. Long ER waits have also become common for patients with serious but non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries. And urgent care centers are increasingly turning patients away for hours, days or even weeks at a time because theyre short on staff and overwhelmed with demand.

No matter where youre going to go right now in health care, youre probably going to experience a delay, said Dr. Richard Freeman, Loyola Medicine regional chief clinical officer.

Stacey Fanale, 53, of Geneva, saw that firsthand after a sharp pain under her ribs jolted her awake in the middle of the night in late November.

Her husband drove her to the nearest emergency room, at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva.

But it was the beginning of the current COVID-19 surge, and the ER was so backed up that Fanale had to wait about five hours to be seen, after a nurse determined that her condition wasnt life-threatening. She lay on a couch near the waiting room, in searing pain, until after sunrise. Ultimately, she had to have her gallbladder removed that day.

I was in excruciating pain, but the nurse was like, This is the way it is, said Fanale, noting that she doesnt blame the doctors and nurses for the wait, but rather the latest COVID-19 surge and how its been handled.

She wonders why, after nearly two years of the pandemic, hospitals, businesses and governments havent come up with a better plan for providing medical care through surges.

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COVID is a part of todays world. This cannot continue, Fanale said. All of us need to come up with a solution to move forward so that everybody has medical care.

This is not elective. Its not a choice, but I have to kind of sit on the sidelines right now, and the longer I sit on the sidelines, my risk goes up for recurrence," Heather Mingay said. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Chris King, a spokesman for Northwestern Medicine, acknowledged in a statement that ER wait times are longer than usual across Northwesterns hospitals, though he noted that the problem is not unique to Northwestern.

Doctors at other Chicago-area hospitals have described ER wait times of up to eight hours in recent weeks.

Several factors are to blame.

For one, hospitals are short on staff, amid nationwide labor shortages. Burned out by the pandemic, many health care workers left their jobs in the last two years, and those who remained are now often having to stay home for days at a time because they caught COVID-19. Even vaccinated people are getting COVID-19 during this wave, though theyre typically not getting as sick as people who are unvaccinated.

Secondly, theres the latest COVID-19 surge itself, which has set records for case numbers and hospitalizations.

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The result is that hospitals cant staff as many beds as they need for patients, which is why Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged hospitals across the state to postpone elective surgeries. Its also meant that an increasing number of patients who need to stay overnight in hospitals must wait in beds in emergency rooms until beds open up elsewhere in the hospital  a practice that can back up ERs, leading to longer waits for patients as they arrive.

Youre trying to take a higher volume of patients for a lower number of beds, and it makes for, unfortunately, much longer wait times than any of us want, said Freeman, with Loyola.

The situation at urgent care centers, which are facing similar challenges, isnt helping matters in emergency rooms.

Traditionally, urgent care centers have been touted as an alternative to emergency rooms for patients with pressing but non-life-threatening health needs. But over the last couple of months, a number of Chicago-area urgent care centers have been turning away patients because of staff shortages and overwhelming demand.

In recent months, NorthShore University HealthSystems urgent care centers have sometimes been closing hours early to new patients because all of their patient slots fill early in the day. This week, UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospitals Flossmoor Urgent Aid location reopened after closing for weeks because of strain from this latest COVID-19 surge.

Closures of urgent care centers have become common across the country during this COVID-19 surge, said Lou Ellen Horwitz, CEO of the Batavia-based Urgent Care Association. In the northeastern part of the country, about 20% of urgent care centers temporarily closed at one point, at the peak of COVID-19 there.

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Thats a big deal for most communities, Horwitz said. It definitely has a trickle-down effect to other health care providers.

Jerry Zielinski, 74, of Downers Grove, tried to go to an Advocate Health Care immediate care center near his home earlier this month, after he slipped on ice in his driveway while trying to get the newspaper. He fell hard, hitting his head and back on the ground.

But when he and his wife arrived at the urgent care center, they were told it didnt have the staff that day to take X-rays or perform CT scans. Instead, the urgent care center directed Zielinski to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital.

Once there, he waited in a crowded ER, wondering if any of the people sitting near him had COVID-19. In pain, he spent more than five hours shifting uncomfortably in a waiting room chair. He learned that he had two broken ribs but no concussion.

Theres care we as regular people need and its been proven to be difficult to get because of the frequency and severity of COVID, Zielinski said.

In a statement, Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital said, The COVID-19 surge and national staffing crisis are straining health systems, and it has resulted in full beds and long wait times, and apologized for resulting inconveniences.

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Horwitz, with the Urgent Care Association, said many urgent care centers are trying to address the overload with tactics such as only performing COVID-19 tests by appointment, so they can keep their walk-in slots available for people with other types of medical needs. Some are trying to keep slots open by only performing COVID-19 tests for people with symptoms of the illness, rather than those who were merely exposed.

Horwitz is hopeful that new federal programs to give people free at-home COVID-19 tests, through a website and health insurance companies, will also take some of the pressure off of urgent care centers.

Doctors and hospital leaders also say there are things that can be done to potentially help avoid ER backups and cancellations of elective surgeries in the future  but some of those things will take time to accomplish. Already, the state and federal governments have sent additional staff to Illinois hospitals in recent weeks to help out, but doctors say they need more people to go into health care in coming years.

Heather Mingay receives a hug from her children Anna, 6, Joey, 14, and Dominic, 14, left, after Mingay opened up a card while celebrating her 37th birthday at their home in Northbrook on Jan. 20, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

More needs to be done to support front-line health care workers, such as through pay, affordable child care and student loan forgiveness, said Dr. Joseph Sakran, director of emergency general surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, whos written about how this surge has affected care. And investments must be made to build up state and local public health infrastructure to better respond to disasters and pandemics, he said.

In the past, when a region experienced a crisis, such as a hurricane, the federal government stepped in and filled in the gaps. But when the federal government is asked essentially to respond to the entire nation, its not just one small location or one small region, then youre able to see we werent prepared to do this.

In the short term, one of the most important things people can do is to get vaccinated, health care leaders say. Though vaccinated people can still catch COVID-19, they dont typically need hospitalization. Fewer people needing hospitalization could mean shorter ER waits and a return to performing all elective surgeries.

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Mingay, who is still waiting for her surgery, is eager for that day. She is now hoping to have her procedure in the coming months, barring another bad COVID-19 surge. Shed like to see everyone do their part, by masking and getting vaccinated, so this doesnt happen again.

Mentally, its like being on this roller coaster, Mingay said. It just keeps going.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com
Matt Koch has been a worker at the Alliant Energy Center for 22 years, putting his labor toward setting up the concerts, dairy expos and other events that have made the venue a local landmark for so long.

But hes heading into the 2022 season worried. Despite a fully booked calendar and the uncertainties of the pandemic, the workforce at the expo is nowhere near what it was before COVID-19.

Scores of limited-term staff have not returned to fill those part-time, no-benefits positions. Prior to the pandemic and a staff reorganization, the number of full-time center workers, lead workers and team leaders stood at 18; today, that number is 14, although two positions are open with another two budgeted. An additional eight skilled laborers, including electricians, mechanics and groundskeepers, and four janitors were also on staff, Koch said.

Im very concerned being so understaffed if we can pull it all off, Koch said in an interview.

Necessary work like event setup, maintenance and cleanup could easily take a hit from the lack of staff, he said.

The facilitys not going to be clean. They may or may not have their event set up on time, Koch said. Were also dealing with COVID on top of that. As of late weve had several employees that have tested positive for COVID, and then were short them.

The rebuilding of the expos workforce will be a long-term process, Alliant Energy Center management said. The expo expects to need all of this year and perhaps longer to stabilize and recover, with a staffing review once the event market has normalized, according to a presentation to a county finance committee earlier this month.

Were rebuilding from nothing, said Carolyn Clow, the centers deputy director for administration and finance.

They would have 45 people working on these event setups when we had a heavy event setup, including full-time and limited-term workers, she said. We right now have 14 (full-time) filled right now. So it takes more people than that to complete the work.

The centers management is also seeing shakeups and uncertainties. Former director Brent Kyzer-McHenry stepped down earlier this month, leaving an interim director in that position for the second time in two years.

Union pushback

But the expos ongoing solutions to its labor shortage problem has provoked opposition from ASFCME Local No. 65, the union that represents county workers including expo laborers.

On Thursday, the County Board approved on a 22-13 vote a contract extension for a private cleaning service worth over twice as much what the expo had previously paid. The contract for A&L Cleaning Services, which has cleaned at the expo for $165,000 since late 2019, would be paid up to $300,000 for cleaning work through September 2023. A county finance committee rejected an initial contract requested by the Alliant Center, which would have paid A&L up to $500,000 through September 2024.

Erik Anderson, the head of Local No. 65, said the contract amounted to outsourcing of janitorial jobs that have in the past gone to county workers.

While expo management is right to say they couldnt have predicted a pandemic, Anderson noted, the impact of having so many fewer workers should have been foreseen.

Theyre crippled without this A&L cleaning, he said. That tells any reasonable person that they need more full-time staff.

Board members said they didnt want to outsource the jobs, but needed to do something to keep the facility clean in light of the lack of limited-term workers.

An amendment to the contract by Sup. Andrew Schauer, 21st District, requires expo management to give supervisors a status report about the use of contract services in June. Alliant Center management will also have to include a transition plan from contracted services to in-house staff as part of its 2023 budget request.

This outsourcing contract cant go on forever, Schauer said in an interview, though he called it a necessary short-end fix.

In this labor market, you cant just snap your fingers and have 20 people show up ready to work, he said.

Glad Im not there

At the beginning of the pandemic, nearly the entire Alliant Center staff was either laid off or moved to other departments in the county such as the Vilas Zoo.

Expo management did not follow through on a staffing study approved by the county for 2020, citing the pandemics impact. Meanwhile, the expo reorganized its staffing structure. Higher-wage positions such as crew leaders and lead workers were all made center workers, who help set up events and exhibits.

As events returned in 2021, some employees who had been bumped to other departments did not return. Fifteen limited-term employees were hired as parking ticket sellers, though that level of staffing isnt anywhere near the 124 limited-term employees the expo had before the pandemic.

Currently, two LTEs have been hired as general laborers. Two lead center workers budgeted for this year are expected to be hired internally, Clow said, with another two center worker spots still open and a steamfitter position budgeted for this year.

Tony Miggins, a former 20-year expo worker who has worked at the zoo since the beginning of the pandemic, said its hard to believe that essentially only full-timers are doing all the work at the expo.

Theres no way they can pull this off, he said.

Miggins said the pool of limited-term workers was relied on to operate forklifts, make orders and help in changeovers between events.

The LTEs play a great part, and we depended on them a lot, said Miggins, 58. At my age right now Im glad Im not there because from what I hear theyre (full-time workers) doing everything.

Clow said the A&L contract is necessary now but will become less so as the expo rebuilds its pool of limited-term workers. A&L workers are paid $15 an hour, Clow said.

This is the reason that were asking for this contract for right now, Clow said. Were fortunate that some of the events have been a little smaller, but yes, we need to deal with this in this labor market.

Long-term view

For union brass, the solution to the Alliant Centers staffing crisis is simple: Hire more full-time staff.

We think its time that Dane County invest in the staffing at this institution, Anderson said at Thursdays meeting. This is the only approach to ensure that all of the employees cleaning the AEC are treated properly.

Anderson has said federal COVID relief money could be used to hire staff at the expo, although the county has already prioritized those stimulus funds for items such as food and housing security, nonprofits and public health.

Clow noted that hiring more full-time positions is outside of the Alliant Centers budget. Yet Schauer said hes confident the board would support that later this year during the budgeting process.

Not only is there a great appetite for that on the board but at the AEC administration level, Schauer said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the number of staff the Alliant Center had prior to the pandemic.

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Staffing a school each day in Wisconsin has become like a desperate attempt to plug a leaking dam.

On a recent Tuesday in the Drummond Area School District in far northern Wisconsin, a reading interventionist was tapped to sub in a classroom, leaving other students without the extra reading and writing help; a teaching aide had to supervise an entire classroom; and the band and music teacher had to supervise at least four study hall periods.

Cobbling together teaching staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic is a daily task in his 300-student district, Superintendent Dennis Kaczor said. Drummond has just two substitute teachers they can count on to cover as needed any day of the week. So far, the district has been able to avoid shifting to online-only learning despite staffing constraints, which is good because, he said, many of the students dont have stable internet access.

We are struggling to find subs, were struggling to find bus drivers, were struggling to find cooks and librarians and library aides on a fill-in or temporary basis, Kaczor said. As staff go out, were trying to fill holes, so to speak  a crack in the dam. Put your finger here, put your finger here, next thing you know youre stretched out pretty thin. I dont have any more fingers or toes.

School districts across the state are being pushed to the brink of a crisis due to extreme staffing difficulties brought on by the surging COVID-19 pandemic. District administrators and staff say the recent problems are compounding staffing challenges that began about a decade ago after the passage of Act 10, the Republican law that cut benefits and stripped collective bargaining rights from teachers unions.

The number of emergency licenses issued to staff members across the state nearly tripled from 1,126 in the 2012-13 school year to 3,016 in the 2019-20 school year, and then increased another 30% to 3,942 last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. An emergency license allows a teacher or staff member to work outside of the subject or grade level they were initially licensed to teach in an effort to fill a vacancy.

ACT 10s legacy

Three teachers left Drummond at the end of the 2020-21 school year and the district was only able to fill one of those open positions ahead of the current school year  a refrain that has echoed across the state as the number of teachers entering the workforce shrinks and the number of teachers who retire, leave the profession, or leave the state to teach elsewhere grows.

The White Lake School District, located about 70 miles northwest of Green Bay, has been searching for a math teacher for grades 7-12 for the past year and a half.

The district, with roughly 155 students in grades K-12, was able to find a teacher who came out of retirement to cover half of the classes and another staff member who is on emergency licensure to cover the other half.

We had no math teacher to start the year. We had no applicants, Superintendent Nathan Hanson said. Fortunately, we were able to get these two people that were willing to split the job and come in  but its a one-year fix. ... Theyre not able to build programming for the future. Theyre filling in the gap and doing what they can.

There are also vacancies in art and music, and others that are filled with instructors who have received emergency teaching certification.

Hanson, who worked in the Tomahawk School District as a building and district administrator in 2010, said the education workforce in Wisconsin has been on the decline for years and that COVID has accelerated it.

He said Act 10, the 2011 law signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, and academic standards implemented across the state around the same time became a perfect storm that left teachers feeling disenfranchised.

I know colleagues that left the state, Hanson said. Ive seen a certain level of demoralization that happened, especially with our veteran teachers.

He began to see a significant decrease in applicants for teaching roles in 2012, he said. For elementary school jobs, his district was accustomed to seeing 50-60 applicants for one position in Tomahawk, but that year the number of applicants dropped to 10 and has been on a steady decline since.

In Milwaukee, the Great Resignation started in 2011, said Amy Mizialko, president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association.

When I was hired (as a teacher) in summer of 1992, there were no vacancies of any kind, in any job class ever, she said, and her district has gone from incredibly well staffed, with a wait list, to a drastically different scenario  with more than 100 teaching vacancies and dozens of support staff vacancies.

Republicans have continued to defend Act 10 as a necessary measure to curb the influence of teachers unions on local school board decision-making. Requiring public employees to contribute to their pension and health insurance premiums has saved state and local taxpayers billions of dollars.

Revenue limits

Mellen School District Superintendent Rhonda Elmhorst-Friemoth said the flat revenue limit for public school funding set by legislators in the recent biennial budget also poses a barrier to attracting and retaining teachers.

The state funding formula and what they did in the most recent budget really limits how were able to compensate teachers, she said. If rural districts arent getting adequate funding from the state, it really becomes a financial barrier for us to compensate teachers appropriately.

Legislative Republicans had defended the flat revenue limit in the budget by noting K-12 schools are receiving billions of dollars in federal COVID relief aid, known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds. However, that aid is one-time funding meant to combat the effects of the pandemic on public education, not for reoccurring expenses such as salary increases for teachers or other staff.

In the 2018-19 school year, Elmhorst-Friemoths 275-student, one-building district saw 18% turnover, in 2019-20 it saw 26% turnover, 27% during the 2020-21 school year, and for the 2021-22 school year the district is tracking at 31%.

The areas with the highest turnover are special education, English, music and band, business education, and counselors, and that rate of turnover has made it difficult for students to form relationships with teachers. She pointed to the districts inability to raise salaries as a main reason why teachers have sought jobs elsewhere.

Tim Raymond, superintendent of the Cambria-Friesland School District, located about 40 miles north of Madison with a declining enrollment currently at 355 students, said his district had to go to a $5 million referendum to exceed the revenue limit, which the community passed.

Had that referendum failed, CF Schools budget would have been reduced by $1.4 million this year, $1.6 million in 2022-23, and $2 million in 2023-24, he said in an email. As a district with a $6 million annual budget you can see the impact referendum dollars makes for our school.

Closer to home

Natasha Sullivan, an AP English teacher at Madisons La Follette High School, said properly funded schools is a necessity for teachers and staff as they navigate the changing pandemic landscape.

Were drowning, she said. Were hemorrhaging teachers because this is an extremely difficult job and being underpaid through all of this is just crushing.

In the past week, the first week back to in-person learning after the holiday break, staff at La Follette struggled to cover classes. On a daily basis, school administrators send around a list of absences and ask teachers and staff to give up their prep time to cover those absences.

It keeps building and building and building for staff, she said. I think this is the breaking point.

She said education can go one of two ways in Wisconsin, following the pandemic: Legislators and administrators can decide to value teachers through funding, or the bar will need to be set lower for educators seeking to enter the workforce.

Thirty-six out of the districts 52 schools experienced an absence rate of at least six staff members each day due to illness or child care needs in the first week of in-person learning following winter break, said Angie Hicks, the districts chief of secondary schools and middle schools.

The system is already stretched, she said.

Over the last five in-person school years, the district had an average of 650 substitute teachers to cover absences. This year that number has dropped to 391, with 84 of those substitute teachers also covering absences in other districts.

The Madison School Board recently voted to raise the rate of pay for substitute teachers and passed a COVID-related sick leave policy for teachers and staff in an effort to help bolster the workforce.

Elsewhere

A number of districts across Wisconsin had to close school buildings or delay students return to in-person learning after winter break due to staffing constraints, including the Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, La Crosse, Bloomer, and Beloit districts, among others.

Milwaukee Public Schools paused their return to in-person learning for two weeks after more than 1,000 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 over the New Years weekend.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a key factor in one-third to one-half of teacher departures, National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement Wednesday. As the pandemic persists, teachers are working more hours than ever. They are exhausted and demoralized, adjusting to changing models of teaching, often without appropriate training.

Nationally, the ratio of hires to job openings in the education sector has reached new lows as the 2021-22 school year started, and currently stands at 0.57 hires for every open position, according to the NEA.

We, in this country, have a looming crisis around having enough public education workers and staffing to start the 2022-23 school year, Mizialko said. Its an emergency. Were sounding the alarm. Weve been sounding the alarm.

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The idea of teaching more than 100 UW-Madison undergraduates face to face at this point in the pandemic, with COVID-19 cases reaching new records and hospitals overwhelmed, terrifies teaching assistant Adrian George.

It feels like a scary, uncertain time to start teaching during the pandemic, said George, a first-time instructor who is among hundreds asking for a few weeks of online classes until the worst of the omicron wave is over. The university isnt giving us that flexibility and choice. Were all on edge.

Political science professor Jon Pevehouse understands those concerns. One of his own children is too young to get vaccinated and he himself has a health condition placing him at higher risk. But he also has a high school senior at home and believes online classes come with risks, too.

Theyve lost so much already, he said about students. The mental health costs unleashed on that generation  its a balance of risks, ultimately, and Im coming down right now on the side of being back in the classroom.

The instructors perspectives highlight a divide on campus between some who say the university is again falling short in its pandemic response and others who feel UW-Madison is acting cautiously appropriate ahead of the schools spring semester, which starts Tuesday.

On the one hand, the states COVID-19 caseload has never been higher in the lead-up to classes. Wisconsins seven-day average of daily new cases on the first day of classes in fall 2020 was 695. In spring 2021 and fall 2021, the number hovered around 1,500 cases. On Friday, it was 17,586.

On the other hand, the risk of severe illness is much lower than before vaccines became available. Experts are seeing signs of the omicron-fueled wave slowing in other parts of the country. More than 95% of the campus community is vaccinated, masks are still required and testing is available, although some changes on that front have sparked concern.

UW-Madison provost John Karl Scholz told a faculty committee earlier this month that classrooms have been safe throughout the pandemic. With students returning to Madison regardless of whether classes are in person or online, he said UW leaders and public health experts they consulted with dont believe a period of remote instruction would appreciably decrease the predicted spread of Covid in the weeks ahead.

UW-Milwaukee, however, made a different calculation. The university is allowing instructors to move class online for the first week of the semester, which starts Monday. About 55% of classes that were scheduled to be in person will instead be temporarily taught online, spokesperson Michelle Johnson said.

UW-Madison is holding firm and moving ahead as planned, with 92% of classes scheduled to be fully in person.

COVID-19 will continue to be present, in ever-evolving forms, for the foreseeable future, a UW-Madison message to employees this week said. Because of the presence of highly effective vaccines, public health agencies in our county, state and nation are pivoting to providing individuals the tools they need to resume most daily activities. We will embrace that same approach.

Testing changes

From Aug. 1 through the end of 2021, UW-Madison reported just under 1,950 COVID-19 cases on campus. In just the first 13 days of testing in 2022, a time when far fewer students have been in Madison, the university has already reported 1,536 on-campus cases, according to its COVID-19 data dashboard.

But the dashboard will become a less meaningful metric to monitor with the addition of at-home rapid antigen tests to UW-Madisons testing protocol. Results from those tests wont be incorporated onto the dashboard, which officials say aligns with the states reporting practices that require reporting of positive PCR tests and antigen tests administered at testing sites.

The approach differs from the city-county health department, which encourages people to report their at-home test results to the agency so it can better understand the level of virus spreading in our community.

Unvaccinated students and employees will continue to be required to test weekly on campus, but there is now just one location to receive a PCR test.

Some on campus, like graduate union co-president John Walker, question the pivot to antigen tests, which offer results more quickly but are also less reliable. Critics also wonder whether a single testing site will suffice for a community of 65,000 people spread across a massive campus.

In the last few weeks of the fall semester, testing was in high demand nationally as the Omicron wave began and many sought to get tested before traveling home. On-campus appointments at the four testing sites were full, sending students off campus, where some of them struggled to secure a test.

UW-Madison, in a message last month, said it will be able to serve everyone who is required to or wishes to test at the one location. The move to a single testing site was made to use staff more efficiently and the same testing capacity of 5,000 PCR tests per week relied upon in the fall will remain, university spokesperson Meredith McGlone said.

Distribution of antigen tests is limited right now for employees and students living off campus to one per week, though UW-Madison is working with multiple suppliers to expand supply, she said.

We need everyones cooperation in using campus testing resources responsibly, McGlone said, pointing to other testing options available. She also encouraged those unable to make an on-campus testing appointment to cancel so someone else may be able to grab the open slot.

Masks, boosters, ventilation

Gabriela Zumwalt is excited but a little worried about the semester ahead.

The nerves, however, have little to do with the virus and more to do with starting at UW-Madison as a transfer student from Madison Area Technical College. In the Memorial Union on Wednesday, she was headed to course registration with the hope that most of her classes would be in person.

Graduate student Mike Smale, who is a teaching assistant for an introductory biology course this semester, also wants face-to-face classes, noting an online course he took as a UW-Madison undergraduate before COVID-19 hit didnt go over well. But hes also pretty blunt about the state of the pandemic right now: Covid cases are crazy right now.

Smale, of West Bend, has a few ideas: Mandate the vaccine and booster shot. Ditch the cloth masks and require N95s. Adopt an open window policy to improve ventilation, with teachers telling students to bring sweaters to class.

I would like to see them do everything possible to keep classes in person, he said.

UW-Madison is distributing N95, KN95 and surgical masks to students and employees who want them. But no mandate is in the works because fit and other factors that are important in mask selection vary from person to person, McGlone said.

Thats a letdown for teaching assistant Miranda Alksnis who believes cloth masks simply wont cut it against a fast-spreading variant. And even though omicron causes less severe illness, she said the science is still emerging on whether it can result in long COVID, where individuals can suffer from debilitating exhaustion and pain for months.

Mental health concerns

Burnout. Stress. A lack of connection.

Pevehouse saw it all. In his 20 years at UW-Madison, he never had more students approach him about mental health issues than last fall.

The number of students seeking counseling at University Health Services last fall was up 28% compared with the previous two fall semesters, mental health director Sarah Nolan said in mid-November. Whether thats a direct effect of COVID-19 or part of a broader national trend thats been on the rise even before the pandemic, Nolan doesnt know at this point.

But the overarching message is clear: Students are struggling, even with most classes back in person.

For business professor Jon Eckhardt, face-to-face instruction is worth the risk.

One of his students last fall, for example, said hello to him while outside and unmasked. The professor didnt recognize his student, an interaction that prompted Eckhardt to throw an outdoor pizza party for his class to meet for the first time without masks. It was a completely different experience from the weeks they spent together in the classroom.

Everyone will be doing their best but those relationships wont form in the way they normally do, he said of the semester ahead.

Thats why Eckhardt plans to continue checking in with his fall class. Meet outside as much as possible. Maybe even throw them another pizza party.

The classroom experience, weve all learned, is a special experience, he said.

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A Madison nonprofit is proposing a $50 million-plus low-income housing project to replace a sprawling, vacant former bakery property on the East Side.

Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. is under contract to buy the 6-acre former Bimbo Bakeries USA property at 3401 E. Washington Ave. with the intent of creating about 250 subsidized apartments in three buildings, a small park and parking at the site. WHPC, created in 2002, has acquired, developed and renovated more than 158 low-cost rental housing developments with more than 8,444 family and senior units in the state.

The proposed buildings would range from three to six stories, and WHPC would use special construction measures to insulate housing units in anticipation of the stationing of U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jets at nearby Truax Field starting in 2023.

The site, which includes a 2,100-square-foot retail building and 111,000-square-foot former bakery at the corner of East Washington Avenue and North Fair Oaks Avenue, is assessed at $2.85 million. Its adjacent to Hawthorne Elementary School, 3344 Concord Ave.

From our detailed study of the neighborhood, there is great demand for additional housing in this particular area in Madison, WHPC president Mary Wright said. Nearby properties occupancy rates of nearly 100% demonstrate that the need for more housing  and especially housing affordable to people across the socioeconomic spectrum  is considerable.

Our conversations to date with residents, businesses and organizations in this neighborhood have affirmed the demand for a project like this in this location, she said.

But City Council President Syed Abbas, 12th District, who represents the site, voiced concern about placing low-cost housing in an area within the 65-decibel boundary of the F-35 fighter jet noise map, which is considered too loud for residential development without significant soundproofing, and said the city should wait until the jets are here and studies conducted before approving such a project.

This is important for our city to decide, he said. Do we want people of color and marginalized communities in these areas?

Abbas, who has taken no formal position on WHPCs proposal, has scheduled an online neighborhood meeting for 6 p.m. Feb. 3.

Desirable locale

Initial concepts show about 250 apartments with one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, including some townhouse-style units, and approximately 300 surface and underground parking spots, Wright said. The nonprofit is also considering plans to include some commercial and resident services space.

The development would include a roughly 1-acre park, walking paths and a variety of green features such as solar panels, bike racks and energy-efficient appliances.

At this site, the proximity to amenities like grocery stores, schools and health clinics makes the location desirable for residents, not to mention its great transportation access, Wright said. The upcoming bus rapid transit stop at the intersection of East Washington Avenue and North Fair Oaks Avenue/Wright Street is about 100 feet from the site, which provides an excellent opportunity to stay connected and move around the city while reducing carbon emissions.

The site allows the continued development of quality housing and retail corridors from the Capitol to the interstate, she said.

In current plans, units would be available for those making between 30% of the Dane County median income, or $27,900 for a family of three, and 70% of median income, or $60,438 for that family. Monthly rents would be offered across a spectrum of affordability in which qualifying households pay no more than approximately 30% of their income on rent, Wright said.

The development would by itself achieve 20% of Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conways 2021 Housing Forward Plan, which calls for 1,250 new low-cost units in Madison in the next five years, she said.

This project would give approximately 250 households the opportunity to have an affordable rent so they can afford other essential needs like health care, food and transportation, she said.

Details of how the building would look have not been ironed out yet. But the layout, size and design of the buildings would be in line with the surrounding neighborhood, Wright said, adding, As a nonprofit organization that is a long-term owner of properties, WHPC is invested in building a high-quality development that is attractive and functional for decades to come.

The park, walking paths and green design elements would tie into existing assets in the neighborhood, such as the adjacent Hawthorne Elementary Open Space, she said. To be in scale with nearby uses, the part closest to the nearby single-family homes along Fair Oaks Avenue would be three stories, she said.

Were excited to learn more about their promising proposal, Hawthorne principal Beth Lehman said.

Issue of jets

Abbas, who began representing the area after the citys Jan. 1 redistricting, said he has no issue with a market-rate housing project at the site and that it could be used for commercial and economic development purposes.

The council had been exploring possible alternatives, including a development moratorium, a special district with requirements for housing or zoning changes to protect residents in new projects from jet noise and avoid having poor and minority residents bear a disproportionate share of the impacts from the F-35s.

But in November, after hearing about legal obstacles from the city attorneys office, a council work group clarified that no members wished to prohibit new housing in the area around the airport. Instead, members said its best to ask developers to include soundproofing in new housing in the area and noted that the city could require noise mitigation for housing projects that seek city financial assistance.

WHPC would incorporate meaningful sound-mitigation measures through upgraded building materials that go beyond what is required by the building code, Wright said. As new construction, this project is uniquely positioned to help reduce noise, and WHPC is committed to doing this through upgraded materials such as windows, doors, walls and insulation, she said.

Abbas applauded WHPCs intentions, but still expressed concerns about noise, including when children and others living at the project are outside.

A spokesperson for the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association could not be reached.

History of use

For decades, the site was noted for producing aromas of fresh baked goods.

Gardner Bakery, founded in 1926, opened the facility once equipped with the most advanced devices for the manufacture of fine bakery products in 1952 with additions in 1965. Bimbo Bakeries USA bought Sara Lee Corp.s North American fresh bakery unit, including its bakery there, in 2011.

In October 2018, Bimbo announced it would end production at the site by Jan. 2, 2019, with the company shifting production to other facilities in the region.

WHPC is not anticipating significant environmental problems at the former industrial site.

The nonprofit is considering multiple funding sources for the redevelopment including tax credits through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and other local and statewide affordable housing resources. It estimates a construction start of spring 2023, with construction proceeding in phases to be completed within two years.

The proposal would require, at minimum, a rezoning out of the current industrial district plus a demolition permit to raze the bakery, city planner Colin Punt said. Given the scale of the project and zoning change, its likely the proposal would also require at least one conditional use approval, he said. The Plan Commission decides conditional uses and demolition permits, while the City Council determines zoning changes.

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The Republican-appointed special counsel reviewing the November 2020 election in Wisconsin is not seeking to jail the mayors of Madison and Green Bay if they refuse to be questioned.

But that possibility remains open if Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich continue to object to private interviews with the special counsel, said conservative former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, according to a memo one of his attorneys filed with a Waukesha County court Thursday.

The five-page memo was referenced Friday during a hearing in which Genrichs attorney questioned whether Gableman even had the authority to pursue sanctions against the mayors, given that his contract with the Republican-controlled state Legislature expired at the end of December.

It is far from clear that Mr. Gableman has any authority to act for the Legislature at this point, Jeffrey Mandell told Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez. Absent that authority, his petition to this court must evaporate.

Fridays hearing came after Gableman issued subpoenas in October seeking election records from the states five largest cities and demanding their mayors submit to questioning, even though mayors dont play any role in conducting elections.

He later backed off those subpoenas, but in early December filed petitions in Waukesha County asking that the county sheriff force Rhodes-Conway and Genrich to answer his questions under the October subpoenas. Those petitions, called writs of attachment, can lead to jail for people who are found in contempt for not complying with a subpoena.

In the memo, Kevin Scott says the special counsels office is seeking the writs under a section of state law that gives judges discretion in whether to jail someone found in contempt or to impose other sanctions, such as fines, and not under a different section of state law that requires judges to jail those found in contempt of a legislative subpoena.

The office chose to proceed under the former statute to avoid (if possible) the incarceration of any official involved in this matter, Scott writes in the memo. The upshot is that the Special Counsels intent ... is to induce compliance with the subpoenas at issue, not to seek the incarceration of two elected officials.

Rhodes-Conway has said she is open to testifying publicly about the citys handling of last years election. An attorney for Genrich has criticized Gablemans petition as illegal and followed up earlier this month with a demand that the court sanction Gableman for his frivolous and factually inaccurate effort to force Genrich to submit to questioning.

Expired contract

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, hired Gableman last summer  at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers  to look into how the 2020 election was conducted after former President Donald Trump complained that Wisconsin Republicans werent doing enough to promote the lie that Democrat Joe Biden stole the state from him.

Gableman made a baseless claim at a pro-Donald Trump rally in 2020 that the election in Wisconsin had been stolen by bureaucrats, and he has met with and hired people for his investigation who formerly worked for Trump and espoused conspiracy theories about the election.

Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. A recount, multiple court challenges and two in-depth reviews of election processes  including one by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty  have revealed no evidence of widespread fraud.

Although Gablemans contract expired last month, Vos has said the review will likely go longer and cost more money.

Gablemans and Vos offices did not respond to questions Friday seeking comment on the current status of Gablemans contract. Madison City Attorney Mike Haas said it seemed clear that the court expects attorney Gableman to address whether he is still authorized to act as special counsel.

More to come

Ramirez didnt hear arguments or make any decisions Friday on whether or how to enforce Gablemans subpoenas, or whether Gableman should be sanctioned for issuing them, including a request by Genrich that he take out full-page newspaper ads to correct the record.

Instead he asked the parties to submit briefs on the courts authority to issue the writs, the correct procedure to follow and the factual basis for the writs. A hearing to consider those arguments was scheduled for April 22.

Haas said the city does not believe there is a subpoena pending for Rhodes-Conway and there are no current plans for her to be deposed.

As we have told the special counsel, we are open to discussions about an appropriate scope and forum for any interviews or depositions of city officials, he said.

Earlier this week, the immigration rights group Voces de la Frontera Action went to court to try to block a subpoena Gableman issued in late December for emails and other communications related to the 2020 election, as well as information about the groups finances and contacts with government officials and other nonprofits.

The groups executive director called the attempt modern-day McCarthyite political theater designed to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and silence and intimidate voters of color from exercising their right to free speech and their right to vote.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Sunday that Gableman has also subpoenaed two companies that manufacture voting machines and software, Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems and Nebraska-based Electronic Systems & Software.

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With billions of dollars worth of projects in the works, Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced a bill that would block competition on long-distance power lines.

The bipartisan bill, opposed by both consumer advocates and the free-market group Americans for Prosperity, comes as the Biden administration launches a major grid modernization effort to deliver clean energy.

Sponsored by Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, and Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-La Crosse, the bill would give incumbent transmission owners the exclusive right to build any transmission project approved by the Midwest grid operator, known as MISO.

That means the states three transmission utilities would have the exclusive right to add to their networks, which opponents say would boost their profits at ratepayers expense.

The authors have framed the bill as a means of maintaining control over the states transmission development, but a coalition of consumer, industry and free market groups say its simply about protecting utility profits by preventing competitive bidding and will lead to higher energy prices.

Billions could be at stake here for Wisconsin customers, said Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, which represents the states largest electricity customers. This is really terrible public policy.

Multiple states  including Iowa, Minnesota and most recently Michigan  have passed similar legislation in the decade since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) abolished federal anti-competition protections known as right of first refusal. Missouris legislature is expected to take up a similar bill next month.

FERC is now considering more policy reforms that could help prepare the grid to deliver clean energy from remote wind and solar farms while supporting new uses like electric vehicles.

But critics of the anti-competition laws point to a more immediate impetus for the legislation: Later this year MISO is expected to approve a batch of new transmission lines it says will be needed over the next two decades to handle new clean energy sources being built to meet member utilities carbon reduction goals.

Those lines are expected to cost between $30 billion and $100 billion, with the costs being passed on to electricity customers throughout the MISO territory.

Bradleys office provided a statement claiming the bill would protect the state from federal control.

This bill ensures Wisconsin  not DC  controls the expansion and operation of our states electric grid, Bradley said. Neighboring states have chosen to control their grids to ensure reliable energy for their citizens, and its time for Wisconsin to do the same.

The federal government does not directly control the grid but sets ground rules for entities such as MISO, an independent nonprofit organization established in 2001 to operate electricity markets and oversee regional planning in 15 states and one Canadian province.

The bill would not change the state Public Service Commissions role in permitting individual projects, such as the controversial Cardinal-Hickory Creek line under construction between Dubuque, Iowa, and Middleton. It would prohibit MISO from awarding contracts to outside developers.

American Transmission Company, which is owned by a group of distribution utilities including Alliant and Madison Gas and Electric, owns most of Wisconsins transmission network. Xcel Energy and Dairyland operate most of the transmission lines in the western part of the state.

More players needed

While the cost of generating electricity has fallen over the past decade, the cost to deliver it has risen as utilities have made substantial investments in the wires, poles, towers and other equipment, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Power line opponents often point to research suggesting it would be cheaper to clean up the grid with rooftop and smaller community-based solar panels coupled with battery storage, but most experts say transmission additions will be needed to do what climate scientists say is necessary to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

Princeton University researchers say the nation could achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 using existing technology, but doing so could require a transmission system up to three times larger.

Earlier this month the Biden administration announced a major initiative to support the construction of even more long-distance power lines to improve grid reliability and deliver clean energy where its needed.

Wisconsin lawmakers signal support for fossil fuel pipelines The resolution comes amid mounting public opposition to Enbridge Energys plans to reroute a pipeline across northern Wisconsin.

With transmission buildout gaining momentum, consumer advocates say competition is critical to protecting ratepayers, citing studies and real world examples where competitive bidding reduced costs by more than a third on average and in some cases by as much as half.

Under the competitive bidding process, the winning developer would be held to timelines and budgets spelled out in MISOs contract rather than a monopoly utility telling regulators what the project will cost.

If there is a cost overrun, the developer has to eat it, Stuart said. Contrast that to a line by ATC or Xcel. If they have a cost overrun, they go back to the PSC. I cant remember the last time a cost-overrun was disallowed.

Independent energy consultant Rao Konidena said anti-competition laws are defeating the purpose of participating in a regional market like MISO, where electricity flows across state lines in a system designed to use the cheapest energy available.

Konidena said MISO has dozens of qualified transmission developers  some with experience in high-voltage direct current (or DC) lines, underground lines and technologies that make the best use of wires  that could bring innovation to Wisconsins transmission network if allowed to participate.

Healthy competition will motivate incumbent transmission companies to work with them, Konidena said. We need more players in the field to build transmission. Not fewer.

Environmental advocates challenge PSC approval of MGE rates, WEC gas storage The Sierra Club says fixed charges -- the minimum monthly fee every customer pays to have an account -- included in rates authorized in November, are illegal and discriminatory.

Anti-competition legislation has also drawn fire from conservatives, including the Trump administration, which argued against a bill in the Texas legislature.

Americans for Prosperity state director Eric Bott said the law would likely violate the dormant commerce clause of the Constitution, which prohibits states from passing protectionist policies that discriminate against non-residents doing business.

I anticipate if this bill were to pass wed be sued the next day, Bott said.

Utilities respond

Utilities say competitive bidding hasnt worked and contend the bill is about maintaining state control, although it would not change the PSCs authority.

A significant amount of investment in transmission infrastructure is necessary to accommodate the ongoing transition to a more diversified energy mix, said ATC spokesperson Alissa Braatz. The proposed legislation, which is similar to laws that are in place in many states surrounding Wisconsin, will maintain the states rights to make these important policy decisions.

A coalition of MISO transmission utilities that includes ATC, Dairyland and Xcel argued to FERC that competitive bidding would significantly delay the clean energy transition.

The Edison Electric Institute, the trade association for the nations investor-owned utilities, has encouraged FERC to reinstate a federal right of first refusal, arguing that its elimination stifled the cooperation and collaboration that has historically existed among transmission owners.

This policy has resulted in a near standstill in transmission development for regional projects, the group wrote, and a substantial increase in process-related costs.

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Some of the most alarming government actions since the COVID-19 pandemic began have weakened state authority to safeguard public health. At least 26 states have removed traditional powers from local health departments, the institutions tasked with protecting us.

New state laws, for example, take away or limit health officials abilities to require masks, promote vaccinations, close restaurants and schools or even impose quarantines.

These limitations on local authority might seem inevitable in a country where voters often fear government overreach. But in fact these changes run counter to the historical trend in the U.S., which has overwhelmingly been to increase public health powers during epidemics.

At the beginning of European settlement in America, there were no government health departments. But faced with devastating, terrifying and frequent outbreaks of deadly diseases, colonists established temporary boards of health to set public policy intended to save lives.

These temporary boards quarantined ships in the harbor, required sick residents to isolate at home and disbanded when the epidemics passed. Over time, these boards became permanent. They increasingly expanded local and state authority to regulate community behavior in the name of public health. The public cooperated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as Americans developed a sense of civic obligation and responsibility.

Because of this growing public commitment, the powers of cities and states to control disease increased with new epidemics. Repeated occurrences of yellow fever, cholera, smallpox and scarlet fever led to the establishment of public health departments that we recognize today.

Paid commissioners and health boards, and their staffs of inspectors and regulators, isolated the sick in contagious disease hospitals, vaccinated residents and created a sanitary environment. Health departments, often in conjunction with other city and state agencies, built clean water and sewer systems, regulated garbage collection and disposal, inspected restaurants, monitored school environments and set safety standards to ensure safe milk and food supplies. During epidemics, officials often forbade public gatherings, closed schools and bars and insisted on social distancing in churches.

Throughout our history, Americans learned that their individual liberty to oppose a health order during a time of community danger must be subsumed to the public good. The right of health officials to try to control infectious diseases was confirmed with the 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision Jacobson vs. Massachusetts, which empowered local and state health authorities to order vaccinations during epidemic outbreaks when public health was threatened. If some individuals did not comply, they could be fined or jailed.

Though COVID-19 has ignited controversy over local and state health agencies, public acceptance of their power and authority was widespread throughout the 20th century. In 1947, when smallpox threatened New York City, 6 million New Yorkers voluntarily lined up in the streets awaiting their inoculations to comply with the health departments vaccination ruling. This public cooperation took less than a month and resulted in a very low number of infected people.

In addition, since the 1950s, the federal government has played an increasingly prominent role in public health. State governments sought federal help when disease crises crossed state lines and when implementation of effective action required interstate cooperation. During the 1947 smallpox outbreak, the U.S. Public Health Service traced the contacts of the individual who brought smallpox to New York, following his steps across the country  a task outside the purview of city health officials.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as in earlier health crises, state health departments have had to depend on federal support and national coordination to contain the disease. They have not had the capacity themselves to produce an effective vaccine, and since vaccines were developed, states have needed help with procurement and distribution. They still need help with maintaining equipment and personnel in hospitals to care for rapid increases in the number of sick people. And they need national leaders to promote the importance of vaccination and continued mask use.

Yet such coordination in local, state and federal efforts is weakened by the new state laws that limit health officials powers, which will leave us unable to deal with future pandemics effectively.

In earlier periods of American history, increased authority and funding for disease control would have been routine. Now the politicization of masking, testing and vaccination has made efforts to curb COVID-19 even more difficult.

Historically the public response to community health danger was ruled by the need to care about others. This tradition has served the country well over the last 300 years. But it is no longer standard in America. The freedom to not wear a face mask has become more important to many people than any obligation to others. Choosing narrow personal liberties over community cooperation and protection does not bode well for our ability to withstand future crises.

Walzer Leavitt is professor emerita in the history of medicine at UW-Madison. She wrote this for the Los Angeles Times: jwleavit@wisc.edu.
JEROME  A 30-year-old Buhl man is in custody after a shooting in Jerome and a subsequent car pursuit near Buhl earlier this week.

Police said Edgar Carrillo-Coronado shot an 18-year-old Jerome man in the head Wednesday evening at the Best Western Sawtooth Inn and Suites on South Lincoln Avenue in Jerome.

The victim was unconscious for some time before waking up and knocking on doors to find help.

Jerome police were called to the hotel for a suspicious incident and possible shooting victim but it wasnt clear at first what had happened, Jerome Police Chief Dan Hall said.

The victim was taken to St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls and survived, Hall said.

He was able to give enough information for police to locate a suspect, whom they identified as Carrillo-Coronado. Buhl Police and the Twin Falls Special Investigative Unit helped Jerome Police surveil the his home in Buhl.

On Thursday afternoon, Carrillo-Coronado arrived home and got into a vehicle. Officers watching him attempted to make the vehicle stop, however, the he took off, leading police on a short pursuit. Driving on Cemetery Road in Buhl, Carrillo-Coronado lost control of the vehicle and went off the road near the West End Cemetery.

He left the vehicle and showed a gun to police. After a short stand-off, he placed the gun on the roof of his vehicle and was taken into custody.

The police have reason to believe the shooting may have been drug-related as drugs were present at the scene of the crime.

Hall said police do not feel there is any further threat to public safety from this incident. The incident is still under investigation.

Meanwhile, in Gooding County, police are investigating after a body was discovered earlier this week. The Gooding County prosecutors office confirmed an autopsy had been done and an investigation is ongoing, but officials have not said how the person died or if the death is related to the shooting in Jerome.

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BOISE (AP)  A bill that would allow Idaho residents with multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders to use a pain-relief spray derived from marijuana has been introduced in the House.

The bill provides a carve-out in Idaho code for nabiximols, an oral spray that is undergoing clinical trials for possible approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Association, The Lewiston Tribune reported.

The bill is co-sponsored by Burley Rep. Fred Wood of Burley, and Boise Sen. Fred Martin, both Republicans and the chairmen of the House and Senate Health and Welfare committees. It was introduced in the House Health and Welfare Committee this week.

Any time theres something that can benefit the people of Idaho medically, I want to be supportive of it, Martin said. I dont support legalizing marijuana, but I do support the appropriate use of ingredients found in marijuana that can be beneficial.

In states that have legalized marijuana, Wood said, people can get nabiximols as soon as it clears the FDA and is scheduled on the list of controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In Idaho, however, THC and marijuana are both illegal. So even if the FDA and DEA approve nabiximols this summer, people will have to wait for the Legislature to takes action next year before it can be prescribed.

The bill would potentially shortcut that process by several months.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Lewiston Tribune.

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Fresh off a round of school closures driven by the omicron variant, Illinois school districts could soon be facing more upheaval as litigation challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzkers mask mandate and other COVID-19 protocol lands before a downstate judge.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow is expected to rule soon on a request to temporarily halt the governors executive orders on masking and quarantining for schools while she considers a lawsuit from about 700 parents who allege the measures were enacted without due process for students and their families.

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The judge heard arguments in Springfield this week on the request from attorney Tom DeVore on behalf of parents suing the governor and more than 140 Illinois school districts. DeVore is also representing a group of Illinois teachers suing the state and 21 school districts in a separate lawsuit targeting the states requirement that school employees either receive the COVID-19 vaccine or test weekly.

What were asking is, if children are going to be required to wear masks  before it goes on, they are given the right to due process, said DeVore, who also argued against the states policy requiring close contacts of children who have tested positive to stay home from school.

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If theres an exclusion from school, before a child is told, get out of here, they have the right to due process, he said.

Opposing the request for a temporary restraining order were attorneys for districts including Chicago Public Schools, which recently resumed classroom instruction after a showdown with its powerful teachers union, and Illinois Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Thomas Verticchio.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker mandates COVID-19 vaccines for teachers, college students, health care workers and imposes indoor mask mandate for all at the Thompson Center on Aug. 26, 2021. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

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While officials with Chicago Public Schools declined to comment on the lawsuit, the leader of one suburban school district expressed concerns about the impact of a ruling that could threaten local districts ability to require their own virus mitigation measures.

In a Thursday letter to parents, Barrington School District 220 Superintendent Robert Hunt said the district would keep its current COVID-19 mitigation strategies in place until there is a ruling from the judge, which is not expected until Jan. 28 at the earliest.

But if the ruling were to overturn both the state and local school boards authority to require mitigations and also recognizes the complaint as a class-action lawsuit, Barrington 220 will be in a position in which it cannot enforce masks in school for students or staff members, Hunt said.

If this were to occur, due to the current high transmission rates, Barrington 220 will continue to strongly encourage our students, staff and community to wear masks in schools and will evaluate other measures to increase social distancing in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID, Hunt said.

If the ruling were to overturn the authority of the state and that of local school boards to require mitigations, there would likely be an immediate appeal in which the judge or the appellate court could order a stay and keep current mitigations in place, Hunt said.

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If this were to happen, or if the judges ruling upholds the governors mask mandate, Barrington 220 will continue to adhere to universal masking inside our school buildings, he said.

Pritzker shared his frustration with DeVores latest COVID-19 lawsuits during a stop in the citys Bronzeville neighborhood Thursday, saying he is always disappointed to hear about people who are working against and taking away ... frankly peoples freedom from this virus.

Thats what were looking to give people, their freedom from the virus. These people are holding us back. Theyre going to close schools as a result if they were to win. Small businesses will close if they win. We have to fight for them, Pritzker said.

But parents who are part of DeVores lawsuit, including Gracia Livie, a Naperville mother of four, say the states rules have been a disaster for countless children, including Livies 6-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy.

Gracia and Aaron Livie at their home with their children Isaac, 2, Sophie, 10, and Lila, 6, in Naperville, Jan. 20, 2022. Gracia Livie says the state's rules have been a disaster for countless children, including Lila who has cerebral palsy. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

An initial request for a medical exemption that would allow her daughter to attend school without a mask was initially denied by Naperville Community Unit School District 203 before later being granted with support from the familys doctor, Livie said.

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It took way too much effort. ... This lawsuit was the next step, so I wanted to put our names on it, said Livie, who is among those suing District 203, in an interview following Thursdays court proceedings.

Its time for the needle to move. ... Our point is, does a school have a right to be indefinitely authorized to cover a childs face? she said.

Attorney Kathleen Gibbons, who represents Valley View Community Unit School District 365 in the lawsuit, challenged DeVores contention that the mask mandate is causing irreparable harm to students, along with the notion that children infected with the virus are unlikely to become gravely ill.

Valley View School District stands here pretty much alone, because we lost a 15-year-old athlete with no underlying health conditions within 72 hours of her being positive and showing the first symptoms of COVID, Gibbons said. That, your honor, is irreparable harm.

Officials with Illinois two largest teachers unions also expressed concerns about the potential impact of the lawsuits, including Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin, who said schools could be forced to shut down if the mask mandate is overturned.

Without masks, the virus, especially the highly contagious omicron variant, will run wild, forcing thousands and thousands of our school employees and students into quarantine and will, in effect, close our school buildings down and perhaps be potent enough to stop learning altogether, Griffin said.

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The science is there: Masking, along with vaccines, testing, social distancing and quarantining, are the best ways to protect against the virus, she said.

In a pair of amicus briefs filed with the court, officials with the Illinois Federation of Teachers urged the judge to deny DeVores request, claiming if granted, it would scuttle public health measures that, in the judgment of policymakers and the medical professionals advising them, are necessary to keep schools open safely.

But Shannon Adcock, a Naperville mother of three who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Indian Prairie School District 204, said she believes all parents should have the right to choose whether their children are masked at school, especially as families have been dealing with pandemic-era hardships facing their children for nearly two years.

When the first pandemic hit, I think we were all in this together, but by that summer, when the school district surveyed parents, the majority wanted to be back in person, and (District 204) ended up going remote. ... It was like a bait and switch, said Adcock.

Adcock is president of Awake Illinois, a nonprofit parent advocacy group she launched two days after losing her bid for a seat on the District 204 school board.

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I think our children have paid the biggest price during the pandemic, and weve all seen the harm and impact, Adcock said. They need to be able to socialize again without fear, to be with their friends again without masks, so they can give and receive smiles.

Chicago Tribune reporters Jeremy Gorner and Tracy Swartz contributed.

kcullotta@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kcullotta
An important part of the great honor of representing Idahoans in the U.S. Senate is keeping folks informed about legislation advancing in Congress. The following are some highlights of legislation and policy changes we made significant progress on in 2021.

Helped Idaho Producers Compete Globally

As Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, I worked with Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) to negotiate a strong trade package, the Trade Act of 2021, to combat Chinas unfair trade practices, strengthen our relationship with allies, and support the negotiation of digital trade agreements. The Trade Act will strengthen Americas competitive footing and help Idahos hardworking producers compete globally.

I successfully used the Senate filibuster to convince Senate leadership to vote on including the Trade Act in the broader U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The Senate overwhelmingly passed the Trade Act as an amendment to the USICA by a vote of 91-4. I continue to press for its enactment.

We also made important progress in convincing Mexico to remove its restrictions on the importation of fresh potatoes to a limited border zone. In April, the Mexican Supreme Court cleared the way to allow the Mexican federal government to issue import regulations. I am continuing to work to ensure Idahos farmers are once again able to sell high-quality potatoes throughout Mexico.

The U.S. also prevailed over Canada in the first-ever dispute settlement case brought under the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). The panel found Canada to be in violation of the agreement for failing to open its dairy market sufficiently to U.S. imports. This historic victory is an important step in eliminating unjustified trade restrictions on American dairy products.

Stopped Job-Killing Tax Hikes

As the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, I introduced legislation to protect Idahoans from tax enforcement abuses and have used every opportunity to shed light on the job-killing tax hikes and overspending in the Democrats reckless tax-and-spending bill.

This includes leading opposition to harmful corporate and individual tax increases, in particular on small businesses and families, and preventing a proposal to allow the Internal Revenue Service to collect private financial information from individuals bank accounts. I will continue to work to stop this terribly misguided legislation from advancing.

Additionally, the American Rescue Plan Act included a provision that would have prevented states from using relief funds to cut state taxes. I led a Senate effort to ensure states can make their own economic and budgetary decisions without unnecessary federal intervention.

Supported Our Military and Allies

The Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law in December, and contains a number of provisions to help Idahos women and men in uniform conduct their missions forcefully and efficiently. This includes a 2.7 percent pay raise for military servicemembers and authorized funds for Idaho projects.

Amid the haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unknown and dangerous future for Americans and Afghan allies who remained in the country, I have worked to secure evacuations from Afghanistan and pressed for continued oversight of the repercussions of this hasty withdrawal.

Backed Idaho Communities

In November, a three-year reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, through Fiscal Year 2023, was signed into law. I have long championed these payments that are critical to maintain education programs for many rural counties that contain federal lands exempt from property taxes.

At the urging of the Idaho Congressional Delegation, the U.S. Small Business Administration approved the Idaho Hispanic Foundation (IHF) for a Community Navigator Pilot Program grant that will enable the IHF, in concert with the Idaho Womens Business Center, to support entrepreneurial activities in traditionally underserved areas of Idaho. Many other projects like this are creating more career opportunities across our state and keeping families together in our communities.

This is just a snapshot of the efforts underway on behalf of Idahoans in the 117th Congress. I have introduced and advocated for many other pieces of legislation and federal policy covering various topics including stopping federal government power grabs; ensuring Idahoans have access to an efficient court system; lowering prescription drug prices; protecting Second Amendment rights; providing quality veterans services and support; expanding and extending the RECA program; improving opportunities to save for retirement; supporting our nuclear energy infrastructure; boosting energy innovation; and much more. I continue to work on these and many other efforts on behalf of the people of our great state as the second half of the 117th Congress begins.

Senator Mike Crapo represents Idaho in the U.S. Senate.

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Idaho has been discovered. As the fastest-growing state in the nation, one of the most important things we need to make sure we have here in Idaho is a strong, affordable housing market.

We are blessed here in Idaho with a strong, free market in housing, but there is always room for improvement. House Bill 442 removes the last unreasonable piece of rent control in the state of Idaho. While local governments cant meddle with the cost of rent itself, they do have the power to ban property owners from using other common practices in the leasing process, like application fees and security deposits.

None of these choices happen in a vacuum. So when we ask, should businesses or individuals be allowed to charge application fees?, we also need to ask, whats the alternative? In this case, the costs to businesses that these kinds of fees normally cover will be covered by raising the rent itself.

Its important to remember, too, that landlords arent all  or even mostly  faceless, bureaucratic megacorporations. Nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 70% of owners of rental properties are individuals, who usually own very few units each. Measures like security deposits are critical to ensuring that unforeseen events, or tenant negligence, dont drive small property owners into bankruptcy  a disaster for tenant and owner alike. Restricting these measures is just another advantage that the big guy  who is better prepared to weather those costs and additional bureaucratic hurdles  has over the little guy.

Many property owners will likely continue to maintain similar policies even once official government bans are removed. And theres nothing wrong with that! The key is that the owners have freely made that choice, based on what works best for their own business. Owners know best what they need to balance their books, and its important that we keep the government out of the way of that decision, rather than attempting to dictate those choices for them through the bureaucracy.

When rent controls are in place, its renters, not property owners, who bear the brunt of those policies. Rent control disincentivizes investment in improvements and new development, and in so doing artificially creates shortages of housing that hurt renters more than anyone else.

Compared to a lot of places, we have it pretty good on the free market front in Idaho. But we shouldnt be satisfied with resting on our laurels; theres always more to be done to help us become freer and more prosperous as more people join us in pursuing the Idaho Dream. House Bill 442 is just such an improvement.

Joe Palmer (R-Meridian) represents the 20th Legislative District in the Idaho House of Representatives and is the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Defense.

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The Arab League Council will hold an emergency meeting, at the level of permanent delegates, on Sunday in Cairo to consider the attacks perpetrated by Houthi militias against the United Arab Emirates.

The Council of the League of Arab States decided to hold an extraordinary meeting under the chairmanship of Kuwait on the basis of a request submitted by the United Arab Emirates to examine the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Houthi militias against civilian installations in Abu Dhabi, the Arab League said in a statement released on Friday.

On Monday, Houthi rebels carried out deadly attacks on the Musaffah area and Abu Dhabi airport. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for these attacks.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus has led to a significant rise in infections and breakthrough cases across the country.

Mary Jo Trepka, professor and chair of epidemiology at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, answers questions on how to best protect yourself and your loved ones.

What is the best way to protect yourself from omicron? What is a booster?

The best way to protect yourself from omicron, especially serious illness, is to get the COVID-19 vaccine and a booster. A booster will boost your immune response after your primary series. If you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and it's been more than two months since your first dose, you need to get a booster. If it's been more than five months since the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, you need to get a booster.

Boosters are free, just like all the other vaccine doses. You can get an appointment at many places throughout the county. Appointments are available in the evening, during the day and on weekends. It's very easy to do.

What COVID-19 symptoms should I look out for?

SARS-CoV-2the virus that causes COVID-19causes essentially flu- and cold-like symptoms. Things you should be looking out for are runny nose, sore throat, fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle and body aches, difficulty tasting or smelling, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Now, with omicron it is possible that you might only have a runny nose. So really, if you have any symptoms, you should get the COVID-19 test to make sure that you're not infected and stay at home until you get that test result and feel better.

When and how often should I get tested for the virus?

You should get tested if you are experiencing symptoms or have been in close contact with someone with COVID 19. It is best to be tested at least 5 days after you had your last close contact. If you test too early, the test may be negative even if you were infected.

If you are a close contact and have received your booster dose or if you had a confirmed COVID-19 infection within the last 90 days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that you do not need to quarantine but you do need to wear a well-fitting mask at all times around other people for 10 days. If you have not received a booster dose or are not vaccinated at all, you should stay home for at least 5 days and monitor symptoms. If you have no symptoms after 5 days, you can leave home but you need to wear a well-fitting mask at all times around other people.

What do I do if I test positive?

If you test positive, the CDC says that you should isolate for at least five days. What is isolation? That means you should go into a special room in wherever you're living and if possible, use just one bathroom that nobody else uses. You should also wear a mask even in your home so that you don't infect other people in your home.

If after five days you don't have a fever and all your symptoms are better, the CDC says you can leave isolation, but you still need to wear a mask for a full five more days. That's a total of 10 days that you need to be super careful. Five days in isolation, five days also of wearing a mask. Now, the thing is, even if you don't have any symptoms at all, and you have a positive test, you still need to isolate. Furthermore, even if you've been vaccinated and fully boosted, you also need to isolate. So, anybody who has a positive test result needs to isolate. That way we can feel comfortable that you're no longer extremely infectious and can infect other people.

What's the difference between a PCR test and an antigen test?

The PCR test is able to detect new amounts of genetic material, so it's extremely sensitive. That means that if you have a SARS-CoV2 infection, the PCR test is more likely going to pick it up than if you got the antigen test. If you have symptoms and you have a negative antigen test, you should get a PCR test because it's possible that the antigen test is incorrect.

What are we seeing as far as how the omicron variant is affecting people who are unvaccinated and those who are vaccinated?

With the omicron variant, we are seeing that actually all groups of people can get the infectioneven people who've had COVID before. But what we're seeing in terms of severe illness is that people who got the booster dose are very unlikely to be in the hospital. If we look at what's happening in Miami-Dade County right now, where most of the people actually are vaccinated, the people in the hospital are mostly unvaccinated people. There are some people who are fully vaccinated, who are in the hospital, but not boosted, but there's very few people right now who are in the hospital that actually received a booster dose. This just underlines how effective the vaccines are in terms of reducing serious illness.

What measures should be taken by FIU students and faculty to prevent exposure to COVID-19?

The omicron variant is the predominant variant in our community right now, and it is highly contagious. Now more than ever, we have to be very careful to help protect others around us. What you need to do first of all is fill out the P3 app before you to come to campus. If a student has symptoms and the P3 app says to stay home, the student will get an email and they can share that email with their professor and get an excused absence. Professors will work with students so that they can make up any missed material.

The second thing you need to do is you need to wear a mask whenever you're on campus. Wear a mask that is a well-fitting mask, and it's best to get a high-quality mask like a KN95 mask, which is less than a dollar. The third thing to do is to wash your hands regularly, and finally, but most importantly get fully vaccinated. And if it's time for a booster dose, get the booster dose.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

When it comes to medical errors, diagnostic errors are the most common type of error reported by patients and the leading cause of malpractice claims. Brigham and Women's Hospital investigators complied and analyzed data from a diverse group of sources looking at data from 2004 to 2016 to identify patterns of diagnostic pitfalls.

Data collected from 4,352 patient safety incident reports, 403 closed primary care diagnostic error malpractice claims, 24 ambulatory morbidity and mortality rounds, and 355 focus group responses found a total of 836 diagnostic errors, which the researchers use to characterize patterns of what went wrong. The findings were then used to compile a list of disease-specific diagnostic pitfalls and create a taxonomy of the generic types of errors occurring in primary care.

"Progress in understanding and preventing diagnostic errors has been modest, and clinicians could benefit from the knowledge of both disease-specific and generic cross-cutting pitfalls," said Gordon D. Schiff, MD, of the Brigham's Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice. "Our findings can help inform educational and quality improvement efforts to anticipate and prevent future errors."

This research is published in JAMA Network Open.

Explore further Recommendations issued for enhancing ICU diagnostic safety

More information: Gordon D. Schiff et al, Characteristics of Disease-Specific and Generic Diagnostic Pitfalls, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Gordon D. Schiff et al, Characteristics of Disease-Specific and Generic Diagnostic Pitfalls,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.44531
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Seemingly milder for some but still highly contagious, Omicron has filled intensive care beds again at a hospital near Barcelona where shattered staff are still fighting a virus that refuses to retreat.

"Every time we think we've reached the end of the tunnel, it just gets longer," sighs Rafael Manez, head of intensive care at Bellvitge University Hospital, one of the largest medical facilities in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region.

Since the pandemic took hold nearly two years ago, overwhelming hospitals across the world, this veteran specialist has steered clear of making predictions, with COVID-19 exhausting them all.

Although more than 90 percent of Spain's population over the age of 12 has been vaccinated, it has not spared the nation from an explosion of Omicron infections, giving it one of Europe's highest incidence rates in recent weeks.

In Cataloniaone of Spain's most populous regions with 7.7 million residentsCOVID patients are taking up more than 42 percent of intensive care beds, far above the national average of around 23 percent.

And it also has the highest number of patients in critical condition, although there are hopes this wave is on the verge of peaking.

"Our medical teams are really tired, especially by the sense of uncertainty. Will this be the last wave or will there be another?" wonders Gloria Romero, head of nursing at the hospital's intermediate respiratory care unit.

"This takes a toll on healthcare professionals. How long will this situation go on?"

'It's very hard'

With 40 of its 44 beds taken up by COVID patients, the pace has not slowed at the intensive care unit of this hospital, which serves a heavily populated metropolitan area just south of Barcelona.

Inside the unit, staff suddenly start running as a patient appears to run out of air, quickly helping him.

But the work never stops in the ICU, where some 40 percent of those brought in are not vaccinated.

"The unvaccinated patients, who are the ones we're mainly dealing with, are those who are in denial about their illness and even about the treatment," says Santiago Gallego, the ICU's head nurse.

The impact on staff of working through a nearly two-year pandemic is increasingly evident, triggering unprecedented levels of stress and COVID infections, with 600 employees forced to take time off since December 1.

And given the latest explosion of cases, the hospital has also been forced to once again cancel visits, with the most seriously ill patients left to fight for their lives alone, far from their loved ones and only the staff to stay by their side.

"It's very hard physically but most of all emotionally because it just never ends," admits Elena Cabo, a physiotherapist who works in the ICU, her voice breaking with emotion.

The vaccine as key

But all the staff just keep on working in the hope that this disease will start to retreat.

"The only thing which is really effective is preventing it through vaccination, nobody can argue with the fact it's had an impact," says Manez.

And if Spain didn't have such a high rate of vaccination, "we would certainly be in a much worse state than we were two years ago," he reflects.

The nature of this sixth wave of infections has also raised long-awaited hopes that COVID-19 is starting to shift from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness like seasonal flu.

"The people that are coming in are not as young and they have more underlying health problems, so it's starting to look more like a more common virus," explains Mikel Sarasate, a pulmonologist at the intermediate respiratory care unit.

But nobody wants to get ahead of themselves or play down the severity of a virus that has killed more than 91,000 people in Spain and sickened so many.

"The flu, which is the closest thing we know, doesn't attack patients this badly or with such intensity," Sarasate says, warning about a comparison which for most specialists remains premature.

Explore further Virus surge overwhelms Barcelona hospital staff

 2022 AFP
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The COVID-19 pandemic took a deadly toll on adults in the United States for two years while largely sparing children from adding to the dire statistics.

But the rapid spread of the Omicron variant led to record pediatric infections and hospitalizations in the country, and anti-vaccination misinformation that tells parents the shots are dangerous is adding to the risk.

The chances of young people dying from COVID-19 remain low. The shots greatly reduce the odds of severe illness, and vaccinated mothers may pass protection to their babies, but vaccine hesitancy pushed online leaves both parents and children vulnerable.

From worries that the shots were developed too quickly, to false claims that the jabs can impact future fertility, physician Wassim Ballan of Phoenix Children's Hospital said combating misinformation has become part of his job.

"Unfortunately, a lot of times when we're having this time with a family to discuss these things is when the child is already in hospital," he said of the problem.

Parents need to understand that the vaccines are "the most important tool for protection," especially to avoid multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare and dangerous complication that can follow a mild COVID-19 infection.

Only 27 percent of children aged five to 11 have received a first dose of the vaccine in the United States. Hospitalizations reached a pandemic high of 914 children per day this month, up dramatically from the previous peak of 342 in September 2021.

Protection from the womb

The first week of January 2022 saw Texas Children's Hospital in Houston report 12 babies in intensive care with COVID-19.

Babies are too young for the COVID-19 shot, but Kathryn Gray, attending physician of maternal-fetal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said research increasingly shows that vaccination during pregnancy leads to antibodies safely being transferred to the baby, offering limited protection.

Expectant mothers have also shown hesitancy to get the shot after they were excluded from initial clinical trials.

Gray is among those who are monitoring the situation. "To date there have been no safety signals" in the data, she said, adding that she has "a lot of confidence" in telling patients the shot is safe during pregnancy for mother and baby.

"If they truly want to protect their infants, getting vaccinated is the thing that will protect them the most at this time."

Health agencies across the globe say the same, but the initial lack of data continues to be exploited in vaccine-opposed messaging on social media. Posts on Facebook and Twitter claimed that stillbirths rose following the push to vaccinate pregnant people, even though going unprotected against the disease is the greater risk.

Epidemiologists Carla DeSisto and Sascha Ellington from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said data from 1.2 million US births showed "no evidence the rate of stillbirths is higher overall during the pandemic."

But their research did reveal the risks of contracting the virus while pregnant.

"Compared to pregnant people without COVID-19, pregnant people with COVID-19 are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth and stillbirth," the researchers said by email.

'Unvaccinated milk'

Breastfeeding has also been the target of misinformation, with posts claiming that babies suffered rashes or even death upon nursing from a vaccinated mother.

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recommends vaccination for those who are lactating and says there is no reason to stop breastfeeding upon receiving the vaccine.

Misinformation became increasingly common in private Facebook groups where parents connect to share and sell breast milk, group moderators told AFP. In one of the largest such groups, Bethany Bristow said she was concerned by requests for "unvaccinated milk."

The New York mother, along with her fellow moderators, decided to ban such requests, and the rules for her group of more than 10,500 parents now state: "Advertising or requesting vaccine free milk puts you, your children and community at risk."

Studies are finding specific benefits of milk from a vaccinated mother, according to Laura Ward, co-director of the Center for Breastfeeding Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

"Antibodies have been detected in the breast milk of vaccinated lactating women. This means that breastfed infants may have some protection against COVID-19 if their mothers receive the vaccine," she said.

Gray agreed. "Breast milk is full of antibodies based on a person's prior exposures both to vaccines and infection. Those things don't pose a risk to infants, they're actually helpful at protecting them," she said.

"Any concerns or unknown pieces about the vaccine are dwarfed by the risk of COVID."

 2022 AFP
Social media gets an often deserved bad rap for bringing out the worst in people by, you know, oversharing about personal problems, or promulgating conspiracy theories, or fomenting insurrection against the United States of America.

But it also allows us access to interesting people with interesting questions. One of those people is novelist and writer Lynn Steger Strong (author of one of my recent favorites, Want), who shared a question in a short tweet that Ive been thinking about off and on ever since: What is a book that made you reconsider what a book can do?

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what is a book that made you re-consider what a book can do?  Lynn Steger Strong (@lynnsstrong) January 4, 2022

I think Steger was primarily considering the question from the standpoint of a writer, thinking about the way certain books will scramble your own internal aesthetics in unsettling and powerful ways, but the same question can easily apply to a reader.

In fact, reading the tweet made me feel like Id stepped into a time machine as the books that had reoriented my own sense of the world flooded through my brain. Some books simply shake you up so profoundly that youre not the same person after youve read them.

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A book from relatively early in my reading life that had a profound effect was Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, which introduced me to the difference between sadness and grief.

Id read books that had made me sad before  Old Yeller for example  but something about how Paterson sketched the dimensions of loss as experienced by Jess following the death of his best friend Leslie hit me with a depth of emotion I didnt know books could achieve. Prior to that Id looked at books as excellent, entertaining companions, but clearly this is not all they are.

"Mrs. Bridge" by Evan Connell, "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers. (Viking / HarperCollins / Vintage)

In college, at the urging of a classmate also interested in writing, I remember reading Evan Connells Mrs. Bridge, a novel about a middle-aged Kansas City housewife and the family that surrounds her. You could not craft a character further removed from the personal concerns I had at the time, and yet the novel, told in tiny vignettes where events are rendered through indirection, was as gripping as any thriller. I would not say that it was my introduction to feeling empathy, but it has been a constant reminder that everyone has a compelling story beneath their surface.

In graduate school, I recall my friend Nick shoving a photocopy of a Donald Barthelme short story called The School into my hands and saying I had to read it. It is a 1200-word antic tale of strange goings on in a grade school classroom ranging from the death of the class gerbil to the teacher making love to his assistant that somehow made the utterly familiar into something deeply strange. The absurdity of so much of our day-to-day existence became clear to me and has influenced me ever since.

Post graduate school, my friend Dave Eggers asked me to read a manuscript copy of a book he was about to publish. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius it was called, and I instantly better understood the particular wounds my Gen-X generation carries.

Most recently the book that comes to mind is Tressie McMillan Cottoms Thick, a collection of essays which challenged some of the pieties and self-satisfaction Id been carrying around about being an empathetic, good hearted liberal.

I could write a column 10 times this length and keep naming books, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Studs Terkels Working, Roots by Alex Haley.

Its sort of amazing to consider the power books have to rejigger our deepest selves. Im looking forward to the next time it happens.

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John Warner is the author of Why They Cant Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books youve read.

1. Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

2. The Promise by Damon Galgut

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3. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

4. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

5. The Trees by Percival Everett

 Jane W., Apache Junction, Arizona

Janes got a shelf of recent books not too dissimilar to my own, which makes me feel secure in recommending a book I want to make sure gets in the hands of at least one reader a year, and one that should tickle some similar fancies: Oreo by Fran Ross.

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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2. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

3. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

4. Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb

5. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

 Elizabeth S., Wellington, New Zealand

Interesting cross section of books. I think Elizabeth will connect with Jeff VanderMeers Southern Reach Trilogy, which starts with Annihilation.

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1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

3. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

5. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

 Karli G., Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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Im looking for something the feels big, but also gets intimate with its characters. Ive got it, Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

Get a reading from the Biblioracle

Send a list of the last five books youve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- There was increased use of telemedicine for surgical consults among some historically underrepresented patient groups during the second phase of the pandemic, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Chukwuma N. Eruchalu, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues examined the modality for new visits within the Division of General & Gastrointestinal Surgery occurring March 24 to June 23, 2020 (Phase I, Massachusetts Public Health Emergency) and June 24 to Dec. 31, 2020 (Phase II, relaxation of restrictions on health care operations).

The researchers identified 347 in-person and 638 virtual completed visits during Phase I. There were no significant differences in virtual compared with in-person visit use across racial/ethnic or insurance groups. Hispanic patients were less likely to have video versus audio-only visits than White patients (odds ratio [OR], 0.46). During Phase II, the researchers identified 2,922 in-person and 1,001 virtual completed visits. Black patients (OR, 1.52) were more likely to have virtual visits than White patients. There were no significant differences observed across insurance types, and among patients using virtual visits, race/ethnicity and insurance type were not significant predictors of video use.

"We can use digital health to reach populations that have historically not had optimal access to our health care system," a coauthor said in a statement. "We are doing our best to meet patients where they are, and digital tools may help us bridge that gap, if we use them responsibly."

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FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The risk for hospitalization for COVID-19 among older Americans is far higher for those who are unvaccinated than for those who are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot, new government data show.

The differences are stark: In December, unvaccinated people 50 years and older were 17 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who had completed the initial immunization series, but had not yet received a booster, according to statistics published Thursday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Among those ages 50 to 64 years, unvaccinated people were 44 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated and had a booster shot, the data showed. The risk difference was even greater among seniors: Among Americans older than 65 years, the chance of hospitalization for COVID-19 was 49 times higher for those who were unvaccinated than for those with full vaccination and a booster.

The findings suggest that booster shots provide older Americans with a significant added level of protection, according to The New York Times. These are the first real-world data on the impact of COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the United States, and they add to research from other countries showing that boosters reduce the risk for severe illness and hospitalization, especially among older adults.

When weighing booster shots for all American adults, scientific advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC repeatedly bemoaned the lack of booster shot data specific to the United States, The Times said. At that time, they only had data from Israel to analyze. But there are differences between the two countries -- most notably in the way Israel defines severe illness -- that made it hard to assess the relevance of Israeli data for Americans, the advisors said at the time.

On Friday, the agency is expected to release more recent data on the effectiveness of vaccines and boosters against the omicron variant, The Times reported.

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FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Shortages of both supplies and workers are wreaking havoc on the efforts of COVID-19 at-home test makers to deliver enough of the tests to Americans, even as the federal government pledges to provide 500 million free, at-home kits.

Like many other businesses, test kit manufacturers "have too many of their staff out with COVID. Thus, even if they have the physical capacity for production, they don't have the staff," Mara Aspinall, from Arizona State University, and colleagues wrote in a newsletter, NBC News reported. She estimated that the current total monthly capacity of U.S. rapid at-home test kit manufacturing is 260 million units per month, which is expected to rise to 355 million by February and 526 million by March.

The government's order for the free test kits is in addition to existing supply and does not interfere with existing orders, said a senior White House official, who added that four new rapid tests with high-volume production capacity have been authorized since September, NBC News reported.

On Jan. 13, the Department of Defense announced the awarding of contracts to three companies, Abbott, Roche Diagnostics, and iHealth labs, for 380 million test kits, in an "effort that supports the president's plan to deliver 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests."

Abbott has plans to "build two new U.S. manufacturing facilities, [hire] thousands of people for new jobs that pay American wages, and we continue to invest in automation to allow us to scale further," Kim Modory, Abbott senior director of public affairs for diagnostics, told NBC News. Meanwhile, Roche spokeswoman Michelle Johnson said the company will start deliveries in January and by March provide "tens of millions" of test kits. The company has invested $500 million globally to boost instrument and test machine capacity. Still, "like other companies, we've experienced our share of supply challenges," she said.

Supplies are an issue: Demand for high-quality nitrocellulose membrane, the off-white fabric that forms the COVID-19 test strip, has soared during the pandemic. Some manufacturers cited difficulties sourcing sufficient nitrocellulose supplies as an obstacle to production earlier this year, a senior administration official told NBC News.

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Here is what the editors at Physician's Briefing chose as the most important COVID-19 developments for you and your practice for the week of Jan. 17 to 21, 2022. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal studies and other trusted sources that is most likely to affect clinical practice.

Risk for Diabetes Increased for Pediatric Patients With COVID-19

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Patients aged younger than 18 years with diagnosed COVID-19 have an increased risk for newly diagnosed diabetes >30 days after acute infection, according to research published in the Jan. 14 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Blacks Increased Telemedicine Use for Surgical Consults

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- There was increased use of telemedicine for surgical consults among some historically underrepresented patient groups during the second phase of the pandemic, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

COVID-19 Rapid Test Makers Struggling to Meet Demand

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Shortages of both supplies and workers are wreaking havoc on the efforts of COVID-19 at-home test makers to deliver enough of the tests to Americans, even as the federal government pledges to provide 500 million free, at-home kits.

COVID-19 Boosters Keep Older Americans Out of Hospitals: CDC

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The risk for hospitalization for COVID-19 among older Americans is far higher for those who are unvaccinated than for those who are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot, new government data show.

One-Third of Pregnant Women Report Mental Distress During Pandemic

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly one in three pregnant women have reported elevated symptoms of mental health distress and a negative impact on health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports.

Myopia Progressed Faster in Children Under COVID-19 Lockdowns

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Myopia progressed more rapidly in schoolchildren exposed to more COVID-19-related lockdown measures, according to a study published online Jan. 14 in JAMA Network Open.

Vaccine Effectiveness Against Symptomatic COVID-19 Wanes

FRIDAY, Jan. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 decreases by 20 weeks after the second dose of BNT162b2 or CHAdOx1-S, but limited waning is seen against COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nearly Half of U.S. Adults Gained Weight During First Year of Pandemic

THURSDAY, Jan. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of U.S. adults report gaining weight during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online in the January issue of Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews.

U.S. Insurers Could Spend Millions for Ivermectin Rx for COVID-19

THURSDAY, Jan. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Insurers could prevent substantial waste by restricting prescription coverage for inappropriate use of ivermectin for COVID-19, according to a research letter published online Jan. 13 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Fourth Vaccine Dose May Up COVID-19 Immunity in Kidney Transplant Recipients

THURSDAY, Jan. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A fourth dose of an mRNA-based anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccine may increase antispike immunoglobulin G titers in kidney transplant recipients, according to a research letter published online Jan. 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

COVID-19 Proning Teams Benefit From Wound Care Specialist Nurse

THURSDAY, Jan. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The inclusion of a certified wound and skin care nurse on a multiprofessional prone-positioning team significantly reduces the odds of pressure injuries developing in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, according to a study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Critical Care.

Health Care Utilization Highest in First 30 Days After COVID-19 Diagnosis

THURSDAY, Jan. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with even nonsevere COVID-19 seek health care frequently within 30 days of diagnosis, according to a study published online Jan. 6 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

WHO Says Worst of Pandemic Could Ease This Year if Vaccine Inequities Erased

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- If COVID-19 vaccines and medicines are shared equally worldwide, the pandemic could ease this year, a top World Health Organization official said Tuesday.

Biden Plans to Send 400 Million N95 Masks to Americans for Free

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The Biden administration plans to announce Wednesday that it will send 400 million free nonsurgical N95 masks to community health centers and pharmacies across the country so more Americans can get the masks that are most protective against COVID-19.

COVID-19 Restrictions Eased in England

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Numerous COVID-19 restrictions will be dropped in England because government experts believe the omicron variant "has now peaked nationally," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday.

Racial, Ethnic Disparities Seen in mAb Treatment for COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- There are racial and ethnic disparities in receipt of monoclonal antibody treatment among patients with COVID-19, according to research published in the Jan. 14 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Cardiac Outcomes Good for Children With COVID-19-Related MIS-C

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children with COVID-19-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome have good functional recovery and coronary outcomes at three to four months, according to a study published online Jan. 19 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

AI Model May Predict COVID-19 Outcomes for Critically Ill

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News)  Using proteomics data, a machine learning model may predict survival in critically ill COVID-19 patients, according to a study published online Jan. 18 in PLOS Digital Health.

BNT162b2 Vaccine Effective Against Severe COVID-19 in Adolescents

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine are highly effective against COVID-19-related hospitalization and critical disease in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Adding a P2Y12 Inhibitor Does Not Improve Outcomes in COVID-19

TUESDAY, Jan. 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The addition of a P2Y12 inhibitor to anticoagulant therapy does not improve organ support-free days among non-critically ill patients hospitalized for COVID-19, according to a study published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

White House Launches Website for Free Home COVID-19 Tests a Day Ahead of Schedule

TUESDAY, Jan. 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- It was slated to debut on Wednesday, but the federal government quietly launched its website for Americans to order free at-home COVID-19 tests one day early.

Too Soon to Tell if Omicron Will End Pandemic: Fauci

TUESDAY, Jan. 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- It is too soon to determine whether omicron's rapid spread will turn a pandemic virus into an endemic disease, America's top infectious disease expert says.

COVID-19 Cases Surge Again in U.S. Nursing Homes

TUESDAY, Jan. 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Residents of nursing homes have been a particularly high-risk group throughout the pandemic, and the advent of the fast-spreading omicron variant has them facing another wave of infections and deaths, new data show.

COVAX Program Has Now Sent 1 Billion Vaccines to Poorer Nations

TUESDAY, Jan. 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The latest shipment of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines to Rwanda this weekend signaled a noteworthy achievement: The COVAX program, a United Nations-backed program providing poorer countries with vaccines, has now shipped 1 billion of the doses to combat COVID-19 in 144 countries.

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Did Bigfoot visit Drexel?

The Drexel community has been treated to its own live creature feature for the last two weeks. Reported sightings of a huge, furry and frightening animal have been heaped with profusion, causing speculation to run rampant throughout the area.

The creature was originally spotted two weeks ago by Deputy Joe Colvin of the Burke County Sheriffs Office. He said it was standing upright in the middle of High Peak Road as he approached it in his patrol car around 4 a.m. It had long, brownish-gray fur. Colvin said it appeared to cover its eyes with its paws to shield itself from the cars headlights before getting down on all fours and bolting off the road into the woods.

Guy Powell of the Oak Hill community also had an encounter with the creature on High Peak Road between 1:30-2 a.m. that caused him to hit the brakes and skid off the road. Powell estimated the size of the creature to be about 3 -feet wide and 7-feet tall. He said it stood upright in the middle of the road and kind of waved its funny, short paws. He lost sight of the animal while maneuvering his car back onto the road.

The News Herald staff investigated, putting in some late nights lying in wait for the mythical beast, and came to the conclusion that it was actually a large bear, not Bigfoot.

Police praised for traffic safety record

The Morganton city council recognized the citys police department for having no traffic fatalities in 1971.

State and local officials honored the Morganton Police Department for its traffic safety program with a banquet held at the local Elks Lodge.

Chief Billy Joe Hamrick credited Morgantons good record with the combined effort of citizens, city officials and police officers, as well as the skilled and studied approach now used by the department to pinpoint traffic problems and make corrections as needed. He gave special praise to Lt. Robert Dale, who is in charge of the departments traffic safety program.

Company recognizes first female employee

Welda Woodie of Morganton was recently recognized as The First Lady of Southern Devices when the company, which manufactures electrical devices, celebrated her becoming its first female employee when she was hired as an assembly line worker in 1963.

Woodie is a Banner Elk native who moved to Morganton in 1956. After working on the assembly line at Southern Devices, she was promoted though the years to line supervisor to quality control final inspector.

I like everything Ive done, Woodie said. I really wouldnt mind going back on an assembly line tomorrow.

Local soldiers squadron wins award

Staff Sgt. John E. Mace, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson W. Mace of Route 6 in Morganton, is a member of a US Air Force squadron that has won the coveted Hughes Trophy as the top fighter-interceptor unit in the Air Force for 1971.

Mace, a graduate of Morganton High School, is an education and training supervisor with the Aerospace Defense Commands 48th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The squadron is equipped with all-weather, supersonic F-106 Delta Darts, which it uses to serve as the front line of defense guarding the approaches to the US from Washington, DC, to the Florida Keys.

The unit was cited for scrambling on more than 300 missions, which included intercepting and identifying lost aircraft, foreign aircraft without proper flight clearance and even fishing vessels of foreign nations trespassing in US territorial waters.

The Hughes Trophy was donated by Hughes Aircraft Corporation in 1953 to recognize the importance of outstanding achievements in the aerospace defense mission.

Church welcomes new minister

First Presbyterian Church of Morganton wrote a new chapter Sunday in its already rich history with the installation of its new pastor, the Rev. John Milton McCoy Jr.

Dr. William Elliot Jr. from Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, headed a distinguished array of Presbyterian clergy assembled for the ceremony, which drew one of the largest crowds in the history of the congregation.

During a social event following the installation, church leaders also announced the retirement of the churchs debt, giving the congregation even more to celebrate. Robert P. Phifer presented the cancelled note to McCoy to place in the church archives.

This article is sponsored by the History Museum of Burke County, where the archives of The News Herald are stored.
The Community Foundation of Burke County announces the continuation of its scholarship program to support undergraduate and graduate students for the 2022-23 academic years.

Applicants can apply for scholarships by visiting cfburkecounty.org and clicking on the Scholarship tab. There are more than 60 scholarship opportunities available to students, and the criteria and award amounts for each scholarship opportunity can be found on the website. In 2022, four additional scholarships were added for the 2022-23 academic years.

The Erins Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by Roy and Phyllis Sweezy in memory of their daughter, Erin. This scholarship is available to Burke County graduating seniors enrolling at a North Carolina college or university who can demonstrate financial need and strong community involvement in serving people.

The Freddy G. Leger Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by the Leger family to honor the life of Freddy G. Leger, who devoted 33 years to the education of children. This scholarship will provide financial support to graduating seniors from Jimmy C. Draughn or East Burke high schools. The applicant also must have chosen to major in education or nursing.

The Gertrude Hire Scholarship Fund was established by James Sweezy to honor the life of Ms. Hire, who sought not only to educate, but also advance the lives of her students. This scholarship is available to Burke County graduating seniors who can demonstrate financial need.

The Nathan Alan Williams Scholarship Fund was established by the Williams family to honor the memory of Nathan, a 2013 graduate of Robert L. Patton High School and a student-athlete. This scholarship will provide financial resources to a graduating senior or past graduate from Patton High. The applicant must be a Patton baseball athlete or other Patton athlete who can demonstrate financial need.

Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. March 1.

For information about scholarships or questions regarding the application process, contact Nancy Taylor, the foundations president and CEO, at 828-438-7105 or nwtaylor@cfburkecounty.org.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back Friday against the uproar over a comment he made about African American voters, calling the criticism directed his way outrageous.

McConnell had been accused of racism for saying that African American voters cast ballots at similar rates to Americans. The comment implied that Black voters are somehow not American and underscored the concerns of voting rights advocates that Republicans in state legislatures across the country are explicitly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters.

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Following a speech Friday at an annual conference in Louisville, the Republican leader said he misspoke Wednesday when he made the comment during a Washington news conference.

Ive never been accused of this sort of thing before, and its hurtful and offensive, he said. And I think some of the critics know its totally nonsense.

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McConnell on Wednesday had said that African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans. McConnell explained on Friday that he should have said the word all before Americans.

He also defended his record on race by noting that he attended the Rev. Martin Luther Kings March on Washington in 1963. He also said he helped organize a civil rights march at Kentuckys state Capitol and was present when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

When asked what he would say to those who had been offended by his words, McConnell said he would discuss his record relating to voting rights, and brought up his role as a mentor to Kentuckys Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is Black and one of many Republicans who came to the minority leaders defense this week.

I think he would confirm with you that I recruited him to run. Ive supported him, and Im proud of him, McConnell said. I have had African American speechwriters, schedulers, office managers over the years.

Charles Booker, a Kentucky Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, had been among many who had blasted the Republican earlier in the week. Booker, who is Black, did not back down from criticizing McConnell on Friday.

Mitch McConnell wants you to know its fine for him to block Voting Rights because he has Black friends, tweeted Booker, who unsuccessfully ran for McConnells seat in 2020 and is challenging GOP Sen. Rand Paul this year.

McConnell tried to rebuff concerns among Democrats that GOP state lawmakers across the country are trying to disenfranchise minority voters by pointing to record-high turnout for all voters in the 2020 election.

Federal legislation like the kind he and other GOP lawmakers blocked on Wednesday also wasnt necessary, he said, because the Voting Rights Act was still law and concerns over specific state voting laws could be worked out through the court system.

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They co-opted Congressman Lewis name, stuck it on a bill that really was not related to the Voting Rights Act  in order to try to achieve a partisan advantage by federalizing election laws, McConnell said, referencing the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

The part of the bill named after Lewis, the late civil rights leader and Democratic congressman from Georgia, would have updated the Voting Rights Act and was a direct response to a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the laws oversight of states with a history of discriminating against Black and other minority voters.

___

Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
There are many dogs and cats are available for adoption at Burke County Animal Services.

Trinity Johnson, the shelter technician, wants all of the animals in the shelter to find a loving fur-ever home. These are the animals she chose to spotlight this week.

Our first dog of the week is Bully, Johnson said. Hes is a 10-month-old black Lab mix male. Bully is a very shy and gentle boy that takes a bit of time to come out of his shell. Bully loves to play outside, chew on bones and even gets along with other dogs. Bullys adoption has been sponsored, meaning there is no charge to adopt him. He would make a great family dog and is currently one of our longer shelter residents. Bully would like to get adopted as soon as possible!

All animals brought to animal services come from different backgrounds and are in different physical condition. The agencys staff works to ensure all animals are taken care of while theyre in the shelter and in preparation to be adopted into their forever homes.

Dude is the shelters second dog of the week. He is a 1- to 2-year-old brindle shepard mix male.

Dude is currently our longest dog resident at the shelter, and he is in dire need of a home before the shelter closes down for the week of the 24th, Johnson said. Dude is a great dog. He does well on a leash and opens up to new people very quickly. Dude loves to chew on bones and play with his hard chew toys; stuffed animals are no match for this guy! Despite Dude getting along with all of the adults he meets, he is not so fond with children and would do best in a home where only adults will live with him. He does get along well with other dogs and once in a home we see Dude becoming a very laidback cuddly dog.

Dude has been sponsored, meaning there is no adoption fee to adopt this sweet and handsome guy. He is up-to-date on all vaccines, flea control, dewormer, and he has already been neutered. Please come meet Dude today!

In addition to this weeks pets of the week, there are many dogs and cats are available for adoption at Burke County Animal Services.

Animal services tries to take in as many animals as it can, and with the help of foster home volunteers it is able to care for more animals.

There are different fees for those interested in adopting a dog or a cat from animal services. The adoption fee for any adult dog or puppy is $125. The adoption fee for any adult cat or kitten is $90.

All animals come up-to-date on vaccines, flea control, and deworming, as well as being spayed and neutered.

The shelter also offers foster programs for members of the community to help the animals of the shelter without having to make a lifelong commitment. Fosters are only required to give a copy of a valid ID with address and phone number and to sign their foster agreement.

Fostering is free, and animal services provides all needed supplies, including litter boxes, litter and food and the same for dogs, the agencys policy says. Crates are provided, if available. Foster parents are just asked to transport the animal either to vet appointments or back to the shelter for updated vaccines and deworming.

For more information on Bully, Peppermint or any other adoption or foster-related questions, call animal services at 828-764-9588 or visit its website at burkenc.org/animalservices. Visit its Facebook page at Burke County Animal Services for information on adoptable animals or upcoming adoption events.
One of the US Navy's most powerful weapons makes rare appearance in Guam
Africa has 357 airlines, the top 10 of which carried more than 60% of traffic. This reflects the fact that many airlines on the continent are very small: some have as few as two aircraft.

Between them the airlines carried 95 million passengers in 2019, according to Routes, an online source of information on route announcements.

Airlines operating on the continent face particular challenges.

Firstly, the industry has to contend with huge disparities in economic and air transport development. There is also an uneven distribution of international air passenger traffic across regions and within countries. The traffic is predominantly centered in a few hubs in North, East and South Africa; and in the large and medium-size cities.

Other challenges include high costs of operation, market protectionism as well as safety and security concerns.

There are very few profitable African airlines. In 2020, only the Ethiopian Airlines made a profit in the continent. And with financial woes compounded by COVID-19, it is likely many more airlines will go under.

Two of the continents biggest carriers  South African Airways and Kenya Airways  are under financial stress. Both have made significant losses over the past few years and lost market share and destinations to competition. South African Airways came close to being wound up, but for its part Kenyan Airways reported losses of $333 million for the 2020 financial year.

In November, the two national airlines signed a Strategic Partnership Framework, formalising their plan to set up a pan-African airline in 2023.

In my view the partnership will only succeed if certain conditions are met. The two most important ones are that, firstly, there must be strong national and political agreement and will. But, secondly that the tie-up must be driven by the private sector.

My recent research on Air Afriques failure found that the airline was doomed by conflicting national objectives and some of the 11 participating countries were unhappy with what they called a subordinate role.

The case for a partnership

A range of academic studies show that alliances affect the production costs of participating airlines through economies of scale (by means of joint operations of air and ground services), increased traffic density (through network expansion and additional traffic feed) and scope (through increased reach and efficient connections).

Joint ventures, have been, and will continue to be, the key in the future development of airline business. Air France and KLM are good examples why airlines are better off working together. Both have experienced significant growth since getting together in 2004.

Some of alliance arrangements may lead to a reduction in costs and increased efficiency. But they do not necessarily lead to a reduction in competition in the market.

Apart from these benefits, an alliance between South African Airways and Kenya Airways would be good for a number of reasons specific to Africa.

Firstly, it would help them overcome some of the existing market challenges, such as market access restrictions, increased competitions from major non-African airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Europeans carriers.

Secondly, the alliance could take advantage of a return to pre-COVID travel levels. The International Air Transport Association anticipates a full return to 2019 air traffic levels in late 2023.

And its estimated that air transport will grow on average by 3.2% over the next decades in Africa and by 4.8% if African States implement the Single African Air Transport Market.

Thirdly, it would enable them to create and encourage a market services specialisation among airline operators. Airlines may specialise on feeder services and fly destinations with smaller demand and catchment areas. An example of this type of specialisation include the interlining agreement between Ethiopian and Airlink.

In my view, the cooperation deal would also improve the financial viability of the two national airlines. They could pool maintenance services and reduce costs by pooling purchases, sales and financial transactions. It would boost customer volumes if cost savings were passed on to customers by means of lower fares.

Introducing services in the South African market would be a great addition for Kenya Airways and vice versa. With their hub-based model, (a hub is a central airport that flights are routed through), cooperation will help to boost the route networks of both airlines across Africa.

Why alliances fail

Many alliances dont achieve the desired outcome. Examples include KLM  Alitalia, and the European Quality Alliance which brought together Air France, SAS and Swissair.

Alliances fail for various reasons. Studies show that ineffective governance, insufficient quality of alliance members and internal competition in the alliances are the most common reasons.

Other studies show that more than 50% of strategic alliance fail due cultural differences, mistrust or poor operational integration.

In the case of Africa, the two airlines have to contend with the fact that there isnt a single African air transport market. Most of the continents 54 countries have their own national arrangements or have under-performing state-owned airlines, resulting in protectionist policies.

There is hope that this will change. The Single African Air Transport Market, which by November last year had been signed by 35 countries, envisages a share aviation space. This would enable eligible airlines from one African state to fly into another using only a prior notification procedure.

But theres a great deal of work that still needs to be done for this to become a reality.

A number of other factors could stymie the proposed alliance.

A big one is the governance structure, which is the oversight required to make and implement decisions essential to the success of an alliance. Elements of governance include legal form, communication structures, cultural differences, trust and commitment.

Yet another factor will be the extent to which the two governments allow efficient decision making to happen. Airline managers should be left to select a course of action  and then to get on with it.

This could be difficult given that the state owns substantial stakes in South African Airways; same case with Kenya Airways where the Kenyan governments share holding is 48.9%.

Other factors include trust, transparency and communication about what both airlines do together and what they dont do together. Establishing trust and ensuring that both airlines understand each others goals and objectives and that they are the same is key.

Recipe for success

A strategic alliance is similar to a marriage. In most cases there is no perfect match. To be successful partnerships must be nurtured and well managed. Mapping out all the stakeholders that are relevant to the story and are going to help the partners achieve the key performance indicators set out in the alliance is paramount.

In my opinion, setting clear performance measures is important, as they will set the partners on a path that is measurable.

Eric Tchouamou Njoya, Senior Lecturer in Air Transport, Department of Logistics, Marketing, Hospitality and Analytics, University of Huddersfield

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Now read: Real reason SAA wants Mango to flop
Amid a jump in staff and student absences during the latest surge of coronavirus cases, Napas public school network will require workers to receive full vaccination against COVID-19 by the end of March in hopes of preventing further staffing crunches in classrooms.

All seven members of the Napa Valley Unified School District board voted Thursday night to mandate that employees receive a complete series of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, as well as booster doses, and provide proof of immunization no later than March 31. The policy will apply to both full-time and part-time district staff who do in-person work within the school system, as well as interns, volunteers, contractors and others working in person.

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The mandate will place NVUSD three months ahead of a statewide school vaccination requirement for staff and students that takes effect July 1. At least 40 other California school districts already have passed such mandates for employees, students or both ahead of the state requirement, according to the CalMatters news website.

NVUSD trustees are moving ahead with the vaccine requirement as coronavirus infections reach new peaks both locally and across the U.S., driven by an Omicron variant more contagious than previous forms of the pathogen. Napa County reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections this week, and 4 COVID deaths, bringing the county death toll to 112 over the two years of the pandemic.

That wave of viral spread also has rolled into Napas public schools, which reopened Jan. 10 after a three-week recess over the Christmas and New Years seasons. In the calendar years first week of classes, NVUSD reported 281 positive tests for COVID-19, including 267 students, 1.6% of the student body of about 16,600. (By comparison, 21 people, 18 of them in-person students, tested positive during the week of Dec. 13 before campuses closed for the holidays.)

An average of 75 to 85 teachers have been absent daily since the return from the holiday break, with NVUSD turning to substitutes and district workers to keep classes running, Superintendent Rosanna Mucetti said of what she called an all-hands-on-deck approach to keeping up staffing.

Ninety-four percent of the Napa school districts employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and 81% have received booster doses, said Dana Page, the districts assistant superintendent for human resources.

Update: Napa County reports 110th death connected to COVID-19; 281 positive tests last week in Napa school district The Jan. 14 death was of a man in his 50s who lived in the city of Napa and was not vaccinated, according to a county spokesperson.

With COVID-19 squeezing school staffing and local infection rates climbing, trustee David Gracia warned that a July vaccination deadline would risk even worse staffing shortages for 2022-23.

The July 1 mandate is just not sufficient time for this district to fill the necessary positions for the coming school year, he said before the vote. This mandate comes from the governor; we are choosing to implement it a few months early, so we do not jam up our HR department. Otherwise we may have serious staffing shortages, which will hurt our students and families.

Under the NVUSD policy, workers must verify their inoculation in one of three ways  a copy of their vaccination record card, documentation from a health care provider, or a copy of a digital vaccination record, containing a scannable QR code, provided by the state Department of Public Health.

Employees may apply in writing for an exemption to the vaccination requirement based on medical grounds or religious beliefs. The policy states that NVUSD can seek accommodations that do not pose an undue hardship on its finances and operations, or endanger the health of others. The assistant superintendent for human resources will rule on such requests on a case-by-case basis.

Those whose exemption requests are denied will be required to receive regular COVID-19 testing at least once a week and possibly as frequently as every work day. Workers without an exemption who decline vaccination may be put on unpaid leave, terminated or receive another outcome, based on the districts agreements with labor unions.

Nearly a dozen audience members on the meetings Zoom videoconference spoke out against requiring district staff to vaccinate, attacking the efficacy of immunization or asserting that citizens medical rights must come first. One local teacher, Laura Jones, predicted four of her friends in NVUSD would leave their jobs rather than follow the mandate.

After hearing about this mandate, it seems to me the reason has nothing to do with protecting anyone but to get teachers back into classrooms sooner. This is an absurd reason to take away medical rights, said Jones, a middle school math teacher in the district.  Mandating boosters wont fix it. We are losing quality teachers because of this mandate. It is not aligned with a single federal, state or local health (guidance).

Another opponent predicted even worse short-staffing if teachers and other workers leave NVUSD over a vaccine requirement. After the March 31 deadline, what happens  (do we) disrupt classes even more by bringing in even more substitutes? said Kelsey Hunsaker.

Napa County sees post-holiday COVID-19 testing demand surge As coronavirus cases have zoomed upward in Napa County in recent weeks, so has the demand for diagnostic tests.

Such pushback failed to sway board members away from supporting a vaccination requirement, and trustee Cindy Watter singled out for criticism one speaker who cited the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in opposing vaccine mandates.

I am sorry to hear Dr. Kings words being used to support something that is everything he wasnt, said Watter, a former Napa High School teacher. He wasnt a selfishly individualistic person; he was about community and our helping each other.

Even if Napa Countys death toll is a fraction of the losses in other communities, she added, to the families of those who do fall ill its not an only, its important. I dont want us to be hard-hearted; I want us to care about each other. I wish people would get their vaccinations, so we can stop this thing. And I am sorry it has come to this.

NVUSD has not announced an early vaccination mandate for its students, but has offered weekly COVID-19 testing. The district also set up drive-through stations in Napa and American Canyon to distribute free, state-supplied at-home coronavirus testing kits to students in the days before classes resumed earlier this month.

Across much of California, the reopening of schools from winter break has been plagued with widespread absences as COVID-19 cases mount.

Infection rates among students and staff are at all-time highs at many school districts. At Simi Valley Unified in Southern California, positivity rates among students went from below 1% to 6.5% in the past month. Just in the past two weeks at school districts across California, the numbers of positive COVID-19 cases have tripled over what they were before Omicron became the dominant coronavirus strain starting late last year.

Simi Valley schools last week only had enough substitutes to replace about half the teachers who stayed home after testing positive for the virus. Campuses across Kern County are closing due to staff shortages.

Three Oakland schools shuttered Tuesday amid the third teacher sickout in as many weeks; educators said they called in sick in solidarity with students who planned to boycott in-person classes for the rest of the week due to allegedly insufficient safety protocols.

Hayward Unified in the East Bay reverted to mostly remote instruction for a week before reopening campuses on Tuesday, although the district provided six in-person learning hubs for students unable to participate in virtual learning.

Information from CalMatters was used in this report.

You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com

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A Napa County Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling that, if it stands, would mean the long-running Mountain Peak winery saga will continue.

The county Board of Supervisors in 2017 approved building the proposed winery near the end of Soda Canyon Road northeast of the city of Napa. Some Soda Canyon residents under the name Soda Canyon Group sued the county.

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The case involves the increasingly contentious issue of how Napa County handles proposed wineries targeted for more remote locations, away from the Napa Valley floor.

Judge Cynthia Smith on Wednesday issued a tentative ruling in favor of opponents who want an environmental impact report done. She wrote that they made a fair argument that the project could affect surface water, biological resources, groundwater, traffic, and safety.

If a lead agency is presented with a fair argument that a project may have a significant effect on the environment, it must prepare an environmental impact report. That's true even if there's also evidence that the project will not have a significant effect, Smith said in the tentative opinion.

The fair argument standard has been called a low threshold test for the requirement of an agency to prepare an EIR, she wrote.

Napa County had a traffic study, groundwater study, and other studies done for the project, but not a more involved environmental impact report.

Smith held a hearing on Thursday in the old county courthouse to hear from the two sides. Napa County and Mountain Peak Winery attorneys tried to change her mind before she issues a final ruling.

Our position is the county rigorously imposed appropriate conditions, said attorney Brien McMahon on behalf of Mountain Peak Winery.

Mountain Peak Winery is to produce up to 100,000 gallons of wine annually and have up to 14,000 visitors annually. It would be located more than six miles up Soda Canyon Road in the mountains.

One point of contention is Soda Canyon Road. Opponents say that narrow, winding roads cannot safely handle winery traffic.

Attorney Anthony Arger on behalf of the Soda Canyon Group pointed to the 2017 Atlas Fire that burned Soda Canyon. He described how a fallen tree over Soda Canyon Road hindered evacuation as people fled for their lives.

The Mountain Peak side said the winery would generate a peak of five or six vehicles per hour. There is no evidence the winery would degrade existing conditions.

Napa Deputy County Counsel Jason Dooley also pointed to a county condition of approval that would limit use of the winery during red flag fire conditions.

Another issue is whether soils that would come from excavating for wine caves could erode during rains. The Mountain Peak side pointed to county erosion control policies. The Soda Canyon Group said two million cubic feet of cave spoils would be on the property near seasonal streams.

Dooley explained why be thought the Soda Canyon Group had failed to make its case.

They do not make the analytical connection between the project itself and the impacts the project would have on the environment, Dooley said.

Attorney Mark Wolfe for the Soda Canyon Group said doing an environmental impact report would not necessarily mean the winery project would never happen. There would be more study and maybe the winery proponents could do mitigations.

What happens next is up to Smith. She said she would take the points made on both sides over more than two hours under submission.

Mountain Peak Winery would be located at 3265 Soda Canyon Road.

You can reach Barry Eberling at 256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com.

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Estate Yountville sold in December for $356.4 million, making it the most expensive hotel property sale to date in the Valley.

Brookfield Asset Management sold the property to Boardwalk Investments Yountville LLC of Newport Beach.

Its rare in the real estate business to find an asset like this in a town like Yountville, Gary Jabara, manager of Boardwalk Investments Yountville LLC, said on Wednesday.

"Youre not going to see another project like this in Yountville ever.

To Jabara, We have an opportunity here to have the most amazing five-star boutique experience in the Valley  and we will."

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The $356 million sold price includes the resort property and improvements, but also significant inventory, several vehicles, business goodwill and other intangible property, as well as two liquor licenses, said a statement from Boardwalk Investments Yountville LLC.

Estate Yountville includes two hotels on 22 acres.

The Vintage Inn at 6541 Washington St. was built in 1985 and offers 80 rooms. The Villagio Inn & Spa, at 6481 Washington St., was built in 1998 and offers 112 rooms. The retail complex is also part of the sale.

Ive been coming to Yountville for 40 years, said Jabara. I love Yountville.

To Jabara, Yountville is the culinary capital of the Valley. Its the Carmel of Napa Valley.

Jabara said hes already working on plans for the project.

I have aspirations," for Estate Yountville, he said. I am not at all happy the way its been managed previously and branded previously, he said. Under his ownership, Youre going to see a lot of care and attention taken to this place.

Jabara said his goal is to be the friendliest hotel in the Valley and to really integrate the hotel complex with the town of Yountville.

What does he think about hearing his purchase is the highest yet recorded in Napa Valley?

I think its good to set a new bar, said Jabara. I also think its inherent upon us to make it as fantastic as it can be because I have invested that much money.

He noted that hes not a developer. I own and hold," properties. "This is a legacy purchase. Were going to be there a very long time.

Hotel and commercial real estate expert Alan X. Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group said that this deal, together with the sale of the Four Seasons Calistoga (sold in November for $175 million) shows the very high values buyers are putting on quality hotels in prime locations with extremely high barriers to entry.

Four Seasons Napa Valley resort sells for near-record price In a $175 million deal, the recently opened resort at 400 Silverado Trail in Calistoga, also known as Four Seasons Napa Valley, will soon be under new ownership.

Buyers are looking long term and they view the Napa Valley as a highly desirable market, said Reay.

Joe Fischer of Strong & Hayden commercial real estate said he was not surprised about the Yountville deal.

The previous owner poured a huge amount of money into renovating the rooms and amenities of the resort, noted Fischer. The town of Yountville and the Valley is a winner in this sale.

"You continue to have owners that will pour their time and energy into enhancing the experience of the visitors that come to the Valley that really represent the life blood of our two primary economic drivers  wine and hospitality.

The purchase also underlines the fact that the Napa Valley remains a great place for hoteliers to invest their money, said Fischer. As we have moved through the COVID crisis, Napa Valleys hospitality industry has rebounded remarkably  better than any other place in California.

Boardwalk Investments Group is not new to Yountville. In 2019, the company paid $110 million to buy the Restoration Hardware complex at 6711 and 6725 Washington St. in Yountville as well as properties in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Corona Del Mar.

Estate Yountville previously sold for $100 million in 2013 and $197 million in 2016.

Yountvilles Vintage Estate complex to get new owner Younvtilles Vintage Estate, which includes the V Marketplace, Vintage Inn and Villagio Inn & Spa, will soon have a new owner.

The most expensive hotel sale record may not stand for long. Napas Meritage Resort and Spa and Vista Collina property is currently for sale. An asking price was not disclosed but hotel industry experts estimated that it could bring as much as $500 million.

Editors note: additional information about the price of the resort has been added. Gary Jabaras title has been clarified.

You can reach reporter Jennifer Huffman at 256-2218 or jhuffman@napanews.com

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A bald eagle loses grasp of its catch on the Mississippi River at Lock and Dam 18 near Gladstone, Illinois on Jan. 21, 2022. Drawn to unfrozen stretches of river the eagles can be seen by the dozens on the Mississippi River in January and February, fishing for their meals and perching in bare trees. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Humans arent the only ones who search out warmer waters and fresh seafood during the dark days of winter.

Some bald eagles head south as well, departing from Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin for the (relatively) balmy temperatures of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

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Drawn to unfrozen stretches of river, the majestic visitors  marked by snow-white heads, lemon-yellow beaks and wingspans of up to 8 feet  can be seen by the dozens on the Mississippi River in January and February, fishing for their meals and perching in bare trees.

You dont just see an eagle in its natural habitat  you (can sometimes) see 50 or 100. Sometimes even more than that, said American Birding Association webmaster Greg Neise, who has been birding in Chicago since the 1970s. They gather in these big flocks around the dams.

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Prime eagle-viewing season is now underway, both on the Mississippi and on smaller Illinois rivers, with events such as the annual Great River Eagles Days in Quincy on Saturday and Sunday. There are also options for those who want to try eagle-spotting on the Fox and Des Plaines rivers, check out the most popular site for local viewing, or drive three to four hours in search of a spectacle.

Starved Rock State Park in Utica is Neises top pick for beginner eagle-spotting in the Chicago area. Located 94 miles southwest of the city, Starved Rock offers the chance to hike 0.3 miles up 65 steps to a good viewing point high above the Illinois River. If you have binoculars, bring them, and wear hiking shoes. The trail can be icy. Another option is the elevated deck at the Illinois Waterway Visitors Center, just across the river from the park.

You can get a pretty good view of eagles fishing, Neise said.

Last week, Starved Rock counted more than 26 eagles, according to Lisa Sons, a natural resources coordinator for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The park has resident eagles as well as winter visitors, and all are drawn to the churning pockets of open water created by the Starved Rock Lock and Dam.

Its kind of like a free fish buffet, Sons said.

There are no guarantees when it comes to eagle viewing, but in January the odds are good at Starved Rock, Sons said: Especially with these colder temperatures that are happening this week, youll see at least one. If not, youre not looking hard enough.

For those with accessibility issues, theres a drive along the river from the Starved Rock boat ramp to the main parking lot; look for eagles perched on tall cottonwood and sycamore trees. Theres also a stationary viewing scope beside the river, just across the lawn from the visitors center.

For those willing to travel to the Mississippi, where eagles are even more plentiful, resources such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District eagle count webpage  detailing the number of birds counted each Wednesday at various locations along the Mississippi River  remove some of the guesswork.

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Lock and Dam 16, 17 and 18 are seeing numbers in the hundreds, said Bailey Anderegg, a park ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Lock 18, about 240 miles southwest of Chicago in Burlington, Iowa, has seen particularly high numbers, she said. On Jan. 19, rangers counted 290 adult eagles and 166 juveniles.

This is starting to be peak eagle season, so you will start seeing more and more as we get into the end of January, the beginning of February. Thats typically when we see our biggest numbers, said Anderegg.

A bald eagle loses grip of its catch on the Mississippi River at Lock and Dam 18 near Gladstone, Illinois, on Jan. 21, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Lock 13, which is closer to Chicago in Fulton, Illinois, is also attracting eagles, with 38 adults counted by park rangers on Jan 19.

Lock 14 near Le Claire, Iowa, is a big favorite among birding clubs and photographers, due to an island that allows viewers to get closer to the birds, Neise said. In 2017, Lock 14 made an Audubon magazine list of five eagle-photography hot spots nationwide.

A lot of people say thats the best place (for eagle viewing) within striking distance of Chicago, Neise said.

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But Lock 14 isnt attracting eagles in large numbers at this point, with the latest Army Corps of Engineers count yielding only 17 adult birds.

Eagles are a big conservation success story, both for Illinois and the nation. Habitat destruction and hunting took a heavy toll on the birds, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. And after World War II, the pesticide DDT interfered with the bald eagles ability to produce sturdy eggs, causing further decline.

By 1963, there were only 417 known nesting pairs of bald eagles in the low 48 states, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and 10 years later the birds were classified as endangered throughout most of the country. But the eagles have bounced back, with the aid of federal law prohibiting eagle hunting and a ban on DDT. There are now an estimated 316,700 bald eagles in the lower 48 states, and the birds are a fairly common sight in the Chicago area.

Along the Fox River, almost any dam with open water will draw a few eagles this time of year, Neise said.

On the Des Plaines River, look, again, for open water. Theres an eagles nest near Lyons, less than a mile from a rocky area of the Des Plaines River where the water is slow to freeze, Neise said. If the rocky area  just north of the intersection of Joliet Avenue and Ogden Avenue  remains unfrozen, the Lyons eagle pair may try to fish there.

Theyre an opportunistic bird of prey  and theyre quite lazy, to be honest, said Sons. So theyre going to go wherever theres the best source of food and its easiest to catch.

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nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com
California teens could get vaccinated against parents' wishes under a proposed law introduced Thursday.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said his proposal, Senate Bill 866, was spurred by parents who won't let their kids get the COVID-19 vaccine.

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It would allow people 12 and older to get any kind of vaccine without parental permission. Currently, children over 12 can get HPV and hepatitis B vaccines without parents' permission, but that rule does not extend to other vaccines.

"We have almost a million 12-17 year-olds who are not vaccinated, and many want to be but their parents won't let them or aren't prioritizing getting them the vaccine," Wiener said. "I think it's outrageous that a parent would block their child from getting a vaccine that could save their life."

Children and teens are much less likely than older adults to get very ill or die from the coronavirus, but they can fall seriously ill or die in rare cases. Studies show COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in preventing severe illness or death from the virus.

Wiener's proposal is the first major vaccine-related bill introduced so far this year in the California Legislature, although a group of lawmakers is also working on other vaccine proposals. Under consideration are workplace vaccine requirements, as well as the possibility of eliminating a personal belief exemption from the state's current student vaccine mandate, which Gov. Gavin Newsom issued last year but hasn't yet taken effect.

Vaccine legislation has been extremely controversial in the past. In 2019, demonstrators packed the halls of the Capitol in protest of a bill to crack down on exemptions to childhood vaccinations. One anti-vaccine protester temporarily shut down the state Senate on the last night of the legislative session by throwing a menstrual cup of blood on lawmakers.

Already, lawmakers are bracing for more protests over the vaccine bills they plan to debate this year, which several said they expect to be even larger than in years past, given the high-profile controversy over COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

Wiener's bill would apply only to vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including shots approved for emergency use.

Ani Chaglasian, a 17-year-old working with Wiener's office to promote the legislation, said she lost her jobs at local hospitals taking calls for a teen crisis hotline and working as a scribe because her mom wouldn't let her get the COVID-19 vaccine or the flu shot. She also had to stop playing water polo because she wasn't vaccinated.

She's since gotten vaccinated against the coronavirus, but not against the flu.

"So many kids are struggling because of anti-vax parents who aren't listening to science," she said.

She says the issue is particularly relevant in the Los Angeles area where she lives. Los Angeles Unified School District has imposed its own vaccine mandate for students, which could force unvaccinated students from attending classes.

Roughly 64% of people ages 12-17 are vaccinated against COVID-19, a lower rate than for adults.

Meanwhile, California is experiencing a surge in cases driven by the omicron variant. About one in five tests taken in the state comes back positive for the virus, according to state data.

Case rates are starting to taper down, but Newsom noted that hospitals are still strained by an influx of patients and encouraged people to get their booster shots.

"I'm starting to feel a little bit more optimism," Newsom said during a Thursday stop in Los Angeles. "Let's hold the line. Those that haven't been boosted, get boosted. Those haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated."

To become law, Wiener's bill needs to pass both houses of the Legislature and secure Newsom's signature.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
For the U.S. wine industry as a whole, the year 2020 was the most difficult year since Prohibition, according to wine analyst Rob McMillan.

Contrast that to 2021, when 58 percent of wineries surveyed said they had a good year, or one of our better years. Additionally, 29 percent said 2021 was the best year in our history.

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McMillan said, Thats remarkable to me because of the challenges weve had to deal with, including supply chain, pandemic, labor, reopening and closing, and closed restaurants. During a recent videoconference, he added, Its been so awesome to see how the industry has reacted to daunting challenges.

McMillan, founder and executive vice president of the wine division at Silicon Valley Bank, based in St. Helena, released his 2022 State of the Wine Industry Report on Jan. 19. Joining McMillan were Paul Mabray, CEO of Pix, Danny Brager, owner of Brager Beverage Alcohol Consulting, and Dale Statton, Wine Market Council president.

To succeed in the wine industry, whether you were in Virginia, New York, California, or Texas, McMillan said, You had to be in the right (sales) channels and if you were, you had awesome results or potentially awesome results. In the past two years, sales growth ranged from minus 6/10ths of a percent in 2020 to plus 21 percent through September 2021.

One of the right channels for sales growth was online Internet sales and e-commerce sales, which increased 146 percent from 2020 to 2021. Looking across the alcohol market, Brager said, wine has two-thirds of the e-commerce dollars across beer, wine, and spirits. Thats an area of strength of wine that we went to protect, defend and grow, he added.

Brager said COVID-19 accelerated a trend of buying wine online that had already started before March 2020. To some extent, people found out things they didnt know before. They might not have known they could buy alcohol online. If you look at the growth of e-commerce online and the growth of the number of people buying online, they go hand in hand, Brager said.

Looking at the numbers, e-commerce wine sales in 2021 went from 1.5 percent of sales in 2019 to 10 percent in 2021. Thats a trend thats not going to reverse, its going to continue, he added.

For almost all wineries, the report states the best solution to increase Internet and e-commerce sales is increased attention to and investment in the multitude of digital opportunities in data, streaming, and e-commerce. Examples include:

 Getting digital exposure to new consumers who live elsewhere and dont know you;

 Finding ways to encourage those consumers to join your wine club via digital means;

 Building your brand regionally by offering experiences away from the winery, including a digital component. Zoom is just one tool for that.

Mabray said one of the greatest outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic was the adaptability of the wineries and their resilience of change that hadnt been there before.

He added the wineries are investing in digital, using new methodologies for wine clubs and Direct to Consumer sales. Digital has been unbelievably challenging for them to learn in a short amount of time. I think were seeing a whole level of sophistication around employee training, e-wholesale, marketing, etc.

The wineries are adapting and changing because of consumers behaviors: buying everything online, including alcoholic beverages, including fine wines. Online sales are going to increase, not only because of consumer demand, but the investment coming from wineries and vendors to make it easier, better, faster, Mabray said.

Challenges seen ahead

The 66-page report details the challenges and future outlook for the industry as a whole. The U.S. wine industry had pockets of success in 2021, but its increasingly obvious that wine as a product has lost the luster it once had with the consumer 20 years ago and is probably entering a phase of negative volume growth, according to the report. Consumers, except those who are baby boomers, drink across the categories including beer, spirits, spiked seltzers, and other alcoholic beverages, in addition to fine wines.

Under the title heading of Demographics and marketing, the report states: The U.S. wine industry isnt doing a good enough job of marketing and selling its product, often remaining wedded to successful strategies from the past while the culture, country, business environment and consumer has radically evolved. Its flat-out not good enough, and the overall industry results show it.

Other challenges include:

 The aging of baby boomers, those from 57 to 74 years old, who are spending less and drinking fewer fine wines than before;

 Anti-alcohol messages from modern-day prohibitionists;

 Higher prices charged for wine in restaurants that make wine more expensive per serving than other alcoholic beverages;

 Changed values of the next generations from Millennials, age 41-56, to Gen Zers, ages 21-24), who drink across all the alcohol categories. Millennials arent engaging in wine, instead preferring premium spirits and craft beers, which have a better value per serving. Their preferences will have a greater impact over the next decade unless the industry changes the way it markets to younger consumers, according to the report.

 A lack of leadership within the wine industry to counter these trends and cooperate to form a marketing organization to promote the wine category.

Top-level forecasts

The 2022 State of the Wine Industry Report makes Top-Level forecasts, including one for restaurants and one for wineries in the West.

Restaurants, first: The restaurant industry will likely continue to decline in its importance to the wine industry as a viable sales channel due to overpricing on the menu and consumers who value other alcoholic beverages over wine. Restaurants may find that wine is not in demand at the prices charged and that the cost to maintain deep stocks of wine is becoming senseless.

Next for wineries in the western United States, the impact of the drought will likely become a focal point of industry discussions and planning in 2022, particularly if there isnt substantial rain and snow before the spring in California. With increasing climate impacts from drought, fire, low soil moisture, and record low reservoir levels, there will be even more pressure for agriculture and residential users to share limited water.
Pikeville, KY (41501)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 72F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low near 55F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Copper price is stable

No new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

American Armenian youth hold protest rally outside Armenia embassy in Washington

Gold is getting cheaper

U.S.-Armenia Strategic Dialogue issues joint statement

Newspaper: Armenia Patrol Guard Service head to be summoned to Investigative Committee to give explanation

Armenia parliament regular sittings continue

Newspaper: Armenia opposition members falling into National Security Service trap by opening links

Civil disobedience protests resume in Yerevan

Earthquake shakes Armenia-Georgia border zone

Mark Milley: Potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing

EU: Poland fines in rule of law dispute now top $170 million

Putin and Lukashenko discuss ongoing situation

Greece and Bulgaria say new LNG terminal will help reduce dependence on Russia

German vice chancellor calls for rapid construction of LNG terminals

Rally of Resistance Movement takes place in France Square

Robert Kocharyan takes part in opposition march

Mario Draghi calls on EU to abandon requirement of unanimity in making foreign policy decisions

Finland and Sweden not yet decided whether to join NATO

Croatian president uses veto power to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO

Slovakia will seek exemption from the EU embargo on Russian oil imports

NEWS.am digest: Blinken meets Mirzoyan in US, people detained during protests in Yerevan

Turkish Foreign Ministry on meeting of special envoys in Vienna

Opposition rally in central Yerevan starts with Sirusho's performance

Italy to face serious issues in winter if Russian gas supplies are cut off now

Johnson announces new military aid to Ukraine in amount of 300 million euros

Resistance Movement rally on France Square in Yerevan

EU hopes to adopt sixth round of sanctions against Russia at next EU Council meeting

Peaceful rallies of disobedience held in Spitak

Spain extends OVID-19 entry restrictions

Vayk joins demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation

Putin and Macron discuss Ukraine

Citizens demanding Pashinyan's resignation block road from Vayots Dzor to Yerevan

Peaceful rallies of disobedience held in Vanadzor demanding PM's resignation

Citizens demanding Pashinyan's resignation block Gyumri-Yerevan highway

Sirusho: Today I will join our compatriots in France Square

Third meeting of Armenia and Turkey special representatives held in Vienna

Dollar rises slightly after long decline, euro also goes up in Armenia

Civil disobedience actions in regions: Yerevan-Goris highway blocked

Azerbaijan settling occupied Armenian Hadrut, Shushi cities of Artsakh

New colors and new services: Team Telecom Armenia completes rebranding

Armenia legislature speaker receives France-Armenia Friendship Group delegation

France senator: We are leaving for Armenia with Senate group

Putin signs decree on economic measures against unfriendly countries

Armenia legislature speaker: Authorities have repeatedly proposed dialogue to opposition

Backpack action of protest being held outside Armenia parliament (PHOTOS)

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD statement does not correspond to reality

Armenia defense minister receives Kansas National Guard delegation

Armenia Police: Yerevan-Sevan motorway reopened

Ned Price: Mirzoyan-Blinken meeting will launch US-Armenia strategic dialogue

Mirzoyan, Nuland discuss Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement process

Civil disobedience actions are carried out in some Armenia cities

Armenia 2nd-President Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM and now lawmaker Gevorgyan trial to resume

Pashinyan to Morawiecki: This year we mark 30th anniversary of Armenia-Poland diplomatic relations

No new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia Central Bank leaves refinancing rate unchanged at 9.25%

Demonstrators demanding PM Pashinyan's resignation block Sevan-Yerevan motorway

Police: 117 demonstrators apprehended in Yerevan

Kansas National Guard leadership visiting Armenia

Bloomberg: EU new gas partners

Armenian member of Turkey legislature says he was thrown at table of wolves

Italian PM slams Lavrov for his 'Hitler' statements in interview with local television

South Korea and US plan to start air force exercises on May 9

Police special forces apprehend Armenia ex-president Robert Kocharyans son

Police: 70 people apprehended from Yerevan streets

World Press Freedom Index 2022: Journalism as a profession is humiliated in Armenia

Newspaper: Armenia ruling party MPs are worried

Borrell speaks on possible disconnection from SWIFT of new Russian banks

Cyprus becomes first EU country with full 5G coverage

Police apprehending participants of civil disobedience actions in Yerevan

State Department: Deepening US-Armenia cooperation in nuclear energy will strengthen bilateral relations

Peaceful disobedience actions resume in Yerevan early morning

Mirzoyan: Armenia appreciates US support for developing energy sector

Blinken underscores US commitment to help Armenia, Azerbaijan find sustainable peace, prosperity

Eurozone economic sentiment falls much more than expected in April

Apple faces big fine

Armenia ex-president joins discussion in France Square

Poland wants the EU to set a clear date for stopping Russian oil imports

Armenia FM meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Armenia FM meets with Director of USAID Samantha Power

Ann Linde says Finland will almost certainly apply for NATO membership

Police beat reporters, obstruct their work in Yerevan

European Commission may relieve Hungary, Slovakia of embargo on Russian oil purchase

Resistance Movement to continue large-scale civil disobedience actions on 3 May in Yerevan and regions

EU countries to continue to pay in euros or dollars for Russian gas

Resistance Movement participants return to France Square

Russian and Turkish defense ministers discuss current situation in Ukraine

Ukrainian intelligence accuses Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan of helping Russia evade Western sanctions

NEWS.am digest: Turkey says they have agreements with Armenia on border clarification

Toivo Klaar informs about meeting of Armen Grigoryan and Hikmet Hajiyev in Brussels

PACE initiates resolution on threats to journalists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan

Diplomat kidnapped in Haiti

Hungarian president asks Orban to form new government

Georgia PM hands over first part of questionnaire answers for accession to EU

Resistance Movement participants march in central Yerevan

Half of Japanese oppose change of peaceful constitution

Resistance movement rally on France Square in Yerevan

Blinken and Armenia FM sign memorandum on strategic cooperation in nuclear energy

Another earthquake registered on Armenian-Georgian border

FLYONE ARMENIA launches regular direct flights between Yerevan and Tbilisi
As of 11:00 on Saturday, 940 new cases of coronavirus infection were registered in Armenia, the total number of infected reached 350,897, Armenian News-NEWS.am was informed by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia.

The total number of tests carried out is 2,669,792, of which 5,812 were over the past day. In fact, 7,242 patients are currently being treated.

According to the latest data, 334,109 people have recovered, over the past day - 127.

No deaths from coronavirus have been reported.
Rural tourism flourishes in China

10:47, January 22, 2022 By Wang Ke, Pan Junqiang ( People's Daily

Rural tourism, which is gaining increasing popularity in China, has not only offered people great options to spend holidays and enriched their choices for short-distance trips and day trips, but also become a key force for driving consumption at county and township levels and the recovery of the countrys tourism market.

Grasping the new demands in tourism consumption, various Chinese cities have launched a good number of premium rural tour routes, spurring high-quality development of rural tourism.

Photo taken on Oct. 4, 2021 shows motorhomes parked at a camping site in Zhongfen village, Suncun township, Wuhu city, east Chinas Anhui province. (Photo by Xiao Benxiang/Peoples Daily Online)

Last year, rural tourism in China witnessed a significant increase in the proportion of young people born after 1990 and 2000 in its group of tourists, with the number of post-2000s travelers rising 17 percent year on year, suggested data from online Chinese travel agency LY.com.

In provincial-level regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, mini-vacations in the countryside on weekends have become an important choice for urban residents, according to LY.com.

It feels great to get away from the city noises and enjoy the primitive simplicity of the village with my child, said Li Tang, a tourist from Chaoyang district, Beijing, who took a short-distance tour to Cuandixia village, an ancient village in Zhaitang township, Mentougou district of Beijing.

Tourists enjoy themselves in an ecological park in Yanhu district, Yuncheng city, north Chinas Shanxi province, Sept. 29, 2021. (Photo by Jiang Hua/Peoples Daily Online)

Based on its distinctive style and features, Cuandixia village has specially designed ancient village-themed sightseeing routes, offering both fun and meaningful experience to tourists, Li said.

With zigzag ancient streets and lanes, well-arranged quadrangle courtyards and folk houses, as well as unique folk customs and traditional culture, Cuandixia village has attracted many tourists.

The local government is making efforts to seek better use of idle houses to develop high-quality B&B hotel business, according to Jin Weihua, mayor of Zhaitang township.

The township aims to create premium tourism routes and provide better tourism experience for tourists while protecting the traditional village, Jin said.

Photo taken on Sept. 26, 2021 shows tourists taking photos in a sea of pink flowers in Dongshan village, Tangxi township, Ningbo city, east Chinas Zhejiang province. (Photo by Zheng Kaixia/Peoples Daily Online)

Sanhe village, a small village in Xindu district, Chengdu city, southwest Chinas Sichuan province, has also ridden on the boom in rural tourism and become a popular tourist destination.

After walking down the main road of the village, which has well-designed green belt on one side and neatly-arranged restaurants of various styles on the other, tourists can see a row of globular white tents surrounded by green trees. They are the rooms of the popular local B&B hotel that offer tourists a good view of the starry sky at night.

Customers need to make reservations many days in advance to get one, according to a staff member of the hotel.

Eight years ago, I wouldnt believe it if someone told me our village would become so beautiful one day, said Tan Jie, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) general branch of Sanhe village, while looking at the unsurfaced roads of the village in photos taken in 2013 before the village was transformed.

From an ordinary little village into a well-known tourist destination, Sanhe has made great efforts to develop rural tourism, according to Tan.

The village has sorted out and integrated 63 sites with resources of the distinctive local ecosystem featuring the organic integration of rural residences and surrounding trees, bamboo groves, rivers, farmland and other elements of the natural environment, and introduced 24 music-themed cultural and creative projects as well as five high-quality B&B businesses.

By holding activities such as music festivals and concerts of folk songs and folk music, the village attracts more than 200,000 visitors a year, who bring to the village over 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) in consumption growth.

Thanks to its great advantages in the market, industrial vitality, and important role in driving the development of related industries, rural tourism has achieved notable results in boosting employment, improving living environment, stimulating digital transformation, and improving infrastructure in villages across the country.

Rural tourism can promote continuous improvement in the infrastructure and public services of villages, raise local residents awareness of the protection of natural and cultural environment, and further improve rural development environment, said Wu Liyun, associate professor at China Academy of Culture and Tourism under Beijing International Studies University.

Tourists in Hanfu, the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group, have fun at the opening ceremony of a rural tourism festival held in Duntou township, Haian city, east Chinas Jiangsu province, Oct. 23, 2021. (Photo by Zhai Huiyong/Peoples Daily Online)

Meanwhile, the prosperity of rural tourism can motivate young people working in urban areas to return to their hometowns to start their own businesses or find a new job near their homes, thus boosting the development of rural economy and solving the problem of hollow village, according to Wu.

As China witnesses fast upgrading of domestic demands for tourism consumption, rural tourism is also responding to the changing demands of tourists. Local governments are intensifying efforts to deepen the integration of rural tourism and various industries, online and offline services, develop more new products, new forms of business, and new tourism experiences, and provide more high-quality services for tourists to stimulate the development of rural areas.

(Web editor: Liu Ning, Bianji)
In the 1960s, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spent much time visiting  and at one point renting a home in  Chicago to help with open housing initiatives and the civil rights movement in the city. Here, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta pose with neighborhood children in their new apartment at 1550 S. Hamlin in Chicago on Jan. 26, 1966. (Tom Kinahan / Chicago Tribune)

Going into her Martin Luther King Jr. holiday speech at the Union League Club this week, 1619 Project journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones stepped to the podium knowing her words wouldnt be welcome by at least some club members critical of her famed history project with The New York Times.

In emails circulating online, one member of the storied 143-year-old civics organization had called Hannah-Jones a discredited activist who was the wrong choice to speak about Kings legacy, while a second member was generally critical of her involvement in the controversial history project and 2021 book that reexamined the beginnings of the country through the gaze of slavery. Both claimed Hannah-Jones mischaracterized King.

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But Hannah-Jones had a plan. She began with a more revolutionary and activist stance on topics such as Black empowerment, white apathy and inaction by moderate whites. Finally about halfway through her speech, she dropped a bombshell: her words were direct quotes from King, stunning her audience of club members and visitors, according to several people who attended the event.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones in New York on Dec. 10, 2021. Hannah-Jones gave a speech on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Chicago's Union League Club on Monday. (Robert Bumsted / AP)

Hannah-Jones recounted the event in a series of tweets following her Monday speech in the clubs Lincoln Room. I scrapped my original speech and spent the entire first half of it reading excerpts from a bunch of Dr. Kings speeches, but without telling anyone that I was doing so, leading the audience to think Kings words were mine, she wrote on Jan. 17. And, whew, chile, it was AMAZING.

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The speech came at a time when there is a renewed spotlight on racial issues and grievances across the country, as elected leaders and citizens bicker over topics including voting rights, the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and critical race theory.

Recent years have also brought out activists calling out the whitewashing of Kings legacy, pointing to politicians who quote Kings words about unity while largely ignoring his more radical stands against structural racism, militarism and capitalism.

Northwestern University history professor Kate Masur said that many observations made by Hannah-Jones in the 1619 Project have been considered and written about by numerous historians. But, as a journalist, Hannah-Jones has brought the ideas further into the public discourse.

That there has been pushback against her is hardly surprising, and, in fact, puts her squarely in the company of King, who himself made many white people uncomfortable, Masur said.

Most white people would think, of course I would have agreed with him at the time, said Masur, who teaches and writes about the history of race and politics. But opinion polling during Kings lifetime showed that many white Americans did not approve of him. Many thought he was moving too fast, was too radical or wasnt doing it right.

Masur, who participated in a virtual conversation at Northwestern recently to preview Hannah-Jones upcoming speech there next week, pointed to Hannah-Jones writing and reporting on education and housing discrimination, before turning to the 1619 Project, as reasons why she is an appropriate person to speak during a King celebration.

Are they compatible? I feel like there is absolutely no question, but of course, Masur said. In this moment, Nikole Hannah-Jones is an important voice in talking about the history of racism in this country.

You could hear a pin drop

For those who attended the Union League Club event, Hannah-Jones decision to confront the contents of the emails only reinforced why she was the right person to honor King, who some say does not always get remembered for how uncomfortable he made white people or for how angry and disappointed he felt about the lack of progress on addressing racism.

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People are listening to these very strong things that shes saying and you could hear a pin drop in the room, recalled the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina, who gave the invocation at the annual event.

You look on the faces of people who are like Oh my God! Shes saying this and that, confronting the liberals (and) moderate whites. Then all of a sudden, she stops halfway through her talk and says Everything Ive just said are direct quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. 

Some attendees marveled at how Hannah-Jones pulled it off, subtly changing the word Negro to Black to strip away language from a different era that might have hinted at the real author.

While King has long been the preeminent figure in American civil rights, his public popularity waned in latter part of the 1960s as he voiced opposition to the Vietnam War and entrenched discriminatory policies against Black people in northern cities such as Chicago, where he famously lived in a Lawndale slum and was pelted with rocks and bottles during marches through white neighborhoods in 1966.

Writing on the topic for Essence magazine in 2020, Candice Benbow wrote: The universal adoration of Dr. King can only be described as a willful decision to mischaracterize his person and work. Detaching Dr. King from his radical, socialist, left-leaning politics is the only way many Americans who now praise him can do so with (what they think is) a clear conscience.

Pfleger, who was previously spoke at Kings Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, praised Hannah-Jones speech, calling it a refreshing truth compared with whitewashed versions of Kings legacy.

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Im one of these people who is sick and tired of nice little Dr. King breakfasts and luncheons and commemorative services where you listen to Dr. Kings I Have A Dream speech and everybody feels good about themselves and nothing changes and the real King is continued to be lied on and continues to be assassinated, he said.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger during the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 2017. (Branden Camp / AP)

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford, D-Chicago, who attended the speech and took a photo with Hannah-Jones, agreed that the conversation was uncomfortable for some of those in attendance, but called it necessary to racial healing.

I had no idea how she was going to approach it, but I read (the 1619 Project book) and I knew that the discussion was going to be uncomfortable. Its going to be uncomfortable not only for descendants of the slave population, but its going to be uncomfortable for those who have no slave blood in them.

Controversy unfolds

The Rev. Randall Blakey, executive pastor at LaSalle Street Church and chairperson for the clubs public affairs subcommittee on race relations, meanwhile, saw a direct correlation with efforts to limit voting rights across the country and the national debate over legislation to stop it.

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The criticism among some over Hannah-Jones paid appearance began about 10 days before the speech, when emails by two club members surfaced.

The Union League acknowledged the emails in a letter to all members and said the views expressed did not reflect the organization, which, according to its website, was founded as part of a national effort to support the policies of Abraham Lincoln and to combat pro-slavery secret societies infiltrating Illinois.

The board is aware of emails circulating among some of our membership criticizing the inclusion of Nikole Hannah-Jones as a speaker at our Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration scheduled for January 17, 2022, reads the letter, which was obtained by the Tribune.

The Board is also aware that at least one media outlet obtained these emails and published an article this past weekend. The article quotes one member who is a voting member of our Public Affairs Committee. His opinions are his own and are not shared by the Public Affairs Committee or Board.

The letter went onto say the club has invited speakers who draw controversy in the past  and would continue to do so.

Our diverse membership requires us to hear from all sides. We encourage free speech in a civilized manner with decorum, the letter reads.

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A dining room at the Union League Club in Chicago in 2017. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Blakey, who said he selected Hannah-Jones to speak, said he was aware of the emails before they were made public. But he was not concerned because it was just two members expressing the views.

Blakey said he remained laser-focused instead on making sure the event achieved what he wanted  a celebration that aligned with and complemented Kings life and legacy.

It worked, he concluded, saying the emails were not a setback for the club.

The foundation of what Ms. Jones presented the other day was truth, he said. And it is simple as that. ... It does put us in a position to move forward ... dealing with the truth that is America. Listening to that truth, embracing it and learning and growing from it. ... We left there strengthened and encouraged and challenged to do better..

wlee@chicagotribune.com

asweeney@chicagotribune.com

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The Geely automaker from the Middle Kingdom is at the stage of negotiations on the purchase of Meizu. Many reputable publications talk about this, citing insiders close to one of the companies.

The two companies are currently negotiating terms of the sale, with the buyer, Geely, conducting due diligence on the smartphone business, the sources said.

Detailed details about the transaction are not called, including the full amount of the purchase. However, some analysts recalled the words of the founder of Geely about the desire to invest in the production of smart devices, namely smartphones. Then Li Shufu planned to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in this area.

However, the details of the deal are still under wraps as well as Geely's motives. Considering that things are not going well for the once-big player in the market in the face of Meizu, then perhaps Lee decided to revive the brand by breathing new life into it. There is a possibility that Meizu's technologies will somehow overlap with Geely's core business.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a telephone conversation on Saturday, during which they discussed cooperation within the CSTO. This was reported by the press service of the Kremlin.

The telephone conversation took place at the initiative of the Armenian side.

Taking into account the current chairmanship of Armenia in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the prospects for further cooperation within the CSTO were discussed, the report says.

Putin and Pashinyan also discussed the agreements recorded in the tripartite statements of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.

During the conversation, the expediency of continuing work through the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group was noted.

Putin also informed Pashinyan, at his request, about the progress of negotiations with the United States and its allies on Russian security guarantees, the Kremlin press service reported.

At the request of Pashinyan, the Russian President briefly informed about the progress of negotiations with the United States and its allies on security guarantees for the Russian Federation, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Thousands of demonstrations against covid passports took place on Saturday in Stockholm, Gothenburg and other cities in Sweden. The organizer of the actions was the Movement for Freedom organization, the TT agency reported, TASS reports.

In Stockholm, about 18,000 people expressed their readiness to take part in the demonstration, while the presence of no more than 3,000 people is allowed in the venue, the central Sergeltorg square. From time to time, rockets took off into the air and sparklers lit up.

In Gothenburg, according to police, from one to 1.5 thousand demonstrators gathered on the central square of Gustaf Adolfs Torg. According to local police spokesman Christer Fuchsborg, the organizers of the rally did not apply to the city authorities for permission to hold it. Nevertheless, the Gothenburg police prepared in advance for this event.

When asked whether the police would disperse the demonstration due to lack of permission, Fuchsborg answered in the negative. If everything is peaceful and calm and they (the demonstrators) do everything we tell them, then everything will pass without our intervention, he explained.
On his last Friday in the United States, Francisco Arellano spent the evening the same way he had spent many evenings for over 30 years: surrounded by his family, drinking some tequila and eating pambazos.

After he bought his home in Brighton Park, it turned into the family hub where everyone gathered for special occasions and holidays. The family is so big that he set up a white tarp canopy in the backyard and connected it to the garage to ensure that the space was large enough for the gatherings.

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But the last reunion was different. The usual laughter and chatter were accompanied by tears and hugs as loved ones said goodbye to Arellano and his wife, Teresa Ruiz de Arellano.

The two returned to their beloved Michoacan state in Mexico permanently after living in Chicago for over 30 years. They had crossed the border to the U.S. without permission and could not return  not even when each of their fathers passed away  for fear of losing the opportunity to give their children a fruitful future.

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Francisco Arellano, center left, and his wife, Teresa, hang out with their grandchildren at a going-away party for the couple at their home in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood on Jan. 14, 2022. The couple moved back to Maravatio, Michoacan state, in Mexico. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Despite the pain of being away from my mother and losing my father, it was all worth it, Arellano, now 55, said in Spanish on a phone call from his hometown, Maravatio, in Michoacan. He is referring to the distance from loved ones, the struggles to settle down and find a good job, living in the shadows for fear of arrest and deportation, sacrificing to save as much money as possible, and everything that we had to go through to get to this day.

Arellano said he wanted to make sure he returned to Mexico while still healthy and young enough to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Thanks to his arduous work  which wont provide luxury, but enough to get by comfortably  he was able to do that.

I really longed to see my mom, spend time with her, before I lose her too, he added. Its a dream of many undocumented people.

On Jan. 15, Arellano and his wife departed to Morelia, Mexico, from Chicagos Midway Airport with no return ticket.

[ Chicago's Little Village Arch, important symbol for Mexican immigrants, expected to get landmark status ]

Since immigrating to Chicago, Arellano said he worked toward his goal: to leave his children well-established, build a home in Mexico and save enough money to return to live in his native town and retire. He did it, always with his wife by his side.

Arellano also managed to buy his Chicago home, where he hopes his five children  the youngest 25 and the oldest 33  continue to host the family gatherings, even if he is no longer here.

It took a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice, he said.

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While many immigrants who live in this country without permission long to return, few can, for different reasons. For some, saving money and building equity is difficult because they hold low-paying jobs due to their immigration status and often live paycheck to paycheck. Others end up establishing family roots in the country and want to raise their children first.

I know a lot of undocumented people that want to return but either dont want or know how to save money, Arellano said. Others are fearful to invest, or to buy a house because of their status.

Arellano bought his house in 2000, after saving money for the down payment by working as a roofer for a large company and filing his taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a number assigned by the IRS to taxpayers who live in the country without authorization.

He managed to get a loan at a very high interest, he laughed, and just a couple of years ago he paid off the mortgage. The house is where four of his five children now live. Some with their spouses.

I left in peace knowing that theyre safe and well, he said.

Francisco Arellano and his wife, Teresa, spend time with their extended family at a going-away party for the couple at their home in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood on Jan. 14, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

The couple immigrated to the United States in the late 80s. Arrellano recalls walking through the hills of Tijuana, Mexico. Back then, it was easier and much cheaper to cross illegally, he said.

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His wife, also 55, recalls struggles when the two first arrived in the Chicago area with their two older daughters. They settled in the Pilsen neighborhood and barely had enough to pay rent and buy groceries. Arellano first worked at a warehouse, loading and unloading boxes of cigarettes in Des Plaines for $4.25 an hour.

Thats when he realized that getting a car was going to be hard because he didnt have a license or money, and certainly no proper documentation.

Mobility was going to be essential to find good jobs and I didnt have that, Arellano said. He used the bus for a while until he took the risk of buying an old truck to pick up scrap metal.

But the money was just not sufficient. Finally, about five years after arriving in Chicago, he landed a job at a roofing company that changed his life.

Me puse las pilas, he said in Spanish, which for him that means that he reflected and began saving money. The labor was heavy and it was long hours, but it paid well.

For several years, Ruiz de Arellano tried to work, but the couple didnt have family to care for their children and eventually she became a stay-at-home mom.

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For their five children, Francisco Arellano is an example that hard work pays off, said his son, Francisco Arellano Jr. Like his father, he learned the roof-repair trade.

Though it was hard to say goodbye to his parents, he is proud and happy that his parents could go back to their beloved town and fulfill their dream of living in Mexico. Francisco Jr. and two of his four sisters plan to visit when they can.

The three youngest children, including Francisco Jr., are citizens; the two oldest daughters have deportation protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. They were brought to the United States by Arellano and his wife when they were toddlers.

Ruiz de Arellano said it was a difficult decision to leave Chicago permanently because my heart will continue to be broken in two pieces.

Though she has reconnected with her 80-year-old mother after 30 years of not seeing her, she is away from her children and grandchildren.

But Im hopeful that one day we will visit again, Francisco Arellano said.

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Francisco Arellano, center, and his wife, Teresa, laugh with their extended family during a going-away party, Jan. 14, 2022, before the couple moved back to Mexico the next day. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Over the years, the Arellano family had held hope that there would be immigration reform that would lead to legalization for Arellano and his wife, but I couldnt keep waiting anymore, Francisco Arellano said. Now they hope that at least theres reform to permanently fix the immigration status of their two oldest daughters.

Every president makes promises and nothing ever happens, Arellano said. He added that their only hope to return is if one of their citizen children can help them get residency.

But for now, they are happy.

In Mexico, his 76-year-old mother, siblings and dozens of other family members welcomed him and his wife with banda music, more tequila and lots of food, just like at his farewell party.

Chicago was good to me, he said.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com
Turkish journalist Sedef Kabash was arrested for insulting phrases about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, CNN Turk reported.

The journalist broadcast live an insulting saying about cattle in the palace in the context of the policy of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Her words caused a wide resonance in social networks. A number of officials, representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party publicly reacted harshly to the words of the journalist.

In particular, the press secretary of the ruling party, Omer Celik, said that what the journalist said was not a presentation of an opposition position, but "immorality and stupidity. The High Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) also launched an investigation against the TV channel on which Kabash spoke.

The court ruled on the arrest of Senem Kabash, the correspondent of the TV channel reported.
A high-ranking delegation of the Taliban-led Afghan government will embark on a trip to Norway on Saturday where they will discuss important issues with Norwegian officials, envoys from the US and the European Union (EU), as well as some influential Afghan figures, a spokesman said here. Confirming the trip, Taliban deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani said on Friday that the visit comes on an invitation by the Norwegian government, TOLO News reported. The delegation will be led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The Foreign Ministry in Oslo also confirmed that a high-level summit on Afghanistan with a focus on girl's access to education and human rights, will be attended by the Taliban delegation. "These meetings do not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban. But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster," TOLO News quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt as saying in the statement. We are extremely concerned about the grave situation in Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing a full-blown humanitarian disaster. In order to be able to help the civilian population in Afghanistan, it is essential that both the International Community and Afghan from various parts of society engage in dialogue with the Taliban. This is the second foreign trip in January by a Taliban delegation. Earlier this month, a delegation led by Muttaqi visited Iran, where he held talks with Ismail Khan, the former Governor of Herat province, and Ahmad Masoud, leader of Resistance Front. However the Resistance Front said that the negotiations didn't reach a positive result. --IANS ksk/ ( 287 Words) 2022-01-22-08:12:03 (IANS)
In a tweet on Friday, Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the decision to open the Embassy came after "consecutive meetings and reaching an understanding with EU representatives".

"Apart from 220 million euros humanitarian aid, the EU announced 268 million euros additional assistance and set aside a portion for teachers' salaries, which we welcome," he added.

The EU also confirmed that it has re-established a "minimal presence" in Kabul.

"The EU has started to re-establish a minimal presence of international EU Delegation staff to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and monitor the humanitarian situation," TOLO News quoted the European Commission's foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano as saying to the media.

"Our minimal presence in Kabul must not in any way be seen as recognition. This has also been clearly communicated to the de facto authorities," he added.

This development comes as the EU announced earlier this week that it has launched multiple projects in Afghanistan, amid the dire economic situation in the country, to prevent a further deterioration of the situation and also to help the Afghan people cope with current problems.

The EU has said that the funds are set to support projects for education, health, and the livelihoods of Afghan people.

--IANS ksk/

( 247 Words)

2022-01-22-08:40:03 (IANS)
On Wednesday, Tamana Zaryab Paryani said in a video clip that Taliban fighters were knocking at the door and wanted to take her and her sisters, Khaama Press reported.

Citing witnesses, some western media reports claimed that the Taliban affiliates broke into the apartment and detained Paryani and her three sisters.

Paryani was one the 20 Afghan women who protested against the obligation of wearing hijab as announced by the Taliban government.

Responding to the development, the Interior Ministry denied the arrest and said that no Taliban personnel broke into Paryani's apartment.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the video was fake and the protester made the clip to seek asylum abroad.

--IANS ksk/

( 143 Words)

2022-01-22-08:52:02 (IANS)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 22 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Tanla Platforms Limited, India's largest CPaaS provider, today announced its financial results for the quarter three of FY'21-22. Key Metrics: Third Quarter -Revenue increased by 35 per cent year-over-year to Rs 8,849 million. -Gross profit increased by 62 per cent year-over-year to Rs 2,610 million. Gross margin at 29.5 per cent and improved by 486 basis points year-over-year. -EBITDA increased by 60 per cent year-over-year to Rs 2,028 million. EBITDA at 22.9 per cent and improved by 352 basis points year-over-year. -Profit after tax increased by 69 per cent year-over-year to Rs 1,580 million. -Earnings per share increased by 70 per cent to Rs 11.66. -Free cash flow at Rs 302 million and Cash & Cash Equivalents at Rs 8,807 million. Key Metrics: Nine Months -Revenue increased by 39 per cent year-over-year to Rs 23,529 million. -Gross profit increased by 66 per cent year-over-year to Rs 6,647 million. Gross margin at 28.2 per cent and improved by 457 basis points year-over-year. -EBITDA increased by 72 per cent year-over-year to Rs 5,161 million. EBITDA at 21.9 per cent and improved by 425 basis points year-over-year. -Profit after tax increased by 57 per cent year-over-year to Rs 3,987 million. -Earnings per share increased by 65 per cent to Rs 29.37. -Free cash flow at Rs 3,804 million. Uday Reddy, Founder Chairman & CEO, Tanla Platforms Limited said, "Tanla has delivered year-on-year growth for 22 quarters in a row with a very strong performance in the quarter across all metrics, and we are confident this momentum will continue." Significant events during the quarter: -Tanla and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) entered into an exclusive multi-year partnership for deployment of patented block-chain enabled Wisely Platform to secure, encrypt and enhance performance for the entire international messaging traffic on the Vi network. -Onboarded two of the top ten Indian banks for secure and critical notification service on Wisely. -Trubloq, our DLT platform crossed 31bn transactions in December 2021, handling more than 1bn transaction a day. -Tanla has been included in Nifty India Digital Index, newly launched by NSE to track stocks broadly representing digital theme. -The customer base has expanded with addition of 77 new customers. Revenue from > Rs10Mn+ customers grew by 36% year-over-year. -As part of our net zero journey, we have measured our baseline carbon footprint and are working towards achieving commendable USGBC certifications for our new premises. Invitation to conference:Tanla will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the financial results. Conference call details:The conference call will begin at 4.30 PM IST on January 24, 2022. Interested parties may listen to the call by dialing +91 22 6280 1141 / +91 22 7115 8042, or if outside India, by dialing toll-free number UK 08081011573, USA 18667462133, Hong Kong 800964448, and Singapore 8001012045. The live audio webcast link will be available on the Tanla website. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
New Delhi [India], January 22 (ANI/Mediawire): One of the leading and most preeminent educational institutes of the nation, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Nashik, is about to close its doors for the latest academic year intake for its elite programs offered. The aspirants and applicants are provided with the last date of January 25 to register themselves and to make the associated fee payment. SIOM Nashik takes pride in the legacy of one of the most renowned educational institutions and private universities of the country, Symbiosis International University. The business school also brings in the industry-level expertise of more than 17 years, making it one of the top-notch institutes in India, specializing in the operations and supply chain domain. SIOM Nashik offers the aspirants two different post-graduate programs, a Master's in Business Administration, with the specializations of operations management and agricultural operations management for the academic year of 2022. Unarguably, SIOM Nashik is widely regarded as the best choice for candidates who want to build their careers in the domain of operations and supply chain management. Powered by a strong and industry-oriented curriculum, SIOM Nashik has a bright history of its alumni contributing exceptionally to the growth and prosperity of the industry. The level of growth attained by the operations and supply chain management sector in the last few years is quite a remarkable one, and with the changing times, the prominence for the same is highly anticipated to improve further at a surging rate. The pivotal role played by premium institutes like SIOM Nashik in the growth of a promising and hugely rewarding sector is undeniable. By inculcating an international level curriculum with an entirely advanced syllabus and experts of the domain leading the faculty strength, SIOM Nashik has been phenomenal with its performance so far. In order to add to its significant contributions and the milestones it has achieved so far, SIOM Nashik is also introducing the Agriculture Operations management program for the aspirants in the academic year of 2022. The new program, which is the first of its kind, is highly expected to be capable of creating a revolution in the agriculture sector, the backbone of the nation. The perfectly designed curriculum shared by SIOM Nashik is a perfect blend of how technology and management can be used in the industry to derive better and rewarding solutions to the issues. The must-needed, in-demand skills like Quality Management, Supply chain management, Project management, Transportation and logistics, Modelling dynamic systems are a part of the solid curriculum of SIOM Nashik. Apart from the industry-relevant syllabus practiced, the institute also assigns prominence to the practical skills which are highly relevant to the industry trends. The skills like SAP, ERP, Six Sigma, APICS, CII Logistics, and SCS are some of those skills where excelling provides the student with a great advantage in their career as well as in climbing the ladders of the organization. The newly introduced Agriculture Operations Management program, too, impresses with an attractive industry-oriented curriculum with tonnes of skills to master. Agro commodity markets, Processing and Value Chain Agriculture, Agri Supply Chain Management and Advances in Agriculture, Agro procurement Management, Warehouse Management, and Quality Management for Agro Products, etc., are among the leading in-demand skills whose training is carried out by veteran faculty strength of the institute. SIOM Nashik doesn't just barely focus on the strength of the curriculum or how industry-relevant it is. It also prioritizes the careers of the students who master the program with utmost talent, interest, and dedication towards the domain. The institute, therefore, has an exceptional placement cell on duty, which has ensured that their best students get the placement package they deserve. The highest placement for the SIOM Operations Management batch of 2021 was 23.9 LPA, and the batch also recorded an average placement package of 12.3 LPA. Being incepted in 2005, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Nashik has been a wonderful choice of an institute for the aspirants who want to make it big in the domain of operations management. The institute also shares a strong potential to maximize the growth of the industry in the upcoming years. To know more visit: SIOM Operations management This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Mediawire)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 22 (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media): CIIE.CO, in partnership with GFI India, has just released a first-of-its-kind landscape study of the cultivated meat ecosystem in India. Cultivated meat, produced by 'farming animal cells' rather than the tremendously inefficient process of raising and slaughtering animals, is vastly better for human and planetary health. Over the last few years, the industry has been developing at breathtaking speed around the world alongside other 'smart protein' categories such as plant-based meats, with investment in cultivated meat startups surpassing USD 1 billion in 2021. With tremendous global momentum in the cultivated meat landscape, more startups are coming closer to pilot-scale proofs of concept, facilities are coming online, and governments are looking to create a path to market for cultivated meat products. But where does India stand within this global space race to transform the future of food? The new study by CIIE.CO and GFI India answers this, and more, by drawing up a roadmap for the advancement of bio-manufacturing and the cultivated meat industry - a critical step towards a sustainable, secure, and just food system. Varun Deshpande, Good Food Institute, Asia Managing Director says, "With climate change, malnutrition, pandemics, and economic fragility proving themselves to be real and ever-present threats, we need bold, visionary investment in the industries of the future. Cultivated meat is part of a suite of smart proteins which offer enormous promise to build a more resilient, nourishing food system and a thriving, 21st century green economy. To transcend the Michelin-starred restaurants of Singapore and Los Angeles and form a pillar of that new economy in the Indian mass market, however, transformative technologies like cultivated meat need our world class scientists, industry, and government to come together in a Mission for Smart Protein. The advantages for India's global competitiveness and self-sufficiency in building a sustainable supply of nutritious foods targeting malnutrition and creating lakhs of jobs will resonate for decades to come." GFI India has been at the centre of the ecosystem in the country, with domestic startups Clear Meat and MyoWorks and biotech service providers Laurus Bio inspired to form and enter the sector and a growing research community at institutes such as the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology forming through their work. Vipul Patel, Partner - Seed Investing, CIIE.CO, says, "Innovation and startup action around food tech has accelerated in the last few years. With changing awareness and customer preferences, entrepreneurs and innovators realise the need for infusing technology to create products for the future. We believe this is an opportune time to accelerate the momentum around cultivated meat and smart protein in general. Riding on the immense potential that Indian research talent possesses, we hope to discover and support many entrepreneurs in this space in the next few years." In the report's foreword, Dr Manish Diwan, head of Strategy Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development under the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), an agency housed within the Government of India's Department of Biotechnology, says, "The area of 'smart protein' presents an opportunity to create an exponential impact through next-generation solutions for contributing to food security, clean environment, conserving natural resources and more. This report lays out the global state of the alternative protein industry, the economic, sustainability, and public health benefits of the sector and the value Indian science, business, and investment can offer with the vision to position India as a strong bio-manufacturing hub for innovative, affordable and accessible products for domestic and global markets." The report combines insights from secondary data as well as in-depth interviews with multiple industry stakeholders including academicians and researchers, startups and entrepreneurs, policymakers, support institutions, and investors, with a focus on ecosystem building. It also lays out a granular stakeholder analysis, the current state of the industry, the opportunities they envision for the future, and the support they require to make this a reality. The success of the industry will rely heavily on scientific advancements borne by industry and academia alike. Bringing down costs and developing robust, scalable bioprocesses remain high priorities to advance towards a more secure, sustainable future - and India, with its robust biopharmaceutical industry, agricultural biodiversity, and world-class talent pool, offers immense value to the international smart protein sector in this regard! The report can be found here: https://gfi-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Building-an-ecosystem-for-cultivated-meat-in-India.pdf Exactly one year ago, Singapore became the world's first country to pass regulatory approval for the commercial sale of cultivated meat. Since then, the progressive city-state has built a fantastic enabling ecosystem supporting smart protein development, with an emphasis on cultivated meat. Israel has similarly invested in the sector, with then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu becoming the first Head of Government in the world to try cultivated meat in December 2020 and President Isaac Herzog similarly becoming the first Head of State to do so in October 2021, in historic tastings organized by the Good Food Institute Israel. Government agency Israel Innovation Authority has also invested USD 15 million in a cultivated meat consortium of industry and academia, to advance technology readiness and cement the country's position at the forefront of innovation. This story is provided by Hunk Golden and Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media)
New Delhi [India], January 22 (ANI/PR Newswire): With the commencement of its admission cycle for the academic year 2022, Pearl Academy has announced 'Who's Next' scholarship. 'Who's Next' is a merit-based scholarship upto 100 per cent for India's top 100 creative minds. All students applying for under-graduate and post-graduate programs through the Pearl Academy Entrance Exam are eligible for this scholarship and 100 meritorious applicants will be chosen basis the selection criteria. Students can visit https://pearlacademy.com/whosnext/ for details of the process and to apply for the scholarship. For the February 2022 admission cycle, last date to apply is February 06, 2022 and the Pearl Academy online entrance exam will be held on February 12, 2022. Pearl Academy offers industry focused programs in fashion, design and contemporary media through its campuses in Delhi-South, Delhi-West, Jaipur, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The institute has strong academic collaborations with renowned international universities such as University for the Creative Arts, Torrens University Australia, University of Derby and Nottingham Trent University. It allows Pearl Academy students to pursue international progression through seamless credit transfer. Pearl Academy has a placement record of 98 per cent with 700-plus leading brands and organizations from the world of design, fashion and media. Pearl Academy students get recruited by IBM, Accenture, Walt Disney, PhonePe, Capgemini, Innovacer, Ritu Kumar, Anju Modi, H&M, Myntra, ITC, Aditya Birla, W, GAP, Burberry, BBC News, Scoop Whoop and many more. Powered by Pearl Academy and London School of Business & Finance, D School of Business has announced scholarships for the academic year 2022 for its programs. Intended applicants can visit https://www.dschoolofbusiness.com/admissions/important-dates for more details and to apply. D School of Business offers business and management programs rooted in three 'Ds' that are crucial for the success of businesses- disruption, design thinking and digital. It offers AICTE approved PGDM program with an option to choose electives in the specialized areas of (1) Entrepreneurship, Start-up and Family Business, (2) Digital Business and E-commerce, (3) Business Analytics and Data Science and (4) Marketing and Communication. International progression programs available at DSoB are in Digital Business, Leadership for Digital Transformation, Fashion & Lifestyle Business Management, Global Luxury Management, Business Communication, International Business, Digital Marketing and Business Analytics. Students can also consider PG programs in Fashion Business and Luxury Brands. Pearl Academy is India's leading creative education institution as per industry surveys by ASSOCHAM, India Today- MDRA, Outlook-Drshti & I-CARE, The Week- Hansa, Business of Fashion, and The Economic Times. The institute offers 40-plus under-graduate, post-graduate, and professional development programs in design, fashion, business, and media through its campuses in Delhi-South, Delhi-West, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. For 28 years, Pearl Academy has been a catalyst for success for its students through its unique Total Learning System, constructive tie-ups with industry bodies, and international universities that are strongly reflected in its placement record of over 98% year-on-year. For more information, please visit: www.pearlacademy.com. Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1595060/Pearl_Academy_Logo.jpg This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 22 (ANI/PR Newswire): Voltas Limited, India's No. 1 AC brand, from the house of Tata's has announced the launch of its exclusive, one of its kind, Experience Zone at Prabhadevi, in Mumbai; and its 3rd Experience Zone of the country. The state of art Experience Zone spreads over 5000 sq ft with real-time experience spaces, that will provide an unmatched experience to the consumers. The Experience Zone is being launched to meet the growing expectations of consumers in Mumbai, with technologically advanced and futuristic products of Voltas and Voltas Beko. This exclusive Experience Zone was earlier inaugurated in January 2022 by Pradeep Bakshi, Managing Director & CEO, Voltas Limited, in the presence of other senior dignitaries from Voltas. Speaking on this occasion, Pradeep Bakshi, Managing Director & CEO, Voltas Limited, said, "We are excited to announce the opening of our first Experience Zone in the West India, located at Prabhadevi, for our valuable customers in Mumbai. As a market leader, customer centricity has always been at the core of all our offerings. In line with this, we are inviting everyone to visit this visually appealing and real-time Experience Zone, and find out how world's best technology in white goods can be utilized for adding comfort and convenience to our daily lives. This Experience Zone has been introduced to offer a unique experience to our consumers, and we are confident that it will be very well received." This state-of-the-art Experience Zone is a unique omni-channel initiative that features a well-designed, visually appealing display of new range of Voltas Beko products, comprising of Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Microwaves, Dishwashers, Cooking Appliances; and the formidable range of Voltas Air Conditioners, Air Purifiers, and other Cooling products. The Store has been conceptualized across multiple experience themes, by creating product clusters that complement each other, thereby providing customers a journey through the various home chores in a unique way. Conveniently located in the premium vicinity of South Mumbai, at 1-A, Ground Floor, Plot-196A, Llyods Centre Point, Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400025, this new Experience Zone will further enhance Voltas' brand experience. The objective behind creating an Experience Zone is to make the experience of buying home appliances exciting and memorable for consumers. To manifest that idea into the store, the company has created conceptual experience booths and corners to display products rather than opting for a regular store that simply showcases the products on a wall or in a cluttered floor plan. In addition, the centre has a 'Sustainability Zone' where the brand will showcase its sustainable products made from recycled fishnet waste, recycled plastic bottles and thread waste, encouraging consumers to build a greener future together. Consumers can also experience what living in a 'Smart Home' feels like by exploring the HomeWhiz platform that provides a range of connected home appliances, offering product, service and user experience. With its state-of-the-art design and latest technology to fulfil the needs of a modern home, the Experience Zone also has a corner for displaying products for a hygienic home. This first-of-its kind household product line eliminates more than 99% of bacteria and pathogens, and the range of new home appliances makes use of UV light technology, heat and steam for at-home disinfection. Commenting on the occasion, Jayant Balan, CEO, Voltas Beko, said, "This new state-of-the-art Experience Zone has been created to provide our customers an opportunity to experience our latest and futuristic range of home appliances. As pioneers in innovation when it comes to home appliances, this new experience zone provides our customers an immersive experience and showcases our product range in a unique and innovative way." On this occasion, to make the process of owning a new product easier for customers, the company has also launched a series of exciting consumer offers, through which customers can avail attractive Cash Back offers through various Credit & Debit Cards, easy Finance Schemes through NBFCs, and Extended WarrantySchemes, on all their products. The customers can also self-process their orders through an exclusive kiosk of the online shopping lounge, www.voltaslounge.com As a part of its 'Smart Thinking' philosophy, Voltas has the highest Distribution Reach in the country which has grown multiple times over the last ten years, to more than 24,000 consumer touch points. Additionally, Voltas has newly launched an exclusive online web store-- www.voltaslounge.com -- a one-stop solution for buyers looking to purchase Voltas or Voltas Beko products. Currently, Voltas also has over 180 Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs), and isin the process to launch many more by the end of FY 22. The Company has recently launched several Brand Shops in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities across the country to meet the expectations of consumers in these markets and enable them to experience the best-in-class and technologically advanced range of products. Voltas Limited is a premier air conditioning and engineering solutions provider and a Projects specialist. Founded in India in 1954, Voltas Limited is part of the Tata Group, and in addition to Air Conditioners, Air Coolers, Air Purifiers, Water Dispensers, Water Coolers, and Commercial Refrigeration products; the company also offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, electrification, textile machinery, mining and construction equipment, water management & treatment, cold chain solutions, building management systems, and indoor air quality. Voltas is one of the leading companies within the Tata Group and is the undisputed market leader in room air conditioners in India. It has also launched its range of Voltas Beko Home Appliances, through its new JV in India, in equal partnership with Arcelik. Voltbek Home Appliances Private Limited (Voltas Beko) is an equal partnership joint venture between India's leading Air Conditioner Company, Voltas Limited, and one of Europe's largest household appliances manufacturer, Arcelik. The brand 'Voltas Beko' was launched in September 2018 and has in the past year positioned itself as 'Partners of Everyday Happiness' in India. Their portfolio of products includes Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Microwaves/Ovens and Dishwashers. The brand offers its consumers state-of-the-art innovative products and leverages Voltas' brand & distribution strength and Arcelik's global expertise in product development. Voltas Beko has been consistently increasing its footprint in the Indian home appliances segment and has currently over 5000 consumer touchpoints. The manufacturing facility is situated in Sanand, Gujarat which went on-stream in January 2020. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1731300/Voltas_Experience_Zone.jpg This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
'Mission: Impossible' fans will have to wait a little longer to watch Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt back in action. The actor's highly-anticipated movies 'Mission Impossible 7' and 'Mission Impossible 8' have been delayed again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As per Variety, Paramount Pictures is delaying the release of the next two films in the long-running spy series. 'Mission: Impossible 7', which was previously supposed to premiere on September 30, will now debut on July 14, 2023. 'Mission: Impossible 8', most recently intended to open on July 7, 2023, will instead shift to June 28, 2024. The seventh film, which is co-produced by Skydance, was originally slated to open on July 23, 2021, and has been postponed multiple times as the public health situation has changed. The movie's production has also been delayed due to COVID-19. 'Mission: Impossible' films tend to be complex to shoot as they have many stunts and effects, with the filmmaking team trying to do as little green screen work as possible. They also often jet from one foreign port of call to another (the latest films shot in Italy, the U.K. and Poland, to name just a few locations). "After thoughtful consideration, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have decided to postpone the release dates for Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 in response to delays due to the ongoing pandemic. The new release dates will be July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024, respectively," the companies said in a joint statement. "We look forward to providing moviegoers with an unparalleled theatrical experience," the companies added. The next two films in the series will once again star Cruise as Ethan Hunt, the IMF agent with nine lives and a penchant for hanging off airplanes, skyscrapers, mountains and really any high-altitude edifice or projectile that he can get his mitts on. Christopher McQuarrie, who oversaw 'Mission: Impossible -- Fallout' and 'Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation', is directing the next two installments of the action franchise. The ensemble includes Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett. Apart from the upcoming 'Mission: Impossible' films, Cruise has another high-profile production with Paramount this year, 'Top Gun: Maverick', which opens in theatres on May 27. It was originally scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on July 12, 2019, before it was pushed into 2020 and beyond. (ANI)
The procession for slain Chicago police Officer Ella French travels along West 77th Street after her funeral Mass on Aug. 19, 2021. (Vashon Jordan Jr. / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoots choice to head the Civilian Office of Police Accountability saw her nomination stall Friday in the face of stiff criticism from aldermen.

Opponents are angry that nominee Andrea Kerstens office recommended discipline for slain Chicago police Officer Ella French in a report on the wrongful Anjanette Young police raid  a report made public following Frenchs line-of-duty death.

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After Kersten fielded questions for nearly two hours from aldermen Friday, City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Ald. Chris Taliaferro announced he would not proceed with a planned up-or-down vote.

Thats an indication Kerstens nomination would have failed had the vote taken place, and that Lightfoots legislative team told Taliaferro to hold it while they try to build more support or get more aldermen who support her to attend an upcoming meeting.

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Kersten opened the hearing by apologizing for the fact Frenchs name appeared in an August report on the Young raid, but Kersten told aldermen COPA was following its disclosure requirements while she served as the agencys acting administrator.

French was fatally shot during a traffic stop in August, and a public outcry ensued when COPA released its report in November recommending French face a three-day suspension for her role in the Young raid.

Twenty aldermen signed a letter to Lightfoot that month calling on her not to nominate Kersten to head COPA. Lightfoot criticized Kersten for tone-deafness in including the recommendation French be disciplined in the report, but nonetheless nominated her to head COPA on a permanent basis.

On Friday, aldermen continued to press Kersten on what she could have done to spare Frenchs family the additional grief of seeing the report following her line-of-duty death.

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Clearly there wasnt due process, said Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson. You cant serve (the report) on (French).

Kersten insisted COPA was simply carrying out its statutory requirement to publish its recommendations included in a report that was completed several months before French died. Allowing the agency to amend its reports would hurt public trust in police oversight and transparency, she said.

Kersten acknowledged the agency should have done more to make Frenchs family aware of the report before its release to the public.

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In no way does anything in that report in any way impugn the hero that she is, or the legacy that she leaves behind for this city, Kersten said.

Taliaferros decision not to allow the committee to vote on the nomination drew an angry rebuke from Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, who said he opposes Kersten because several years ago she ignored his repeated attempts to discuss a police disciplinary case with her, then reported him to the city Ethics Board.

This is wrong, Chairman, Im very disappointed at the whole process here, everybody thats behind this, Sposato said. This is wrong. We should be voting now.

And Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara also ripped Taliaferro for not allowing the committee to vote, calling the Public Safety chairman an errand boy for the mayor in a Friday afternoon video he posted to YouTube.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot oversees a City Hall meeting and vote in December on a $2.9 million settlement for the botched raid on the home of Anjanette Young by Chicago police. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

And now theyre going to sit on this till they can strong arm some of the public safety members to change their vote, possibly, Catanzara said of the decision to hold the Kersten nomination in committee. Disgusting, but that is whats leading the City Council right now.

After French died, Young herself praised French for her actions during the bungled raid, during which Young was forced to stand naked and handcuffed while officers searched her apartment based on a faulty tip. A recently released Inspector Generals report faulted the Lightfoot administrations handling of the raid.

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Officer French was the only officer who showed Ms. Young any dignity or respect on the night of the raid, Youngs attorneys said in a statement after the officer was shot.

And while the 63-page COPA report recommended the suspension for French, it also cleared her on six of the eight charges she faced, noting she was one of three officers on the scene who maintained an appropriate regard for Ms. Youngs dignity.

If the Lightfoot administration lines up enough votes in support of Kerstens nomination, Taliaferro could still call another meeting of the Public Safety Committee and try to pass it prior to Wednesdays City Council meeting.

In a statement Friday, city spokesman Alexander Murphy said Lightfoot looks forward to (Kerstens) forthcoming approval and appointment.

We will get this done, the statement reads in part.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @_johnbyrne
Actor Johnny Depp is set to take on the role of French king Louis XV. As per Variety, the 58-year-old star will feature as the controversial royal in a new movie from French filmmaker Maiwenn. The shoot for the upcoming film will begin this summer. The yet-to-be-titled movie's exact plot details are kept under wraps. It is being produced by Pascal Caucheteux and Gregoire Sorlat's Paris-based Why Not Productions with Wild Bunch International handling world sales. Filming will take place for three months on location across Parisian landmarks, mainly at the Versailles Palace. Apart from directing the movie, Maiwenn will also star alongside Depp as Countess Jeanne du Barry, Louis XV's final mistress. Louis XV, who was nicknamed 'the beloved' and reigned for 59 years, the longest in the history of France after that of Louis XIV. Paradoxically, Louis XV died as an unpopular king after being accused of corruption and debauchery. The upcoming film is the first that Depp has signed on to since losing his libel case against a British tabloid in November 2020. He previously sued the outlet after it called him a "wife-beater," following his contentious split from now-ex-wife Amber Heard. After losing the case, Depp agreed to exit the role of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the 'Harry Potter' spinoff series, 'Fantastic Beasts'. Mads Mikkelsen was then cast as the villainous character in the franchise's upcoming third installment, 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore'. Depp's most recent role was as photographer W. Eugene Smith in the drama 'Minamata', which he also co-produced. While 'Minamata' was not released in the US until last month, it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 21, 2020. Although he has fallen from Hollywood's good graces, Depp hasn't faced much backlash in Europe. He recently received honorary awards at the Karlovy Vary Festival and San Sebastian Film Festival. Depp was also celebrated at the Deauville American Film Festival, in the French Normandy, in 2020, and received an award from the hands of Catherine Deneuve. Depp, who is taking on the role of the French king, lived in France for many years with Vanessa Paradis, with whom he has a daughter, Lily Rose Depp. The period movie will mark a departure for Maiwenn, an actor-turned-filmmaker whose films are all contemporary and often personal. Her last film 'DNA', a thought-provoking ensemble family drama was part of Cannes 2020's Official Selection. Her previous film, 'Mon Roi' earned its star Emmanuelle Bercot a best actress award at Cannes in 2015; while her 2011 drama 'Polisse' won the Cannes jury prize. (ANI)
Everyone's favourite detective, Benoit Blanc, is coming back to solve another mystery this fall. Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out 2' will release on Netflix in the last quarter of 2022. As per Variety, the next installment in the 'Knives Out' franchise featuring actor Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc is expected to release in theatres and the streaming platform in late 2022. In addition, the film is expected to also make a festival run before its release, although it's unknown which ones it's expected to debut at. Details surrounding the film are still under wraps, with production wrapping in September 2021. Along with Craig reprising his role, Johnson has assembled an exciting who's who of Hollywood A-list talent which includes Kathryn Hahn, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline. Many of Johnson's artisans from the first feature are also returning, including cinematographer Steve Yedlin and editor Bob Ducsay. Johnson, who returned to write and direct the sequel, will also be producing alongside Ram Bergman under their T-Street banner. Johnson's previous directing credits include 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' and 'Looper'. The first 'Knives Out', which was distributed by Lionsgate and produced by Media Rights Capital, was a huge success. It earned USD 311 million on a USD 40 million budget and earned Johnson an Oscar and BAFTA nominations for best original screenplay. Netflix announced in March 2021 that it had thrown down an astounding USD 450 million for the rights to the next two follow-ups of the murder mystery. The first film was born out of Johnson's love for Agatha Christie novels, and he set out to write his own whodunnit focussing on the demise of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Plummer), which sets off a fight for his estate among his children and grandchildren. Among the dysfunctions within the deceased's family, Detective Blanc (Craig) arrives to investigate the suspicious circumstances of Thrombey's death, with everyone a suspect. The original 'Knives Out' starred Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette, among many others. (ANI)
Hollywood actor Garrett Hedlund has been sued for negligence by a mother-daughter duo who claim that he was responsible for a January 2020 car crash in Los Angeles. In court documents filed on Jan. 21 and obtained by E! News, Marina Venegas and her daughter, Jennifer Castillo, are suing the 37-year-old actor for negligence, alleging that he was responsible for a head-on collision in Los Angeles on January 24, 2020. According to the suit, Hedlund allegedly "passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle and ran a solid red-light at a high rate of speed," colliding with a Nissan Sentra containing Venegas, Castillo and two minor children. As a result of the crash, Venegas and Castillo, as well as the other two passengers, suffered "severe and permanent injuries" and had to be taken to the emergency room, the document states. Venegas and Castillo claim Hedlund "knew he was drinking to the point of severe intoxication before getting behind the wheel of his Jeep, a large and heavy Sport Utility Vehicle." The lawsuit read, "He also knew that it was illegal to drive while intoxicated. He also knew that if he were to drive his SUV while under the influence of alcohol, it was probable that he would lose control of the SUV and cause a collision with another motorist or pedestrian. Despite this actual knowledge, Hedlund purposely drank excessively with the specific intention of getting drunk." The women allege that the 'Triple Frontier' star was "well past the legal limit of .08 per cent blood alcohol concentration" and "could have taken a taxi or called a ride-share, but refused to do so." "Despite knowing he was unfit to drive, Hedlund started his SUV and began driving down a busy street on a busy Friday night during the time when roads were still crowded and traffic was moderate. Asif the excessive drunkenness and speeding were not enough, Hedlund also began weaving in and out of his lane, speeding and passing vehicles," the lawsuit states. They said Hedlund ran a solid red light that had been red for several seconds at approximately 50 mph, causing a "horrible head-on crash." Hedlund was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in the incident, according to the suit. The suit alleges, "Hedlund attempted to leave the scene of the accident without rendering aid to Plaintiffs. But he was so intoxicated he could not get away." The mother-daughter duo stated, "Hedlund had red, bloodshot, and watery eyes with extremely slurred speech and coordination and was so drunk that he was unresponsive to the police and witnesses; Hedlund was so inebriated he was unable to walk and was forced to sit in the Jeep, and Hedlund had finished drinking minutes prior to the accident." As per People magazine, he was released on bail after the January 24 arrest. The 'Tron: Legacy' alum was arraigned in February 2020, where a judge ordered that he seek counselling, according to court records obtained by E! News. Hedlund pleaded no contest to one count of DUI and was found guilty, while a second DUI charge was dismissed. "When the incident occurred, Garrett immediately sought treatment which was successful. Today, he is in a solid and great place," his rep confirmed to E! News in November 2020. A source also told the outlet that Hedlund, who shares 12-month-old son Rhodes with actor Emma Roberts, was "doing well" following his run-in with the police. The insider said that the DUI arrest "wasn't something that actually threatened a split between" Hedlund and Roberts. In their lawsuit against Hedlund, Venegas and Castillo are seeking punitive damages. (ANI)
Taking to Instagram, Mukundan said, "Hello friends, It has been brought to my notice that a certain issue related to a goodwill post made by Manju Warrier to promote my film 'Meppadiyan' is making unwanted news.

"I would like to clarify that it was well informed in advance by Manju Warrier's social media team that any goodwill post of this nature will be removed after a week from their social media handles.

"So we don't see any issue here. Hence, it's a request not to drag an honoured and celebrated actor with such feeble concerns. Hope all concerns related to this issue end here."

'Meppadiyan' has been directed by Vishnu Mohan. Unni Mukundan, apart from starring in the film, has also produced it.

--IANS man/sks/bg

( 169 Words)

2022-01-22-14:32:03 (IANS)
Navdeep Kaur, who won the Costume Round at the Mrs World 2022 competition held in Nevada, Las Vegas, recently spoke about her experience of winning the honour and urged people not to lose their individuality, live their dreams and trust themselves to attain success. Speaking to ANI, she said her "experience was absolutely great". "I learned much more than what I had hoped for, the exposure I got is incomparable and this journey of mine was once in a lifetime thing," she said. "Competing with 50 countries and representing mine was an achievement in itself for me. This was a very honourable thing for me. I tried to participate in the best manner possible and kept a keen eye on everything. My competitors, who were more of my friends, we all had a very good bond with each other and we learned a lot from each other," she added. The advice that she wanted to give to all the people who want to achieve something was self-belief. "Live your dreams, be yourself and trust yourself. Self-love is very important, as the moment you start loving yourself and understanding that you are important, nothing can stop you. Never lose your individuality," she said. Navdeep had bagged the Best National Costume award at the Mrs World Pageant for her Kundalini Chakra-inspired attire, which beautifully depicted India's cultural aspect on the global platform. The golden attire comprised a huge serpent head and snake-like details throughout, along with a serpent cane. "My costume was inspired by the Kundalini Chakra, which is a Sanskrit word that means coiled snake. Our body has 7 chakras and the Kundalini Chakra is known as the awakening, Basically, the Kundalini awakening is the form of energy that starts from the spine and comes out of the crown. My costume was inspired by this concept. This has been derived from the feminine energy and how we awaken it inside us," she said. Navdeep also spoke about how she came up with her unique costume, "I was blessed to get in touch with Eggie Jasmin, an Indonesian artist. He made sure the concept on which I had to work, the concept of being unique and coming up with an idea, which actually could represent the culture and the heritage, the ideology behind the yogas and asanas that we do. That is when we sat together and brainstormed." "My organization, Mrs India Inc, Eggie Jasmin and myself, we had months of discussion and that is when we came up with this concept of Kundalini Chakra which eventually proved to be a very nice and unique topic to work on," she added. Navdeep further talked about the different sub-titles that are presented at the Mrs World pageant, "There were various sub-titles awarded to people from different nationalities at the Mrs World pageant. Some of them were Best national costume, Inspired National costume, there were four categories in this. Apart from that, there was also a congeniality award, which was won by Mrs. Jordan, among other sub-titles." Revealing the best moment of hers during the world-renounced pageant, she said, "I lived each moment to the fullest as all of them were very important for. But, if I have to choose then it would be when I wore the national costume and stepped onto the stage, that feeling was fire and I will never forget it." The moment when Navdeep decided to participate in the pageant was at a time when she was completely content in her life both professionally and personally, but she says, "I wanted to challenge myself and go outside my comfort zone and that is when I decide to participate." When asked about the challenges she might have faced in getting what she achieved, Navdeep said, "Diamonds cannot be polished without friction and gold cannot be purified without fire, so unless and until you face challenges it's not possible for you to actually come out and outshine. I feel privileged and grateful that my challenges paid off." Navdeep, who has been a personality development trainer and bank employee, said that her family is the best blessings that she could ever get, "I have a wonderful daughter, a supportive husband and parents of both mine and my husband, have all stood by me and given me that support and confidence that I can achieve anything and everything that I want in life." Navdeep lives every moment and takes life as it comes. She says "one day at a time is the concept that I live by," and added that she's "ready for all challenges coming ahead in life." She worked as an assistant manager at a private bank before entering the world of beauty and fashion. She won the title of Mrs India World in October 2020. She is also a doting mother to a 5-year-old child. (ANI)
Twitter has been flooded with critics trolling celebrity couple Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas who had recently welcomed a baby through surrogacy. On Saturday, the couple took to their respective Instagram accounts to share the good news with their fans and followers. "We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate. We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much," Priyanka and Nick posted. Soon after the couple announced the news of becoming parents, fans and their celebrity friends showered them with good wishes. However, a section of social media users started trolling the couple, quipping that Priyanka opted for a surrogate mother to avoid pregnancy pain. "I wish @priyankachopra and @nickjonas congratulations #Priyankachopra #NickJonas #surrogacy But Isn't it became a trend for the rich to opt this methodThinking face? However these method were developed to help those who had complications," a Twitter user wrote. A social media user wrote, "How do those mothers feel when they get their readymade babies through surrogacy? Do they have the same feelings for the babies like the mothers who give birth to the babies?" A third user tweeted, "It is better to b not mother than have a baby by surrogacy. Unless mothers blood flows in the child, how can a person have motherly feeling." "I understand when genuine parents go for #surrogacy. I h@te it when these stupid Bollywoodians do it. They spend all their energy on getting n@ked,showing skin and of course drugs and then use money to have a designer baby.They won't have basic parenting skills. One life screwed," wrote another. PeeCee fans also came out in support of the stars and urged everyone to respect their privacy. "How shameless some people are for judging an actress for having a baby via #surrogacy ! There are many women who aren't able to carry a baby naturally for various reasons- one of them being conceiving at a later age(late 30s..there may be complications during the pregnancy)," a social media user wrote. A user tweeted, "Not only is it insensitive to call them "ready-made babies", but also let's not judge women who want to adopt motherhood through #surrogacy. I know of many biological mothers who don't feel the bond with their children!" A third user wrote, "This is the age of "choice" where nature doesn't get to make the rules, they started with the fight against patriarchy but logic and ethics became collateral damage. #surrogacy." A fan tweeted, "If someone is bringing happiness to their lives via #surrogacy. It is none of anyone's business. It is completely a matter of privacy and should be Respected. #PriyankaChopra #NickJonas." "Stop criticizing. Let them live their lives. #PriyankaChopra #surrogacy," a user tweeted. For the unversed, US Weekly reported that the couple had welcomed a baby girl through a surrogate. The duo got married in a Christian and a Hindu ceremony in Jodhpur's Umaid Bhawan Palace on December 1 and 2 in 2018. Later, the couple also hosted two receptions in Delhi and Mumbai. (ANI)
According to Deadline, she will shoot the as-yet-untitled one-hour special on January 22, at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City. It's slated to premiere on Netflix later this year.

The special will be directed by Ryan Polito and executive produced by Christina P. and John Irwin.

Christina's first one-hour special, 'Christina P: Mother Inferior', premiered on Netflix in October 2017 to strong reviews.

In the special, filmed at The Showbox in Seattle, Christina tackled the realities of motherhood, getting older and her own childhood. She was also featured in 2018's 'The Degenerates', her second half-hour special, on the streaming network.

Christina co-hosts the top-rated comedy podcast 'Your Mom's House' with her husband, comedian Tom Segura, on iTunes. She also hosts the popular podcast 'Where My Mom's At?' where she discusses all things mom.

As per Deadline, she most recently voiced the role of Sarah on Netflix's original animated comedy series 'The Midnight Gospel'. (ANI)
Filmmaker Jane Campion is set to be honoured at the 26th Annual Art Directors Guild's Excellence in Production Design Awards. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Power of the Dog' director will receive the esteemed Cinematic Imagery Award, ADG President Nelson Coates, and Awards Producer Michael Allen Glover, ADG announced on Friday. The 26th annual ceremony is set to return with a live event on March 5 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. The ADG Awards honour excellence in Production Design in theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos and animated feature films. The ADG's Cinematic Imagery Award is given to those whose body of work in the film and television industry has enhanced the visual aspects of the viewer's experience. Previous recipients of the award include Ryan Murphy, Chuck Lorre, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, John Lasseter, George Lucas, and Clint Eastwood. Coates said in a statement: "We are thrilled to fete acclaimed director Jane Campion among our celebrated filmmakers this year. Long a film-maker's filmmaker, Campion's exacting use of design and style to fully realize her storytelling have made a significant contribution to the visual language of film, while authoring and fostering the genesis of environments that extend the audience experience far beyond the page." He added, "Her ability to tell stories and capture moments that marry the interior voice with the expansive visual voice of carefully crafted frames has led to the creation of numerous impactful images that will continue to influence narrative storytellers and touch the hearts and minds of viewers for years to come." Campion was the first female director to win the Palme D'Or for her debut feature 'The Piano' and recognized as one of only seven women to ever be nominated for best director at the Academy Awards. 'The Piano' received nine Oscar nominations and secured three wins including for best screenplay. The director was awarded the Silver Lion for directing for her film 'The Power of the Dog' at the Venice International Film Festival, as per The Hollywood Reporter. (ANI)
Actor Adarsh Gourav who shot to fame with his performance in 2021 crime-drama 'The White Tiger', is celebrating the first anniversary of the movie. "1 year to the film that changed my life. Limitless gratitude to Ramin, @priyankachopra @rajkummar_rao @tessjosephcasting @netflix_in for believing in me. The moment you recognise what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave".- Aravind Adiga," Adarsh captioned the post inclusive of behind-the-scene pictures from the film set. Adarsh who played Balram Halwai in the 2020 American comedy-drama film 'The White Tiger' starring Priyanka Chopra and critically acclaimed Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao, was also awarded Breakout Star of Indian films and web series this year by Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Adarsh also had garnered immense praises for his performance in 'The White Tiger' on an international level. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award, AACTA International Award for Best Actor and Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Produced by Priyanka under her banner--Purple Pebble Pictures, 'The White Tiger', directed by Ramin Bahrani, explores India's class struggle and is told from the perspective of Balram (Adarsh), a lower-class citizen who becomes a chauffeur for a rich landlord named Ashok and his wife named Pinky played by Rajkummar and Priyanka respectively. Filmed extensively across Delhi from October to December 2019, 'The White Tiger' premiered in Las Vegas on January 6, 2021 and was screened at limited movie theatres in the United States on January 13. It was released globally through the streaming platform Netflix on January 22, 2021. Apart from 'The White Tiger', Adarsh is best known for his portrayal of Mohit Chadda in the 2017 Hindi thriller film 'Mom' and as Ankit in the 2019 adult comedy-drama 'Hostel Daze'. He will also be seen in Zoya Akhtar's next 'Kho Gaye Hum Kahan'. (ANI)
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro recently said that he prefers not to use real firearms while making movies and explained why he has not had a real gun on set "since 2007". During a conversation for The Hollywood Reporter's 'Director Roundtable', the filmmaker discussed the October 'Rust' tragedy when 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed after a gun containing live rounds discharged on the New Mexico set. Del Toro, the Oscar-winning director behind movies like 'The Shape of Water', 'Hellboy' and 'Pacific Rim', explained, "I haven't shot a real gun on a movie set since 2007 or 2008. I don't think it's necessary anymore. I really don't." "It started with 'The Devil's Backbone', because we were forbidden to shoot in Segovia [Spain]. We were forbidden to shoot in a forest because the ignition could start a forest fire," he said of making his 2001 movie. He added, "After that, I thought, that is the safest thing you can do, and you can do it almost with a phone app." "All the paraphernalia that comes with [real guns], you have to put Mylar glass in front of the camera, everybody has to leave the camera crew, everybody has to be protected, you do a whole number. And from the practical safety point of view, there's no reason to do it," del Toro continued. The Mexican director acknowledged that "accidents do happen, I've had accidents in my sets." He said, "If an accident happens by the confluence of three, four factors that are unpredictable, that's one thing. But if they happen and there's one or two factors that are preventable, that weighs heavily on the director or producer. But you try to prevent them, and the rest is tragedy, it really is tragedy. And no one can be above to judge." Back in December, Alec Baldwin, who held the gun that discharged and killed Hutchins while staging a scene, gave an emotional first interview since the tragedy. He told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, "I want to make sure that I don't come across like I'm the victim because we have two victims here. All of what happened that day leading up to this event was precipitated on one idea, and that idea is that Halyna and I had something profound in common. That is we both assumed the gun was empty, other than those dummy rounds." As per People magazine, several actors and directors have spoken out about on-set safety and precautions in the months since the incident, including Dwayne Johnson, who said when it comes to "any movie, any television show or anything we do or produce" with his production company "we won't use real guns at all." (ANI)
On January 21, Ambassador Qin Gang accepted the plaque of recognition and a commemorative jacket from Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) and the International Longshoremens Association (ILA). Present at the ceremony were representatives of Massport, the ILA and COSCO Shipping (North America).

Massport maritime director Michael Meyran gave warm remarks on behalf of Massport. He said, the 20-year partnership between COSCO Shipping and the Port of Boston has created thousands of jobs across Massachusetts and the New England Six States region. This 20-year partnership has been the perfect model of how to do business between the United States and China. We look forward to continuing this partnership of business cooperation for the long future. Meyran presented the plaque of recognition to Ambassador Qin Gang, which is inscribed with the words The Port of Boston Salutes Ambassador Qin Gang Chinese Ambassador to the United States of America. In Recognition of the Partnership and Contribution of the Peoples Republic of China to the American Workers and American Business Community of the New England Six States.

ILA vice president Bernie ODonnell, representing more than 9,000 longshoremen at the Port of Boston and their families, presented a commemorative jacket to Ambassador Qin and expressed appreciation to Chinese companies for their long-term contributions to Boston.

Ambassador Qin Gang gladly accepted the plaque of recognition and put on the jacket. In his remarks, Ambassador Qin said, I wish to welcome all of you to the Chinese Embassy from afar and your visit brings fresh air to Washington DC. The honor you present to me belongs to Chinese companies. It is also shared by all those devoted to the cooperation between COSCO Shipping and the Port of Boston.

Ambassador Qin pointed out that this year marks the 20th anniversary for COSCO Shipping to open a direct vessel service to Boston. COSCOs cooperation with the Port of Boston has brought jobs and vitality to the local community, and also helped Chinese companies improve their operation, which has been an example of the win-win economic and trade cooperation between China and the US. In Chinas 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, the US has got deeply involved in Chinas development, and also benefited a lot from it. Our trade has provided many quality but inexpensive products for American consumers, and supported 2.6 million American jobs. China and the US have long been bound together by our shared interests.

Ambassador Qin stressed that this year marks the 50th anniversary of President Nixons visit to China. We have learned from the past five decades that China-US cooperation can deliver many things good for both countries and the whole world; it can also bring tangible benefits and opportunities to places like the Port of Boston, to our longshoremen, and to all of us. If China and the US enter into conflict and confrontation, if we fight a trade war or a new Cold War, it will be a political tragedy that benefits no one. It will cause unbearable cost to each of us, to people like you and me. Faced with all these global challenges, fighting the pandemic, restoring growth, stabilizing industrial chain and supply chain, and addressing climate change, China and the US have no better choice than solidarity and cooperation. This is also the expectation of the international community. Our two countries should keep in mind what brought us together 50 years ago, implement the agreement of the two Presidents, follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation and take our relations back to the right track. This is also to give the world some long-awaited stability and certainty.

The event was broadcast live online by CGTN.

  

In March 2002, COSCO Shipping opened direct vessel service from Chinese mainland to the Port of Boston upon agreement of the two sides. Over the past 20 years of successful operation, it has not only saved 9,000 jobs in the Port of Boston, but also created another 400,000 jobs, which has been highly praised by the local government and people in the US.
Concerned over the rising Covid numbers, the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has advised its students to preferably return to the safety of their homes to minimise the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. The UoH on Friday told the students staying in the hostels and other campus residences that "it will be in their best interest" to go home as all classes and examinations will be conducted online. UoH has limited resources to isolate students infected by the virus. The increase in the number of cases is causing stress on the student welfare and health-care systems available on the campus. UoH will not be able to accommodate infected students and staff beyond a point. "Therefore, we appeal to them to return to the safety of their homes," Vice-Chancellor Prof BJ Rao said in a statement. Meanwhile, the UoH Task Force has recommended that classes will continue online for all semesters. The end-semester evaluation will also be conducted in online/open book/take-home mode as was done during the second wave of Covid-19. The UoH Health Centre is making self-testing kits available at the pharmacy. Stakeholders experiencing symptoms may purchase the kit for self-testing or get themselves tested at government or private testing centres. --IANS pvn/pgh ( 217 Words) 2022-01-21-22:58:04 (IANS)
Maharashtra Covid-19 cases scaled a new high above 48,000 mark and Omicron infections also increased while deaths continued to remain in double-digits, health officials said here on Friday. After the previous record high of 46,723 (January 12), the number of daily Covid infectees shot above the 48K level today, up from 46,197 on Thursday to 48,270 on Friday. The fatalities also increased from 37 a day earlier to 52 on Friday, and the mortality rate fell from 1.92 percent to 1.91 per cent. After notching a peak of 238 Omicron cases (January 14) the state infections of the variant went up, from 125 a day earlier to 144 on Friday. The government is continuing the intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports -- Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur -- since December 1. A total of 304,746 travellers have landed here, including 47,701 from the "high risk" countries from where 574 have tested positive and another 666 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron. Another stupendous 5,674 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with the results of 74 are awaited, the officials said. Omicron has spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 2,343 cases till date, 1,171 have recovered. Pune district remains at the top with 1,169 cases of the variant, 688 in Mumbai, 134 in Thane, 116 in Nagpur, 59 in Sangli, 25 in Amravati, 20 each in Raigad and Aurangabad, 19 in Kolhapur, 15 in Satara, 11 each in Osmanabad and Akola, 7 in Palghar, 6 in Buldhana, 4 each in Nashik and Ahmednagar, 3 each in Nanded, Latur, Jalna, Parbhani and Gondiya, 2 each in Gadchiroli, Nandurbar and Jalgaon, and 1 each in Bhandara, Wardha and Beed, besides one from another state. Of the 48,270 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, Mumbai Metropolitan Region showed a decline from 12,054 a day earlier to 10,493 infections, while Mumbai city also fell from 5,708 to 5,008 fresh cases. The next is Pune Circle's 18,785 infectees, Nagpur Circle 6,506, Nashik Circle 5,181, Latur 2,169, Kolhapur Circle 1,951, Aurangabad Circle 1,743 and Akola Circle's 1,442. The number of people sent to home quarantine declined sharply -- dropping from 24,21,501 on Thursday to 23,87,593 now, and another 3,357 have been shunted to institutional quarantine. Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Raigad and Palghar remain at the top with the highest number of aactive cases' currently in the state, with the afflictions shooting up from 258,569 a day before to 264,388 on Friday, and the recovery rate again dropping 94.52 per cent to 94.47 per cent. The state's cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 74,20,027 cases and 142,023 deaths, while a total of 70,09,823 patients have fully recovered till Friday. --IANS qn/pgh ( 495 Words) 2022-01-21-23:14:04 (IANS)
The nationwide death toll increased by 692 to 324,752, while the number of recoveries increased by 24,719 to 9,975,052.

Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported a daily record of 15,987 new cases, taking its total to 2,140,914.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin did not discuss the possibility of imposing a lockdown in the capital city during their meeting on Thursday, according to a Friday statement from Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov said that the experience gained during the previous Covid-19 waves has helped rule out the possibility of a lockdown for now, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Spokesman expressed hope that the country's Sputnik V vaccine would be approved by the World Health Organisation in the foreseeable future, adding that the jab has proven to be effective against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

--IANS int/khz/

( 182 Words)

2022-01-22-03:44:04 (IANS)
Canadian hospitalisation admissions are still rising, although the average number of daily Covid-19 cases fell 28 per cent compared to the previous week, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. "Over the past week, an average of over 10,000 people with Covid-19 were being treated in our hospitals each day, surpassing peak daily numbers for all previous waves of the pandemic," Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam said at a press conference in Ottawa on Friday. "This includes over 1,100 people in intensive care units, which is higher than all but the third wave peak." With test positivity at 22 per cent and the seven-day average of daily cases at nearly 27,000, Covid-19 is still widespread throughout the country with many hospitals under "intense strain", Tam added. Canada may have passed the peak of the Omicron wave but the number of hospitalised patients is now at its highest level since the pandemic outbreak, she said. However, the actual Covid-19 case count, she added, may be underestimated as lab testing can't keep up with demand as Omicron spreads in the country, Xinhua news agency reported. "The January time frame, the peak may occur, but the hospitalisations and the ICU admissions may continue to increase for some time. So that's in February and I really hope that by the end of February, we'll be in a better position," she said. "We still have some difficult weeks ahead and potential for more bumps along the way," Tam added. "Omicron can cause serious outcomes. We cannot trivialize this virus. Many people, particularly those who are at higher risk, get very severely sick and indeed, many have died, and we need to do what we can to prevent those." The sheer volume of Omicron cases has also resulted in more reports of severe cases among children, but they are still very rare in terms of rates, she said, adding that the vast majority of severe illnesses still occur among those over the age of 60 years. The Chief Public Health Officer stressed the strong protective effects of the vaccine and encouraged the public to get their booster shots and vaccinate eligible children. Up to date, more than 6.5 million eligible Canadians do not have their first or second dose yet and coverage for eligible children currently stands at 51 per cent with at least one dose. "We all know that it is very important to get the booster dose, particularly in the time of Omicron," she said. Tam acknowledged that there are a number of unknowns, but the priority right now is to prevent serious outcomes, even as health officials look at a longer-term approach to tackling the virus. Canada reported 16,981 Covid-19 new cases on Friday afternoon, raising the cumulative total to 2,885,862 cases with 32,361 deaths, according to local media CTV. --IANS int/khz/ ( 483 Words) 2022-01-22-04:38:03 (IANS)
During a time, when depression rates are increasing day by day due to COVID-19, a new study has revealed that people who feel depressed are more likely to believe vaccine-related misinformation. The study, which was co-authored by a Rutgers researcher, was published in the 'Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open'. The study revealed that people with moderate or greater symptoms of depression (such as little interest in doing things, trouble sleeping or concentrating, poor appetite or overeating, and feeling bad about oneself) were more likely to believe at least 1 of 4 false statements about COVID-19 vaccines. Those who believed the statements to be true were half as likely to be vaccinated. According to National Center for Health Statistics, approximately one-quarter of adults in the U.S. consistently reported moderate or greater depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggested that people suffering from depression might be at a higher risk of COVID-19, highlighting the need to address mental health disorders. According to the data, 29.3 per cent of people with moderate or more depressive symptoms supported this misinformation, compared with 15.1 per cent of those without. While the researchers did not examine why, the link might be driven by a negativity bias, which caused people suffering from depression to focus more on content that evoked negative emotions. "It's clear the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of Americans, especially young people," said co-author Katherine Ognyanova, an associate professor of communication at Rutgers' School of Communication and Information. "Now more than ever, we must watch for depressive symptoms among our communities, but platforms and the media also have a major role to play to avoid undesirable health outcomes." The study authors used data from the research group The COVID States Project, which conducted surveys approximately once every six weeks since April 2020. The researchers analyzed data from 15,464 adults in the U.S. Participants were asked to rate vaccine-related misinformation as accurate (statement is true), inaccurate (statement is not true) or not sure. The four statements of misinformation included "The COVID-19 vaccines will alter people's DNA," "The COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that could track people," "The COVID-19 vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses," and "The COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility, making it more difficult to get pregnant." Survey participants completed a health questionnaire to measure major depressive symptoms over two weeks. Additional survey items asked respondents whether they used particular social media platforms and whether they had used any of a list of news sources (including MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Newsmax, Facebook and the Biden administration) as sources of COVID-19-related news over the previous 24 hours. The authors used survey data captured between April 1 and May 3, 2021, and between June 9 and July 7, 2021. The surveys were administered before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which gave its full approval for the vaccine; since December 2020, the vaccine had been available due to an Emergency Use Authorization provide by the FDA. (ANI)
Women who have COVID-19 towards the end of their pregnancy are vulnerable to birth-related complications, suggests the findings of a recent study. The study has been published in the 'Nature Medicine Journal'. The women are more likely to have complications than those who get COVID-19 in the earlier stages of pregnancy or who haven't had COVID-19 at all. The findings showed that preterm births, stillbirths, and newborn deaths are more common among women who had the virus 28 days, or less, before their delivery date. The majority of complications, which also included Covid-related critical care admissions, occurred in unvaccinated women, according to one of the first national studies of pregnancy and COVID-19. Researchers said that more should be done to increase vaccine uptake in pregnant women, whose vaccination rates are much lower than those of women in the general population. The team analysed data relating to all pregnant women in Scotland. It included more than 87,000 women who were pregnant between the start of vaccination uptake in December 2020 and October 2021. Vaccination uptake during the study period was lower in pregnant women, compared with women aged 18 to 44 in the general population. Some 32 per cent of pregnant women who gave birth in October 2021 were fully vaccinated -- meaning more than 14 days had elapsed since a second vaccine, this was compared with 77 per cent of the general female population aged 18 to 44. Since the start of Scotland's vaccination programme, a total of 4,950 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed during pregnancy, with 77 per cent of these cases in unvaccinated women. Some 12 per cent of COVID-19 cases were in partially vaccinated pregnant women -- those who had only received one vaccine dose or were diagnosed less than 14 days since their second dose. This compares with 11 per cent of cases in fully vaccinated women. The team analysed data on extended perinatal deaths, which is defined as the death of a baby in the womb after 24 weeks of pregnancy, or in the first 28 days after birth. They found that the extended perinatal death rate among babies born within 28 days of their mother developing Covid-19 was 23 per 1,000 births. All baby deaths occurred to women who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 at the time of infection. Some 17 per cent of babies born within 28 days of their mother developing COVID-19 were delivered prematurely -- more than three weeks before their due date. These data were then compared to the background rates of extended perinatal deaths and preterm births, which are the rates for all babies born in Scotland regardless of whether their mother had previously had COVID-19 or been vaccinated. The background perinatal mortality rate during the pandemic in Scotland was six per 1,000 and preterm birth rate was 8 per cent. Experts stressed that it is not possible to say if COVID-19 contributed directly to the deaths or preterm births as they did not have access to detailed clinical records for individual women. Admission to hospital and critical care were also significantly more common in pregnant women with COVID-19 who were unvaccinated at the time of diagnosis than in vaccinated pregnant women -- 98 per cent of women with COVID-19 during pregnancy who were admitted to critical care were unvaccinated. The team also monitored complication rates in women who received a COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. The perinatal mortality and preterm birth rates in women within 28 days of receiving a vaccine were very similar to the background rates at four per 1,000 and eight per cent, respectively, providing further reassurance on the safety of vaccination during pregnancy. These findings are part of the COPS study, which provided population-based information for the whole of Scotland on the incidence and outcomes of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy. COPS is an offshoot of the EAVE II project, which uses anonymised linked patient data in Scotland to track the pandemic and the vaccine rollout in real-time. The research team included scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Strathclyde, and St Andrew's; Public Health Scotland; and Victoria University of Wellington. COPS co-lead Dr Sarah Stock, of the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute -- who is also a consultant obstetrician - said, "Our data add to the evidence that vaccination in pregnancy does not increase the risk of complications in pregnancy, but COVID-19 does. COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy is crucial to protect women and babies from preventable, life-threatening complications of COVID-19." EAVE II study lead Professor Aziz Sheikh, Director of the Usher Institute, said, "Our national data show that being vaccinated during pregnancy was associated with reduced risk of serious outcomes for both mother and baby." "Vaccine uptake has been much lower in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women of a similar age in Scotland. As cases of Omicron continue to rise, I strongly encourage all pregnant women to take up the offer of vaccination or booster as these will help protect them and their unborn child," he added. COPS co-lead Dr Rachael Wood, Consultant in Public Health Medicine with Public Health Scotland, said: "Our data provide valuable information on both Covid-19 infections and vaccinations among pregnant women. It is clear that vaccination is the safest and most effective way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies from severe Covid-19 disease." "Vaccination can be given at any stage of pregnancy, so I strongly encourage women who are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible," she added. (ANI)
According to research published in the 'European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging', obesity could have a severe impact on the heart's anatomy for young obese children. The study looked at the left ventricle, one of the four chambers of the heart. The researchers found that the left heart acquires a circular cross-section and becomes tilted away from the normal vertical symmetry - this second trait has been previously shown to be present in aortic stenosis patients. Strikingly, the remodelling became significant at a BMI of roughly 19 in children aged 10, corresponding to the threshold of overweight range in adults BMI 25. In their study, extensive data collection had been conducted over the years, from the early prenatal phase through childhood, to examine the development of the cardiovascular system and early cardiovascular risk factors. Data collection included the CMR imaging scans that study the hearts of 2631 children aged 10, with a balanced sex distribution (51.3 per cent girls) from Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study from foetal life onwards in the Netherlands. With their findings, the researchers said that understanding and quantifying the impact of obesity on development is becoming much clearer. Obesity remains one of the most important issues in global health. Almost 60 per cent of EU adults and roughly one-third of 11-year-olds are overweight or obese and obesity-related conditions are the leading causes of preventable death, according to the World Health Organisation. Heart Researcher Professor Pablo Lamata said, "In the future, this pattern of remodelling could inform risk prediction models and raise an earlier awareness of the importance of adopting a healthier lifestyle from childhood." The idea is to allow clinicians to help patients reduce future cardiovascular risks in those that are more susceptible to them because the heart responds in a given way to the insult of obesity. Lead researcher Maciej Marciniak said, "Obesity in children is, of course, a major concern, as it may impact the healthy development. With more clinical information on this impact, clinicians will be able to better advice patients to follow healthier lifestyles at an earlier age. Looking further down the line, such analyses may help to inform about other remodelling patterns, connected with lifestyle choices, environmental factors, and other parameters." Future research will answer if this is an adaptive or a maladaptive response and whether this remodelling signature could inform risk prediction models. (ANI)
During a recent study researchers found that viewing TV for four hours a day or more is liked to a 35 per cent higher risk of blood clots compared with less than 2.5 hours. The research has been published in the 'European Journal of Preventive Cardiology'. "Our study findings also suggested that being physically active does not eliminate the increased risk of blood clots associated with prolonged TV watching," said lead author Dr Setor Kunutsor of the University of Bristol, UK. "If you are going to binge on TV you need to take breaks. You can stand and stretch every 30 minutes or use a stationary bike. And avoid combining television with unhealthy snacking," Kunutsor added. The study examined the association between TV viewing and venous thromboembolism (VTE). VTE includes pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs) and deep vein thrombosis (blood clot in a deep vein, usually the legs, which can travel to the lungs and cause pulmonary embolism). To conduct the study, the researchers conducted a systematic review to collect the available published evidence on the topic and then combined the results using a process called a meta-analysis. "Combining multiple studies in a meta-analysis provides a larger sample and makes the results more precise and reliable than the findings of an individual study," explained Dr Kunutsor. The analysis included three studies with a total of 131,421 participants aged 40 years and older without pre-existing VTE. The amount of time spent watching TV was assessed by questionnaire and participants were categorised as prolonged viewers (watching TV at least four hours per day) and never/seldom viewers (watching TV less than 2.5 hours per day). The average duration of follow-up in the three studies ranged from 5.1 to 19.8 years. During this period, 964 participants developed VTE. The researchers analysed the relative risk of developing VTE in prolonged versus never/seldom TV watchers. They found that prolonged viewers were 1.35 times more likely to develop VTE compared to never/seldom viewers. The association was independent of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity. "All three studies adjusted for these factors since they are strongly related to the risk of VTE; for instance, older age, higher BMI, and physical inactivity are linked with an increased risk of VTE," said Dr Kunutsor. "The findings indicate that regardless of physical activity, your BMI, how old you are and your gender, watching many hours of television is a risky activity with regards to developing blood clots," Dr Kunutsor added. Dr Kunutsor noted that the findings are based on observational studies and do not prove that extended TV watching causes blood clots. Regarding the possible reasons for the observed relationship, he said, "Prolonged TV viewing involves immobilisation which is a risk factor for VTE. This is why people are encouraged to move around after surgery or during a long-haul flight. In addition, when you sit in a cramped position for long periods, blood pools in your extremities rather than circulating and this can cause blood clots. Finally, binge-watchers tend to eat unhealthy snacks which may lead to obesity and high blood pressure which both raise the likelihood of blood clots." Dr Kunutsor concluded, "Our results suggest that we should limit the time we spend in front of the television. Long periods of TV watching should be interspersed with movement to keep the circulation going. Generally speaking, if you sit a lot in your daily life - for example, your work involves sitting for hours at a computer - be sure to get up and move around from time to time." (ANI)
The Election Commission of India will hold a review meeting on Saturday with the Union Health Secretary, Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to take stock of the Covid situation. The five poll bound states -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur -- are expected to submit the current status of vaccination and Covid caseload in the virtual meeting, sources said. The sources also said that the poll panel will review the Covid situation in the poll-bound states and accordingly decide about restrictions on campaign, rallies and road shows. The meeting comes days after the Commission extended the ban on public rallies and road shows in the five poll-bound states by a week, from January 15 to January 22. The Commission, however, has allowed political parties to hold indoor meetings with up to 300 people or 50 per cent of the venue's capacity. On January 15, the EC had held virtual meetings with the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and Chief Electoral Officers, Chief Secretaries and Health secretaries of the five poll-bound states. The three-member Commission held a "comprehensive review of present status and projected trends of Covid pandemic with special focus on the five poll-bound states," an EC statement had said. The restrictions on rallies and road shows were first imposed by the Election Commission on January 8, when it announced the poll schedule for the Assembly elections in five states. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur will go to the polls between February 10 and March 7, while the counting of votes would be taken up on March 10. --IANS ams/arm ( 284 Words) 2022-01-21-22:34:04 (IANS)
The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Friday approved an agreement with IndiGo Airlines to operate flights from Kadapa and Kurnool airports. The airline will operate four services a week starting from March 27, Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani) told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also gave a nod for the allocation of five acres of land in Tirupati to ace badminton player Kidambi Srikanth for setting up an academy. It also approved sanction of 50 acres of land to Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) at Anakapalle under Acharya N.G. Ranga University. The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also approved the government decision in calling for bids for handling the operational maintenance of Krishnapatnam power plant for 25 years to reduce the operational expenditure. The government also provided an option for the Genco employees working in the plant to return to Genco. The Cabinet gave in-principle approval for the construction of 16 new medical colleges with an expenditure of Rs 7,880 crore and development of the existing medical colleges at a cost of Rs 3,820 crore. It also sanctioned eight additional director of medical education posts along with 78 posts in dispensaries under the Ayush Department. The Cabinet gave its nod for the launch of EBC Nestam on January 25, where women aged between 45-60 years belonging to unreserved castes will be receiving Rs 15,000 per annum as financial aid. Towards this initiative, the government has identified 3.92 lakh beneficiaries and sanctioned Rs 589 crore. It also approved a Rs 5,000 crore loan for AP State Civil Supplies Corporation to ease the payment for farmers against crop procurements without delay. The Minister said that the government targeted to procure 50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, where so far 21.83 lakh metric tonnes have been procured and Rs 2,150 crore has been disbursed to farmers within 21 days. --IANS ms/vd ( 327 Words) 2022-01-21-22:52:01 (IANS)
To celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, the Royal Australian Mint has released a new collection of coins featuring the charming and powerful tiger, and the Chinese Lunar Year calendar wheel.

"Each year, the Mint releases these beautifully designed coins to celebrate the Lunar New Year and support the centuries-old tradition of gifting coins during this special time," said CEO of the Royal Australian Mint Leigh Gordon.

"We are thrilled to celebrate the 2022 Lunar New Year with the new release of the Year of the Tiger commemorative coin."

The Mint has been marking each Zodiac symbol of the Lunar calendar on a commemorative coin since 2007. This year, the collection includes six commemorative coins.

Apart from the five coins that all feature depictions of only the tiger, a final "Fu" coin for good luck features all 12 lunar animals circling the Chinese character "Fu" in their order of Lunar Year calendar wheel, including rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

The Mint said the animals' places on the coin are depicted running across a water pattern along the "Fu", symbolising the traditional story of the animals' race across a river to decide on the order of the Lunar Calendar. The position of each animal is rotated each year, so for this year's special edition, tiger is at the top.

"China has a long history of artistic practice and its art is very unique," designer of the 50c Tetradecagon in the collection Aleksandra Stokic told Xinhua.

Inspired by Danqing -- a traditional Chinese painting and the symbology of tiger, Stokic brought her ideas and wishes into her artwork.

"In my design, the tiger dominates the coin field as tigers are dominant animals in nature. Below the tiger is the rock as the tiger is also known as the king of the mountains."

Decorating the field of the coins is the branch of a pine tree, which as Stokic said represents virtues of self-discipline and fortitude, and ties in well with people born in the Year of Tiger.

"Each element of the coin design has a symbolic meaning," she said.

"No matter what difficulties those born in the Year of Tiger may face, they should always remember that they have the qualities to overcome them."
Delhi Police have arrested over 8,000 criminals from the northwest part of the national capital in the past nearly four months as part of 'Operation Sajag', an official said on Friday. "Operation Sajag has been yielding amazing results in the northwest district. A total of 8,006 criminals and anti-social elements have been arrested since the launch of the operation," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest district), Usha Rangnani. Of the total arrests, 5,471 persons were held for preventive measures, including 127 bad characters, 821 budding criminals and 4,523 anti-social elements. As many as 284 persons were arrested for consumption of liquor at public places in violation of the Excise Act. A whopping 90,684 suspicious persons were interrogated and verified under Section 65 of the Delhi Police act. The data also included the arrest of 126 robbers, 168 snatchers, 49 burglars, 141 automobile lifters, and 306 thieves, among others. In order to curb the incidents of street crime like snatching, robbery, auto-lifting etc., the northwest district police launched Operation Sajag on October 4 last year, and strengthened its daily static pickets by equipping the staff with wireless sets and big weapons. The DCP said that patrolling has also been enhanced by adding more patrol bikes for controlling street crimes and apprehending criminals. "Operation Sajag focussed on dark and vulnerable stretches, highways viz. Ring Road, Inner Ring Road and GT Karnal Road, slum and cluster areas, especially along the railway lines, market places, parks, malls etc.," the officer said. According to the DCP, various special combing-cum-area domination exercises were conducted, which included intensive patrolling, alert and effective picketing, and surveillance and preventive action for crackdown on crime and criminals to keep the streets free from crime. The strategies adopted under the operation includes comprehensive highway patrolling with special focus on night patrolling, foot and group patrolling, dynamic deployment with focus on specific areas, GPS-monitored vehicle patrolling, installation of area domination booths, permanent and surprise picketing, outcome-oriented tasking of picket and patrolling staff. The main focus remains on detection of sources of fire-arms, drugs, illicit liquor and receivers of stolen property. "Intelligence-based surprise raids and combing operations are being conducted in the district along the railways lines, in association with railway police and paramilitary personnel," Rangnani said. --IANS uj/arm ( 392 Words) 2022-01-21-23:08:02 (IANS)
Determined to ensure children from his neighbourhood do not miss online classes, an IITian's almost 15-month struggle has paid off as his remote village in Himachal Pradesh has finally got 4G mobile connectivity thanks to a new tower in the new year. It all started with the March 2020 lockdown. Prior to March 2020, Ph.D scholar at IIT Bombay, Tejasvi Chauhan regularly faced problems of phone connectivity as he could not talk to his grandmother because his remote village in Himachal Pradesh had no phone connectivity. But the lockdown in that month brought him home and his problem became acute. Chauhan could not attend his online classes. At the same time, he realised that children in his neighbourhood also had no access to online education. There were 1,000-odd students across age groups. In case of a medical emergency too, the area faced problems as there was no connectivity. The village, which is 80 km from Shimla, had no direct road connectivity till last year. People needed a 20-minute trek to reach the Panchayat village that had a road. The problem was not restricted to just his village, Baag under Jodna Gram Panchayat of Chopal block in Shimla district, but several villages under nearby Panchayats too. Chauhan, who is pursuing PhD in hydrology and climate change at IIT Bombay, is also one of the Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF). Announced in 2018-19, the PMRF scheme is designed for improving the quality of research in various higher educational institutions across India, including all the IITs, IISERs and IISc, Bengaluru. He started reaching out to different people. The mobile service providers were reluctant to invest money into another tower as there was one very nearby, as shown on the map. "But what they failed to appreciate was that there was a range in between and this ridge was taller than the tower, so villages on our side never got proper signal," Chauhan told IANS on phone. Installing a repeater was an option but BSNL and other private companies did not budge and getting it on their own would have been illegal. One of the options was to have temporary connections as are provided during disaster management as mentioned in research papers by one of his teachers, Professor Rajkumar Pant. The latter, however, suggested Chauhan to look for permanent solutions instead. He also put the PhD scholar in touch with IIT alumni, Sagar Sharma, a scientist with a government agency. Through Sharma, Chauhan reached out to the Ministry of Communications that has a Universal Service Obligation Fund exactly for erecting towers and getting better communication facilities to remote areas. Chauhan then approached the Pradhan of his village and got an application signed from him. That was in August 2020. Then, he got it endorsed by the local MLA and finally went to local MP Suresh Kashyap. He took the matter up with the Ministry of Communications and the tower was finally sanctioned. Then came the next set of challenges. Although the work for construction of this tower started in January 2021, logistic problems caused a lot of delay. "Sometimes, heavy snowfall in winters and frequent landslides in monsoon that broke road connectivity meant the material and equipment did not reach our village in time," the civil engineer from NIT Hamirpur said. "Work completed only in December 2021 and now finally in the new year, my village has proper 4G connectivity," Chauhan said, glad that he could ensure connectivity for students to not miss their online classes. --IANS niv/vd ( 603 Words) 2022-01-21-23:16:02 (IANS)
In an attempt to make inroads into the minority vote bank in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is trying to win the support of Muslim women. The saffron party is reaching out to Muslim women who benefitted from the Narendra Modi's government welfare schemes along with decision to ban the practice of instant triple talaq. Muslims constitute little less than 20 per cent of Uttar Pradesh's total population while other minorities form around 1 per cent of the state's population. Muslims play a decisive role in many Assembly seats in the state. The BJP Minority Morcha has identified 40 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh having 60-70 per cent minority population and 100 Assembly seats having 30 per cent minority population in the state. BJP Minority Morcha national media in-charge, Syed Yasir Jilani, told IANS that Muslim women who benefitted from the welfare schemes of the Modi government are coming out in support of the BJP and the Prime Minister. "After seeing the overwhelming support of Muslim women for Prime Minister Modi, we have decided to reaching out to these women. We are preparing a list of Muslim women beneficiaries to reach out to the families seeking support for the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls," Jilani said. Jilani, who is helping the local unit in Sambhal district along with other party leaders from the national capital, claimed that Muslim women are listing a series of government initiatives which have benefitted them. "Muslim women are defying their male family members and supporting Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. They are saying that their family benefitted from PM Awas Yojna, PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which provided free ration, Ujjwala Yojana and other beneficiary schemes of the Centre. These women are openly supporting Modi. They are also thanking the Prime Minister for banning instant triple talaq," Jilani claimed. To convert the support of the Muslim women into votes, the BJP Minority Morcha is now planning to reach out to these women in small groups of four to five workers. The BJP workers will explain to these women the benefits of government schemes, initiated both by the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. "We also explain how our political rivals are misleading them by creating a fear in the community about the BJP," he said. --IANS ssb/arm ( 410 Words) 2022-01-21-23:24:03 (IANS)
A Delhi court on Friday sought the response of the CBI on a bail application filed by an official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), who was arrested by the probe agency in an alleged bribery case. On December 31, 2021, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Bengaluru-based NHAI Regional Officer Akil Ahmad, and four others of a private company in a Rs 20 lakh bribery case. According to the CBI, the case against the NHAI official and two contractors was lodged earlier in December last and they had arrested the official during raids. Besides him, Dilip Buildcon Ltd's Executive Director Devendra Jain, General Manager Retnakaran Sajilal, official Sunil Kumar Verma as well as Anuj Gupta were also arrested. Issuing notice to the CBI, Special CBI Judge Vinod Yadav posted the matter for further hearing on January 25. Applicant's counsel Ashwath Sitaraman and Saaduzzaman argued that the entire allegation is conjectural as the applicant has no discretion as Regional Officer, to do any favour to Dilip Buildcon, or clear any bill. This was a newly-begun project, awarded by a committee of which applicant was not a part, they said. They also said the arrest has been made without cause and without following the procedures of the law. Highlighting the service record of the official, the counsel said that the CBI itself sought judicial custody after 9 days of police custody, and there is no requirement of continued custody especially in the time of the pandemic. The CBI said that Ahmad had allegedly demanded illegal gratification from the General Manager of the private company to clear the project under Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway Package 1 and 2, executed by the company in Karnataka. The agency got a tip-off and laid a trap to catch all the accused red-handed and Rs 20 lakh was recovered from a private person in Delhi, having been allegedly received on behalf of the NHAI official, they said. It further stated that they conducted raids and carried out searches at the premises of the accused at several places in multiple cities -- Delhi, Bengaluru, Kochi, Gurugram and Bhopal, which led to the cash seizure of Rs 4 crore from the premises of private persons, and Rs 4 lakh from the NHAI official's premises. --IANS jw/vd ( 393 Words) 2022-01-22-00:02:05 (IANS)
After its proposal to withdraw weekend curfew in the national capital was rejected by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the Delhi government said on Friday that it is unfortunate that the LG has turned down the strong demand of traders and the business community. "The LG has rejected the proposal of the elected government despite the fact that Corona cases are reducing at a very fast pace. When all markets of Gurugram and Noida are open, why should the business community of Delhi be made to suffer by the BJP-led Central government," the Delhi government said in a statement. AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a press conference, "I met people from the Greater Kailash Market Association and they informed me that due to the odd-even arrangement for shops and the weekend curfew that is in place, they could only run their business for two days last week, which will be three days next week. Due to this, the shopkeepers are facing great troubles and it is becoming hard for them to even run their households." "The wages of the poor people working at these shops have also been deducted due to the decline in sales, causing them to struggle even more. Meanwhile, the BJP in Delhi is running a false campaign, plotting a conspiracy in which they are sending messages to Delhi's market associations that CM Arvind Kejriwal is disrupting Delhi's businesses," he added. "The Lieutenant Governor is a representative from BJP's Central government and has deliberately forced Delhi to impose the weekend curfew and odd-even arrangement for shops. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority is chaired by the LG, in which the elected Delhi government can only present a proposal, and the final decision belongs to the LG. "Today, all those politicians of the BJP have been exposed, as despite requests and proposals from the Delhi government, BJP's representative, the LG, neither removed the weekend curfew, nor the odd-even system of opening of shops," Bharadwaj concluded. --IANS rdk/arm ( 347 Words) 2022-01-22-00:20:07 (IANS)
Atanasio Monserrate, who is a BJP candidate on Panaji seat, said on Friday that the party tried its level best to convince Utpal Parrikar, son of former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, requesting him to contest from any constituencies. Speaking to ANI, Monserrate said, "The party tried its level best to convince him (Utpal Parrikar). I am sure that if his father (former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar) was alive, he would have never allowed this thing to happen." Utpal Parrikar has decided to contest the election as an independent candidate and resigned from the party. Earlier, Shiv Sena had said that if Utpal is contesting the election as an Independent, then they would support him. On this, Monserrate said, "Shiv Sena does not have a base in Goa. They had tried their luck earlier also but they could not make any dent in Goa." (ANI)
The Election Commission of India on Saturday will hold a meeting with the Union Health Secretary and the Chief Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to review the ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties ahead of Assembly elections. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra will hold virtual meetings with the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary, and Chief Electoral Officers of five poll-bound states to take stock of the situation as India is reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases. The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The progress on vaccination will be a key factor in allowing relaxations. As of today, India reported 3,37,704 fresh COVID cases (9,550 more than yesterday) and 2,42,676 recoveries and 488 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total 21,13,365 active cases are in the country with a daily positivity rate of 17.22 per cent. The five states going to polls are Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa. The Election commission's aim is to have maximum voters vaccinated before the elections held in these particular states. Uttar Pradesh which currently has 98,238 active COVID 19 cases has inoculated 96 per cent of its population with the first dose in the 18 plus category. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand inoculated 99 per cent of its population with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 84 per cent of its population with the second dose. Goa has vaccinated 98 per cent of its population above 18 years of age with a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier on January 15, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided that no physical rallies, roadshow, pad-yatra, cycle/bike/vehicle rally and procession shall be allowed till January 22, 2022. However, the commission also granted relaxations for the political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand, where assembly elections will be held from February 10 till March 10. (ANI)
Sources told ANI, "Delhi Police is interrogating a 19-year-old man from Lucknow in connection with the case. The police found an important lead with the help of technical evidence."

Earlier, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had issued a notice to Delhi Police's Cyber Crime cell on Tuesday, seeking an FIR against persons making obscene comments against Muslim women on the 'Clubhouse' app.

The commission took suo-moto cognizance of a video posted on Twitter, which showcased a filthy Clubhouse conversation on the topic 'Muslim girls are more beautiful than Hindu'.

The DCW has demanded a copy of FIR registered, details of the accused identified and arrested in the matter, and detailed action taken report in the matter.

A copy of the conversation has been sent to the Delhi police along with the notice. (ANI)
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's close relative Hariom Yadav, who recently switched sides from Samajwadi Party (SP) to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will contest the upcoming assembly polls in the state from his current seat of Sirsaganj in UP's Firozabad. The BJP had released its second list of 85 candidates for phase 3 and phase 4 for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on Friday giving tickets to 30 OBCs, 19 SC and 15 women. A three-time MLA, Hariom Yadav, joined the ranks of BJP on January 12 in the presence of Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma along with state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh. Hariom claims that he has influence in six assembly constituencies. A three-time MLA, Hariom Yadav was expelled in February last year for six years for "anti-party activities". Besides Hariom, BJP's second list for UP polls also features the sitting MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar, Aditi Singh, who recently joined the party after quitting Congress. Aditi has been fielded from the seat where she had contested earlier. Another prominent name that appears on the list is former IPS Asim Arun who has resigned from his position to join the party, has been given a ticket from Kannauj (SC). Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law of Aparna Yadav, who also joined the ranks of BJP recently, has sought a ticket from Lucknow Cantt seat. Notably, Aparna made her political debut in 2017 assembly elections in the state by contesting from the Lucknow Cantt seat. However, she was defeated by BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had secured nearly 63,000 votes. Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
DCP Saurabh Tripathi said that 15 injured people were shifted to various hospitals in Mumbai following the fire incident. "Of these, four were reported critical," he said.

"21 fire tenders are brought here. Traffic police and local police were involved in rescue operations. As per the preliminary investigation, the fire broke out on the 15th floor and went upwards via duct. The most affected with 19th floor. The fire is under control now," said the DCP.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, who was also present at the spot, said, "Six old age people needed oxygen support system and have been shifted to the hospital. Fire flame is under control but smoke is huge. All people have been rescued."

Maharashtra BJP president and MLA, Mangal Prabhat Lodha said it was an "unfortunate incident." (ANI)
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed the importance of implementing macro policies innovatively, better unleashing market vitality, stabilizing the macroeconomy, and keeping the economy running within an appropriate range.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a symposium which he presided over on Thursday.

The symposium was held to solicit opinions and suggestions from experts, scholars and entrepreneurs on a draft government work report.

The document will be deliberated at the top legislature's annual session in March.

Vice Premier Han Zheng, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium.

The premier highlighted the hard-won achievements made over the past year as China met its main development goals and tasks.

Noting that the Chinese economy is facing new downward pressure, Li stressed the need to stick to the basic tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and the need to effectively forestall and defuse risks.

He said the continuity and stability of the macro policies should be maintained, and range-based and targeted regulation should be a focus.

Efforts should be made to implement a combination of policies to cut taxes and fees on a large scale to deliver benefits to more market entities, and carry out comprehensive measures to reduce financing costs for enterprises, especially medium, small and micro firms, Li said.

He urged the provision of targeted support for sectors that create many jobs but have been hit hard by the pandemic, ensuring the energy supply and stabilizing grain output.

Li noted the importance of fully leveraging the decisive role of the market in allocating resources, accelerating the development of a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment, strengthening market oversight, opposing monopolies and the unregulated expansion of capital, and safeguarding fair competition.

Multiple measures should be taken to increase people's incomes and spending power, and unleash consumption potential, he said.
A Delhi Court on Friday deferred the proceeding of prosecution evidence against Shahrukh Pathan in a case related to northeast Delhi violence. The Court had last month directed the commencement of trial in the matter. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat deferred the proceedings against Shahrukh Pathan and listed the matter for February 21, 2022. The case was being heard through video conferencing (VC) and no witness was summoned. Witnesses are not examined when the hearing takes place through VC. Defense counsel said that none of the witnesses was summoned. The Court has adjourned the proceedings for February 21. He told the witness will be summoned only if the physical hearing starts by the next date of hearing. The Court had on December 23, 2021 framed charges against Shahrukh Pathan under various offences dealing with rioting, unlawful assembly and an attempt to murder in an FIR 49/2020 registered at Jafrabad Police Station. The Court had also framed charges against the other four accused, Salman, Gulfam, Aatir and Osama. As the accused had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial, the Court listed the matter for prosecution evidence. The case pertains to unlawful assembly within the jurisdiction of Police Station Jafrabad, and accused being a member of unlawful assembly along with four other associates armed with bottles, stones and pistols obstructed police officials or public servants, who were posted there to maintain law and order, in the discharge of their public functions. The police have alleged that they have caused injuries to police personnel and gunshot injury sustained to one Rohit Shukla. Earlier, in a separate case, the Court had framed charges against Shahrukh Pathan, who had allegedly opened fire at police personnel in February 2020 during the protest and violence against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Pathan is also named as an accused in a separate case related to pointing a gun at head constable Deepak Dahiya. He was arrested on March 3, 2020, and is currently lodged in the Tihar Jail. According to police, Pathan after the incident in February initially kept roaming in the national capital before slipping away to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh's Shamli, from where he was arrested by the Crime Branch later. In February, clashes broke out in the northeast area of Delhi between the groups regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act, which led to the deaths of at least 53 people. (ANI)
The cities where night curfew will be imposed are Surendranagar, Dhrangradhra, Morbi, Wankaner, Dhoraji, Gondal, Jetpur, Kalawad, Godhra, Vijalpore, Navsari, Navsari, Bilimora, Vyara, Vapi Valsad, Bharuch, Ankleshwar.

A review meeting was held by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Friday before announcing the reviewed guidelines.

Earlier on January 7, the government announced a night curfew between 10 pm and 6 am in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Anand, and Nadiad.

As per COVID-19 guidelines, as many as 150 persons are allowed in the open and 50 per cent in closed space for any social religious function. The cinema halls, libraries, auditoriums, gyms are also allowed to function with 50 per cent occupancy.

The public transport both AC and non AC buses can run with 75 per cent of its sitting capacity and standing is not allowed.

The occupancies are restricted in marriages and funerals also. As many as 150 persons are allowed in the open, 50 per cent in closed space for marriage and 100 people are in funerals.

As per the guidelines, all businesses, offices, shops, shopping malls etc can be opened till 10:00 pm and 75 per cent sitting capacity in the restaurant is permitted.

Earlier on Friday, Gujarat reported 21,225 fresh COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths. So far, Gujarat reported 10,22,788 COVID-19 cases. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will virtually launch the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday at 1 pm. Taking to Twitter, Shah said that it is in continuation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "commitment to providing a transparent and people-friendly administration" to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. "In continuation of PM Narendra Modi Ji's commitment to providing a transparent and people-friendly administration to our sisters and brothers of J&K, today at 1 pm, I will launch the District Good Governance Index (DGGI) via video conferencing," Shah tweeted. Shah will release the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, a move which will bring Jammu and Kashmir the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index. The event will be organized jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development in association with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad. Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha will also address the event. The District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir was prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcements made in the "Behtar e-Hukumat - Kashmir Aelamia" resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices held in Srinagar. The exercise on the formulation of the District Good Governance Index was set in motion in July 2021 which has now been completed and Jammu and Kashmir will become the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index. The District Good Governance Index of the government of Jammu and Kashmir represents a major administrative reform in benchmarking good governance at the district level and a significant step for timely collation and publication of statistics at the state/ district level. The District Good Governance Index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir. The Chief Secretary Government of Jammu and Kashmir Arun Kumar Mehta and V. Srinivas, Secretary DARPG, Government of India will also be addressing the event. The event will be attended by senior officials of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, District Collectors and Chief Planning officers of Districts. Secretaries of Planning and Secretaries of Administrative Reforms of all State and UT governments and District Collectors of non-election bound states have also been invited to participate in the event by video conferencing. During the occasion, a presentation on the formulation of the district Good Governance Index will be made by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad. This will be followed by district presentations by selected 12 District Development Commissioners, who will be showcasing achievements of various sectors. Thereafter a panel discussion will be held on DGGI- A Way Forward for futuristic 2.0 version of DGGI for measuring and benchmarking performance and improvement of Districts in future as well. (ANI)
Union Minister Anurag Thakur, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with other BJP leaders on Saturday flagged off "Prachar Rath" (election campaign vans) from the party office in Lucknow. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh were also present. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the double engine government of BJP has fulfilled all the promises it had made. "BJP is launching a new program through this van for its election campaign today in 403 Vidhan Sabha constituencies. What BJP had said, the double engine government has fulfilled all the promises it had made. The population of 25 crores of the state have seen that before 2017 the traders and common citizens used to migrate but after 2017 the criminals are migrating and the state is setting a new paradigm of progress to bring happiness in the lives of 25 crore people of the state which is clearly visible to all of us." He further said that the double engine government in the state has worked for the development of the people. "With the motto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas', the double engine government worked for the development of the villages, upliftment of the poor, happiness of the farmers, employment of the youth and safety of the women in the state," he added. The Election Commission of India is scheduled to hold a meeting today with the Union Health Secretary and the Chief Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to review the ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties ahead of Assembly elections. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra will hold virtual meetings with the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary, and Chief Electoral Officers of five poll-bound states to take stock of the situation as India is reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases. The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The progress on vaccination will be a key factor in allowing relaxations. Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
A 52-year-old woman was found murdered and her husband injured at their home in South Delhi's Saket on Friday night, the police said. As per police, a call was received from the nephew of the woman informing about the incident at around 7 pm. "On enquiry, the nephew of the woman said that he received a call from his aunt who had called him upstairs on the first floor at the earliest. When he knocked at the door, his uncle opened the door. His clothes were soaked in blood and had a deep wound on the neck," police said as per information gathered from the woman's nephew. The woman's 57-year-old husband in currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The police said that a statement could not be obtained from him so far as he was not fit for it. The Crime Team of the Delhi Police was called and during examination, a blood stained kitchen knife was found in drawing room, just adjacent to the bed room. All related exhibits were seized from the spot. A case under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered and further investigation is going on. (ANI)
A 57-year-old woman from Kudige village of Thirthahalli town in Karnataka's Shimoga district tested positive for Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), the health officer informed. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, KFD is caused by Kyasanur Forest disease virus (KFDV), a member of the virus family Flaviviridae. KFDV was identified in 1957 when it was isolated from a sick monkey from the Kyasanur Forest in Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, India. Since then, between 400-500 humans cases per year have been reported. Speaking to ANI, District health officer Dr Rajesh Suragihalli said "In our village Thirthahalli Taluk, Shimoga district got the first case of KFD after a 57-year-old woman in Kudige village of Thirthahalli Taluk was found positive for KFD." "A woman was admitted to a public health care centre in Thirthahalli Taluk, who was suffering from fever for a couple of days. She was diagnosed with KDF on Thursday but now her condition is better," Suragihalli said. "As this is the first case in the district, our frontline and healthcare workers are on duty. The team is conducting a fever survey. People suffering from fever will be admitted to hospital in Thirthahalli Taluk," he said. "We don't want any KFD positive person to stay at home, therefore, they will be under our observation," he added. Aralagodu in Sagar taluk in Shimoga district was affected by KFD in 2019, which claimed 22 lives. In all 26 people had within two years. "We are vigilant about the ticks mutation. We have conducted a survey in KFD stricken villages. We requested the villagers to use precautionary measures and be cautious about monkey deaths at nearby places," Suragihalli said. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir has started and soon elections will be held soon. Speaking virtually at the launch of the District Good Governance Index in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Minister said, "Delimitation has started and soon elections will be held. I have given assurance in Lok Sabha that as soon as the situation becomes normal in Jammu and Kashmir and statehood will be given back to Jammu and Kashmir." Shah further slammed leaders for doing propaganda and said that they are doing this for their own political benefits. "Many leaders have been talking false and doing propaganda. I want the youth to ask, crores of investment have been coming, tourists have been coming and they are doing propaganda for their own political benefits. The democracy has reached grass root level that is why they do this propaganda and youth should not listen to them," he said while accusing the political parties of engaging in false propaganda. "Today is an important day also for the country as what has started from Jammu and Kashmir will be going to other parts of the country. I want to say to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the Union Territory is going through a transformation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always thought of," Shah added as he hailed the PM Modi's vision for the Union Territory. "There has been a change after 2019, there were 87 MLAs in Union Territory and only three families were ruling but today there is 30000 public representatives. These families said that after the abrogation of 370 the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has worsened but I want to tell them there has been a 40 per cent decrease in terror-related incidents and an 87 per cent decrease in killings," said Amit Shah. "I want to ask these three families why they were not able to do so in the last so many years. Why are they misinforming people," the Home Minister said he attacked former chief ministers of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. He further said that the people are receiving direct benefits from the government schemes in the Union Territory. Shah said Jammu and Kashmir is among the top five States and UTs in India in implementing Centre Schemes and congratulated Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for making Jammu and Kashmir a top performer. "Several development works are being done in Jammu and Kashmir. Record number of tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir this year. People are receiving direct benefits from the government scheme," said Shah. The Union Home Minister said that the implementation of Central and State Governments' schemes at the district level is important for the development. Shah said that there will a healthy competition within the districts which will help the development of the area and this will benefit the people. With PM Modi's initiative tourism has been boasted in the UT as 1,13000 tourists have visited the UT. "This year record number of tourists have come but these leaders are doing propaganda so that the tourists will not come to Jammu and Kashmir. I want to tell those who forced the youth to go to Pakistan for MBBS that nine Medical Colleges have come up in the UT and 1,100 seats have been added. I appeal to the youth of the Valley to come and walk on the path of development by PM Modi and don't listen to these propagandas being spread," he said. Shah released the District Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, a move that will bring Jammu and Kashmir the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index. Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha were also present at the event. The District Good Governance Index of Jammu and Kashmir was prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcements made in the "Behtar e-Hukumat - Kashmir Aelamia" resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices held in Srinagar. The exercise on the formulation of the District Good Governance Index was set in motion in July 2021 which has now been completed and Jammu and Kashmir will become the first Union Territory in the country to have a Good Governance Index. The District Good Governance Index of the government of Jammu and Kashmir represents a major administrative reform in benchmarking good governance at the district level and a significant step for timely collation and publication of statistics at the state/ district level. The District Good Governance Index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
Highlighting that the teamwork of the Centre, states and local administration is yielding good results in aspirational districts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged every District Magistrate to learn from the success of others and also evaluate their challenges. "By helping each other, sharing best practices, from teaching each other and from learning from each other the working system that is developed is the key to 'good governance," the Prime Minister said while interacting with district magistrates via video conferencing today. "This has given a concrete form to the federal spirit and culture of the Constitution, the basis of which is the teamwork of centre-state and local administration," the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister highlighted the need to compete and learn from others in the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism. "When we work in team spirit then the results are the same as that we are presently witnessing in aspirational districts. The work done in aspirational districts is a matter of study for big universities. In the last four years, there has been an increase of 4 to 5 times in Jan Dhan accounts in almost every aspirational district of the country. Almost every family has got a toilet, electricity has reached every village," he added. "Every district needs to learn from the success of others and also evaluate their challenges," PM Modi said. PM Modi also called for a direct, emotional connection between administration and public to ensure 'top to bottom' as well as 'bottom to top' governance flow. Speaking further, PM Modi said, "Convergence has proved to be a major reason for the success of the Aspirational Districts Programme. All resources are same, the government machinery is same, officials are same but the result is different." The Prime Minister also said, "On the one hand, earlier, the budget kept increasing, plans kept on making, economic development also kept happening in the figures, but even after 75 years of independence, many districts in the country remained behind. Over time these districts were tagged with backward districts." "But, times are changing now," he added. The Prime Minister took direct feedback about the progress and present status of implementation of government schemes and programmes in the districts. It is aimed at achieving saturation of various schemes by various departments in the districts in mission mode, in convergence with all stakeholders. The Aspirational Districts programme was aimed to quickly and effectively transform 112 most under-developed districts across the country.(ANI)
For the first time, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a visit to western Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. During his visit to Kairana, he will first go to the Teacher's Colony in Kairana where he will meet families residing there as part of the BJP's public outreach programme. Shah, who was the former National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, will then visit Sadhu Sweets, a 70-year-old shop located in Mohalla Gumbad in Kairana. Here, he will meet the owner of the sweets shop, Rakesh Garg who had to migrate along with his family from Kairana due to the fear of miscreants in the year 2014, following which he will meet several other families who had migrated from Kairana. After this, Shah will hold a press conference at Vaish Dharamsala. Rakesh Garg, who had fled from Kairana, while speaking to ANI said, "It is the nobility of the Home Minister that he has understood our pain and he is coming to know our pain. We will urge the Home Minister to continue to provide us with the same environment as we have been getting in Kairana in last five years. Those in BJP government will come back to power." "We had left from here under compulsion. There was no system of any kind inside the state back then. There was no medical facility, no facility for the children to study properly. In the past, we were troubled in every possible way. And the biggest reason was that the (Samajwadi party) goons used to demand ransom from us and they used to do this every other day at every other house." Awadhesh Mittal, a resident of Kairana, said, "Those who had migrated from Kairana did very well professionally than those who chose to stay here. As of now, the atmosphere of Kairana has become very good and now there is no problem." "Since the time the BJP government has come to power, the atmosphere of Kairana has become peaceful. There is no such thing in western Uttar Pradesh which is being said spread that farmers are angry. Earlier governments have not paid for sugarcane, now the government has cleared all the payments. There is no problem, so the farmer is not angry with the government at all," he added. Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the Mumbai residential building fire in Tardeo and Rs 50,000 for those injured. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that six people died in the fire that broke out inside the 20 storey Kamala building in Mumbai on Saturday morning. The civic body further informed that 16 injured people are admitted to the various hospitals while seven have been treated and discharged. "An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the building fire in Tardeo, Mumbai. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000 each," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted quoting the Prime Minister. "Saddened by the building fire at Tardeo in Mumbai. Condolences to the bereaved families and prayers with the injured for the speedy recovery," the PMO tweeted. A level 3 fire had broken out in the residential building. DCP Saurabh Tripathi had said that 21 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse out the fire. Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the fire site. (ANI)
China will further boost charging services for electric vehicles to meet the demand of 20 million such vehicles by 2025, according to a guideline published on Friday.

The country will move faster to put in place a smart, efficient, well-balanced and moderately advanced network of battery charging facilities, according to the document released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other nine government departments.

The document stressed the need for efforts to accelerate the construction and installation of charging facilities in residential areas, improve battery charging and swapping capabilities in urban and rural areas, step up the development and application of new technologies, and add more expressways to the rapid charging network.

All fixed parking spaces in new residential districts will be equipped with or reserve room for charging facilities, it said.

By 2025, no less than 60 percent of expressway service areas in the country will have rapid charging stations, and no less than 80 percent of national ecological civilization pilot zones and key areas for air pollution prevention and control will be similarly equipped.

China will also strengthen maintenance and internet services for charging facilities, ensure solid work in grid construction and energy supply, boost quality and safety supervision, and increase fiscal and financial support, it said.

The guideline emphasized the construction of a charging facility network in rural areas. As part of the country's rural vitalization efforts, China expects to equip all counties with charging stations and all villages with charging piles.

China has so far built some 810,000 public charging piles, but over 70 percent of them are in regions such as Guangdong and Shanghai, which have a relatively high number of piles, while many counties and villages are still short of charging infrastructure, according to the NDRC.

Last year, sales of new energy vehicles in China surged approximately 160 percent year on year to 3.52 million units, and the new energy vehicle market share has increased to 13.4 percent, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows.
General Officer-Commanding-in-Chief, northern command, Lieutenant General YK Joshi on Saturday lauded the armed forces of the country and said that the troops displayed boldness in standing up to "aggressive designs" posed along the Line of Control(LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC). "The troops of our Armed forces have displayed boldness in standing up to the aggressive designs posed along the LoC and LAC in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh," the army officer said. A top army officer while addressing at northern command investiture ceremony here on Saturday said, "There has been a reduction in terrorism-related incidents, stone-pelting activities and protests as a result of tireless efforts of the security forces and the people of Jammu and Kashmir." Lt Gen YK Joshi said that there are less than 200 terrorists active in Jammu and Kashmir. He thanked the armed forces for their efforts on a continuous basis. He added that during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our Army always stands with the common people and is providing them with all possible help. The Army Commander commended all ranks of Northern Command for their dedication and devotion to duty in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. He conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to the brave men who made the supreme sacrifice on the borders and in the battle against various security challenges. (ANI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the BJP-led Central government and alleged that it is trying to "destroy the rights of the public from the beginnng". The Congress MP in a series of tweets said that the world's largest democracy is nothing without fundamental rights. "What's the point of the world's largest democracy without public rights? The Modi government has been trying to destroy the rights of the public from the beginning. Can you even imagine India without these rights including the fundamental rights?" he said. He further said that transparency is another name of democracy and people have the right to question it. "Right to Information- Transparency is another name of democracy. People have the right to question and get answers. RTI was also given by UPA. Which of these rights does the PM object to? And why?" he asked. "Right to food - so that no one has to face hunger. Right to Education - Today every child goes to school, making a better tomorrow for himself and for the country. Right to Employment- Despite the BJP's staunch opposition, the UPA gave employment security to the public. This helped the countrymen even in the difficult times of COVID-19," he added. Addressing media while launching the party's youth manifesto for Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, Rahul Gandhi had criticised the BJP government for depriving the youth of opportunities. "About 880 youth lost a job in Uttar Pradesh every 24 hours while 16 lakh youths lost jobs in the last 5 years." Stressing more on the job scenario Rahul said, "PM Modi promised 2 crore job every year which did not happen. Why? This is because India's assets are going to two-three capitalists." "There are no hollow words of the Congress party, the thinking is that a strategy for the future of the youth of UP, how we will get you employment, how we will get you employment, it should be told. Not that we should tell you that brother, we will give you 10 lakh, 20 lakh, 30 lakh, 40 lakh jobs, but how Congress will give it, we have written this in this manifesto", said Congress' Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi said that the manifesto is all about 'UP youth's visions', which has been drafted after consulting the youths of the state. (ANI)
A terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces at Kashmir's Shopian on Saturday, the police said. The encounter broke out at the village Kilbal area of Shopian. Police and security forces are on the operation, said Kashmir Zonal Police in a Tweet. Further details are awaited. (ANI)
"If the alliance comes to power there will be 2 Chief Ministers, one from OBC community and another from Dalit community. There would be 3 Deputy Chief Ministers including from Muslim community," he told a press conference.

Upon being questioned whether this an alliance formed out of compulsion, Babu Singh Kushwaha said that it is not of compulsion. "We worked for Dalit, backward and minority community for a long time," he said.

Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10.

The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
The Maharashtra government has assured of investigation into the fire that broke out inside a residential building in Mumbai's Tardeo area on Sturday morning that claimed the lives of six people and announced to give Rs 5 lakh compensation to the next of kin of the those who died in the incident. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that the state ministers Aaditya Thackeray and Aslam Shaikh will be looking into the investigation. "The fire incident that occurred at the Kamala building in Mumbai's Tardeo area will be investigated. Our guardian minister of Mumbai Suburban Aaditya Thackeray and Mumbai City guardian minister Aslam Shaikh will look into it," Pawar said in a statement. A compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin for the decesed was announced by Aaditya Thackeray. Earlier in the day, Aaditya Thackeray visited the Kamala building fire site. "I visited the Kamala Building fire site in Tardeo to get an on-ground update regarding the recovery operations underway. Also spoke to the residents and assured them complete assistance in this tragic hour," he tweeted. "Govt will give Rs 5L compensation to families of those citizens who lost their lives in this unfortunate fire," he added. On alleged reports of two hospitals not admitting patients, Thackeray said, "There were reports about 2 hospitals refusing treatment, however both hospitals informed me that they have admitted and treated some of those injured in this fire." Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had earlier reported seven deaths, but later in a statement clarified that six people lost thier lives. BMC also informed that seven people have been discharged after treatment and 16 are undergoing treatment at various hosiptals. Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has expressed condolences and said that strict action should be taken against those responsible for the fire incident. "My deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in major fire at Tardeo, Mumbai.Praying for speedy recovery of the injured residents. Shocked & anguished to know nearby hospitals refused admissions to injured, which resulted into more deaths. If it is true then, BMC & State administration should fix the responsibility for these deaths & take action against those responsible," he tweeted. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court reunited an inter-caste marriage couple while directing Delhi Police to ensure the security of the wife of the petitioner. The bench of Justice Siddhartha Mridul and Justice Anup J. Bhambhani directed the Delhi Police to lodge Ms. Meena, wife of the petitioner, at Nirmal Chhaya Home at Jail Road Hari Nagar under the care and custody of Inspector Nisha Sharma of Janak Puri Police Station. The bench made it clear, in its order dated January 20, that Inspector Nisha Sharma shall be personally responsible to escort Ms. Meena to Nirmal Chhaya and her lodging there. The High Court said the Superintendent of Nirmal Chhaya Home is directed not to permit any person, other than Inspector Nisha Sharma or the petitioner to meet Ms. Meena without permission of this court. The bench directed the petitioner to arrange an air ticket for his wife to travel from Delhi to Chennai. The Court also directed Inspector Nisha Sharma to ensure the safe passage of Ms. Meena from Nirmal Chhaya Home to Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi and ensure that she gets on to the flight to Chennai. The court directed the counsel appeared on behalf of the petitioner to co-ordinate the aforesaid program. The bench further said, in accordance with the wishes expressed by her before us, " Ms. Meena is at liberty to join the company of the petitioner." The court directed to a copy of an order should be sent by e-mail to Inspector Nisha Sharma and through her, to the Superintendent of Nirmal Chhaya Home for compliance. The direction was passed by High Court after hearing a habeas corpus petition moved by the husband, who is a native of Rajasthan and presently resides in Chennai. The petition was moved through Advocate Raghunatha Sethupathy and A. Rajarajan praying for a direction to produce and release of the wife of the petitioner, who allegedly was confined by her father into his custody illegally. Her father is stated to be a police officer with the Delhi Police. During the hearing of the petition, Ms. Meena appeared before the bench through the video-conferencing from her paternal home and expressed the desire to make a submission before it from the safety of a Police Station. Following this, the court directed the Delhi Police to escort her to Janakpuri Police Station where she clearly expressed her wish to join the company of her husband. The Court said it is important to record that Ms. Meena made a statement before the Magistrate under serious duress. She was threatened by her family that a Khap Panchayat in Rajasthan is looking into the validity of her marriage and has decided to eliminate both her as well as he husband. The Court thereafter said, "in view of what Ms. Meena has stated before us in the court today, we direct the SHO of Anand Vihar Police Station, where an FIR is stated to be registered against the petitioner, to forthwith get Ms. Meena's statement recorded a fresh by a competent Magistrate u/s 164 Cr.P.C." The Court said that it is an admitted fact that Ms. Meena is major and she has stated before the court that she had married the petitioner of her free will, against the wishes of her parents. Advocate Raghunatha Sethupathy counsel for the petitioner submitted that though the petitioner is otherwise resident of District Dholpur, Rajasthan, he is presently employed in Chennai. He submitted that the petitioner will be in a position to make arrangements for his wife to travel to Chennai. The petition said the said marriage was solemnized at the Arya Samaj Mandir Vivah Bandhan Trust in Gokhle Market of Tees Hazari in New Delhi on November 22, 2021. The marriage was registered with the Delhi government on November 24, 2021. The married couple moved to Chennai on November 28 to their matrimonial home. As they wanted to settle in Rajasthan, they moved to Jaipur on December 12, 2021. The petition further stated that on December 16, the father of Ms. Meena and her relatives along with the Police officials from Sardar Police Station, Jaipur illegally took the petitioner and his wife to the police station where they were given life threats. "On the same day, the petitioner's wife was forcibly taken away by her father and around Rs 20 thousand along with a mobile phone was taken away from the petitioner. Thereafter, he was illegally confined in the prison for a day and was finally released on December 17, 2021." The petition further said the petitioner had visited his house at Jaipur but was surprised to see that his house was locked by Police and he was not allowed to enter. Then he returned to Chennai. After reaching there, he found that the father of his wife transferred Rs 95,000 from his various bank accounts using Phone-pe from his mobile. The petitioner said he lodged a complaint through speed post to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shahdara and SHO, of Farsh Bazar Police Station in New Delhi. However, no action was taken by the Police officials. (ANI)
A massive fire broke out at a thermocol factory in the Rajapur area of Domjur in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday afternoon. As per information, three fire tenders have reached the spot to douse the flames. "We were working inside the factory when the fire broke out at 12.30 pm. Initially, we tried to control the fire but couldn't", said Panchan Mallick, a worker in the factory. He further informed that 200-250 people were working inside the factory. Sunetra Chattopadhyay, the company supervisor said that all the workers who were stuck in the fire have been rescued. "A fire extinguishing system was there inside the factory. However, it couldn't be used to save one part of the factory from burning completely. We have incurred a loss of about Rs 1 lakh", the supervisor added. (ANI)
The tableau of the Ministry of Civil Aviation showcases Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) and the rich dividends it has been yielding, said a press note issued by MoCA on Saturday. The scheme, conceptualized by the ministry and implemented by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has the objective of enhancing regional connectivity in an economically sustainable and affordable manner. In the aircraft-shaped tableau, the front part showcases women pilots depicting women power in India's aviation, as India tops in women commercial pilots, globally. The rear portion of the tableau shows the symbol of Buddhism and the motto of UDAN- Sab Uden, Sab Juden. The middle portion showcases the Buddha circuit, featuring, Buddha Statue at Gaya where He attained enlightenment, Dhamekh Stupa, Sarnath where he delivered his first sermon (Dharmachakra Parivartan) and the Mahaparinirvana Stupa, Kushinagar where he attained Mahaparinirvana, the ministry said. "Both sides of the middle portion of the tableau depict heritage sites-- Humayun tomb from North, Konark sun temple in East, Hampi temple chariot in South and Ajanta caves in West-- connected with air services," it stated. Humayun tomb is accessible through Indira Gandhi International airport, Delhi, Konark sun temple through Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneshwar, Hampi temple through Vidyanagar airport and Ajanta caves can be reached via Aurangabad airport, the note added. Launched in 2016, the UDAN scheme aims to fulfil the aspirations of the common man by following the vision of Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik with enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and III cities, as per the press note. The first UDAN flight was flagged-off in 2017 at Shimla by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a short span of seven years, today 403 UDAN routes connect 65 underserved or unserved airports, including heliports and water aerodromes, and over 80 lakh people have benefited from it. UDAN scheme has immensely benefited several sectors pan-India including the hilly states, North-Eastern region and islands. UDAN airports have opened up the potential for employment, tourism, and better connectivity for the people. (ANI)
Goa Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday has written to the Election Commission, complaining about "illegal and wrongful" harassment by a flying squad that vandalised flex and banners at the party office in Panaji around midnight on Friday. The Goa TMC alleged that a group of police officers (one carrying a rifle/ automatic gun) accompanied by four unidentified individuals in plainclothes, identified themselves as members of the "Flying Squad" of the Election Commission and entered the party office premises at around 11.10 pm of Friday. At that time the office security guard along with three office staff was present in the office. The TMC in its letter alleged that "Flying Squad" wrongfully and forcefully tore down hoardings and the glow board and also threatened the office staff with dire consequences if they make any objection to them. "On being questioned about the timing of the action, they stated that they were working under strict instructions of their superiors to take action within 30 minutes of someone filing a complaint on the 'cVigil' application," stated the TMC letter. The TMC told the Election Commission that despite its knowledge about the glow board and the party office in Panaji, the Flying Squad barging into TMC's office was baseless and without 'reason'. "Such acts and conduct indicate the wrongful intention of the 'Flying Squad' to harras the members/staffs and supporters of AITC", stated TMC Goa. It further claimed that the 'Flying Squad' did not follow standard operating procedure by barging into the TMC office late at night. The TMC termed the act as "reeks of bias" and has asked the Election Commission to take necessary action against the "Flying Squad". Goa will go to the assembly polls on February 14. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
As Janata Dal (United) failed to cobble an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Janata Dal United (JDU) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Saturday expressed displeasure against Union Minister and party MP RCP Singh over the matter. JDU president Rajiv Ranjan Singh released the list of candidates for 26 seats for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls today in the national capital. Speaking on the occasion, Rajiv Ranjan Singh said, "RCP Singh, a Minister in the Union Cabinet from our party, had informed us earlier that a discussion regarding the Uttar Pradesh polls was held with BJP leaders Amit Shah, JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan. He had told that BJP is ready for an alliance. That is why we kept waiting." The JDU president said that even after a long wait, there was no positive response from the BJP and JP Nadda himself stated gave a statement that BJP's allies in Uttar Pradesh are Apna Dal and Nishad Party. Referring to RCP Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that only the former was having talks with the BJP leadership on behalf of JDU. "Apart from him, no one from our party was talking to the BJP leadership. So, he knew everything about this subject. Now, only he knows how truthfully and honestly he was telling us everything. Had we known in advance that the alliance was not happening, we would have contested more seats with better preparation," emphasised the JDU president. He said that every party has the right to expand and JDU had contested elections in many states including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before. Asked about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's campaigning for the party in Uttar Pradesh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh refused to answer. He also did not give any answer to the question of whether JDU will field a candidate against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Sadar or not. Elections to the 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10.The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
China plans to launch its new generation carrier rocket Long March-8 Y2 between late February and early March from the southern island of Hainan, sources with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's leading rocket maker, said on Friday.

The rocket arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center Friday after a week of ocean transport. It will undergo final assembly and testing at the launch site. The scheduled Long March-8 mission will be China's first rocket launch this year.

A two-stage medium-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-8 is 50.3 meters long, with a takeoff weight of 356 tonnes. It uses liquid propellants with a 5-tonne capacity for sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

Designed for both land and sea launches, the rocket made its maiden flight on Dec. 22, 2020, at the Wenchang coastal launch site.

The rocket has filled the gap in China's launch capability to the sun-synchronous orbit and satisfied the needs of high-density launch missions for medium and low-orbit spacecraft.
Kerala High Court restrained police from arresting Malayalam Actor Dileep till January 27 in a case registered by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police for allegedly threatening the investigation officials probing the Actress Assault Case of 2017. The court also directed the accused people including Dileep to report before the investigation officer from 9 am till 8 pm on January 23, January 24 and January 25. Court also said that they shall be available for interrogation and such other investigation as may be necessary. Court issued this interim order on an anticipatory plea filed by Dileep. Court will consider this again on January 27. Single Bench of Justice P Gopinath also made it clear that "any attempt to subvert the investigation will result in declining bail. I am very very serious and that any violation will be dealt with seriously. Don't attempt to do anything unnecessary. Don't even think about it. Petitioner shall fully co-operate with investigation. Senior Public Prosecutor shall place a report of any material of investigation in a sealed cover." Crime Branch of Kerala Police registered a new case against movie actor Dileep and five others on January 9 for allegedly threatening the investigating officials. They were booked under IPC sections 116 (abetment of an offence punishable with imprisonment), 118 (concealing design to commit an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life), 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people). Dileep is named as the first accused in the FIR. Anoop, who is Dileep's brother and Suraj, Dileep's brother-in-law are the second and third accused. Appu, Babu Chengamanad are the other accused. One more accused has not been identified yet. Dileep is also the eighth accused in the Actress Assault Case for alleged conspiracy. The case pertains that an actress who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu films and 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)
The medical officer on Saturday conducted a Khariyat patrol in Dudi village to inquire about thewell-being of the villagers especially pregnant ladies and other women, girls and children, stated the Army. The Doctor carried out a medical examination of pregnant ladies, examined other villagers including children and also distributed medicines.

In the harsh winter months, pregnant ladies face a lot of hardships in terms of medical care and the situation gets aggravated in places like the Macchal Sector, which gets cut off from the rest of the Valley frequently during snow spells.

According to the Indian Army, Khariyat patrols would continue with the lady doctor in future with a special focus on addressing the medical needs of pregnant ladies in the valley. (ANI)
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Election Commission of India on Saturday extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows till January 31. The decision came after the Election Commission of India held a meeting earlier in the day with the Union Health Secretary and the Chief Health Secretaries of the five poll-bound states to review the ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties ahead of Assembly elections. The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The progress on vaccination will be a key factor in allowing relaxations. The apex poll body has given relaxation for physical public meetings of political parties or contesting candidates for Phase 1 allowed from January 28 and for Phase 2 from February 1. It said that limit of five persons for door to door campaign has been enhanced to 10 persons, excluding security personnel and video vans for publicity permitted at designated open spaces with COVID restrictions. Other instructions on door to door campaigns will continue. The Election Commission of India today held a review meeting with the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India through virtual mode. The Commission also held virtual meetings with Chief Secretaries, Chief Electoral Officers and Health Secretaries of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Since contesting candidates for Phase 1 elections will be finalised on January 27, the Commission has decided to allow physical meetings of concerned Political parties or contesting candidates in designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 persons or 50 per cent of the capacity of the ground or the prescribed limit set by SDMA, whichever number is lesser, from January 28 till February 8 (excluding the silence period). Since contesting candidates for Phase 2 elections will be finalised on January 31, the Commission has decided to allow physical meetings of concerned political parties or contesting candidates with public in designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 persons or 50 per cent of the capacity of the ground or the prescribed limit set by SDMA, whichever number is lesser, from February 1 till February 12 (excluding the silence period). As of today, India reported 3,37,704 fresh COVID cases (9,550 more than yesterday) and 2,42,676 recoveries and 488 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total 21,13,365 active cases are in the country with a daily positivity rate of 17.22 per cent. Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa are heading into Assembly polls. The Election Commission's aim is to have maximum voters vaccinated before the elections held in these particular states. (ANI)
The Karnataka High Court has cancelled bail to a lecturer who is facing charges of raping a girl and taking nude pictures of her. The accused had obtained bail from a local court. The bench headed by Justice H.P. Sandesh gave the order on Friday after taking up the inquiry into the petition filed by the victim's parents challenging the bail orders from a local court. The incident had taken place in the limits of Subramanya police station in Dakshina Kannada district in 2018. The parents of the girl had lodged a complaint in this regard in 2021. The accused was charged of raping the girl and later taking nude pictures of the victim. The police, after lodging the FIR, have taken the accused into custody and sent him to judicial custody. Two days later, Dakshina Kannada District and Sessions Court granted bail to the accused lecturer L. Gururaj. The parents have submitted a petition in this regard challenging the order. --IANS mka/akp/ ( 174 Words) 2022-01-22-13:28:01 (IANS)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday attacked Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties during his visit to Kairana and said if the law and order situation has to be maintained in Uttar Pradesh then "appeasement has to end, the practice of governments working for a specific caste has to be finished" and a BJP government led by Yogi Adiyanath should be re-elected. Shah, who held a door-to-door campaign here as part of BJP's campaign for upcoming assembly polls, targeted Samajwadi Party over the migration from Kairana during its rule and said the families who have returned told him that Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanth has improved the law and order situation. "If law and order in the state has to be maintained, then appeasement has to end from here, the practice of governments working for specific caste has to end, BJP government led by Yogiji should be re-elected," he said. Shah said he met the families who had migrated from Kairana in 2014 and have now returned to their homes. "I met people who were forced to migrate due to misrule of Samajwadi Party and they said that CM Yogi has improved the law and order situation," he said. Shah said these families told him that "those who forced them to migrate had migrated themselves". Citing an example of the Mittal family, Shah said that all the 11 members of the family sat with him and said that they don't have any fear in the city anymore. "They too once had to migrate. All 11 members of the family sat with me and said that they don't have any fear anymore and that everyone is carrying out their business peacefully," Shah said during his door-to-door campaign. The constituency had seen an exodus of Hindu families in 2016 and their return later after huge efforts. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, eldest daughter of late Hukum Singh who had won the seat several times. As Shah distributed pamphlets, people raised "Jai Sri Ram" slogans. He expressed confidence that Uttar Pradesh will become the most developed state of India in the coming days. "I see a confidence in people of Uttar Pradesh. I feel that in the days to come, UP is going to become the most developed state of India," Shah told media persons here. He said schemes introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the welfare of people have been implemented at the grassroots level by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. "I have come to Kairana for the first time after January 2014. After 2014, PM Modi took the axle of UP's development in his hands," Shah said. He said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was formed in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and Yogi Adityanath has accelerated the development of the state. "All schemes by Modiji have been implemented by CM Yogi Adityanath till the grassroots level. Modiji has brought several medical colleges, airports, and made available facilities like toilets, COVID-19 vaccine, medical coverage, electricity to every poor household in the state," he said. He urged people to again form a BJP-led government in the state with the overwhelming majority under the leadership of Yogi Adiyanath for faster development of the state. Amit Shah said people here have one voice " Iss baar Bhajpa teenso paar (BJP will cross 300 seats this time)". Uttar Pradesh will go for a seven-phase poll beginning February 10. The polling will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Ahead of assembly elections in the state and to lure voters, especially youths, Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said that the party has created a roadmap to benefit people and wants to convert Mohali into an Information Technology hub, Startup city, Education city and a cluster of new technology and advanced machinery. "We want to create Mohali into an IT hub, Startup city, Education city and new technology and advanced machinery cluster. We see a lot of potential in Mohali. Also, Mohali will be the Silicon Valley of North India," Sidhu told ANI. He also stated that the Punjab model aims at ten industrial and 13 food processing clusters. "This model will create a business-friendly environment in the state. We will create such opportunities for the youth of Punjab that there will be no need of moving abroad for employment opportunities," the State Congress chief said. Further, Sidhu also asserted that the party will promote skill-oriented entrepreneurship in the state. "During this election in Punjab, we will pay more importance to employment opportunities because the employment problem has affected our three generations till now," he added. He further hoped that the people of Punjab will give chance to Congress during the upcoming State Assembly elections with this roadmap which aims at the development of the state. Punjab will go to the polls on February 20. AAP had finished second in the last assembly elections in the state. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah kick-started the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election campaign for western Uttar Pradesh from Kairana on Saturday. He said the people of Western Uttar Pradesh's confidence in the party indicates that BJP will cross the 300 margin in the upcoming state Assembly polls. Shah interacted with people under BJP's door-to-door campaign in Kairana. Shah met families who once migrated from Kairana and now returned to their homeland. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of late Hukum Singh who had won the seat several times, from Kairana. Shah campaigned for Mriganka Singh in Kairana. Briefing the mediapersons, the Union Home Minister said, "There was a government that used to work for only one community. To maintain the law and order situation and to put an end to appeasement politics in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is to be formed with a thumping majority." "The people of Kairana were migrating before. Today when I visited Kairana, people said they have returned due to the development work of Modi ji and Yogi ji. The traders said they are running their businesses peacefully due to the law and order situation maintained by the BJP government. With the confidence seen among the people of Uttar Pradesh, I feel that in the coming days, Uttar Pradesh is going to become the most developed state of India." Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10.The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
"No chance for a third party. It's not Delhi where people will come, say something and it will be discussed everywhere. Understanding the geographical situation and all kinds of situations and then making a policy needs time. They will have to give that time," Rawat told ANI.

"The parties that existed earlier have disappeared gradually. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal too, which has a history of struggle, has been pushed by people into the bag of history. So, no question about a new party," he added.

Aam Aadmi Party is contesting the Uttarakhand assembly polls under the leadership of retired colonel Ajay Kothiyal.

When asked about Harak Singh Rawat's return to the Congress, the former chief minister said: "It's good that he's part of the party. Decisions within the party are taken on basis of various ideas. The party always decides by looking ahead. Party's decision is supreme."

Uttarakhand will go to the polls on February 14. (ANI)
The Patiala House Court's Session Court on Saturday rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Vishal Sudhir Kumar Jha in relation to the 'Bulli Bai' app case and said that the allegation against the applicant (Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha) is grave in nature as it is a direct onslaught upon the dignity and modesty of the woman of a particular community. Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana while passing the order in the case said, "I concur with the Additional Public Prosecutor that to unravel the obscure and undetected aspects of the crime, sustained custodial interrogation of the applicant is desirable. Considering the totality of circumstances, I do not find any merit in the application at hand and the same is accordingly dismissed." The court observed that the accused Neeraj Bishnoi in cahoots with the applicant (Vishal) and other co-accused persons has developed the scandalous 'Bulli Bai' app. "The conduct of the accused persons in the case is against the ever cherished constitutional ethos of secularism and fraternity ensuring the dignity of any individual and modesty of a woman." Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha in anticipatory bail plea submitted that he is a resident of Bihar and an engineering student. He is presently staying in a hostel in Karnataka. The plea submitted that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the present case as he has nothing to do with the alleged offence. It is submitted that the applicant has no role to play in the creation of the alleged app and even if, for the sake of arguments, it is presumed that the applicant was following the 'Bulli Bai' app, then this in no manner constitutes an offence. The plea further submitted that the present applicant himself surrendered before the office of Cyber Crime (BKC) Western Division, Mumbai on January 4 but on January 10, he tested positive and subsequently, he was remanded to judicial custody on January 10. It is further submitted that all his electronic devices i.e. his mobile phone, laptop and two sim cards are already in possession of the investigating agency and hence there are no chances of the applicant tampering with the evidence. It is submitted that the applicant is apprehending his arrest in the present case thus moving his anticipatory bail petition. Earlier the court had rejected the bail plea of 'Bulli Bai' app creator Niraj Bishnoi and said that a vilification campaign against women containing derogatory content and offending material having communal overtones was run on this App being made by the accused. The magistrate Court earlier, also noted that the facts disclose that the accused created the app "Bulli Bai" where women journalists and celebrities of a particular community who are famous on social media were targeted and they are projected in a bad light with an objective to insult and humiliate them by objectification. Neeraj Bishnoi was arrested recently by the Delhi Police Special Cell's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit (IFSO) team from Assam for the alleged involvement in the Bulli Bai case. Neeraj Bishnoi (20) is a resident of the Digambar area of Assam's Jorhat. He is a B.Tech student of the Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal. Delhi Police had said that during interrogation, Neeraj Bishnoi disclosed that the app was developed in Nov 2021 and updated in Dec'21 and he had said that he created one more Twitter account to talk about the app. Several complaints were received by police stations in the country regarding the listing of Muslim women for "auction" on the 'Bulli Bai' mobile application 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. (ANI)
Days after resigning from the Congress party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Raebareli candidate Aditi Singh on Saturday said that the Congress is suffering from a severe leadership crisis and claimed that that the BJP will win the upcoming assembly elections. "There is no weightage in Congress and there is a severe leadership crisis in the party. Congress does not have time to look back at the state for 5 years, they only come here before elections. People in UP are ready to welcome BJP to power again," Singh told ANI. Raebareli Sadar MLA Singh, who recently quit Congress to join BJP will contest from Raebareli seat in the upcoming Assembly elections. The ruling BJP in the state is contesting the polls in an alliance with Apna Dal and the Nishad party. Elections for the 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said that the raids conducted by Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the house of Chief Minister Charanjit Channi's relative house seem to be a part of the political agenda of Aam Aadmi Party as State Assembly elections are approaching. Sidhu, in an exclusive interview with ANI, said, "It looks like a political agenda because Punjab polls are coming. It seems that the Delhi government is taking action against our government." Earlier on Tuesday, the ED conducted raids at nearly a dozen places in Punjab in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case. The federal agents searched the residence and office premises of the suspects including premises linked to sand mafia Bhupinder Singh Honey. According to ED officials, Honey is reportedly a relative of Channi and had allegedly floated a firm named Punjab Realtors to get sand mining contracts. Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab, the senior Congress leader said, "PM Modi cannot be unsafe in Punjab. We respect him wholeheartedly. The incident took place due to the empty chairs at the event in Ferozepur." The Prime Minister was stuck atop a flyover for 15-20 minutes while on his way to Ferozpur, Punjab earlier this month due to the road being blocked by some protesters. The Ministry of Home Affairs termed it as a "major lapse" in his security. Sidhu also explained the roadmap of the Punjab Congress for the upcoming state polls which aims at the development of youth and creating employment opportunities by promoting entrepreneurship. He said that the party wants to transform Mohali into an IT hub, Startup city and Education city and the Punjab model aims at creating 10 industrial and 13 food processing clusters. "I'll invite Elon Musk (Tesla owner) to Punjab and create the biggest EV industry in Ludhiana," he added. Punjab will go to polls on February 20. AAP had finished second in the last assembly elections in the state. (ANI)
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said that the raids conducted by Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the house of Chief Minister Charanjit Channi's relative house seem to be part of the political agenda of BJP-led central government as State Assembly elections are approaching. Sidhu, in an exclusive interview with ANI, said, "It looks like a political agenda because Punjab polls are coming. It seems that the Central government is taking action against our government." Earlier on Tuesday, the ED conducted raids at nearly a dozen places in Punjab in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case. The federal agents searched the residence and office premises of the suspects including premises linked to sand mafia Bhupinder Singh Honey. According to ED officials, Honey is reportedly a relative of Channi and had allegedly floated a firm named Punjab Realtors to get sand mining contracts. Reacting to the raids, Channi also alleged that a recent raid at his relative Bhupinder Singh Honey's house indicated that it was a 'revenge' for the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ferozepur in Punjab. He added that Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and other agencies are being used by the Central government in order to implicate him. Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab, the senior Congress leader said, "PM Modi cannot be unsafe in Punjab. We respect him wholeheartedly. The incident took place due to the empty chairs at the event in Ferozepur." The Prime Minister was stuck atop a flyover for 15-20 minutes while on his way to Ferozpur, Punjab earlier this month due to the road being blocked by some protesters. The Ministry of Home Affairs termed it as a "major lapse" in his security. Sidhu also explained the roadmap of the Punjab Congress for the upcoming state polls which aims at the development of youth and creating employment opportunities by promoting entrepreneurship. He said that the party wants to transform Mohali into an IT hub, Startup city and Education city and the Punjab model aims at creating 10 industrial and 13 food processing clusters. "I'll invite Elon Musk (Tesla owner) to Punjab and create the biggest EV industry in Ludhiana," he added. Punjab will go to the polls on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday was seen standing at Atal Chowk in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow carrying a placard and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flag during the election campaign for the party. Thakur said it is the party's endeavour that five workers should stand every day at every crossroad with the BJP flag and placards mentioning the achievements of the party. "With an aim to take our government's achievements to people, it is our endeavour that at every crossroads every day our five workers should stand with the flag and the achievements of the party. On other hand, door-to-door campaigns are also being done," the Union Minister told ANI. Earlier today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also conducted a door to door campaign as a part of the political programme in Kairana city and a public meeting in Meerut ahead of State Assembly elections that are scheduled to take place in seven phases beginning from February 10. Meanwhile, BJP also released a song titled 'UP me Ee Ba' (All these are there in UP), as part of its campaign which talked about development work done by the BJP government in the state. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
After Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused him of spreading misunderstanding against TMC, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said that he won't engage in a verbal exchange with general secretaries of other parties. "I don't enter in verbal exchanges with general secretaries of other parties. I'm a very modest Congress worker," said Chidambaram on being asked about Abhishek Banerjee's comment on the TMC-Congress alliance for Goa polls. Accusing the Congress of "misleading people" of Goa, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday said the party had approached former union minister P Chidambaram for alliance and if the results of the Goa election goes in favor of the BJP, the Congress leader "should come out in public and take the blame on him". "If the results of the Goa election goes in favour of the BJP, Chidambaram should come out in public and take the blame on him if he is so confident. Congress is misleading the people at large. They are misleading the every Goans," he added. Trinamool Congress, which is keen to leave a mark in its outing in Goa, had suggested a broad alliance but not much has moved on the proposal due to competing interests and apparent lack of faith between the opposition parties. Congress is peeved at the Trinamool Congress "poaching" its leaders. TMC has announced only 11 candidates so far out of the 40 seats of Goa assembly. Goa will go to the Assembly polls on February 14. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Two different intervention applications have been filed in the Supreme Court in the ongoing petition filed seeking an independent inquiry into the Haridwar Dharam Sansad speeches. National President of Hindu Sena Vishnu Gupta and Hindu Front for Justice, have moved separate applications seeking intervention and to make themselves parties in the ongoing petition filed by Qurban Ali who has sought an independent inquiry into the Haridwar Dharam Sansad speeches. The Supreme Court on January 10 agreed to hear petition filed by Qurban Ali. Now, National President of Hindu Sena Vishnu Gupta and Hindu Front for Justice, in separate pleas want to be heard by the Court in the ongoing petition against speeches deliver in Haridwar Dharam Sansad. Hindu Front for Justice, in its intervening application filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said that there are various instances where allegedly hate speeches are delivered against Hindus and that should also be examined. Meanwhile, another application has been moved in the Supreme Court by National President of Hindu Sena Vishnu Gupta seeking intervention and to become a party to the hate speech petition filed by Qurban Ali. He has also sought action and lodging of FIR against the hate speech given by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Ittehad-e-Millat Council leader Tauqeer Raza and others. Vishnu Gupta, National President of Hindu Sena and social worker had filed the petition through advocate Abhishek. Besides Asaduddin Owaisi and Tauqeer Raza, Gupta has also sought to issue direction to concerned state government to lodge FIR against president of All India Imam Association Sajid Rashidi, AAP politician Amanatullah Khan, AIMIM leader Waris Pathan for allegedly delivering hate speeches. "That the petitioners (Qurban Ali) who belong to Muslim Community and who are follower of Islam are not supposed to raise objection against the affairs or activities related to Hindu Dharm Sansad. In fact by way of aforesaid petition, an effort is being made to scandalize the spritiual leaders of Hindus. The Constitution of India provides equal protection to the followers of all faith and religion, in this context reference may be made to Article 19(1)(a) and (b) read with Article- 25 of the constitution of India, " the petitioner Vishnu Gupta said in his plea. "Thus it is crystal clear that every citizen of this country has freedom of conscience, practice and propagation of religion. Therefore, the Holding Dharma Sansad by Hindu is protected by Article 19(a)(b) and article 25 of the constitution of India. Therefore the objections of the Petitioner (Qurban Ali) in the aforesaid matter are against the constitutional scheme and encroachment on Fundamental right of Hindu's, "the petitioner added. The application filed by Vishnu Gupta said that the Hindu culture and civilization has been victim of foreigners and the fact are corroborated by the fact that temples in this country have been converted in to mosque by Muslim Invaders right from khilji dynasty up to Mugal dynasty. The petition filed by journalist Qurban Ali has sought an independent inquiry into the Haridwar Dharma Sansad speeches allegedly inciting violence against the minority community and the arrest and trial of people who made hate speeches, inciting violence towards Muslims, at the Haridwar Dharma Sansad conclave. The hate speeches were allegedly delivered between December 17 and 19, 2021, in Haridwar by Yati Narsinghanand and in Delhi by 'Hindu Yuva Vahini'. The plea filed by Ali said that the alleged hate speeches consisted of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing. (ANI)
The Indian Navy marching contingent for this year's Republic Day parade will comprise 96 personnel and three platoon commanders led by one contingent commander. "Our contingent comprising 96 personnel, 3 platoon commanders and the Contingent Commander has put in months of dedicated practice to achieve the highest degree of refinement and coordination in our drills," said Lieutenant commander Kushal Agarwal, Air Electrical Officer posted at INS Rajali. "A regular day of practice starts well before sunrise with warm-ups, standing and marching drills followed by the March past practice, under the supervision of our highly qualified Gunnery/Drill Instructors. We are ready and raring to March past the Saluting Dias of the Honorable President of India on the Tunes of One of the Finest Military Marching Band playing "Jai Bharati"- especially on this historic Republic Day as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav," said Agarwal. Lieutenant commander Aanchal Sharma, who is an Observer Officer, posted at INAS 314 said, "The hard work and tough schedule in the last two months has paid off and if you see the contingent today, it is full of passion and pride and each individual has a sense of honour to be marching in front of our Supreme Commander, The President of India." Sharma who was commissioned in June 2016 describes the preparation and the sentiments of the contingent as "unparalleled." "It is indeed an honor to be leading the Indian Naval Contingent," she added. As per Lieutenant Preeti posted at INS India, the Navel tableau to be paraded at Republic Day parade is in pursuance of Combat Ready, Credible and Cohesive. "Concurrently, the nation is also celebrating 75 years of Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, which finds a special mention in the tableau as Navy's contribution to our freedom struggle. It also showcases the multidimensional capabilities of the Indian Navy," she added. Lt Mayank Bhagour is an Aviation Officer, currently posted at INS Rajali. He was commissioned in Jul 2019. "The forward part of the tableau depicts the Naval uprising of 1946, an event which contributed in India's struggle for Independence. The rear section of the tableau illustrates the 'Make in India' initiatives of Navy particularly for the period 1983 to 2021," said Lieutenant Mayank Bhagour. "The model of indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant with Light Combat Aircraft in air takes the center stage flanked by models of indigenous missile Corvette Kora, the Destroyer Visakhapatnam, Frigate Shivalik on left and P-75 submarine Kalvari, frigate Godavari and destroyer Delhi on the right side. Frames on the lower section of the trailer depict construction of Indian Naval platforms in India," he said. Meanwhile, the world-renowned brass band of the Indian Navy led by Vincent Johnson, Master Chief Petty Officer Musician I Hon (Sub Lieutenant) will play the tunes during the parade. (ANI)
Researchers found that inattention led to hyperactivity in the students, and both together contributed to higher levels of cheating. The study was conducted by Eric Anderman, professor of educational psychology at The Ohio State University with Richard Gilman of Terrace Metrics and Xingfeiyue Liu, a doctoral student, and Seung Yon Ha, a postdoctoral scholar, both in education at Ohio State. Their results were published in the journal 'Psychology in the Schools'. The issue is important because many students with attention problems don't get an official diagnosis, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, said Anderman who is also the lead author of the study. "Students diagnosed with ADHD get a lot of support and help in school, but many other kids with attention problems fall through the cracks," said Anderman. "They don't get the help they need that could help them do better in school and avoid cheating." The researchers studied 855 adolescents from three midwestern public schools, two suburban and one rural. Data was collected twice from the students, about one year apart. The students completed a standardized measure of inattention that asked them to rate how much they felt they had trouble paying attention to their teacher, how forgetful they were, whether they had a short attention span, and similar questions. Students' hyperactivity was rated by their responses to questions like whether they had trouble sitting still and whether they talked over other people. To evaluate cheating, students rated how true it would be to say they used cheat sheets when they took tests, copied answers from other students, and similar statements. The results showed that students with higher levels of inattention reported higher levels of hyperactivity, and students who were more hyperactive reported a higher rate of cheating. Hyperactivity by itself was not linked to more cheating. "Inattention is the driver here, the issue that leads to problems in the classroom," Anderman said. "The student is not paying attention, so he gets out of his seat and goofs around, and when you put both together, that is a perfect setup for more cheating." The study took into account a wide variety of other factors that have been linked to cheating, including depression, learning disabilities, gender, ethnicity, grade point average and whether students qualified for special education services -- and inattention still was related to cheating. In addition, the researchers also examined how disruptive students were in class, based on reports from their peers. That didn't influence cheating. "Once you account for inattentiveness and hyperactivity, we found that disruptiveness wasn't related to cheating. That is not what is driving cheating behaviors," Anderman said. Generally accepted rates of ADHD are between 7-9 per cent of students aged 17 and younger. Studies suggested, however, that up to three times as many students had problems with attention or hyperactivity, but either didn't meet the criteria for the ADHD diagnosis or had never been evaluated. That doesn't mean they don't need help, Anderman said. "There are so many evidence-based programs that can help these students who have problems with attention learn to self-regulate, to learn how to be a learner," Anderman said. "If they had access to these programs, they could learn in class and they wouldn't have to cheat. And these students are not learning partially because of attention issues they can't help," he said. (ANI)
Hyderabad Police on Saturday arrested a former Manager of Union Bank of India for Rs 65 crore forgery. According to the Joint Commissioner of Police Gajarao Bhupal, Sk Mastanvali and Nanduri Venkat Raman were arrested along with 20 other people for cheating Union Bank of India's Karwan and Santosh Nagar Branches and Canara Bank's Chanda Nagar Branches to the tune of Rs 65 crores pertaining to Telugu Akademi which had deposited as FDRs. The fake and fabricated cover letters bearing the names of the Director and Accounts Officer at Telugu Akademi were used to create fake and fabricated financial certificates to be handed over to the account officer at the Telugu Akademi. Original FDS in banks which were in the possession of the accused was encashed and transferred amounts to various accounts, stated Gajarao Bhupal, JT Commissioner of Police, Detective Department, Hyderabad. Earlier, a case had been registered against SK Mastanvali on 21 January 2021 after which he had been arrested. At the time of his arrest, he was working with Union Bank's Karwan branch where he had forged two fixed deposits worth one crore ninety-nine lakhs in favour of Telangana state warehouse corporation. In this case, the money was not withdrawn and remained intact. Mastanvali had been released on bail on January 19, 2022, in a previous case. The arrest was made by K Manoj Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, CCS, DD, Hyderabad, Under the supervision of N. Mahender, Addl. DCP EOW, CC, DD, Hyderabad read the statement. (ANI)
The authorities of wetlands in Kashmir have taken the initiative to provide food for migratory birds during the harsh winter season aiming to make their stay comfortable in the state. Lakhs of migratory birds have arrived in the wetlands and lakes of Kashmir during the ongoing winter season. "In the harsh winter season, with temperatures below zero degrees, it's not easy for birds to get the proper food. All that the birds get in winter is water nuts which are not enough to maintain their protein level during these cold months. Therefore, to make their stay comfortable, authorities of different water bodies of the valley including Hokersar wetland are providing a good quantity of food like paddy grains (rice)", said Suhail Yousuf, Range Officer Lakes. "These migratory birds mostly come from Siberia, China, Russia and other cold countries. Their arrival begins in autumn and they are found in the wetlands of the valley till March-April", said Yousuf. These birds mostly like to eat water nuts and specific weeds which is natural food for them and are always available for them in large quantities. But during the freezing period especially in the months of December and January, it's very difficult for them to find proper food which results in the authorities stocking a large quantity of paddy and other food grains aimed to fulfil the food requirement of migratory birds. There are about 2-2.5 lakh birds in the wetlands now which are expected to increase in February, said Ghulam Mohiuddin Dar, an employee of Wetland Dept. "The Department of wetlands is making efforts to visit particular places of the wetlands in their boats where they are monitoring all activities of birds and providing food for them", said the Range Officer Lakes. "The presence of these guest birds in the water bodies of Higam, Chhatlam, and Hokersar increases the beauty of these wetlands. So the department of wetlands will continue this exercise in the winter months especially during severe cold so that birds will get proper food quantity", said Aslam, a tourist from Kerala. (ANI)
India on Saturday had a detailed discussion with Kuwait on a range of regional issues, from West Asian political turmoil to the new political and administrative situation in Afghanistan to the geo-politics of the Indo-Pacific region. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called on Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmed Nasser Mohammed Al-Sabah on Saturday, and discussed bilateral issues, besides planning the agenda for next India- Kuwait Joint Commission meeting. 'Nice to talk to FM @anmas71 of Kuwait. Reviewed the progress in our bilateral relationship. Agreed at an early meeting of our Joint Commission. Also talked about regional situations ranging from West Asia and the Gulf to Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific," Jaishankar tweeted after the talks. Following the visit of the Amir of Kuwait to India in 2006, both sides agreed to set up an "India-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission on Economic and Technical Cooperation". Kuwait and India are members of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM). Both countries share identical views on various regional and international matters, and have been cooperating with each other in international fora. High-level discussions and consultations between the two friendly countries is a regular feature of bilateral relations. Kuwait and India have enjoyed cordial relations since the beginning. Geographical proximity, historical trade links, cultural affinities have all continued to nurture the longstanding relationship over the decades. Until 1961, the Indian Rupee was a legal tender in Kuwait. There are approximately 900,000 Indians in Kuwait, who constitute the largest expatriate community in the country, according to the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry. The total remittance from Kuwait to India is estimated to be upwards of $3.5 billion annually. Indians are regarded as the community of first preference among the expatriates in Kuwait. --IANS nk/arm ( 298 Words) 2022-01-22-20:18:03 (IANS)
United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) hoisted a multi-stakeholder interactive and consultation session on food security in Odisha on digital mode, in which more than 80 policymakers, government actors, NGO partners, academicians, and corporate houses deliberated together. "The objective of the long session was to take feedback input from different sectors to make the WFP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 for Odisha more inclusive and effective," said the state government in a press statement. Initiating the deliberation, Mr Bishow Parajuli, Country Director WFP India said, "We are glad for our partnership with Odisha as the State is very much focused on ensuring food security to all. Odisha has been a centre of innovative pilots and schemes for improving food and nutrition security. The world has taken note of the innovative programs launched by Odisha, and how these schemes provided a food security lifeline during the current pandemic times. Application of biometric technology in making TDPS error-free, rice fortification, nutritious food in MDM and Anganwadi centres, State food security programme, women-led take-home ration production model are some such interventions in Odisha". Chief Secretary, Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said, "Government of Odisha is fully committed to reducing poverty and malnutrition. During last years, there has been a significant reduction in rural poverty, and food security has improved to great extent". He added that "partnership between WFP and Odisha has been very effective since last two decades, and six more partnership agreements in new areas have been initiated in the last year alone". Mahapatra asked WFP to undertake more technological applications for enhancing the outreach of the food security net and improving access to food security, more particularly for poor and vulnerable sections. He emphasized aligning the strategic plan towards SDG targets and making it more outcome-oriented. Mahapatra assured that the Government of Odisha would continue working with WFP in the coming years for the implementation of the strategic plan. Development Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Jena advised to target the specific areas and communities that are more vulnerable for food and nutrition security and bring them at par with the rapidly improving state parameters. He emphasized on expeditious achievement of SDG-2 through partnerships. The Country Director WFP Mr Parajuli said that the Strategic plan would be finalized soon in collaboration with the Government of Odisha incorporating the inputs availed from today's interactive session. (ANI)
Union minister and BJPs election in-charge for Punjab, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said on Saturday that those joining the BJP in the state are looking at the future of the poll-bound state. The number of people joining the BJP in Punjab has increased, as they are confident that this time, an alliance led by the saffron party will form the government in the state, Shekhawat said. Shekhawat, who is the Union Jal Shakti Minister, also questioned the Congress government in Rajasthan over the law and order situation in the state. The minister said that before coming to power in the Desert state, the Congress had promised to provide good governance and security, but today Rajasthan has emerged as 'Rapistan' of the country. Instead of taking the responsibility, the government is trying to destroy evidence, which is unfortunate, Shekhawat said. "No government can commit a greater crime than this. The people of the state are going to take revenge by ousting the Congress in the coming elections," he said, referring to the Alwar rape case where a deaf-and-dumb girl was raped and the accused are yet to be arrested. Shekhawat was speaking to the media during a visit to his Parliamentary constituency in Jodhpur. Attacking the Congress government in Rajasthan, he said that more than 19,500 cases have been registered in the state for crimes against women. Rajasthan has become the state with the highest incidence of crime and gang-rape against women and small children, he said. The kind of incidents that happened recently in Banswara, Pratapgarh and Alwar have shamed the state, Shekhawat added. On loan waiver for farmers, Shekhawat said that the faith of the people in Congress is gone now. "The Congress leadership had assured the farmers of Rajasthan that loans would be waived in 10 days. Now the farmers of the state want to ask what happened to that announcement," he said. Speaking on Jal Jeevan Mission, Shekhawat said, "Going by the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken forward the mission, I hope that this time too there will be enough budget allocation for the mission so that the target can be fulfilled by 2024." On Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Union minister said that the good governance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the last five years has liberated the state from 'goondaraj'. "He (Adityanath) has done a good job during the Corona pandemic, and BJP's unilateral victory is certain," the minister said. --IANS arc/arm ( 423 Words) 2022-01-22-22:22:04 (IANS)
The company was working on a version of Windows 10 Mobile designed for dual-screen phones code-named Andromeda OS, it was scrapped when Microsoft gave up on Windows Mobile.

Now, Windows Central has disclosed an early test version of Andromeda OS running on a Lumia 950.

As per report, Andromeda OS was not designed Lumia 950, but some Microsoft engineers used these devices to test parts of the operating system.

The operating system retains a Windows 10 Mobile-style user interface that includes a tile-based Start Menu, Quick Settings panel, and Settings app.

With this OS, the user is able to begin taking notes directly onto the lockscreen UI just by putting pen to screen.

In addition, Andromeda OS was also gesture based. The on-screen Start and Cortana buttons would disappear when opening an app to provide a full-screen experience.

The brand was also working on Surface Neo, a larger dual-screen device powered by Windows 10X. That project ended with the cancellation of Windows 10X last year.

--IANS wh/svn/ksk/

( 204 Words)

2022-01-22-12:00:04 (IANS)
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday instructed Indian envoys to Canada and the US, Ajay Bisaria and Taranjit Singh Sandhu, "to urgently respond to the situation" where four Indian nationals including an infant have lost their lives at the US-Canada border. Following his public tweet, both missions have responded on the microblogging site. "This is a grave tragedy. An Indian consular team is travelling today from @IndiainToronto to Manitoba to coordinate and help. We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events. @HCI_Ottawa," Bisaria tweeted. "An unfortunate and tragic incident. We are in touch with US authorities on their ongoing investigation. AA consular team from @IndiainChicago is travelling today to Minnesota to coordinate and provide any assistance required," Sandhu tweeted. In a statement Thursday without identifying the victims, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stated that "on the morning of January 19, 2022, RCMP officers with the Integrated Border Enforcement Team received concerning information from their counterparts in the United States". "Specifically, the information outlined that officers with the US Customs and Border Protection had apprehended a group of individuals who had crossed into the US from Canada, near the town of Emerson, Manitoba. Further, it indicated that one of the adults had items meant for an infant but that no infant was with the group." "Upon receiving this information at 9.23 a.m., a search was immediately launched on both sides of the border. RCMP officers were already patrolling the area and the search began at 9.24 a.m. Extensive patrols were conducted and, at approximately 1.30 p.m, the bodies of three individuals were located on the Canadian side of the border, approximately 10km east of Emerson." RCMP identified the group as: an adult male, an adult female, and an infant. "Fearing there may be additional victims, officers continued their search and located the body of an additional male, believed at this time to be in his mid-teens." "All victims were located approximately 12 metres from the US/Canada border." As speculation was rife that the group was being smuggled, The Toronto Star reported that a Florida man has been charged with human-smuggling as authorities investigate the deaths of four people, including a baby, who were found some 12 metres away from the Canada-US border in Manitoba. "The discovery of the bodies marked a tragic ending to a case of irregular immigration that officials, it was revealed Thursday, believe is part of a larger human-smuggling operation from Canada to the US - in a part of the continent more accustomed to migrants travelling the other way," it said. "The events began with a group of at least nine Indian nationals, all speaking Gujarati, being dropped off near Emerson, Man., on Tuesday night during a blizzard, according to court documents." "At this very early stage of the investigation, it appears that they all died due to exposure to the cold weather. Work is underway to identify the victims and an autopsy has been scheduled. The search for any possible survivors or additional victims continued throughout the evening of Wednesday, January 19, and RCMP officers continue to patrol the area today. To date, no other victims have been located." US authorities said border patrol officials stopped a 15-passenger rental van Wednesday driven by Steve Shand with two undocumented Indian nationals inside, less than a mile south of the border in a rural area between Lancaster, Minnesota, and Pembina, North Dakota. Shand and the Indian nationals were arrested. Officials also intercepted another group of five Indian nationals nearby who were walking in the direction of where the van was located, according to the court documents. "They appeared to be headed to an unstaffed gas plant located in St. Vincent, Minnesota. The five Indian nationals explained that they had walked across the border expecting to be picked up by someone. The group estimated they had been walking around for over 11 hours," the US District Attorney's Office in Minnesota said in a statement Thursday. The RCMP said it will be conducting an investigation and is working in close collaboration with US Customs and Border Protection and the US Department of Homeland Security. "All of our agencies are committed to a thorough and comprehensive investigation," the statement said. (Nikhila Natarajan tweets @byniknat) --IANS nikhila/vd ( 730 Words) 2022-01-21-22:50:04 (IANS)
A US professor has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about the existence of patents for his inventions in China and has admitted that he failed to disclose a conflict of interest to the university. "An Arkansas man and the University of Arkansas Professor pleaded guilty for making a false statement to the FBI about the existence of patents for his inventions in the People's Republic of China (PRC)," the US Justice Department said. "Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 64, of Fayetteville entered a guilty plea to count 58 on a superseding indictment charging him with making a materially false and fictitious, statement and representation to an FBI Special Agent," the press release added. According to court documents, 24 patents filed in China bear Ang's name, the press release noted. The University of Arkansas required individuals such as Ang to promptly provide full and complete disclosures of inventions and was clear that the university, not individual inventors, would own all inventions created by those subject to the policy, the Justice Department noted. Despite this requirement, Ang did not disclose his Chinese patents to the university and, when interviewed by an FBI agent, lied about his involvement in the inventions. Specifically, when asked whether his name would be listed as "the inventor" of numerous patents in China, Ang denied being the inventor, despite knowing he was, the release said. (ANI)
In a conversation that lasted for approximately 80 minutes, the two leaders shared the intention to coordinate closely under the strong Japan-US Alliance and to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries including India toward realizing a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific."

"In this regard, Prime Minister Kishida expressed his intention to host the Japan-Australia-India-U.S. (QUAD) Summit Meeting in Japan in the first half of this year by inviting President Biden to Japan, to which President Biden expressed his support," the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The first in-person meeting of the leaders of the Quad countries was held in the fall of 2021 in the US.

The sides discussed the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, infrastructure projects, climate change, cooperation in space and cyberspace, and student exchanges.

During this summit, PM Modi had asserted that the cooperation among four countries including India, the United States, Australia and Japan in the group will ensure peace and prosperity in Indo-pacific. (ANI)
Sana'a [Yemen], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): Yemen's Houthi movement has called on foreign companies to pull out of the United Arab Emirates following a series of airstrikes against Yemen by the US-Saudi-UAE coalition, Yahya Sare'e, a spokesman for the Houthi armed forces, said on Friday. "After the crimes committed by US-Saudi-UAE aggression today against Yemeni people , we advise the foreign companies in Emirates to leave because they invest in an unsafe country and the rulers of this country continue in their aggression against Yemen," Sare'e said on Twitter. On Monday, several Houthi drones targeted the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, including the construction site of a new airport and fuel tankers near depots of oil company ADNOC, killing three people and injuring six others. In response, the Saudi-led coalition launched a campaign against Houthis, targeting their warehouses and other infrastructure. The movement accused the allies of bombing residential areas in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, destroying houses and killing over 20 people. The international human rights organization Save the Children, in turn, reported at least 63 people dead, including 3 children, and 100 injured in a series of air strikes on Yemen on Friday. The conflict between Yemen government forces and the Houthi rebels started in 2014. The situation deteriorated further after the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia joined the conflict in 2015 on the side of the Yemen government and began conducting air, land and sea operations against the Houthis. (ANI/Sputnik)
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Friday shared concern about China's action in several regions like Xinjiang, and Hong Kong, during a virtual meeting that lasted nearly 80 minutes. The two leaders vowed to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries such as Australia, India, ASEAN, and Europe, toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. They also agreed to cooperate to work closely on China and the North Korean missile issue and on Ukraine. "The two leaders resolved to push back against the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea; underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues; they shared concern about PRC practices in Xinjiang and Hong Kong," the White House said in a statement. The two leaders remain committed to working closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. "The two leaders highlighted the importance of the Quad - Australia, Japan, India, and the United States - as a critical forum for promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and resolved to ensure the Quad delivers practical results in areas such as COVID-19 response, climate and clean energy, and infrastructure." Biden welcomed the Japanese PM's invitation to visit Japan for the next Quad Leaders Meeting in the first half of 2022. The two leaders also condemned the recent ballistic missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. "Toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, both leaders committed to maintain close coordination on DPRK issues moving forward, in lockstep with the Republic of Korea (ROK). The President also expressed support for the immediate resolution of the abductions issue," the White House said. (ANI)
Behrouz Kamalvandi, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), said enhancing strategic nuclear cooperation was an important topic in Wednesday's meeting between Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the official news agency IRNA reported on Friday.

"Negotiations are underway between Tehran and Moscow to construct the second and third units of the Bushehr power plant," Kamalvandi added.

He expressed hope that Iranian and Russian technical groups would soon increase cooperation and exchange of information to kickstart the projects, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said each project at the power plant was worth $5 billion and would thus constitute a significant part of their economic ties.

--IANS int/khz/

( 157 Words)

2022-01-22-02:06:02 (IANS)
World Insights: Middle East region to continue to "look east," further strengthen cooperation with China

Xinhua) 13:14, January 22, 2022

Entering the year 2022, the Middle East region will further stabilize and continue to "look east" to deepen cooperation with China.

In the meantime, the region is still tasked with the three issues -- combating the COVID-19 pandemic, reviving the economy, and maintaining stability.

It is expected that the region will further stabilize in 2022 as relations between Middle Eastern countries have eased and improved, and the forces of various factions will develop in a more balanced direction.

In 2021, interactions between Arab countries and Iran increased. At present, there has been no substantial breakthrough in the improvement of relations, and observers believe that the new year will continue to be affected by factors such as the U.S. policy towards Iran and negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue.

In 2022, the reconciliation process between Israel and Arab countries may speed up, a process during which Saudi Arabia has an important role to play.

Whether Turkey's relations with Arab countries can be further improved mainly depends on the extent to which Turkey can make compromises and concessions on issues such as relations with Iran, Libya and Syria.

In 2022, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries need to deepen cooperation. Besides, whether Syria can return to the Arab League family deserves attention.

Wang Lincong, deputy director of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that Middle Eastern countries feel a growing sense of crisis amid complicated geopolitical relations in the region, and therefore have resumed dialogue and started to mend relations to safeguard their own security.

The changes in regional relations will create conditions for easing tensions between opposing camps in the region and for realizing reconciliation through dialogue, bringing to the Middle East new opportunities and hope in its path towards peace and stability, Wang said.

In the meantime, some challenges remain.

To maintain its hegemony, the United States will try to maintain its influence in the Middle East after the troop withdrawal, which brings many uncertainties to the region.

Moreover, if the United States does not change its tough stance, the prospects for the Iran nuclear talks are hardly optimistic.

Facing challenges, countries in the Middle East have actively promoted pluralistic and independent diplomacy in recent years, including "looking east" to cooperate with China.

In 2022, China and Arab countries will hold the first China-Arab Summit to jointly build a China-Arab community with a shared future for the new era.

Experts believe that in the new year China and Mideast countries will seize opportunities to promote bilateral relations, and continuously enhance people-to-people exchanges and expand practical cooperation.

(Web editor: Liu Ning, Bianji)
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken described their 90-minute meeting in Geneva as "useful" but "no breakthroughs". Lavrov on Friday said their discussion was "honest," and Blinken said it was "frank and substantive." "This was not negotiation, but a candid exchange of concerns and ideas," the US Secretary of State added at a press conference on Friday. The Russian Foreign Minister added that the main purpose of Friday's talks was to discuss the drafts of two fundamental documents submitted by Russia in December 2021 on legally binding security guarantees, Xinhua news agency reported. "In the end, we concluded with an agreement that written responses to all our proposals will be submitted to us next week," Lavrov said, adding that Russia will decide its next steps upon receipt of the responses. "What we expect is concrete answers to our concrete proposals and in compliance with the obligations that were adopted at the highest level within the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe)," he said. He added that in Moscow's opinion it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) that is seeking to make Ukraine part of its zone of influence, and that Russia is not threatening the Ukrainian people or seeking to dominate its neighbour. "What NATO is now doing toward Ukraine clearly shows that NATO sees Ukraine as part of its sphere of influence," Lavrov said. Lavrov reiterated that Moscow has no plans to attack its neighbour Ukraine. "Russia has never, at any time or at any place, ever threatened the Ukrainian people through its official representatives," he added. At a separate press conference, the US Secretary of State said that the meeting with his Russian counterpart was part of an ongoing effort to de-escalate tensions. "We didn't expect any major breakthroughs to happen today. I believe we are now on a clear path in terms of understanding each other's concerns, each other's positions," he added. "Our objective is to determine whether Russia is prepared to take a diplomatic path and other necessary steps to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, and ultimately to resolve our differences through diplomacy and through dialogue," he said. Blinken stressed that the US and its European allies and partners stand firmly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Peace or conflict, he said, the US and its allies and partners in Europe "stand ready to meet Russia on either path". He confirmed that both sides consider it important for the diplomatic process to continue. NATO, a military bloc led by the US, has opened its doors to former Warsaw Pact states and ex-Soviet republics since late 1990s, and is still seeking eastward enlargement towards Russia's neighbours, including Ukraine. --IANS int/khz/ ( 466 Words) 2022-01-22-02:26:02 (IANS)
According to the commission, Friday saw 10 new local infections in Beijing, six in Tianjin, four in Henan, and three in Guangdong, Xinhua reported.

Across the Chinese mainland, a total of 40 imported COVID-19 cases were also newly reported.

Meanwhile, China is witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases in its major cities including Beijing.

Beijing had reported its first case of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, as it readies to host the Winter Olympics next month.

The strict new COVID-19 restrictions come into force in the city. Beijing will now require travellers to get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival in the Chinese capital, Taipei Times reported.

The new rule, effective from Saturday to the end of March, is aimed to help with early detection of Omicron, which is surging globally, and the control of epidemic risks, Beijing Daily, a government newspaper, said on social media. (ANI)
The aim is to "deliver innovative solutions that will strengthen Europe's ecosystem for private networks in the field of 5G telecommunications," their statement noted.

"I am looking forward to an intensive collaboration between France and Germany," said Robert Habeck, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

"This is an important step in order to drive the economy forward with the help of state-of-the-art technologies."

Back in 2020, France and Germany already agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of 5G applications and subsequently launched a call for funding of innovation projects in early 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

The four projects involving 16 German and 14 French partners would show the benefits of 5G in various application scenarios such as Industry 4.0 (the "fourth industrial revolution"), business parks and smart operating theatres, the statement said.

"The constitution of a Franco-German sovereign ecosystem on 5G and future telecommunications network technologies will play a key role to position Europe at the forefront of innovation in 5G and its evolutions," said Bruno Le Maire, France's Minister for the Economy, Finance and Recovery. (1 euro = $1.13)

--IANS int/khz/

( 226 Words)

2022-01-22-04:04:03 (IANS)
"It is very unreasonable for the US to suspend Chinese airlines' flights on this ground," Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told Sputnik.

"We urge the US side to stop disrupting and restricting the normal passenger flights operated by Chinese airlines," Pengyu said.

Earlier, the Biden administration suspended 44 flights to China from the United States in retaliation to the Chinese government's decision to suspend some US flights over COVID-19 concerns.

The suspended flights to China begin on January 30 and include flights from the carriers Xiamen Airlines, China Southern Airlines Company and Air China, Sputnik reported.

China recently cancelled some US flights bound to their country due to a surge of passengers testing positive for the COVID-19.

The Civil Aviation Authority of China as of January 19 has suspended 44 passenger flight segments to China by US carriers despite repeated objections from the Biden administration, according to the order. (ANI)
The British government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that it has underpaid 134,000 pensioners, mostly women, over 1 billion pounds ($1.36 billion) of their state pension entitlement. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that in a report on Friday. Some errors date as far back as 1985. "The errors, which mostly affect widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband's pension contributions for some of their pension entitlement, happened because of the department's use of outdated systems and heavily manual processing. Small errors that were not recognised each time added up over years to significant sums of money," the report added. Meg Hillier, Chairman of the PAC, said an unknown number of pensioners died without ever getting what was due to them, Xinhua news agency reported. Fixing the DWP's mistakes is expected to cost taxpayers over 24.3 million British pounds in staff costs alone by the end of 2023, the report said. With experienced, specialised staff moving away, the DWP is already experiencing backlogs in processing new applications, the report added. Describing the long-term underpayment of state pensioners as a "shameful shambles," Hillier said, "For decades, the DWP has relied on a state pension payment system that is clunky and required staff to check many databases -- and now some pensioners and the taxpayer are paying in spades." She added that there was no assurance the errors that led to the underpayments in the first place will not be repeated in the correction exercise. --IANS int/khz/ ( 260 Words) 2022-01-22-05:24:04 (IANS)
Under Beijing's pressure, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan, has approved the compensation of USD 11.6 million to the families of the Chinese workers killed and wounded in the Dasu Dam terror attack that occurred in July 2021. There has been a growing discord between Islamabad and Beijing over safety to Chinese contractors and workers and not providing compensation to the victims of the Dasu Dam terror attack has emerged as a major irritant in their bilateral relations. The Dasu Hydropower Project is funded by the World Bank and does not fall in the scope of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The decision was taken in ECC meeting under the chairmanship of Pakistan Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, reported Samaa TV. Analysts believe that Chinese firms, whether Government-owned or private, exercise arm-twisting, with the Chinese authorities leaning on Islamabad, according to Hongkong Post. Now, the Chinese power firm is demanding from Pakistan six times the compensation it would have paid to its employees had the incident taken place within China, according to Hongkong Post. Pakistan is to pay China in millions or in billions when converted to its Rupee, as compensation hoping to remove "a major irritant in bilateral relations."Earlier, Pakistan Cabinet chose from one of the four different packages worked out by the government. They range from USD 4.6 million (Rs 810 million) to USD 20.3 million (Rs 3.6 billion). Notably, after the terror attack, the Chinese workers stopped the work for a temporary duration and demanded a compensation of USD 37 million, reported Hong Kong Post. Furthermore, the 4,320 MW Dasu Hydropower Project is funded by the World Bank and does not fall under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Amid China's growing dominance in Pakistan, officials on Tuesday said that over 5 million Chinese nationals will be working in the Islamic country by 2025. The remarks came from a senior Pakistani public health expert during an interview with News International, where he also said, the health needs of these workers can only be met by enhancing collaboration between Pakistani and Chinese medical universities, research institutes and biotechnological firms under the China Pakistan Health Corridor (CPHC). (ANI)
Washington [US], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): The United States has delivered around 200,000 pounds of lethal aid to Ukraine as part of its first shipment of new military assistance directed by President Biden amid tensions at the Ukrainian-Russian border, the US embassy in Kiev said on Friday. "The first shipment of assistance recently directed by President Biden to Ukraine arrived in Ukraine tonight. This shipment includes close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine. The shipment - and $2.7 billion USD since 2014 - demonstrates US commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression," the embassy wrote on Twitter. On Tuesday, the US Department of State said that Washington would continue delivering military assistance to Ukraine, with new supplies expected to arrive over the coming weeks. Moscow has repeatedly urged Washington to stop providing Kiev with weapons. In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of massing troops near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for invasion. Russia has dismissed these claims, maintaining that it has no intention of invading Ukraine while stressing that it has the right to move forces within its own territory. Russia has also expressed concern over NATO's military activity near its borders and the ongoing military support for Ukraine, including an increase in the number of Western instructors in Donbas. In December, the Russian government proposed a set of mutual security guarantees in Europe to NATO and the United States, with their response still pending. (ANI/Sputnik)
Pakistan has never shied away from denouncing other nations for atrocities against Muslim communities however the country itself has remained noncommittal on the issue of violation of Uyghur human rights in Xinjiang. China's economic rise and growing presence in Pakistan due to its investment specifically in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has given Beijing an unprecedented scope to take off 'Transnational Repression' in the country including violation of human rights and persecution of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang region, reported Canada-based think tank International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS). Chinese authorities had included Pakistan on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XAR) list of 26 blacklisted countries. The blacklisting means those with contacts with anyone or visited or have family ties or any communication in these blacklisted countries are not to be trusted and will remain under the radar of XAR authorities, reported the think tank. Notably, for years Pakistani nationals and Uyghurs have forged marriages as there has been trans-border commerce involved between the two nations across the Karakoram Highway. In one of the incidents in Pakistan, Sikandar Hayat and Ghulam Durrani were separated from their wives who happen to be Uyghurs. The wives were detained in XAR by the Chinese authorities while they were visiting there. Subsequently, Hayat's son who went to support his mother in XAR was not able to meet his father for two years. Furthermore, Durrani's wife continues to be in detention since 2017. In a particularly heinous episode exposing Islamabad's insensitivity and involvement in China's "repression," the Pakistani security forces deported 14 Uyghur Islamic students suspected of being terrorists by China. After being turned over to China, the authorities mercilessly killed all of the students at the border. The international community has been quite vocal about the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and recently, French Parliament slammed China's "genocide" of its Uyghur Muslim people on Thursday, in a resolution that could sour relations between Paris and Beijing only two weeks before the Winter Olympics. The resolution also urges the French government to protect the ethnic minority in the Xinjiang region and take "the necessary measures within the international community and in its foreign policy towards the People's Republic of China". Approximately 60 Uyghurs were deported or imprisoned by Pakistani security forces till 2014. Following the unrest in Urumchi, a huge number of Uyghurs attempted to exit China via Pakistan to Turkey. The Uyghurs were apprehended by Pakistani officials on their route to Turkey and deported. In one example, five innocent Uyghurs were deported to China from Baluchistan in 2010, despite the fact that they had no ties to any terror groups. (ANI)
In light of rising coronavirus cases, the NCOC on Friday announced to close all schools across the country with a high COVID-19 positivity ratio for one week.

"Education institutions, premises, sections, specific classes with high positivity to be closed for ONE week," the NCOC had said in a notification. (ANI)

The number of patients on critical care has risen to 1,055, up from 961 a day earlier, as the status of 94 patients worsened in the last 24 hours, according to statistics from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The positivity ratio stood at 11.10 per cent, down from 12.93 per cent a day earlier, as 6,540 infections were reported across the country after 58,902 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the NCOC data showed, reported the news channel.

Notably, Pakistan is facing its deadly fifth wave of COVID and cases in the country are rapidly increasing each day.

According to NCOC data, the total number of cases has now reached 1.36 million, with 12 additional deaths bringing the total number of deaths to 29,077. (ANI)
Pointing to the Texas synagogue attack that has exposed Pakistan's links with international terrorism, India has called for an effective and collective response to the global threat from the international terrorism network. "Recent incident in Texas once again demonstrates that international network of terror, with its epicentre in India's neighbourhood, is very much active and has long-lasting implications. This is a global threat that requires an unambiguous, undivided, effective and collective response," Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Friday without naming Pakistan. Shringla was speaking at a symposium on "Potential for Indo-European/German cooperation in Indo-Pacific." Highlighting the need for cooperation to counter the terror threats, Shringla said: "Counter-terrorism is another key area of cooperation between strategic partners. Failure to cooperate can only embolden terrorists towards more audacity." "You would recall the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack in which Indian, German and other nationals had lost their lives," he said. A 44-year-old man, Malik Faisal Akram took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist serving 86-years of the sentence in the US. , that was termed as an "act of terror" by US President Joe Biden. Akram was killed on January 16 after a tense standoff. Foreign Secretary also added: "India will be hosting the third "No Money For Terror" Conference this year, and we look forward to participation from Germany in this important initiative." During the event on the potential for cooperation between India and Europe in Indo-Pacific where he welcomed German frigate Bayern, which is making a port call to Mumbai, and called for more intense engagement between India and Europe to address challenges like sustainable development, environmental protection and climate change. Shringla said these issues can only be addressed through a collaborative effort that promotes linkages and not "economic dependencies and debt traps" in an apparent dig at China. "Therefore, we believe that all countries, including those outside the region with a clear stake in the security and stability of the region, have an important role to play," added Shringla. Furthermore, during the event, Shringla said that the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar had stated at the UN Security Council that "there cannot be any exception or any justification for any act of terrorism, regardless of motivations behind such acts." "Recently, India reiterated its position when it conveyed that any attack on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure was completely unacceptable; would be in blatant violation of international law; and against all civilized norms," he said. (ANI)
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement officially took effect on Jan. 1. As the world's largest trade agreement, the pact spans a market comprised of 2.2 billion people with a combined economic worth of $26.2 trillion, or 30% of the world's GDP.



The RCEP, compared with the previous free trade mechanisms, can be considered more open as it contains 20 chapters relating to a wide range of categories, including trade in goods and services, investment, dispute settlement, as well as intellectual property, digital trade, e-commerce, finance, and telecommunication.

With the COVID-19 pandemic going on for more than two years, the world economy has suffered its worst recession since World War II. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the emergence of new highly infectious variants of COVID-19 could wipe about $4.5 trillion off the global GDP by 2025. In this regard, the world needs to work together to tide over difficulties and ensure that economic globalization becomes more open, inclusive, balanced, as well as beneficial.

The Asia-Pacific region has become the most dynamic and promising economic powerhouse globally. Under the framework of the RCEP, participating countries are able to seize the opportunity to work together to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, which is expected to help build economic resilience and contribute to global economic recovery.

The mega-free trade agreement has been hailed by the Asia-Pacific region as an important step toward deeper regional integration and a renewed worldwide momentum for free trade in the wake of global uncertainties. The 15 participating members are in different development stages, from developed and emerging markets to less-developed economies. However, they have overcome difficulties and made efforts to bridge development gaps, manifesting their strong resolution to deepen economic and trade cooperation, setting a good example for the promotion of multilateralism.

China, as a staunch supporter of multilateralism, has pledged to work together with other RCEP members to build the mechanism into a prominent platform for economic and trade cooperation in East Asia and maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains. China has stepped up efforts to open its door wider over the past decades, and multiple measures have been adopted to make its business environment more favorable.

The effective implementation of the RCEP agreement will accelerate China's opening-up, which will facilitate more countries to tap into the market potential of the world's second-largest economy. This will in turn promote higher regional economic integration and improve people's wellbeing overall.

Dr. Sun Yuning is an adjunct research fellow with the China Center for Contemporary World Studies (CCCWS). His research interests include international relations and party politics.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
Mexico City [Mexico], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): Employees of the National Institute of Migration of Mexico detained on Saturday over 300 people, who were part of the first 2022 caravan of migrants going to the United States from the Mexican state of Chiapas bordering with Guatemala. "@INAMI_mx, @GN_MEXICO_ and the state police dispersed early this morning the migrant caravan that left Tapachula, #Chiapas yesterday. The first group of 281 people [was detained] on Mexican Federal Highway 200. The second group of 38 people [was detained] on secondary roads," the institute wrote on Twitter. The detained migrants were taken to facilities of the institute to clarify their migration status. All illegal migrants without necessary documents will be deported to countries of their origin. Earlier in January, another group of 600 migrants set out from Honduras, but failed to cross a border with Guatemala. Almost all those seeking asylum in the US were deported back to Honduras due to the absence of the necessary documents. (ANI/Sputnik)
Malaysia has submitted its Instrument of Ratification (IOR) of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, the country's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said. The IOR was submitted to the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretariat on January 17, with the agreement coming into force for Malaysia on March 18, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in a statement on Friday. The Ministry added that RCEP would provide a huge boost to Malaysia's economic activity and strengthen the multilateral trading system, especially in the face of the pandemic which has made international trade and cooperation more important than ever. "It bears stressing that RCEP is a testament to efforts to strengthen not only the multilateral trading system but advancing regional economic integration and upholding the development agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO)," it said. "The pandemic has underscored the paramount importance of international trade and cooperation as well as the inter-linkages of regional supply chains. In this regard, RCEP would be a key enabler for Malaysia in revitalizing the domestic and international business activities, post-pandemic," it added. The Ministry also said within ASEAN, Malaysia is expected to be the largest beneficiary of the RCEP agreement in terms of gains in exports, with a projected $200 million increase, resulting from tariff elimination and reduction for merchandise goods, including the facilitation of export and import of goods. "Furthermore, service providers including e-commerce will be able to enjoy greater market access in terms of cross-border supply and establishing commercial presence in the RCEP markets," it said. RCEP, which took effect on January 1, is made up of 10 ASEAN members, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, covering about 30 per cent of the world's population, as well as its gross domestic product and trade volume. --IANS ksk/ ( 316 Words) 2022-01-22-09:06:02 (IANS)
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Korea signed a preliminary deal to sell Seoul's midrange surface-to-air missiles to the Persian Gulf nation, in the latest sign of deepening defence cooperation between the two nations, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The deal was signed after Moon held talks with UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai.

In Riyadh, Moon held talks with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to work together in areas related to the hydrogen economy.

During the talks, Seoul and Riyadh signed preliminary deals to jointly develop green hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind, and jointly build a hydrogen ecosystem.

Moon also held talks with Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf in Riyadh, and they agreed to resume their free trade negotiations in the first quarter of this year.

In Cairo, Moon held summit talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and agreed to conduct a joint feasibility study on a bilateral free trade agreement.

If realized, an FTA with Egypt would mark South Korea's first free trade pact with an African country.

Bilateral trade between South Korea and Egypt has been on the rise in recent years and stood at $2.3 billion last year.

--IANS ksk/

( 250 Words)

2022-01-22-09:16:04 (IANS)
South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae had sent a gift box with traditional liquor and other items to Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi and other foreign ambassadors in Seoul to celebrate the Lunar New Year that falls on February 1, reports Yonhap News Agency.

But the Japanese Embassy returned the gift on Friday, as the box has an illustration that resembles the image of Dokdo in the East Sea, according to the reports.

Upon the refusal, the Embassy lodged a protest and renewed territorial claim to the islets.

The image of a sunrise is believed to represent South Korea's commitment to overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic and starting anew in the new year.

Dokdo is where people can watch the first sunrise.

The presidential office, however, did not make specific comments on the issue.

South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.

Still, Japan repeatedly claims sovereignty to the rocky outcroppings.

--IANS ksk/

( 216 Words)

2022-01-22-09:20:06 (IANS)
Taking to twitter, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that the women activists have been missing since Wednesday.

"The UN shares growing concerns disappearance of two Afghan women activists, Tamana Zaryabi Paryani & Parawana Ibrahimkhel, reportedly abducted from their homes overnight Wednesday. We urge Taliban to provide information on their whereabouts & to protect rights of all Afghans," UNAMA tweeted.

The activist, Tamana Zaryabi Paryani, was among about 25 women who took part in an anti-Taliban protest on Sunday against the compulsory Islamic headscarf, or hijab, for women, The News International reported.

The Taliban took over control of Kabul on August 15 last year and following this the country has been battered by deepening economic, humanitarian and security crisis. (ANI)
The NLD's Phyo Zeyar Thaw, who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death for offences under the country's Counterterrorism Law, the media outlet citing a statement from the generals reported.

Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, was given the same sentence, the statement added.

"The Burmese military has handed out death sentences to prominent activists, Ko Jimmy & Zeyar Thaw. This may be the latest attempt by the military to crush dissent & hopes of the people... but protests & resistance grows daily, so does our determination to uproot this military," a Burmese human rights activist working at Burma Campaign UK also tweeted.

Al Jazeera reported that they were found guilty of offences involving explosives, bombings and financing terrorism, but details were sketchy because of the blackout on proceedings.

Myanmar was plunged into crisis when army chief Min Aung Hlaing deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power for the military on February 1 last year.

The coup prompted mass protests and a civil disobedience movement, and thousands have been arrested in the military's attempt to crack down on dissent. Almost 1,500 civilians are estimated to have been killed, according to Al Jazeera. (ANI)
Islamist attacks on Jews will continue to be glorified in the Muslim world as "resistance" against Jewish schemes or Zionist imperialism, reported Haaretz. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national, also known as "Lady al-Qaida" once again came into the limelight after her release was sought by the British hostage-taker at a Texas synagogue last week and with this, it becomes clear that prisoners like Siddiqui will continue to boost antisemitic jihad without actually pulling the trigger themselves. Notably, she was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel and is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. Siddiqui argued throughout her trial that she was being targeted by Israel, citing the conspiracy theories that all jihadists are familiar with, and that the judgement came "from Israel and not from America." In a letter to Barack Obama, she wrote that Jews are "cruel, ungrateful, backstabbing... [which is] why 'holocausts' keep happening to them repeatedly." She even cited Quranic verses asking Muslims to "not take Jews and Christians as allies," while criticising Pakistan for collaborating with the US to apprehend World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef in 1993. Siddiqui wanted jury members to be "genetically tested" for signs of being "Jewish or Zionist" and if found to be one of them, demanded to be removed from the panel, wrote Kunwar Khuldune Shahid in the article for Haaretz. In a similar incident, she asked to fire her own lawyers because they were Jewish despite her defence counsel being paid to the tune of $2 million by the Pakistani government. In the Muslim world, populist politicians like Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Imran Khan, who love to compare cartoons of Muhammad with the Holocaust, push an Islamist narrative laced with antisemitic tropes in the sake of "protecting" Muslims. (ANI)
Post mortem of four people who died due to cold near the US - Canada border will be conducted on January 24, according to sources. Consulate General of India in Toronto had sent a consular team to Manitoba, which is now liaising with local authorities to render any consular help regarding the four dead people. The Consulate General as well as the High Commission in Ottawa are also in touch with Canadian provincial and federal authorities for ascertaining details of this tragedy. US authorities have detained seven people without proper documentation, as well as one US citizen, for allegedly being involved in human smuggling activity from Canada to the US. One of them is still hospitalized due to cold-related injuries (earlier one more person had been hospitalized). Sources told ANI: "On the US side, the Consulate General of India in Chicago has urgently sent a consular team to Minneapolis, which is now coordinating and rendering consular assistance. They have sought consular access to the detained persons. The Consulate and the Embassy in Washington D.C. are also in touch with US Department of Justice, and the US Customs and Border Police." On January 19, US authorities in Minnesota State, near the US - Canada border, came across a group of people who were apparently without proper documentation. Based on information obtained from them, Canadian authorities launched a search and found four bodies in Manitoba province on the Canadian side of the border. These four people (a man, a woman, a teenage boy, an infant) appeared to have died due to the cold. Indian Missions and Posts will continue to extend all assistance another source told ANI. (ANI)
Both the counterparts also discussed bilateral, economic and energy cooperation between India and Qatar.

"A good conversation today with DPM and FM of Qatar @MBA_AlThani_. Included an exchange of views on developments relating to Afghanistan. Also spoke on our bilateral, economic and energy cooperation. Look forward to the meeting of our Joint Commission," Jaishankar said in a Tweet. (ANI)
Tokyo [Japan], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): The Russian Embassy in Japan on Saturday that Tokyo's position toward Russia in the context of the situation around Ukraine was inadmissible and counterproductive, citing recent talks between Washington and Tokyo. On Friday, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a virtual meeting and discussed, in particular, "the challenges that Russia is presenting to Ukraine" and agreed to stay in close contact on developments in Ukraine, according to the White House. "We were puzzled to read reports that at yesterday's Japan-US summit, the Japanese side tried to threaten Russia with some 'strong actions,' the ones 'coordinated with the US and other allies and partners,' in the Ukrainian context," the Russian embassy said on Facebook. Obviously, those statements are unacceptable, senseless, and counterproductive for the Russian-Japanese relations and the dialogue between the nations, the embassy added. "We would sincerely advise our Japanese colleagues to read into the text of Russian initiatives on mutual security guarantees with the US and NATO, as well as to assess impartially the aggressive activities of the North Atlantic alliance in its eastward expansion toward Russian borders and military territorial development of Russia's neighbor Ukraine," the embassy said. Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations of the West and Kiev of alleged military build-up and preparations for invading Ukraine. The allegations might be used as a pretext for deployment more NATO military equipment near Russian borders, according to Moscow. In late 2021, Russia presented draft proposals on security guarantees in Europe to the United States and NATO. On January 10, Russia and the US held strategic stability talks in Geneva, followed by a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels on January 12, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe talks in Vienna the next day. Russia-Ukraine relations were high on the agenda during talks. (ANI/Sputnik)
 Flash

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday firmly rejected and strongly condemned the so-called Hong Kong-related resolution of the European Parliament.



A spokesperson for the office condemned the resolution for smearing "one country, two systems," wantonly interfering in China's internal affairs, and calling on the European Union (EU) to impose sanctions on Chinese officials.

"Any external forces interfering in Hong Kong affairs and repeatedly staging such self-deceiving political farces are doomed to failure," said the spokesperson.

Some anti-China disruptors will surely be punished for their illegal acts, and any external forces cannot change the outcome, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed that the development of China-EU cooperation is an overwhelming trend, and the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong bear on the interests of more than 2,300 EU enterprises and 350,000 EU citizens in Hong Kong.

"We urge some European politicians to grasp the situation, respect the facts, and not to lift the stone only to drop it on their own feet," said the spokesperson.

In response to the European Parliament resolution, a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR also said on Friday that in violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the European Parliament once again judged others' democracy with condensation and interfered in China's internal affairs including Hong Kong affairs, which is unacceptable.

The commissioner's office also criticized the resolution for smearing Hong Kong's democracy and freedom, for calling for sanctions against the central government and HKSAR government officials, and for asking for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

"In disregard of history and reality, the European Parliament has repeatedly smeared Hong Kong and attacked China under the pretext of so-called 'democracy and freedom' for a publicity stunt," the spokesperson noted.

The commissioner's office urged some politicians of the European Parliament to follow the historical trend, change course, stop the political hysteria against China and China's HKSAR, stop bullying acts of threatening to impose sanctions, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs including Hong Kong affairs in any form.

The HKSAR government on Friday also voiced strong opposition to the European Parliament resolution, saying European Parliament made baseless allegations and smeared the rule of law, freedom and democratic development in Hong Kong.

"Regarding the suggestions by foreign politicians on the so-called 'sanctions' on HKSAR government officials, the HKSAR government despises the suggestions and will continue to strive to safeguard national security," a spokesperson noted.

"We urge foreign politicians to immediately stop breaching international laws based on their biased political interests to intervene in Hong Kong matters, which are purely the internal affairs of China," the spokesperson said.
People in Nepal are protesting against China for various reasons including Belt Road Initiative (BRI), a project they term as "illegal occupation of Nepalese land by Beijing," a Canada-based think tank has said. Citing Nepalese media, the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) reported such encroachments in Humla, Gorkha, Darchula, Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk districts. The Nepal government had formed a committee to survey the border and it found physical structures and wire-fencing inside the country's border. The encroachment in Humla district was well 1-km inside the border, according to the think tank. According to IFFRAS, the reports of BRI loan recipient countries falling into debt traps have caused people in Nepal people to be worried about the projects in their country. And they are not ready to trust even their own political leaders, citing the example of Sri Lanka, Kenya, where lawmakers let Beijing impose unfavourable conditions, risking their sovereignty. Locals in Jhapa district have opposed China-sponsored Damak Clean Industrial Park, stating that "industrial park falls in former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's constituency" believing that Oli was seen too close to Beijing. IFFRAS reported that there were over 5,000 protesters including those from indigenous communities, who called for attention to "illegal activities" at the BRI- sponsored industrial park. However, experts in Nepal claimed that the BRI was leading to unsustainable development that would have a negative bearing on the social and ecological aspects. There have been fears that China was getting its hands on strategic sectors that are vital to Nepal's security interests. And the people of Nepal see BRI as a major reason besides land encroachment. "BRI project has been a ploy to impose a debt burden on poor nations, including Nepal. BRI project should not be allowed to be implemented in Nepal." IFFRAS quoting Birendra Sah of the Loktantirk Socialist Party reported. After China-friendly Oli resigned as Prime Minister of Nepal in July 2021, Beijing is finding it difficult in keeping its influence in the Himalayan nation. Amid growing public anger, China has said that it "respects Nepal's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and denied interference in the country's internal affairs. "China considers Nepal as an important partner of the Belt and Road Initiative, and does not attach any political conditions to its aid toNepal" said the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, according to the think tank. (ANI)
Indian-origin Maju Varghese is leaving his position as the director of the White House Military Office, according to a media report quoting him. "Right now, it's best for me and my family that I kind of just try to strike a little bit more of a balance," CNN quoted Varghese explaining his decision to leave the White House. "One thing I learned during two tours here is it's a demanding place to work and it's because the work is really important, and we throw all of ourselves into this," he said of leaving after a gruelling year. At the White House, his role included working with the military to ensure medical support, emergency medical services and presidential transportation, communications and organising official ceremonies and functions. "These are complex movements, helicopters and planes and ground transportation and communications and supporting large events and global travel in and of itself is hard," Varghese told CNN. "Now you throw Covid in, you've got to think about all that comes with health and safety." He worked closely with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy when he was the chief operating officer of Biden's election campaign, and later at the White House to ensure everyone's health during the pandemic. Murthy told CNN: "The way he would run meetings and to both chart out a path forward, reassure people, his calmness in the face of serious adversity and uncertainty -- those are invaluable qualities that he brought to the operation." He had also worked for former President Barack Obama as a special assistant to the president and the deputy director of advance organising his travel in the US and abroad. He was also the executive director of Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris's inauguration the swearing-in ceremonies and the festivities around it. Varghese's parents immigrated from Thiruvalla, Kerala, to the US, where he was born. He is a lawyer by training. CNN said that he did not reveal future plans. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis) --IANS al/ksk/ ( 349 Words) 2022-01-22-11:48:04 (IANS)
Berlin [Germany], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): The head of the German navy, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach, expressed his belief that Crimea would never return to Ukraine despite Kiev's attempts to put pressure on Moscow. "The Crimea does not exist, and it will never come back," Schonbach said at a conference hosted by India's Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses on Friday. Speaking of the countries that want to be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the vice-admiral noted that Georgia meets the criteria for joining the alliance, but its membership would be "illogical," given the consequences it may have in relations with Moscow. In this regard, Schonbach said that India and Germany need Russia to confront the growing influence of China. Crimea became a part of Russia in a referendum held in March 2014 in which near 96% of Crimeans voted for joining Russia. Kiev considers Crimea to be a Ukrainian territory illegally occupied by Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the decision made by the Crimean people was made in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimean issue is "finally closed." (ANI/Sputnik)
BLA's commander, identified as Razak aka engineer, was killed in Afghanistan. Razak was a resident of the Ahmed Wal area of Nushki and had been living in Afghanistan for quite some time, reported ARY News.

Razak was involved in fundraising for the outlawed BLA besides smuggling weapons from Afghanistan into Pakistan through the Nushki route, the Pakistani publication reported citing sources.

The BLA commander had also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Quetta in 2011. He was also involved in other major terrorist acts in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

It came after the killing of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) spokesperson Khalid Balti in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. Balti had been appointed as banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson in 2014 after Shahidullah Shahid, known for his anti-Pakistan stance. He was operating a training camp for TTP terrorists in Miranshah, according to ARY News. (ANI)
Dr Riyadh A Khan, an Indian doctor in Kuwait, said that expat doctors worked shoulder to shoulder with their Kuwaiti counterparts to revive the Kuwaiti health sector post-invasion by Iraq. "Expat doctors worked shoulder to shoulder with their Kuwaiti counterparts to revive the Kuwaiti health sector. After the invasion, we were given the chance to revive it, resuscitate it, breathe new life into it," said Dr Khan. Chatting in a guest show with Radio Kuwait, Khan shared his experiences pre-invasion and post-invasion of Kuwait. He came to Kuwait in 1980. Describing the health sector of Kuwait, he said, "When I came here, Kuwait was blossoming. It had an ambitious health plan. Many new hospitals had opened like Zahra, Adan, and many others were opening. Two main hospitals were Al Ameri and Al Sabah. Since my specialty was in Sabah hospital, I joined Al Sabah. A year later they opened the Ibn Sina hospital for neurological diseases, so I moved in from Sabah to Inn Sina." He also said that Kuwait was the state in the area to have the best health infrastructure. "Kuwait had a head-start in the medicine field. We invited the leading lights of neurology-- Prof Paullus, Prof Brewin, a lot of leading names, international specialists to come to give lectures, see patients and train them. A lot of activities were going on here. We were like large families of medical teams. We knew each other very well," said Dr Khan. He later assumed the role of Chairman of Ibn Sina Hospital. Sharing his experience of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, he said, "I can divide those days into pre-invasion and post-invasion. Pre-invasion days were marvellous in Kuwait. It was the epicentre of health. No other surrounding countries were as advanced as Kuwait in the medical field. Emirates was nothing, neither Bahrain. Doctors from there use to come to our weekly meetings in Kuwait for Neurology and they were all trained here." "Post-invasion we were really affected. We were suddenly uprooted and thrown into the wilderness with no future. We waited for nearly two and a half months thinking that things will settle. We couldn't and we left and then the liberation came and we actually celebrated the liberation of Kuwait in Chennai," said Dr Khan. Talking about his return to Kuwait, he said that he received a phone call from Kuwaiti Health Ministry in May. "Then in May, I received the phone call from the Ministry of Health: Come and start your department. Those were the times oil-fires were going on. We came back in very difficult times. We started from scratch, there was nothing in the department. Everything was looted. We had no infrastructure, only the buildings were there. We had to slowly rebuild the department. Gradually, we have evolved and evolved and came to this stage," said Dr Khan. Thousands of expatriates live and work in Kuwait providing valuable services, some of them life-saving. Dr Riyadh Khan is one of them. A brilliant neurologist, he has been actively involved in building up the Department of Neurology at the Ibin Sina Hospital since 1980. In these last four decades, he has also played the role of Chairman. He established the Kuwait Neurological Society in 1986, organized symposiums, and represented Kuwait at the World Congress of Neurology. A Former President of the Indian Doctors' Forum, he was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation Award in 1998 for his outstanding service to the community. This episode of The Guest Show by Radio Kuwait is a tribute to the outstanding contribution of Indian and expatriate medical professionals to Kuwait. (ANI)
The US on Friday (local time) in a counterstroke to China's virus policy blocked 44 passenger flights by Chinese airlines as Beijing had taken the same step against American carriers as part of its strict coronavirus control policies. The move comes as China has been suspending flights by American carriers after alleging in-bound passengers had later tested positive for the coronavirus, said Ian Duncan, a reporter covering federal transportation agencies and the politics of transportation, writing in The Washington Post. The US Transportation Department issued an order Friday blocking 44 passenger flights by Chinese airlines. The restrictions begin on January 30 and run until March 29. The move will affect flights between Los Angeles and New York and five Chinese cities, reported The Washington Post. Since the early days of the pandemic, the Chinese government has imposed a policy known as the "circuit breaker" that imposed limits on inbound flights by airlines if their passengers subsequently test positive for the coronavirus. The US government argued that the policy is an unfair restriction on aviation that violates a long-standing agreement between the two countries. The dispute over US-China aviation during the pandemic has been rumbling since late spring of 2020, when the Trump administration moved to block flights from China. The two countries eventually agreed to allow limited schedules. In August, the Chinese government imposed capacity limits on United Airlines, an alternative sanction under the circuit breaker. The United States responded, targeting Chinese airlines, said Duncan. The new US order goes further, banning passengers altogether. The four Chinese carriers targeted in the order will be permitted to continue operating flights from the United States to China if they only carry cargo. They still are allowed to carry passengers from China to the United States. The suspended flights to China begin on January 30 and include flights from the carriers Xiamen Airlines, China Southern Airlines Company and Air China. Airlines that operate a China-bound flight that contains between five and nine passengers who subsequently test positive for the coronavirus are supposed to have two options: suspend that flight for two weeks or limit that flight's capacity to 40 percent for four weeks. The Chinese government says it applies the rules in the same way to domestic and international airlines, said Duncan. But the Transportation Department says in the case of the most recent incidents, the US carriers were not given the choice and were told they must cancel the flights, while being denied advance warning. "US carriers, who are following all relevant Chinese regulations with respect to pre-departure and in-flight protocols, should not be penalized if passengers, post-arrival, later test positive for COVID-19," the department wrote in Friday's order. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines, which has had 14 flights suspended by China in recent weeks, said, "We appreciate continued US government efforts to ensure fairness and access to China." (ANI)
According to the news agency, Chief of the provincial National Statistics and Information Authority Jamshid Khurshid was among those killed, the news agency quoting Shamsullah Mohammadi, chairman of the provincial directorate for information and culture reported.

"The incident happened early Saturday morning after two sedans collided head-on in Jangal area of Daulat Abad district in Faryab," Mohammadi told Xinhua.

Road mishaps are frequent in Afghanistan and occur mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles.

Several provincial highways had been blocked following the heavy snowfall across the Asian country since early Friday. (ANI)
"The head of UK's diplomatic agency asked about an opportunity to come to Moscow for talks with (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov. Moscow agreed to hold the visit in February," the source said.

Citing a UK-based publication source, TASS reported that in mid-January, Truss, who became Foreign Secretary in September 2021, may visit Russia as early as the beginning of February.

Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said that the Russian Embassy in the UK had not received an official request with regards to her visit to Moscow.

UK Foreign Secretaries have not visited Russia since December 2017, when Boris Johnson who is now heading the UK government came to Moscow, it added. (ANI)
Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], January 22 (ANI/Sputnik): The 96-year-old former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has been hospitalised for the third time in a little over a month and admitted to the National Heart Institute, the country's leading cardiological medical institution, media reported on Saturday, citing his spokesperson. The spokesperson reportedly said that Mahathir was placed in the coronary care unit. Later in the day, the politician's daughter, Mahathir Marina, said that he was in a stable condition. "He is currently stable and is responding well to treatment. Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali and family ask Malaysians to pray for Dr Mahathir's full and speedy recovery," Mahathir Marina said, as quoted by Malaysian newspaper The Star. Last time, Mahathir Mohamad was hospitalised on January 7 for undergoing an elective medical procedure at the same hospital. The ex-Prime Minister was released from the medical institute six days later. Mahathir served as Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003. In 2018, at the age of 92, he was elected for the same post again. The politician left the office for reasons of principle in March 2020 during reshuffles in the government. Mahathir refused to work in one cabinet with politicians who lost the 2018 elections to his party in the wake of the biggest corruption scandal in the country's history. (ANI/Sputnik)
 Flash

China's Foreign Ministry on Friday urged the Lithuanian side to show sincerity and take concrete actions if the latter really wants to improve bilateral relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda's remarks that "fraught relations" with China have resulted in business losses in Lithuania, and the Lithuanian Foreign Minister had presented him with a plan to "de-escalate tensions."

Zhao said that the root cause of the current difficulties in bilateral relations is Lithuania's wrong actions on Taiwan related issues, which damage China's core interests and undermine the basic norms of international relations.

The international community has its fair judgement as to who is culpable for the souring of China-Lithuania ties and the ensuing escalation, he added.

The door for communication remains open, Zhao said, urging the Lithuanian side to show sincerity with concrete actions if it truly hopes to mend fences.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's campaign against religious symbols, practitioners and language in Tibet reflects the emergence of a "communist Taliban" in today's China, says analyst Vijay Kranti who has referenced the recent demolition of Buddha statues in Sichuan province to the 2001 destruction of historic statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan. In 2001 the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan had demolished two historic and giant 15th-century statues of Lord Buddha in Bamiyan that invited shock and condemnation from across the world. In an article, Kranti noted that Chinese authorities in Tibet are demonstrating the very same Taliban spirit as the idea of President Xi Jinping to enforce "Tibetan Buddhism with Chinese socialist character is gaining momentum inside Tibet. He said that during the past one month, all schools, established by local Tibetan communities and monasteries were pulled down and closed in one stroke of government orders. "These make-shift schools were being run to impart Tibetan language teaching to Tibetan children after regular school hours. Under Beijing's orders, all Tibetan students are now obliged to study through Chinese Mandarin as the sole medium of teaching," writes Kranti. According to the article, in mid-December of 2021, heavy military deployment was undertaken in Drago, a Tibetan majority county of Sichuan, where local Chinese authorities initiated the demolition of a 99-feet high Buddha statue and 45 big prayer wheels. The statue of Shakya Muni Buddha and the colourful prayer wheels were built by local Tibetan community in October 2015 at a cost of about 40 million Yuans. About three weeks later on January 6 this year, yet another similar statue was also demolished by the Chinese authorities, Vijay Kranti said. Reports about the arrest of dozens of monks and lay Tibetans who opposed this destruction are regularly pouring out of Tibet. Citing Tibet Watch, a Dharamshala based human rights group, the columnist said that both of these Drago statue projects were executed by the Tibetan community after taking formal approval of local Chinese authorities. However, following President Xi Jinping's dramatic visit to Tibet in July last year and his call to the administrators and party cadres in Tibet to establish 'Tibetan Buddhism with Chinese socialist character' authorities declared that the height of the statues was beyond acceptable limits. They also cancelled earlier permissions for the construction and ordered its demolition. (ANI)
Both the leaders also reviewed bilateral ties between the two countries and agreed on an early meeting of their Joint Commission.

"Nice to talk to FM @anmas71 of Kuwait. Reviewed the progress in our bilateral relationship. Agreed on an early meeting of our Joint Commission. Also talked about regional situations ranging from West Asia and the Gulf to Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific," Jaishankar tweeted.

Following the day, the Foreign Minister exchanged views on developments relating to Afghanistan with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Both the counterparts also discussed bilateral, economic and energy cooperation between India and Qatar.

"A good conversation today with DPM and FM of Qatar @MBA_AlThani_. Included an exchange of views on developments relating to Afghanistan. Also spoke on our bilateral, economic and energy cooperation. Look forward to the meeting of our Joint Commission," Jaishankar said in a Tweet. (ANI)
The US Department of Justice immediately filed an appeal and case could be heard by the Supreme Court, reports Xinhua news agency.

On Friday, Judge Jeffrey Brown, appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by former President Donald Trump, issued a nationwide injunction ruling that the mandate exceeded Biden's authority.

The case is about "whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment", Brown wrote in his opinion.

"As the court has already noted, Congress appears to have limited the President's authority in this field to workplace conduct," Brown wrote.

"For its part, this court will say only this: however extensive that power is, the federal-worker mandate exceeds it."

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court blocked Biden's mandate that employees at businesses with 100 or more workers get vaccinated or regularly tested, while upholding the measure for healthcare workers.

The White House announced in September 2021 that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that 98 per cent of federal workers were already vaccinated.

--IANS ksk/

( 257 Words)

2022-01-22-14:18:03 (IANS)
US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West on Saturday said that America has no specified schedule for the recognition of the interim government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). He also said that the Taliban should take some corrective steps before the normalization of relations between the US and IEA, reported The Khaama Press. Respect for human and women's rights, freedom of speech, education of women, and formalization of the rights of minorities in Afghanistan are preconditions of the US to the Taliban. Meanwhile, the special representative said that the US will pay the salaries of Afghan teachers in collaboration with the International Society in case the Taliban reopen schools, reported The Khaam Press. About the frozen assets of Afghanistan, Thomas West said that part of the nearly USD 10 billion will be paid to the victims of 9/11 as ransom but added that the final decision has not been made yet. He added that part of the money will be released for humanitarian purposes in Afghanistan but reiterated that it will not be given to the Taliban, reported The Khaama Press. Following the Taliban takeover in mid-August, the US froze nearly 10 billion dollars in Afghanistan's assets and slapped sanctions on the Islamic Emirate. In the meantime, the stoppage of foreign aid to Afghanistan has crippled the already fragile economic system of Afghanistan and has adversely affected the lives of millions of people. Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and needs immediate financial help who are facing acute hunger combined with a severe drought and the coronavirus pandemic. (ANI)
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday (local time) said that the Taliban should respect human rights for the sake of recognition and international support. The UN chief made the statement while laying out his priorities for 2022 at the General Assembly in New York, reported Tolo News. Guterres touching upon the issue of Afghanistan and human rights in the country said that respect for the rights of women and girls and human rights, in general, is required for the Islamic Emirate to gain recognition and also obtain international support. "It is absolutely essential for them in the context of their objective of recognition, but also in the context of their objective of getting international support for their own people, it is absolutely essential to have full respect for the rights of women and girls and to have a positive approach to human rights in general," he said. Women's rights to work and girls' right to education have been two key issues the international community has set as part of the conditions for recognition. Following the collapse of the former government, secondary girls' schools have remained closed in most parts of the country. The US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West has said that the international community will pay the salaries of Afghan teachers if the Islamic Emirate reopens all girls' schools in the coming school year, reported Tolo News. The UN chief also talked about the world facing a five-alarm global fire that requires the full mobilization and support of all countries, reported Tolo News. "I want to begin the year by raising five alarms - on COVID-19, global finance, climate action, lawlessness in cyberspace, and peace and security," he said. "Now is not the time to simply list and lament challenges, now is the time to act," he added. (ANI)
Al-Emadi said that he signed the agreement with the Gaza Electricity Generation Company and the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, reports Xinhua news agency.

Also head of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, the envoy said: "The agreement includes establishing an escrow account to cover the costs of supplying gas and generating electricity through the only power plant in Gaza."

Under the agreement, the committee will be the primary owner of this account and will organise and manage the payments, he said.

The committee will finance the construction of the gas pipeline from the supplier company in Israel to the Gaza border.

In February last year, a joint agreement was reached among Qatar, the UN, and the European Union on a project to install a supply system from Israel to the only power plant in the Gaza Strip after years of negotiations.

The Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, needs 500 megawatts of electricity per day.

But currently only 210 megawatts are available, including 120 supplied from Israel, and the rest is produced by the only power plant in Gaza.

--IANS ksk/

( 231 Words)

2022-01-22-14:52:03 (IANS)
Ireland will scrap most of its Covid-19 restrictions starting from Saturday following a drop in the number of new cases, the government announced. Starting from 6 a.m. on Saturday, there will be no social distancing requirements in public venues, no restrictions on the number of people attending indoor and outdoor events, no limits on household gatherings, and no domestic requirements of a valid EU Digital Covid Certificate for access to various premises, reports Xinhua news agency. Businesses in the hospitality sector such as restaurants and bars will no longer need to be closed before 8 p.m. and nightclubs can reopen, the government said, adding that people can also return to work in office on a phased basis starting from Monday. But a limited number of public health measures will remain in place until the end of February, which include mandatory wearing of face masks on public transport and in public indoor settings and adherence to current protective measures in schools and early learning and care facilities, it added. Public health measures regarding international travel including the requirement of a valid EU Digital Covid will also remain unchanged, the statement said. The decision of the Irish government came at a time when Ireland saw a notable decline in its Covid-19 infections in the past week or so. On January 17, Ireland's daily Covid-19 cases dropped below 10,000 for the first time in more than three weeks and has since remained below that level for the last five consecutive days. High uptake of Covid-19 vaccines and booster doses are the other factors that have shored up confidence in easing the restrictions. Till date, more than 7.61 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered in Ireland and over 3.85 million people in the country are fully vaccinated, accounting for about 77 per cent of the total population. Besides, over 2.62 million people in Ireland have received a booster dose. --IANS ksk/ ( 328 Words) 2022-01-22-15:08:02 (IANS)
"Policy advisers of the Normandy format will hold an in-person meeting in Paris on January 25, the sides reached a preliminary agreement on the date on January 6 in Arkhangelskoye," the source said.

German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said earlier that Berlin was seeking to hold a meeting in the Normandy format and was working on organizing the event, but did not give a date.

The Normandy Format talks were established on June 6, 2014, when leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine met on the 70th anniversary of the landing of Allied forces at Normandy during World War II. The group was established to discuss paths to resolve the Donbas conflict in eastern Ukraine.

On January 6, Kozak met for consultations with his French and German counterparts in Russia's Arkhangelskoye Palace, during which the sides agreed on the revival of the format after a long break. (ANI/Sputnik)
Interior Ministry of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in a statement on Friday denied her detention, reported The Khaama Press.

Statement of the ministry said that personnel of no administration of the Islamic Emirate has broken into the house of Paryani.

Deputy Minister of culture and information and spokesperson of the IEA Zabiullah Mujahid said Paryani had shot a fake video clip at her house while screaming for help, reported The Khaama Press.

Zabiullah Mujahid said that she made the video to seek asylum abroad.

Paryani in a video clip on Wednesday was shouting that Taliban fighters were knocking at the door and wanted to take her and her sisters, reported The Khaama Press.

There were reports that Paryani, her two sisters and another activist have been taken from their homes on Thursday after recent protests in Kabul.

Her friends and activists suspected that they were detained by the Taliban, a media report said. (ANI)
Fijian military Commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said on Saturday that the military personnel, consisting of engineers, medics and other specialists, will team up with the Australian soldiers to carry out rehabilitation and further assessment in Tonga, reports Xinhua news agency.

As per the initial planning process, the Fijian soldiers are expected to be on the ground, putting the hard yards, in a span of 10 days.

However, this is subject to change depending on the extent of rehabilitation required in the island nation, he added.

The commander stressed that the majority of troops deployed are engineers and plant operators, considering the massive infrastructure damage in most parts of Tonga.

The military personnel have completed their pre-departure isolation period in their respective bubble and have tested Covid-19 negative before departure.

They were also vaccinated with a booster shot.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, about 65 km north of Tongan capital city of Nuku'alofa, is part of the highly active Tonga-Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a sub-duction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji.

Over the past decades, the volcano has erupted several times.

The eruptions and tsunami on January 14-15 have caused three deaths and multiple injures, which are likely to rise in the days to come.

--IANS ksk/

( 253 Words)

2022-01-22-15:38:03 (IANS)
Both countries agreed to "conduct equal dialogues on human rights, democracy and other issues on the basis of mutual respect, enhance mutual understanding, and refrain from microphone diplomacy," said Wang.

Wang said that China and Germany are countries with global influence and important driving forces for China-EU relations.

"To develop China-Germany relations, we should not only consider bilateral cooperation but also focus on promoting China-EU cooperation and regional and global development," said the Chinese Foreign Minister.

Meanwhile, Baerbock, in a possible sign that Berlin may take a more critical stance than under Angela Merkel, highlighted "fundamental differences" with China on human rights.

After Olaf Scholz became the new Chancellor of Germany, Beijing is concerned that Berlin will move away from Merkel's engagement policy.

"On the basis of mutual respect, we should conduct an equal dialogue on issues such as human rights and democracy, enhance mutual understanding and not engage in megaphone diplomacy," said Wang highlighting Beijing's dislike of other countries making their criticisms public.

Further, the German Foreign Minister highlighted strengthening education, people-to-people and sub-national exchanges, and carrying out exchanges between more than 100 pairs of friendly provinces and states of the two countries through various means; strengthening cooperation in green development, and deepening exchanges on addressing climate change and green governance.

The relationship between China and the EU has deteriorated in recent years over the issue of human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and increasing sanctions of Chinese authorities over Xinjiang.

Beijing's efforts to cement its relationship with the new German government have seen both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang holding phone conversations with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the past two months. (ANI)
German Navy Chief Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach has said that Berlin and India need Russia against China but he also made clear that this is his personal opinion and it does not correspond to Berlin's official position. "We, India, Germany need Russia against China," said Schonbach on Friday in New Delhi during an event organized by a think tank. Referring to tensions at the Ukrainian border, he had said, "Does Russia really wants a small tiny strip of Ukrainian soil? Or integrate into the country, no this is nonsense." "Putin is probably putting pressure because he knows he can do it. And it splits the EU. But what he really wants is high-level respect," Schonbach had added. However, on Saturday, the German Navy Cheif stated that these remarks were his personal opinions and do not correspond in a way to his official position. "Carelessly, misjudged in the situation, I should not have done it like that. There is nothing to interpret, that was a clear mistake. My security policy statements in a talk show at a think tank in India gave my personal opinion for that moment on the spot. They do not correspond in any way to the official position of the @BMVg_Bundeswehr. #germannavy," said Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach in a tweet on Saturday. Schonbach was on his India visit. On Thursday, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari at the Indian Air Force Headquarters in New Delhi where both sides discussed issues of mutual interest. The two sides also discussed avenues to enhance bilateral defence cooperation during the meeting. (ANI)
Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Saturday blamed "small remnants of groups" defeated by the Taliban for creating an "atmosphere of terror" in Pakistan. He also dragged India and Afghanistan into the matter, a regular ploy by Pakistani ministers to run away from the burning issues of internal security of the country so that the common people could not question them for the security failure of the state. "Small remnant groups left over after the Taliban defeated the NDS (National Directorate of Security was the national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan), RAW (Research and Analysis Wing, the foreign intelligence agency of India), and 42 international forces that were fighting in Afghanistan, wish to create an atmosphere of terror in Pakistan," the interior minister said, during a media briefing, reported Geo News. Rasheed said that his ministry has put the armed forces and inspector generals of police on high alert due to the rising cases of terrorism in Pakistan. Notably, an unidentified man placed high-intensity explosives weighing between one and 1.5 kilograms in Lahore's Anarkali area which caused Thursday's blast leading to the death of three people and injuring 26, reported local media. Pakistan's opposition senators on Friday sought an explanation from Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed over the recent terrorist incidents in the country, including the blast in Lahore. According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior earlier, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have been directed to exercise "extreme vigilance" after the recent terror incidents in the country, reported Geo News. The minister said that no talks have been held with Islamic State (IS), adding that Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA) is a "small group." He recalled that on January 18, two terrorists were killed in Islamabad in a gun attack on Islamabad police, which the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan later claimed responsibility for. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan publicly took the position that a political settlement was the only way to end Pakistan's war with the TTP. Initial negotiations between the TTP and Pakistan, which took place in Afghanistan, made some headway. A short cease-fire was announced in early November, with reports that Pakistan had committed to the release of over 100 TTP prisoners, including some high-profile leaders that were in detention in Pakistan. "We have found our way to six members of the banned outfit after the terrorists were killed in Islamabad," he said, adding that he is not aware whether BNA has claimed the responsibility of the Lahore incident or not, reported Geo News. He said that rumours regarding the imposition of a presidential system and emergency are spreading; however, no such proposal has been laid before the cabinet. "We are ready to fight terrorism and are already investigating a suspect for his alleged involvement in the Lahore blast," Rasheed said. (ANI)
"We had a talk with some TTP groups. But their conditions were such that they couldn't be agreed upon," Samaa TV quoted Rasheed as saying.

The Minister also informed that the talks with TTP were being mediated by the Afghan Taliban as the latter had guaranteed their soil would not be used against the Taliban, according to Samaa TV.

"The Taliban were talking to the TTP. But their demands were so harsh that talks could not proceed," said the Minister, adding, "The TTP broke the ceasefire and that is why there is a spike in terror attacks."

Recently the number of attacks by the TTP in Pakistan has surged. Earlier the Pakistan government and Prime Minister Imran Khan had accepted that they were in talks with TTP. (ANI)
Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Saturday blamed Prime Minister Imran Khan for sending Nawaz Sharif to London. Umar revealed that it was "100 per cent Prime Minister Imran Khan's decision" to send former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to London for his medical treatment, Geo News reported. "PM Imran Khan conducted a meeting which held discussions on whether or not to allow Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad," said Umar. This decision to let him go was made by the prime minister, said the planning minister, as reported by Geo News. Umar said that he was present during a meeting conducted by the premier which held discussions on whether or not to allow Nawaz to travel for treatment abroad. He further said that there were six to eight other members present. "This was first discussed in a cabinet meeting," he said, adding that the decision was entirely made by the prime minister and the premier did not say that the decision was not his, reported Geo News reported. Nawaz Sharif, 71, convicted in two corruption cases in Pakistan, has been living in London since November 2019 after the Lahore High Court granted him permission to go abroad for four weeks for medical treatment. Khan has always targeted Nawaz Sharif over corruption charges. Meanwhile, in a new damning revelation, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) revealed that Prime Minister Imran Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) had given false information on funding received from abroad and in fact, hid its real assets to the tune of Pak Rupees (PKR) 310 million. The report of the ECP's scrutiny committee has come like a bombshell to the party and its leader at a time when the Prime Minister stands isolated both domestically and internationally. (ANI)
The US State Department has said that it stands with Ukraine amid the tensions with Moscow as Russia has deployed heavy security personnel along its border with Kiev. "The US State Department is with Ukraine. We #standwith Ukraine" said State Department's spokesperson Ned Price in a tweet on Saturday sharing a post of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry. "On this day in 1990, more than 400k Ukrainians joined hands from Kyiv to Lviv to demand independence," said Ukrainian Ministry in a tweet on Saturday. "It was our first #UkrainianWave. Today we face more than 100k troops at our border. Join us for a new #UkrainianWave to support our right to choose our own path!" the Ministry added. It came after Washington delivered around 2,00,000 pounds of lethal aid to Ukraine as part of its first shipment of new military assistance on Friday directed by President Biden amid tensions at the Ukrainian-Russian border. "The first shipment of assistance recently directed by President Biden to Ukraine arrived in Ukraine tonight. This shipment includes close to 2,00,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine," the US embassy in Kiev had said on Friday. (ANI)
A top Taliban delegation on Saturday left for Norway for the first official talks with the West on European soil, since seizing power in Kabul in August last year. "A senior delegation led by (acting Foreign Minister) Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi left for Norway in a special flight of the said country where talks will be held with representatives of various countries and a number of Afghans about humanitarian aid, political, educational and economic issues," spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi wrote on Twitter. Norway has invited representatives of the Taliban to Oslo for meetings with the Norwegian authorities and other Afghan figures from a range of fields within civil society. "We are extremely concerned about the grave situation in Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing a full-blown humanitarian disaster. In order to be able to help the civilian population in Afghanistan, it is essential that both the international community and Afghans from various parts of society engage in dialogue with the Taliban," said Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt. In Oslo, the Taliban will meet representatives of the Norwegian authorities and officials from a number of allied countries. In a press statement, Norway's Foreign Ministry said meetings will also take place between the Taliban delegation and other Afghans with backgrounds from a range of fields. Huitfeldt said these meetings do not represent a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban but show the need for talks to the de facto authorities in the country. Afghanistan is contending with drought, a pandemic, an economic collapse and the effects of years of conflict. Some 24 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity. Reports indicate that one million children could die of starvation. According to UN estimates, more than half of the population will be facing famine this winter, and 97 per cent of the population could fall below the poverty line this year. (ANI)
On Friday, CNN reported that the US Embassy in Ukraine addressed the Department of State with a request to allow secondary staff to leave the country.

"State Department orders families of U.S. embassy personnel in Ukraine to begin evacuating the country as soon as Monday: U.S. officials," Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson tweeted.

Meanwhile, a White House correspondent said citing a unnamed official that the US Department of State was likely to strongly recommend American citizens in Ukraine to leave the country next week.

"Next week, the State Department is also expected to encourage Americans to begin leaving Ukraine by commercial flights, 'while those are still available,' one official said," Jacqui Heinrich wrote on Twitter. (ANI/Sputnik)
The International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (IVBMP), a collective representing family members of Balochistan's forcibly disappeared, has strongly condemned the killing of Razzaq Mandai, a Baloch political refugee, in Afghanistan. In a statement to the media, IVBMP said, "We are aware of his case. He fled Balochistan to save his life. He was facing life threats because of his political struggle against Pakistani oppression in Balochistan." "He was also registered with the UN Refugee Agency in Afghanistan because he wanted the UN to transfer him to a third country so that the Pakistani intelligence agencies and their proxies would not be able to easily harm him," IVBMP added. The Baloch group rejected the lies propagated by Pakistan Army-sponsored journalists and social media figures, who have falsely claimed that Razzaq was a senior commander of an armed group. "In fact, he was a refugee who went to Afghanistan because he could not flee to a third and safer country from Balochistan." Exposing the lies of Pakistani sources, the IVBMP said that they have misspelt his surname as "Mandali" which shows that instead of finding the truth and independent reporting, Pakistani media and journalists publish the fabricated propagandas of the Pakistani intelligence agencies. "According to our information, Razzaq was murdered in Afghanistan's capital Kabul by hired guns of Pakistani intelligence agencies. After committing this crime the Pakistani intelligence agencies ran fake news in their media outlets," asserted IVBMP. They said that at the time of issuing this statement on January 22, the whereabouts of his dead body are still unknown and volunteers in Afghanistan are still trying to locate his dead body. The Baloch group further maintained, "if people who knew Razzaq Mandai and were unaware that he has been murdered until they saw the news and pictures of his dead body in Pakistani media, then it only requires common sense to understand that the real perpetrators are Pakistani intelligence agencies. Pakistani state agencies have committed a crime and murdered a Baloch political refugee on Afghan soil." The International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons also urged the UN Refugee Agency and international humanitarian organisations to take immediate and practical steps for the protection of Baloch refugees in Afghanistan and transfer them to a safe third country. IVBMP said that it is the responsibility of international humanitarian organisations to save Baloch refugees in Afghanistan and expose Pakistan's systematic killing of Baloch refugees outside Balochistan. (ANI)
This high alert comes following the blast in Lahore's Anarkali area that led to the death of three people and injury to 26. Notably, an unidentified man had placed high-intensity explosives weighing between one and 1.5 kilograms, which caused the explosion.

"Last night, the Ministry of Interior told all armed forces, civil armed forces, IGs (inspectors general of police), chief secretaries, Frontier Corps IGs and Rangers IG to stay alert and watchful," the Pakistan minister said while addressing a presser in Islamabad.

Earlier this week, Pakistan's opposition senators sought an explanation from Rashid Ahmed over the recent terrorist incidents in the country, including the Lahore blast.

Rashid on Saturday said that a "surge in the wave [of terrorism]" had been observed in the country in the recent past, with terrorism incidents rising by around "35 per cent" since August 15, the Dawn newspaper reported.

"But this cannot bring down our nation, morale, spirit and armed forces," he added.

Rasheed blamed "small remnants of groups" defeated by the Taliban for creating an "atmosphere of terror" in Pakistan.

He also dragged India and Afghanistan into the matter, which several experts view as a regular ploy by Islamabad to shift focus from the failure of the government on the internal security issues. (ANI)
The head of the German navy, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach has decided to step down from his position after his controversial comments on Crimea and Russian President Vladimir Putin, made during his India visit, resulted in a severe backlash at home in Berlin. Speaking at a New Delhi-based think tank, the German Navy chief had said, "Putin probably deserved respect." He also said that Crimea would never return to Ukraine despite Kiev's attempts to put pressure on Moscow. The German navy chief said Russia's actions in Ukraine needed to be addressed, however, he added that "the Crimea Peninsula is gone: It will never come back." Reacting to Schonbach's controversial remarks, the German Defense Ministry had earlier condemned the statements by the head of the German navy. "The statements in terms of content and choice of words in no way correspond to the position of the Federal Ministry of Defence," dpa quoted the ministry's statement. Schonbach also took to Twitter to say that his statements were a mistake and that he misjudged the situation. This controversy comes at a time when the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of amassing troops near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for an invasion, Sputnik reported. Russia is saying it has no intention of invading Ukraine while stressing that it has the right to move forces within its own territory. (ANI)
During the program, the journalist mentioned a saying about "cattle in the palace" when talking about Erdogan's policies on live TV, Sputnik reported. Under Turkish law, insulting the president is a criminal offense.

Kabas's remarks received attention on social networks and caused severe backlash from Turkish officials.

Press secretary of the ruling Justice and Development party, Omer Celik called the remark immoral and stupid.

Later, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council launched an investigation into the broadcaster that hosted Kabas.

On Saturday, a Turkish court ruled to arrest the journalist, according to CNN Turk. (ANI)
Where pop meets movies: Ed Sheeran in Yesterday, David Bowie in Labyrinth and Lady Gaga in House of Gucci' (Sky/Universal)

The death of the legendary rock star Meat Loaf on 21 January didnt just remind us of his musical prowess, but also his acting history. One of those pop giants who somehow never felt out of place on the big screen, Meat Loaf stole scenes in Fight Club, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and, um, Spice World: The Movie.

But Meat Loaf isnt alone when it comes to musical talents showing off their range by acting in movies. From Madonna to Prince to Mariah Carey, music stardom always tends to give way to film opportunities. Not all of them are great, though.

To commemorate the death of Meat Loaf, weve gathered together 16 pop stars whove blown us away as actors, or alternatively made us want to beg them to stick to music.

Meat Loaf

As a testicular cancer patient whose treatment has made him develop large breasts, Meat Loaf is one of the most arresting figures in David Finchers Fight Club. But the late rock star also injects the character with real pathos, with even his scene partner Edward Norton seeming to shrink in his presence.

Cher

Cher is the ultimate pop star turned actor, incapable of not delivering in spades. Moonstruck got her an Oscar  playing a drifting widow finding unexpected new love  but shes similarly brilliant as a flamboyant single mother in 1990s Mermaids, as a nuclear power plant worker in Silkwood, and as one of the Witches of Eastwick. Its a travesty she didnt make more movies in the wake of her Academy Award.

Lady Gaga

One of the great pleasures of last years House of Gucci was that Lady Gaga gave a real capital-p performance. Unafraid to go very big, Gaga used her role as a convicted  though naturally glamorous  murderer to showcase her range. She also proved that, a few years after her Oscar nominated turn in A Star Is Born, she wasnt just good at playing pop stars similar to herself.

Ed Sheeran

One of those awkward pop stars who isnt convincing even when exclusively playing themselves in movies, Ed Sheeran is not a very good actor. For an extended cameo in Danny Boyles musical comedy Yesterday, Sheeran is oddly emotionless and robotic. You cant figure out if hes trying to make you laugh or plotting to kill his co-stars.

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Whitney Houston

Never enormously respected as an actor, and possibly because she was basically playing a version of herself in her biggest movie  1992s The Bodyguard  Whitney Houston was far better than she got credit for. Check out Waiting to Exhale for proof of that, with a melancholy Houston capably holding her own alongside heavyweights like Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine.

Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard' (Warner Bros/Sky)

Britney Spears

Another pop giant whos never got the credit she deserves as an actor, Britney is irresistibly sweet in Crossroads, the coming of age drama that marks her only real acting vehicle. But check out her guest spot as an Evangelical Christian bobblehead  and secret lesbian  on Will & Grace to see her impeccable comic timing, too.

Mick Jagger

The Rolling Stones frontman is hypnotically good in Nicolas Roegs classic thriller, matching the unease always conjured by the filmmaker. Jagger  like many of the stars on this list  is more or less playing a version of himself in the film, albeit with an otherworldly eroticism.

Madonna

Its become a bit of a cliche to remark on Madonnas inability to act, but its also not strictly untrue. Shes decent in A League of Their Own, Evita and Dangerous Game, but otherwise tends to be stiff and detached from her surroundings in everything else.

Beyonce

Think of Beyonces acting credits  Obsessed, The Pink Panther, Dreamgirls  as an act of charity for the human race, a way of telling us that, hey, shes not totally perfect. Try as she might, Beyonce has never been the greatest of actors, with a wooden energy similar to Madonna. Thankfully, she seems to have stopped trying to be a thespian of late.

Harry Styles (left) in Dunkirk' (Warner Bros/Sky)

Harry Styles

Harry Styles is still only starting out as an actor, and didnt have a ton to do in Christopher Nolans Dunkirk, He could easily develop into a great leading man. But his oddly accented cameo in last years Eternals wasnt great, while randomly appearing at the very end didnt serve him very well. Youre so shocked by the presence of Harry Styles  him from One Direction! that it was almost too distracting to work.

Prince

Like Madonna, Prince had enough natural charisma to carry pretty much anything he did. But also like Madonna, he was very remote as an actor, as if his lines were being fed to him from someone off-camera. Thankfully Purple Rain was his only real acting credit.

Victoria Beckham

Believe it or not, Victoria Beckham is one of the most talented actors on this list because she understands comic timing  and not a lot of people have that. Spice World: The Movie is a camp mess, but Posh Spice is genuinely very funny in it. Also see her Ugly Betty guest spot for more self-deprecating comedy.

Peter Doherty in the poster artwork for Confession of a Child of the Century' (Canal)

Pete Doherty

It almost feels unfair to lay too much into Pete Doherty for his shambolic starring role in the bizarre historical drama Confession of a Child of the Century. But hes also very, very bad in it. Miscast as a 19th-century Frenchman romping haphazardly with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Doherty was probably the biggest reason this film vanished without a trace.

Justin Timberlake

In fairness, everyone is great when theyre directed by David Fincher, but Justin Timberlake still deserves credit for his sneaky, sleazy performance in The Social Network. Playing Napster founder Sean Parker, hes a devious delight.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey is absolutely fine in the otherwise dismal Glitter, but she is quietly brilliant in the Oscar-winning Precious. As a Manhattan social worker, she strips her face of make-up and all her typical excess as a pop star. Youd never even know it was her.

David Bowie

A total pleasure to watch in films, David Bowie could convincingly play aliens, tricksters and flamboyant villains. He arguably also has the strongest and strangest acting CV in pop star history, from the generational classic Labyrinth to the oddball Nineties indie The Linguini Incident. Then again, itd be hard to imagine a musician of his eccentric genius in a film thats conventional.
Many words could be used to describe the outlook for the 2022 tax season ranging from milquetoast terms, like challenging or problematic, all the way to more honest forecasts, such as one horrific tax headache on the horizon.

The Internal Revenue Service will begin accepting and processing federal income tax returns on Monday. Theoretically, the earlier you file, the earlier you get any tax refund that you're owed.

This year, though, it's essential that parents brush up on some new requirements involving the advance child tax credit and make absolutely sure you have the correct facts and figures to file an accurate return. Plug in the wrong number and you're going to face ungodly delays.

This tax season, we're looking at some key differences relating to how jobless benefits will be treated compared with the 2020 returns, the return of the Recovery Rebate Credit, a special break for charitable contributions and more.

The filing deadline remains months away but it's never too early to gather your paperwork, focus on some of your tax challenges and prepare to get the job done.

Don't throw away this letter: Why IRS Letter 6419 is critical to filing your 2021 taxes.

 The Daily Money: Get our latest personal finance and consumer news in your inbox

How can you get more money for the child tax credit?

Those who qualify for the child tax credit need to file a Schedule 8812 to claim any additional credit they could be owed.

Many families will be looking at receiving more money for the child tax credit when they file their 2021 federal income tax return because the advance payments were designed to represent only half of what they're due.

The advance child tax credit received from July through December last year amounted to up to $1,500 or up to $1,800 for each child, depending on the child's age.

It's possible you could be looking at another $1,500 or $1,800 for each qualifying child now for the child tax credit after you file a 2021 federal income tax return.

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It's essential to take extra care to report the money you received in 2021 when completing Schedule 8812  or else you risk lengthy delays when it comes to receiving your tax refund.

In fact, a married couple filing a joint return won't just receive one Letter 6419; they'll actually receive two such letters, according to April Walker, lead manager for tax practice and ethics with the American Institute of CPAs.

Walker said both of those letters will need to be taken into account and reported on Schedule 8812 when filing your return.

Parents who received the advance credit from July through December need to watch their mail for a letter from the IRS called Letter 6419 to reconcile what they received in advance to what they still could be owed when they file a tax return.

The letter gives two key pieces of information: How much you received in total payments in 2021 and the number of qualifying children used to calculate those advance payments.

The IRS notes on Schedule 8812, Line 14f: "If the amount on this line doesnt match the aggregate amounts reported to you (and your spouse if filing jointly) on your Letter(s) 6419, the processing of your return will be delayed."

Walker said you want to review the advance payments that you received by looking at your banking records and then comparing the amount you're seeing on the letter or letters.

Even if you think there's an incorrect number, she warned, don't just assume your math is correct and hastily just put your number on the line. Take extra time to review what might have caused the discrepancy  and you might realize at the end of the day the IRS information is accurate.

"If you put a different amount on there, it's going to flag the return," Walker warned.

Where will there be tax headaches?

Families who received the monthly advance payments for the child tax credit should plan to take extra time when preparing their own returns or getting the paperwork ready for tax professionals.

The IRS even has posted a special web page called "Understanding Your Letter 6419" at IRS.gov.

About 36 million families received more than $93 billion in monthly child tax credit payments from July through December 2021.

People, of course, have bad habits and throw away letters they don't understand. IRS letters sometimes don't arrive early enough for some if you're in a rush to file a return in late January or early February.

"Make sure you have all of your documents and have received everything rather than rushing off to file," Walker said.

If you rush, you could run into a similar problem that some experienced when dealing with the stimulus payouts for 2020 on the tax returns filed last year. Mistakes happened and delays mounted.

Last year, the IRS ended up manually processing more than 11 million tax returns because of inconsistencies between what people received for the first and second stimulus payments and what they were claiming for the recovery rebate credit.

The National Taxpayer Advocate predicts the IRS will be faced with the daunting task of reviewing millions of returns by hand this year, too, as tens of millions of individuals claim a recovery rebate credit on 2021 returns and the child tax credit.

And, yes, making a mistake when reporting your advance payments for the child tax credit could delay your tax refund.

 The IRS is still buried in 2021 paperwork: Why it matters for 2022 tax season

Will some need to repay the advance child tax credit?

It's possible that some might need to do so.

"If you do not qualify for repayment protection" the IRS notes, "you will need to report the entire excess amount on your 2021 tax return as additional income tax. This additional income tax will reduce the amount of your tax refund or increase your total tax due for 2021."

A group of people could qualify for a safe harbor that protects them from repaying the entire advance payment back.

You could qualify for full repayment protection, for example, based on your 2021 modified adjusted gross income. That applies if you are single and your income is at or below $40,000. For the head of household, the income needs to be at or below $50,000. And for married couples filing jointly, the income would need to be at or below $60,000.

The IRS issued a 21-page fact sheet in January to address frequently asked questions about the child tax credit.

For more information about the 2021 Child Tax Credit, visit IRS.gov/advctc.

 Taxes 2022: Will you have to repay child tax credit money?

What is Letter 6475?

In late January, the IRS said will begin issuing letters to people who received a third payment a year ago.

The letter says, Your Third Economic Impact Payment near the top and "Letter 6475 on the bottom.

Most people received their full stimulus payments in early 2021. You'd refer to the letter, though, to determine if you should claim the recovery rebate credit on the 2021 tax return. Again, if you just wing it and make up a number, you're going to face delays.

 Child tax credit money: No payments in January; look out for IRS letter instead

A tax filer also can go to "Your Online Account" at IRS.gov to view your Economic Impact Payment amounts. Again, you want to handle this carefully because making a mistake will trigger delays.

Walker notes that you won't need to repay any part of the third stimulus.

If you received the advance child tax credit payments and a stimulus payment in 2021, as many families did, you're going to need to hold onto two types of different letters from the IRS  Letter 6419 for the child tax credit and Letter 6475 for the third stimulus payment.

Do you have to claim unemployment on your taxes?

Unlike last year, a special tax break doesn't exist for up to $10,200 of unemployment benefits. The temporary tax break applied only for those with modified adjusted gross incomes of less than $150,000 in 2020 and those who also received unemployment benefits last year.

This year, jobless benefits received in 2021 will be taxable on the 2021 federal income tax return. If you didn't have taxes withheld, and most people don't, you could be looking at a bigger tax bill than you'd expect.

The tax filing deadline for 2021 federal income tax returns is April 18 in most states. (Those who live in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19 because of the Patriots Day holiday in those states.)

What's the deadline to file taxes?

This year, 2021 federal income tax returns are due April 18. (Those who live in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19 because of the Patriots Day holiday in those states.)

The April 18 deadline this year also applies to the state of Michigan income tax returns, as well as the city of Detroit individual income tax returns.

Where can you get free tax help?

Free online tax software is available at IRS.gov through the Free File program if your adjusted gross income is $73,000 or less.

You'd need to research at IRS.gov which tax software participant is offering free help to someone in your income group and tax situation. You can only file your current year tax or 2021 federal return now using IRS Free File.

This year's participants are: TaxAct, Free 1040 Tax Return, FileYourTaxes.com, OnLine Taxes, 1040NOW, FreeTaxUSA, TaxSlayer and ezTaxReturn.com.

TurboTax is no longer participating in the Free File program but has some of its own options online for free tax filing; H&R Block exited Free File in October 2020.

 Want to file your tax return for free? TurboTax opts out of major program

Families and individuals in metro Detroit with incomes up to $57,000 may be eligible for free tax help through the Accounting Aid Society, such as in-person help with an appointment, a "drop and go" program where the filer visits a location to conduct an intake interview and have their document scanned for tax prep. In addition, the program offers a service where the filer receives a phone call from a certified tax preparer that involves an interview and sending a secure link to upload tax documents for tax prep.

To schedule an appointment with the volunteers at the Accounting Aid Society, see AccountingAidSociety.org or call 313-556-1920 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide helps all tax filers with a focus on taxpayers who are over 50 and have low to moderate income. There are no eligibility requirements.

There are some limits that exclude returns with complicated situations, such as any virtual currency investment or transaction.

For the 2022 tax season, Tax-Aide will offer in-person, online, or low contact sessions, which allow taxpayers to drop off their papers (or have them scanned) and return to review. AARP is also offering taxpayers free access to software so they can prepare their own taxes, and if needed get help from a Tax-Aide IRS-certified counselor.

Beginning Feb. 1 through April 18, those in need of tax services can visit aarpfoundation.org/taxaide, e-mail taxaide@aarp.org, or call toll-free 888-227-7669 to find a site and make an appointment.

Don't skip taking a charitable deduction

Typically, most people aren't able to get a tax break when they donate money to a charity if they're claiming the standard deduction on their federal income tax returns.

And nearly 9 out of 10 taxpayers are taking that standard deduction these days.

But those who do not itemize are looking at a special, and easy, tax break for money that they donated in 2021.

"Not clothing to Goodwill, that doesn't count," Walker said.

 Tax deduction 2021: Charitable donations offer a special way to save

On 2021 returns, a married couple taking the standard deduction is allowed to claim up to $600 for cash contributions made to qualifying charities in 2021, if filing a joint return.

A single individual, including married individuals filing separate returns, can claim a deduction of up to $300 for cash contributions.

See Line 12b on the front of the 1040 form for 2021 for those who take the standard deduction.

How did your financial life change in 2021?

Karen Orosco, president, global consumer tax and service delivery at H&R Block, said those who joined the gig economy or started a business are going to need to figure out how to handle their taxes.

Other big events could also influence your 2021 tax return: Did you have a baby in 2021? You could qualify for the child tax credit based on income. Did you buy a new home and now need to deduct mortgage interest and property taxes? Did you sell stock  or cryptocurrency? All can those changes can trigger important tax situations and require more research.

Orosco said even do-it-yourselfers might need extra professional help on key issues, and H&R Block is marketing such services to those who want extra help.

Should you wait to file your 2020 return is caught in an IRS backlog?

Many people are wondering what to do if their tax returns from last year are held up somewhere in the IRS system. Should you then wait to file a 2021 tax return this year?

It sounds like an odd question until you realize that millions of returns are buried in an IRS backlog.

As of mid-December, the IRS had a backlog of 6.2 million unprocessed 1040 individual returns and 2.4 million unprocessed amended individual returns, Form 1040-X, according to a report by the National Taxpayer Advocate.

"While much of the processing delay is related to tax year 2020 paper returns, some taxpayers are still waiting for resolution of their electronically filed 2020 tax returns, amended returns, and correspondence replying to IRS notices," according to the advocate's report.

 IRS: 2022 tax season set to begin 2 weeks early on Jan. 24

So do you need to wait? No.

The IRS says: "Taxpayers generally will not need to wait for their 2020 return to be fully processed to file their 2021 tax returns and can file when they are ready."

The IRS also offered another tip to help with e-filing a 2021 tax return if you're still waiting for a 2020 return to be processed.

"In order to validate and successfully submit an electronically filed tax return to the IRS, taxpayers need their Adjusted Gross Income, or AGI, from their most recent tax return," the IRS said.

"For those waiting on their 2020 tax return to be processed, heres a special tip to ensure the tax return is accepted by the IRS for processing. Make sure to enter $0 (zero dollars) for last years AGI on the 2021 tax return," according to the IRS.

"For those who used a non-filer tool in 2021 to register for an advance child tax credit or third economic impact payment in 2021, they should enter $1 as their prior-year AGI," the IRS said.

But remember, everyone else should enter their prior years AGI from last years return.

Have tax questions? Ask USA TODAY

The USA TODAY Money & Consumer team is looking to craft stories that reflect you, and your financial interests and concerns. Share your questions about taxes on the form below. If you don't see a form, click here.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Filing taxes in 2022: IRS deadline, tax credits, unemployment and tips
HIGHLAND PARK, IL  Nearly half of the quarter-billion dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds allocated to Illinois' Back to Business grant program have been distributed, state officials announced.

The Back to Business, or B2B, program has provided 2,913 grants totaling more than $111 million to small businesses located in Highland Park, Highwood and more than 300 other towns across Illinois since the first round of grantees was announced in September.

Grants range from $5,000 to $150,000, depending on the degree of financial loss experienced by qualifying businesses.

Applications closed in October, but state officials will keep notifying businesses of the status of their applications until the rest of the $250 million in funds is depleted, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.



"As of this week, we have provided nearly 3,000 small businesses with grants to cover their operating losses due to the pandemic," Sylvia Garcia, acting director of the commerce department, said in a statement. "We will continue to process applications on a rolling basis until all funds are awarded, delivering recovery dollars as quickly as possible to communities across Illinois and reinvigorating our economy."

As of Thursday, nine Highland Park and Highwood had been awarded grants totaling $150,000. They include:

Highland Park



Sarlas Music, $35,000

Bellamani Nail Salon and Spa, $10,000

Childrens Theatre Company, $5,000

Highwood

Slyce Coal Fired Pizza Company, $35,000

Celeste Beauty Salon, $20,000

Marco's Northside Grill, $20,000

Lakewood Cleaners, $10,000

Performance Factory Training, $10,000

H2O Pool Services, $5,000

Funding for the program comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, the $1.9 trillion economic relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.

According to the Pritzker administration, it builds on the 2020 Business Interruption Grant program, or BIG, which distributed $580 to small businesses and childcare providers.

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Related: 22 Highland Park, Highwood Business Receive Grants From State

Among recipients of the B2B grants, 43 percent are businesses that applied to the BIG program but did not receive funding. Hard-hit industries such as taverns, hotels, arts organizations and salons accounted for 71 percent of grants, with 79 percent going to businesses with less than $1 million in annual revenues.



A full list of grantees and more information about the B2B program is available online.

Pritzker has leveraged $1.5 billion in federal ARPA funds during the current fiscal year to invest in the businesses hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his office.



"The men and women of the General Assembly worked with me to craft the Back to Business program," Pritzker said in a statement. "These are not loans, so businesses getting help won't owe a cent back to the state."

This article originally appeared on the Highland Park Patch
Randy L. Bussen

INDIANAPOLIS  A Richmond man lost his bid to overturn two child molesting convictions.

Randy L. Bussen, 31, is serving a 37-year sentence in the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, according to Indiana Department of Correction records. His projected release date is July 22, 2050.

A Wayne County jury convicted Bussen on April 7 of two Level 1 felony counts of child molesting, and Judge Charles Todd Jr. issued the aggravated sentence that's seven years more than the standard for a Level 1 felony conviction. Four other charges against Bussen were later dismissed.

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Crime: Richmond man sentenced to 3 years for attack on women

Bussen's appeal claimed that the court erred when admitting some testimony and that there was prosecutorial misconduct during closing remarks. The appeals court denied both of his claims.

The court found no error in the challenged testimony's admission, but its opinion said that even if there were error, the error would have been harmless because the convictions were supported by "substantial independent evidence of his guilt."

During trial, the child victim testified with detail about the instances that occurred when she was 3 and 4 years old, the opinion said. That testimony was also subject to cross-examination.

The challenged testimony was brief, general statements, so the appeals court was not persuaded that testimony contributed to the jury's verdicts.

STAY INFORMED AND SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Subscribe today using the link at the top of this page.

Likewise, the court did not find that Bussen's appeal showed any prosecutorial misconduct, much less rising to the level of fundamental error to overturn convictions. The appeal challenged comments during closing arguments, claiming they "vouched" for the credibility of witnesses.

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The appeals court found the comments were supported by evidence from trial or were logical and reasonable conclusions based on analysis of testimony.

Bussen was arrested Nov. 5, 2018, on a warrant for six child molesting counts, three as Level 1 felonies and three as Level 4 felonies, that involved four girls and incidents ranging from 2015 to March 2018. The children described times when Bussen allegedly exposed himself to them, fondled them while they were sleeping and more, according to case records.

The charges were separated for trial by victim, and the counts for which Bussen was convicted occurred sometime in August or September 2015 and sometime between January and April 2016.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Appeals court upholds Richmond man's child molesting convictions
Mario Hermoso (left) struck a dramatic winner during stoppage time (Manu Fernandez/AP) (AP)

Atletico Madrid scored twice in stoppage time to come back and beat Valencia 3-2 in LaLiga.

Yunus Musah put Los Che ahead in the 25th minute with a 20-yard strike and Hugo Duro doubled the lead just before half-time.

Atletico substitute Matheus Cunha reduced the deficit from a corner midway through the second half, but it seemed Diego Simeone would be left frustrated as the clock ticked down.

However, there was late drama as Angel Correa equalised in stoppage time before centre-back Mario Hermoso fired in a winner from close range to spark wild celebrations from the home support.

Sevilla had also fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Celta Vigo.

Aiming to keep the pressure on leaders Real Madrid, the hosts found themselves trailing after Franco Cervi and Iago Aspas struck shortly before the break.

But Julen Lopeteguis side scored twice in the space of three second-half minutes through Papu Gomez and Oliver Torres to leave Sevilla three points behind Los Blancos, who host Elche on Sunday.

Earlier, Villarreal moved above Barcelona into sixth by beating Mallorca 3-0 at El Madrigal, where the visitors had defender Franco Russo sent off late on.

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Alvaro Negredo and Salvi were on target as Cadiz won 2-0 at bottom club Levante to boost their own survival hopes.

In Germany, Borussia Dortmund battled to a 3-2 win at Hoffenheim to close up on Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.

Erling Haaland gave Dortmund an early lead with a close-range finish, but Croatian Andrej Kramaric equalised with a volley on the stroke of half-time.

Marco Reus struck just before the hour and an own goal from Hoffenheim defender David Raum in the 66th minute put Dortmund in control, although there was concern when Haaland went off with what looked like a groin problem.

Erling Haaland was taken off following treatment(Uwe Anspach/dpa via AP) (AP)

Hoffenheim substitute Georginio Rutter struck with 13 minutes left to set up a tense finale, but Marco Roses men closed out victory to move three points behind Bayern, who travel to Hertha Berlin on Sunday.

Moussa Diaby scored his first Bundesliga hat-trick as third-placed Bayer Leverkusen thrashed Augsburg 5-1 at the BayArena.

Karim Bellarabi put the hosts ahead in the ninth minute, with Diaby doubling the lead before the break.

After Arne Maier reduced the deficit, Frenchman Diaby struck twice in the space of four minutes with substitute Lucas Alario adding a late fifth.

Max Kruse scored in each half as Union Berlin kept themselves in the Champions League places with a 2-1 win at Borussia Monchengladbach,

Bottom club Greuther Furth beat Mainz 2-1, but fellow strugglers Stuttgart lost 2-0 at Freiburg to extend a winless run to five league games while Bochum and Cologne drew 2-2.

Inter Milan moved five points clear at the top of Serie A after coming from behind to beat Venezia 2-1 with a last-minute goal from Edin Dzeko.

Thomas Henrys header gave the struggling visitors a shock 19th-minute lead, but Nicolo Barella equalised shortly before half-time and Dzeko had the last say.

Lazio missed the chance to make up more ground on the top five after being held to a frustrating 0-0 draw at home against Atalanta, while relegation-battlers Genoa picked up point from a goalless stalemate at home against Udinese.

In France, Marseille climbed to second in Ligue 1 with a 2-0 win at Lens thanks to goals from Dimitri Payet and Cedric Bakambu, while champions Lille suffered a first defeat in 10 league games after losing by the same scoreline at Brest.
At the end of each podcast, Babylon Bee leaders ask guests the same 10 questions, including this stumper: "Calvinist or Arminian?"

That caught Elon Musk by surprise, and he needed clarification on the difference between Arminian believers and persons from Armenia. After some background on Protestant history, he said: "My mind would say 'determinism' and my heart says, 'free will.' "

Elon Musk

Why was the mastermind behind Tesla and SpaceX  a man worth $278 billion at the end of 2021 talking to a Christian satire website? The answer: Musk has 69.7 million Twitter followers, and he frequently responds, even if it's a U.S. senator questioning his taxes.

"You know, he engages with our content from time to time," Bee CEO Seth Dillon told Fox News. After email exchanges about a meeting, Musk said: "Fly to me and we'll do it."

The result was 100-plus minutes of conversation in Austin, Texas, ranging from satire to science, from politics to pop culture. Topics included why entrepreneurs are fleeing California, sustainable energy, superheroes (Musk would choose to be "Irony Man"), the physics of reusable rockets, cyborgs, how "wokeness" threatens humor, CNN morality and the future of a planet near an expanding sun.

Musk discussed his journey from South Africa to America, including his days as a manual laborer while struggling to pay student loans. Then he dove into computer coding and online commerce, making millions of dollars that led to Tesla. The rest is history.

On celebrity websites, Musk is often described as an atheist or agnostic. Asked if he prays, Musk once replied: "I didn't even pray when I almost died of malaria." But after the success of the first manned Falcon rocket mission, Musk said, in his public remarks: "You know, I'm not very religious but I prayed for this one."

In the Bee interview, Musk discussed his complex religious background, which included going to "Anglican Sunday school, the Church of England, basically. But I was also sent to Hebrew preschool, although I'm not Jewish.  I was singing 'Hava Nagila' one day and 'Jesus Our Lord' the next." Later, he had an "existential crisis," read the Bible and other religious classics and concluded: "There's a whole bunch of things in there they didn't teach you in Sunday school."

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There was humor in these exchanges, along with serious questions, said Bee editor Kyle Mann, via email. After all, these podcasts have featured atheists, agnostics, "Christians of all stripes" and "everyone in between."

This chance to "pick Elon Musk's brain and get his thoughts on God, faith, religion and the Gospel was incredibly humbling. You could certainly feel him searching and working through the eternal question everyone has to encounter at some point: Does God exist and what do you do with Jesus Christ?" Mann said this dialogue continued after the recording stopped.

In the podcast, creative director Ethan Nicolle did ask: "To make this church, we're wondering if you could do us a quick solid and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?"

After an awkward pause, and some laughter, Musk took the question seriously.

"There's great wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, and I agree with those teachings. 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," said Musk, paraphrasing a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. Musk also quoted Albert Einstein, affirming belief in the "God of Spinoza," in which the material universe is seen as an expression of God.

"Forgiveness, you know, is important and treating people as you would wish to be treated," added Musk. "Love thy neighbor as thyself. Very important.  But hey, if Jesus is saving people  I won't stand in his way. Sure, I'll be saved. Why not?"

At the very end, Musk described his confusion as a 5-year-old, receiving Holy Communion without understanding what was happening and why. At that stage, he said, he was still asking basic Bible questions, "like how Jesus fed the crowd with five loaves and three fish.  Where did the fish and the bread come from?  Would you, like, take a bite and the bread would come back to being a full bread? 

"They left out the details.  I'm not saying that I know all the answers."

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Babylon Bee catches up with Elon Musk
Shane Lee Brown was jailed after being mistaken by police for Shane Neal Brown (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

A Black man has sued two police departments after officers mistook him for a white man with the same name.

Shane Lee Brown, 25, was sent to jail for six days in 2020 in two different Nevada institutions after police mistook him for an older, taller white man  Shane Neal Brown, according to court documents.

At the time of the mix-up, the younger Mr Brown was 23 and the older man was 49  an age difference of 26 years.

Shane Lee Brown is suing the Las Vegas Metropolitan police department and the Henderson police department for civil rights violations, false imprisonment, negligence, as well as other wrongful conduct.

The legal complaint states that hes seeking at least $50,000 in monetary damages.

A bench warrant was issued for the 49-year-old Mr Brown in November 2019. He was accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Neal Brown was described in the warrant as a caucasian man with brown hair, blue eyes, and a white beard. He was convicted of a felony in 1994, before the birth of Lee Brown. He was pulled over by police in January of 2020 and held in the Henderson detention centre.

According to a legal filing, he was transferred to the custody of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police two days later. His lawsuit states that he told officers in both Henderson and Las Vegas that he was not the Shane Brown they were looking for  the white man in his late forties with a white beard.

His lawyer has accused the officers of neglecting to do any due diligence since the mugshot of the white man would show them that the younger man had been taken in by mistake.

KLAS reported that Lee Brown stayed in jail until he went before a judge who ordered his release.

Las Vegas police learned a week later that Neal Brown had been taken into custody in San Bernardino County, California. Later that month, he accepted a plea deal and appeared in court, according to KLAS.

The Independent has reached out to Las Vegas and Henderson police for comment.
A body has reportedly been recovered from a river in the search for missing teen Brendan Santo, who disappeared in October while visiting friends at Michigan State University.

Local media reports that a planned search of a river was executed earlier than scheduled after a private investigator spotted a body on an underwater camera.

The 18-year-old Grand Valley State University student was visiting MSUs East Lansing campus when he went missing over Halloween weekend on 29 October 2021.

Authorities focused their search on the Red Cedar River, which runs through the campus, as he was last seen walking near it on the day he went missing. At the time the rivers height was higher than usual.

Michigan State University Police inspector Chris Rozman said in a statement on Saturday that a private investigator working with the Santo family believed he spotted what looked like Mr Santos body submerged in the river, caught at a logjam, while looking at an underwater camera.

Private investigator Ryan Robison notified police of his findings around midnight on Thursday, and authorities were in the water at first light to begin the recovery process on Friday, Mr Rozman said.

A search of that area of the river was planned for 24 January and was brought forward. The river in that area was reportedly filled with branches, brush, and other debris that had gathered and needed to be cleared for police to safely get a boat and divers into the water.

The body, believed to be that of Mr Santo, was recovered from the river at about 12.30pm on Friday, about a mile and a half west of where he was last seen.

A $20,000 reward had been offered to anyone who could help officials locate Mr Santo.

It is unfathomable to believe in this day and age someone can just disappear, aunt Dawn Brewer told ABC. Our family is desperately begging anyone with information to come forward even anonymously.

Mr Santo was last spotted leaving Yakeley Hall on the university campus shortly before midnight on 29 October.

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His friends think he was going to the Brody neighbourhood to stay with other friends, but he never got there. His phone had run out of battery power when he disappeared, with his last message being sent at 11.45pm.

The Michigan State University Police Department (MSUPD) has said that the security cameras at Yakeley Hall werent working the night that Mr Santo vanished.

Finding out what happened after Brendan left Yakeley Hall is the key to finding Brendan, or at the least adding another piece to this horrible puzzle, Ms Brewer said.

Mr Santo was reported missing the next morning by his friends. MSUPD has said that his car remained where it had been parked and that there was nothing to suggest that he left East Lansing.

No foul play is suspected at this time. An autopsy will be performed soon.
The Daily Beast

Claudio Peri/Pool/ReutersROMESince the beginning of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow, he told Corriere D
A 16-year-old student at Carrolltons R.L. Turner High School was found Friday to have two handguns in his possession after he had been detained in connection to a Jan. 10 shooting that occurred off campus, according to a news release from police.

The student, who has not been identified, is suspected of shooting at a car driven by a mother who had her three children as passengers, according to police. Officers decided to arrest him at school and he was detained and taken to the school office, where police said they found him to be in possession of two handguns.

Police said they believe the 17-year-old passenger in the vehicle to have been the intended target of the Jan. 10 shooting. A 11-year-old and 2-year-old were in the backseat of the car at the time of the shooting. Nobody was injured, according to police, but the vehicle was damaged.

The 16-year-old is being charged with four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the Jan. 10 shooting, unlawful carrying of a weapon on school grounds for the weapons found on him Friday and possession of marijuana in a gun-free zone, according to the release.
Jan. 22The Norman Chamber of Commerce held its annual award banquet Thursday, gathering the city's business community to reflect on the past year, honor achievements and anticipate the year ahead.

The 2022 banquet at Embassy Suites in Norman was back to its usual January date after a delayed 2021 affair due to COVID-19.

Award winners recognized at the banquet are:

The Women's Leadership Award: Jennifer Baker, executive director of Sooner Theatre

Norman Public Schools Teacher of the Year: Juan Renteria, fifth grade teacher at Truman Elementary and a current finalist for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year

Ambassador of the Year: Randy Gardner, CEO of Cleveland County Habitat for Humanity

Volunteer of the Year: Jim Wade, president of BancFirst

President's Award for 2021 Small Biz of the Year: Krystyn and John Richardson of BOLD Multimedia

Chairman's Award for Large Biz of the Year: Hal Smith Restaurants

NCC also announced 2022's Norman NEXT under 40, the organization for young professionals.

Cinthya Allen, City of Norman

Isaac Badayos, Armstrong Bank

Katelyn Bell, MA+ Architecture

Jessica Bergen-Elliott, Calypso Cove Marina

Andrew Coulter, Red Brick Bar

Bobby Goldsberry, Professional Engineering Consultants

Liana Gray, Norman Regional Health System

Walker Hinds, Great Plains Bank

Miranda Hoos, Norman Regional Health System

Ashley Irons, Norman Regional Health System

Dana Johnson, First Fidelity Bank

Taylor Johnson, City of Norman

Kurt Lee, University of Oklahoma Foundation

Travis Lightsey, University of Oklahoma

Cat Miller, Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Kevan Parker, Rhombic

Meg Perry, Norman Regional Health System

Anthony Purinton, City of Norman

Wade Thompson, City of Norman

Caroline Trommels, Premiere Pediatrics

Joel Wilson, University of Oklahoma

Rachel Wyatt-Swanson, Convergint Technologies

Another banquet tradition is the passing of the gavel from the previous year's chamber chair to the next. Richie Splitt, president and CEO of Norman Regional Health System, will take over the role from Mandy Haws, owner of Sooner Bowling Center, in 2022.

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Split said it's an honor and a privilege to be chosen as the next chamber chair and that he's eager to work alongside the board to serve the business community in Norman.

"There are some very talented people who are a part of the board and wonderful organizations who are members of the chamber," Split said. "Given all the exciting opportunities that are happening in our community, it's going to be a lot of fun this year, and I truly believe that we've got big opportunities and the right people willing to engage and take advantage of those opportunities."

Scott Martin, president and CEO of the NCC, said the event focuses on the individuals and businesses that make Norman unique.

"We were able to honor many of those folks, and there's so many great businesses, and we can't recognize them all, but this was a great chance for us to come together and celebrate Norman and the business community," Martin said.

Jeff Elkins covers business, living and community stories for The Transcript. Reach him at jelkins@normantranscript.com or at @JeffElkins12 on Twitter.
Chris Schillig

Its a shame the Supreme Court blocked President Biden's vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.

The mandate gave the Occupational Safety and Health Administration authority to require vaccines for some 84 million American workers. It would have made the nation healthier and saved lives. Additionally, it would have provided a cover story for employees who fell under its auspices: They could have received the vaccine and still maintained their street-cred as conservatives.

Because after the obligatory griping about government overreach, tracking chips and other unfounded foolishness, most workers would have rolled up their sleeves and taken the jab.

Americans saw evidence of this last year when United Airlines required employees to get vaccinated. Despite complaints by a vocal minority, 96 percent of the airlines employees were vaccinated by the fall.

Significantly, as of Jan. 11, United reported it had gone eight weeks without a single employee death from COVID. While 3,000 of the airlines workers tested positive for COVID last week, none had been hospitalized.

This is a strong indication the vaccines are protecting people from the most adverse effects of the virus.

I wonder how many United employees and their families were secretly relieved when the company required the vaccine. The decision saved them from publicly backtracking, something many people are reluctant to do, and still offered them protection. It reminds me of a colleagues teenage son. He was willing to receive the vaccine but begged his parents not to tell anybody. He didnt want to be identified as a liberal.

Under the now-blocked Biden mandate, workers who refuse the vaccine would have to wear a mask  something both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated should be doing in public during times of high transmission, anyway  and get tested regularly.

Most of the holdouts would have been driven to the needle by the sheer inconvenience of these alternatives. Again, a win for short- and long-term health.

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At least the court upheld Bidens mandate for healthcare workers. When working with vulnerable populations in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics, workers should be vaccinated.

Individual companies can still mandate vaccines, of course, but few will without federal support. Starbucks, for example, scrapped its vaccine requirement after the high courts decision.

Balancing personal freedoms with public welfare is a tricky business. Many medical professionals and average Americans disagree with the ruling, on these grounds: If COVID werent contagious, if it werent contributing to significant strain on our hospital systems and making it harder for people to get treatment for other conditions, then workers could decide if they should get the vaccine. When only your health is affected, you can make whatever decisions are best for you.

But the virus is contagious and does affect all Americans. The Supreme Court ruled to hobble a response to help end this health crisis sooner.

The mandate would have made workplaces safer, which is OSHAs main purpose. As a byproduct, it would have made customers safer too, ensuring more of them would be around to keep the economy humming, which is a major conservative tenet.

Its ironic, then, that the courts conservative majority is what stood in the mandates way.

Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Chris Schillig: Supreme Court rules against common-sense mandate
The City of Gadsden recently amended its public records policy, City Clerk Iva Nelson said, to update the rates and to take into account digital media.

Nelson said the city's previous policy, dating back more than a dozen years, didn't take into account the requests for, or provision of, material in digital formats; the new policy addresses those requests.

State law makes most records subject to public inspection and gives municipalities the right to charge a reasonable fee for the time involved to find and prepare copies or other materials.

Requests for copies of public records should be made at the city clerk's office  room 401 at Gadsden City Hall  where the person seeking records will get an application form, complete it and return it to the clerk's office.

Applicants have to specify what records they want, and a reason for the request:

Individuals seeking information for personal use and not for a commercial purpose

Individuals affiliated with a private commercial entity seeking information for use in that entity's business

Representatives of a public interest organization seeking information as part of a news gathering function and not for a commercial purpose

Individuals affiliated with a education or non-commercial scientific institution seeking information for a scholarly or scientific purpose and not for a commercial purpose

News media representative

Other

Requests will be approved or denied; reasons for denials will be provided. Applicants whose requests are approved will be given estimates for the cost of the records. Payments must be made upfront.

Part of the cost is for materials  paper, DVDs, etc.  and part is for the employee time needed to get the material and copy it, and for research that may be needed to compile it.

For specific records in the clerk's office, the applicant may get immediate information about the cost and time it will take to obtain the records; if records are outside the clerk's office, it may take longer to determine the cost and when the request can be met.

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The cost will be $1 per page for documents, whether they are provided on paper or through electronic means.

Documents, audio and video recordings, etc., provided on electronic media (CD, DVD, flash drive, etc.) will cost $15 per media unit.

The cost will be $15 for information provided in response to requests that involve property research, including environmental site assessments, code violations, etc.

The city clerk may waive fees for requests that take minimal time and resources.

Requests to view or get copies of records that are not specific in nature and require City Hall employees to compile data may require more time, according to the policy, to locate records and review to determine the complexity of the request and whether the record is confidential.

Time may be required as well to remove staples or edit materials for confidentiality reasons. The feasibility of providing non-standard size or formatted materials, or voluminous material, must be determined.

The city won't charge for the time it takes to calculate the charge for public records, according to the policy, and the first 30 minutes is free. After that, the charge is $25 per hour.

Some records are not subject to the public records law, according to the policy. That includes specific exemptions in the state law, and:

 Confidential written information submitted by an officer or employee to an attorney for the city;

 Plans, evaluations or studies relating to the safety and security of municipal employees or facilities;

 Certain personnel records relating to city employees, including W-2s; city employees have the right to be notified of requests to access information in their personnel files;

 Medical records and health information pertaining to an employee, unless authorized by the employee;

 Test materials given to applicants for employment or promotion with the city, including the results of any such test;

 Certain identifying personal information such as home address, telephone numbers, closest living relative, Social Security number, tax ID numbers, etc.;

 Information regarding the gross receipts or tax payments of a licensed business;

 Internal audit work papers and internal audit reports, including system security information;

 All court documents pertaining to the execution of warrants;

 Any information concerning pending court cases;

 Any information submitted to or received from NCIC/ACJIC facilities;

 Emergency medical reports prepared by the fire department, unless authorized by the patient or pursuant to court process;

 Records pertaining to ongoing fire investigations;

 Fire inspection reports unless authorized by the property owner;

 Records pertaining to confidential investigations by the police department, including but not limited to criminal investigation and internal affairs investigations;

 Confidential informant files;

 Crime scene information including photographs, videos, physical evidence, and such other similar materials.

If there are questions about whether a record is confidential, the request will be referred to the city legal department for guidance and advice.

Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Gadsden's updated public records policy: Here's what you need to know
We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

Lush is a top cosmetics brand that made headlines after announcing it's ditching social media.

Insider recently visited two stores in Leeds and Indianapolis that looked like they were made for Instagram.

Between colorful bath bombs and locally-made products, here's everything we saw at the stores.

Lush, a UK-based beauty product retailer known for its colorful bath bombs and strong stance against animal cruelty, made headlines recently after it said it was shutting down its Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts because of "concerns about the serious effects of social media."

A Lush store in Belfast. Michael McNerney/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Sources: Insider, Insider

It was an unusual move for a company with close to 1,000 stores globally, especially for one with such vibrant and visual products that seem to be made for Instagram. We visited two Lush stores  one in the UK and one in the US  to see how they stack up.

A Lush store in London. Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The first Lush store popped up in the town of Poole in Dorset, England, in 1995. The Lush we went to in the UK was in the city center in Leeds, northern England. Though the store didn't have particularly eye-catching window displays, the smell of Lush's sweet bathing products wafting down the street made it easily recognizable.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

One side of the store didn't even feature its name, and the window display was just a pile of Lush magazines.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The store didn't really have one focal point  instead, the walls were filled with shelves showcasing its products and there were displays dotted throughout the store floor. Though we visited just four days after Black Friday, there was no sales section, and we didn't notice any signs advertising product promotion.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The displays were all beautifully curated.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The most eye-catching part of the store was a display overflowing with sweet-smelling bath bombs. It looked like it was made for Instagram  making it all the more surprising that the company had decided to quit social media.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

Behind this were rows of bubble bars, which look like bath bombs but are used by crumbling off small pieces into the tub to create a bubble bath.

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We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

At 5.95 ($7.92) each, these seemed a bit expensive, but a staff member said they could be used around eight times each.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

Even if it's not as fun as getting to watch a whole bath bomb explode, bubble bars felt much more economical than the single-use bath bombs that Lush is known for, which cost around 5 ($6.65) each.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

Lush is perhaps best known for its bath bombs, but it sells loads of other products too.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The store had a display of Lush perfumes ...

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

... and body sprays in bottles that made them look like household cleaning products.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

There was a display dedicated to Lush's beautiful wrapped gift boxes ...

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

... soap embossed with the company's logo ...

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

... and a whole range of makeup products including mascara and lip products that you might not know Lush makes.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

There were also not just one ...

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

... but two displays dedicated to Snow Fairy, one of the brand's most popular collections.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The store had a stand of gift cards for Lush's spa, too. The company has eight spa locations in the UK, offering a range of massages and treatments.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

Source: Lush

The products all looked beautiful and smelled heavenly ...

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

... and they were largely packaging-free, too.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The products we bought were packed in individual paper bags by the cashier, who added labels with the ingredients and instructions for usage.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

The packaging is recyclable, and Lush used it to show its stance against animal testing, too.

We visited a Lush store in Leeds, northern England. Grace Dean/Insider

To get a sense of Lush's presence in the US, Insider also visited a location in Indianapolis. The chain has stores across the US, including in New York, California, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. Like with the Leeds location, the smell of soaps and cosmetics is noticeable to anyone walking by.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

It was a pretty sizable shop, filled with shoppers and attentive employees.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

There were also quiet a few sink stations, where shoppers can sample the products ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... as well as a DIY fragrance sampling station.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

The displays were set up to look more artisanal than those in your average store's beauty section.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

We were pretty fascinated with these vegetation-wrapped cleanser products, in particular ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... as well as these bars that look like soap but are actually hardened massage oils. The bar "was made to melt on contact with skin."

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

Source: Lush

We also noticed unexpected offerings like these toothpaste tablets ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... and these avocado oil treatments.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

The mountain of carved blocks of soap was a main focal point in the store.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

But the most grabbing section were the shelves decked with these colorful shower and bath bombs, clustered near the front of the store.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

These shelves held silvery bells and pink seashell-looking creations ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... mermaid-inspired bath bombs ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... strange purple monsters ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... festive treats ...

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

... and even these cute little gummy bears.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

While the US store was filled with interesting offers, it seemed that these eye-catching bath bombs were definitely the centerpiece of the store, and a main draw for mall-goers who might happen to glance over.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

Overall, Lush stores on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean seem to cater to shoppers who don't mind spending a lot on boutique beauty options and artisanal cosmetics.

Insider visited a Lush store in Indianapolis. Aine Cain/Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider
The art of love is largely the art of persistence  Albert Ellis

This week hallmarks the 100th installment in the County Connections series. A volunteer initiative that humbles me more with each passing week, its my hope that this column has offered a glimpse of the resilience that calls our community home.

Debuting in January of 2020, the first headline of the column read, Looking for something to do? Fairfield County has options. Yet, only a few weeks later, the streets of our community fell silent.

Amid the onset of Covid 19, events were canceled, and shops were closed. Yet the spirit of solidarity was far from lost  shifting from social activities to social service, community members committed themselves to building a new normal  especially for the vulnerable.

Over these two tumultuous years, Ive been blessed to share the work of men and women who have opened their hearts and doors to their neighbors, serving through some of the most uncertain days of their lives.

Ive heard from those who have started Facebook pages and volunteer chains, connecting impoverished and homebound community members with grassroots assistance. Ive also learned from experienced nonprofit leaders who have adopted unprecedented strategies, including online youth mentoring and free-of-charge food trucks for the homeless.

These everyday heroes have persisted against insurmountable odds, offering hope that, even in uncertain times, we can still believe in compassion.

Though fatigue lines the faces of many of our social servants  clinical workers and social workers, homemakers and educators  it's affirming to know that such examples of healing surround us every day. Yet there are many more stories still to share.

And to the community agencies and nonprofit groups, businesses, congregations, and inspired individuals, your stories connect those in need with resources, and remind us of what is possible for those who persevere. As the pandemic continues to impact neighborhoods across the nation, we need you now more than ever.

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If you wish to share your events, volunteer programs or outreach initiatives with me, please contact me at tkellyfairfieldcounty@gmail.com.

These heart-felt efforts, big and small, have kept Fairfield County connected, and Im grateful to everyone who has allowed me to tell their stories.

Lastly, to those who have joined this writing journey with me  thank you for your readership and words of support. A nonprofit employee by day, and a volunteer writer by night, you have supported me on a wonderful adventure, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the year to come!

Upcoming events

Registration is open for the 2022 Polar Plunge at Buckeye Lake Winery. Participation fee is $35 per individual and $120 for a team of four. This fun event will take place on January 30th with activities beginning at 10:00 a.m. and plunge taking place at 1:00 p.m. The days activities will include live music, Benny the Bass Shot Luge, and prizes for winning Team and Individual costumes. To register, text 22BLPLUNGE to 41-444 or visit 2022 Polar Plunge at Buckeye Lake Winery on Facebook.

Now through Feb. 1, tickets are on sale for the Fairfield Heritage Association Valentine Tea to Go. Tickets are $20 each and include a decorated box filled with Georgian-style treats and a cup of hot tea. Treats can be picked up between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Georgian Museum, or delivery can be arranged in Fairfield County for $5. To order your tickets, please call 740-654-9923.

Sunday, Jan. 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., New Zion United Methodist Church, located at 10991 Snyder Church Road in Baltimore, is offering carry-out meals for donations. Meal will include choice of soup (beef, vegetable, chicken noodle, chili or potato), sandwich (hot, shredded chicken, sloppy joe, coneys or hot dogs, drink (iced tea, punch, or coffee) and choice of dessert. Donations will support congregation members work with the Pioneer Bible Translators in Tanzania. For more information, call 740-862-6462.

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Our community has so many everyday heroes
Bethany Brown, Sandusky County Health Commissioner, said the coronavirus surge continues as the county has seen an average of more than 160 new cases a day over the last week.

There's hope locally that a recent drop in COVID-19 cases in other parts of Ohio will start to take hold in Sandusky County.

But it hasn't happened quite yet.

Sandusky County recorded 1,624 COVID-19 cases in December, the highest number since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Over the last two weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health, the county has had 1,483 cases.

Bethany Brown, the county's public health commissioner, told the News-Messenger Sandusky County has seen an average of more than 160 new cases a day over the last week.

"We're not out of the woods yet, as far as our surge," Brown said Thursday.

Brown said the county is on target to top its December numbers if new COVID cases stay around the same level for the rest of the month.

She said area hospitals saw a little bit of a decline in new patients and admissions last week, a bright spot in the wake of high COVID numbers.

Sandusky County hopes to see drop in COVID cases similar to other parts of Ohio

Sandusky County's cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks has dropped slightly.

The county had 2,534.3 cases per 100,000 residents, ranking 29th of Ohio's 88 counties based on statistics released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Health.

In the previous two-week period, Sandusky County ranked ninth in the state in that metric.

Brown said she hopes the county starts to see a drop in COVID cases similar to other parts of Ohio.

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio has seen improvements in COVID-19 hospitalization numbers after breaking daily records multiple times earlier this month. Since a week ago, the number of Ohioans in the hospital with COVID-19 has been on a steady decline.

Northeast Ohio, the hardest hit, has seen the steepest declines with around a 24% drop over the last 10 days. As of Wednesday, 5,889 Ohioans were in hospitals with the virus.

Sandusky County recorded 1,624 COVID-19 cases in December, the highest number since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Ohio health experts have predicted that the current wave of the more contagious omicron variant would slowly trend down in Ohio toward the end of January.

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The situation is still dire, however, according to ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff.

Hospitalization and COVID-19 levels are still above the previous winter surge when vaccines were only just becoming available. Ohio is still getting north of 20,000 positive COVID-19 tests every day.

County not seeing a major impact on services due to COVID

At Tuesday's Sandusky County Commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Scott Miller said the county, with its roughly 600 employees, is probably experiencing a similar impact with COVID-19 as private businesses and schools.

Theresa Garcia, the county's administrator, said Sandusky County had put in place a number of different ways residents can access services online or at-home during the pandemic to reduce in-person or face-to-face interactions.

"I don't think it's affected services," Garcia said of the latest COVID-19 surge.

Commissioner Russ Zimmerman said one area that's been impacted recently is the county's work release program for inmates at the Sandusky County Jail.

Zimmerman said there hadn't been any work done through that program in about a month because inmates are not being released due to COVID-related safety concerns.

As of Friday, Sandusky County had more than 13,000 COVID cases overall since the start of the pandemic, with 199 deaths.

Brown said the county has about a 50% vaccination rate.

During recent vaccine clinics, the health department has been seeing mostly residents who need a booster shot, Brown said, with relatively few people seeking their first vaccination shots.

The county's emergency management agency (EMA) is still waiting for more COVID-19 self-test kits from the state, Brown said.

She encouraged residents to go to the federal website covidtests.gov to order four free at-home test kits.

This month, Ohio ordered 1.2 million testing kits, but only a fraction has been delivered, said Vanderhoff. Once shipments arrive, 400,000 testing kits can be distributed with priority going to schools.

Joe Liszak, CEO of Community Health Services, said his organization, the county's hospitals, Sandusky County EMA, NOMS Healthcare, and Brown have been meeting via conference calls weekly to discuss COVID-related issues and how to share resources.

"Even though it's been a really trying time for all of us, we've really come together," Liszak said.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sandusky County still sees high number of COVID cases, hopes for decline
Jan. 21A criminalist who processed the scene where a native Alaska woman was slain in 1993 described photos he and a colleague took of the victim as jurors looked on Thursday in the murder and sexual assault trial of an Auburn, Maine man.

James Wolfe testified in Fairbanks Superior Court that he was summoned to Bartlett Hall at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks on April 26, 1993, to collect evidence from the bathtub area of the dormitory's second floor bathroom where the body of a former student had been found early that afternoon.

Steven H. Downs, 47, is charged in the killing of Sophie Sergie, 20, of Pitkas Point, Alaska. He has denied the charges.

Downs was a student at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks at the time and lived in the dorm where Sergie's body was found. Investigators said she had been visiting a friend at that dorm when her body was discovered.

Investigators said Sergie was last seen alive when she left a friend's dorm room to smoke a cigarette.

They said Sergie was shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber gun, stabbed in the cheek and eye, struck with a blunt instrument, gagged with a ligature and shocked with a stun gun.

The medical examiner concluded the cause of death was the bullet fired into her head.

Wolfe said Thursday that he arrived at the scene about 8:30 p.m.; investigators believe Sergie was killed about 1:30 a.m. that day.

He said he and another forensic technician combed the bathroom for any signs of evidence that should be collected.

Wolfe described the victim's position in a bathtub and detailed her injuries and other evidence captured in dozens of photographs.

He said no shoe prints were found, but several fingerprints were collected, as well as hairs.

A stain on Sergie's left thigh or hip was detected and swabbed for a sample that would be brought to the Alaska Crime Lab in Anchorage to be examined further, Wolfe said.

Ultraviolet light was used to search for any semen evidence at the crime scene and the chemical luminol was sprayed on surfaces to reveal the presence of blood that was not visible to the unaided eye, he said.

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Wolfe described a photo showing blood on the victim's face.

"We saw she had blood caked on this side of her face," he said. "It looked almost like part of it had been diluted with water or water washed it because when you look at the sides of the stain, they kind of fade off there's not a hard margin to the stain."

His testimony suggested an effort might have been made to clean up the crime scene.

"It just seemed very clean for a crime scene where blood was shed," he said.

The sweater Sergie was wearing was wet, he said.

A pair of glasses were lying with her hands, but not clutched in them, he said. And the glasses had not been not damaged.

Other testimony Thursday included a custodian who had gone into the bathtub area that day to clean and discovered Sergie's body.

"I was screaming," Okcha Ancheta said. She quit her job shortly after the incident, she said.

A fire battalion chief testified he was dispatched to the scene and saw Sergie in the bathtub in a sitting position with her head forward, her knees up and her sweatpants and underwear pulled down to her knees.

He said she wasn't moving or breathing and didn't have a pulse.

Downs was arrested in February 2019 after his DNA was matched in late 2018 to evidence found at the crime scene through a random hit after Downs' aunt submitted her DNA to a genealogy website. His DNA was found inside the victim, investigators said.

Thursday marked the fourth day of Downs' trial. It is scheduled to last six weeks.
Ive also seen footage of many a cheetah walking very close to herds of prey and not even attempting to give chase. As I approached my herd of boys on the playground, I started to understand why.

I was chasing the boys around a playground recently and I suddenly better understood cheetahs. Ive watched a fair number of nature programs showing cheetahs running down gazelles and antelopes. But Ive also seen footage of many a cheetah walking very close to herds of prey and not even attempting to give chase.

I wasnt sure why this was but made a few guesses. Maybe it was the common lot of mammals that the new generation is unmotivated and the young cheetahs were just lazy? Maybe zebra stripes and antelope camouflage are far more effective in the animal world than on my TV screen? Maybe the cheetah preferred curbside pickup instead of personally selecting his dinner?

But as I approached my herd of boys on the playground, I started to see things differently.

Just like the cheetah, on a straight sprint Im faster than any one of the boys. I cant haul at the cheetahs impressive 80 mph, but for a short distance I can at least outpace my much shorter-legged kids. But it takes a lot of energy. And the boys dont run in straight lines (well the 3-year-old does but he also only runs a few feet before balling up on the ground, which seems more warthog-ish than gazelle).

Especially if youve run a little already, a herd of boys scattered very nearby on a playground is not as easy of a target in a game of tag as it appears. Those cheetahs may not be as unmotivated as I thought. And the antelopes and gazelles arent as helpless as they look.

Its the sharp cuts and zig-zag running that gets you. And the fact that when they scatter you really cant decide which one to go after. And because they have energy to run and run while I have the energy for about two tries to catch one of them.

I found myself, much like the cheetahs and tigers and lions Ive seen on TV, resorting to trickery to catch my prey. Hiding, pretending to go after one kid and then going after another, or faking an injury and luring a boy close enough to try and tag him all work pretty well. Although Ive never seen that last particular technique used on the Serengeti.

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Ive learned the best technique for catching prey though, so all the wild cats from Africa reading should take note: invite the preys uncles over to play with them to wear them out. Somehow uncles always have more energy than dads and once theyve run the herd around a bit one quick sprint is all thats needed.

Now that I think about it, it seems Ive often seen cheetahs hunting in groups so they must have already figured the uncle thing out. Maybe thats why theyre called cheetahs.

Harris and his wife live in Pflugerville with their six sons. Please email comments or suggestions for future columns to thoughtsforcaleb@gmail.com.

Caleb Harris

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Daddy Days: Cheetah-ing to catch the boys
The city of Detroit overtaxed homeowners by at least $600 million between 2010 and 2016. After a City Council proposal failed in 2020, Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and the Coalition for Property Tax Justice revealed a tentative plan Saturday for compensation and dignity restoration.

At the root of the new proposal is the idea that the overtaxation was dehumanizing and systemic  it took away residents' dignity. To fully repay what Detroiters have lost, the city must restore that dignity, the proposal says.

"You all should have never been put in this position," said U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, speaking virtually to a crowd of 700 Detroiters, many of whom were hurt by the overtaxation. "These overassessments were illegal; they were systemic, and they gutted out our neighborhoods."

In Wayne County, 451 occupied homes are headed to the annual tax foreclosure auction in 2018. Some residents, like the occupants of this home, marked for auction in 2017, post signs pleading with prospective buyers not to bid.

The Michigan Constitution states that no property can be assessed at more than 50% of its market value, but the city assessed 55%-85% of its property in violation of that law. This overassessment led to 100,000 Detroiters losing their homes when they should not have, activists say.

Detroit resident Sonja Bonnett lost her home due to "illegal and unconstitutional tax foreclosure." She said nobody told her that she was eligible for the poverty tax exemption and that losing her home lit a fire in her to start fighting for herself, her family and her community.

"When I lost my home, I didn't just lose a structure: I lost my health; I lost my footing; I lost confidence in myself," Bonnett said. "I think that the city really needs to know that when you put the community in these positions, you're not just taking a building from us. You're taking the American Dream from us. You're taking what some of us are so proud to gain in the first place, which is a family home. And when it happened to me, it almost destroyed me. It almost destroyed my family."

The previous, failed proposal offered overassessed homeowners a 50% discount on city-controlled vacant properties and would have moved those homeowners to the front of the line for affordable housing and for city jobs. Anyone who owned a home in the city and lived in it as a primary residence between 2010 and 2013 would have been eligible, which amounts to about 130,000 residents. The plan would have cost the city roughly $6 million.

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More: Rapid rise in mortgage rates startles homebuyers; blame inflation fears

More: Detroiters can get help applying for property tax exemption. Here's how.

Sheffield said the plan was voted down for two main reasons: It did not take into account those impacted before 2010 or after 2013, and the $6 million was "inadequate," meaning it would not have gone far enough to help the residents of Detroit through this crisis.

Any action that leads to a budget deficit automatically triggers the return of the Financial Review Commission's complete control over city finances," city spokesman John Roach told the Free Press. "We will not support anything that once again leads to Detroit's loss of self-determination.

The housing advocates noted that a memo from the city's legal department states the city cannot legally give direct monetary reimbursement to the residents. While they work to fight that ruling, the new proposal aims to provide compensation in different ways.

The coalition presented its proposal at a "people's forum" to hear feedback before it is officially presented to the City Council.

The overtaxation of Detroit residents is part of a national racial justice issue, said Bernadette Atuahene, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law who has studied overassessment in Detroit, and who is part of the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. Wayne County's majority-Black municipalities  Detroit, Highland Park and Inkster  have a higher foreclosure rate than mostly-white localities, according to Atuahene's research.

To properly rectify the situation, the city's compensation must provide options for each person's individual situation and restore residents' dignity.

"There are other instances where they take something from you as part of a larger strategy of dehumanization, or infantilization, or a larger process of structural racism," Atuahene said. "In those instances, I've taken more than just your property, I've also taken your dignity, and that's called the dignity-taking. And the idea is to say when this larger harm called the dignity-taking has occurred, mere reparations are not enough. Just giving you compensation for the thing taken is not enough. What's required is a more robust remedy that I call dignity restoration, and that's the process of giving you compensation for things taken, but through a process that affirms your humanity and restores your agency."

Proposal details

There are four categories of overassessed residents that are eligible for compensation if they owned and occupied a home that the city overtaxed between 2009 and 2020.

Overtaxed homeowners whose property was foreclosed even though they were exempt from paying property taxes to begin with. Overtaxed homeowners whose property was foreclosed. Overtaxed homeowners whom the county did not foreclose on but who are eligible to be exempt from paying taxes. Overtaxed homeowners whom the county did not foreclose on.

Depending on which category residents fall under, there are a variety of compensation options that range from small business support to property tax credits to a home repair grant, among other things.

Screenshot from the tentative proposal

The proposal also includes oversight measures, including the creation of an independent review board to uncover property tax inequities, and changes to the inflated property tax assessments appeals process to make it more accessible.

Read the full proposal here: drive.google.com

Homeowners who might be eligible to appeal their property tax assessment can fill out this interest form: actionnetwork.org/forms/property-tax-assessment-appeal-interest-form

Staff writers Christine MacDonald and Nushrat Rahman contributed to this report.

Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit overtaxed homeowners $600M. They're still seeking compensation
You have to begin somewhere. When Jayce Hafner and Sami Tellatin bonded as Stanford MBA classmates over their shared belief that helping U.S. farms run more efficiently would be good for the country and a great business, they decided to start with grants.

For her part, Hafner grew up on a cattle ranch in Virginia and knew firsthand that applying for grants -- even to improve the sustainable farming practices of her family's farm -- was a confusing and time-intensive process. As for Tellatin, she studied biological engineering as an undergrad and spent three years with the USDA researching farm economics. She knew, too, that farmers might make better choices if grants were more available to them.

Enter FarmRaise, a now 12-person, two-year-old, fully remote company that has made considerable progress since the two joined forces with another co-founder, Albert Abedi, who they met through the accelerator program of Pear VC, the Palo Alto-based firm.

According to Hafner, the company already has nearly 10,000 farms on the platform thanks to word of mouth, a dash of search-engine magic and, importantly, partnerships it has struck with agriculture giants like Cargill and Corteva (spun out of DuPont in 2018) that have carbon emission reduction goals to meet and have begun directing farmers to FarmRaise for help with grants tied to low-carbon farming.

FarmRaise's platform -- which asks for granular farm insights, then structures the data in a way that allows FarmRaise to quickly apply for a wide variety of grant programs on its customers' behalf -- also has enough momentum that investors are now in the mix. The team just landed $7.2 million in seed funding led by Susa Ventures.

Still, as with so many startups, Hafner says grants -- both federal and private -- are just the starting point for the very broad financial services company that FarmRaise intends to become. Imagine, suggests Hafner, that once a farm has provided much of its data to the company, that FarmRaise can help it land loans, secure equipment at bulk prices and help with the farm's tax planning.

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Many of these services will be provided through third parties, she says, with FarmRaise collecting finders' fees. FarmRaise isn't looking to reinvent the wheel. But there's also no reason that farmers shouldn't have a "full-stack" resource to which to turn, she adds. Besides, other services can keep customers satisfied while they wait to learn whether or not they landed a grant, some of which have wait times of six to 12 months.

Grants are "our wedge," Hafner says. "They are not the end of the story."

In the meantime, FarmRaise is focused on hiring more employees, lining up more grants, and making sure its customers are happy with the services it provides currently and for which it charges a monthly subscription, along with 10% of the value of the grants it secures.

It's important to get right. Grants are a big opportunity, suggests Hafner, including because USDA funding has "been growing like crazy," she says.

She points to the Trump administration, which distributed "tens of billions of dollars" in funding to support farmers who struggled with COVID-related supply-chain disruptions.

The Biden administration also has FarmRaise feeling encouraged, she adds, "We're seeing this keen focus on growing the size of the pie for conservation funding and it likely doubling in the years to come." It only makes sense, she suggests. "Not only does [sustainable farming] increase farm profitability but it also sequesters carbon and can help to address climate change. They are just many, many, many benefits that come with it."

Other participants in the company's seed round include Cendana Capital, the University of Chicago, Ulu Ventures, Pear, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Incite Ventures and Financial Ventures Studio.

Above, pictured left to right: FarmRaise co-founders Jayce Hafner (CEO), Albert Abedi (who is the company's head of product) and COO Sami Tellatin.
FBI officials said Friday that a British national taking a rabbi and three other people at a Texas synagogue last weekend was an act of terrorism and a federal hate crime.

This is a federal hate crime, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno during a news conference on Friday, noting that as negotiators began to engage with hostage-taker Malik Faisal Akram, he repeatedly demanded the United States release a convicted al-Qaida terrorist in exchange for the safe return of the hostages. In doing so, his actions clearly met the definition of terrorism.

Akram, 44, took Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three other people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel during Shabbat services on Saturday while demanding the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of attempting to murder U.S. soldiers while in their custody in Afghanistan in 2010.

Akram reportedly knocked on the door of the synagogue. The rabbi welcomed him in and made him a cup of tea, not noticing anything suspicious until they prayed together.

The rabbi told CBS Mornings that he realized something was off when he had his back to Akram during prayer and he heard the click of his gun.

The man then began ranting for hours about his family and Islam, according to a Facebook livestream broadcast from inside the house of worship.

If anyone tries to enter this building, Im telling you . . . everyone will die, he said during the livestream.

All four hostages were safely released after an hours-long standoff. The hostage-taker was killed during an exchange of gunfire after a hostage rescue team breached the synagogue.

DeSarnos comments on Friday are a shift from when he said after the hostage situation that the Texas synagogue hostage takers demands were specifically focused on issues not connected to the Jewish community.

Biden's FBI: The Islamist terrorist, who held Jews hostage at a Texas synagogue, on Sabbath, was singularly focused on one issue that was not specifically related to the Jewish community. He then adds We are continuing to work to find motive. pic.twitter.com/RUPFhORWbs  Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) January 16, 2022

President Biden similarly said at the time that he didnt believe there was sufficient information to know why the hostage-taker targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone whos been in prison over 10 years or why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments.

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FBI director Christopher Wray later clarified that the hostage situation was an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.

Now let me be clear and blunt, the FBI is, and has been, treating Saturdays events as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. Within a matter of hours, we deployed FBI SWAT, two highly trained units from our elite Hostage Rescue Team; those are the folks who ultimately were the ones who went into the synagogue, along with canines, Wray said during a virtual webinar held by the Anti-Defamation League.

More from National Review
In the magical world of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White lies one other princess who has yet to awaken: Shimcheong. Only its not a prince whos come to find her  its Julia Riew, a musical theater composer and lyricist studying at Harvard who figured if Disney wont make a Korean princess, shed do it on her own.



Riew crafted her story of Princess Shimcheong as part of her senior thesis on playwriting, involving a full, original musical script. After completing her first draft, she shared a 45-second clip of her song Dive to TikTok earlier this month, not suspecting that it would generate hundreds of thousands of views and a demand for the story to be made into a real-life production.









All of the fish in the sea cant stop me / All of the waves in the world cant rock me the lyrics start to an upbeat melody that perfectly blends in with Disneys repertoire of iconic musical numbers.



A Korean Disney princess? This needs to happen, one viewer commented, while countless others made sure to grab Disneys attention by tagging them under her video. Many other users who were inspired by Riews performance have uploaded their own video responses to her song, either harmonizing with Riew or singing along karaoke-style.



Her reaction? Speechless, she told NextShark.



I was telling someone about two weeks ago that one of my dreams is to be walking down the street and hearing a child sing a song that I wrote, and I sort of feel like I'm almost living out that dream right now, she said. I'm being able to see that maybe these kids will have a character that I always wished that I had as a kid to look up to, to sing their songs and to really, truly feel represented by that character.



Riews Shimcheong is about a year and a half in the making, beginning with a literal dive into Korean folktales. The original tale of Shimcheong or The Blind Mans Daughter is about a young woman who sacrifices everything in exchange for her blind father to be able to see. She is then rewarded for her selfless act by being appointed as empress.



It was the characters bravery and determination to venture out on her own that stuck out to Riew during her research and later served as her source of inspiration. And while Riew says that many of the major themes and characters from the original story have been carried over into her own, its been adapted extensively to be more suitable for modern day audiences.



What I always look for are the seeds of a story, the seeds of an adventure, and how can I turn this into a stage musical, explained Riew, whos previously helped adapt folktales for musical theater. So it's actually my version of Shimcheong, in the same way that Disney heavily adopts its stories.



Riew points to Shimcheongs lack of agency in the original story as something shes altered for her own version, along with its portrayal of disabled people. During her research, she reached out to a blind friend of hers to gather his thoughts on the moral of the original story in which the blind man is gifted sight.



He said that in his community, there's a lot of objections about that, Riew noted. So a lot of what I did is examine the original focus and say, OK, what are the things that I love about this? And then what are the things that inspire me personally about my own journey? And about the journey of my friends and people that I've talked to? And then how can I fuse those together into a musical?



Its why the story shes come up with is less about the traditional Shimcheong and has more to do with Riews own search for identity as an Asian American growing up in Missouri.







For Riew, writing for Disney has been a dream of hers for as long as [she] can remember.



Listening to Broadway soundtracks in the car and watching Disney movies as a kid was one of the most inspiring things, creatively and artistically for me. And so I think that's why I'm personally really called to Disney. And I think a lot of the hope was definitely to get noticed by Disney to say, Hi, I'm out here. If you're trying to create a Disney princess, and you want her to be Korean, and you want it to be authentic, hi, I'm here and I exist.



Mulan, Disneys token Asian princess whos beloved by many, isnt enough, Riew says.



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A lot of the media that we consume as kids affects how we see ourselves, especially if the only chances that we have to see ourselves on screen is playing a very specific kind of person or very specific kind of character.



I think it's so wonderful that Mulan exists. I think Mulan for so many people is their favorite Disney princess, and they can see themselves in her. But at the same time, I noticed that when I was a little kid, playing dress up with my friends, they would say things about how the only one I could ever dress up as was Mulan. And I think one of my goals with representation and what I foresee for future representation is just more of it because when you have more stories you have a broader idea of the spectrum of different stories that are out there Obviously there's a really widespread understanding of what it means to be Asian American and having one princess represent all Asian Americans is really, really tricky.



Riew believes were at a turning point now in terms of representation. Theres a sense of excitement and a "need" for more diverse stories, and shes hopeful that there will be a space for them to be showcased.



With all the interest shes generated from less than a minute of an hour-long script, producers and theaters have also turned their heads towards Riew  enough that she is hesitant to reveal too much about the storyline. Though as of yet, nothing has been set in stone.



Whatever may come of Riews Shimcheong, at the very least, it has inspired hope for many to see themselves represented on screen. And at the very, very least, it will have earned her what can only be assumed to be an obvious A on her thesis.



Featured Image via Julia Riew

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House Bill 1035, sponsored by Rep. Jayer Williamson, needs to be defeated. It is merely a thinly veiled attempt to hamstring an aggrieved communitys ability to exercise the right of home rule. Communities need this when the other means of redress have failed to achieve what many in the community feel is inequitable governance.

The fact that HB 1035 requires a 60% super-majority vote in favor of incorporation is capricious. There is no basis for this requirement in the Florida Constitution or statutes; in the past a simple majority has been the standard. It is more than mere coincidence that Rep. Williamson introduced this bill after attending a Santa Rosa County hearing in which the Navarre communitys move to incorporate was addressed. It was at that hearing that Rep. Williamson stated that a 60% majority straw poll vote was necessary before he would submit articles of incorporation to the Florida Legislature. When challenged to cite the source of that 60% majority vote requirement, Rep. Williamson responded that it was his requirement. His requirement?

Jack Heacock

Previous column: Providing objective and accurate feasibility study is right path for Navarre | Guestview

Related: Florida legislative session 2022 begins: What are Okaloosa and Walton county lawmakers' top goals?

Citizens of this state expect equitable treatment. An arbitrary requirement that materializes during a community hearing and then suddenly appears in a draft bill smacks of pettiness and rings of disparate treatment. HB 1035 is a thumb in the eye to every member of the Navarre community trying to improve it while preserving its heritage and character.

The majority of survey respondents voted in favor of incorporation and did so fully knowing that they will shoulder the financial burden of another layer of government. That majority is willing to endure that burden for two reasons: to ensure that tax dollars collected from us are being used to address this communitys needs  needs we have collectively identified and prioritized  and that we have a local government responsive to our concerns of responsible growth and development that do not destroy the character and heritage of our community.

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Residents can determine how best to address their local needs. We select representatives to state and local government with a simple majority vote; the same citizens are perfectly capable of determining with a simple majority vote if additional governance is needed to better protect their community and to ensure that the taxes they are required to pay are appropriately used to address the needs of their community.

More legislative hurdles to affording every citizen the ability to organize efforts to improve his or her community are counterproductive. HB 1035 is an unnecessary piece of legislation that would codify an arbitrary hurdle that does absolutely nothing but further burden a Florida communitys right to determine how best to meet its local needs.

As citizens we must join together, contact our representatives, and demand the defeat of HB 1035 and its unnecessary intrusion upon the principle of home rule.

Jack Heacock is a member of Preserve Navarre (www.PreserveNavarre.com), a local nonprofit seeking to promote the health, welfare, and safety of the Navarre area.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Jack Heacock: House Bill 1035 is dangerous legislation for Navarre
In response to the rising threat of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine, NATO forces in the region have begun mobilizing.

Spain announced Thursday that two of its warships were en route to the Black Sea, the body of water that borders southern Ukraine, to partake in military exercises originally planned for later this year. Spain may also send fighter jets to Bulgaria, where the Dutch government is sending F-35s, while, according to military analyst Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, France hopes to lead an Enhanced Forward Presence battalion of fighters in Romania. On Friday, the Kremlin demanded that NATO fighters leave both Romania and Bulgaria, demands falling on deaf ears.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on Oct. 21, 2021, in Sochi, Russia. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

While NATO isn't obliged to fight in Ukraine, its bolstered arsenal and exercises in the Black Sea are sending a strategic message, Nicolo Fasola, an expert on NATO and Russian security, told Yahoo News. And in this case, the message is NATO is united, NATO is resolved and NATO is strong.

The expansion of NATO membership to countries that were once part of the Soviet-era bloc is at the heart of the standoff in Ukraine. In talks with the West last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that Ukraine be barred from entering NATO, a demand that the U.S. and NATO flatly rejected.

Founded in 1949, NATO is the peacetime alliance formed by the U.S., Canada, and nine Western European countries to check Soviet advances after World War II. This week its leaders reiterated that it remains a protective alliance whose aim is to maintain European security. NATOs deployments on members territories are defensive, proportionate and in line with our international commitments, NATO notes on its website. Its enhanced forward presence in the eastern part of our alliance is not meant to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict. It is a response to Russias use of military force against its neighbors ... including a major build-up of Russian forces in and around Ukraine.

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There is no mistaking the long-standing animosity between Russia and NATO, with whom Putins government broke ties in 2021, calling back its NATO mission in Brussels. For months, Russian officials have been demanding that NATO stop expanding, bar Ukraine and Georgia from joining, and kick out members that have joined since 1997. History, spheres of influence, and the prospect of self-governance have everything to do with Russias ongoing aggressions against Ukraine, which was also once part of the Soviet Union.

What contemporary Russia wants to do is to ascend again to the recognized rank of great world power, said Fasola. And Ukraine, with its aspirations to join NATO and the European Union, threatens that.

Putins beef with NATO is real, Evelyn Farkas, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, told Yahoo News. He wants a sphere of influence, and he wants to ensure that there are no democratic powers tempting the countries that he believes should be in Russias sphere of influence to join NATO or the European Union.

To comprehend what is currently playing out in Ukraine and Eastern Europe requires looking back to the formation of the Soviet Union, a grand socialistic experiment, almost a century ago, in December 1922. With Russia as its command center, the USSR initially included Ukraine, Belorussia (now Belarus) and what today are Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Over the decades, it encompassed 15 different republics, some of them forced into Russias bear hug, most notably the Baltic countries  Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

After World War II, Soviet expansion continued to Eastern and Central Europe, creating Soviet satellites that, while not officially part of the Soviet Union, were deeply influenced by Moscow and were obliged to join the Soviet military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, which famously stomped out a revolution in Hungary in 1956 and a move toward liberalization in Czechoslovakia in 1968. These Soviet satellite countries included Poland, the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Hungary and East Germany, which reunited with West Germany in 1990, with the crumbling of the Berlin Wall.

A man wields a pickax to participate in the destruction of the Berlin Wall. (Jacques Langevin/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

With the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, which Putin, a former KGB agent, in 2005 described as a genuine tragedy for Russia and the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century, many of these former republics and Soviet satellites looked westward. In 2005, many joined the European Union, and between 1999 and 2004, nine of them joined NATO out of fear that Russia would reach out and grab them again. The attraction was NATOs Article 5, stating that an attack on one member would be regarded as an attack on all.

Russia has been complaining about the military alliance, whose members now number 30, pretty much ever since, all the more since NATO defensive troops and military installations are positioned at, or near, its borders in five of those countries. Poland and Romania in particular have Aegis Ashore weapons systems, which Russia fears could be converted to launch nuclear missiles. Russia is also unhappy that around 100 nuclear weapons, owned by the U.S., are stored in underground vaults in several NATO countries, which include Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. (The activation codes are kept in American hands.)

One of Russias demands of NATO is that it retract memberships for countries that have joined since 1997, which Fasola explained means the former Soviet republics and satellite countries. All those countries that Russia is implicitly referring to by setting a date of 1997 are the countries that were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact, and that entered NATO in the 1990s, Fasola said.

Russia does not want to see NATO expand to include the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and particularly Ukraine, once the cultural jewel of the Soviet Union. Last year Putin published a discourse laying out his view that Russia and Ukraine are Slav brothers, bonded by history and language. Most Ukrainians, however, dont feel the same.

In a December 2021 poll commissioned by the New Europe Center, a foreign policy think tank in Kyiv, the majority, 61 percent, want to join the European Union, while 53 percent want to join NATO. In 2014 when then-President Viktor Yanukovych, backed by Moscow, instead blocked their application to EU membership, saying they should instead set their gaze back to the East, Ukrainians rose up in the streets and tossed him out. That was the year that Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula, occupying it ever since. Russia also kicked up a proxy war in Ukraines east, arming and backing Russian rebels there, in a showdown that has killed 14,000 Ukrainians.

Relatives of Ukrainian servicemen who died during the defense of Donetsk Airport hug next to a memory wall in Kyiv on Friday. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

What Putin is apparently trying to do, analysts say, is to re-create Russias sphere of influence among the former Soviet republics and satellite states, and to drive a spike between Eastern and Western Europe. And what is motivating him, experts say, is a desire to see fledgling democracies such as Ukraines fail.

Putin wants to ensure the survival of his regime of autocratic political order and the kleptocratic economic system, said Farkas. He regards what is happening over the border in Ukraine as a threat to his system, because if democracy takes off in Ukraine, if it functions there, the Russian people will see that and they will view it as an alternative to the increasingly oppressive government in Russia. He has likely been made more paranoid, by [recent uprisings] in Belarus, and more recently in Kazakhstan  both of which Russian forces helped subdue. All of that, she said, has heightened his interest in eliminating the threat posed by Ukraine and democracy in Ukraine.

Farkas views Russias growing aggressiveness with Ukraine with deep consternation, saying that Putin is trying to rearrange the world order.

Americans should care, she told Yahoo News, because if Putin gets away with what hes doing in Ukraine, hell turn his attention to other states that were in the Soviet sphere of influence, such as the Baltics and Poland, all NATO members. And then he will start threatening their sovereignty. And the U.S. will have an obligation to protect those countries under NATOs Article 5. If we dont, then NATO will fall apart. And if NATO falls apart, then Putin will do everything he can in Europe, and then all the Europeans will have to fend for themselves.
Xuna Hu, a 31-year-old Springfield Realtor, said a woman shouted 'go back to your country' at her while she was shopping at Lowe's on Jan. 17.

While many honored the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and called for racial healing on Monday, one Springfield woman said she endured a shopping experience that puts a spotlight on anti-Asian racism.

Xuna Hu, a 31-year-old realtor and Chinese immigrant, said as she was shopping at Lowe's on Wabash Avenue and picked up two fire pits with the intent to buy them. Realizing they were too heavy, she put them down and stood by while calling her father to help her load them in a cart, but while waiting, said she was harassed.

See also: Freight train partially derails Friday morning on south side of Springfield

A lady came over with her daughter, a Lowe's employee, while pointing to the fire pits and said to me Hey I want one of those," Hu recounted. I said, 'Maam, I'm taking both, I'm just waiting for my dad to come over so he can help me load my cart and pay for it.' She then said Well, have you already paid? I said No, not yet, so she said Well, I'm taking one from you.'"

At that point, Hu said, she decided to offer the woman one of the fire pits.

I was like all right, Ill just give you one then," Hu said, but the woman responded that since Hu hadn't paid for the fire pits, she could take one because "this is how it works here."

After more words, Hu said the woman, who was not identified, yelled "'go back to your country.'"

Hu said she took out her cellphone and began recording after the exchange. In the video posted to Tik Tok and Facebook that has since gone viral, Hu confronts the woman at a register and asks for an apology for which the woman declined.

An unidentified Lowe's employee became involved when he saw that Hu was recording and asked her to delete the video. Hu refused.

In this situation, if I say something with my mouth its not gonna be stronger evidence than having a video. No matter how much I say, they dont have to believe me but if I have proof through the video, they cant deny it at all, Hu said.

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More: Springfield mayor fires Lincoln Library director Rochelle Hartman

As the conversation between Hu and the Lowe's worker continued, the woman who shouted at Hu left the store. Hu said the worker then demanded she move on and not make the situation bigger than necessary,

They said Hey she left, theres no point in talking to us about it anymore, just pay your money and leave,'" Hu said. During that moment she said she felt helpless.

I thought the staff came toward me to help me with the situation but ... I didnt get any help. It was pretty sad.

According to Hu, State Rep Theresa Mah, D-Chicago, saw the viral video and started a petition on Change.org that urged Lowe's to issue an apology to Hu and require racial sensitivity training for employees. As of Saturday, Mahs petition had over 8,000 signatures.

In a statement two days after the incident, Lowes spokesperson Steve Salazar said the company was "appalled to hear about this experience. At Lowes, discrimination of any kind is unacceptable. We spoke to Ms. Hu and apologized, letting her know we are taking swift action to address the matter. Our intent is to always ensure customers feel valued, respected and welcome. We are committed to creating a safe and open environment for all customers.

The Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network also helped to circulate the petition.

We were saddened to hear that this had happened because we know how damaging racism and xenophobia is, and we know how these incidents impact whole communities, a network statement said. Unfortunately, we were not surprised. Incidents of hate, and particularly anti-Asian hate, have been on the rise across the country and we have seen other anti-immigrant sentiments here already.

More: Attracting, hiring qualified teachers becomes more difficult for Illinois school districts

Veronica Espina, the network's founder, said it was Hu's right to record the situation. Instead of putting the victim of the attack on trial, employees should have stood up for her.

It has become necessary for persons of color and the targets of this kind of treatment to have a record of what happens to them, to protect themselves. The reality is that without some record, reports of their experiences are often discounted or ignored, and It results in further marginalization and victimization.

Hu said before the incident she had never experienced racism so bluntly.

When she said that to me, I thought, Oh my God, the things I see on the news are actually happening to me right now. What do I do? I thought I cant just let this go because if I keep my mouth shut that means Im giving her permission to say that to me and if she said it to me, she will say it to my kids and anyone else who looks like me.'

Hu said her family and friends were not surprised by what happened and told her they frequently experienced similar treatment but often couldn't respond because of the language barrier.

"That made me really sad to hear because due to the language barrier we have to deal with racism this way. So when this happened to me, I was standing up not only for myself but for the people who cant fight back because they dont know how, she said.

Espina said Hus video brought attention to a problem faced by communities of color and should serve as a teaching moment.

More: Public health officials report COVID-19 related deaths in Sangamon, Menard counties

All of us in the community have a role in opposing and preventing these kinds of incidents," Espina said, "and videos like this are instructive to understand the kind of treatment she and others have too often received, and the responses they get when they try to stand up for themselves.

Espina said the incident highlights the necessity of SIAN.

Springfield, unfortunately, was identified a few years ago as one of the most segregated cities in America. Incidents like this serve as important reminders for why SIAN and many others worked to pass a Welcoming City resolution for the city of Springfield - a resolution that simply states that immigrants are both welcome and already an important part of our community, she said. This would be an important time for the Springfield City Council to pass the resolution and send a message of goodwill.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Illinois woman told to 'go back to your country' at Lowe's, she says
Iowa democratic gubernatorial candidate Deidre DeJear speaks to supporters during the Iowa Unity Coalition gubernatorial candidate forum at the United Steelworkers Local 310 in Des Moines on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deidre DeJear spent about an hour answering questions at a forum Saturday, highlighting her views on health care, education, the economy and more.

Originally billed as a chance to view all of the primary candidates on one stage, DeJear stood alone as the only active Democratic candidate after state Rep. Ras Smith ended his campaign earlier this month.

It underscored a difficult moment for Democrats as they gear up for the challenge of toppling a sitting governor with a massive war chest during an unfavorable midterm political climate. Other high-profile Democrats chose not to seek a gubernatorial bid, and DeJears financial disclosure released this week showed an unwillingness by major donors to back her campaign at this point in the race.

I am concerned about Democrats' chances, said John Chiles, a Waterloo City Council member who attended the forum hosted by the Iowa Unity Coalition, a political action committee that supports progressive candidates. I think it's an uphill battle.

He said that as a candidate he learned he had to prove he deserved the publics support, and he thinks Democrats broadly need to do a better job of reaching people.

You can't just think you deserve it because you are the candidate, he said.

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart addressed the group of about 50 people at the start of the event, urging Democrats to stay motivated in the face of a potentially difficult election year.

I heard everyone say that, Oh my god, this next election thats coming is going to be dismal. If youre a Democrat, its going to be dismal. Nobodys going to turn out. No ones going to do anything, he said. Yeah, that may be the case if we quit and we give up.

But he said candidates and activists have to stay activated.

We cannot slow in our vigor and our fight for better communities, he said.

Some of the Democrats in the audience said theyre approaching this years governors race with a mix of appreciation and support for DeJear as well as apprehension about Democrats chances broadly.

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Hai Huynh, a Coralville resident who attended the forum and served as a panelist, said she thinks Democrats need to do more to reach beyond the blue pocket of support and unify across the state.

You know, I'm hopeful, she said of DeJear's chances. But I'm also a little skeptical with how Iowa is since 2012."

Iowa has swung firmly in favor of Republicans in recent years, and it hasnt elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate or governor's mansion since Tom Harkin won in 2008.

Huynh said it's not just DeJear she's concerned about, but Democrats across the state. "But Democrats continue to work tirelessly and work hard," she said.

James Marren, a retired Des Moines resident and party activist, said hes disappointed more people havent stepped up to support DeJear financially. She reported raising nearly $280,000 through the end of 2021, and she had just $8,500 in the bank.

I think she'll make an excellent governor because she's very articulate, very knowledgeable, he said. She's a strong woman with a good heart and I think she's got the backbone. I think she deserves to be our governor. I really do.

More: Gov. Kim Reynolds has raised millions for reelection. How do her Democratic opponents stack up?

DeJear answered questions from a panel and viewers on a live stream. She spoke about making health care accessible and affordable, including mental health care, dental services and more; serving communities of color and underserved populations by meeting them where they are;" creating a more welcoming state for immigrants; and revitalizing Iowas rural communities.

She stressed the importance of this election.

This is about the future of our state. This is about the future of our democracy," she said. "Were no longer talking about boots and bootstraps. Were at the basic level  the very ground that our feet walk on. And right now in Iowa, we've got some cracks. We've got some fractures. In some areas, it looks like a winter Iowa road. But we're gonna fix it."

Responding to reporters' questions after the event, DeJear said the days after her fundraising report were released have been full of support from other Democrats.

"We have seen just an overwhelming amount of support via phone, via text and on our Act Blue (fundraising site), which is incredible," she said. "You know, after Rep. Smith got out of the race, we saw a great deal of increase there from folks who were waiting for the primaries to be over, and we have been slowly but surely getting those bumps. And so while the numbers reflect the end of 2021, in 2022 we are on fire. And I'm super, super excited. And I'm going to work every single day to dig deep to continue to raise the resources to meet people where they are."

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: Deidre DeJear answers questions at Iowa Democratic gubernatorial forum
On the eve of her 100th birthday Saturday, Ruth Salton told her daughter she was going one way or another to Friday night Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel, just days after a gunman voicing antisemitic conspiracy theories held four worshippers hostage for 10 hours at the Fort Worth-area synagogue.

I want to support my people, said Salton, a Holocaust survivor. She said she told her daughter if she doesn't take me, I'll go by myself, because I feel I belong there. I am Jewish, and this is my faith, and I am supporting it.

She's far from alone.

At synagogues around the U.S., Jewish leaders marked the first Sabbath since last weekend's hostage-taking at Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, with a show of defiance against it and other acts of antisemitism. Many called for a strong turnout to show unity among the faithful, and rabbis, public officials and others spoke out during the Friday night and Saturday services against acts of violence, hatred and intimidation aimed at Jews.

At Beth Israel's service Saturday, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and the three other people who were taken hostage last weekend stood in front of the congregation, linking arms as they sang the ritual blessings before and after the weekly reading of the Torah.

And at Friday night services marking the start of the Sabbath, or Shabbat, Cytron-Walker said: "The words Shabbat Shalom, to be able to offer that to each and every one of you, those words have never, never felt so good. While we have a lot of processing to do, God willing, the worst is over ... and we can have a Shabbat of peace.

Viewers of Beth Israels Facebook Live broadcast of its Saturday service sent greetings from Jerusalem, Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere.

Similar observances took place at other congregations.

A terrorist tried to steal Shabbat from us last week. Claiming it this week is an act of resistance, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, of Central Synagogue in New York City, said during Friday nights service.

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During the standoff, the hostage-taker forced Cytron-Walker to call Buchdahl in a bid to win Siddiquis release, according to authorities. She then reported the call to law enforcement.

Christian and Muslim clergy joined in Central Synagogues Friday service in a show of solidarity, linking arms and swaying with Buchdahl and Mayor Eric Adams as the congregation sang a song of thanksgiving.

Once again, we are facing the terror of all of the things that are happening in our city and country, Adams said, recalling how New Yorkers rebounded after the Sept. 11 attacks. In New York, this is our obligation: to get up again to make sure that people know that we are resilient, were loving, were kind.

In Pittsburgh, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation struck a similarly defiant tone. On Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshipers from three congregations meeting at Tree of Life's synagogue in what authorities said was the deadliest antisemitic hate crime in U.S. history.

I, for one, did not survive Oct. 27 to become a professional victim for the rest of my life, Myers said, adding that the response to antisemites is to engage more deeply in Jewish practice.

We cannot let terrorists determine our Jewishness, he said at Friday night services. We did not let the alleged shooter at the Tree of Life do that, and we will not let the hostage taker in Texas do that.

Authorities say Malik Faisal Akram, a British national, took the four people who were at Congregation Beth Israel last Saturday hostage. He was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan and who is serving a lengthy sentence in a prison in Fort Worth, which is 15 miles (23 kilometers) southwest of Colleyville.

The hostages said Akram cited antisemitic stereotypes, believing that Jews could wield power over President Joe Biden to have Siddiqui released.

The siege ended after the last hostage ran out of the synagogue and an FBI SWAT team rushed in. Akram was killed by multiple gunshot wounds. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the case a homicide, which under Texas law indicates that one person was killed by another but does not necessarily mean the killing was a crime.

Congregation Beth Israel's services this weekend were being held at another location because the investigation at the synagogue is ongoing. Attendance was limited to members. The worshipers used the same portable ark, containing its Torah scroll, that it used before the congregation had a building of its own.

Many Jewish leaders have said the hostage standoff was an example of a larger rise in antisemitic acts. The Anti-Defamation League says such incidents have reached their highest levels since it began tracking them decades ago.

Anna Eisen, Salton's daughter, said that the supportive response of local police and the FBI has made her feel safer in my community and my country, but that its also important to confront antisemitism.

Eisen, co-author of books about her fathers Holocaust experience and her own as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said synagogues in Nazi-controlled Europe were attacked, and people were attacked and killed, because of the same kind of hatred that was shown last Saturday by the hostage-taker.

Added Salton: It's nothing new to me. I hate antisemitism. I don't understand why people feel that way about us.

At the same time, having survived the Holocaust and much else, she said she was ready to celebrate her centennial.

I would very much like to be 18, but since I'm 100, I'm grateful that I came to a point to live to 100 years, she said.

___

The Associated Press' religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S., but the AP is solely responsible for the content of its stories.
US President Donald Trump arrives to speak to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

A District Judge said that the Jan 6. Committee could hold on to Trump's spokesman's financial records.

Spokesman Taylor Budowich sued the Jan 6. Committee and JP Morgan in December.

Budowich argued that the bank turned over hundreds of docs before he could challenge the subpoena.

A US District Judge rejected an attempt by former President Donald Trump's spokesperson Taylor Budowich on Thursday to retrieve hundreds of financial documents that his bank provided the House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

Budowich and Conservative Strategies, Inc. sued the Jan. 6 committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, JP Morgan, and other individual members of the committee over a subpoena for his financial records from JP Morgan. The suit was filed on December 24 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Judge James Boasberg denied Budowich's motion at a hearing on Thursday, on the grounds that it's unconstitutional to request that members of Congress return subpoenaed materials.

"There really is no question that this Court has no jurisdiction to order Congress under the Speech or Debate Clause to return documents that it has received," Boasberg, an Obama-appointee, told the court, according to The Hill.

Budowich couldn't be immediately reached for comment. In December, he released a statement that "the Constitution only applies if your party is in charge" in response to the subpoena.

In the December lawsuit, Budowich revealed that he provided the House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, with at least 1,700 pages of documents and sat for "roughly four hours of sworn testimony," according to court documents.

His attorney argued that the move to subpoena the financial documents is a violation of the Financial Privacy Act and said that Budowich was unable to challenge the subpoena before JPMorgan disclosed private financial records, "despite that JPMorgan and the Select Committee had actual written and verbal notice that Plaintiffs were bringing an imminent legal challenge to the congressional subpoena."

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According to the filings, Budowich also underwent a four-hour deposition with the committee and "answered questions concerning payments made and received regarding his involvement in the planning of a peaceful, lawful rally to celebrate President Trump's accomplishments."

Lawmakers on the committee are investigating whether Budowich was connected with diverting $200,000 to a nonprofit that helped organize the "Stop the Steal" rally.

"According to information provided to the Select Committee and press reports, you solicited a 501(c)(4) organization to conduct a social media and radio advertising campaign to encourage people to attend the rally held on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, in support of then-President Trump and his allegations of election fraud," Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson wrote to Budowich in November.

Over the last few months, the committee has issued subpoenas to Trump family members and confidants including Budowich, Rudy Giuliani, and Alex Jones, for their alleged roles in Jan. 6.

This week, the committee received a bulk of requested documents from Trump, after the Supreme Court rejected a request for records to be withheld.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A vegan. A yogi. A meditation and breathwork advocate. And an avid supporter of entrepreneurs.

Those descriptions, in his own words, apply to native Detroiter Ken Harris. And he wants it known that who he is as a total human being is what directly drives his work each day as national president and CEO of the National Business League, the nations oldest and largest trade organization serving Black businesses.

CEO of the National Business League INC. (the oldest and largest trade association for Black businesses) Ken Harris, left, meets with the owner of Heritage Optical George P. Barnes Jr. at their Heritage Optical location in northwest Detroit on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.

It's holistic entrepreneurship; there can be no wealth without health  mind, body, soul and spirit, stated Harris, who has an office in the National Business Leagues Midwest Regional Office in downtown Detroit. I make a concerted effort to prioritize self-care, just as the pursuit of Black economic freedom is my lifes purpose, design and contribution during this lifetime and probably the next. It all ties in together as a lifestyle, channeling balance and alignment of right frequency, positive energy and high vibrational activity daily, which is a part of ancient African traditions.

Harris, 48, speaks fondly of growing up in the late 1970s and '80s on West Buena Vista Street off Petoskey in the Russell Woods area. During his boyhood days, he was skilled enough in basketball to eventually earn a full basketball scholarship to Clark Atlanta University. And, as an adult, he has become adept at the advocacy game by being an active player in the movement to advance Black businesses. Prior to assuming the leadership of the National Business League in 2017, Harris created the International Detroit Black Expo, which became one of the largest showcases for Black businesses in the country.

CEO of the National Business League INC. (the oldest and largest trade association for Black businesses) Ken Harris, left, meets with the owner of Heritage Optical George P. Barnes Jr. at their Heritage Optical location in northwest Detroit on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.

Feeding off the Detroit Black Expos momentum, Harris went on to start the Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce, which grew to more than 26,000 members with chapters throughout the state. He also has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences across the country; and as a subject-matter expert, Harris is regularly quoted in national publications. But putting aside his resume and credentials, Harris is hoping that 2022 will be the year that his work, along with the entrepreneurs it serves, is seen and valued completely, because as he explains, the success of Black businesses should matter to our society as a whole.

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We have to create a conscious culture and cooperative mindset in supporting Black businesses, because the opportunity is here to return Detroit as one of the more preeminent epicenters for Black entrepreneurship in the country, Harris said emphatically. And that would be extremely important to our overall economic recovery and revitalization as a city.

True to his academic background, which includes bachelors and masters degrees in psychology from Clark Atlanta and a Ph.D. in African American/African Studies and economics from Michigan State University, it is Harris way to defend his statements with extensive supporting data. But when explaining the importance of Black businesses to Detroit as a whole, he makes his strongest case by focusing on just a few numbers.

Jeanette King, Executive Director at Heritage Optical meets with the CEO of the National Business League INC. Ken Harris, center, and the owner of Heritage Optical George P. Barnes Jr. at their location in Northwest Detroit on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. The Heritage Group is a national brand that is in all 50 states.

Most people wouldnt believe this, but 80% of the roughly 62,000 (2019 census data) businesses operated in Detroit are Black owned. But most of those businesses dont have any additional employees beyond the owner, Harris said. We should be viewing those businesses as untapped potential for growth, because if those businesses were to add one, two, three or four more people, we could quadruple our economy. Its simple math.

Harris said a major reason that corporations, entrepreneurs and the community at large should support the National Business League is because of the organizations recent track record. He points to the earlier stages of the pandemic, during which he proudly reports his organization generated more than $20 million to assist rebuilding and innovation for national and Detroit businesses.

In October of 2019, when the experts began talking about this potentially deadly disease, our leadership, led by National Chairman Thomas W. Dortch Jr., began thinking about how we could best support Black businesses in the event of this economic crisis, said Harris, whose organization sells tier-level memberships to businesses and corporate partners. And then January (2020) it hit the fan. And in March (2020), we had statewide shutdowns. But the NBL had already been partnering with government agencies and companies (including the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, Stellantis, Comerica Bank, General Motors and American Express) so that the organization could at least stand in the trenches for Black businesses.

CEO of the National Business League INC. (the oldest and largest trade association for Black Businesses) Ken Harris, left, meets with the owner of Heritage Optical, George P. Barnes Jr. in Detroit on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.

Along with expressing his gratitude to his governmental and corporate sponsors, Harris said Detroiters should be aware that long before the pandemic, there have been Black business and civic leaders across the city that have generously and strategically used the resources available to them to support Black businesses in Detroit for decades. When asked to name some of the more noteworthy supporters of Black businesses, Harris, not wanting to risk forgetting anyone, methodically took his time and put together a written list of deceased business and community leaders that he reveres. His list included: Brent Hamilton; Don Barden; Don Davis; Douglass Diggs; Glenn E. Wash; John Barfield; Kathie Dones-Carson; La-Van Hawkins; Marlowe Stoudamire; Mel Farr; Nathan Johnson; ONeil D. Swanson; Ron Hall Sr.; Sam Logan; and Harris personal mentor William C. Brooks.

If this was basketball, that list would make up my all-star team in the spiritual realm, and its fitting because each person supported the dreams of many Black entrepreneurs in this city, said Harris, whose great uncle Dr. DeWitt T. Burton founded Wayne Diagnostic Hospital (later called Burton Mercy Hospital) at 271 Eliot with Dr. Chester Ames in 1939. These people have joined the ancestors, but they should never be forgotten, especially by Detroit entrepreneurs and the community. And remembering these leaders is a part of holistic entrepreneurship. Sankofa means going back to reclaim to move forward. We as Black people need to take time and learn our history, because a people without knowledge of their history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

On the same evening that Harris discussed the importance of his list, he also shared his plans to visit Heritage Optical Centers Livernois location on the morning of Jan. 21.

CEO of the National Business League INC. (the oldest and largest trade association for Black businesses) Ken Harris, left, meets with the owner of Heritage Optical George P. Barnes Jr. at their Heritage Optical location in northwest Detroit on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.

As part of the NBLs national platform, I have traveled extensively, lectured, and met with business leaders across the country; and its nothing like coming back home to your roots and visiting my tribe in Detroits Black business community like Heritage Optical, which has been in business for over 50 years.

Harris said his visit to Heritage Optical would not be guided by an agenda, by choice. But if meeting with the Heritage Optical team leads to the implementation of new ideas down the road, he believes that would be a big win.

Our organization doesnt try to operate as CEOs for local Black businesses, instead we try to help the CEOs, Harris explained. But we always need to be looking for new and unconventional ways to support Black businesses as a whole, because the conventional ways simply havent worked well enough for everyone.

Want to know more?

The National Business League

What: "To promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro, Booker T. Washington founded the National Negro Business League on Aug. 23, 1900, in Boston. Along with being the first, today the National Business League is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan and nonsectarian Black business professional and trade association.

Detroit Leadership Connection: Ken Harris, President and CEO, kharris@nationalbusinessleague.org

Location: National Business League Midwest Regional Headquarters, 1001 Woodward, Suite 910, Detroit. Phone number, 313-818-3017.

Membership: The National Business League reports having more than 120,000 members nationwide and 125 Fortune 500 corporate partners. The membership includes chapters in all 50 states, along with international chapters.

For more information: Go to www.nationalbusinessleague.org.

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the citys neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ken Harris, National Business League have plan to boost Detroit economy
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kuwait's foreign minister said on Saturday he was visiting Lebanon to rebuild trust with the country and show solidarity with the Lebanese people, adding that the move had been coordinated with other Gulf countries.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah's visit to Beirut was the first by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift over comments made by a former Lebanese government that were critical of Saudi Arabia's role in the Yemen war.

Sheikh Ahmad was speaking after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been censured by the states Democratic Party for her opposition to removing the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation without Republican support.

While we take no pleasure in this announcement, the [Arizona Democratic Party] Executive Board has decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy, the state party said.

More follows...
New batch of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines received by Belarus

Xinhua) 16:00, January 22, 2022

A plane carrying Chinese COVID-19 vaccines arrived at the Minsk International Airport on Friday, with the vaccines later handed over by Chinese Ambassador Xie Xiaoyong to Belarusian Minister of Health Dmitry Pinevich.

The latest arrival of the Chinese vaccines not only reflects the high level of relations between China and Belarus, but also testifies to the strong friendship between the two peoples, Xie said at the handover ceremony.

Since 2020, the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has become a key area of Chinese-Belarusian cooperation, and the two countries have helped each other and exchanged experiences in the fields of prevention, epidemic control, diagnosis and treatment, the ambassador said.

Pinevich expressed his sincere gratitude to China and noted that recently, Belarus and China celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the two countries maintain close cooperation in various fields, including health care.

Pinevich said that Chinese vaccines are very reliable, and his ministry will distribute the vaccines to various medical institutions as soon as possible.

According to Belarusian official data, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Belarus has reached 722,939, including 1,791 new cases and 17 more deaths in the last 24 hours.

The total death toll from the virus has reached 5,899 in the country.

(Web editor: Liu Ning, Bianji)
In a photo from 1992, Furukawa Tetsushi teaches a Japanese lesson at Ohio University-Lancaster. One of Furukawa's students from Lancaster reconnected with him nearly 30 years after taking his class.

LANCASTER  Nearly 30 years after taking his class at Ohio University-Lancaster, Jeff Husband was able to reconnect with his professor, despite him being halfway across the world.

Husband graduated from Lancaster High School in 1991, and returned to Lancaster in 2015 from Georgia. He said he'd been thinking about teachers and professors he'd had over the years, when he was inspired to reach out to Furukawa Tetsushi.

Furukawa was a student at OU's main campus, working towards a masters of arts in history of the US, Africa and East Asia. He was asked to teach Japanese at OU-L in the 1990s. Once he finished his masters program, he moved to Lancaster in 1992, as he was interested in "having real living experiences" in an American city away from academia.

While he was in Lancaster, Furukawa visited schools in the area, and taught in OU-L programs like "Kids in College" and "Teens in College." Once, he said he served as a translator for glass company Ishizuka Company executives visiting Anchor Hocking from Nagoya, Japan. He wrote that he was fine in the conference room, but had a more difficult time on the factory floor.

Furukawa said the engineers from both companies were able to communicate with technical terms and gestures that crossed the cultural and national borders. He added he still uses Anchor Hocking glass today.

He said left Lancaster for Columbus two years later to teach multi-racial, ethnic and cultural education classes for students in correctional institutions around Columbus, but returned to Lancaster for work over the next three years.

Husband said he chose to take the class because he had always had an interest in Japanese culture, and it was something different than the normal language classes offered, like Spanish or French.

"I wanted to try something new. We had a pretty small class, but it was an interesting time. We used as much Japanese in the class as possible. In one of the most memorable activities, Furukawa took us to an authentic Japanese restaurant in Columbus, Sapporo Wind," Husband said. "We got a sushi sampler, and got to experience a lot of delicacies. It was a great experience."

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He added the class let him assist two Japanese students looking for a telephone as he was working in a Target retail store. He overheard them looking for a model with a clock. Recognizing "tokei," Japanese for clock, Husband was able to help them find the right phone.

"It was funny to see their faces when I greeted them in Japanese. They weren't expecting it, but it felt good to help them out," he said.

Furukawa worked in the area until 1998, when he returned to Japan. He's currently a world history professor at Otoni University in Kyoto. In September, he was forwarded a message by the university's admission office sent by Husband, asking if this Furukawa Tetsushi was the same one who'd taught him in Lancaster.

The two began corresponding. Husband shared that his girlfriend's son had taught English in Tokyo for a year, and that had inspired him to dive back into Japanese.

"It was great when I was able to reconnect with Furukawa, because you're never sure if teachers will remember their students, plus it's been so long. When I was thinking back on professors and teachers I've had in the past, he really stood out to me, because I liked his class and because he was a good teacher," Husband said. "I think it'd be great to get to visit with him if he can come back. I know COVID-19 has postponed any trips he might have wanted to take, but he said he wants to come back, and I think it'd be so cool to show him how Lancaster has changed."

Husband added one of the biggest changes Furukawa may like to see is the revitalization of Lancaster's downtown, which has seen more shops and restaurants since Furukawa returned to Japan.

"There's definitely more variety there, and he'd probably like to see OU-L too, and even Athens' main campus. I'm excited for the chance to visit with him again," he said.

For Furukawa, the chance to reconnect with a former student, from his "hometown" in the US was wonderful. He wrote in an e-mail that he has wonderful memories of Lancaster, and is looking forward to coming back when it's safe to travel again.

Husband said he'd also like the chance to visit Japan, but he's never had the chance to yet.

"With my son-in-law having spent time there, we've compared notes, and I've been practicing my Japanese a little. My niece is stationed in Japan, and I'd love to see Kyoto, so we're trying to plan a visit when we can," he said. "I was just happy I was able to track Furukawa down."

Barrett Lawlis is a reporter with the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. You can share story ideas or comments with him at 740-681-4342 or send an e-mail to blawlis@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BarrettLawlis

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: An ocean apart: student and sensei reconnected after 30 years
Chapin's KJ Lewis comes down with a defensive rebound against Las Cruces High on Tuesday night. Photo taken 11/30/21.

LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces Public Schools is implementing enhanced COVID-safe practices at all indoor athletic events and school activities amid rising COVID-19 infections.

LCPS stated in a news release it will reinstate a social distancing protocol inside all gymnasiums and auditoriums. Beginning Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, spectators will notice marked locations for available seating on bleachers and seating areas. Beginning Monday, Jan. 24, concession standswill be closed and food and drink will be prohibited to encourage 100 percent mask compliance.

These measures are our best line of prevention right now, said LCPS Superintendent Ralph Ramos. I want to see championships and musical performances. I want our parents to be able to watch their students perform and finish this season with spectators in the stands. Please know that I appreciate everyones cooperation in this, and I encourage you to do your part to keep our schools and community safe.

Ramos added that he hopes the new protocols are temporary and that as infection rates decrease, these measures can be revisited.

More: Las Cruces school board split over COVID-19 protocols: 'We're going in the wrong direction,' president says

LCPS tracks COVID-19 cases and releases information related to pandemic protocols at https://lcpsnm.sites.thrillshare.com/page/covid-19-case-status.

This week, the district has reported its highest number of positive COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. The trend mirrors similar spikes within Dona Ana County, New Mexico and the United States.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces Public Schools reinstates social distancing, closes concessions at games, events
Photo credit: Roaring Brook Press



"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below."

The Ghanaian proverb Wisdom is like a baobab tree: No one individual can embrace it is a fitting description for Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Nelda LaTeefs new book African Proverbs for All Ages, which was written to be shared and discussed. In her introduction, Cole says adults assume the young are not capable of interpreting metaphors, and adults shortchange themselves when they focus solely on practical matters. As the title proclaims, all age groups will benefit from these inspirational aphorismswhich center on community, animals, and the earthand offer life lessons gathered over centuries and passed down through oral tradition. LaTeefs vibrant illustrations pair beautifully with the universal and often poetic sayings.

Cole is an anthropologist who became the first female African American president of Spelman College and later was president of Bennett College, both historically Black colleges for women. From 2009 to 2017, she was the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Nelda LaTeef is an award-winning author and illustrator of several books, including The Talking Baobab Tree and Animal Village. For years, the two authors collected proverbs from the African countries in which they lived at different times. In writing African Proverbs for All Ages, published by Roaring Brook Press and an Oprah Book imprint, they are sharing decades-long accumulated knowledge.

We spoke with the authors recently about their hopes for the book. As the Sudanese proverb says, We wish two things for our children: the first is roots; the second is wings. These proverbs are rooted in Africa, but the authors say they should be distributed widely and beyond the continents borders so that people of all different cultures can apply them to matters significant or mundane. Read on to hear (mostly in their own words) how they first fell in love with proverbs and why they believe you will too.

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Oprah Daily: How did this book come into being?

Nelda LaTeef: It came about as a result of a childrens picture book I had written and illustrated that was inspired by the West African oral tradition. At the time Dr. Cole was the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. I sent her the manuscript and the illustrations to the story, and she very graciously agreed to write an endorsement to the book jacket. When my book Animal Village was published, I was very excited to meet Dr. Cole in person and to present her an autographed copy of the book. During our visit, we discovered that we shared a mutual admiration for African proverbs from the many years each of us had spent living in different countries, at different time periods in Africa.

In my childrens stories, I like to try to include African proverbs in the dialogue, and if I am writing a story based on a Wolof tale, I will include Wolof proverbs, and so on. No one uses African proverbs like Dr. Cole so effectively to get her message across. So, on the spot, we agreed to collaborate on a childrens book, and we have never looked back. We decided that we would pull together our favorite proverbs, Dr. Cole would write the books prologue, and I would do the illustrations, so it was this wonderful teamwork and the friendship that grew between us that really propelled the project forward.

When and why did you start collecting African proverbs?



Johnnetta B. Cole: For me, its so easily connected to my being a young anthropologist. Growing up in the South in an African American community, I grew up with proverbs.

Photo credit: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

Then I went to Liberia in 1960 and spent two years doing fieldwork to earn my PhD. I have been privileged to visit, to do work in, and to attend conferences in 17 of the 54 countries on the African continent. You cannot go on that continent and spend much time without hearing a proverb.



Photo credit: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

NL: Well, there is a common thread running through this project, and it is the massive continent of Africathere are 54 countries encompassing it. When I was overseas, I lived in the West African countries of Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal, where I would collect proverbs as I was writing my books. A particular proverb that resonates with me is Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. Traveling, personally, gave me a broad form of reference and influenced me to become a childrens author and illustrator.

When I was growing up, my parents were in the U.S. foreign service, so we did a lot of traveling. I believe that, just like reading, traveling opens your mind to so many different worlds; it gives you an appreciation for different cultures, languages, customs, food, and art forms. It makes you realize that there are so many different worlds out there. When I was in Niger, for example, I would drive into the bush with my friends, just 45 minutes outside the capital, Niamey, to see my favorite animals, giraffes, grazing in the wild. On the return drive, we would stop to visit a Zarma village where one of my friends grandfathers lived. There was a woman with snow-white hair who was often seated on a straw mat under the shade of a large acacia tree. As it turned out, she was the village griot, which in West African culture is a keeper of traditional knowledge. In fact, it is said that when a griot dies, it is as though a library has been burned to the ground. She would tell stories to children, and some adults gathered around her. On our way back to Niamey, some of my friends would translate to French the stories we had just heard, and I would jot them down, and it was from those stories that I became a writer and illustrator.

What has the reception to African Proverbs for All Ages been?



JBC: Nelda and I have had this wonderful experience of introducing our book to very young people, second graders. One of the points that we continue to share with these young learners and with anyone who picks up this book is that there is no wrong answer in choosing his or her idea of the best proverb in terms of connecting with the illustration. The response of children has just been exhilarating.

NL: When they pick a proverb that I did not illustrate, their explanation is so valid that its mind-boggling that they think so deeply.

What impact do you hope for for this book?

JBC: Before I say what my hope is, I really must do something; I will lift up a proverb, It does no harm to be grateful. I simply cant go another minute without saying how profoundly grateful Nelda and I are to Miss Oprah Winfrey. To receive the honor, the privilege of having ones book designated a book under Oprah's imprintits hard to describe that. This is the first childrens book that has received Miss Winfreys endorsement, and we wish that many, many children and adults will pick it up.

We hope, first of all, that it will make clear to the reader that Africa is not a country; it is a continent, a massive, incredibly diverse continent. Maybe they will even discover that Africa is where all of humanity originated. We also want readers to be engaged by what a proverb is, and connect to sayings that he or she has heard in their own culture, and that in reading this book, some messages that Nelda and I share will come forward. For example, no matter how diverse we are across our world, there is so much that we as people share, and there is so much to be learned throughout the extent of ones life. And finally, I am going to say I hope this book brings the reader joy. I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Maya Angelou fairly well, and I often think about the fact that whenever she autographed a book, she only used one word when signing her name, joy. I hope this book brings joy to the reader.

NL: We hope these proverbs evoke a sense of curiosity and a desire to learn more about Africa. We want readers to be inspired to use proverbs in their daily practice and interactions. For example, when someone is impatient, you can remind them, Patience is bitter, but it bears sweet fruit. Or if someone is uncooperative, Many hands make light work. A proverb I particularly find powerful in its simplicity is The one who forgives ends the argument; I love that one. I remind myself of that often. There is so much good counsel and caution in these proverbs.

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Congress must act to preserve democracy

One year ago, we witnessed an attack on our country: an insurrection by political extremists at the U.S. Capitol.

A mob of violent rioters defaced the Capitol Building and threatened the lives of the elected officials and staff working therethe core of American democracy. This was a pivotal moment for America and our fundamental promise of free and fair elections.

One year out from that horrible day, Congress has yet to secure the right to vote and the integrity of our electionswhile state and county governments are passing laws to make it harder to vote. Hours-long lines and oppressive ID requirements are only the beginning, unless Congress acts.

The Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; both bills are essential to the survival of the American experiment. The House of Representatives has already passed them. We cant let made-up Senate rules stand in the way of protecting our democracy.

Fighting for our democracy by passing voting rights legislation is one of the most important actions we can take as we commemorate this attack on our country.

Justin Philipps, Newark

STRS should examine equal retirement increases

I am a retired Teacher, proud of my thirty-six years of service to the same school district. I gladly paid into State Teachers Retirement system with the promise of a good retirement backed by a solid board of trusted and dedicated fellow members.

I am aware that because of number of years worked and the pay scale of various school districts, there is a vast difference in the amount of pension benefits we all receive. The more paid in, the higher the benefits. The annual COLA really helped those from poorer districts. What I can not understand its why the COLA was always a percentage, 3 percent, then later 2 percent and then nothing because it became too expensive. I do not see the fairness in one members 3 percent COLA being $900 and another's be $3.000. We all pay the same gas prices, interest rates and go to the grocery store. Why not explore and equal dollar COLA to all members. This could give much needed assistance to those at the bottom and still be fair to those at the top.

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Jack Maybury, Hebron

Don Edwards scoreboard plan a loser

The last Letter to Editor called the existing Scoreboard Plan an Unmitigated Disaster

Heres why-three years in: The City is negative $127,000, the YMCA is negative $62,000 if 2021 scoreboard sales mirror 2020 results and the Don Edwards Park Fund should receive its very first deposit. Former YMCA Sports Director touted this plan to Council as an opportunity to fund the ballpark for years to come. 

At contract end in 2028 the City will be negative $225,000, if the YMCAs first two years average sales remain constant, our YMCA will be negative $142,000 and the Edwards Fund will have an anemic $80,000.

In 2028 if sales average just shy of $35,000 annually our YMCA will break even, but the Fund is limited to $80,000.

In 2028 if sales average $50,000 annually our YMCA will be positive $118,000, but the Fund is limited to $80,000

Noteworthy: The YMCA provided a memo from Director Rhodes waiving the Ys $20,000 obligation to the Don Edwards Park Fund for 2019 & 2020 the $20,000 was then diverted to help pay for the $368,000 scoreboard. Since Council didnt approve Rhodes waiver we will be asking legal under what authority the $20,000 was waived.

Kudos to Councilman Marmie for taking time to call me. Doug states he wants what is best for Newark so we hope he will use his 20 years of experience and leadership skills to convene a committee to limit the losses to Don Edwards Park.

Stop the Boondoggle- save Don Edwards Park

Dave Froelich, Newark

Denison voters unlikely to 'blame'

I am writing in response to Matt McGowans guest column stating that it is somehow unfair for Denison students to vote in Granville. This follows previous articles in the Sentinel in which Mr. McGowan blamed his loss in the November 2021 Granville Village Council election on Denison student voters.

Mr. McGowan asserts, without evidence, that Denison students voting in Granville elections are breaking the law by failing to change their driver licenses or pay local income taxes. Regarding the driver licenses, the salient questions are a) how does Mr. McGowan know this? and b) how many other new residents/voters have not changed their licenses? As for taxes, if Denison students are receiving a paycheck, it is a good bet that their employers are in fact withholding taxes.

Similarly, I find Mr. McGowans earlier accusation that student voters were responsible for his election loss to be pure conjecture. The 9 votes required to swing Mr. McGowans loss to victory could have come from any of the 3,098 votes he did not receive. The idea that the votes of Denison students  all 13 of them (according to Mr. McGowan)  made the difference is without proof and, more important, is unlikely.

Furthermore, Granvilles overall voter participation in this election was 34%. It would make more sense for Mr. McGown to vent his disappointment with the 66% of registered voters who did not bother to vote.

Interestingly, none of the winning candidates have lodged any complaints about the voting habits of Denison students. Funny, that.

Dan Finkelman, Granville

An encounter with a fawn

This past spring, I saw a doe and her two babies in my front yard. The babies were eating the bird seed off the ground under the bird feeder. The doe was watching from about 30 feet away. Quietly, I went out on my front porch to watch the deer, I was about 15 to 20 feet away. As I step onto the porch, they all looked at me and one of the babies ran over to the doe. The other baby just went back to eating. After a few minutes, I decided to get closer. As I approached, the baby that was eating looked at me and I stopped about 4 feet from this deer. We just looked at each other for a few minutes and then the baby went back to eating. The other fawn and doe were still standing about 30 feet away and the doe was just keeping an eye on me. Do you realize how terrific it was to be that close and have them not be afraid? After several minutes of standing there watching them, I decided to go back into the house and watched them from my living room. Within minutes of being back in the house and doe started to leave and both babies followed her.

During the summer when I was sitting in my yard on a bench under a tree, I saw a beautiful male deer come out of the woods across from me just to stand there and watch me. I could not believe that this deer watching me was the same deer that was eating the bird food months before. He paid no attention to all the traffic, flying up and down the road as he watched me. After a few minutes standing there the deer walked back into the woods. I wonder if I had called him, would he have come over?

The last time he was seen in the yard was the third week of November, my son came home about 10 p.m. He came home and found me in the lower floor of the house, which has very large windows and told me that he saw 2 deer outside those windows looking at me. He also said as he drove up the driveway, they ran away in front of his car into the next yard. So you see animals do have memories!

Caroline L. King, Newark

Letters to the editor

Letters may be submitted via email to advocate@newarkadvocate.com. They must be 250 words or less to be considered and must include the author's name, hometown and contact information. We use contact information for verification, but it is not published.

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Letters to the editor: Reader wants Congress to act on voting rights
Jan. 21Life University celebrated 91 students at a Clinic Gateway ceremony on Jan. 18 at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

The event marked a milestone for the students as they begin the clinical phase of their educations.

"Clinic Gateway is such an incredible opportunity to celebrate our Doctor of Chiropractic students as they make the transition from classroom and lab learning to rendering care under our mentor doctors in the clinical setting," said Assistant Director of Clinics Dr. Robert Love. "We are so proud to honor their work and this tremendous achievement as we fellowship with them in an evening of fun, food and connection!"

In their eight quarter, Life University D.C. students begin Level I of their clinic experience as interns at the Campus Center for Health and Optimal Performance, located in the William M. Harris Center for Clinical Education. At CC-HOP, students work closely with highly experienced Life U faculty members to develop their techniques as they provide chiropractic services to their fellow Life U students.

Beginning in their 10th quarter, D.C. students move to Level II of their clinical education by treating patients at the Center for Health and Optimal Performance, the public outpatient clinic located on the LIFE campus. During their 13th and 14th quarters, students transition to Level III and, if they qualify, have the added option of interning at the Life Chiropractic Clinics in Midtown Atlanta and Marietta or in the office of a Life University extension faculty member elsewhere in the U.S. or internationally through the Practice, Excellence, Art and Knowledge program.

Founded in 1974, Life University is a health sciences institution most known for its College of Chiropractic, the largest single-campus College of Chiropractic in the world.

For more information, visit life.edu/academic-pages/chiropractic-program.
Jan. 21The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District announced the winners for the 20th annual middle school essay contest.

This year's contest focused on the unique nature of the region's water resources and the critical role of water industry professionals.

The District-wide winner for the contest was Samarth Iyengar from Kittredge Magnet School and Raina Banerjee of Simpson Middle School was among the 14 other regional winners.

In the 20 years that the Metro Water District has sponsored the annual essay contest, this outreach activity has challenged thousands of middle school students to think critically about the conservation and the protection of water resources in the region. This year, more than 500 students from across the 15-county region participated.

The annual essay contest is one of many educational outreach initiatives conducted by the Metro Water District to raise awareness about conservation efforts and the importance of water quality preservation in the Atlanta region. Visit My Drop Counts at https://mydropcounts.org/ for tips on how you can conserve water and the Clean Water Campaign at https://cleanwatercampaign.org/ to learn how one can help prevent stormwater pollution.
A man has been charged with assault and battery after police say he lashed out at a school nurse, blew in her face without a mask on, and said, Now you go quarantine.

A nurse at Andrews Elementary School had informed Patrick Thomas Newton, 28, that his child had come into close contact with a student who has COVID, and that his child would be sent home to quarantine.

The nurse was explaining the COVID guidelines to Newton in her office, stating that the child had to be quarantined, according to an incident report from the Georgetown County Sheriffs Office dated Jan. 12.

Jan. 13, Newton was booked into Georgetown County Jail and charged with assault and battery in the third degree. He was released from jail later that day after posting his $500 bond, according to the jails website.

The nurse was walking away when Newton asked why his child had to be quarantined and not another child.

The man called the nurse crazy and said she didnt know what she was doing and that all this was b******t, the incident report states.

Newton then asked the nurse what would happen if an employee came into close contact with a person that has COVID. She explained that the same quarantine guidelines applied to staff.

Newton then stood up, stepped closer to her, and blew with his mouth in front of her and said, Now you go quarantine, the nurse told police, according to Georgetown County Sheriffs Office records.

The nurse responded that she had a mask on and that was not necessary, and said she did not have time for this. He replied, Well neither do I and walked out the door with his children.

According to the incident report, Newton then posted a status on Facebook referencing the incident.

The nurse at Andrews Elementary School has been in close contact with someone that is covid positive. Think she will quarantine? the incident report states.
Wayne Slough stabbed himself in the chest with a kitchen knife before blaming his ex. (SWNS)

A man who stabbed himself in the chest with a kitchen knife before blaming his ex-girlfriend so she would get arrested has been jailed for three years.

Wayne Slough, 33, cut himself after provoking an argument with his former partner in a house near Maidstone, Kent, which he recorded on his phone.

At Maidstone Crown Court last November, Slough was originally given a two-year suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

But the Court of Appeal quashed the decision on Wednesday and imposed an immediate jail term of three years following the incident in June 2017.

Slough was originally given a suspended sentence at Maidstone Crown Court. (PA)

Slough arranged to meet his ex-partner and concealed the phone in his pocket before going into the house.

In the audio recording, Slough could be heard calmly saying "here she comes" while walking towards his car.

He claimed it was at this point his partner punched him in the right shoulder and stabbed him.

After noticing the knife, he allegedly pulled it out of his chest before throwing it in the footwell of his car and driving off.

Around 50 minutes later, he called Kent Police from Darent Valley Hospital near Dartford where he was receiving treatment and told officers his former partner assaulted him.

But there was no sign of a struggle or any evidence to suggest Slough had been approached by the victim on the recording.

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A witness later confirmed while there had been an argument, the woman had not assaulted slough or been anywhere near his car on the morning of 17 June, 2017.

Detectives discovered the victim's DNA was not found on the kitchen knife, which also did not match the set at the property where she was living.

However, it did match the set of knives at Slough's home in Rochester, Kent.

Detective Constable Kathryn Lumsden-Earle of Kent Police said: "I am pleased that Slough has now been held to account and is in prison  it is the only acceptable outcome.

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"I hope the victim of this case can now feel a sense of justice, and I encourage anyone else who is affected by domestic abuse to contact us so we can provide support and pursue justice."

Following the original sentencing in November, the Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC MP referred Sloughs sentence to the Court of Appeal for being too lenient and a long one was imposed this week.

Watch: What is the metaverse?
Every investor in 4D pharma plc (LON:DDDD) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Dont tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.

4D pharma is a smaller company with a market capitalization of UK77m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about 4D pharma.

See our latest analysis for 4D pharma

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About 4D pharma?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in 4D pharma. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see 4D pharma's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in 4D pharma. Steven Oliveira is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.0% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.4% by the third-largest shareholder. Note that the second and third-largest shareholders are also Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, meaning that the company's top shareholders are insiders.

Story continues

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 13 shareholders have a combined ownership of 52% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of 4D pharma

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of 4D pharma plc. Insiders own UK19m worth of shares in the UK77m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 25% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 5.2% of 4D pharma. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for 4D pharma (of which 1 is a bit unpleasant!) you should know about.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Jan. 22Troops with the Ohio National Guard arrived at Mercy Health  Springfield Regional Medical Center this week, and more soldiers are expected to be deployed to the area to assist the area's hospital with COVID-19 response.

On Monday, 20 clinical and non-clinical guard members came to Springfield to support health care teams and providers, according to Mercy Health.

The addition of National Guard soldiers to the area's hospital is a part of Gov. Mike DeWine's order last month for 1,050 Ohio National Guard members to be activated to help with COVID-related staffing shortages in nursing homes, and then an additional 1,250 guard members to be deployed to help hospitals.

Ohio National Guard PIO Stephanie Beougher said plans are underway to add roughly 50 non-clinical soldiers to focus on hospital and testing support in the Dayton and Springfield area "in the next week."

"We are continuing to work with the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Hospital Association to reassign personnel as needs shift among hospitals and regions of the state," Beougher said.

There are currently about 120 supporting the Dayton and Springfield area.

"We are grateful for their assistance and dedication during this challenging time," said Jennifer Robinson, Public Relations and Communications Manager of Bon Secours Mercy Health.

According to the Ohio Hospital Association, more than 5,581 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the state on Friday. Nearly 1 in 4 patients are COVID-19 positive, the hospital association said.

In Ohio's intensive care units, nearly 1 in 3 patients are positive for the virus. More than 1,000 COVID-19 patients were in Ohio's ICUs on Friday, according to the hospital association.

Since the pandemic's start, the Ohio Department of Health has reported more than 31,000 cases in Clark County, with more than 800 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths also reported.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday agreed to boost cooperation on economic and trade issues with the set-up of a new ministerial-level dialogue.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida established a new ministerial-level Economic Policy Consultative Committee (the Economic "2+2"), to track and drive economic cooperation and to strengthen the rules-based economic order in the Indo-Pacific region and the world," the White House said in a readout of the virtual meeting between the two leaders.

The so-called "2+2" new economic forum, which will include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, "has not been fully worked out," a senior U.S. administration official said on Friday during a background press call.

"But the expectation is that they will work in a number of areas including export controls, but most directly in the current environment - supply chains, technology investments, and standard setting," the official said.

During the 90-minute virtual meeting, Biden and Kishida also expressed their desire for the "swift resolution" of trade issues, according to the White House.

The promise of a "swift" resolution to trade issues signals the two leaders were unable to agree yet over whether to ease or eliminate tariffs imposed by the United States, under the Donald Trump administration in 2018, on Japanese steel and aluminum imports, Bloomberg News reported.

The so-called Section 232 tariffs were applied on national security grounds and have been a thorn in otherwise close ties, the report said.

The U.S. official who briefed reporters said that Raimondo is in regular contact with her Japanese interlocutor to negotiate tariff issues. "I think the president made clear that his hope would be that these negotiations would be concluded rapidly," the official said.

Biden also accepted Kishida's invitation to visit Japan in the late spring for the so-called "Quad" meeting among the United States, Japan, India and Australia, according to the official.

"I think he did accept the invitation, obviously, with details to be worked out. And obviously, we have to see how COVID plays out," the official said.

Friday's virtual meeting was the first substantial exchange between the two leaders since Kishida took office in October last year. The leaders had a brief conversation on the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

Kishida had hoped to hold an in-person meeting with Biden early this year, but surging COVID-19 infections forced him to give up on visiting the United States before the start of a parliamentary session in Japan earlier this month. 
PROVIDENCE  A Providence man was arrested for illegal possession of a gun after fleeing on foot from police Friday night on the south side of the city.

Jaevon Sampson, 25, ran from patrol officers after they pulled over the car he was riding in at about 11:40 p.m., the police said. When he was caught shortly afterward on Prairie Avenue, a loaded 9 mm handgun was found in his sweatshirt pocket.

The driver of the car, Michael Sellers, 37, of Providence, was arrested on a warrant for driving with a suspended license.

Sampson is also wanted on two warrants in Rhode Island for drug charges and one from New York for a parole violation in connection with a robbery charge.

Both men were set to be taken to the Adult Correctional Institutions.

More: A multi-jurisdictional task force aims to stop gun violence in RI. Here is how it works.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence man arrested for illegal possession of a gun
LONDON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A new form of Omicron named BA.2 has been designated a "variant under investigation," with 426 cases of the Omicron variant sub-lineage confirmed in the United Kingdom (UK), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said Friday.

"Overall, the original Omicron lineage, BA.1, is dominant in the UK and the proportion of BA.2 cases is currently low," with the earliest dated Dec. 6, 2021, the agency said in a statement.

In total, 40 countries have uploaded 8,040 BA.2 sequences to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) since Nov. 17. At this point, it is not possible to determine where the sub-lineage may have originated, it added.

The first sequences were submitted from the Philippines, and most samples have been uploaded from Denmark (6,411), while other countries that have uploaded more than 100 samples are India (530), Sweden (181), and Singapore (127), according to the agency.

Meera Chand, incident director at the agency, said new mutations are "expected" as the pandemic continues. "So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than Omicron BA.1, but data is limited and UKHSA continues to investigate."

Official figures on Friday showed the UK added 95,787 COVID-19 cases in the latest 24 hours, bringing its total caseload to 15,709,059, and 288 more deaths, taking the national death toll to 153,490.

More than 90 percent of people aged 12 and above in the UK have had their first dose of vaccine, more than 83 percent have taken both shots, and more than 63 percent have received booster jabs. 
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen denied targeting a detention centre in Yemen's Saada province, saying the facility hit was not a site restricted from strikes, the Saudi official news agency SPA reported on Saturday.

A Reuters witness said several people, including African migrants, died in the Friday attack that reportedly killed at least 60 people https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/several-killed-air-strike-detention-centre-yemens-saada-reuters-witness-2022-01-21.

"The coalition will inform the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen (OCHA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the facts and details," the state news agency said, citing a coalition spokesman.

He said the target in Saada was not on no-targeting lists agreed upon with the OCHA, was not reported by the ICRC and did not meet the standards stipulated by the Third Geneva Convention for Prisoners of War.

(Reporting by Ahmad Elhamy; Editing by William Mallard)
Scott Halpin

The newly named state executive director of the Farm Service Agency is excited about his role.

Scott Halpin looks forward to helping Illinois agriculture through the variety of programs offered by FSA. The Gardner-South Wilmington High School graduate farms in that area with his father and brother, raising corn, soybeans, hay and beef cattle.

Halpin has been involved with several groups during his lifetime.

I sat on my Soil and Water board for several years in Grundy County, Halpin told the Central Illinois Farm Network. Other than that, Ive had a lot of Farm Bureau experience through the Young Leaders and served my 10 years on the IAA Board.

Since his time on the IAA Board, Halpin has served on his local county Farm Bureau board. As state executive director for FSA, he will help oversee all operations of the Illinois FSA which is based in Springfield. Halpin notes the network of individual county offices impact farmers all throughout the state.

Due to increased rates of COVID-19 transmission, most Illinois USDA Service Centers are closed to visitors but are staffed on-site and remotely to continue working with producers via telephone, e-mail or other digital means. Halpin suggests calling ahead before visiting an office to check on the current status.

These offices are open and completing the business that needs to be done, Halpin said.

Farmers should keep several deadlines in mind, including applications which must be filed by Jan. 31 for the Livestock Indemnity Program, Livestock Forage Program and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program. Producers in Boone, Cook, DeKalb, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Winnebago counties are eligible to apply for Livestock Forage Disaster Program benefits.

The next really important deadline would be the designation between ARC and PLC programs and those programs (sign-ups) run through March 15, Halpin explained.

ARC and PLC provide future protections against market fluctuations. The election and enrollment period opened on Oct. 18.

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Halpin named state executive director of the Farm Service Agency
In an email sent to staff Friday afternoon, University of Southern Mississippi President Rodney Bennett announced he would step down as president when his contract expires in 2023.

The time is coming for me to step aside for another individual to chart the path for the next chapter in our Southern Miss story, he said in the email.

Although Bennett wasnt officially Southern Miss' president until later in 2013, he hit the ground running in February that year, after an EF4 tornado caused significant damage to the Hattiesburg campus.

Mississippi economy: USM's impact on state grows significantly. Athletics, new buildings play a role.

Bennett, 55, arrived in Hattiesburg before the dust of the tornado had settled, rolling up his sleeves and leading the university's cleanup effort.

Bennett's dedication to the university stood out again in 2017, when Bennett turned down a $72,630 salary increase, instead donating the money to the USM Foundation to fund an endowed scholarship.

I am sensitive this increase comes at a time when so many employees have not received pay increases, have had positions eliminated or have had positions in their units unfilled, Bennett wrote in an email to the campus community after the announcement was made.

Returning at a higher rate than expected: USM sees highest student enrollment since 2014

Bennett's announcement comes more than a year before his contract expires.

"My intention is to begin exploring other professional opportunities later this spring, and I wanted to be transparent with each of you about my plans for the future," he said. "I will be working closely with the IHL systems Commissioner of Higher Education to develop a strong transition plan, and I have no doubt the system leadership will identify a highly qualified, passionate, visionary leader to take the helm of our beloved University of Southern Mississippi."

Despite announcing his departure and plans to seek other opportunities, Bennett said he is committed to the university and higher education in Mississippi.

Story continues

"Until my time here has come to a conclusion, we will continue our work at a high level to advance the university and to advance public higher education in Mississippi," he said. "We will remain committed to being good stewards of the resources that enable us to carry out this important work for our students, for our state and for generations of Golden Eagles yet to come."

Southern Miss: In an era of state cuts, university president gives up a big raise

Bennett, the university's first Black president, led Southern Miss to new heights, including recording some of the university's highest freshmen enrollment figures and improved student retention.

The university's footprint in Mississippi has grown in recent years, with an economic impact of more than $663 million from 2017 to 2019, according to a report released by the university in October.

The study, conducted by the Trent Lott National Center for Excellence in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, was independently verified by IMPLAN Inc.

It found that the university generated more than $34 million per year in tax revenue, and the overall output of student and employee spending added $565 million to Mississippis economy.

Bennett led the university through times of budget cuts, realignment of programs and other challenges that could have hindered students' education yet managed to maintain a high academic standard and quality of programming during his tenure.

"I have learned a great deal  I have grown a great deal  and I have worked with and mentored outstanding individuals, who I am confident will continue to have a positive impact on higher education," Bennett said. "The University of Southern Mississippi will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will always be excited to hear about the good things I know are still on the horizon for this institution."

Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss President Rodney Bennett says he will step down in 2023
OAK CREEK, WI  Starbucks will no longer require COVID-19 vaccinations of its 228,000 workers at 9,000 U.S. coffee shops, including those in Oak Creek.



Starbucks is one of the first big companies to change vaccination policies after the U.S. Supreme Court quashed a vaccine mandate that would have affected about 84 million workers, or about half of the U.S. labor force. Had the mandate been allowed to stand, workers would have had to either get fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

The courts Jan.13 6-3 ruling came as the omicron coronavirus variant was driving a surge in COVID-19 infections. Nothing in the Supreme Court ruling, which allows the Biden administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most U.S. health care workers, requires companies with 100 or more employees to ease vaccination requirements.

Between Jan. 8 and 15from the apparent peak of the omicron variant surge to the most recent reported data as of writing, new positive case averages appear to have gone down. But in Oak Creek, the pandemic is not over.

The Health Department continues to recommend wearing masks in public spaces. As of Jan. 17, 67.7 percent of the City's population was fully vaccinated, the health department wrote on its website.

The new Starbucks vaccination policy, first reported by The Associated Press, was announced in a memo to employees Tuesday.



Amtrak temporarily suspended its vaccine mandate in December, before the Supreme Court ruling. In a memo to employees seen by Reuters, Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn said nearly 96 percent of its employees were either fully vaccination or had received an accommodation for religious or medical reasons.

More big businesses operating in Oak Creek could follow suit as the coronavirus surge worsens the countrys labor shortage. A record 8.8 million people called out sick with COVID-19 between Dec. 29-Jan. 10, according to data reported by The Washington Post.

Retail establishments and their advocates have been vocal critics of the now-blocked requirement, arguing theyre already struggling to find enough workers as the coronavirus pandemic persists. Millions of Americans have quit their jobs since the pandemic began in whats being called The Great Resignation.

Story continues

Brett Coburn, a lawyer at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird, told The New York Times a lot of companies were pursuing the vaccine or test requirement only because they were being required to do so.

The AP reported Boston-based General Electric Co. got rid of its vaccine mandate last week after the court ruled, according to IEU-CWA Local 201, the union representing machinists, electricians and other GE employees. Overall, GE has 56,000 U.S. workers.

Not all big businesses plan to follow the lead of Starbucks and GE, though. New York-based Citigroup Inc., one of the largest banks in the U.S., in October said its workers needed to be fully vaccinated or receive an accommodation by Jan. 14. Citigroup told the AP that 99 percent of its employees are now fully vaccinated.

Its up to employers to navigate state and local laws in the absence of a federal mandate. More than a dozen states prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates of any kind, CNBC reported.

For most employers, it has proved to be a day-to-day crisis because when they think they know the answer, the rules change, Domenique Camacho Moran, a labor and employment lawyer with the firm Farrell Fritz, told The New York Times.

This article originally appeared on the Oak Creek Patch
Bartlesville High School's Nick Smith guards an opposing player during basketball action this week.

Cold shooting fingers and just plain tough luck proved to be two obstacles the red-hot Bartlesville High School boys basketball team couldnt overcome in Thursdays opening round of the Carl Albert tourney.

Destiny Christian went on a late run and held on to beat the Bruins, 61-54, and spoil their bid for what could have been the first four-game winning streak during head coach Clent Stewarts tenure.

Coming into the game, the Bruins had knocked off three 6A opponents, including Owasso, 77-74 (ot), Sand Springs, 82-54, and Bixby, 72-70.

And, the Bruins battle determinedly from the start against Destiny Christian.

During an explosive offensive first quarter, David Castillo completed a three-point play to cut Destinys lead to two points, 16-14.

I thought we struggled with identifying what Destiny Christian was trying to do, Stewart said. Offensively, we didnt execute what our game plan was.

Because of Destiny Christians length and aggressive athleticism, the Bruins plan had been to drive to the hoop and to make an extra pass to an open shooter, Stewart explained.

But, Bartlesville only hit 16 percent from behind the three-point line, vastly lower than its usual performance.

Bartlesville then spurted into the lead on a combination of Nick Smiths rebound-and-follow-up and three free throws by Aadhi Ayyappan, 19-18.

But, Destiny scored the final points of the quarter and led, 23-19.

Swapping points continued to define the pattern throughout the second quarter.

Ayyappan and Castillo drilled three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to elevated Bartlesville on top, 25-23.

After Destiny completed a 5-0 run, Kent Girard rang up a trey to knot the score, 28-28.

The game remained deadlocked at halftime, 32-32, with Castillo scoring a late two-pointer.

Destiny once again rode a mini-run to a two-possession lead, 38-34, and Bartlesville clawed back into the lead.

Castillo canned a two-pointer to make it a 38-37 game; moments later, Bruin guard DaRon Davis stole the ball, leading to a fast break layup by Castillo for a 39-38 lead.

Story continues

Just as it had in the first quarter, Destiny ended the third with a flurry of points and went up by six, 45-39.

Bartlesville went down by eight, 47-39, before Smith got Bartlesville back on the board.

But, the Bruins just didnt generate an answer and never got back within two possessions.

Castillo scored two quick buckets to trim the Destiny lead to seven points, 54-47, with plenty of time left.

After Destiny made a free throw, Jordan Carter canned a three-pointer for the Bruins to narrow the gap to five, 55-50.

That was as close as the Bruins would get.

Castillo made two free throws late to narrow the margin back to five, 58-53.

But by this time, the Bruins were forced to start fouling and Destiny made just enough of its free throws (5-of-8) to keep the lead at arms distance.

Castillo finished with 23 points, followed by Ayyappan with 15.

The Bruins scored their third-lowest point total of the season.

Bartlesville faced McAlester on Friday, with the chance to play Saturday for either fifth or seventh place.

Next up, Bartlesville travels Tuesday to Sapulpa and returns home next Friday to host Tulsa Washington.

Bartlesville three-game winning streaks since 2014:

2014-15: BHS 57, Millwood 49; BHS 66, Bishop Kelley 47; BHS 49, Muskogee 45.

2014-15: BHS 46, Sand Springs 40; BHS 58, Bixby 42; BHS 74, Putnam City 61.

2016-17: BHS 52, Coweta 48; BHS 63, Enid 57; BHS 55, Southmoore 36.

2017-18: BHS 59, Jenks 51; BHS 77, Enid 49; BHS 51, Stillwater 48.

2021-22: BHS 77, Owasso 74 (ot); BHS 82, Sand Springs 54; BHS 72, Bixby 70.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: HOOPS: Bartlesville boys' team falls in tourney
TEHRAN, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran does not consider an interim deal in ongoing negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna aimed to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, a source close to the Iranian negotiating team told Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.

"The Iranian team seeks to achieve a lasting and credible agreement," the source was quoted as saying.

The NBC News network reported on Saturday that Russia has discussed a possible interim nuclear deal, which includes limited lifting of anti-Iran sanctions and re-imposition of certain restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities, with Iran in recent weeks as part of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
The Lynchburg City School Board voted Friday to continue to mandate masks for students in school despite Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Executive Order Two, which he signed his first day in office.

Youngkin's Executive Order states, "The parents of any child enrolled in a elementary or secondary school or a school-based early childcare and educational program may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the childs school or educational program."

The Lynchburg City School Board held a special meeting to consult with legal counsel regarding the order. They also held a 60-minute public comment session to hear from parents and students regarding the mandate.

Following public comments, members of the board gave their own opinions, and came to a 7-2 vote to not change its mask policy for students.

The board voted to continue to keep the subject "under review" as we move forward through the pandemic.

Several school board members, including District 2 Representatives Kimberly Sinha and Gary Harvey, cited State Bill 1303 as the reason to continue to mandate masks.

Prior to this school year, the Virginia General Assembly passed SB 1303, which requires schools to follow the mitigation recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "to the maximum extent possible."

They argued Youngkin's Executive Order shouldn't supersede the General Assembly's bill. The bill does not expire until Aug. 1, 2022.

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.
Demonstrations against Japans tight border restrictions on nonresident foreign nationals, implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19, have been staged in several countries, with people urging the government to reconsider the measures they say are not based on science.

Protests initiated by Stop Japans Ban, a group launched on Twitter, began Tuesday, as foreign exchange students and business people barred from entering the country gathered at various locations, including in front of Japanese embassies in countries such as Mongolia, Poland, India and Malaysia.

The strict entry ban has been in place since Nov. 30, with Japan confirming its first case of the omicron variant later that day. Earlier this month, the entry ban was further extended until the end of February.

More protests are in the works this month in countries such as Germany, Austria, Spain and Argentina, as well as in Tokyo in front of the Prime Ministers Office in February, according to organizers.

Demonstrators say most prospective exchange students have had COVID-19 booster shots and would adhere to necessary anti-virus measures when in Japan, and urged the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to tell them clearly when all foreign nationals would be allowed to enter again.
Students and graduating nurses will have an opportunity Feb. 5 to learn from experts during the 73rd annual Nebraska State Student Nurses Association convention.

The NSSNA event will combine in-person and virtual attendance. With the rise in COVID cases in Nebraska, the group is working with Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte to offer the workshops at its North Platte South Campus via Zoom.

Brittany Masters, first vice president of NSSNA, said the convention will begin at 8 a.m. and go through the day to 5 p.m.

The event is for high school students who are interested in the field of nursing, Masters said, as well as college students who are currently going through the process and new grads in nursing.

The opening ceremony will feature keynote speaker Paula Bagnell of North Platte, a registered nurse. She will talk about the Pathway to Success.

Success is a journey, its not a destination, Bagnell said. Nursing is so different now. Its like being in special forces. You need to be able to be strong and be kind at the same time in the midst of craziness.

Bagnell will mark 40 years of nursing in March. Her career includes 24 years as a critical care nurse and five years as a flight nurse. She served in the U.S. Army as a nurse for four years as well.

I want to talk about getting back to what nursing was in the beginning, Bagnell said. We need to bring a little peace to the patient.

She wants nurses to help patients deal with their feelings, to look them in the eyes and have conversations with them.

We dont inspire people by being perfect, Bagnell said. We inspire them by how we deal with our own imperfections.

Bagnell will speak in person at the 8 a.m. opening ceremony at NPCCs South Campus.

After the opening, participants will have options, all taking place via Zoom.

Participants will have a choice of breakout sessions, Masters said. Thats where theyll pick and choose who they want to listen to from the lineup of speakers.

The list of speakers includes Pam Abel, certified healing touch practitioner; Tammy Brockmoller, emergency department director, nurse and travel nurse; Kate Buehler, UNMC nurse supervisor, forensic nurse examiner, emergency department; Stephanie Marcy, D.O., former registered nurse, anesthesiologist, pain medicine; and Sean C. Figy, M.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center.

There is just a huge variety from ER trauma to Dr. Figy providing something a little different for the area, Masters said. He does gender reassignment  everybody has their own feeling about that. Hell be talking about the appropriate terms that you use with that population that have transitions.

Figys topic will be Fundamentals of Care for the Transgender Patient.

Registration for the event is available at nssna.org.

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Some might think that animal control officers in North Platte deal with just loose dogs and cats each day.

If only things were that easy.

The list of animals that Albert Simants has encountered goes beyond canines and felines.

Were talking goats, cows, horses, pigs. We tackle literally kind of farm animal you can think of, said Simants, who is within weeks of his fifth year of service with the department. I dont think theres anything in Nebraska that we havent dealt with, other than a big cat.

Then theres the bats.

The phone calls from city residents who have the winged mammals in their homes rise sharply in both spring and fall each year.

Youd be surprised how many bat calls we handle, Simants said.

The 57-year-old Maxwell resident has been around animals since he can remember. Growing up in a rural area, he dealt with livestock on a daily basis, he said, and his father also raised coonhounds.

He made the switch to animal control from a career with the American Red Cross. For now he is the only animal control officer in the city and one of three employees based in the North Platte Animal Shelter at 1402 N. Sycamore St.

The search to fill the opening for a second officer is ongoing.

Its been an adventure, Simants said of his career change. Theres no doubt you have to care for the animals, but this job is actually more about dealing with the people. The animals are easy.

Im not saying that people are bad (pet) owners, but theres a lot of responsibility that comes with that, Simants said. Some people dont think about through that before they pull the trigger and get (a pet). A lot of this job is about educating the public.

Simants works an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift for now and divides his time between work at the shelter and patrolling the city.

His typical route consists of driving E Street to Dixie Avenue, and then he takes B Street across town before he heads back on Second Street.

He also travels through or by the city parks, as he keeps a ear out for calls from dispatch to alert him to an issue.

His Thursday began with a call of a deer carcass on East 12th Street. In the early afternoon, he was alerted of a call from a concerned citizen who spotted a cat on the roof of an apartment building.

Simants arrived at the apartment complex, where one of the residents told him that the gray-and-white cat makes the journey to the roof and back often.

Satisfied that the feline was not distressed, Simants walked back to his truck, where he was met by the woman who made the call. He explained the situation to her as the cat looked on from its perch.

One of his most memorable calls on the job happened this past fall. A herd of roughly 15 calves escaped their pen and wandered loose in the city.

I got to work that morning and the radio (in his truck) was just blowing up (with talk), Simants said. I think half of the police force were out chasing calves. We had cows in peoples backyards.

But, as expected, dogs and cats are the animals that Simants usually finds loose in the city  either those that ran from their homes or that are taking a leashless stroll with their owners close by.

The ticket for a loose dog in the city begins with a $50 charge and increases to $100 and $200 for second and third offenses.

The amounts max out at $300 for fourth and subsequent offenses. Simants said some people have racked up thousands of dollars in fines.

For stray animals that are transported to the animal shelter, there is a three-day period for owners to reach out and claim their pets. After that, the animal is put up for adoption.

One dog that was at the shelter Thursday will be headed to its new home early next week  a ranch in the Sandhills for plenty of room for a dog that often liked to explore the city on its own.

He was one of our frequent fliers, Simants said. I cant tell you how many times we picked him up or that he was brought (into the shelter) as a stray.

Then there are the times Simants will seize an animal if there are signs of mistreatment. He recalled a severe undernourished Maltese that weighed 5 pounds when the dog was taken from the residence after a welfare check in November 2020. The dog also had such severely matted hair that it couldnt open its mouth to chew.

The animal recovered and was later adopted. The original owner was charged with a felony and received an 18 months of probation and a mandate that prevents animal ownership for five years.

We get animals (in the shelter) that are surrendered or seized or brought in as strays that are in pretty poor shape, Simants said. Its obvious that theyve had a real rough life. When they go to a new home, sometimes they knock it out of the park with where they go. And you couldnt plan that any better.

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The Nebraska Attorney General's Office has accused a New York couple of carrying out a $59.6 million Medicaid fraud involving the ownership of a chain of nursing homes in Nebraska.

In the complaint filed in Lancaster County District Court, Joseph Schwartz, Rosie Schwartz and Skyline Healthcare LLC are accused of surreptitiously directing and controlling the major operations and management of 22 Nebraska facilities under the Cottonwood Healthcare LLC umbrella and making decisions that were detrimental to the facilities and financially beneficial to the Schwartzes and Skyline.

The facilities ultimately were put in receivership in 2018 after failing to make payroll.

Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Vicki Adams said Skyline, through the Schwartzes, acquired operational ownership of well over 100 nursing homes in Nebraska and a half dozen other states starting in 2016.

The 22 in Nebraska previously had operated as Golden Living.

Adams said business office managers, many of whom had worked for Golden Living before the transfer of ownership, were told the facilities would function much the same as they had before.

She said the managers went to Skyline, which had no more than 15 employees at any given time, when they needed assistance or direction managing the facilities.

According to the lawsuit, some expressed concern about Skyline's ability to successfully manage the Nebraska Cottonwood facilities.

While local facilities hired staff for day-to-day operations, the financial operations weren't within their control. They had no operating budget or monthly financial reports tracking expenses.

Adams said Skyline determined which bills got paid. Often vendors that were owned by Joseph Schwartz or his business associates were paid while others weren't.

In some cases, employees at the Nebraska nursing homes would use their own money to pay vendors for the residents' sake.

In December 2017, Cottonwood's regional director had a meeting in Omaha to discuss cuts to reduce expenses at the Nebraska facilities.

By March 23, 2018, Skyline informed state officials that it couldn't make payroll for its Nebraska employees, and the state sought to place the Cottonwood facilities into receivership.

Adams said a number of employees at the local level learned they didn't have health insurance through their jobs despite paying premiums through Skyline.

Shortly after the Nebraska Cottonwood facilities went into receivership, the same thing happened in South Dakota, Kansas and some of the Arkansas facilities.

Adams said the business's cost reports, which are required to be provided by long-term care facilities for payment by Nebraska Medicaid, used false numbers that led to the payment of $3 million above the approximately $30 million they should have received for the operation of the Nebraska Cottonwood nursing homes.

The company now is accused of making false records, failing to maintain documentation and fraudulent misrepresentation, which resulted in payments to which they weren't entitled.

"As a result of the defendants' breach of their agreements with Medicaid, the plaintiff suffered damages in the amount of $59,652,388.90," the attorney said in the lawsuit.

Violations of the False Medicaid Claims Act are subject to up to three times damages and up to a $10,000 penalty per claim submitted.

Adams said in addition to the $59.6 million amount, Nebraska is seeking treble damages of $178,957, plus attorney fees.

In December, the 61-year-old Joseph Schwartz, of Brooklyn, was charged in Arkansas with eight counts of Medicaid fraud for the alleged over-billing there that resulted in an overpayment of $3.6 million for the eight nursing home facilities.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger
With the month of January being Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the City of Opelika is seeking to become a Trafficking Free Zone with the help of the organization Worthy (worthy squared).

A trafficking free zone basically means theres a zero tolerance for anything that has to do with human trafficking, said Kathryn Guthrie, the founder of Worthy. Its really amazing for Opelika to take the lead.

Its the logical next step, Mayor Gary Fuller said. Weve been working with Kathryn Guthrie and her team now for about three years on human trafficking awareness. This will take us to the next level.

Fuller said its going to take some effort to train city employees and first responders, but he believes its the right thing to do and that everyone is on board.

This is part of what were about in Opelika, to care for other people, to make Opelika as welcoming a place as possible and to send a message to folks that deal in human trafficking that theyre not welcome here and we dont want them, Fuller said.

Guthrie was previously the director for Redeem Alabama, an anti-sex-trafficking ministry, for three years.

She decided to establish her own non-governmental organization to fight human trafficking and help victims and survivors, so she created Worthy in Lee County in January 2021.

Guthrie said this organization is the same as the Redeem ministry, but just has a different name.

In Lee County during 2021, Guthrie said they identified and contacted 321 victims, have 17 survivors in a residential treatment program, have rehabilitated 10 survivors and are in consistent contact with 32 survivors.

Guthrie said Lee County is part of the human trafficking loop on I-85 that includes Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery and Auburn-Opelika.

You can literally track them, Guthrie said. Theres a software program for law enforcement thats facial recognition where you can take a picture of the girl in the ad and it will light up wherever shes been trafficked and wherever shes been posted on these sites.

Guthrie said on the Worthy website that human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing industry in the world, and that it generates $150 billion annually.

In the United States, the human trafficking industry generates $10 billion each year, and the commercial sex industry in Birmingham generated $110 million in 2019, according to the Worthy website.

Its modern-day slavery, Guthrie said.

The Trafficking Free Zone training program includes how to spot human trafficking, what to do if you see it, to whom you should report it, and which local service providers you should call first.

I think the training program is awesome, Opelika Police Chief Shane Healey said. The more people that have some awareness and a little bit of education  to see something and say something  the better.

The Opelika Police Department has had some training on this topic already, but Healey said he is excited to take on this initiative and to see city employees, community members and his officers complete the program.

Guthrie said the additional training will take place in February or March. It takes about an hour, and every year there will be a recertification process to stay up to date.

This program also opens up some opportunities for us in law enforcement that will help us be able to better combat this and to identify the signs, Healey said. There are a lot of things that surround this issue that are what I call quality of life issues that I think we can make better with some more training.

Besides teaching others how to identify trafficking and what to do when they see it, Guthrie and her organizations mission is to reach the victims either in person or through online contact and help them reclaim their dignity and self-worth.

We ask do they need food or do they need medical help, Guthrie said. A lot of times they dont even realize that theres help out there. We will basically meet their immediate needs, try to establish a relationship and let them know that theres help if they want to get out.

Guthrie said they walk with the victims all the way to freedom.

What weve found is that they dont feel that theyre worthy, she said.

Guthrie decided to name her organization Worthy to remind the victims and survivors that they are worthy, but also because its a reminder to herself.

In 2019, she got the word worthy tattooed on her forearm as a reminder.

I didnt know what to name it and God was like, Look at you forearm, she said. This is my purpose. Im living proof that God wastes nothing.

The City of Opelika will be certified with the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking.

To find out more about the Trafficking Free Program, go online to usiaht.org/traffickingfreezone.

Worthy is part of the Envision Opelika Foundation and works locally as well as with different partner agencies throughout the state of Alabama.

Donations can be made to Worthy in the fight against human trafficking at envisionopelika.org/ or by mailing a check to Envision Opelika Foundation at 1103 Glenn Street, Opelika, AL 36801. Include For Worthy on the memo line.
Covington Recreation Center in Opelika will be offering a new program called Champions Academy that prepares boys in grades 7-9 to become men.

Champions Academy is to provide an environment that promotes values and character that enables young men to be faithful husbands, loving fathers and productive members of our society, said Bobby Nix, the Covington Area Manager, at the Opelika City Council meeting on Tuesday.

Nix said hes been involved in similar programs when he lived in Birmingham, but this will be the first time for the Opelika rec center to offer such a program.

Its been something Ive been wanting to do for a long time, he said.

Nix and his team of Corey Grant, Jeremy Edwards and LaDecker Johnson are currently recruiting 20 young men for the 10-week program, which will meet 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday nights at Covington Rec Center.

Each meeting will include a meal, a fun activity, an inspirational message about a leadership trait from a community leader, and a session to that teaches a useful skill such as how to change a tire, jump off a battery, set a table, and write and address a thank-you note.

Nix said hes still in the process of recruiting speakers, which will include Lt. Col. Rich Peace, an F-16 fighter pilot, and Jeremy Gray, the House Representative for Alabama District 83.

At the end of the 10 weeks, the group will complete a service project and also take a trip together.

I believe that your character is what determines your future, and values are what determine your character, Nix said. We want to teach the kids values but do it in a fun atmosphere. We call it putting cheese on the pill.

While Nix hopes he and his team are able to influence the boys, he also hopes that the boys will be able to encourage each other and remind each other what theyve learned.

Nix explained the reasoning behind starting with 20 boys.

We didnt want to make it too big because were going to encounter things that we didnt anticipate, Nix said. Its much easier to make adjustments with something small, but that doesnt mean that we dont have dreams of making it bigger and better.

If the program goes well, Nix said, they will consider doing a summer camp and who knows what else.

The initial cost for an individual to participate was originally $20, but after the Opelika City Council meeting, Mike Hilyer, director of ESG/Public Works, told Nix hed like to cover the cost.

Boys in grades 7-9 can sign up for the Champions Academy program by filling out a form at the Covington Recreation Center, 213 Carver Ave in Opelika.

Nix plans to start the program after 20 boys have signed up.
TUNIS, Jan.22 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied held a phone conversation on Saturday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on bilateral cooperation in various fields, according to a statement released by the presidency.

In the phone call, Saied assured his French counterpart that the announced reforms in Tunisia are intended to preserve freedom, establish justice and fight corruption.

Meanwhile, Macron affirmed France's support for Tunisia in the fields of economy and others, and expressed his understanding of difficulties Tunisia is going through.

On July 25 last year, Saied removed then Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi from his post, suspended the parliament and started to issue presidential decrees as laws. On Sept. 29, the Tunisian president appointed Najla Bouden as the new and first female prime minister of the North African country. 
Ewww

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Yikes

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This is messed up, yet it doesn't even surprise me one bit. Men know no boundaries. Just their dicks and vibes only.

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Men were/are a mistake.



Some of my friends keep giving me the 'spinster' look every once in a while. I'm so sick of men right now. I love me some dick but damn... I don't want to deal with all the other shit.





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Man, Im so glad I stopped stanning this fucker years ago.

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Cringe. I couldn't even finish it.

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It's fucked up that her mentor encouraged it, only for her to realize she was his "destressor."



A lot of people screwed her over. WTF!

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I feel sorry for this woman and disgusted by this man. I have no problem believing this. I dont follow Taylor Swift closely but with the distance of time and reflection, she seemed deeply disturbed by the relationship she had with him.

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Yeah I actually don't like the song All Too Well, but the updated lyrics are really harsh.

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Yeah. It doesnt come across as just regular break up resentment. She very much seems to be creeped out by the power imbalance due to age difference in retrospect.



Edited at 2022-01-22 02:16 pm (UTC)

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I agree. tbh I'd never heard All Too Well before the ten minute version and that's the impression I got from it. I was in a similar relationship (very freshly 18 with a 26 year old bf) and it took a couple years for me to think "wow this was gross".

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Yes taylor swift absolutely had every right to blast him. She couldve gone harder. She used her power for good in this case.

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watch how some folks here will immediately feel empathy for this intern and also joke that taylor should have just gotten over their short relationship

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Yeah people here were acting like she was crazy cause their relationship was only 3-4 months. From the sounds of it even from the beginning it was a very manipulative situation with power imbalance and him seemingly putting her down and then lifting her up and the constant on/off. She was young and sometimes those situations fuck you up even in a short amount of time.

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Commenting on my own post to say people should read the story, as she's very detailed about her own emotional responses to his pursuit, about how she blamed herself, and about how the production was using her and then discarded her. That's really the most egregious part of this.

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Eww, he's disgusting

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Burn him at the stake.

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how much is this gonna affect him though if its a blind item?

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I don't think it's a blind item completely because it's connected to the victim's real name and since the story is SOOOOO detailed, I think people who worked on that production or are somehow related to the production know how to read in between the lines and are gonna talk.



HOWEVER, I agree that nothing may come out of it because she doesn't name him and no one of influence has really retweeted the article... yet. So it will probably be a "well-known secret" in the theatre community for now.



(I wonder if the production is Sunday in the Park with George...)



Edited at 2022-01-22 07:56 am (UTC)

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it is. she worked on that production.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-25/wall-streeters-chew-over-gyllenhaal-s-miserable-artist-s-life It is. She was photographed at the after- party.

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Im surprised there has been very little chatter within the theater community on this, especially considering those is involved and I dont mean Jake. Its disappointing that she was failed by multiple women in the theater.

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Not at all. It hasn't gotten any publicity beyond the Deuxmoi Reddit.

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People aren't gonna care even if she said Jake Gyllenhaal is a creep. No one is under illusions that Jakes is a nice guy. Tswift has a minor pop opera dedicated to how shitty he is. It doesn't really matter to anyone.

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Its likely one of the bigger publications will pick it up and turn it into a fully researched story, especially if this inspires other women to come forward to corroborate, so then shell have the legal and financial protection of a media organisation.



Though tbh I am surprised shes been this forthcoming at all since shell have none of that now. But as OP says in another comment it sounds like shes got the benefit of wealth and connections behind her.

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Absolutely disgusting. She was used by him AND the director. Its so sad/terrifying that she didnt have anyone in her corner.



And nothing will happen to him. Especially since hes a decent looking guy. Jfc.

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die

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so not surprised, it always bothered me seeing people thirst for his narrow faced ass. disgusting prick.

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Ive always thought he was ugly.

and people went so easy on him for prince of persia bc of their thirst.

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woof. i wish her well. i feel like this is going to be rough for her when this gains more traction if it does. i hope she has a strong support system.



i am disappointed at the mentor because - if i'm right - i was a huge fan of her work...

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If the U.S. hopes to meet its carbon reduction targets over the coming decades it must invest heavily in a variety of renewable energy developments,

New geothermal projects come as a sigh of relief to many firms across the U.S. that have long been pursuing the development of the clean energy source.

Following the COP26 summit in November, it seems governments are racing to develop their renewable energy sectors. But as they turn their backs on fossil fuels, many appear to be focused almost solely on wind and solar power, largely overlooking alternative options. After years in the making, the U.S. geothermal industry is finally gaining momentum, but will it attract the investment and support it needs to fully develop?

Across the U.S., four geothermal energy projects are going ahead. This month, the US Department of Energy (DoE) announced it will be providing up to $8.4 million to fund four geothermal energy developments. The projects will see the conversion of several abandoned oil and gas wells into geothermal wells.

Geothermix LLC of Austin, Texas will receive funds of $2.5 million to produce geothermal energy from waste heat in the wells. Meanwhile, Houston-based ICE Thermal Harvesting expects to receive $1.7 million of the funds to produce energy from 11 oil and gas wells in San Joaquin Valley, California. And $1.7 million will support the University of Oklahomas aim of producing heat from an oilfield in the state.

Colorado-based geothermal company Transitional Energy announced this month that it will receive $2.5 million of the funds to run a pilot project. It plans to invest these funds in the redevelopment of oil wells into geothermal wells, installing geothermal heat engines to produce electricity at the Blackburn Oilfield in Nevada.

The firm hopes to produce 1 MW of renewable power at the site, replacing diesel power and providing electricity to the grid to power the oilfield. This is a case where fossil fuel and renewables are coming together to bridge the gap in energy production during the transition to cleaner energy. While oil operations continue in the U.S., several oil producers are looking for ways to decrease their carbon footprint without giving up on oil completely. This type of project could offer a solution.

Michael ONeal, President of Grant Canyon Oil & Gas stated, we are excited to be working with Transitional Energy. They are a group of forward-thinking professionals who understand the need and efficiency of integrating geothermal with hydrocarbons. He added, We look forward to implementing this innovative technology to cut our electrical costs, increase the production and extend the life of our assets. Our EOR projects in Nevada move a significant amount of water, so we are delighted to be a part of enhancing the beneficial use of this water. We believe that this project with Transitional will possibly develop into several projects as we move forward and will mesh well with our ESG goals.

Related: Tight Physical Crude Market Points To Higher Oil Prices

But not everyone sees geothermal projects so favorably. This month, a Nevada judge placed a temporary block on works by Reno-based Ormat Technologies Inc. to develop a geothermal plant in northern Nevada's high desert. Environmental groups brought the lawsuit on Ormat because of the ecological value of the site, stating that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management illegally approved the project.

The planned project includes two 20-megawatt geothermal plants. Ormat has already invested $68 million in the development, which it believes would help Nevada meet its renewable energy goals of 25 percent renewable utility power by 2025. But new renewable energy projects are facing the same hurdles as oil and gas projects, needing to find suitable land for the construction of largescale developments.

New geothermal projects come as a sigh of relief to many firms across the U.S. that have long been pursuing the development of the clean energy source. Geothermal projects source energy from the earths core, making the energy source available all year round, compared to less predictable wind and solar power. However, this form of power is largely untapped, with the U.S. DoE believing it has the potential to make up 10 percent of current domestic energy needs.

But largely due to the high expense involved, the geothermal growth rate has been shrinking in recent years. Geothermal advocates say it is necessary for governments around the world to subsidize geothermal projects to get past the set-up hurdles, helping companies to invest in safe developments and funding risk mitigation during pilot projects to learn from and improve for long-term production.

With electricity demand expected to rise globally, it has become evident that we need to tap into new energy sources if we hope to move away from fossil fuels. The International Energy (IEA) Agency released a report that highlighted the steepest ever increase in the demand for electricity in 2021. This led to blackouts and record-high prices, as well as a rise in greenhouse gas emissions around the world. The IEA predicts that this trend could continue for the next three years unless there is a more rapid structural change in electricity production.

While there is a clear need for new energy sources to provide electricity as demand continues to grow, little has been done in recent years to develop Americas geothermal energy industry. We are now seeing positive moves from the government, as the DoE funds several projects across the country, but still, more can be done. If the U.S. hopes to meet its carbon reduction targets over the coming decades it must invest heavily in a variety of renewable energy developments rather than focusing on a limited portfolio principally made up of wind and solar projects.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Crude tanker owners have been bleeding cash for over a year, and the market will have to absorb more new tonnage in 2022 than in 2021.

Its a tale of two shipping markets. Spot rates remain near historic highs for container shipping; the boom shows no sign of ending. But over in commodity shipping  dry bulk, crude and product tankers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers  spot rates have now sunk below five-year averages.

Crude tankers

A bleak outcome, said brokerage BRS of the recent rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs; tankers that carry 2 million barrels). A terrible start of the year, it said of rates for Suezmaxes (tankers that carry 1 million barrels). According to Clarksons Platou Securities, average global spot rates for 10-year-old VLCCs fell to just $800 per day on Wednesday. Thats down 90% month on month and down 70% on average year to date versus the same period in 2021, to just a sliver of the breakeven rate of $26,000 per day. (The assessment for the Middle East-China route has just fallen back below zero, to -$400 per day, implying that freight is not covering the cost of fuel.)

The end of the holiday season didnt help push [VLCC] rates up, said brokerage Banchero Costa.

Clarksons put 10-year-old Suezmax rates at $4,200 per day, down 69% month on month, versus a breakeven of $19,000 per day.

Crude tanker owners have been bleeding cash for over a year, and the market will have to absorb more new tonnage in 2022 than in 2021. There are 44 VLCCs and 39 Suezmaxes scheduled for delivery this year, versus 35 VLCCs and 23 Suezmaxes in 2021, according to Clarksons.

Product tankers

Crude tanker rates were so bad last year that a record number of newbuild VLCCs carried clean product cargoes during initial voyages after leaving Asian yards, cannibalizing volumes normally carried by larger product tankers. That practice looks set to continue. Unfortunately, market information suggests that [VLCC] owners are still eyeing lifting clean cargoes on their newbuilds [into] early Q2 2022, reported BRS.

As with crude tankers, its been a terrible start out the gate for product tankers in 2022.

Clarksons put spot rates for 10-year-old LR2s (larger product carriers with capacity of 80,000-119,999 deadweight tons or DWT) at $5,200 per day on Wednesday, 71% lower month on month and 38% lower on average year to date versus the same period in 2021, to less than a third of their $18,000-per-day breakeven rate.

Rates for smaller 10-year-old MRs (25,000-54,999 DWT) averaged $7,900 per day, down 49% month on month and 22% below their $11,000 breakeven rate.

The second week of the year followed the same pattern as the first. All of the clean [product] routes are having difficulties, said Banchero Costa.

Dry bulk

According to Stifel analyst Ben Nolan, Dry bulk rates have been in freefall in recent weeks, primarily led by the large Capesize [180,000 DWT] vessels, but the weakness has been felt across the board.

Clarksons estimated Wednesdays Capesize spot rate at just $10,200 per day, down 55% month on month and far below the recent peak of $87,000 per day in early September (breakeven for a 10-year-old Capesize is estimated by Clarksons at $17,000 per day). Capesize rates year to date are 20% below their average during the same period last year.

It has been a brutal start of the year for Capesizes, said Fearnleys Research.

Spot rates for Panamaxes (bulkers with capacity of 65,000-90,000 DWT) averaged $20,000 per day on Wednesday, 9% lower month on month, while rates for Supramaxes (45,000-60,000 DWT) averaged $20,200 per day, 26% lower month on month.

Month-on-month declines are to be expected now, given dry bulk seasonality, and on a positive note, rates in both of these segments are still sharply higher year to date on average versus the same period in 2021: Panamaxes by 73%, Supramaxes by 94%.

LNG shipping

Spot LNG shipping rates have fallen more steeply in terms of dollars per day than any other bulk commodity shipping segment.

Spot rates of tri-fuel diesel engine (TFDE) LNG carriers shot up to an average of $205,000 per day in late November and early December, according to Clarksons. There were reports of deals as high as $424,000 per day at the peak.

As of Wednesday, Clarksons estimated that TFDE carrier spot rates averaged just $22,000 per day, down 61% week on week and 81% month on month, to around one-ninth of the early December high. The average rate year to date is 76% lower than the same period in 2021.

Related: Bank Of America Predicts Tesla Market Share Will Collapse In Next Few Years

Unlike dry bulk and tanker markets, however, LNG shipping is primarily a term-charter as opposed to a spot-voyage market, so spot rates are less telling. According to Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Frode Mrkedal, The spot activity has been remarkably low, with only one voyage charter being done in the first two weeks of 2022. On the other hand, activity in the multi-month market has been healthy.

The spot market may be under pressure at the moment, but charters continue to seek longer-term charter cover given the market backdrop, he said.

Container shipping

Rates for crude tankers, product tankers, dry bulk carriers and LNG carriers have all gone the same way in the first few weeks of 2022: down.

Not so for container shipping.

Tanker rates are being weighed by COVID effects on mobility and aviation, and artificially constrained production by OPEC+ members. Dry bulk is being swayed by the Chinese economy (which is faltering) and state policies; seasonal weather conditions in Brazil, Australia and Asia that reduce rates at this time of year; and a coal export ban in Indonesia. LNG shipping rates are being driven by winter weather conditions, the spread in LNG commodity pricing between Europe and Asia, and the shift away from spot deals to long-term charters.

Container shipping rates are being heavily driven by persistently high U.S. consumer demand, which has overwhelmed transport supply, creating an extreme congestion situation that appears much stickier for rates than current drivers in other shipping segments.

The weekly Shanghai Containerized Freight Index is now just short of its all-time high. The weekly Drewry World Container Index (WCI) is at $9,545 per forty-foot equivalent unit, up 12% from early December and up 82% year on year. The WCI is 3.3 times higher year to date than the five-year average for that period.

There was a record high of 106 container ships waiting to berth in Los Angeles/Long Beach on Friday, with 99 on Tuesday. On Friday, Maersk pre-announced Q4 2021 results that yet again topped its forecasts: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $8 billion, bringing its full-year EBITDA to a record-trouncing $24 billion.

On Tuesday, a day when the broader stock market was deep in the red, shares of liner operator Zim hit a new 52-week high, while shares of container-ship lessor Danaos jumped 8% on news of $870 million in fresh charter revenues.

Deutsche Bank analyst Amit Mehrotra pointed to persistent container-shipping rate tailwinds in a research note on Tuesday. He noted that the retail sales-to-inventory ratio is now three standard deviations below its 10-year historical average and that this ratio is inversely correlated with container rates, which makes sense as lower ratios imply strong consumer demand and the need for inventory restocking.

If we assume a reversion to pre-pandemic sales-to-inventory and use current demand, retailers would need $821 billion in inventory. Taking the fastest inventory has grown  which was November 2021, up $12 billion  it would take retailers 17 months to restock.

While we acknowledge restocking could be faster  as supply chains work themselves out, the resurgence of COVID, in our view, tempers the notion that the unwinding of the supply chain congestion will be  easy.

We note that the LA/LB ports have three times the number of ships waiting as they did at the same point last year. In our view, it appears likely that the need for inventory restocking will be a persistent issue in 2022, with the likelihood of continuing into 2023.

By Zerohedge.com

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The construction of Mexicos Dos Bocas oil refinery is running $3.6 billion over budget and delays could mean that the flagship project of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may not start operations this year and not even in time for the state oil firms plan to end oil exports in 2023 and focus on refining fuel domestically.

Dos Bocas is the favorite project of Lopez Obrador for weaning the country off fuel imports. Originally, the plan for the refinery in Lopez Obradors home state of Tabasco was expected to cost US$8 billion. Even when it was announced, analysts doubted the budgeted costs would be sufficient and were not optimistic about the financial viability of the refinery.

Back in 2019, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad, or IMCO for short) released a damning financial analysis of the Dos Bocas refinery, currently being developed by state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The institute gave the project a mere 2 percent chance of success. Highlighting the disastrous findings of the financial analysis, a report accompanying the results warns that if Mexico goes through with the Dos Bocas project, it could generate a serious crisis for the public finances of the whole country.

The Dos Bocas refinery is a key pillar of Lopez Obradors plan to revive the Mexican state-owned firm Pemex and ensure the so-called energy independence for Mexico.

However, costs for the refinery are now expected to have soared by 40 percent, to around $12.5 billion, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg on Friday.

The refinery is expected to be inaugurated in July this year, but analysts think it may not be able to produce any gasoline in 2022 and even in 2023 and 2024.

Unfortunately theres a big discrepancy between the governments expectations and reality, Felipe Perez, an IHS Markit Latin America analyst, told Bloomberg, noting that its possible Dos Bocas might not produce fuels before Lopez Obradors term in office ends at the end of 2024.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Four new houses will soon rise on vacant lots at 29th and Parker Streets, the first of dozens of single-family homes that 75 North Revitalization Corp. will build and sell in North Omaha over the next few years.

The new homes, financed in part by federal money through the City of Omaha, represent 75 Norths first foray into building houses. They will be an extension of the nonprofit redevelopment corporations recently constructed Highlander development of apartments, duplexes and town houses along North 30th Street.

The Highlander is already home to more than 400 people, as well as businesses, college satellite sites and community spaces. The nonprofit also recently broke ground on 108 more mixed-income apartments, plus commercial space, due for completion in spring 2023.

Blair Freeman LLC, the firm representing the owners, is seeking contractors to build the four houses along Parker Street this year. They will line the south side of Parker Street, across from existing homes that will adjoin the newest apartments. There are plans to erect nine more houses northeast of 29th and Parker within the next year or so. More will follow on 22 vacant lots a block farther north, near 29th and Blondo Streets. And 75 Norths plans call for about 15 more houses in the neighborhood after that.

Over the next five years, 75 North will build probably 50 houses, said President and CEO Cydney Franklin. Well invest over $13 million just in homeownership opportunities for this community again, for folks that come from a diversity of economic backgrounds, which is really cool.

The four Parker Street houses will be sold to people with low to moderate incomes, up to 80% of the local median income for the family size. For a family of four, the maximum income is currently $70,250 a year.

The city awarded $800,000 from its 2021 federal HOME program grant money to the Parker Street houses. That will help pay for construction and subsidize purchases through down payment assistance.

Blair Freeman, owned by Ashley Kuhn and Maranda Adams, is also renovating three older homes that 75 North owns near Howard Kennedy Elementary School. Supporting the school is part of the community-building effort of 75 North, whose major backers include Susie and Warren Buffett.

Much of this is not a new formula. Portions of it have been used by nonprofit developers, often working with the city, for years in North and South Omaha. Habitat for Humanity, Holy Name Housing Corp., the Omaha Economic Development Corp., New Community Development, Gesu Housing and others have built hundreds of houses in North and South Omaha over the past 30 years or so.

The 75 North effort is part of a current push to address the shortage of affordable housing across metropolitan Omaha as well as in North Omaha.

Omaha City Councilwoman Juanita Johnson, whose District 2 includes North Omaha, said she appreciates 75 Norths move into building houses as an extension of the first three phases of Highlander. She said it will help the neighborhood by providing more affordable housing, as well as opportunities for contractors and ripple effects of more population and economic activity in North Omaha.

Among other developments planned or underway, Johnson noted Carmen Tapios plan to build a new headquarters for her company, North End Teleservices, along with housing and day care on the northeast corner of 24th and Lake Streets. Blair Freeman is the owner's representative on the 24th and Lake project too.

Were hopeful at this point that all of these different developments that are happening now, with all of them working together at the same time, that we will have an influx of affordable housing and businesses, Johnson said.

The 75 North houses are meant to build on and complement the efforts of Habitat and other organizations  and to complement the new Highlander developments as well as the preexisting neighborhood.

Everything that we build is to a market rate standard, Franklin said. So although some of the homes that well sell will go to families that have lower incomes, they will still be market-rate homes. Theyll be incredibly beautiful.

The houses, designed by Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, are meant to fit in with the historic neighborhood homes but not match them exactly. And they will each have their own variations in style and configuration, so they dont look exactly alike and so they can fit the needs of homebuyers. For example, three of the Parker Street houses will have two stories, but one will be more of a bungalow style, with one story that meets Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, maybe to suit a retired person with a family.

We dont want you to drive down the street and be able to tell whether the home was built in 1889 or was it built in 2021, said Kuhn, president of Blair Freeman. Our hope is that these homes blend well into the existing fabric of whats here.

They want the houses and the revitalized neighborhood to be accessible to people who live in the area now.

We dont want to just throw construction up in a neighborhood, Kuhn said. We want it to be done with intentionality. ... The first goal is to make sure that the people that are in the community can stay in the community. Not to throw up, you know, $600,000 houses and make it so that in 10 to 15 years, the people that are there cant afford to stay there.

Being involved with 75 North and Omaha 100 is especially meaningful to the principals of Blair Freeman, a 100% woman-owned, Black-owned firm that Kuhn and Adams founded and run.

Theres really a big push for affordable housing, and just the opportunity for Blair Freeman to be a part of instilling hope, giving people opportunity to have that affordable housing, is huge, said Adams, executive vice president of Blair Freeman.

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The Omaha Public Schools is offering COVID-19 test clinics to staff and students to combat inadequate testing in the metro area.

During Thursdays school board meeting, the board approved a partnership with Childrens Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha to provide tests at two OPS locations.

Childrens Hospital will have 150 PCR tests available at each of the two clinics daily, with one at the Mills Building, 4311 N. 30th St., and the other at the recently completed Forest Station Elementary, 1010 Childs Road West in Bellevue.

The testing sites, which officially opened Jan. 13, will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday while available supplies last, according to the agreement. If Childrens Hospital is short on test kits, testing will be suspended until more are available.

Initially we were doing (the tests) just for our symptomatic children, but we realized that staff was also having difficulty finding tests as well, Superintendent Cheryl Logan said in a recent interview with The World-Herald.

The testing sites have been reporting a positivity rate of more than 30%, Logan said.

As of Wednesday, Douglas County had a positivity rate of 29.3%, the highest since testing became more widely available.

Logan said the district hasnt run out of tests so far. More than 320 people have been tested at the sites in the past week.

Courier services collect test kits twice a day to deliver back to Childrens, according to the agreement. Results are delivered to the district within five days and OPS officials  not hospital employees  inform students and staff of their results.

While the partnership is a one-year agreement, Logan said the testing sites will only be open until Jan. 31. Officials may extend the end date depending on testing availability in the Omaha metro area.

The district is paying Childrens Hospital $30 per test, according to the agreement. Jeremy Maskel, spokesman for OPS, said the district is covering the cost upfront, but officials are hoping to amend the allocation plan of OPSs $280 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to pay for the tests.

Students only qualify for testing if they are symptomatic, according to the districts online testing site.

Staff and students dont need to register for a test. Families are asked to stay in their vehicles and follow on-site instructions when they arrive.

People can fill out a COVID testing form that is available on the districts website before their arrival. The forms also will be available at the testing sites.

We will make every effort to get students tested as quickly as possible, but wait times may be long, the district says on its website.

OPS reported in its online dashboard that 78 staff and 453 students had active COVID-19 cases as of Friday afternoon. As of Jan. 14, the district had 152 cases among staff and 592 cases among students. The dashboard is updated weekly.

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ISLAMABAD, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of fishermen went missing after two boats capsized in the Arabian Sea near the country's southern Sindh province on Saturday, police officials and local reports said.

The boats carrying over 35 fishermen capsized in the Arabian Sea off Thatta's coastal area in the province, police in the area told local media, adding that five people have been rescued.

The survivors have been rushed to a nearby medical center, while rescue efforts are underway to save the remaining fishermen, said the police.

Local authorities said that strong winds coupled with overload are the reasons behind the accident.

Special teams of the Pakistan Navy have launched a full-fledged operation to trace the missing fishermen. Local volunteers are also assisting the authorities in the rescue and relief operation. 
LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts cracked open the door to medical marijuana Friday, just weeks after appearing in television advertisements denouncing the substance.

The governors apparent softening came in response to a medical marijuana bill sponsored by State Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte. Groene, himself a former opponent, introduced Legislative Bill 1275 on Thursday.

While I continue to have concerns about marijuana use for any reason, I am open to learning more about this bill, Ricketts said when asked about the new proposal.

John Kuehn, a former state senator and co-chair of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Nebraska, also expressed a willingness to consider Groenes proposal.

SAM remains opposed to the legalization of marijuana, including the establishment of a marijuana industry under the guise of medical, Kuehn said. That being said, we see Senator Groenes bill as a good faith effort to provide access for a very specific population of patients under a very tightly regulated system that requires active involvement and supervision of a health care provider.

Both took a different tone than the SAM-sponsored ads that aired last month. They featured Ricketts decrying the dangers of medical marijuana and arguing that the only difference between medical and recreational marijuana is the terminology.

Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, the Legislatures leading proponent of medical marijuana and co-sponsor of a medical marijuana petition drive, said she welcomed former opponents recognizing the benefits of medical marijuana. But she said Groenes bill would be of no help to Nebraskans.

I am willing to work with them on a bill that provides access to Nebraskans who are sick and suffering, but it has to be a bill that actually works, she said. The current draft will not allow a single person to have access in our state.

Wishart said key problems include that LB 1275 does not provide for the growing and processing of cannabis, another name for the marijuana plant, in Nebraska, while federal laws prohibit the transportation of cannabis across state lines.

This is literally a cannabis bill without the cannabis, she said.

In addition, Wishart said, the bill would create so many hurdles for families of children with epilepsy that it would make access impossible and would limit other users to those with terminal illnesses, very advanced cancers or severe or persistent muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis or muscular dystrophy.

I will not stop our ballot initiative for any legislation that does not legitimately create a safe and effective medical cannabis system in our state, she said. Access for sick Nebraskans is not something I am willing to settle on. I will continue to have their back.

The Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana petition drive includes a pair of proposed laws. One would allow qualified patients to use, possess and acquire limited amounts of cannabis for medical use. The other would set up the regulatory structure for entities that manufacture, distribute and dispense cannabis to patients.

Groene said he introduced LB 1275 out of concern that, if the Legislature doesnt act, the petition initiatives will get on the ballot and pass. He said his bill would allow the Legislature to put in the controls needed to regulate marijuana for medical purposes.

He previously opposed medical marijuana but changed his position last year, saying he had heard from a number of families who believe that marijuana helps with the treatment of epilepsy and cancer and in end-of-life scenarios and are getting the marijuana from other states.

On Thursday, he said those people are a key constituency behind the petition drives.

You take all of those people out of the picture because you pass a medical marijuana bill, the petition fails, he said.

But Crista Eggers, statewide campaign coordinator for the petition drive, said Groenes bill does nothing but motivate us even further to keep collecting the necessary signatures to see our ballot initiatives across the finish line.

As the mother of Colton, who has intractable epilepsy, Eggers has worked for years to get medical marijuana legalized in Nebraska. A petition drive two years ago collected enough signatures, but the Nebraska Supreme Court tossed it off the ballot, saying it violated the State Constitutions one-subject limitation.

Eggers called Groenes bill another political stunt and vowed to keep fighting for her son and other Nebraskans to get access to medical marijuana.

I want a safe and compassionate medical cannabis law, and I want my voice, and the voice of the people in this state, to be heard, she said.

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Seventeen employees of Nebraskas prison system more than doubled the size of their paychecks during the past fiscal year.

How? They made more in overtime pay than they did in base salary, according to data the state recently provided the Flatwater Free Press.

Some 145 employees of the Nebraska Department of Corrections made at least half their base salary in overtime  part of spiraling overtime costs in the prison system that have cost taxpayers $48 million in the past three years.

The states highest overtime earner  a corrections caseworker named Donald Hiatt  was nearly able to triple his salary by working overtime between July 2020 and June 2021. He earned a base pay of $47,840 and an additional $97,400 in overtime pay.

Hiatts total annual payment: $145,240. He did not return Facebook messages and emails seeking comment.

The large individual overtime payments reflect an ongoing crisis faced by the states prisons, long overcrowded and now severely understaffed, according to state leaders and experts.

And while recent raises for prison staff offer some hope, Nebraskas most understaffed prisons have seen little reduction in the need for overtime hours, said Corrections Director Scott Frakes.

In the short term, overtime will cost taxpayers even more: Before the recent raises, it cost 15% more to pay overtime than it did to hire a new employee. The raises  which also supercharge overtime pay  boost that difference to about 55%, Frakes said.

It will always be more economical to find and hire and onboard new people, Frakes said. Thats been our emphasis all along, to reduce mandatory overtime to the bare minimum.

Besides padding paychecks, the overtime work can also contribute to burnout, fatigue and high turnover rates among prison staff, say experts and former guards  especially because overtime often becomes mandatory for essential prison employees.

Hiatt, for example, worked an average of 97 hours per week  his regular 40 and then 57 more in overtime hours  according to state prison officials. The next highest overtime earners, Curtis Hurst and Bemnet Habtu, both corrections corporals, worked an average of 49 and 50 hours in overtime, respectively.

Frakes confirmed that, for some corrections employees, an 80-hour week is not unusual.

Youve got to be on your toes, be alert, said Mark Foxall, former director of the Douglas County Department of Corrections and now a faculty member at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Those things are challenging in an eight-hour shift, let alone a 16-hour shift. Are you as alert in hour 14 as you were in hour 1? How does that physical and mental fatigue accumulate over the course of several overtime shifts in a week?

This month, six months after an initial records request, the State of Nebraska disclosed the overtime pay earned by all state employees during the 2021 fiscal year. The Flatwater Free Press has added that data to a searchable state salary database.

The state spent $35.7 million on overtime during that year. Nearly half, $15.4 million, went to corrections employees.

The five highest overtime earners in Nebraska were all corrections employees. Out of the 20 highest earners, 15 worked in corrections.

The Flatwater Free Press reached out to ten of the top overtime earners in corrections. None returned emails seeking comment.

Those top earners, who often work up to 80 hours a week, are most likely volunteering for the majority of those shifts, Frakes said.

The union contract grants staff members the right to work overtime without an upper limit, and seniority determines who can claim voluntary overtime shifts.

What we look for is performance, as opposed to straight hours, Frakes said. Are they able to perform at the level that we establish good performance? Are they staying awake and alert? If theyre doing all those things, then theres no issue to address.

Mandatory overtime shifts, on the other hand, are assigned in order of reverse seniority. Recently, Frakes said, some prison guards have often been required to stay four more hours after their regular 12-hour shift.

The states two maximum-security prisons, Tecumseh State Prison and the State Penitentiary, rely heavily on those overtime shifts to fill essential posts.

Some corrections employees like the overtime, said Michael Chipman, president of the Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police 88, the union representing corrections officers and other security staff. But an excessive amount of even voluntary overtime still causes burnout, he said.

Nebraska correctional officers described a continual sense of fatigue and worried about the impact of overtime on their well-being, according to a 2021 report by Doug Koebernick, inspector general of the state prison system.

Former employees told the Flatwater Free Press that the long hours took them away from their families, and brought on panic attacks and sleep loss.

Rapid turnover continues to be a problem for Nebraskas prison system. By the end of September, corrections had lost 330 prison guards over the course of 2021. The department projected that one out of every four Nebraska prison employees would leave their job in 2021, according to its most recent quarterly report.

Corrections is not the most glamorous job. Its a challenging job, Foxall said. Hiring problems predate the pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated problems.

The state hopes that the recent raises announced for correctional officers will help recruit and retain staff, lowering the departments reliance on overtime to keep afloat. Within six weeks of the change, the department saw 630 applications for corporal positions, compared with 162 applications during the five weeks prior.

The department has hired about 140 of those applicants, Frakes said.

But the new union contract will drive up overtime expenses as well. In addition to increasing hourly salaries, the contract boosted overtime pay from time and a half to double.

Since the raises went into effect, droves of corrections employees have volunteered for overtime or holiday shifts, Koebernick said.

Now, with the increase of people wanting to get overtime because of the pay, I think were going to see a significant change in the amount of money spent on overtime, he said. I think were going to get blown away.

The fact that so many Nebraska prison employees made more than half their base salary in overtime last year is a testament to the level of need, said Eric Thompson, director of the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It signals that theres a limited number of people qualified to do the essential  and often unpleasant  work of guarding and managing the cases of inmates.

Rampant overtime is far from ideal. But its also currently necessary, said Dustin White, an economics professor at UNO.

In the short run, you just have to find people, he said. Its essentially a bribe. Youre trying to figure out, how do I convince people to do this for now until I can figure out a better solution?

This story by the Flatwater Free Press is part of a collaboration with the Omaha World-Herald examining Nebraskas prison crisis.
BLOOMINGTON  Monday marks two years since the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was first detected in Illinois. It would not arrive in McLean County for another two months, by which time the health care community had done its best to prepare for a first wave.

What they did not expect was a second, third, fourth and fifth wave stretching staff and resources thin.

The statistics, theyre not lying, I sometimes walk into the room with one bed or no beds (open), said Hannah Denault, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Carle BroMenn Medical Center.

Looking back two years, J.C. Michel said he remembers watching the numbers rise in Italy and a complete overwhelming of their medical system, and he did not take it lightly.

I said to one of my partners, kind of in an alarmist way, I think our lives are going to be measured before COVID and after COVID. I think this is going to be a turning point in our lives, said Michel, a pulmonologist and director of the intensive care unit at OSF HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center.

Some of those around him predicted it would be just a little virus, perhaps raising concern for a season before fading away.

Sarah Cope, a nurse on the critical care floor at St. Joseph, said she thought, if it got here wed mask a little bit and by springtime itll be gone.

But Michel was sure it would be a calendar event for many of us.

And he was right.

As of Friday, McLean County has reported a total of 43,324 positive COVID-19 cases since March 2020, and 329 residents have died from illness related to the virus. Carle BroMenn in Normal and St. Joseph in Bloomington have experienced their ICUs and other units full to capacity, with metrics fluctuating as new variants take hold  most recently, omicron.

Statewide, the Illinois Department of Public Health has reported 2,773,362 cases, including 29,845 deaths, in 102 counties. The number of hospital patients hit an all-time high last week with 7,308, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

Early in the pandemic, Denault went into every shift concerned about when McLean County would start seeing the overwhelming numbers that were happening in the cities that were hit first.

In March of 2020, I went into every shift scared, she said.

What the health care community was not prepared for, Michel said, was the sadness and the grief that came alongside the pandemic.

The numbers we were able to estimate pretty closely, he said. (But) nobody had dealt with death on a scale like this before, so it wasnt something that we could predict in terms of its emotional toll. Saying were going to see 500 to 1,000 deaths over the next year is very mathematical, but actually experiencing that  I dont think we could predict that.

They also did not predict it would still be ongoing two years later, since other disease outbreaks and epidemics  like H1N1 and SARS  spiked and receded much more quickly.

None of these were this length of time, so I think we geared ourselves up for that initial surge and all pulled together. We got through it and we said, We made it. And we said that after each surge, and now I think nobodys saying anything like We made it any more because we dont want to jinx it, Michel said.

Stretched to their limit

In the two years since this novel coronavirus arrived, the fear that came with the medical system gearing up for the initial surge and the unknowns eventually faded into fatigue.

Its really impossible to keep up a state of alarm for two years, but thats what weve done, Michel said. Nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, beds, ventilators  all of them once again, for the fifth time, potentially stretched to their limit.

Denault said when the ICU is full, other units often are as well. One of her big priorities each shift is to see which patients from the ICU can be moved to different units as she and the other ICU staff try to free up beds.

(The lack of other beds) makes things a little bit scary; there can be an in-house emergency at any time, Denault said.

Cope said seeing the hospitals flooded with COVID patients and widespread transmission in the community has been exhausting.

"Its hard seeing how it affects everyone, not just the staff members but the family members, especially for the ones that dont make it. Its exhausting, she said.

She works primarily with patients too sick for general medical floors of the hospital  especially COVID patients with high oxygen needs  but not yet to the point where they need to be intubated.

You have to watch them so closely because they can turn so fast," Cope said.

And they have learned a lot along the way.

Procedures like turning people over to a prone position used to be all-hands-on-deck situations, Denault said. Now those sorts of things are an everyday occurrence. The ICU puts a person on a ventilator about every day.

Were sad that were that proficient at doing these emergency procedures, Denault said.

There are still a lot of unknowns with the virus, said Chad Goveia, respiratory care practitioner at Carle BroMenn. He does see signs for more optimism, though, including the development of antiviral medications, and said his department has also been seeing success using flutter valves.

Michel said he has seen some frustration follow the lasting fatigue of the pandemic.

Youll note the vast majority of the people in the hospital now are unvaccinated. The vast vast majority of the ICU are unvaccinated or not completely vaccinated, and we cant help but feel that some or most of this last stressing of the health care system could be avoidable if people got vaccinated, Michel said, adding that while vaccinated and boosted people can contract the virus those cases are less likely to require severe illness and hospitalization.

Plenty of non-COVID patients are in the hospital as well, though. Goveia estimated two-thirds of patients he treats are there for non-COVID reasons.

A peak in the surge

State health officials have said the latest surge, pushed by the omicron variant, peaked this week, giving some health care workers a sliver of hope.

After leaving St. Joseph on Tuesday afternoon, Michel said it looked like morale was at an all-time low as hospitalizations, deaths and difficult meetings about scarce resources (like ventilators) were at an all-time high.

The one thing that would keep us going is that potentially were peaking now, and I hope that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, he said. But if that light would dim just a little bit, Im not sure how the health care communitys going to react, because we really need this to be over or its going to be really difficult to see how we keep moving forward.

But even the peak is hard to see in the thick of it.

It may be at its peak, but in the hospital setting, everybodys different in how the disease hits them and how long theyre hospitalized for. So if its a peak in the community, we may not be seeing it yet, or were seeing patients for so long that it feels like its always at a peak, Cope said.

Like a family

The length of the pandemic and loss associated with it have also been hard on health care workers. Some have found support in others in their workplaces, helping each other through not just tough shifts, but the dragging of successive months and now years as well.

We come into work for each other, Denault said.

She recently saw another health care worker write about being the last person so many people had talked to before being put on a ventilator and later dying without coming off of it. It is true for her, too.

Weve seen more death in our careers than we ever thought was possible, Denault said.

Goveia said the pandemic has been hard on him and his colleagues, but he has been impressed with how the hospital has come together, including working across disciplines and specialties.

These multidiscipline partners, were almost like family, he said.

Cope said when she graduated with her nursing degree in 2018, she never would have dreamed a pandemic would overwhelm her day-to-day work, but she is grateful to work with a team she can depend on.

Its mentally and physically exhausting, but having a great team that I work with really makes the difference, she said. I dont have to worry about going to work because I know Im going to have the support that I need to do my job and to do it well. Im lucky.

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BLOOMINGTON  The McLean County Health Department confirmed Friday the count of fatal COVID-19 cases has risen by three.

A statement released Friday from MCHD announced 464 new confirmed and probable cases of the virus were recorded, marking a total of 43,324 cases. Of those, 2,865 people are under home isolation and 40,073 are released as recovered.

The health department said three women, who were not associated with long-term care, have died after being infected. One was in her 30s, another was in her 70s, and a third was in her 80s.

In total, 329 deaths in McLean County are connected to COVID-19, per the update.

McLean County's hospitals are seeing a slight decrease in COVID patients, with 53 being cared for in the county. However, the number of McLean County residents under hospitalization held steady since Thursday at 57.

Intensive care unit capacity also saw no change since Thursday, as 11% of those beds remain vacant. The number of total open hospital beds increased by 6% since Thursday to 8% listed as unused.

Cumulative positivity rates stayed at 5.5% for tests of McLean County residents, and the seven-day rolling average was 14% as of Wednesday.

There were 389 people tested Friday at the Interstate Center, with no wait time, according to Reditus Laboratories, which operates the site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to label McLean County as having high community transmission, based on a rate of 2,312.31 per 100,000 as of Wednesday.

MCHD said Friday that 257,977 vaccine doses have been administered in the county, with 61.7% of the population registered as fully vaccinated.

The Illinois Department of Health said in a press release Friday that 183,722 cases were confirmed in the state over the past week. That timeframe includes 746 deaths counted in the state following a positive test.

Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has recorded 2,773,362 cases of the virus, plus 29,845 deaths. The statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests for the week of Jan. 14-20 is 11.9%, according to IDPH, and the test positivity rate for that period is 15.3%.

IDPH said 6,054 people in Illinois were hospitalized with the virus on Thursday night. Of those, 972 were in the ICU and 560 were on ventilators.

By end of Thursday, a total of 20,207,132 vaccines doses were issued in the state. On a weekly bases, 44,420 doses are being injected, said the state health department. It added 74% of people living in Illinois have gotten one dose, 65% are fully vaccinated, and 49% are up to date on their booster shots.

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by Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Wang Aona

JAKARTA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ahmad Faisal is a volunteer with the Harimau Kita (Our Tiger) Forum, a non-profit organization working to protect the Sumatran tiger in Indonesia.

The Harimau Kita Forum has been fighting for the Sumatran tiger for many years, and the task is not easy. Hunters lay hundreds of traps in the forests that the few remaining tigers call home.

Faisal recalled finding a terrified tiger ensnared in a barbed wire cage in Lampung Province on the island of Sumatra, one of many found in poachers' traps each year. Its injured leg had to be amputated to save its life.

"They sometimes use steel cages. All animals in the forest can get trapped, not only tigers. This is the biggest threat for the population of Sumatran tigers," Faisal told Xinhua.

The island of Sumatra is the only home of the eponymous and critically endangered Sumatran tiger, with less than 400 surviving in a rapidly shrinking habitat.

Rampant deforestation has forced both tigers and poachers into smaller and smaller areas. Poaching occurs even in the most protected forests, as hunters seek the huge profits generated by tiger parts on the black market. Creating some kind of equilibrium between the tigers and the ever-encroaching humans is the top priority of Faisal and Harimau Kita.

The tiger conservation forum has more than 100 members, including of professionals and academics, and is supported by around 300 volunteers, almost all in Sumatra. Volunteers survey and monitor tiger populations. Most members have jobs outside the forum.

"The work of the volunteers is very challenging. We operate almost entirely in the tigers' last strongholds -- inaccessible highland forests. They are not ideal places for humans," Faisal said.

The biggest threat for the volunteers is actually the tigers themselves. The forum works with the people who live close to the tigers to learn how to avoid conflicts with tigers and other animals.

Ardi Andono, head of Sumatra Natural Resources Conservatory Agency, believes that humans must live side by side with tigers, as their habitat is swallowed up by settlements, mining and oil palm plantations. Sumatra loses 1.8 percent of its forest every year.

"Tigers avoid humans whenever they can. They don't want trouble, but they are losing their home and have to eat. We need local residents to find a way to coexist with the tigers," said Faisal. 
BLOOMINGTON  A Bloomington man was sentenced Friday to four years on probation after pleading guilty last year to arson.

Andrew L. Stanley, 39, was initially charged in April 2020 with aggravated arson, a Class X felony, and arson, a Class 2 felony. The aggravated arson charge was dismissed in a plea agreement.

Judge William Yoder said he would have sentenced Stanley to prison if it was not for a letter showing glowing support of him submitted by the victim, and other support letters from family.

Bloomington fire and police departments were dispatched to the 800 block of East Bissell Street around 3:45 p.m. April 13, 2020, for a house fire and domestic dispute.

Firefighters determined the fire ignited in an upstairs bedroom.

Prosecutors said in a factual basis statement that the fire was intentionally lit while a woman and a teenage girl were inside. No injuries were reported in the fire.

Stanley and a household member had been in an argument that day until he left the residence. He returned with a gasoline can and proceeded to pour gas in a bedroom, then used a lighter to start a fire, prosecutors previously said.

The fire was contained to the bedroom and it was extinguished in about five minutes, but the house suffered significant smoke and heat damage, according to fire officials.

Stanley was arrested later the same day and he was charged the next day.

The judge also ordered him to pay about $79,000 in restitution to an insurance company.

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather

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BLOOMINGTON  A Bloomington man who was found guilty of sexual assault, attempted residential arson and unlawful restraint was sentenced Friday to 11 years in prison.

William R. Carter, 23, was charged in December 2020 with criminal sexual assault, arson, attempted arson, unlawful restraint and two domestic battery misdemeanors for the incident on Sept. 7, 2020. One count of residential burglary was later added, but he was found not guilty of that charge during trial.

Police said Carter sexually assaulted a woman, lit her couch on fire causing damage, tried to light the residence on fire and prevented her from leaving, according to court documents.

A prosecutor said in court Friday that Carter attempted to light fire throughout the house and left the stovetop burners on.

Fridays sentencing hearing immediately followed Judge Casey Costigans denial of a defense motion for a new trial.

Defense lawyer Jennifer Patton argued that the victim did not provide consistent testimony or corroborating evidence at trial for some of the charges.

Patton filed a notice of appeal with the clerks office and asked that a public defender be appointed after Fridays hearing.

The defense lawyer had asked the judge to issue a sentence of four years in prison for the sexual assault charge and a term of 30 months on probation for the other charges.

Assistant States Attorney Ashley Scarborough asked the judge to sentence Carter to eight years in prison for sexual assault, four years for attempted residential arson and one year for unlawful restraint.

The judge agreed to sentence Carter to eight years for sexual assault, but issued a three-year sentence for attempted arson and one year for unlawful restraint. The unlawful restraint sentence will be served concurrently to the other charges.

Carter received credit for 400 days already served in the McLean County Jail.

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather

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BLOOMINGTON  A 23-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 28 years in prison for his involvement in the 2019 shooting death of Bloomington man Juan Nash, 25.

Amari M. McNabb, of Chicago suburb Country Club Hills, was the last of three men to be sentenced for Nashs death, which resulted from an April 2, 2019, shootout at an outdoor party in the 1200 block of Orchard Road. Police recovered 20 shell casings at the scene from three different guns.

Scotty Allen, 21, and Exodus Hebert, 21, were previously sentenced to 50 years and 20 years in prison, respectively, for the fatal shooting.

McNabb was found guilty in a jury trial last summer of three murder charges and a charge of mob action. The jury acquitted him on one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm.

McNabb was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder charges, which merged into one count, and three years in prison for mob action.

Fridays sentencing came moments after Judge Casey Costigan denied a defense motion for a new trial.

Defense lawyer Edward Johnson said there was no direct evidence that McNabb was involved in the shooting.

The court had previously determined that Allen fired the fatal shot and Hebert was the driver of a getaway car.

Assistant States Attorney Aaron Fredrick argued Friday that McNabb took an active role in the shooting by helping to coordinate the shooting.

The prosecutor pointed to a police interview with McNabb in which he accused Nashs younger brother of having a role in a separate Bloomington murder about five months earlier.

Johnson filed a notice of appeal with the clerks office following Fridays hearing. The case will head to the appellate court for consideration, and the court has appointed a public defender to represent McNabb.

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather

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BLOOMINGTON  Eldridge Gilbert Jr. grew up during the civil rights movement, but his convictions got an extra push after hearing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak.

"It didn't change me, it motivated me further," Gilbert said. "(...) I grew up in a house where this was just a part of my DNA."

Gilbert's father, Rev. Eldridge Gilbert, was the pastor at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Rockford and heavily involved in the civil rights movement at the local, state and national levels.

"Because of Dr. King, you had to learn to be able to work with people and embrace (others); the Spirit of Love took on a new meaning for me," Gilbert said.

Gilbert had the chance to hear King speak at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1966, when Gilbert was a junior.

King visited Wesleyan twice, on Feb. 14, 1961, and on Feb. 10, 1966.

The visits happened because students asked, University Archivist Meg Miner said. It was similar to the circumstances that brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson to Illinois State University in October of last year.

He was invited, thats the simplest answer I can give you, Miner said.

The 1961 visit was organized by the Religious Activities Committee. King spoke to a sociology class, and then gave a smaller talk on non-violence in the New Testament, according to a schedule published in the school newspaper at the time. He later spoke at the Religious Emphasis Banquet and in a public event that evening.

The IWU archives do not have any transcripts of Kings 1961 speech, Miner said. However, some of what he said was reported by the campus and community newspapers.

The 1966 visit was once again brought about by students, this time through the Student Senate.

Gilbert was on the Student Senate Convocation Commission, which wanted to invite a person of color to speak on campus. Gilbert originally reached out to Jackie Robinson, but he was not well enough for the trip out from New York. Unsure who to invite, Gilbert asked his father for advice and the reverend suggested King.

Through Gilbert Sr.'s contacts within the civil rights movement, which included Rev. Ralph Albernathy, he was able to pass along a home phone number for King. Elizabeth Lindbolm, chair of the Student Senate Convocation Committee, called the number and King himself picked up and agreed to come visit, Gilbert Jr. said.

Richard Muirhead was a senior and Student Senate president in the spring of 1966, and so it was his name that was attached to the announcements of Kings visit, though he was not deeply involved in the early organizing for the event. After it was announced, he started receiving threating notes and late-night anonymous phone calls, he said. This sort of pushback seemed to follow King around.

Nevertheless, he came, and that was probably the highlight of my life in many ways, Muirhead said.

The second visit was after King had won the Nobel Peace Prize and as he had started addressing persistent racism in the north of the country, Muirhead said. That was something that he, Gilbert and others had noticed even on Wesleyans campus, including in exclusionary clauses in Greek life.

"It wasn't a very diverse campus, period," Gilbert said.

Campus changes

Muirhead described it as a period of rapid change for Wesleyan. Students, guided by the national civil rights movement and by progressive faculty members, pushed for increased recruitment of historically underrepresented demographics and a more integrated campus generally.

King had been speaking at many college campuses around that time, Gilbert said. Students and other young people had become some of the mainstays of the movement.

Despite the influence of progressive faculty members and a generally open administration, it took years to make even local changes, Muirhead said.

King's first visit garnered some attention and around 500 attendees at the main speech. By 1966, King had received the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Fred Young Field House was packed with around 3,000 people, Miner said.

Hearing King speak was electrifying, the alumni said, and Muirhead later got to spend more time with King during the drive back to the airport. Wesleyan does have a full transcript of the 1966 speech, as well as a recording from WJBC. Both have been posted online by the universitys communications department.

"His presence brought intrigue to campus; dialogue was increased," Gilbert said.

King and the civil rights movement influenced Muirhead to join the Peace Corps after graduating. It came down to either doing the Peace Corps in Peru or taking a teaching position in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was not a difficult decision, he said.

He spent three years in Peru, where he met his wife. They continue to go back to Peru around once a year, and Muirhead has also spent time teaching there in study abroad programs. The couple now live in the Milwaukee area.

Gilbert also joined the Peace Corps after graduating, doing his service in Sierra Leone. He was motivated to join by hearing Sargent Shriver, one of the founders of the Peace Corps, speak at the 1966 commencement ceremony. He lives in Rockford and is married to an IWU alumna.

King today

As a university archivist, Miners main audience is always the students, she said. When she presents to students on the topic of King, she likes to highlight that students were the ones who brought him to campus, and that the problems King spoke about, including racism, along with economic inequalities and war, are still issues today.

This is something we need to check ourselves on and be mindful of the work thats still to be done in our community (at Wesleyan and beyond campus), Miner said.

Gilbert looks back now and sometimes wonders if he should have done more. He met with then-IWU President Lloyd Berthold several times and encouraged the administration to diversify the student body and the faculty, Gilbert said.

The year after he graduated, in the fall of 1967, the freshman class included between 20 and 25 Black students, Gilbert said. He had been one of two Black students in his class and the only African-American, along with a woman from what is today Zimbabwe.

Despite these local changes, Gilbert said he remains worried about the state of civil rights today, including voting rights, given the rejection of the Democratic voting rights legislation in Congress earlier this week.

King's message had broad themes to the wider community, but at the same time challenged people to make changes within themselves as individuals, Gilbert said. For him, that meant extending love to oneself before one could extend it to others. Gilbert followed King in tying it back to Ancient Greek and Christian ideas of agape and philia, different types of love that are not reliant on affection.

"If I could not love myself, I could not see anything in someone else worth embracing," he said. "There's a universality, to the human family, that one must embrace."

Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter: @connorkwood

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A Cook County judge on Friday again shot down a lawsuit that argues consumers should be able to recover costs associated with the ComEd bribery scandal that implicated former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Circuit Judge Cecilia Horan ruled the court could not consider the class action claims for relief, citing the separation of powers doctrine that draws lines between the responsibilities of different branches of government.

Horan had dismissed the case previously, but attorneys got a chance to refine their arguments and come before the judge again.

In a hearing Friday, attorney Stephan Blandin focused on Madigan, the longtime Chicago Democrat, and referenced ComEds admissions of bribery in a July 2020 federal case.

Because Michael Madigan was bribed, he lifted his brick  on the legislation and allowed it to go for a vote, Blandin argued. As a result of the admitted bribery that took place, Commonwealth Edison was unjustly enriched.

The utility acknowledged in the federal case that it sought to win Madigans favor by giving his political pals contracts for little-or-no-work jobs, shoveling internships to college kids in his 13th Ward, handing out legal contracts to a Madigan allys law firm and placing a Madigan-backed candidate on the companys board of directors.

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ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine for that scheme. Madigan has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged in the ongoing criminal case.

But the ComEd case weighed heavily on Madigans fellow Democrats, and a newly elected House last year dethroned Madigan from the speakership, a post he had held for a national record 36 years. Shortly thereafter, Madigan resigned the House seat hed held for 50 years and gave up the chairmanship of the Democratic Party of Illinois, a post he had held since 1998.

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PEORIA  A jury's paperwork mix-up resulted in a central Illinois judge announcing a not guilty verdict in a murder trial, only to inform the defendant minutes later that he had in fact been convicted.

Micha Gordon and his attorney hugged Thursday after Peoria County Circuit Judge John Vespa spoke the words not guilty in announcing the jury's apparent verdict on a first-degree murder charge.

But the jurors immediately appeared puzzled at the verdict the judge had read. It turned out the panel of 12 jurors had filled out the wrong form, and after about five minutes, Vespa read a new verdict: guilty, the (Peoria) Journal Star reported.

Gordon, 55, now faces at least 20 and possibly up to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced March 24 in the August 2021, stabbing death of Rolando Westbrook, 37.

Gordon said he was jumped by Westbrook and used his knife to try to fend off the younger but larger man, whose body was found with multiple stab wounds.

Gordon testified that the stabbing occurred after he and Westbrook had argued about alcohol after they had been separately drinking and partying with friends at a public housing complex in Peoria.

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ORLANDO, Fla.  Sometimes to honor someone, a person only needs on penny.

Jedd Price, of Florida, has been doing that  and then some.

Born in Alton and raised in Troy, Price is on a journey to place 100,000 pennies at the grave sites of veterans across the country. He said the idea came after he returned to Illinois in 2020 for Memorial Day. While visiting, he noticed that his grandfather's gravestone was dirty. He had come back a year later to clean it and had asked over Facebook if anyone had family in Florida where they would like to have the same done. But he received no responses.

"I thought, 'Well, I'll go honor 1,000 veterans on Memorial Day just as a way to honor a bunch of them instead of just one by cleaning it," Price said.

Throughout the rest of 2021, Price has placed pennies in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois and every national cemetery in Florida.

Price will be back in the Riverbend on Saturday, Jan. 29, to lay the last five of his pennies. Two are for his step-grandfathers, two are for his biological grandfathers, and one for his great-grandfather. He plans to visit visit Carrolton, Greenfield, Highland and Fairview Heights.

Price said that, when he started his project, there was some struggle to get enough pennies because of coin shortages. This did not deter Price, who instead termed the challenge an "honor shortage."

"There's a love for veterans, but there's not a lot of active ways to kind of show respect," Price said. "I'm just trying to do something a little more tangible."

Price said that, since he started his journey he has received support from many people. His place of work, Auto Pay Plus, has helped him gather 41,000 pennies for his mission.

He's also met a lot of people, recalling in particular one widow of a veteran.

"Before leaving, she made a beeline for me with the biggest smile on her face and said, 'Keep doing what you're doing  and here's every last penny in my van.'"

Price said that, once he completes his 100,000-penny goal he plans to take up continue another project, though he is not sure what that will be.

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FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS  Each year, thousands of women cross state lines to have an abortion in Illinois  and that number could grow exponentially as pending U.S. Supreme Court decisions and new laws in various states challenge reproductive rights across large swaths of the nation.

But women traveling here to terminate a pregnancy will have a new resource designed to make the process easier: Two southern Illinois abortion providers have partnered to create one centralized location where patients can get assistance with travel needs like finding transportation, booking lodging and setting up child care.

The Regional Logistics Center is operated jointly by Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion clinic just over the Missouri border in Granite City. Designated case managers there can arrange travel, connect patients with financial assistance, help them find a place to stay and overcome other common logistical barriers to accessing abortion, particularly when traveling long distances.

The center  which is housed in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights  opened Friday, just before the 49th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion rights case Roe v. Wade on Saturday.

At a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center on Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the project lifesaving and life-changing work.

With reproductive rights under attack across the United States, its never been more vital for the state of Illinois to ensure access to reproductive services, he said. On the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we all thought we would be vigorously celebrating this important milestone. Instead, we are forced to contend with the possibility that there may not be a 50th anniversary of this fundamental right.

The centers launch comes at a time when abortion rights are under fire across the country: Some reproductive rights advocates fear this might be the last anniversary of Roe where the near five-decades-old ruling is still the law of the land, as state measures and court decisions increasingly chip away at the right to terminate a pregnancy.

Together, were breaking down the silos anti-abortion politicians created and proving that in community, with innovation and determination, we can secure a future with abortion access, said Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised midyear to rule on one of its most significant abortion cases in history: Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health will determine the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion past 15 weeks gestation  and potentially challenge Roe, which established the right to terminate a pregnancy in 1973, limiting state restrictions on the procedure prior to fetal viability.

Illinois has long been considered an abortion rights haven in the Midwest, surrounded by states with more restrictions on the procedure such as mandatory wait times, gestational limits and tighter regulations on providers.

If Roe were to fall, abortion rights advocates predict that roughly half of states across the country would severely limit or ban the procedure. Many of those states are in the Midwest, including each one that neighbors Illinois.

In 2019, more than 7,500 out-of-state women traveled here to have an abortion, constituting about 16% of all terminated pregnancies statewide, according to the most recent Illinois Department of Public Health data. The number of women traveling here from other states has increased every year since 2014.

An October report by Reproductive Health Services predicted that if Roe were to fall, southern Illinois abortion providers could in the first year see some 14,000 more patients from outside their service area.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate and Hope Clinic have already invested $10 million for additional staffing, infrastructure and clinical capacity to prepare for a post-Roe reality, according to the report.

The states distinction as an oasis for reproductive freedom has long been considered an embarrassment to organizations that oppose abortion.

A recent post on the Illinois Right to Life website encouraged supporters to keep praying that the court overturns Roe.

But the message also urged Illinoisans to remember that while the prospect of Roe being overturned is great news for much of America, it puts Illinois and, for that matter, the entire Midwest, in a precarious spot.

Because of Illinois radical, pro-abortion laws, not only will it remain business as usual for the abortion industry here in our state, thousands upon thousands more women will cross our border to have the lives of their children ended here, the website said. We must act now to stop this disaster from unfolding.

Enormous influx

The new center in southern Illinois has been in the works for several years, as the two local abortion providers saw an increasing number of patients coming from other neighboring states, many with ever-tightening abortion regulations.

In September, a Texas law went into effect prohibiting abortions as early as about six weeks gestation, before many women even know theyre pregnant, all but banning the procedure in the nations second-largest state.

Dr. Erin King, executive director of the Hope Clinic for Women, said her clinic now sees several patients who travel from Texas every week, as well as more women coming from other southern states likely due to a ripple effect from the void of abortion access in Texas.

She described one patient she saw earlier this month: The woman found out she was pregnant on a Wednesday, made the appointment on Friday and flew in on Saturday to have a medication abortion at Hope Clinic. The same day, she flew back to Texas, King recalled.

And that was her first trip on a plane, ever, King said. If she had not lived in Texas  most of the visit could have happened over the phone, like a telemedicine visit, or a short trip via gynecologist. I think what is so hard for people to understand is that this is care that shouldnt take all of this coordination and all of this funding. 

Since mid-December, King said her clinic has treated 20% more patients than anticipated, many from out of state.

Weve just seen this enormous influx of patients coming from farther and farther away, she said. Were seeing a lot more patients in the last month needing help with travel, help with funding, all the things the Regional Logistics Center focuses on. Weve been moving in this direction for a couple of years. But weve seen this need increase exponentially in the last month.

Several years ago, Pritzker pledged to make Illinois the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to standing up for womens reproductive rights. In 2019, he signed the Reproductive Health Act, which established the procedure as a fundamental right for women in Illinois.

Pritzker earlier this month donated $100,000 from his campaign to the Personal PAC Independent Committee, whose purpose is preserving reproductive rights in Illinois by making independent expenditures to elect pro-choice candidates to state and local office, according to campaign finance documents.

Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, noted the pivotal role of abortion rights in Illinois amid the increasingly restrictive Midwest.

Illinois is an incredibly important state for access, she said. Illinois is surrounded by states that have worked to really limit access to care.

Based on need

The center will help connect abortion patients with various resources to help with everything from paying for the procedure to travel costs to finding a place to stay overnight, all of which can be difficult to figure out quickly for a time-sensitive procedure.

One of those resources is the Chicago Abortion Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial, emotional and logistical support to do whatever it takes to make sure people can get to their appointments, said Megan Jeyifo, executive director.

She said the need for assistance has skyrocketed in just a few years. In 2018, the nonprofit served 183 people. In 2021, that number went up to roughly 3,000. The organization spent about $450,000 on abortion funding and support in 2021, roughly seven times the amount spent in 2018, she said.

It was a very quick increase, pretty fast, but definitely based on need, she said.

Most folks the nonprofit serves come from other states, primarily Missouri and Indiana, as well as others in the Midwest, she said. But recently the Chicago Abortion Fund has been getting more calls from Texans, she said.

Destigmatizing abortion is a really critical component, said Jeyifo, adding that her own abortion experiences have informed her work with the nonprofit.

She said she had to navigate parental consent laws for her first abortion and then had to travel for her second abortion.

I think about what it took for me to travel, she said. I make really clear to the callers that the difficulty you face in accessing an abortion has nothing to do with the morality of an abortion. Its a systemic failure in this country. Abortion is health care.

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DECATUR  The Afghan Welcome Home Project is temporarily welcoming seven Afghan evacuees to the Decatur community.

They will be arriving in Decatur at around 3 p.m. Sunday and staying with a temporary host here for up to two weeks until a permanent residence is finalized in Bloomington.

Operations manager Ilene Henderson said these men are all former members of the Afghan National Army who fled Afghanistan during the August 2021 airlift.

As a result of being targeted by the Taliban, they had to leave their families behind in Afghanistan. They had tried to get into the airport with their families during the airlift, but it turned out to be too dangerous, Henderson said.

A welcome home rally will be hosted at the temporary residence, and anyone interested in attending or assisting in the move can contact Henderson at ilenemhenderson@gmail.com or 404-234-6513 for more information.

A sign-up list has also been created for items needed during their time here.

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Richard Irvin is a Republican. Period.

Irvin might not be enough of a Republican for the purists. And Democrats might want to weaken Irvin in the Republican primary for governor by pointing to some of the nice things hes said about Democrats (including the governor) over the years. But Richard Irvin is still a Republican.

Ive covered and watched the Aurora mayor for years and its always been obvious to me that hes a Republican.

If he was a Democrat, why would then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and House Speaker Michael Madigan all campaign against a Black candidate over the years and instead work to elect various white, openly Democratic opponents? Those Democrats were trying to stop Irvin from gaining any kind of foothold because they all knew he was talented enough that he could eventually do something really damaging to their party, like running for governor as a Republican with plenty of cash to spend. Oops.

Maybe hes not a pure Republican for gubernatorial candidates like Sen. Darren Bailey, who took a Democratic primary ballot in 2008; or Jesse Sullivan, who appeared to back Obama in 2008; or Gary Rabine, who financially supported Ald. Ed Burke and his ward organization. But if somebody tells you for two decades that theyre a Republican while fending off numerous, well-funded, high-profile Democratic attacks, Id believe them.

And, while Im at it, Gov. J.B. Pritzker needs to stop helping and enabling the far-right wing of the GOP in this state. No way would Jeanne Ives have given Gov. Bruce Rauner such a run for his money in the 2018 Republican primary had it not been for the generous intervention of the Democratic Governors Association (funded by Pritzker) on Ives behalf.

The governor regularly bemoans the fact that Republicans here are too tied to Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner and that they dont want to come to the table and negotiate. Yet, he seems fully prepared to unsubtly support the ultra-right Republican Darren Bailey.

I get that Pritzker doesnt want to have to face someone backed by Ken Griffin, who is worth almost ten times what Pritzker is. But if he wants to stamp out the far right, then dont fund it.

I also get that Pritzker and pretty much everyone else have good reasons to suspect that Irvin wont be his own man. Irvin could very well turn out to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the billionaire Griffin who once said that rich people have insufficient influence over politics in this country. Irvin should definitely have to answer for that on a constant basis. Not to mention that almost his entire campaign team elected Bruce Rauner in the first place. Who are they bringing us now?

Irvin should also expect to get a much closer once-over than any of the other announced Republicans have received. Hardly anybody has so far taken any of the other Republican hopefuls seriously. The election would effectively end on primary day, so why even bother vetting them?

Irvin, though, is the opposite of that. He may not make it through the primary, but if he does win, he has a shot at giving Pritzker a run for his money. And so he will likely be vetted much more closely.

And how can Irvin win the primary? Griffins money, for one. He also threw around some buzzwords in his kickoff video about children being indoctrinated and how all lives matter and crime is skyrocketing, and the state is broke, and all those other things written by Griffins people. Much of it seemed out of place because thats not the Richard Irvin weve seen over the years. But every consultants dream candidate is one who says and does whatever hes told.

Slightly more than half the Republican primary electorate lives in Downstate, but former Gov. Jim Edgar pointed out to me that if you count the exurban counties within the Chicago media market, thats most of the primary vote. Even so, its still an uphill climb.

Its also past time for Ken Griffin to publicly account for the tens of millions of dollars hes spent on campaigns here. Whatever else you can say about the billionaire Pritzker, he (and the self-funding Rauner before him) regularly takes questions from reporters on whatever subjects they want to talk about. Griffins money defeated a Supreme Court justice and killed a graduated income tax, and he is now reportedly trying to elect a governor and several others without once ever having the guts to submit himself to public questions. Thats the opposite of democratic.

Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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LONDON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- After a pullback from near seven-year record earlier this week, oil price has stayed at high levels the last couple of days, and is expected to continue the momentum, if not rising to new highs, in the coming months as a result of recovery of demand and sustained supply risks.

Demand is anticipated to be back on track. Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, countries around the world have generally imposed more modest restrictions, which have exerted a relatively small impact on demand, said Fu Xiao, head of commodity markets strategy at Bank of China International, in a written interview with Xinhua on Thursday.

"Recently, some European countries, including the UK, seemed to believe that the peak has passed and have begun to further lift lockdown measures, with demand recovering strongly," Fu said, noting that both the International Energy Agency and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expect oil demand to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

On the supply side, the flare-up of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pushed the West Texas Intermediate and Brent up to their highest settlements since October 2014 on Wednesday, based on the front-month contracts.

Yemen's Houthi militia claimed responsibility on Monday for a military operation that struck areas inside the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an active member of the Saudi-led military coalition. The announcement came just after three petroleum tankers had exploded in a fire near the storage facilities of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Concerns over the security of oil supply have partly dissipated since then, as "it became apparent that oil flows along the Ceyhan pipeline would return to normal fairly quickly," said a report by the ING Group, a financial services company, on Thursday.

However, some market analysts still see shadows looming over the oil markets. Although the Houthi's attack did not affect the UAE's oil production, the possibility of yet another conflict might raise questions about the stability of the oil supplies from the Middle East, Fu said, noting that the UAE contributed a significant share to the December 2021 output growth of OPEC Plus.

He also noted that the growth in OPEC Plus oil supply was less than expected and that the production growth in non-OPEC countries such as Brazil and Norway has been slowing down as well.

As a result, the price of oil may rise further, or stay at the current high level.

Another ING Group report said Tuesday that the growing geopolitical risk "comes at a time when there is already plenty of concern in the market over the potential impact of an escalation in tensions between Russia and Ukraine. These growing risks, combined with worries over OPEC spare capacity, have meant that sentiment in the oil market has remained bullish."

Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics, a London-based independent economic research consultancy, has expressed a cautiously optimistic view about price developments in 2022.

"We continue to expect energy prices to fall this year, but the latest developments on supply suggest that they will not fall by quite as much as we previously thought," she said on Wednesday.

Bain said Capital Economics has made an upward revision to the oil price forecast mainly because of the lower growth in OPEC Plus supply.

"OPEC consistently failed to meet its own output targets in 2021 and this looks likely to continue. Russia is also struggling to meet its target. Admittedly, we have revised up our U.S. output forecast, but we still expect it to finish 2022 below its pre-pandemic high," said the economist. 
LJUBLJANA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian Parliament Speaker Igor Zorcic had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self-isolation, the parliament said on Friday, while Defense Minister Matej Tonin said on Twitter he had also tested positive.

Zorcic tested positive on Thursday and was among the 9,858 infections confirmed in Slovenia that day.

On Friday, Tonin tweeted that coronavirus had found him. "I am positive. Currently without any symptoms. Vaccination works. Take care of yourselves, stay healthy," he said.

Currently, there are 96,481 active cases in the country, meaning nearly 5 percent of the population is infected, according to data released by the country's National Institute of Public Health on Friday.

The self-isolation time will be cut from at least ten to seven days in Slovenia starting from Monday, health officials said on Friday. This will apply to most of the infected people, provided they will not have fever or any other symptoms 24 hours before ending self-isolation with a negative test result.

Slovenia has been badly hit by COVID-19, but only 57.4 percent of its population of 2.1 million has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Therefore, the government is calling on citizens to get vaccinated. 
On this date in 2020, wildfires were continuing to consume Australia. Brush fires had been tormenting the continent for seven months.

We may have thought that was the worst the world would get in 2020. But it turned into an appetizer for the worlds banquet of misery.

President Trump was tried and acquitted after being impeached at the end of 2019. He also tested positive for COVID-19. Protests stemming from several police killings of unarmed Black Americans erupted throughout the country. Wildfires hit the U.S. West Coast in addition to Australia.

And let's not forget "murder hornets."

Before any of that happened, though, a virus spread from China into Europe. The 19 added to the COVID designation signified the year of the virus discovery. Seeing COVID in print was alarming, but in early 2020, most Americans found themselves dismissing concerns. The 21st century had already been filled with health threats, from SARS, Ebola, cholera, dengue fever, meningitis, swine flu and measles. Most were contained outside the United States or didnt spread significantly.

But COVID-19 was different. In Europe in early 2020, cases doubled every seven days. Even so, Americans thought the reports were reflecting an emergency that was only taking place somewhere else. Just like Ebola, dengue fever and cholera,

On Jan. 20, the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was confirmed, in Washington state. The second U.S. case was confirmed days later. A woman who traveled to Wuhan, China caught the virus while she was there before flying back to the Chicago area. Her husband contracted the virus from her and both were treated at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates where both made full recoveries. This was the second case of COVID-19 in the United States during the pandemic.

Within weeks, COVID-19 spread through the U.S. the same way it spread through Europe. The other thing that spread immediately was a division of opinion about the virus. COVID-19 was politicized in an unprecedented fashion. Conservatives generally believed the virus was an inconvenience, maybe a little worse than annual flu strains. Liberals viewed it as devastating, and as politicians attempted to slow and contain the disease with measures viewed as an irresponsible use of power, the numbers rose and fell.

The number of fatalities grew, surpassing morbid milestones along the way. Variants of the original virus spread around the world. By January 2022, record numbers of cases were being reported daily. Intensive care units overflowed. Fatalities fell, but the diseases impact was still felt. Work positions were not filled. The number of ill left businesses additionally short of workers. Some cut hours, or were forced to close altogether.

Untruths and misconceptions thrived. The lack of public trust in scientists, medical people and the news media spiked. The Centers for Disease Control gave confusing and sometimes conflicting advice and directives. Messaging was a mess  uncoordinated, contradictory and unexplained. Discussions about COVID-19 devolved into arguments during which no one listened to the other. Even the arrival of a vaccine  long held as the potential slayer of the virus  was greeted by disbelief and ridiculous conspiracy theories.

The number of deaths remains an estimate, but however its sliced, COVID-19 is among the top killers in the recorded history of disease, trailing only two bubonic plague outbreaks, HIV/AIDS and the Spanish flu.

(The Spanish flu, by the way, is so named because when the deadly virus was working through Europe during World War I, British, French and United States media were discouraged from reporting on the spread. Governments downplayed the severity of the spread. The Spanish press was most active in reporting on the virus and its spread, giving the false impression at the time that the disease originated there.)

This pandemic will end. They all do. But there will be many more cases and many more deaths before it runs its course.

The question remains: What kind of society will we have when its over? How much we will still be arguing? What will be the obvious results and the hidden results of what weve been through? When will it be over?

We have no idea yet.

Get vaccinated. We are weary of reporting about deaths from COVID-19, and you are weary of reading about it. Do it for yourself, your family, your loved ones and the strangers you come across daily. You owe it to society.

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The infamous Martin Shkreli is Pharma Bro no more. On Jan. 10, Shkreli received a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.

You may recall that Shkreli exploited lax enforcement to corner the market on a lifesaving drug (Daraprim) and then jacked up the list price more than fortyfold. This went on for years, with Shkreli directing the operation even while serving a prison term for a prior financial fraud.

Considering his actions were a life-and-death matter among those who needed the drug, were all in favor of shutting the door on any repeat performances.

Companies and industries routinely complain that a few lousy actors can make the rest look bad. So, when you catch em red-handed, ban em.

It behooves any industry to crack down on the worst of the worst, and lifetime bans send the right, no-nonsense message. The worst lawyers should be disbarred, the worst telemarketers shut down for good and the worst financial-industry crooks banned as a matter of course.

As the exhaustive 135-page ruling on the Shkreli case illustrates, his misconduct was as rotten as it was intentional. Its easy to imagine him doing it all again if he had the chance.

Shkreli, who currently resides in federal prison, started by researching the pharmaceutical industry for a drug that fit specific requirements. It had to be the sole, gold-standard treatment for a rare but life-threatening ailment, so that patients, hospitals and insurers were at his mercy and had no choice but to pay any price.

The drug he chose also had to be produced from only one source, so its distribution could be closed off to any would-be competitors. That created a barrier to entry and extended the period of maximum pricing power.

Shkreli settled on a drug used for a potentially fatal disease that results from infection with a parasite. The federal government estimates that tens of millions may be infected in the U.S., but a healthy immune system keeps the parasite from causing illness.

Most at risk are those being treated for HIV, cancer or organ transplants, as well as babies born to mothers with active infections during their pregnancies. To save these patients suffering from the active disease, the drug must be administered within hours. It was this small but vulnerable population that Shkreli sought to milk, according to the recent ruling.

He and his gang bought Daraprim from its previous owner at a premium in 2015, then increased the list price from less than $18 per pill to $750, prompting headlines, but no immediate action from regulators: Taking advantage of the slow-moving Food and Drug Administration was part of Shkrelis plan.

This man was not some pure capitalist hero, as some absurdly have suggested, but the exact reverse. His crime was all about prohibiting free-market competition.

At times using a contraband phone, Shkreli worked through a stooge he installed as chief executive of his drug company to keep the pills and their active ingredient inaccessible to competitors who needed them to produce generic versions.

At one point, the ruling says, Shkrelis henchman drove to a Starbucks parking lot to repurchase five bottles of Daraprim from a pharmacy owner for $750,000, twice what the pharmacy had paid. Thats one way to keep the pills away from competitors.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote noted that Shkrelis lifetime ban was well-deserved for his egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running and ultimately dangerous illegal conduct.

Shkreli expressed no remorse and said no one had proven his scheme was egregious because no evidence had been introduced showing that patients had died. The judge wasnt having this absurd line of defense. This is an egregious case; death is not the only relevant metric, she wrote. If a court sitting in equity is powerless to impose a lifetime industry ban to protect the public against a repetition of the conduct proven at this trial, then the public could rightfully ask whether its well-being has been adequately weighed.

One common argument against lifetime bans is especially weak: Some claim that barring bad actors from their chosen fields hurts the economy, depriving industries of innovators who happened to make mistakes and got caught. This nonsense typifies the thinking of some white-collar criminals who remain amazingly arrogant even after being brought to justice.

Exhibit A is Shkreli, who in 2020 had the nerve to seek release from prison in part so he could use his skills to find a cure for COVID-19. Presumably he meant skills other than defrauding investors and profiteering.

Shed no tears for entitled grifters.

Chicago Tribune

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Question: With Murray State set to become the latest member of the Missouri Valley Conference, how many of the conference's schools are located in the actual Missouri Valley/Missouri River watershed?

Answer: None. Despite the fact the Missouri is the longest river in North America, with a watershed encompassing some 500,000 square miles and parts of 10 states and two Canadian provinces, not one of the Missouri Valley's 10 current schools  or two newcomers next season, Murray State and Belmont  reside within the Missouri Valley. (Thanks to Bill Kemp, librarian at the McLean County Museum of History, for the fact.)
I intended this column to focus on Elizabeth Economys important new book, "The World According to China," which describes Xi Jinpings vision for Chinas future dominance in the world.

This book is important because it illuminates the ways in which Xis China aims to shape a radically transformed international order  by force and by other means.

But I have to take a short detour to comment on President Joe Bidens disturbing slip of the tongue on Wednesday when speaking about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine  because what happens between Moscow and Kyiv is bound to affect Xi Jinpings future moves.

Biden appeared to give a green light to Russia to attack Ukraine so long as it wasnt a full-scale invasion, saying that if it was a minor incursion, the allies might disagree over how to respond. The White House later tried to walk back his comments, saying any invasion would be met with a swift, united allied response.

Yet it is highly unlikely that Vladimir Putin would mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, since he wants to avoid heavy Russian casualties. Far more likely is a short, sharp strike to degrade Ukraines military followed by a swift Russian withdrawal. Or even a massive cyber and offshore missile attack on military targets with no invasion. The goal would be to show that a disunited West cant or wont prevent Ukraine from being forced back into the Russian orbit.

A Putin success in coercing Ukraine will reverberate in Beijing.

Indeed, Beijing has accelerated its efforts to seize what it claims are its sovereign lands. Many Americans are familiar with Beijings designs on democratic Taiwan. But fewer Americans are aware of Chinas designs on islands claimed by Japan, undersea gas and oil claimed by Indonesia, territorial waters claimed by five countries bordering the South China Sea, and land border territories in India and Bhutan.

China has nibbled bit by bit to restore its sovereignty to these territories, taking land and seizing South China Sea atolls that it turns into military bases  without any serious pushback from Washington or its Asian allies. Beijing has shown utter disregard for international legal judgments not in its favor.

So if Putin can smash Ukraine via cyberattacks and missiles without a fierce united NATO response, why shouldnt Xi imagine he can soon do the same to Taiwan?

But what is even more scary is Xis use of Chinas massive economic heft and technological advances for coercion. Xi ably uses Chinas economic power to induce compliance with his vision, Economy writes.

In Xis Belt and Road initiative (known as BRI), China has spread its influence through Africa, South America, Central Asia, and, yes, Europe through massive infrastructure projects. These range from ports to railways and bases, to fiber-optic cables, e-payment systems, and satellites.

Yes, as Economy notes, many developing countries complain about corrupt Chinese behavior and have trouble paying back their debts to Beijing. But many security experts believe China will ultimately convert delinquent loans for ports into taking ownership of potential military bases in strategic areas across the globe.

Moreover, Beijing has massive investments in ports and other infrastructure around the Mediterranean (including a majority stake in Piraeus port in Greece), which gives it political leverage when the European Union considers penalties for Chinese aggression.

China is trying hard to promote new rules in multilateral institutions for global internet and satellites that endorse its approach of state controls of information flows. If Xis dreams come true, Economy writes, the system of U.S. alliances that have underpinned the international system for more than 70 years would be dissolved in favor of a proposed Chinese framework that favored state controls and repression over individual freedoms, including rules for the global internet, cyber, and safety in space.

None of this is preordained. But so much depends on whether Americans can grasp how our disunity encourages adversaries abroad. As "The World According" to China makes clear, Xi Jinping is eagerly capitalizing on Americas disarray.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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The Minority in Parliament has received the tragic news of an explosion in Apiate, a town close to Bogoso in the Western Region in which several lives and properties were lost.



Credible reports confirm that a motorcycle run into a vehicle carrying explosives resulting in the carnage leading to loss of lives and destruction of properties.



This incident is unacceptable because there are strictly laid down protocols to be followed during the transportation of such explosives in accordance with LI2177.



It is our firm conviction that with strict regulatory enforcement and compliance of protocols, this unfortunate incident could have been averted.



The Minority is therefore calling for an impartial enquiry into this heart-wrenching accident and unfortunately loss of at least seventeen lives and destruction of several properties.



This enquiry among others will prevent the recurrence of such an incident in the future.



We, therefore, call on the government to do all within its powers to support the affected people in order to ameliorate their loss.



The Minority wishes to join well-meaning Ghanaians to commiserate and share in the pain and anguish of all affected people.



Signed



John Abdulai Jinapor



Ranking Member, Mines and Energy Committee

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Government will bear the cost of medical assistance and other support for the families of those affected by the explosion which devastated the community of Appiatse, near Bogoso, on Thursday January 20, 2022, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has announced.



Working through the State Housing Company (SHC) and in collaboration with mining firms operating in the Bogoso area, Government will also provide affordable housing for those whose houses were destroyed in the blast.



Vice President Bawumia made the pledge when he led a government delegation made up of the Minister for the Interior, Hon Ambrose Dery; Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor; Information Minister Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Western Region Minister Hon Dr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah; Director General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh and other officials to commiserate with the families of the affected on Friday, 21 January 2022.



Briefing the Vice President, officials at the hastily set-up Operations Centre at the scene of the disaster, including the Inspector General of Police, the Chief Fire Officer, senior Army officers, senior officials of the other security agencies, the Ghana Health Service, Ambulance Service and other allied agencies disclosed that 179 persons had been directly affected by the blast, allegedly caused by a collision between an explosives-carrying vehicle and a motorbike.



Thirteen (13) persons have been confirmed dead so far, they added, with 45 others receiving medical attention in nearby hospitals and a further 4 referred to the Komfo Anokye and Korle Bu hospitals.



About 150 persons, almost the entirety of the community, are now seeking shelter at the Catholic Churchs centre because their houses have either been destroyed or made unsafe by the blast.



Accompanied by the Chief of Appiatse and the MCE for Prestea Huni Valley, Dr Bawumia and his team visited the scene of the blast, which has a large crater in the middle of the highway, the Appiatse health centre to see some of the injured, and the Catholic centre to commiserate with the displaced and hand over 13 tonnes of relief items comprising of rice, oil, soap, blankets, used clothing, mosquito nets and coil and mattresses, and a large sum of money for their upkeep.



This is a sad day for all of us, Dr Bawumia stated.



On behalf of President Akufo-Addo and the entire government, I wish to convey our condolences to the families of the bereaved and wish the injured a speedy recovery. We will take the necessary steps and learn the necessary lessons from this disaster, but we are more concerned now about your welfare.

"We will be fully engaged in bringing relief to all the persons involved, and while we continue to assess the extent of damage, we have made provision for your medical and other bills.



Government will take up, fully, the cost of medical care for all the persons affected by this disaster. As I speak, officials from the Western Region office of the State Housing Company are on their way to assess the extent of damage to buildings and work with the mining companies and other stakeholders to provide you with new accommodation.



Once again, we wish the injured speedy recovery, and eternal rest for the departed. Government will do all in its power to bring a measure of relief for your loss, Vice President Bawumia added.

Source: Office of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia









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As part of moves to return life to nolmacy, government has presented an amount of GH200,000 to the victims of Apiate, near Bogoso in the Western Region who lost lives and properties through the explosion.



The donation is to cater for the medical bills of the victims among other things.



We are donating GH200,000 to victims of the explosion. We will also offer additional support to persons who have been affected by the explosion, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, disclosed this during a visit to the Bogoso-Appiate explosion site on Friday, January 21, 2022.



After touring the explosion site and the devastated community, the Vice President, commended the security agencies for the rescue operation.



He further expressed the governments sympathy and assured that the community would be restored at the expense of the government.



For the houses that have been destroyed, we are already beginning to think about how to rehabilitate and rebuild the community here. I want to assure Nananom that His Excellency has already given the directive. We have already spoken to the State Housing Corporation and are in consultation with the mining communities here. We will quickly try to put in place facilities that will help those who have been displaced. That will be a priority for us.



A visit to some injured victims of the disaster at the Aseda Health Centre in Bogoso, Dr. Bawumia said the government will foot the medical bills of persons injured in the explosion.



Police said their investigation revealed that a vehicle transporting explosives to a mining site, Chirano Mines collided with a motorcycle, resulting in the explosion.



Meanwhile, the government has deployed a joint team of police and military ballistics experts to examine the situation and put in place the requisite measures to forestall a secondary explosion.

Source: Daily Guide









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Governance expert, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah has called on government to review its yet-to-be implemented e-levy policy.



Dr. Otchere-Ankrah held strongly that the 1.75% tax rate on all electronic transactions is huge and should be cut down to 1 percent.



He also requested the government to raise the 100 cedi taxable amount on MoMo transactions, proposed by the Finance Minister, to 300 cedis in order to exempt the less privileged in society whose salary per month is around Ghc 300 or 400, to wit those who don't earn much to make ends meet.



Speaking to the authorities, he said; ''They should reduce it to 1 percent from 1.75 and then the daily taxable amount from 100 to 300. For me, that is what I think will be more pleasant to a lot of people to want to welcome this particular e-levy and then the majority should learn to build consensus.''



Dr. Otchere-Ankrah made these supplications on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwabena Owusu Aduomi is in hot waters as he has incurred the wrath of some leading members of his party over what they described as repulsive comments he made about the ruling party.



This follows a viral video on social media of the beleaguered politician surprisingly disowning his party (NPP), President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his administration.



Mr Aduomis comments, where he openly scorned the NPP government has compelled a member of NPP Council of Elders in the Manhyia South Constituency, Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori-Atta aka Tomtom to descended heavily on him.



According to Tomtom, who is a known entrepreneur and an outspoken politician, Owusu Aduomi has proven that he doesnt have issues about the NPP government at heart, therefore, he should be treated with contempt, going forward.



Aduomis betrayed comments



Owusu Aduomi, during an interview that has gone viral, was asked if there were hardships in the country now and he answered in the affirmative, stressing that he knows a lot of people in his area, who have been hit by extreme hardship nowadays.



Honestly, people have been complaining about extreme hardship in the country now, for instance, people have been frequenting my house to beg for alms. But for Kofi Job that I follow, I would have also suffered to even find something to eat,  Owusu Aduomi said.



Also, when asked about his views on President Akufo-Addos previous campaign message that Ghana was sitting on an abundance of wealth (money) yet there were hardships during the NDC administration, he surprisingly said he doesnt share the same opinion of the President.



Sounding sarcastic, the former NPP MP for Ejisu, said I did not say we are sitting on wealth (money) but we are suffering. If you see President Akufo-Addo then you ask him that question. He may have his reason for saying that so I cannot defend that for him.



Again, when asked if the NPP government has managed the economy well, Owusu Aduomi retorted that he was an engineer and knows nothing about economics so he could not defend his own NPP government. I did not study economics in school so I cannot defend this economic issue.



Tomtoms anger



Predictably, Owusu Aduomis weird comments have incurred the wrath of Tomtom, who has called for punitive measures to be taken against the former Deputy Roads Minister for letting down his own NPP, to serve as a deterrent to other party members.



Owusu Aduomi has committed a great sin against the NPP, a party that honoured him with an appointment as a deputy roads minister, so he should be banned from defending the NPP both on radio and television without delay, he angrily demanded.



Unfit for regional chairman



Tomtom also said Owusu Aduomi, who is currently running for the Ashanti Regional NPP chairmanship position, by his weird comments, has shot himself in the foot as he (Aduomi) is not fit to lead the party in its strong fortress, the Ashanti Region.



Owusu Aduomi has destroyed his campaign even before he officially announces his bid because no dyed-in-the-wool NPP member/delegate would cast his or her ballot for someone, who doesnt love the party, he argued and asked Aduomi to bow his head in shame.



Petition Calls



Meanwhile, other equally angry NPP members in the Ashanti Region and other parts of the country, have also threatened to petition the partys vetting committee to disqualify Owusu Aduomi from contesting for the NPP Ashanti Regional chairman position.



According to them, such a character could easily connive with NPPs opponents to ensure the partys defeat during crucial presidential and parliamentary elections, therefore he should not be allowed to contest for any sensitive position in the party.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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The Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and National Organizer of the governing NPP, Mr. Sammi Awuku, has strongly defended the records of the General Secretary of the Party, John Boadu, as well as the National Youth Organizer, Henry Nana Boakye, and the other National Executives of the Party inclusive of himself, claiming they did a fantastic job in delivering on their mandate of securing an emphatic one-touch victory for the Party in the difficult elections of 2020.



Some critics have sought to downplay the achievements of the current national executives of the Party only on the basis of the outcome of the 2020 parliamentary elections results whilst overlooking the presidential results where the Party, which was seeking a second term, made history by winning with over 500,000 votes. One of such critics is the person of Opare Ansah, the former MP for Suhum, who is lacing his boots to contest John Boadu.



In a recent interview he granted to Citi fm, the aspiring General Secretary, Opare Ansah, who admitted that the current national executives were largely the same crop of executives that delivered the unprecedented victory in 2016, nonetheless, went on to submit that they should however not be credited for that [2016] victory. But rather, they should be blamed for the relatively lesser number of seats the Party secured in the 2020 elections.



But speaking to Asempa fms Osei Bonsu on Ekosiisen on Wednesday, 19th January, 2022, the man described as the capo of Ghanas politics, Sammi Awuku, rejected this claim, arguing that, Opare Ansah cannot approbate and reprobate when it suits him. He also rejected Opare Ansahs claim that the current NPP leadership has been poor, and said that, no Report has indicted the national executives for the outcome of the 2020 elections.



Sammi Awuku described Opare Ansahs utterances as a deliberate propaganda which have no basis in facts and called on Party members to reject same. He advised aspirants for the various positions in the Party to campaign on their strengths rather than seeking to rundown others particularly incumbent executives even in the absence of any justifiable basis. He then pledged his support for the current National officers who will be seeking re-election.



The outgoing National Organizer, Sammi Awuku, the capo, also spoke about his possible replacement. In this respect, he showed absolutely no hesitation in applauding the leadership credentials and hard work of the current National Youth Organizer, Lawyer Henry Nana Boakye, who is vying for the National Organizer position.









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Actress Princess Shyngle has revealed her regret after meeting with Hollywood actor, Idris Elba. The curvy Gambian actress shared a photo she took with Idris, who is married.



In the caption, she called him her crush and said his arm on her leg, as seen in the photo, was "so comfortable".



She adds that what she regrets following the meeting is that she didn't grab him with her two arms and refuse to let him go.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Princess Shyngle (@princesshyngle)









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" " Lucky Luciano's mugshot, taken on April 18, 1936. He was convicted of 62 charges of compulsory prostitution and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, a sentence that was reduced upon the condition of his deportation back to Italy. Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images

From Al Capone to John Dillinger, America has a long list of legendary gangsters that have become the subjects of books, films and morbid curiosity for centuries. But one among them has the distinction of having introduced a sort of governmental structure into the unlawful mobster world: Charles "Lucky" Luciano.

"Charles 'Lucky' Luciano was originally an immigrant from Sicily called Salvatore Lucania who arrived in New York with his parents in 1907," says Tim Newark, author of "Lucky Luciano  the Real and the Fake Gangster," in an email interview. "Over the next three decades, he rose from being a teenage hoodlum to mob hitman to head of organized crime in New York."

According to organized crime historian and creator of ganglandlegends.com, Christian Cipollini, Luciano's upbringing in a particularly diverse part of the Big Apple set the scene for his future. "His family settled in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where it was a mix of Jewish and Italian immigrants," Cipollini writes via email. "It was there he met other young future stars of the underworld, such as Benjamin Siegel and Meyer Lansky."

"Because of his childhood friendships with Jewish mobsters, he was able to see the benefit of working with diverse individuals," says Claire White, educational programs manager at The Mob Museum, via email. "This allowed him to consolidate power not just among Italian American mobsters, but across Manhattan and then the nation  an important step in the Commission's [the centralized syndicate of New York crime families] creation and ascendency."

"His family immigrated to the United States when he was 10," White says. "He developed a reputation in the Five Points Gang in Manhattan before graduating to a position of power in one of the five New York Italian American Mafia families. In 1931, after powerful bosses Giuseppe 'Joe the Boss' Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano were assassinated, Luciano inherited the organization that would eventually become known as the Genovese family."

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A Bully From the Beginning

But long before he was recognized by the big bosses, Luciano was apparently ruling the schoolyard. Luciano conned his classmates into paying for protection from bullies, and if they didn't fork over the cash, he'd bully them himself. After he dropped out of school in 1914, he worked as a hat company clerk and began befriending local gang members like Lansky and Siegel.

In 1916, Luciano was caught selling heroin and served six months at a reformatory. But it was in the 1920s when he hit his criminal stride, thanks to the prohibition of alcohol. Luciano became one of the "Big Six," a group of bootleggers who were considered top brass in the East Coast illegal liquor trade.

" " Lucky Luciano with his entourage as he is given a shave while living in exile in Sicily, in an undated photo. Slim Aarons/Getty Images

"By introducing a new, corporate mentality to organized crime at the end of Prohibition, Luciano set the stage for the mob's control of gambling and other rackets throughout the 20th century," White says. "Luciano is regarded as the founder of modern organized crime in America. In 1931, he ousted the old Sicilian bosses and formed the Commission, a national syndicate of crime families centered in New York."

When prominent mobster Salvatore "The Duke" Maranzano was assassinated, Luciano inherited the crime family that would eventually become known as the Genovese family. "A natural organizer, Luciano continued the committee of Five Families, which was established by Maranzano and would control East Coast rackets for decades," White says. "But rather than naming himself 'Boss of Bosses,' as Maranzano had, Luciano called himself the chairman of the board."

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Formation of the Syndicate

In 1931, Luciano and Meyer Lansky established a board known as the national syndicate or "combination," composed of non-Italian Jewish members. "Luciano was notable and successful for modernizing organized crime in New York in the 1920s and '30s," Newark says. "He ran it along more effective business lines, put an end to disruptive gang fighting between the old Sicilian mobsters, and left behind their old-world Catholic prejudices of not working with Jewish gangsters."

"The most important contribution of Lucky Luciano to the Italian-American Mafia was organizational," Federico Varese, professor of criminology at University of Oxford, says via email. "He was the brain behind the creation of the Commission, where the Five Families have a seat. He understood that the Italian-American Mafia would continue to fight if a single boss wanted to be the capo di tutti I capi [i.e., 'boss of all bosses' or 'The Godfather']."

In 1936, a New York prosecutor named Thomas Dewey led raids on brothels throughout the city, and in the arrests of over 100 people, gathered information on Luciano's illegal dealings. On June 6 of that year, Luciano was convicted of 62 charges of compulsory prostitution and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in state prison.

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Luciano During World War II

While you might expect that to be the end of Luciano's story, the global crisis that soon ensued altered the gangster's seemingly set path. During World War II, the government sought assistance from the mob in keeping New York docks safe from strikes and sabotage. Authorities came to Luciano and he agreed to help, in hopes that his aid would lead to a sentence reduction. After all, by that time, former prosecutor Dewey had become New York governor and was in the position to grant Luciano clemency.

"Luciano's role in World War II was fascinating," Newark says. "Despite being in prison, he assisted U.S. Naval Intelligence by securing the New York docks against Nazi sabotage, but my archival research has revealed that his much-vaunted help for the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 was not as significant as has been claimed. Much as his postwar reputation as an international gangster was largely exaggerated by the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to justify their own budgets. There is, however, tantalizing evidence that Luciano may have been a useful Cold War asset in Sicily in 1947 helping the CIA foil a Communist takeover of the island."

" " The elaborate funeral for Lucky Luciano in Naples, Italy, on January 29, 1962. Keystone/Getty Images

And after the war, Dewey did indeed lessen the severity of Luciano's punishment on the terms that the mobster would leave the U.S. Luciano agreed and returned to Italy as a deportee but eventually wound up in Havana, Cuba (hanging out with the likes of Frank Sinatra, no less). The U.S. government then forced the Cuban government to deport Luciano back to Italy where he spent the rest of his life. Luciano died of a heart attack in 1962 at the Naples airport while on his way to meet with a movie producer to discuss making a screen adaptation of his life.

"Luciano possessed an innate aura of leadership, charm and savvy street smarts," Cipollini says. "Such qualities proved to be a split of good and bad though. Not only did these characteristics help establish him as a figurehead among his peers and within the restructured underworld of America, but [they] also made him a ready-made 'poster boy' representation of the vice and crime problem, which the authorities exploited fully from 1936 up to and including the day he died in 1962."

So where did the name "Lucky" come from? Luciano reportedly got the nickname after surviving an abduction and attack in 1929. A group of men beat and stabbed him and left him for dead on a Staten Island beach, but a police officer found him at the scene and took him to a nearby hospital.

Now That's a Fitting End After Luciano died of a heart attack on January 26, 1962 at Naples International Airport, a funeral service was held in that city, during which his casket was driven through the streets in a horse-drawn black hearse. Luciano's relatives took his body back to New York for burial with the permission of the U.S. government. He is buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens.
President Joe Biden meets with members of the Infrastructure Implementation Task Force to discuss the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. The Biden administration is announcing policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math. It's part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive. Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

The Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and mathpart of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive.

The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to a notice in the Federal Register. There will also be an initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses.

Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of studyincluding cloud computing, data visualization and data scienceto a program that allows international graduates from U.S. universities to spend up to three additional years training with domestic employers. The program generated about 58,000 applications in fiscal 2020.

The programs are designed to ensure that the U.S. is a magnet for talent from around the world, attracting scientists and researchers whose breakthroughs will enable the economy to grow. Government data shows that international students are increasingly the lifeblood of academic research.

It is the latest example of the Biden administration using presidential powers, as Donald Trump did, to retool the immigration system in the face of decades of congressional inaction. The Migration Policy Institute tallied nearly 300 changes to the system during Biden's first year in office, many of them to undo Trump's actions to restrict immigration.

The Trump administration's agenda frequently included plans to reduce or eliminate visas that allow college graduates, largely in STEM fields, up to three years to chart a career path in the United States. It never announced a change, though, which would have added to other measures that limited legal immigration.

The government's National Science Board reported this week that international students on temporary visas account for more than half of U.S. doctoral degrees in economics, computer sciences, engineering and mathematics and statistics. But in the sciences and engineering, China is fast closing the gap in doctoral degrees by generating nearly as many graduates as the U.S. did in 2018.

Business groups and immigration advocates welcomed Friday's announcement, while critics said it would damage job prospects for native American citizens.

"These targeted actions will help American companies meet their critical workforce needs moving forward and is one of a series of key actions needed to address the workforce shortage crisis," said Jon Baselice, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president of immigration policy. "Much more needs to be done to update and modernize our nation's immigration system, and those types of changes require congressional action."

U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group critical of the post-graduation visas, said the changes will encourage companies to discriminate against native-border job applicants.

"This is exactly the kind of policy that destroys the career prospects of young American graduates," the group posted on Twitter.

Explore further US to tighten rules for visas used by tech firms

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
FORT ANN  A Hudson Falls man was taken to Glens Falls Hospital with a head injury after a crash Thursday night involving his Ford F-150 pickup truck and an oncoming tractor-trailer on Route 4, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The pickup was driven by Vincent E. Brown, 37, of Burgoyne Avenue in Hudson Falls. Police said he was heading north when he crossed out of his lane into the path of a tractor-trailer heading south.

The crash occurred just north of the village of Fort Ann.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Mubark B. Elnimari, 45, of 21st Avenue in Rock Island, Illinois, told deputies that he was traveling south when he collided with the pickup. He said the pickup crossed into his lane.

Brown was transported to Glens Falls Hospital with possible serious injuries including a head injury, according to police.

Elnimari was not hurt.

Murphy said alcohol is being investigated as a possible factor in the accident.

A portion of Route 4 was closed for just over two hours while the accident scene was being cleared.

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Washington County officials reported the death of a 71-year-old resident due to COVID-19 on Thursday night.

The death is the countys 78th COVID-related death since the beginning of the pandemic.

The individual had recently been hospitalized and was vaccinated, according to a news release from Washington County Public Health.

Washington County reported 639 active cases on Thursday night.

There were 10 county residents hospitalized in relation to COVID as of Thursday night, which is one fewer than the previous report.

The countys seven-day positivity rate was reported to be 15.6%.

Public Health officials continue to host vaccination booster clinics every Tuesday and Thursday at the countys Burgoyne Avenue campus, which run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. These clinics are run in partnership with the countys EMS Vaccination Team, which is led by paramedics and staff from the Cambridge Valley Rescue Squad and other EMS agencies in the county.

Registration is required for these clinics. Residents can register on the countys website.

The county is also hosting vaccination clinic at schools. These clinics will offer first, second and booster doses for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The upcoming clinics are as follows:

Thursday, Jan. 27, Fort Ann Central School, 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 3, Whitehall Central School, 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Residents can register by phone at 518-746-2400. Walk-ins are accepted based on availability of vaccines.

Washington Countys vaccination rate stood at 62.5%, while 66.6% of the population has received at least one dose.

Warren County

Warren County reported 145 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. There have been 653 positive cases in the county over the past five days.

There were 15 COVID-related hospitalizations reported, which is unchanged from Thursday. Nine of those hospitalized are vaccinated, with two of those receiving a booster.

Ray Agnew, spokesman for Glens Falls Hospital, reported 30 total hospitalizations, with two individuals in the ICU.

Health Services will host a public booster and first dose vaccine clinic at Warrensburg Central School on Thursday, Jan. 27. For details and registration links, residents can visit the countys COVID hub.

There were 13 first doses and 39 booster shots administered at school clinics this past week and last week in Bolton, North Warren and Lake George.

There are vaccine clinics coming up on Tuesday afternoons and evenings at the Warren County Municipal Center until further notice. You can find details and registration links on the countys COVID hub.

There will be free COVID-19 at-home tests distributed at Aviation Mall in Queensbury between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday. Those test kits are being provided by the Southern Adirondack Independent Living group.

Warren Countys seven-day positivity rate stood at 15.7% as of Friday afternoon.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at (518) 742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com.

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FORT EDWARD  A surprise return of funds to the countys budget allowed the Washington County Board of Supervisors to restore a $2,500 raise for themselves that they cut when they approved the 2022 budget in November.

Hebron Supervisor and County Budget Officer Brian Campbell said he had been notified by Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, that the county should no longer have to make an annual $143,766 payment to the Hudson River Black River Regulating District. Woerner has gotten the state to include that expense in its proposed 2022-2023 budget, Campbell said.

The regulating district operates a dam that controls fresh water flow into the Hudson River, Campbell said. Under a court ruling favoring the power companies that own the dam, Albany, Saratoga, Rensselaer, Warren and Washington counties together have been paying about $3.5 million per year to cover the dams operating cost, Campbell said.

Campbell said he had been trying for years to get the state to take over the cost.

Its a huge thing, Campbell said. After seven years, we finally got that done.

Campbell proposed adding the restored supervisor funds, totaling $42,500, as an amendment to a proposed salary schedule for some county employees. He pointed out that the supervisors cut their pay in 2008, during the first year of the Great Recession, and stopped paying themselves to cover mileage.

Granville Supervisor Matthew Hicks, who had proposed the pay freeze in November, said a 2% cost of living increase would be OK, but not this. Campbell responded that with pay freezes the board had adopted in other years, if you do a COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) from 2007, were still not up where we need to be even with the $2,500 addition.

The raise brings supervisors base pay from the county to $22,116. The boards chairman, vice chairman and budget officer are paid more. Town supervisors also receive a salary from their towns.

We need to have compensation that will make people want to serve on the board, Hampton Supervisor David OBrien said. A raise will attract more people and more qualified people.

OBrien was also in favor of restoring mileage reimbursement, noting the rising costs of transportation.

Campbell reminded the supervisors that this years budget has no tax increase, and that if the state budget is adopted with Woerners line item, the county will still have an extra $111,266.

Theres a difference between being cheap and being frugal, Campbell said.

The amendment passed, with Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw, Hicks, Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff, Kingsbury Supervisor Dana Hogan and Whitehall Supervisor John Rozell voting no.

In other matters:

Supervisors shared memories of and held a moment of silence for John LaPointe, Putnam supervisor from 1987 to 2019. LaPointe died Monday.

County residents who test positive for COVID with an at-home test should report it on the countys Public Health website, washingtoncountyny.gov/1147/Coronavirus-Information, said county Deputy Director of Public Safety Tim Hardy. The site also explains the requirements for isolation and quarantine, depending on exposure and symptoms, and has release forms for people returning to work or school after quarantine or isolation. The state has taken over contact tracing and will notify people in high-risk groups if theyve been exposed to an active COVID case, Hardy said. That frees county Public Health workers to focus on vaccination and testing, he said. In response to a question from Salem Supervisor Sue Clary, Hardy said his department is no longer posting a map showing COVID cases by town. Because of how the data was collected, the map was time-consuming to compile, he said. Theres no town that doesnt have cases, Hardy said.

The board approved a settlement in a lawsuit against Allergan and its subsidiaries, distributors of opioid drugs. The county will receive about $96,000, with half restricted for purposes cited in the settlement.

The board awarded a bid to Vance Country Ford, of Guthrie, Oklahoma, for 18 2022 Ford Escape S all-wheel drive vehicles at $25,036 each. Ten of the cars will go to the Office for the Aging, five to the car pool, and three to the Department of Social Services. Campell thanked Department of Public Works Superintendent Deborah Donohue and other county staff for arranging the purchases. We needed to get bids quickly because things are going up so much, he said. It was a major undertaking.

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Events

Saturday, Jan. 22

WEEKLY SATURDAY OPEN GAMING: 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays; join friends to play mah-jongg, scrabble, canasta or pinochle; masks required; Longport Public Library, 2305 Atlantic Ave., Longport. 609-487-7403 or LongportPublicLibrary.org.

Monday, Jan. 24 BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ATLANTIC CITY SPEAKER SERIES KICKOFF: 5 to 7 p.m., featuring Chris Singleton, former professional baseball outfielder, a sportscaster and inspirational speaker; free livestream; for all ages; details visit acbgc.org or the organizations Eventbrite and Facebook pages.

Tuesday, Jan. 25

TRIVIA: 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., Longport Public Library, 2305 Atlantic Ave., Longport. 609-487-7403 or LongportPublicLibrary.org.

Wednesday, Jan. 26

CUMBERLAND COUNTY LIBRARY ONLINE MOVIE CLUB: 6:30 to 8 p.m. fourth Wednesdays; hosted by Cumberland County Library; for ages 18 and older; watch movies for free with Hoopla, then meet up on Zoom for discussion; registration required. 856-453-2210, ext. 26103 or CCLNJ.org.

ONLINE MOVIE CLUB: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. fourth Wednesdays; hosted by Cumberland County Library; for ages 18 and older; meeting on Zoom. 856-453-2210, ext. 26103 or CCLNJ.org.

Saturday, Jan. 29

DRIVE-THRU VACCINE CLINIC: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., COVID-19 vaccination and booster clinic, Atlantic Cape Community College Worthington Atlantic City campus, 1535 Bacharach Blvd.; participants who receive a vaccine will also receive a free Johnsons Popcorn for adults or all-day wristband to Steel Pier for children, while supplies last; insurance not required; Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. atlantic.edu/acvaxclinic.

Thursday, Feb. 3

TOWNSHIP OF HAMILTON GREEN TEAM MEETING: 7 to 8:30 p.m. first Thursdays; join the Township of Hamilton Green Team to see how you can make a difference; Municipal Building, 6101 13th St., Mays Landing. TownshipOfHamilton.com.

Monday, Feb. 7

GALLERY OF YOU  ARTISTIC JOURNALING: 11 a.m. first and third Mondays; group meets online to explore the rewards of artistic journaling, share insights and express creativity; each participant can receive a journal and art supplies through the mail at no cost; program is offered by The Mental Health Association in Atlantic County; registration required. 609-652-3800, ext. 318 or MHAAC.info.

Friday, Feb. 11

SECOND FRIDAY RECEPTION: 6 to 8 p.m. second Fridays; celebrate the opening of newest galleries; The Noyes Arts Garage Stockton University, 2200 Fairmount Ave., Atlantic City. 609-626-3805 or ArtsGarageAC.com.

For kids

Tuesday, Jan. 25

BOOK DISCUSSION: 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.; for kids ages 9 and older; participate in a discussion of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot by Jeff Kinney; Vineland Public Library, 1058 E. Landis Ave., Vineland. 856-794-4244 or VinelandLibrary.org.

Wednesday, Jan. 26

TEEN BOOK DISCUSSION: 4 to 5 p.m.; for ages 13 to 18; discussion of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin; Public Library, 1058 E. Landis Ave., Vineland. 856-794-4244 or VinelandLibrary.org.

Groups

Sunday, Jan. 23

MEDITATION  ONLINE GROUP: 7:15 to 8 p.m. Sundays; offered by The Mental Health Association in Atlantic County; staff offer a guided calming meditation or breathing exercise; to receive a link by email and join the group online, email btrendler@mhanj.org. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.

Monday, Jan. 24 GOT STRESS? ONLINE GROUP: 4 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays; online group meets to discuss daily wellness, coping strategies and tools to relieve stress and reduce anxiety; offered by The Mental Health Association in Atlantic County; free. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.

LONGPORT NEEDLERS: 10 a.m. to noon Mondays; bring your needle/crochet craft project and join us for a time of crafting and socializing; Longport Public Library, 2305 Atlantic Ave., Longport. 609-487-7403 or LongportPublicLibrary.org.

Wednesday, Jan. 26

LIFE IN WAVES  ONLINE WORKING WOMENS GROUP: 7 to 8 p.m. second and fourth Wednesdays; support and discussion group for women in the workplace; hosted by Mental Health Association in Atlantic County. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.

Thursday, Jan. 27

FAMILY MEETING SUPPORT GROUP: 10 a.m. to noon second and fourth Thursdays; support group for family members of individuals who live with a mental health concern. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.

ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF SOUTH JERSEY RESUMES MEETINGS: 6 to 8:30 p.m. fourth Thursdays through June 2022; creates an awareness and appreciation of Italian culture; St. Frances Cabrini Church, Room C, 114 Atlantic Ave., Ocean City; $4 donation non-members. 609-602-9017.

Tuesday, Feb. 1

ARCHERY CLUB: 7 to 8 p.m. first Tuesdays; meeting in Egg Harbor Township; all types of bows and expertise welcome. 609-601-2663.

Thursday, Feb. 3

TWP. OF HAMILTON GREEN TEAM MEETING: 7 to 8:30 p.m. first Thursdays; join the Township of Hamilton Green Team; Municipal Building, 6101 13th St., Mays Landing. lmccardell@townshipofhamilton.com.

Monday, Feb. 7

NAMI ATLANTIC CAPE MAY CONNECTION MEETING: 7 to 8:30 p.m. first Mondays; NAMI Connection is a recovery support group for adults living with mental health issues; peer run group offers attendees a safe, confidential place to share and understand their experiences living with mental health issues; held via Zoom; free. 609-741-5125 or NAMIACM.org.

Wednesday, Feb. 9

SIBLING MEETING: 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. second Wednesdays; meeting for siblings of adults with serious and persistent mental health concerns; support, education, coping strategies, resources and more; hosted by the Mental Health Association in New Jersey. 973-571-4100. or MHAAC.info.

Saturday, Feb. 12

SOUTHERN NJ AFRICAN VIOLET CLUB: 10 a.m. to noon second Saturdays; Elwood Volunteer Fire Dept., 414 Elwood Road, Mullica Township; discuss plant care tips and needs; open to all; no membership fees; masks required and COVID-19 social distancing rules in effect. snjavc.org or email snjavc.violet@gmail.com or Facebook@southernnewjerseyafricanvioletclub.

Monday, Feb. 14

NAMI ATLANTIC/CAPE MAY FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP: 7 to 8:30 p.m. second Mondays; virtual meeting for family members of individuals struggling with mental health illness and co-occurring addiction disorders; free, registration required. 609-741-5125 or NAMIACM.org.

Monday, Feb. 21

SURVIVORS OF SUICIDE ONLINE GROUP : 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. third Mondays; offered by The Mental Health Association in Atlantic County; for those who lost someone to suicide; via Zoom or by dial-in teleconference; both a therapist and a peer co-facilitate this meeting. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.

Health, fitness

Tuesday, Feb. 1

BODY IMAGE & BALANCE MEETINGS: 7 to 8 p.m. first and third Tuesdays; hosted by the Mental Health Association in Atlantic County; call-in and online group for those living with or recovering from disordered eating. 609-652-3800 or MHAAC.info.
DOWNE TOWNSHIP  There are no neon lights, no boardwalk, and amusements include the constant lapping waves of the Delaware Bay and the occasional sight of a thousand snow geese flying over the salt marshes like windswept clouds.

For the 1,500 or so people who live in this rural Cumberland County community, 60 miles south of Philadelphia, life without a traffic light is the way they like it. But many of Downes unincorporated communities, like the centuries-old fishing villages of Fortescue and Money Island, and the single road of bayfront homes on Gandys Beach, were hammered by Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.

A few dozen Money Island homeowners sold their properties to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in the aftermath of those storms, and others are negotiating to do the same. Once the DEP razes those homes, the properties will essentially go back to nature. Thats what happened in Seabreeze, a ghost town just north of Downe, where every home is gone.

Thats not going to happen here. We wont let it, Mayor Mike Rothman said aboard his fishing boat in Fortescue recently.

Rothman and former Mayor Robert Campbell believe their longtime dream  replacing septic systems and propane tanks with sewer lines and natural gas  will be a bulwark against the forces of nature and a rebuttal to those who feel the residents of Downe should retreat from the coast and move inland. The project is finally coming to fruition for Fortescue and Gandys Beach, and Campbell believes the consistency and cost benefits of modern infrastructure could boost property values and draw in new businesses like hotels and eateries.

Honestly, Id love to see an ice cream parlor, said Campbell, now a township committeeman. Theres no place to get an ice cream cone in Fortescue.

The sewer project, which could go out to bid in the coming months, has been discussed for a decade and is estimated to cost $15 million. Downe Township received a $4.49 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2019 for construction costs. Approximately $11 million of the project is funded via grants, Campbell said, and the rest could be financed if more grants are unavailable. The sewer plant will be built at the site of a former boatyard in Fortescue purchased by the township.

Campbell said there have been a few naysayers but estimated that 99% of the public is on board.

Theres always people who dont want any change, he said.

When the USDA grant was announced in 2019, Jeff Tittel, the now-retired director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, wrote op-eds denouncing the project as a way to usher in unneeded development in one of the states most unique and fragile landscapes.

I still feel that way, Tittel said recently.

New Jerseys bayfront, Tittel said, is on the front lines of climate change and rising sea levels, prone to constant flooding and susceptible to major storms. He believes people should be slowly retreating from communities like Fortescue and Gandys Beach, not shoring up the infrastructure there.

We shouldnt be investing in places like this, he said, because they might not be here in 50 years. They might be underwater.

Rothman and Campbell say its defeatism, not climate change, thats the real threat to Downe Township.

We have the same flooding weve always had, Campbell said. Its mother nature.

Jane Morton Galetto, board president of Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River & Its Tributaries, said Downes sewer project is preferable to the current situation, where the state of each propertys septic system can vary greatly. Communities like Fortescue are cultural anchors, Morton Galetto said, as important to Downe and New Jersey as all the townships natural resources.

We are not a historical society, but we have a grand appreciation of peoples place in the landscape, she said on a tour through Downe Township recently.

Fortescue has been a tourist attraction since the 1800s, accessible by buggy and boat. Hotels and dance halls and beachfront shacks rose and fell like the tides, sometimes burned to the ground or swept out by storms. The town is still known as the weakfish capital of the world, after the once bountiful fish that populated the water and dinner plates there.

Rothman, who owns a fishing charter boat he docks in Fortescue, said he takes nearly as many bird-watchers out for cruises these days as he does fishermen.

Some homes in Downes bayfront communities are vacant, or in disrepair, but officials believe that will change once sewer lines go to every property. Real estate sales are already increasing in Fortescue and Gandys Beach, Rothman said, and some agents have mentioned the infrastructure project in their listings. Its possible to purchase a waterfront home in Fortescue for less than $300,000.

I dont think well see the full impact until a year or two, said Donald Sullivan, a real estate agent out of Vineland, but Ive already sold a few properties where the buyer was under the assumption this was going to happen. That was part of the deal.

Fortescue has a few eateries, summer-only merchants and, of course, a bait shop. There are a handful of homes available on Airbnb in Downe and four rooms at the Charlesworth Hotel & Restaurant, a waterfront steak and seafood establishment built in 1924. Rothman said one potential buyer is interested in building a 100-room hotel at the current site of a campground on the water.

The Charlesworths owner, Syboll, said he spends $2,000 a month on his septic system and is eager for the sewer project to get started.

In fact, Ill grab a shovel and help them if they need it, he said.

Pleasantville trash transfer station drives debate across Atlantic County The debris-waste transfer station planned for a lot in Pleasantville has driven disputes and

Rothman said no sewer project will change the bucolic nature of Downe Township. Most of its land consists of inland farms, protected open space and vast acreages owned by nonprofits like the Nature Conservancy and Natural Lands trust. Their bayfront communities serve a different crowd than the millions who head to the Jersey Shore every summer.

There may be development, but, bottom line, this is still Fortescue, he said. Its never going to be Wildwood or Cape May. We pride ourselves on nature. Thats why people are going to come here.
WASHINGTON  The annual March for Life anti-abortion rally in the nations capital sounded more like a victory celebration Friday, as thousands of chanting protesters marched to the Supreme Court with a growing sense of optimism that their long-sought goal was finally in reach: a sweeping rollback of abortion rights in America.

The March for Life, which has been ongoing for decades, was held one day before the 49th anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, as the Supreme Court indicated it will allow states to impose tighter restrictions on abortion with a ruling in the coming months  and possibly overturn the landmark ruling that affirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.

Some who attended the rally said the mood was overwhelmingly optimistic, with many treating the end of Roe v Wade as an inevitability.

It doesnt feel real. Theres so much hope and vibrancy and happiness and joy at this thing, said Jordan Moorman, of Cincinnati. I really do believe that were in a post-Roe generation.

Abortion rights groups worry that at least 26 states are in line to further limit abortion access if Roe is weakened or overturned.

Even the possibility that the landmark decision will be overturned or altered prompted the New Jersey Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy to pass the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, codifying the right to an abortion into state law.

Regardless of whether or not the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, New Jerseys position in support of the right to reproductive autonomy will remain clear and unchanged, Murphy said during a recent signing ceremony.

Murphy signed the measure in the waning days of his first term, fulfilling a campaign pledge from prior to his reelection in November.

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade or render it meaningless, it is an important step for our state Legislature to codify our existing right to abortion, currently guaranteed by case law, into statute, said Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, in a statement at the time the bills passed. These two bills are both steps forward to protect and improve access to reproductive health care in New Jersey.

Some New Jersey organizations that provide womens health services believe the legislation does little for womens rights on the whole.

Tricia Bradberry, founder and board chair for the Jersey Shore Womens Center, said the bill does not protect all human life and believes women deserve better than abortions.

Christine Thornley, executive director of Crisis Pregnancy Services in Egg Harbor City, believes the abortion bill makes abortion seem like the only option instead of supporting women at being successful mothers.

It makes me feel the governor wasnt thinking about everyone in the state, said Thornley. I think the bill talks a lot of womens rights, but is really an expansion on the abortion bill. It doesnt protect womens rights, it takes away from them, Thornley said.

Wojtowicz said in a statement at the time the bill was passed that it was a reason for New Jersey to celebrate.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey applauds the strong declaration of reproductive rights in S49/A6260, as well as the expansion of birth control access through S413/A4698, said Wojtowicz. This new legislation ensures decisions about contraception, abortion, and carrying a pregnancy to term are protected in state statute.

National lawmakers from both parties weighed in Friday to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reflect on the shifting political landscape surrounding abortion.

It has been an eye-opening year for the cause of life in America, and we have made significant progress in defending our youngest and most vulnerable, said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House.

The stakes are higher than ever, with the health and autonomy of women and families across the country hanging in the balance as Republicans work to methodically challenge and overturn Roe, said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. Its time to sound the alarm and make clear: decisions about our bodies, our health care and our future belong to us.

Dozens of GOP lawmakers appeared at the march personally or as part of a video voicing their allegiance to those in attendance. White House press secretary Jen Psaki took note of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling as part of Fridays press briefing, saying that reproductive health care has been under extreme and relentless assault ever since, especially in recent months.

She said the Biden administration was committed to working with Congress to pass a bill that protects the right to provide and access abortion care free from forced waiting periods, biased counseling and other restrictions.

Were deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care, and we will defend it with every tool we have, Psaki said.

Staff Writer Selena Vazquez contributed to this report.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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MINSK, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday suggested a halt to the investigation into a flight diversion incident after an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) report found no fault of Belarusian government.

The ICAO report released Monday said that no escort or intercept has been made by Belarus to the flight FR4978 of Irish airline Ryanair, which was directed to an emergency landing in Minsk on May 23, 2021, as crew on the plane had been alerted by Belarusian authorities to a possible security threat.

The Ryanair said that nothing untoward was found onboard but Belarusian Transport Ministry Aviation Department told reporters following the incident that the country had received a bomb threat.

Commending the ICAO investigators, Lukashenko said that they stand with the fact despite "all the pressure from numerous countries," adding that this fact is important for Belarus.

Probe into the incident should now stop because there is no evidence to prove otherwise, said the president.

Blaming Belarus of forcing the flight to divert a due route, the European Union (EU) and the United States imposed sanctions upon Belarus. In May last year, leaders of EU member states agreed to cut the bloc's air links with Belarus.

On Jan. 31, the ICAO will discuss the request of Belarus on the legality of the sanctions imposed by the EU and the United States, including the ban on EU companies to conduct economic activity with the largest Belarusian airline Belavia. 
Never grant parole to R. Kennedys killer

Fifty eight years ago, an American candidate for president was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. His reason for doing this was that he didnt want Robert Kennedy to become president because he had the audacity to actually speak to the leaders of Israel regarding worldwide problems. Kennedy also likely would have established a somewhat different path for this country had he lived and was elected to this office. Sirhan Sirhan destroyed a possible alternate future for America and the entire world.

This assassin was found guilty of this crime and sentenced to prison for life without parole. The question now, after 58 years is, should he be released for time served? In my view, the answer must be a resounding no unless Robert Kennedy can be somehow brought back to life.

All of these years his family has daily suffered from his loss. His children were raised without their father and his guidance and his wife left with awesome responsibility without his help. In addition to this, America has lost a future that can never be replaced and that was the real plan of this assassin.

Americans of all political parties havent forgiven him and likely will never do so. He should remain in jail until he also joins the object of his assassination, in his own death. His death will not be celebrated and his ashes should be spread in the wind. This man is a disgrace to humanity and should be treated as such.

Today Robert Kennedy lies in the grave. He will never again be free and yet Sirhan Sirhan believes he should walk out of jail. Hopefully America will oppose this.

James K. Aumack

Cape May
A Davenport man released from the Iowa Department of Corrections on Oct. 13 has been arrested in connection with a shooting incident that occurred Nov. 28 at a Davenport apartment building in the 6500 block of North Harrison Street.

Cameron Cortez Howard, 34, is charged with one count each of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Davenport Police Officer Bryan Butt, at 3:32 p.m. on Nov. 28, a Sunday, Howard shot at a man who was standing in the doorway of an apartment building at 6515 Harrison St.

One of the victims children was standing with him when Howard fired.

The building was struck several times by gunfire.

Howard was arrested and booked into the Scott County Jail on Thursday. He was released Friday after posting 10% of a $10,000 bond through a bonding company.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 28 in Scott County District Court.

On March 27, 2015, Howard was sentenced to concurrent 10-year prison terms after pleading guilty to one count each of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury, both Class C felonies. He was sentenced to a consecutive term of five years in prison after also pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

That case began on Nov. 29, 2014, when at 12:18 a.m. while in the Knights of Pythias at 1116 W. 3rd St., Howard shot another man in the abdomen and back with a .380-caliber handgun during an altercation.

Howard was placed on parole on Aug. 28, 2018.

On April 28, 2019, Howard was arrested by Davenport Police on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and interference with official acts involving a firearm. The charges alleged that Howard was in possession of a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun.

Those state charges were dismissed Aug. 7, 2019, when federal authorities took over the case and charged Howard with felon in possession of a firearm. Howard was held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until his trial. On Jan. 10, 2020, a federal jury found Howard not guilty of the charge. He was released from federal custody after his acquittal.

Howard was returned to the Iowa Department of Corrections on July 28, 2021, for a parole violation. He was released from the Iowa Department of Corrections on Oct. 13 less than three months later.

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Rock Island Police have identified two suspects of an armed robbery that left one of the suspects dead and another wounded Tuesday.

An employee of Blackhawks Tobacco & Vape shot at three suspects Tuesday evening who had entered the store, threatened employees and demanded merchandise. One of the suspects had a gun.

One of the suspects, 23-year-old Marcase K. Humphries, of Rock Island, was found later that night by Davenport police at a Taco Bell in Davenport. He was taken to Genesis Medical Center East, Davenport, where he died.

Another suspect, 23-year-old Ernest D. Morgan III, of Rock Island, was found by Rock Island Police in the 2100 block of 16th Ave. He was taken to UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island hospital for treatment and is expected to survive, according to a news release from the Rock Island Police Department.

Rock Island Police obtained an arrest warrant for Morgan while he is being treated. He's charged with armed robbery, with a bond set at $500,000.

The third suspect has not yet been identified by police. It is a man, possibly a light-complected African-American or Hispanic with a large build, according to police. The suspect is about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He is between 20 and 30 years old.

At the time of the robbery Tuesday, Humphries was on parole out of the Illinois Department of Correction's Sheridan Correctional Center, according to Illinois Department of Corrections electronic records.

Humphries was sentenced to five years in prison Jan. 9, 2020, after pleading guilty to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm during a hearing in Rock Island County Circuit Court.

Humphries was paroled and released from prison on Sept. 24, 2021. His parole was to end Sept. 24, 2023.

Police ask anyone who can identify the third suspect or who has any information to contact the Rock Island Police Department at 309-732-2677 or Crime Stoppers at 309-762-9500 or using the P3 Tips app.

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Emily Andersen Emily Andersen is a crime and courts reporter for the Quad City Times and Dispatch/Argus. Follow Emily Andersen Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
A Moline man is facing attempted murder and battery charges after he allegedly severely beat another man with a pair of bolt cutters early Friday.

Bryan Anthony Allison, 39, is charged in Rock Island County Circuit Court with one count of attempted murder. The charge is a Class X felony under Illinois that carries a prison sentence of six to 30 years.

Allison also is charged with one count each of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery using a deadly weapon. Both charges are Class 3 felonies that carry a prison sentence of two to five years. He also is charged with criminal trespass, a Class 4 felony that carries a prison term of one to three years.

According to a news release issued Friday by Moline Police, at 12:26 a.m., police were sent to the 900 block of 40th Street Court to investigate a 911 call where a resident of the area found a neighbor who had been severely beaten.

The victim was saturated in blood and had severe injuries.

The victim was able to tell police that the suspect, Bryan Allison, had beaten him with a pair of bolt cutters.

The victim was taken to a local hospital and then transported to a higher level trauma hospital out of the area, the news release said.

As 12:33 a.m., the QCOMM911 Dispatch Center received a 911 call that Allison was running in the area of 27th Street and 12th Avenue. QCOMM911 then received another call for a resident in the 1900 block of 25th Street who stated than an unknown man had entered the residence. Police located Allison and took him into custody.

Allison was being held Friday night in the Rock Island County Jail on a bond of $100,000, 10%, meaning he would need to post $10,000 to be released from jail.

Allison is expected to make a first appearance on the charges Saturday morning in Rock Island County Circuit Court.

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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds found a supportive audience among North Scott Rotary members for a four-year transition to a flat state income tax rate and proposals to address worker shortages.

Reynolds, who stopped at the Rotary meeting Friday in Davenport, touted her proposal for a 4% flat-rate state income tax and eliminating taxes on retirement income, including for employees who received stock in their company.

Iowa is losing too many retirees to states that dont tax their retirement income, Reynolds said, adding her tax cut proposals "reward work."

"Theres never been a better time in Iowa for bold, yet practical tax reform that continues to meet the priorities of our the state, whether that's education, public safety or mental health (care)," Reynolds said. "(It's) a policy that allows Iowans to keep more of what they earn, and that it creates a highly competitive tax system."

Reynolds noted the state ended the last fiscal year with a $1.2 billion surplus on top of full cash reserves.

"That means we kept our spending down, but it also means that despite the 2018 tax cuts that we implemented, Iowans are still paying too much," she said.

Under her plan, the top state income tax rate would be eliminated each year over the next four years, until in 2026 when every Iowa worker, regardless of income level, pays 4%.

The flat tax proposal would reduce state revenue by an estimated $1.6 billion by tax year 2026 when it would be fully implemented, according to the states nonpartisan fiscal and legal analysis division.

"It's fair to Iowans. It's fair to all of us," said Rotary member and Republican Scott County Supervisor Tony Knobbe. "We all would love a little more jingle in our pocket. But, for those of us who work in the trenches of economic development trying to attract businesses to our state, 4 (percent) sounds a hell of a lot better than 9 (percent)."

Reynolds insisted that if state revenues and spending continue to grow at their recent average rates, the flat tax plan can be implemented without forcing reductions in state spending. And said she plans to leave $2 billion in the state's taxpayer relief fund to be tapped if state revenue growth falls below a projection of 4% on average per year.

Although the tax rate is the same, Democrats and economists note that individuals with lower incomes would spend more of their wages toward the tax than those with higher income, making a flat tax regressive.

"Iowa Democrats believe we need a fair tax system that rewards work, not wealth and puts more money in the pockets of working families. Kim Reynolds tax plan does the opposite," according to a statement from the Iowa Democratic Party.

Reynolds on Friday said all Iowans would see a reduction in state income taxes, and that once fully implemented an average Iowa family of four would save about $1,300 a year in taxes on top of the $1,000 savings from the 2018 tax cut bill.

The governor also discussed a variety of workforce issues, including proposed changes to the states unemployment system as a means to address Iowas worker shortage, including shortening the time Iowans can claim jobless benefits.

She has also proposed creating a separate division within the states workforce development agency to work with businesses that are searching for employees.

In addition, Reynolds said her office is focused on expanding apprenticeship programs -- particularly in health care and education -- and incorporating work-based learning and computer science into high school curriculum. And she has proposed using federal stimulus funding on a one-time $1,000 retention bonus for all Iowa teachers who remain at their school for another year.

Iowa Democrats argue workforce shortages in the state have been of Reynolds' and other state Republican leaders' own making, through partisan attacks on the teaching profession, limiting collective bargaining rights and opposing mask and workplace vaccine mandates to address increased COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations that have overwhelmed and exhausted the state's health care facilities.

"Iowans are sick of Kim Reynolds partisanship, and her attacks on teachers and nurses are only making the Reynolds workforce crisis worse," Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn said in a statement.

Reynolds noted her daughter is a public school teacher and said she "was proud of our educators for keeping the classroom open and staying in school when a lot of other states did not."

"This bonus is to say 'Thank you' for doing that. And, we want you to stay in education," she said.

Reynolds added the Iowa Department of Education is working with the University of Iowa on a program to expand support for mental health to Pre-K-12 educators and schools across the state.

"I'm proud of what we've been able to do for educators," Reynolds said.

As for rising COVID-19 cases in the state, Reynolds said state officials are "doing what we can do" to respond to the highly-contagious omicron variant. That includes sending 125 traveling nurses and respiratory therapists to more than a dozens hospitals across Iowa as health care providers grapple with an increasing number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations.

"We are going to continue to provide testing, continue to encourage vaccines and continue to tell people to stay home if they're sick," Reynolds said.

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Early last week, a Davenport couple spotted a white swan swimming in the Mississippi River off South Concord.

By late in the week, the swan had stopped swimming.

An animal lover, Phyllis Walker and her fiancee frequently take winter drives along the river to get out of the house and do some bird watching.

"We went down on Monday, and the swan was swimming, floating around; same thing on Tuesday," Walker said. "On Wednesday, it was just sitting in one spot. When it was still there Thursday, we got worried and checked.

"Everything else flew off, but he didn't move."

The pair sprang into action, grabbing a fleece blanket from their truck to wrap around the bird and and a hammer and screwdriver to try to break the ice around it.

"The poor thing was between the rocks and the river," Walker said Friday. "We couldn't get him up. His chest was frozen, but his feet were moving. I called 911, and they said they couldn't help me. The DNR (Iowa Department of Natural Resources) was busy and was going to be a while.

"The swan didn't have a while. Its eyes were closed, and its head was bent down."

Walker's fiancee, who declined to be identified by name, broke away some ice, then got his hands under the bird and pulled.

"It came right up," she said. "It lost a few feathers, but it didn't hurt him. That animal knew it was free."

Just as the bird was freed, conservation officers from West Lake arrived, she said, and took it with them. Identified as a mute swan, it was to be delivered Friday to Wildthunder, a wildlife rehab and sanctuary in Independence, Iowa.

Tracy Belle, who is federally permitted to rehabilitate animals at Wildthunder, said she suspected the swan rescued Thursday is either the partner or sibling of a swan she has been caring for since it was found injured in early December in Davenport.

Mute swans are largely monogamous, and Belle wonders if the second swan was waiting for its mate to return to South Concord.

"The female came in with a pelvic fracture," she said. "We reunited a pair of geese recently, and it was a beautiful thing. They ran to each other, wrapped their necks around each other and honked.

"We'll need to move a couple of fox around so we can put the swans in the same area. These are young swans, I'm told, so they could be siblings, too."

Walker said she spent about an hour on the phone Thursday night with Belle and was relieved the swan she had named Lucky Wapello (because it was found at Concord and Wapello Avenue) was in good hands.

"We see people along the river taking pictures of the eagles all the time," Walker said. "We love watching the eagles, too. But it's important for people to pay attention.

"Instead of just getting their pictures, people need to look out for the animals. Please notice them. Sometimes, you can help."

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SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday, Jan. 19, that he is cautiously optimistic that the recent surge in COVID-19 cases spurred by the omicron variant has peaked, but he cautioned that another variant could appear at any time and continued to urge people to get vaccinated and wear face coverings when in public.

Over the last two years, I've said over and over that you don't know when a surge has reached its peak until you're on the other side of it, Pritzker said during a news conference in Chicago.

As of late Tuesday, 6,507 Illinoisans were hospitalized with COVID-19, a relatively high number but still down 11.8 percent from the peak recorded on Jan. 13 when 7,380 were hospitalized.

Of those hospitalized, 1,085 were in intensive care units and 608 were on ventilators, also high numbers but still down from their peaks of about a week earlier.

On Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 26,491 new cases of the virus out of 194,306 tests performed. Over the previous seven days, the case positivity rate averaged just over 12 percent. But IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the reported number of cases is no longer the most important statistic to track.

I am absolutely moving away from the cases because we know that that's not even the full story, given all the home tests and all the positives that are happening at home that are not recorded in any of our Department of Public Health databases, she said. But the hospitalizations, you can't hide a hospitalization. And so as we look at those hospitalizations and understand where those numbers are going, that is definitely a clear signal of the direction we're moving in.

The news conference took place on the same day the U.S. Postal Service officially opened a new website on which people can order free home testing kits. Every household can order a package of four individual rapid antigen tests that will be shipped in late January. That website is https://special.usps.com/testkits.

Despite the downward trend, Pritzker and Ezike both urged residents to get vaccinated, to get booster shots when theyre eligible and to continue wearing face coverings in public places.

The omicron surge has tested and proven once again that vaccines and masks are our best tools to keep most people safe from each variant of COVID-19, Pritzker said. Nevertheless, omicron's high transmission rate caused more COVID hospitalizations than ever before. The vast majority unvaccinated. Our hospital systems and health care workers have battled to treat and to save not just COVID-19 patients, but every patient who walks through their doors.

* * *

GOP PUSHES TO REPEAL SAFE-T ACT: Republicans are calling for their Democratic counterparts in the Illinois House to join them in efforts to repeal criminal justice reforms, known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, commonly known as the SAFE-T Act.

Reps. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, and Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, joined House GOP Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, at a news conference Thursday, Jan. 20, to announce their support for legislation, House Bill 4499, introduced a week ago, to repeal the SAFE-T Act.

Spain called the SAFE-T Act damaging and dangerous with real consequences for the people of the state of Illinois.

Democratic proponents of the SAFE-T Act, who called the effort by super minority Republicans all for show, pointed out that many of the substantive changes created by the bill had not yet taken effect.

That includes a measure that would eliminate cash bail in favor of a pre-trial detention method that prioritizes aspects such as the level of danger a suspect poses rather than their ability to post bail. The exact parameters for pre-trial detention will be determined by the courts. That measure takes effect in January 2023.

The original SAFE-T Act also changed use-of-force guidelines for law enforcement, created a new police certification system and expanded detainee rights.

Spain said crime has skyrocketed in Illinois with increases in retail theft, carjacking and murders, citing 800 murders last year in Chicago.

Illinois has become the wild, wild Midwest, Durkin said.

Tweaks to the bill, including a measure passed last year diluting some of the use-of-force language in the original bill, arent good enough, the Republicans said on Thursday, and the SAFE-T Act should be repealed entirely. Mazzochi said it would only take a few Democrats to cross over to get it done.

* * *

I-80 CONSTRUCTION: Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday, Jan. 20, announced the beginning of the next phase of construction along the Interstate 80 corridor that will modernize Houbolt Road in Joliet.

The state investment in the public-private partnership is $32 million, according to the governor, who continues to highlight the ongoing benefits of one of his major first-year legislative accomplishment, the Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan. The infrastructure plan passed with bipartisan support in 2019.

The states investment will widen the road and reconfigure the I-80 interchange into a diverging, diamond design.

This project will go a long way to alleviate congestion and improve safety, Omer Osman, Illinois Department of Transportation director, said. The work that will be taking place here over the next several years is transformational.

Improvements are expected to minimize emissions caused by traffic, cut down a long commute, make the daily drive safer and provide more business to the surrounding communities.

* * *

DIVERSITY IN CLEAN ENERGY PROJECTS: Aiming to increase diversity in wind and solar jobs, a proposed measure in the Illinois General Assembly would require more transparent reporting on the level of participation of minority-owned businesses in clean energy jobs.

Rep. William Davis, D-Hazel Crest, advanced House Bill 4217 through the House Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 19. The measure aims to increase diverse participation in projects that could include African-Americans, Latinx, and women-owned firms.

In the bill, energy suppliers who generate more than 500 kilowatt hours of electricity with at least 100,000 customers and companies that develop, install, or maintain a renewable energy project with annual revenues over $15 million would be required to submit annual reports on procurement goals and spending on contracts with female-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned companies and small businesses.

Annual reports would need to outline a buying plan for specific goods and services the company plans to procure in the next six to 18 months, include any procurement codes used by the company. Its an effort to assist entrepreneurs and diverse companies in understanding upcoming opportunities with the company submitting the buying plan, according to the bill.

Part of our effort, as we have done in many other sectors, is to start by trying to ask those individuals that are doing it, to supply reports, to fill out reports and show us what they are doing relative to diversity, and not only what their numbers look like but also, in some cases, the plan to increase that diversity over time, Davis said.

Businesses that make less than $15 million a year would possibly be exempt from filling out diversity reports but would still have the opportunity to do so if they desired.

* * *

EDUCATOR SHORTAGES: School officials across Illinois say a shortage of teachers and substitutes is forcing them to cancel course offerings, move them online or fill open positions with people who are not fully qualified.

Those are the findings of the latest survey by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, the fifth such survey the organization has conducted in as many years.

Our schools need help, now more than ever, said Mark Klaisner, IARSS president. For five years of our study, we have shown how schools are struggling to find qualified teachers and are under tremendous stress to provide the best education possible while understaffed and overwhelmed. COVID-19 has only made those challenges worse.

The survey included responses from 663 of the states 852 school districts, representing 78 percent of public schools in Illinois. It was conducted in the fall of 2021 by Goshen Education Consulting, based in Edwardsville.

Overall, 88 percent of the districts responding said they had a shortage of full-time teachers, while 96 percent said they had a shortage of substitute teachers. Districts responding reported a total of 412 classes were canceled and 385 were converted to online instruction because of teacher shortage issues.

More than 2,000 positions are either not filled or filled by someone not qualified to teach there, more than double the number reported from last year. That includes the increased use of paraprofessionals  people who are not fully licensed as teachers but who are credentialed to work under the direction of a licensed teacher.

The shortage is most acute in the east-central and west-central regions where more than 90 percent of the districts responding said they had a teacher shortage problem. But even in the northeast region where the shortage appeared to be least significant, 79 percent of districts reported a teacher shortage, while overall 77 percent of districts said the shortage is getting worse.

* * *

REPUBLICAN AMENDMENTS: Republicans in the Illinois Senate have again introduced a package of proposed constitutional amendments that they argue would give voters more of a direct say in the legislative process.

We're reintroducing these constitutional amendments in order to really put the people back in charge again, Senate GOP Leader Dan McConchie, of Hawthorn Woods, said during a virtual news conference Tuesday, Jan. 18.

The package includes a renewed call for an independent redistricting commission. Other amendments would give voters greater power to amend the Illinois Constitution, as well as the power to repeal legislation and the power to recall elected officials at all levels of government.

Specifically, Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 13 would remove the current requirement that each Senate district be divided into two House districts and would incorporate provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 into the constitution while requiring that districts be compact and contiguous.

It would also establish a 17-member Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw legislative and congressional district lines starting in 2023. The commission members would be drawn from each of the states 17 congressional districts and would be made up of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and three unaffiliated voters.

* * *

BUDGET NEGOTIATING TEAM: Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch announced a new House budget negotiation team Tuesday, Jan. 18, led by House Majority Leader and chief budgeteer Greg Harris, D-Chicago.

Former Speaker Michael Madigan appointed Harris to be the chief budgeteer during the Rauner administration. Harris, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, announced in November that he would not seek re-election after the completion of his current term this year. Harris said he will share his knowledge and experience of the budget process with the team to pass the mantle.

We need to continue to keep moving forward, Harris said in an interview. Illinois just had its first bond rating increase in a quarter of a century. We need to continue to keep that going strong.

Harris will lead the group rounded out with Reps. Will Davis, D-Homewood; Elizabeth Hernandez, D-Cicero; Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside; and Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, during this legislative session.

We have made great progress putting Illinois on the path toward financial stability, Welch said in a statement. With the stewardship of Leader Harris and this incredibly diverse group of state representatives, I am confident we will have a fiscally responsible budget that prioritizes the needs of hardworking Illinoisans.

The budget negotiation team will meet with caucuses and then work with the Gov. JB Pritzkers office to determine priorities for the next fiscal year.

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by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- After the massive eruption near the island of Tonga last week, Italian media for days run headlines and in-depth articles, and talk shows focused on one same topic: volcanoes.

They meant to report about the real dimension and aftermath of the submarine volcano's eruption that hit the south Pacific island on Jan. 14. They also wanted to address Italian audience's fresh curiosity about the domestic situation.

Would a similar eruption be possible in Italy? Which -- among the many domestic volcanoes -- was the most dangerous in the immediate? What was surveillance system?

Experts were called in to provide an accurate picture. Journalists and people became aware of an interesting, although disregarded, detail: there were submarine volcanoes in their own backyard too.

QUIESCENT GIANTS

"Indeed, there are several submarine volcanoes of various shapes and sizes in the Tyrrhenian Sea and in the Strait of Sicily," Guido Ventura, volcanologist with Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), told Xinhua in an interview.

Some of them showed a very low-energy seismic activity and emission of hot fluids, so they could be called "active but in a state of quiescence."

"The two largest ones are the Marsili -- which is 60 to 70 km long and 25 to 30 km wide -- and the Palinuro; both are peculiar because they are volcanic complexes characterized by linear structures," he said.

Ventura has been senior INGV researcher since 2003. His researches have brought him to collaborate, among other institutions, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Jilin University in Changchun, and the Jilin Earthquake Agency of the China Earthquake Administration.

The scholar confirmed the priority in Italy is assigned to other volcanoes (all of which above the waters), in terms of prevention, monitoring, and emergency plans.

In some areas of Italy, people are used to live and thrive under the shadow of an active volcano. This is the case of Catania in eastern Sicily, where the Etna -- one of the most active volcanoes in the world -- is affectionately nicknamed by residents as "the mountain."

There is Stromboli, the most northeast among the Aeolian Islands, famous for its persistent mild to moderate activity, which provides explosive (or "Strombolian") spectacular eruptions.

There are the Vesuvio and the Campi Flegrei in southern Campania region, both located in densely populated areas. The red zone outlined by the emergency plan for them comprises 25 municipalities across the Naples and Salerno provinces.

LOW RISK

Nonetheless, the public and scientific interest around submarine volcanoes is growing, according to the volcanologist. Would they pose a concrete risk in terms of eruption and a consequent possible tsunami? Should people be specifically concerned in Italy?

"A risk linked to possible eruptions exists, although we have discovered through recent studies that the Marsili's last eruption dates back some 3,000 years," Ventura replied.

He noted that while the Marsili's apical part is at 500 meters of depth, that of the Palinuro is only 80 meters under water, which means a latter's possible eruption would pose a greater risk for the Italian coasts.

"Overall, the entire central Mediterranean has a tsunami risk factor, not only for the presence of submerged volcanoes, but due to possible earthquakes and underwater massive landslides," he added, recalling that the INGV plays the role of Tsunami Service Provider for the whole Mediterranean.

"We are currently running simulations of tsunamis from submarine landslides ... And, for the Marsili and the Palinuro, the results we have already published indicate a minimal risk."

Yet, Ventura and other top Italian scientists highlighted that submarine volcanoes are not currently monitored 24/7, nor in the Mediterranean.

"There are two reasons for that, the first of which is that continued monitoring has very high costs -- a day of oceanographic ship costs around 20 thousand euros (some 22,000 U.S. dollars), just to have an idea," he explained.

The second reason is the above-mentioned priority set by Italy's Civil Protection Agency on the other volcanoes.

"The Italian situation therefore is normal, we could say ... yet, our hope is to be able to carry out as many oceanographic campaigns as possible, in order to collect data over the time that would allow us to observe possible changes," he stressed. 
Chicago aldermen Monday are set to consider another $14 million taxpayer payout to victims connected to Jon Burge, this time for two men who say detectives with ties to the disgraced late police commander beat them into confessing to a brutal 1989 murder.

The proposed settlement for Kevin Bailey and Corey Batchelor comes four years after a Cook County special prosecutor dropped charges against the two, and a judge tossed out their convictions.

When both were 19 years old, Batchelor and Bailey were arrested for the 1989 slaying of Lula Mae Woods, the wife of a retired Chicago police officer, according to court records, who was found with stab wounds in her South Side garage.

The men had no criminal history. Decades later, when the case was dropped in 2018, the special prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to show them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bailey was released the same day; by then, he had been in prison 28 years. Batchelor had been paroled in 2004.

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Scores of Black men have accused Burge and officers under his command of torturing or beating them during the 1970s and 1980s.

Burge had transferred to another precinct when Batchelor and Bailey were arrested. But many of the detectives involved in their case had trained under Burge and have themselves been accused of abuse in multiple convictions, attorneys for Batchelor and Bailey said when their convictions were dropped.

The cost to taxpayers in cases tied to Burge has been at least $115 million for settlements, judgments and other compensation to victims.

Burge was fired in 1993 for torturing a suspect in the killing of two cops. He was convicted in 2010 of perjury and obstruction of justice after jurors found he lied when he denied as part of a lawsuit that he had witnessed torture or abused suspects. He spent 4 years in prison and on home confinement and died in 2018.

If the City Council Finance Committee passes the proposed settlement Monday, the full City Council would consider the deal Wednesday.

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SPRINGFIELD  Hoping to make abortion care more accessible, a facility near St. Louis is set to be the first of its kind in providing financial assistance for travel-related costs.

A Regional Logistics Center was opened Friday in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights. Using private funds, the center will pay for travel and lodging arrangements and connect patients to resources and support organizations in all 50 states.

Together, we are breaking down the silos anti-abortion politicians have created, and proving that  with innovation and determination  we can secure a future with abortion access, Yamelsie Rodriguez, president of St. Louis Planned Parenthood, said during an opening event Friday.

Rodriguez said the RLC will be operated by Planned Parenthood and the Granite City-based Hope Clinic for Women in response to more restrictive abortion laws in other states and to the lack of access for women in rural areas.

Planned Parenthood and Hope Clinic have been planning for the center since 2019, when Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act which guarantees that reproductive health, including abortion, is a fundamental right in Illinois.

The idea that were protecting those rights with the Reproductive Health Act in the state is vital, Pritzker said Friday.

Since a soft opening in December, the center has provided 138 rides and flights and housed dozens of women in need of overnight stays.

Rodriguez is projecting an additional 14,000 women from conservative states are likely to travel to the region for abortion care if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide, is overturned.

With reproductive rights under attack across the United States, its never been more vital for the state of Illinois to ensure access to reproductive services, Pritzker said. Lets be loud and clear  abortion restrictions endanger women.

Saturday is the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Abortion access in conservative states such as Missouri, Texas and Arkansas has become more restrictive in recent years, leading women to travel in search of reproductive health care services.

The hardest part is knowing that these hurdles have been systematically manufactured by anti-abortion politicians whose goals are to ban abortion, said Kawanna Shannon, director of Patient Access for RLC. Access to abortion doesnt have to be like this.

Rodriguez said Planned Parenthood of St. Louis has seen steady annual increases in out-of-state patients traveling for abortion care. Since a Texas abortion ban took effect in September 2021, Rodriguez said, more than $73,000 in financial assistance has helped more than 800 women travel to the southern Illinois facility. There has been a 40 percent increase in patient visits, she said.

This law just had a rippling effect that is causing all patients, even in states where abortion is still legal and available, to travel outside of their home state in order to find appointments, Rodriguez said.

There is no income or distance requirement to access RLC services. Patients must schedule an appointment with Reproductive Health Services or Hope Clinic for Women before contacting the RLC for logistical support.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoots plan to fix Chicagos violence crisis seems to involve trotting out ideas that didnt work before and wont work now. Its part of a long-standing city tradition of thinking inside the box, then doing the same thing twice  or three or four or five times  and expecting a different result.

One of the most recent ideas  repurposed under the fancy name Victims Justice Ordinance, because all bad ideas become good when boldly renamed  involves fining gang members and having police seize their property.

This is such a good idea that 50 Chicago civil rights attorneys on Wednesday signed a letter to Lightfoot telling her its a terrible idea: We urge you to abandon this ordinance and the failed approach to public safety it represents. Instead, we hope you will adopt public safety initiatives that invest in and build on the strengths of our communities.

Hah! Silly lawyers. Of course the citys not going to invest in communities. The Victims Justice Ordinance allows the mayor to say cool things such as We are going after their blood money, whereas that squishy stuff the lawyers are talking about would lend itself only to dull quotes such as , We are going to invest in Chicagos long-ignored communities and create jobs and infrastructure that will support young people and parents, thereby disincentivizing criminal activity and giving residents in lower-income neighborhoods an equal chance at education, work and a good life.

THAT CANT POSSIBLY FIT ON A CAMPAIGN POSTER!!

There are ample studies and statistics that show the ineffectiveness of asset forfeiture, but for now, let me break it down in a more direct manner: Threatening to take peoples money and belongings isnt going to stop them from doing bad things when the primary reason most of them are doing bad things is because they dont have any money or belongings.

Its a bit like trying to get a streaker to knock it off by threatening to take his clothes.

I understand why some support what the mayors trying to do. It sounds just and good to hit criminals where it hurts and not just arrest them but strip them bare of any ill-gotten gains. For the record, if a person is convicted of a crime and theres cash or items of value that person obtained in the act of being a criminal, Im all for seizing those things and doing something positive with the money. Im by no means pro-bad-guy.

But a key thing people miss is this: Most of the people in Chicago who are committing crimes, violent or otherwise, would much rather be doing something else, like working a job that pays a living wage. I know that because over the years Ive interviewed dozens upon dozens of gang members and assorted criminals, and theyve told me that very thing.

More than a decade ago, I was in a second-floor apartment on the West Side interviewing a man the size of a small mountain. He was a gang member and a drug dealer, and I rather naively asked why he did what he did. The man broke down in tears and said approximately this, which Im quoting from memory: You think I want to be doing this? I wake up every day and expect Im going to get shot. I hate this, but I have felony convictions and an X on my back and cant get a job. Nobody will hire me, and I have kids to feed. So what am I supposed to do?

You dont have to feel sorry for people in that position, and Im never going to defend anyones decision to sell drugs or steal or hurt another human. But realize theres more going on here than some privileged souls insipid view that people get into crime-doing because its glamorous. And recognize the absurd simplicity of a PUNISH BAD GUYS AND THEY WILL STOP BEING BAD! approach.

I dont care if youre talking about civil asset forfeiture or the death penalty  the threat of punishment rarely does much to change the behavior of desperate people.

Speaking about the Victims Justice Ordinance in a Dec. 20 speech, Lightfoot said: Gangs are violent, dangerous and ruthless. They do not care who they hurt in their quest for money and territory. We need to not just seize their cash, but their assets as well.

That statement contradicts itself. Gangs are dangerous and ruthless and dont care who they hurt, but you think seizing their assets is going to stop them? Its ludicrous.

And whatever benefit might come from the threat will surely be offset by the damage seizing assets will do to people who are struggling to get by in the first place.

Last September, a lawyer and a researcher with the Institute of Justice wrote in a Tribune op-ed: The mayor suggests her proposal would target lucrative, organized crime, but data on existing practices suggest the opposite. According to an Institute of Justice analysis of Illinois State Police data, from 2017 to 2019, half the Chicago Police Departments approximately 4,379 cash forfeitures were for just $693 or less  hardly the stuff of major drug operations.

That piece also noted that innocent friends or family members of suspected criminals often get swept up in police seizures: Because civil forfeiture effectively requires property owners to prove their innocence  without the benefit of an attorney if they cannot afford one  it inevitably deters valid claims and victimizes innocent people. Especially when the value of the seized property is low, many people simply cannot fight back.

One of the lawyers who signed the letter to Lightfoot, civil rights attorney Sheila Bedi, told the Tribune: This is a proposal that will do nothing to stop the harm that our communities are experiencing.

Theres no quick fix to this citys violence problem. (Ive written that line approximately 18 billion times.)

The only path forward involves investing money and resources in places many Chicagoans choose to ignore. And the only fix involves taking time to repair lives and neighborhoods unfairly broken by a system that keeps recycling the same dumb ideas and thinking theyll finally work.

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South Dakota touts itself as a business-friendly state. That enticed Steve Saint to relocate from Colorado to buy Fort WeLikIt Family Campground in Custer.

Now, however, he is frustrated with Gov. Kristi Noems proposed campsite in Custer State Park that would compete with him and other private campground owners in the Black Hills.

South Dakota said, Come on in. We love small business. South Dakota really convinced me to come here to buy a business and buy into South Dakota, Saint said. Now were getting the proverbial middle finger  thats how I feel. Campground owners feel lied to. Theyre really taking it personal.

Big plans

The $9.9 million plan for a 75-acre site along Wildlife Loop Road in the west-central area of Custer State Park was released late in 2020 by the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department and the governors office.

The proposed development includes 175 gravel campsites with electricity  a 50% increase in the parks total number of sites  plus new paved roads, and four comfort stations with shower and bathroom facilities.

A formal public comment period for the project has not been opened, but the Legislature and the GF&P Commission are accepting feedback. If approved, construction could begin as early as 2023 with the campground opening in 2024. When completed and fully operational, the campground could generate $500,000 annually, according to the state.

"South Dakotas campground industry has been booming thanks to Governor Noem keeping South Dakota open for business, and promoting our states natural resources and beautiful landscapes. Custer State Park is our states most visited park and broke records for visitation in both 2020 and 2021, but it has not seen a campground expansion project in over 41 years. The Department of Game, Fish & Parks will continue to connect people and families to the outdoors and showcase the natural beauty that we all love, Ian Fury, communication director for Gov. Kristi Noem, said in an email to the Journal.

Project concerns

The proposal has sparked an outcry from groups and local lawmakers who say this project will damage Custer State Park and is using taxpayer dollars to compete with private businesses. Saint said the proposed 175 campsites roughly equal two private campgrounds, and the number of sites is 100 more than FortWeLikIt has.

I dont think its fair  for the state to build that campground, said Saint, the president of the South Dakota Campground Owners Association (SDCOA). Theres a lot of concerns floating around about the unfair competition when youre dealing with state government. It appears they have unlimited dollars to do what they want.

I love Gov. Noem but this part concerns me where she preached I love small business, but now shes going to hurt small business, he said.

The SDCOA outlined its objections to the campground in a Jan. 7 letter to Gov. Noem, the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Commission, and the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks department.

It seems ironic, however, that the biggest intrusion of state enterprise into competition with the private sector would come during the term of a Governor who is famous for drawing a hard line between free enterprise and socialism.  Make no mistake, the guests to be accommodated in these new sites would otherwise stay in a private park, paying sales taxes and supporting the real estate tax of the entrepreneur, the SDCOA letter said.

Theyre turning around (our) tax money and using it to compete against us. Were paying them to compete against us, and thats really (SDCOA members) biggest thing, said Saint, adding that his property taxes have tripled in the decade hes owned Fort WeLikIt.

Tourism booming

COVID-19 has been a boon for tourism, particularly for the camping industry, because it allowed people to safely explore and travel. Interest in RVs and the RV lifestyle is at an all-time high, according to koa.com. KOA data shows interests in the outdoors and new experiences, along with the pandemic, were driving factors that have sparked peoples desire to go camping. Custer State Park set a record in 2021 with 2.3 million visitors.

Saint said privately owned campgrounds are meeting the demand for campsites amid the spike in tourism. Just in and around Custer, he said, there are between 25 and 30 campgrounds. Saint said Fort WeLikIt is one of the larger campgrounds in Custer, and hes putting in seven new RV sites, which is as much as he can afford now. Saint and his wife run FortWeLikIt and have three children.

There have been no studies or evidence that private campgrounds in the area are failing to meet demand. This overreach by GF&P would take private taxpayer property tax and sales tax revenue from private campgrounds and use it to unfairly compete with those very businesses. This makes little sense coming from a Governor who has professed that the best thing government can do is stay out of the way of private businesses, SDCOA member Edward C. Miller said in an email to the Rapid City Journal.

Miller owns Rush No More RV Resort in Sturgis. In his email, he said several area campgrounds are currently expanding their facilities to meet the increased demand during record-breaking tourist seasons.

Some campgrounds are putting 20 or 30 new sites in, Saint said. Theres enough private sector campgrounds to take care of this. The government doesnt need to step in.

Lawmakers weigh in

Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller agrees, saying she is totally opposed to the proposed campsite development in Custer State Park.

The state should not be in competition with the private sector, period, she said.

Frye-Mueller said the governor specifically mentioned supporting small businesses in her state of the state address on Jan. 11.

No matter how these businesses got here or got started, they are thriving because here in South Dakota, the government gets out of the way, allows them to grow and innovate, and helps out where we can, Noem said in her speech to the state Legislature.

The state continues to compete (against private businesses) in so many different ways, and its the private campground owners tax dollars that will be funding the competition, Frye-Mueller said. How is this supporting or helping local business? This is direct competition.

Theres been a lot of RV and campsites built (in 2021), state Rep. Trish Ladner said. I know in Hot Springs theres two or three brand-new campgrounds that would (be impacted).

Future costs?

Frye-Mueller, Ladner and Saint also question the proposed cost of the project and long-term expenses of maintaining the campsites and bathroom facilities. Saint, Frye-Mueller and Ladner said theyve heard cost estimates averaging $56,000 and $57,000 per campsite.

Its another extreme waste of taxpayer money, Frye-Mueller said.

In the private sector, Saint said the cost per site is between $15,000 and $20,000. He said SDCOA members whove heard the estimate for the Custer State Park development say its an ungodly amount of money for campsites.

Frye-Mueller sent a letter to Noem on Jan. 9, voicing her concerns about competing with private businesses, disruption to the parks wildlife and elk migration, and the publics safety if they encounter buffalo and other animals. Frye-Mueller also asked whether studies had been done about the financial impact to private campground owners and the environmental changes that could affect wildlife habitat. She said the governor has not responded.

Rep. Tim Goodwin believes the private sector will benefit from Custer State Park development.

Custer State Park hasnt had camping improvements in 40 years and the parks busting at the seams. It doesnt look to me like the private sector would be hurt tremendously, Goodwin said. The benefit to the private sector would be the park has got a huge increase in visitors and that spills over (to businesses) outside the park. Its the whole trickle down through all the tourists being here.

Wildlife worries

Lawmakers representing District 30 (Custer, Fall River and Pennington counties) and the parks former director worry that Custer State Parks natural beauty and wildlife  the attractions that bring in visitors from South Dakota and the world  could be irreparably altered by the proposed development.

That is a state wildlife park. Its tranquil. People come from all over the country, and they come to see the wildlife park. Its something different we offer in our state, Frye-Mueller said. When theyre commercializing it so much with 175 campsites  youre going to ruin the tranquility and peacefulness of the park.

We have something here  its like a jewel. People dont come for a bunch of congestion. Theyre coming out here and driving through the park for the peacefulness, the atmosphere, she said.

Ladner said shes heard from many residents who arent in favor of the Custer State Park campground project.

They want us to protect it, and I do too.  I think we need to be cautious. I think theres a fine line between striving to attract more visitors and doing whats right to protect resources, she said. We need to be careful not to cross that, especially in the Black Hills.

Ladner said she appreciates that Custer State Park set a new record for visitor numbers in 2021.

But I dont know that we need to increase it, she said. I love driving the Wildlife Loop. Its one of the things people from cities come to see, so do we really need to make it more crowded?

The location of the project near Wildlife Loop Road is one of many aspects that concerns Rolland Noem, who was Custer State Parks director from 1985 through 2004 and is an in-law to the governor.

I think commercial development like this along those scenic drives compromises the integrity of those drives and is compromising the value of open space. Open space is so precious. Those are some of the most beautiful byways in the state and so we start to develop those and its  going to bring a lot of added traffic on the Loop road, Rolland Noem said. A lot of it will be large motorhomes (and large vehicles). I would hope that wouldnt lead them to have to widen and straighten the road. That sort of thing concerns me.

The scenic drives are not intended for heavy traffic or traffic moving faster than 20 miles per hour, he said.

Public input

The lack of outreach to encourage public input about the proposed development concerns Rolland Noem, as does the lack of an environmental impact study.

The proposed campground would be near Barnes Canyon, which is prime elk habitat. According to the GF&Ps elk management plan released in September, Custer State Park is home to 450 elk, and the agency hopes to grow the population to between 500 and 600.

If you bring this human activity in there, its going to disturb their migration patterns. The elk move in and out of the park. If this kind of activity could lead to  pushing elk out of the park onto neighboring private land  that could create some real issues for those land owners, Rolland Noem said. Its a whole combination of issues and concerns. It just doesnt seem like a well-thought-out proposal, and I think its rushing into it without due process.

The Black Hills Sportsmen Club issued a statement opposing the campground in Custer State Park, particularly in the proposed location, and they also urged that an impact study be completed.

Research and past employee experience has demonstrated the negative impact on park elk by disturbance (as cited in numerous scientific studies, many in the park). Negative impacts include declining animal health, increased stress levels, lowered reproduction, and suboptimal habitat utilization. Disturbance has, and will, cause animals to abandon their ranges and move elsewhere. Custer State Park has records of human activities causing elk herds to move east onto private property to escape human disturbance, the BHSCs statement said.

GF&P responds

Nick Harrington, communications manager for GF&P, said an environmental impact statement is a federal process and is not a requirement for a project such as the proposed campground development.

The state is required to meet all of the state laws, rules and standards for construction, including any required permitting and appropriate clearances. The site was proposed based upon previous improvement, past disturbance to soil and vegetation on the 75-acre site, as well as the proximity to other existing development. These factors helped to identify this location as the most suitable site for additional camping opportunity in Custer State Park, Harrington wrote in an email to the Journal.

Goodwin said he hopes a compromise can be reached, such as closing the park during winter months to protect the migrating elk and other wildlife, while still moving ahead with the development.

Its still a work in progress, Goodwin said. Were trying to get it where both sides can be happy.

He said there are safety issues to consider with buffalo and the public interacting, but he said if issues arise, park rangers can mitigate the concerns by moving the herds.

Market trends

As Saint prepares for his 10th season running Fort WeLikIt, hes already taking reservations but he doesnt believe South Dakotas tourism and COVID campers surge will be a long-term trend.

This year looks to be good so far, but next year we could decline instantly, especially if COVID-19 starts going away and more people start getting back to whatever normal is now and going back to hotels and resorts, Saint said. "Were probably going to start slowing down in the next couple of years. Ive had campers say, Were going to do this for two or three years and sell the RV. (Campground owners) know how this works. We know this is going to end.

Although the last two years have proven to be record-breaking tourist seasons, here is no guarantee that this isnt a temporary blip in business, Miller agreed.

Were not going to have this hot streak forever. I think in about five years its going to start dropping, and then what happens to the private sector? Saint said. Youre going to have a certain percent of population go (to Custer State Park) just because its cheaper.  I dont want to have to sell (my campground) because the state park is taking all the business.

The state, however, sees the tourism boom continuing.

The entire state park system saw 400,000 user nights in 2021 alone, and we expect these numbers to increase over the next several years, Noem spokesman Fury said in the email to the Journal.

Rolland Noem said one impetus behind the proposed campground was to give South Dakotans more opportunities to camp in Custer State Park. That could be achieved, he said, by developing a reservation system that sets aside a certain number of campsites exclusively for South Dakota residents, even if tourist numbers remain strong this year and beyond.

Looking ahead

Saint and Ladner both believe allowing this campground development could be a stepping stone to more. Saint worries the park could later decide to add other amenities, such as a restaurant or gift shop, that would further compete with private business. Ladner fears development could permanently destroy or diminish the park.

My heart is to represent my people in my district and to preserve the way of life in the Black Hills, Ladner said. We need to be careful and safeguard ourselves (to be sure) this change is a positive change for the future. Is this going to be here for future generations? Are we preserving that?  When everything is changed, you cant go back. I dont want that to happen to South Dakota.

Reporter Tanya Manus can be reached at tanya.manus@rapcityjournal.com. Freelance photographer Paul Horsted can be reached at PaulHorsted.com.

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Visitor spending in South Dakota set an all-time record in 2021.

According to the annual study conducted by Tourism Economics, visitors spent $4.4 billion, an increase of 30% over 2020. This surpasses all previous records by 6%.

The report also showed South Dakota welcomed 13.5 million visitors, an increase of 26% over 2020, who booked 5.3 million nights in hotel rooms.

Visitors to state parks increased by 6% over 2020 to 8.3 million, a new record for South Dakota.

South Dakotas tourism industry stayed open for business and open for visitors, working tirelessly to support millions of visitors who chose South Dakota as their vacation destination, Gov. Kristi Noem said in a statement.

Tourism Secretary Jim Hagen said 54,208 jobs in South Dakota were supported by the tourism industry, which generated $1.8 billion in income.

Tourism in South Dakota is a job-creating, revenue-generating machine that plays a vital role in supporting the states economy year after year," Hagen said.

In 2021, tourism generated $344 million in state and local tax revenue, he said.

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Employers must pay their workers final wages due following termination of employment, regardless of the reason for leaving.

Consider what happened to a Georgia man who finally got the $915 that his former employer owed him months after he was let go.

Auto repair shop A OK Walker Autoworks in Georgia is alleged to have paid the former worker his final wages of $915 by delivering the amount in about 91,500 oil-covered pennies to the former employees home. In doing so, the repair shop owner blocked and stained the former employees driveway, requiring nearly seven hours to remove the coins.

The employer allegedly left a pay stub marked with an expletive at the workers home and published defamatory statements about the former employee on the companys website.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a complaint against the owner of the auto repair shop in federal court in Georgia for retaliation, claiming the actions were motivated by a retaliatory motive after the former worker filed a complaint with the Labor Departments wage and hour division following his resignation.

Upon further investigation, the Labor Department determined that the repair shop failed to pay overtime wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and now owes workers $36,971 in back wages.

The agency alleges that the owner violated the FLSA by paying employees straight time for all hours worked, instead of paying the overtime rate of pay when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The owner also failed to maintain proper recordkeeping of time worked and pay rates.

The Labor Department also seeks to enjoin the employer from future FLSA violations.

By law, worker engagement with the U.S. Department of Labor is protected activity. Workers are entitled to receive information about their rights in the workplace and obtain the wages they earned without fear of harassment or intimidation, said Steven Salazar, the wage and hour division district director in Atlanta, in a Labor Department news release about the case.

Workers and employers should feel free to contact the Wage and Hour Division. In fact, all employers should review their employment practices and contact the division to discuss questions they have regarding their responsibilities under the law.

Companies need to get their pay practices in order.

This is especially true in Virginia where new state wage and hour laws were passed last year. Businesses can be held liable for three times what is owed if found to have intentionally violated the Virginia law.

Workers have a right to file a complaint with federal and state regulators, including the Labor Department, and cannot be retaliated against for doing so. This is true even if the employee still works for the company, or if the employee is no longer employed.
Many of the yellow-and-white in-street signs ordering motorists to stop for pedestrians at 55 intersections throughout the city are beginning to show scuffs, tire marks and other evidence of significant wear and tear a year after they were installed.

Michael Sawyer, a transportation engineer and the citys pedestrian safety czar, says there have been fewer pedestrian-involved vehicle crashes in the past two years, but that its too early to say whether the signs the city installed last year played a part in the reduction.

Some traffic safety advocates and city residents, however, wonder whether myriad anecdotes and social media posts about damaged and missing signs are evidence that drivers arent paying attention.

Michael Grabow, a resident of the citys North Side, recently rode his bike to all 55 locations where the signs were reportedly installed, and he found nearly all of them damaged or missing.

Grabow, 37, said he noticed some drivers stopping at them when they were installed last spring, even if a pedestrian wasnt there, but that he has come to question whether the low-cost safety measure is more superficial than helpful.

The safety of our citizens should be pretty high up there on the citys priorities, he said.

Sawyer, who leads the citys Vision Zero program, a safety initiative aimed at preventing pedestrian fatalities and injuries, said the new signs are part of a much bigger effort that has cost approximately $10 million to install new stop signs, pedestrian crossing beacons, high-visibility crosswalks and other safety measures at more than 600 intersections.

Even after the city has replaced 73 signs  some locations had to be replaced more than once  over the past 10 months at about $400 apiece, or roughly $29,000, Sawyer said he still thinks they are an important part of the citys traffic safety strategy, which includes influencing motorists to stop for pedestrians, in compliance with the new state law, and to not drive recklessly.

The question is how do we as a culture start to shift those things? Sawyer said. If I can save a life or prevent a serious injury, Im going to sign off on putting up a sign that might get damaged. Signs are different than people.

These are intended to send a message that pedestrians matter.

******

The city selected 55 sites for the signs from a list of 150 intersections that have been prone to vehicle crashes with pedestrians in recent years. Many of the signs were installed along the Cary Street and Main Street corridors, where nearly 56 pedestrian-involved crashes have happened since 2017, placing them in the four most dangerous streets in the city for pedestrians, according to Department of Motor Vehicles data analyzed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The most dangerous corridor is Broad Street, where 60 pedestrians have been hit over the past five years.

The jury might still be out on whether theyve helped make pedestrians safer, but discourse and ostensibly lighthearted jokes about the signs have made them a meme among area residents. As Science Museum of Virginias chief scientist Jeremy Hoffman recently put it on his Twitter account, the signs have attained an almost celebrity-like status in the city.

The satirical Instagram page @Richmond_Affirmations, for example, recently posted an image of a ripped-out stop for pedestrians sign laying on a sidewalk, with overlaid text that says, I am now crossing Main [Street] safely and expeditiously.

Humor aside, traffic safety advocates note that motorists who are reckless, distracted or negligent can easily kill a person. It doesnt take much speed either, as theres a coin-flip chance that a vehicle that strikes a pedestrian at 31 mph will severely injure that person. At about the same speed, theres a 25% chance that a vehicle collision would kill the pedestrian, according to a 2011 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study.

The new pedestrian signs can also be found along West Marshall Street in the Carver neighborhood; Midlothian Turnpike and East Broad Rock Road in South Side; Williamsburg Road in East End; and other sites throughout the city. Sawyer said new stop signs and crosswalks were also installed at the other 145 locations that were considered for the pedestrian signs.

DMV data shows that nearly 600 pedestrians have been injured in vehicle crashes in the city over the past five years, but that annual injuries have declined from 145 in 2019 to 90 last year. There have been a total of 31 pedestrian fatalities in the same period, but those are also falling annually, with four reported last year. The most recent record high was 11 deaths in 2017.

******

In the RVA forum on Reddit, Andrew Valenski, a professional geographic information systems consultant who has worked on transportation-related government projects, last April maintained a daily log about the condition of a pedestrian sign at the intersection of Brookland Park Boulevard and Richmond-Henrico Turnpike close to his home.

Valenski, 28, said he was compelled to keep track of the sign after seeing it get hit a few times within days of it being installed.

I thought it was both funny and absurd  and a little bit scary  that people kept driving over it without really looking at the road or seeing it, he said in an interview.

As neighbors and people online started talking about the signs, Valenski said he wanted to investigate further to see why it kept happening. He installed a trail camera near the intersection. After reviewing hours of footage for several weeks, he concluded that the sign was being hit frequently by cars turning left onto Brookland Park Boulevard.

That to him, he said, dispelled theories about drunken drivers or exceptionally large vehicles being the main culprits, as his data showed that motorists in a variety of vehicles were failing to steer around it properly.

Valenski said his observations are troubling, but that he thinks the signs are helpful, even if they are not as effective as traffic signals and other safety measures that cost far more money.

Theyre highlighting an issue, he said of the signs. At the most basic level, theyre not causing a safety issue.

According to DMV data analyzed by The Times Dispatch, fewer than 10 of the crashes that injured pedestrians in the past five years have occurred at the intersections where signs were placed, making it difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the signs.

Brantley Tyndall, director of outreach for the advocacy group Bike Walk RVA, said he thinks the signs are helpful, but that its difficult to gauge whether they have made pedestrians safer, as there are only a few pedestrian fatalities each year. Tyndall said better data about near-crashes could be instrumental in gauging whether certain safety measures are particularly helpful.

I think that the effort to raise awareness about stopping for pedestrians and the change is state law is really beneficial, he said. I just think ... it takes a long time to get that kind of education out.

After nearly a year of the signs being up, Sawyer said they have become a conversation starter.

Theyve been cost-effective in the matter of getting people to talk about the issue. I dont think theres any other campaign that Im aware of that gets people to talk about why you should stop for pedestrians crossing the street or why its important to slow down on our streets, he said. Why does it have to be that way?

Sawyer said the city intends to continue looking at how to best place the pedestrian signs and improve safety. He said other projects will begin soon, including new hybrid pedestrian beacons at about a dozen locations that had been announced in February.

csuarez@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6178 Staff writer Sean McGoey contributed to this report.
Optometrists in Virginia will be permitted to perform three types of laser eye surgeries if a bill before the General Assembly becomes law.

The bill cleared its first hurdle Friday, passing 5-3 in a Senate subcommittee, despite the objection of physicians who say the complicated medical procedures should be conducted only by surgeons with higher levels of medical training. The bill now proceeds to the full committee.

Optometrists claim the bill would provide patients with a continuity of care  the medical professional who regularly checks a patients eyes could now also perform the surgery. Optometrists do not attend medical school and have four years less training than physicians who specialize in eye care, known as ophthalmologists.

Optometrists favor the bill not because of ego and not because it will reap financial rewards, said Bruce Keeney, chief legislative counsel for the Virginia Optometric Association. But because it will provide the best quality care to their patients.

Eight states allow optometrists to perform these surgeries, said Amanda Umlandt, president elect of the VOA. The three procedures allowed in the bill do not include the commonly known LASIK eye surgery. The procedures allowed in the bill treat glaucoma and the effects of cataract surgery: peripheral iridotomy, selective laser trabeculoplasty and Yttrium Aluminum Garnet capsulotomy.

In those states, optometrists have conducted 100,000 procedures over 25 years without negative outcomes, said Jeff Michaels, past president of VOA. The successful procedures prove optometrists are qualified, he said.

Plus, optometrists treat 2,000 patients before becoming independent, take three national board exams and a certification exam, Michaels added.

But several physicians expressed opposition to the bill, saying optometrists lack the training to perform intricate surgeries and that the bill isnt needed because theres no shortage of eye physicians.

Physicians receive 17,000 more hours of surgical training than optometrists, said Dr. Michael Keverline, president of the Virginia Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

Optometrists provide routine eye care and determine a patients need for classes or contact lenses.

Calling the procedure intensely precise, Keverline said the surgeon must strike with a laser a membrane 15 times thinner than a single hair. A mistake can result in irreparably clouded vision or bleeding in the eye.

Unlike nursing, there is no shortage of ophthalmologists, Keverline said. Theres no unmet need, and the bill wont provide any cost savings.

There is no reason why we need to change the law, he said. If we do change the law, were putting peoples eyes at risk.

Dr. Susan Everhart, an Ashland ophthalmologist, said most of her patients are elderly and have comorbidities that can cause complications optometrists arent prepared for.

There is no such thing as a simple surgery, she said. Every surgical procedure can become a major complication.

Two senators, Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, and Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, who is also a medical doctor, said the bill should be tabled so the Department of Health Professions can vet the topic.

But the sponsor, Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, asked for a vote now, calling the bill a limited discreet request.

The yes votes came from Sens. George Barker, D-Fairfax; Stephen Newman, R-Lynchburg; Todd Pillion, R-Washington County; Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax; and David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County.

Dunnavant, Lewis and John Edwards, D-Roanoke, voted no.

Through the years, Saslaw said, eye physicians have brought concerns to the General Assembly regarding the scope of practice for optometrists, predicting the end of civilization.

And that just hasnt happened, Saslaw said.
A bill filed in the Virginia House of Delegates this week would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation except in cases where the pregnant woman is at risk of death or substantial and irreversible damage to her health.

The legislation has a formidable chance of becoming law in a state where Republicans now control the House and the Executive Mansion, and Democrats hold a slim, 21-19 edge in the Senate.

In another sign of the changing outlook for abortion in Virginia, on Friday new Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares took steps to remove Virginia from a brief that terms a Mississippi abortion law unconstitutional.

The letter from Virginia Solicitor General Andrew N. Ferguson to the clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court says Virginia "is now of the view" that Roe v. Wade was "wrongly decided," that "the Constitution is silent on the question of abortion, and that it is therefore up to the people in the several States to determine the legal status and regulatory treatment of abortion."

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said during his campaign that he would support banning abortion at the point when a fetus can feel pain  which other states with similar bans have defined as 20 weeks.

Youngkin supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the womans life is in jeopardy. As filed, the bill does not include exceptions for rape or incest.

On Friday, Youngkin tweeted support for the annual anti-abortion rally, the March for Life, taking place in Washington, D.C.

I stand with the thousands in attendance at the 49th @March_for_life! I proudly stand up for the unborn and their mothers, Youngkin tweeted.

Saturday marks the 49th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The bill now before the House, named the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, was filed by Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper.

The bill bans abortions at the halfway point of pregnancy, unless the procedure is necessary to prevent the womans death, or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

If the bill becomes law, doctors and nurse practitioners performing the procedure would be required to do it in a way that would provide the unborn child the best opportunity to survive.

Health care professionals who perform the abortion in violation of the proposed law would be subject to a Class 6 felony, which is punishable by up to five years in jail and a $2,500 fine. They could also face civil lawsuits from the pregnant woman or the father of the fetus.

The Senate is not up for election until 2023. One of the Democrats, Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, sided with Republicans on a significant abortion vote in 2020. Then-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, broke the tie, quashing the bill.

Now, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears holds the tie-breaking vote. She voiced opposition to abortions during her campaign for office.

Former Del. Hala Ayala, D-Prince William, who lost the election for lieutenant governor to Earle-Sears, criticized Miyares on Twitter, terming him an "extremist."

"Our AG thinks that we should return to the days of individuals dying from lack of protections," Ayala wrote. "He believes that he should control our reproductive rights and rights to choice."

As for the Freitas bill, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia on Friday criticized the legislation.

This ban is just one more attempt at making abortion inaccessible in Virginia, the group tweeted. Virginians cannot go back to a time when decisions about abortion were made in the hearing room instead of in the exam room.

Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, who successfully introduced legislation that ended mandatory ultrasounds and wait periods before abortion procedures, said she and other Senate Democrats would oppose this extreme bill.

This one-size-fits-all bill would insert government in the private health care decisions that should be left between patients and their providers, McClellan said. Virginia has become the leader in the South in protecting access to reproductive health care, and were not going to turn back the clock.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned on giving parents more control over their childrens education, wasted no time banning inherently divisive concepts in schools. The move alarmed many educators, including the former secretary of education under Ralph Northam, who worry the order will once again lead Virginias schools to whitewash history.

The first executive order Youngkin signed bars critical race theory, a term used by Republicans to refer to lessons about systemic racism. It targets various initiatives started under the direction of former Superintendent of Instruction James Lane, including the EdEquityVA initiative, a program aimed at promoting cultural competency in classrooms, higher teacher diversity, and decreasing suspension rates for Black students.

The order also calls for the new state superintendent of instruction to examine policies that promote inherently divisive concepts, broadly defining what makes something inherently divisive.

Former Virginia Education Secretary Atif Qarni said the order seems designed to gloss over the state and nations messy history.

The bottom line is that in Virginia, a lot of positive changes happened, and people were not happy about it. They took advantage of the political climate with COVID and families being frustrated to really advance their agenda, Qarni said in an interview.

But it is, to me, a white backlash to positive changes, because our demographics are changing.

The 2020 census marked the first time that a majority of Virginians under 18 are people of color.

Toward the end of Northams tenure, the Virginia Department of Education faced a slew of attacks on various equity initiatives, largely fueled by conservative media, and fended off allegations of taking away advanced learning from students, including in math and the governors schools. Qarni said he also fielded questions and emails from people across the state, including death threats.

This is not about critical race theory, Qarni said. Its about anything we want to do to be inclusive and welcoming of the other.

In a superintendents memo that Youngkin called to have rescinded, Lanes office emphasized that critical race theory was not taught in schools, even though Lane himself encouraged teachers to learn about it.

The memo, which Lane wrote shortly after Northams blackface scandal, provides a series of resources for teachers to read to begin having serious discussions about race. Some of those resources include the racist history of blackface, along with a book called Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education. The memo has made the rounds on conservative news outlets as the states education department started getting grilled by spectators concerned that the graduate level theory was being taught in Virginias schools.

Two years later, after Youngkin defeated former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the November election, the VDOE updated the memo to clarify that CRT, as its often called, was not part of the states standards of quality.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not included in the Virginia Standards of Learning, which comprise the content in each subject area that the commonwealths school divisions are required to cover in their local curricula, the update says. Nowhere in the standards is there a requirement for schools to teach critical race theory, or to incorporate critical race theory when presenting required content.

Zoe Spencer, a professor of sociology at Virginia State University who specializes in diversity and who emphasized she was speaking for herself and not on behalf of VSU, echoed the sentiment.

The first thing that struck me is the fact ... that critical race theory is not, nor has it ever been, taught in pre-K through 12, and its rarely even taught in undergraduate-level theory courses, she said in an interview.

Critical race theory is a legal theory that critiques the foundation of the countrys legal system, arguing that it is embedded with racism in order to maintain inequities between white people and nonwhite people. Across the country, conservatives have used the term to broadly refer to the lessons about race or equity initiatives that usually center on students of color.

To take a legal theory that is a point of analysis for understanding how Black and brown people, Black people in particular, are disproportionately funneled through the criminal justice system, and then to conflate that with culturally responsive teaching and then create a whole campaign around the disinformation. For me first that was problematic, Spencer said.

The changes ordered by Youngkin will be anchored by newly appointed state Superintendent of Instruction Jillian Balow, who has embraced the conversation around banning critical race theory in her previous post as Wyoming state superintendent. While still in the post, Balow, according to the Sheridan Press, publicly supported a bill that required schools to publish their curriculum materials, and said she was concerned about radical political theories taught in classrooms.

Speaking to the House education panel last week, Youngkins pick for education secretary, Aimee Guidera, said the department will also review its own internal policies and materials, and suggested the state will move to train teachers on racism and other uncomfortable topics.

This is about looking at curriculum, looking at teacher training ... making sure that teachers know how to teach topics that can be controversial and uncomfortable, but also what is age-appropriate, Guidera said. We have failed our teachers in terms of preparing them to have these conversations.

The third-highest ranking education official in the Youngkin administration, Elizabeth Schultz, a former Fairfax County School Board member and Youngkins pick for assistant superintendent of public instruction, said during a panel in December that Virginia students are being indoctrinated.

Were on one hand demanding the removal of [critical race theory], which we should, but we also need to demand the inclusion of what is good. You can battle what is bad by substituting that which is good, she said during the GOP Advance, a weekend gathering of Virginia Republicans. We need pro-American education because were teaching children that America is not a good place.

Virginias Democratic lawmakers and educators have criticized Youngkin for what they see as an attempt to erase Black history. In Richmond, Superintendent Jason Kamras, who has also defied Youngkins executive order on mask mandates, said the city school district would continue teaching history as it sees fit.

The Commonwealth was literally created on the backs of enslaved Africans. At [Richmond Public Schools], we will continue to study that and be honest about its profound implications for our students and families today, Kamras tweeted the day after Youngkin took office.

The conservative push to de-emphasize race and racism from the classroom would roll back a yearlong effort to address lacking and inaccurate teaching of history in Virginia schools.

One of the most comprehensive looks at how the state teaches African American history came in 2020, when the state-sponsored Commission on African American History Education concluded in a report that the states history standards continue to be incomplete in African American history and tainted with a master narrative that erases people of color.

Learning standards on the U.S. Civil War, for example, dont hone in on slavery as a driving force behind the conflict between Northern and Southern states. Theres little about lynching or the abolitionist movement. Until the 1970s, state-commissioned history textbooks endorsed a Lost Cause narrative of the Civil War and taught children that enslaved people were happy to be in Virginia and better off than they would have been in Africa. Children also learned that contact between English settlers and Virginias Indians resulted in a better life for both sides.

The 34-member commission in 2020 was made up of teachers, principals, district superintendents, policy experts, history professors, parents and community leaders. It issued dozens of recommendations to update the states standards ahead of their scheduled review this year meant to correct the way African Americans, Indian Americans and others are at times erased from the curriculum.

The way the standards were written, it was as if there were three or four Black people in the planet who were important to mention, said Cassandra Newby-Alexander, who chaired the panels curriculum review effort. You so minimize what they did, its not understandable that they were advocates and visionaries.

In the history standards for the second grade, for example, the commission proposed that the standard related to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. make clear he advocated to end racial segregation.

The standard says King was a minister who worked so that all people would be treated fairly. They propose adding that King was an important leader in the Civil Rights Movement who fought to end racial segregation.

The commission was created by Gov. Ralph Northam in August 2019 in the aftermath of the blackface scandal that almost ended his term. While Northam denies being in the photo on his yearbook page showing a person in blackface next to one in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood, he said the historical significance of it wasnt clear to him: He said he didnt know the extent to which blackface and minstrel shows were used to denigrate and oppress Black people.

Newby-Alexander said the GOP effort to suppress history that is uncomfortable for white people runs counter to the goal of education.

We do not get to determine what history we want to recognize, unless we want to simply mistake our way through our nations history, which we have been doing for quite a while, said Newby-Alexander, a dean and history professor at Norfolk State University. Thats how you guarantee an ignorant population.

The harm to students of color, Newby-Alexander said, is missing from the conversation about white discomfort. You are saying to a group of people, some of whom have been here for 400 years, we want to exclude you, and we are going to teach myths about what weve done.

Along with accurately teaching history, the previous department of education centered conversations around equity at the classroom level, including culturally competent teaching as the states public school population increased in diversity. The cultural competency training, which was codified into law during last years General Assembly, is also under review by way of the executive order.

Danielle Apugo, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the rollback could make it more difficult for teachers to support their students of color.

This really stands to directly erase all the progress that weve made as a state, specifically around how we prepare teachers to deal with issues around race and bias, she said in an interview. The pre-service teachers Ive spoken to are nervous, and they dont feel supported.

Youngkin on Friday also threw his weight behind legislation requiring principals to make sure their schools are not teaching inherently divisive concepts. The definition of inherently divisive includes teaching that one race is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously, and that meritocracy or traits, such as a hard work ethic, are racist or sexist or were created by a particular race to oppress another race.

The bill was introduced by Del. A.C. Cordoza and Sen. Jen Kiggans, both Republicans from Virginia Beach.

Youngkin is also proposing a backstop for his bill in the state budget, with an amendment that bans the promotion of inherently divisive concepts in public education. Including the language in the states funding bill could allow Youngkin to put school funding on the line for districts that dont comply.
Recent Virginia Department of Health data shows the largest ever year-over-year surge in firearm-related deaths in the commonwealth. Total deaths rose from 1,036 in 2019 to 1,195 in 2020, a 15% increase.

Although suicides still constitute more than 60% of all gun-related deaths, homicides rose by 29%, suicides by 6% and accidental deaths doubled in 2020. Firearm deaths among school-age children (5 to 17 years old) jumped from 41 in 2019 to 64 in 2020 (an increase of 56%), representing 5% of all firearm deaths.

Legislators in the 2022 General Assembly session should focus on responding to these alarming statistics. However, most of the bills introduced thus far concentrate on attempts to repeal advances in Virginia gun violence prevention laws that were passed in the 2020 and 2021 sessions. These laws have not had the opportunity to reduce deaths: The earliest any of them came into effect was July 2020, and new 2021 laws had no chance to impact 2020 VDH data.

A few bills that do address trying to prevent gun deaths focus on just two areas of concern  our schools and gang violence. Reports and data indicate these approaches might not provide the best answers Virginians need.

While gun violence in schools regularly makes the news and grabs our attention, it is important to know that nationwide, only 1.2% of firearm deaths for school-age children take place in schools, while 98.8% occur in homes or elsewhere. Although any death in school is unacceptable, the data indicates our schools  though not entirely safe from gun violence  nevertheless are among the safest places for children to be. Should we focus our legislation only on trying to make our schools even safer, if at the same time, we do nothing to make our children safer in places where they are at the greatest risk?

These school-related bills often concentrate on the school resource officer program, where active-duty police are placed in schools to respond to violent threats. How successful are these programs?

A recent study published by the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, titled What the Research Shows: The Impact of School Resource Officers, examines the impact of SROs in schools nationwide over the last 40 years. The reports primary conclusion was, There is no clear evidence that the use of school resource officers (SROs) or guards in schools is effective in preventing school violence. The report goes on to conclude that: Students feel less safe, and more fearful, at schools with SROs; The presence of SROs leads to more expulsions and suspension  particularly for Black students; and Schools with SROs criminalize and arrest youth for minor misbehavior.

The second approach in proposed new legislation is on the serious problem of gang violence. Bills are being introduced to fund a Virginia version of Project Ceasefire, a program used for many years to reduce gang-related deaths in high crime areas of major cities around the country. This program trains ex-offenders and ex-gang members to work with existing gang members and others to try to defuse tensions, and avoid the endless cycle of violence and retaliation that occurs in high crime areas.

Though difficult to evaluate, the best results available indicate that some cities have experienced a 12% reduction in gang-related shootings. How would that program impact the 1,195 firearm-related deaths in Virginia in 2020? Unfortunately, not much. Firearm homicides only constitute 38% of our gun-related deaths (remember suicides and accidents), of which only 20% are gang-related. Project Ceasefires best result of a 12% reduction in gang-related deaths would translate into 11 fewer firearm deaths overall, or a 1% reduction.

What then is the way forward to reduce our escalating deaths from firearms? Lawmakers need to focus new legislation driven by a better understanding of the data behind our yearly firearm-related deaths. Thats the idea behind the newly proposed Virginia Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention, which would gather and analyze disparate sources of data, and develop recommendations our legislators could use for more effective future lawmaking . Legislation has been proposed to create this center and funding was included in the budget, but it remains to be seen whether the legislation or the funding will survive to the end of the session.

Firearm deaths are increasing yearly. For many years, they have exceeded deaths from automobile accidents, which continue to trend downward due to well-researched and effective interventions that make our vehicles and roads safer. It is time that we place as much importance on researching effective interventions to ensure that our right to bear arms does not come with such a burdensome price in lives lost or destroyed.
Over the past few years, an increasing number of school systems across the United States have been hacked. In Virginia, school divisions in Fairfax, New Kent, Spotsylvania and Smyth counties, as well as the cities of Norfolk and Chesapeake, all have reportedly been victimized by bad actors in cyberspace, and there are likely many more.

The reality is Virginias entire K-12 sector is under constant attack, and these attacks only will continue to increase. Moreover, these attacks are rapidly evolving to circumvent whatever cyberdefenses local school officials may erect. Most local school systems simply do not have sufficient resources, tools or expertise to respond quickly to these changing threat vectors.

Magnifying that risk is how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way schools operate. Even after our children returned to the classroom, school systems have continued to make greater use of online interaction and learning options. Based on my work in cybersecurity over the past 30 years, there is no question that this resultant exponential growth of attack vectors within the school environment will be irresistible to hackers at home and around the world.

Make no mistake: The damage from a successful cyberattack on our K-12 systems is very real. An attack will disrupt the education of students and will have financial costs to taxpayers in the form of ransom payments, remediation costs and increased insurance premiums. Most important of all is the enormous and long-term harm to our students and school employees that comes from the theft of personally identifiable information.

As the General Assembly returns this month, it must address the growing vulnerability of the commonwealths K-12 school systems to ransomware, distributed denial of service and other forms of cyberattacks. We cant simply wait for, or depend on, the federal government to bail us out; public education and our students physical and digital safety primarily are state and local responsibilities. The General Assembly and new Gov. Glenn Youngkin  who recently suggested Virginia needs to devote more resources to cybersecurity  should join forces with educators and the law enforcement community to help local school divisions meet these challenges, and keep our children and our educators safe.

A few years back, before the new challenges posed by remote education, I served on the Virginia Commission on Cybersecurity. We spent considerable time studying a number of issues then facing the commonwealth and ultimately made some substantial recommendations, most of which were swiftly acted upon by the General Assembly. So I know from experience that lawmakers can work in a bipartisan fashion, in tandem with the new governor and his administration, to address these critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities and protect Virginias students.

Bolstering cybersecurity to protect our children and their education must be viewed as a nonpartisan issue, one totally devoid of politics. Our children deserve as much from this General Assembly session.
On a 430-acre cow-calf farm in the Shenandoah Valley, Wayne Snapp has seen a transformation. Grass in his pastures now stays a lush green during the toughest conditions, feeding livestock through droughts, heat waves and cold snaps. Because of this abundant forage, Snapp spends less money on feed and fertilizer while keeping more head of cattle on the property than ever. With plenty of nutritional grass, his cows are experiencing their highest conception rates while calves grow quickly and thrive.

Snapp credits these benefits to the intensive rotational grazing he has undertaken in recent years with support from the Virginia agricultural cost-share program. Future funding for this program, which helps farmers adopt numerous different conservation practices, will be decided in budget discussions at the General Assembly in the coming weeks.

While Snapp used to keep livestock in 50-acre fields, he now has fenced these lots into a series of smaller 10-acre pastures. Livestock are rotated to a new pasture every few days, allowing the grass in other fields to rest and grow thick blades above the soil and deep roots below.

Healthy grasses and soils better hold and absorb water, making them more resilient to droughts and flooding. As a result, during heavy rains, less soil and other potential pollutants wash into local streams.

Taking care of the soil will enhance this land for future generations to come, Snapp said. If we can protect soil, which in turn protects water quality, thats a big deal on folks minds.

In fact, farm conservation practices such as rotational grazing and fencing livestock out of streams are the most cost-effective ways to restore Virginias waterways. Rotational grazing on Snapps farm in Middletown leads to cleaner water in nearby Cedar Creek, which flows into the Shenandoah River, which joins the Potomac River before entering the Chesapeake Bay.

That benefits anglers, paddlers, swimmers and all of us who enjoy dipping our toes in a clear rocky stream.

For decades, Virginias agricultural cost-share program has helped thousands of farmers like Snapp adopt essential conservation practices, like rotational grazing, by providing state funding for a significant portion of installation costs. But this successful program always has been seriously underfunded. Virginia now has an unprecedented opportunity to fully fund its agricultural cost-share program.

Several key factors are coming together. First, Virginias revenues have been at historic levels, with $313 million available in the Water Quality Improvement Fund alone. Second, state decision-makers  including Gov. Glenn Youngkin in his initial speech to legislators  are expressing support for full funding of best management practices on farms to protect soil and waterways. Third, General Assembly members soon will consider a proposed budget that fully funds the agricultural cost-share program and related technical assistance at $286 million over the two-year period.

Finally, Virginia has less than four years to meet its commitments to reduce pollution under the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint  the federal-state program to implement all measures needed to restore the bay by 2025. Virginia simply cannot meet its commitments without dramatically accelerating investments in agricultural conservation practices.

Farmers face major challenges to profitably produce food for our dinner plates. Many could not take on these game-changing conservation projects without state support through cost-share programs and technical assistance. So whenever funds become available, farmers recognize the value and sign up until the money runs out.

Still, Virginias investments in agriculture have fallen short year after year. Despite bipartisan support for this program, investment levels have never even approached the level of need.

Everyone has a part to play in reducing pollution to waterways, from cities and suburbs, to sewage treatment plants, to businesses and homeowners. Because agriculture is by far the largest industry in Virginia, farmers have been one of the most important partners in restoring our rivers and streams. They deserve sufficient support in their efforts.

Investing in agricultural conservation programs is a win-win that supports healthy, Virginia-grown food, which is good for the environment, good for the local economy and good for the rural character of communities.

That brings us back to Wayne Snapps rolling green fields in the Shenandoah Valley. Since expanding rotational grazing using cost-share funding, Snapp has gone on to host other farmers on his property to discuss grazing techniques and discuss opportunities for state support.

We couldnt have implemented rotational grazing to this extent if wed had to pay for it all ourselves, Snapp said, citing the costs of installing fencing, wells to provide water to livestock and other expenses. Rotational grazing has been a tremendous benefit, and its all thanks to the money that has been available.
Last week in Hampton Roads, a special commencement ceremony took place with all usual celebratory trappings: happy graduates, balloons, sociable guests, refreshments and, of course, diplomas. At this festive gathering, four adults were recognized for completing a behavioral health program that helped them avoid jail time.

The group graduated after being referred to a special behavioral health docket in Hamptons General District Court. The docket is among 13 such initiatives around the state  three more in Hampton Roads, three in Northern Virginia, Charlottesville/Albemarle, Roanoke, Augusta County, plus three dedicated mental health dockets in Richmonds courts.

These programs are locally managed by locality and court officials, as well as community service board organizations, but money is modest. They rely on a patchwork of funds, cobbled together from the localities, state or federal grants  even at times with cash coming from the pockets of the judges managing them.

But a piecemeal approach is not an efficient way to finance specialty dockets that can reduce recidivism and keep offenders out of prison. In a state with a $13.6 billion surplus, its time Virginia considered a more comprehensive and statewide funding formula for these specialty dockets.

In 2020, the Virginia Supreme Court gave its blessing to an additional 44 localities to establish behavioral health dockets, among them Henrico County. The idea was created as a strategy to promote public safety, help reduce recidivism and steer offenders with serious mental illness toward treatment and services. Placing offenders on a behavioral health docket offers an alternate path for dozen of offenders who might otherwise find themselves at the mercy of a criminal justice system resulting in prison time.

As many as 1 of 4 inmates live with a mental health disorder, according to a 2018 Virginia Compensation Board survey tied to data from 57 local and regional jails. Defendants diagnosed with a mental illness tend to repeat crimes, and there has been a uptick in those numbers since the pandemic began, The Times-Dispatch reported last year.

For years, drug courts have existed for offenders who have issues with addiction  its a proven concept that is state-funded. But dockets arent separate courts. They instead are incorporated into busy existing courts: When Richmond launched its first of three mental health dockets more than a decade ago, it quickly realized from its caseload it needed such a docket for all of its courts.

Henrico County has a diversion program. Its only for defendants already incarcerated, but officials there are working to establish a full mental health docket open to all who have a pending court case. Henricos diversion program reported last year that it had helped 38 offenders; it relied on grants from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

Richmond also has held graduations, some as recent as this past October, for offenders who complete its programs. They boasts success rates of 72% and 100% from the two dockets in General District Court and in Circuit Court, respectively. Currently, Richmond has 17 offenders in its programs.

Clearly the need is there  and the dockets are helping  but is funding keeping pace with the growth?

Within the states current biennial budget is an appropriation of $1 million over two years ($500,000 in the first year; $500,000 in the second) for mental health court dockets with high caseloads, to be allocated by the Virginia Supreme Court. DBHDS also received money that it will disburse for the specialty dockets. In addition, tens of millions have been set aside to cover behavioral health counselors who work in prisons to help inmates.

But thats not the same as assisting those with intervention programs, which is where the dockets prioritize and partner with community service boards before offenders fall deeper into the criminal justice system.

Virginia is sitting on a hefty surplus, and there are many plans for it. A steady state appropriation to fund more behavioral health docket programs would help reduce incarceration. And those closest to specialty dockets  the judges who oversee them and the local officials who help fund them  say the best use of state funds would support the work on the ground.

The challenge for governments always is, you have to continue to fund those who are already in crisis or incarcerated, Hampton City Manager Mary Bunting said. How do you carve out the money for the prevention? Ultimately, youll get the savings on the reaction side, but you have to carve out money upfront for prevention. What I understand, our state budget is very healthy right now. And so this is a prime opportunity, I think, for the state to step up.

The average daily cost for cities and counties to house was $87.20, according to the 2018 jail revenue and expenditures report from the Compensation Board. That might not seem like a lot, but maybe its better to spend money keeping people out of jail instead of in.

 Lisa Vernon Sparks
When Angelique Kidjo was a child, she told her mother that she wanted to be James Brown. Fortunately for audiences around the world, she grew up to be Angelique Kidjo.

The Brooklyn, New York-based, West African native has long been at world musics pinnacle. On Thursday, Virginia Tech brought her to Moss Arts Center for her first performance there, part of the universitys MLK celebrations.

The woman from Benin delivered 90 minutes of music with two encores, most of it derived from her 2021 album, Mother Nature, along with selections from 2019s Celia and 2018s Remain in Light.

Her audience roared a greeting as she took the stage, dressed in electrifying blue-green. Early on, she was pulling from the new album, singing Africa, One of a Kind. She punctuated the music with a yankadi dance, gesturing to the audience as she sang, You are Africa, we are Africa.

Magatte Sow (aka Magatte Fall) on African percussion and Chilean drummer Edgardo Yayo Serka on the trap set had primed the crowd for the stars entrance. Their short rolls and three sharp attacks built expectations. Then, from off-stage came that world-famous voice.

Michael Olatujas bass playing anchored the evening. London-born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, the New York-based artist danced and sang in collaboration with Brooklyn-based guitarist Dominic James. James solos provided the quintessential glitter of mbira-like counterpoint expected in Afro-pop. His rhythm guitar often subbed for the albums horn arrangements.

Both Olatuja and James provided responses aplenty to Kidjos calls.

With the third number, Take It or Leave It, the group achieved its first stage of full-on, in-your-face (if you want to dance with me) energy. The groups combined dum-dum-BAH power shook the space.

Kidjos Celia Cruz album pays tribute to the queen of salsa with the goal of exploring Cruzs African roots. The sets fifth song, Sahara, was a miracle of a slow Afro-Cuban beat baking in the imagined sun.

Kidjos new song, Dignity, addressed recent police brutality in Lagos. She prefaced the song with its connection to police violence here. The musicians live mix enveloped the crowd in a sound intended to, as the lyric says, spread love to all equally and plant the seeds of radical beauty.

A highlight came with Kidjos take on Talking Heads Once in a Lifetime, each return of the signature line lighting up the room, Afrobeat-style.

She shifted band and crowd into overdrive with Meant for Me, from the new album. As per usual, Kidjo demanded audience participation. Virginia can move! Lets do this! Virginia did. A conga line of young men crossed the center of the hall, flanked by different pockets of singing and dancing.

As if in testament to her James Brown-loving roots, she delivered the nights final song in total funk fashion  a terrific close. After she left the stage, the band brought down the house with prodigious final chords.

Gordon Marsh is a music professor at Roanoke College
A movie featuring locations at Smith Mountain Lake, Roanoke and Vinton will have its red carpet premiere at the Grandin Theatre on Feb. 10.

After several years of waiting, Princess Cut 3: Beauty from Ashes will be debuting on the big screen. The movie was filmed in 2018 and used scenes that included an alpaca farm in Hardy.

The movie is the second sequel to Princess Cut, the debut feature-length film by Paul and Sheilah Munger of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The couple worked as writers, producers and directors on each.

The sequel Princess Cut 2: Hearts on Fire also featured area locations, but came out in September without the fanfare of a premiere event. Sheilah Munger said the decision to skip the premiere was due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Munger said she is eager to premiere Princess Cut 3. Grandin Theatre also plans to show Princess Cut 2 beforehand, giving an audience the chance to see both on the big screen.

Two expectant couples that are best friends face crushing upheavals in their lives which force them to make life-altering choices, according to a blurb about Princess Cut 2 posted on the Grandin Theatres website, grandintheatre.com. A single mom struggling to make ends meet as a waitress witnesses a domestic disturbance and develops an unexpected relationship with the policeman investigating the case, reads the Grandins blurb on Princess Cut 3.

It has been a long road to completion. Munger said she expected to finish the films post-production in 2020, but was hit with significant delays.

On top of COVID-related delays, Munger said they had to wait on a tax credit from Virginia for the filming. A computer hard drive failure wiped out a portion of work done on the third movie.

It really has been an exercise in patience, she said.

Next months premiere will give local residents the opportunity to see the results of eight weeks spent shooting both movies in the area. Crews filmed between October and December 2018.

Munger said she loved living in the area during the shoots, a schedule extended several days in 2018, when more than a foot of snow fell.

That weather forced a change in the shooting schedule, but Munger said it allowed for some beautiful scenery of snow covered fields, especially at the alpaca farm. Actors spent the day at the farm, owned by Robbin Martinelli and Jay Pratley, and worked closely with the animals.

Munger said having alpacas gave the film a unique quality. It created an endearing element, she said.

For more information on the Princess Cut trilogy, including viewing options, go to watchmanpictures.com, website for the couples faith-based Watchman Pictures.

The Princess Cut 3: Beauty from Ashes premiere is set for 8:15 p.m. Feb. 10. The theater will show Princess Cut 2: Hearts on Fire at 6 p.m.
Nashvilles power players came courting Floyd County native Morgan Wade last year, almost as soon as her debut national release, Reckless, dropped.

Little wonder. The album had a handful of earworms, with set-opening Wilder Days the most insistent. The production, from Sadler Vaden and Paul Ebersold, split time between shimmers and shouts, with lots of textures in-between. And the woman up front possessed a combination of toughness and vulnerability that Music City has yet to bottle.

But Wade was happy with her indie label, Thirty Tigers, which gave her more power and creative control than most artists can expect. It had been good enough for Jason Isbell, Vadens boss in the 400 Unit band. She wasnt trying to pivot.

Everything was going great, she said about the albums late March 2021 launch. Then just about every label out of Nashville, just about every single label you could name, was calling us.

Skype meetings commenced, but Wade wasnt coaxed out of her home base near Nashville until Sony Music called.

Its gotta be something thats a big deal for me to leave, and thats when I ended up meeting with Sony and they were like, we can offer a larger platform and we can do a lot more since were a bigger label, Wade said in a Wednesday phone call.

Its what they didnt want to do, though, that convinced her.

They said, We love what youre doing. We love you and Sadler working together. Were happy with this record. We dont want to change a thing, Wade recalled. Sony, they got my attention and Ive been happy ever since I signed with them.

It didnt hurt that the label gifted Wade a French bulldog puppy. Nowadays, her hobbies include fighting with the pup about who gets closest to her heater, she tweeted on Wednesday.

Sony imprint Arista Nashville wasnt done with Reckless. The album gets a deluxe reissue on Friday, with six additional, Vaden-produced tracks including 2019 cut The Night, one of the pairs first collaborations. It didnt make the album last year but was a fan favorite.

A lot of people were upset, Wade said. They want that one on vinyl. They want a physical copy that they can have, so I knew that was really important to include on the release.

Carry Me Home is another fan favorite, and a personal number for Wade, who wrote it about five years ago, as she was beginning her sobriety. Through Your Eyes, originally recorded as an acoustic song, makes an appearance, with another reflective lyric:

The scariest thing I ever heard/Was a three-year-old mouth the words/I wanna be like you someday/Got me to thinking/That maybe I should change my ways.

The deluxe edition closes with Suspicious Minds, a song that Elvis Presley made famous in the 1970s. It had been hitting crowds well in concert, and Wade decided to add it. In fact, every song on the new release was her choice, she said.

Thatll always be my thing, and it makes me happy that I still have that control to pick and do what I want, she said.

If the new version of Reckless is an introduction to a larger audience, it is one that already has achieved more critical love than most performers get on their first effort.

Rolling Stone magazine selected Reckless as 2021s country and Americana album of the year and No. 13 among all genres. For perspective, her place on the country list put her above releases from Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Yola, James McMurtry, Sturgill Simpson, Valerie June and another band with Southwest Virginia roots, Old Dominion.

Other publications, including Stereogum, Billboard and Taste of Country, had Reckless among their top five country discs.

Wade recalled a surreal feeling about the Rolling Stone news.

I remember that day waking up and seeing, 50 best albums of Rolling Stone, she said. OK, this is awesome. Where am I at? And then I was like, oh crap. Im number one. That was insane.

And it also creates a bit of pressure. The next one has got to be better, right?

Sadler and I, we talk about it, and were already throwing out ideas and writing and stuff like that for the next record. But we want it to be better than Reckless. Reckless has been so great. I dont want the next record to come out and be a big flop.

Vaden has known her since 2019, when Isbell and Wade were both on the bill at FloydFest. Isbells sound tech heard Wade perform there and bought one of her locally produced CDs. He passed it on to Vaden, who had been looking for someone good to produce. Vaden quicky reached out to Wade, and they got to work.

As they discussed the aftermath, Vaden helped her put it into perspective.

When we were working on Reckless, we didnt have any of this, she said. We had nothing. He was like, We just had fun. We wrote what we wanted to write, and we recorded these songs that we wanted to record. Thats what we need to do for this next record. We dont need to worry about pressure. Dont worry about any of that other stuff.

Meanwhile, Wilder Days is on its own journey. The single, which made year-end lists in Time, Billboard and Rolling Stone, is getting a ride from Arista Nashville. It was No. 52 on Billboard Country Airplay and No. 49 on Mediabase/Country Aircheck charts, according to a Sony publicist.

And its huge with Wades fans.

Its continuing to move up, so thats really cool, Wade said. But I think the biggest thing is like on this tour, we always play Wilder Days last. And people can sing every word right back to me, and theyre screaming it. Thats an incredible feeling to have everybody there knowing every word to that.

Sadler and I worked on that song the longest and really wanted  for other people to love that song as much as we did, and so to be able to get that has been great.

She and her band will be back at FloydFest in late July. She would like for the road to bring her closer to where she grew up before then, though.

Ive had those chats with my agents recently, and I would like to be able to get back around there, of course, and headline a show back home, she said. I think a lot of my family that lives back there would appreciate it as well. Looking at the closest shows, some of them are like Ohio and Atlanta. It would be really nice to come back home and play.

Cmon. The folks are waiting.

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ROCKY MOUNT  The Franklin County School Board held a special meeting Friday to review the divisions COVID-19 mitigation strategies and members deadlocked on a vote to table any action on the matter.

After a closed session, the vote was held during the open session and the board gridlocked 4-4, which meant that a timeline for future possible changes to the policy was not established.

The vote was prompted by a motion by Snow Creek District representative Carletta Whiting. Her motion stipulated the board wouldnt act until its next monthly meeting in March or until additional instruction is provided by the state health commissioner or the state superintendent of public instruction, the General Assembly amends a state law that was passed last year that orders schools to follow COVID-19 guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) until Aug. 1, 2022, or the CDC revises K-12 mitigation strategies.

Member at large Kevin David, a primary care physician, spoke for more than 10 minutes before the vote.

It is very difficult to hear someone talk about a pandemic any longer because that is not correct. It is not a pandemic. It is endemic, he said.

He went on to say that he felt the board could both follow the state law and an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin that reversed the mandate.

Boone District representative Dawn McCray said, We disagree this evening about how quickly we move on this and thats unfortunate because I think it is time to get back to business.

She discussed what she characterized as the negative effects of masks.

Julie Nix, Blue Ridge District representative and board chair, said prior to the vote that the matter wasnt settled.

The point of the motion was to give us some more time. This is an ever-evolving situation that were in, she said. She added that she didnt want the board to make a decision only to have to change it shortly thereafter.

Whiting later added that she would have loved to vote to remove the mask mandate, but that the conversation around masking will continue.

The vote had Nix, Rocky Mount District representative Jeff Worley, Gills Creek District representative Jon Atchue and Union Hall District representative P.D. Hambrick voting in favor of the motion. Whiting, David, McCray and Blackwater District representative Arlet Greer voted against it.

At the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, the school board voted to implement a universal masking policy. Originally, families did not have to provide documentation for exemptions. They simply had to notify their childs school that they wanted an exemption. Approximately 1,200 students had religious and medical exemptions at the start of the year.

The board voted on Sept. 13 to require documentation for exemptions to its universal masking policy. The change required families who wanted an exemption to apply for one by submitting a form to school principals.

Division leaders screened the applications. According to the division at the time, if an accommodation was reasonable and feasible a letter approving the request would be emailed to guardians. If the criteria for an exemption was not met, the division contacted guardians to discuss alternative accommodations in lieu of masks.

Following the documentation requirement, the number of students with exemptions dropped from 1,200 to 240.

Since the universal masking policy was put in place, the composition of the board has changed. Three new members, McCray, Whiting and David, were elected in November. All three said during the campaign that they supported masks on students being a matter of parental choice.

Other area school divisions have also been addressing the mask question.

The Montgomery County School Board voted 4-2 on Thursday to keep its indoor masking mandate in place.

Earlier in the week the Roanoke County School Board said it will wait for more guidance from the state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow before voting on ending its mask mandate. The announcement was preceded by a Jan. 4 vote to make masks optional that was later reversed on Jan. 6.

Roanoke City Public Schools stated on Tuesday it will continue to require face coverings inside and on buses until it is provided with further guidance from the state or the CDC.

Earlier this month, the Bedford County School Board voted 5-2 to end its indoor student masking mandate on Feb. 1. On Thursday, the board voted 4-3 in a special called meeting to move up the effective date for the repeal to Monday.

The Salem schools will keep a mask mandate for now. And Pulaski County opted to give parents the choice on masks.

All this is happening against the backdrop of what is playing out on the state level. When Youngkin was sworn in on Jan. 15, he reversed a state mask mandate for K-12 schools. His executive order will go into effect Monday.

The order also instructed the superintendent of public instruction to rescind the existing guidelines for COVID-19 prevention with new ones.

A group of Chesapeake parents filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Youngkin. The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court of Virginia to void the order because it is in conflict with a state law that was passed last year that orders schools to follow COVID-19 guidelines from the CDC until Aug. 1, 2022.

On Friday afternoon, Youngkin announced updated guidance regarding schools and masks that was developed by the Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Department of Education.

I have said all along that we are going to stand up for parents, he said in a statement. He went on to say that he doesnt view his order as being pro-mask versus anti-mask, rather empowering parents. I am confident that the Virginia Supreme Court will rule in favor of parents.

The guidance emphasizes alternative mitigation measures, including vaccines, distancing and outbreak awareness. It also encourages test-to-stay strategies to keep and return students to the classroom as quickly as possible.

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Virginia reported 100,296 new COVID-19 infections over the past week, bringing the cumulative total during the pandemic to 1,451,713, the Virginia Department of Health reported Friday.

The state reported 1,079 more hospitalizations over the past seven days, increasing the total number of people hospitalized during the pandemic to 46,906, although the VDH website notes that hospitalizations are underrepresented.

Virginias near southwest region, which includes hospitals from Lynchburg to the Roanoke Valley, had 535 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Friday, including 109 in intensive care. Last Friday, there had been 499 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the region, including 117 in ICUs.

Virginia reported 49 new virus-related deaths over the past seven days, for a total of 15,852 since the start of the pandemic.

The latest COVID-19 variant, omicron, is sweeping across the state and considered to be more transmissible than previous variants alpha and delta, but seems to cause less severe symptoms.

Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts Director Cynthia Morrow said she hopes the region has hit its peak, but she can only speculate at this point. Across the country, some states, and even some Virginia localities, have started to see downward trends in their case totals, but Southwest Virginia has not.

The Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts reported almost 4,500 new cases this week compared to last weeks more than 3,000.

I think it makes sense this would be our peak, but only time will tell, Morrow said. What I can tell you is that communities that have lower vaccination rates are being disproportionately affected.

Morrow said although vaccines dont always prevent infection, the data is overwhelming that they prevent serious illness and death.

As of Friday, 78.7% of Virginias adult population had been fully vaccinated.

Everyone aged 5 or older has been approved to receive a vaccine, which are available at the community vaccination center in the former Sears store at Valley View Mall, located at 4812 Valley View Blvd. People can make appointments at vaccinate.virgina.gov or by calling 877-829-4682. Walk-ins are also open for adults and children.

The health department opened a community testing center at Valley View Mall. Tests are administered by appointment only and can be scheduled at vase.vdh.virginia.gov/testingappointment.

The Roanoke Times contributed to this report.

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Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, had a simple, visual message to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week over the Republican leaders apparent distinction between African American voters and Americans.

McEachin tweeted a photograph of himself and his wife, Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Colette McEachin  both of whom are Black  next to an United States flag with the message: We are American #mitchplease.

The congressman, who is seeking a fourth term in November, followed up with a much sterner message in a letter to McConnell on Thursday, the day after two Democratic senators joined with Republicans to block a change to Senate rules to allow a vote on legislation to protecting voting rights.

Your inability to recognize us as Americans is appalling and deeply disturbing, he said in the two-page letter.

McConnell set off a Twitter storm with remarks at a news conference on Wednesday. He spoke in response to questions about the concerns of people of color that they could be disenfranchised by state restrictions on voting imposed during a conservative backlash over President Joe Bidens victory in 2020.

The concern is misplaced, the Republican leader said. If you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting at just as high a percentage as Americans.

McConnell went on to say that protection of voting rights is not a problem, despite laws adopted in Georgia and a number of over Republican-controlled states to roll back changes that made voting more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Theyre being sold a bill of goods to support a Democratic effort to federalize elections, he said.

McConnells office did not respond to a request for comment on McEachins letter.

But the apparent distinction between African American voters and Americans struck a nerve with McEachin. He reminded McConnell that Blacks had fought and died for the United States, worked on the front lines of health care and other essential jobs during the pandemic, and served as teachers across the country.

African Americans have been systemically disenfranchised for generations, and your comments are representative of the internalized racism and prejudice that our community continues to face today, he wrote.

McEachin said Blacks are alarmed by what he called coordinated attempts to restrict and suppress voters access to the ballot box because they stand to lose the most if Congress doesnt act to protect those rights.

Your comments give greater insight into your motivations for opposing voting rights legislation, and they are prejudicial and morally reprehensible, the congressman wrote.
RICHMOND  A bill filed in the Virginia House of Delegates this week would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation except in cases where the pregnant woman is at risk of death or substantial and irreversible damage to her health.

The legislation has a formidable chance of becoming law in a state where Republicans now control the House and the Executive Mansion, and Democrats hold a slim, 21-19 edge in the Senate.

In another sign of the changing outlook for abortion in Virginia, on Friday new Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares took steps to remove Virginia from a brief that terms a Mississippi abortion law unconstitutional.

The letter from Virginia Solicitor General Andrew N. Ferguson to the clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court says Virginia "is now of the view" that Roe v. Wade was "wrongly decided," that "the Constitution is silent on the question of abortion, and that it is therefore up to the people in the several States to determine the legal status and regulatory treatment of abortion."

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who took office last week, said during his campaign that he would support banning abortion at the point when a fetus can feel painwhich other states with similar bans have defined as 20 weeks.

Youngkin supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the womans life is in jeopardy. As filed, the bill does not include exceptions for rape or incest.

On Friday, Youngkin tweeted support for the annual anti-abortion rally, the March for Life, taking place in Washington, D.C.

I stand with the thousands in attendance at the 49th @March_for_life! I proudly stand up for the unborn and their mothers, Youngkin tweeted.

Saturday will mark the 49th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The bill now before the House, named the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, was filed by Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper.

The bill bans abortions at the halfway point of pregnancy, unless the procedure is necessary to prevent the womans death, or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

If the bill becomes law, doctors and nurse practitioners performing the procedure would be required to do it in a way that would provide the unborn child the best opportunity to survive.

Health care professionals who perform the abortion in violation of the proposed law would be subject to a class 6 felony, which is punishable by up to five years in jail and a $2,500 fine. They could also face civil lawsuits from the pregnant woman or the father of the fetus.

The Senate is not up for election until 2023. One of the Democrats, Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, sided with Republicans on a significant abortion vote in 2020. Then-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, broke the tie, quashing the bill.

Now, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears holds the tie-breaking vote. She voiced opposition to abortions during her campaign for office.

Panned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia criticized the legislation Friday.

This ban is just one more attempt at making abortion inaccessible in Virginia, the group tweeted. Virginians cannot go back to a time when decisions about abortion were made in the hearing room instead of in the exam room.

Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, who successfully introduced legislation that ended mandatory ultrasounds and wait periods before abortion procedures, said she and other Senate Democrats would oppose this extreme bill.

This one-size-fits-all bill would insert government in the private health care decisions that should be left between patients and their providers, McClellan said. Virginia has become the leader in the South in protecting access to reproductive health care, and were not going to turn back the clock.
In reference to "Proposed Franklin County solar ordinance delayed following public feedback" (Jan. 13), NIMBYism is not new. It peaked 10 years ago on Cape Cod with a proposed offshore wind farm.

Times change and now one is planned for their waters which will consist of 130 large turbines which will serve 200,000 homes.

One thing that has changed are the dire warnings relative to climate change which were contained in a report which was released this past summer by the United Nations.

One statement in the report stands out: "Human induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region around the globe."

Talk to the folks who live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and they can tell tales of how much stronger the hurricanes are.

Land used for solar farms can also be productive in agriculture. "Solar energy use in U.S. Agriculture," a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture outlines how vegetables, raising bees and sheep can coexist on a solar farm. Bottom line: We all must do our part fighting climate change. The cost of inaction keeps mounting.

The idea of 5 miles of separation between each farm is unheard of anywhere in our nation.

Earle Mitchell, Springfield
As an environmental scientist, I am dismayed (but not surprised) by the nomination of Andrew Wheeler by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to be the secretary of natural and cultural resources for the state of Virginia.

When Wheeler, a former coal-industry lobbyist, served as the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2018-2021, he did everything in his power NOT to protect (and in fact to destroy) our environment.

Wheeler summarily removed protections for clean air and water, seriously threatening the health and safety of U.S. citizens, and instead protected polluters and the wealth of the CEOs of fossil fuel industry companies.

There is no question that the U.S. (and all countries) needs to be transitioning from fossil-fuel-based energy to alternative energy sources to address climate change and its implications. This transition needs to be supported by our leaders, in Virginia and elsewhere, to benefit our environment, our health and our economy.

Wheeler would move us backwards, to the serious detriment of Virginians. I strongly urge the Virginia Senate to reject his nomination by Gov. Youngkin.

Howard Epstein, Crozet
Approved by the Board of Trustees - October 11, 2019

Next Board of Trustees Scheduled Review - October 2023

The primary mission of the University of South Carolina Columbia is the education of the states citizens through teaching, research, creative activity, and community engagement. Among Americas oldest and most comprehensive public universities, the University of South Carolina Columbia is the major research institution of the university system and its largest campus. At the heart of its mission lies the universitys responsibility to state and society to promote the dissemination of knowledge, cultural enrichment, and an enhanced quality of life.

The University of South Carolina Columbia serves a diverse population of students with widely varying backgrounds, career goals, and levels of aspiration. The university offers over 320 degrees at the bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional program levels, affording students the most comprehensive array of educational programs in the state. Opportunities for personal and career development are provided to the citizens of South Carolina through outreach and continuing education activities. The university provides additional opportunities for associate degrees through Fort Jackson and through the oversight of regional Palmetto College campuses (Lancaster, Salkehatchie, Sumter, and Union).

Through classroom and laboratory instruction delivered in a variety of face-to-face and distance learning formats and modalities, degree programs are offered in the following areas: arts and sciences; business; education; engineering and computing; hospitality, retail, and sport management; information and communications; law; medicine; music; nursing; pharmacy; public health; and social work. The depth and breadth of its graduate programs distinguishes the University of South Carolina Columbia from all other institutions of higher learning in South Carolina.

Recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a top research and community engaged institution, nationally ranked in start-up businesses, and conferring over 30% of all bachelors and graduate degrees awarded at public institutions in South Carolina, the university has a profound relevance, reach, and impact on the people of the state. As the flagship institution of the university system, the University of South Carolina Columbia leads the way in providing all students with the highest-quality education, including the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for success and responsible citizenship in a complex and changing world through engagement in nationally and internationally ranked research, scholarship, community outreach, and artistic creation.
Pastides appointed interim UofSC president; Board names search committee

The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees unanimously selected Harris Pastides as the interim president of the university system and the states flagship research campus in Columbia on Friday (May 21) at a special meeting following last weeks resignation of former President Bob Caslen.

Pastides is a familiar figure, having served the university as president for more than a decade prior to retiring in 2019. During his tenure, the university set new records for external research funding, completed a billion-dollar capital campaign, experienced significant growth in both student enrollment and campus infrastructure and forged new industry partnerships. Prior to being named president in 2008, Pastides served as South Carolinas vice president for research and health sciences, and dean of the Arnold School of Public Health.

Im excited to serve in this interim role and look forward to helping the university through this transition, Pastides said. Despite change, our university will always remain focused on the mission of service to our students and the people of South Carolina. Now is the time for us to come together as one community to reaffirm our support of that important work.

Trustees also on Friday outlined a plan to launch immediately an international search for the universitys 30th president, pledging a fair and equitable process to identify a diverse pool of world-class candidates to lead the eight-campus system.

Our goal is to attract an experienced leader who can continue the tremendous momentum of the UofSC System. That means attracting the best students in South Carolina and beyond and enhancing the quality of life for our states residents through teaching, research and innovation, said Board Chair C. Dorn Smith III, M.D.

Despite change, our university will always remain focused on the mission of service to our students and the people of South Carolina. Now is the time for us to come together as one community to reaffirm our support of that important work. Harris Pastides, UofSC Interim President

The Board approved a set of new policies in 2020 to strengthen overall governance, protect trustees from external political influence in decision making and improve the presidential search process. In accordance with policy, the following individuals will serve as members of the search committee:

Eight voting members of the Board of Trustees, including Thad H. Westbrook, Alex English, Brian C. Harlan, Leah B. Moody, Emma W. Morris, C. Dorn Smith III, Eugene P. Warr Jr. and Mack I. Whittle Jr. Westbrook will serve as search chair;

Five faculty members from the of the university system, including: Aiken Faculty Assembly chair (Alexandra Roach), chair of the Beaufort Faculty Senate (Jayne Violette), chair of the Columbia Faculty Senate (Mark Cooper), chair of the Upstate Faculty Senate (Lisa Johnson), chair of the Palmetto College Campuses Faculty Senate (Ernest Jenkins, Lancaster);

President of the USC Columbia Student Government Association (Alex Harrell);

Several non-voting advisors were appointed to the search committee to represent additional stakeholders and to provide valuable perspectives, including a representative from the UofSC Alumni Association (Robin Roberts), a representative of USCs Foundations (James Bennett), community members (Lou Kennedy and David Seaton), a UofSC System staff representative (Lauren Smith) and the dean of the College of Engineering and Computing (Hossein Haj-Hariri);

By policy, the secretary of the university and of the Board of Trustees will staff the presidential search.

The Board plans to interview executive search firms with strong national reputations about providing assistance with identifying candidates of the highest quality.

For additional information visit the presidential search site.

About the University of South Carolina System

From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, and from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the shores of the Atlantic, the University of South Carolina system is transforming the lives of South Carolinians through the impact of our eight institutions across the state. The universitys flagship campus in Columbia has 60 ranked programs according to U.S News & World Report and serves as a research hub for the entire state. Four-year campuses in Aiken, Upstate and Beaufort deliver world-class educational opportunities and increased access to brighter futures outside the states capital city. And Palmetto College expands the universitys reach even further with two-year regional campuses in Lancaster, Salkehatchie, Sumter and Union plus a variety of online degree options available to anyone in the state and beyond, ensuring that South Carolinians have multiple avenues to reach their higher education goals no matter where they live.

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M&M's branding is getting a refresh.

The candy's anthropomorphized chocolate characters are being made over, and the logo is also getting a tweak.

But the most noticeable change is to the six M&M characters: new shoes. Green has swapped her go-go boots for sneakers. Brown is sporting lower, more sensible heels. Red and Yellow's shoes now have laces. Orange's shoes laces are no longer untied. And Blue's shoes, while little changed, resemble what Anton Vincent, president of Mars Wrigley North America, described as "a bad version of Uggs."

Mars Wrigley, which owns M&Ms, is trying to make the characters  particularly the female ones  more "current" and "representative of our consumer," Vincent said. The revamped footwear is "a subtle cue, but it's a cue people really pick up on," he added, noting that Mars gets a lot of feedback on the characters' shoes.

The logo adjustment is also slight: Instead of resting on its side, it's set up straight. The new orientation is designed to emphasize the ampersand. The logo was last tweaked in 2019.

The changes are rolling out online this week and they'll be incorporated into M&Ms' packaging and other marketing materials this year.

The changes may be subtle, but even small shifts can help brands avoid falling out of fashion, said David Camp, co-founder and managing partner of Metaforce, a marketing company. "Every brand has to continuously reinvent itself to remain relevant."

Better gender representation

M&Ms were first sold in 1941, and the characters arrived on the scene in 1954. Old M&Ms commercials starred Red and Yellow, representing regular and peanut M&Ms. In the late 1990s, new characters were added to the mix. Brown, the most recent addition, joined the crew in 2012.

Over the years the brand has switched between highlighting its characters more heavily or less frequently, Vincent noted. Now, it's putting them front and center.

Currently, there are two female characters and four male ones. Adding another couple of female characters to balance out the ratio is possible, said Vincent, but there are "implications" for the product itself. Namely, M&Ms would have to add new permanent colors to its mix.

The solution, then, was to give the female Green and Brown a promotion. They'll have more prominent placement in ads, with the aim of "a little bit more gender balance," said Vincent.

M&Ms is using these changes to try to signal its brand identity to customers, who are increasingly drawn to brands they feel align with their own values. "It gives us a good platform to talk about the whole idea around belonging," Vincent said.

The company is also is placing more "focus on the characters as it relates to the total brand, and then building ourselves a platform to be able to advocate and talk about this idea," he added.

Other brands have made adjustments to their logos or mascots to keep them up-to-date. One example is Quaker, which in 2012 altered the face of its mascot like a discreet plastic surgeon. (Quaker is owned by Pepsico). Changes included "remov[ing[ his double chin and smooth[ing] the rolls and plumpness in his face and neck," The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The new character's shoulders are also more visible and his hair shorter, to make him seem more fit, and elongating his neck, the Journal noted.

Some brands like Uncle Ben's and Aunt Jemima recently have revised their logos, mascots or brand names because of problematic and racist origins.

***

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Becoming partly cloudy and windy. High around 90F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

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Partly cloudy in the evening followed by scattered thunderstorms after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C., has been closely monitoring social media for signs of potential violence and extremist activity ahead of a widely publicized demonstration against vaccine mandates this weekend, according to documents obtained by Yahoo News.

Defeat the Mandates: An American Homecoming is being billed as a peaceful gathering to promote unity among people who oppose COVID-19 vaccine requirements implemented across the country in an effort to mitigate the impact of the ongoing pandemic. The event is scheduled to take place on the National Mall this Sunday, Jan. 23, beginning with a march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, followed by a rally featuring speeches from several prominent anti-vaccine advocates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nonprofit advocacy organization, Childrens Health Defense, is one of the events sponsors.

According to a permit application submitted by Childrens Health Defense to the National Park Service last month, approximately 20,000 people are expected to attend the event.

Anti-vaccination buttons at a protest against the New York City COVID-19 vaccine mandate, October 2021. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Defeat the Mandates has attracted the attention of the Department of Homeland Security as well as the U.S. Capitol Police, both of which have circulated intelligence bulletins in recent days assessing the potential for violence stemming from Sundays march.

As of Friday, none of the reports obtained by Yahoo News concerning the event have cited evidence of specific or credible threats linked to it. However, as one recent assessment from the U.S. Capitol Police Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division states, Due to the heightened divisive atmosphere surrounding COVID-19 mandates and vaccinations, altercations or interpersonal violence cannot be ruled out.

The unclassified Capitol Police report, which was produced on Jan. 14 and marked for official use only, raises concerns about a number of potential scenarios that could result in violence by those likely to be in attendance at Sundays march based on discussions of the event on social media.

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In addition to organizations dedicated specifically to opposing COVID-19 regulations  including a group called New York Freedom Rally, which the report notes has been linked to violent or aggressive behavior at past protests  the Capitol Police bulletin notes that white nationalist and far-right extremist groups like the United Patriot Party and the Proud Boys, both of which were present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have also promoted the anti-mandate march on their social media channels and appear to be planning to bus members into Washington to participate in the event. Details about Sundays demonstration have also been shared on social media by local left-wing activist groups with histories of clashing with the Proud Boys and others on the far-right, raising the possibility of counterprotests if they interpret actions from the Defeat the Mandate participants as antagonistic. However, the Capitol Police report states, At this time, no explicit calls for counterprotest activity were seen by either group.

This demonstration, as with most protest activity, is a soft target, the Capitol Police bulletin warns, adding that extremists have become more comfortable with violence as a means to achieve political goals. The threat of a lone wolf or smaller-scale attack on a soft target remains high.

A protester at Boston City Hall, where Mayor Michelle Wu was holding a press conference on the city's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Dec. 20, 2021. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via Getty Images)

While the report states that IICD and our intelligence partners have not identified any expressed active or credible threats of violence to the upcoming event or any intentions for participants or malicious actors to travel to U.S. Capitol Grounds, it emphasized that many threat actors have migrated communications to encrypted methods, making it difficult for law enforcement to detect and interrupt attack planning.

The assessment goes on to say that Although there are no plans for participants to visit the White House, should the group turn disruptive or violent, the White House may be a target as protesters see many of the vaccine and mask-wearing mandates as being commanded by the Biden Administration. The Biden administrations efforts to impose vaccine requirements for both government and private sector workers have faced tough legal challenges. Last week, the Supreme Court struck down the administrations vaccine-or-test mandate for large private companies, and on Friday a federal judge in Texas blocked the administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal workers.

Earlier this week, Defeat the Mandates issued a press release stating that over 6,000 federal workers were planning to join the march, along with firefighters and other first responders who oppose vaccine mandates. The press release, as well as other promotional materials shared on the Defeat the Mandates website and official social media pages, describe Sundays event as a peaceful march that they hope will help bring about new federal, state, and local policies to eliminate the blatant discrimination and censorship that they claim opponents of vaccine mandates are currently facing.

We are keeping a close eye on the demonstration planned for the National Mall on January 23, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement to Yahoo News. I am confident in our preparation for this weekend.

The Capitol surrounded by security barricades on Jan. 5. The barricades have been in place for over a year. (Susan Walsh/AP)

The Defeat the Mandates march is not the only potentially volatile high-profile event happening in Washington this weekend. On Friday, tens of thousands of anti-abortion advocates were expected to descend on the National Mall for the 49th annual March for Life.

The Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Intelligence and Analysis circulated multiple situational reports this week evaluating the potential for violence surrounding the March for Life and Defeat the Mandates, as well as another, unconfirmed Proud Boys event being discussed on social media. The DHS reports obtained by Yahoo News, which were marked unclassified, law enforcement sensitive and for official use only, include details about a number of security preparations in place ahead of this weekends events, including plans for multiple coordination calls between federal and local law enforcement partners leading up to and during the events.

The events come during a time of heightened threat, and domestic violent extremists (DVEs) have used narratives associated with pro- and anti-abortion rights or perceived government overreach surrounding the COVID-19 mitigation efforts as justification to promote or commit violence, reads a report issued by the DHS intelligence office on Jan. 19. The report also mentions concerns expressed by local authorities that Defeat the Mandates and the March for Life may attract counterprotesters, which historically has led to violence at similar events, but states that the DHS intelligence office currently lacks information on specific or credible threats emanating from these events.

Another report issued on Jan. 20 states that while the DHS intelligence office has seen a limited amount of publicly available content regarding both upcoming marches on social media forums and messaging platforms and channels popular among Domestic Violent Extremists, it has observed social media users not associated with a violent extremist ideology sharing links to event websites, discussing transportation to the Washington, D.C. area to participate in the marches and commenting on possible weather disruptions for this weekend.

According to the Jan. 20 DHS report, users discussing the Jan. 23 Defeat the Mandates march said they planned to attend because they hate the biomedical security state, and we must stand up to these demonic tyrants and complained that they could not find any true patriots thatll go to D.C. with me this weekend. Everyone is scared of going to the gulag.

The report references comments made by one user who claimed they were at J6, in reference to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, and advised attendees at the anti-mandate protest: If shit gets weird...get weird back. Aint no reason to give anyone up to the DC mafia. Id rather be called a terrorist than doing nothing. According to the DHS Intelligence office, users in the Defeat the Mandates official public instant messaging channel chat claimed there are over 100,000 registered attendees for the event.

The Department of Homeland Security does not have information indicating any specific, credible threats related to the events occurring tomorrow and this weekend in the National Capital Region, a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Yahoo News. However, as noted in the current National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin, the United States is in a period of heightened threat. Domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists or other malign foreign influences continue to pose a threat to the homeland.

Anti-vaxxers march to the Golden Gate Bridge to protest mandates in San Francisco, Nov. 11, 2021. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Sundays protest against vaccine mandates comes one week after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a city-wide order requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms and other indoor establishments. The Capitol Police and DHS documents obtained by Yahoo News point to concerns raised by some in Washington about the potential for altercations between anti-mandate protesters and local businesses owners enforcing the new vaccine requirement.

We are worried that with the new vaccine mandate there is potential for violence or conflict, a senior law enforcement official told Yahoo News. What will happen when they are asked to show their vaccine card? We just dont know.

The official said that D.C. Metropolitan Police officers are planning to be out all around downtown and would seek to make sure they dont cause trouble and to hopefully be a deterrent.

In an emailed statement to Yahoo News, Brianna Burch, a public affairs specialist with the Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed that MPD members will have a visible presence around the city during this time.

In a statement to Yahoo News, Louisa Clary, director of the March to Defeat the Mandates, denounced ALL organizations and individuals who would use this March as an opportunity to further their own agendas of extremism, intolerance and violence, saying that the events organizers have hired private security contractors who will work in concert with local and federal law enforcement to ensure that the protest remains peaceful.

In light of recent raised concerns we have increased our already comprehensive security measures, Clary said in the statement, adding that, Participants in the March are asked to please report any suspicious or threatening activity to law enforcement which will be on hand at the march.

A press release issued Friday by Defeat the Mandates echoed Clarys statement, and disputed suggestions that participants in the anti-mandate march were planning to enter local businesses to challenge the citys new vaccine requirement, accusing their opponents of engaging in disinformation campaigns that attempt to turn fiction into reality.

Earlier statements from Defeat the Mandates organizers have publicly urged those participating in Sundays march to be respectful to those affected local businesses, including dining establishments and hotels forced to operate under DCs mandate.

However, according to a report published Friday by NBC News, users on the events Facebook group have spent the last week strategizing ways around Washingtons indoor vaccine mandate.

In a separate statement provided to Yahoo News, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose well-funded anti-vaccine nonprofit is one of the sponsors of Sundays march, went even further, suggesting that any violence stemming from Sundays rally may be deliberately incited by the government.

While coerced submission with experimental medical products is clearly government sponsored violence, the anti-mandates movement is committed to non-violent resistance, said Kennedy. In fact, there is a long history from Kristallnacht to Operation Northwoods, of totalitarian elements staging violent provocations as a pretext for escalating oppression against freedom movements like ours.

While some of the marchs organizers have sought to frame the events agenda as anti-mandate, rather than anti-vaccine, Kennedy has emerged as one of the most influential creators of anti-vaccine content on social media, according to an analysis published last year by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy organization aimed at combating vaccine misinformation.

Max Rizzuto, a research assistant at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab, pointed to the involvement of Kennedy and Childrens Health Defense in coordinating the march as evidence that conspiracists will play a central role in the days proceedings.

Rizzuto and his colleagues have been tracking discussions about Defeat the Mandates on social media and he told Yahoo News that the march has quickly become publicized to a wide-ranging audience that includes followers of [Fox News host] Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, who has promoted the event on his popular podcast, as well as high profile medical professionals, political commentators, and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists in a relatively short window of time.

Still, while Rizzuto and his colleagues have observed logistical conversations about lodging and travel that indicate at least some mobilization, Rizzuto said it remains unclear how many people will congregate on January 23 for the event and what ideologies will be represented.

Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab who researches domestic extremist movements in the United States and how they use the internet, confirmed that the anti-mandate march is on the radar of at least some of the extremist groups he monitors and said there is always a possibility that far-right groups may make a showing at this event.

Since the onset of the pandemic, far-right movements have sought to capitalize on broader resentment toward government measures taken against COVID-19 and to use it as a vehicle for pushing their presence and propaganda to larger audiences, Holt told Yahoo News. However, he noted, we have not found typical indicators that often preface the assembling of a large, violent crowd as we saw before events like the Capitol riot and will generally see before violent street brawls at protests.

Still, Holt said, because the subject matter is so attractive to right-wing extremist movements seeking to make gains in broader politics, the concern of possible conflict is not entirely misplaced. Law enforcement would be responsible to consider its possibility and be prepared to respond in the event it manifests.
State troopers arrested a Minnesota man Friday morning after he fled a traffic stop and led them on a high-speed chase on Interstate 80 near Aurora.

Police found cocaine and marijuana in the suspect's possession following the pursuit that started around 10:20 a.m., the patrol said.

Corey Davis of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, was arrested and is being held in Hamilton County Jail.

Troopers initially noticed Davis' vehicle driving along the shoulder on I-80 near Giltner. After a traffic stop, he allegedly drove off eastbound, reaching speeds of about 110 mph and weaving through traffic before exiting the southbound ramp near mile marker 332.

After a trooper performed a tactical vehicle intervention, the Davis exited the vehicle and was tasered before he was arrested, the release said.

Davis was arrested on suspicion of felony flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, failure to obey a lawful order, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest, driving under suspension and several other traffic violations.

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ONAWA, Iowa -- A Nebraska woman was placed on probation for her role in the theft of copper and damage to electrical substations in rural Monona County.

Whitney Reynek, 40, of Tekamah, Nebraska, pleaded guilty in Monona County District Court to one count of trespassing. Charges of first-degree theft and first-degree criminal mischief were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

District Judge Tod Deck on Thursday gave Reynek a deferred judgment, placed her on probation for three years and ordered her to pay a $1,025 civil penalty. She also must pay $1,000 in restitution to Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative jointly with Craig Keller.

On Aug. 21, Monona County emergency dispatchers received calls of fires at electrical substations that were causing power outages. Workers who responded discovered someone had broken into the substations and removed several feet of copper wiring, causing thousands of dollars in damages.

Reynek was charged with dropping Keller off at the substations and picking him up. She admitted in her guilty plea that she helped Keller gain access to the facilities.

Keller, 40, of Onawa, has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree theft and five counts of first-degree criminal mischief.

Acting on a tip, Monona County Sheriff's deputies executed a search warrant at a rural Whiting, Iowa, home, where they recovered items stolen from the substations and in other burglaries in Monona County.

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VERMILLION, S.D. -- Maria Milda continues to search for answers to why she chose to hold her young son under the water in his bathtub and hold his nose closed until he died.

Her heart aches every day, she said, and no prison sentence, nothing anyone can say to or about her, will be harsher than the self-hatred she feels for killing 14-month-old Easton Milda in their Vermillion home.

"There are no words to answer why. I robbed him of his entire life. I am weak, tired and confused," she said in a letter read by her attorney Friday, when she stood before Circuit Judge Tami Bern for sentencing on one count of homicide as manslaughter in the first degree.

No sentence will ease the pain felt by everyone still grieving Easton's death, Bern said, but a crime the magnitude of Milda's demands punishment and retribution.

Bern sentenced Milda to 100 years in prison, suspending 55 years of the sentence. Milda could be paroled before serving the remaining 45 years of the sentence, but will be required to participate in an intensive mental health monitoring and assistance program after her release from prison.

"I do not believe this will provide closure for the family, but I wish it will," Bern said.

Milda, 27, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in November in Clay County Circuit Court to the charge, which was reduced from first-degree murder in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

At Friday's hearing, Milda's adoptive mother, Laurie Lister, detailed Milda's lifetime spent battling mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, reactive attachment disorder, antisocial behavior and post-traumatic stress disorder. Milda also suffered from paranoia and delusions, has been hospitalized nine times for self-harming behavior and attempted suicide and was a sexual and domestic abuse victim.

Milda frequently told her she thought human traffickers were after her and Easton, and heard those threatening voices on the day she killed her son.

"Maria adored Easton," Lister said. "My daughter is totally devastated by her loss and is very mentally ill. She didn't do this because she thought it was a good idea. She did it because she was so very sick."

Milda walked to the police station on Nov. 2, 2020, to report that her child was not breathing. Officers and emergency personnel who went to the home in the 200 block of Luxembourg Street found the dead child. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and the cause of death was drowning.

Two weeks after Milda's arrest, a judge granted a defense request for a psychiatric evaluation to determine her mental competency to stand trial. Milda spent four months at a Sioux Falls hospital until her psychiatrist reported her competent to stand trial. Dr. Josette Lindahl said Friday that as long as Milda takes her medications and has support, she could hold a job and function well in society.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 75 years, with 35 years suspended. Clay County State's Attorney Alexis Tracy asked Bern to sentence Milda to "not one day less" than the request, saying that though Milda may be mentally ill, she knew right from wrong on the day she killed Easton.

"Even though the alleged voices were telling her to kill her son, she knew it was wrong," Tracy said.

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SIOUX CITY -- After returning from a 10-month military deployment, Jeremy Taylor has jumped right back into his role as a Woodbury County supervisor.

In a recent interview with the Journal, Taylor reflected on the lengthy time he spent away from his home in Sioux City, as he served as a chaplain with the 734th RSG Iowa Army National Guard.

The unit was sent to the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. On the first day they were there, the base was attacked for the first time in nearly a year, as insurgents launched over a dozen rockets.

I was running on the track and I heard incoming, incoming, incoming, [and I thought] well that must be a drill, and then I saw an explosion, he said.

Attacks continued frequently for the next four to five months. They seemed to target personnel, Taylor said, and were causing strain on the soldiers, airmen and civilian contractors.

During the first attack, a civilian contractor died due to a heart attack and another individual died later in the mission. Taylor's job was to help those grieving while honoring the dead.

Nurture the living, care and comfort the wounded and honor the dead, he said.

He led a type of funeral service for people to talk about their feelings and memories.

As base chaplain, Taylor had a variety of different tasks, including leading the other chaplains and being an advisor to the commander. Day-to-day, he provided religious support for U.S. personnel, as well as the Spaniards, the Danish, the Polish and the Norwegian soldiers stationed there, as well as connecting people with chaplains of their faith.

He would organize Bible studies and Masses and religious holiday celebrations.

Some soldiers who may not be religious still speak with the chaplains. Many times its just sitting and listening to what the person is struggling with without judgment. Chaplains have absolute confidentiality.

Thats very sacred and special, he said.

In addition to the enemy, the base also fought COVID-19. At one point everything that wasnt operational had to be shut down. If a soldier was quarantined, they would be in a tent by themselves for 10 days.

That just becomes extremely long, he said.

As a chaplain, Taylor said he would take time to visit the soldiers quarantining.

During happier times the base hosted Xbox tournaments, movie nights and a talent show. Taylor said it was a way to connect the various people stationed there.

In October, Taylor and his unit headed home. He said there was a feeling of accomplishment, especially with the whole unit heading back. One of his biggest takeaways from the experience was the importance of being real, authentic and present.

Taylor joined the Iowa National Guard later in life than most. At 29, he had just begun his career as an English teacher at North High School.

He had World War II veterans such as Bud Day speak to his students and the stories were inspiring.

"I saw my window closing in life... so I enlisted," he said.

He started as intel analyst, where he was around 10 years older than his peers. As his religious faith deepened, he felt he was able to share and counsel the individuals who felt like his students. He became a chaplain candidate and went to seminary school.

Taylor, who earlier served in the Iowa Legislature, was first elected to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors in 2014. He won re-election in 2018 but in late January 2020, he resigned from his District 2 seat following a voter registration challenge related to which of two homes in different districts constituted his legal residence.

After Taylor lost his bid that began in mid-2019 to win the Republican nomination for the Iowa 4th Congressional District in June primary voting, he was selected in August by a special Republican County panel to be the county party's nominee for Supervisor District 3. He won a four-year term in the November 2020 election.

Taylor said he was upfront with Republicans who wanted him to be the nominee reminding them that he could be deployed at some point in the future.

In January, just two weeks into his new term, he notified the board of his deployment.

The year prior to leaving, Taylor's Regional Support Group went to Romania for training.

"They're getting you ready for something," he said.

Taylor said this will be his last deployment because he is moving to a new role as a state deputy chaplain, guiding other chaplains throughout the state and assisting the state chaplain.

Now that he is back home, Taylor is spending time getting adjusted to day-to-day life again, connecting with family and getting back to work. While he was gone, family roles were rearranged and now he and his family are trying to readjust to his return.

One of the first things his family did when he returned was to take a trip to Disney World.

Taylor officially returned to the board on Nov. 2. He had previously spent time with his temporary replacement Mark Monson, discussing what had occurred when he was gone and was prepared to jump in.

A few of his first moves back on the board included denying the 22 percent proposed raise for supervisors and getting a differential pay policy set for county employees who are deployed overseas.

The day before he left Iraq, he asked that a flag be flown over the headquarters in Al Asad in honor of Woodbury County and he brought the flag back to present to the supervisors.

I just wanted to thank you, each of you, for what you did in order to be able to support and complete this mission, he said.

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The last of the escaped monkeys from the crash of a truck towing a trailer load of 100 of the animals was accounted for by late Saturday.
New Amtrak president and CEO Stephen Gardner speaks about the future of transportation at Union Station in New Haven on Jan. 21. (Seamus McAvoy)

While the dreamed-of one hour ride time from New Haven to New York City remains far away, Connecticut lawmakers and Amtrak leaders said Friday they intend to maximize historic levels of federal funding to improve the regions rail infrastructure.

The injection of rail funds made possible by the Biden administrations $1 trillion infrastructure law runs parallel to the projects already underway in the state, leaders say, which aim to cut ride times while increasing safety, reliability and comfort.

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This is an important relationship, said Sen. Chris Murphy, at a press conference Friday inside Union Station in New Haven with newly appointed Amtrak president and CEO Stephen Gardner.

This meeting today, I think, cements the partnership between the state of Connecticut and Amtrak to make the most beneficial, most creative usage of the Amtrak dollars, and the state/local partnership dollars, Murphy said, flanked by Gardner and state leaders.

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How much is Amtrak getting?

Gardner, who stepped into the job on Jan. 17, on Friday called himself absolutely the luckiest CEO in Amtrak history, and its easy to see why.

Gardner will oversee the largest one-shot investment into the rail system since its creation in 1971: $22 billion in direct funding, which far exceeds the $8 billion it received in 2009. Tens of billions of dollars will also be available to Amtrak and other groups in the form of competitive grants.

The Northeast Corridor, which refers to the larger rail network primarily owned by Amtrak, will receive $30 billion; Amtrak will pocket $6 billion directly, with the other $24 billion going into a state and federal partnership account, Murphy said.

The infrastructure bill also makes borrowing terms more favorable for Amtrak through its primary low-interest loan program, called Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF), Murphy said.

Proponents of high-speed rail say Amtrak has been underfunded for years. The rail service was a repeated target of the Trump administration, which threatened to slash its already meager funding sources by as much as 50% ahead of the 2021 fiscal year.

On Friday, Gardner praised Connecticuts leaders and expanded on his vision for rail in the state.

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Through the Northeast Corridor Commissions Connect NEC 2035 plan, Gardner said Amtrak plans to slash ride times by 30 minutes and grow the number of trains in the services fleet by 33%.

Connecticut, right now, has the best team for rail I can imagine, Gardner said.

Gardners ties to the state extend to a 20-year relationship with Joseph Giulietti, Connecticuts transportation commissioner. Giulietti served as president of Metro-North Railroad from 2014 to 2017 before joining the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont.

Theres no question this is an exciting time for rail in Connecticut, and in the country, Giulietti said, highlighting the states ambitious Time for CT plan.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

The project aims to slash ride times by 10 minutes before the end of 2022, and 25 minutes by 2035, by upgrading the states aging tracks and signal system.

Leaders see myriad economic benefits, in addition to environmental ones, in upgrading the state-owned New Haven line, which makes for a crucial economic artery for the states shoreline communities.

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Murphy suggested that the difference in economic development between cities like Stamford and Bridgeport has much to do with the difference in travel time to New York City.

It currently takes about 52 minutes to get from Stamford to New York; leaders hope the commute from Bridgeport to New York shrinks to about 67 minutes by 2035. Lamont added that hes working to get a stop in the citys Pennsylvania Station, in addition to Grand Central, in the near future.

Other projects include replacing the century-old Connecticut River Bridge, which currently services freight carriers and nearly 40 Amtrak-owned trains.

These opportunities dont come around often ... and this is an opportunity to make a difference, Lamont said.

Seamus McAvoy may be reached at smcavoy@courant.com
The United States military has executed a messy pullout from the 20-year war in Afghanistan, and its once-overpowering presence in Iraq has shriveled to a rump force of 2,500 non-combat troops.

It would seem the global war on terror, launched by President George W. Bush soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and fought in various ways under various names by three subsequent commanders in chief, has finally been swept into historys dustbin.

Not quite.

For the past six months, about 200 members of the Nebraska National Guard have been playing a pivotal role in what may be the largest remaining U.S. counterterrorism operation in the world.

Last summer the Lincoln-based 67th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade  a unit with a history traceable back to the Civil War  deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, in East Africa.

The Nebraska Guard troops make up the headquarters staff of the militarys Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a multinational operation that dates to 2002. The 67th Brigades commander, Col. Brian Medcalf, serves as chief of staff to Maj. Gen. William Zana, who leads the task force.

Djibouti is a small former French colony, in one of the worlds most strategic and troubled locations: on the Red Sea, the gateway to the Suez Canal  a critical chokepoint for trade between Europe and Asia.

Its kind of a crossroads between three continents, said Medcalf, who grew up near Elgin, Nebraska. This area is strategically located. Its important to America because of all the shipping channels to the Red Sea.

Camp Lemonnier is on the coast within 10 miles of Somalia, a failed state from which the al-Qaida-affiliated terror group al-Shabab has carried out attacks since the mid-2000s. U.S. Special Operations Forces have long fought al-Shabab in Somalia alongside indigenous forces, but President Donald Trump withdrew them a year ago during the final weeks of his administration.

Less than 100 miles away is Yemen, the site of a fierce and long-running proxy war between factions backed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. So are Ethiopia and Eritrea, where forces have battled over Eritrean sovereignty since long before its 1993 independence.

The Horn of Africa  thats a rough neighborhood, said Tyler White, director of the National Security Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Djibouti is one of those areas where we think we can make a difference.

It appears the U.S. is planning to stay awhile. It has expanded Camp Lemonnier, a former French Foreign Legion camp, from 88 to 500 acres, and spent more than $1 billion in improvements. In 2014, it signed a 10-year lease extension on Camp Lemonnier for $63 million a year, with an option for 10 additional years.

France, Italy, Japan and China all have established their own bases in Djibouti. Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to build one, too.

Djibouti makes a lot of sense, strategically, White said.

Though the task force has been fighting terrorism for nearly two decades, even some of the Nebraska soldiers now leading it knew little about the place until they received deployment orders early last year. They are scheduled to return home in the spring.

I was completely oblivious to what goes on here, said Maj. Luke Holland, 38, of Elkhorn, deputy director of the task forces Crisis Branch. When you get into the theater, you realize theres a lot more happening than people understand.

The task force was led by Marines in its earliest years, then by the Navy, and evolved into a mission staffed mostly by Army National Guard and Reserve units. The U.S. contingent includes about 2,000 troops as well as about 2,500 civilians at Camp Lemonnier.

The task forces emphasis has been on training and boosting partnerships with militaries in the region while building up infrastructure. At the same time, it has supported drone operations targeting al-Shabab leaders in Somalia and Navy efforts to quell an explosion of Somali piracy in the region a decade ago.

The threats in this area are numerous, said Austin Doctor, a researcher with the University of Nebraska at Omahas National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center (NCITE) who studies sub-Saharan Africa. Theyve evolved from these various obvious threats to just general instability.

Though the Horn of Africa mission has endured through four presidential administrations, its been called a symbol of the Biden approach to counterterrorism: a small number of troops operating over the horizon rather than the large occupying forces employed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Its not going to be a big, heavy presence, White said. In the Middle East, it was essentially an invasion. The nature of the engagement is different. Were not trying to support a government that we created.

Medcalf said his soldiers most critical work involves crisis planning with the embassies of the United States and close allies in East Africa. Who would respond, and how, in case of a coup attempt, riots or civil war?

These arent unfathomable scenarios  theyre troubles that have afflicted nearly every country in the region in recent years.

We are always prepared to respond, if asked, to any ambassador, Medcalf said. Thats our no-fail mission.

How does he know the task forces mission is succeeding? Because theyre not in the headlines.

The best part is that you havent heard of any issues. There havent been any major crises, he said.

Hollands job as deputy director of the Crisis Branch is to work with U.S. embassy personnel and draw up response plans. They game out crisis scenarios ahead of time and create plans for boosted security during difficult times.

In the event of crisis, we are the people who are on the ground, Holland said. We work long hours. At a moments notice, were prepared to respond.

He believes the many Guard members who come from smaller cities and towns are especially well-suited to the mission.

The work ethic and the camaraderie, the looking out for one another that you see in Nebraska, are really useful on this deployment, said Holland, who grew up in Axtell, population 732. Small-town Nebraskans are making an international impact here on the (African) continent.

Sgt. 1st Class David Wooten works with the militaries of other nations as the task forces foreign liaison officers coordinator. Every day, he talks with counterparts from other nations represented in Djibouti.

Wooten, 46, of Lincoln, joined the Marines in 1997 and later switched to the Nebraska Army National Guard. He and his wife, Misty, have 10 children. One of his sons, Spc. Micaiah Wooten, 21, is also deployed to Djibouti.

Thats earned them a bit of attention among U.S. allies in East Africa. The Italian commander invited them to join him for lunch. And the Spanish commander presented them with pool passes to the hotel where the Spanish soldiers are billeted.

A French officer taught David Wooten to play the ukulele.

Even though we all have cultural differences, he said, kindness is universal.

First Lt. Travis Prather is also a military liaison  in his case, with the Djiboutian armed forces.

The job has put him in a position to experience some things unfamiliar to a 25-year-old agriculture graduate from McKenzie, Tennessee, who now works at a feedlot in rural Stapleton, Nebraska.

Like eating camel meat at a restaurant in Djibouti. He said it was cut into strips and served grilled, like fajitas.

I was actually pleasantly surprised, Prather said.

He said he has been impressed with Djiboutians respect for elders in the community, and their resourcefulness in raising herds of camels and goats to support their families, even with few resources.

And he has learned to speak a little French  a language he skipped taking in school because he thought he would never use it.

Were guests, Prather said, and my job is to make sure we continue to be good guests.

The Djibouti soldiers he has worked with are mostly Muslim. Prayer, five times a day, is mandatory.

(Islam) is intrinsically tied in with everything they do, Prather said. They have to stop to pray, or we schedule meetings around prayer.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Rodehorsts job as a religious affairs non-commissioned officer has also required him to learn something about Islam, though his own background is Christian.

Were here to support anything, regardless of faith, said Rodehorst, whose civilian job is in information technology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

He discovered that Islam, which is practiced by 1.9 billion people worldwide, is as diverse as Christianity, which has 2.3 billion followers. He was surprised to meet and work with a French Muslim chaplain who is a woman.

Its a tapestry of countries, traditions, faiths, he said.

Maj. Mat Field is in charge of keeping the task forces communications running. He must maintain video, voice, data and email networks across an eight-country region as large as the Eastern Seaboard. Sometimes it means wiring up small camps in remote places.

This day and age, commanders have a need for data, Field said. We have to have lots of communication types.

In Djibouti, the climate is fierce and the geography forbidding  from desert to mountains, in a country the size of New Jersey.

Rainfall averages less than 5 inches per year. Summer daytime temperatures are well over 100 degrees from June into September. Oh, and its muggy, too.

Africa throws the whole gamut of natural and meteorological challenges at us on a daily basis, Field said.

The limited infrastructure in Djibouti poses a problem for Master Sgt. Lillie Chambers, who is the senior enlisted logistician for the task force. She is in charge of about 100 soldiers who must keep camps across the region supplied, by land and by air. The road network is poor.

The potholes, they could swallow you whole, she said.

Before Christmas, Chambers needed to ship a firetruck to a nearby country. It had to go by air, but the airfield was 30 minutes away.

Its just not as easy as loading it onto a flatbed and hauling it to its location, she said. You have to go through a landfill where you drive between piles of garbage. Some of them are burning. People are running through the piles, salvaging what they can.

Besides her logistics work, Chambers took part in a Defense Department initiative called Women, Peace and Security that brought together 45 female soldiers and police officers from seven countries at a symposium in September in Djibouti.

As women, (we) listen to one another and lean on one another, said Chambers, 37, who lives in Bennet, Nebraska. At the end of the day, were all humans. Were all fighting for the same reasons. We all love our countries.

The Nebraska Guard soldiers in Djibouti who previously deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan say this work is nothing like the active combat role they played back then.

This is completely different, said Rodehorst, the religious affairs sergeant, who deployed to Iraq 10 years ago. Thats what I like about the military. I would never in a million years have thought I would be doing this.

They like meeting people and helping people, in a place many of them knew almost nothing about before their boots hit the dusty ground.

This is the most meaningful job Ive ever had, the most impactful, Wooten said. This is a global impact. Its very cool to be part of.

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Among the newer and most deserving of Nebraskas prison inmates is William Billy J. Quinn of Oxford, sentenced in December to a minimum of 176 years, effectively the rest of his life, for sexual assault and sex trafficking of a 15-year-old girl.

Its a horrific case that has led to charges against 18 other men accused of abusing the girl during six months of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as the Furnas County attorney described it.

Quinns case is one of 22 sex trafficking prosecutions started in Nebraska last year, tying 2020 for the states record number. Kudos to Gov. Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Nebraska lawmakers of both parties for focusing attention on a crime that amounts to modern slavery.

Passing Nebraska-specific laws has been extremely important because federal trafficking laws only apply to cases that cross state borders, Ricketts wrote in a recent column. Before that, criminal activity within the state couldnt be prosecuted as effectively.

More than half of the sex trafficking prosecutions in Nebraskas history have been filed in the past two years, but the state hasnt stopped there.

Critically, Nebraska is administering a three-year, $1.5 million federal grant to help victims of trafficking. Survivors need care, resources and support after experiencing such profound trauma, Ricketts notes.

The state also has worked hard to help identify trafficking. The Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force within the Attorney Generals Office trained more 6,800 people in 2021. The reach is smart  from public safety workers to chiropractors, rural electricians, school counselors, students, parks workers and more.

All of us can help by being aware that trafficking is real in our cities, small towns and along Interstate highways. A tip in Brainard, population 420, led to a prosecution, and Quinns exploitation of the teen was centered in small towns.

Anyone who suspects having encountered a sex trafficking victim should call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.

Signs of trafficking might include a person who seems dressed inadequately for the weather, who seems fearful, anxious and submissive, deferring to someone else in conversation.

Any commercial sex involving someone younger than 18 is trafficking under U.S. law. Adult victims might live where they work, have little freedom to go out alone or be transported in closely watched groups.

A young person of either sex might have few possessions or be tattooed with someone elses name and be reluctant to explain. The victim might be the target of verbal abuse in public.

These crimes, often perpetrated by relatives, typically victimize vulnerable people through manipulation and intimidation. Immature, needy young people might be flattered by a would-be trafficker, groomed and then controlled in a life of exploitation.

They need our help, from public reporting of suspicions to strong state action like that being taken in Nebraska, including support for victims.

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On Friday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown blocked President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the federal workforce and issued a nationwide injunction ensuring no other district court could revive the policy. At least a dozen other courts have already declined to halt this policy, but Brown decided that they were wrong. His decision rests on several egregious misreadings of the law. Most notably, Browna Donald Trump nominee and Federalist Society stalwartrewrote a major statute to vastly diminish the presidents power over federal employees. In doing so, he has imperiled a broad swath of civil service regulations that have nothing to do with vaccines, including the longstanding ban on drug use outside of the office.

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Presidents have sweeping authority over federal workers under both the Constitution and federal law. Biden drew upon both sources to issue his mandate (which includes medical and religious exemptions). Of all the White Houses vaccine policies, this one is on the strongest legal footing, because it does not implicate the Supreme Courts concerns about federalism or the separation of powers. Until now, it appeared that across the ideological spectrum, judges agreed that the chief executive has wide latitude to regulate his own workforce. Thats one reason why federal courts in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington refused to freeze the mandate.

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To reach his desired conclusion, Brown created a fantasy version of the Supreme Courts decision.

Congress acknowledged and formally bestowed these powers in a 1966 statute called Section 7301. It states: The President may prescribe regulations for the conduct of employees in the executive branch. Ever since, presidents have relied on this law to alter and update employment conditions for the civil service.

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Most famously, Section 7301 provides the legal basis for the prohibition on illegal drug use among federal employees, as well as drug testing programs to enforce the rule. But presidents have used the law to implement plenty of other policies, including a ban on federal employees accepting gifts from lobbyists; a ban on tobacco use in federal workplaces; a detailed revolving door ban limiting federal employees ability to become lobbyists after their service; an expansive ethics code barring federal employees from various conflicts of interest on and off the job; a requirement that federal workplaces accommodate nursing mothers; and so much more.

It was no surprise, then, that Biden relied on Section 7301 in issuing his vaccine mandate for the civil service. But Brown has a radically different interpretation of the statute. He declared that the president may only regulate workplace conduct under the lawand getting vaccinated does not qualify. Brown elaborated: Any broader reading would allow the president to prescribe, or proscribe, certain private behaviors by civilian federal workers outside the context of their employment he wrote. Neither the plain language of Section 7301 nor any traditional notion of personal liberty would tolerate such a sweeping grant of power.

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What? Had Brown simply Googled this statute, he would have immediately learned, in fact, this sweeping grant of power is exactly what the law provides. Consider the sampling of Section 7301 regulations listed above. Many of them restrict federal employees conduct outside the workplace. The gift ban applies on and off the job. So do all the ethics rules. And so, most obviously, does the prohibition on illegal drug use, which is not suspended when a worker clocks out. To the contrary: Federal employers must test their workers for drugs to ensure that they are not using them outside work hours.

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By Browns logic, all of these requirements are illegal. The chief executive may not lawfully bar his workforce from injecting heroin at home. After all, doing drugs in your own bedroom is certainly not workplace conduct. Some lobbying restrictions, too, are illegal if Brown is correct. Current regulations, for instance, forbid former members of the civil service from lobbying certain officials for the remainder of the administration, meaning the ban may apply for years after they leave the government. Another directive bars ex-government workers from lobbying their former agency for five years. Any policy that limits a former employees conduct does not, by definition, apply in the workplace.

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How, exactly, did Brown justify this extra-textual limit on Section 7301? By badly misinterpreting the Supreme Courts recent decision blocking the vaccinate-or-test mandate for large employers. In that case, SCOTUS held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration could not regulate hazards outside the workplace. It did so because the mandate constituted an extraordinary exercise of federal power with vast economic and political significance. According to the court, the Constitution permits only Congress to issue such policies, not an agency like OSHA. And Congress had not passed any vaccine mandates. To respect the separation of powers and state sovereignty, then, the court interpreted federal law narrowly.

To reach his desired conclusion, Brown created a fantasy version of the Supreme Courts decision. He asserted that the court specifically held that COVID-19 is not a workplace risk in all contexts. Thats just not true. The court said COVID-19 is not a workplace risk within the meaning of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. And it did so in light of constitutional concerns that a broader reading would violate constitutional boundaries between Congress and president.

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Section 7301 is, of course, an entirely different law, one whose text does not limit its scope to the workplace in any way. But more importantly, any constitutional concerns here run in the opposite direction. Article II gives the president immense authority over the executive workforce; as James Madison explained, if any power whatsoever is in its nature Executive, it is the power of appointing, overseeing, and controlling those who execute the laws. The Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed this power. Section 7301 should thus be read broadly to avoid unconstitutional restrictions on the presidents Article II authority. At a bare minimum, it must be interpreted to let the president impose a vaccination requirement for the executive workforce during the nations deadliest pandemic.

This butchering of constitutional law, statutory text, and basic logic is so egregious that SCOTUS may well reverse Brown in due course. The civil service mandate has an even stronger legal basis than the health care mandate, which the Supreme Court upheld. It is so clearly lawful that the anti-vax plaintiffs had to shop their case to a dozen courts before they could score a victory. In Brown, they found a judge shameless enough to invent a nonexistent rule against a vaccine mandate as COVID-19 cases soar across the country.
Igor Fruman, one of Rudy Giulianis former associates who helped dig up damaging information on Joe Biden before he was elected president, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for violating campaign finance law. He was also fined $10,000 in the campaign finance case and his time behind bars comes on top of the more than two years he spent in home confinement.

Fruman, who must surrender to prison by March 14, had pleaded guilty in September to a charge of soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national by asking a Russian tycoon for $1 million. When he handed the sentence of 12 months and one day, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken said Frumans action undermines democracy and can make people distrust elections. This is the sort of crime thats serious not because it involves any particular financial victims  but because it undermines the integrity of elections in our country, Oetken said. It adds to cynicism in the eyes of the public and to the perception that the system may be corrupt.

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Federal prosecutors had called on Oetken to sentence Fruman to somewhere between three and four years in prison, while defense lawyers said he shouldnt face any time behind bars. Fruman told the judge he had time to reflect on his crime. Its a shame that will live with me forever, he said. But I can assure you, my family, and the government that I will never appear before yourself or another courtroom again.

Fruman had been arrested in 2019 at Dulles International Airport alongside Lev Parnas as they were both about to leave the country. The Belarus-born Fruman and the Ukraine-born Parnas faced multiple campaign-finance charges. The two men had also been connected to Giuliani, who had enlisted them to help try to dig up dirt on Biden and convince prosecutors in Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden. Prosecutors havent brought forward any charges relating to the Ukraine efforts that emerged during the 2020 presidential campaign. Parnas was convicted in October of violating campaign finance laws. Giuliani has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
Polling data can be hard to parse, and its never smart to extrapolate the views of an entire population from the results of a single survey. All the same, by any measure , it appears that Arizona Democrats are not too pleased with the job performance of their senior senator.

Take a gander at this absolutely wild graph, from Civiqs via the Daily Kos, tracking Arizona Dems views on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema up to Jan. 14:

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You rarely see this rapid a turning-on-ones-own in party politics. Over the past year, in Civiqs polling, Sinema went from a 50 percent net favorable rating among Arizona Dems to a 72 percent net unfavorable rating.

Other recent polls have also turned up ominous, if slightly less disastrous, results for the senator. For instance, a poll by OH Predictive Insights from November found that 42 percent of Arizona Democrats had a favorable view of Sinema. But given a choice between her, a Republican, or another Democrat, 72 percent of the partys voters said theyd go with the other Democrat. FiveThirtyEight points out that even the few incumbent senators in the past century whove lost their primariesincluding Republicans Bob Smith and Richard Lugar and Democrats Joe Lieberman and Arlen Specterwerent polling as low among their own partys voters when they lost as Sinema is now.

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Arizona Dems arent being capricious. They seem to be paying close attention to whats going on in Washington: The two major inflection points on the chart coincide with Sinemas vote in March 2021 against including a minimum wage hike in the COVID relief bill and her May 2021 decision to skip the Senates vote on establishing a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

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Thats not the weird part. We should expect that party-registered voters would care that the senator they elected is repeatedly tanking their partys agenda at a rare and precious moment when they control both chambers of Congress in addition the White House.

The weird thing here is that Sinema, who could stand to lose a Democratic primary if she runs for re-election in 2024, doesnt seem to care. Usually, legislators positions on issues are informed by some combination of their own beliefs, the interests of their donors, and those of their constituents. So what are we to make of the fact that, at a crucial turning point for U.S. democracy and a record low point in her standing among the people who put her in office, Sinema opted to derail the Democrats voting rights legislation? Does she have some deeply held personal attachment to the filibuster, an institution whose history she cant even get right?

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Arizona does tend to demand, and reward, senators who go against their own parties every now and then. But not too often: The late John McCain, Sinemas hero,would occasionally help the Democrats out, as when he voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act. But he sided with his own party on plenty of big agenda items and was more than willing to throw red meat to the GOP base come campaign season, such as the time he famously pivoted on immigration by airing an ad demanding that Washington complete the danged fence. In contrast, Jeff Flake, another Arizona Republican, ended up retiring when it became clear that he would lose the 2018 GOP primary, thanks to his harsh criticisms of Donald Trump. Right now, Sinemas future prospects look a lot more like Flakes than McCains, albeit on the other side of the aisle.

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And, anyway, Sinemas votes cant be explained by the ideological makeup of Arizonas general electorate: Shes siding with the GOP way more often than she needs toand according to Civiqs tracking, shes even 20 points under water with independents, who flipped on her in early 2021 around the time she signaled her opposition to raising the minimum wage in the COVID package. Among Republicans, she has a net favorable rating, which jumped after she missed the Jan. 6 commission vote. But she wouldnt last a second in a GOP primary. The Arizona Republican Party, which is now fully consumed by pro-Trump conspiracy theories and far-right extremism, would never cast its lot with a centrist former Dem.

One often-repeated theory is that Sinema simply doesnt intend to run for office again and may see her future in lobbying. But U.S. senators dont usually dash for that door after just a single term in office. Recently, journalist Amy Siskind claimed that Sinema hopes to run for president in 2024 as a straight-down-the-middle candidate, and shes establishing a legislative history to back herself up. It seems almost too bizarre to be truebut then again, so does the rest of her behavior.
So what happens next?

As planned, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva on Friday to discuss a possible peaceful way out of the crisis in Ukraine. The meeting was pitched as the climax of several sessions over the past week among senior diplomats from the U.S., Russia, NATO, and all of Europe, including Ukraine.

The stakes were high. Russian officials warned, and everyone else feared, that if the U.S. and NATO didnt meet all of Russias demands (some reasonable, others not), there would be no reason for further talks because diplomacy would have reached a dead end, meaning Russian President Vladimir Putin might take military-technical measures to keep Ukraine within his countrys orbit.

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Blinken and Lavrov met for 90 minutes. Neither budged from his earlier position. Yet both of them agreed to continue the dialogue. Diplomacy hasnt hit a dead end yet after all. And, it seems, Putin isnt quite ready to go for broke and invade Ukraine.

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How long can this standoff go on? Many have reported that Russia has 100,000 troops poised on its border with Ukraine, but this isnt exactly the case.

According to Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, an Arlington, Virginia-based research firm, 55,000 of those troops have been stationed at the border, on permanent bases, for a long time. The other 45,000, who have reportedly been mobilized from other areas of Russia, actually havent moved. Rather, their equipmenttanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, tactical missiles, and so forthhave been sent to areas near Ukraine.

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This isnt unusual. Often, in preparations for battle, weapons and vehicles are pre-positioned in areas near the front line; the troops stay at home, but could quickly be sent to join the weapons and vehicles, which theyve been trained to operate, in case war seems imminent.

So how long can this buildup stay in place? Since there are no extra troops to exhaust, freeze, starve, or demoralize, quite a long time. Putin is in no hurry. Meanwhile, he can keep putting the squeeze on Ukraine, mounting cyber attacks or sending mercenaries into rebel-controlled areas in the countrys eastern provincesand put pressure on NATOs unity by threatening to cut back energy exports to Germany and other Western European countries.

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Biden and other Western leaders can also stretch things out, providing more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine or sending more troops to NATOs eastern countries, especially Poland and the Baltics, whose people feel very vulnerable to a resurgent Russia. Offers of NATO membership could also be dangled before Sweden and Finland, longtime Western but militarily neutral nations on Russias northwest flank whose leaders are now thinking about joining in response to Putins latest moves.

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The question is which sides pressures will have the most politically potent effect most quickly, if theyll have an effect at all.

Meanwhile, what are the issues? Russia has put forth several demands about what it calls security guarantees, the most insistent of which seems to be that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO. Many Russians have long seen Ukraine as vital to their countryhistorically, culturally, economically, and as a buffer state to encroachments from the West. Putin has gone so far as to say that Ukraine is not a country, that it is, always has been, and always will be part of Russia.

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The fact is, Ukraine is not likely to be let in to NATO for a long time, if ever. Even in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rush of requests from former Warsaw Pact states to join NATO, Ukraine was always viewed as a separate matter. Unlike Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, it had actually been a part of the Soviet Union. It was also understood that pulling Ukraine into a Western military alliance would be highly provocative to Russia. Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack on one member will be treated as an attack on them all, and few NATO members wanted to go to war with Russia in order to keep Ukraine independent. (Even now, Biden and other NATO leaders say they will not send their own troops to defend Ukraine if Russia attacks.) Finally, unlike the Baltic states (which had been a part of the Soviet Union, but were let into NATO anyway), Ukraine didnt meet the alliances standards for membershipa high degree of democratization, low corruption, civilian control of its military, and the ability to integrate with other NATO countries militaries. Ukraine has improved in all these areas, but it still falls well short of NATOs standards.

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However, Biden and other Western leaders insist that no outside countryleast of all a hostile country like Russiahas the right to dictate who can or cannot join their alliance. During the post-Cold War enlargement of NATO, its leaders declared as policy that membership would remain open. By demanding that NATO now prohibit any further expansion to the east, Putin is challenging that principle.

In their meeting on Friday, Blinken did agree to provide Lavrov with written responses to Russias demandssomething that the U.S. officials had not done even a few days earlier. Drafting such responses will require much consultation within the Biden administration and with other NATO countries, as well as with Ukraine. This will stretch out the diplomatic process, and keep Putin from pulling the trigger, for weeks.

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At the same time, pressure will need to be placed on Ukraine. Blinken and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko have both said, in separate public forums, that enforcement of the Minsk Agreements could go a long way to reduce tensions. These agreementssigned by Russia and Ukraine in 2015 but ignored by both sides sincecalled for a ceasefire of the war between Ukraine and separatist militias in Donbas province, an exchange of prisoners, the disarmament of militias, but also free elections in Donbas, which could have an effect on Ukraines policies.

At some point, the issue of NATOs further enlargement will have to be settled. It is crazy to trigger a war for the principle of a causeUkraines possible membership in NATOthat isnt actually going to be enacted. There must be ways to defuse the dispute without surrendering the principle. NATO could issue a statement explaining the many reasons Ukraine is not eligible for membership today. Experts could be consulted on how long it would take for this to change. In tandem with these steps, Biden and other Western leaders should hold behind-the-scenes talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, offering a boatload of security assurances and economic goodies, in exchange for his withdrawing his request for NATO membershipon the condition that Russia withdraws its newly mobilized tanks and other weapons from the Ukrainian border.

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Will this be easy? No. Diplomacy is hard, especially when the disputes and conflicts of interest are as complex and deep as they are here. Will everyone be satisfied with the outcome? No. Ukrainians would like the warm-blanket security of NATOs Article 5 guarantees. Russians (not just Putin) would like the uncontested restoration of their sphere of influence to the west. Theyre not going to get these things.

The questions on the board: Does Putin think its worth the risks of war to make a stab at getting what he wants, which, in some sense, he sees as the recovery of Russias destiny as a great power? Can Biden come up with enough compromises to steer Putin away from war without giving up too much? The next few months may be nerve-racking.
A woman in Virginia has been charged after she threatened to bring loaded guns to school as part of a protest against rules that would have required her children wear face masks. The Luray Police Department said Amelia King, 42, was charged with making an oral threat on school property and has since been released on a $5,000 bond.

The alleged threat took place during a Page County Public Schools board meeting on Thursday night, where members debated whether face masks would continue to be required at the districts schools. My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on, King told the board. Alright? Thats not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to I will call every King was cut off for going over her time limit. Ill see yall on Monday, she added.

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Later in the meeting, a member of the school board read an emailed statement from King in which she apologized for her choice of words. I in no way meant to imply all guns loaded as in actual firearms, but rather all resources I can muster to make sure that my children get to attend school without masks, she said. My sincere apologies for my poor choice in words.

Despite the apology, the Page County school superintendent and school board chair put out a statement saying the threats would be taken seriously. Not only do comments such as these go against everything we wish to model for our students, they go against the very nature of how we as a community should interact with each other, the statement read. This kind of behavior is not tolerated from our students, faculty, staff, nor will it be tolerated by parents or guests of our school division. The school board said there would be more police presence at schools as a result of the threats.

In the end, the school board voted 4-2 to leave it up to parents to decide whether to send their kids to school with a mask. In his first day in office on Jan. 15, new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order saying parents could decide whether their children had to wear face masks in schools. As written, the order allows parents to disregard any mask mandates in schools without providing a reason.
https://sputniknews.com/20220122/a-second-pink-tide-how-argentina-brazil--chile-could-facilitate-new-south-american-union-1092453698.html

A Second 'Pink Tide'? How Argentina, Brazil & Chile Could Facilitate New South American Union

A Second 'Pink Tide'? How Argentina, Brazil & Chile Could Facilitate New South American Union

Gabriel Boric's win in Chile has become yet another victory of a socialist presidential candidate in Latin America, triggering a debate about a second "Pink Tide."

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Chilean President-elect Gabriel Boric on 21 January announced his first cabinet, comprising 24 ministers and including Defence Minister Maya Fernandez  a granddaughter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by a military coup in 1973. In December 2021, Boric, 35, a left-wing politician, won the race to replace Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, receiving 56% of votes while his right-wing opponent, Jose Antonio Kast, trailed with 44%. Boric, the youngest president in the nation's history, will be inaugurated on 11 March 2022.What's Behind Boric's Win?Boric's win is highly symbolic for the region, as it sealed the ultimate failure of the neoliberalism in "the first laboratory of the Chicago School in South America," says Juan Martin Gonzalez Cabanas, an Argentine political consultant and geopolitical analyst at international think tank Vision & Global Trends.After Pinochet's CIA-backed 1973 military coup, the country embraced the junta's "market dictatorship" which was replaced by a "neoliberal democracy" in the 1990s and a "centrist consensus" between post-Pinochet conservative forces and the traditional Chilean left, according to Gonzalez Cabanas. However, this supposed "democratic consensus" didnt change the economic, social and political structures inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship, the analyst notes.Although the Chilean economy had long been regarded as a "neoliberal model" among Latin American states, the nation found itself engulfed by protests in 2019 over huge income gaps, unequal access to health care and education, flourishing corruption and growing cost of living. The protests, known as the Estallido Social, erupted in October 2019 and continued through 2021.Left-wing politician Gabriel Boric won on promises to fight inequality, expand social rights, reform Chile's pension and health care systems, and reduce the work week from 45 to 40 hours, among other social measures.Boric's victory is preceded by the victories of other socialists; Lius Arce in Bolivia in (October 2020), Pedro Castillo in Peru (July 2021), and Xiomara Castro in Honduras (December 2021), according to Gonzalez Cabanas. Left-leaning politicians have also taken the reins in Mexico (2018) and Argentina (2019).The analyst does not rule out that the general election in Brazil scheduled for 2 October 2022, could result in a victory for former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, should he decide to run.The latest survey by PoderData indicated that if an election were held today, Lula would win 42% of the votes against 28% for Bolsonaro. Reuters points out that voter support for the former Brazilian president is now almost the same as the total support for all other candidates, at 45%. This means Lula could win an election in the first round by getting more than 50% of the valid votes cast, according to the media outlet.'Pink Tide' & 'ABC' ProjectA wave of victories by left-wing candidates across Latin America has sparked debate about a second "Pink Tide," according to Gonzalez Cabanas. At the same time, he laments the fact that "there is currently no regional organisation that functions as a larger institution that coordinates [these] efforts among the countries of the hemisphere."A Lula win, however, could trigger a shift from a neoliberal alignment toward the US to a "regional unity project," argues the scholar. A Latin American bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil and Chile could spearhead the change, Gonzalez Cabanas notes, adding that the Argentina-Brazil-Chile (ABC) structure was first proposed by then-Argentine President Juan Peron in the 1950s.Gonzalez Cabanas insists that the ABC project could become the basis for the formation of a South American Union, adding that this union would help consolidate regional countries and counterbalance the influence of the US and other global power players.The analyst assumes that Washington would try to throw sand in the gears of and regional left-wing government that rejects the neoliberal agenda advocated by the US for Latin America. South American countries must globally close ranks, he suggests, and coordinate their work at the level of social institutions as well as regional and international organisations, including Mercosur, the Andean Community, and UASUR (the Union of South American Nations), among other legacy entities.

https://sputniknews.com/20191203/protests-in-colombia-chile-show-that-neoliberal-reforms-dont-work-well-political-analyst-1077466553.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211201/leftist-castros-victory-in-honduras-vote-spells-end-of-us-backed-narco-politics-neoliberalism-1091158252.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/afghan-scholar-claims-about-60-of-western-women-over-40-marry-animals-1092441239.html

Afghan Scholar Claims About 60% of Western Women Over 40 Marry Animals

Afghan Scholar Claims About 60% of Western Women Over 40 Marry Animals

Such a statement was made by Islamic theologian and teacher at one of Afghanistan's universities Fazlul Hak Samadi in early January on the Afghan TV channel... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

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The statement is being widely discussed on Twitter. One user pointed out in his post that Samadi is a representative of the Taliban*, though he is not directly related to it. It is noteworthy that in September 2021 another of Samadis statements went viral on social media. On the air of the television channel TOLOnews, he explained what the appearance of a Muslim woman should be like and that a woman should talk to strange men "in a low voice". Then Samadi was also regarded to be a representative of the Taliban.Meanwhile, the Taliban later told Sputnik Afghanistan that Samadi is not their representative and "had expressed his personal opinion". Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi highlighted that the movement does not have a policy of banning cosmetics, bright clothes, and high-heeled shoes, which according to Samadi "can provoke men".*The Taliban is an organisation sanctioned by the UN for terrorist activities.

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On the day before the start of the spring semester, community college faculty from around the state called for the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities governing board to implement stricter COVID-19 safety standards as they return to campuses in person.

During the recent press conference, faculty asked for the CSCU administration to distribute more N95 masks to students and employees at the colleges, ensure social distancing is enforced, improve telework accommodations, allow faculty to move classes fully online for the first two weeks of the semester and require proof of vaccination for all students and faculty.

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Capital Community College

Community college faculty and staff are frustrated at the inconsistent and insufficient safety and security measures being taken in our community colleges, said Seth Freeman, a professor at Capital Community College. We are angered that by not meeting with faculty and staff, and only pushing in-person learning and in-person services, managers have ignored and continued to ignore the health and safety of vulnerable staff members and others in our community.

Faculty members stressed the need for there to be reasonable teleworking accommodations as they or their family members might have medical conditions that require extensive care, adding that some of their students are choosing to be virtual to protect themselves.

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Linda Stango, director of workforce transitions at Naugatuck Valley Community College, said she has had to ask multiple times if she could telework so that she can take care of her mother, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness, but has yet to get a response.

Our role here is to protect and to make sure that our students are safe, our faculty are safe, our administration, our staff, its everyone, everyone in the institution, said Dennis Bogusky, president of the Federation of Technical College Teachers and a professor at Norwalk Community College. But its beyond the institution. Each of these people go home to a family, and were looking to keep their families safe as well by keeping them safe and not allowing these germs and this virus to be brought back in.

Earlier this month, the CSCU system leaders announced that the spring 2022 semester will start as originally scheduled, a strategy that differed from that of many other colleges and universities around the state.

Asnuntuck Community College, Enfield (Posted by jcotnoir, <a href="http://www.courant.com/community/hc-community-contributors-who-are-they-20140430,0,3829892.story">Community Contributor</a>)

The decision to begin our semester on time was made with campus leaders in close consultation with public health partners and is responsive to our students, who have consistently requested that we do everything possible to offer in-person learning opportunities, said Leigh Appleby, CSCU spokesperson, in an email.

The announcement stated that safety measures such as wearing masks while indoors on campuses and COVID-19 vaccine requirements were to remain in place upon their return, but community college employees said they want to see stricter enforcement of the vaccine requirement.

At the community colleges, faculty and students attending courses in person are required to fill out a form that asks them about their vaccination status and if they would like to request a medical or non-medical exemption.

This differs from the standards in place at the state universities, where students and faculty have to upload their vaccination cards for the university health service department to review and confirm.

Community college faculty said only attesting to vaccination status is not sufficient, and they want members of their campus communities to submit proof as well.

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Im just surprised, shocked and heartbroken that we are having this conversation about 22 months out and [over 9,000] deaths in our state where people, the workers and the faculty, are asking for themselves and for their students for the common sense thing that we have been at the state asking for every single day, people to get vaccinated  and you should have proof of your vaccination, said Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, during the recent press conference.

Gateway Community College in downtown New Haven.. (Handout)

Appleby said in an email that the community colleges have a system that protects student data and prioritizes accessibility. He added that the residential nature of the state universities makes a difference.

Different institutions have different needs, he said. As such, the systems we have implemented meet the unique needs of each school. It has worked well in keeping our campuses safe for the past year.

Appleby also explained that community colleges are operating with 20%-47% of their classes in person this spring, which helps to limit the onsite population. He added that the state universities are operating with nearly 100% of their classes and services on ground and have nearly 8,000 students living on campus.

Our students have made abundantly clear that they need in-person options, and we have proven over the past three semesters  in which we have seen virtually zero spread in academic settings  that we can do so safely, he said. We look forward to a safe and productive semester.
https://sputniknews.com/20220122/antony-blinken-and-sergei-lavrov-meet-in-geneva-1092438319.html

Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov Meet in Geneva

Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov Meet in Geneva

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including the upcoming court ruling on the Assange extradition appeal, and the... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-01-22T07:31+0000

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Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov Meet in Geneva On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including the upcoming court ruling on the Assange extradition appeal, and the U.S. judge blocking Biden's federal employee COVID19 vaccine mandate.

GUESTScott Ritter - Former UN Weapons Inspector & WMD Whistleblower | Russian Troops at Ukrainian Borders, Game Theory, and The 2014 Coup in UkraineAndrew Arthur - Former Immigration Judge, Center for Immigration Studies | DHS Guidelines, Immigration Laws, and Equity Being Considered in ImmigrationIn the first hour, Lee and Mark Frost spoke with Scott Ritter about the use of nuclear weapons, military power in Ukraine, and the Green Party in Germany. Scott talked about the 2014 coup in Ukraine and how the events have changed Ukraine forever. Scott discussed how America is antagonizing Russia and the elite special forces mobilized by Russia.In the second hour, Lee and Mark Frost spoke with Andrew Arthur about border enforcement, DHS Secretary Mayorkas, and record border crossings in 2021. Andrew talked about the backlog in immigration courts and deterrence of illegal immigration. Andrew spoke on the consequences of relaxed immigration laws and how ICE is handicapped by the Biden administration.We also discuss the meeting between Anthony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/german-naval-chief-reportedly-resigns-after-backlash-over-remarks-on-putin-crimean-peninsula-1092455983.html

German Naval Chief Resigns After Backlash Over Remarks on Putin, Crimean Peninsula

German Naval Chief Resigns After Backlash Over Remarks on Putin, Crimean Peninsula

Kay-Achim Schonbach, a Vice-Admiral in the German Navy, has resigned after backlash over comments he made on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Crimea... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-01-22T20:38+0000

2022-01-23T01:16+0000

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The comments that led to Schonbach's resignation came on a trip to India. Speaking at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Schonbach spoke about Russian President Vladimir Putin. Schonbach's next comments, pertaining to Ukrainian-Russian relations, created a diplomatic incident. The statement is in sharp contrast to the stance taken by the European Union and the United States and their allies. Their official stance is Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimea Peninsula was unacceptable and must be reversed. The comments prompted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry to summon Anka Feldhusen, Germany's ambassador to Ukraine, to stress "the categorical unacceptability" of his comments. On Saturday, the Defense Ministry in Berlin also distanced itself from Schonbach's remarks.Schonbach took to Twitter to apologize for his statements. He said that he had been asked the question without prior warning and that his comments were his personal opinion and not the official position of the German military. The comments came at a poor time. Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have become intense as Ukraine and its allies allege that Russia has amassed 100,000 troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border. Germany and Ukraine have also seen their relationship become strained as Germany has refused to provide weapons to Ukraine.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/has-china-moved-to-reclaim-dongzhang-waterfall-near-arunachal-from-indian-army-after-20-years-1092450893.html

Has China Moved to Reclaim Dongzhang Waterfall Near Arunachal From Indian Army After 20 Years?

Has China Moved to Reclaim Dongzhang Waterfall Near Arunachal From Indian Army After 20 Years?

Dongzhang is located 200-300 meters north of the Line of Actual Controlan informal ceasefire line that divides India and China. The two armies in September... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T20:59+0000

2022-01-22T20:59+0000

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A video that emerged online on Saturday allegedly shows the Indian Army being intercepted by elements of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in the Dongzhang (also called Chumi Gyatser) waterfall area located in Yangtse of Arunachal Pradesh.A 140-second video, reportedly recorded near the famous Dongzhang, was shared by user Eva, who claims to be a Chinese citizen. Dongzhang, or Chumi Gyatser, a collection of 108 waterfalls, is highly revered by Tibetan Buddhists on both sides of the border.The video emerged three weeks after a row erupted between the two countries over a decision by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs to rename 15 places, including eight residential areas, four mountains, two rivers and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh, including the area where the Dongzhang waterfall is located.Currently administered by India, Arunachal Pradesh is shown on Chinese maps as "Zangnan" or "South Tibet."Since 2019, the Indian army and the Arunachal Pradesh government have been carrying out massive infrastructure works to develop the area surrounding Dongzhang as a tourist hub.Pema Khandu, state chief of Arunachal Pradesh, had visited the site in May 2019 and, in July 2020, dedicated a prayer hall for locals with a newly-built statue of Guru Padmasambhava (the Lotus-born) at Dongzhang.As border tensions heightened between India and China, with the April 2020 skirmish in eastern Ladakh, the after-effect was also felt in Dongzhang, where the two armies engaged in a bitter duel on 28 September 2021 - reportedly a rare event for this area."On 28 September, the Chinese border guards carried out routine patrols in the Dongzhang area on the Chinese side of the China-India border, but they were unreasonably blocked by the Indian side," China Daily stated regarding the purported incident.Reacting to the incident, the Western Theatre of the PLA claimed that the Dongzhang area was Chinese territory, and that it was "entirely reasonable and legal for the Chinese border troops to patrol on their own territory."On 13 October 2021, Liu Zhongyi, a Chinese researcher at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, wrote that the Dongzhang waterfall belongs to China, and is not a "disputed" area, as claimed by India.In November 2021, an undated video emerged on Twitter in which members of the People's Liberation Army are seen marching toward what users claimed was China's Shannan district, close to Dongzhang, giving rise to speculation about the intention of Beijing to reclaim the area.Maintaining dominance in the Dongzhang area is reportedly crucial for the Indian Army, as barely 100 km away from the Dongzhang are the plains of Assam - a key corridor that facilitates the swift movement of Delhi's military assets.The border dispute between the two Asian giants has a complex past left behind, in part, by the British. In 1913, while extending its rule in tribal belts in the northeastern part of India, then-Foreign Secretary Henry McMahon famously drew a line in thick red ink across a small-scale map border between India and Tibet at the Simla conference, which later came to be known as the McMahon line, which is recognized by India as its current border with China. Beijing has long refused to accept the McMahon line as the border.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/how-us-weaponises-nato-to-maintain-its-own-space-dominance--deter-russia-and-china-1092447085.html

How US Weaponises NATO to Maintain Its Own Space Dominance & Deter Russia and China

How US Weaponises NATO to Maintain Its Own Space Dominance & Deter Russia and China

On 17 January, NATO released its new space doctrine envisaging stepping up member-states space operations and suggesting invocation of Artice 5 in event of attacks on the alliance's space assets by adversaries.

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NATO's newly released space doctrine expands on the alliance's 2019 Space Policy  which recognised space as a new "operational domain", alongside air, land, sea, and cyberspace  and vows to help make its members' space capabilities compatible and interoperable.According to NATO, space is becoming more "crowded and competitive" with satellites being vulnerable to interference from certain countries, including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, which have developed and tested a wide range of counter-space and anti-satellite technologies (ASAT). The alliance proclaims that attacks in space against its members could lead to the invocation of NATO's Article 5, but falls short of defining what exactly constitutes an "attack". Instead, the doctrine says that decisions about this will be made on a "case-by-case" basis.NATO & US ASAT CapabilitiesIt's also remarkable that while pointing the finger at Russia and China for deploying ASAT systems, the US is also known for having a wide range counter-space jamming as well as the kinetic anti-satellite capabilities of the SM-3 and GMD missile systems.In 2008, the US conducted an ASAT weapons test, dubbed "Operation Burnt Frost". It was aimed at intercepting and destroying a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite called USA-193 with a modified Standard Missile-3 (SM-3). The US destroyed USA-193 on 20 February 2008 under the pretext of "safeguarding human lives" by preventing uncontrolled reentry into Earth's atmosphere by the defunct satellite.Yet, when Russia destroyed its own defunct satellite on 15 November 2021, the US condemned the operation as "a deliberate disregard for the security, safety, stability, and long-term sustainability of the space domain for all nations". The Russian Ministry of Defence shredded Washington's statement as "hypocritical", and referred to the US Air Force's testing of a Boeing X-37 orbital spacecraft as a clear indication of the Pentagon "actively developing" space weapons.'Master of Space': US Space Command's 'Vision for 2020'It would appear that NATO's space doctrine builds upon the US Space Command's (USSPACECOM) 1997 "Vision for 2020" strategy, which sought the nation's continued preeminence in space and full-spectrum dominance, suggests Bruce Gagnon, director of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.The US has been fighting for space dominance "since the early days of space travel", the think tank director points out. According to Dwayne Allen Day, an American space historian, the US kicked off a series of anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) programmes from the early 1960s, almost immediately after the USSR's launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957. After the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the US found itself as the sole operational cosmic military force.In order to maintain its "preeminence", the US "sets up a story line that it 'must protect space' from the dark forces in Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea" and is closing ranks in space with its NATO allies to increase battlespace awareness and information connectivity in a cost-effective manner, according to Gagnon. "Even with all its resources the US can't afford to pay for its 'Master of Space' plan by itself", he remarks.Why is the US Snubbing UN Outer Space Treaties?On 29 February 2008, China and Russia proposed a draft treaty, entitled "Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force Against Outer Space Objects" (PPWT) to a UN disarmament negotiating forum. The PPWT complimented and expanded the UN's Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) resolutions, defined relevant terms such as "weapons in outer space", and proposed the creation of an additional protocol to establish "measures of verification of compliance with the treaty". The US, however, did not support the Russo-Chinese initiative."The reason that NATO, especially the US, did not support the Russia-China proposal to ban the deployment of weapons in outer space was because it did not include anti-satellite weapons stockpiles on Earth that could be easily made operational in times of conflict", says Dr Namrata Goswami, an independent strategic analyst and author specialising in space policy.Still, Bruce Gagnon does not think that's the real reason. Moscow and Beijing have come up with a series of PAROS initiatives over the last two decades which were routinely rejected by the US, according to him. Moreover, Washington's 2006 National Space Policy explicitly stated that the nation would oppose "the development of new legal regimes", "proposed arms control agreements", or other restrictions "that seek to prohibit or limit US access to or use of space".

https://sputniknews.com/20210522/boeing-x-37-spacecraft-could-carry-up-to-6-nuclear-warheads-russian-defence-tech-company-says-1082966235.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/i-feel-betrayed-sinemas-volunteers-staffers-are-fed-up-after-she-derails-voting-rights-bill-1092438890.html

I Feel Betrayed: Sinemas Volunteers, Staffers Are Fed Up After She Derails Voting Rights Bill

I Feel Betrayed: Sinemas Volunteers, Staffers Are Fed Up After She Derails Voting Rights Bill

On Wednesday, US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) voted against changing the filibuster, effectively killing Democrats most recent efforts in passing a voting... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T00:49+0000

2022-01-22T00:49+0000

2022-01-22T00:48+0000

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supporters

voting rights

filibuster

kyrsten sinema

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Despite Biden and other Democrats efforts to convince the black sheep of their party - Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) - to change their stance on the Senate filibuster rule, the two Democratic senators held firm and shot down the proposal. Democrats had hoped that once done away with the filibuster, it would allow their party to pass key voting bills,"While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country," Sinema said Thursday of last week.Maria-Elena Dunn, who canvassed and volunteered for Sinema during her campaign in 2018, recently told VICE News she was livid over the lawmakers latest efforts. Toni Denis, who donated $3,000 to Sinemas campaign in 2018, says Sinemas voting for the filibuster was nothing more than a slap in the face. Sinemas approval ratings with Democrats in Arizona first plummeted when she voted against raising the federal minimum wage. The Arizona lawmaker was one of eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus to vote down a $15 minimum wage, which was to be included in a COVID-19 relief package.At the time, a video showed the senator giving a somewhat jovial thumbs down to the minimum wage initiative during a roll call vote inside the congressional chamber. In response to that particular incident, Rep.Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) tweeted, No one should ever be this happy to vote against uplifting people out of poverty.Then in October 2021, support for Sinema took another nose-dive when five veterans who sat on her advisory council since 2019 resigned. After her refusal to back abolishing the filibuster, as well as her opposition to a $3.5 trillion social policy bill, the veterans then accused her of hanging her constituents out to dry'' in a scathing letter, which was acquired by The New York Times.Arizona progressives spent months trying to convince Sinema to change the Senates legislative filibuster. For now, the rule is that a 60-vote majority is required to move most legislation through the chamber. Republicans have used this rule as a way to block Democrats bills, including those which enact or protect voters rights.Another supporter of Sinema who has spoken out against the senators recent decisions is EMILYs List, a decadesold national campaign group which focuses on backing female Democrats who support abortion rights. The group spent about $1.7 million on her last race.We have not endorsed or contributed to Sen. Sinema since her election in 2018, The group wrote In a statement. Right now, Sen. Sinemas decision to reject the voices of allies, partners and constituents who believe the importance of voting rights outweighs that of an arcane process means she will find herself standing alone in the next election.The group went on to clarify that they support free and fair elections as it is aligned with their pro-choice goals.We want to make it clear: if Sen. Sinema can not support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of EMILYs List, and we will be unable to endorse her moving forward, they continued.Now, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has been having his phone ring with requests from Democrats to run against Sinema in 2024 - among those supporters are Sinemas own Senate Democratic colleagues. Gallego has declined to tell CNN which senators in particular were hoping to back him in a primary challenge, but said it was more than one.Its not common for senators to back primary opposition against someone from their own party, but with tension breaking over Sinemas filibuster decision, it may come as no surprise that Gallego is getting a preview of potential support.

https://sputniknews.com/20211005/from-restroom-to-airport-and-plane-dem-sen-sinema-hassled-over-opposition-to-bidens-spending-bill-1089677944.html

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us congress, supporters, voting rights, filibuster, kyrsten sinema
https://sputniknews.com/20220122/magnitude-63-earthquake-strikes-us-alaska-usgs-reports-1092444911.html

6.3-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Alaska, USGS Reports

6.3-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Alaska, USGS Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of the US state of Alaska, where a major fishing port is located, the United... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T08:03+0000

2022-01-22T08:03+0000

2022-01-22T08:16+0000

alaska

us

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The earthquake was registered at 8:17 p.m. local time (05:17 GMT) on Friday. The epicentre was located 74 kilometres (46 miles) south of the city of Unalaska at a depth of 3 kilometres.No further information on any possible casualties or damage was reported. A tsunami warning has not been issued.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/muting-sputnik-arabic-facebook-control-is-something-any-dictator-would-dream-of-analysts-say-1092455229.html

Muting Sputnik Arabic: Facebook Control is Something Any Dictator Would Dream Of, Analysts Say

Muting Sputnik Arabic: Facebook Control is Something Any Dictator Would Dream Of, Analysts Say

Facebook banned Sputnik Arabic's posting option; international observers have denounced the move as an attack on free speech and the publics right to information.

2022-01-22T20:12+0000

2022-01-22T20:12+0000

2022-01-23T11:28+0000

mark zuckerberg

censorship

world

us

opinion

facebook

sputnik

scandals

cambridge analytica

political bias

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Facebook blocked the posting option for the Sputnik Arabic account on Friday, saying that the measure was taken due to the account's "potential non-compliance" with platform policies. Facebook Concierge Support moderators did not provide a specific reason for the move. The Sputnik Arabic account has never been blocked since it became operational in 2015, although a handful of posts have been marked as "violating community standards".'Freedom of Speech Essentially Doesn't Exist for Facebook Users'The whistleblower notes that Facebook positions itself as a "gatekeeper of truth" and applies a double standard when dealing with issues in the Middle East."The message from Facebook is clear: they have carte blanche to interfere in elections, influence politics, and control the news that Middle Easterners can be exposed to", Hartwig highlights. "This type of unilateral control of news and propaganda is only something dictators have dreamed of, and it's being foisted on sovereign countries in the Middle East".According to the whistleblower, Facebook's conduct is "extremely dangerous" because the platform is used by a substantial portion of netizens. "Free speech essentially doesn't exist for the 3 billion users of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp", Hartwig stresses.According to the academic, Silicon Valley "has abandoned any pretext of free speech, with its companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, becoming the very gatekeepers they should never have been".He has drawn attention to Facebook previously not only banning a sitting president of the United States, but "cancelling" a whole country and its users from sharing news on its platform. This happened to Australia in February 2021 in response to the proposed News and Media Bargaining Code.'Facebook Has No Decency'Facebook, according to the journalist, does not have the decency to provide clear reasons for its temporary restriction and "this raises more questions about Facebook's true motives for censoring and restricting the Sputnik Arabic account"."In fact, this sends a message to Facebook users that it is not at all about 'protecting the community' it is about controlling the narrative and what is acceptable speech", Hudak underscores.According to the editor, the actions of the Silicon Valley giant "do real world harm" to businesses and journalists who rely on social media to share and promote their work.Starting in June 2020, Facebook began labelling Sputnik and a number of other media outlets as "state-controlled media", claiming that "people should know if the news they read is coming from a publication that may be under the influence of a government". Remarkably, this Facebook rule was not applied to other government-funded and -influenced media including the US Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) or the UK BBC media empire.So-called privately-owned mainstream media and social networks are neither independent nor objective, according to Boyd-Barrett, who denounced them as "willing pawns of the worst anti-democratic ideological warmongering tendencies". When it comes to Facebook "fact checkers" they, "on the platform's own admission, merely offer opinions, often in the service of propaganda", the professor emphasised.Facebook is Tainted by ScandalFacebook has repeatedly come under criticism from American and foreign policy-makers over disinformation, violations of regional data protection regulations, and repeated failures to quickly ban extremist content. In 2019, then-US Senator Kamala Harris accused Facebook of prioritising its growth over the best interests of its users and their privacy. The platform also came under heavy criticism from right-wing politicians after it consistently took down accounts attributed to conservative netizens and pundits, finally banning then-US President Donald Trump at the end of his single term.In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal kicked off a series of articles exposing Facebook policies, including XCheck, a programme "whitelisting" certain types of users, including celebrities or politicians. The proprietary software tool reportedly protected an estimated 5.8 million users in 2020.In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named as a defendant in a consumer protection lawsuit stemming from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to some tech observers, Zuckerberg's decision to change the company's name was caused by the realisation of how toxic the brand had become following a string of scandals and a parade of former employees publicly testifying about the company's wrongdoings.In 2021, reports emerged warning about a new disturbing trend  a Facebook daily active user decline. The Verge highlighted in October 2021 that, in the US alone, teenage Facebook app users had declined some 13% since 2019 and were projected to drop an additional 45% over the next two years. Young adults between the ages of 20 and 30 were expected to decline by 4% during the same timeframe, according to the media outlet, which remarked that the Silicon Valley giant runs a risk of "losing out on an entire generation".

https://sputniknews.com/20220121/facebook-blocks-posting-on-sputnik-arabic-page-1092432515.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211102/world-desperately-needs-whistleblowers-as-big-media-big-tech-curbing-free-speech-ex-un-expert-says-1090422280.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210915/more-equal-users-decisions-to-shield-celebrities-came-from-the-top-facebook-whistleblower-recalls-1089107818.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210807/how-new-alliance-of-us-spooks--big-tech-using-russia-bugaboo-to-amplify-surveillance-powers-1083549293.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220122/ukraine-talks-irs-facial-recognition-cyber-warfare-and-airstrikes-in-yemen-1092438526.html

Ukraine Talks, IRS Facial Recognition, Cyber Warfare and Airstrikes in Yemen

Ukraine Talks, IRS Facial Recognition, Cyber Warfare and Airstrikes in Yemen

Little confidence after Ukraine talks; IRS facial recognition and cyberwarfare; Defund the police! The United States spends more on police than other countries... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T07:24+0000

2022-01-22T07:24+0000

2022-01-22T10:59+0000

ukraine

rt

yemen

police

sputnik news

btc

pegasus

political misfits

radio

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Ukraine Talks, IRS Facial Recognition, Cyber Warfare and Airstrikes in Yemen Little confidence after Ukraine talks; IRS facial recognition and cyberwarfare; Defund the police! The United States spends more on police than other countries spend on their military; More airstrikes in Yemen.

At the top of the show, Michelle and John talk with Chris Garaffa, editor of TechForThePeople.org. The IRS will soon implement a program whereby taxpayers will have to use facial recognition software to access their taxes.They are using a third-party company, ID.me, plagued with well-documented problems. Chris warns that such software is an invitation for hackers. Anyone in the database is at risk of identity theft. More on the cyberwar front: weapons like IPegasus software created in Israel are used by governments to attack states and individuals through their phones. You dont even have to click the link, warns Chris.Next, Steven Donziger, lawyer, writer, former journalist and environmental advocate currently known for leading an unrelenting 24 years legal battle against Chevron Corporation related to its contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest, joins to talk about Exxon. Steven describes an obscure Rule 202 that allows corporations to go on a fishing expedition for incriminating evidence. They are able to question individuals under oath and demand access to documents even before any legal action is filed against them. Exxon wants to use the provision to force California officials to travel to Texas to be questioned by the firms lawyers about what the company describes as lawfare  the misuse of the legal system for political ends.Michelle and John caught up on all the latest developments with RT correspondent Peter Oliver. Talks in Geneva closed with nothing agreed upon. The US decision to send Stinger missiles to Ukraine seems to be a provocative one. After all, Stingers turned around the Afghan war against the Soviets. Russia suggested military deployment to Venezuela and Cuba remain an option.During the second hour, John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins us. Johns latest book, "Songlands," the third and final novel in the Splinterland Trilogy, is out now. John and Michelle discuss the latest lethal airstrikes in Yemen that knocked out the internet. According to Save the Children, this is a war that had gone somewhat quiet for a while, but has really heated back up again over the past week, with both the Houthis and the Saudi and US-backed forces launching strikes. Not surprising, says Feffer, that neither the Washington Post or the New York Times mentioned the extent of the US role in this war.Lee Camp is a comedian, activist, journalist, host of the show Redacted Tonight on RT America, and author of the recent book, Bullet Points & Punch Lines. Lee joins for the last segment to talk about the insane amount the US spends on police. Spending on police is greater in the US than the amount any other nation spends on their entire military. The only military budgets that are greater than what the US spends on police are China and the US. John and Michelle ask Lee about the recent government papers that deem RT and Sputnik News as networks of propaganda. John mentions the history of Voice of America, which was hatched by the CIA.The Misfits sign off, till next week..We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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ukraine, rt, yemen, police, sputnik news, btc, pegasus, political misfits, , radio
https://sputniknews.com/20220122/un-analyzing-situation-in-central-african-republic-after-deadly-military-operation-1092439753.html

UN Analysing Situation in Central African Republic After Deadly Military Operation

UN Analysing Situation in Central African Republic After Deadly Military Operation

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)  The UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has sent a mission to the area north of the town of Bria where government... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T03:05+0000

2022-01-22T03:05+0000

2022-01-22T09:51+0000

central african republic

military operation

bria

united nations

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Agence France-Presse has reported, citing UN sources that the United Nations is investigating the operation near Bria allegedly conducted by government troops and the private military company Wagner Group. The operation, purportedly conducted on 16-17 January, left more than 30 people dead. The news agency added that the operation targeted militants from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC)."MINUSCA dispatched a joint mission, comprised of the Force, UNPOL, and the human rights team, to the incident area, and continues to assess the situation, ensuring necessary measures to be taken to protect civilians", Dujarric said on late Friday.He added that the mission would confirm the number of casualties and displacement.The African nation was plunged into a security crisis by a coup 2013, followed by violence between Muslim-majority Seleka and Christian Anti-Balaka fighters. The government and the leaders of 14 armed groups signed a peace deal in February 2019 to put an end to the fighting. However, the authorities have yet to regain control of large parts of the country.

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central african republic, military operation, bria, united nations
https://sputniknews.com/20220122/us-reportedly-negotiates-lng-supplies-to-europe-with-qatar-to-cut-eus-dependency-on-russian-gas-1092452938.html

US Reportedly Negotiates LNG Supplies to Europe With Qatar to Cut EU's Dependency on Russian Gas

US Reportedly Negotiates LNG Supplies to Europe With Qatar to Cut EU's Dependency on Russian Gas

Similar efforts were earlier reported by Reuters. The same report claimed that global energy companies warned Washington that it would be highly difficult to... 22.01.2022, Sputnik International

2022-01-22T17:55+0000

2022-01-22T17:55+0000

2022-01-22T17:55+0000

europe

us

ukraine

gas

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The US administration is holding talks with Qatar to secure shipments of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to gas-starved Europe, where prices are spiking because of half empty reservoirs and shortage of supplies from all sources, Bloomberg reported citing anonymous sources. The report comes amid continuing tensions around Ukraine and rounds of West's scaremongering that Russia might close its gas valve to pressure the EU  something that Moscow denies.According to Bloomberg, President Joe Biden wants to invite Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to the White House later this month. The alleged meeting has been in the pipeline for some time, they added. The Qatari embassy in the US has not yet commented on the report.The White House reportedly is seeking to secure shipments of gas from Qatar, the world's biggest LNG producer, for Europe in order to alleviate its allies concerns over the fuel shortages. An earlier report by Reuters, citing energy industry sources, also claimed that Washington was seeking ways of replacing the Russian gas on the European energy market.The report suggested that Washington will have a hard time achieving this goal: several international energy companies told the US Department of State that it will be very difficult at this time to replace the Russian gas supplies to Europe. This was mainly supposed to be because of limited capacity to boost gas output in the short term.Gas Shortages and Russian SanctionsRight now, most of the world's LNG - including from Qatar - goes to the Asian markets. The US wants to explore the country's possibilities of expanding its output to help the Europeans, Bloomberg said. The latter have been concerned for some time over gas supplies to the EU in the light of ongoing tensions with Russia. The western countries accused it of amassing troops near the border with Ukraine and went as far as to allege that Moscow plans an invasion even though the Kremlin strongly denies it.Washington has been trying to coordinate sanctions responses with the Eu in case Russia invades Ukraine, and has repeatedly boasted of reaching common ground on the issue. However, Bloomberg claims that the US has actually been frustrated with the way talks are going.These talks coincided with the European politicians' talks of how Russia might use its control over gas valves to pressure the EU politically, and accused Moscow of artificially creating the gas crisis - even though shortages are being felt globally and the Kremlin assured that Russia will supply fuel in accordance with its contracts. The European gas reservoirs were nearly emptied last winter and were not filled during 2021 because most of LNG had been bought by the Asian nations.

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